Honored Guests

What's up again everyone? I guess it's been another week! 

This week, we had a weird amount of people willing to sit down with us and listen so that was a true blessing! 

I had a cool experience last Monday night: we were in Lucerne (kind of sketchy) and as we were driving down the road to see someone we're teaching, I remembered a lady we had talked to  2-3 weeks earlier in her front yard. We didn't really teach her and didn't set up a return appointment so I wasn't sure why I thought of her, but I told Elder Hunsaker to turn down her street and we went to go see her. She came outside, sat down with us and listened to the Restoration. She loved the idea of the Book of Mormon and told us that she would read it. I was really happy to have received a small prompting and followed it to have this experience, but it doesn't end there! We went back yesterday for our return appointment and she had read the BoM while we were gone!! Not the whole thing obviously, but she read the first few chapters and actually understood it and was so excited to tell us about it! When I asked her if she thought what she was reading was true, she told me "well, when you ask me that, all I can really say is 'how can it not be true?'" That was a great experience, hearing that. "Finally! someone gets it!" I thought. I asked her to come check out the church on Sunday and she agreed! So she should be coming to church this Sunday! Her name is Patricia. I was happy to meet her. 

This weekend was a really special one for the Native Americans in our area.  It is the weekend of their Roundhouse Ceremony. It goes pretty much nonstop for 3 days and we were invited to go! We have talked to a few people and they are amazed we were invited because, in their many years living around the reservation and knowing the people, they have never seen any white people get invited into the Roundhouse Ceremony. So it was a huge honor! 

With special permission from President Meservy, we were able to go. All sorts of people from reservations around the county and beyond come to celebrate with their families. There were quite a few people there. They always start off with a big meal together and good conversation. We got some weird looks at first, we stood out like sore thumbs, but as soon as they learned we were "JoJo's special guests" they immediately changed and were incredibly nice from that point on. (JoJo is their spiritual leader who wants to be baptized) We were invited to sit at the table reserved especially for the Elders of the tribe and their families which was so cool. The food was really good. Then the Elders of the tribe went inside their roundhouse (a literal round hut) and started their ceremonies by blessing the objects they were going to be using and the headdresses and stuff like that. Only the tribal elders were allowed in at that point, then the rest of us came inside and we all sat down around the edges of the roundhouse. There were probably a little less than a hundred people packed into that place. There are all sorts of amazing symbols in there. We were all seated on the straw floor around a big fire. I'm not sure how much of the symbolism I am allowed to explain because nobody is allowed to bring any phones or writing tools in the roundhouse, they don't want anybody recording the ceremonies. They did say I could tell people about my experience.  The rest of the night until about 11:00pm, when they took their first break, was full of chanting, singing and dancing...  amazing ceremonial clothing, headdresses, and other cool things.  It is something that is really special to them, it was unforgettable! I'll just say it was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced and I have a great amount of respect for their culture and customs.  It was also positive because we made  many friends and gained their trust.  They seemed to really love having us there! 

The Song of the Week is Life In The Fast Lane by the Eagles. We are definitely in the fast lane out here in the mission field, however California is aggravatingly not in the fast lane with it's 65 MPH freeway speed limits... c'mon what kind of garbage is that?? Just a few more months and we will be back to good old 80's. 

Have a great week everyone and remember, if you slow down, you go down!

Love Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsYhDSR9mGI  Life In The Fast Lane  The Eagles

It's Gonna Be May

Hello everyone from another HOT week in California. Last Spring/Summer in Fortuna and Rohnert Park it was nice because on the coast, a blanket of fog comes in every morning and every night which cools things down.  We don't get that here in Lake County since we're a little more inland. It's weird that it isn't even May yet and it's been in the 90s every day this week. Makes for a good time walking around! 

We had a lot of long days finding with little success but we had some other cool experiences I'm happy to share. 

