I Heart Northern California

Hello everyone! :)

So this week was great! Bitter sweet because it was Sister Majors last week but it was still a good week! We are actually going to Santa Rosa today to drop her off at the mission office! Which means I get to see my old area! I'm excited for that but I'm super sad to be saying goodbye to Sister Majors and Sister Whimpey today. Man, that's going to be rough. I don't like goodbyes!

So to start off, I will tell you what's happening with transfers! Sister Majors is going home, I'm staying here, and I have been called as a trainer!! I'm going to be follow up training Sister Jordan! So that means I'm going to be a dad and have a son! Haha I'm really excited for this opportunity to train but I'm also kind of nervous! I still feel like I'm brand new to the mission and that I should be the one being trained! But I guess the Lord thinks I'm ready! So here goes! Pray for me!

We went to the beach last PDay! It was SO fun! We went to Limantour Beach which is close to Point Reyes. It's about a 45 minute drive from where we live! We went as the San Rafael North Zone and we met up with the San Rafael South Zone there! It was so fun! We put our feet in the water, made sand castles, played frisbee, football, spike ball, laid out in the sun, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather! It reminded me a lot of Southern California actually! The water and weather has been a lot warmer than normal lately, so it was a great day at the beach! I'll send pictures!

Also this week, I got to help shear sheep and goats! Haha funniest thing ever! I learned that Im not very skilled at wrangling sheep and goats! And that they make really funny noises haha it was so fun though! We went to Sister Flemmings house(she lives in Rohnert Park) and we helped her for the morning. The goats were hilarious to herd and watch. We didn't actually do the shearing, they hired a professional for that, but we were in charge of getting them and herding them. The elders had a fun time tackling the goats that were escaping. I didn't feel like I was in California that morning! Haha you don't really think of goats and sheep farms when you think of California! 

We also helped out at Bear and Terri's again! We go and pull weeds for about two hours every Thursday morning! I love it! Service is one of my favorite things as a missionary! Terri's mom was there, we call her Nanna, and she is just the funniest older lady you will ever meet! Haha she's not a member of the church, but she loves the missionaries! She gives each of us a nickname, I'm Tommy :) haha she took us all out to eat after weeding to AppleBees. It was great! I love Bear, Terri, and Nanna so much! They are too great!

We spent a lot of time going around saying bye to people this week since sister majors is going home, but our lessons that we did have this week were awesome! So let's talk about Steve!!! Oh my goodness gracious, the church is true! Haha we met with Steve as a recent convert this week and let me tell you, you can tell a difference. The spirit literally emanates from him! He sounds like he has been a member his whole life! He told us a couple stories of how he has been hearing a little voice in his head that has helped guide him and protect him ever since he was baptized and confirmed! It's incredible listening to someone describe hearing and feeling the Holy Ghost for the first time! I was in tears by the end of the lesson because the spirit was so strong and my heart was full of joy for Steve! He ended up bearing his testimony during the closing prayer where he said that he knows the church is true and that Joseph smith is a prophet of God. Ahhhhh! I'm just so happy for Steve and for this gospel and just everything! I love life!!

We'll know that I am doing great and I'm excited for this next transfer! I love this Ward I am serving in right now so I'm really happy that I am staying! I am also really excited for this opportunity I have to train and serve sister Jordan! I just love this gospel and the happiness and joy it brings! Hope you all have a great week! :) 

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

Beach pics

Making a sandcastle with Elder Butterfield

Duck pond we found

At bear and Terri's, Nanna made us wear hats haha I gave mine away

for the picture

Sheep shearing time

We caught a little lizard inside the church! 

with Bro. Rowley

Me and Clayton Horner! The Horner family is the cutest and their

little kids are adorable! I love this Ward! 

And I got the Southern California package! Absolutely LOVED it! Thank you!!

So Guess What?

So guess what....?

STEVE GOT BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED!!!!!

