I'm in Malaga!

Hola!

So we are allowed to send a quick email saying that we have made it and are safe! We got here a few hours ago and they have given us a quick orientation and pizza. We had pizza yesterday for dinner too, and cookies! I don't think I have ever been more satisfied by a pizza in my whole life. Goodness gracious God bless America and Dominos pizza. So about half of us (there are 33!!!) are staying, getting trainers today and staying close by and the other half are being sent out into the north. Guess which group I'm in? The latter! So that means I am about 2-6 hours away from Malaga. (Elder Turley is in the same boat too but I haven't seen him yet, his plane gets here in a few hours. And Hermana Johnson is in the group staying close by). So since we won't be leaving quite yet I get to go to the mission home in Fuengirola to spend the night and then since tomorrow is a national holiday we have to wait around another day to do residency papers. I can't wait to find out where I am going but I don't have my interview until tomorrow and after that I will be assigned an area and trainer. So hopefully I get to email once I find out! Right now we are in the chapel in Malaga. I am so excited and so nervous! But at least I have some time in between before I actually have to go out into the real mission field. All the others go out around 4pm today! What! Anyway, I love our mission president and his wife so much. They already knew that I met their son and everything through my friend Ellie Hall so that was cool. They are both so kind and so young! 

Love you all and continue to pray for me!

Hermana Thompson

ps- Mom I got your card and thank you for the pictures, I especially loved seeing the ones of you all at conference! and they also forwarded me two letters from provo so that was nice.

Last day in the MTC!

Holy. Guacamole.

 

So today is my last day in the MTC FOREVER! Can you believe it? I surely cannot. So we are leaving tomorrow (Tues.) at 7am and taking a train to Málaga where we will be at the mission home for a little bit for training. They said to bring a change of clothes so I assume we will stay overnight and then go to our new areas with our trainers. We have had infield training all day which to be honest has been so hard to sit through but that just makes me more excited to leave!

 

Anyway since last P-day not too much has happened. We proselyted at the Goya on Saturday and it was pretty unsuccessful for everyone. It was a chilly day and no one wanted to talk to us and I even got to be with my actual companion, Hermana Johnson, but we are both pansies and didn´t talk to as many people as we wanted to. Anyway, Sunday was quite eventful. Our district sang this song which is a medley with How Firm a Foundation and one other song and it is beautiful- they had us sing it in sacrament and the evening fireside. There was also a talent show. Our district performed a Trix commercial in Spanish with dubstep and some other funny side acts and the look on President Sitterud´s face was pretty priceless. Compared to the flutes and violins we were pretty spiritual, let me tell ya. Hahaha. President Jackson (mission pres of Madrid and the doctor who repaired my ACL) and his wife gave the fireside that night and it was great to hear from him.

 

My favorite parts this week have been hearing all the conversion stories from our teachers and the speakers. It gives me hope that it can be done and an enthusiasm

 to find those people who are prepared. I will write back again when I get the chance. I don´t know if that will be once I get to the mission home or until my next p-day but hopefully soon! Pray for me as I enter the field tomorrow and don´t forget to write :)

 

(The picture is of Hermana Johnson and I with one of our teachers Hermano Lopez- he´s the best! And reminds me of Kung Fu Panda haha).

 

Love you all,

Hermana Thompson

 

ps- phil, carola, and kids! i got your package today! got here just in time! thank you so much and tell the kids i love their drawings soooo much! love you guys! :))

Week 6 - Last week in the Madrid MTC!

¡HOLA Familia y Amigos!

 

So are talking a train to Málaga on Tuesday morning! I can´t believe it is coming to an end so quickly! We will be told our new area assignments and trainers either on Monday or Tuesday :) This week was much better than last week! Let´s see, after I emailed you all last Thursday we went to the Prado Art Museum and I got in for free because I still had my BYU ID, which was nice! And I finally got to see Bosch´s "Garden of Earthly Delights" and Velaquez´s "Meninas" but other than that I am not so into pre- and renaissance art. That evening we watched a Elder Holland devo too which was way good.

