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

Hunters And The Hunted

1.29.18

So this week we went rabbit hunting! No guns or anything but we did chase a rabbit with some sticks so I guess that counts.... This happened on Tuesday when we were at the bottom of town looking for potentials. We got 2 new potentials but nobody else answered so we decided to take a shortcut home through this gigantic field. Elder Jones saw the bunny and we both took off after it. It lost us of course, but then we found it again and tried to sneak up on it. That didn't work either.... so we continued on and went in for comp study. 

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference so you already know it was a good day. We learned about teaching with the Spirit and online proselyting. I came away a better, more informed missionary than I had gone in. 

Thursday was weird, we set up some appointments with people which is good.  However, in the morning, Elder Jones and I were out tracting when a woman pulled up behind us and honked. We both turned around and she got out of her car and jogged toward us. She  told us that she wanted her and her son to learn about God and then gave us her card and left. That doesn't usually happen in California.... so we set up an appointment with her! We also had a really great dinner message with a part member family in the ward who is looking really hard into the church. We are hoping to meet with them again and help them progress toward baptism! 

Saturday and Sunday were both really cool yet hard.  Saturday, we had 5 lessons lined up and 4 of them cancelled for the morning.  We ended up walking around and street contacting and looking for potentials. Needless to say, we got wrecked.  Elder Jones and I needed to sit for a minute, so we sat on a wall by the sidewalk and waved at everyone who passed by.  After about 10 minutes of that, we get a wave from the corner of the street a bit away. Turns out, it was Gabriel, one of our investigators who lives all of the way on the other side of town! He had just started a job like 2 days ago that was up near us so that he could help his mom out more. We had a small lesson with him on the street and made an appointment for Sunday to come over and talk more. He was very receptive which seems to be a new concept for most Californians.  After that, we had a lesson with an investigator family from Nigeria and they loved it. They have a really cool Nigerian accents so it's fun to talk to them. The grandma, mother, and daughters all agreed to start reading the Book of Mormon and study it. We will be going back this week to check up on how it is going! So we ended up being in the right place at the right time for that day even though we got destroyed in the morning. 

Yesterday, we had a multi stake conference in which they played a broadcast from Elder Christofferson. I enjoyed it. After it was over, we fulfilled our main priesthood duty by taking down all of the chairs. 

We had two great lessons that day. One with an investigator named Angel. We taught him the Plan of Salvation because one of his close friends just passed away. He really liked it. We told him that nowhere in the scriptures does it tell us more about God's Plan for us than it does in the Book of Mormon! That's true. We also had a really great lesson with Gabriel again. He asked us questions and we taught him about a lot of things. He soaked it all up and we were able to set up another appointment with him and his mom. The work continues to progress in my area. I've seen it grow from practically nothing to where it is now. By this time next week, I'll know if I'll be leaving here or staying my first 6 months in one area. 

For those of you who want to skip to the funny part of the email, it's right here. This week, an Elder in my apartment (not going to name names) wrecked our bathroom. Not just any wreck though.... the toilet is now disabled and literally does not work anymore.... we are hoping to get that fixed really soon because I'm not sure how long I can use the sketchy town park bathroom.

 

The song for this week is "Sound and Color" by Alabama Shakes. Very nice one. 

I know that God has a plan for you and for me. He made it just for us individually. His work and His glory is to bring to pass immortality and eternal life for all of us. I'm grateful for this plan. You can read about it more in depth in the Book of Mormon! 

pebbs and pepps,

Elder Thompson 

Dinner with the Ferriera family

Rabbit hunting

Woodland Zone Conference

https://open.spotify.com/artist/16GcWuvvybAoaHr0NqT8Eh  Sound and Color  Alabama Shakes

video is a bit risque so you just get audio this week.

That One Time Frosty's Was An Answer to Prayer

1.22.18

Right now it's a measley 50 degrees here in the Upper California.   I might be turning into a local because that's actually kind of cold for me now.... I had to put on a jacket.  Back in Utah it's snowing and everything and I would probably be wearing shorts still. 

