I am a Mormon Missionary

Welcome home Brittany!! That went by so fast... I can't believe it!

Happy Birthday to Brandon Cruz, Daniella, Jordan, and Eric this upcoming week!!

AND of course a Happy Happy Birthday to DAD!! I hope you have an awesome day! Thanks for being the best daddy ever :)

Week of miracles! Okay, let's be honest every week is full of miracles, but this week blew me away. God is so amazing. He is doing so much work here in Ochagavìa. We had a jovèn se llama (young one named) "H" come to church for the first time in years. I seriously shed a couple of  tears when I saw him come in the chapel with his button-up shirt on. We have been working hard with him. We had an awesome lesson this saturday about the expiacion (atonement). wow. His face totally changed during the lesson when we talked about the healing and forgiving power of the atonement. I LOVE teaching everyone about the sacrifice of Christ and what it means for every single one of us. It is something so special, and it applies to every one...offers the hope we need to continue on. Needless to say we had an awesome "GAME DAY" yesterday. We had 13 menos activos (less actives) at church and 3 of them for the first time in YEARS. 

Oh, I forget to mention "P", she is the daughter of an inactiva (inactive) that we went to visit on Saturday, the mom wanted her daughter to go to clases de ingles (english class) so she came out to talk with us...ended up sharing with us, came to clases de ingles, then to church, and also a baptism yesterday!!! We are going by today to put a baptism date with her for this sunday!! miracles exist. God prepares people. 

We saw Meet the Mormons!! oh. my. gosh. I got teary eyed, it is so powerful! It inspired me so much to change the world through MY personal family. I love being a mormon. It makes me proud. Stand for truth and righteousness. 

I want to testify of the power we have to help those we see in need on the street. One of our menos activos (less actives) was at a park with her kid and saw these 2 little boys smoking... she went over to talk to them and find out what was up. Long story short, they are brothers, 12 years old and 6. Their step-dad is an inactive member...anyway, she invited them to the clases de ingles that we do on saturdays. They showed up and they even came to church on sunday by themselves and in white shirts. It is wonderful to see how much this member cares about these boys in such a short period of time. She has such a desire to help them reach their bright future. She seriously inspires me...she has so much love for everyone. True disciple of christ. 

There is nothing better than being a missionary. In dedicating all of your time to serving the Lord and helping your brothers and sisters find the truth and feel joy in their lives.  It is really eternal joy. 

I love being a part of this work. LETS GOOOO

dyc 123:17 

Hermana Thompson

God Listens

Happy belated Birthday to Ellè and Morgan and Happy Birthday to Kyle, Liv and Jess. I will celebrate here in Chile for you guys :) For birthdays here, you get your face shoved in cake. :)

A big "Thank You" to my awesome aunts and Uncles for the package, I was so giddy when I received it. I can feel the LOVE across the miles! 

A week of craziness. We did a couple of divisiones this last week so my mind has been running in many different directions. We have to be very organized and on top of everything to keep our sector alive, but the Lord is merciful. Seriously, he has blessed us so much, we had 11 menos activos at church again and 2  attend for the first time. A lot of progress has been made, now we are hungry for baptism!!!! This work is awesome. God is preparing people here in Ochagavìa. 

We also did divisiones in the elders' sectors this week to help find nuevos, flaite !! 

Mom, like your story, God is aware of us and it is through little medios (means) that he does miracles. We have seen many little miracles, things that fall through so that others can fall together. God is not silent; look around and you will see his love. Well, got no time, but I love you all lots!!

Thanks to San Ramon 1st ward for the valentine's day card, I feel the love ;)

Hermana Thompson

I'm sitting next to my dad's Mission President! Elder y Hermana Gonzalez

mi y hemana Farner

Walk with the angels

I love Ochagavìa!! God has so many miracles waiting for us. Seriously, I am so stoked to be here, we have a whole lot of work to do; especially with our calling as sister training leaders. We are getting really good at using our time effectively. We seriously do not have any minute to waste. It is such a challenge. I can feel God pushing us to learn and grow. We had 4 in-actives come to church yesterday that have not been in years... and I mean years! haha. 

SO this last week we started cleaning through el Rescate (the rescue book) to see if we could find inactivos that were ready to feel the spirit y tenían ganas a regresar (eager to return). We happened to find Pedro...golden, future bishop lol. Well, he came yesterday and told a member he is never again going to miss a sunday. so happy!!! :)

We did our first divisiones or splits as hermana lideres capacitadoras (sister training leaders). I feel as though I will be learning way more from the hermanas than they will from me... lol but hermana Farner and I came up with a theme...mi misión es mi siòn (my mission is my Zion). We are really focusing on unifying each companionship & strengthening their faith in God's work and in Christ's Atonement. We are also focusing on being obedient with exactness. Like my mom says, if you aren't 5 minutes early you are late. We should always try to be more obedient than we need to be. Don't ever try to push the line, that is quite frankly when we fall...and the fall may be bad. 

