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

Fonts are Full in Lakeport

Good day from NorCal everyone! 

Super busy week, we had to plan for TWO baptisms.  Two in one week is a first for me! One was for our friend from the reservation, Alayah, and the other one was our great friend, Cari. Most of our week was planning for those baptisms and making sure they were ready.

 Alayah's baptism was great, the only hiccup was discovering she has an intense fear of water and we only found out right as she was going to walk down into the font.... But, we calmed her down and she was able to get baptized! Elder Hunsaker and I made cookies for everyone because if there aren't treats at a church function, did it even happen? Long story short, everyone loved those cookies and were very surprised that "the Elders made them??!" 

While preparing Cari for her baptism, her sister Vikki, sat in again because she has been gone for the past little bit. We asked if she still wanted to be baptized and she said yes! So we set her date for June 15th! We are super excited for her.  Cari wants to make sure we all go to the temple together after Vikki gets baptized. They are both stoked! 

Cari's baptism was great too! Everything came together pretty much last minute but it worked out amazingly. The talks were both perfect for Cari to hear and everyone was very welcoming. We made the water superrrrr warm so Cari was happy; I totally would have gotten baptized again in that water, it was nice. The only problem we had with Cari's baptism is we forgot to tell her to bring a towel so in the middle of one of the talks before she got baptized, I had to leave and sneak into the womens bathroom to make sure there was a towel there for her.  I took a blanket draped over a chair in the Mothers' Room and put it over the changing stall as if it were a towel and then I scurried out of there and went back to sit in my seat. Nobody knew a thing. We also made more cookies for Cari's baptism and they were a hit! She is such a great convert though, she invited tons of her friends to come to the baptism, one person even came all the way from Oakland to be there. She told me she hasn't cried in years but that day she felt really emotional and cried as she bore her testimony. It was a very spirit-filled experience. 

On Sunday, both Alayah and Cari asked me to confirm them and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost, which I had never done before so I was a little nervous.  Cool experience, right after Cari received the Holy Ghost, we had the sacrament. After the water was blessed, she turned to me and said "I got it that time; I understood it." and I was like: heck yeah, the Holy Ghost is already teaching her things! 

One funny story and then I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing before: We invited a woman we're teaching, Pamela, to come to the baptism. When she got there, she sat down in the room with the font and she started to take off her jewelry and we were like, "what are you doing?" She thought that SHE was the one getting baptized that day!  We explained she couldn't be baptized right then but we could certainly arrange it in the future!  She was all in and said yes! So we are going to set a date with her this week.  

I know if we follow the small promptings of the Holy Ghost, we can be guided, protected, and comforted as we go throughout our lives. I've witnessed how listening to those promptings can bless other people's lives, so maybe you could be the answer to someone's prayer! That is always a good feeling. 

The Song of the Week is, "Basket Case"  by Green Day. Shoutout to Tre Cool for some amazing drums. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Much love,

Elder Thompson 

Nothing better after a baptism than a bowl of cereal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUTGr5t3MoY  Basket Case  Green Day

Beautiful Day(s)

It's definitely been another week here in California! We got hit with a crazy rainstorm which was pretty much the worst because I thought we were done with the rainy season, but hopefully it ends after this week. 

We had a crazy answer to prayer this past week: we had been praying for a way to get Cari and Vikki down to the Oakland Temple Open House but we just kept running into brick walls trying to find people to drive us... it's a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive depending on traffic.  The ward rented a charter bus to take members down but it had been filled up for a few weeks. We got a call on Wednesday from the Relief Society president who told us due to some cancellations, there were 5 open seats and it would be free for all of us!  Cari and Vikki were all in!  So on Saturday, we loaded up at 5:30 am and we drive down to Oakland to take a tour of the temple. Vikki was sick and couldn't come but Cari loved it! She was so happy to be there and was excited to go again after her baptism, which is this Saturday by the way! I also ran into some of my favorite members from Dixon and Fortuna in Oakland, so it was like a great family reunion! 

