The past two weeks

I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks and wasn't able to send an email last P Day. I have my journal with me so I will summarize what happened each day.

2/25: I had my first exchange. I went over to be in 2nd ward boundaries with our ZL Elder Diedrich. He's from Utah. He's been out almost 21 months and has had many cool experiences on his mission. Most of the day we tried getting his driver's license and tracting. I then learned a little about a ZLs job and got to account with all the DLs and STLs with him. After I got settled in the ZLs apartment that night, we stayed up for a while after 10:30 just talking in our beds about all sorts of stuff.

2/26 In the morning, Elder Diedrich and I met with my comp and Elder Lewis, the other ZL and we helped a member move their stuff out of their home in the AFB into a storage unit. We got ready for our district council and the exchanges ended. That night we went to the YMCA for the first time and played a ton of basketball. We met many people who were a little curious about what we do as missionaries and what our church is like.

2/27 We helped build another ramp in the morning. It's fun to go every week and be around many different people who go to different churches and have the same goal in mind to serve those around them. We had an early dinner/late lunch at the Cogdell's. We go there every week. Kenneth Cogdell served in the Lodi mission way back in the seventies and Alex Cogdell, his son served in the Sacramento mission around 2005, but he was only in Elk Grove for about 3 weeks. It was fun talking to them about California, and especially how much we love In N Out. We wen to Highway 55 for a late dinner that night which is a diner-type restaurant with the theme of cars and music and such from the seventies. It has probably the best burger around here but it still isn't West Coast quality.

2/28 We ran out of miles so we had to bike to and from the church. We walked from the church to McDonald's and a lady we'd never seen stopped her car, handed us $20, and said it was for lunch. Most of the nonmembers here respect us and what they do, they just aren't interested in our message or changing churches.

2/29 I believe is missed writing that day

3/1 We shared our testimonies on fast Sunday because we're the new missionaries. Some members in Sunday School got way off topic and discussed real deep doctrine stuff that got really out of hand.

3/2 P-Day, just a bunch of Spikeball and Basketball

3/3 We went back to the old folks home again to play more games with them for service and then got new shoes for me before we went to the YMCA to talk to more people. We are making so many friends at the Y that enjoy talking to us and sharing their beliefs and learning about ours. 

3/4 We had zone council in a very interesting way. Each district met together in their respective buildings, but we all were on a video call together so the whole zone would be there. At district council, we made a goal of 1 baptism this month, which will hopefully help our mission goal of 32 this month. We went to McDonald's afterward and met a guy outside who said he was struggling in life and looking for help and wanted to hear how we could help him.

3/5 We had interviews with President Holland in the morning and he gave us different advice and counsel on how to be better missionaries and increase our productivity. At the old folks home, one of the able-minded residents told us a pastor that had been coming in, who we were nice to and listened to for a bit, was talking bad about us behind our backs. She said she was so sorry and that none of the residents liked him for that. The pastor and a country band were scheduled for the same time that day, and everyone went in to listen to the band instead of him, I thought it was pretty funny. We heard many different country and gospel songs from the band which was awesome. 

3/6 A majority of the day we spent at Bro. Gray's house helping him reshingle the roof. As we were working, we talked a lot about professional and college basketball, how he is a big Lebron fan, and that although he's always a Tar Heel, he enjoys BYU and will always support Jimmer through thick and thin. We played again at the YMCA, and we met a guy who was really good friends with the Briggs family in our ward. He said he's gone to church before, been taught and attended other church events. He said he loved how our church was nice to everyone and the members didn't force anything, he just liked his church more. We've continued to talk to him and he said he even wants us to come play sometime with his rec team and meet everyone.

3/7 We played bingo again at the old folks home. After we played we talked to Ruth, an inactive resident who loves us and the church, and set up a time to do come follow me with her. The rest of the day was intermingled with playing basketball, meeting more people, and preparing my talk for the next day.

3/8 I gave my talk in sacrament meeting and everyone said they enjoyed it. I talked about how to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and different ways to gain the attributes of Christ. I felt the spirit strongly as I spoke and shared my personal experiences of becoming a true disciple of Christ. We had an insane experience tracting! We got to a door in a row of townhomes, and heard foreign music from inside. Most of the time weird music is Hispanic and we wait for the Sisters/Hermanas to stop by and knock their door. I felt prompted though to knock. A man opened the door, who was darker-skinned. We asked him where he was from, and he said Haiti. Elder Toso asked if he knew Creole, and he said yes. They had a couple sentence exchange in Creole, then Elder Toso asked if he knew French. The man said yes. My companion said I spoke French, which scared me at first, but as the man spoke to me in French, I felt the spirit overcome me and calm me, so I could understand him and say what I needed to say. From what I could remember and understand, he said his first language was French, I told him I studied for four years in California, he said he spoke English, French, Creole, and some Spanish. He figured we were Mormons and from the church when he saw our name tags. He said I was speaking and communicating well in French, he talked about past experiences he had in France with missionaries, the Book of Mormon, and the church. He said he'd love to talk to us more, but he was about to wash his car, and his week was pretty busy. I finally agreed to meet with him next Sunday. That whole exchange was in French and I'm still amazed about what I heard and said. I know that because I had faith, I was able to have the spirit guide me to remember what I had previously learned to communicate with him.

I know that if we act in faith and trust in God, he will bless us in so many ways that we might not be able to imagine as we go about and serve him and try to better ourselves.

-Elder Thompson