Golden Investigators

SO. Not much time because we just taught a lesson with investigators during P-day and it went over. How consecrated can you get? Ha ha joking, joking. Remember Isi from my last email? Well she is literally gold! We hit a bump today but I´ll talk about that later. So. On Wed we had an FHE in a member family home and it went really well (with her friend Charles as well). On Friday we taught her in the chapel with the Stake President :)) Easily one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever been in (the kind that bring tears to your eyes). We taught lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it seemed like everything we said was guided by the spirit and had great affect. Afterwards we were all marveling at how incredibly well it went. Pres. Morales is a very spiritual man and his 22 year old daughter passed away a few weeks ago so the experiences he shares are even more special. We talked about baptism and when we invited her she said yes and accepted the date of June 7th, but that there was only one thing she wanted to clear up before she could fully commit. Joseph Smith. She wanted a firm testimony. We all testified of JS and Pres. M bore testimony of his conversion and the spirit was so thick you could feel it. We left with a feeling like we had just been in the temple or something. 

The next day we had an FHE in a member´s home and watched the long version of the Joseph Smith movie so that she could really understand the history. Her fiancé Fran and friend Charles were there as well. She and Charles came to church Sunday and then yesterday night she calls us and tells us that her mother finally listened to her when she wanted to talk about the church and she talked about JS and felt a peace and confirmation inside of her that what she was saying was good. She was so happy and so excited and was talking about her baptismal date. Today for P-day she showed us around Cádiz and after Charles met up with us and we all got something to drink. She asked us to explain the Word of Wisdom (while they were drinking tea ha ha) and the law of chastity also came up (she has lots of questions). We taught everything there although we wanted to wait and that´s the bump in the road. She is engaged but won´t be able to get married for a year or two because they are both in the University and want to be stable. The good thing is they aren´t living together but we´ll see what happens. Pray for her as we look for a solution. She wants to get baptized but of course this is a problem. But seriously, other than Miri in Benidorm, I have never seen such a prepared investigator with so much desire. We are truly blessed. 

And the weekly miracle that Hna Moreno loves to tell everyone. On wed we all wanted chocolate really badly but had none and no time to buy any. Isi comes to the FHE and bring three bars for everyone to share and it just so happens that each one is our favorite flavors. One for each one of us on the day we most wanted chocolate. Coincidence? Hna Moreno thinks not, and truly for her faith in the little things I think not as well ha ha. God loves us and is aware of our most silly and insignificant needs. Have a good week!

Hermana Thompson

photos! and lots of them!

1. us at home eating Spanish empanadas

2. Hna brown, Rindlisbacher, Fumero, Moreno, Isi, me in front of the cathedral today

3. my comps, Isi, and I in a Arabic building she was showing us

 

1. pday lunch

2. no caption? haha

3. FLASH BACK. Hna Crockett and I in the bus station on transfer day

 

 

 

MURCIA PHOTOS

1. bus station again

2. Jose, Alejandra, me, Mirian Rocha (a Bolivian family that we had FHE with every week :) )

3. Carmen, Juan (with my nametag on), me, MariCarmen

 

us and Carmen! she´s the funniest. and the dog they call Nena

 

 

 

us again!

3. Me with Mari and Jose

 

Cádiz, Trios, and the Stomach Flu...

I´m alive in Cádiz (but just barely). I got here late Wednesday night after passing through some tricky bus to train changes in Sevilla and then Friday morning I woke up throwing up! Lovely, right? I had a fever all day and then by Saturday it was gone but I still couldn´t eat normal food. But now I´m all good and trying to eat real food. My companions took really good care of me and are literally like little mothers. Here´s the run down on them. Hna Moreno like I said is from Spain, has been a member all her life, and ends the mission in Sept with me. She is the sweetest most loving thing ever, acts like a Disney princess, and goes around calling everyone guapa (beautiful) and a "Princesa" haha. Hna Fumero is from Venezuela, got baptized there 4 years ago, and has been living in Barcelona almost 3 years. She is super open and they both love to talk and help everyone in sight. So it´s a good trio and I´m really lucky to be with them both! 

