My Purpose!

Hey family!

I am so tired but so happy! Haha I am always so physically exhausted

but the Spirit and my love for the people and the work keeps me going

everyday! We had an awesome week here in Fairfield and we have an

awesome week ahead of us! Here are the highlights from my week and

updates for this up coming week!

We had zone conference on Tuesday! Loved it. We met in the Fairfield

Stake center with our zone and the Vacaville zone. I absolutely love

zone conference! President and Sister Wright are SO amazing! I was

able to receive some personal revelation during the conference for

some stuff that I've been struggling with lately(I'll share it later

on in this letter). I love the spirit. Heavenly Father knows us so

well and He is SO aware with what we are going through! We just have

to be humble enough to turn to Him in prayer for help and guidance and

He WILL answer! I love this gospel!

We finished everything with Ally this week and SHE WAS BAPTIZED ON

SATURDAY! She had her baptismal interview Thursday night and she

passed but Elder Hardy and Ally decided to pull a joke on all of us

waiting for her during her interview. Ally walked out of her interview

crying and elder Hardy walked out and says, "I'm sorry guys, but there

isn't going to be a baptism this weekend." At this moment my heart

sank, Sister Murakami looked like she was about to punch Elder Hardy

for hurting her daughters feelings and Sister Aiton looked like she

was about to cry. Then all of a sudden Ally starts laughing and looks

up and says, "Ha gotcha!" And then high fives elder Hardy....we were

so mad! Haha they got us pretty good! Ally's baptism on Saturday was

AMAZING though! Watching Ally enter the waters of baptism was

incredible. Brother Thomas was the one baptizing her and as he was

saying the baptismal prayer he started to cry...the spirit in the room

was so strong. After the baptism Ally told us she felt warm inside and

she felt so good! She received the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday

and her mom was really touched by that. What a powerful weekend we've

had!

Lyndon, Shirley, and Jessica all came to church yesterday! Woo!

Shirley and Jessica loved Sunday school! They are so great but they

are so hard to meet with! Shirley literally works everyday! Funny

story with her real quick, so she has a sister that lives in Mountain

Home, ID and I told Shirley that my dad works at the hospital there!

So randomly this past week on Tuesday I get a call with area code

208..."Hello this is the sister missionaries!" "Hi, is this Sister

Thompson?" "Yes it is! Who is this?" "This is Shirley's sister that

lives in Mountain Home! I hear you like canning so I wanted to know if

you like strawberry banana butter?" "Uhhhh...(in my mind I was so

confused and my companion was right next to me laughing so hard at

this point so I'm trying to keep it together on the phone) Sure! I

love strawberry banana butter!" "Great. I'm going to send you a recipe

for it and when you get home from your mission you can come over and

help me make it." "Well, I don't get home until this fall, but I would

love to come help!" "This fall? Ok, I will write that down. I will get

that recipe to you soon and I will see you this fall. Have a nice day

Sister Thompson!"*hangs up* Now at this point my companion Sister

Aiton is in tears because she is laughing so hard and now I'm laughing

because that would have to be the strangest phone call I have ever

received! Like what? When did I say I liked canning? Haha I'm mean

sure, why not? I love strawberry banana butter? Hahaha anyways,

Shirley delivered the recipe to me at church on Sunday and told me how

excited she was for me to make it with her sister this fall! Haha the

phone call and the recipe totally made my week! Gotta love Idahoans!

So super exciting news for this week! First off, I have MLC on Friday

so I'm super excited for that! But guess what's happening on Saturday

morning?! ELDER DAVID A. BEDNAR IS COMING TO SPEAK TO US!! I'm so

excited and super scared too! Haha Sister Aiton got asked to play the

piano for it and I got asked to conduct the music! So we will get to

be up on the stand with Elder Bednar! I'm so excited! And then on

Sunday, we have stake conference and the 1st councilor in the

presiding bishopric will be here and speak to us! It's going to be an

AMAZING WEEKEND!!

So I mentioned earlier about zone conference and receiving personal

revelation and I want to share it with you all. I hit my year mark

this week on the mission, and I've been doing a lot of reflecting of

this past year: things that I've liked, things I could have done

better, the people I've met, the memories made, etc. Before I came on

my mission, I had told myself that I was going to change. I was going

to give my heart to Heavenly Father and let him sculpt me into the

person He wanted me to become. I wanted my mission to change me. I've

seen countless missionaries return home and I could tell that their

missions had changed them. I wanted to come back home as a changed

person, someone my family wouldn't recognize. But as I started

reflecting on my mission a couple weeks ago, I felt like I hadn't

changed much in the last year. My knowledge and testimony of the

gospel has grown tremendously and I'm more converted to the gospel now

than ever before, but I didn't feel like I've changed. This had been

on my mind for a couple of weeks, but during zone conference the

spirit impressed upon my mind these words, "Yes, you're right. You

haven't changed much, but that's ok. Ive been sculpting you your whole

life. You haven't changed but look at all the lives you have changed."

The spirit reminded me that I didn't come on a mission to improve

myself or receive recognition for "my achievements". I came to help

others come unto Christ. I came to share my knowledge and testimony of

the restored gospel. I came to be an instrument in Gods hands to help

change lives. This past year has been the most incredible year of my

life. I plan on continuing to help God fulfill His purpose of bringing

to pass the immortality and eternal life of man for the next six

months, and for the rest of my life. His purpose is now my purpose.

And that's the thing that's changed about me. My purpose.

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

At lunch with Sister Hullinger

After zone conference, a bunch of missionaries randomly showed up at

Dutch Bros all at once. So we took a picture! Haha

Downtown Fairfield!

The Elders left all of this on our front door one night!

For hour of service this week we delivered pineapples :) because we

love Psych haha

We've been in a prank war with the elders using a chocolate bunny that

no one wants, so we got them back this week

I love you all and hope you have an awesome day!