Dear All,
This week was kinda the same. Not a whole lot happened but we did have 8 larc lessons this week!! That is, eight less active/recent convert lessons in one week! That's pretty good, I wish we could have some more lessons with investigators though.
We had a pass off lesson with the Little River A Elders. Elderes Justesen and Castillo. We passed them off to the Familia De Leon and it was a good lesson, we taught them about the families using the Proclamation to the world. That was last night actually. So was the Christmas devotional! We kinda got there late but not too bad. I liked that comparison made of Christmas and Easter.
The work in Old Town A area (my area) is pretty slow right now. Since we lost that chunk of area to Little River, we basically have nothing. We only have 2 investigators and about 4 less actives we're working with once a week. We have a lot of finding to do. We stopped getting small and simple videos every day cuz from now on until the end of the year the small and simple goal for the day is the 3-3-3 which is mention baptism 3 times a day, invite 3 people to church and ask for referrals from at least 3 people. It sounds easy but for some reason it's still pretty hard to do haha.
I feel like writing a bit of my letter in Spanish this week, hope that's alright.
El otro día, yo tenía un sueño de papá. Yo estaba en una tienda como un mall y mi mamá estaba sentado al otro lado de la mesa. Pareció que estabamos en un Food Court o algo así. Luego, miré a la derecha y hubo un pared de cristal y una puerta de cristal también como el frente de la tienda. Entonces, yo vi a mi papá afuera de la puerta y él estaba caminando a mi. También paració un poquito diferente, tuvo su barba rojo pero sus cejos no eran correctos. No me gusta eso, cuando tengo un sueño de mi papá, siempre hay algo que no es correcto jaja pero está bien Entró en la puerta y llegó pero ya me levanté y corrí adelante y le abrecé. Pues, no sentió real. Su cuerpo era duro como había cuando le prepararon para el cierro. Yo estaba llorando al abrazarle y no puedo decirles los sentimientos que tuve en ese momento. Cuando me desperté, yo sabía que mi padre estaba conmigo...y que aquel día cuando yo veo a mi papá otra vez......habrá muchas lágrimas de gozo.
I wrote that dream down like always. Speaking of that, I'm sooooo behind on my journal. I'm thinking about making these emails my journal. That's why I number them by the week haha. However, I know that doesn't give me the excuse to not write. I need so much motivation D:
Sorry everyone, I don't have my iPad right now with me so I can't see what my schedule was like last week. I usually do that. I can never remember what happens during the week. Oh yeah! Last week we went up to our most north border which is Colombia Pike it's the border between Old Town and my first area Bella Vista. And turns out, my birth area Bella Vista A has been shut down so we visited the Fajardo girls at Chipotle cuz they don't have any elders anymore. I honestly believe we went cuz my comp is kinda crazy for Marina ;p haha it was good to see them again and we helped them set a goal to go to the temple to do baptisms! Super cool. I remembered that cuz I just saw the pictures of this week. I also made a cake for my comp is his birthday was on the 28th of November. And the other picture is of today, we went to the Pentagon city mall, and I had NO idea I had been there before haha we got Panda Express then I realize...wait...I've been to this panda express before and then I turn around and realize I was in the same mall I went to on my tour to DC Senior year haha it was kinda cool. It's super big, it has 4 floors! Well now we are chilling at the church again. Today our plans are to go do some finding and get as many of our people to una Noche de Hogar tonight here at the church. Should be awesome!
One thing that I've been learning this week is that success outweighs failure. Even when we may be so focused on something that we have done wrong, we can't allow ourselves to let the failure outweigh the success. When we make a mistake and do our best to make up for it...and then make the same mistake that doesn't mean our efforts are wasted. That doesn't mean our efforts of moving on suddenly don't count. That's what I've been trying to work on. Hope you all can remember that and apply it to your own lives in one way or another. Hope you all have an awesome week!
