Out Here In The Field(s)

Hey everyone! 
It's only been a few days since I last had a Pday but I'll just say that the rest of the week was pretty garbage.  People cancelled lessons and we didn't get to go to the temple like we'd planned... but it's okay, I'll get to go in a few weeks anyway. I went on exchanges with the Clearlake elders and man, that place is wild haha. They don't have paved roads over there, it's weird driving around. It feels like an off road park. 

The work of the Lord continues. I'll get my last transfer document on Saturday which is super weird to say and we will see what happens! Just enjoying until the end!! 

The Song of the Week is "Baba O'Riley" by The Who. I know I've already done that one but I heard the tail end of it in the store today and it brought back some good mems. 

Love you all!! Thank you for all of your support and love. 

Love

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY5rztWa1TM  Baba O'Riley  The Who

By The Sweat of Thy Brow

Fam and Friends,

It's been a few days.  We actually are having PDay on Thursday this week because we are planning on going to the temple with Cari today! Hopefully we will be able to go. Monday was spent working so apologies if I didn't respond to emails. 

It's just been really, really HOT. The past few days have been about 101-102 degrees which I've heard is actually pretty nice for this time of the year. It's also more humid than I'm used to so everything like my clothes and watch stick to me and I don't like it. It's fine though, it makes me feel like even more of a missionary walking around in the heat and sweating a bunch. You probably didn't want to hear that last part, sorry. 

We had interviews with President Meservy last Wednesday, amazing as always. He has given me certain responsibilities and the opportunity to do great things here in Lakeport and also told me he knows Elder Nelson and I would be a "phenomenal" companionship. I enjoyed hearing that!

On the bright side, we got Dave and Paula to commit to coming to church on Sunday the 30th! It's been a long time comin. They know the wonderful feelings and the blessings associated with attending church so it's all a matter of putting it into action! 

We've also had the opportunity to find some great people to teach and even one family! One lady we found told us that she was a 7th Day Adventist but when we went back for our return appointment, she told us she had actually been baptized years ago in our church with her mother! What are the odds.... so now we are just going to reactivate her which means teaching her why the Sabbath is on Sunday instead of Saturday. That's gonna be a task for sure, but worth it. I like a good challenge. 

I'm not sure if I've talked to much about Richie and his family, but they're great. He and his wife have 4 kids who are all really young and funny. They would make a great addition to the ward. We talked to Richie yesterday and he knows this is the path he wants to take, it's only a matter of getting his family on board. We are going to take them on a tour of the church next week so they can see what it's like and what to expect. 

I got bit by two dogs this week. I walked into a yard and  two dogs bolted out of the house and just latched onto my legs and hand. It wasn't the best feeling ever but I was fine. They just kept attacking until I made it out of the gate. I'm okay but RIP to my favorite blue pants.  Shoulda had some dog treats my mom sent just for these situations, instead we got an elder in our district to eat one by telling him it was a scooby snack.  They're mostly peanut butter, oatmeal and carrots so no harm, no foul.

The Song of the Week is "It's a Long Way To The Top (if you wanna rock n roll)" by AC/DC.

A classic! 

One last shoutout to my guy Noah Bodnar for finishing his mission tomorrow. I'm super proud of you buzz and the work you've done and I'm grateful I could serve at the same time.  I never thought these days would come...  SLC you'd better get ready! I have a little over a week until I start my last transfer so things are getting super real. It's time to grind hard and teach everyone who Heavenly Father sent me out here to teach! 

Love you all,

Elder Thompson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=-sUXMzkh-jI  "It's A Long Way To The Top" AC/DC

Everything Is Hard Until It's Easy

Hey fam and friends! I actually have a lot to tell you this week so buckle up! 

We had a half-mission conference with Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy. He is our area president. We drove down to Santa Rosa the night before and stayed with the assistants. It was super awesome because they're two of my best friends from the mission so we stayed up talking until about 1am, it was great! I got to go on a 2 mile run the next morning with one of the assistants and I really needed it. It felt good to be able to exercise more than I've been able to. The mission conference was wonderful, I learned a ton and am so grateful I got to go! Here are a few highlights:

- God has angels ready to dispatch to us when we ask for them. They have been working in our areas long before we got here and will be working on people here long after we are gone. 

- Our attitude determines our altitude.

-If we want to stay on top of the game, we have to be willing to change everything we know sometimes and start over. 

-My new motto: "everything is hard until it becomes easy."

- Great leaders are great learners 

- Learning how to take control of teaching situations and return appointments by letting people know how urgent your message is and that their reading and praying about the Book of Mormon will literally be the most important day of their life. 

- You will never meet anyone who doesn't already know the gospel is true. Anyone with a body has already accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ before we came to this earth. We are all just somewhere between remembering and remembering. Our job as missionaries isn't to tell people new things, it's to help them remember things they already knew but have forgotten. 

- The most important principle we will ever teach someone is that God is their loving Heavenly Father. Once we truly know our relationship to God; that we are His children and He is our Father, prayer becomes a natural and instinctive thing. 

There is a ton more and I learned so much more about being a missionary. Even though I've been out for a while and you'd think I'd have it down by now, there is always something to learn and something to improve upon. Especially in missionary work. 

