week 78: merry christmas!

Christmas morning and all the gifts.

Hey everyone, Merry Christmas!

     This week was a little bit of a tough one to work. A lot of people were busy with the holidays so, we had a pretty slow week. I hit 18 months in the mission, and I'm definitely buckling up because this last six months will fly. We had something super cool happen on Christmas. We were texting and calling members, and we talked to this one lady who said she was praying that we would call her. Her family was sick so we said a prayer with her. On Christmas we met up with the other Elders in our district and had a big Christmas dinner. I really don't know what else happened. We helped someone put up a swing set for their kids and that took a while. We also had a Christmas devotional in our mission each day last week up to Christmas. We had 2 different members of the 70 come and it was so awesome. One of them told us the story of his first Christmas in his mission. He read 3 Nephi 1 and talked a lot about some of the details I never noticed.  

 

     In 3 Nephi 1, all the believers are about to be killed if the sign that Samuel the Lamanite prophesied doesn't come. It's the day before Christ comes into the world, and Nephi is pouring out his soul that the sign is given. Elder Pearson said that if there was one night God should be able to not answer a prayer, it was this night. Christ was about to leave the father's presence and there were final preparations and instructions to be given. But God sent His son to answer the prayer. It was so cool learning that.

That's all for this week.

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

LA county is finally going to be allowed to start having church again...we are on the edge of LA county and hopeful that our county will follow suite. We will be starting up our Spanish group in person as soon as it's possible.

Members dropped each companionship dinner for Christmas which was awesome! We all took our food to the church and had dinner together for Christmas.

Today it was raining, which almost never happens here, so we were able to have our district pday activity in the church. We played chair soccer and a new card game, Skull King. Apparently, my family recently started playing that same game, so I'll be all ready to play when I return!

Our washer is broken right now...for the last week. It will only fill with hot water, which isn't ideal for dark clothes, so we unhooked the hose and we're just filling it by hand with cold water until it gets fixed. Still beats the cement sink I washed my clothes last year in Mexico. 

getting a little california sunshine

weekly devotional

week 77: eat more chicken

 

We're just your local coca-cola supporters

Hey everyone, sorry I don't have much time to write.

    Things are going pretty good here. We were able to find someone this week, but sadly we had to pass her off because she doesn't live in our area. We're working on finding more, and it's going well. We have a few people we're trying to start teaching, and hopefully that goes well next week. My companion's phone broke so we had to go to a city about an hour away to get it fixed. On the bright side, there was a Chick-fil-A there so we got some of that while we were down there. Not too much has gone on, but things seem to be picking up out here in Cal City.

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

With it being Christmas this week, we're having several Christmas devotionals and conferences which is awesome!

We are hopeful that a couple new friends are showing interest in learning more about Christ.

We will be having Christmas dinner as a district, and our ward mission leader is bringing all the food for us!

We've been able to see the Christmas star for several days because the stars are so bright down here...my parents could even see it on my phone. 

Christmas packages made it here this week and I'm excited to see what made it here for me!

Jack is the winter soldier

week 76: the 8 that stayed

sunrise in cal city

Hey Everyone, this transfer is over and I'm staying in Cal City for another one. Elder Bahlmann is stuck here with me too, hopefully he can handle another transfer with me.

Things out here have been a little slow again, which is weird because the week flew by again. We've been dealing with lockdowns again so that's been a little annoying. We've been calling a lot. I also got the chance to do baptismal interviews since I'm the District Leader out here. It was super cool. We also finally got the Sunday meeting handed off to the ward. Elder Bahlmann and I were asked to speak at it. We found out Saturday and I just gave a talk about finding hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was super fun and a little strange because even though I've been out for almost 18 months, it was my first talk. I enjoyed it. Not too much is going on out here, but I'm hoping this next transfer things will really get going. It's also cool that my whole district is staying here another transfer because they're all a ton of fun.

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

I think we're about the only district in the mission that doesn't have anyone transferring this time. We all get along so well, and we're happy to be staying together.

The work has been slow again this week, but the other elders in our apartment have a baptism tonight, so we are helping out with that. 

A Panda Express opened in the town where we grocery shop, so we had that for lunch today which was great!

I made fajitas for the foursome this week...finally using that cookbook my mom sent with me. 

jack makes a pretty scary darth sidious

week 75: some weeks just fly by

 Hey everyone,

    This week flew by. We had a lot of stuff fall through, but we kept pretty busy. We've been working a lot on getting this Spanish group started. This week we did pretty good and had 5 members at our testimony meeting. This is the best it's done so far and next week there'll be a member in charge since we've been running it ourselves. We also are getting shut back down a bit and can no longer go into people's houses. Not too much else is going on now.

Talk to you all next week.

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

We've got lots of work to do here, but things are starting to move forward.

It sounds like my mission in Veracruz is bringing back a few missionaries from the states...I've only got 4 transfers left after next week, so as far as I know, I'll be staying here in Bakersfield which is all good!

