Meetings for dayyyyyyz!

Hey friends and family!!

I hope you all had an awesome week! I know I did! Haha but I am

stressed out of my mind right now! Sister Stromberg and I have a lot

on our plates right now, so we are just a little stressed and tired.

And by a little, I mean A LOT haha. I'll give you a run down of our

past week and the week to come!

Monday: First PDay of this transfer and it was EPIC. Haha since they

joined two zones together this transfer, we all met in Vacaville for

PDay! 25 missionaries! It was SO fun! We played basketball for the

majority of the afternoon(and by we, I mean me and all the elders

haha)! The elders gave me the nickname of Sister Buckets haha hitting

3's all day! Speaking of 3's...LETS GO WARRIORS! Anyways, I also ended

up getting a gnarly bruise on one of my ankles by the end of playing

basketball because I vaguely remember an elder accidentally kicking

it. Haha we went to a lesson with the Chambers later that night and

Sister Chambers was the one who pointed out my swollen ankle to me! It

was funny. The lesson with the Chambers went well! We did a cute

gospel steps activity with the kids and gave them all CTR rings. I

love that family so much!

With the Chambers!

We are all about matching outfits haha so here our random pictures for the day!

Tuesday: District meeting in the morning! Sister Stromberg and I team

taught about talking to everyone and teaching on the spot lessons in

1-3 minutes! It was great! We did a fun activity in the gym with the

missionaries! After district meeting, we taught Lora(the lesson was SO

good! I love Lora!) and then we went on exchanges! But some crazy

stuff went down during the exchange. I won't go into detail, but we

ended up having to do an emergency exchange back later that night, and

Sister Stromberg and I came back together to discuss somethings about

the companionship. We are trying to help the companionship as much as

we can now. Crazy stuff!

Wednesday: We reported to President everything that went down the day

before and discussed possibilities to help the companionship. Later in

the afternoon we did service at the Foodbank! So Matt is a worker at

the Foodbank! He's 25 and we all love him. A couple weeks back, Sister

Aiton and I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited him to

read! And Matt told us on Wednesday that he had read!!! He said he

read two chapters the night before! We talked to him a little bit more

about it and he said he liked it! Coolest thing ever. I love being a

missionary! After Foodbank we had more STL stuff that needed to be

taken care of...haha this is where all that stress is coming from! But

I love it haha. We had an awesome dinner with the Kistlers later that

night and then we tried visiting people!

Thursday: We tried visiting people in the morning, but no body was

home :(. We had interviews with our zone leaders that morning also!

Meetings! Woo! We did more service in the afternoon and then we died.

Haha not literally, but Sister Stromberg hasn't been feeling well this

whole week, so after service she took a nap and I tried staying awake

to get some things done, but I also crashed. I'm literally so tired

all the time! My body is weak, but my spirit is strong! Haha our

dinner that night cancelled on us so we were on our own. Fun fact

about Sister Thompson: I invented something called a "Taquitodilla".

It's a quesadilla with taquitos inside! Haha I've gotten creative with

my cooking skills ;) After dinner we had a lesson with Jason, the YSA

less active! He's been coming to church every week this month! Woo!

Then we had a YSA correlation meeting with our new YSA Ward mission

leader! More meetings!

Service ready outfits

And when we died haha

Friday: MLC in Santa Rosa all day! More meetings! I LOVE MLC! We got

permission to carpool with our zone leaders to Santa Rosa so the car

rides were fun! Haha we also matched our outfits...haha president

wright got a kick out of that! Sister Stromberg and I had our H&M

fashion week ready outfits on and the zone leaders matched their suits

and ties to our clothes. Haha it was great! MLC was super good! As

always! But I received news that I would be traveling out of our zone

on Tuesday to teach in the Vallejo zone meeting instead of my own

zone! They don't have an STL in Vallejo, so I will help teach in their

zone meeting on Tuesday! So I've been on the phone a lot with the zone

leaders in Vallejo trying to figure out what we are going to teach and

how I'm going to get down to Vallejo! More stress! Haha but I'm

excited to help teach down in their zone!