The baptism was awesome! It happened at 11am on Saturday and a lot of members showed up to support Steve! Steve was so excited and he said he felt so at peace afterwards and he said he felt clean. The spirit was so strong in the room! I saved a couple of programs from the baptism so I'll send one home so you can see it! I'm so proud of Steve and his decision to be baptized! I know Heavenly Father is proud of him too! Steve was also confirmed in church yesterday! Steve showed up to church wearing a newly bought suit! Haha that was the first time any of us had seen him dressed up! He talked to us after church and he said he felt so good and that he feels different. He said he is so happy! AHHHHHHHH! I love missionary work! The scripture that says "how great will be your joy if you bring one soul unto me"....it's true. Haha I'm so happy! I'm so grateful for the spirit, for the scriptures, for preach my gospel, and for this Ward! What a great weekend!

Oh and church yesterday! SO GOOD! So to add to Steve's confirmation, Camilo brought his two kids to church for the first time! He has a 12 year old daughter named Anna Sophia and a 10 year old son named Antonio! They are awesome kids and they loved church! When church started, I looked around me and there was Steve, our new recent convert, Camilo and his kids, a family that is going to be baptized soon(hopefully), Amelia, another recent convert, Cynthia, a less active, and many Ward members that I feel like they are family! I started to tear up during sacrament meeting because my heart was overflowing with love and gratitude. I can't even explain our grateful I am for this opportunity to serve. I love this work!

After church, we walked over to Camilos and got to know his kids a little better! We taught them a short lesson about our purpose as missionaries. Camilo bore his testimony to his kids about what the gospel has done for him in his life. He talked about how happy he is and how much peace he feels in his life since he started meeting with us.(we've only taught Camilo the restoration and the first half of the plan of salvation, nothing else yet.) his testimony was so sweet and it really hit home for his kids. They all said they were going to come to church every Sunday!!

Well, that's about it for this weeks email! It's only been about four days since I lasted emailed haha but know that I am doing great! We find our transfers this week on Friday so we will see what happens! Hopefully I stay here because I love this Ward I'm in! But I will let you know next week! I love you all!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻

We helped paint a day care center! So we played with the toys and

outfits while doing it haha 

Steve's confirmation

Hahahahahaha Camilo gave us three of his work jumpsuits as a gift.

Hahaha we loved it! 

Steve's baptism

Steve's baptism 

Elder Reeder from Nampa. He took my name tag, so we had to take a picture. haha

Hermana Gonzalez took that picture of me...pretty much sums up my

mission. PURE JOY

Great Ten Days!

HELLO! :)

Oh man, so much has happened in the last 10 days! I don't even know where to begin?!? Sike. I do know where to begin...

STEVE IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!

We were teaching him last Tuesday and he was saying how excited he was to be baptized, so we moved his baptism date up a week! So Steve is getting baptized this Saturday the 22nd!!! We have everything planned and we are so excited for Steve! I will send pictures on Monday!!

Let's see...what else happened...oh yeah! I'm in a trio now! Sister Jordan is now sister majors and I companion! Sister Jordan companion was suppose to go home in two weeks, but some family stuff was happening so she left early. So sister Jordan came with us! Sister Jordan has only been out a month on the mission and she's from Wahoo, Nebraska! We have a fun time when she says that haha but she's awesome! So we are in a trio for the last two weeks of the transfer! Sister Jordan will most likely be going back to her old area at the end of the transfer. I can't believe sister majors is going home in two weeks...it doesn't seem real. I'm going to miss her!!

We picked up two new investigators in the last ten days! Nancy and Fred! They are both former investigators that stopped meeting with the missionaries about two years ago. We went over to Nancy's last week and she was more than happy to see us! She said she stopped meeting with missionaries because of personality conflicts with one of the sisters, but that she really likes what we share! She agreed to letting us start coming over and teaching her again! And Fred we met with for the first time last night! He is SOLID. He knows a lot about the church because missionaries have been coming by for the past eight years. He said he hasn't felt that this gospel was for him, so I asked him if he's prayed about it and asked God if this is what He wants him to do. He said no, and that that's probably the reason why he hasn't felt like it was true yet. We invited him to pray and he said he would. So hopefully he will know and feel that this is for him!

