CHRISTMAS MEANS EVERYONE PAINTS THEIR HOUSE

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM GUATEMALA

FIREWORKS AT NIGHT CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS

SERVICE ROCKS

CALL ME BETTY CROCKER

MY COMP AND ME AT ZONE CONFERENCE

HOLA!!!!!! 

Well this week was great!!! We had a multizone conference with Elder Duncan, he is in the first quorum of the seventy and it truly was amazing that we got to listen to him. He gave a great message about how if we arent changing the ways we do things every day, we will never improve. If we really want to improve and become better, we need to write out a plan, and so we are going to make a plan for our area. This can also be greatly applied for life too! There was a study done where the people wo wrote out there plans and how they were going to accomplish them succeeded a lot more in life. If we really want something in life, it can happen but we need to work for it and most importantly we need to ask Heavenly Father for his help. It was a great conference and we got homemade cookies after and a really cool Christmas present from the mission president and his wife. We also ate a wonderful lunch with Honey baked ham!! wow i was home for christmas for a second. But it was amazing! 

He also told us that right now there are only three people from central america that are serving in europe, asia, or africa. Right now they have 3200 missionaries from here and when they have 3500 they are going to start sending people from central america to europe, asia, and africa. There is a prophecy tht the gospel will be spread in the US and then after we would share it with the people here. The next part is taht the people from Central America share it with the world. We are here working to find missionaries and people ready to serve the lord. We arent hear to baptize people, we are here to help people turn to christ and to feel his love every day in their life. We are here to help people live with their families for eternity. 

I love being a missionary!! 

Love you all

Hermana Thompson

CHICKEN FEET TAMALES

HOLA!!! 

Well....about 2 weeks ago we were with an investigator and she gave us these tamales. They were nasty but I ate them haha. Found out this week it was make of chicken feet. Not not the wings. the little scally feet. People eat those here and apparantly I do to. My comp thought it was hilarious that I had no idea hahaahah

Well, on Tuesday we found out that Pablos mom wasnt going to give him permission to get baptised because she thinks he needs more time. He told us the Sunday before that she was all good and he was too, but apparantly not. It was depressing and because of that he started doubting his faith. We had such a powerful lesson with him on Tuesday and he was crying while sharing his testimony, but he has more fear of men then of God right now. 2 Nephii 8'7, dont fear man. We always try to hard to please people, but we should think of our Heavenly Father first. We need to please God first always. Well, we will see what will happen. His mom hasnt given him permission to have a lesson with us or go to church. 

We have one investigator Anna who is from el salvador. A la gran I can not understand her at all! I feel like Im in my first week again haha. She cuts off all of her words and everything, but i get the gist of it! She read in the book of mormon one time and was scared because she didnt get her answer. We shared Alma 5'46 with her when Alma needed to pray and fast for his answer, and we arent any different. We need to do the same. Our answers won't come all at once, but they will come little by little. 

This week the video christmas.mormon.org brought us many many miracles and we had over 80 contacts in the calle because of this video! 

It helps us remember the meaning of Christmas and people just love it here!!! I love Christmas because its the time we get to remember the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. 

Well I love you all!!!! 

Hermana Thompson

The Hermanas in her district... The Zaculeu Ruins in Huehuetenango

Hermana Romero and Me at the ruins

I love Guatemala

My district!

TAMALES FOR CHRISTMAS, AND LOTS OF THEM!

HOLA!!

Guatemala is great as usual!! My hija is so great and i love being able to train her. I am learning so much with her!!! 

Well, I hope we all remember who Carmen is. Her younger brother Pablo is getting baptised on saturday! I am so grateful for the experience! He had been asking for his own Book of Mormon and we gave him one on wednesday. We had put a goal for a baptism date as the 13th, but he said he needed to think about it. On Friday we had another cita and he had already read a lot of 1 Nephi, all the intro, and other things. He said he wanted to be baptised on the 13th!!! The Book of Mormon truly made the difference. Our Heavenly Father saved this book for this time so we can know that this gospel was truly restored for this day. The Book of Mormon is like a cake. How can we know that the cake is delicious if we dont try it? but we also dont need to eat all the cake to know its delicious. Its like the book of mormon. WE dont need to read all of it to know its true. Just a little bit of it. The Spirit will tell you through your spirit and feelings that it is true. I love the Book of Mormon and I decided to start reading it from the beginning. The day after that Pablo started too also. Hes so great!! His brother Carlos too also wants to be baptised. They come to church and love it!!! Im so blessed to have them in my life!! All because i sat in some puke in a packed bus with a giant cake, I have the blessing to see their life change through this gospel. 