Matching outfits with the ZL’s:

Saturday: We had comp. study with the zone leaders and figured out

everything for zone meeting on Tuesday! A member took us out to lunch!

We had another awesome lesson with Lora! We did our weekly planning!

We also got to help one of the high schools here set up for their Grad

Night Party. We helped decorate the gym! It was super fun! But really

hot! Haha the weather here is getting hotter and hotter everyday! We

tried seeing the Murakamis later that night but Sister Murakami is

super sick. She had some dental work done and the medication she's

been taking for it caused her to get super sick. No Bueno :(

Sunday: We woke up early, skipped Ward council haha and drove to the

Pacheco's house and woke them up for church. Haha Lora came to church

yesterday and the Pacheco's! It was a really good Sunday! Jason came

to the YSA Ward too! It was fast Sunday yesterday here, so we had

break the fast with the YSA Ward after church and then we went to our

dinner appointment! Haha we went to the Thomas's house for a Memorial

Day BBQ! They invited over like 6 other families from the Ward so it

was super fun! And the food was great too! We spent the rest of the

night at the church preparing for zone meeting! Since I'm not going to

be there for ours, the zone leaders had the bright idea of video

taping me introducing the zone vision to everyone! Haha so we made a

fun, interactive video of me last night introducing the zone vision!

It’s hilarious! Haha

Selfie Sunday:

 So that was my week in a nutshell! We have two exchanges coming up

this week, along with teaching and preparing for zone meeting

tomorrow, and trying to juggling our own area and wards! Haha a lot of

things on our plates but we are loving life! I love being a

missionary! I know that this is the Lords work! He is hastening His

work and we are just trying to keep up! Haha I love you all and hope

you have an awesome week! Happy Memorial Day! :)

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Thomstromsonberg

Hey friends and family!

Life is good! Fairfield is awesome! And my new companion is amazing!

So before I tell you about Sister Stromberg, I have to tell you that

at first it was super weird having a companion that isn't a greenie.

Haha I've been training my whole mission so I forgot what it's like to

have a normal companion again! I apologized in advance to Sister

Stromberg if I explain something to her about the mission or say

something a trainer would haha but she is awesome and we get along so

great! Sister Stromberg is from Fruitheights, UT and she's been out

about 11 months! She is HILARIOUS and we are such goofs together, I

love it! She has spent her whole mission so far up in the northern

parts of the mission, like Ukiah and Eureka, so when she came down by

the bay(where I've spent my whole mission) she was in culture shock

haha it's a lot hotter down here and really sunny. We had a lesson

with Lora Tuesday afternoon right when we got back from transferring

in Santa Rosa, and Sister Stromberg got a bloody nose during the

lesson. Haha Lora was a good sport about it and Sister Stromberg just

laughed it off and joked around saying that Lora would never forget

her now! Haha I didn't realize how different the climates were in our

mission!

This week was full of laughter and lessons! My two favorite things ;)

haha our lesson with Lora on Tuesday was actually super

spiritual(despite the bloody nose in the middle of it haha). Lora is

incredible and she came to church again yesterday! She is so ready to

turn her life around and work her way back into the church! We had

another lesson with her on Friday and that was also amazing. I think

it's incredible how Heavenly Father will inspire you to know what to

teach or do for a lesson. I've really learned to recognize and trust

the Spirit when it comes to preparing and teaching lessons. It was

hard for me at first to recognize a prompting I was receiving, so I

didn't act on them much. But now I understand how the Spirit speaks to

me and I LOVE following the promptings I get! I love preparing to

teach a lesson because Heavenly Father just sends so much revelation

while I'm preparing! It's amazing! For the lesson with Lora on Friday,

the revelation came Thursday night during my nightly prayer. I was

kneeling down by my bed, I started my prayer, and then I heard soft

music coming from the other side of the room. I quickly recognized the

music. My companion was watching the Mormon Message called "Mountains

to Climb". As a missionary with an iPad and access to all the church

videos, I've seen almost all the Mormon messages multiple times, and

"Mountains to Climb" has to be one of my favorites. It brings a soft,

strong spirit as you watch. So I decided to just kneel there, eyes

closed, and listen. Even though I had seen the video numerous times

before, as I kneeled there and just listened, that soft, strong spirit

I mentioned earlier entered into my heart. But it was different this

time. I began listening as if I was an investigator and the dynamic of

the whole video changed for me. I then thought of Lora and how she

would relate or feel during this video. I felt good and warm inside as

I listened as Lora would. When the video ended, and the room was

silent again, I began talking to my Heavenly Father again. I asked Him

if He wanted us to show this video to Lora tomorrow during our lesson

with her. I quickly received that same warm feeling inside that I felt

just one minute earlier during the video. I knew that was my answer.