On Wednesday, we went to see our friend Richie at 2 but sadly, he wasn't home. We then went to what we had planned to do if he wasn't there and started tracting a street along the lake, ironically called Lakeshore Avenue.  Not too many people were home since it was 2pm. After about 30 minutes I felt like we should go back to try and see Richie again. I shook it off a little bit because he wasn't there before and maybe it was just me trying to get out of the hot sun. But I kept feeling like now was the time we should go back and try again. So I told Elder Hunsaker we should try one more time. We went back up there and as we got there, he was just pulling up with his kids! We got to talk with him more about the Book of Mormon, which he is really interested in.  It was cool to be able to receive such a distinct prompting and follow it to see a small miracle. 

A wild experience from the week: As we were tracting a trailer park, across from a door we were knocking were some obviously very drunk guys probably in their mid 20s. As we approached their house, one of them was really aggressive and cussed us out and told us to leave. We did, but his house faced the rest of the street we were going down so he yelled at us all the way down the street and also every time we came out from knocking one of the houses. The problem was that the street was a dead end so we had to walk all the way back and past his house with all of his friends. As we got close to the house, we saw about four of them coming out from the garage where they were sitting and cracking open a cold one with the boys. "Uh oh, here we go," I thought to myself. But then all of a sudden the guy became a really nice drunk and he told us his grandpa had come and chewed him out for harassing us and he wanted to apologize. They gave us some cold water and invited us in their garage. I was hesitant to go in because I wasn't sure of their intentions. The grandpa came out, apologized to us and assured us that we would be fine. We went back through their garage and into the man cave complete with A/C blasting cold air, a flat screen, pool table, and my personal favorite and tender mercy: some sweet speakers blasting good ol Van Halen! They offered us some Coors Light, we said no thanks. Then they asked if we wanted to play a game of pool. I know God's time is valuable so I said that we had to go but they were not about to let this one go. So I told them that we would play one quick game of nine-ball and then we had to leave. As some of you know, I'm pretty bad at pool and I didn't make a single shot but I still won by default because the other guy hit in the wrong ball. They poured me a shot of tequila as a prize for winning. I politely turned that one down too and decided it was definitely time to go. The super drunk guy started to get aggressive again and was yelling at us wanting to know when we would be doing service for his family because they were cold and wanted us to bring them some firewood. I reminded him it was 90 degrees outside and we had to be on our way. The grandpa apologized  again, gave us more bottled water and then sent us off!  So we got cussed out, invited inside, given refreshments, offered a lot of alcohol, won a game of pool by default and left with a couple new friends, all within the space of 20 minutes! 

I fasted yesterday as directed by President Meservy to know what we need to do for the Native Americans. We are slowing things down while President Meservy consults with the Area Authority and Seventy, then we'll get notice of what we will do from here on out. It's a big deal and we need to be sensitive to their culture and traditions.  Teaching them is different than any other teaching I've done.

Finally, we did some service at The Narrows in Blue Lakes which is a lakeside resort set to open in a few weeks.  It's been neglected for a while and the new owners needed some help.  Hard work but worthwhile.

The Song of the Week is, "Pretty Good at Drinkin Beer" by Billy Currington in honor of our new found friends! 

Have a great week everyone! 

With respect,

Elder Thompson 

The only picture I took this week, haha sorry, but I'm sure it'll make my dad happy.

Elder Hunsaker doesn't eat any fruits or vegetables and I've taken on a personal challenge to change that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtMy5IBmX7E  Pretty Good at Drinkin Beer Billy Currington

Makes The Hard Days Worth It

I hope you all had a great Easter Sunday yesterday! It was a pretty good one for me as well. 

The week was full of ups and downs for sure, but we still had cool experiences which made it all worth it! 

On Tuesday night, we taught a bomb Plan of Salvation lesson to Paula and Dave. They were soaking it all up and listening so intently. They told us it made the most sense out of anything else they've ever heard! 

The next day, we had a lot of lessons planned, which I was excited about, but every single one except for one of them cancelled.... But the one lesson that we had was awesome! We met Ritchie the week before last but this week when we came back, his car wasn't there and we were super disappointed.  Par for the course for the day, I figured. We decided to go and knock anyway. He answered the door and told us that he had literally gotten home 2 minutes earlier and had walked because he took his car for an oil change. He stepped outside and we were able to teach him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we were teaching he kept saying how interested he was and how he had been looking for a church which is really family centered and he loved what we were teaching him! Music to my ears! He has a great family as well. We are excited to go teach him again this coming week! It makes the rest of the hard days worth it! 

