Week 22...We Think...

Dear Family,

This week was kind of average.  It was another week where not a whole
lot happened.  So....sorry if this is short.  This Tuesday we had Zone
Training.  It was good, we learned a lot about our goal of having our
investigators progressing.

Wednesday was my companion's birthday!! Elder Escobar turned 21 this
week!  Sad to say, but it wasn't a good birthday for him 😰 we had
planned to go to Olive Garden for dinner with our whole district and
Ward mission leader.  We were already there when Dany called and said
he's stuck in traffic and can't make it....soo....we had to reschedule
his dinner for next weeky after district meeting next week.


Thursday, I had exchanges with the zone leaders!  My companion went
with Elder Bigelow and I went with Elder McCray just for the day.  So
I was in the English program for a day!  We spent the day contacting
referrals and getting to know each other more, it was fun!  We had a
lesson with is guy named Sam.  He's from some small country in Africa
and he was really interested in learning more about Christianity.  It
was a good lesson. We switched back at 5.
That morning was a little hard because they wanted us to be at the
food pantry at 8 am.  We were there for a while 😩 ...that night we
went over to visit Hermana Martinez unexpected.  Sometimes those
visits are all that you need.

Friday was interesting because I was in a trio with Elders Biehn and
Walker.  We dropped off Elder Escobar with Dany to go to a wedding of
the ward mission leader in another area.  A lot of missionaries went
to that actually.  Escobar was gone for most of the day.  While we
were a trio, we had a lesson in my area with Jonathan Escalera.  He's
now our progressing investigator!  He's been reading from the Book of
Mormon, so that was great to hear!  He's now our only progressing
investigator.  After that lesson, we went back to their area in Falls
Church and had a quick short lesson with this guy named Bryan.  He was
really cool and interested.  He helped me realize what prayer is.  I
LOVE it when someone who is learning how we should pray offers a
prayer.  I love it when they talk to our Heavenly Father as a friend.
In all, that's really the way it should be.  That helped me realize
that we're are literally talking with our Heavenly Father when we pray
and we can go to Him for whatever thing we need without having to
repeat the same things we tend to say.


Saturday was a rough day to go through. Well first let me say we had a
great Noche de Hogar at the Sierra family's house last night and that
highlighted the day.  Elder Escobar and I gave the lesson on the Holy
Ghost.  The day before that was rough, because yesterday was August
14th, my darkest day.  Yesterday marked 1 year of my dad's passing.  I
can't believe it's already been a year.  I never do.  I miss my dad a
lot, being away from my family for so long has tricked me into
thinking that he's still home golfing or working.  I want to thank all
the people who may be reading this who helped me and my family through
our hard times, a year ago and even today.  Thanks to all for being my
friends and supporting me in my decision to still serve a mission.  I
believe that is all.  Seguimos adelante.

❤️ Elder Thompson