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 🌻