Love,
Elder Thompson
Dear All,
This week was pretty simple and not a lot happened even tho it was Thanksgiving. I don't have a ton of time either cuz we just finished playing basketball. This week we had a pass of lesson with the Little River A elders and we're gonna be having a lot more of those. The work here has been kinda slow in my area but we still are trying to find a lot of people. Thanksgiving was crazy we had 4 dinners and I barely finished the day alive hahaha. That morning we did a service for a guy named David he's from the Reality Gospel Church right next to our stake center and he has a lot right there of Christmas trees, like real ones. So we helped set up a bunch of pines and it was hard work! It was fun tho. Elder Biehn got to drive the tractor for a bit haha I have pics for that. That's basically all I have time for and oh we didn't use chainsaws that was just for the picture haha. Friday we played some volleyball at the church with the Ward and Saturday we found someone named Maira. We hope we can have another lesson with her. Today we went shopping and went to the church to do emails and play ball, obviously I got caught up playing ball hahaha. Love you all and have an awesome week!
Elder Thompson
Week 36
Dear All,
These past few days have been a change. I went to transfers, and said
goodbye to Elder Gosain....I don't think I got pictures though sorry.
I met up with Elder Biehn again and we headed out to our new area!!
I'm in the Mount Vernon Zone in the Old Town Ward! Although there has
been a lot of new things, my week since Wednesday has been kind of
slow. This new area that I'm in doesn't have near as much as what I
use to have in Little River. We have already been doing a ton of
finding by knocking and talking to people. It was a cool experience I
was kinda reluctant to knock a Pentecostals door with stickers on it
and everything but the lady was confused with her own religion and we
were able to teach a bit about prayer.
Our Ward had an activity this Friday, there was a thanksgiving dinner
Ward party thing. I was able to meet a lot of the members there. There
was a talent show, but we had to leave by then so I didn't see it.
Yesterday was my first Sunday here and they had me share my testimony
in front of everyone. It was nice. We now have a new Spanish speaking
senior couple in our Ward! I forgot their names haha but they plan on
feeding us soon so that's awesome!! They're really nice. So this week
was a special Sacrament meeting because there was a change of
boundaries in the stake! And that means our mission boundaries change
with the stakes, so right as I left, Little River Ward got more area
in the north added. That means my new area lost a chunk of land to the
Little River Ward because they're right next to each other.
So.....that means we lost a lot of investigators in that area. The
area that was changed was where most of our investigators are.
So...that means we're gonna be having some pass-off lessons with Elder
Castillo. It's kinda worry some because remember the northern little
River Elders are on bike and it's gonna be really hard for them to get
up there and take care of our people were leaving in their hands. I
hope this handoff goes well. We were going to have our correlation
meeting because they have it on Sunday's usually but our WML had a
family emergency. So we spent Sunday evening looking for less actives!
Now I'm already caught up, I didn't do a whole lot but things have
changed. We have done shopping at Aldi which is awesome because it's
soooo cheap!! We also went to Target because Aldi doesn't have a lot
of selection. We went to the post office because I needed to get a
box, and Elder Biehn needed some boxes too. We shopped, had leftovers
and we're now at the church, maybe we'll play some basketball but
we're just sitting here in the family history center with the APs
they've been talking about some big upcoming events our mission will
have. Sounds like this year things are a little more strict than they
were last year hahaha it looks like change is coming. Today has been a
good day so far, I still have lots of time to spare and relax a bit.
WITH my last companion I didn't really have a whole lot of time to do
anything on p days.
Oh yeah!! the weather got cold really fast!!!!! Just last night is
when it dropped to the 40s for the first time. And it's been windy
these past few days, and that's not normal here. I think the cold
front has been blowing in.
That's all I have experienced for the past few days, I hope to have a
few more interesting stories next week and more miracles too!! Love
you all and have an awesome week!!!
❤️ Elder Thompson
Sorry this is he only pic I have this week. These are the members we
are going to lose. 😢
These past few days have been a change. I went to transfers, and said
goodbye to Elder Gosain....I don't think I got pictures though sorry.
I met up with Elder Biehn again and we headed out to our new area!!
