What a Great Week!!

Hello family! :)

This week seemed super long, but it was an awesome week! I'll tell

about our investigators right now and then I will tell you some of the

stuff we were able to do this week!

So the Fifita family! We had great lessons with them this week and the

kids are really opening up to us! But their dad is getting in the

way...the whole family was ready and excited to come to church

yesterday, but the dad showed up right before they left and started

yelling at Ulita and the kids. One of the boys, Fa, the fourteen year

old stood up for himself and told his dad that he liked the mormon

church and he wanted to go, but the dad just got more mad and didn't

allow anyone to go to church. When Ulita told us this story, it broke

our hearts! We had asked the dad a couple of weeks ago if it was ok

that we were teaching his kids and that they were getting baptized and

he said it was ok with him. But he definitely not ok with it. So now

we aren't sure what to do. The family wants to come to church and be

baptized but the father won't allow it. Ulita has been trying to file

for divorce but it will take time. So for right now we will continue

to teach them and pray for them!

Anna and Antonio! Camilo's kids! They are doing so good! They are

GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY at 11am! They were interviewed for

baptism on Saturday and they passed! They are both so excited for

their baptisms this weekend and so are we! Also, the coolest part is

that Camilo will be baptizing them! It has been such an amazing

experience being able to teach the Gomes family! And soon they will

all be members of the church! Pray that everything will go well this

weekend at their baptism!

So this past week was incredible! We had a world wide missionary

broadcast on Wednesday morning where different general authorities

spoke! It was so cool to think that all missionaries all over the

world were watching the broadcast at the exact same time! Such a cool

experience! Also, Sister Nelson and I sang in sacrament meeting

yesterday! We sang because it was a girls farewell in our ward! We

sang "What Heaven Sees in You" and it turned out really well! So well

that the stake president asked us to sing at stake conference in a

couple of weeks! Haha it should be fun!

Other than that, this week was super awesome! Sister Nelson and I

ALWAYS laugh so hard everyday and we always pray that it will be the

best day ever! And it always it! Know that I am doing great no having

the time of my life serving the Lord here in Petaluma!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

9 Months and I Guess my Body Needed a Break

Hello family!

Ok, let me update you with everyone we are teaching first, and then I

will tell you about this awesome, sad, crazy, weird, dreams coming

true week we've had!

So Camilo and his kids: Camilo is having a rough time right now at

work and with friends but he is clinging to the iron rod like none

other! His testimony of this gospel is so strong and he knows that he

can rely on it to get him through hard times! He awesome! And his kids

are doing great! We didn't get a chance to meet with them this week

because Anna went to youth conference in Santa Rosa all day Saturday!

Woo! We were so excited when we found out that she went! I'll tell you

more about this youth conference thing later on in the letter though!

As of right now, they are still preparing themselves to be baptized on

the 30th of this month! :)

The Fifita family: ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.....so we had an awesome lesson

with them on Tuesday, but other than that, we couldn't get a ahold of

them all week. And when Sunday came around, they were no where to be

seen...so after much prayer we have decided to postpone their baptism

until they come to church more regularly. :( HEARTBREAKING huh? We

have been working SO hard with them, and they love everything we are

teaching and they loved church last week, but they are lacking that

solid testimony. But we will keep working with them but pray that they

will each have a desire to pray and gain their own testimonies!

JoAnne: ughhhhhh...so after meeting with Joanne this week, she has

asks us to stop coming over. #LiterallyHeartBroken. She was able to

make it to a little bit of sacrament meeting last week, but she just

couldn't handle all the change. She has bad anxiety and coming to a

new church last week was just too much for her. She loves us and the

"feeling and presence" that we bring into her home(Aka the spirit),

but she said that she just can't join a new organized religion right

now and didn't want us wasting our time with her when she knows so

many other people out there need this message we share. It was really

cool hearing her say all this stuff, but it was heart breaking to know

that she just couldn't do it right now. Hopefully somewhere down the

line, she'll call the missionaries again when she feels ready, but man

oh man, I am going to miss teaching Joanne!