I am learning so much from hermana Farner, she is a BOSS. Seriously maquina (a machine):) 

Spiritual Thought. When Christ was in the garden of Gethsamane, He suffered for EVERY single one of us. But more than that, He saw our faces, He understood everything we would pass through in this life. Knowing the pain and affliction, He CHOSE to suffer so He could walk with us. We are not alone. Christ loves us. He knows us personally. He suffered first. 

I know I am not alone in this work, I can feel angels here working along with us. The ancestors of the people we are teaching are preparing their hearts. I love this so much. I am never going home. Sorry fam :)

forever Hermana Thompson

My dad's Mission President, Elder González y his wife

I love Chile, birthdays, & my chilean friends!

A new chapter

Gracias a todos por (thanks to everyone for) the birthday shout outs! I really appreciate it. I know it isn't easy to email hahaha, time is so short, but I really appreciate the notes. 

Shout out to Crew bug for your baptism this Saturday! I want you to know that I will be thinking about you on this special day. 

Okay.. so it's true, my time in El Conquistador came to an end. It was hard a despedirme de todos (to say goodbye to everyone), they are seriously my family. I have shared a lot with all of them, cried together, laughed together, felt the spirit and grew together, but I know God has a plan for everyone of us. He places us in the paths of others so that we may help one another on this crazy road to return to Him. 

Now I am in Ochagavía with Hermana Farner from Washington. She is super awesome! Seriously, we are so ready to work hard. We are now in cargada de 23 misioneras (in charge of 23 Sister Missionaries)... woah. We have a ton of work to do with our sector and to help the other hermanas (sisters) out. I am super stoked, seriously, I love serving people so much. It just feels so good to help others and to truly listen to them. 

So this last week...wow. Well, Emily got baptized!! She is such an adorable 9 year old girl. She is the daughter of a menos activa (less active), she is super capa (cute/cool). She answered the baptism questions like a boss. Seriously, she knows the 10 commandments by memory and is memorizing the Articles of Faith. Her brother Josè received the sacerdocio (Priesthood) on Sunday too! So awesome. I feel content leaving El Conquistador knowing I was an instrument in the Lord's hands to bring people unto Him. I love the work of Salvation!! 

I am so pumped to continue working here in Chile. The people are so special. I want to end this email with my testimony: I know this is Christ's work. I know He lives. He is leading this church. It is His Church. We are the soldiers on earth fighting for the good, but we need to be dedicated to the war we are in; we cannot have one foot on the field and one foot off...we have to be ALL in. We have to do all we can to protect ourselves and to protect those around us who are fighting along with us. God needs us to give everything we have. He needs us to be strong, to be faithful. This is true... 

I love my Savior and I am eternally grateful and in debt to Him.

Happy Birthday to the best mom in the world!! You are awesome :)

Hermana Thompson

Big Day!

Received this from Hermana Thompson today:

Hey, so I got transferred and I am now an Hermana Leader so we were in a meeting pretty much all day so I will write my "mass" email tomorrow. I am in Ochagavía with Hermana Farner, she has been like my bff since the start of the mission. We were totally freaking out when they called us. Thanks so much for the package Mom, you are awesome!! Your little post it notes made me cry!! Love you guys too! Please tell everyone "thanks" for the birthday wishes...not enough time to reply to all! 

the love of God

Primero quiero expresar mi amor por mi Salvador... (First I want to express my love for the Savior) de verdad esta valentines day pensé mucho en el amor él tiene para mi y estoy tan agradecida por el sacrificio de amor que hizo para mi y cada uno de nosotros. me ha dado todo el apoyo, el entendimiento, el consuelo, èl es fiel, amoroso, y mi mejor amigo. due un dìa especial para mi para recordar todo el amor de èl (really, this Valentines Day I have thought a lot about the love the Savior has for me, and I am grateful for His loving sacrifice for each one of us.  He has given me strength, understanding, comfort; He is faithful, loving, and my best friend.  It was a very special day for me to remember His love)

Dad, you can't get trunky on me!!! But this week was kind of a wake up call as we had our 1 año almuerzo en la casa de la misiòn... (one year luncheon at the mission home) Ah, I thought that day would never come. It feels like life seems to go so slow, and then we blink and we don't know how we got to where we are. It blows my mind. But I am so excited for the months I still have in the mission. I am sad to be leaving this sector, it has become my home and the people have become my family, seriously. Mom, Dad, I am planning to come back here in a year...just a heads up :) 

