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

Hermana Thompson!!

HOLA HOLA HOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Preaching into the sunset

I just have to say that in the four months that I've been out I'm not the same person I was when I left. I love the people so much here and they have won over my heart. Tomorrow is transfers and we haven't gotten the call yet to know whether we are staying or not. I have been praying to stay in this area for at least one more transfer because I am not quite done here. We have so many great people we are working with and they have taught me so much.

This is Ashley and Angie. They are awesome. They are also our investigators and will be baptized next month. They are great!

Me and Hermana Castillo. She is the cutest lady. She is the one whose washer, dryer, oven, toaster and more things broke but she is still coming to church and knows its Satan. She is great too. She talks our ears off!

Sara emailed me last week asking if she would be able to make a dinner appointment with us because they were going to be in the area and I told her I wasn't sure but that I would ask.... And got special permission from the Mission President to have dinner with my favortistest sister!:) We ate at a little Mexican restaurant in our area. It was a good time. We took the left over food afterward to one of my favorite families. It's a single mom and 4 kids that live in a two bedroom trailer. She feeds us all the time so it was good to get to pay them back with the food. They loved it! Before we left Sara said that she was coming to our ward and asked what time it was at and I thought she was kidding! So on Sunday I got to see them again in Sacrament and sit by them:) She kept asking if it made me homesick but it did the opposite! I was able to share and show her some of the people we are teaching. I felt a different kind of love for my family and for being able to share my experiences as well. She got to meet Paco's parents and brother as well. It was good to see everyone! Thanks for coming Sara!!

Me Sara and Cora

Me and Cora

Eating with my sister Sara and the fam:)

Our district and the wegers

After church we had a baptism. Genesis who is 13, made the choice to follow in the footsteps of ChrisI and I'm very proud of her. Her mom is a member but has been inactive for 10 years. They were living in the Elder's area and they had been trying to get her baptized the past 5 months and she got talked out of it 3 or so times. Then they moved into our area and we started to teach her and I asked her if she would be baptized in ten days and she said yes!! She is so hungry to learn more about Christ and the gospel and it was awesome getting to teach her the past few weeks as well. She was so excited yesterday and you could see the light of the gospel in her eyes. She will make a great missionary one day and I'm proud of her decision and her example.

Us with the Weger family. They feed us every Sunday. We were all trying to be the same height because I'm a foot taller then all of them. The guy next to me is Eber. He is our investigator from Guatamala. I cant wait to tell his story to y'all.

After the baptism we were all kind of chatting in the hallway and Hermano Hernandez (Paco's dad) shook my hand and pulled me aside. With tears in his eyes he thanked me over and over for what my family did for Paco. He told me that Paco had told them that he didn't know how it was possible to fall in love with a family in 3 days but he did. Hermano Hernandez told me that through this experience he has learned about service and that it has strengthened his testimony so much. Sister Hernandez then came up and thanked me too. She pulled out her phone and showed me the 2 pairs of dress shoes and ties that mom had bought for Paco for his mission. I don't know why but I just started to cry!! This family was really wealthy in Mexico but they came here to America and have had some hard times in their lives especially with money but they found the Gospel and have been pushing forward ever since. They do so much for our church and for the Lord. Sister Hernandez told me that they had been searching everywhere for a dentist to go to that they could pay for, but that is when I came in and answered their prayers. I told them that they answered mine because I had been praying to know why I was in this area and I know it was to help Paco go on a mission. The Lord works in mysterious ways but in the end it all works out. Trials seem like a lifetime but it's really the time the Lord is working miracles. This week has been such a great week of service and love. I'm grateful for the privilege to be out here in south Texas to work in the Lords vineyard. I love the families in our ward and the people we are teaching. I love being able to see the Lord's hand in my life and in the lives of others. I have seen and been a part of miracles and there is nothing that can compare to the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've seen it in my own life and in my own conversion and I've seen it in others as well. I've learned to love not only Christ but my family, friends and investigators as well in a way I can't explain.
God is our Savior. Jesus Christ LIVES and we are all here to learn and to help others to take part in the great gift of eternal life.

Got to see sara!!

Us with Paco's mom

I love you all. You mean so much to me. Thank you for the prayers and words of support. Have a great week!

me and norma one of our investigators

Genesis' baptism

                                       
Love Hermana Thompson

HOWDYYYYYYYY

Hola!!

