One Day Remains 4/11/2023

 I've got one last day to be in Houston. I've also gotta summarize my last transfer in one email so let's see what happens. Actually, I'll probably be sending this out hopefully once I've landed in Salt Lake City.

 

This transfer was absolutely crazy, filled with so many ups and downs. We started off as a district re-evaluating our teaching pools and deciding who was progressing and who to drop. Elder Biggs and I decided to drop practically everyone and leave room for more people to find, teach, and baptize. We did a whole lot of contacting and finding to hopefully get the ball rolling again in the area. 

 

We've had some amazing times with members, going to a ward rodeo potluck, FHE, and other things.

 

We had a lot of fun as a district. We did a lot of service at Grace Episcopal and got a tour of the chapel from Mother Suzanne. We played a lot of soccer and card games as well and went to some good food spots like DairyLand and Kelley's Country Cookin'. For my "last" pday, I went to the Natural Science Museum in Houston. It was pretty fun, they had a lot of cool fossils and a limited-time King Tut exhibit.

 

I went on exchanges a couple times to the Spanish area, getting to help teach English, doing service, and finding Spanish people. We also met some people partying that offered us tacos and some members that fed us as well. Four days in a row I either bought pupusas or had a member get them for us. 

 

Our greatest success/miracle was Greg, a referral we got who we put on date our first lesson. Sadly, he's still dealing with a smoking habit so his baptism was canceled but I have faith in him accepting a date to get yoked and connected with Christ. 

 

Overall, we've made a huge turnaround here in Alvin. Last transfer we were struggling a bit to find faith and motivation to go out and see success, and this transfer we've put forth our feet with faith and seen the fruits of our labors. All of the companionships have at least seen people commit to be baptize and the Spanish Elders even baptized someone. It's been a great transfer to end on with so much joy and happiness with all the amazing these we've seen happen.

 

I'm sure I've missed a few things that've happened this transfer, but luckily I'm gonna be home soon so y'all can just talk to me and ask me all about it. I also probably won't be able to fit in all my photos either.

 

It's crazy that my full-time missionary experience is coming to a close. It seems like only yesterday I arrived at the Houston airport, confused why we had such a massive transfer group and why I started sweating bullets as soon as we stepped outside. I've made so many awesome friends, seen some fun and cool things, had some crazy experiences, but above all have been able to share Jesus Christ with others and seen some miracles in the lives of others. There's no other time or place I've seen lives change, including my own, and have felt so connected to those I've taught and helped bring into the light of Christ. It's such a wonderful and unique opportunity and experience that I'll always be grateful for and never forget. I've cared so much about everyone and everything here I hate to have to leave it behind. 

 

I know that we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. I know that there is no other way to come unto Christ save it be by baptism by one with proper authority. I know that the Book of Mormon and Bible are the word of God and help us know the fullness of the truth. I know we've been given modern-day prophets to lead us and guide us to know the fullness of the truth. I know Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, and he helped bring the fullness of the gospel back to the earth. I'm grateful for everything I've done, everything I've seen, everyone I've met, and everything I've felt during my opportunity to represent and serve Jesus Christ, and I say these things in His name, Jesus Christ, amen.

 

-Elder Thompson

 

 

Zone Conference week of March 20th 2023

 "For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." Ezekiel 34:11-12

Out of Season 3/11/2023

 These past couple weeks have been unsurprisingly loaded with things to do. Just another testament of the great work the Lord has in store for us. The weather here is also getting warm sooner than usual, it feels like June already. 

 

We got around quite a bit on Tuesday knocking doors and visiting referrals. We also got to visit Manny in the afternoon, who we caught sleeping in the driveway and could hear snoring about 100 yards away. We also got to teach Daniel and the Morris's in the evening after having dinner with them.

 

Nothing too eventful happened outside of district council on Wednesday happened. We did get to meet with the Pattersons for dinner. We also found someone to refer to the Sisters, which rarely happens. 

 

We got to go to the Flakes again for service and finish up cleaning out their barn as well as do yard work and fix their road. In the evening, we went with Bro. Roofner and had an awesome lesson with Andres, who is looking like he's finally making some spiritual progress

 

Friday morning the Voss's had us over to give a couple blessings. In the afternoon we finally got to some weekly planning done and cleaned the apartment for inspections. In the evening we got to go again to ward FHE.