Let's see, other cool things that happened...we had zone conference on Friday last week! I LOVE zone conference! It's where president and sister weight and the APs come and teach us! I absolutely adore the Wrights! I have missed serving around them! They talked a lot about becoming a consecrated missionary and studying the scriptures. The Book of Mormon has become my favorite book in the entire word. I was able to finish it this past week for the first time on my mission. I can't even begin to explain the love that I have for the Book of Mormon! I don't know if it's because I'm set apart as a missionary or that I'm putting more effort into my studies, but I am able to understand the Book of Mormon and its stories a lot better than before my mission! There is SO much we can learn from it! I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true and that it was written for us in these days. I love being able to share the Book of Mormon with everyone because I know the happiness it can bring to them! I want to challenge anyone who reads this to mark your favorite scriptures In a Book of Mormon and hand it out to someone. Explain to them that you marked some scriptures in it and leave them with your testimony of it! Let me know how it goes!

On Friday night, the Rohnert Park chapel was showing Meet the Mormons so we invited Amelia(our recent convert) and Steve to come! We were able to watch the movie with them and talk with them about it afterwards! They both loved it! Not going to lie, I totally cried when it showed the guy opening and reading his mission call...it literally seems like that was last week for me! Times flies!

Saturday last week, us and the hermanas went chalking! It's where you draw the plan of salvation on the side walk at a park with chalk! Haha it was so fun! We took pictures and videos of it so I will send those!

Church was good this week! Steve came and Camilo! Camilo is doing great! He agreed to stop drinking on Tuesday of this week so we will see how that is going! His two kids are home now so we will get to meet them soon! I'm so excited! Camilo said he is going to bring his kids to church every week so that's pretty cool! Haha Sister majors and I took a video with Camilo last week so I will send that so you can see what he is like haha he's great. 

We went on exchanges on Tuesday this week! Sister Jordan and I went with Hermana Gonzalez in her area, so we got to practice our Spanish for the day haha I'm pretty good at contacting people in Spanish but after that I don't know where to go. I can understand what they are saying but I have no idea how to answer back in Spanish! Haha I'll work on it! 

And to end the great ten days we just had, we got to go to the Oakland temple this morning as a zone! Oh man, I love the Oakland temple! We had Bear and Terri drive us to the temple. Bear and Terri are a couple in our Ward! Terri was a less active for most of her life but has just recently, like in the past year, come back to the church. Her husband, Bear, began investigating the church and was baptized a little over a year ago! That's what really got Terri coming back to church! But about two months ago, Bear and Terri went through the temple for the first time and received their endowments. So today was only about the third time at either of them had been to the temple! They are both so sweet and I just love them so much! We go and do service at their house every Thursday morning and they LOVE the missionaries! Haha Terri calls us her babies. It's great haha. But I will send pictures from the temple and videos from the temple trip today!

Know that I am doing great and loving everything! My testimony grows stronger and stronger everyday and I am learning more and more everyday! I love this gospel, I love this work, and I love my savior! I hope you all have a great week!

Love always, Sister Thompson 🌻
PICS

Me and elder Olson! I served around him my first two transfers and

he's going home in two weeks! He's from Spanish fork and totally knows

savannah haha ask if she knows a Dylan Olson?

The girls at zone conference! With sister wright!

After meet the Mormons with Steve! Haha sister Jordan is wearing

steves cowboy hat

Sister majors and I :)

A picture from chalking!

Temple trip

Hogwarts Circle!

Cool picture I took of my name tag and I ring I have. Always a sister :) 

We tried finding a potential in the middle of nowhere...haha so we

took pictures on the way! The foothills of Petaluma! 

A picture from exchanges last week! Sister Holguin, majors, Gonzalez and I 

A pretty sunset while Tracting :) 

In the car 

Hog warts Circle haha 

A giant moth outside our apartment!