- I got to talk to my mom this week because it was her birthday! Happy birthday mom, I love you! I hope you all gave her some love last week! 

I have two experiences I'd like to share and then I'll let you go. Thanks to the 5 people who still read this haha. 

Elder Hunsaker found a really great lady on exchanges this week named Shauna. Her husband is a long time inactive member and they moved to Lakeport about a year ago. We had a lesson set up for them on Thursday night.  When we showed up and they said they had to cancel because Shauna was in such bad pain with her hip and legs. (She has a few problems like that). We said okay but then they talked to us for the next 45 minutes haha so it was basically a lesson. Then, Shauna stopped us and said: "guys, ever since you showed up here, the pain in my legs has gone away," and she started crying.  She said she had been in bed all day crying because her legs were in so much pain but it went away when we showed up! They didn't have our phone number to cancel and I'm really glad that they didn't. We left them our number on the back of a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and last night around 9pm, Shauna called us to ask a bunch of questions about the Plan of Salvation.  We eventually got on the subject of baptism and the process she would have to go through to be baptized.  We were super excited about that! We are going to give her a blessing this week before she goes in for a minor surgery. She said we would see her at church next week though! I'm grateful to have met Shauna! 

The second experience happened on Saturday after about an hour and a half of tracting in Nice. We had no luck on this super long street. Nobody would listen to us. But as we were finishing up, we knocked on the last door. The guy opened up and invited us to sit on his porch with him. He said his bible was well worn because he reads it every day and I thought he was going to bash but he was actually a super humble guy who just loves Jesus Christ and wants to learn more about Him. He asked us for a Book of Mormon and said, "don't take me lightly guys because I'm going to actually read this and take it seriously. I wanna know." So cool! He told us he will spend an hour a day studying his bible and 30 minutes a day on the Book of Mormon now. But of course it was the very last door! It's always the very last door haha. My testimony that people are being prepared just keeps growing! What I learned at the Elder Pearson conference is true! Angels are going around preparing people long before and long after we are here. If we think the work is moving fast on this side of the veil, just think of how many missionaries are on the other side of the veil working! It's a cool thought. 

The Song of the Week is "Hymn for the Weekend" by Coldplay. I heard that yesterday coming from someones house and I was jamming out. I'm starting to run out of Songs of the Week but give me a break, we are coming up on two years people. 

Thanks for reading! Shoutout to my Uncle Erik, I know he always reads these! 

Much love,

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YykjpeuMNEk  Hymn for the Weekend  Coldplay

Sunday Surprise

I can't believe it's already June.... 

This week was mostly uneventful but I'll share 2 experiences! The first is Zone Conference. We woke up really early so we could make it down to Santa Rosa on time and man it was great! I learned some things I really needed to, so that was awesome. We learned about planning and I'm grateful because a lot of missionaries struggle with knowing how to plan effectively; and I'm definitely not perfect either so I was happy to learn more about it. Probably the next best part was getting to see my friends from the Santa Rosa and San Rafael zones. We got some Panda Express before heading back to Lakeport because there is nothing like it up here in Lake County. It was as amazing as I'd anticipated... until about 30 minutes later.... you know how Panda does that. 

The second experience comes from Sunday night! The sisters in Middletown were planning on having a baptism for a woman named Aurora on Sunday night. But then Aurora went MIA for like 3 days and so they cancelled everything that they had planned for the baptism. But on Sunday evening, Aurora called them and said she dropped her phone in the lake and wasn't able to get in contact with them and she still wanted to be baptized! So the sisters told her to meet them at the church in Clearlake, where the Middletown ward meets. We got word that the baptism was on and Aurora was on her way to the Clearlake chapel as we were driving into the church parking lot right before dinner at around 5:30.  Aurora was sitting there in the parking lot... in the Lakeport Chapel parking lot!  We were very confused! We told the sisters that Aurora was definitely NOT on her way to the Clearlake Chapel and they were very confused as well. I guess Aurora was also confused because that is why she was at the Lakeport chapel, 30 minutes away from where she lives,  IN Clearlake. But it was good because I got to go through some of the baptismal interview with her again just to make sure that she was ready to be baptized and make that commitment. And she was! So the sisters told everyone in the ward that the baptism was still on and that it was happening in about an hour! I was asked to baptize Aurora, so we piped it down to Clearlake. We filled up the font super quickly, I changed, a few of the ward members showed up, and we had a spur of the moment baptism! It was a wild and random way to end a Sunday, but it was fantastic. I'm glad that Aurora still wanted to get baptized! 

Tonight, I get to drive down to Santa Rosa again and we will be hearing from Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy, the Area President of the America North West, tomorrow. I'm super excited for that! We are also going to get Five Guys Burgers and Fries tomorrow which, in my opinion, is the best burger place there is. I'll be happy to debate with anyone who thinks otherwise.

The Song of the Week is "Dark Times" by the Weeknd and Ed Sheeran. 
Shout out to Jack Rutsky and the Geeshter boys. 

Time to keep finishing strong! Everyone get ready because the boys are going to be back in town soon enough! 

Thank you for all of your love and support! 

love,

Elder Thompson 

I shined my shoes for the first time on my mission! My dad will be very happy. He will also be very happy with the dinners I've made lately! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkAAIGFNYw4 Dark Times The Weeknd and Ed Sheeran