Loving Life!

Hi family, friends, acquaintances, pets...haha hi everyone! :) 

What a great week! Full of laughter and hard work! I have never been happier in my life than now as a full time missionary! I'm loving life!

So highlights from this week:

So p day last week was fun! We just met up at a park with other missionaries and played frisbee, soccer, volleyball, and a game called spike ball! Spike ball is really fun! Look it up!

On Tuesday we had zone meeting! Zone meeting is where our zone gets together and our zone leaders and STL teach us. I love zone meetings! We talked about a poem that president wright shared called Our Greatest Fear. It is such an awesome poem! I'll share it with you

Our Greatest Fear 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

Isn't that such a cool poem? We talked about how each of us is given light and talents and that we shouldn't be afraid to share those with others. It was a really good zone meeting! After zone meeting, we had a zone lunch and we celebrated Hermana Campbell's birthday! Also on Tuesday, sister majors and I found a hidden bridge that goes over the freeway. It was a great find haha we always use it now. We took pictures and videos so I'll send those! 

Our lessons with Steve this week went great! We taught him about the Ten Commandments and keeping the sabbath day holy on Tuesday! And then on Thursday we taught him the word of wisdom, law of chastity, and fasting! We were planning on just teaching him the word of wisdom that night, but once we explained it to him, he said that he doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't, drink tea or coffee, and doesn't do drugs. So he said he would live the word of wisdom haha so we taught him a few other things that night! He is understanding everything and preparing to be baptized on August 29th! Pray that he will continue to progress towards baptism on that day! Sadly he didn't come to church yesterday because he is currently restoring an old plane for an air show in the first part of September and he needs to finish it. And Sunday's are his only day off. But hopefully he will make it next week!

We did a lot of service this week! We helped Camilo in his yard this week! Haha Camilo is still crazy, but he came to church yesterday! Just for the sacrament though! But he also fed us missionaries last night! He made us Brazilian bbq :) it was soooo good. We also did service at the Petaluma community garden this week! So every Saturday morning we go there as a zone and help them harvest crops and pull weeds! This week we were in charge of harvesting strawberries and sunflowers! It was so fun! I love it! Also on Saturday, we had a zone blitz! It were we work in someone else's area for two hours and help contact people in their area book! I was with Hermana Gonzalez for the two hours! I love Hermana Gonzalez haha she is hilarious and she is from Argentina! Her parents know the Lucas family! 

Some other highlights from the week, I sang in sacrament meeting yesterday! I sang I Stand All Amazed because I love that song. It turned out well! Also, I made my first post on Facebook as a missionary haha it's a big deal. Haha it's weird using Facebook, I don't like it very much.

But overall, this week was great and I'm loving Petaluma! Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Love always, sister Thompson :) 

On the bridge over CA 101

Entrance to bridge

Petaluma Creamery-really good ice cream!

Harvesting sunflowers

With my own box of Wheaties-Stephen Curry

I Love Sundays!

Hello everyone!!

What a great week! Oh man, I love life! Petaluma California is so great! Beautiful weather and wonderful people! 

So I'll tell you a little bit about the people we meet with here in Petaluma! Now that I've been here for a little bit, I kind of know the area and the people! So our investigators... 

STEVE. Steve is progressing really well! He is 50 years old and he is really into planes. We had a baptismal date set for him for this Saturday but we need to push it back so we can teach him everything! But he is so sweet and loves meeting with us and learning! He wants to be baptized so hopefully that will be soon! 

PAUL. Paul is a 27 year old who use to be a member of the church but was excommunicated a few years back. He decided that he wants to come back to the church so we are teaching him the lessons! He's very blunt but he's hilarious.