The next day, when we showed the video to Lora, I felt so much love

for her. Just the night before, I had put myself in her shoes, and

then to watch her feel that same soft, strong spirit as I did filled

my heart with so much love and gratitude. The video set the tone for

the rest of the lesson and allowed Lora to really open up to us. It

was a spiritual, tear-filled lesson. How grateful I am not only for

the amazing church videos that we had easy access to now days, but for

the still and quiet moments that allow us to listen. Heavenly Father

knows these people way better than we do but He sends the spirit to

guide us in all we do!

Sister Stromberg and I have a goal this transfer to take at least one

random picture a day of us doing something completely out of the

ordinary haha so the pictures I send home this transfer...just go with

it. Haha we are having a blast while doing this incredible work! I

love it when Heavenly Father makes something happen to brighten our

day a little bit! For example, while walking out of a members home,

she pointed out a flower on a tall cactus that will only be in bloom

for 12 hours, so obviously we had to take a picture! Haha anyways, it

was super windy that day(like always) and while I was standing next to

the cactus talking the picture, the wind blew the cactus and it hit me

in the face haha and sister Stromberg got a picture of my reaction

haha it actually really hurt but I was laughing so hard! Little funny

things like this happen all the time and I love it! Yes, missions are

hard and a lot of work, but you can still have fun while being

obedient and doing the Lords work! Another example from this week, we

had a meeting with the Stake Mission Leader last night with our zone

and we had fruit kabobs as refreshments afterwards and it turned into

a "who can fit the most fruit in your mouth at once" contest. Funniest

thing ever. The strawberries were my downfall. Haha

Church yesterday was awesome! Both wards are really focusing on

missionary work right now! Woo! Sister Stromberg and I spoke in the

YSA Ward sacrament meeting about member missionary work! We are hoping

to ignite the fire of missionary work in both wards this summer! Lora

was the only one that came to church yesterday though. We had really

good lesson with the Murakamis this week but sister Murakami got sick

Saturday night. Satan is working so hard on them! But they are staying

strong and working hard! We also had a super solid lesson with the

Pacheco's and they all agreed to come to church again, but they didn't

show. It's hard when you work so hard during the week, but no one

comes to church on Sunday. A wise older brother of mine once said that

Sunday is like game day for us missionaries. We prepare the whole week

for Sunday to get our investigators and less actives to church. I'm

grateful Lora came to church yesterday, but it hurts when others don't

show up. And it's not that I'm offended or mad that they don't come to

church, I'm just sad. They are missing out on something so precious

and dear to my heart. But we will keep working hard and continue to

prepare for the next "game day". I'm putting on my eye black next

Sunday ;)

Know that I am doing well and loving life as a missionary! Sister

Stromberg and I get along great and we plan on working hard this

transfer! Should be a good one! I hope you all have an amazing week!

Try to take time this week to just listen. Find a quiet place and

spend time listening to the spirit and in communion with Heavenly

Father. I love you all!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

In the car with Sister Stromberg!

This watermelon tasted gross so I tried pouring sugar on it to make it

better...it was still gross haha

With the cactus!

After I got hit by the cactus! Haha

Sister Stromberg!

A member took us out to a Thai restaurant....I love Thai food. A got

the yellow curry ;)

Hermana Reidhead and Hermana Campbell came back for a baptism! They

finished their missions last week and it was SO hard saying goodbye to

them! That's why we has red teary eyed faces haha

Lunchtime...nailed it.

Random picture with a bike rack

Random photo shoot with a giant pink bush haha

Spirit Works Wonders!

