Nerf Wars, Star Wars, and Exchanges

3.19.18

I hope everyone had a fun St. Paddy's Day! I was able to celebrate by wearing my green tie and my leprechaun hat! We also had corned beef and cabbage that night. 

Also, Happy Birthday to Molly! 14!!
We had a great week this week! Not too many super solid investigators but we are working our way up there! Also trying to help a recent convert get to the temple.  Medford, Oregon is the closest temple.  

 I went on exchanges to Arcata with my District Leader and we found 6 new investigators. It was crazy! We also extended a baptismal date. It was a good productive day, those are always good. We also had a nerf war with the Elders Quorum so that was interesting... and had crab for dinner, benefits of being on the coast.  I  burned a tie to commemorate my 6 month mark.

I was also able to attend the baptism of someone that my trainee, Elder Jones, had taught. The Spirit was strong that what these people are doing is right. If there is a baptism near where you are, I recommend you go to it! You won't regret it. 

We went to Sequoia Park which is in the middle of Eureka.  It's beautiful and where they filmed part of Star Wars: Return of The Jedi, the Endor scene.

I'm getting excited for Conference coming up soon! I have a new-found love for hearing the words of these apostles, prophets, and leaders.  Please watch Conference and feel the truthfulness of what these great men and women are saying. It's a really great time of year with Easter and Conference coming up, so please take advantage of it. 

The song for this week is "Higher Ground" by my man, Stevie Wonder. A classic!

Shout out to East High Lax, by the way. Wish I could be at the Coach Hearn Memorial Game.  Keep putting in work so you can wreck people in the playoffs this year. I'd love to hear from some of you as well! 

Much love everyone, 

Elder Thompson 

burning a tie

Sequoia Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZ3ZG_Wams  Higher Ground/Stevie Wonder

Six Months in the CASRM!

3.13.18

Hey everyone! I feel like my group emails are getting progressively less entertaining, so I'm sorry about that. We had a good but uneventful week. Lucky for yout it means this is going to be a short email. 
March is a big family birthday month... shouts out this week to Sophie, Grandpa Mick, Murphy, Jack, and Tanner!  It's also my 6 month mark in the mission so that's cool.

We had the opportunity to get 2 new investigators this week! I'm telling you, potential investigators and part member families are where it's at. That's where we find most of our investigators. Hopefully we can get them to church soon. We have also had some good lessons with 2 recent converts who are already super strong. So that is a sure way of making this missionary happy. We also had a lesson down in Garberville (sketch town) with two investigators who soaked up the Plan of Happiness! The hardest part might be getting them into the branch in Miranda which has 9 members. 

We actually didn't have to speak yesterday since we don't have the miles to go to Miranda two Sundays in a row so they understood. We did have to teach a class yesterday and it went well! 

We went to a dinner with a younger family and it turned out to be the birthday party for their 5 year old son..... their extended family was there and all of their neighbors were there too haha. It was pretty awkward. Giving the spiritual thought at the end was a task too because it was a bunch of 5 year olds and 2 families that don't even speak English so needless to say it was fun. 

I continue to read the Book of Mormon every day and I can see the change that it has made in my life. I'd like to also challenge all of you to read it every day! Even if it's just a verse! It will help you out with anything you need. 

Song of the week is Good Times Bad Times by led zeppelin

Love, Elder Hank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsZG7n7ries Good Times Bad Times led zeppelin

Like a Really Small Seminary With Old People

3.5.18

I think I experienced one of the most "missionary" things that could happen to someone this week: because it is the #PacificNorthWest, it rains hard a lot in the winter.  It just so happened to be raining a lot this week when Elder Kelly and I found, after a great lesson, that we had a flat tire and our wheel was touching the ground pretty much. So we had to change that tire real quick so that we didn't get completely soaked but yeah, a very missionary thing to happen. 

