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Monday, May 30, 2016

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 🌻

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

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




Monday, May 16, 2016

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


Monday, May 9, 2016

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 🌻

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

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 🌻