Hey everyone,
This week has been awesome! For starters, the temp highs have been in the 80's and 90's. It has been so great. It makes life 100 times better with cooler weather. The worst heat is yet to come, but I am grateful for the little break we have had. Okay a lot has been going on this week so I will get to it....
This week we did a lot of knocking because of the of the cooler temps. We found some really great people. One of those people is David. He is a pastor at a non-denomintational Christian church in town and he is a really cool guy. We had a nice talk with him. He has been a pastor here in Delano for 15 years and he has helped a lot of people. He is really well known in the community and is a great guy. When he was in the beginning stages of getting his ministry going and his church set up, he got a lot of help from Keith and Mary Hudson, who just so happen to be Katy Perry's parents! Way back then Katy was still really young so she would go with her parents and she sang in the worship group for a while in the time that she and her parents were there. When she came out with her first album, his church was the first place where she sold it. She has obviously moved away since then, but David still talks to her parents all the time. He showed us pictures from when she was 15/16 years old. David also had a lot of old books, including two really old Books of Mormon from the early 1900's! He likes reading them and he says people have tried to buy them off of him, but he likes them so much that he says they are not for sale. Anyways, he was a cool guy to meet. He knows some of the actors and real people from the movie McFarland USA too and he says he is going to set up a Monday when we can meet them. We really like David and are glad we met him. We also found Melanie this week. She is really prepared. The missionaries used to visit her a long time ago and she has been waiting for them to come back. It was awesome to find her and she was eager to learn more. She lives kinda out in the boonies, but it is definitely worth the miles to be able to go out there and visit her and her family. She is a really cool lady.
Speaking of out in the boonies, we visited Richgrove this week. It is a part of our area that missionaries hardly visit because it is so far away. It is so tiny, but I love it. All they have is a market, an elementary school, and a Catholic church. Oh and they have a taco stand too. haha It is really cool though. We really had nobody to visit out there so we just knocked on doors and talked to people. We met Maria and Maria. They had a lot of questions that we were able to answer and they seem like they really want to learn more. I think we will be using a lot of miles in the future visiting Melanie and Richgrove, but it will definitely be worth it. All of the people we have found this week are really cool.
Jose and Mayra got their marriage licence this week!! We are so excited for them! Now that they have it, they want to waste no time on the marriage and the baptism. We will be holding their marriage on Wednesday of this week and their baptism will more than likely be this Saturday! We are so happy for them. We've been working with Jose for quite a while. We are so excited that he is finally able to take the steps in his life that he has wanted to take for so long.
So it has been another great week out here in Delano. In other great news this week, we received a big box of otter pops on our front door from a family from my home ward, the Edwards. They were passing through Delano and dropped off a treat. It was really nice of them and definitely will come in handy with the heat coming. I also got great news that my brother Brad and his wife Rachel, had their second baby boy. His name is Joseph Todd Thompson and I am so excited to meet the little guy! I am so grateful for all of the miracles I've been able to see this week both here in California and back home in my family. I know God is watching out for the people we visit and for my family............I am so grateful for that. One funny thing that happened this week: We were knocking doors and walked by a daycare with a bunch of 5 or 6 year old hispanic kids running around in the playground. A little girl stopped her group and pointed at us and said in Spanish, "Do you know who they are?! Son hombres de Dios!", That means: They are men from God! That made my day. We get a lot of doors slammed in our face, but at least that 6 year old girl sees us that way! hahaha
Well we better get going. I hope you all have a great week. Take good care.
Love you all,
Elder Chad Thompson
This week has been awesome! For starters, the temp highs have been in the 80's and 90's. It has been so great. It makes life 100 times better with cooler weather. The worst heat is yet to come, but I am grateful for the little break we have had. Okay a lot has been going on this week so I will get to it....
This week we did a lot of knocking because of the of the cooler temps. We found some really great people. One of those people is David. He is a pastor at a non-denomintational Christian church in town and he is a really cool guy. We had a nice talk with him. He has been a pastor here in Delano for 15 years and he has helped a lot of people. He is really well known in the community and is a great guy. When he was in the beginning stages of getting his ministry going and his church set up, he got a lot of help from Keith and Mary Hudson, who just so happen to be Katy Perry's parents! Way back then Katy was still really young so she would go with her parents and she sang in the worship group for a while in the time that she and her parents were there. When she came out with her first album, his church was the first place where she sold it. She has obviously moved away since then, but David still talks to her parents all the time. He showed us pictures from when she was 15/16 years old. David also had a lot of old books, including two really old Books of Mormon from the early 1900's! He likes reading them and he says people have tried to buy them off of him, but he likes them so much that he says they are not for sale. Anyways, he was a cool guy to meet. He knows some of the actors and real people from the movie McFarland USA too and he says he is going to set up a Monday when we can meet them. We really like David and are glad we met him. We also found Melanie this week. She is really prepared. The missionaries used to visit her a long time ago and she has been waiting for them to come back. It was awesome to find her and she was eager to learn more. She lives kinda out in the boonies, but it is definitely worth the miles to be able to go out there and visit her and her family. She is a really cool lady.
Speaking of out in the boonies, we visited Richgrove this week. It is a part of our area that missionaries hardly visit because it is so far away. It is so tiny, but I love it. All they have is a market, an elementary school, and a Catholic church. Oh and they have a taco stand too. haha It is really cool though. We really had nobody to visit out there so we just knocked on doors and talked to people. We met Maria and Maria. They had a lot of questions that we were able to answer and they seem like they really want to learn more. I think we will be using a lot of miles in the future visiting Melanie and Richgrove, but it will definitely be worth it. All of the people we have found this week are really cool.
Jose and Mayra got their marriage licence this week!! We are so excited for them! Now that they have it, they want to waste no time on the marriage and the baptism. We will be holding their marriage on Wednesday of this week and their baptism will more than likely be this Saturday! We are so happy for them. We've been working with Jose for quite a while. We are so excited that he is finally able to take the steps in his life that he has wanted to take for so long.
So it has been another great week out here in Delano. In other great news this week, we received a big box of otter pops on our front door from a family from my home ward, the Edwards. They were passing through Delano and dropped off a treat. It was really nice of them and definitely will come in handy with the heat coming. I also got great news that my brother Brad and his wife Rachel, had their second baby boy. His name is Joseph Todd Thompson and I am so excited to meet the little guy! I am so grateful for all of the miracles I've been able to see this week both here in California and back home in my family. I know God is watching out for the people we visit and for my family............I am so grateful for that. One funny thing that happened this week: We were knocking doors and walked by a daycare with a bunch of 5 or 6 year old hispanic kids running around in the playground. A little girl stopped her group and pointed at us and said in Spanish, "Do you know who they are?! Son hombres de Dios!", That means: They are men from God! That made my day. We get a lot of doors slammed in our face, but at least that 6 year old girl sees us that way! hahaha
Well we better get going. I hope you all have a great week. Take good care.
Love you all,
Elder Chad Thompson