Episode 2:Thompstromsonberg Strikes Back

Hey friends and family!

Guess who has two thumbs and is staying another transfer in Fairfield?

THIS GIRL. That's right! I'm spending 6 months in Fairfield! And the

best part is that I'm staying with Sister Stromberg! Woo! Also, we

think President Wright liked what we did as STLs last transfer because

we are both still STLs but he added another companionship that we are

over! So we are over 10 sisters, which is a lot for this mission.

Normally an STL is over just 1 or 2 companionships! But I am so happy

and so ready for this transfer!

So before I tell you about my week, I have to tell you what Sister

Stromberg and I discovered this morning...we found a place called

Larry's Produce here in Cordelia! It's basically the greatest crowded,

outdoors, farmers market I've ever been to! It made me SO incredibly

happy going there! It's right in the middle of a bunch of vineyards

and green fields! But the produce there is SO cheap! For example,

avacodos are 50 cents each, mangos are $1 each, you can get 4 ears of

corn for $1, and they have basically every kind of vegetable or fruit

you could think of! I know where we will be shopping every Monday this

transfer! Mom and Dad, you would LOVE it!

Ok so my week! Lots of service this week! Tuesday for district meeting

we played games for the last 30 minutes of it haha since it was our

last one for this transfer our district leaders wanted to end with a

bang! So after we discussed Finding, we tried eating donuts off of a

string and played Heads Up church edition! Super fun! We took videos

of us eating the donuts so I'll send that home! The district leaders

all covered the room with balloons so we played with those and took

pictures with them after district meeting! Haha we also did service at

Rush Ranch as a zone on Tuesday! That was super fun! The head

biologist at the ranch had us help organize and clean their

laboratory! Had an awesome lesson with Lora! Also, that night we went

to the Pacheco's and had a lesson with them and then we held rats.

Yep. You read it right. We held their pet rats. And I got pooped on by

a rat. I was laughing so hard! Things you thought you'd never do on a

mission!

Wednesday we did yard work for a part member family in the Cordelia

2nd Ward! I have a new love for yard work haha not sure if it's the

fact that I'm helping others or if I'm outside or that I get to wear

pants, but I love doing yard work! And we do a lot of it as

missionaries! We also saw the Murakamis Wednesday! They are both doing

good! Ally went to youth conference this past weekend and LoVEd it!

Also we went on a secret mission for President Wright at 11:00pm

Wednesday night. We got a call from him at 11pm(we're suppose to be in

bed at 10:30 so we were almost asleep where he called!) and he told us

that we needed to go check on some sisters that we have stewardship

over. So we did. At 11:00 at night. Haha President Wright was on the

phone with us the whole time! But we went and checked on the sisters,

made sure everything was cool, and then drove back home! We took a

selfie in the car at 11:22pm while on the phone with President Wright

haha we felt pretty cool going on a secret late night mission for

President Wright!

Thursday, service at the Foodbank and then we went to the church and

played basketball! We put together a big game for all the missionaries

to bring investigators and less actives to! It was actually super

great! We had a YSA less active named Nick come! Then we had our YSA

correlation meeting that night! We love our new Ward mission leader in

the YSA! His name is Matt and his is hilarious and he has no idea what

he is doing haha but we love him!

Friday, we did more yard work for a less active family! Their backyard

had tons of weeds and dog poop. Haha we did as much as we could for

them! We also had another awesome lesson with Lora! She is doing

sooooooo good! Then we had another lesson with Jason! He is also doing

super well! We had a super spiritual lesson about recognizing and

relying on the spirit to know what God wants us to do. We secretly

think Jason is contemplating whether or not he should serve a

mission....coolest thing ever. He hadn't been to church in years, and

ever since he's been meeting with us he hasn't missed a Sunday! I love

missionary work! Friday night we had a community movie night! We set

up a projector at the church and played Meet the Mormons and all the

missionaries were there with investigators or less actives! It was

awesome! We made tons of popcorn for it!

Saturday, more service for an older lady in our Ward in the morning!

We did planning, a member took us out to eat, and then we smashed

cans. Haha we did service for the Pacheco's Saturday night and we

helped them sort and smash cans and bottles that they have been

collecting for years....they had HUGE piles of cans and bottles in

their backyard. Like up to my waist huge. So we dove right in and

starting smashing and sorting! At one point, we lined up a bunch of

unsmashed cans on their sidewalk and just went to town smashing them!

