Whaaaaat Uuuuppppp!

HEY FAM!!!!!!

Our week was awesome! First. My recent convert Genesis went to the temple and did baptisms with the youth of the ward! I was sad I couldn't go! But so so excited for her! Second my other recent convert Eber, got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday:) And Norma was also baptized yesterday as well!! The service was beautiful. My companion and I stood on the side of the font and held her towel for her when she came out. I wrapped her up and then she just began to sob. She was so happy that now she was clean.  She has changed SO much from the first day I met her.  It was my first night in the mission. We went to the end of our area to the Coronados house (a member) when we got there and we sat outside of their little tiny camp trailer, in the dark of the night with a the dimmest light you ever did see. Sister Coronado introduced us to Norma that night. Norma is this tiny little Hispanic lady. The wrinkles on her face you knew where of a thousand stories.  She just looked so hurt and fragile.  I remember the lesson we had that night was about courage.  Looking back, Norma has showed me exactly what courage means.

Sister Coronado has sent the missionaries by her for 8 years. Norma would never accept a baptismal date or really listen much.  She has a daughter who passed away when she was 12.  A few years later, her husband began to become ill with diabetes. It got so bad that he eventually couldn't see.  About two years ago Sister Coronado took Norma and her sick husband to Family Home Evening at the church one night. Norma's husband told her that if he were to join any church it would be this one. He soon became more ill and passed away.  Norma currently lives with her grown kids in this trailer. She can't find work. They don't have much food.

One day she finally agreed to let us teach her. We did our normal lessons and such but I remember going over there after maybe 4 or 5 times of teaching her and when she opened the door she looked so much younger. It caught me off guard so bad! There were less wrinkles in her face! Her eyes lit up as if she were the happiest person in the world! She physically and mentally had that pain taken away from her! The change was like from night to day. I had never seen anything like it. The Gospel does amazing things to people. It has been a privilege being a part of seeing that change in her and helping her to recognize God's hand in her life and how loved she is.

Saturday night we taught her about temples and that how her husband and daughter can be baptized too. Just like her. She was so surprised and happy and relieved. it was the coolest message we could share with somebody like her. I told her that I felt that her daughter and husband were helping orchestrate this from the other side. That she is going to be taken care of.  After her baptism was the most precious thing I have ever seen.  She knew that she could be with her family for eternity; that her past was clean and that because of Christ all of that was possible. Norma is the most courageous person I know. Having the courage to do what she knows is right even though past things have been hard in her life.

It's Sooo Hot

Elder Stone and I sporting off our new fanny pacs! He's not a very good model like me;) 

Look Mom I dressed my self today! 

Paco and Cesar Coronado 

Selfie with Eber 

I love you all. I hope you have a great week!
Love Hermana Thompson

5 Months?! say what??

WHHHAAAT UUUP!!.... 

I was debating if I wanted to tell this story or not but yomo. (you only mission once) I have been praying lately to learn to be an example to someone and this is how God answered my prayer... The past few weeks we have been working on a less actives roof redoing the shingles and parts of the wood where there is water damage. On Saturday it was 103 degrees and we were all having a good time working. I took my anger out (from silly investigators/less actives) while ripping off the shingles-- it was therapeutic;) Parts of the roof were ripped off and so I decided I would go over and nail in the frame where the wood had been ripped off. I stepped down on what I thought was a piece of wood but there was so much crap and dust on it, it was actually sheet rock! I legit came crashing through this families living room!!! Legs dangling and all. I don't know how (angles) but I somehow caught myself under my armpit and dangled there. Paco's dad, Hermano Hernandez pulled me up and gave me a big hug. He kept asking me if I wanted to get down and rest and I told him I was fine. The rest of the day the Elders and young men would say "Careful Sister Thompson there is sheet rock right there!"  We made a good joke out of it.

