The Final One

Hello everyone, I hope all is going well for ya wherever you may be.

Our week was pretty good capped by an amazing general conference. I hope you all had the opportunity to watch it! My favorite talk was Robert D. Hales! There have been a lot of emotions felt during my final week. it is very bittersweet and I have also been a bit sick the past couple of days with a relentless headache, no sleep, and dizziness. but overall id say it was a great week. I figured for my last email, id give a "short" summary of my mission. I have been blessed with amazing companions and areas and i could not trade it for anything.

Meadows Ward(Edmonton): My greenie area was exactly what i needed. It was my refiners fire, and it pushed me to my limits. I gained a lot of great friends there that helped me along the way and i truly learned what it was like to be a missionary. I also got to endure my first ever canadian winter in a walking area :) I had Elder Chase Taylor as a trainer and i also had Elder Ripley and they were great! I learned to love all people and gained first hand knowledge that God truly does love all his children.

Fort St. John: It was a perfect follow up area to my first. We didnt get to teach too often in Meadows, but we sure did in FSJ! All we did was teach! I learned my inadequacy as a teacher and was able to improve. Elder Merkley and I were able to Baptize Tracy and i got to confirm her a member of the church! We also met a guy named Sai, who we taught for awhile and although he never got baptized, we were lucky to meet and become good friends with. We were also able to work with some Less Active members and help bring them back a bit closer to activity. I was also blessed with great companions here in Elder Merkley, Elder Cassell, and then Elder Wheeler when we split the area. I was blessed to be able to serve way, way up north. (Like further north than missionaries in Spencers mission can even go ;) )

Beaumont: I was able to start it off with serving in a tripanionship. We had a legit apartment that i never thought would be beaten (beaten in next area) It was here that we as missionaries met a lady named Cassandra who was having lots of health problems and going through some divorce complications. I am thankful that we were able to be a light in her life, and that she can now be a light in the lives of others as she got baptized. Beaumont was my favorite family ward because of the great community and all the amazing members. I also had great companions here with Elder Majdali, Elder Leyerle, and Elder Winnie. We were blessed for our hard work, both knocking doors, and working with the members.

Mill Creek YSA (Downtown Edmonton and Sherwood Park): Probably my favorite area overall. There were great missionaries around me, I gained 3 really good friends who balled with us on P-Days and fed us often(that is generally hard to come by with poor students), its a YSA, and we had the best apartment in the mission. I also served as a Zone Leader where i learned many many important leadership skills that i will need later in life. Elder Monks and I started teaching Diddy and Elder Liddle and I continued and eventually i was able to perform the baptism. It was an honor for me and I am thankful that we met him and that he was sincerely interested in learning and had the presence of mind to feel the spirit as we taught some wacky lessons to him(Jesus the Christ-The Great Apostacy...it throws down on his former religion... but it worked :) ) I served with Elder Monks and Elder Liddle and they were both awesome comps and i learned a lot from them. Overall it was the most fun i  had out here.

Vermilion Branch: Not gonna lie, i was pretty bummed when i was sent out here at first. I wanted to stay in the city and train, but that was not what the Lord had in mind for me. So i put my head down and went to work, and just a week into it, i loved it like i loved all my other areas. This place is great! For what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. I was only here for a short 3 months, but it was 3 months that i am grateful i had. I served with Elder Parker and Elder Robinson, and i was blessed to serve with them.

One of the things i learned most out here, is that the power of Fasting is real. I saw so many miracles that were a direct result, and i will never be able to deny that. It is like prayer on healthy steroids. And it works :) I love this work and i will miss it deeply, but i am also excited to start the next chapter in my life.

Go Hard Go Fast

Keep it real,

Elder W.Chad Thompson

​BNT​

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

​

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

Mosquitoes = Spawns of Satan

Hello everyone, hope you all had a great week! We have had a pretty good week. Looking back on it now, it seems like it's been a long one, but it has been filled with good stuff! It was Elder Parkers Birthday on Sunday so that was fun. We could have fit everyone at church in a van! So it got cut short to the 2 hour block and we had a lunch after where we got free food! So that's awesome, because once again the dinner calendar was untouched. But we are still looking forward to this week nonetheless because on Saturday we get to leave the mission! We are going to Meadow Lake Saskatchewan for a service project building homes on a native reserve and some members from Lloydminster got it approved and they will be driving us, so I'm pumped!

So my companion and are doing really well with Comp unity, we are in so deep we even both have in grown toe nails! So that has been fun. Mine isn't too bad, just enough to be super annoying and Parkers looks like he should just cut his toe off! So we bought some Epsom Salt this week to try and make them a bit better.