Cádiz is beautiful. We work in the newer part but this morning we passed by the older side where the elders work and saw the market, the cathedral, and ate at a place that supposedly sell Cuban food (but really it didn´t...sigh). Next week we will probably go see the castles by bike :) The people here have a funny little accent and are all very friendly and open. There is live seafood and snails to buy everywhere and the climate is literally perfect right now. It´s not hot because there is always a breeze and it feels like Key West or Florida every now and then. (But obviously it is ancient). There are tourists but not like Benidorm so that´s nice. What else? The ward is currently the stake center but they are going to change that soon. There used to be two big wards but a lot of people have moved out. There is a lot of work here right now for the Hermanas' which is good because I was expecting the opposite from what I heard in the beginning of my mission. We have one investigator that is literally AMAZING. Her named is Isi (short for Isabel), she is 25, she knows a ton, calls us to set up appts, and when I was sick she would check up on me (since she studies nursing). Seriously the best. 

I still miss Murcia a ton and the people, it was sad to leave, but I am happy to be in Cádiz to die (aka end the mission). Yesterday as we were going between appointments we passed by a little older lady and Hna Fumero noticed that she was struggling and offered to help. She was reluctant at first but we insisted and she let us. Turns out that her sandal had broken and she had a really heavy bag and cart to hull along. She had been inching along one load at a time and thought she would never get home. We carried her things to her apartment and she was thanking us so much she started to cry and told us that she had been praying someone would come and help her. She apparently had even had former contact with missionaries before and we have her info to stop by again. She loves us now and gave us very long hugs and besos. I love little miracles that show that God is aware of literally everyone. And more than anything I love being an instrument in his hands. 

Love you all and have a wonderful week!

Hermana Thompson

ps- photos! ok so i accidentally left my important camera card at home so I will only be able to send a few pics today. you´ll all have to be patient...

1. last district meeting in Murcia!

2. transfer day! Hna Johnson and I are going the same direction again! she´ll be my leader in the Jerez zone

3. the port in Cadiz this morning :)

 

 

 ~Me, Hna. Moreno & Hna. Fumero

~ Selfie

 Cute new companions (according to Andrea’s Mom)

 Hna. Moreno

 Hna. Fumero

BAPTISM, Transfers, and Paintball!

This week has been so great! It feels like forever ago already! So first of all I am being transferred (I don´t want to leave Murcia :´( but oh well) to Cadiz this Wednesday and my new comps are Hermanas Moreno and Fumero. So I am in a trio with two natives! Hna Moreno has been out a transfer more than me and will go home at the same time and I think Hna Fumero has been out 4 or 5 transfers. Cadiz is the oldest city in Spain and the second oldest in Europe from what I am told and is a touristy spot and really pretty so I´ll let you know how it is next week!

And now for the best news! Juan got baptized and confirmed on Wednesday and it went really well! Even with all the rush people came and one of the members made a wedding cake for them! I was asked to bear a testimony too and now I also own Juan a nametag haha. After the baptism he felt so good and kept talking about how much peace and new he felt. I love that :) Two days later when we went by to visit he was still on cloud nine and you could tell there was a difference in his eyes-a light. And Maricarmen said he was much more positive, calm, and at peace. 

Yesterday talking home was a fiasco with the computer camera but it all went well in the end :) Today we went and played paintball with the Elders, Valeria, and Luis Miguel. (Patrick you would be so proud of me!) I never thought my first time playing would be in the mission. It was fun and I got out without any bruises (that I know of haha). Other than that I don´t know what else to say but we have taken lots of pictures with other camera cards so I can finally send some!

Love you all!

Hermana Thompson

photos!