I could have stayed forever in that temple, it was beautiful! It was really weird for me though to have so many people in one place recognize us as elders. Everywhere we went, people said, "Hello Elders!" I'm definitely not used to that. 

Another cool answer to prayer happened this week. About two weeks ago, we met a woman named Cherie who lives at the top of a hill in a town called Nice, on the north shore of the lake. We met her while it was raining super hard. Her dog was outside and I guess it really didn't like us because it was super mean towards us right when we got out of the car and was trying to bite me. So we went back a few days later for a return appointment but we were worried her dog would be outside and we wouldn't be able to even make it up to the door.... So we got there and sure enough, the dog was just patrolling the property. We literally prayed that God would soften the heart of the dog and it would recognize us as servants of the Lord. After we finished the prayer, the dog laid down under the shade of a tree, looking happy and content as ever, and did not make a sound as we walked up to the door looking for Cherie. It was not at all worried about us. I thought it was pretty cool! 

We are just chugging along here! We are going to baptize one of the Native American kids on Wednesday and a few others next month, hopefully. We have Cari's baptism on Saturday! It should be an exciting week.  Elder Hunsaker and I are going to be having 6 more weeks together here in Lakeport, let's hope it goes well! 

The Song of the Week is "Beautiful Day" by U2. Let's pray for some beautiful days here in Lake County! 

Much love to you all,

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co6WMzDOh1o  Beautiful Day  U2

Operation Sunday Transportation

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there! It was a great time seeing my family. We had another hot week out here in California - and from what I hear, this is actually the nice part of the year. It usually gets to be about 110 during the summer so that's definitely going to be fun. 

We had a busy week for sure. The cool thing is we got about 8 Native American kids to come to church! We had to get them all rides and coordinate the rides carefully.  If a lot of cars show up all at once, it's overwhelming for the people on the reservation.  They kind of freak out, they're pretty sensitive. So we tried to not make a scene and it worked out well! The kids liked church and want to come back... they even stayed for Primary. Now we just hope their parents will come as well! It was successful though -  almost like an operation to get everyone rides and make sure that it went smoothly! 

We had two really fantastic lessons this week: one was with Dave and Paula.  We came into it knowing we were going to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson but if they hadn't read the Book Of Mormon since we last saw them, then we would switch gears and read the Book of Mormon. We got inside and sadly they hadn't read since we last saw them. We had to think on the fly of where we should read. While I was thinking, the member who was with us at the lesson opened up his scriptures on his phone and the first thing he had open was 3 Nephi 11 - where Christ comes to the Americas and teaches about baptism - so I thought to myself "yeah why not that one?"  We read probably 8 verses out of 3 Nephi 11 and while we were going around the circle reading, Paula landed on a verse that is the baptismal prayer (Paula is a convert from years ago) and the spirit instantly flooded the room. She choked up while reading the verse and started to cry. (This was a miracle because she seemed like a hard one to crack!) That lesson was such a great one. It wasn't us who taught her that day, it was the spirit. 

The other awesome lesson was with Cari.  Vikki wasn't able to make it but we had it at our Bishop's house. During the lesson, we decided to read 2 Nephi 31, also about baptism. Up until this point, Cari has been reluctant to set a date for baptism. In that chapter, Christ invites us to "follow thou me" - so I asked Cari if she would take Christ's words to heart and follow Him. She said yes, she would like to do that. We talked about how one of the first things we can do to follow Christ is to be baptized by someone who holds His priesthood authority. She said she'd like to do that too!!  The I asked if we could set a date for her to be baptized and she said she likes the month of May, so we set her date for May 25th! That was super exciting  for me. Now we need to set a date for Vikki  as well, we will do that this week.  We are also going to make a plan with them to go to the Oakland Temple open house. Exciting times! 

The Song of the Week is "Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest.  

Pray for me so I won't burn up out here! It's the last week of the transfer, gotta finish strong! 

Much love,

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3pyCGnZzYA  Can I Kick It?  A Tribe Called Quest