Week 54: Sacrifice Brings Blessings

It was a really great week this week. There was lots of finding going on whether it was looking up former investigators, going through our potential sheets, or tracting, we did it all! And we found some people that are interested! We went tracting for quite a bit on wednesday i think it was and it was just pouring. I love tracting in the rain, for whatever reason. Its miserable, but i love it! We were able to pick up a new investigator who is willing to be baptized when he finds out it is true! Tracting in miserable circumstances(at least for me) brings extra blessings in my opinion. Plus its where all the great stories come from!

For example, we were talking to this lady at her door and her dog came out onto the porch. We asked how her faith in Christ had helped her in her life and then a big guy came walking to the door super quick and speaking loudly said "We go to that church right there(pointing to the catholic church) so there it is!" and proceeded to slam the door. as he was doing so the kids yelled "but what about the dog!" and the door slammed. we couldnt help ourselves, we were busting up laughing! haha it was great! especially seeing him open the door, quickly get the dog, and slam the door again. The very next door a lady let us in and share a message with her and said she wouldnt mind us coming back and teaching her. 

Quote of the week again comes from my great patience building companion. "Elder Leyerle, why in the heck were you doing laundry at like 2 this morning?" quickly and sharply he said "it wasnt 2, it was 4." Just loads of fun stuff eh? haha there is never a dull moment it seems.

Scripture of the week comes from Ether 6:3,10

" 3 And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross thegreat waters in darkness.

 10 And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and theydid have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water."

The Lord gives us light, so we dont have to cross the waters, or life, in darkness. Whether we are on top of life and having fun, or under a bunch of trials and tribulations, We have the light of Jesus Christ to look to, to help us through every situation of life. The Atonement of Christ covers all! How great is that?!

Have a great week!

Keep it real,

Elder W.Chad Thompson

Canadian Thanksgiving

Canadian Thanksgiving is kinda like American Thanksgivings little step brother. Haha it's not huge up here, but it was still fun! We went over to a members home that has a huge backyard and played football for 4 hours straight! It was sweet! except now I feel like an old man because i am so sore. We thought we might have a step up because we were missionaries, but nope! people still tackled us! haha I am not in the slightest looking forward to being an old man. We also heard that the facebook page that tracks us (called Beaumont Talks, which tracks where we are so people don't answer their doors) hasn't talked about us in awhile, so that's good! We are finally getting some doors opened, so it's great! We have found about 8 potentials here in the last week, which is great! the work here had been really slow previously. so it's great that the area is starting to turn around. Only God knows how much longer this place is going to be a slump, but our job is to just continue working hard and talking to everyone!

This Sunday Elder Leyerle and I had the opportunity to give talks in sacrament meeting. They went great! I spoke on having an attitude of gratitude even in challenging times. I thought it went pretty well, although thats a fairly biased opinion haha, but the bishop came over and told me it was exactly what the ward needed to hear, so I'

Thanksgiving dinner with a really cool family! Elder Majdaddy(as I have started calling him)  on the left, and Elder Leyerle(who goes home in 23 days, but who is counting?) two to the right. Great night!

ll take it! The main thing we need to do is to look at life with an eternal perspective and lots of different things will fall into place as we place our trust in the Savior and allow His atonement to take effect in our lives. Scripture of the week goes along with what I talked about, well part of it anyway.

Scripture is Alma 34:38  38 That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgivingdaily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

We need to live in Thanksgiving daily, no matter what our circumstances may be. Pres. Uchtdorf gave a great talk on this in the April conference of this year.

Quote of the week comes from my two comps.

"Elder Leyerle, what's up with the pee pee dance?"
"It's not a pee pee Dance Elder Majdali, it's an exercise."

"Oh, well it definitely fooled me."

haha gotta love em eh?

Keep it real,

Elder W.Chad Thompson

Work Hard, Cash em in

This week was pretty interesting. it was more likely than not my 2nd to last week here in Fort St. John.

We learned how to do Family History this week so we could show it to our investigators and it was actually pretty fun! it was cool seeing how to do all the different things. i also learned that i am related by marriage to Wilford Woodruff... no big deal. haha but it was great because we are working on getting our chinese investigator to do some family history work. There is a great feeling that comes with family history work so hopefully that will help him out in a lot of ways.

We also experienced the kindest rejection either of us have ever experienced. the next house we knocked on we got cussed out and flipped off and what not haha it was a really big contrast. Just a few of the great experiences you gain from tracting! 

We had mission conference in Edmonton this week(which is why im emailing today) with Elder Martino of the Quorum of the 70. it was really good and we got some great new ideas that we are excited to try out. My favorite quote though came as he directed his remarks to the elders. "Sisters, i cant say this is the same with you, so dont listen. But Elders, if you are a hard working missionary, you can marry above yourself. If not, well... just wait and see." haha it was great. We have to work hard, and then after being released, we get to cash in the hot wife points. that was pretty much the funniest part of the week.

I came across a couple of great scriptures this week for Dilligence. They are in Acts 5:29-32, 41-42. They go along great with the Bible Video "The Martyrdom of Stephen"

Well, Have a great week! 

Keep it real,

Elder Thompson

Week 51: Back to the City

Well I am getting transferred out of Fort St. John. I am going to a suberb south of edmonton called Beaumont and will be serving with Elder Majdeli(i have absolutely no idea how to spell his name) and Elder Leyerle. Elder Leyerle is an interesting one thats for sure, so it will be an interesting transfer. Im sure ill learn and grow a lot! especially in patience haha. But it should be fun. Ill be back in the Millwoods stake so it should be lots of fun!

