So... life is crazy. 'nuf said.

This week was crazy we did so many bunches if service, tons of tracting, and in other words worked like dogs. We didn't find any new investigators, but mostly because we were dummies and forgot to pray with people all the time. So far in our companionship Elder K and I have found four new investigators only to have our hearts crushed when we either: 1 discover that they are actually former investigators, 2 get dropped by those new investigators before our initial return appointment (thus rendering them not a new investigator), 3  realize that they don't actually live in our area.

Yeah, life is an adventure. But its good, good things are coming.

We went on exchanges this past week with some other Elders: Elder M and Elder B. I was with Elder B here in 2^nd Ward, and Elder K went with Elder M in 1st Ward. We had a good exchange, we mostly tracted and had a Less-Active Lesson in the evening. Elder B is a good missionary, he is very good at finding and talking to people and he is fairly bold. He is also a very good listener. We stopped by a potential investigator named J, we talked to him for about 30 minutes and he really opened up to us, (which he really didn't do the first time we talked to him, and attribute his opening up partially to the spirit, and partially to Elder B’s good listing). He told us all about his bad experiences in different churches, his separation and divorce from his wife and is current woes with his living situation, and his desire to create a good environment for his teenage son to mature in. We talked about pure religion, helping others, families, and the positive experiences that he has had with the "Mormon" church. He didn’t become a new investigator because we didn’t say a prayer or set a specific return appointment. But it was a good visit none the less.

Elder K has been out 8 months now. Wow that really doesn't sound like that much anymore! I learn lots from Elder K! Here is an itemized list:

A - How to be more awesome! 

2 - The same as A.

D - The same as 2.

And on and on! But seriously though, Elder K has awesome insight on how we can improve in the littlest ways. And he is always supper humble about suggesting things. He's awesome. 

 He does like to eat his food off of a cloth mat instead of a plate sometimes, sorry to disappoint but we don't always eat with chopsticks now. The only thing that's really changed in my habits since being with Elder K is that I eat more cereal now. But, he also pretty much took over washing all the dishes, which has traditionally been my job. I almost always washed the dishes before because, as much as I love my other companions, they just sucked at washing dishes. Some of them tried and did a really awful job, others seemed to believe that all they had to do was put the dishes in the sink and they got magically cleaned, and still others didn't even bother getting them to the sink. Goodness I love those guys.

Speaking of which you should Facebook stalk Elder-not-anymore H, because he’s home now and some members were telling me that he was on Facebook. Send him a message or something. See if he freaks out. ;)

Requests: 

1 A copy of my Fallen poem, against all odds I wanted to share it with a member the other day.

2 A printout of the Lectures on Faith... if it’s not too long. 

3 A mental hug... cause I need one right now. :)

That's about all I have time for I gotta run! :(

I love you all soo much! Bye!

Elder Thomson

Orange I glad you love me loads? ;)

First off, best news of all J was baptized in Prince Rupert! That is M's husband J. J is the one that almost slammed the door on Elder A and I when we went back to talk to M the second time. But that after M told him that she wanted to hear the message, and we taught the most disjointed first lesson of all time, he was the one that invited us back. He was so prepared, but it totally didn’t seem that way when we first talked to him. That’s three people baptized in Prince Rupert that I was able to have a hand (or a foot) in teaching in my time there. Plus M referred the Missionaries to her family there and last I had heard they were teaching them too!  Elder B (who I was in the MTC with) is serving there now, so the place is in good hands.

In other less exciting news, Clearwater was just closed as an area. There are no missionaries serving there now. Apparently it is just going to be for a few transfers. But for now we're giving it a rest.

Meanwhile, I have a new companion. His name is Elder K, he is from Hong Kong and he is a BOSS. I love him already. He’s 20, his hobbies include Shopping and Photography. He is the first companion that I have had that I have been jealous of HIS camera. He was born in California so he has dual citizenship, and he went to school in Utah for a while. He has two siblings; a brother and a sister and he is the youngest. His Dad is a member of the Mission Presidency in Hong Kong and his Mom is either the President or in the RS Presidency. That’s pretty much all I know so far. He has a great testimony, and is an awesome missionary. I love him a lot. 