I'm in the Mount Vernon Zone in the Old Town Ward! Although there has
been a lot of new things, my week since Wednesday has been kind of
slow. This new area that I'm in doesn't have near as much as what I
use to have in Little River. We have already been doing a ton of
finding by knocking and talking to people. It was a cool experience I
was kinda reluctant to knock a Pentecostals door with stickers on it
and everything but the lady was confused with her own religion and we
were able to teach a bit about prayer.
Our Ward had an activity this Friday, there was a thanksgiving dinner
Ward party thing. I was able to meet a lot of the members there. There
was a talent show, but we had to leave by then so I didn't see it.
Yesterday was my first Sunday here and they had me share my testimony
in front of everyone. It was nice. We now have a new Spanish speaking
senior couple in our Ward! I forgot their names haha but they plan on
feeding us soon so that's awesome!! They're really nice. So this week
was a special Sacrament meeting because there was a change of
boundaries in the stake! And that means our mission boundaries change
with the stakes, so right as I left, Little River Ward got more area
in the north added. That means my new area lost a chunk of land to the
Little River Ward because they're right next to each other.
So.....that means we lost a lot of investigators in that area. The
area that was changed was where most of our investigators are.
So...that means we're gonna be having some pass-off lessons with Elder
Castillo. It's kinda worry some because remember the northern little
River Elders are on bike and it's gonna be really hard for them to get
up there and take care of our people were leaving in their hands. I
hope this handoff goes well. We were going to have our correlation
meeting because they have it on Sunday's usually but our WML had a
family emergency. So we spent Sunday evening looking for less actives!
Now I'm already caught up, I didn't do a whole lot but things have
changed. We have done shopping at Aldi which is awesome because it's
soooo cheap!! We also went to Target because Aldi doesn't have a lot
of selection. We went to the post office because I needed to get a
box, and Elder Biehn needed some boxes too. We shopped, had leftovers
and we're now at the church, maybe we'll play some basketball but
we're just sitting here in the family history center with the APs
they've been talking about some big upcoming events our mission will
have. Sounds like this year things are a little more strict than they
were last year hahaha it looks like change is coming. Today has been a
good day so far, I still have lots of time to spare and relax a bit.
WITH my last companion I didn't really have a whole lot of time to do
anything on p days.
Oh yeah!! the weather got cold really fast!!!!! Just last night is
when it dropped to the 40s for the first time. And it's been windy
these past few days, and that's not normal here. I think the cold
front has been blowing in.
That's all I have experienced for the past few days, I hope to have a
few more interesting stories next week and more miracles too!! Love
you all and have an awesome week!!!
❤️ Elder Thompson
Sorry this is he only pic I have this week. These are the members we
are going to lose. 😢
Ok...I finally just watched that video of the wedding dance hahahaha I loved it!
Week 35
Dear All,
Sorry I didn't get to write on Monday, we changed our P day to today
because we were going to go to the temple for ourselves but...we
didn't and ill explain why later I guess.
A lot has happened here, over a week ago last Tuesday our zone had a
zone training and some of the rules that our mission has been
struggling with got re-enforced. So the whole Pokémon and Yu-Ghi-Oh
thing was getting out of hand, so it's now banned. Elder Gosain was
really sad when we found out we're not allowed to go to public gyms
even if our complex has one. That made him upset because we have been
waking up at 5:40 on Wednesdays and Saturdays to go to the other
Elders gym. And what made him more upset is that they emphasized only
working out for 30 min. Elder Gosain usually woke up at 6 every
morning and gone to 7:30 while I showered. But they want us waking up
at 6:30 now. They also said no more trips to the mission office
except for zone leaders. Stuff like that...there's actually one more
rule that killed me but I'm not going to say, I will tell my
family...later haha. President Huntsman had this put into effect as
kind of our last push as we near the end of the year. We all hope
these rules will help us be more focused so that we can reach our goal
of 300 baptisms. We are at like 264.
Friday, we went in the morning to the endure to the end meeting,
because Elder Gosain only has 3 months left in his mission. It wasn't
really for me but I felt like I was meant to be there because
President Huntsman gave a lot of good advice and counsel. My past
companions Elders Coburn and Biehn were there too.