ALSO, since Christmas is approaching I would like to share this video that really is amazing. 

christmas.mormon.org. 

its important to rmember that the real reason for Christmas is the Birth of Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer. He suffered for each and every one of us. 

Have a great week!!! 

Love, 

Hermana Thompson

ps. everyone eats tons of tamales for christmas here. lots and lots. 

HE'S MY BUDDY

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HERMAN'S

IT'S A SERVICE DAY! PAINTING THE CEILINGS AND FLOORS

THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS MOM SENT WITH NEW AND OLD CHRISTMAS CARDS

All companions must be at least a foot shorter than me!

HOLA!

 Well its official all my companions need to be a foot shorter than me. haha Well we went down to Xela at 4 am in the morning Tuesday for changes. all the missionaries met up in the terminal and then I went off with some other trainers and we ate at subway. Wow I missed subway. so crazy. anyways then we went to go pick up our "hijas" for the mission. Im a mom. everyone has been joking that I've been pregnant because I'm gonna train a new missionary. but she is a cute little girl from Honduras. She is super bubbly and super funny. We have a lot of fun. Training has been a blessing because ive really stopped thinking about myself and I get to think about her and how to make her a good missionary. Its the best. 

Now you may think we have a language barrier, but no i lost my voice completely and no one could hear me. It was a struggle but that's okay!!! 

On her first day she did almost get hit by a car because i guess in Honduras the cars stop for people. Well hello Sister, not here. She couldn't hear me because my voice was gone...but hey she didn't get hit by a car so everything is all good!!! 

My comp has showed me a lot. In her i see myself almost  six months ago. I have seen how much I have grown and how much I still need to grow. its a great blessing to have her in my life. 

We got a reference from a member of this lady who is new to the area. she is from El Salvador and always saw missionaries walking around and always greeted them but they never taught her. We taught her the restoration this morning and she loved it!!! 

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We saw the best firework show from our roof. like Disneyland but a fast food restraint was putting it on. haha  I got the most amazingly special package in the mail from our Agoura 1st Ward.  You guys are the best!!  It had my favorite temple picture, the most adorable Hermana stocking I have ever seen and the spanish CTR rings made us very popular and are all gone.  So many awesome things in one box!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  It's just what I needed. 

Have a great week! 

love 

Hermana Thompson

My old companion Herman Woods and my new companion Hermana Romero from Honderas

                           A Christmas package from my Agoura 1st Ward family!

IT JUST TAKES A PHONE CALL....

HOLA

This week was a crazy week. 

We were teaching Leslie (who is special needs and can be abusive) and Juana awhile ago but stopped teaching them because Juana refuses to pray. Well, Leslie came knocking on our door very aggressively twice in one morning. She was standing out there pounding on it and talking to herself. People really shouldnt know where we live so we just stayed quiet for awhile. Well, she missed us and wanted us to visit again but we really need to take the time to visit people who want to hear the gospel. We went to visit her and she just grabbed my companion as if she was dying. Shes a really sweet girl, we are just scared shes gonna hurt someone or something. 

Well, thursday morning the assistants called and told me that Im training. I freaked out because Hermana Woods and I wanted to be together for christmas, but the Lord has another plan for us I guess. Crazy. So on Friday we woke up nice and early and took a bus to Xela, but the bus was so full we had to sit balancing in between the isles. Im gonna miss these bus rides haha. 

The meeting was great and it reassured me that this is what im supposed to do. Im scared, but grateful for such an amazing apportunity to train a new missionary. It will be hard but great! Tomorrow Ill talke another bus down in the morning to go and pick up my new companion and take her back. CRAZY. This also means ill probably be here in Las Flores till February. 

We have been planning a fair for our ward and had every organization is to be in charge of games. We got there 30 min before the activity and no one was there. They were having a stake activity and our bishop refused to help us. He told us to go to this one room and they told us to then go outside after setting everything up. It was so stressful and then no one showed up with their games! It was embarrasing! We only had four games but everyone who helped loved it, we had inactive member and lots of investigators and it turned out way fun in the end. Our ward just let us down so that was hard. 

We were walking back with Carmen and her brothers from the activity. Earlier that day we had asked Carmen to be baptised and she said maybe she just needs to get married first. Later that night I told her we could help her with planning the wedding and she excepted. We are hoping for her wedding and baptism in about a month! Her little brother told my companion that he has been praying like Joseph Smith about what church to join and he said he wants to get baptised! He loves church! He will be baptised in two weeks if all goes well!!!