We're locking things down more in California, so we won't be able to visit in homes, and we've gotta wear masks unless we're with just the elders we live with.

I'm looking forward to the week and seeing the progress we make.

oh hey...it's Santa Jack!

week 74: all the things to be thankful for

 

This week was very interesting. We had an emergency transfer so now I'm with Elder Bahlmann.

Tuesday we had to drive down to Lancaster to pick up Elder Bahlmann, and then Wednesday we drove to Bakersfield to drop off Elder Coates. We were pretty busy with that. Then, Thursday was insane. I cooked a turkey. That's right. It was a very big turkey and we got leftovers. Not too much else went on. Here's a quick funny story. We were talking with a family and their little girl that's 7 said she was going to get baptized soon and the lesson got very off track. Then, the mom tried to get it back on track and said "We'll cross that bridge when we get there". The little girl just yelled "What bridge!". It took a little longer to get back to teaching.

Not much is really happening out here, but we'll see what this next week brings,

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

On Thanksgiving we got to call our families and share a message as a companionship. It was really cool to get to teach our families, and have them testify of things they know to be true.

We've got a lot of work to do to get things moving here...please pray for us to find people to teach who are ready to hear our message. 

I'm a professional turkey cooker now, in case you wondered.

I've officially been here in Bakersfield for 6 months. The work is still moving forward...a little slowly right now, but it's all good.

Master of the turkey

note: we did not use the handles to pick up the 24 pound bird

district thanksgiving

President Nelson challenged us this week to post each day about things we are grateful for, so here are my daily posts for the last 7 days.

week 73: all the turkey

 

Elder Coates

Hey Everyone,

    This week was a busy one. We have been working on getting the Spanish group out here going. We had to start a Come Follow Me, and we only had 3 members show up. Not bad considering the group has done nothing since Covid started. We're working on getting some other stuff started so hopefully that all goes well. We also had a mission tour with Elder Villanueva. It was Awesome! We had 4 different zoom meetings with him, and each one was about an hour long. Elder Villanueva and his wife were so cool. Elder Villanueva was so giddy when he was talking about his mission and the apostles. It was really cool to learn from them.

     This week we also had a very special opportunity to listen to our prophet. It was awesome! It is something so special. I loved his focus on gratitude. I invite all of you to watch it if you haven't already.

Hope you all have a marvelous thanksgiving.

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

My mom gave me all kinds of cooking advice/tips to cook a turkey breast...and then this awesome member heard we were doing our own missionary Thanksgiving, so she dropped by after her Costco trip... a ham, pizza hot pockets, snacks, pumkpin pie, whipped cream, and a 24 POUND TURKEY! So my mom gave me new tips/advice on how to cook a giant turkey! She also sent a package with all the spices and stuff I'd need to make the turkey taste good! At some point, we'll have to figure out how to cook up a ham, but this week, it's all turkey.

We are so excited to get things going with our Spanish group here. We're hoping within a week or two, we can start up a zoom sacrament meeting since there hasn't been anything like that for the Spanish members since March. 

I've been here in Bakersfield for 6 months this week...crazy how time goes so fast. 

district leader training

mission wide conference with Elder Villanueva...

side note: I got a good chuckle from all the mispronunciations of Villanueva this week!

week 72: so much work to do!

  Hey everyone, it has been a busy week here in Cal City.

     So, it has been a very interesting week. The Spanish Elders who have been working in this area were also covering one of the english wards around here and that took up most of their time. That means the Spanish work up here hasn't been a big focus and it's struggling a bit. We've been working hard to get it going. We had a talk with the old stake president about some ways we could get the Spanish work moving and the next day he got called as the Ward Mission leader in one of the wards we cover. That means we'll start working with him and he said he's got some ideas for the work. We're super excited. We're trying to start up a Come Follow Me class in Spanish and have started inviting people to that. 

     It's a very unique place, our area is massive. We have to drive so much. It's a thirty minute drive to the church, and there's almost nothing out here. I live in Cal City, and there is a McDonalds and a Subway. I'll let you know what changes next week. It'll be a good one! We have a mission tour with Elder Villanueva and it'll be awesome!

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

Lots of new restrictions this week....we now need masks if we are with anyone outside of our own apartment, even our outdoor district activities. If we meet in a home, we need to stay 8-10 feet away even with our masks. This also means we can't go to member homes for Thanksgiving. There is also no more in person church meetings with members, so we'll be having district sacrament meeting again. 

With the new restrictions, I'm now in charge of Thanksgiving dinner...haha. I have $80 to feed 8 elders. We are all asking for recipes from home today for Thanksgiving food, and then having a zoom meeting tomorrow to divide up food assignments. Because we're in a house with 4 elders, we'll probably be cooking the turkey and gravy. Not to worry, my mom is sending all the instructions and a package with seasonings etc. 

Our closest Spanish branch is over an hour away, so we're hoping to get a group going closer to where we live. It's hard to invite someone to go to a church that is such a long drive. 

I'm excited to see the work here get moving!

jack as dr. strange...nothing better