Saturday there was a baptism!! Not ours though, the other Elders. It
was kinda awkward at first because the guy getting baptized showed up
an hour late to his own baptism so we were all just sitting there
haha. Johnathan Diaz is his name. And he was confirmed by Elder
Castillo this Sunday.
Sunday Elder Gosain and I gave a mini lesson in the primary on the
sacrament and then we took the kids into the chapel and they sat where
the Aaronic Priesthood sits so they got a "tour" you could say of the
sacrament table haha Sunday night we had a Charlafoolgonera again,
every 6 weeks. We got a ride from la Hermana Iris who we work with a
lot. She and Elder Gosain are like family now. We drove up to Spring
Lake Ward and met up with basically everyone. A bunch of new recent
converts bore their testimony and the departing missionaries in the
Spanish program. Elder Purser sang a nice song at the end, he's a
really good singer. He is actually leaving this week 😞 we will miss
him. All the missionaries sang happy birthday to Elder Galvan so we
had cake in the back after that haha.
Monday we went to work and it was a pretty good day! We prayed and
asked the Lord for success when we normally don't work on Mondays and
we received our answer so clearly!!! Our schedule played out exactly
the way we had planned and every person we had planned to go see
answered the door and we had a lesson. 😀 It was awesome!!! Monday we
had a dinner with Hermana Rodriguez who is a professional cook, she
gave us these awesome enchiladas, they were really good.
However on Tuesday, I woke up with the feeling that the enchiladas
were still in my stomach 😳 we went to district meeting and I was fine
until the end of it. I was really struggling, I felt so sick...Elder
Castillo made us lunch so everyone but me ate after the meeting. Right
as the Hermanas left is when I finally threw up. It was so loud, like
I was in the kitchen and I'm sure people could probably hear me from
the chapel. Thankfully we were the only ones in there, but...yeah I
threw up. That threw off a lot of the day because we had planned to go
to the visitors center at the temple with an inactive, Fabricio. So
Elder Purser and Gosain went to do that and I stayed at the other
Elders apartment with Castillo. I was able to sleep and then I was
told I needed to go to the Urgent Care. Obispo Figueroa was working
and when Elder Castillo asked him for a ride, he dropped everything
and came and picked us up! Wow que servicio!!! I went to the Inova
urgent care and I took forever filling out paperwork because you know
I lost my wallet so I don't have id anymore. I basically went and paid
a 10 co pay for them to tell me I'm sick and I got a prescription. I
came back to the other elders apartment and went to bed exhausted, I
thought we were gonna exchange for the night, but I was awoken by my
comp at 10:20 saying lets go we need to go back to our
apartment....dang I was mad. But it worked out the best that way.
Today is Wednesday and that's why we didn't make it to the temple, I
still felt really bad this morning but it's been a whole lot better
through out the day. We basically stayed in and finished the 1000
piece Star Wars puzzle I bought on Halloween hahaha, I didn't think we
would finish! Anyway, I haven't been able to get Wifi for a day and
last night, transfer doctrine came via email but I was told I'm moving
out!!! New area!! Tomorrow I will be in Alexandria, in the Old Town
Ward with Elder Biehn again!!! He's officially my comp now, even
though we had each other for 2 weeks as a trio! Can't wait. And
that's what's been happening in my life. I will write again in Monday.
I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!
❤️ Elder Thompson
Zone training / 8 months! / Endure to the end / My district for the
past transfer / Elder Purser dies with us
Dear All,
Sorry I didn't get to write on Monday, we changed our P day to today
because we were going to go to the temple for ourselves but...we
didn't and ill explain why later I guess.
A lot has happened here, over a week ago last Tuesday our zone had a
zone training and some of the rules that our mission has been
struggling with got re-enforced. So the whole Pokémon and Yu-Ghi-Oh
thing was getting out of hand, so it's now banned. Elder Gosain was
really sad when we found out we're not allowed to go to public gyms
even if our complex has one. That made him upset because we have been
waking up at 5:40 on Wednesdays and Saturdays to go to the other
Elders gym. And what made him more upset is that they emphasized only
working out for 30 min. Elder Gosain usually woke up at 6 every
morning and gone to 7:30 while I showered. But they want us waking up
at 6:30 now. They also said no more trips to the mission office
except for zone leaders. Stuff like that...there's actually one more
rule that killed me but I'm not going to say, I will tell my
family...later haha. President Huntsman had this put into effect as
kind of our last push as we near the end of the year. We all hope
these rules will help us be more focused so that we can reach our goal
of 300 baptisms. We are at like 264.