The next day before church I told my companion that I was going to get a lot of crap for crashing through the roof and she agreed and well I did.  After church one of the members told me that in opening exercises with all the men and young men that Brother Hernandez shared my story about falling through the roof.  I was like, "Oh great what did he say?"  He told me that Brother Hernandez got up and said that after he had pulled me up out of the hole he kept saying to me that I should go down and take a rest and relax.  I told him "No way,  I want to keep working!" and how that was a good example to him about service, working, and loving the people. The Lord answers my prayers in the coolest ways that always seem to surprise me:)

Another story that actually happened that same day. We changed our clothes and then went and visited our investigators and members in that area. We went to the house of our investigator Norma. She is supposed to be baptized this coming Sunday and so it was important that she needed to come to church and we usually have to get her set up with a ride.  We get to her house and the gate is locked!! Her van was outside so we knew she was home. She doesn't have a phone either... I started to climb the 7 foot chain link fence with spikes on the top and my comp was like what are you doing?? I told her that I was going to talk to Norma so that she could make it to church tomorrow!! On the way over I get cut on the leg; stupid dress. I make it up to her porch and knock a billion times. She came out and we talked to her a bit and got her ride situation set up.  She thankfully unlocked the gate so I could get out!  I guess her daughter told her "Mom the missionary got in!" She was surprised that I would do that just to talk to her. I told her I would do anything I could to help her.

Just goofin off

 Afterwards I got to thinking about the atonement and how Christ suffered so much for the people he loved. It hit me harder than ever. I'll admit that I had kind of a hard time earlier in the week by giving myself a pity party thinking that I would be missing going to New York with my family. I played with the thought and realized that I had also missed my best friends wedding, Missy is pregnant, I wasn't there when my bestest cousin needed comfort, I'm missing a trip to Tonga, my car is broken, my bedroom flooded, I fell through a roof, got stung twice by black wasps this week, bit by a bazillion ants, I'm sore, tired and then just got cut by a fence. It's not a sacrifice to be here, nothing close to one, by missing those things. It's a privilege. Looking at the big picture, all of those things I'd miss/do a thousand times over to give people the same happiness of the gospel that I have. I'd fall through a 100 roofs and jump 1000 fences to help the people that we are teaching now. They have physically changed because of our message and it's such a small simple thing to "give up" so that people can take full advantage of the atonement of Jesus Christ. That's what this whole life is about; Love. It is Love that we have the atonement. It is love that we want to become better. It is love that drives us to do things we sometimes don't want to. Serving a mission is kind of like the Lord letting you in on a secret. When you lose yourself in others problems, that is where the Lord allows you to find yourself.

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Do what you love and love what you do!!! I love you all:)

Te Amo,

Hermana Thompson

Hola from Mexas!!!

I feel like I just wrote y'all!! This week flew by! Our area is progressing very well! My companion told me that she thinks I will be training soon. I hope not. This week we found 10 new investigators. Eber was confirmed on Sunday. I felt like a proud mom. Our area touches the Rio Grande River. I can officially say I've biked to Mexico;) We got lost in a field the other day down a dirt road because we thought there would be houses....there wasn't.

So tales to tell from this week.... There is this crazy dude in our ward who the Bishop has specifically told us not to go by their trailer (he's in our area). He's pretty nuts --  I wont go into detail. About a week and a half ago this guy, at one of the ward activities gave us a referral and told us to go by it. I wrote it down but didn't really pay much attention to it. A few days later he asked us if we went by and talked to the family.  I told him that we hadn't had the chance yet. He was very persistent that we go by but I still kind of brushed it off.

A few days later on Wednesday, we were doing the usual and one of our appointments texted us and cancelled.  We were sitting in the car kind of debating what we wanted to do and the thought came to me to go by this referral from the crazy guy in the ward.  I told my companion and she said she had thought the same thing!  We call the number he gave and went to the street. The number of the house didn't really exist.  I asked a guy who was outside on his lawn if he knew where it was and he told us that the house was farther back on his property and that he rented it out.  We walk back there and it's this little shack, no joke I could have built it.  It was literally a frame and plywood for the walls.  We get in there and its like 100+ degrees. The lady we talked to on the phone earlier to get the address from got another phone call and left. The dad wasn't really saying much so we started to talk to the girl that was there. She is 18 and her name is Alexis. I asked her how her parents knew the family at our church (the one that referred us to them) and she was like "Oh they aren't my parents."  After talking more with her it turns out that she is friends with the family's son (who was at work at the time). She had come the night before to their house to live. She got kicked out of her house or something along the lines of that because of family problems and she wasn't going to go back. I asked her randomly if she prayed and she said she did. I asked her what she prayed about and then I told her that we were the answer to her prayers. I told her that we were asked to come by that house over a week ago and that we didn't until that day. I then helped her notice that is was not a coincidence that she had come there the NIGHT before we came. She shared with us that she didn't think that she had a purpose in this life. It broke my heart. I shared the most sincere testimony that anybody will probably hear from me, that God loves her and she does in fact have a purpose. I can't wait to start teaching her more about her purpose here.

