Saturday Night's Alright (For P Day)

 

Today was our Preparation Day instead of the usual Monday since we are preparing for the arrival of two general authorities from the seventy visiting our mission this upcoming week. These past few days haven't been super eventful but there is definitely some stuff worth mentioning.

 

Tuesday was the day I finally managed to get a hold of a guitar tuner and some picks. It's so nice and relaxing to play the guitar in the very few spare moments in the day. It makes where I'm at feel just ever so slightly more like home.

 

On Thursday, for whatever reason, we ended up going to the McDonalds in Walmart twice for food, and the first time we ran into two Elder companionships in the zone next to us and the second time we ran into the sister missionaries in their zone as well. I'm sure they'll think we're either the best missionaries ever for doing contacting at Walmart for a long while or just complete wackos who eat at McDonalds too much. I'm sure both are very true.

 

Today was a nice and much needed break from our hectic schedule. I'm learning that everyone in our district is pretty competitive and eager to play sports together, so I was able to use that and now have everyone on board to play basketball every P Day. That's just another way I can make where I'm at feel a bit more like home.

 

We had some really good lessons this week with our investigators and some that frustrated and confused us for quite a while. The work here is definitely going, both in a good and and, sometimes, bad direction. We are continually preparing everyone for baptism, whether they have dates set or not, and are also trying our best to find new people to teach and bring unto Christ. There have been the occasional dead day where things just don't seem to happen but we are determined to keep those occasions minimal.

 

I have recently been reading quite a few conference talks during some free time and ones that have stuck out to me have been about having faith and hope. There's a great section from a talk entitled "Brightness of Hope" by Neal A. Maxwell from the October 1994 General Conference. In this section, Elder Maxwell says "Only the acceptance of the revelations of God can bring both direction and correction and, in turn, bring a “brightness of hope” (2 Ne. 31:20). Real hope does not automatically “spring eternal” unless it is connected with eternal things! “What is it that ye shall hope for?” Moroni wrote. “Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ” (Moro. 7:41; see also Alma 27:28). From this triumphal act, resulting in the eventual resurrection of all mankind, so many lesser hopes derive their significance!" 

 

I know that the more we learn of Christ and His Atonement, the easier it will be to have that hope and faith in Him. With that developed hope, we can go about having brighter countenances and greater faith and courage to face trials in this world. I know that a reliance on the Savior can benefit each and everyone one of us. I'll leave with my testimony of the Savior and His Atonement in His name, Jesus Christ, Amen

 

-Elder Thompson

 

P.S. I hope these emails are gonna be reaching y'all somehow some way. I've gotten in contact with a couple of y'all and have been grateful for everything that's been sent to me and can hopefully eventually hear from all y'all at some point.

Religious Man (I am I am)

 

Hey Y'all,

I wanted to start off by saying although Nacho Libre may not be mission approved, there are some fantastic examples of serving Christ and having faith in Him and His atonement in that movie. I also want to apologize in advance for the length of this email. With the time I have, I can't respond quite yet to individual emails so I want to answer all possible questions this time around while I have the chance.

 

It's been a super hectic few weeks, I apologize for not sending out an email my first Preparation Day. The week leading up to the 26th was stress-filled trying to get everything ready for me to head out to Houston. The few weeks leading up to my mission call as well as the week I had after I received my call to get ready for Houston is a whole other story for another time. It was a testimony builder for sure being able to finalize everything and be as prepared as I could be and out on a mission on such short notice. I know the Lord's hand was definitely helping me get ready and sorted out as best as possible. It was also a great blessing to be able to see some of my close friends and my family before I left. It was a neat experience to have my father as pretty much my missionary companion that Sunday, especially as we met a nice pair of old ladies who stumbled into our Elders Quorum meeting that day and got to teach them for a bit before we handed them off to the Sister missionaries in our ward. In this whole email will probably contain a whole lot of thankfulness for everything in my life.