 

On Saturday we proselyted in the park. It was so beautiful and wonderful and reminded me of Hyde Park in London sooooo much. The park is huge so all of the missionaries in our zone could spread out and since everyone is just relaxing it isn´t as awkward to make contacts. But on the way there we gave out two Books of Mormon on the metro! I was paired with two other sisters from my District (Hermanas Flake & Nielsen) and it was a perfect balance! Hermana Flake is happy and friendly and I did a lot of the talking but Hermana Nielsen is good too so that helped and her Italian came in handy at one point too. We met the nicest girl on the metro, she seemed genuinely interested and I think she actually might read the Book of Mormon we gave her. We got her contact info so hopefully at some point she starts taking the lessons. We stayed on the metro an extra four stops to talk to her and on the way back to the correct stop for the park we met another man that we gave a Book of Mormon to. So great! Starting out this good before we even get to the park was such a blessing and boost to our spirits.

 

While in the park we really only had one man turn us away but he wasn´t mean about it and in Spanish he was like "you´re all very beautiful but go away I am having a relaxing day" hahaha it was way funny. We talked to another family that was so precious and we gave them the Family Proclamation to the World and talked about the BOM and the dad seemed interested in eternal families but the mom said they were strong catholics and we didn´t end up getting them to take a BOM but they were nice. The last elderly man we talked to we had about a 30-40 min conversation with. He mostly did a lot of talking about the park and his family and at the end we gave him a BOM, got his contact info, and I got to bear testimony to him so that was cool. At the very end our zone met up at a busy area by the water and sang some hymn and talked to the people who were watching. It was such a good day! But this Thursday we are at the Goya again...hopefully it goes better this time.

 

The days feel much shorter here than they did in the Provo MTC. Probably because we don´t do much studying here haha. Hermana Johnson and I are going to try and focus for the last five days even though it´s distracting here. The lessons we are teaching to our progressing investigators are going really well and we barely have any problems with our Spanish (well comparatively haha). One of our teachers (funniest & best teacher ever) told both of us that at our level we should be fine and fluent in 6 weeks once we are immersed in the field and he said 3-6 months for everyone else so that made me feel way good! And in the temple today I did the whole thing in Spanish including the last part and the worker complimented me on my beautiful pronunciation (sorry for the bragging, but it makes me happy)! There is still a ton of vocab I don´t know obviously but as far as gospel goes I am doing fine. The weather is perfect here right now. Sometimes it gets a little warm in the middle of the day but overall it´s beautiful. I just got out of the temple and we got a short tour to see the baptistery and sealing rooms. That temple is so beautiful and I am so blessed to be so close to it! We are going to try and go to Primark (they have one here!!!!) and maybe the park today for the last P-day since there aren´t any excursions planned but we´ll see. I think we might be allowed to email once we leave the MTC and get our assignment but I´m not sure, so maybe expect an email on Tuesday, or around then maybe? I´m pretty sure we don´t get to call but we do for Mother´s day so when I get details about that I´ll let you know.

 

So there is a mission blog being kept up by an elderly missionary couple here and I can´t see it but apparently they put up a lot of pictures of us MTC folk so you can check it for pictures of me and put them on the blog or something if you want (mom). But only if they are good pictures ok? Haha.

The address is: thesullivansinspain.blogspot.com

 

Also if you are wanting to send letters or packages send them to the mission home in Málaga since I will be there on Tuesday.

 

Love you all and thanks for the emails

Hermana Thompson

ps- PICTURES BELOW are of Hermana Johnson and I in the park, Hermanas Nielsen & Flake & I in the park (proselyting comps!), and the Madrid Temple from the view of our MTC building :)

Week 5! Madrid!

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

It´s finally P-day! It´s 8am and we are about to go to the temple for our morning session. It apparently will be in Italian because we just got a group of Italians in here at the MTC and they are all getting their endowments out for the first time for their mission since this is their closest temple. The temple here is gorgeous! We are literally only a few yards away and we see it from our windows everytime we look out, and for exercise we just walk around the temple square. (We could go play soccer or run, but those are not my thing). So we just like to walk around and say hola to real life people, because those actually exist here. We are going to the Prado Museum for our P-day activities and I am so excited! Art! Ahhh so happy. There are other excursions people at the MTC can go on too. They even let us go to the store on non P-days too. And I am going to pick up some stamps today. So you all can write me! Apparently it takes between 5-7 days for mail and I´ve heard you can use DearElder and it gets here in 4. The MTC food here is interesting too...they love grease, potatoes, and fried things. We´ve also been served swordfish, salmon, and squid nuggets (i think?), all of which I ate by the way. A lot of the food is gross but some of it has been way good.