So excited!

Anyways have a great week! 

love you!

Hermana Thompson

Aura gave us bracalets with the temple on them because we have an agreement that we have to invite her to our weddings. Aura and her family have been our second family so I'm excited to spend Christmas with them. 

 My district is awesome!  

                                                    Leslie and Juana. Yes I'm a giant

lady making traditional clothing

                         These are two members and they actually love me promise

a sign we made for the fair we had.

            Carmen at our fair. we had a game with flour there so she looked like a gringa. 

My comp, and Hermana Gibson who came with me, and her comp at our meeting for trainers

Carmens & Family.  I love them all!

IT'S ALREADY CHRISTMAS HERE!

Yes Mom, I will never complain about loading the dishwasher again.

Love this family and my companion!

Cutest puppy ever

District road trip

Thanksgiving Dinner with my district (transfers next week)

Hola!!! So I love Guatemala because they don't have thanksgiving so everyone is decorating and singing songs for Christmas!!! Such happy times!!!

Anyways,  we had a noche de hogar with Carmen this week. she is getting married hopefully and is just soooo pilas. She is sooo smart and so prepared! I did have to call and beg her to come to church but she came and loved it!!! We were so blessed this week that her, her bf, and her brother could all come! 

This week I hit five months. Weird. Doesn't feel like it AT ALL. We ate sugar cookies for breakfast on my five month and it was the best. 

We went to our big family of 17 and they told us the same thing that juana told us. We dont want to pray and ask because its doubting gods power. It was heartbreaking. There are so many stories in the bible of people praying for guidance from god. Its a blessing he gives us that we have a two way communication.

Our two most progressing are hurting with this, but we discovered why we have these difficulties. Last Sunday we knocked on a guys door who opened it with his pants all undone and was super creepy. We were not excited to go back the following week to teach him, but we did. he started the lesson by saying that he will never change his religion because he promised his parents thats he would never change his religion. never. My comp asked him if he had ever asked god what his will was for him. Because god knows whats best for us. He stopped and thought for a second and his entire attitude had changed in seconds. Because we had been studying a lot about prayer scriptures we had just the right scriptures to show him, one in Matthew about anything we look for we will recieve and another in john about how the holy ghost will teach us all things. 

He told us he is going to pray. He said tons of people had come and preached to him, but they never asked him to pray to God. Our challenges with our investigators prepared us for him. He told us that one day he might be mormon. 

Heavenly father has a plan for us. He knows whets best for us we just need to turn to him and see what he wants for us. His path is the best path. 

Anyways I love you all!!!!   Have a great week! 

Love always

Hermana Thompson

I'M STILL AFRAID OF SPIDERS

November 10,  2014

Hola!!

Well I’m gonna start out by saying that I am still afraid of spiders. We get these giant ones in our house...it takes us thirty minutes to usually kill one because its so scary. that’s what we get with two gringas!!! haha

Anyways, this week we had to give talks in sacrament meeting. well, i hope people understood me.Ssaberrrr i was just praying for the gift of tongues the whole time. My first baptism, Christopher, told me how much he wants to go on a mission and it just melted my heart i love that kid!!

But now time for a sad story. We have been teaching Juana, the mom, and Leslie, the daughter with special needs. They had all their assistances for baptism. we went on Friday with the elders to have a lesson and for the first time ever Leslie had a seizure in front of us. We knew this usually happened but we had never seen it. It was scary and we felt so bad. the elders were teaching about the great love that she has for her daughter and heavenly father loves us like that times a thousand. 

we went back the next day and asked her if she prayed and read the book of Mormon. she said now because she doesn’t want to ask god. She already has the bible and doesn’t need anything else. we asked her to pray and she said no I don’t want to. we asked how she knew the bible is true and she said because i know and i read it. We invited her to read and ask god if its true because she has nothing to loose. she said there is no point. our hearts shattered into a million pieces. I understood for a split second how Jesus felt when the world rejected him. She had sooo much potential. but the book of Mormon prophesizes of people rejecting the book of mormon. All people need to do is pray and read the book of mormon. 

god wants us to pray and ask questions because we dont know anything. We are here to learn and progress and our heavenly father wants to help us so much.   James 1 5. it never hurts to ask. and i promise you he will answer

Other news; the giant family that came to church last week sells vegetable in the terminal. Which is pretty much a giant farmers market every day but they sell everything for super cheap. Anyways we went and a member came by and we talked about temples. They loved that they could do the work of salvation for those who have already passed on. What a blessing we have to have temples today on the earth. 

