Only Happy When it Rains 10/15/2022

 There was a lot to unpack from this last week, and at times the first sign of rain and cool weather seemed to be the only thing to look forward to. However, we continued to push through the negativity and doubt to find hope through Christ. 

 

Tuesday we had the chance to teach a couple of great member friends Christian and Jacob. The first treated us to Smoothie King and the second took us to Texas Roadhouse. We ate really good that day, and had some really awesome spiritual feasts with the members as well.

 

We didn't have our usual district council on Wednesday since zone conference was this week, so instead, we uses the day to do a lot of planning and a lot of street contacting and tracting. 

 

Zone conference happened on Thursday and of course it was amazing. We talked a lot about building our own faith as well as the faith in our investigators. It really helped us a lot and answer some of our questions we had for our friends. Elder Van Wagoner and I went on exchanges that evening and we went to the Larsons for dinner then to institute. All the YSA loved having him back for the evening. 

 

The next morning and afternoon we got to do our food truck service again, and afterward we exchanged back. In the evening, only a couple youth showed up for volleyball, so the sisters and us did our best to make it fun for them. Sadly, Julia texted us in the evening saying she is gonna be shipped off in November, and since she still hasn't been to church, it'll be extremely difficult to get her baptized before she leaves. 

 

Saturday morning we were rushing all over Friendswood and Pearland, trying to get a hold of a baptismal suit for the sister's baptism. We attended the baptism along with our friend Patrick, and he made a point of telling everyone how excited he also was to get baptized soon. We had another lesson with our member Christian that evening because he had a lot of questions for us so he could help teach his nonmember friend. Late that night, Patrick texted us that he had some concerns, along with an article of anti he had found. We scheduled to meet with him before church so we could answer all his questions.

 

Sunday morning, Patrick called and said he'd rather get his questions answered over the phone, since he didn't feel like he wanted to come to our church anymore. That was crushing, but he said he'd still like to hang out and come to activities, so maybe he'll open up as he comes to more and more church events. Church was good enough to make up for how difficult our friends were being the past couple of days, and we had a super fun mission prep class to cap off the evening.

 

We went to NASA as a district for pday, which was super awesome. I wish I'd gotten more pictures, but now I have an excuse to go again. We went on a tram tour which took us around the campus which was super cool. We saw a full-scale mockup of the ISS where the astronauts train how to navigate the space station, a couple robots in development that will help the astronauts in space, and Rocket Park, where some older rockets sit on display, including a full Saturn V rocket which was used to take astronauts to and from the moon. It was a lot of fun going there and I'm glad I got the chance to do it as a missionary. That evening at FHE, my companion and I's team crushed it at pictionary, so that was cool. 

 

It's been another really interesting week, lots of highs and lows. It's just the way being a missionary is and what joys and sorrows come as a servant of the Lord. I'm grateful for every aspect of it.

 

-Elder Thompson

Dive 10/8/2022

 Its been another interesting week, hence why my weekly covering the last week is so late. 

 

Tuesday we got to meet with our member Christian in the afternoon, and had our final meeting with our branch mission leader Mike at his house over dinner since he has just been released.

 

Wednesday was district council as always and afterward, we got to meet with our pretty awesome convert Richard. In the evening, we went with our member Moroni and his friend Jake to dinner and they showed us all their guitars, a couple of which I got to play.

 

We had lunch with our friend Julia who's on date for baptism and her sister Thursday at Joe's Crab Shack, which was pretty close to the Kemah boardwalk. There was some pretty nice ocean views over there. We did our weekly planning in the afternoon and had a great time with everyone at institute in the evening. 

 

Elders Van Wagoner and Rowley surprised us Friday afternoon with a pass off lesson. We met Patrick at Buc-ee's, who then led us to the nearby Buddhist temple. There we taught him about baptism and the gospel of Jesus Christ and put him on date for the 29th. He is super awesome and super excited to be born again and draw nearer to the Savior. That evening both the sets of Clear Lake missionaries joined us and the youth for volleyball again. I may or may not have gotten a little too into it and scraped up my elbow and knee pretty bad. It was kinda funny to see the youth and their leaders come up to me one by one came up to tell me I was bleeding like I didn't already know. I think they were more concerned for my mental health than my physical health through the way I was playing.