So my last week in Fort St. John was spent in out apartment, because Elder Wheeler was pretty sick. but, i did get to see the northern lights before i got out of here so i am really happy with that. i was also able to pack most of my bags too while drinking 2 liters of orange juice a day trying not to get sick. and it worked!

Something that has really driven me as of late, has been something Elder Martino said at our Mission Conference last week. He said that if you are mediocre on your mission, you will be mediocre the rest of your life. That has really motivated me to work hard and be the best missionary i can be. A great scripture that kinda goes along the same lines as this is Alma 26:12 which talks about how if we have God with us, we can do all things and accomplish miracles. And i know thats true. As we all learn to have and keep God with us, we can accomplish great things, no matter what circumstance we are in.
Another scripture i really like is 1 Corinthians 13:11.

Have a good one!

Keep it real,

Elder W.Chad Thompson

Week 52: That City Life

Well I'm not going to lie, it feels good to be back in the city with civilization! Beaumont is a great place(for the most part) and I am excited to be serving in this area. OUr apartment is great! we have two washrooms and showers, so it is pretty great. Plus we have a gym in our apartment complex, so it makes working out in the morning that much better. It is a very prideful city though, there are mostly rich people who think they already have everything they need, so its been a transition, thats for sure! There wasn't anybody in the teaching pool when I got here too. There are great people here though and I feel really good about the potential this area has.

As I mentioned last week, i am serving with Elder Leyerle(who goes home in 5 weeks) and Elder Majdali. Both are really interesting and socially awkward, so it has been an adjustment. But I am learning to love them and they are really nice and good guys. so there was this rumor I guess you could call it aobut how Elder Leyerle slept walk and tried to get in bed with you. 3rd night in, I find out it's not a rumor... I almost killed a man. so now I sleep with a tazer that I made from an electric fly swatter. So it could be a long transfer, but it will be what we make of it!

I had another testimony builder this week. Like I mentioned, there isnt a whole lot going on in our teaching pool, so we fasted for people to teach. The next day, we were able to get return appointments with a couple of people and teach the first lesson on a different person's door step! With Dilligence,Faith, and Humility great things will happen, and we are beginning to see the results of our labors. Scripture of the week goes along with this, and it is 1 Nephi 7:12.

Keep it real,

Elder W.Chad Thompson

​Elder Leyerle from Seattle on the left, Elder Majdali from Anaheim on the right​

Week 49... It's Back

You will understand the email title when you see the picture attached at the end.

Well this week was a lot of fun! We have been working hard and teaching and finding lots, so of course there were some really weird people and crazy cool experiences.

For example, when you walk into a room to teach a less active member and one of your more promising investigators, and a wall of smoke and alcoholic beverage hit you and your head starts hurting, you know you're in for an interesting lesson. or when you go and help out a convert of 3 years on his ranch and he tells you of his life experiences, you gain memories you never forget. Quote of the week come from Brother Hunt, who is the convert of 3 years. in regards to his life and what he has done, he said "I make rambo look like a choir boy!"

The coolest experience this week was when we went tracting. We tracted into 3 evangelical guys and some bashing or "resolving concerns" as we are supposed to call it commenced. This experience reinforced my testimony of the importance of the Book of Mormon, because you can throw scriptures back and forth, but ultimately our church's truthfulness rests upon the Book of Mormon. So after quite awhile, i was able to bear my testimony about why I was on a mission in freezing Canada, coming from sunny california and about how I knew the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. it was really cool to see one of the older guys go from bashy to smiling and complimenting us as well as respecting us. It was an awesome experience that I won'

t forget.

Scriptures of the week are (scripture mastery/mainstream) Helaman 5:12, 6:5.

​

Elder Thompson

Elder Wheeler boozin' it with milk

Week 48: Kinda Crazy Week

Nothing special really happened this week except we ran into a couple of really interesting people and had some funny experiences.

First off. We met Lincoln. Crazy guy who is agnostic in belief and has spent the last year just studying up on islam. Needless to say he doesn't have the nicest opinion in regards to muslims... we spent about 45 minutes at his door step as we were tracting, having a conversation with this guy. Literally every single thing we talked about he related it back to something he didn't like about Islam. He just wants to be American so he could have the freedom of speech. When he told us his name he said "Lincoln, good American name!" Haha it was funny. But just like he did it, everything can also be related to the gospel. Litterally anything to any principle. if you don't believe me, try it!

In that same complex a couple of days later we were tracting the rest of it out. We knocked on this door and this lady opened and before we  even said anything she yelled at us for proselyting every hour of the day and then just closed the door. And then a couple of days later, again we were tracting and we had parked the car on the other side of the street. this old guy tells us to turn around and go "bye bye" and then he told us we were terrorists because of where we parked the car... gotta love Canada eh??

But the highlight of the week came yesterday when we got to help out in sharing time in Primary. The lady teaching was talking about who we would see in heaven. It went from parents to friends to missionaries and then this one kid pipes up ( keep in mind the kids saying this are about 6 and younger) "Do Video Game Characters go to Heaven?" Then he and this other 6 year old in the room in unison yell "No!!! Video Game Characters hate Jesus!" Primary is the best haha. There were lots of funny quotes but this one made all 4 of us missionaries laugh the hardest.

So that would be quote of the week.

Scripture of the week which has helped me a lot comes from Alma 20:29; 21:14-15,17 which talks about patience. so read it!

Keep it real,

Elder Thompson