October 16, 2011

Dear Family (or as the say in Canada ; Dear Family)

Saturday (Mom's Birthday) was a good day. I cried a lot, but felt her love and support. I did get to write a letter and put it in a balloon for her.

I'm so grateful I have the knowledge that I will see Mom again and that we are a forever family! I love you all so much!!!
So a funny story from this week. Sister Jones and I were doing personal study in our apartment. We could hear someone unlocking the door, but it sounded like it was coming from the apartment across the hall. Then, suddenly our front door opens and in walks a woman about 40 or so carrying a bunch of stuff. We were surprised and went over to talk to her. She apologized and said, "Sorry, wrong floor. I'm the building manager, nice to meet you!" We talked a little and then she said, "You know there is a family downstairs that are Mormons like you. Their mother isn't, but their family is so great and have a lot of integrity. You should convert their mother to your church." It's not everyday that a non-member walks into your apartment and gives you a referral :). Got to love the Edmonton Canada Mission.
Every time we go tracting someone always invites us in. Sister Jones says it's super weird and I must have a magic touch or something. I guess that's not a normal thing :). I like to think that the spirit is just prompting me to say the right thing to get them to invite us in. Sister Jones says that if she could describe me in one word it would be Fearless. I LOVE tracting and knocking on people's doors and I'm never nervous to start talking to someone about the church. She said that another way to describe me would be converted, because I know what I'm teaching and I'm not afraid to share it with everyone. That definitely made me feel good. Edmonton is also very cultured. 90% of everyone that has invited us in has been Hindu, from India or Muslim.
Speaking of Muslim. We are teaching a family that is Muslim now :). They're from Turkey and they all came to church yesterday. Our 2nd Sunday in the ward and we already had three investigators there :). We were teaching the Father one evening and we were teaching him about the Restoration. Sister Jones recited the First Vision to him. We've been "trained" to recite it from memory and pause for a least 5 seconds to allow the Spirit to testify after we say, "This is my Beloved Son, Hear Him!" Well Sister Jones had paused for maybe only 2 seconds and he asked with excitement and curiosity, "And then what happened?!?!?" He is so great to teach! As we were teaching him this last week I invited him to be baptized. He said, "I want to learn more before I do, but once I know more then of course Yes!" We're excited to continue to help this family come unto Christ. We also gave him a tour of the church Friday night so he's be more comfortable when he came on Sunday. He was also very excited to hear that we have a living prophet on the earth today.
We had training with my Mission President and I really loved what he said in regards to our wards and the members we are serving with. (Note: President is a very quite, polite man). "You Love the Crap out of your ward!" Gotta love it!!!!

I love you all!
Until next week,
Love, Sister Leanna Thompson

October 11, 2011

Dearest Family and Friends,

I'm here! Canada is wonderful. This past week went by so quickly. My Pdays are on Mondays, but because of the holiday yesterday (Canada Thanksgiving) we didn't get to email home until now. There is SO much I want to tell you all about so, I will try and get as much in this email as possible.

My first area is Beaumont and I am serving with the wonderful, amazing, fantastic Sister Jones. She is from Vernal Utah! We are actually white-washing this area. We are the first sisters to serve in this area in about 3 years! (No pressure right?) The last baptism this ward has seen was back in January too. So our goal is 3 by the end of the year. Wish us luck (pray for us please!). I met my first real investigator. She is in her 30's, has two daughters two and six months, her husband is Hindu and she is from India. Some Sisters from the Millwoods YSA area tracted her out and passed her on to us. We stopped by her house about an hour after getting my new area and companion and visited with her. Her daughters are so cute and I want more than anything for them to have the blessings of the gospel in their lives. This investigator is interested in learning more, but doesn't always have time to meet because of her husband's work schedule. She has a Christian background and her husband is supportive of whatever she does.
Later that night we stopped by the member families house for dinner. As they were serving us dessert one of the kids asked me, "Is that too much?" I replied with, "Go big or go home! But don't go home big!" Everyone laughed and that has become Me and Sister Jones' new motto. :) After dinner we walked back to our car. As we were driving away I noticed someone moving stuff from their house to their car. I had the feeling we should turn around and go back. I mentioned it to Sister Jones and she turned around. We parked the car about a block or so away and walked back to the house. As we did so another car pulled up and a man got out. We approached them and started talking to them. I told them we were representatives of Jesus Christ and that we'd like to share a message with them. One of the guys mentioned that he has been looking for a church. We got some of his information, invited him to church and left a mormon.org card with him. I was on fire after that. My first street contacting! It felt so great! I just wanted to talk to everyone at that point.
We have another investigator that the Elders were teaching before. We had scheduled to meet her the next day so we decided to pray about and discuss what day we should ask her to be baptized. We were deciding between Oct. 29th and Nov. 5th, but we decided on Oct. 29th. In our prayers I asked Heavenly Father to bless something to happen or let us know if Nov. 5th is the date we should go with. Well, the next day we got a phone call from her. She had to cancel because her kids were sick. we rescheduled and invited her to come to church. She said she'd be out of town for Thanksgiving so she couldn't. We hung up the phone and I was so excited. I turned to Sister Jones and said, "Our prayer was answered. We're supposed to invite her to get baptized on Nov. 5th." Sister Jones was so surprised by my reaction to our investigator cancelling a lesson on us. She thought it was great that I could have a positive attitude :).
There are so many people I wish I could talk about all of them, but I will for sure in more letters or emails.
We went tracting (we call it finding) for my first time! It was so much fun! We knocked on a lot of doors and got some people who were semi-interested and others definitely were not. One Baptist told us that if we wanted to argue we were totally welcome to come in, but other than that he didn't want to talk to us. We asked if he knew anyone that would be interested. He said he didn't but if he did he wouldn't recommend them to us. Sister Jones said to-sha', (don't know how to spell it but it means like dido) and we said goodbye. As we were walking away she said, "Did I really say that out loud?" (Referring to the to-sha'). We laughed about it. We also found a house that the doormat said "Go Away". No one was home, but I took a picture :). The best part was we tracted into another potential investigator. She used to go to Young Women's with her friend when she was younger and invited us in to visit with her. She is pretty much golden. She is married and has a nine month old daughter. we are meeting with her later today :). We can't wait.
During companionship prayer Saturday night we decided to fast for our investigators. Sister Jones gave the prayer and it was very long. So long that I actually fell asleep. Sister Jones ended the prayer and looked over at me. I guess subconsciencly I noticed she stopped talking and I woke up and said, "Amen!" It was pretty funny. I have a problem with falling asleep. During Sacrament Meeting I fell asleep during a baby blessing. Stay tuned to find out where in the world Sister Thompson will fall asleep next.