Big shout out to the group email squad. Mine might not be as well-worded or spiritually sound as Elder Gessel's and they might not be as crazy as Elder Pratt's, but thanks for reading these anyway. 

This week was a good one! On Wednesday during exchanges, we met a man named Angel who loves to talk about God. He really liked our message about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He accepted our Book of Mormon and a time to meet with us again. 

Saturday was a pretty solid day as well! Elder Jones and I were a part of a really cool answer to a prayer. Our dinner appointment fell through because they got sick but they still gave us money to go eat. Elder Jones suggested we go to Frosty's, a small fast food diner here in town. I had never been there and I have been wanting to try it. It was really good by the way. While there, we saw a woman who needed help starting her old 88 Toyota pickup with a huge camper on the back.  I have no idea how that little thing could carry it!  Jeez. We helped her out and before she left, she told us that she had actually prayed for help with her car and then we showed up at Frosty's. This answer to a prayer required 2 things: 1) Our dinner appointment had to get sick, and 2) Elder Jones had to suggest going to Frosty's. It was so cool to be used as an instrument in the Lord's hands to answer a prayer. 

Earlier that day, we met with Angel again.  By the time we got there, he had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and also the first chapter of 1st Nephi. He told us that he is going to read the book cover to cover! I'm so excited for him to feel the special spirit that comes along with reading the Book of Mormon. It's really special to me because I just finished it for the first time since being on my mission. It took me 4 months but I marked it up like crazy and I learned so much more this time and I treasure this copy so much now. 

Sunday was good too,  though I'm not sure what kind of stuff people say about Mormons online.  Let me just say it's probably very good.... I had a lady say to me through the crack of her door in a really snarky voice "Jesus Christ is the Son of God" and then slam her door.  Thank you for that enlightening information, door-slam lady. 

Things are great though!  We are hoping to get some more investigators this week and get more of them to church! I trust that it will happen.  I love being a missionary.  It's hard, but it's really rewarding! And I'm learning things that will help me throughout my whole life. 

For those of you who enjoy the Song Of The Week portion of this email, here it is!  Baba O'Riley by The Who. One of the greatest songs ever, a total classic. 

Along with listening to that, I would encourage each of you to read any talk from President Russell M. Nelson. He is called by God to be our Prophet in these days. His words are inspired and they will bless your life as you abide by them. 

Getting really good at playing basketball in dress clothes,

Love, Elder Thompson 

Baba O'Riley - The Who

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY5rztWa1TM

It's been a week...

1.15.18

Hey all! This week was pretty uneventful. We worked really hard though. 

We were able to have two lessons with one of our investigators this week! She really liked and believed what we taught but said she wanted to try out some different churches to make sure that this was the right one. She told us that the Lord would probably tell her to come back to this one though!  Prayers for Sheila would be appreciated.

We also got a new Ward Mission Leader in our ward so that should be a fresh new start for the mission plan here in Dixon. 

We did a lot of tracting this week, it was fun and we met a lot of crazy people. That's always fun though!! 

I was also able to go on exchanges to Woodland last week with Elder Cawley (Zone Leader who goes home in 3 weeks) where we set a baptismal date with a woman who was having her first lesson! It was a really great experience and I hope to get some of our own investigators on date very soon! 

Song of the week is Billy Joel's Lullaby.  

I encourage all of you to read the Book of Mormon every day.  Even if it's just a chapter or a verse.  I've seen it bless my life a ton, especially while I've been on my mission. 

I hope it doesn't snow in Utah until I get back! 

Much love from Northern Cali. 

Elder Thompson 

Hank is able to receive emails on his tablet daily, whenever he has wifi.  He would love to hear from you, especially during a week like the last, when the work is hard and rewards feel few.

thompson.henry@myldsmail.net

We will have an entire album of California trucks by 2019!

I'd like to think this means he's thinking of his mom. :)

Billy Joel Lullaby:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcnd55tLCv8