CAMILO. So we actually met Camilo on Saturday night! Meeting him was an answer to our prayers. Saturday had been a LONG day and after dinner we just had finding planned. And we did not have to motivation to do anything. So I said a prayer to help me get through the night, then we went to work. We started walking and we get about 10 minutes away from our apartment when all of a sudden a man pops his head out of a window and yells Hey! What church are you from? And we answer back, The Mormon church! And he's gets all excited and invites us over to his garage. He opens up his garage door and there's a ping pong table. He tells us that he has been talking to God and that he knows that we walked by his place because God sent us. He then invites us to a game of ping pong. And how could I say no? We told him that if we beat him, he would have to watch a video we have and listen to what we have to say. So we played ping pong. And we won. Haha so we showed him the Because He Lives video and talked to him about his beliefs. He moved to America in 2000 from Brazil. He isn't married anymore but he has two kids that are 12 and 10 and they're in Brazil for the summer but they are coming back for school. Camilo is VERY outgoing and talk your ear off about everything. Haha we were laughing so hard the whole time because 1) Camilo is hilarious 2) we played ping pong to get a lesson and 3) the whole thing seemed unreal . We invited Camilo to church the next day and he said he would come! After we walked away, sister majors and I just stared at each other for a little bit and then started laughing again because that whole thing just really happened! God had answered my prayer about being able to make it through the night. Meeting Camilo lifted both mine and sister majors spirits and we were able to work hard the rest of the night with enthusiasm!

So those are our investigators right now! But here are some other people we are working with right now!

AMELIA. Amelia was baptized back in May of this year so she is a recent convert. So we are reteaching her all the lessons right now! She is a cute, small 31 year old oriental girl that LOVES learning. She always has great questions and adores the church! She is awesome!

SIS. OLER. Sis. OLER is a sweet older lady that is currently less active. We go and visit her once a week and she loves when we come by! She doesn't come to church because she says it's hard for her to find the strength and motivation to come. But she loves the gospel and loves learning! 

BRO. ROWLEY. Bro. Rowley is a 87 year old man that lives in a assisted living home. He's a member of the church but can't make it to church anymore so we go over once a week and read from the Book of Mormon with him. He is so cute. Haha he cracks jokes with us and loves it when we come by! 

CYNTHIA. Cynthia is a less active that has just recently been trying to come back to church. She's in her 40s and hasn't been to church in 15 years. So we also visit her once a week and teach her! She is a sweetheart and has a desire to start coming back to church! 

So the greatest thing happened yesterday at church....everyone except for one person that I mentioned above came to church!!!!!! Everyone came except for Bro. Rowley! It was so cool! Steve came, Paul came, Camilo came, Amelia came, Sis. Oler came, and Cynthia came!!! And the funniest things happened yesterday too haha so it was Camilos first time ever coming to church and it was fast a testimony meeting. And the first guy that gets up is a boy in our Ward that is leaving on his mission in two weeks and he starts talking about how scared he is but how he knows it's what he needs to do. The guy is getting emotional and Camilo starts crying too. Then all of a sudden, in the middle of this boys testimony, Camilo raises his hand and yells "You got this brother!" Hahaha the boy starts laughing and says thanks. Haha sis majors and I were trying so hard to hold back our laughter! Oh and during the sacrament, Camilo tried picking out the biggest piece of bread because he said he was hungry haha also, I got up to bear my testimony and on my way back down Camilo yells, That's my girl! Hahaha oh man Camilo....haha and then he participated all through gospel principles and priesthood. Haha he is too great! He said he really likes our church and is planning on coming forever haha hopefully we will baptize him soon! 

Some other highlights from the week....sister majors and I decided we were going to bike a couple of days! I LOVE BIKING! We did it for two days straight this week and we absolutely love it! You can talk to so mAny more people when you are on a bike! One downside to riding a bike, I forgot sunscreen. So I got sunburned hahaha i will send you pictures. Nothing too bad, it turned into a tan haha. Also, I'm on Facebook now! So people from back home are allowed to follow me on Facebook but we can't be friends. You can find me as Sister-Kristina Jo Thompson. I don't use it very much, it's mostly just to communicate with members and investigators. But feel free to follow me anyways! I will be posting pictures and status every now and again! 