The best part of the week (besides testifying of the Savior of course) is that Beaumont has a 43rd Ave and when the Millwoods Sisters and us went to Denny's for lunch our total came to $43.43. Coincidence? I think not!! :) Best ever!!!
Oh yeah- facts about Canada. Canada has roughly 2 million lakes! Crazy eh? Also, you have to buy your own grocery bags and you have to pay to use a cart. Weird.
Thanks for everything! I love all of you so much!!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and we're so blessed to have this knowledge.

Love, your favorite Sister Leanna Thompson

She Landed!

Dad has been watching Leanna's flights this morning via Flight Tracker. Her plane landed in Edmonton at 11:37 am this morning. She's in Canada now!!

October 3, 2011

Dear Loved Ones:

This email will probably come as a surprise since it's not Wednesday, but since I head to Canada tomorrow morning we were allowed time to email home since I'm not sure when my PDay will be yet. So, Hello!
Conference was absolutely amazing! I loved every minute of it. I took 27 pages of notes!!! Everything was so great:). Some of my favorite talks are as follows:
First off- HOW COOL IS THAT!? We are getting another Temple in Provo! I literally cried with joy when they announced that. How neat is that?! SO EXCITING!!!
I loved every talk from all sessions so it will be hard to pick just a couple things to talk about. I loved Elder Bednar and how he talked about "Becoming Saviors on Mount Zion." We truly have the covenant   responsibility to seek out those around us and our ancestors and do the work for them. This is our duty and a great blessing. I also really liked what Ian S. Ardem of the Seventy said about managing time. "Let us be quick to kneel as we are to text." I loved that. I also loved that he said, "Don't waste our time checking status's, farming online, or catapulting angry birds at walls." :) Ha ha ha so funny. I really loved Eldar Hales and his talk on "Not my will, but thine be done." Angles are here to bear you up (D&C 84:88). I also thought of the fact that I'm a "Real Missionary" now when Matthew O. Richardson of the Sunday School Presidency was talking. Overall, I don't have time to go into every insight and talk, but I loved every moment of it. I kind of forgot it was General Conference because I felt like they were talking to just the missionaries. It was SO Great!!!
Guess what?! I ran into a cousin!!! :) Elder Ryan Haymore!!! From Mt. Airy, North Carolina. He is going to the Orlando Florida Spanish speaking mission. :) It was crazy, I saw him in the bookstore and said, "You're a Haymore?! I'm related to you! My Mom is a Haymore!" He then asked if I was related to Franklin Damarcus Haymore :) It was crazy!!! He lives on Haymore Road and we made a lot of connections. I got his address and will be writing him. I also got his home address. We took a picture and I will send it home with my stuff so you can see. What was so cool is he grabbed an Elder by him, (Elder Hiatt) and said, "Elder Hiatt, this is my cousin!" Turns out Elder Hiatt is from Mt. Airy too. Aren't we related to the Hiatt's too?...I really wish I had my pedigree chart right now.
Well I am completely out of time. :( I love you all so much!!!

God be with you 'til we meet again!

I love you with all my heart!

Sister Leanna Thompson