Other than that, we did a lot of work down in southern Humboldt this week, Miranda, Weott, Myers Flat, and Garberville. Somehow we made it out alive... and with 2 new investigators! That was a good feeling! Also on Sunday we went to a branch that we cover down in Miranda and there were 9 people there.  It was like a really small Seminary with old people.  We blessed the sacrament, gave both prayers and bore our testimonies.  I thought "man, that's real dedication there" because it would be very hard to go with so few people attending. They really appreciated us coming down for sure. So appreciative that we got asked to speak next week.... 

Today, we went to the beach more northward called "Trinidad." We went on a hike and walked the beach a while. It was cool looking out there to think that Bryce is just on the other side. (I yelled "hey Bryce" if you heard it, Bryce.) It was a beautiful hike and a wonderful beach. I'll attach pictures. We also found a cool cross that we took pictures by as well.

 

Things are great here! Just trying to find more people to teach so that will be our main focus for this upcoming week. Wish me luck! 

The Song Of The Week this week is "She" by Green Day because it's a classic and I learned this week that Green Day came out with a greatest hits album and the best part is the name of it: "God's Favorite Band" I love it! 

Have a great week everyone! 

Elder T

With Elder Kelly

Hey Bryce, can you hear me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnF0pkWD2Tc   "She"  Green Day

Don't Stop Believing: Finding Jesus in Fortuna

2.26.18

Hey all, 
First off, shout out to Josh Ford for getting his mission call this week! The Philippines is about to get a good one! 
Had some pretty cool experiences this week but I'll save that for a little later. 

Thursday we went down to a place called Garberville and it's pretty sketchy - like you might get stabbed by a homeless guy but it's fun too. We found a new investigator there and we also went to a questionable place called "murder mountain"...  there was snow up there so you know we had to go! We took some pictures and tried to visit a member but they probably just thought we were the authorities and wouldn't answer the door. This happens to be that place I was talking about where the most disappearances happen each year. We started getting weird looks like we weren't supposed to be there so we left but I got to see some neat greenhouses! I'll attach some pictures from there.

Saturday was the real day:  BAPTISM. That's right, Cinthya got baptized this week and I couldn't be more stoked to have been a part of it. She is super solid in the church already, along with her husband so that makes things a ton better! The Spirit was so strong watching her come up out of the water... practically a new person. It makes me feel good to have been a positive influence in someone's life and help them out. I'm grateful for the opportunities I have every day as a missionary to help others. I know that as we look for those times to help others, our own lives will be blessed because of it. 

Keep reading the Book of Mormon every day. It will change your life, I promise! 

The Song Of The Week is "Dont Stop Believin" by Journey.

 Don't stop believin' everyone! 

Elder Thompson 

Cinthya's baptism

Finding Jesus

Garberville

Eel River

Mission Conference with Elder Holland

Snow on Murder Mountain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8craCGpgs  "Don't Stop Believin'" Journey

First Snow and First Baptism in Fortuna

2.19.18

New address: 
840 6th Street
Fortuna, CA 95540
thompson.henry@myldsmail.net

Hello friends. Here is an update of things that I did this past week in my mission, as is customary for a missionary. 

This week was a good one.  We spent some of it getting ready for the baptism this Saturday. This will be the first person that I'll baptize!  We were able to give her husband the priesthood so that he can perform the actual ordinance! It was a very great experience. 

Other than that, we found some new investigators and we got some solid return appointments for this week so I'm pretty stoked. It'll be good. 

I was at a members house this past week eating dinner and she fed us this cake and gave us whipped cream.  I ate all of it, but then realized that the whipped cream had expired last October! It did kind of taste funny.... but I'm alright everyone, don't worry. 

We also got the chance to use our guesthouse dogs to our advantage! We took them for a walk to try to get people to talk to us. It worked pretty well, they're a great conversation starter.  We will have to do it again! 

Also it snowed in Fortuna this morning!!!! It was awesome. It was actually like sleet but close enough!   We had breakfast at the Jutila's house this morning.  They are an older couple and when people need help, they just invite them to live with them! They have a ton of people living there and we get to teach everyone!  They're very nice. We've eaten there a lot.  

Song of the week is The Magnificent Seven by The Clash.

Have a great week everyone! Read a few verses from the Book of Mormon every day. I promise it will bless your life and you'll see a difference! 