 

We helped Bro. Arnold Saturday morning move a bunch of stuff back into his shed. They fed us some fantastic homemade cinnamon rolls afterward. We taught our friend DeAndre outside his apartment after, and then he got his friends all together so we could play some football with them. We had a mission devotional with President Lund which we got to watch over zoom at the church. The Voss's then took us to Chili's for dinner. 

 

After church and meetings on Sunday, we set up our building for a fireside. In the evening, we held a Why I Believe fireside for all the investigators and members in the stake. Recent converts shared their experiences and members played musical pieces. It went really well. 

 

Monday we went to the Nike Outlet in Texas City, then went as a district to Joe's BBQ. We then played chair soccer and volleyball at the church. I went in the evening on exchanges with the ZL quad in Friendswood. 

 

I spent some time watching the companionship clean their apartment in the morning and went grocery shopping with them. Elder Unga and I knocked a bunch of trailers and apartments in the afternoon. We had dinner in the evening with a fun member family. Elder Marriott, who is a first-transfer greenie, accidentally shared the wrong scripture which I think upset the family. Afterward, Elder Marriott and I spent more time tracting some trailers.

 

We had another uneventful Wednesday, outside of our last district council and interviews with President Richards. Elder Mafi was also super sick, so we were advised to stay inside the rest of the day.

 

Thursday morning we did go to the food truck service at Grace church for a while. Elder Mafi was still sick so after that we didn't really get to do much else. We did exchange that evening with the other Elders and Elder Peterson came to my area. 

 

We exercised in the morning by playing basketball with the other Elders at the church. In the afternoon, we met with the Saldanas, and then we went as a district to clean out and move stuff out of a nasty trailer that some friends of the Sisters were living in. We then went to Bro. Owens to give him a blessing, then went to FHE in the evening.

 

Elder Mafi found out he was getting transferred, so he spent most of Saturday packing. We also spent a lot of time trying to contact our investigators to get them to come to church.

 

Sunday we went to church and missionary meetings. Elder Mafi said a lot of goodbyes to a lot of people. We spent the evening at Jordan Morgan's home for dinner.

 

Monday morning we went as a district to Chick-fil-a for breakfast. We then went to the mission office for transfers and spent a lot of time talking to other missionaries. Some of them old companions and friends I won't get to see for a long while. I met up with my new companion Elder Biggs and we headed back to our area so he could unpack. 

 

I'm looking forward to my final transfer and all the ways I can help others come unto Christ in my final month here.

 

-Elder Thompson

2/25/2023

 It's been another long set of weeks, there's been lots for us to do and we've been keeping real busy. 

 

Tuesday we spent our day trying to get in contact with some friends to see if they were still interested and we found a couple new people as well. We went to FHC in the afternoon as well. In the evening, we went to the Bradley's for Taco Tuesday with their whole family. 

 

Wednesday we didn't have district council, so instead, we cleaned out both our apartment and area book. In the afternoon we met an awesome and pretty funny part-member family the Saldanas. We then went on a long drive out to Santa Fe for a lesson, which ended up being canceled right before we got there. That was kinda frustrating wasting precious time and miles like that.

 

We had our zone conference on Thursday. It was extra fun since we had a total of three zones there instead of the usual two. It meant I got to see a lot of my favorite companions and other missionaries. We met a couple people tracting in the evening. We also got to teach our most progressing friend Daniel along with Bro. Rogers. We then picked up Elder Unga for exchanges again.

 

The next day we sat down and had an extra long weekly planning session since we hadn't had the chance to do so in a while. We got to talk to a few people while out walking around and knocking doors. We went to the Crofoots for dinner, a senior missionary couple in our area. We dropped off Elder Unga afterward then went to FHE. 

 

Saturday morning we spent a bunch of time at Bishop Flake's place. Our whole district helped clean out parts of their barn by shoveling dirt, removing garbage, and sorting tools. In the afternoon, we got to go give a blessing to a nonmember daughter of two recent converts. The rest of the evening we went to the Spanish branch's potluck and talked with our district and their investigators. 

 

Sunday was pretty normal. We had our standard slew of missionary meetings as well as church meetings. We did in the evening though get to visit with our recent convert friend Jordan and his girlfriend.

