Dear Family,
This week was a little bit different but not a whole lot. We had to
run to the mission office in Burke to pick up money because Elder
Lawson still doesn't have his wallet. They did find the mission car
though, and it ended up back up in Maryland! They said there was a ton
of McDonald's stuff inside and it was completely trashed in there.
Good thing they found the stolen car though. I had a baptismal
interview for the Hermanas investigator Sonia Contreras and it went
well! She's super cool and will be an amazing member!
So the subject line comes from Wednesday this week. Elder Pickett has
a large family and he didn't know for a while that his 3rd cousin
lives in the mission and he got our number and took us out to Olive
Garden!! 😍 He was really cool, he's like in his 50s. He does work for
the CIA and also mentioned that he majored in music and mostly opera.
So he pays for our food and then at the end he asks Elder Lawson to
film with his phone and so we can't help but wonder what's about to
happen. So his cousin, Brother Harris, stands up at the end of the
table next to Elder Pickett who's still sitting with all of us and he
starts the video and basically says this is for Elder Pickett who's
going home soon.
Suddenly...this guy starts BELTING this famous Italian opera song,
seriously guys it was SOOO LOUD!!!! he lets out this beautiful opera
song and it was perfect! He's a really really good opera singer! And
his Italian sounded spot on! I didn't know how to react because
literally everyone in the Olive Garden stopped and was watching us
hahaha but the last note...was so amazing and so dang loud. His
vibrato was so perfect and his last note was a crescendo even louder
than before and he was basically right next to us and you know when
you're standing right by an emergency vehicle with the siren going off
and you feel your ear drums pulsing? Because of the noise? Well that's
what happened with this final note here haha and I felt bad cuz I
ended up ducking my head and cringing just because of how loud it was
haha but man it was so....different and unexpected but it was an
amazing opera! He finished and everyone in the restaurant clapped and
said 'grazie' and our server was Italian and so he loved it. It was
epic. That quote later came from Elder Lawson haha I will get the
video sometime in the future because I have to show it. Elder Pickett
said his mom is working on sending the video so hopefully we can get
it today.
On Friday we visited the Fajardo girls and helped them with
understanding the importance of reading the scriptures. Marina just
started college not too long ago and Jacky has been working still and
they said that's made it a little more difficult to read the
scriptures but we read Thomas S. Monson's last talk on the BOM and the
blessings that come from reading it daily.
We helped clean the church on Saturday because the Ward got after
everyone for not showing up. We cleaned while the Arlington 1 Sisters
had a baptism going on. So at the McLean Stake Center it is known that
there's this random Muslim woman who roams the property some days and
uses the showers in the men's locker room. Well while we were cleaning
the windows we see her coming and so we tell the sisters about her and
we warned that she may want to enter the showers but there was their
baptism going on and and it was like a scary movie because right as
we're saying this we like all look down the hall and she's standing
there at the end of the hall facing us, and she had on her black robe
and shoal and the sisters were like, that's so creepy! Anyway she
ended up leaving with no shower haha We ended up doing a blitz with
the Bella Vista A Elders, that is, we all went over to their
proselyting area for an hour and helped to try and find new
investigators because their area needs it. We got some appointments
set up.
This Sunday was Stake Conference for the McLean stake. The messages
were pretty good and a lot of emphasis was made on going to the temple
because the Washington DC temple will close this March for 2 years for
remodeling. We sat in the overflow in the young women's room just
because we were filling the baptismal font for the Hermanas baptism!
Sonia Contreras was baptized after Stake Conference and it turned out
really great! They had put Dany, our WML, to conduct but he was doing
the baptism so he was in white so they asked me to conduct again. I
did it again but I was a LOT more nervous this time because our
mission president, Pres. Huntsman and Sister Huntsman stayed after
Stake Conference to attend the baptism, so they were there! I'm sure
they didn't understand much but it was great to see them.
Well it's only 9 something here as of right now and we are going to go
right now with Rudy to Great Falls to hike....and actually see the
waterfalls haha I did this my very first P-Day in the mission field so
I'm gonna go back. Thank you for all your support! Hope you all have a
wonderful week!
❤️ Elder Thompson
Olive Garden
Great Falls today with the trio -- Elder Lawson forgot his tag haha
This week was a little bit different but not a whole lot. We had to
run to the mission office in Burke to pick up money because Elder
Lawson still doesn't have his wallet. They did find the mission car
though, and it ended up back up in Maryland! They said there was a ton
of McDonald's stuff inside and it was completely trashed in there.
Good thing they found the stolen car though. I had a baptismal
interview for the Hermanas investigator Sonia Contreras and it went
well! She's super cool and will be an amazing member!