This week has been somewhat as a disappointment in that because of transfers a lot of the plans and lessons that we had planned on having work out fell through. And despite our hard work and a considerable amount of juggling we didn't find any new investigators this week, though we really got our hopes up pretty high when we tracted into a former investigator (named D), who we didn't know lived there, and he invited us in. We had a pretty good lesson. He had some pretty standard concerns, and some serious doubts about the Book of Mormon. He had a hard time seeing why it is needed, but he believes that anything that brings us to Christ is good, and he believes that we can receive personal Revelation and a personal witness of the truthfulness of things as we pray and ask God, but he doesn't think he needs the Book of Mormon because he already has the New Testament. We explained that the Book of Mormon is an additional witness of the divinity of Christ and the evidence of the Restoration of His church. D was open to reading from the Book of Mormon and praying, and we were able, after some talking, to set up to go back next week.

We also had a rather brief lesson with M. She didn't come to church yesterday. She usually comes with her true friends (her son and daughter in law) J and Y but they weren't at church yesterday either because they were out of town. But I'm sure we will be able to meet again sometime this week and we will be able to follow up with M and how she is feeling about everything. Our goal with our next lesson is still to emphasize how the Gospel, specifically the Plan of Salvation, family history, and temple work, will help her to regain her heritage and those connections with her family, and we also want to go over the baptismal interview questions with her to help her see just how prepared she really is, and how much she really does know. Because her concerns are losing her religious heritage, and she feels she doesn't yet know enough to be baptized.

On an up note, we did find several potential investigators this past week who we are planning and praying for them to become new investigators in this current week. We do everything we can to help that happen. But our friend with the VW…we still haven't been able to meet with. We were going to meet on Wednesday, but we were on a bus at the time that we had set up our appointment for. We called ahead to let her know that we weren't going to be able to keep our appointment, and she said to call again Friday to set something up. We called Friday and she got busy and her business just got really hectic so she won’t be able to sit down together with her husband and us for several weeks now. Grrrrrrrr. :(

In other happier news again Elder Aidukaitis of the first Quorum of the Seventy was just in Langley on Saturday he addressed the missionaries and his address was broadcast up here to our chapel. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to see him in person but he gave a wonderful training and had some awesome things to say about the "New Era" of missionary work that we are in. I also got to see a bunch of people that I recognized from Willoughby while I was watching them set up for the broadcast. The sound quality wasn't that great so I didn't catch quite everything everyone said, but the spirit was felt pretty strong and I couldn't be happier to be serving in this place at this time. 

 Don’t sweat your botched missionary experience mum! You're just a greenie, so don’t be too hard on yourself. ;) That’s what the repentance is for anyway. The Atonement of Jesus Christ covers all. :D May I suggest studying Preach My Gospel to help you prepare for your next opportunity? Maybe even to help Zach and Nate and even Belle prepare to share the gospel when the moment arrives. You could consider for FHE studying a chapter of Preach My Gospel every for the next 17, or so, weeks (I would suggests taking the Lessons in Chapter 3 one at a time). Or you could study one principle out of the lessons at a time and then take turns teaching that principle to everyone else. Teaching is really just talking about something so that someone understands. You can actually teach by asking questions. What do you think? Do you think that could help you feel more prepared?

Love,

Elder Thomson

Orange I so glad you guys are super cheesy!

Did someone say cheesy? ;)

 

Yum...

 

Elder K Eating a super cheddar chip.

Tang out of glasses styled like oranges...super cool.

 

I promise I don't eat this bad all the time. Its just that the only time that I seem to remember to take a picture of something is when I am about to do something potentially dangerous and/or impressive. 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sooooo.... yeah!

Oops... I thought I mentioned to you that P and T came to church on the week that I spoke. ;)  Your right, I didn’t tell you what I spoke about either. Oh well, it wasn't that great of a talk. As it turns out the Bishopric had double booked us with a High Council speaker so I was supposed to fill the same time as a youth speaker 5-7 minutes, Elder H was supposed to take about 10-12 minutes and the High Council speaker was supposed to take about 15. What actually happened was both Elder H and I took about 12 minutes each and that was booking it through our talks and the High Council speaker took almost 30 minutes. Also, the sacrament took forever because there were so many people there, a lot of them were from Alberta, but P and T came too, I was pretty jazzed to see them there. Sorry if I forgot to mention that as well.

