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!