Anyways i dont have a lot of time! 

love you! 

hermana thompson

AND THEN THE DRUNK MAN CHASED US....

Well I don't remember if I told this yet, but there is a boy in my ward who got called to Nicaragua and it was a really cool opening because it was with all of his family who are pretty much like my family!! I love it! 

Anyways, here for Halloween there is sadly no trick or treating. In my dreams, but no. Everyone goes to the center of town where its pretty much a big fair around the cemetery! It was way cool but we weren't allowed to go and had to come in at seven. Thats okay we made sugar cookies with frosting which was amazing because people don't sell that here. 

Dia de Los Santos when they decorate the cemetaries.

Hermana exchanges for the day.

Fiambre

The cat ears Mom sent for Halloween

Our second family went out with our ears and light sticks to celebrate.

Local Cemetery decorated

On Saturday was Dia de Los Santos and everyone goes to the cemetery, paints, and decorates the graves. Kind of like our memorial day.  We ate fiambre and tamales with Aura, per tradition. everyone eats fiambre here which is pretty much like a way nice salad. I had a normal one with not too many weird meats, but there are some that have cow tongue and stuff like that in it. Well I hope i didnt eat any tongue. 

I had divisions this week and it was the first time I really got to leave my area for awhile since Ive been here. I went with Hermana Richards and it was super fun! Fun to have something different. While I was with her they got three baptismal dates and they havent had any for about 3 transfers!!! I loved seeing these investigators strong faith. 

We had such a miracle this week!! About three weeks ago we fasted to have investigators come to church. We have had investigators at every sunday since°! And yesterday we had a family of 12 come!!!!!!!!!!! ahhh!!  and it was Juanaa and Leslies third assistance which means baptism can be soon. So excited to see her faith grow!! She has had a lot of great experiences with the scriptures lately. 

On saturday night we found one of our menosactivas drunk sleeping on the ground so we helped get her home. and the next day she came to church!!!! Works for me! Hopefully she is strengthening her faith°°° 

also we got chased by a drunk man on Saturday and it was pretty hilarious. definitely a week to remember!

 

love 

hermana thompson

The Senorita Elders got Licee

Well...where should I start? First,  lots of people love calling us weird names and senorita elders always makes me laugh. Anyways, on tuesday night my comp was so annoyed with her itchy head so i checked it and found a bug. Just one so we didnt worry because bugs are everywhere i tell you everywhere! 

anyways we were studying the next morning and what do i pull out of my head? Yes. the same bug. we flipped so i checked her head and i found like 15 more! We were creeped out and called the nurses and they told us to go get lice shampoo. so yes ladies and gentleman for the first time in my life i got lice. No, i was not happy about it and i never want to do

Taking out the licee

Cemeteries...on Nov. 1st they decorate to celebrate Halloween

it again haha. We had to leave lotion in our hair for hours, shampoo, a member came and put mantequa in our heads and lime. We had bags on our heads for about three days. It was a process. but dont worry everyone i am lice freee!!! 

I learned to make empanadas this week! They are delightful! Can't way to show all of you. 

This week we had many miracles.  

We had a noche de hogar with our neighbors, presidente matias, and we met gustavo. gustavo is twenty and you can tell he really wants the truth in his life. The difficulty with him and witha lot of others here is that they didnt go to school and just went right to working. They cant comprehend a lot so its little by little with them. Good thing i can speak complicated spanish! I have to teach the gospel simply in spanish which i love. 

Juana and Leslie came to church again and looooved it!! Juana had a big problem that she thought mormons only talked about Joseph Smith and adored him, but now she understands his purpose. He was the first prophte in this dispensation and restored the church through our heavenly father. He couldnt have done it without him. This is the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints and we concentrate on our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. she loves it and wants to come to church again. 

Just ask yourself this..if you lived in the time of Jesus Christ when he established His church, would you go to his church or someone elses church? I know that this church is the church that jesus Christ established when he lived on the earth.We have a prophet, apostoles, revelation, the priesthood, and the scriptures that god wants the world to have. 

We had interviews with president this week and they were great!! He reassured me to not feel like I'm not having success but just remember the story of Abinidai. he had one convert that was alma and alma went on to convert thousands. 

Love you all and have a great week! 

PS I love hearing from everyone so please keep it up and if i havent heard from you email me! 

love 

hermana thompson