week 53: burned toast

Best district in Bakersfield

This week was pretty chill. I hit one year, no big deal or anything. I wasn't allowed to burn a shirt for it, so I "accidentally" burnt a piece of toast to celebrate. 

This week honestly went real well. I went on exchanges with Elder Marker and that was real fun. We taught this girl who got baptized Saturday and that was pretty fun. We drove around to get things set up for their baptism and passed by this member who decided to build an old red schoolhouse on her property and she showed it to us...it was so cool. I'll send pictures. We also visited this family in my area that me and Elder Robison have had trouble getting in contact with. We taught them and will start visiting them more often. 

Then Thursday, I hit my year mark, that was crazy. Friday was chill and Saturday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went to their area and taught a family where the dad is the only member. We were teaching about prayer and they have two kids that are like 8 and 4 and both are really quiet. I taught the little boy how to pray and it was amazing. I just sort of said a prayer with him and just went through it one line at a time asking him what he was grateful for and what he needed. It was so freaking cool. 

Yesterday we took the sacrament to some people and called one of our investigators and she got to listen to the sacrament.

Then today I went to a park, climbed a massive hill, and flew dollar tree kites with my district. It was a total party. 

So this is weird, because technically it is my year mark and at the same time I wasn't actually out in the field for two months. I just want you all to know this was all part of The Plan. I know it wasn't my plan to go home for two months, or serve in a place other than Veracruz, but it happened. It's really good that the Lord is in charge, I would have missed out on a lot if I had gone with my plan. 

--Elder Thompson 

Bits and pieces fro family phone calls:

My parents ordered pizza to our apartment and it was REALLY good!

We have a few people to teach and return appointments which just feels so great!

Kool-aid drinks are 6 for $1 so that is how I'm getting my fruits and vegetables these days.

Celebrating the year mark with burned toast!

cause you have to burn something!

Dollar store kites for the win!

First snowcone on the mission

It's cool...a member just wanted a one room school house in her yard,

so she built one to use as a shed.

Zone meeting on zoom

week 52: HALFWAY THERE

district leadership meetings sporting the "new missionary look"

Well this week felt like an eternity, if I had a penny for every call we've made, I would be able to buy quite a few Wendy's Four for Fours.

We did have a few cool things go on. We've been able to visit a few members this week and talking to people face to face is the greatest. We got to give someone a Book of Mormon. This last Saturday was really awesome because we got to go to a service activity. We helped with the Bishop's Storehouse and it was a ton of fun. I saw one of my old zone leaders from Veracruz because he's from here and his family is sort of in charge of the storehouse. I really enjoyed that. Then Friday we got to go to another area so my companion could do a baptismal interview for a girl some other Elders are teaching. It was awesome and she passed so that'll be the first baptism in my district since I've been here. Yesterday we delivered the sacrament to a few families and called home for Father's Day. 

I just want you all to know how important Fathers are for me. I know that God is real and He is my Heavenly Father. He loves me and wants the best for me. He gave up his only Begotten Son for all of us. He also gave me my own dad. He's done so much for me and without him I wouldn't be half the man I am today. He taught me so much and I'm so grateful for him. The greatest part of all of this is that thanks to Christ, I can live with God and my father forever. 

--Elder Thompson 

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

Pray for people to answer their phones! PLEASE!!

Sundays are now one of the best days each week because that's a day we get to be together with our district, have church, and see a few members. 

It's going to be hot this week! 100+ everyday.

It's a little discouraging some days...we have such a good message to share, but it's so hard to find people when we're in our apartment, but I also know the Lord has a plan for us missionaries.

district pday

week 51: poison free cookies

made cookies for the first time!

So this week was pretty long. 

Honestly, the first few days blended together and the only things that really stick out was visiting a member in person for the first time, and setting up a visit with a guy named Hno Guzman (more about him later). I also tried to make cookies, and I think I did it right because I haven't gotten food poisoning or anything like that. 

Friday we had exchanges with some Elders in a place called Arvin. I went there with Elder Sosi. It was pretty fun, he was serving in Peru before coronavirus happened and we got to visit a lot of people. Then the next day we had exchanges with some other Elders, and I spent the day with Elder Dockstader. Ot was absolutely exhausting because the appointments fell through and we ended up calling about a hundred different people. The majority of the calls went to voicemail or the numbers were disconnected. It sucked. 

This Sunday was great though. We have a lot of Spanish missionaries in my district so we had the sacrament in Spanish so investigators could call in. That was real awesome and our mission President decided to come to ours too. After we had the sacrament we shared testimonies and his was very powerful. Throughout the day we took the sacrament to a bunch of families. That was really fun. We got dinner from one of the families, but they just gave it to us to go since we can't eat it at their house. We also visited Hno Guzman and he is awesome. He's in his sixties and owns his own moving company. His wife died so it's just him and his grandson. We taught him about family history and invited him to do his wife's work when the temples open. When we left he loaded us up. He gave us a pizza, 4 cans of soda, 2 massive pieces of cake he made and 2 boxes of Capri suns. It was awesome. 

