Week 46-47

Week 47

Dear All,

This week was kinda slow but that's because I could have been working
harder 😐 That's the way it goes with missionary work.  Stay busy.
This week we had an awesome lesson which was actually last night. We
had this guy named Alex invite himself to church!!! He was like that's
the place I'm gonna learn more so I'll see you there! We were
like...so stunned and surprised!! It was  so great!! We had an epic
first lesson with him and he was so open about it and willing to try
and learn. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would work
towards it!

We had interviews with President Huntsman on Tuesday and it was nice.
I always take something great from my mission President, and he helps
me so much with whatever I need.  He is so inspired.

Elder Cottle and I have been helping each other a lot.  This is my
best companionship by far like I said.  We are brothers who support
one another.  He helped me a lot this week with motivation and stuff
like that.

I wanted to go over the apostle visit we had last week.  It was such
an awesome experience and all of the brethren gave such insightful
counsel to us.  Here's one or two things I got from all 3 general
authorities.

Elder Garret W. Gong: "We all speak the language of the Spirit. And
when we have the Spirit, we touch lives."

Elder Ronald A. Rasband: "What is of great importance to God is of
most importance to us, that is, to declare repentance." (D&C 16 and
18)

Elder M. Russell Ballard: "If you want to baptize more, you must talk
to more people. It's as simple as that."
"NEVER forget who you are. Never forget the power of God."

There was more said but I left my little notebook at the apartment.
Man, I couldn't help but think that Elder Rasband looks a LOT like Rod
in person!! It was interesting.  After they left President Huntsman
talked with us and we established a general goal as a whole mission to
talk to at least 10 people a day like they counseled us to do.  I'll
never forget that day they all came.  I'll attach the photo.

Well inauguration happened less than 10 minutes away from me.  I don't
know what all happened or what was said but everybody was talking
about it of course.  Traffic was bad here that day.

We are looking forward to the 25th because the brethren will be doing
a world-wide missionary broadcast.  They will be changing some of the
main core of the missionary schedule.  We're hearing that were gonna
have studies in the afternoon hours and plan in the morning instead of
at night and we will have the option of going to bed at 10 instead of
10:30. Our mission will also be starting our P-days at 8am!!! I'm
excited for that.

Man we also had a lesson on Saturday with this really interesting guy.
He had so many questions and some interesting beliefs.  He didn't
believe that Christ was perfect and he was confused at why women don't
have the priesthood and all stuff like that.  We did our best to try
and answer his questions.

That's my week.  I continue trying to keep moving forward.  A bunch of
Elders came with me to Ross and I actually bought myself a whole new
basketball get-up haha.  I bought shoes and a matching shirt both are
Kevin Durant's and we're now playing more ball!! 🏀🏀  If you haven't
seen my post on Facebook yet, I would invite you to read it.  I talked
about conversion a bit. We can all use more of that.

❤️ Elder Thompson





Week 46

Dear All,

First, I want to write about the BEST lesson I have had in my mission.  We found this lady named Lineth and we taught her The Restoration.  The next lesson, we brought Hermana Tapia and Tonio to our second lesson and we taught her about The Book of Mormon.  She answered EVERY question perfectly and just was like the perfect investigator!! We asked her if she would be baptized on the 11th of February and she said humbly accepted!! It was so awesome and then we taught her how to pray and she prayed and she cried while praying for her little ones in Honduras and it was just SO spiritual!!! Elder Cottle gives a rating for each lesson and that Cottle Rating was a 10!! It was so awesome.  We now have someone on date!!!! :D

So, on Wednesday we had zone conference.  More rules yay we love rules!! We are now not allowed to go to D.C. for P-day anymore.  The only place outside the mission we can go is the temple.  That was the biggest one, we were told that our P-days will now be starting at 8am!! :D :D So great! There were other rules but they weren't as important.  

Man...this Saturday, we had the AMAZING opportunity to be visited by and addressed by 3 General Authorities!!!! Well, counting Seventies there were more but we were privileged to be addressed by Elder Garret W. Gong of the Presidency of the 70 and Elders Ronald A. Rasband AND M. Russell Ballard!!!! It was such a historic day! They told us the last time 2 apostles visited a mission was 20 years ago.  Both the Washington D.C North and South missions were there.  I'll never forget that day.  I don't have time to write the things I took from them, but I promise I will next week.  

This week Elder Cottle and I found 20 new investigators!!!! Our numbers have been increasing right in front of us and it's SO awesome to see that we are being blessed by The Lord.  That and we had 9 other lessons.  Our whole district together found 34 news this week, breaking the Old Town record :D I love missionary work. Also! Yesterday I was at the baptism of Marcos Posada in Little River! Elder Gosain has continued teaching him and he was baptized yesterday!!! So awesome!!! I need to go soon cuz we just finished playing ball and I almost passed out I was playing so hard.  I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!!