 

Pday we went as a district to Buc-ees, and we saw a couple other sisters there from one of my last districts who were on their way to Galveston for their special final transfer pday. Afterward, we went to lunch at a Mexican place and went to the church to play more chair soccer and card games. In the evening, I went on exchanges to the Spanish area, this time with Elder Hardy. This was his first time leading the area. 

 

Tuesday me and Elder Hardy did a lot of contacting of people they were teaching, as well as tracting. Their lessons fell through, so I got to watch Elder Hardy practice the little Spanish he knew with all the people we met. It was pretty funny for me watching him try to communicate, but he did a good job for only being out in the field a few weeks. We exchanged back later in the evening. 

 

We had another solid district council in the morning and then did a lot more knocking in the afternoon. In the evening we got to teach Daniel again and have dinner at the Rogers all together. It went pretty good and we got Daniel to start studying Come Follow Me.

 

Thursday morning we spent a lot of time at Grave Episcopal church for our weekly food truck service. It was also the first service I got to do for our week of love and service. We had to wait 3 hours for the truck to arrive, and we spent about an hour there working since I started feeling under the weather. The rest of the day we stayed home so I could rest up and get over being sick. We did though have dinner with the Fosters and Andersons in their home, that was really good.

 

We went Friday morning to a member's home in the Spanish branch with the other Elders. Right after helping with their fence, we went and helped out Bro. Arnold with clearing out his shed. That took up a big chunk of our afternoon, and they took us out to Firehouse Subs afterward, which is one of Elder Mafi's and I's favorite places. Later that evening, we went with Bro. Burkey to the Ortegas for dinner, which is an inactive family. We quickly stopped by FHE after as well to say hi to everyone.

 

Saturday morning we went with all the Sisters to the Flakes again to continue helping them clean their barn. That took most of the morning, and then the rest of the afternoon we helped Bro. Rogers redo his walkway at his house. We got fed at the YW fundraiser at the church in the evening, and then we saw the Saldanas again and met the rest of the inactive family. 

 

We had yet again another full day on Sunday with all our meetings we had to get to. Church was really nice though, and it was nice to take a quick spiritual refresher/break from everything that went on in the week. 

 

Monday we went to the Robinettes for Pday. They're a member family, and they had a fishing pond for us to fish at the whole time. It was fun, and luckily I caught a few fish as well.

 

These past few weeks were great, especially our week of love and service. I'm grateful for all the chances I've had to share the love of Christ around Valentine's Day and serve others as He would.

 

-Elder Thompson

Keep the Fire Burnin' 2/11/2023

 This transfer has been jam-packed with things so far. Plenty for me to do to keep my missionary spirit alive. There's just so much it's been making me put my emails on the back burner. This'll be yet another one covering two weeks.

 

My first day in the area was pretty standard. We had our district council a day early in the morning. In the afternoon Elder Mafi and I went to the Family History Center to share a message with the people there and have some food. We also had a dinner that evening with the Morrises in our ward. 

 

My second day in the area was really interesting. Elders Unga and Best came to my area on exchanges since all our comps were away in leadership meetings. I basically took us around to a few service referrals and helped them out with some cleanup after our big storm. Elder Mafi and I got back together and visited our weird convert friend Manny, who I'd met at the institute before while I was in the YSA. He claims to have Satan, Angel, and Jesus powers, so we're helping him through that.

 

Thursdays we have a food truck service at another church, this time we go with our entire district. It was a lot of fun getting to sort out and distribute food yet again, and then be able to talk with the district at lunch afterward. We got to stop by a few of our friends in the afternoon, and in the evening we knocked a referrals door we had gotten in the morning, and met Lisa and Melinda who were awesome and loved to see us since they had met with the Sisters in the past, like when I had first gotten to Texas.

 

In the morning on Friday, we picked up Elder Unga from the ZLs to "babysit" him for a day. He just was butting heads with them in a quad so we said we'd be happy to have him come with us. We took him out knocking doors and stopping by referrals, and we also helped Brother Romero move some stuff. We also went to the ward Family Home Evening/Game Night to share a message and play games with some members and recent converts. 

 

Saturday was spent knocking lots of doors and contacting referrals. We did see some kids playing basketball at an apartment complex, so we decided to join. We of course destroyed them, even though they kept talking smack before and after. We also got to give them each Book of Mormons and shared a quick message. That evening, we had another really great lesson with Lisa and Melinda, and then we met the ZLs at the Friendswood building to give them Unga back. 