So I´ve finally learned to like this MTC more, especially since we are more close with our new district but I do still miss Provo of course. And there are +/- to both places for sure. Our teachers here are hilarious. Oh my goodness, I am just laughing the whole time. Especially Hermana Delgado. She is from Sevilla and has the thickest accent- she drops all her s´s and uses a really strong lisp. But she understands when I saw meowing or purring in Spanish so I love that. And my dark chocolate açai berries are such a hit here. That teacher started singing the american national anthem in broken English  in a funny little accent and said they were celestial chocolate. But now I am out haha. I don´t get much studying in here because it is so distracting and undisciplined but our teachers are there three times a day and teach us a lot of grammar which is really useful. And we´ve already taught four lessons to our two different teachers. When we taught Hermana Delgado for the first time as (get this) Encarnacion(!!!!) she had a carton of cigarettes and was wearing a robe and took of all indications of being a teacher. So helpful for the roleplaying. But as soon as we came up to the door she lit up a cigarette and pretended to smoke. Our faces were priceless I´m sure. Mind you this was not only inside a building  but inside a church building  down the hall from the MTC president. And I guess she thought there wasn´t enough smoke so she lit it again and waved it in our faces while we were teaching. It got so thick we all started laughing and broke character and she had to go put it out in the bathroom. But everyone kept peaking through the window in our door because they could smell the smoke haha. But the lesson went really well. We taught the Restoration and it had such a strong spirit. It was the first time we had quoted the words from Joseph Smith from memory with real intention and when Hermana Johnson said the words (Vi una columna de luz...) chills ran all down my body (and the investigator´s) and I felt an overwhelming spirit come over me. I have never had an experience that sudden, not only with the first vision but with anything in the church. The power that story brings is incredible.

So after I emailed you all last week on Saturday we went to a city square called the Goya to proselyte. I´m not gonna lie, it was really rough and discouraging. I was paired with another companion, Hermana Grant, who doesn´t speak much Spanish yet and we were supposed to talk to people on the metro and in the city. Some companionships had good experiences but mine not so much. I only talked to Spainards who didn´t speak english at all and were not friendly. And I was the one speaking basically the whole time to all these people. We gave out some pass along cards, church info, and had some nice conversations. But the last woman we talked to at a bus stop was the hardest. I tried to strike up conversation and that should´ve been my first cue that she didn´t want to talk but I kept persevering  Then came the yelling in rapid Spanish. We told her our purpose as missionaries and things like God loves you and we can have peace through Jesus Christ. She said no to every testimony we had to bear and said I was too young to understand anything. That there were people dying, starving, and Spain was in horrible shape. I tried to explain to her in the best way possible but nothing helped. There was a lot I didn´t understand but she is just one of those people you can´t reach. I felt so badly afterwards, like a failure, like I should´ve said more. But at least I had that experience and will get hardened to it since it will happen more and more. This Saturday our zone will be going to the park instead of the Goya where it is easier and people are nicer since they aren´t all busy.

So I didn´t have time to finish this email earlier so I actually have already been to the temple by this point. It was lovely. The session was actually in Spanish since there weren´t that many Italians, so I listened to the whole thing in Spanish and then did the very last part in English. The celestial room was really pretty, especially the ceiling.

All of you all should email me and give me details even if I can´t respond much because I can print off emails here and read them later and I would love to hear about your lives.

The pictures I am attaching are of our whole districts last night together, the four remaining from our district that got sent to Spain in front of the Madrid Temple, my companion and I in front of the temple.

I will send more in another email. Love you all and keep praying for me!

Love Hermana Thompson

Week 4! Madrid!

Hola de España!

 

So we got in this morning and we are pretty tired. And slap happy but since it´s only 4pm we need to stay awake until bedtime. I got to talk with mom and dad yesterday on my layover so if anyone wants deatails about it then you can ask them! Oh and the Spain Madrid mission president met us at the airport and he is the doctor who also did my ACL repair, cool huh? The weather is perfect here and I still can´t believe I am in this country for another 17 months-ish! So this MTC is WAYYYYY different. And so far I miss the Provo MTC like mad. We are having a hard time adjusting, but hopefully we will learn to love it. They are so loosey-goosey here. They say "guys", they chew gum, they are way loud and they can just walk outside and go to the store! The temple is right outside the window. So close, so the view is AMAZING. And the courtyard is beautiful. We are up on floors 4-6 so we can see a lot of Madrid. I am companions with Hermana Johnson still so that is such a blessing. But we got separated from the rest of our travel partners (there were 8 of us total) and Hermana Schaumann and Elder Vogel (from my original district) got put into another class so that is really sad. We aren´t in a intermediate class anymore because those don´t exist anymore. There is only advanced and everyone else (including us) so that´ll be interesting. We go out to the market to proselyte tomorrow and my P-day isn´t until thursday, which is when we get to go sight-seeing in Madrid as well as do a temple session, and that is when you will get an email from me next.