We are also teaching this big ole Mexican man named Jesus. He is like a giant teddy bear. He has such a strong testimony and has the biggest desire to be baptized. His spirit is ready but his body is not.  We are helping him to stop smoking. He was chewing nicotine gum instead, one every two hours.  Now he is down to one a day! We went to the gas station the other day after we had a lesson with him and I bought him 14 little packs of regular gum that is the same flavor. I want so badly for him to quit and he does too!  It's hard to see something as silly as smoking keeping him from being able to make the promises with God that he so badly wants. I just know that it's going to make him even stronger than ever! I don't have time today but I'll share some more stories about Jesus and keep y'all updated!

Well everybody, I love you all! The Lord's hand is in everything, always remember to notice it! There are no such thing as coincidences, just tender mercies. Everything we should be doing in this life is all for love and nothing for reward. Have a good week!!! Te Amo!!

Love,
Hermana Thompson

HOLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Hola y'all!!!!!!

So yes, yes we did have transfers. I had to laugh at you Mom for texting Paco wondering if I got transferred or not! Paco keeps showing me pictures and videos of his visit to my house. It is a crazy feeling to see him with y'all. It made me happy tho and he told me some stories about Tyler. He said that he looked up to Tyler a lot and that he was his hero. Tyler really helped him and he said how much he loved you guys. It was fun to hear all about it from him. Also, mom thank you for the girl scout cookies and pop rocks!!!:) you know me too well.  I'm sure you already know by now but my new companion is Sister Lance. She is from Utah (surprise surprise). Yes, I am still in La Joya. We had 6 of us total in our district but they took out a set of Elders and now we are a "dating district." Its me, Sister Lance, Elder Sessions, and Elder Stone. Our area is massive now. So half of it is white washed and the other half only I know. It's been interesting. I counted and we are in charge of 91 households (inactive and active) in our area! We have lots to do here!! I knew I would be staying because I prayed to stay another transfer. I knew I wasn't done here. Now I know I'm getting there..... because Eber got baptized on Sunday!!.... the Sunday after transfers!!!!

I now have seen as much as I need to to share my experience about Eber, although I won't tell the whole story because its near and dear to my heart but I'm sure I'll share it when I get home. The first time I met Eber was at the Medinas house. (we wash our clothes there on p-day.  They are members) It was my second week here in the field and I had no idea Eber was going to be such a huge part in my life.

Eber is from Guatemala and came up here to make his way to California to work with his cousin to send money home to his family.  Coming across the Mexican border he was with a group of Mexicans. The first night they huddled together to stay warm. The second day he somehow got separated from the group. He was hungry, tired and scared.  He was worried because it was starting to get cold. He was laying in a crack in the rocks and trees and decided to pray to know what to do. He said after he said his prayer he got this burst of Animo and just got up and took off from the spot he had been hiding out.  About 15 minutes later he found Brother Medina which was a miracle in itself because the Medinas are the type to take people in and help people.

He eventually moved in with another family in our area and it had been 3 or so weeks before we got to teach him. One of our lessons I had asked him to pray about what we taught and he said that he would. A few weeks later we were asking him how God has helped him in his life and if God has answered his prayers. He then told us that after I had asked him to pray that night he did. He prayed so hard, crying and pleading with God to know what he was supposed to do with his life. He had found work here with some of the members and didn't know whether to continue over to California or not. After he prayed so hard he was tired and fell asleep. He had a dream and in his dream he was talking with an older man who was wearing a white robe. The old man called Eber by name and said "Eber  you can't go to California. The road is too dangerous right now and you need to stay here." Just then Eber realized he was with a friend in the dream. The friend looked at him and said "I always listen to the old man."  God talks to Eber in dreams. It's an awesome gift and it's been a privilege to hear how God has answered his prayers. I have been working with Eber for over three months. We have put blood, sweat, and tears so that he would accept our message. We had bumps and mountains along the way.

Last week, because I knew the area,  I've been able to choose who and where we go. (which is stressful).  We went by Eber's on Saturday and talked to him and he told us that he wanted to be baptized tomorrow (yesterday).  I could barely contain my excitement when he said that!!!  I can't wait to get to heaven and tell God that we both made it because of his decision to follow Christ.

We have been working super hard in this area. In our entire mission there were 4 baptisms yesterday and 2 of them came just from our district. God is working miracles through us and it's been a privilege to be a part of them!

I love you all. Have a good week!!

Love, Hermana Thompson