 

We watched the first two sessions of Saturday General Conference at the Alvin institute building, and had food and played games in between and after sessions. In the evening, we just watched the final session of the day at our apartment.

 

Sunday we watched the first session of General Conference at the church with Mike, and went to the Larsons for crepes and to join them for the last session. General Conference was amazing again as always and another cool opportunity to experience as a missionary.

 

Zone Pday was this week, and we had a pancake breakfast and played a ton of volleyball along with at some point a big game of clue. We make a really interesting craft at FHE in the evening which I have to say I'll probably end up burning mine.

 

This week was pretty awesome and was extra spiritual since we had General Conference and more importantly someone's desire to come closer to Jesus Christ through the covenant at baptism.

 

-Elder Thompson 

Quiet 10/1/2022

 It's been a very mellow and smooth yet very productive week. It seemed to flow ever so nicely. 

 

Tuesday we had the chance to talk to a lot more people at our table we set up at UHCL. Lots of people were at least nice enough to talk a tiny bit with us, and we got a good number of people's information.

 

District council was as good as ever on Wednesday, and in the afternoon we made lots of attempts to get in contact with those we are teaching nearby. In the evening we got to go to the Leons for dinner, who made some of the best homemade tacos and quesadillas.

 

In the morning Thursday we stopped by the library to see if our friend was working there, then browsed for a quick sec. It's been ages since I've been inside or even thought of going to a library. We did our weekly planning afterward and got to go to institute yet again.

 

On Friday, we had the awesome opportunity to spend time with Moroni, and meet his coll nonmember friend Jake. We went and got drinks, had dinner, played Friendswoodopoly, and of course, shared a nice spiritual message. Moroni and Jake took us around getting drinks and food in a brand new Dodge Ram TRX, which was sick and when we're over there again I'll need to remember to get a picture of it.

 

Saturday was basketball again at the church in the morning. In the afternoon a few of our lessons canceled which was a bit disappointing. In the evening though, we did get to have dinner and a lesson with Matt and Bremmen at their new place. 

 

Sunday was a really good day with fast and testimony meeting as well as a linger longer. We also had the chance to go with the Vergarays to chat with Chase and give him the sacrament. That night was come follow me which was pretty nice to have again. 

 

We went to fruity party island again for lunch on Monday, and then went to play spikeball at the volleyball pit at the sister's complex. We stopped by our church on the way home from Galveston and said hi to the clear lake district. FHE was really fun, we played water balloon battleship. 

 

All in all, it was for the most part a quiet week, but a successful one nonetheless.

 

 

Hard Sun 9/24/ 2022

 It's the end of summer and beginning of fall, but the heat and sun are still just as intense as ever. Hopefully in the next few weeks, things start to settle down. It's also taken me way too long to get this email out.

 

On Wednesday after district council, we had to drive from Galveston to Sugar Land to the mission office, for a new monitoring system in our car. That trip was an hour and a half then getting back to our area was another hour, so that day pretty much all we did was drive. 

 

We had a lesson Thursday with Julia, who took us to Tookie's burgers in Kemah, and we were joined by our nonmember friend Ashley. It went really well and both are on their way to being baptized soon. We went to the Roofners for dinner, who are members in the Alvin ward, and then went to institute that evening. 

 

Friday we got to do our food truck service again, and deep cleaned our apartment afterward to get ready for the new transfer. We taught our member friend Jesus, then came back to our church building to play volleyball with the Clear Lake youth. 

 

Saturday morning was basketball yet again, this time at a park because the church was being used without us knowing. It's kinda frustrating as missionaries not having access to stake and ward calendars for any area we serve in. We stopped by and said hi to some friends in the afternoon, and in the evening we played volleyball and card games with our member and nonmember friends at the institute activity. 

