This week we lost Melvin! 😰😰 he texted us saying he had just moved
to Woodbridge so we sent his info over to Elder Lucero. He's in their
care now. We also had a lesson with Rabia, she's the Muslim
investigator we have who speaks 8 languages, and she has read over
HALF the BOM in Arabic!! It was an interesting tri-lingual lesson. We
asked her how to say some things in Arabic too haha.
Scary story Tuesday...we were out west again near Bealeton and we were
trying a house a member referred to us. We walk up and see the 'Beware
of dog' sign on the tree in the front yard and Elder Brunsdale
actually made a joke about no dog being there haha. We walk up and
suddenly, this HUGE shepherd mix dog with no leash or anything comes
bolting out of the garage barking and it was one of those loud and
deep barks!! We turned around instantly and we almost started running
but we knew that would have probably made it worse. It did charge us
though and it ran up to me. I elevated my arms so he wouldn't get
those but he threw his snout into the backside of my pants, so he made
contact!! He didn't bite, he just literally pushed me out of the
driveway...that's a pretty well-trained dog I must say...we caught our
breath and then took some pics with some cows down the street hahaha
We had English Class this Thursday and it was just Elders Castillo's
and Oldroyd's investigators Reina and her daughter Darlyn. Me and my
comp were the only ones who taught them. I went into kinda reluctantly
because it has no organization but it was actually really fun! The
time went by and we were able to help them learn vocab and phrases
they would use in the store. We were able to bear our testimonies of
the gift of tongues and we invited them to pray and ask for it as
well. It was nice.
Saturday was a joke. Brunsdale and I both hated Saturday. It started
off wrong when we got a text saying our Ward Picnic we have been
planning for months and inviting everybody to was cancelled for rain.
That made us kinda upset cuz we've been inviting everyone we contacted
and we didn't get their phone numbers. It seemed that it was 'National
host a service project Day' or something because there were 3
different services we were invited to. The first one we went to was
the Sudley community was throwing away yard waste at the elementary
school we stood in the parking lot and waited for people to drive
through with junk in their vehicles and we would throw it out. That
was fun. Then, we went back to our apartment to change into back into
pros and headed to the Centerville stake center for a service. They
said we were needed as translators because the charity departments of
the Catholic, Lutheran and LDS church held an event for newly received
refugees from El Salvador. It was kinda unorganized and in the end we
were kinda useless because they had too many translators. This lady
kept nagging us that we needed to talk and mingle with more people
than what we were already doing and she said we have to and that
bugged me. We weren't allowed to have any sort of proselyting material
even there so we couldn't do anything there. I bumped into Elder
Wise's parents again haha *shoutout to Elder Wise in Ogden!!* we got a
pic together. Since it's been a while, Elder Wise and I were in the
CCM in Mexico together. He's from here in Virginia. We both felt
discouraged after the lunch so we left that place. So! We were told
that the third service was still going, so we went back to the
apartment to change again and then like right before we get there, the
other elders call and tell us they're done. So we turned around and
went home. Elder Brunsdale had just gotten sick right then because it
was raining all day. So I just went ham on cleaning the apartment. I
organized our supplies and shelves and vacuumed and it was nasty. I'm
not even done with this day....so at five we were told to meet at the
church for an Hermano to take us to Golden Coral for dinner. We get
there at five, and 20 minutes later is when Elder Castillo and Oldroyd
show up...but! The Hermano hadn't even showed up! He shows up and
HOUR late because he had fallen asleep! So we go there and he gets
lost while following us because he's kinda old. And when we finally
get there the place is SLAMMED. The lines out the door and it was so
crowded. We finally finish and by this point it's like 7:30. Our night
was destroyed. With traffic, it took us 30 minutes to get to Angel,
and thankfully we had a lesson. We shared a video and in the lesson he
got a call for a customer outside his house so he whipped up tacos for
15 minutes in the middle of the lesson....it was a weird day. But he
gave us some tacos too 😍😍 Mexican tacos are the best! Yeah it was a
very challenging day.
Needless to say, I was more than ready for Sunday. The other Elders
had a baptism of this little girl named Ana Cecilia. She just recently
turned 9 so it counted as a convert baptism because they've been
teaching her. She was confirmed after the baptism though because
another girl in the Ward was baptized.
I want to end with a miracle and just a testimony builder. This
happened yesterday on Sunday. This week we had not found any new
investigators. We were feeling a bit discouraged. We drove way out to
Warrenton to try Lorena again but she wasn't home even though we
confirmed so we drove allll the way back. At this point it was 8:30 at
night and we pull up to a finding place we have. I stopped Elder
Brunsdale from getting out of the car and I said we're gonna say a
prayer. I offered it and expressed hope to find at least one person.
After that we went out and at 8:40 ish we knocked a door three times
and started to leave the porch. When we get to the sidewalk we noticed
they opened the door and so we went back and introduced ourselves and
they let us in! His name was Inmer Hernandez and there with him was
his wife Esther and their daughter Alison. They're a beautiful family
and we're so glad we found them. They understood the Restoration very
well and we were able to get a return appointment easily, making them
new investigators. Our Heavenly Father clearly answers our prayers.
That was something that strengthened my testimony in that regard. I
invite you all to do the same and pray for those simple missionary
opportunities. Sorry this letter got super long.
❤ Elder Thompson
Behold...The Beast
I feel like I ruin this pic but it was another one from last week
First cows I've seen in over a year lol
Ana's baptism with all her Elders
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