Also exciting news from the reservations: the spiritual leader of the tribe on the Big Valley Reservation (the largest of all of them in our area) has a date to be baptized on May 22nd along with about 6 other people on the reservation! We are super excited about that! Basically we threw a match down and the whole place caught fire, it has been awesome to see. We are hoping to put some more people on date there this week.  We are cautiously optimistic... we want to make sure they all know 100% the commitment they're making because we definitely don't want to baptize a whole tribe into inactivity.. But miracles are being poured out!   

We were instructed by our great Mission President, President Meservy, this week at Zone Conference! After a really winding road down to Santa Rosa (mom wouldn't like it at all), we talked about how to study effectively for the people we are teaching. I learned a lot about study techniques and habits and I am continually trying to improve my studies! I actually like studying now which is the weird part! At least the gospel..... we'll have to wait and see if I will like studying for other things too but we'll be hopeful. 

As Easter approached this past week, I was thinking a lot about the Savior. How he went through everything that we have ever gone through and everything we will ever go through, something he didn't deserve because he was perfect. But He suffered to know how we feel when we do make mistakes and so that he can perfectly know how to help us through it and to make us better. It's comforting to repeat the words in my head "He is not here, for He is risen." Not only do I know that Jesus Christ lived and died for me and for you, but I know that He lives today. And because He lives today, you and I can be with our families forever and not even death can separate us from each other. That, I know for sure. I've studied it and I've felt the confirmation of the Holy Ghost as I've studied and prayed about it. It's the biggest blessing that we could receive! 

Easter Dinner with the Stogner family

The Song of the Week is Aribella by the Arctic Monkeys. Another solid one. One day I'll be able to listen to all of these again. Until then, please enjoy them in my place! 

A few shoutouts for this week as well: shoutout to East Lax! I haven't heard much about what's going on this year but I hope you are absolutely crushing it! I still have Hearn's number on the back of my name tag so always remember him when you play! 

Another shoutout to my boy from Day One, Josh Ford! You're a straight baller and I'm super excited for you this upcoming week! 

Have another great week everyone!

love,

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn6-TItCazo  Aribella the Arctic Monkeys

Life On The Lake

Another week went by! It's crazy, each time I whip out another weekly email it doesn't feel like it's been a whole week. 

Let me tell you though, Lake county is a wild place!   We live right on the lake and you can see it from pretty much anywhere you go. It's really pretty and the people here are nice. Our area is huge. We cover the north part of the lake and all of the surrounding towns. We also cover 3 Native American Indian reservations and we are actually teaching people there! They think it's super cool to read the Book of Mormon and learn about their ancestors. 

It has definitely been an adjustment coming from Santa Rosa but it's good because the work is BOOMING here! 

We have 4 people currently on date for baptism in the next month or so. With probably 4-8 more  that will be on date for baptism in the near future! Exciting stuff! 2 of the 4 people currently on date for baptism are leaders in one of the local Native American tribes, the Pomo Indians. 

Can you imagine when they are baptized, the many from their nation who would follow their example?!  

We are also teaching a woman named Amber who is on date for baptism and she told us this week her fiance would like to take the lessons and be baptized as well! We gave her a definite yes. We are going to meet him on Thursday. Amber is super prepared, she just had a relative pass away and when we taught her the Plan of Salvation, so many of her questions were answered. 

I had a super awesome experience this week while teaching two sisters: Vicky and Cari. We taught them the Restoration and each time we brought up a point of the lesson, they told us  they had been wondering about that very thing pretty much their whole lives. They asked us why prophets ended after the Bible and I was happy to testify that prophets were not done away with but that we have a living prophet today to guide us just like prophets back in the time of Moses or Abraham. We went over how the Priesthood was restored to the earth with the authority to baptize and give the gift of the Holy Ghost. I asked them if they would be baptized by someone who has those priesthood keys and they both said yes! They came to church on Sunday and the first hymn was "Count your Blessings," which is a song they knew from growing up in a different church. They said it was a sign to them, this will be their new church! We are just seeing miracle after miracle here. I'm glad to be part of it. 