Again, you are right, there are probably about a million things that I mean to tell you each week but every time I get a few things out and then completely blank on the rest, and by then I'm about out of time.

That being said… Before I forget I have to tell you about the super cool experience we had this week and I will endeavor to tell it as dramatically as time will allow:

So there I was... I mean... So there we were, tracting, on C Street (that is a street in town here) and we are talking to people and knocking on doors and basically running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to find somebody to teach. We had just stopped by a SUPER less active member, and found that they were not home. And we had talked to a man doing yard work but he had declined our offer of help. We had knocked the next two or three doors down from him and had received a rather unwelcoming attitude at each, when the man who we had offered to help informed us that he was about to turn his sprinklers on so we had better move our car. We joked with him a bit about getting a free car wash but ended up moving our car anyway. It was at that point that I suggested to Elder H that perhaps this wasn't the place that the Lord would have us be at that time, since none of the people we had talked to thus far had seemed in the least bit prepared. Elder H, in his great wisdom and spiritual sensitivity (or perhaps it was laziness in not wanting to find another place to work ;) ) assured me that this was indeed the place because it was where we had planned to work. So we carried on. We walked back past the man who had asked us to move our car, back past the people who had been less than welcoming. And we kept going. We knocked on doors and no one was home, we knocked on doors and no one answered, we knocked on doors and all we smelled was weed (side note: stereotypes work! it was about 4:23 in the afternoon.) We knocked on doors and talked to grumpy people, we knocked on doors and talked to disinterested people, we knocked on doors and talked to apathetic people and then we knocked on this one door... nothin'! Do you see where I’m going with this? And then we knocked on the next door... and a blue Volkswagen Bug screeched to a stop behind us. There is a woman in the car and she yells "Mormons?!?". Elder H and I looked at each other and then proceeded to nod like idiots. We were all like "Yahwuh..?" then she gestures emphatically with her hand. "Flyer!" she said. I promise you that you have never seen two guys try harder or faster to get a piece of paper out of a satchel before in your life!! Also I won. I had a restoration pamphlet out faster than you can say  "Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration, called by God to restore Christ’s church to the earth in these the latter days, and to prepare the way for the second coming of the Savior." At least I felt about that fast. ;) Anyways, we handed her the pamphlet and she was gone. I think she said something about it was good to see us out doing what we do, but that was sort of drowned out by the squeal of the tires as she sped off again. As the dust settled, Elder H turned to me and said, "Well... that doesn't happen all the time."

And we thought that was it. Maybe she would read the pamphlet, maybe she wouldn't. It was in God’s hands now... or so we thought. But all we could do was carry on with what we knew. So we did. And as we walked and knocked and talked and got pretty used to the feeling of rejection, we spied a house around a bend in the street, with a blue Volkswagen Bug in the driveway.  Of course we knocked, and guess who answered?! A completely different girl! But that's okay because she was the daughter of the woman that we had talked to earlier and her mom was home so we were able to talk to them. Turns out, they are having some family troubles and some trouble with their church and these troubles seem to be related. So, to cut a kind of a little bit long story short, they are looking for a different church and they said that their search has come down to the Anglican church or ours. So we gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and directed her to The Family a Proclamation to the World. We have set up to go back Wednesday afternoon to teach the first lesson. I’ll let you know how it goes!  TO BE CONTINUED...

Oh and Elder H is as good as gone. All his stuff is packed and he hits the road at 3:00 this afternoon with Elder C (one of the Zone Leaders from First Ward, who is also dying-going home), at which point I will be in a Tri with Elder F (the other Zone Leader in the First Ward) and Elder B (from Merritt, whose companion, Elder R, is ALSO dying), we'll be together until we get our new companions, and I think it’s pretty safe to say (like 99.9999999999999999999999871 % sure) that all of us are staying in the areas we're in now. But you can never really be sure with President Tilleman. ALSO: I did ask about being whitewashed so many times, President responded that it was "an interesting theory to be sure", but that it "had no merit" (his exact words). He went on to say some other things that completely undermined any confidence or assurance that his previous statements may have afforded me. I'm not in trouble, but I’m not out of the frying pan either. I’m not exactly sure what he meant but I’m afraid I may be finding out very soon. :/

With love,

Elder Thomson

 

 

This Week!!!