Love,

Elder Thompson

Marcos' baptism and my late X-mas gift from President's wife Sister Huntsman  haha

Week 42-45 Christmas, Ward Party, Elder Cottle!!!!

This week I had an exchange with Elder Smith.  He replaced Elder Everrett as zone leader in our district.  He's pretty cool, we had met Melvin who we talked to for like 30 minutes because he had so many questions about Mormonism.  We had a lessons with 3 new guys in Chirilagua.  It's an area in Alexandria that's basically El Salvador inside Alexandria haha everyone there is hispanic.  

So, that next day I woke up with bed bug bites ALLLL up my arms, around my waist and down my legs!!!! I was sooo itchy and it was awful.  People were looking at me weird during lessons because I could not stop scratching myself. La Hermana Peña gave me some weird mixture of vinegar and apple cider and the next day we sprayed my bed and our bedroom so much, we gassed out our apt and had to leave for a few hours haha.  The bites are gone now.

This week we had a lot of lessons.  We had 19 in total with both member presents and not.  It was pretty epic.  This week we got a ton more referrals too!! We got like 7!!! Elder Cottle and I have been doing these lightning visits with the members just popping by and letting them know we love them we're here for them and share our testimony with them.  That's how we got those referrals.

We finally got snow here in NOVA yesterday.  It's basically all gone now but it made it SOOO cold!!!! The cold is worse here because of the humidity.  It penetrates through all of your layers!!!  We'll survive though.  We were going to go to D.C. again today because we know for sure that going to D.C. will be banned starting tomorrow in zone training but...it's too dang cold haha I've been there enough.  

That's all I feel like writing.  Have a good week everyone!!

Elder Thompson

Week 44

Dear All,

I saw one of the most awesome miracles this past week.  We had transfers and Elder Biehn had to sell his electric keyboard before going because we can't have instruments in our apartment.  We went to a few pawn shops and he was looking to get what he spent on in, $100, which wasn't going to happen.  So, the keyboard malfunctions for the very first time so it was weird and the pawn shop could not accept it.  Then, Elder Biehn decides to think of a member to give it to and we go to the apartment of the very first member we think of.  We told them we have a gift for them and just the look on their faces seeing the piano was sooooo awesome.  It was so pleasing to see their faces and their gratitude cuz they're not very well off financially.  We gave it to the Diaz family and their daughter Camila had been wanting to learn how to play.  It felt so nice to know that we were meant to give them that gift and who knows maybe she will turn out like me because I learned piano by a keyboard given to me by one of my mom's friends.

Well, Thursday was transfer day and Elder Biehn got switched out with Elder Cottle!!! They switched spots. Ok Elder Cottle is now with me and within 3 days of our companionship I declared this companionship the BEST, STRONGEST companionship I have ever had--in the mission and as friends.  We bonded so strongly and we have each others backs.  There's a lot of accountability and mutual trust and its just so awesome.  I love my comp's work ethic and how easy for it is for anyone to like him within 2 minutes of talking to him.  Our members and people we work with already LOVE Elder Cottle.  He's so awesome.  I have served in his district in Bella Vista but he was the one who went home for tonsillitis and came back.  He's the one who knows the Burtons so he is from Lehi but his family moved to St. George just before he left on his mission.  We are such good friends already. :)

Yesterday was church and we had correlation with Obispo in his office.  Our WML is not very reliable these days but for a good cause.  He doesn't want a lot of people in our ward to know that his wife is now pregnant for the first time.  So, we presented our ideas to him for our new ward mission plan.  We did some lightning visits just letting the members know we're there for them and we're looking forward to working with them and we got 3 referrals!!!! This is going to be a good transfer.

Today is P-day and we were going to go to D.C. because we are hearing a rumor that going to D.C. will be banned very soon.  But...today was raining so we're going to go next week before zone training. We are writing emails and a bunch of the English elders are bummed because the Hermanos of my ward are playing some Futbol right now. We want to play basketball. I'm so excited for this transfer to see what me and Elder Cottle can do together.  Happy New Year to everyone!

Love,

Elder Thompson

Week 43

Dear All,

The beginning of this week was interrupted by a few problems with the car.  One day on like Wednesday we noticed the car was veering to the left while we were driving to the church.  We did some work there, and after that we go out and realize our tire is flat!! So, we call our mission vehicle coordinator and did what he said, so we put the spare on.  A guy had to help us do it and it made me think of this scripture in 1 Nephi that talks about receiving correction without becoming prideful.  I think my companion didn't like how he had to be shown how to change a tire haha but that guy was sent to us by God cuz...the first time we tried the car slipped off the jack.  Anyway, so we went to a Firestone and they were super busy and we had to wait over 3 hours!!! Ugh...That threw off our day.  They recommended that we replace the battery too but Elder Browne didn't approve it.  Funny thing is the next day we go to the mission office and as we're leaving, the car doesn't start.  The battery died.  Ugh, so we jumped it and took it back to the shop and the lady knew right when she saw us why we were back haha.  Another night, we had everything planned to go to the temple visitors center with a less active family la familia Calderon.  We got a ride from our Spanish senior couple the Lesuers and RIGHT as we were about to cross the Potomac into Maryland, our family calls and said they got pulled over and they can't make it. Dang...and traffic was terrible both ways! We had a kinda rusty week.