 

My actual, for real, Elder Thompson missionary experiences all started pretty much as soon as I took off from Sacramento. On the extremely early flight to Dallas I had, I was sitting next to Troy, who was headed to Missouri. He was super into aviation and planned on studying religion once he was able to help his mother out there. That was a golden missionary opportunity and since I happened to be carrying an extra Book of Mormon I was able to give him a copy as well as share my testimony with him.

 

Monday was a great day meeting all 35 other new missionaries that would be training alongside me. It was great as well meeting President and Sister Richards who are pretty much been trained as well because they've only been missionaries for a couple weeks. We learned our mission is almost entirely made up of training companionships, with about 70% of us either being trained or training. A majority of missionaries here are also foreign language speaking who got reassigned here because of covid and whatnot. I believe of the 36 missionaries I came out with, only about 6 to 10 of us were actually originally assigned to the Texas Houston South Mission and not anywhere else in the world. We had an opportunity to go to Hermann Park and try to hand out Book of Mormons. Elder Zabel and I randomly got assigned to each other for the hour and we handed out 2 in a short span of time! We met a pair of girls home for the summer from college, I believe UTSA and Texas Tech but I don't remember exactly. (I've met so many wonderful and amazing people I can't help not remembering their names or every little detail of their life, I feel so bad) Anyway, I recognized the power of being true to your testimony and being genuine and honest with people, as they liked to hear the compliments I gave as well as my love for and desire to share the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His teachings with them. After a bunch of training at the mission office we finally were welcomed into various members homes that night to share a lesson and spend the night. 

 

Tuesday was the day we were all anxious for, the day we'd finally meet our trainers. We had a bunch of long and boring housekeeping meetings that we all dreaded, but then the long awaited moment arrived. My trainer's name is Elder Farris. He's from Boise, ID and has only been out for two transfers which is three months, meaning he's pretty much just as new and fresh as me. He's about as much of a goofball and diligent worker as I, so it's easy for us to get along and do a lot of work, all while finding humor and happiness through it all. We met the Hermanas (Spanish speaking sisters) and other Elders in our district and headed with our stuff to our area. I'm serving in the Silverlake ward which is located in Pearland, TX. The city itself is very akin to Elk Grove and it was so nice and welcoming arriving there. It is a lot different but felt the same in a lot of ways. The north part where we do most of our teaching and fellowshipping is called Sunnyside. Think of the place Sunnyside Daycare from Toy Story 3. It is a lot more comparable to South Sacramento; really dangerous, really rundown and poor financially with lots of troubled people who are searching for their way in life. I absolutely, genuinely and without a drop of sarcasm (I'm serious, I can be sarcastic but this time I ain't) love the people there so much already and love spending as much time as we can in that area. Our apartment we live in is nice and well maintained, probably because for a long while it was Sister missionaries here instead of Elders. My very first official nonmember lesson as a missionary was an interesting one. We got to talk to Kiosha, who is preparing for baptism on the 21st, from our car over facebook messenger. We taught her about the Law of Chastity, believe it or not. Luckily it went well as we had a member join us and helped her understand the importance of being pure before and staying faithful during marriage. It is definitely an experience I won't soon forget. We also had a lesson with Katherine, an amazing 11 year old who is knowledgeable in the gospel, she and her brother are just a little hesitant about the idea of being baptized as their mother urges them on to do so. We also were at the Wilson's for dinner, who fed us well and loved to joke around with us missionaries. 

 

Wednesday was district council, and we all got to know everyone serving around us a bit better. Our district compromises of Elder Farris and I, (District Leader) Elder Godderige and (Trainee) Elder Tucket in the Pearland Ward, Elder Doyle Elder Seal and (Trainee) Elder Nichols in the Manvel Ward, and (Sister Training Leader) Hermana Swapp (Sister Training Leader) Hermana Nelson and (Trainee) Hermana Childers also in the Spanish only Manvel Ward. We had a lesson with Nathan who is 14 and Katherine's brother. He will not talk to us directly and is terrified of water, but is excited and anxious for his sister to say yes to baptism so they can be baptized together. We had dinner with the crazy awesome Sturm family and Ashley who is their good friend investigating the church. They introduced me to Choffee, which I guess is using cocoa beans instead of coffee beans in a coffee brewer? It's not technically coffee but whatever it really is and no matter how much sugar and cream I put in it I think it's awful and disgusting.