So the subject line comes from Wednesday this week. Elder Pickett has
a large family and he didn't know for a while that his 3rd cousin
lives in the mission and he got our number and took us out to Olive
Garden!! 😍 He was really cool, he's like in his 50s. He does work for
the CIA and also mentioned that he majored in music and mostly opera.
So he pays for our food and then at the end he asks Elder Lawson to
film with his phone and so we can't help but wonder what's about to
happen. So his cousin, Brother Harris, stands up at the end of the
table next to Elder Pickett who's still sitting with all of us and he
starts the video and basically says this is for Elder Pickett who's
going home soon.
Suddenly...this guy starts BELTING this famous Italian opera song,
seriously guys it was SOOO LOUD!!!! he lets out this beautiful opera
song and it was perfect! He's a really really good opera singer! And
his Italian sounded spot on! I didn't know how to react because
literally everyone in the Olive Garden stopped and was watching us
hahaha but the last note...was so amazing and so dang loud. His
vibrato was so perfect and his last note was a crescendo even louder
than before and he was basically right next to us and you know when
you're standing right by an emergency vehicle with the siren going off
and you feel your ear drums pulsing? Because of the noise? Well that's
what happened with this final note here haha and I felt bad cuz I
ended up ducking my head and cringing just because of how loud it was
haha but man it was so....different and unexpected but it was an
amazing opera! He finished and everyone in the restaurant clapped and
said 'grazie' and our server was Italian and so he loved it. It was
epic. That quote later came from Elder Lawson haha I will get the
video sometime in the future because I have to show it. Elder Pickett
said his mom is working on sending the video so hopefully we can get
it today.
On Friday we visited the Fajardo girls and helped them with
understanding the importance of reading the scriptures. Marina just
started college not too long ago and Jacky has been working still and
they said that's made it a little more difficult to read the
scriptures but we read Thomas S. Monson's last talk on the BOM and the
blessings that come from reading it daily.
We helped clean the church on Saturday because the Ward got after
everyone for not showing up. We cleaned while the Arlington 1 Sisters
had a baptism going on. So at the McLean Stake Center it is known that
there's this random Muslim woman who roams the property some days and
uses the showers in the men's locker room. Well while we were cleaning
the windows we see her coming and so we tell the sisters about her and
we warned that she may want to enter the showers but there was their
baptism going on and and it was like a scary movie because right as
we're saying this we like all look down the hall and she's standing
there at the end of the hall facing us, and she had on her black robe
and shoal and the sisters were like, that's so creepy! Anyway she
ended up leaving with no shower haha We ended up doing a blitz with
the Bella Vista A Elders, that is, we all went over to their
proselyting area for an hour and helped to try and find new
investigators because their area needs it. We got some appointments
set up.
This Sunday was Stake Conference for the McLean stake. The messages
were pretty good and a lot of emphasis was made on going to the temple
because the Washington DC temple will close this March for 2 years for
remodeling. We sat in the overflow in the young women's room just
because we were filling the baptismal font for the Hermanas baptism!
Sonia Contreras was baptized after Stake Conference and it turned out
really great! They had put Dany, our WML, to conduct but he was doing
the baptism so he was in white so they asked me to conduct again. I
did it again but I was a LOT more nervous this time because our
mission president, Pres. Huntsman and Sister Huntsman stayed after
Stake Conference to attend the baptism, so they were there! I'm sure
they didn't understand much but it was great to see them.
Well it's only 9 something here as of right now and we are going to go
right now with Rudy to Great Falls to hike....and actually see the
waterfalls haha I did this my very first P-Day in the mission field so
I'm gonna go back. Thank you for all your support! Hope you all have a
wonderful week!
❤️ Elder Thompson
Olive Garden
Great Falls today with the trio -- Elder Lawson forgot his tag haha
DEAD MOUSE AND AN ECLIPSE
Dear All,
A lot happened this week. This may be long. We helped Hermano Perdomo
again his week this time With all 4 Elders. We helped him move some
muebles in his apartment and he was really thankful for our help
because he tires easily. That was Wednesday and that night we had a
NDH at Hermana Espinoza's house. There wasn't a lot of people but it
was a good lesson on the BOM. We gave blessings to the hermana and her
friend. Thursday was really long, it was just one of those rare days
where we had absolutely nothing planned and no lessons so we were
finding all day. Nothing turned out from it either 😕
Friday's we had interviews with President Huntsman! The man is so
inspired. He told me that we would be getting another
companion....another trio!! This transfer was different in that a lot
of missionaries go home today instead of Sept. 6 to be able to go to
school. Elder Pickett is still with me, he still goes home on the
6th. So Elder Lucero goes home today and so....Elder Cottle in Old
Town (he's been there since I was there with him in the winter) got
moved to replace Elder Lucero with Elder Walker down in Woodbridge.