Haha we took a video! It was such a fun night with the Pacheco's! We

found out transfer information that night and sister Stromberg and I

were soooooo happy to find out we were staying together!!

Larry’s Produce

Sunday was super long haha 10 hours of church! It started at 7am with

Ward council, then Cordelia 1st Ward, then YSA Ward, then a 2 hour

meeting after church with the YSA Ward council to discuss names of

less actives and new move ins! We separated names into piles for each

auxiliary to go visit or make contact with! We got 23 names from that

meeting for us to go visit! SO AWESOME! We love getting names of

people to go visit! We have our work cut out for us this upcoming

week!

We are ready to hit the ground running this transfer! We are going to

work hard and have fun! I love this work and I love this gospel! I

hope you all have an amazing week!

Love always, Sister Thompson🍍

Flag Day, exchanges, Krispy Cream mii mission, Petaluma, etc...

Hello family!

So this week...probably one of the funnest weeks of my entire life! I

love working hard and being busy!

So Tuesday, we went to Vacavilles district meeting, celebrated flag

day haha, and then went on exchanges with the Vacaville sisters! I was

with Sister Free and we worked in Fairfield! It was a fun exchange!

Flag day!

Exchanges with Sister Free

 

On Wednesday, we did lots of service! And then we got news from the

APs that we would be hosting a mini missionary with us for the rest of

the week! Surprise! Haha so Wednesday night we drove to...get this,

this is my favorite part...PETALUMA! My home away from home! Before

the meeting, I stopped by and saw Camilo! It was SO good seeing him

again!! He is doing soooo well! He was preparing for his talk that he

gave yesterday! Oh man, it gave me so much joy knowing that he is

still active and loving this gospel! We went to the meeting at the

Petaluma church and we got a laurel from none other than the Petaluma

1st Ward!!! We got Abby Dame, the bishops daughter! I love the Dame

family so much! I've know Abby for almost a year now, so it was SO fun

having her with us for the week!

Krispy Kream in Vacaville

Thursday, we went on another exchange! We exchanged with the Cordelia

2nd Ward sisters! It was also a good exchange! We exchanged back

Friday at lunch! Saturday we did more service on the base, celebrated

Hermana Bennetts birthday by going to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch,

and then drove back to Petaluma for the evening for a dinner and

testimony meeting with all the mini missionaries and the full time

missionaries! It was so great! And it was so great being back in

Petaluma! Having a mini missionary with us for the week was so fun!

After the meeting, I stopped by the Fifita family on my way out of

town. Oh man...I love that family so much. As soon as they opened the

door and saw it was me, all the kids came running out and tackled me

to the ground. Fusi hugged me for about 5 minutes haha and when it

came time for me to leave, Mya started crying and wouldn't let go of

me. I was so happy I got to see them again! They are doing good. I

told them to keep praying because that's all the kids are allowed to

do. I love them so much.

Our mini missionary

Birthday lunch

With the Harmon family in Petaluma

We had a ton of lessons this week too! Lora is doing so well! She meet

with the bishop for the first time last weekend and she is planning on

getting baptized in about 6 months!! I am so happy and excited for

her!! I love her so much! Shirley is perfect haha literally, she is

the definition of a golden investigator. She has read the Book of

Mormon about 6 times already, she had read the pearl of great price,

D&C, and she is working on memorizing the articles of faith...like

what? She is perfect haha. The only thing is that she only comes to

church about once a month because of her work schedule right now.

Also, remember how I said she was moving to Idaho in November? Well

now she is moving in August so most likely her baptism will be the

first weekend in August!! She going to eagle at the end of this week

to start looking for a house!! Crazy!

At the dinner and testimony meeting Saturday night

This week was so fun and so busy! On Saturday this week we find out

transfer information! This transfer went by wayyyy too fast! I'm

hoping to stay another transfer with Sister Stromberg here in

Fairfield! I love being a representative of Jesus Christ and I love

this work! I always feel so much joy doing this work! I wouldn't want

to be anywhere else right now! I love you all and hope you have an

awesome week!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Yoked in So Many Ways!

June 13, 2016

Hey family and friends!

So this week, I got yoked both physically and spiritually. I'll tell

you the highlights and what I learned this week and you'll understand

what I mean! We had an awesome week!