Hey everyone!

So to start out, I'll tell you what's happening with transfers

tomorrow! So I'm staying in Fairfield! But Sister Aiton is leaving...

:( saddest day ever. She is going to Napa. I'm so sad! Sister Aiton

has become my best friend! My daughter is leaving me! :( haha but my

new companion is Sister Stromberg! She has been out about ten months

and I've met her a couple times and she seems cool, so I'm excited! We

are both going to be STLs because they combined our zone and the

Vacaville zone into one big zone! We are still over the Cordelia 1st

Ward and the YSA Ward which I'm so happy about! I love both of the

wards so much! But I'm so sad Sister Aiton is leaving! :(

This week was hilarious and awesome! I don't have a lot of time to

email today because we have packing and a lot of cleaning to do today,

so my email will be short, sweet, and to the point! :)

We had really good lessons with Lora this week! She is incredible! We

love Lora! We also met with the Murakamis a few times! They are doing

a lot better! I gave Ally my CTR ring to help her remember to always

choose the right! Sister Murakamis non member friend, Elonda, was

there for one of the lessons this week. She has been there for a

couple lessons and she came to Ally's baptism and after the lesson

this week she said she was going to come to church next week! She

lives in Vacaville, but it would be awesome if she came to church!

This could be a great missionary opportunity for the Murakamis!

We also met with a lot of less actives this week! The Pacheco's are

older less actives in the Ward and they haven't been to church in 17

years! They are hilarious and we had a super powerful lesson with them

this week! Spirit was so strong! Also, yesterday after church, we went

out finding with the RS president in the Cordelia Ward and tried

visiting a ton of less active ladies in the Ward! It was great! We

actually had a lot of success from it!

The funniest thing happened at dinner on Tuesday night! We were at the

Hatch's eating dinner(they are some of our favorite members!) and

Sister Aiton was talking about door bell ditching goodies on people's

front doors, but she accidentally switched the first letters of bell

and ditch in her sentence....and we all died laughing! Sister Aiton

felt so bad afterwards but she was laughing pretty hard at it too! So

hard that the ice cream she was eating during the conversation came

out her nose!! We all died laughing even more! I was in tears from

laughing so hard! Hahaha Sister Aiton and I are always laughing

together! I'm going to miss that girl!

Church yesterday was INCREDIBLE. The Spirit truly works wonders on

people! Lora came to church yesterday for the first time in years, the

Murakamis came to church, and get this...THE PACHECOS CAME TO CHURCH!

They haven't been to church in 17 years!! The bishop had to do a

double take when he saw them walk in! So we had our little crowd

sitting with us during sacrament meeting! It was awesome! We owe it

all to the spirit! It softened all of their hearts and allowed them to

make the decision to come to church and stay for all three hours! It

was awesome! And in the YSA, Jason(the less active we just started

teaching) came to church! Woo! It's crazy how much joy you feel when

even one person decides to come to church! Haha I love how as a

missionary, that's the thing that brings me the most joy!

I'm excited for this new transfer! I'm excited to continue to learn

and grow! Time is moving faster and faster so I want to continue to

work as hard as I can! But I'm definitely enjoying to the end more

than I am enduring to the end! Haha I love this work and I love this

gospel! I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Hermana Carey and I with our matching dresses. This is what best friends look like haha

Crazy hats with our YSA Ward mission leader Harley! Haha pretty much sums us up!

I saw this sign while we were out Tracting and it made me laugh haha

With Hailey and Harley! Two members from the YSA Ward who we LOvE!

Harley went to Thailand on his mission, that is why he is wearing

those pants haha

5 Days and 5 Doors

Hello everyone!

So it's only been a short five days since the last time I wrote but it

was an awesome five days! Talking to the family yesterday was AMAZING!

Sometimes all you need is a cinnamon roll and a long talk with your

mom to make everything better! Haha I definitely needed that skype

home yesterday! Crazy to think the next time I'll see my family is in

person!

My favorite person!!!