So...Elder Lawson who was with a Cottle is now joining us here in
Bella Vista! I talked to president about objections with the BOM and I
told him I don't know what to say back to people who say that our
church neglects the Bible and focuses more on the Book of Mormon. He
replied and told me that we use both and that the Bible is like the
skeletal frame of the Gospel and the BOM is more of the meat and the
flesh to make it whole. He told me that those Hispanic pastors will
probably always know their bible better than me so I shouldn't take so
much effort on thorough bible study at the expense of the BOM and PMG.
He mentioned how the Bible only mentions the Atonement about once,
however, the BOM gives us so much more detail about the Atonement and
the Fall and the nature of a God and all that. It was really helpful.
Crazy story...Elder Lawson and Elder Ferguson got robbed!!! 😱😱 they
were on exchanges there in Old Town Ward and they basically woke up
and their wallets and keys were gone and their bags had been searched
through and the screen door was slightly open. Someone stole the
mission car and the reports from Elder Browne say that Tiwi (the
tracker) was unplugged. So crazy...so we now have Elder Lawson with us
and he doesn't have his wallet. 😟
Friday night we had dinner with our recent convert Patricia!! She's
such a strong convert. So Saturday was interesting because the
missionaries going home early today for school went to the temple on
Saturday with President. So I spent the day with Elder Chaffey in the
English program in the Great Falls Ward! We spent the day covering
both wards...never thought I would meet a Hispanic in Great Falls but
we did! He knew a member out in Sudley...wasn't interested though. So
another crazy thing was that Elder Chaffey and I got rear ended on our
exchange! It was barely a tap and it was really minor so we talked
with the guy and didn't do anything about it because there were no
marks on either car....it was a really small contact. We ended up in
their apartment and they live in Tysons Corner in a high rise and I
got some pics of the view of Tysons. It's awesome. We exchanged back
that night when our companions were back from the temple.
Church was normal except hardly anyone showed up! We had food at
bishops house after church and had correlation there too. That night
was when we met up with the Old Town Elders and got Elder Lawson.
That's when they told us about their apartment being broken into and
robbed. That's basically all what happened this week. We plan to go
play basketball 🏀 and do some other things today. Today is the solar
eclipse! Elder Pickett is from Idaho Falls and that's where NASA is
setup with all their gear because it's supposed to be the one place
where it will be completely darkened. It's just another evidence of a
Grand Creator.
❤️ Elder Thompson
Exchange with Elder Chaffey
View of Tysons Corner
Me and the church
So we finally killed a mouse 🐭 that had been living in our apartment
since the start of the transfer. We got sick of coming home every
night and seeing it scurry away so we went hardcore on the sticky
traps and during comp study we hear a noise and tons of squeaking haha
so we filmed this
A lot happened this week. This may be long. We helped Hermano Perdomo
again his week this time With all 4 Elders. We helped him move some
muebles in his apartment and he was really thankful for our help
because he tires easily. That was Wednesday and that night we had a
NDH at Hermana Espinoza's house. There wasn't a lot of people but it
was a good lesson on the BOM. We gave blessings to the hermana and her
friend. Thursday was really long, it was just one of those rare days
where we had absolutely nothing planned and no lessons so we were
finding all day. Nothing turned out from it either 😕
Friday's we had interviews with President Huntsman! The man is so
inspired. He told me that we would be getting another
companion....another trio!! This transfer was different in that a lot
of missionaries go home today instead of Sept. 6 to be able to go to
school. Elder Pickett is still with me, he still goes home on the
6th. So Elder Lucero goes home today and so....Elder Cottle in Old
Town (he's been there since I was there with him in the winter) got
moved to replace Elder Lucero with Elder Walker down in Woodbridge.
So...Elder Lawson who was with a Cottle is now joining us here in
Bella Vista! I talked to president about objections with the BOM and I
told him I don't know what to say back to people who say that our
church neglects the Bible and focuses more on the Book of Mormon. He
replied and told me that we use both and that the Bible is like the
skeletal frame of the Gospel and the BOM is more of the meat and the
flesh to make it whole. He told me that those Hispanic pastors will
probably always know their bible better than me so I shouldn't take so
much effort on thorough bible study at the expense of the BOM and PMG.
He mentioned how the Bible only mentions the Atonement about once,
however, the BOM gives us so much more detail about the Atonement and
the Fall and the nature of a God and all that. It was really helpful.