But! Christmas Eve, we had a baptism! Her name is Mireya and the hermanas have been working with her.  I played the musical number on my guitar for the baptism.  Elder Biehn baptized her.  She was confirmed on Christmas!  Super cool.  Christmas Eve, we visited a TON of members because the Hispanic culture celebrates the 24th way more than Christmas day.  They wait until midnight to open presents, so we visited so many people and ate soooo much! I ate the same amount I did on Thanksgiving!!! 

Christmas was great! I got a new wallet and ties from my family and a ton of candy from everyone here haha.  We FINALLY got Jeremy Peña to church.  He's a less active our age who had not been to church in 4 years!! He didn't work so he came because we invited him.  We did lots of singing in church it was a good day.  We ate lunch right after with the Lesuers and their food is so amazing.  From there, we went to the church and I got to talk with my family and that was so awesome! It was so good to see them all.  After the call we basically did a few more member visits.  We visited Hermano Diaz who just had a hernia operation and we gave him a blessing.  We also ended up visiting Priscilla Flores another less active too.  It was a good night.

So, last night our mission did the very first mission-wide conference call.  Everyone called a certain number and dialed in and then at like 9:30 President Huntsman muted us all and gave some announcements.  Sister Huntsman spoke first and she said that we have accomplished our year goal of 300 baptisms!!!!! :D AND!!! She said that we achieved the goal on Christmas Eve!! Mireya was the 300th baptism!!! It was sooooo amazing! The Hermanas were freaking out after the call! So cool!  President Huntsman spoke and also made a big announcement that in January our mission will be having Elder Gong from the presidency of the 70 coming...and with him Elders. Rasband AND Ballard!!!! We will be having 3 general authorities here at the same time and they said that rarely happens! It was super cool.  It was kinda funny after President hung up and unmuted us all, all you could here was the whole mission yelling and cheering and going crazy hahaha it was a happy night!!!

Well today is P-day and we went to D.C.!! We took some pictures next to the White House and we also went to the Smithsonian Air+Space museum.  It was a lot of walking; Thankfully It was smart and wore my boots.  We took the Shirlington Elders with us because they live in our complex. Now, we're here at the church writing.  That concludes my writing for today.  Our plans for the rest of today are to go eat dinner with a member which will take a while because they live all the way down Route 1.  I hope you all had a merry merry Christmas and that you have a Happy New Year too! Transfers are this Thursday, and so I may get moved I'm not sure but I will let you know! Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Thompson

Us at church with Jeremy / Talking with family / DC!!!!! 

Week 42

Dear All,

First off, this week was really really slow.  So there.  Wednesday we had a baptismal interview for one of the Hermanas' investigators se llama Mireya.  She is SO ready and so prepared for baptism. It's a pretty amazing sight to see her about to enter in to the waters of baptism despite her circumstances. We're looking forward to that.  Thursday was swallowed up by a district mtg and then a lengthy doctors appointment I had way up in McLean.  Due to traffic we didn't get back until about 7.

We had our ward Christmas party on Friday! I spent most of that night getting to know one of our less actives named Jeremy Peña. I found out he's super cool and we are planning to spend some time with him one of these P-days to hangout with us! The party itself was just food, socializing and Papá Noel of course. Pretty normal.

Yesterday was Sunday and we...didn't get any investigators to church D: but we did get the Calderons to come for the first time in forever! They're less actives.  We missionaries were kinda upset that they didn't announce the Charlafoogonera for that night.  That's what happens when missionaries are not at Ward council.  So...I love my ward here in Old Town I love the members here. However there's a little dispute going on in the ward.  We keep wishing this ward had missionary work as a higher priority cuz they asked us to stop coming to ward council last week. Basically stuff happened and Hma Garcia stepped up and called out and...they asked us missionaries to leave them for the last 10 minutes of the council and then next week we find out they don't want us there anymore.  Our Ward mission leader and the Teeters are fighting to get us back in there because they see the confusion of priorities in the ward. And they are the ONLY ones in this ward who served missions...hmm.  We hope it will get better and we can get back in there.

We had the Charla and we got our recent convert Junior to come and he was supposed to share his testimony but he got too scared and didn't go up :\ It was a good meeting though and it was great to see some people of past wards and other missionaries.  

Well today is P day and our studies were interrupted by our apt fire alarm going off ):( erg...we waited outside for like 30 minutes while the fire dept. fixed the alarm. It was a false alarm. That's all that happened this week.  I can't wait to talk to my family this week on Christmas! I hope everyone reading has an amazing Christmas, one filled with joy and the true meaning of Christmas.  Have a good week!  Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Thompson