Hi everyone,
I hope you have all had a great week. Elder Dee and I are doing well. Lake LA continues to get warmer. It is going to be an interesting time on my bike if I stay here another transfer, but it would be fun. I have come to love Lake LA and the people here.
This week we visited Victor and it turns out he will be heading back to Colombia. We are bummed of course, but we know he will be fine. We are not sure exactly when he leaves, so we are going to keep visiting him until he does. Doris told us that some more of her Colombian friends are going to move into the house that she is now renting to Victor. We are looking forward to meeting them. Doris is a great member missionary and she really wants to introduce us to her friends. It will be cool to get to know them and see if we can share the gospel with them.
Later on that day we had a lesson with Dulce. She is doing great. She is feeling a lot better from the sickness that she has had for the past couple of months. We had a really good lesson with her. For the past couple of weeks that we have been teaching her she has been a bit hesitant about going to church and being baptized because she has been waiting for an answer to her prayers. Well after our lesson, she told us that she feels like everything we have taught her is true. I was pretty excited to hear that, but she went on to say that even though she felt it was all true, she doesn't know if it is what God has planned for her right now. She feels like she wants to wait for a while and see. I was a little lost for words and didn't know what to say, but luckily we had a great member there who shared her testimony and personal story. When she was investigating the church five years ago, she was in the same position as Dulce. It was really hard for her to change. She testified that when we are willing to search for God's plan for us, pray about it and do everything we can, God will bless us. We will grow close to Him and receive an answer to our prayers. Change is hard, but it is one of the reasons we are here. If we go through this life without learning, changing, growing and developing faith, what will have really been the point? I hope she can make this change in her life. It will be hard, but I know it will be a great blessing. I know we can do hard things for the Lord and he will bless our efforts.
For the past couple of weeks we have been doing service for an older couple named Larry and Adrian. They are super sweet and I love them. They are volunteers at the Saddleback State Park. They live there and maintain the park. They are retired and they bounce around the country from one state park to another, living there and volunteering. It is something they really love to do, but they are getting older and need some help. So we go by every Wednesday with DJ and do service for them. We pull weeds, clean trails, move picnic tables, or anything else they need us to do. They always make us a little picnic afterwards and we sit at one of the tables and eat and talk for a while. It is really cool to hear about all of their stories from traveling around the country. The have some really great stories. The topic usually turns to religion. They used to have neighbors who were members of the Church and Adrian says that she always loved her conversations about faith that she had with her friend. We have talked a lot about Jesus Christ and why faith in Him is so important. There have been some really good conversations. Adrian seems a little bit more into our talks than Larry, but he talks with us too. Well the night after we did service for them, we got a text from them. They told us how thankful they were that we helped them and said, "If it's okay with you, we would like you to bring us a Book of Mormon" haha They also said they loved us and have enjoyed our talks about the Savior. We were so happy for them and really excited to help them. If only every door we knocked on could be like Adrian and Larry. They leave to their next assignment in a couple of weeks, but we are going to plant the seed the best that we can. They are great people and I know the gospel would be such a blessing in their life.
The rest of the week went well. Lots of biking. Lots of wind. Lots of heat. I still love it and would be happy to stay here this next transfer. Five transfers in Lake LA would be kind of crazy, but Elder Dee is going home so it just might happen. I can't believe he is going home in a week. He is playing it cool, but I am pretty sure he is out of his mind with lots of emotions going on. It will be sad to say goodbye to Elder Dee, but I am excited to find out who my new companion will be this Saturday. Transfer time is always exciting. It's fun to find out what Heavenly Father has in mind for me these next few months. I'm doing really well and hope you all are too. Take care and have a great week!
Much Love,
Elder Chad Thompson
I hope you have all had a great week. Elder Dee and I are doing well. Lake LA continues to get warmer. It is going to be an interesting time on my bike if I stay here another transfer, but it would be fun. I have come to love Lake LA and the people here.
This week we visited Victor and it turns out he will be heading back to Colombia. We are bummed of course, but we know he will be fine. We are not sure exactly when he leaves, so we are going to keep visiting him until he does. Doris told us that some more of her Colombian friends are going to move into the house that she is now renting to Victor. We are looking forward to meeting them. Doris is a great member missionary and she really wants to introduce us to her friends. It will be cool to get to know them and see if we can share the gospel with them.
Later on that day we had a lesson with Dulce. She is doing great. She is feeling a lot better from the sickness that she has had for the past couple of months. We had a really good lesson with her. For the past couple of weeks that we have been teaching her she has been a bit hesitant about going to church and being baptized because she has been waiting for an answer to her prayers. Well after our lesson, she told us that she feels like everything we have taught her is true. I was pretty excited to hear that, but she went on to say that even though she felt it was all true, she doesn't know if it is what God has planned for her right now. She feels like she wants to wait for a while and see. I was a little lost for words and didn't know what to say, but luckily we had a great member there who shared her testimony and personal story. When she was investigating the church five years ago, she was in the same position as Dulce. It was really hard for her to change. She testified that when we are willing to search for God's plan for us, pray about it and do everything we can, God will bless us. We will grow close to Him and receive an answer to our prayers. Change is hard, but it is one of the reasons we are here. If we go through this life without learning, changing, growing and developing faith, what will have really been the point? I hope she can make this change in her life. It will be hard, but I know it will be a great blessing. I know we can do hard things for the Lord and he will bless our efforts.
For the past couple of weeks we have been doing service for an older couple named Larry and Adrian. They are super sweet and I love them. They are volunteers at the Saddleback State Park. They live there and maintain the park. They are retired and they bounce around the country from one state park to another, living there and volunteering. It is something they really love to do, but they are getting older and need some help. So we go by every Wednesday with DJ and do service for them. We pull weeds, clean trails, move picnic tables, or anything else they need us to do. They always make us a little picnic afterwards and we sit at one of the tables and eat and talk for a while. It is really cool to hear about all of their stories from traveling around the country. The have some really great stories. The topic usually turns to religion. They used to have neighbors who were members of the Church and Adrian says that she always loved her conversations about faith that she had with her friend. We have talked a lot about Jesus Christ and why faith in Him is so important. There have been some really good conversations. Adrian seems a little bit more into our talks than Larry, but he talks with us too. Well the night after we did service for them, we got a text from them. They told us how thankful they were that we helped them and said, "If it's okay with you, we would like you to bring us a Book of Mormon" haha They also said they loved us and have enjoyed our talks about the Savior. We were so happy for them and really excited to help them. If only every door we knocked on could be like Adrian and Larry. They leave to their next assignment in a couple of weeks, but we are going to plant the seed the best that we can. They are great people and I know the gospel would be such a blessing in their life.
The rest of the week went well. Lots of biking. Lots of wind. Lots of heat. I still love it and would be happy to stay here this next transfer. Five transfers in Lake LA would be kind of crazy, but Elder Dee is going home so it just might happen. I can't believe he is going home in a week. He is playing it cool, but I am pretty sure he is out of his mind with lots of emotions going on. It will be sad to say goodbye to Elder Dee, but I am excited to find out who my new companion will be this Saturday. Transfer time is always exciting. It's fun to find out what Heavenly Father has in mind for me these next few months. I'm doing really well and hope you all are too. Take care and have a great week!
Much Love,
Elder Chad Thompson