Hi Family!
This past week literally flew by. It's crazy! Time is moving faster
and faster and I trying to make it slow down! But we had a awesome
week over here in the Rincon Valley Ward! Here are some of the
highlights from my week!
We had an awesome family night with the Coons last week! We went and
got frozen yogurt together and then we had a super good lesson
afterwards! So Corey, the mom, is a recent convert so we usually go
over every Monday night to help her with family night. We taught the 6
year old McKenna how to pray. We played a cute prayer game with her
and tried explaining how to pray, but it was going no where haha. She
was just all over the place that night! So I decided to sing her a
song about how to pray, and it worked like a charm. Every time I would
start singing, she would immediately calm down and sit right next to
me and just listen. I taught her how to sing the song herself so she
can always remember how to pray! Music has a way to all hearts,
whether old or young! I love it!
Tuesday night was busy haha so busy that we had to go on splits with
members! We had been asked like three weeks ago to help out with a
mutual activity that night, and then one of our recent convert
families told us that Tuesday night was the only night available for
them for a lesson, so we split up and covered both! I was with Amie
Wright and we went to the mutual activity and Sister Porter went with
Sis. Bingham to the lesson! Both things turned out super well!
The tech elders were making an Office parody video, so obviously they
needed a stapler in jello! Haha by the end of the day it didn't look
to good anymore.
We did service at the Foodbank on Wednesday, which is always a good
time. We also had a super good lesson with John, the older Asian man
that is mentally handicap that was baptized last year! He is seriously
one of my favorite people ever haha he is just the sweetest guy! We
talked more bout the temple and doing baptisms for the dead! He is
super pumped to be able to go to the temple soon! Thursday we did
service at Meals on Wheels, which is probably my favorite service
ever. We go and help cook food for them to deliver to either
retirement homes, homeless shelters, or any other place that has
people that need food. We get to wear lab coats, aprons, hair nets,
and gloves as we cook the food so you can just imagine a group of
missionaries dressed like this, running around a giant kitchen/cooking
area, chopping, mixing, or cooking food! It's so great!
We had a lesson with Sister King this week. She is an older widow in
the Ward that we go over to once a week and read the Book of Mormon
with her. She hilarious haha we get along super great! We also had a
lesson with Mayson on Thursday night! So Mayson is a 17 year old kid
who was baptized earlier this year! He is such an awesome guy! We
drove up to his house with Sis. Van Cleave and had a really good
lesson with him about the importance of CPR(church, pray, read). He
lives about a 30 minute drive up a mountain so the view from his house
was incredible! I could have spent all day there just looking at the
view! I took a picture, but it doesn't do it justice. We had his
lesson out on his back porch so the picture I'm sending home is what
our view was while we were teaching him. So cool. I fall in love with
Nor Cal more and more everyday!
On the way up to Maysons house!
The view from his back porch!
Most of this week we spent inviting less actives to our Ward BBQ which
happened Friday night! And a lot of the people we invited actually
came! We had an awesome turn out for the BBQ! Even sis. Rowlands
nonmember husband came! Which was awesome! And Corey's nonmember 16
year old son came and brought a friend! Oh and get this! Bro. and Sis.
Koehle(an older German couple in our Ward) came up to me at the BBQ
and told me that they had just gotten back from a family reunion in
Utah last week and guess who else was there?? Grandma and grandpa
Thompson!! Sis. Koehle is Grandma Thompson's first cousin! So I'm
related to the Koehles! Haha we call each other cousin every time we
see each other now! Haha I'm just finding connections all of the place
in this Ward!
Elder Parker and Elder Solo
I was at MLC all day on Friday which I LOVE. I love hearing from
President and Sister Wright and the assistants! It's crazy how often I
see them now that I'm serving here in Santa Rosa! I also got to see
Sister Stromberg at MLC, it was a great reunion haha. I miss her a
lot! Overall, MLC was super good and now I am preparing a section to
teach at zone meeting on Tuesday! I'm super pumped for it because I'm
talking about the scriptures! Only my favorite books in the world!
Sister Wright really wants us to focus on memorizing scripture
references for each of the 42 principles in preach my gospel! So I
will be playing a bunch of game with the missionaries to help us
memorize scripture references! I'm pumped!
We had a super good lesson with David Rowland Saturday night! We
taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ but we made an activity out of
it so he could remember it better! I call it The Gospel Steps
activity. You basically have six piece of paper, one that says the
celestial kingdom, one says faith, another repentance, baptism, the
gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. You have one person
stand on one side of the room and they hold the celestial kingdom
sign. David and I were on the other side of the room and we had to
make the necessary steps to get to the celestial kingdom! So with each
step, we explained what it was to him and them had him explain it back
to us, then we gave him the sign that corresponded with that step and
then he could take another step towards the celestial kingdom. We did
this until we got to the celestial kingdom and then we had him go back
and see if he could do and say all the steps on his own! It turned out
super well and he could do it on his own by the end!
Yesterday we had dinner with the Groesbeck family! I love them all to
death haha we were laughing so hard the whole time! We also had the
stake presidency meet and greet last night! It was fun getting to know
the stake presidency! Today for PDay the Coons are taking us to
Armstrong Woods! It's a redwood forest about 40 minutes away! I'm so
excited!
I am loving every second of being a missionary. Last night at the meet
and greet, the high councilman over missionary work said something
that I loved. He said, "Missionaries are promised by the Lord that if
you serve diligently and give it your all, you are promised all the
blessings of this life and in the eternities. All the blessings you
could ever need are yours if you serve faithfully to the end. So you
could serve and give a half effort to the work and receive only half
the blessings. Do you elders and sisters only want half the
blessings?" We all simultaneously said no. "Then don't serve with only
half of your heart in the work. Don't serve with only a 50% effort in
the day. Give it your all, all day every day and you will receive all
the blessings the Lord has promised to you. All the blessings of the
eternities."
I love that. So many blessings will come to those who serve faithfully
and diligently, so why would you not serve with all your heart, might,
mind, and strength? Who doesn't want the blessings of the eternities?
I know I do, so I will continue to serve with all my heart, might,
mind, and strength to the very end! I love you all so much! I feel
your prayers and the support you give to me! Have an amazing week!
Love always, Sister Thompson🍍
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