Our week….in a super-tiny-itty-bitty-but-still-better-than-I-have-been-doing-nutshell:

Monday evening we were invited out to a Family Home Evening to share about our experiences with our missions with a family’s three sons. It was a really good experience that recalled to my memory some of the highlights of the past year and I was able to share that with the boys who also have desires to serve. They asked some really good questions. Then we asked what Missionary experiences that they have been having in their lives. They told us about their neighbor’s son with whom they are good friends. We talked to them about inviting him and them out to Scouting and Young Men activities, and having them over to their home. We will be going back to visit that family again this week and will be following up on how that went.

Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder B, we had some good plans, but not all of them worked out quite how we had planned so we spent a significant amount of the day tracting. Elder B is a really good missionary, who is amazingly relaxed and knowledgeable for how long he has been out. While I was with Elder B we went to visit a less active family who moved up to this area from Las Vegas not to many years ago. Elder B, being from the Vegas area, was able to connect with them, particularly the husband really well, and the family was friendly and positive about the church so I think there is some promising potential there in getting them reactivated, we just have to plan out a good time to meet with them as it seems like they're hardly ever around. And we weren't able to find out what has been keeping them from church, but I suspect it might be work.

Wednesday we met with M and we talked some more about Baptism. We were able to find out that one of her biggest concerns is that she doesn't want to lose her religious heritage, which her family (mother and grandparents) back as far as memory goes have all been a part of. She believes all of the things that we teach at church, but she attends her families church sometimes because she want to try and help preserve the culture and language that her mother grew up with. We are meeting with her again tonight and have planned to talk about the Plan of Salvation, Family History, and Temple Work and how the Restored Gospel won’t take her away from her family and culture but will actually help her recover them better than anything else.

That evening we also met with Sister M, she is a less active convert to the church, and she has been having dreams about Family History. We talked about getting her into Family History work and directed her to where she could go to get an account and get started, we also talked about having one of the members come to her home to help her get the hang of things. I think she really does want to come to church. She is a really nice lady.

Thursday we got to meet with R and K. K is a recent convert and R is working on getting the Melchizedek Priesthood. We had a good lesson with them about enduring to the end and talked about the Temple as well. R seems excited. K seemed a little hesitant and had some questions. I think Eternal Marriage and the Temple is something we are going to need to spend some more time on with them. They are both super sweet people. They both have good hearts and a love for the Gospel and both regularly attend the Gospel Principles class.

Friday was somewhat of a disappointment; a lot of things fell through or just didn't work out, even the members we had planned to see we weren't really able to share a message with because everyone was busy. But we did a lot of finding and contacted a few potentials, some of whom we will be contacting again soon... others, not so soon. But we did meet a lot of cool people.

We had a kind of cool experience Saturday night. We had planned to stop by a Brother in the Ward but when we stopped by the babysitter answered the door and informed us that he and his wife were out and wouldn't be back until much later. We said that we would try back a different day and went to move on to our back up plan, but then we remembered that just the previous Sunday we had met his Sister at church and learned that she and her other (less active) brother and mother all lived not too far from there. We decided that before we went to our backup plan we would try to stop by them and see if we could share a message with them. As we drove up we saw them playing outside and we asked if we could visit with them for a little bit and share a message. They were actually really excited to see us, and they invited us in. We were able to get to know them a little better and talked about each of their conversion and testimony of the church. We shared a scripture and as it turns out, the less active brother does in fact believe the church is true and he wants to serve a Mission. We invited them all to church (just for good measure), and they all said they would try.

Sunday Elder H and I both spoke in Sacrament Meeting. And in the evening we had dinner with S, her less active brother, and her non-member husband. They were all very nice and we were able to share a message with them. Sister A's husband was very friendly and warm. I believe there could be progress made there with both of them.