That's it for now, talk to all of you next week. 

Elder Thompson

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

We spend the bulk of our day making phone calls and trying to reach out to members and find people to teach. I miss just being out talking to people, but it is what it is.

The few people we've met are very nice.

Masks are awful...not a fan of wearing them.

I'm actually learning to cook since members don't make all our food! 

I'm coming up on my 1 year mark next week...so crazy.

the batter

perfection!

Zone conference from a couple weeks ago

week 50: light

Elder Robison and me!

Hey everyone-

This week has honestly all blended together so much. Something about being stuck inside makes everything just feel the same. Here are some odd things that stand out. 

 

We got to listen to the area president, ElderPearson, and it was crazy. He spoke about light. There's a scripture in D&C that talks about the light of God being truth. Then he said we receive truth from obedience. He also talked about things to do to become more converted and a better missionary. Something cool I learned is that the church can only reach about 30% of the world's population through traditional missionary work, but 80% of the world has access to a smartphone. The Church has wanted to use more technology in missionary work, and Covid has been a way to push technology out to the missionaries. 

We also are starting to have restrictions lifted and now we can visit people if we're invited. The changes also mean we can meet as a district and we got to do a short sacrament meeting which was cool. We've finally started finding people and are having more lessons which is great. I don't even know how many phone calls we've made, so lessons are a great change of pace. 

Today we also had a district activity and we played volleyball at a park. As we were playing a guy came up to us and wanted to share a message about Jesus. We accepted and then told him we were missionaries. We all ended up talking to the guy for almost an hour. We answered some questions about the church and we shared our beliefs with him. He told us some of his own and in the end we gave him a book of Mormon. It was pretty hectic since there were 8 missionaries, so only 3 or 4 of us really talked. After we invited him to read it, I shared Moroni's promise and it was awesome. 

Something cool Elder Pearson shared was D&C 50:23-25. 

It says;

23 And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.

24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

25 And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you;

I love this. As we become more obedient, and gain more of God's light. We can chase away darkness. It was something really powerful that stuck with me.

That's all for now, maybe more will happen this week. 

--Elder Thompson

bits & pieces from family phone calls:

At the park today, there were squirrels...so many squirrels...I quit counting at 50!

One of the sisters put her hand down a squirrel hole and was all excited because she touched one...we elders are pretty sure she'll get rabies from that adventure.

We're going to try doing more cooking this week because we're getting a little tired of grab and go dinners.

The homesickness is easing up especially with the restrictions being a little less.

Pray for us to find people ready to hear the gospel!

President and Sister Sandberg

never seen so many squirrels in my life

Zoom meeting with the mission

We're the top row, 4th from the left

Like father--like son

week 49: welcome to Bakersfield

I found Andrew Baird's cousin's name on our whiteboard. 

All the missionaries that have lived here sign the board before they leave! 

  Well, I'm officially back in the field. For those of you that haven't heard I was reassigned to the California,  Bakersfield mission. I got here last Tuesday and a lot has gone on. 

     So I got sent to a ward named La Cresta with my companion Elder Robison. We're white washing, which means neither of us have served here. I'm not gonna lie, we've had a lot of difficulties come up. We have this app called area book and it wasn't loaded with our area, so we only had a paper with some names and numbers to work with. We called a ton of people. That was the bulk of the week. We also had a slight money problem...the problem was that we didn't have any of it. My companion's mission card got left in his old car and was promptly driven back to his old area. I also didn't have a card because mine hasn't come yet. We ended up using my debit card and bought like 30 dollars worth of food. We lived off that and the variety of canned food at the house. This morning we got real food at Walmart so don't worry. 

Since my comp lost his wallet, I got to drive for a few days while he waited for his card. Now things should be getting normal, so we'll see what goes on. Today we had a district activity and we all visited the Tehachapi Train Loop, which in case you didn't know is one of the 7 wonders of the railroad world...exciting stuff! We watched a train go around it and talked. That was about it. 

--Elder Thompson  

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

I'm in a Spanish speaking area and so glad I get to use my Spanish!

There is a facebook page for our mission where we will be posting videos/thoughts each week. It's called: iglesia de Jesuchristo en Bakersfield.

It's hot but not humid which is great...we also have ac and a washer/dryer...a few things I missed in Mexico.

We're working hard trying to find people...it's tough, but we're hoping to see some changes this week.

Pray for us to find people who want to hear our message or that we can serve!

living that mask life

Tehachapi Train Loop

This was just for my mom...she loves spiders...
especially big tarantulas!

Filters all day long...

one of the perks of having a phone in the mission