Letters From Kristina-California Santa Rosa Mission: I Heart Being a Missionary

HEYYYYO! :)

So it's only been a short five days since I emailed last but so much has happened! I think everyone got together and decided that it was "let's give all the assignments to the sisters at the last minute" week. Haha what a stressful but productive weekend we just had!

Ok, time for the good, the bad, and the funny :) there was only one bad thing that happened this past week but it lead into something really funny! So we had a dinner Friday night that was probably the weirdest dinner I've ever had. It was with an older single lady in the ward. So you know spilt pea soup? Yeah, well imagine that mixed with mash potatoes. It was this thick, green paste that she poured onto our plates. Haha like you know the brown stuff that Nacho Libre serves the orphans? It was exactly like that but green. Haha the elders and us were trying to hold back our laughter. And then for dessert she cut up on old cantaloupe and served it with warm vanilla pudding on it...it was not good. And then to add to the whole meal, her house was very..."full". Haha like there was no empty space in her house. So all five of us missionaries were sitting at this super small table with stuff all over it and we could not stop laughing. The whole dinner was just too hysterical. And then to add more to the evening, she gave us sisters the leftovers of the green mush. So we door bell ditched it at the elders apartment. Haha it was a funny evening!

It's incredible to see so many miracle each day from our Heavenly Father. And as a missionary, I have seen SO many of them! So as I told you before, our mission has this goal of contacting 20 people each day, teaching 3 lessons every day, and inviting 1 person to be baptized every day. The 20-3-1. And there are definitely days when I think that there is no way we can get the 20-3-1 because of everything we have going on. But God always provides a way! He has put people into our paths and we are able to teach so much! I love having the goal of the 20-3-1! It pushes us to always do our best, and when we strive to do our best, God fills in the rest! I am definitely learning how to work hard out here!

So Sister Lesser and I had a pretty eventful weekend. Like I said early, everyone decided to ask us to do everything haha we were asked to give the missionary moment at a baptism on Saturday. A missionary moment is where you and your companion get up in front of everyone right after the baptism is performed and you teach a lesson to everyone there. So we taught the restoration in front of everyone. Then we got asked to teach relief society at the last minute. Haha I am so glad that I was able to serve as relief society president before my mission! The things I learned from that were able to help me prepare for teaching relief society. We taught a lesson on the talk "The Gift of Grace". I recommend reading it. It's from this past general conference. SUCH AN AWESOME TALK. But everything went really well while we were teaching! I have found out that I love planning and preparing for lessons. I think teaching is so fun! Good thing I'm teaching for the next 17 months of my life! Haha but then to add to every we had to prepare for this weekend, I got asked to teach at district meeting tomorrow. I was really surprised when they asked me to do that because it's almost unheard of to have a greenie teach at a meeting. But everyone tells me that I'm the most ungreen greenie to ever come out. Haha which is cool, but I still feel like a greenie! But now I'm preparing to teach tomorrow and I'm actually really excited!

So none of our investigators made it to church yesterday...which is no fun. Mike, has a hard time committing to come to church. He's really nervous about it. If you could, will you pray for Mike? Pray that he will have the courage to come to church. I know that God will give him the strength he needs so the prayers will definitely help! Prayer is awesome and I love it!

Thank you all so much for the prayers and letters I have been receiving! It really means a lot to me! I love you all!

Love always, Sister Thompson :)

Panda!!!!