We did service yesterday out on a Ranch taking down a barbed wire fence. I now know why so many of the Canadians swear so much out here. Not only is there thistle everywhere, so thick it cuts through your jeans, it is a breeding ground for mosquitoes who seemed like they hadn't ever before seen any living thing with blood. I was eaten alive...

We went on exchanges again this week, with Lloydminster and I went out there again. We had a pretty cool experience and I had a funny one. So we had a priest with us for a lesson that fell through and I guess the elder hadn't planned any backups, so we went tracting. We knocked on 3 doors. The first one was a slam, second no answer and the third one was the best. We noticed a no soliciting sign so they didn't want to knock it, but I just told them that if they brought it up, we just ask them to define soliciting for us (everyone has a different definition) so we knocked and sure enough the guy pointed to the sign, so I then told him to define it for us. He didn't, but just asked us who we were with, so we told him The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and he said, oh Jehovah's, we said nope, Mormons! He then said " oh well I don't have a problem with you, do you want to come in and share a message?"  We were just like "uh... Yeah!" Haha it was pretty strange. He was super nice to us from then on and even offered us stuff out of his garden. Then we went to the branch activity which was bump. So there is always this guy, nonmember, there who is a bit prideful, and a loose canon, and has a short fuse. He kept getting out and would complain and cry and what not saying we weren't letting him play for 5 seconds. So the last game he was in front of me and I took it easy on him the first 3 shots or so, I'd let him make it before I'd shoot. The branch mission leader was right behind me, and he was just like, "Go hard!" So I shot and got him out, and the guy said "oh I knew it, you little bas*ard!" Haha I have never been called that playing a game of bump! We all had a pretty good laugh at it.

Quote of the week is from Thomas S. Monson

"There is no tomorrow to remember, if we don't do something today!" This is something I have learned especially out here in Canada. We will be so much happier if we live in the present. Sure there are always those times where we have crappy days and look forward to the next day, but we can't just live waiting for the future because that one big event rolls along and goes, what then? Do we just wait for the next one for excitement? It also will not be as grande as it could be if we enjoy the little moments in the daily life. That's what makes the big events grande and exciting.

Keep it real,

Eat some Mexican food for me.

Elder W.Chad Thompson

All About the Finish

Hello everyone! Hope all is going well with ya and that you had a great week! It was our week 6 of the transfer which means transfer calls yesterday. Elder Parker is getting shipped out and I am getting Elder Robinson, some kid who has been out for about 4 and a half months. Parker gets to go to Meadows! Im actually really jealous of him! It is a great ward. It also means that this is week 1, the first week of my last transfer... pretty crazy!

Back in Fort St. John, me and one of companions, who actually goes home this thursday, would always joke with each other about being finishers. So we had Filipino ball every week(For those that need translation, basketball with Filipinos) and there was one week where He started out playing really well, and i didnt, so he was jiving at me the whole night, but i finished playing really well, while he didnt, so out of that came the phrase "it doesnt matter how well you start, its all about how you finish." I guess with it being my last transfer and all, it really comes into consideration now. President Monson gave a talk awhile back where i found this poem. 

"Stick to your task 'till it sticks to you

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

  Honor, power, place and praise

Will always come to the one who stays. 

Stick to your task ’til it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it, too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life’s victories after a while." --Author Unknown

 

Will I falter, or will i finish? I am excited to go out and get it done and be a finisher.

This week we went out of our mission! But with permission :) after a 2 hour drive on terrible roads, and I was of course in the middle seat, we got to meadow lake Saskatchewan to the flying dust First Nation reserve and helped build part of a seniors lounge for their elders as part of Habitat for Humanity, it was a lot of fun! They made us wear hard hats and everything. For lunch we ate Indian Tacos (not politically incorrect, the chief called it this) which were amazing. The chief was giving his little spiel to all the volunteers and then he said "and traditionally we always let the elders go first" we were like yes! There were 6 of us missionaries but of course he meant the old people haha. Pretty fun times.

We went to the senior lodge at the hospital this week and helped them play bingo. The lady i was helping had dementia, so that was fun. at one point, she looked at me and another guy that was helping across the table and said you guys should call me tonight, and then winked. haha it was pretty funny. 

We also helped out a lady named Paula in her yard. we mowed her lawn, weed whacked, and rototilled part of her yard so she could have a bigger garden next year. She is already preparing for winter... kinda scary, but she does like the winter more than summer, so hopefully its just her, and i can get out of here before the snow sticks :)

Quote of the week is from Babe Ruth "It is hard to beat a person that never gives up." Stay strong, keep at it and things will turn out ok in the end.

Elder W.Chad Thompson