So after the temple on Wednesday, Elder and Sister Nordfeldt took us

out to eat in Walnut Creek at a really good steak house! The whole

time we were in Walnut Creek I was on Curry lookout haha Steph Curry

lives in Walnut Creek! But sadly, I didn't see him...but lunch was

delicious! When we got home, we emailed and finished anything we

needed to do on our pday! We had dinner that night with the Biggs!

They are both professional cooks so we LOVE going to their house for

dinner! They made super fancy eggs benedict for us! After dinner we

went and saw the Murakami's. Sister Murakami has been struggling a lot

lately, so if you could keep her in your prayers that would be

awesome. Satan has really been working hard on them ever since Ally's

baptism. We helped them as much as we could that night and decided

that we were going to go over to their house more often, probably

every other day. After the Murakami's, the zone leaders and I had a

stake correlation meeting with the high councilman that are over

missionary work in the stake! We have this meeting every other week!

We discuss the progress of missionary work in each Ward in the stake!

I really like those meetings!

At the temple:

Thursday we did service at the Foodbank! Then we went finding for a

couple hours. We've been having a hard time this transfer getting set

lessons with the people we are teaching! This time of year is super

busy for everyone and so all of our investigators and less actives

keep canceling their lessons with us....but it's ok haha more finding

time for us then! We went to the Thomas's for dinner that night and

celebrated cinco de mayo with them! I seriously love them! After

dinner, we went to the institute building because the YSA Ward was

putting on a dinner and watching the worldwide YSA devotional. We had

invited a few less actives to come, but no body showed :( the

devotional was awesome though and it was fun to spend time with the

YSA members!

These were are cups at dinner with the Thomas's this week! Haha too funny!

Friday was our planning day but in between planning we had a couple

lessons! Woo! We meant with Lora, the excommunicated member who is

trying to come back, and we taught her the restoration! The spirit was

strong and at the end she said that she still believed that with all

her heart, she just lost her way for a while. After the lesson with

her, we went over to the Kellenbecks, a less active family in the

Cordelia 1st Ward, and had a lesson with the 19 year old son Jason.

Their oldest daughter, Shelia, just got home from her mission a month

ago and she is the only active member in the family. She has been

working hard to reactivate her family! The lesson with her brother was

awesome! We taught the restoration and committed him to start reading

the Book of Mormon again! He was totally open to everything and he

said that he really liked us, which is a great thing because Shelia

said he doesn't normally like the missionaries! We had dinner later

that day with Bishop McCann and his wife! He's the bishop in the YSA

Ward! And get this, he has a '66 mustang! He let me look at it and

said he might take us in a ride in it sometime :) remember the model

car I made? The mustang? Yeah, his car is that color haha like a

pretty teal blue! It was awesome! Made me a little car trunky though

;) after dinner we visited the Murakami's again! We have been focusing

a lot about the temple and family history work with them!

Saturday we got invited to attend the Cordelia 1st wards Mother's Day

brunch in the morning! The Biggs cooked for it, so it was amazing.

Gourmet crepes was what was on the menu! Later in the afternoon we

were trying to visit some potential investigators but literally nobody

was home, so we decided to knock doors at a small apartment complex

and we ended up having an awesome experience from it! This is how our

experience went.... Door 1: man answers the door "I'm catholic. Go

away." *shuts door*. Door 2: woman answers the door "I'm not

interested." *slams door*. Door 3: no answer. Door 4: no answer, but

while we are waiting at the door, Door 5 opens. "Hi sisters! Come on

in! *confused sister missionaries walk over to door 5 and enter* Turns

out a super less active lady lives there and she use to be visited by

the missionaries a while ago! She let us in and we were able to have

an awesome lesson with her! It was a great tender mercy for us because

not very many people wanted to talk to us that day, so just having

that one person let us in meant the world to us! We set up to come

back to her house next week!

Sunday was AMAZING! Sister Aiton made cinnamon rolls in the morning

and then we went to Cordelia 1st Ward and then the YSA Ward! When we

got home we ate lunch and then we SKYPED HOME! It was so great seeing

my family again! Later we had dinner with the Watsons and then we

tried visiting some less actives afterwards but it was Mother's Day so

no one was really home or available. But overall, it was an awesome

day!

