words and wanderlusts: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This week we had exchanges with the sister training leaders and I got to be with my MTC comp Hermana Johnson! It was fun :) I thought it would be weird teaching with her a year later since we have a lot more experience with the language and teaching but I was surprised that it felt normal and like nothing had changed. Of course we have both changed and grown a lot but I think I only noticed the difference in that we are both more bold and confident. I´m sure you will all see the difference in me when I get back more than I can. I love doing exchanges mostly because there are always weird things that happen and we always see more miracles. Changes in the mission also bring miracles and new things. You find people at home that are never there, new investigators are present in lessons that you weren´t expecting, and people contact you in the street.

Recently we have been working with a less active YSA, she is 22, from Ecuador, and her name is Valeria. We were teaching her and her mother before and they would say they´d come to church but then would never come. A few lessons ago we committed Valeria more strongly and she said that she would come for sure this time. It´s been a few weeks and she´s been coming every Sunday and helped as a flight attendant in our ward mission activity. Last week she told us she now wants to serve a mission! She broke up with her boyfriend, got an interview with the bishop, and is now in temple prep classes. We eat with her every week and talk about the mission and Preach My Gospel. Yesterday she accompanied us for the evening to our appts but sadly all the plans fell through and we lost the phone, but luckily we called it and the man who found it met us and gave it back to us haha but even though he had met with missionaries before he wasn´t interested in hearing more. Anyway we are super excited for Valeria and this next week she will get a calling and be considered rescued! My first rescue in the mission so far :)

And now for the most interesting part of the week...we attended the 7th Day Adventist Church Saturday morning! It was pretty chill actually but also three hours and I had a really hard time keeping myself awake during the last hour sermon...whoops. Bible classes and songs and power point presentations on their finances. Everything they said was bible proof and wasn´t against doctrine but I didn´t feel the spirit once during the whole experience. It was an affirmation that our church has the fullness of the Gospel. They have truth (they even have a font basically identical to ours) but they don´t have all of it and they most importantly don´t have they priesthood. I have come to really appreciate how important the priesthood is on the mission.

As we were teaching them (Luis Antonio and Cecilia) yesterday something they said really struck me. Luis more or less said, "I can´t say that my church is the TRUE church, lots of people say that about their church." I thought that was sad. Why go then? Our lesson was way more intense than usual yesterday and I felt good about how I used the spirit to testify of what we do know. The gospel is true everyone! And I love it.

Love you all,

Hermana Thompson

Last week we hiked up to Monteagudo- a Christ statue that looks over Murcia. It had a great view, here are some pics, I´ll send more later!