God Speaks to YOU

We had a great week with lots of lessons on humility and patience. There were many "too busy" people this week so we had the opportunity to contact and get to know many new people. It was also a pretty fun week because we had some rain storms everyday haha, which means that people got to ask us what canal we fell into. After a week of doing this for most of our day we decided to do something different.

We followed the counsel of our prophet Russell M. Nelson in his talk about Revelation:

"Brothers and sisters, how can we become the men and women—the Christlike servants—the Lord needs us to be? How can we find answers to questions that perplex us? If Joseph Smith’s transcendent experience in the Sacred Grove teaches us anything, it is that the heavens are open and that God speaks to His children.

The Prophet Joseph Smith set a pattern for us to follow in resolving our questions. Drawn to the promise of James that if we lack wisdom we may ask of God,⁸ the boy Joseph took his question directly to Heavenly Father. He sought personal revelation, and his seeking opened this last dispensation.

In like manner, what will your seeking open for you? What wisdom do you lack? What do you feel an urgent need to know or understand? Follow the example of the Prophet Joseph. Find a quiet place where you can regularly go. Humble yourself before God. Pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father. Turn to Him for answers and for comfort.

Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.”⁹

Does God really want to speak to you? Yes! “As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course … as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints.”^10"

^{After our prayer we recieved feelings of great peace and tranquility that settled our hearts. The next day we also recieved alot of help from members. We had young men that accompanied us and many others gave us the directions of their friends so that we could visit them. I really hope that we can keep on working with the members in our half of the ward so that we can open up some branches in the pueblos where we are working.}

We are still working hard for our goal of 5 baptisms if you all could pray for us that would be great. We want to start off Elder Garcias mission with a bang.

Love you all and hope that you have a great week!!

Elder Thompson

Temple with Elizabeth

This past week I had the first opportunity to go to the temple in like a year and a half. Here on the mission we are not allowed to go to the temple unless a family we baptised is getting sealed. It was amazing to do almost all of the ordinances (still not ready to get sealed). I felt the peace of the Lord and his great power to bind people together for the eternities. Love you all and for those of you that have a temple close by I invite you all to attend!! 

Empty Carpeta in Atlixco

Thank you for all the birthday wishes and for all of your prayers. I am really thankful for all of the support that I have had this far on my mission. Wow I now have 2 decades and a year here in "this thing we call life". I am starting feel old... on the mission. We are officially the oldest generation here on the mission, but I am supper happy to reflect on all of our memories and for what lies in the future on my mission.

For those of you that do not know I had a change of area two weeks ago. I am now serving in Atlixco with a new missionary fresh off the bus. His name is Elder Garcia and comes from Nicaragua (if you all could pray for his country and family that would be great!). Elder Garcia has the excitement of every new missionary and is ready to work hard, which is something that we need because we are opening a new area.

We opened up our carpeta de area (book of registers of members and people getting to know the church) on our first day and it was empty. We immediately hit the streets to start filling it with a lot of contacts. The blessings and miracles that we received in this first week were amazing. God placed many people in our path that seem to be pretty prepared to receive the gospel.

There was one time where we were walking looking for a address and we passed by a joven of about 14 years. After walking about 10 feet we immediately decided to turn back and contact this joven. His name is Isaac and we learned that he is trying to build a stronger relationship with God. In our first lesson he said he started feeling happy and pressure in his chest, which is the Holy Ghost helping him to receive an answer. We have also talked to his brother and sister, who are also interested in the Gospel. If you all could pray for his parents so that they can be receptive to the Gospel as well, you would help us out a lot.

We are hoping to take some of the people that we contacted this week to church so that they can begin their journey to baptism. We have a goal to baptize 5 people this change (in 5 weeks)

Other news!!!! The hermana Elizabeth (someone I had the opportunity to baptize) from Tehuacan is going to the temple to get sealed to her family. She has invited me to accompany them. I am so happy that she and all of her family got baptized. It is going to be a special day with them in the temple.

I love you all and I hope that you have great weeks!!

Elder Thompson

Training in Atlixco

Today was changes and I am heading out to a different area! I am going to be finishing as a trainer in a place called Atlixco. The funny thing is that I am going to be living in the same house as two other Elders (Lideres de Zona) and guess who they are.... I am going to be in the same house as Elder Cruz again haha. I think it is going to be a fun time. I am also going to have a good friend of mine named Elder Smiley as my district leader. This place is also pretty turista so let me know if there is anything you guys want from México.

Erick, Laura and Miriam

God gave us the opportunity to baptize three people this week named Erick (the red head) and Laura and Miriam. They were awesome baptisms where you could feel the holy spirit of promise. I also had the opportunity to confirm Erik, which helped me feel the power of God and have more peace. I am also super grateful for the Priesthood. My companion Elder Montez gave me an amazing blessing when I was feeling a little disanimated this week. He let me know that I am giving a good performance here on the mission and that happiness is the reason why we are living on this world.