Well, this week was long, but SO great! I love being a missionary and love this gospel! I love you all! Have a great week! :)

Love always, Sister Thompson :) 

Pics:

Petaluma

 A really cool door bell of a door we knocked on

Someone had a clock in their tree

Me and sis majors

Hermana Campbell and I with our sunburns haha

Sunburn pictures haha

 Some Petaluma missionaries

A picture I took in the car. Petaluma is pretty

All the Petaluma missionaries doing service. Every Saturday morning we

go to the community garden and help harvest food. We got to pick

strawberry a this week :)

Sis majors and I eating subway. Cuz why not?

 Reading scriptures on a swing

And then sis majors and I in the car hahaha I love sister majors!

Petaluma!

July 27, 2015

Hello from PETALUUUUMA(said with a British accent)  :)

Oh man, where to even begin!? I love Petaluma, CA! And the Petaluma 1st Ward is awesome! I already love the people here! Our Ward covers the east side of Petaluma. So everything east of the California 101. I took a screen shot of the ward boundaries on lds.org so I'll send that picture so you can see! But Petaluma is so cute! It actually reminds me a lot of Idaho! On the outskirts of town there are foothills and lots of farm land. It looks a lot like the foothills in eagle! But the weather is a lot different than eagle haha there is ALWAYS an ocean breeze here. And it never gets hotter than about 85 degrees and never cooler that about 50 degrees. I LOVE IT. If you drive like 30 minutes west from Petaluma you hit the ocean. We are planning on going there as a zone soon on PDay! Speaking of that, my zone is great! All the missionaries are sweet! And my companion....LOVE HER. Sister Majors is from Salt Lake City, UT and she is probably the most chill person I have ever met. She's 5'0" and I'm 5'8" so there's a little height difference between us haha but I love her! She is so easy going but she still likes to work hard! We get along great and I'm so excited for this transfer! But it's sad to think that sis. Majors is going home in 5 weeks! She says it doesn't seem real and that the mission went by way too fast. But she's excited to she her family! 

As for the work in this area, we have three investigators right now. Steve, a 50 year old man that has a baptismal date for August 8th! We taught Steve once this past week and he is great! He's very open to learning and we are hoping to get him baptized on August 8th but it might have to be pushed back. But I'm on team Steve. He's going to get baptized soon! Our other investigators I haven't actually met yet haha but we are meeting with one tonight, Paul. He's a 29 year old that was excommunicated but is trying to come back to the church. So we are helping him do that! And then our other investigator is Kathy. I don't know much about her, but they just picked her up as an investigator so she hasn't been taught much! As for the ward, they are so great! I feel like I have been serving here for months already! They are so welcoming! There is A LOT of less active work to be done though. So sister majors and I will be busy this transfer! I'm so excited! 

I have fallen in love with teaching and meeting people! I think that's my favorite part about missions, meeting new people, making new friends, and being able to teach the restored gospel to those people! I just love everything about missions!! I highly recommend serving a mission...haha it's the best. I love you all!

Love always, sister Thompson :) 

Pics from last week:

Mike and Ken!

Mark!

Grandma and Terry(less actives)

Apartment pictures before transfers!( I forgot to tell you! At

transfer meeting president wright got up to talk and he said he felt

like a special musical number so he calls up me, sister Whimpey, and

two elders to sing I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go on the spot! It

turned out really good! But my heart dropped when he said my name!

Haha it was great though!)

My Last Day in Santa Rosa....

Hi everyone! :)

Alright transfer information....I'm being transferred! :( I am going to the San Rafael North Zone and will be serving in the Petaluma 1st Ward! It's about a 45 minute drive south of Santa Rosa. So not too far, but still! I'm so sad to be leaving the brush creek Ward! And I'm leaving sister Whimpey :( that's going to be rough. Sister Whimpey and I have become best friends and I am so sad to be leaving her! She is going to be staying here in brush creek and she's getting a new missionary to train! She's had to train four times now, so she's a pro. But I'm excited for a new area and to meet new people, but I'm sad to be leaving my first area! Mixed emotions right now for sure! My new companion will be Sister Majors. I don't know anything about her except that it's going to be her last transfer on the mission. So I'm killing her (You "die" when you go home and we say your last companion in the field "kills" you). There's one elder in my new zone that I know, Elder Butterfield, so it will be nice to have one familiar face. But other than that, I don't know any of the missionaries I'll be serving around! I think it will be a great transfer though! Can't wait to meet the people of Petaluma! My new address will be

