REQUEST TO ALL: Please write and send me some stories from your mission…

Excerps from king Benjamin’s final words, implied for our days. Mosiah 2:9 My bretheren, all ye that will assemble yourselves together for general conference. We that can hear the words which they shall speak unto us this day. for we have not been commanded to go up thither to trifle with the words which shall be spoken, but we should hearken unto them and open our ears that we may hear and our hearts that we may understand and our minds that the mysteries of God maybe unfolded to our view.

Needless to say, I am excited for General Conference! It will be the last day of our transfer here. I am starting to make a list of questions that I want answered in my study journal. Then I will take my conference notes on the next pages and later reread them to fill in the answers to my questions. You’ve got to try this… it’s awesome and really works!

Life is good here in Boa Vista. We visited the center today which has a beautiful view of Rio Branco. (The white river) It seems like quite a tourist spot because there are lots of little snack stands and such. We took a few neat pictures by the water. My camera is broken at the moment but I will see about getting them from my companion when I get the chance.

I taught the Principles of the Gospel class yesterday! I was super nervous, but it was on the Atonement, so there was lots of good material to share. I also gave a talk in church about missionary work. I started off by listing all the things I would do to get the word out if I had a cure for cancer. Then I explained that there is a spiritual sickness like cancer, but that we have the cure! It is baptism by authority and then going to church every week to partake of the blessings and healing power of the Atonement. I explained that we have just got to get the word out because there are people who don’t know yet or have forgotten that there is a cure for spiritual pain. It was a good experience, and another confirmation that I want to be a teacher.

My thoughts on the Sacrament are changing. Instead of getting after myself when I do something poorly or make a mistake or slack off, I just think to myself, I can’t wait for Sunday to take the Sacrament and be white clean again. It cheers me up and then I do better. I am really starting to anxiously look forward to taking the Sacrament each week!

I would like to make a request.
For everyone who is reading my blog, family and friends. I would like to hear about your missions! Send me mission stories. 🙂 My address is still the same one. Here are some ideas of things you could write: What was your hardest baptism. What was your favorite thing about the people in your mission? What was the worst day you had on the mission and why? What was the best day and why? What do you miss the most about the culture where you served. What helped you give it your best efforts to the end (scripture, personal quote, analogy…ect.) ? What was something your mission president said that stuck with you after the mission or helped you on the mission.

Love you all, the church is true.

The fruit of the tree…

My address is still the same. Everything goes to the mission office and then our zone leaders go to manaus once a month to pick it up. 🙂 To all my family and friends, I would love to hear your mission stories or scripture study thought/notes if you’d like to write.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned that I hit my half way mission mark the 25th of last month. It’s weird… It’s something I’ve been thinking about this week. My mission is more than half over, and now I’ve just got to pace myself and finish the race strong. I think it is a lot like running a marathon. You have to have check points and keep gauging yourself and making goals all along the way.

I learned something interesting in Alma 7 the other day. He asks us to be diligent and temperate in the same sentence. I realized that it is impossible to be diligent without being temperate. If we don’t take care of ourselves and schedule out our time with our necessities realistically, we will not have what it takes to keep running and finish strong, we will burn out. I’m glad for all the mission rules and weekly goals that keep me temperate.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about the Love of God. In reading the vision of the tree of life, we learn that the only thing that was able to tear people from the love of God once they had tasted it, was pride. It’s scary. There were some who, after partaking of the fruit, looked around at their peers for approval and validation and forgot the validation of God that was in their hands. They left, seeking to join the group of the world, who with their pride had tried to create something for themselves without God and his laws and rules which are eternal truths. The great and abominable building is the pride of the world.

In this last conference we were warned to avoid extremes. Satan will do everything he can to tear the fruit out of our hands. If he can’t get us to go to the extreme of being proud, he will try to make us go to the other extreme by being discouraged. I’ve found that everything in my life has either been pulling me to the one pole or the other. The secret is just to keep making those little course corrections by looking straight ahead…at the love of God.

Love,

Sister Thompson

Loving my new area!!!

This has been a good week! Here are some long awaited pictures I took in Manaus on my last day in the area. My favorite is of the meat! Well, actually, my favorite is of Luisa’s baptism. The others are just of the streets and such because I know one picture is worth 1000 words. The last few are of our new house here in Boa Vista. We passed by this awesome river on our way here and so Sister Stevens and I took a picture together.

There have been a few family members of the ward members who wanted to get baptized and so we had a baptism yesterday. I will send another email after this with the pics. We have been praying to be able to find and baptize a family this transfer. We have lots of good prospects but really need a miracle. I’m back to being my good old self (the way I was at the first of my mission) and making tons of contacts every day. Making contacts with people is really one of my strong points because of that Sam’s club job Missy and I had the summer before my mission. I always surprise my companions with how many people I shamelessly stop and invite to be taught.

My weak point is still teaching, because I want to learn to simplify, clarify and relate everything I say to the lives of the people. It’s going to be a life time process I think. I think I will definitely get a teaching degree after the mission. It’s one of those interesting professions that seem like you can’t grow out of it. It’s the one thing I don’t think I would get tired of.

I am loving everything about this new area. Our little rented church house is so cute!!!! They are building a chapel somewhere down the street. They don’t have a stake here yet, so all the wards are branches. It feels so different not having to climb hills every day. One of the pictures shows the view of the city from the top of a hill in Manaus. Here in Boa Vista, everything is flat and so you don’t wear yourself out as fast.

Guess what!!!!!! The Manaus Temple finally has a date. It will be dedicated June 10! Everyone says that us Sisters will probably get to help with the open house. I sure hope so! I haven’t been there since my birthday last year, so I am dying to see it all finished. I really miss the Temple. It’s hard to explain. After going through the Temple and making a habit of going there every week before my mission, I just want to get back there. It’s like my Spirit’s addicted to that feeling you get when your inside the Temple or near it. It really is our tangible link to Heaven.

Take care!

Beijos!

Sister Thompson