I know I've been a missionary for a while because when we went home at the end of the day and I was waiting for Elder Hunsaker to open our door, I knocked on it out of habit. I felt really dumb but at least my head is in the game.  Elder Hunsaker is a good guy and he likes to work hard.  

The Song of the Week this week is Red Red Wine by (I can't remember, sorry I've been out here for a long time.... originally by Bob Marley maybe?) in honor of the many vineyards up here. 

Hank will be surprised to learn the song was originally written and performed by Neil Diamond in 1967.  Tony Tribe and UB40 are among many who have covered it, but surprisingly Bob Marley never did.

Have a great week! 

love,

Elder Thompson 

Clear Lake

View from Lakeport

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeJ55sUacPM  Red Red Wine  Neil Diamond

Moving Forward (and Northward)

New Address: 
603 19th St.
Lakeport, CA 95453

Hey everyone this is going to be short one!! 
Suffice it to say, the Lord's work is always moving forward and I was grateful to have received answers to my questions by watching General Conference and listening to the words of modern day Prophets. Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Cook's talks answered many questions. We were able to watch most of Conference at President and Sister Meservy's house.

General Conference BBQ with President Meservy

I finished one transfer in Santa Rosa and now I'm headed up to Lakeport!! A little more north and a pretty humble place.  I've heard good things, it should be fun!  Transfers are now on P-Days so it's been a crazy day and I'm sorry I haven't had any time to email. I'll make it up to you all next week.

The work that my friends and I are doing right now is real and I've seen it change the lives of everyone who has embraced it. 

Wish me luck up here!! 

The Song of the Week is Here by Alessia Cara. 

Love, Elder Thompson 

Loved serving with Elder Larson

Freebairn Family

Van Sistine fam

Ali is a relatively new convert and is the coolest

April in Northern California

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKp2CrfmVfw Here  Alessia Cara

It's Not About Me

Happy April Fools! I don't think we are supposed to participate in pranks as missionaries but I can't remember where it says so and you can't sin in ignorance so I'll let you know how things go today! 

I definitely had an eventful week. 

Last Monday while ice skating, I got talking to one of the staff of the rink who was skating around doing crowd control. Turns out, he is from Utah and went to Lone Peak High, and I played hockey against him in high school! What are the odds? He told me he was pretty homesick that week and then a big group of missionaries (us) showed up! It was a great bonus to finally get back out on the ice again. If anyone ever has the chance to check out Snoopy's Home Ice in Santa Rosa, do it! It's a really cool rink! (Snoopy's Home Ice was built in 1969 and owned by Peanuts cartoonist, Charles Schultz.)

I may have already mentioned, a bunch of people in my zone have gone home early in the past 2 weeks... 4 of them to be exact. Each with legit reasons why they needed to go home; so I promise it wasn't because I got to the Zone. After they went home, there were some spots to fill, so Elder Pickett was emergency transferred to a different area, so now it's just me and Elder Larson. 

This week was pretty bad in terms of contacting people we are teaching as they were all busy or out of town or something. Also, making a lot of changes in the Zone took a lot of time and then we had exchanges with another companionship.  It was busy for sure. 

Funny story, someone got in my face this week and threatened to knock me out haha. I totally should have let him that would have been a way better story. He was smaller than me (believe it or not) so I think I would have been fine but I guess he just really didn't want to talk to us. So you would all be proud that I have gone 18 months without a fight. haha Let's keep the streak going! 

Sometimes facing a lot of rejection gets old, even though I've been out for a while and it should be expected. I don't know why but it got to me this week. I'm doing fine, don't worry. I just had to remember two things that could possibly help one of you in your life right now: 

1. something Elder Whiting of the Seventy told us about rejection: we should not be so selfish as to think it's about us. People are rejecting the person we represent, Jesus Christ. That shouldn't come as a surprise.

2. I remembered everyone has their free will to accept or reject our message but I have to focus on what I can control, like Mrs. V. taught me. My lacrosse coach, Pete, always told us the only things we can control are our attitude and our effort. 