Crazy story...Elder Lawson and Elder Ferguson got robbed!!! 😱😱 they
were on exchanges there in Old Town Ward and they basically woke up
and their wallets and keys were gone and their bags had been searched
through and the screen door was slightly open. Someone stole the
mission car and the reports from Elder Browne say that Tiwi (the
tracker) was unplugged. So crazy...so we now have Elder Lawson with us
and he doesn't have his wallet. 😟
Friday night we had dinner with our recent convert Patricia!! She's
such a strong convert. So Saturday was interesting because the
missionaries going home early today for school went to the temple on
Saturday with President. So I spent the day with Elder Chaffey in the
English program in the Great Falls Ward! We spent the day covering
both wards...never thought I would meet a Hispanic in Great Falls but
we did! He knew a member out in Sudley...wasn't interested though. So
another crazy thing was that Elder Chaffey and I got rear ended on our
exchange! It was barely a tap and it was really minor so we talked
with the guy and didn't do anything about it because there were no
marks on either car....it was a really small contact. We ended up in
their apartment and they live in Tysons Corner in a high rise and I
got some pics of the view of Tysons. It's awesome. We exchanged back
that night when our companions were back from the temple.
Church was normal except hardly anyone showed up! We had food at
bishops house after church and had correlation there too. That night
was when we met up with the Old Town Elders and got Elder Lawson.
That's when they told us about their apartment being broken into and
robbed. That's basically all what happened this week. We plan to go
play basketball 🏀 and do some other things today. Today is the solar
eclipse! Elder Pickett is from Idaho Falls and that's where NASA is
setup with all their gear because it's supposed to be the one place
where it will be completely darkened. It's just another evidence of a
Grand Creator.
❤️ Elder Thompson
Exchange with Elder Chaffey
View of Tysons Corner
Me and the church
So we finally killed a mouse 🐭 that had been living in our apartment
since the start of the transfer. We got sick of coming home every
night and seeing it scurry away so we went hardcore on the sticky
traps and during comp study we hear a noise and tons of squeaking haha
so we filmed this
PATRICIA'S BAPTISM!
Beloved Family,
Today marks 2 years since dad's passing. I don't know what to think of
that. I know it will be harder and harder as time goes on. One of the
hardest parts of grieving is when your loved one becomes only a memory
or just a face in a picture to others. Two years ago today was the
longest and most depressing day of my life. But I'm glad I'm able to
help others who have gone through the same thing. The hermano who gave
the amazing testimony last week, the one I didn't have time to write
about, I wrote a letter to him and he thanked me yesterday in church
and gave me a big hug and shared more of his experience. He recently
lost his dad just a few weeks ago. I was able to offer some words from
Spencer W. Kimball that a good friend of mine actually introduced me
to a while back. Thank you Elder Wise, that chapter in President
Kimball's book actually REALLY helped me out and gave me consolation.
Thanks for that. I also just want to again thank all those that I'm
writing that were at the funeral and or helped my family in any sort
of way 2 years back. That week was a BLUR and I don't remember
everyone who did every little thing for us. So, thank you.
On the other hand, we had Patricia's baptism Saturday night!!! 😃 she
passed the interview and we got everything set up for the night. As a
missionary, baptism is always your goal and when it finally does come
around, it can be pretty stressful to get everything organized and
prepared. Elder Pickett and I made the programs and stuff and set up
the chairs and whatnot. I ended up conducting the baptism because our
WML is notorious for showing up 30 minutes late to anything and
everything so... I ended up conducting. Our Obispo was really worried
about the turn out because it was on a Saturday and he kept saying the
not a lot of people would show up. However, we made 2 mass texts
throughout the week and we had a really really good number of people
show up! And a lot of the members brought food, one hermana went and
got a cake that said "Feliz Bautismo, Patricia!" on it and everything!
The Ward did a really good job at reaching out to help.
Anyway, we got pictures and Elder Cardona ended up baptizing her.
After the program, we had "refrigerios" which ended being a full-on
dinner!!! Elder Pickett said it was one of the smoothest baptisms in
his mission. It was great, and I have to give a shoutout to my mom who
taught me how to make a decent program, knowing grammar and all that
😉
Patricia had asked me to do the confirmation so yesterday I confirmed
her a member! It was my first time doing that, so it was pretty
special. She's so awesome. In relief society she signed our calendar
to feed us this Friday! Haha we're going to be eating with her while
we teach her the lessons again. She truly is one of the elect. I wish
you guys could meet Patricia. Not much else happened after church
other than we gave a blessing to Hermana Riley because she had a
surgery on her mouth. We met a family of 3 last night in a new place
off Glebe Rd that we had not been to in a long time and at first the
father didn't want to talk to us at all but then we talked about free
English classes and found out the daughter is a member and was
baptized in Colombia and we taught them. It was nice because we had
been so preoccupied with preparing the baptism it was a nice refresher
to go back to teaching restored truths to new faces. I was thinking
about my mission this week and I know that there is absolutely no
other place I am meant to be than here in Virginia. I love my mission;
I love this place. I know I'm meant to be here. There is no other
place I'd rather be than here right now. I hope you all continue to
recognize the hand of The Lord in your lives and the reason(s) you are
wherever you are. I'm still finding more reasons out here.