Tuesday at district meeting is where I got physically yoked haha we

were talking about finding in district meeting and so our district

leaders had the bright idea of playing egg roulette with us. You know,

where you have a carton of eggs and some of them are hard boiled and

some of them aren't? Wellllll, we each had to take a turn and pick an

egg and our companions got to smash it on our heads! Funniest thing

ever. I got a normal egg smashed on me head...but so did Sister

Stromberg so it worked out haha. I guess we didn't "find" the right

egg. We got it on video so I will send it home so you guys can see!

Haha don't worry, we wore home made shower caps and giant tshirts over

our proselyting clothes so they wouldn't get dirty.

We had awesome lessons this week! Lora is doing SO good! She finished

the Book of Mormon last week(she read the whole thing in like 3

weeks!) and she had her first appointment with the bishop yesterday!

Woo! And she's also been attending the 12 step addiction recovery

program each week! She was an AA and NA counselor a while back, so she

loves those types of meetings. But she is progressing so well! I am so

grateful for her! We also were able to have a skype lesson with Zayna

this week! Zayna is a YSA recent convert who is super busy all the

time so we haven't been able to meet with her for a while. But we were

finally able to skype with her this week! She is doing well, she had a

lot of questions for us about things she had been reading in the Book

of Mormon, but we were so happy to help answer then for her! We also

had an AMAZING lesson with Shirley this week! So Shirley is the cute

little philipino lady we are teaching! She works at the hospital here

as a sanitation/food worker and she's doing a internship right now so

she is crazy busy. Anyways, we had a awesome lesson with her and she

finally committed to a BAPTISMAL DATE! Woo! But get this, she is

planning on moving to IDAHO(my pride and joy) in November of this

year! And guess where's she's planning on moving to? Most likely Boise

and she plans on working at the VA hospital there! Do you still work

there dad? If so, that would be the coolest thing to have my dad and

an investigator I taught on my mission work in the same place! But the

story gets better! She wants to wait until her internship here is

almost over to get baptized and she also wants to get baptized on her

moms birthday, so she chose October 31st to be baptized! Now you're

probably thinking, "Cool Sister Thompson, she wants to be baptized on

Halloween. Why is that cool?". I'll tell you why. Halloween has

officially become my new favorite day(besides Flag Day tomorrow. I

love flag day haha ps-shout out to mom and dad! Happy anniversary

tomorrow!) Anyways, last year on Halloween, Camilo was

baptized(probably one of the biggest highlights of my mission). And

this year on Halloween, not only will Shirley be getting baptized, but

that's the day my parents come to pick me up from my mission! So if

everything works out right, mom and dad could be coming to Shirley's

baptism that day! Coolest thing ever! I officially love Halloween

haha.

Here's all of us that play basketball on pdays!

Another cool thing that happened this week has to do with priesthood

blessings! So last weekend, Jean(the Pacheco's life long

friend/roommate) was emitted to the ER. She had to get surgery this

week on Wednesday so she asked for another blessing before the

surgery. Suzie Pacheco was there in the hospital with her as she

received the blessing and then Suzie asked if she could have a

blessing as well. Suzie told us that it was the most spiritual

experience she's ever had. When we visited them later that evening,

Suzie bore a strong testimony to us about how she knows that this is

the true church and how she is going to do everything she can to

become fully active again and make it to the temple. Oh man, the

spirit was so strong! Such an amazing experience!

Sunset and windmills!

We also had interviews with President Wright this week! I love him and

Sister Wright so much! I could talk to President for hours! The

Spanish elders baptism on Saturday night was so good! The song we

performed turned out super well! Everyone was in tears by the end of

it! I love how music can bring the spirit so strongly into a room! We

also had a zone blitz in our area this week. It's where all the

missionaries in our zone work in a certain area for about two hours.

It was really nice being able to have our area blitzed. It needed it!

We also went out finding with our Relief Society President yesterday

afternoon, and we also went to Vacaville last night for a meeting with

the stake president there! Super crazy busy week, but it was soooo

good!

Matching tshirts from Sister Strombergs mom! Haha

A quote and picture that I love.

Marshmallow Mateys at 10:00pm? Why not? Haha

So now how I was yoked spiritually. So as you know, I've been super

busy lately and I was just stressed out of my mind. I felt like I had

many burdens on my back. I confided in a friend in an email about the

struggles I was facing and this was the piece of advice he offered to

me, "The savior stands at the door, and knocks. He knocks hoping you

will let Him take the burden for you. Even if you are trying to carry

others burdens. Just pray. Confide in the knowledge you have of the

savior. Open, when He knocks, and let Him in. Take His yoke upon

yourself. It's easier that way."