Hna Crockett, me, and Juan

us, Mari Carmen, Carmen, and Juan

jenny (the member who made the cake, us the family, and Bishop Tomas and his wife Rosi

 

The Paintball Group…

Elder Antezana, Adams, Briki, Miller, us, and Valeria (Luis Miguel showed up late so I’ll send those photos when I get them)

 

 

 

Us and Valeria, she got rescued and now her mission papers are almost all done :D

José Maria, a rescue as well :D

Paula and Enrique, the family I skyped with. She is the missionary mom <3

 

 

Amber´s cute Cinco de Mayo package with Mexican food and handmade cat piñatas! :D

 

 One Happy Missionary!

 Last but not least- Our long awaited Mother’s Day Call

Baptism!

First of all, Happy Cinco de Mayo to all you Mexican lovers! Today for P-day we celebrated by cooking burritos with all the elders from our district. It was kinda close to an actual burrito...Oh and we also got pedicures this morning :)

This week went by so quickly and lots of things happened. We had exchanges with our sister training leaders again. I went to Alicante this time and got to be with Hna Johnson again :) It is very likely the last time I´ll see her before we both go home since she´s part of the group that leaves 3 weeks early to start school. While we were working that afternoon one of the bottoms of my sandals came apart and was barely hanging on so it flopped around as I walked until we found super glue haha.

So we don´t have much time but there is good news! If all goes according to plan we will be having a baptism on Wednesday! Juan had told us that he would have a decision for us last Friday but when we got there he still was indecisive. He said he would let us know before sacrament on Sunday. Because of ride complications he and Carmen got there late, after the announcements had already been made. Afterwards we talked to him and he handed me back the baptismal invitations I had given him and told us that he wanted to wait for the moment and get baptized when he felt more prepared. We were a little disappointed but it didn´t come as a surprise. We had been fasting that he would make up his mind either way. Then that afternoon as we were in investigator appointments with members he called

multiple times from a number I didn´t recognize. I called back between appointments and he said he changed his mind and asked if he could still get baptized! So we are all in overdrive to get this baptism and mini reception planned for Wednesday. Pray for us! 

Sometimes we have to take a step of faith and make our on decisions and then God will confirm to us whether it was correct or not. That´s what we had been emphasizing to Juan all along. He made his decision, said no, and then somewhere in there God changed his heart and the spirit testified that he actually was ready for baptism all along. 

This week we also worked really well with members! We worked with a family and talking about all the less active or part member families they´ve known from over the years and got a lot of info out of it. In turn the father, Neri, who´s on the high council, set up a meeting with all the priesthood leaders from the three wards to make a rescue plan. I love working in this ward, the members are so great and willing to help!

Well that´s all for now! As for pictures my comps camera card is unreadable except when it´s in her camera and she´s the one that´s been taking all the photos :´( I hope they aren´t all lost forever. I do have one photo that someone else took from last pday when we went hiking!

Love you all,

Hna Thompson

Wedding! Fiestas!

This week was crazy! Spain is crazy. So the holidays in the city of Murcia are finally over! I thought they´d never end. Tuesday was Bando de la Huerta, celebrating people who work out in the country. Everyone, literally, was dressed up in typical clothing from the time period and almost every living soul hit the streets and parks to eat, drink, and be merry. I have never seen anything like it. It was impressive and also a bit depressive (for all of the drunk people and their shenanigans of course). It was basically impossible to get anything done that day, the buses were a joke, and we had to come home early for our own well-being haha. After the huge parade it looked like a tornado had gone through the town, but amazingly the next morning it was all cleaned up. I imagine that´s how the end of the world might look. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday there were more parades. Thursday they put up the giant sardine (it looked like a mixture between a Disney ride and a float...) hanging on a structure with little plastic elves (sardineros) for the burning. On Saturday night they supposedly burned it but we were asleep haha. Spain loves their holidays. 

