The Bump?

Hello everyone, I hope you all have had a good week. Ours was pretty good, nothing crazy happened, but it was great!

So my iPad decided to crap out the other day. I tried updating it to the new ios, but it would just freeze at the same place, every single time. I was ready to throw it in front of one of the many trains that come through here. But I found somebody else that had the same problem that knew somewhat to do. That didn't work, so now we are on plan g. hopefully this one works. They are a really awesome tool, when they work... If not oh well, I only have 16ish days left!(My zone leaders are counting)

We spent most of Sunday in primary and it was really fun haha! Kids are great! quote of the week come from the opening of it. the Primary President was telling the kids what was coming up through the week. she said one thing and then asked if anybody knew the really special day. One kid said "The bump?" Haha we started up bump(basketball game for those of you that don't know) and all the primary kids love it and bring their friends! The correct answer was two kids from the branch are getting baptized this Saturday. Haha that is why it was so funny!

That has pretty much been the most exciting thing this week. I got sick the other day and I thought about the great health that I have had on my mission up to this point. I'm grateful for the health and the amazing experiences that I have had and will continue to have!

Scripture of the week is Alma 8:14-15
"And it came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass while Alma was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying:  15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you."

Elder W.Chad Thompson

Edmonton!

Hello everyone! I hope all is going well for you and that you had a good week. We had a much quicker week, especially with travelling in to Edmonton twice! We had mission conference and a guy from my last area was getting baptised!

Mission conference was food. It was all about increasing our personal righteousness for increased faith and vice versa. We had Elder Golden from South Africa and I gave him a hug instead of a hand shake. But any ways, it was pretty good. That man sure knows how to talk though! I now know how it feels for an investigator when we talk way too much, they lose focus! But a funny quote from him was near the end. He asked Pres. Manion when we needed to end cause he still had lots to say. Pres. Said 4 which was 2 hours away and he said "oh we're dead. We're dead." We didn't end up getting out till 4:45. Good trainings though that's for sure!

Saturday we travelled back into the city because the guy I found and got on date with Elder Liddle was getting baptised!  So Friday morning we got a text that said he wanted me to do it! So I of course said yeah! We got there and he walked in and started freaking out cause he wasn't expecting me to be there, I guess his girlfriend and the missionaries were making it a surprise! He is such a great guy! It was a very cool experience though and I'm happy I could be a part of it!

 We had a pretty cool experience tracting the other day as well. We knocked on quite a few doors with no answer or where the people wouldn't speak to us at all. We were at this one door where no one appeared to answer  but someone said from behind us "no one is home"turned out he lived there and was coming home from the college. He said he normally stays at the school to study, but today he came home early! The spirit works in amazing ways! He invited us in and we got to talk about the restoration with him! It was pretty sweet!

Scripture of the week is proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee." Every action is preceded by a thought. As President Benson once taught, they that think good thoughts only do no wrong. We need to keep our thoughts on that which matters most. "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy" we should always be seeking these things.

Ill have to send the baptism pictures later if i have time or next week! The person that took them hasn't sent them to us yet

Keep it real,

Elder W.Chad Thompson

Diddy with Elder Thompson

Elders with Diddy

Diddy and Elder Thompson

Chinese Fortune

Forget the handshake; go for the hug! Elder Gordon.

Going for the seeds this week.  Trying to fill up the 2 liter bottle.

Long Week

Hello everyone, I hope this finds you doing well. This week has been the longest of my mission. And for no apparent reason. We worked hard, had fun, and taught lessons; it just feels like a month since last Tuesday.

Speaking of last Tuesday we traveled into  Sherwood Park for interviews. That was a lot of fun; President Manion is a great guy! He talked a lot about me going home. I don't know why, but he really loves doing that. We get to travel in again tonight for Mission Conference tomorrow and have a sleep over with the zone leaders, assistant to the President approved! so that should be fun. I also got my in grown toe checked out again, cause it is still is ingrown. And because I'm in Vermilion, it's super hard to get there, so the doctor gave me the option of just managing it till I got home, or going back and getting the surgery. so I'm just managing. I talked to President and Sister manion about it, and Sister Manion wasnt too keen on having me go back because of the limited kilometres, but Pres. Manion was just like, I don't care, I just don't want your toe to fall off! Haha funny times for sure. After the appointment, the doctor took all four of us elders to Montana's and made us get steak, and then ordered dessert for us, while he told us about how he is going to sail the world in his yacht with his wife and son for a few years starting in January. He is 45ish... the man is loaded.

I finished one of my New Year's goals, which was to read the Old Testament from cover to cover! It was long, some parts were super boring, but it feels good to have accomplished a goal

We have done a lot of service this week as well. It must be tree cutting season, because thats all we did for 4 days straight for different people. We were pretty exausted, but it is always good to do service! We were driving with one of the guys we were doing service for on the Range Roads, and you could see clouds of mosquitoes hitting the windshied and flying past. Pretty good incentive, to never move here... out in the bush anyways.

Things are picking up out here in Vermilion, slowly but surely. We got a guy out to church yesterday, so that was awesome! I'm excited to work with these new people that the Lord has placed in our path.

Scripture of the week is Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21

"20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--

21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

Elder W.Chad Thompson

Old Faithful - Brother Lee

Vermilion Moving Company

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Do You Know the Muffin Man

Hello everyone, hope all is going well for you. We have P-Day today because we have interviews tomorrow in Sherwood Park, so we are pretty excited for that. These next couple of weeks will be a gong show. Next week we have another mission conference, and this time Elder Golden jr. of the 70 will be coming up. so we get to travel into Edmonton again!! crazy times. Things up in Canada have been pretty good, although it has been quite a long week. We had transfer meeting and the ap's called the day before and said the plans had changed and i was no longer going in. Elder Parker and an elder from Lloydminster went in instead of me... i wasn't too happy about it. Most of my mission friends are now home and a few went home at this past meeting so i was hoping to see em, but oh well. But now we are settled back in Vermilion doing our thing. We have begun the process of tracting out Vermilion again for the who nows how many times. So that should be good!

As mentioned last week, Elder Robinson is my companion and he is from Twin Falls Idaho. He likes Basketball and Football so that is pretty cool, although he is a Utah Jazz fan ;) and with that comes a particular pride that is a bit different from other loyal fans of other teams, But its all good, i can be petty similar sometimes haha! but we will have some fun! He is willing to work, so im excited to go all out. He has been out for 4.5 months, so of course he knows everything about being a missionary haha. I think my favourite was when he asked if i knew about 7th day adventists hoping to teach me that they worship on saturday. i just said, yeah bro, i am well aware. he seemed kinda bummed that i had already discovered that "deep, unforseen"knowledge haha. Maybe ill go along with it one of these days to make him happy. but it has been good! He actually has a pretty cool conversion story, so its gonna be a fun transfer. The branch presidency had some fun with him yesterday as well. they were making lots of Idaho jokes, like "do they have indoor plumbing?" and "are the roads actually paved there?" haha it was pretty great! He has been a good sport about it so that is always good.

The branch president is pretty awesome here. he was leading the jokes and is a super chill funny guy! We went out to the one of the outlying villages of our area and he drove us and it was great. we actually had a really productive day, and we didn't have to waste kilometres. We met with a less active family that nobody has had contact with since before summer, and met up with our investigators as well to introduce him and he invited them to church. Member missionary work is great! It really helps us out.

 

Quote of the week is from Hugh B. Brown "Experience is not what happens to man, but what he does with what happens to him" Im grateful for this time that i have had to server the Lord and im looking forward to the time left to make some things happen!

Keep it real,

Elder W.Chad Thompson