 

Anyway, I don´t have much time left to write but thanks for the Nacho Libre lyrics Phil, they came in handy haha :)

 

Oh and leaving the Provo MTC was like the saddest thing of my life. I never thought I would cry but I did, like three times. I actually really loved that place despite it being a "spirit prison". We sang God Be With You Til We Meet again with our district and Hermana Johnson and I just lost it. Pulling out of the MTC was sad too. Anyway, I´m glad I´m in Spain and will try to like it as much as possible.

 

Love you all,

Hermana Thompson

Week 3! And some crazy news!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

 

Well, first thing's first...I am being transferred to the Spain Madrid MTC this Thursday! My visa came, which I will pick up in Orem on Wednesday. I also have my travel itinerary which I will post more details on later in the email.  

 

It still hasn't sunk in yet. My companion Hermana Schaumann found out about hers first and was rejoicing and me and Hermana Johnson were kind of happy we didn't get the same news. But right after lunch our Elders came up to us and said there was a slip in the mailbox telling us we were going too, as well as Elder Vogel. Hermana Johnson started crying and I just stood there, like "ah man, dang it". I never thought I'd be this sad about news to leave! I wanted this the whole time! And half and half in each MTC was the dream! But Hermana Johnson and I are pretty sad about it. We love our district and don't want it to be torn in half. But Spain is cool! Haha I'm silly. I just feel bad for Elder Turley because he is the only one who didn't get his visa and will be staying behind with the other three Elders who are going to Mexico. Hermana Schaumann is stoked though so maybe some of that will rub off on the rest of us? But at least we are all going together, and Hermana Johnson and I are going to be together since we are both on the same schedule, language level, and are going to Malaga! So that's exciting!

 We had our first visit to the TRC on Wednesday. I was so nervous for it but it turned out to be totally fine! We taught and elderly couple with the last name Thompson, and another elderly woman. They all had served lots of missions and were really nice. It was so funny to here them speak fluent Spanish though haha, especially some of the words that they said. But we carried on great conversations with them and shared a message. I felt the spirit really strongly when we were talking to the first sister, and when both said prayers in our behalf at the end it was so touching. We also had a workshop this week on being truly converted. It was really good to hear and really motivating but also a bit discouraging. They talked about how missionaries aren't doing enough and there isn't enough retention after baptism. They said we were studying and teaching for people to have testimonies and that they weren't being truly converted. They said we need to be truly converted first before we can expect it from those we teach. So that's another thing to add on to the already-intimidating-plate. It scares me to think that people fall away, it is so devastating. We also taught our two "progressing investigators" like 4 or 5 times this week. "Reina" (who is one of our teachers) was talking about how she loved the Book of Mormon in one of our lessons and it just made all three of us ecstatic  if I am already crying in lessons with just fake investigators, I can't imagine what the real ones will be like. But we just feel the spirit and God's love so strongly while teaching them. We told both Reina and Jason to write down questions they have and committed them to watch conference and it is amazing that as we were watching conference some of the talks were specifically for them. Especially Elder Cook's on peace. He shared all the same scriptures we had looked up for Jason and said everything we needed to say. And a lot of the talks were things our teachers have been telling us as well. I am so grateful for the inspiration we as missionaries get personally and from our teachers, it just shows how in tune we all are that the same things were mentioned in conference as well.

 

This conference weekend at the MTC was such a nice break! Sat and Sun were just watching conference and then we had devotionals at night. We even got to lay in the grass in the sun! Imagine that! Best thing ever. Sunday night Vocal Point came and performed for all us missionaries and the spirit was so strong! I am not a huge fan of a Capella but when we were singing before and during it was a testament of how powerful music can be. I feel like I am in the military here sometimes haha, it reminds me of White Christmas where they have people come and perform for them. Maybe Gene Kelly will come next if we're lucky. Just kidding, I'll be in Spain. After Vocal Point we watched an old devotional that Elder Holland gave at the MTC (thanks to Dan's recommendation), and it was SO good! Man, candid Elder Holland is the best thing ever. He was so funny and so powerful! He has a good way of pumping me up. He mostly talked about us needing to teach with power, boldness, and authority, and about being persistent. I need to work on those qualities. He also talked about how this work is so hard because the Atonement was hard, and we need to go through just a little bit of what Christ went through because we are here as his representatives.