Elder Thompson 

Snowy Monday morning

Ferndale Cemetary

Ferndale looking out on the coast

Fog on the coastline

Mystic the guesthouse dog stopped in to visit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcHL8efKKPE  The Magnificent Seven/The Clash

First Week in Fortuna/Bigfoot Country

2.12.18



First week in Fortuna! It's been great. The drive up was beautiful and I had the chance to do it twice! The first day that I was here, we were able to set a baptismal date with an investigator so she is getting baptized on the 28th! 
Our apartment is awesome too, we live in the guest house of a member and they're super cool and the place is pretty big!  They also have two dogs, huskies.  Every apartment should come with dogs.

The highlight of this week was going down to Santa Rosa to hear Elder Jeffrey R. Holland give our mission a special devotional! He talked to us about his mission and things we can do to make the most out of our mission! The Spirit was so strong there and I have no doubt that he is an Apostle of the Lord. I'll never forget the feeling that I had during the meeting. One quote that I really loved was,  "Whatever ladder you need to climb, climb it!" I would encourage you all to read one of his talks! 

The song of this week is "You Found Me" by the fray, because I heard it somewhere this week and it reminded me of when Jack, Dallen, and Bryce would make fun of it. They also opened for U2 when we saw them in 2011.  Most of Hank's "Songs of the Week" he can't listen to on the mission. Usually they're what's in his head at the moment... memories and favorites.  

Have a great week everyone! I'll update you next week on how we are saving Fortuna! 

Love Elder Thompson 

P.S. We just learned that Hank's new Mission President will be Bradley J. Bentley, a physician from American Fork.  Anyone know him?

Beautiful new scenery

Meeting Bigfoot

3 of the Fab Four left Dixon last week

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nUuBjz4Vhc  You Found Me   the fray

Leaving Dixon By Way of The Avenue of The Giants

2.6.18


Hey everyone!

 I hope this has been a good week, it has for me, that's for sure.  We picked up a new investigator named Tricia, so we will see how that goes! 

There is some big news though: I'm getting transferred!  I'm leaving Dixon and I am going way up North to a little town called Fortuna by Eureka. That area is pretty much the marijuana capital of the world (Humboldt County) and it also happens to be the place where the most people go missing each year.  So this should be fun!  I'll have some cool stories to tell pretty soon haha. 

Other big news, Elder Holland is coming to Northern California to share a bunch of messages with people.  He is also going to talk to our mission specifically!  I can't wait to hear from this Apostle of the Lord. 

Fortuna is about the same distance away from Santa Rosa as St. George is from SLC.  So I'll drive up there tomorrow and drive back down on Friday to hear Elder Holland, and then drive back up on Saturday! jeez! But it's okay because it's a beautiful drive and we get to drive through "the Avenue of the Giants" which is right off of the 101 and it goes through all of those giant, famous, Redwood trees. I'm very excited. 

Last Saturday, because it was the last Saturday of the transfer, we decided to see what would happen if we tracted ALL DAY. So we did that and we got a new investigator and a person that came to church on Sunday! It was very fun. We met some awesome people, saw cool cars, and even found a pen full of puppies during it! 

I'll miss the people here in Dixon but it'll be good to serve the people even more northward. Things can get pretty crazy up there. 

The song of the week is, "Multiplied" by NeedToBreathe. It's a good mission song that I have come to love. I'd look it up if I were you. 

Also shout out to the people with birthdays in the family around this time: So happy birthday to Nini, Cami, Nate, Corbin, and Dylan! I hope it was great! The next time you hear from me, I'll be in Fortuna. So wish me luck! Oh yeah, I also picked up a J-Dub Bible (from Elder Cawley, who is headed home) so that's an interesting one. at least it looks cool.... 

Happy February! 

Love,

Elder Thompson 

last sunset in Dixon

With Elder Walker and a gift from Elder Cawley

Last dinner with some of his favorites, The Ferriera family

Sending off Elder Cawley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGF-MGGLpB0  Multiplied by NeedtoBreathe