Anyway! We are seeing a lot of progress in this sector, everything is really falling into place. We are finding quite a few nuevos, people are really receptive despite the calor (heat). We have a fecha (baptismal date)  this saturday for emily. La hija de una menos active (she is the daughter of a less active). She is really excited. :) She knows that baptism is a requirement to enter into el reino celestial (celestial kingdom). It is so awesome to hear about prayer experiences. I have seen it so many times in my mission, people pray and they feel something in their hearts and then the spirit starts working in them to help them feel the truth of the gospel. I know this is the only true gospel;  other churches, yes, have part of the truth but only the church of jesus christ has all of the truth. 

Carla y Cesar are progressing well :9 Cesar shared his testimony in priesthood and someone told us that he told everyone that he knows this church is true! music to a missionaries ears :) seriously, I love this family so much. ah! 

Bueno... right now it is summer so everyone is on vacation, but yesterday the stake president asked "what would happen if God went on vacation?"  An interesting concept... haha I know I would be so lost if he went on vacation for an hour! 

Happy Birthday Tate!!

Saludos de Chile

(loads of love)

Hermana Thompson

Side note: Hey, guess what Dad?! Elder y Hermana Gonzalez (Rick's Mission President) vinieron a tener una conferncia con nuestra mision(they came to have a conference with our mission) y guess what, I totally got a picture with them! The hermana was bragging to me about you and how hard of a worker you were and what faith. She told me you were one of their gran misioneros y es muy orgullosa de ti (great missionaries and is very proud of you). She gave me about 5 hugs on your behalf. She even called me out in front of everyone and said how special it was to be there, it was really awesome :) I have a picture with them just like you have with them!  

1 year luncheon at Presidente's home

The Love of God

Happy Valentines Day! I hope everyone has a little bit of time to focus on the love of Christ. Moroni 7:47 comparta este amor con los demás eso es la caridad, compartir el amor de nuestro Salvador y Padre Celestial. Yo sé que cada uno de nosotros somos hijs de Dios y él nos ama tanto que envió su hijo que podemos tener la vida eterna. (share this love with others, it is charity, sharing the love of our Savior & Heavenly Father. I know that each of us is a child of God and He loves us so much He sent His Son that was may have eternal life.)

Bueno... okay. ¿qué paso esta semana? (what happened this week?) Every Monday I have to think hard about what to write haha So many things happen every day, it is difficult to include everything in an hour. But let's see... 

So I kinda have a lot of time in this sector... more than 6 months, so I pretty much know it backwards, forwards, and side to side. I know my neighbors here better than I did at home lol. anyway, so I know a lot of people and sometimes it's hard because I feel like I have talked to everyone, knocked every door... but as president says it is time to knock the windows. so we went exploring. it's kind of hard to explain, but we found these houses behind houses... incredible! I don't know how I missed there were houses behind this BIG wall en el sector. There are like 6 or 7 houses on this terreno (ground). I can't explain the houses but they are different than every other house in our sector, they are really humble homes. anyway, the first house we knocked on, they let us in. Turns out there is a family with 9 kids living here! ah. Gold. 2 of the daughters are 20 and 22 and accepted fechas (dates) for the 7 of march! amazing. 

This same day we found a man in another house and his name is Claudio. We started this new thing in our mission of handing out a card with christ ton it hat says "sígueme" and the other side has a picture of baptism so people really understand our purpose as missionaries. So when we contacted him with the card, he got teary eyed and said that he has really been missing the spiritual things in his life. He let us in and began to weep saying that we were angels sent to his home to bring him what he needs. He was so receptive to the message of the restoration. I know this is the true gospel. The Spirit is real and will touch the hearts of people in need. He is so awesome!! I love being a missionary and bringing the world Christ's true gospel. 

Stand in holy places, do not let people pull you down, have courage to walk away when you can feel that the Spirit is not present. A lot of times I feel like we feel the devil for the things he is capable of but muchas veces olvidamos que Dios es aun más poderoso (often forget that God is even more powerful). We should fear God and the judgement that WILL take place rather than the devil at THIS moment because of temptation. 

Look up and around and enjoy the beauty of this wonderful creation from a wonderful father

At the end of every day we need to ask, "what did I do today to follow Christ?" What do I need to change so that I am not following a different path. When it all comes down to it, what is most important is if we chose to dedicate our day to following Christ or did we get caught up in the world. 

lots of love and hugs and kisses this week 

Hermana T

Zone Olimpo

Happy Valentine's Day