Ok, let me tell you about having Sister Amie Wright with us all week!

So I absolutely adore Sister Wright! I loved having her come to

lessons with us back in Santa Rosa so spending the whole week with her

was awesome! She had a hard time adjusting to missionary life(I forgot

how different missionary life is from regular life), so she was

physically exhausted everyday. But she loved all the teaching

experiences she had and the people she was able to meet! She really

has a talent for teaching! So even is she doesn't decided to serve a

mission, she will definitely have a calling in the future that will

enable her to use her talent for teaching!

So on Friday I hit my 9 month mark! But I guess after 9 months of hard

work, my body decided it needed a break. I got pretty sick Friday

night and it lasted all day Saturday and now I'm still trying to

regain my strength. I was in bed all day Saturday with a fever,

chills, and body aches. It was terrible. I spent most of the day in

bed because I didn't have the strength to even get out of bed. But

don't worry, I am feeling much better now, but I'm still physically

exhausted. But I was determined to go to church yesterday because

guess what? So remember the youth conference I was telling you about?

So the special guest was ELAINE S. DALTON. And guess who was coming to

our church for sacrament meeting? ELAINE S. DALTON. And guess who I

got to meet and talk to one on one yesterday? ELAINE S. DALTON. And

guess who did a special fireside for all the women in the stake/area

last night? ELAINE S. DALTON. it was THE COOLEST THING EVER AND A

DREAM COME TRUE! I love Elaine S. Dalton!! And she looked at me right

in the eyes and talked to me and asked me about my life and it was

soooo cool! It was seriously one of the coolest experiences meeting

one of my role models growing up! I will never forget it!

So pretty much this week was crazy but SOOO good! I am so grateful for

the experiences I had this week! I love you all and hope you have a

great week!

Love always, Sister Thompson 

Hello

Hello friends and family!

Ok, so a lot of this happened this week and a lot of it was good but

if I wrote out every single detail it would take a week for you to

read it haha so here are the highlights from the week!

We did a lot of service this week! Yard work for Bear and Terri where

we were tackling black berry bushes in the pouring rain, farm work for

sister Fleming where we were tackling goats and sheep in a lot of

mud/poop, and we helped a lady moved into our ward! I love doing

service!

We had awesome lessons this week with the Fifita family! They are

progressing so well and guess what? ALL 9 OF THEM CAME TO CHURCH

YESTERDAY! That's a huge step for them, but they are making the steps

towards baptism! We also set a challenge with the kids of who could

read the Book of Mormon the fastest haha each time we go over they

fight about who is farther along in the book! It's great! The kids are

really starting to open up and share the spiritual experiences they

are having! I am so grateful for this chance I have to teach this

family! I love them so much!

Camilo's kids made it to church yesterday as well! They are both

excited again for their baptism on the 30th but pray that the

enthusiasm they have will stay until then! They are such good kids!

Also pray that the Fifita family will continue to be excited and ready

for their baptisms on the 23rd!

So remember our investigator JoAnne? The 71 year old lady that was

having a really hard time finding the courage to come to church? Well

guess what? SHE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY! She only stayed for about 30

minutes of sacrament meeting, but still, this is a huge step for her!

We were so happy to see her there and it looked like she was really

enjoying it! We will follow up with her this week about her experience

at church! But overall, church yesterday was great! We had 8

investigators there and in every auxiliary! Sister Nelson and I went

to primary for a little bit because the Fifita kids were latched unto

us at first, but they quickly made friends and enjoyed the rest of

primary! What a blessing yesterday was!

Then to add to the awesome day we had yesterday, President Wright

called us and told us that we would be having a girl from the Santa

Rosa stake coming to be in a trio with us for the week. This girl is

trying to figure out if she wants to go on the mission, so president

wright chose us to have her under our wing for the week! I am so

excited because the girl that is staying with us is Amie Wright,

president wrights 19 year old daughter! I love Amie! She use to come

to lessons with us back when I served in Santa Rosa! But it's a huge

honor for us to have our mission presidents daughter with us for an

entire week! We are so excited and can't wait to pick her up tonight!