After the A's we went to the M’s home to teach their soon-to-be son in law, D, one of the new member lessons. We talked about Eternal Marriage, and D understood it very well. He is a very smart guy. You might even say that he is a sober child, and quick to observe. He is very good about understanding and applying the Gospel. And the M's treat him like one of the family already. That’s just a really greats situation there. If only all investigators or new members had support like that pretty much all of our problems would be solved.

That was our week. Nothing terribly exciting happened, but we worked hard, and we'll be working even harder AND smarter this week. We'll see how that goes.

We are allowed by mission rules to be on the computer for two hours, but the libraries only allow one so if we want a second hour we have to find another library with two computers side by side that someone isn't already using... and some days that's just more of an ordeal than it is worth. But we try as much as we can. :)

These computers are way better than the ones in Langley, so I could probably be sending pictures back too, but unfortunately I haven't been taking too many. It’s a lot harder to carry my camera around in the summer. In the winter I just pack it in my coat pocket, but in the summer I don't have quite so many pockets so most of the pictures I end up taking are at night when we are at the apartment. And most of those are worrisome because they are of stupid ideas that one or either other of us has had, or they are pictures of our abysmally bad diet choices… but usually both. The latest and greatest one is toaster waffles and honey flavored Greek Yogurt (9% milk fat). Elder H is sensitive to dairy so it doesn't always end well, but he seems to be getting better and it’s not bad enough to get him to stop eating it. ;) 

I love you all, and hope all is well at home, and abroad.

Love,

Elder Thomson

P.S. Really quick like:

Why did the chicken cross the road... according to Mormons:

"As the egg is the chicken once was, and as the chicken is the egg may become."

"No success in crossing the road can compensate for failure in the coup."

Member One - "My home teachers are so good they always come on the first day of the month!"

Member Two - "Oh yeah?? Well my home teachers are so good that they always come the day before that!!"

Member One - "Huh?"

 

 

Hello all!

Last week was awesome!

While we didn't get any new investigators this past week we were able to contact and meet many wonderful people this past week and we will be seeing many of them again this upcoming week.

Among them were our two most promising prospects for baptism this month: C and M. Both have been attending church regularly for some time now, and have very few (if any) things that would need to change in their life's (as far as the commandments go) in order for them to be baptized. 

M is the mother of or recent convert. Her reservations seem to be mainly centered around her not feeling like she knows enough. We just need to keep meeting with her to help her solidify her testimony of the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, and then help her to understand that that testimony is enough to start with, and that we don't need to know everything from the get go. 

C has been attending our churches all over the place for, as far as we understand, basically four years. He has a super solid true friend who he wants to baptize him. He is a really smart guy with a deep love of God and the scriptures. He is clean cut, and very giving, respectful, and helpful. In short he would make an excellent member of the church. 

In a nutshell that was our week. We had a Zone Conference on Saturday with some incredible training by President Tilleman, and then in the evening there was a HUGE YSA fireside, to which we were invited, and President Tilleman spoke there as well. I wish I could tell you all of the things that were said but suffice it to say that the church is true, miracles have not ceased, and there is no other way nor name given except that of Christ. 

In other news! I went to see our distant relatives P and T. (They are like my... great, great grand-cousins, three or four times removed, on my uncle’s pet gecko’s side... I think.) They are awesome. They are super friendly and many of the things we talked about were about miracles that they have seen in their lives, they have a belief in God. Like I said they are awesome. We had food, which was awesome. We told stories, those were awesome. We looked at pictures, awesome. P showed us his woodwork, which was awesome. T gave us cinnamon rolls, THOSE WERE AWESOME. We are so going back, and it’s going to be awesome. 

With love,

Elder Thomson

This week was awesome!!

This week was awesome!! Except I missed everything fun. We had back to back exchanges and both times I got picked to go to the other areas, so I wasn’t in my area for a combined total of about 48 hours. Of course in that time Elder H and first Elder B and then Elder F; contacted a referral, set up about a million appointments (exaggerating), taught three lessons, and found three new investigators. Meanwhile back in the Ward: when I'm not tracting, I’m getting stood up on appointments and force fed ice-cream and cherries by overly generous British people. ; P

But life is good! : D There are a lot of good things happening in our area that I was actually able to be around for.

