Journal

Visa Renew

Hey everyone I was planning on sending pictures of my journal but the camera is refusing to work with the computadora. What a bad compañerismo!!! Anyways luckily a friend sent me this picture from today when I went to get my visa figured out with the people from my generation of missionaries. So at least you guys can see one picture. Dont worry next week I will be sending two weeks worth of stories and pictures. 

I love you all and if you need me to pray for something specifically let me know!!

Elder Thompson

OLA

Hey Everybody How are you all doing?

I am doing fine down here in Mèxico. We just barely had Cambios or the time when usually the missionaries change areas and companions, but Elder Cruz and I are staying here in Huejotzingo for one more change. We are super excited and we are hoping to keep on improving, laughing, and working super hard this next change.

This week has been just as crazy as the last week. We had a whole bunch of stuff going on and we were running all around Nealtican and Cholula. 

So to start off we had our Zone conference with Presidente Alcala this past Tuesday and it was a super good and informative junta about what I need to do in my mission. To start off we had the oportunity to teach a little bit about OLA the new intiative of Presidente. The OLA stands for Oracion (Prayer) Leer (Read the Book of Mormon) and Asistir (Asist to church). While we were preparing for our respective parts (I was Leer) we had the great idea to use the giant Libro de Mormon that the stake had been using for EFY. So we scrambled about trying to get an hermano with a truck to hall this 15 feet tall book to the Conferencia. It was fun presenting the OLA and playing Dora la exploradora with questions like "What is one of the BIGGEST supports we have as missionaries?" Everybody loved taking pictures with it after and I got a few with some old friends and our zone. We also talked about the successful missionary, which is not the missionary with the most baptisms. It was a great reminder going over these pasos from Predicad mi Evangelio. You can know you have been a successful missionary when you:

• Feel the Spirit testify to people through you.

• Love people and desire their salvation.

• Obey with exactness.

• Live so that you can receive and know how to followthe Spirit, who will show you where to go, what to do,and what to say.

• Develop Christlike attributes.

• Work effectively every day, do your very best to bringsouls to Christ, and seek earnestly to learn andimprove.

• Help build up the Church (the ward) wherever youare assigned to work.

• Warn people of the consequences of sin. Invite themto make and keep commitments.

• Teach and serve other missionaries.

• Go about doing good and serving people at everyopportunity, whether or not they accept yourmessage.

  
  

• ​It was also cool to just review the basics again. We are still working super hard with Jessica a reference that we recieved with a Menos activo. She is someone super special she is reading the Book of Mormon and is actually praying to have an answer. We are also working super hard with Margarito so that he can accept his testimony about this church. We had a super powerful lesson with him talking about temples and work for the dead so that he can help his Dad who has recently died a year ago. Anyways ya se acabo el tiempo!!​

  
  

• ​Love you all and I hope that you have a great week!!!

• Love Elder Thompson

Helping with EFY

Everything is going great here in Huejotzingo and Nealtican. We had a super fun week with lots of different stuff to do!!

Lunes:

We had a super fun day we went to Plaza Sn. Diego and had a great time joking around, buying fresa crepes, and some fancy ties. Elder Rick, Elder Torres, Elder Mangum, and Elder Cruz are super fun. I am super glad that I have had this opportunity to get to know them better.

Martes:

We got to have another lesson with Margarito. He is a super friendly investigator and loves talking about every detail of everything. Somehow he got on a bunny trail about conspiracy theroies and started talking about how the aliens built the pyramids. He is so close to recieving his answer. He already believes in the first vision and thinks that the church is a good church, but there is something holding him back. We are hoping to find this desafio and destroy it through the guidance of the spirit. We also got to eat in a Buffet which was cool, but it was a little weird hearing the music of the world again haha. We also had the opportunity to talk to the Presidencia de Sociedad de Socorro here in Huejotzingo. I dont know why but it was super cool to talk with them and organize the work. Hermana Cinto, Patty, Dabila, and Moratin are all super strong members. Alot of our talk with them was about helping some hermanos to get reactivated so that they can bless their spouse and their family. At about 9:30 pm we were running around trying to find some rocks and pebbles for an object lesson for an EFY tomorrow. It was super funny and weird what we were doing but we had a good time.

Miercoles:

We finally decided not to use the Big rock object lesson after all of the drama of last night, but we thought are lesson about time management went pretty well. We gave an hour lesson about how the youth of Efy focus in on their vision and then the process of setting goals. We loved sharing the talk from Elder Ballard from this ultimate general conference Return and Recieve. We also got to give some short examples for the youth on how to teach their friends and family so that they can accept this church. It was super cool and stressful to work with the youth of the church.

The rest of the week we have been working super hard with some powerful investigators.

We had another powerful lesson with Margarito about the World of Spirits and Temples. We are hoping that his Dad is egging him on from the other side of the veil. He wants to go on the next temple trip which would be awesome.

We also had the opportunity to teach 4 spouses that can be baptised if we can help them with their problems. Their names are Ernesto, Carlos, Antonio, y Pablo. They are basically all in the same situation. They all know that the church is true they just have the fear of taking a step. Please pray for us so that we can help them by finding their stumbling blocks and help them overcome them. I know that the spirit will help guide us and give us the words we need to help them.

I love you all have a great week!!!!

Bienvenido Brother Thompson

Just wanted to say bienvenidos a mi hermano Elder Thompson en la mision de Guatemala. This week we didnt have to much go on. Just trying to help people take the step of Baptism, which has led me to self reflect and try to figure out what else I can do to become a better missionary. I think life is usually like this we are climbing up a super steep mountain and we are getting stronger and getting better with every step. Then we hit a flat spot where we reflect on all that we have done and how much we have improved. Then we look back to the mountain and see how much we still have to do. Basically I am in one of those moments where I am trying to become a better missionary and get up this super steep mountain. We have not had the chance to teach Jonathan and Asucena because they are always super busy with work. So if you all could pray for them that would be great so that we can help them. I love you all have a great week!! Climb the mountain!