Well, know that I am doing great and loving every second! It's such an

amazing experience helping people come unto Christ and to partake of

the sweet fruit of this gospel! I love watching the whole conversion

process and I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to help Gods

children come to the fold! I love this work and I love this gospel!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Happy 2016!!

Hello friends and family! :)

What an incredible week we've had here in Petaluma, California! Have I

ever told you how much I love being a missionary? Well, I absolutely

love it! There is nothing better!

So to start off, let me telling you what is happening this week with

transfers! Sike, I'm going to wait till the end of the letter to tell

you :) here are some highlights of my week!

We went on exchanges this week! I went to Rohnert Park this time with

Sister Malmfeldt! She is from Cumming, Georgia and I absolutely adore

her! She's been out about five months and she been here in our zone

the whole time! We have become really good friends so exchanges with

her was so fun! We taught lessons, talked to people, and worked on

Sister Flemings farm!

On New Year's Eve, sister Nelson and I met with the Fifita family! So

the holidays were crazy for them, so teaching them was super hard, but

when we went over that night, their dad was there. Now, Ulita and her

husband are still married but he doesn't live at the home anymore. We

had only seen him one other time since I've been teaching the family.

We had heard stories from the kids and Ultia that made the dad sound

kind of mean and really against the church(plus, he's a big Tongan

man, so that just makes him look scary). So when we walked in, and the

kids saw us and their dad in the same room, everyone went silent. We

started talking to the dad, having a nice casual conversation with

him. And it actually went really well! He started opening up to us

about his past and his views on the church! The whole time, I was

praying for the courage to ask him permission to teach and baptize his

kids. Finally, God gave me the courage to straight up ask him for his

permission. As soon as I asked, all the kids just looked at me like

'what are you doing sister Thompson?' But guess what? The father said

that he didn't care and that he was ok with it!!! He said that most of

his friends growing up were members of the church and he liked his

friends, so he said it was fine! All the kids looked so shocked! After

the dad left, Fusi was telling us how awkward that could have been

because they all thought for sure that their dad was going to say no!

So after talking with them, we set a new baptismal date for them for

January 23rd! That will give them enough time to come to church a

couple more times and make more friendships in the ward! We were so

grateful that everything went well with there dad though! Our prayers

were answered!

We were also able to meet with Camilo's kids on Saturday! Anna and

Antonio are doing great! We talked to them for a little bit and turns

out Anna has been reading the Book of Mormon on her own! WOOO! It has

been about two weeks since we last met with them, so we were scared

that they weren't going to want to come to church anymore or be

baptized, but they both said that they have their own desire to be

baptized now! I definitely know Heavenly Father heard our prayers for

them and by Anna reading the Book of Mormon, their hearts have be

touched by the spirit! So we set a baptismal date for them for January

30th! Camilo is so excited for them and now that he has the

priesthood, he will be able to baptize his kids! So amazing!

On Friday night we had an awesome lesson with our investigator JoAnne!

We brought Amelia with us and they connected SO well! Man, I love

working with the members! The fire of missionary work is contagious

and it's spreading like wildfire in our ward! At church yesterday,

multiple members were telling us of their own missionary moments they

were having! Some even gave us referrals for their friends! I love

this ward! Which reminds me, transfers!

SISTER NELSON AND I ARE BOTH STAYING ANOTHER TRANSFER IN PETALUMA!

That's right! I am going to be in Petaluma, CA for 7 1/2 months! I am

SOOOO happy!!! I absolutely LOVE Petaluma! The people, the ward,

everything! It's super super rare for a sister to even do six months

in an area, so Heavenly Father must really need me here right now! I

am so grateful that I get to spend another transfer here in the

Petaluma 1st ward! Well know that Sister Nelson and I are doing great!

We laugh so hard everyday and have fun while doing this marvelous

work! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