On Thursday MariCarmen and Juan got married! We went with the bishop and a few other members to go see in in Alcantarilla (one of our towns we visit) in the Justice of the Peace. The man said some words, the signed papers, exchanged rings, and now they are married! Finally! Maricarmen works all Sundays but Juan is now ready to be baptized so we are trying to set a date for him! He doesn´t like commitment so he keeps telling us he will decided later...but if all goes well they will have a reception and his baptism in the church on the 7th :) Pray for it please!

Mari still wants to get baptized and she finally got to church yesterday with her youngest daughter Selena but with all their family and personal problems we still have yet to pick a firm date. 

Saturday morning we stopped by a referral we got from an American woman that had served a mission here 11 years ago. She talked to a man named Antonio in a Buddhist shop about the church and told him we´d go by. When we got there we met Antonio and his friend Paulino. They had both already had contact with the church, one 20 years ago. He still remembered the Joseph Smith pamphlet they give him. I love finding little seeds that others have planted. 

Well that´s about all for this week! I´ll try attaching pictures, because there are a TON, but this computer isn´t having it, maybe I can later today. Sorry! Love you all!

Hermana Thompson

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a great Easter in the wonderful United States of America because Easter is basically non-existent here. We didn´t even sing one Easter hymn in church on Sunday! Sad. But we sang one later that night in an FHE so it´s okay haha. The Semana Santa craziness is over (thank goodness!) But the festivities continue for another week. (yay... :/ ) Tomorrow is called Bando de la Huerta (something specific to Murcia and apparently by the end of it everyone is drunk) and later there is some holiday with flowers and another one that involves the burning of a fish statue called Entierro de la Sardina. I haven´t been sending pics because I lost my camera charger so until I get a new one I´ll take pics from my comp. 

This week we had a cool primary activity. It was a bit unorganized and crazy but the idea was sweet. We missionaries went on splits with the primary children Saturday morning. They all wore little fake tags and their parents accompanied since they can´t be alone with us. Some went to appointments to rescue inactive children and invite them back to church and they others that couldn´t went and street contacted with the missionaries. It was sooo cute and they were all so excited to be missionaries for a few hours handing out cards and teaching people. We even got a new less active family to teach out of it :) 

On "Viernes Santo" this week (or holy Friday) all our lesson fell through and no one was out since everyone was busy with their holiday. We called and called and called people to try and find someone to teach. I racked my brain forever until finally I remembered last minute one less active man named Jose Maria who has come to church for the first time a couple weeks ago. We hadn´t met with him yet since he lives alone and seemed a little odd. We called him and went to go meet with him in a park. He talked to us about his past and why he was inactive but how we wanted to return. It was such a tender mercy to get to know him. He was so kind and genuinely desirous to change. He is very lonely and I know that our visit made a huge difference to him. I am so grateful our plans fell through. If not we never would have been able to help him. It strengthened both our testimonies and his. God works in mysterious ways and I love it. 

Juan and Maricarmen get married this Thursday so we will go! After that he should get baptized if he´ll commit to the date. Valeria went to the temple for the first time this week and has almost everything done for her mission papers! Mari wasn´t able to go to church this Sunday so her date will be pushed back a little more. But everything is good and I am happy to be here with all of these wonderful people. 

Have a wonderful week everyone. It´s weird to think that just this time last year I was in the MTC in Provo celebrating Easter. I know Christ lives and is our Savior and will be forever grateful!

Love you all!

Hermana Thompson

photo- Hna Cerna and I a few weeks ago with Veronica, the best and strongest recent convert I have ever met :D

 

Semana Santa...

So this week is Semana Santa (it´s actually a misnomer because it´s like 12 days long or something ridiculous like that). I´m already tired of it. So get this: everyday there is a procession from multiple catholic churches where they parade around with idols of saints, virgins, and Christ. The people who participate wear suits of a different color every day that look like Ku Klux Klan getups and they have to pay to do it to. It´s kind of blowing my mind that this actually exists. Not to mention they hand out candy while doing it. Kind of blasphemous...you all would have to look up photos to get the full picture. But yeah we are only a few days in and we both are pretty annoyed with the whole thing since it messes up all our bus schedules and the streets all get blocked off  -__- It´s ironic because just the other day someone in a lesson told us that the Catholic church is the true church...