As I was pondering what he had said to me, I began to think of the

word yoke. We had been talking a lot about being equally yoked with

our companions in the past couple of weeks. But as I was searching

what it meant to "take His yoke upon us", I realized that I didn't

understand that statement. I understood what it meant to be yoked with

a companion and Christ, but how in the world was I suppose to get the

yoke on me in the first place? I studied Matthew 11:28-30 where the

Savior says, "28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,

and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;

for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your

souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Then I studied Alma 37:43-47 where Alma is talking to his son Helaman

and offers him this council, "45 And now I say, is there not a type in

this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers,

by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of

Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow

into a far better land of promise."

I love how it's says that the words of Christ will carry us beyond the

vale of sorrow. So what are the words of Christ? The scriptures and

words of the living prophets. So I used the nifty difty search bar in

the Gospel Library App and searched the word yoke. I read a couple

general conference talks about what it means to take His yoke upon us.

This statement by Elder Bednar is what really hit home for me, "Making

and keeping sacred covenants yokes us to and with the Lord Jesus

Christ. In essence, the Savior is beckoning us to rely upon and pull

together with Him, even though our best efforts are not equal to and

cannot be compared with His. As we trust in and pull our load with Him

during the journey of mortality, truly His yoke is easy and His burden

is light....As we are yoked with Him through sacred covenants and

receive the enabling power of His Atonement in our lives, we

increasingly will seek to understand and live according to His will.

We also will pray for the strength to learn from, change, or accept

our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change

our circumstances according to our will."

So I'm telling you all of this because I learned a valuable lesson.

Yes, I have burdens and yes, they are heavy. But I have made and I am

keeping sacred covenants. I am yoked with the Savior through those

covenants. I understand His Atonement and that also yokes me to Him. I

had to ask myself, "Ok, am I falling behind and is Christ having to

pull me through my trials? Or am I ahead of Christ, thinking I can do

this on my own? Or am I side by side with Christ, pulling with Him and

being equally yoked with Him?" I realized that the past couple of

weeks, I have been ahead of Christ, trying to handle everything on my

own. But as I took a step back and humbly realized that I have Christ

with me and He is willing to help, the load I was carrying became

bearable. I am grateful for trials and burdens because I now know how

to take Christ's yoke upon me. And now my burdens are light, not gone,

but light.

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Sorry Calendar, *rips off May*, It's June!

Hey family!

I don't know what it is about this transfer, but I feel like I have

the weight of the world on my shoulders right now! This has been the

craziest, most hectic weeks of my entire life! Don't get me wrong, I

love being super busy and I love being a missionary, but I think my

head is going to explode soon from all the stuff that's been going on!

Haha literally mind blown.

Monday was awesome, good PDay and a great Memorial Day! Tuesday is

where the crazy starts haha so like I said last week, I was asked to

teach in the Vallejo Zone Meeting instead of my own, so Tuesday

morning, we car pool down to Vallejo, I get dropped off with the

Vallejo sisters, and my companion and the sisters we car pooled with

drive back up to Fairfield. Zone Meeting was awesome! It was fun being

in a different zone for a little bit! After zone meeting, the Vallejo

sisters and I drove up to Fairfield and we exchanged! So I went back

down to Vallejo with Sister Robinson! Sister Robinson and I were in

the MTC together so it was fun being able to be her companion for the

day! We reminisced in the good old days at he MTC! We were in Benicia

for the exchange, and let me tell you, Benicia is beautiful! So

gorgeous! It's right by the Bay and its this cute little beach town! I

would not mind serving there! We took pictures of the sunset(because

sunsets are my favorite) and because the sun sets right on the water

there! Sooooo pretty! Overall, it was a great exchange! Got to meet

some awesome people and do some fun service down in Benicia!

The Fairfield/Vacaville Zone!...Sister Stromberg is holding up an

embarrassing picture of me so I could be apart of the pictures  since

I wasn't there hahaha

Walking dogs for service in Benicia with Sister Robinson!

Sunset in Benicia! :)

Wednesday around 1pm, we exchanged back in Fairfield! Sister Stromberg

and I went right to another service project right after that and we

spent the whole time just talking to each other and not any of the

other missionaries! Haha Sister Stromberg has become my best friend

and we were away from each other for more than 24 hours, so when we

came back together it was like, "reunited and it fees so good!"