 

Thursday we contacted a bunch of people and had a few lessons after having a really solid morning exercise session with the Elders in the district playing basketball and spike ball. We also got to take a nice bike ride to the Hermanas apartment to drop off a children's illustrated BoM they requested from us. 

 

Friday we were stuck inside most of the time trying to call people, since we were low on driving miles allotted for us. I did get the chance to go and meet Ken, who is an ex-convict with enough love for and faith in Jesus Christ to fill an industrial warehouse. He is anxiously and very patiently waiting to hear from the first presidency of the church about the status of him being able to be baptized. It was also interesting seeing everyone in the mission over messenger for a training, it was nice seeing how well all the other trainers were doing.

 

Saturday was the day I tried mussel, crab, crawfish, and Whataburger. Nothin much to say other than the fact that since we're close to Louisiana, we get a lot of amazing bayou food, including crawfish which I think is the first "seafood" I love.

 

Sunday we got to pass the sacrament and bear our testimonies in church as well as meet various members. We also heard Elder Doyle would finally go to his original assignment in Mexico. We also had an interesting encounter with a cicada. They're these super loud and obnoxious chirping bugs in the trees you hear all day long, and one happened to fly into our apartment in the night. Not fun to get rid of let me tell ya.

 

Monday was our Preparation Day, and for Elder Doyle's last day he decided we should all go to Buc-ee's. Buc-ee's is a big chain of gas stations in Texas, and the one we went to was massive, at least 100 gas pumps and a huge store. Imagine if a Maverik gas station expanded to have a butcher, a baker, a candy maker (not quite the nursery rhyme), an IKEA style home decoration section, a sporting goods/hunting area, and a ton of assorted and bizarre memorabilia dedicated to their beaver mascot almost like Mickey Mouse in Disneyland. It's no doubt in my mind the 8th wonder of the world.

 

Tuesday we learned Elder Nichols and Elder Seal lost car privileges since they technically "allowed" Elder Doyle to go over 100 mph on the way to the mission office and on his way to Mexico. They were soon understood and forgiven and eventually got their car back after about a week biking all over their massive area.

 

Wednesday was filled with bizarre interactions with a multiple personality disorder member that we helped out with her living situation as well as hearing Elders way outside our area are trying to I guess steal our contacts and referrals for some reason. I will say I was blessed to hear an amazing story from Elder Seal, very similar to mine actually, and we were able to share our testimonies of the Atonement of Jesus Christ to each other and inspire the work in each of us.

 

Thursday we had Chili's to celebrate Elder Godderidge's 1 year mark which killed our stomachs and made us exhausted and made working so hard, but we were able to find a family of 6 we can now add to our teaching pool.

 

Friday was awesome, as all the missionaries apart of training went to League City, where the Johnson Space Center is located. We heard a lot about sending rockets into space and also got to take pictures in front of the space center. We learned how missionary work is a lot like building rockets and how sharing the Atonement of Jesus Christ is a much greater work. That night we did exchanges with the Pearland Elders and I was with Elder Godderidge in their area.

 

Saturday we helped Bro. Flores move and assemble a treadmill in his house. He treated us to Killen's Burgers after which is famous apparently and one of J.J. Watt's personal favorite places to eat. We ate at Stake President's for dinner. He apparently tries to determine children's disorders based on genetics and appearances, and remarked I had perfect ear size, shape, rotation, and placement. I guess that's one attractive trait I've got going for me. I went back to my area with Elder Farris that night.

 

Sunday we had a lesson with Ken and Damascus, a returning investigator, before church. I also got to give a great talk on obedience and as a result had many people talk to me and ask about California, as well as sign up for missionary dinners.