Anyway. This week has been really humbling, three times. Remember our investigator Mari? The one that is going to get baptized soon? Well we went to go teach her this week and her oldest daughter was there (the one who has a lot of problems). Without going into too many details she was just treating her mother horribly and saying awful things to her. Mari is one of the most patient, tolerant, and faithful people I have ever met. She lives in the worst of conditions and has had an incredibly hard life but yet she loves God and is so grateful for the little she does have. As we taught her this time especially I could just feel the love the Savior has for her and I just felt so sorry for her. It was one of the few occasions that I have had a hard time not crying in a lesson, but I am humbled and grateful that we were able to be the Lord´s messengers for her to transmit his love. 

Number two. Mari´s daughter Selena is friends with a little 9 year old gypsy girl from down the street. She came in during a lesson and we found out that she is deaf and mute. Even though they have been friends for a while no one knew her name and they told us that she didn´t either. Telling me that there was a 9 year girl who didn´t even know her own name broke my heart, and I just couldn´t accept that so we tried multiple time through signing but finally decided to find out through writing to her. She wrote hello on the paper in English in response, which they thought was "pollo" or chicken, saying she doesn´t understand she´s just hungry. But we knew better, eventually she understood and wrote "Paqui". She does have a name after all. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she took pictures of us of a way to communicate to her parents where the book came from. We are now learning how to sign basic things in Spanish so we can communicate with her a little better next time we see her. We are so incredibly blessed to be able to hear, speak, and even know our own names. 

Number three. Remember Juan and Mari Carmen? They are getting married on the 24th! Well yesterday we fasted for Mari Carmen so that she can somehow get a miracle to be able to attend church and get baptized. While we were there last night she was talking about her poor humble childhood and how important her spirituality and testimony are to her. She is so strong and has so much faith in the future. She works way too much and so has many health problems but with the little time she does have she reads the Book of Mormon. They have no money but are currently saving to be able to reach their goals. Her dream is to be sealed as a family one day in the temple and I know they will make it there.

I have to go now but I just have such a strong testimony of God´s love for his children and I know that he is aware of everyone´s trials and difficulties. I am so grateful for the gospel and my many many blessings. Love you all and have a good week!

Hermana Thompson

Happy General Conference!

Oh I just absolutely adore General Conference! I hope you all watched all 6 sessions, and if not there is always time to repent and go and watch them this week ;) I actually got to watch everything this time! (Except some priesthood session talks). I even got to watch 2 sessions in English since us missionaries went and used the church computer while everyone one else watched the translated version. Goodness it is so much better in English, we are so blessed to speak the language of the prophets.

So firstly, how great was Elder Oaks talk from the priesthood session?? If you women still haven´t seen it I really encourage you to go watch it! I don´t have lots of time to talk about the other things I loved but just hearing their voices makes me want to cry and seeing the pictures of temples? Don´t get me started, nothing makes me trunkier. Take advantage of the temple for me please!

So this week I got a new companion! Hna Crockett is 24, from Arizona, and is blonde like me! She is really sweet and we are getting along great! I´ll have to send a picture of us next week since we still haven´t taken any together :/

I went back to Mari´s house this week and my eye did swell up sooo good news there! I could feel it itching but I just didn´t touch it and everything was fine haha. In other news I´m pretty sure we had our last appt with the Adventists this week. They invited a "friend" and he came in while we were watching the Restoration video and then when it was done he went to town on Mormons. He knew A TON, from the internet I assume, and just wanted to Bible Bash. We bore testimony and didn´t try and contend with him at all (although the member with us did defend some points) and I felt the spirit really strongly for me personally. I know this Gospel is true and is the only way to find true happiness! Love you all and have a good week!

Hermana Thompson

last district photos and hna cerna and i :)