Where to start! This week we got mini missionaries. My companion got one and I got one for the whole week. If you don't know what a mini missionary is; it's basically teaching a 16 year old how to work and not snap chat every five seconds. I decided I was going to have a nice fun day of hard core biking with my mini (I'm so mean) So I took her up to the very end of our area which is literally off the grid. There is no map of it and it's all dirt roads. Every person we talk to up there always asks us if we are afraid to be up there because there are no police! We literally hit our goals of contactng and receiving for the week in one day! At first I was nervous to get a mini because I had no idea what I was doing but I just made it all up as we went and it turned out well. We met some cool people. The first house we talked to we got a baptism in the first 5 minutes. I also learned that Texas can't ride bikes! I got in my first bike wreck of the mission! My mini crashed maybe 8 times! One of the times she just laid there for like 5 minutes (this was after she complained the whole day about hating biking) So I was like " K im leaving you!!" and I took off! I got like 1/4 of a mile down the dirt road and turned around to see if she was coming and she was still laying there in the sand! So I took a video of me yelling at her to "GEETTT UUUUUUUP" Poor kid. Hopefully she still wants to serve a mission;)  I told her I hope that she gets called to a biking area. She didn't think it was very funny.

I just layed there after my bike crash. No scratches though. It was my minis fault. she cut me off and just stopped!

She Loved Me!

Another day I took my mini to a retirement neighborhood to switch things up a bit. There are some rude old people out there! Someone needs to change their diapers. We met this old couple named Harold and Laura. The old man just opened the door without asking who it was and told us to come in! So we did. The old lady said "IM A METHODIST" I told her that was fine! We just wanted to share a message about Jesus. Then we got talking about gambling in Vegas with this 80 year old couple! They were a hoot. Another trailer we knocked on this little old lady opened the door and says "Who sent you?!" I was like, "Um Jesus did!" She slammed the door on us as fast as a little old woman could slam the door. (sllloooowww) We also got lost in that retirement neighborhood. Don't worry we eventually found our way out.

Van Ride with the Minis

So the Jehovah Witnesses love to come by and try and bible bash with us at our apartment. I kept trying to INSIST that she take my Book of Mormon. She wouldn't! One day I'll get her. The other lady told us "That it's good that we were young and wanting to preach the word of God but that she would feel pretty bad if she were wasting her time preaching wrong doctrine." I was so close to slapping her across the face with my Book of Mormon! The next day they had two other ones come over and try to talk with us and so we just sat in our study room and they wouldn't leave our door because they could see us through the window. So I finally got up and answered it and was like "Hello I only speak English" and they were like "What about the other girl, where is she, does she speak Spanish" I was like "What? I  don't know what you're saying?" Then they left.

i look gross but this is one of my favorite families after we helped them move

We also did a lot of service this week. We moved branches for one family and helped plant mango trees and that was fun. Then we went and helped one of my favorite families who is actually from Idaho Falls but they are stuck down here now:(  We helped move them to their new place down here.  Sister Kingsford and I moved a fridge! I was more than happy to help them but I was even more happy to wear pants! It was magical. After that we had a little time before it was 9:00 so I went and bought a strawberry Fanta at a corner store and we went and drank it outside sitting in the dirt with my favorite little family. They have a single mom who works so we usually go by when we can and play with them or help teach them things. They love it when I bring a soccer ball and they make me teach them how to rainbow. They are getting pretty close! Pretty soon I'll have the whole valley pros;)

Cactus

My little thing of inspiration this week was that as missionaries and even in life we do a lot of things that aren't accounted or recognized. Those are the things that matter. Once we are doing things out of pure love to help someone else and not out of recognition of others is such an awesome thing. It's the small things in life that count and it's also the small ways to help others that count. Whether it's taking time to drink a soda in the dirt with some kids or to smile at somebody, those are the things that keep others moving forward; little pieces of love and kindness. My challenge is to do something for someone else this week that you wouldn't normally do and you will see the blessings from it.

Another Sunset

I love you all.  Thank you for your love and support and for your prayers! Keep smiling!:)

Love Hermana Thompson

Giant frog I caught while doing service

3 Months Down!!

Que honda!?

Sorry I didn't get to write yesterday. I guess the library closed for the holiday but this week we had transfers. I'm still here in good ole La Joya! This week was such a hard one. I call it the spiritual wedgie... it was uplifting but in all the hurtful ways.

a lot of people have toilets in their yard... i think they knew i was coming

I'll start with my miracle.  We got a new district leader named Elder Sessions and on Tuesday we had a meeting and at the meeting he told us to write about a family that we want to find on our missions. Since I had so much practice painting with Bob Ross before coming out here I decided I was going to draw my mystery family. I was pretty specific and everyone gave me grief for my awesome picture. I first drew the mom. She had a striped shirt on and she was literally like 9 months pregnant and wore flip flops. Then I drew two kids. After I drew the dad and he was a Mexican man with a mustache and I drew a lawn mower by him because that is what he was going to do for a living. We all had a good laugh at my picture and then I told everybody that I'm not leaving Texas until I find this family.

