November 5, 2012

Hello EVERYONE!!!! (I'm running out of creative ways to start my emails.)

Oh what a week. Seriously, so much has happened since last time I emailed. I hope it's not too scattered. First off, Halloween was this week. Sister Williams and I wore each other's name tags. We had dinner at our Bishop's house and when Sister White (Bishop's wife) went to ask me to say the blessing she said, "Sister Thomwilliams? Wait a second. You're sister Thompson! You totally just through me off." Ha ha gotta love the ole' switch of the name tag trick. Works every time. :) We had to be back in our apartment by 6pm. Since we live right next door to the Beaumont Sisters we got to spend the evening with them. For Halloween we decided to wear face masks (the oatmeal/Avacado kind). :) I will attach pictures for you to see.

It's a sad week in the Millwoods YSA Area. Our Investigator for a long time sent us a text Thursday morning. In it he thanked us for our time and help but said, "The content of the book (referring to the Book of Mormon) is good, but hardly true." What a sad thing to hear. We have invited him multiple times to read and pray (which he has said he is doing), but he hasn't found out that answer that it's true. I know that God's timing is always the right timing. Often we think we know better, but we don't we must allow God's timing if we want to see Miracles. I know that Zhang will find out that it is true, but right now is just not the right time. It's definitely a said day. So, what does this mean for us? FINDING!!!!! We did find a new Investigator through tracting. His name is Anwar. He is really nice and Muslim. He just got a new job, so we'll see what his new schedule allows as far as meeting with us goes. To every single person reading this I come with an invitation. Refer someone to your local missionaries. There is so much success when members do this. "The Ideal situation is when members invite their friends and are present for the teaching. When members do this, more people are baptized and remain active in the church." PMG (I totally just typed that from memory Wahoo!!!!) So, do it!!!! Find someone for the missionaries. The last 4 baptisms I have been blessed to be a part of were member referrals. Each of them are active in the church. :) (Chris is even one of our ward missionaries) :)

I finally have one of those crazy mission stories to tell. Tuesday evening, Sister Williams and I were at the Library watching a video about Finding through Family History. A man in his late 20's, facing me, kitty corner from where I am, at another computer asks, "Are you driving tonight?" Since he didn't even look at me when he asked that question I replied, "Pardon?" This time he looked right at me, "Are you driving tonight?" Being, a slightly naive, girl from Happy Valley I replied, "Yes..." "Perfect. Can you give me ride to Whyte Ave?" "I'm sorry, I don't give strangers rides." "I haven't seen my boy in almost 4 years! I'm supposed to meet him at the Strathcona Hotel. I can pay you if you want money for gas." At this point I could sense that he was drunk or on some kind of drugs. "I'm sorry. I'm not going there and I don't give strangers rides." "Well, how far can you take me?" "No farther than where we already are. I'm sorry." "I haven't seen my boy in almost 4 years. Come here, you can look at my computer and see where I want to go." I definitely wasn't going to go look at his screen. "No thank you." "You're not going to come look at me screen?" He was getting more persistent and started dropping some pretty inappropriate words. This time looking at his screen as if he was talking to some he said, "The Pretty Blond wont take me." He then turned to me again. "I'll pay you! Seriously! With money or anything else that you want! I've been in jail for 2 years and just got out. I haven't seen my boy in 4 years!" (I think he thought that telling me he just got out of jail would make me want to help him more. Definitely NOT! "If you have money, then take a bus." "I don't know what bus to take." "There are routes on the wall over there." "I don't know which one I would even take can you come look with me?" "No, I'm sorry." While this was going on Sister Williams was watching the clip on Family History, glancing every so often at me and him. The man then turned to Sister Williams, "Will you come help me find a route?" She replied without looking at him, "No, I'm sorry I can't. You go look yourself." The thought that came to my mind when we approached Sister Williams was, "Oh no you didn't just bring her into this." (Like a very protective mom.) His reply to Sister Williams was, "No! that's a woman's job!" It just got personal! I told Sister Williams to log out. We would finish what we were doing later. We quickly logged out and got up to leave. "Oh, now you're going to leave me? I can't believe you're not going to help me!" "Just keep going Sister Williams." The Library is connected to the mall so instead of walking right out the door into the dark night where there are no people we decided to go through the mall. I glanced back as we left the library and he was standing up. "Go Sister Williams!" We walked very swiftly through the mall and outside to the parking lot where we ran to our car. I quickly unlocked our door and we got in and locked the doors behind us. We were safe. We called our District and Zone Leaders and told them what happened. They couldn't believe it! Don't worry. We are safe! Now I know if someone starts talking to me we don't have to be nice and keep talking to them.

On a brighter note, yesterday we got a new Bishopric in our YSA ward. It was so sad to find out that Bishop White, Brother Boyd, and Brother Tolley are no longer who we work with. :( I'm going to miss them. I felt like they were my Bishopric. The new Bishop is Bishop Prince (sound familiar?) When I was in Beaumont my Bishop was Bishop Prince! That Bishop Wes Prince is the nephew of our new Bishop Dennis Prince. Pretty cool. He is awesome! I have met him before (teaching his son the Ward Mission Plan). I'm excited to work with him and his counsellors Brother Orr and Brother Burr.

Well, My time is short. I love you all!!! It snowed like crazy already here! Got to -6C. I hope the weather there isn't too bad. Until next week (which I'll be emailing Tuesday because we get to go to the temple!!!!!)

Our Halloween Masks (Sister Thompson, Sister Nash, Sister Bunker, and Sister Williams).

Love, Sister Thompson