518 Greenbrier Circle

Petaluma, CA 94954

So other than finding out transfers, this week was pretty interesting! We had to go to the hospital a few times this week because one of our investigators, Todd, was in the ICU. He's doing a lot better, just going through a rough patch in life. He's not very close with his family so the nurses said that receiving visits from us really helped him. Also, a less active in our Ward was is the hospital too so we visited her as well. I couldn't help but think of dad every time we walked into the hospital. We walked by the ER every time we visited Todd and it looked pretty crazy in there. I don't know how you do it dad! 

Our investigator Mark is progressing well! He is really starting to recognize the spirit. It's awesome! Every time we meet with him he always brings up the joy and happiness he sees in us and how he wants it. I know that by learning and living the gospel of Jesus Christ Mark can gain that joy and happiness that he so desperately wants! (Oh yeah, to answer your question dad, Mark is from Dededo, Guam). But Mark has yet to come to church...he got a job, which is great, but he's shy to ask for Sunday's off. He said he's going to talk to his boss about it, but we will see! Well, I guess I won't...man, this is weird. I'm leaving! I can't believe it! Our investigator Mike wasn't very happy when he found out I was leaving. He doesn't like transfers. But I hope he continues to make the steps towards baptism while I'm gone! Anyways, other things that happened this week: we did service at the food bank! I love service at the food bank! So fun! Let see, we had dinner with President and Sister Wright Thursday night! I LOVE the Wrights! I think that's something I'm definitely going to miss about this area, is serving so close to the mission president and the assistants. Sister Whimpey and I visited a lot of less actives this week. Some of my favorite people I have met this transfer are the less actives in the Ward. I have learned so much about less active work! I'm so grateful that we are able to teach less actives! I've been taking pictures with a lot of people before I leave so you can see some of the less actives we've been teaching. Man, I'm going to to miss Santa Rosa! Also this week, we went and did service for the family that's moving into our Ward again! We were helping them paint! I was in charge of painting the ceilings! It was great! Haha I got covered in paint though! I love being a missionary! 

One of the hardest things that I've had to face while on the mission is realizing and recognizing all of my weaknesses. It's HARD having to recognize them. I feel like I have so much to work on as an individual. Ether 12:27 would have to be the theme of this transfer, but mostly just the first line, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weaknesses." I've realized the closer that I come to God, the more weaknesses I can see. But I know and love that ether 12:27 doesn't just end with the first line, "...I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men who humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I've had some hard days this past transfer, but I have learned to rely on the Lord and the Spirit during those days. You know the quote "When life gets to hard to stand, kneel." Well I have a testimony of that for sure. There have been multiple times in the past six weeks where I could do nothing but fall to my knees and pray. A mission is fun, but hard. But Heavenly Father knows me. He knows what I'm capable of and what I can handle. I know He allows obstacles to be placed on my path because He loves me and He wants me to grow and learn. 

Man, I love missions. 

I hope you all have the greatest week ever! I can't wait to tell you all about my new companion and area next week! I love you all! :)

Love always, Sister Thompson :) 

At the park!

Santa Rosa north zone!

Peter and Sylvia ( less actives)

Another cool picture

Sister Whimpey and I :)

 A painting that our investigator Gary painted

Me and bro. Holdway ( less active)

With bro. Holdways cat coach. I'm sad to leave

Me and Chris ( less active)

Me and sis. Groesbeck( sis Rays sister!)

Great Week!

Hello family!

Alright, fun fact for the day: if you average 25 prayers a day, and do that for 18 months, that's 13,650 prayers said. If you pray 25 times a day for two years that's 18,200 prayers.

How crazy is that? Sister Whimpey and I were talking about all the prayers we say each day and so we decided to do the math. 13,650 prayers! That's so many prayers! But it's awesome to think about!