When we were reunited, we went and got Its-It!'s together!

Lunch with the Hullinger girls!

New iPad cases! Mine finally broke after 13 months, so we got matching ones haha

Thursday and Friday were great days also! Super busy and jam packed

days, but so good! We had great lessons this past week with Jason(YSA

less active) and the Murakami's! Both of them are doing great! Sister

Murakami has been feeling a lot better, so thank you for your prayers

for her!

PMS Cookies hahaha Present Mission Stress cookies ;)

Chalking pictures!

Saturday, a member took us out for brunch, the we went to downtown

Fairfield and went chalking as a district! Haha we drew the entire

plan of salvation on the sidewalk! It was fun and we even had a

homeless man come up to us and tell us how he was the only one that

was going to be saved and how we need to pray using the ABCs and how a

microwave just uses brainwaves to heat up food....haha I love people!

We had another awesome lesson with Lora right after that! She's doing

amazing! I love her so much! Then we had song practice. I was asked to

sing at the Spanish Elders baptism this Saturday. So Elder Branson and

I are singing Nearer My God To Thee in SPANISH(haha should be

interesting), elder Matthews is playing the piano, and sister

Stromberg is playing the flute! Should be super good! Then dinner, and

then the adult session of stake conference that night! President

Wright spoke at it and during the middle of his talk and asks me to

join him at the pulpit...oh no, what did I do this time? Haha he just

asked me to explain to the stake how missionaries gain the trust of

members. I gave president wright a hard time afterwards and told him

next time I'm speaking, I'm going to call him up randomly. Haha

President Wright and I have a tight relationship so we can joke around

with each other! I love it! After the meeting, we get a phone call

from Suzie Pacheco telling us that Jean is in the ER. So we grabbed

the closest elders to us and drove to the hospital. We got to the ER

about 5 minutes before visiting hours were over(tender mercy). Jean

was able to receive a blessing and we were able to help cheer her up a

little bit. I love the Pacheco's so much! We stopped by the Pacheco's

home afterwards to report what was going on. Suzie was so grateful for

us and for the elders. We were all in tears by the end of the visit. I

love those kind of moments. It makes all the craziness worth it.

Yesterday was Stake Conference! Lora came, Jason came, and the

Murakami's came! Sister Stromberg and I had to split up so we could

sit with everyone! Elder Jorge F. Zeballos of the seventy came to our

stake to speak to us! I got to shake his hand and talk to him like

four times. It was awesome! Haha he is hilarious! So stake conference

was awesome, but right after it, we found out that some of the sisters

we were over have been having a super rough time lately. So we talked

to them for a while, and then we talked to President and Sister Wright

for a while(they spoke at stake conference also). We came up with a

plan on how we could help the sisters more. Later that evening, we had

dinner with the Mix's! We had quesadillas for dinner(only my favorite

thing in the world. And get this, they had a professional quesadilla

maker. Like what? That's going on my Christmas list this year.) Then

we went to the church and had song practice. Then for the rest of the

evening, Sister Stromberg and I were basically running around the

whole city trying to help these people, then going to help someone

else, then dropping things off, trying to plan things for PDay,

everyone was calling us, asking us to do things, make sure this thing

is done, asking us questions...we came home later that night and just

sat on the couch and stared at each other. Both of our minds were

fried. Haha so I go to take a shower(because showers usually make me

feel better) but as soon as I stepped out of the shower last night, I

step right on a bug and it squished underneath my foot....haha at this

point I couldn't help but laugh. With everything that had happened

that day and this past week, that was the perfect was to end my week.

But then I came back into the room to find my companion on the phone

with the zone leaders asking us to do some more things and to fix a

couple problems....this is where I face planted on my bed and tried to

hide from all my problems. But I quickly said a prayer and that made

everything better :) Haha gotta love being a busy missionary!

This up coming week we have exchanges in Vacaville, interviews with

President, a zone blitz in our area, performing at a baptism, most

likely another exchange, and trying to balance two wards and all our

investigators! Haha should be another crazy, good week!

This week has been hard for me at times, but I know where I can turn

for peace. I know that prayer is real and that Heavenly Father is

aware of each of us! I love this work and I wouldn't want to be doing

anything else at this time! I hope you all have an amazing week! Happy

June!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Selfie Sunday round 2? Haha

Cordelia wind is real haha