The next day we were out at the end of our area on our bikes mapping out the streets because we didn't have a map for this part of our area. It was weird because all of the street names were family names. Los ninos, Copadres, Comadres, Cunado, and Los Vecinos. etc. We were riding down the street and Hermana Kingsford was like "Hey, there is a lady in a striped shirt!" she was kind of mocking me for my picture I  had drawn because I made kind of a big deal out of it. I stopped on my bike in the middle of the street and I was like "Is she pregnant?!!" She said she didn't know.  I watched until the lady came around her car and BAM!!, she's like 10 months pregnant. I rode over there so fast!! We talked to her. She was also wearing flip flops. Come to find out she also has two kids. She said she couldn't talk with us right then because they were going to visit her Mother-in-Law in the hospital.  We gave her our number and our names and left.

The day after that we had planning and during planning I was venting to my companion about some things and then I was like, I'm going to go lie down and think for a minute about what I want to do. Literally, right after I said that the phone rang. This Mexican lady was asking for a "Thompson? Thompson esta?" So we talked to her. It turns out it's this pregnant lady we found!! She said that she had a baby last July and that it died and so right now they were looking for a church because she was about to have another baby and that they needed God. We told her that we would be over there in an hour!!

We get over to her trailer and she lets us in. She is telling us what's up and everything about them. She told us that her husband was looking for a better job because he mows lawns for a living and that he wasn't making very much. I was like "Wait what does your husband do?!" She was like "He cuts grass." It took every fiber of my being to not freak out!!  I found my mystery family!!  We talked more and she gave us a referral of her neighbor as well who wanted to hear from us and then we set up a return appointment.

We go back to their trailer and she was sick so we talked with the husband who was outside. He has a freakin' mustache too!  We asked if they needed help with his yard and told him we would come back when his wife felt better.

On Sunday we get a call during our dinner at a members house and it's my mystery family. The lady tells us that she really wants us to come by but her husband says that he doesn't want the Mormons to come by and teach them. He thinks we are not christian and so we asked if we could come and explain our religion to them and that we are christian and she said she would talk to him. She called yesterday and told us that he said we can't come over and she sounded scared too but that she wanted to hear from us. I think she is afraid that he will kick her out if we come over. She said that he will eventually come around so that we can go over and teach them but for us to wait. I felt like I had just gotten dumped!!! I was so frustrated, like why have I had the gift of revelation since being here and we have seen so many things that were not coincidences and then this happens. We lost almost all of our investigators. Julio's parents wont sign his baptismal paper. That's a long story I'll have to tell later too. Something happened with the other family we are teaching, we aren't sure what. Then the other family the mom kind of became antied by someone. The list goes on. Things started out so golden then literally in the span of two days everything hit the fan.

Then I realized that all the people who have been recently baptized or recently converted are having troubles. This older lady that we just reactivated, as soon as she started coming back to church her TV, washer, oven, boiler and AC all broke within like a week or so. The other recent converts are having money troubles. The list goes on. Then that's when it hit me, that us as missionaries were having the same thing happen! You know you are doing something right when everything goes wrong. Freakin' Satan.

My Fear of Horses

Also, this week we saw a cop pull over a guy at this gas station then the guy got out of his car and was walking toward the cop and the cop pulled his gun out on him and it was legit! It was like watching an episode of cops but like fifteen feet away.

We also were pros-ing this street and we heard this woman singing super loud like opera! My comp and I looked and each other and laughed! Like, "What the heck??"  I was like let's go teach her!! My comp was hesitant so I just started walking toward the house.  We got up to the porch and it was a parrot! Haha!! We taught the couple that lived there. They were an older couple. We sat on the porch and were having a good lesson but the parrot kept talking over us.  It talked in Spanish too and it would laugh really creepy. It reminded me of the parrot off of home alone 3. Good times.

This week I was bit by a Blue Healer on my calf! I loathe the dogs down here. They all chase me and they all have lice and fleas and other diseases. Sick.

My Favorite Family

This is my spiritual thought for you all. It's a Mexican saying that says, "Dime con quien andas y te dire quien ares." It means, "Tell me with whom you walk with and I'll tell you with whom you are." I love that saying. You become like the people you associate yourself with. Be the right person to begin with and you will attract others the same. It affects your character and your life long choices. I hope you all are doing well. Remember who you are! God loves you, I love you, and your mom loves you. Keep it real and have a safe week!

love,
Hermana Thompson

 God Pinata? 

GoodBye for Now

A Few Pictures from Dropping Abbie Off at the MTC:

Grandpa Blaine Hyer with his Thompson Granddaughters 

The Ladies

See you in 18 Months!

Sara was able to fly in to Utah to see Abbie off.... Best Sister Ever!