This week was awesome! Busy, lots of driving around, but all together a great week! We had a zone meeting this week and it was great! The spirit was so strong in the room as we were taught by the leaders in our zone. I'll explain what happens at zone meeting and why we have them. So each transfer, there's MLC(mission leadership conference) where all the zone leaders and STLs go for the day and learn from the APs and President and Sister Wright. The following week, every zone has a zone meeting where the zone leaders and STL report and teach us what was taught at MLC. It's pretty great. President and Sister Wright are awesome and I love them! I didn't get to write much last week because of time, but I have gotten to spend a lot of time with the Wright family since they live in the ward I'm over! Like I said last week, Sister Wright came out with sister Whimpey and I the first night she was here so we were the first sisters that she met. Then last Sunday, the Wrights had most of the family in town so they invited sister Whimpey and I and the assistants over for a big family dinner with them! It was so fun! I felt right at home because they were all laughing and cracking jokes during dinner. It was so fun getting to know some of president and sister Wrights kids! Sister Whimpey and I have dinner with the Wrights again this Thursday! Speaking of their kids, the 19 year old daughter Amy has been coming out with sister Whimpey and I a lot to lessons! It's awesome! She is so sweet and so fun to be around! And their 17 year old son Max goes out with the elders a lot and he also comes to the church on pdays to play sports with all the missionaries! I think it's so awesome that they get to have the mission experience without actually being on a mission. Super jealous actually, that would have been so cool if that happened before my mission! So dad, if you get called as a mission president, I'm coming with you! Haha

So I love missions. I love being a missionary! We found two new investigators this week!!! Mark and Gary! Mark is what we call ELECT. Where he was definitely prepared by God before meeting with us! He is a 31 year old guy originally from Guam. He's like 5' 2" and he's super witty and he cracks jokes all the time. He's hilarious. Haha He just moved to sant rosa last week and we ran into him while contacting on the streets of downtown Santa Rosa. We were able to introduce the Book of Mormon to him and have a short lesson with him! We left afterwards to go try and visit a potential investigator and as we came back Mark was still outside reading the Book of Mormon! As we walked by, he was like " Hey this is pretty good!" Sister Whimpey and I freaked out when we got back to the car. We were able to meet with Mark four more times during the week! FOUR TIMES in one week!! He is so open to learning and everything we talk to him about makes sense to him! He is progressing so well! He was suppose to come to church yesterday, but he accidentally sleep in....we had a ride set up for him and everything. It broke my heart that he wasn't at church. There's always next week though! And Gary is the other investigator we picked up! He's a 80 year old man that has been everywhere and done everything in life. He's a architect and artist and his house is the coolest house. He has a lot of his artwork up and he designed his house so it's pretty cool. He's open to learning but he keeps saying that he doesn't want to change. But he has allowed us to come over a few times this week and he's excited to learn so we will see what happens with Gary. As for our other investigators, we are meeting with a 50 year old man named Todd. Todd has had a rough life and going through some addiction problems right now but he wants to turn his life around. He came to church yesterday! Which was awesome! But we're not sure how much Todd understands but we will see! Oh guess what? Mike is moving to Sebastopol next month.....he's moving there for work. And I'm super upset about it. But there's missionaries in Sebastopol so he said he's going to keep meeting with missionaries there. I hope Mike can continue to make the steps toward baptism! Also, our investigator Julia had to move this week. It was a rough week for her and she is being forced out of her house. She doesn't have anywhere to go, so we are trying to help her as much as we can right now! On Saturday, we were able to go and help a family move into our Ward! They are fixing up their house first so we got to help paint the inside of their house! There were like ten sets of missionaries there helping! It was so fun! I love this mission!

Overall, it's been a busy week, but I feel like the work is starting to really pick up in the Brush Creek area! I absolutely love being a missionary! But this week is week six of the transfer...so on Friday we find out Transfer Information. I'm scared. I want to stay with sister Whimpey so bad and we just found new investigators! I dont want to leave! But I'll go wherever the Lord needs me. 

Today a bunch of us missionaries are going to a park and having a bbq! We celebrating a few birthdays so it should be fun! Speaking of birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX! Hope you enjoy being one year older and...maybe a little wiser too. ;) anyways, I'm loving Northern California! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love always, Sister Thompson :)