 

Sunday was extra special because of mission prep. The youth asked us a lot of really good and somewhat difficult questions that we all had the opportunity to answer and we each shared our personal testimony about missionary work.

 

We had transfers on Monday, and our area didn't change. Our district members did, however, so we really didn't do anything fun. FHE was a blast though since we played volleyball. 

 

This week was really spiritually uplifting and a great way to end off the transfer.

 

-Elder Thompson

Zone Conference August 2022

Wake Me Up When September Ends September 16, 2022

 Another fantastic week in the books filled with lots of good stuff.

 

Tuesday we tried to best the other missionaries in our district by having the most people taught in the day (members included) and ended up teaching 10 people. We were all over the place teaching Matt, Bremmen, Chris, all the Leons, Christian, Elder Vergaray, and Mike. We even found time to help Clay, Matt, Bremmen, and Chris move into their new place together.

 

On Wednesday what really stood out was Chris taking us to Coco yet again for dinner because we helped him out. 

 

On Thursday, we met Julia for the first time, who took us to Saltgrass Steakhouse. There she told us her story with missionaries in the past and said she was ready to join the church as soon as possible, so we put her on date for baptism in the middle of October. We also got to go to institute later that night.

 

Friday we did service with all the Clear Lake missionaries and the school program again, but not for very long. We did end up going down to Texas City to help the Elders there with the same school program set up the event we've unknowingly been helping prepare for this whole time. We taught Haley that afternoon and had dinner with the younger Owens family in the branch presidency.

 

We played basketball at a park Saturday morning with our friends, then for lunch in the afternoon the older Owens in the branch presidency took us to Red River BBQ. That evening we went to a beach in Galveston to join our branch for a bonfire activity. 

 

Sunday was pretty standard with church and come follow me at a member's house. 

 

We all went to a really poor buffet place called Yummy Yummy for p-day lunch. None of our district had been there before, so we didn't know what to expect. We got to go on the ferry in Galveston which was a round trip to and from the peninsula. On the ride, we saw the Galveston Naval Museum which was an old warship and we also saw a lot of dolphins swimming near the boat. That night for FHE we played giant board games and had pizza. 

 

It was a super great week and I'm looking forward to having many more like it.

Lay Down 9/10/2022

 This week has been so exhausting, in a really good way. It just means we've been on the missionary grind and are putting in good work. That also means my weekly email is super late. 

 

Tuesday we taught one of our members but the rest of the day was long trying to find people either at apartments or in stores. 

 

Before district council on Wednesday, we had interviews with our president again, and afterward, we went instead of Fruity Party island to Bases, just to mix things up a bit. We tried a lot that evening as well to text people and stop by to check up on them.

 

Thursday we had a cool opportunity to go with the clear lake Elders and set up a table on campus at the University of Houston Clear Lake. We talked to a whole lot more people than I expected and we passed out a lot of Book of Mormons. That took up most of our day, and in the afternoon we went to Alvin for institute. 

 

Friday we got to help out yet again at the food truck which was a lot of fun, even with a little bit of rain. That evening we were super excited to join the youth of the clear lake wards for volleyball, but we showed up and found out it was actually gonna happen a later week, so that was a bummer.

 

Saturday we of course had to play basketball in the afternoon, and later in the evening we had a game night. We had a couple member and nonmember friends show up to our members house and it was a real good time. 

 

On Sunday, we had a really good testimony meeting, where one of our nonmember friends bore her testimony. We also had our friend Matt from basketball show up for the first time and we even gave him a Book of Mormon. There was a linger longer after church, and in the evening we did mission prep again with the clear lake sisters and Mike. 

 

Monday was zone p-day. We split off into two teams of senior vs. junior companions and Elder Hadley and I were captains. We played volleyball, zone missionary trivia, and ultimate frisbee. Our team won 2 of the 3 games, so we got to pie our companions in the face. It was a blast. To cap it all off, that evening we went to our member Christian's house who fed us some great food, since FHE didn't happen that night. 

 

It was a super great week, I'm so grateful for the times we've had to just put our shoulder to the wheel and really get some good missionary work in.

 

-Elder Thompson