week 69: hanging with president sandberg

 

Volleyball with president Sandgberg was awesome!

Hey Everyone, honestly this has been a really slow week so not much happened. On the bright side, this will be a short one for people who don't like reading.

   So we had a lot of appointments fall through and struggled getting appointments set up. We'll see how this next week goes. There was also a cool MTC devotional we got to watch yesterday with President Ballard, and Elder Holland. It was really cool. I really don't remember anything else major that happened, but this morning for P-Day our president came to our activity and he is pretty competitive in volleyball. It was pretty funny.

That's all for this week,

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

It was cold today...in the 60s...I'm actually having my mom send my coat and gloves since I'll be here for the winter months.

President Sandberg is really the best and it's good getting to know him. 

My mom sent my grandma's famous sugar cookies and they are amazing!

Also, my dad sent gross candy from the Mexican market...lucky me.

I spent a good amount of time with Jack's picture this week...one of my best!

week 68: cooking skills

 

homemade cheese empanadas...that's right, I'm a chef now

This has been a pretty busy week, but it was a good one. We've had double exchanges with our District Leader and Zone Leaders. Those were a lot of fun. The first one I stayed here and the second one I left. During the second one we also went to a great restaurant called Panda Wok. It's like Panda Express but way more food. We also had a really cool miracle. We were doing what we could, but we still were having trouble finding people. Then we got a self-referral named Jaime on Wednesday. We texted him and he responded and we set up a time to share a little message on Saturday. The lesson went really well and Sunday we came by and shared a little more and gave him a Restoration Proclamation. He seems interested and I'm super excited to see where this goes.

We also were really blessed to be able to have sacrament meeting inside the chapel. I had a pretty funny thought that not many people can say they were inactive for 7 months on their mission, but I can. Then today, after our district activity, I decided to try to make some Mexican food. I had a member teach me to make empanadas back when I was in Mexico, so I tried and it worked!

That's all for now

--Elder Thompson 

This is what I do to photos of my nephew...

pretty awesome right?

week 67: going to church

 

 This week has been a little on the rough side. We've had trouble getting in contact with some people, and a lot of our lessons fell through. Even though we're struggling with that we've still had a lot of great stuff happen. We had a great lesson with a family that has been taught for a while, La familia Sosa. They are awesome and the mom, Reyna has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We're focusing a lot on the dad, Moises. From what we've heard he's kinda holding the family back so we are trying to help him get a testimony. We got the mom to share her testimony last time we went over and then invited them all to pray about the Book of Mormon. We talked to our branch mission leader and he said that Moises wants to get baptized he just wants to be sure first. One of things he said we should do for Moises was pray and fast. So Friday we did a fast for him and we've been praying a lot he'll get an answer. 

    Also I just wanted to say how amazing it is going to church again. I've loved the missionary sacrament meetings and I'll never forget them, or how they've changed the way I feel about the sacrament, but honestly there is just something special about going to church. I hope I never have to wait 7 months again to go. 

--Elder Thompson 

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

I've been editing pics of Jack just for Kenzie...the best one is Jack-Jack from Incredibles.

Being back at church was so great!

One of the members ordered us pizza over the weekend which was awesome! 

We're super hopeful that we'll have some good finding this week!

Bakersfield is so pretty...ummm well....dry and dusty?

week 66: baptism by zoom

 

Elder and Walch and I did a selfie solely for my mother..haha.

Hey everyone, just finished my first week in Ponderosa, and it has been a pretty interesting one. 

    So last Tuesday I went to the mission office and met up with my new comp Elder Walch and we came to our new area. Elder Walch is super cool. He was originally assigned to Chile and was there for two weeks when Covid hit. He's from Arizona. We're white washing an old sisters area so it's been interesting. There's a lady named Rosa the sisters were teaching. She is awesome and got baptized this weekend. It was super awesome. She has a cousin that is a member and wanted to get baptized in Nevada with them. We got to zoom call into the baptism so that was fantastic. 

     We have a few other people to get in contact with this next week. It's really different in this branch, it's a lot smaller than my other areas. I like it, but it'll be tougher without as many members. We had Conference this weekend. If you didn't see it you need to. It was amazing! President Nelson's talk on the gathering of Israel was so powerful. I have never thought if it that way and I can't wait to study it more. I love that Israel means "Let God Prevail". One of my goals is to start letting God prevail in my life more. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week

--Elder Thompson 

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

Our apartment is nice...extra nice because it was a sister's apartment before we got here!

Walmart has the best $4 frozen pizzas...you don't even need a pan...just put them right on the oven rack. Less dishes!

Because our branch is so small, we will be able to GO TO ACTUAL CHURCH every Sunday. It's been 7 months since I last went to a meeting at a church house, so I'm pretty happy about that. 

Also, members here are allowed to feed us, so we have meals assigned out every Saturday and Sunday..best news!

Zoom baptisms are still amazing!