Vermilion: Place Where People are Very, Very Excited About Fairs

Hello everyone! Hope all is going well for ya. 

Life here in Vermilion has been pretty great. Vermilion is about 4000 strong and they all love the country life (obviously). The town itself is very small, and there isnt even a McDonalds here. Subway, but no McD's. But my comp and i have decided we are going to try all the local family owned restaurants. And i lied about the grocery store. It is a co-op and everything is more expensive, but a grocery store nonetheless.  Milk is 5.60. so im going broke with my cereal binging. But the community is amazing here. Stopping by people, we end up having 30 minute conversations because they are so nice. The work here is moving along, slowly but surely. It has been tracted out quite a few times recently, so apparently President Manion told the missionaries to leave that for a bit and look for as many service opportunities as possible in the community. So some days are very long when we get no service. Its just stopping by potentials and former investigators while i lose my mind haha. But i am looking forward to the day that we are allowed to tract here again.

The branch is small, but not anywhere near the smallest branch. There are about 25 active members with about 13 being kids. So it has been a drastic change from downtown edmonton working with ysa to this. But now that the initial shock is gone, i can honestly say i am super excited to be here for the last 2 and a half months of my mission. Great things will take place during that time.

My companion is Elder Parker from Lehi, Utah. He is a super nice guy and has been out for a little over a year. He loves video games and rock, along with long hair and facial hair haha. not your typical guy but im excited to serve with him. Im sure we will both learn lots and i know that with our hard work the work will be hastened here.

So this upcoming week is a county fair here in Vermilion. Apparently it is a huge deal, i havent stopped hearing about it since i got here. The town about triples in size over the 3 day stretch. So we have been helping out with preparations for it. Saturday we set up a bunch of tables, ate lunch, then weed whacked(Canada calls it whipper snipper, or weed whipper) for the next 4 hours straight, under the bleachers and by all the fences. So it has been really great helping out there and meeting people in the community.

Scripture of the week is Jacob 6:8-11 

"8 Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?

9 Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of the redemption and the resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God?

10 And according to the power of justice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go away into that lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is endless torment.

11 O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life."

I love the boldness of Jacob and how he denounces sin. What a great blessing it is to have prophets to lead and guide us on our own spiritual paths and warn us of the sin in our day. I testify that God loves us and wants what is best for us and will reveal truths to those with authority for the benefit of everyone. I invite you all to evaluate your commitment to follow the Saviour and his chosen servants, who He has called.

All in all, im excited, very excited to be here and help accomplish the great things that the Lord has in store for this area. With Hard work, diligence, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, miracles will take place.

Keep it real,

Elder W. Chad Thompson

Transfers - July 13

Hello everyone, I'm emailing today because the assistants signed us up for service tomorrow with something called the Aboriginal Games, so that should be interesting. But we were told to take half our p-day today, so we are!

We got our transfer calls today and I am going to a small place called Vermillion. There isn't even a grocery store there... So yeah, not exactly what I wanted, but the Lord's will is the Lord's will I guess. I'm sure it will be a great last 2 transfers. That's what I hope anyway. My new comp will be Elder Parker. Pray for me that I don't lose my mind. I'm sure I'll love it though haha

It has been a great last week here in the Mill Creek YSA though. We had a great ZTM where we talked about working through members and we were happy how it turned out.

We also did a free lemonade stand on Whyte ave this past Saturday and it was great! We got to talk to lots of people so it was super fun!

Keep it real, and don't take grocery stores for granted!

Elder W. Chad Thompson

America!

Hello everyone! I hope you all have had a good week and a great Fourth of July, or Canada Day for you Canucks. We got to celebrate both!!! So I would have to say our week was pretty sweet!

So I will start with Canada Day! I got to wear my Canada tie and Canada shirt (for proselyting and service/activities) so that is already a great start! We got to help people move into their new home, and then we went to a bbq. We played a bit of ultimate frisbee and football and then we of course ate food.To finish the night, we did service at Telus Field which is the baseball field here in edmonton. We were the box seat ticket checker people so that was interesting. The Edmonton team played somebody from Saskatchewan and completely destroyed them! But it was just really cool to be at a baseball game again, seeing one of the things that I love. We finished the night by going to sleep... then waking up to the fireworks, which, were ok. Definitely nothing special, pretty much just half or maybe a third of what an American show would be. But it was better than nothing I suppose! 

We also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Assistants to the President which was actually really fun. I went with the elder who has been out for about 10 and a half months so it was interesting to have someone interview me who is younger than me and especially when im used to interviewing others. But that is just the way the church is organized and everything i guess for that matter. That is why humility is so important :) But it was a great exchange. I learned a lot, he learned a lot, and we both have a greater desire to do missionary work! We also had a funny experience on Whyte Ave whilst on exchanges. We were street contacting when we met a super nice muslim guy. about 5 minutes into our conversation a different guy comes up to us saying"whoa i didn't know you guys came out at this time of night!"(it was only 8:45) and the dude was a little nuts. he introduced himself as joey, world champion in pushups. so while talking to him and the muslim for a few minutes a guy who kinda looked like Grimley from Lord of the Rings(if you don't get that reference look it up), well he at least had the hair. He introduced himself as the money man... and i was just like what the heck is even happening right now, is there a drug deal going on right in front of us or what? the pushup guy then tells us that he will do 30 one arm pushups for 5 dollars and 50 for 10. we told him wee didn't have any money so the money man came through! so the guy just throws himself down on the middle of the side walk on Whyte and busts out 30 one arm pushups. Flippin strange is how i would describe it haha. Just plain weird!

We also got to celebrate Independence day! Even without the consent of my companion. just one of the perks of being in a 4 man pad with 2 other Americans. We sang the Star Spangled Banner in the morning, it was great! We ate dinner at a less acountable guys home who went all out for us, it was really cool.

We got to re teach the great apostasy to our progressing investigator just because he wanted more info on it. So as we were preparing for the lesson, i was thinking of what would help me, because we have pretty similar minds, in that we both like learning intellectually as well as spiritually and thats when i thought of Jesus the Christ. I read the chapter on the apostasy and just knew we had to share it with him. We did and it was one of the best lessons we have had! I love Jesus the Christ(yes both the Man and the Book) it is just awesome! If you haven't read it, then i invite you to at least read Chapter 40:the long night of apostasy. it is truly an amazing and inspired book.

We talked about the Same sex ruling in church sunday, which in a YSA ward there are going to be a lot of differing opinions. But out ward mission leader closed it off by saying simply that all that matters is the question, did Joseph Smith actually see God? because if he did, then the letter wasnt from some guy named Thomas S. Monson, but it was from some Guy named Jesus Christ.

Im grateful for the opportunity i have had to serve a mission and continually strengthen my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ truly does lead His church on the earth today and that is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know it so well that it has become factual to me. The Spirit bore witness to me, and i know he can bare witness to you too. All you have to do is put in the time and the effort with real intent and God will show you the truthfulness of all things.

Keep it real, 

Elder W. Chad Thompson

#KeepThompsonInTheCity

Brad Jones a great guy with a low form of autism.He is a great example of faith and perseverance to me, and he has the Quote of the Week!"Walmart is like Satan!" haha good times!

Me and Brad

The less accountable dude that fed us! He is a stud!