Jedi Council and Minute to Win It

These past two weeks have been super crazy. I did not have time to write all of you last Monday because we were buying, doing, and cleaning up after the zone activity. Also everyone showed up late so we did not have time to send out an email to everyone. Sorry once again.... but good news is that I have a ton of super awesome spiritual experiences to share for these two weeks.

We had our first mini Conferencia with Presidente Alcala he seems to be a super cool guy. He really shows his love for others and for his family. I think I will be able to learn a lot about the attribute of Charity with him. It was also super cool and funny to see him and his family sing to us. They also brought us some good burritos and I had the opportunity to talk a little bit with Elder Slaugh. Who I met my first day as missionary. It was super fun to catch up and to see how powerful he is. We also had our second lesson with Investigator named Jessalin, who has read from the introduccion del Libro de Mormon until the end of Primer Nefi in like three days. We are hoping we can help her see the good things in life and help her to trust in God because she is super prepared.

We went to the Jedi Council as everyone calls it here with the Mission President to talk about how the Mission is doing. It was such a fun experience to see all of my friends like Slaugh, Trendler, Clawson, and Gonzalez and see all of the miracles that have happened in their missions. I am super grateful for their examples and all of the lessons I have learned from them. During our meeting it was super cool to see how President Alcala teaches and to have him clarify a few things for us in the mission. I think I can honestly say my favorite part of that day was having a Carne Asada with Presidente and talking and catching up with a lot of the people that have touched my life. (also good news this time Puebla did not convert into a ocean because of rain this time)

We had the opportunity to help two hermanas get two menos activos kids baptised from the US who were visiting here in Mexico with family. Basically a Miracle from out of no where. I know that they were the two miracle baptisms that the Hermanas have been searching for. Its so cool to see how sometimes God just places a big huge blessing in our life jaja.

We had some investigators that came to Church last Sunday and then during our lesson after they asked us what they needed to do to be baptised. Jonathan y Ausucena are two investigators that have alot of potencial. We just need to help them get married and then their faith and diligence will take them the rest of the way to their baptism. Their humble circumstances is something that has made me think and grateful for the blessings of God for me. Please keep them in your prayers if you can.

Actividad de Zona

We made the world famous kick the can ice cream with the whole zone monday. It was super cool to see all of the Hermanas and the Elders laughing and smiling as they were throwing around bags of icecream around to try and get it frozen. We got about half of the bags to point were it was icecream but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We then ate some super ricos tacos de Tacos Willy (I think I ate 8 or 10 ¡no me juzga!) We then played alot of minute to win it games with a missionary relay to end the day. It was super fun and I think many enjoyed themselves. The hermanas capacitadores also got all the birthdays of July cake and sang happy birthday to us which was cool. Many people almost got shoved into the cake until one hermana finally got a face full of cake.

I got to go in intercamios again with Elder Ricks and Elder Torres. We had some cool things happen like teaching their Fecha Alberto, who got baptised this Sunday, and doing a bunch of service for a family of 6 like me. However most of the day was just walking from cancelled cita to cancelled cita until Elder Ricks and Elder Torres decided to go visit an hermana that has been bed ridden for a long time. As we were teaching this strong and faithful hermana we recieved a powerful impression after she talked to us about how most of her kids are inactive. We recieved a reaffirming witness that trials are to strengthen and help us become who God wants us to become, but our trials are also for others as well. Through our trials people will see how we conquer our tests of faith and their testimonies as well will be strengthened. I think thats why as humans we love reading about the sacrifices of others so that we can learn and become better people as well. Life is hard but it helps to remember that a lot of our friends and family will grow based on our example. That is something that the spirit hit home for me.

For my birthday I got to eat two cakes! My comp bought me one for the district meeting and a investigator made me one as well.

That was basically my two weeks sorry once again but I hope that you guys enjoy the videos that my comp took and my pictures love you all!!!​

Comp Hair Cut

Hey Everybody

This week has been a blast!! It has been hard because we had a lot of our appointments drop and walked a lot, but that made the miracles that much better.

One of the miracles that we had started one week ago. We have started walking around with a Book of Mormon in hand because of how powerful the book is. As we were walking one day a man from a stall of clothing stopped us and asked us about our Bible. We were heading to another appointment so we just handed him the book, gave him a quick explication, and a set a day to talk to him. We had our first lesson with, Victor this past week. It was a super powerful lesson because we could feel the Spirit testifying with us. Victor also told us at the end of lesson how he wanted to learn a lot more and how out of ten other religions we were one of the few that asked him to just pray about our message. I know that our Bible... The Book of Mormon has power within and I know that prayer is an essential principle to receive knowledge from heaven.

I also want to testify of how powerful the members of the church are. One of my first days here in Huejotzingo we were carrying a Book of Mormon around and a Member walked up to us and asked us for a copy to give to a friend. After a week the Hermano Cinto had a appointment for us with his friends. It was so cool to meet up with Hermano and head to the appointment. Hmo Cinto has a super happy spirit and a fiery testimony. After we had a powerful lesson with his friends about the plan of salvation we found out how he is a convert of 2 years and he just recently got sealed in February. I am so grateful for all these people that have helped me in the mission.

I am sorry that I have to write and run another time, but next week I will write a low down of the whole week. I know this Church is true!!

I love and am praying for you all!!!!

Elder Thompson