 

Monday (Today) We had a fantastic day playing basketball and spikeball with the Elders and Sisters on our district, but mainly I've been stuck writing this email. We were offered a free couch by a member, but sadly couldn't make it to the store for a guitar tuner. We found a ukelele that was left here and I was able to get my hands on a guitar from the Pearland Elders but neither are close at all to being in tune and it's just killing me inside not being able to play them.

 

I hope I am able to sort my thoughts and condense them better for y'all in the future. (If you haven't noticed, y'all is actually proper and formal English here in Texas, it's encouraged for the missionaries to use it and I love it) I do have various pictures attached of my apartment, other missionaries and I, and other goofy things, that I think are somewhat interesting. There'll be better ones in the future for sure. Thanks to those who read it all and stuck it out to the end. I hope y'all are doing well and I would love to hear how things are going and everyone is doing! Please email me individually so we can get the convos rolling on Mondays. I'll leave with my testimony of this great work. I know that Christ came to the Earth to atone for our sins and preach his gospel, and we as missionaries are here as His representatives to continually spread His word and teach other His gospel. I love the Savior and am so grateful for everything He's done for me and the opportunity He gives each and every one of us to utilize of His atoning power. I say these things in his name, Jesus Christ, amen

 

-Elder Thompson

Return Home and Reassignment

 On April 18, 2020, Elder Josh Thompson returned home from his mission.  For the past 15 months he has been preparing himself to go back on his mission. He has spent time in Utah working with his Uncle Cliff and attending school in Rexburg, Idaho at Brigham Young University- Idaho. On July 16, 2021, he received notice that he was once again called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was reassigned to the Texas Houston South mission. He was thrilled. He had a little over a week to get everything ready. He finished finals and drove to Elk Grove, CA. He flew to Houston Texas on July 26, 2021. President and Sister Richards met him and all new 36 missionaries.

Facebook post 4/8/20

We as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints want to share our thoughts on General Conference and what stuck out to us the most.

We want everyone to experience the joy and happiness that comes from studying the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We invite you all to share your testimonies and experiences of the Restoration to anyone that may need a message of hope during these difficult times. We continue to pray for you all and hope for the best for everyone.

-Elder Thompson and Elder Toso

Click here to see video

or check here

https://www.facebook.com/100010609092069/videos/1088369764859983/

Facebook post 4/1/2020

I was nominated by Olivia Clark to share why I chose to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I think a mission was something I was always going to do. I'd known that since I was a young boy growing up in the church. To me, I knew that serving a mission was almost a requirement, that it was mandatory, and that it was inevitable.

The question that I really started to ask myself was WHEN should I serve a full-time mission. I was gonna be 18 by the time I graduated so I could leave straight after school if I wanted too. I thought that having a summer job to save money would be a good idea and that I could leave in the fall. My dad said he got to go to BYU for a little bit before his mission and said that college before would be a good choice. I ultimately settled on working over the summer while filling out my papers so I could leave in the fall.

What ended up happening, because of my decision to devote my spare time to things like friends, video games, and goofing off, I didn't get my papers finished at the end of the summer. As I worked on my papers I felt I should be productive in preparing for my mission, so I submitted them with an availability date of January 1 so I could go to BYU-I for a semester. Being at school was such a blessing because it helped me to learn how to function on my own in the world and how I would live and function after my mission, but I also increased my knowledge and testimony of the gospel.

It wasn't until I got into the mission field that I learned the WHY of me being on a mission. As I saw the world around me and the stark contrast between the MTC filled with many happy and eager missionaries ready to go out and serve and the real world full of sadness, misdirection, and hopelessness; I realize why I am a missionary. I now have a desire to help those around me see the truth of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and the happiness and joy of brings. I want each and every person around me to have the faith and reassurance that I have that everything will be alright in our lives as we continually move forward in Faith and look to Christ for answers and guidance.

Being a missionary has brought me many blessings as well. I've learned a lot of new things, have had crazy and fun experiences, and have met so many awesome people. I've been out in the field a very short time, but I've already seen many miracles being worked in my life and others and I am looking forward to the work that is ahead.