❤️ Elder Thompson
Patricia with her Elders (the trio + Elder Pickett + Garrett Blatter, an rm)
And Elder Amott
In case anyone was wondering what my mission is like and where all
those stakes are here's my mission map. I am right now in covering all
of the McLean stake, mostly Arlington
We found out one of the original D.C border markers is in Patrick Henry!
Saw this old station wagon...with the back seats facing each other and
all haha it sounded like it runs fine too!
Today marks 2 years since dad's passing. I don't know what to think of
that. I know it will be harder and harder as time goes on. One of the
hardest parts of grieving is when your loved one becomes only a memory
or just a face in a picture to others. Two years ago today was the
longest and most depressing day of my life. But I'm glad I'm able to
help others who have gone through the same thing. The hermano who gave
the amazing testimony last week, the one I didn't have time to write
about, I wrote a letter to him and he thanked me yesterday in church
and gave me a big hug and shared more of his experience. He recently
lost his dad just a few weeks ago. I was able to offer some words from
Spencer W. Kimball that a good friend of mine actually introduced me
to a while back. Thank you Elder Wise, that chapter in President
Kimball's book actually REALLY helped me out and gave me consolation.
Thanks for that. I also just want to again thank all those that I'm
writing that were at the funeral and or helped my family in any sort
of way 2 years back. That week was a BLUR and I don't remember
everyone who did every little thing for us. So, thank you.
On the other hand, we had Patricia's baptism Saturday night!!! 😃 she
passed the interview and we got everything set up for the night. As a
missionary, baptism is always your goal and when it finally does come
around, it can be pretty stressful to get everything organized and
prepared. Elder Pickett and I made the programs and stuff and set up
the chairs and whatnot. I ended up conducting the baptism because our
WML is notorious for showing up 30 minutes late to anything and
everything so... I ended up conducting. Our Obispo was really worried
about the turn out because it was on a Saturday and he kept saying the
not a lot of people would show up. However, we made 2 mass texts
throughout the week and we had a really really good number of people
show up! And a lot of the members brought food, one hermana went and
got a cake that said "Feliz Bautismo, Patricia!" on it and everything!
The Ward did a really good job at reaching out to help.
Anyway, we got pictures and Elder Cardona ended up baptizing her.
After the program, we had "refrigerios" which ended being a full-on
dinner!!! Elder Pickett said it was one of the smoothest baptisms in
his mission. It was great, and I have to give a shoutout to my mom who
taught me how to make a decent program, knowing grammar and all that
😉
Patricia had asked me to do the confirmation so yesterday I confirmed
her a member! It was my first time doing that, so it was pretty
special. She's so awesome. In relief society she signed our calendar
to feed us this Friday! Haha we're going to be eating with her while
we teach her the lessons again. She truly is one of the elect. I wish
you guys could meet Patricia. Not much else happened after church
other than we gave a blessing to Hermana Riley because she had a
surgery on her mouth. We met a family of 3 last night in a new place
off Glebe Rd that we had not been to in a long time and at first the
father didn't want to talk to us at all but then we talked about free
English classes and found out the daughter is a member and was
baptized in Colombia and we taught them. It was nice because we had
been so preoccupied with preparing the baptism it was a nice refresher
to go back to teaching restored truths to new faces. I was thinking
about my mission this week and I know that there is absolutely no
other place I am meant to be than here in Virginia. I love my mission;
I love this place. I know I'm meant to be here. There is no other
place I'd rather be than here right now. I hope you all continue to
recognize the hand of The Lord in your lives and the reason(s) you are
wherever you are. I'm still finding more reasons out here.
❤️ Elder Thompson
Patricia with her Elders (the trio + Elder Pickett + Garrett Blatter, an rm)
And Elder Amott
In case anyone was wondering what my mission is like and where all
those stakes are here's my mission map. I am right now in covering all
of the McLean stake, mostly Arlington
We found out one of the original D.C border markers is in Patrick Henry!
Saw this old station wagon...with the back seats facing each other and
all haha it sounded like it runs fine too!