We find out transfer information this Saturday! :( This transfer went

by so fast! I'm hoping that Sister Aiton and I stay together another

transfer here! I love it here. I have learned so much here! I don't

want to leave yet! But wherever Heavenly Father needs me, I will go :)

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

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Tender Mercies Are Real!!

May 4, 2016

Hello family and friends!

Wow! What an incredible 10 days it has been since I last emailed! Why has it been 10 days since I've emailed and not a normal 7 you might ask? Because we went to the Oakland Temple this morning! Only my favorite place in the world! I seriously love the Oakland Temple so much! Today was my fourth time going to the Oakland Temple as a missionary and I had an amazing time at the beautiful The Oakland Temple, which feels like home now! (Picture=Sister Aiton and I in front of the temple wearing matching outfits! I always try to match with my companion whenever we go to the temple :))

 

But seriously, this week has been full of miracles and tender mercies from the Lord! I wish I could give you every single detail from this week, but I'll just give you the highlights!

To start out, Tuesday last week we had an awesome zone meeting! As an STL, we get to help teach at zone meeting and last week I taught on conversion and sacrifice. It was a topic that I had been studying a lot before MLC and then they talked a lot about it at MLC so I was very excited to teach it at zone meeting. There are so many amazing stories about conversion in the Book of Mormon! Man, I love that book! I never go anywhere without a Book of Mormon in my hand! One of the stories I used to help teach was the one about the Anti Nephi Lehis when they bury their weapons of rebellion to become more converted. So as an activity, I had pictures of weapons and I had all the missionaries write down a "weapon of rebellion" that they were going to sacrifice or give up in order to become more converted to this gospel and this work. Then I had put a trash can at the bottom of the edge of the stage in the gym and I put a small staircase on the edge of the stage and I had each missionary get up on the staircase and "bury" their weapon in the "hole in the ground". It was epic. Tears were shed, memories made. The spirit was strong! Here's a picture of the zone!

 

So since it was the last week of April last week, we were running low on miles. Our area is huge, we cover some of downtown Fairfield, most of Suisun City, and most of Cordelia. Each of those places I just mentioned are about a ten minute drive from our apartment. And not to mention, as the YSA missionaries in Fairfield, we cover the entire Fairfield Stake for YSA work. But with all that being said, Sister Aiton and I still walked. I love walking because we can contact a lot more people that way, but there are a few roads here that are not meant for people to walk on. Each time we were about to go walking on these roads, we would say a faithful prayer that we would arrive to our destination safely. And guess what? Everytime we were about to walk on these unsafe roads, a member would miraculously appear out of no where and offer us a ride! Everytime! And it wasn't even members from our stake sometimes! One lady was from the Vacaville stake and she was just passing through Fairfield when she said she felt the need to pull off of the freeway and turn down the street we were walking on! Like what?! Prayer is so real! Heavenly Father is so aware of us and keeps us safe! I love it! Tender mercies are real!

Other things that happened this week were(but not limited to), heart attacking members doors who are going through a hard time, doing service at a HUGE horse ranch, going on to the Travis Air Force Base to contact some YSA less actives, picking up a couple new investigators,(woo! Daniel-YSA investigator, and Laura-an excommunicated member who wants to start coming back to church and changing her life around), getting hit on by the cashier at Wal-Mart haha, service at the FoodBank(where we gave a Book of Mormon to Matt-one of the workers there who we all love), eating delicious food from our lovely members each night, having Ally teach the entire Plan of Salvation on her own to her less active mom(it was awesome), singing a hymn in a lesson with a less active couple in the ward(spirit was so strong in that lesson), and many more things! These past 10 days were packed of great things!

 

Sister Aiton and I laugh ALL the time together and we work so well together! I have really enjoyed being her companion! I have really lucked out with all the greenies I've gotten to train! Heavenly Father has placed all these amazing people in my life! I feel so blessed and so grateful for the wonderful people in my life!

 

I hope you all have an amazing week! I am so excited to talk to the family this Sunday for Mother's Day! Woo! It will be my last time skyping home! Next time I'll see you guys will be in person! Ah! Times moving fast! I love you all!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