Remembering these things helped me out this week! People who don't like the church don't make the message any less true! I think it makes it more true because there has to be opposition to truth. 

We had Elder Pearson, a General Authority Seventy and also our Area President, come and speak in Stake Conference. It was amazing! We get to have him to the mission again in a couple of weeks. We get to have two mission leadership councils and a Zone Conference with him so you could say I'm excited!! One thing he said that I loved is,  "nobody that is reading the Book of Mormon every day is struggling spiritually." It's true! I can totally tell a difference now that I read every day. Even if it's just a verse or two each day, that added spirit in your life will give you spiritual nourishment which we all need just as much as physical nourishment. He also gave an awesome talk in April 2015 so check it out if you want to! 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/stay-by-the-tree?lang=eng

A huge Foothill 7th shout out to Jack Perry who is about to get his mission call.  Way to represent the greatest ward ever... can't wait to hear where you're headed!  (Fortaleza, Brazil!)

The Song of the Week is Mountain Sound by Of Monsters and Men. I might be repeating songs every once in a while but give me a break, I've had to remember all of these songs for a year and a half without listening to them. Anyway, much love to all of you, have a great Conference weekend! I think we finally hit Spring in California! 

Love, Elder Thompson 

Just another vineyard in Santa Rosa.
It's not uncommon for people to have them as their front yard instead of grass.
I'm a big fan, someone plant some vineyards in SLC for me please!

After skating last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt7ox1M_XG4 Mountain Sound  Of Monsters and Men

So Many Open Doors

Whats up everyone?
We are back into the rainy part of the season after a few days of wonderful weather. I was happy while we had it though, it'll come back soon.  

Last week was great! 

I got to go on another exchange with Elder Nelson and it was a party. We are planning out our lives while living in a van. Should be a good time. 

We are also teaching a lot of people now! We have exceeded our finding goal for 6 months within a 2.5 month period, so we are happy about that. We have a few families who we are looking at putting on date this week! One is the McCarn family, they grew up around members and the dad almost got baptized years ago but his member friend moved away so he lost contact really. But we got in contact with him and his wife and they are awesome... super willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are going back to see what they learning in their prayers this week, fingers crossed. 

Also, Freda, our older friend, has been having issues with some of the doctrine now, even when we pull it straight from the scriptures..... She used to be so for it though and so happy about it. It's honestly sad to see someone when they get a spiritual witness of something that is true but then don't act on it because that's when the spirit leaves... and you can tell when it leaves. We have to act on even the smallest impressions we get! 

Just another thought or two before the long-awaited Song of the Week:

In 2 Kings, the Prophet Elisha, while surrounded by enemies on all sides, says, "they that be with us are more than they that be with them," and he wasn't talking about his army vs their army.  He was talking about God. He had no reason to fear because he knew that he had God on his side. I'm trying to remember that more often. 

I also decided that every morning I'm going to listen to a talk by Henry B. Eyring titled,"This Day," and at night, listen to another one by him called, "Act In All Diligence." They are some of my favorite talks of all time!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2007/04/this-day?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/act-in-all-diligence?lang=eng

Our mission president told us yesterday in a fireside, the Book of Mormon has been prepared and preserved for thousands of years so it could come forth in this day and age to help us through the last days. I know it's true and it's helped me through some of my own hard times.  I've seen it change peoples' lives. It truly is a miracle worker! 

This work is wonderful. I count my blessings each day of living in Northern California and preaching the best message to ever exist to the people here. The thought of having to leave one day gets harder and harder. So I have to continue and run through the finish line!! 

The Song of the Week is "R.I.P. To My Youth" by the Neighbourhood. Love those guys. Anyone who wants to go to one of their concerts with me when I get home, I'm more than down. 

Have a great week everyone!!

Love, Elder Thompson 

pics

The Swensens from good old Foothill 7th showed up in Santa Rosa a few weeks ago!

Pretty view from a street near my apartment

Helping out my MTC companion, he is being reassigned to another mission

Rohnert Park comps and current comps

Got to go ice skating on Snoopy's Home Ice! Commemorative puck.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKH-rcO6PA8  RIP To My Youth  The Neighbourhood