Like I said there really isn't a whole lot I can report on this week as it seems like anything interesting that happened in the area this past week happened while I was gone on exchanges. We had back to back exchanges Tuesday into Wednesday and Wednesday into Thursday. We did find three new investigators this week, but I have yet to meet any of them, but our return appointments with them are coming up so I look forward to meeting with and getting to know them soon.

One thing that's kind of cool that we have been working on this week is we set up to have weekly splits with the Elders and High Priests every Thursday night. Our first priority will be to have hopefully 2 lessons with investigators scheduled during that time, but after that we will be visiting Less Active Members (preferably with their Home Teachers) and helping to uplift and encourage them.

The Ward Mission leader is really on board and the Quorum and Group as a whole seemed fairly in favor of the idea so the first of these "rescue nights" will be this upcoming Thursday. I'm excited to see how it goes.

I love the area. I love the people here. I love my companion. I love the work. I tolerate the weather. Life is good. God is good. The church is true.

Love ya lots!

Elder Thomson

P.S. To answer your questions:

I’m serving in a weird place, cool people. As per the usual in Canada none of the streets make sense. The weather is as far as I can tell consistently too warm, but we just mooched a fan off of the First Ward Elders so we should survive...maybe.

My Companion: Weird guy... that pretty much all there is. He is a nerd, a dweeb, and a dork, and I love him for all of those reasons! His favorite past times are juggling and Rubik’s cube. I know... right? But he has impressive skills in both and more women (i.e. girlfriends) than any other Missionary I have served with, and for that he is a stud... but I don’t understand how...  ; P

The apartment: Small, but clean. I have seen bigger shoe boxes, but compared to my last apartment it’s a gold inlaid shoe box. We live under a super cool family. And the members in the Ward are awesome.

 

Several Awesome Miracles!

Hello family!

This past week has been wonderful. We witnessed several awesome miracles, and the Lord has blessed us indeed. Funny thing about miracles: I never seem to stop being surprised when they happen. You'd think that sooner or later after seeing so many we'd get desensitized, or they'd stop impressing us quite as much, and I guess that does happen, but it’s usually more of a deficiency of gratitude than anything else.

 

Anyway this past week we had two miracles with referrals and one miracle new investigator.

 

Our miracle new investigator's name is C, we met him after Church when our Ward Mission Leader (Brother S, who is awesome) came running up to us after church and said for us to come quick because he had someone for us to meet. That's when he introduced us to C. Turns out C has been coming to church for a while at different buildings, he has been unofficially investigating for a long time and some recent challenges in his life have thrown into sharp contrast the proper order of his priorities. He attended several other Wards yesterday, and talked to missionaries in all three wards. He was in Gospel Principles which is where he met our Ward Mission Leader and told him briefly his story. Anyway, we were able to meet with him after church and get to know where he is coming from, we shared our testimonies with him of the Church and of God's hand in everything, we shared some scriptures and he said that he would be attending Church next week as well, and we set up another meeting for after church. He seems very humble and very sincere, he said that he is searching for something, for a place where he belongs, so I think good thinks are ahead for him.

 

Both of our miracle referrals were from Missionaries; one who just left for her mission to Nevada and another who just returned. Turns out one of the referrals is actually a part member family that we didn't have on our records, and when we went over to see them they were super friendly and invited us back for another time.

 

The other referral we have not been able to contact yet but it was also truly an unexpected miracle.

 

That’s cool that we passed the home inspection thingy for Adult Foster Parenting. It’s also cool that you got released from RS President, but not so cool that you got sick. Woot! A Stake Primary calling! That’s going to be awesome!

 

I love you soooo much too. Sorry my emails have been kinda weak lately. I keep telling myself I'm going to do better but then I get distracted.

 

Anyways! Questions I want to know about home:

 

Who are the Elders in our Ward right now? How is their teaching pool?

 

How are things in politics/the world? I haven’t got an update on that in a while?

 

Also a kitchen update would be cool.

 

How are the Wolfes doing? Is everything going well there or are they ready to through in the towel and come back to civilized country?  :  )

 

Also if you could send me a hard copy of the edited letter that I wrote for the Sons of... whatchamacallit camp that would be awesome! :D

 

The Lord is just and merciful, the work is hard and miraculous, the Church is true and that's it.

 

Love ya!

 

-Elder Thomson