 

We went to all of our missionary meetings and church on Sunday. I had the chance to introduce myself and share my testimony over the pulpit as well since i'm new to the area. We called and texted a bunch of friends in the afternoon before Elder Mafi got tied up with stewardship calls.

 

Monday was not our pday, since it got moved to Thursday. In the morning, we helped a family move from their apartment in Alvin to a new one in Friendswood, we were with the Sisters in our district and the Zone Leaders who are in the Friendswood area. In the evening, we had a bizarre "lesson" with our friend Stacey, her kids, and her friend. The lesson didn't really happen until the end, and it was just the kids watching a Book of Mormon video. During our time before that, she kept saying the whole time how much she just loved Elder Mafi and everything about him, she even asked if he would take her 10 yr-old daughter to a father-daughter dance. It was strange, and although I've been around a lot more dangerous and wild people, places, and things on my mission, that was the time I've felt the most scared, out of place, and awkward. After that experience, I went with Elder Peterson on exchanges to the Alvin Spanish area. We talked on and on about BYU football that night which was a very nice change of pace.

 

In the morning we went to help the Sisters teach English class, but sadly no one showed up. We spent most of the day walking around trailer parks and taking breaks to call a bunch of people. We did have one guy tell us he had a "pistola", which is I guess a pistol in Spanish. I'm pretty sure it was a threat to shoot us, but the way it came out was too funny so we just walked away. We also went to Burger King, which was pretty funny because the workers there all recognized our name tags when we walked in, and revealed to us that the Sister missionaries go there all the time for dinner, so that was some fun dirt to have on them. We exchanged back later that evening.

 

Wednesday we had a solid district council in the morning. In the afternoon we were all over the place grabbing stuff for our apartment. We had good lessons with our friends Corinna and Andres in the evening. When we taught Andres, Brother Cain was there to be a miracle worker, he shared really good testimony and related well to our friend and his life experiences. It was an amazing time. 

 

Pday was on Thursday this week. We met as a zone in the morning for a quick breakfast, then headed up together to go to the temple. That was an awesome experience as the temple always is, and I can't wait to go again in the near future. In the evening, we stopped by institute quickly, and I got to see all my YSA friends again. That was pretty fun being around all of them. 

 

Friday we went to a stake missionary breakfast all the way at the Magnolia building, which is way too far for us missionaries in Alvin to be driving at 6:30 in the morning. In the afternoon we deep-cleaned our car since it was getting way too messy and dirty. We taught our friend Ishea and then Sis. Slater took us to Whataburger for dinner. We then went again to FHE. We also stopped by Christian Correa's house to get some money from him.

 

The next morning, we bought some food with the money and had lunch with Christian at his place. It was fun catching up with him again and talking about the YSA, and the Sacramento Stake. The rest of the day we continuously invited our friends to church and were out finding new people to teach. 

 

Sunday we went to all our normal church and missionary meetings. We got fed by the Arnolds later in the evening.

 

Monday was pday again, and we spent a lot of time playing chair soccer and scatterball with our district. In the evening, we scheduled a bunch of lessons with our progressing friends.

 

There was a lot of good that came from the work we put in the last couple weeks, and I'm hoping to continue the great work and see more of the Lord's hand the rest of the transfer.

 

-Elder Thompson

Ridin' The Storm Out 1/28/2023

 This past week was fairly interesting, considering all that happened.

 

Tuesday was pretty basic, we did some biking and finding and taught the Bolanos again. 

 

Wednesday we had our last district council of the transfer and our last zone call. We spent the rest of the day sorting things out with area book and our page messaging team. 

 

We did what we thought was a deep clean of our apartment Thursday to get ready for transfers. Then we hit the bike grind again visiting some members and investigators.

 

We showed up to weekly service Friday, but after waiting for 2 hours for something to do, they told us the truck wasn't coming and that we could just take some food home with us. We got to teach a really good lesson to Anaika over zoom right before going to a baptism in the H4 Spanish ward. Elder Norris and I went on exchanges, and for the first time on my mission, I got to help teach Spanish speakers English at the English class. It was hard to communicate with them since I know zero Spanish, but it was fun tryna help them learn Spanish.

