Hello everyone,
This week has been pretty good. Life goes on in the great pueblito of Delano. This week we have found a lot of cool people. Unfortunately, we've had to drop some people too. Some of the kids around high school age that we have been visiting didn't have the support from parents so we had to stop visiting them. Other than that, it has been a great week. We had a meeting down in Bakersfield this week so it was cool to go down to the "big city" (at least here in the mission). Afterwards we went to Chick-fil-A, which made the trip even more awesome. I was also able to bring my bike down and get it fixed at a bike shop in Bakersfield. I had been borrowing another Elder's bike when available, but now my bike is back in service.
We met and taught Alejandra this week. She is a really cool young mother with two kids. She hasn't been to any church in a long time because she has been so busy with the kids, but she wants to get back into it and do the things she knows that she should. We met Jesus too! He is a great guy. When we first met him we didn't really know what to expect. He went on for a long time about how our beliefs were all wrong and he would never believe anything that we said. haha We just gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. He accepted it, but didn't seem like he was going to give it much of a chance. So we set up a return appointment and left. Well when we came back he totally surprised us! It was awesome. He had read a little bit from the Book of Mormon and he had opened up a ton. He listened to our message and seemed really genuinely interested. He actually really liked what he had read. He is a great guy. His wife died recently and he is raising his teenage son alone. He has a little bit of a drinking problem and he asked us to help him with that so we are going to try. He is a good man and he has already progressed a ton.
We also had a really good lesson with the Espinoza family. They are doing great. They are such a nice family. So we taught them and the lesson went great. Afterwards, we asked if there was anything we could do for them. Well the A/C unit on their roof went out so she asked if we could give it a look. The inside of the house was really warm and she was supposed to have her daycare kids coming over in the morning and didn't want them to be too hot. Elder Myers and I were both kind of hoping that the other would know what he was doing and we said yes, we would try. So we went out to their back yard and I climbed a ladder up to their roof. I had absolutely no idea what to do. hahaha Fixing A/C units is definitely outside of my skill set. So I just kind of looked at it for a little bit and then noticed this tiny piece that had fallen from it and into the gutters. So I grabbed it and found a place to stick it into the unit and it turned on! haha I would definitely call that a miracle. They were so grateful when the cool air started flowing and they sent us home with a bunch of treats.
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The rest of our week went well. We got a couch! A member in our ward gave it to us. It is so awesome to have a couch again. Especially after coming from the Lake LA house that had FOUR couches. Oh and this week we are going to be biking every day. I hope it is a little cooler. My companion and I just like bike days so much more than car days so we decided to let the other Elders have the car.
I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the end of your summer. I'm doing great and I am loving my mission. It is so weird how fast the time goes. I can't believe that I have so little time left. It is so strange.......... I have always been excited for the day when I go back home to my family, but at the same time I am starting to feel weird that I only get to do this for a little bit longer. It's definitely bittersweet. So I am just loving what I am doing and enjoying the time I have left out here to serve. I love and miss you guys. Take care.
Much Love,
Elder Chad Thompson
This week has been pretty good. Life goes on in the great pueblito of Delano. This week we have found a lot of cool people. Unfortunately, we've had to drop some people too. Some of the kids around high school age that we have been visiting didn't have the support from parents so we had to stop visiting them. Other than that, it has been a great week. We had a meeting down in Bakersfield this week so it was cool to go down to the "big city" (at least here in the mission). Afterwards we went to Chick-fil-A, which made the trip even more awesome. I was also able to bring my bike down and get it fixed at a bike shop in Bakersfield. I had been borrowing another Elder's bike when available, but now my bike is back in service.
We met and taught Alejandra this week. She is a really cool young mother with two kids. She hasn't been to any church in a long time because she has been so busy with the kids, but she wants to get back into it and do the things she knows that she should. We met Jesus too! He is a great guy. When we first met him we didn't really know what to expect. He went on for a long time about how our beliefs were all wrong and he would never believe anything that we said. haha We just gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. He accepted it, but didn't seem like he was going to give it much of a chance. So we set up a return appointment and left. Well when we came back he totally surprised us! It was awesome. He had read a little bit from the Book of Mormon and he had opened up a ton. He listened to our message and seemed really genuinely interested. He actually really liked what he had read. He is a great guy. His wife died recently and he is raising his teenage son alone. He has a little bit of a drinking problem and he asked us to help him with that so we are going to try. He is a good man and he has already progressed a ton.
We also had a really good lesson with the Espinoza family. They are doing great. They are such a nice family. So we taught them and the lesson went great. Afterwards, we asked if there was anything we could do for them. Well the A/C unit on their roof went out so she asked if we could give it a look. The inside of the house was really warm and she was supposed to have her daycare kids coming over in the morning and didn't want them to be too hot. Elder Myers and I were both kind of hoping that the other would know what he was doing and we said yes, we would try. So we went out to their back yard and I climbed a ladder up to their roof. I had absolutely no idea what to do. hahaha Fixing A/C units is definitely outside of my skill set. So I just kind of looked at it for a little bit and then noticed this tiny piece that had fallen from it and into the gutters. So I grabbed it and found a place to stick it into the unit and it turned on! haha I would definitely call that a miracle. They were so grateful when the cool air started flowing and they sent us home with a bunch of treats.
.
The rest of our week went well. We got a couch! A member in our ward gave it to us. It is so awesome to have a couch again. Especially after coming from the Lake LA house that had FOUR couches. Oh and this week we are going to be biking every day. I hope it is a little cooler. My companion and I just like bike days so much more than car days so we decided to let the other Elders have the car.
I hope you all are doing well and enjoying the end of your summer. I'm doing great and I am loving my mission. It is so weird how fast the time goes. I can't believe that I have so little time left. It is so strange.......... I have always been excited for the day when I go back home to my family, but at the same time I am starting to feel weird that I only get to do this for a little bit longer. It's definitely bittersweet. So I am just loving what I am doing and enjoying the time I have left out here to serve. I love and miss you guys. Take care.
Much Love,
Elder Chad Thompson