I'm LEAGAL!!!!!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, y'all are the best! With the new transfer I was planning on not telling anyone that it was my birthday yesterday because I just wanted to focus on others and have a normal day. Ya know? Just a day to myself. Kinda like when Harry Potter sits on the dirt floor by himself and blows in the dirt and says "Happy birthday Harry" (that reference was for you Landon) but the subject got brought up and so I tried to tell everybody that I didn't have a birthday but they were all bugging me about it and it was more distracting than actually telling them, so I finally told them. I actually forgot it was my birthday until half way through ward council my companion leaned over towards me like super wide eyed and stared at me, so I was like "What?" she whispers "Happy birthday!!" For my celebration we sat in a trailer park crunched in between two little trailer houses at a little homemade table covered in ants and ate tamales with my hands, accompanied by a 60 year old man who told me he wanted to wait for me after my mission so that he could be my boyfriend. Not what I was imagining for my 21st Birthday but basically as good. I got the flag and the package from Sara when we went to transfers:) Thank you so much! The drawings from the chillins were adorable! I hung some up:) But the others I haven't gotten yet! Probably sometime this week. Maybe. Who knows.

Enjoying lunch with the ants on the sidewalk 

Welp, as y'all know I got transferred. It still doesn't feel real. Yes, Paco actually cried when he said goodbye to me, I bet he didn't tell you that part;)  Norma was extremely sad when we told her as well. You could tell she was holding back tears. I promised that I would come back and visit her. So plan a trip to Texas next fall Madre:) We also had 9 investigators who had come to church at least 2 times each, some of them more. I was really,really hoping that they wouldn't white wash that area but I know it will be taken care of. I'm super hurt to leave all of those great people behind but I know I fulfilled what the Lord wanted me to do in La Joya. Right now I am in San Benito North. In the Harlingen Zone. We are over the Spanish branch. Our area is basically the hood. There are a lot of gangs in our area and most of the houses look like crack houses. Every body we talk to always asks us "Aren't you guys afraid of walking out here??" I always say "No? should we be?" then they always tell us that they don't know... it's really weird. It's funny because Sister Lance when we first became companions last transfer told me that she hopes that I go here because she thought that I would like it. Well, here I am! Crazy. Sister Lance became an STL in Brownsville. They also just started this new thing in the mission this transfer called STLTs. They are the trainers of the sister training leaders. So basically they are the Sister Assistants to the President. And guess who they live with!!!! ....Yep. Me and my comp. I jokingly told them that they put them to live with us so that they could keep an eye on us. They laughed and told us no it's because we are the only ones who could handle it! Maybe both are true;) So they are in charge of all the STLs and then.. me and my companion. ALSO!  We don't have a car.  We are in an all biking area. My legs are already getting so buff or I'm just getting fat one of the two. It's not biking that's hard, it's biking in 100 degree weather that's awful. Everyone and their mom is always like "It's really hot today, aren't you guys dying riding those bikes?" We are just standing there on their porch dripping in sweat. It's super gross. I stink all of the time. My new companion is Sister Whitten. She is from Blackfoot Idaho. So that's pretty cool. We get along really well.

my trainer and her trainer with her trainer

I was the lucky one crammed in the back with all the suitcases 

It's been kind of a hard adjustment because I don't know the area or the people and so I feel like I'm not really doing anything, but we have just got into it and we have already found some miracle people. I'll tell more about it next week when there is more to tell and because of time. Basically we found the most prepared guy I have ever talked to and we set baptismal dates for him and his three kids. I'm praying to know why I am in this area. I have some ideas but only time will tell. Things are going well though. Sorry this letter is super lame. I forgot my planner with all the cool stuff that happened. Thank you all for the birthday wishes and thoughts and prayers. I love you all have a good week!!

Hermanita Thompson

 the biggest spider of my life. no joke was the size of my hand. in our apartment!!!

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