Friday, we went in the morning to the endure to the end meeting,
because Elder Gosain only has 3 months left in his mission. It wasn't
really for me but I felt like I was meant to be there because
President Huntsman gave a lot of good advice and counsel. My past
companions Elders Coburn and Biehn were there too.
Saturday there was a baptism!! Not ours though, the other Elders. It
was kinda awkward at first because the guy getting baptized showed up
an hour late to his own baptism so we were all just sitting there
haha. Johnathan Diaz is his name. And he was confirmed by Elder
Castillo this Sunday.
Sunday Elder Gosain and I gave a mini lesson in the primary on the
sacrament and then we took the kids into the chapel and they sat where
the Aaronic Priesthood sits so they got a "tour" you could say of the
sacrament table haha Sunday night we had a Charlafoolgonera again,
every 6 weeks. We got a ride from la Hermana Iris who we work with a
lot. She and Elder Gosain are like family now. We drove up to Spring
Lake Ward and met up with basically everyone. A bunch of new recent
converts bore their testimony and the departing missionaries in the
Spanish program. Elder Purser sang a nice song at the end, he's a
really good singer. He is actually leaving this week 😞 we will miss
him. All the missionaries sang happy birthday to Elder Galvan so we
had cake in the back after that haha.
Monday we went to work and it was a pretty good day! We prayed and
asked the Lord for success when we normally don't work on Mondays and
we received our answer so clearly!!! Our schedule played out exactly
the way we had planned and every person we had planned to go see
answered the door and we had a lesson. 😀 It was awesome!!! Monday we
had a dinner with Hermana Rodriguez who is a professional cook, she
gave us these awesome enchiladas, they were really good.
However on Tuesday, I woke up with the feeling that the enchiladas
were still in my stomach 😳 we went to district meeting and I was fine
until the end of it. I was really struggling, I felt so sick...Elder
Castillo made us lunch so everyone but me ate after the meeting. Right
as the Hermanas left is when I finally threw up. It was so loud, like
I was in the kitchen and I'm sure people could probably hear me from
the chapel. Thankfully we were the only ones in there, but...yeah I
threw up. That threw off a lot of the day because we had planned to go
to the visitors center at the temple with an inactive, Fabricio. So
Elder Purser and Gosain went to do that and I stayed at the other
Elders apartment with Castillo. I was able to sleep and then I was
told I needed to go to the Urgent Care. Obispo Figueroa was working
and when Elder Castillo asked him for a ride, he dropped everything
and came and picked us up! Wow que servicio!!! I went to the Inova
urgent care and I took forever filling out paperwork because you know
I lost my wallet so I don't have id anymore. I basically went and paid
a 10 co pay for them to tell me I'm sick and I got a prescription. I
came back to the other elders apartment and went to bed exhausted, I
thought we were gonna exchange for the night, but I was awoken by my
comp at 10:20 saying lets go we need to go back to our
apartment....dang I was mad. But it worked out the best that way.
Today is Wednesday and that's why we didn't make it to the temple, I
still felt really bad this morning but it's been a whole lot better
through out the day. We basically stayed in and finished the 1000
piece Star Wars puzzle I bought on Halloween hahaha, I didn't think we
would finish! Anyway, I haven't been able to get Wifi for a day and
last night, transfer doctrine came via email but I was told I'm moving
out!!! New area!! Tomorrow I will be in Alexandria, in the Old Town
Ward with Elder Biehn again!!! He's officially my comp now, even
though we had each other for 2 weeks as a trio! Can't wait. And
that's what's been happening in my life. I will write again in Monday.
I love you all and hope you have an awesome week!
❤️ Elder Thompson
Zone training / 8 months! / Endure to the end / My district for the
past transfer / Elder Purser dies with us
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