I know it is hard in these trying times, especially for us missionaries. It's easy for us to get down and lose sight of all faith and hope that we have. I know, however, that if we strive to make the best of our situation, Heavenly Father will help us as we read the scriptures, love our family, and pray earnestly for support.

I know that I am on a mission because it's where Heavenly Father wants me to be right now. Circumstances may be changing for us, missionary work may be different, but as we continually trust in the Lord he will lead us to where he needs us to be.

In closing, I'll share how my short time of missionary life has been, using a modified Led Zeppelin lyric: "Good Times, Bad Times, you know I've had my share, when I'm a missionary stuck inside all day and I still don't seem to care". Its been rough these past few weeks, but I've found various ways to keep good spirits and make missionary work fun again. As I put my faith and trust in the Lord my days aren't all that bad and I can increase my faith and testimony of the gospel.

-Elder Thompson

Phone call home 3/23/20

Josh called home yesterday. He said he didn't write an email because he didn't have a lot to write about. He has been home isolating for the past week. They can go to the grocery store to buy essentials, and they can go to the church. Other than that he is at home like the rest of us. His mission President has stopped all basketball games at the church. President Holland knows the elders love basketball and he does too, so he said they can shoot hoops, play Pig or Around the world. So he and his companion are taking advantage of this.

They now have wifi in their apartment so they can study from home. They are trying to set up online appointments with ward members to talk to and teach them. They are also trying to find other ways to use technology to still share the gospel.

Since his companion is still training him, he will be with him for the next couple of transfers. He is fortunate that he likes his companion. They are getting along great. He also stated there will not be many transfers. Missionaries will be going home if they have served 21 months to make room for the missionaries coming from other countries.

The ward members asked if the missionaries needed anything and they did say they could use food. They normally do not have too many dinner appointments and now they are having a hard time getting food. A member posted on their ward Facebook account and many people responded. Even inactives and nonmembers have brought them food.

A friend asked me how Josh was doing. I was able to say fabulous and I was able to report that I wasn't worried about him. I know that he will be taken care of in this situation.  He is doing Heavenly Father's work and he will be watched over. I am grateful for the members in North Carolina who are taking care of him. I know that this epidemic will soften hearts and doors will be open for us and our missionaries to lead people to Christ.

Becki (Josh's Mom)

March 16, 2020

This week has been really crazy with everything going on.

Tuesday: We went back to the assisted living home to play games and the Hermanas were there for a little bit to play the piano and sing hymns with us.

Wednesday: The STLs joined us for district council which was cool. It was fun getting to know them and their efforts they've put forth in the mission field. We played ball again this time Elder Diedrich and Elder Curtis who were on splits joined us and helped us find people.

Thursday: We went and built another ramp. We went and played games with the senior citizens for the last time for a long while. They are a big part of our service and fellowshipping efforts so without that opportunity, our schedule is taking a hit. 

Friday: We woke up at 5 for First Transfer Training, and as we were about to leave our apartment, we saw the zone leaders text us saying it was canceled, so we just went back to sleep for a while. We studied things I need to know so when First Transfer Training eventually happens I'll be more ready. At the YMCA, we talked to Braden Wilkinson who plays ball with us on Monday. He's a recent rm in 2nd ward who likes to help the missionaries teach. We also met a new person to teach next Saturday.

Saturday: We learned more about what we need to do as missionaries and a ward. Our next sacrament will be on March 29 when we are allowed to have it in our home. Right now we've canceled a couple lessons and our member visits and dinners. All we really can do is find and study. We help Bro Gray with his roof clean-up and played Spikeball with Landon and Evan. (I ripped my work jeans so I may need money to buy some more.)

Sunday: We stayed inside all day watching videos and studying because Elder Toso was really sick.

I know that right now is a really challenging time for us, but the Lord always prepares a way. We may feel like everything and everyone is against us, but we always have support.

-Elder Thompson