 

Oh and congrats Dad on the new calling! I told my whole district to listen when they were reading the new list of 70's being called :) Let me know all the details on the setting apart and stuff! I was so proud when I got to sustain you as a General Authority, we are both on the same cause as witnesses of Christ now which I love. You should be friends with my companions Hermana Johnson's dad- he is in the first quorum of the 70 and they lived in Chile for a year.

 

Here's some funny stuff now! So you know how is get pescado and pecado (fish and sin) mixed up sometimes? Well it was only a joke before but I actually said it in a lesson while teaching about the Atonement this week hahaha, I was so grateful that Reina didn't laugh or break character. We can all become clean of our fish through the Atonement of Jesus Christ! Elder Vogel also found a new word in the dictionary this week- aguafiesta! Apparently it means killjoy, so we've all been saying things like "Satanas es una aguafiesta" (aka satan is a killjoy haha) what a gem of a word. One of the counselors in the branch presidency also told us a story of how one of his companions sent home. Apparently he was studying about how light is intelligence in the scriptures and decided to stare at the sun to gain more knowledge. Hahaha can you imagine if you had a companion who damaged his eyes so badly from looking at the sun that he had to get sent home! Elder Turley our district leader also told us sometime funny the first week that I forgot to mention. He basically said "I was always told that sisters bring a special spirit and maturity to the mission, BUT..." and then we were like oh great, they think we are ridiculous, then he finished with "but I didn't think it would be through laughing." So apparently we still bring the spirit? We just have a lot of fun doing it.

 

The pictures are of us on our last P-day (today) in the Provo MTC, and our collective reactions holding our travel plans!

 

Thanks,

Love you all!

Hermana Thompson!

MTC Week 2- He is Risen!

Hola Familia!

study time with my companions

 

Whoa so much to say! But we get 60 mins now and we can email friends so not so stressful :)

So much has happened! First of all, thanks to everyone who sent me cards, letters, and packages! It was such a nice surprise and I loved them! Happy Easter!

 

Right after I emailed all of you last Monday we finished up P-day and then had to teach our "progressing investigator" without any notice. It was probably the worst lesson I have had (personally) so far and I felt like a total failure afterwards. I couldn't say what I wanted to and I hadn't prepared anything. My companions thought I did fine, they told me I brought the spirit every time I talked and that I got her to open up a lot more, but I didn't feel that way. I felt inadequate and so discouraged. For the next lesson I prepared so well. I was much much more comfortable with the language, I knew what I wanted to say, and I knew that all my prayers were helping so much. But then one of my companions took over the whole lesson and the other two of us barely got to say anything. That wasn't a hard lesson for me but it was for her. We now have learned a lot from our collective mistakes and the last lesson we taught went so well! We all balanced taking turns speaking and we got our investigator to kind of commit to being baptized! We are navigating this trio thing but it takes some work and communication. But we all love each other and get along really well so I am grateful for that. 

 

So normally each district (class) has two teachers that take turns. We have had 11 teachers coming in and out. Which is nuts. It gets really frustrating for us to sometimes because they don't really teach us much since we are the more advanced class. But we have learned good things from each teachers successes and mistakes and it has been a good growing experience for all of us. These teachers are inspired though. And some of them say things that are direct answers to prayers. One of them even called on me right before I raised my hand. The spirit was guiding him so much that lesson that he just knew to call on me. The spirit in the MTC is incredible. One of the teachers had also been in a trio so she gave us some advice. She gave us this analogy of being instruments in the Lord's hands, which of course I had heard before. But the way she described it just completely blew my mind. As missionaries we truly are just tools. I am just like a violin, I can't make music on my own, I need to be played by a master. And how wonderful it is that the master is the Lord and that just gives me so much comfort. I am in great hands. But we can only be played when we are in tune. A masterpiece takes all the instruments, we can't be a one-man orchestra and how much better the music is when we yield to one another and come together in harmony! I am so lucky to be able to focus 24/7 on the Gospel! What a blessing! I don't have to worry about school, work, or life getting in the way, and I love it! 