 

In the morning, Sister Richards messaged us after our inspections and said we needed to clean our apartment, so Elder Norris and I went back to my apartment to rearrange things and do another deep clean. All the Elders then came over and we got our transfer news. I found I'd be moving again for the third transfer in a row, which is really weird for a missionary to move that much, especially considering I have such a short time left. We went to the Hibberts for dinner and then we were gonna have our youth volleyball at the church, but there was something at the church so we just had to head back home.

 

Sunday was just our standard missionary and church meetings. I spent the rest of the day packing up all my stuff, which was so frustrating. I just hate having to pack my stuff. 

 

Monday we met up with a bunch of other missionaries at the mission office for transfers. It was so fun talking to all the Elders and Sisters I know, that's one positive from transfers. I met up with Elder Mafi, who's now my companion with me in Alvin. We went with some Elders to In N Out before heading to our area.  The rest of our district was busy waiting for greenies, so Elder Mafi and I just went to the church and shot hoops for a bit. In the evening, Jordan Morgan in the ward took us out to an Italian place for dinner. 

 

All in all, it was honestly a weird week, but I'm glad there were still positives to see and miracles to witness.

 

-Elder Thompson

Sk8er Boi 1/20/2023

 This week and last have been hectic, so this email will cover what's been going on the past two weeks.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday of last week were pretty uneventful, we did a lot of contacting and finding with the other Elders in our area, a pseudo-blitz. 

 

Thursday was zone conference which was ok. I honestly didn't like the trainings we did, but getting to see some of my favorite elders and sisters from past zones made it worthwhile. There was a fun activity where we learned some communication and unity by making giant spider webs with yarn led by Sister Richards. We did have an interesting discussion as a zone afterward, which was really bizarre. Apparently, in another church building some missionaries have been gathering as big groups and doing suspicious things, so that was real interesting to find out about. Later in the evening we did get to meet with one of our inactive member friends Helena. 

 

We did our regularly scheduled food truck service that Friday. What made it different was the fact that there was so much leftover bread, cheese, milk, and meat we took so much home to be fine for a while without buying too much at the store. We did our weekly planning, and sadly a couple lessons that evening were canceled on us. 

 

Saturday we helped some inactive members move out of their apartment into a moving truck. We then went to the church and did a whole bunch of brainstorming and planning out how to attack member work in the area. Afterward, we had our first missionary-run youth volleyball night. It was pretty fun. 

 

Sunday was just a usual mess of church and missionary meetings to attend to, as well as a little bit of finding. 

 

We hung out with all the Elders for pday, and we played some card games and then went to the park for a bit. I've been alive for 22 years, and I finally learned on pday how to ride a skateboard. I felt very accomplished but also way behind literally every person ever. That evening Elder Rowe came to my area on exchanges with me.

 

Tuesday we did some store finding and member contacting before some of our lessons. We taught our member friend Helena again, and Bro. Hawkins took us to teach the Bolanos. Afterward, he took us to get Italian ice. 

 

We had district council and our zone meeting Wednesday afternoon. We then did some more contacts in the late afternoon and went to mutual with the youth in the evening. 

 

Thursday after the mission zoom, I spent half of the day working on a video training the zone on unity. The second half of the day we hit the bike grind and went around talking to a bunch of different people. 

 

Our service happened again Friday, this time in the afternoon. We had a zoom lesson with Anaika, then we went to the church so I could finish everything with my video.

 

Saturday we attended a funeral for Bro. Dietz in the Pecan Grove ward, who my companion knew. We did some more contacting, and actually found a new person to teach, which hasn't happened in a while. We taught our friend Martin, but then found out from his caretakers he wouldn't be allowed to come to church or even meet with us anymore. In the evening, we had another night of youth volleyball. 

 

We had church and missionary meetings on Sunday. We were gonna teach Leo in the afternoon, but he told us that he doesn't want to meet anymore. We went to a baptism of the Metcalfs in the Jones Creek ward in the evening. 

 

We went with the Elders and Sisters to the Buddhist temple for Pday, and then got food before going to their apartment complex to play pool. We went back home and played a bunch of card games with the Elders.

 

There have definitely been some ups and downs these past couple of weeks, but through it all, I've been able to see the blessings and hope God has given me.

 

-Elder Thompson