 

Before I came on my mission I was afraid of losing myself. It was a scary prospect to think about. But now all I want to do is lose myself. I have given myself to serving the Lord and I want to give all even more completely. We listened to an old devotional by Pres Uctdorf at the MTC and in it he said, as we magnify our call as a missionary we grow beyond our talents- we are given a new heart and are turned into a different person. I can't wait. I know I am already on the way. I am striving more to use Christ as a pattern in all that I do and acknowledge that all things come from him. Our whole purpose here is Christ and the message that He Lives! What an amazing message we have the opportunity to share. And the more I learn of Him and come closer to Him the more I want to give everyone the joy that I have from the Gospel.

 

Yesterday was Easter and they had hyped it up so much, we thought for sure an apostle was coming to speak. But no. But we did get to hear from general authority Gerald Causse and his wife (he is Presiding Bishop), they are from Paris so their accents were great. That meeting was an MTC-wide sacrament meeting. Which means that all 3,000 or so missionaries were getting the sacrament all at the same time! They said it was history for sure. So that was a cool experience. For the fireside that night Sheri Dew came and spoke, and it was a good talk, very inspiring- she talked about all the ways we were fulfilling prophecy. Since yesterday was fast Sunday also we had our own branch testimony meeting. Man the spirit was so strong in that meeting, best one I've been to for sure. It was also the longest time I have ever fasted for. Waking up at 6:30am and not eating until 6pm. Whew hard stuff. But all these days are seriously so tiring. 16 hour work days! With about 1 hour collective of personal time total each day (aka shower and journal). But it's good. I don't miss home at all (sorry haha) and I don't miss anything from the world. Except maybe cats. My whole district already knows I have a problem. Apparently I made a cat noise in my sleep the other night. Hahahaha how embarrassing is that?? I didn't even know I made noises in my sleep. Also I keep making the mistake of saying "fish" instead of "sins", my whole district gets a kick out of it, especially my companions. The worst part is I know the real words but I end of slipping and am dead serious when I say it. I haven't said it when teaching our investigator though so that's good. Examples: "Jesus didn't have any fish." "Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can become freed from all of our fish." "We need to turn from our fish and leave them behind us." Hahaha good stuff.

 

I can't believe it's only been like 12 days! It feels like I have been here for 2 months. Our district is like a little family, and I think we have a little too much fun. Being diligent and studying in the same seat all day long without any supervision doesn't help. And man is staying awake during temple sessions the hardest ting ever! We got drenched on the way back to the MTC this morning from our session too. But I am so glad spring is here! We got to lay in the grass outside the temple on Sunday after our walk and boy was that SUCH a luxury! I just always am jealous of people who can sit down and relax whenever they want, and to close your eyes, what I would give! I still have awesome dreams too. But they are usually of family or something so I wake up very confused. It is crazy how I have woken up at 6:30 sharp every morning without hitting snooze once. I always thought that was a far off dream haha. I also see a ton of people from BYU around the MTC, and even my friends who work as teachers or staff. It's nice to see people I know but at the same time it's more like a wave and that's it because we are all in our own little world.

 

So the atonement is the best thing ever (to put it lightly). I am so grateful to have been here during Easter. The love for Christ I feel here and from everyone is astounding. I can't even put into words how I feel about the Atonement. But by being here I feel God's love for everyone through me and through the spirit so much. Even for my investigators. Or when I myself am role playing. They aren't the real person but I feel the love God has for that actual real person they are playing and I can't wait to experience that in the field with actual investigators. Also studying the scriptures here is the most rewarding experience. And that is because I am studying for someone else's benefit and not my own. I have such a strong testimony of studying for others and for your investigators. Every single time I have done it I have received not only revelation for them but for myself as well- answers to my prayers that are such a Godsend. I am still working on faith and even though sometimes I am jealous of those going English-speaking, I know that the Lord will provide a way and will be at my side to bear me up at all times. It is such a comfort. Be of good cheer because Christ has overcome the world! (John 16: 32-33). Actually just read all of John chapters 14-17.

 Thanks all! Love you SO MUCH!!!!

Hermana Thompson :)

 My friend Carolyn Carter (leaving for France)

 Five of us in our district going to Spain!