Monday, January 14, 2013

January 14, 2013

Dearest Family and Friends,

Oh Boy! What a crazy crazy week! Seriously, if I've ever said that a week was crazy before this past week just trumped it. First, my last day in Millwoods YSA was a sad one. We were able to eat dinner with Chris and Jenn and then see Raj after. I love Recent Converts. They are amazing! I am really going to miss seeing them so often, but I know I will be staying in contact with them for sure. Transfer meeting Wednesday was fun. The Ellis' and Sister Quinton from Innisfail came to say goodbye to both Sister White (who I served with in Innisfail) and Sister Reece- both of which were going home. It was really fun to see them. They just put Elders in Innisfail so we got a picture of all of us Sisters there that served in Innisfail and the order that we were there. The only person missing that hadn't gone home yet was Sister Kuroki. After Transfer meeting and heading out of Edmonton we finally made it to Drayton Valley about and hour and a half drive. After our dinner appointment and mutual night we got to the apartment to settle in for the night.

The next day was a full day of stuff. We are on fire here in Drayton Valley. It's a branch, but we currently have 10 (almost 13) Investigators, 4 of which are on date for Baptism in February. :) Thursday we had a really neat experience. We went to lunch at Subway and as we we're waiting in line a guy in front of us said, "So, how long have you been on your missions?" This was a young guy we thought looked in his 20s. Turns out he is 18 and a less active member from BC who is working in the oil industry out here. He is super nice and offered to buy our lunch (first time that has ever happened to me as a missionary.) Anyway we talked to him at Subway for about an hour and he's thinking about coming back to church. He is amazing! I know we were meant to be there and run into him. It's great how much our Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. We really connected with him and he really opened up to us. :) Random thing on Thursday, a lady in our ward that we met with knows about Western Wats. She is from the Philippines and knows lots of people that work there. That was a fun connection.

Our area is HUGE!!!! It takes us an hour and a half to drive to Wildwood where our Investigator Grace lives outside of. She is Native and super sweet. She has a really cool story. So her great grandfather was Cheif Yellowface. He had a dream that he would find the truth and it would come from a group of people that would be accepting of his people, something else (can't remember) and that they would have a book. We'll Chief Yellowface met members of the church in Southern Alberta and they were very accepting and the other one that I can't remember. Chief Yellowface told them this and said, "Too bad you don't have a book, I figured you were the ones who knew the truth." Then they said, "We do have a book!" They gave him a Book of Mormon and his whole tribe was baptized. Well, a couple generations later we meet Grace who was never baptized but wants to be. So cool hey?

My first Sunday in the Branch I was asked by the High Councilman to speak with him. That was super fun. I love speaking in Sacrament meeting. I spoke on prayer and used my Farewell talk since it was so last minute. Turned out awesome!!! I ended up speaking for 25 minutes. Whoops!!! ;) Oh well, it's a branch so the sacrament only took like 10 minutes totally so there was plenty of time for us. Anyway, I love this Branch! Everyone is so welcoming. It's a great area and I'm feel at home. I feel like I've already been here for months and Sister Randall and I are super excited about the work. We have a potential investigator named Travis who is 18 and really cool. He works with a couple members at The Max and we went and helped out there so we could visit with him. I'm so excited to start meeting with him this week. He loves coming to church!

So the place we live is kind of........ interesting. There is a long story, that I don't wish to repeat, as to why we are living where we are, but I'll spare you those details. Needless to say we are living in the basement apartment (if you could even call it that) of a old Baptist couple. I don't wish to worry you about our living conditions so I won't give details, but know that we do have roof over our heads and well, it's an adventure. (I'll explain more when I get home.) Well, we will be moving into a new apartment at the end of the month (SO EXCITED!!!) Anyway, last night when Sister Randall and I were starting to plan I felt kind of weird. She stopped and said, "I feel kind of weird. I don't feel very safe right now." We talked about and felt strongly that we should not stay at our house. So, we talked to our District Leader who told us to call President. I don't want to freak anyone out so needless to say, we stayed at a member's house last night and are safe. We haven't been to our apartment since leaving it last night at 10:30pm. Don't worry family!!!!! I'm okay and who knows if anything bad would have happened. We just knew we should follow that prompting and we're glad we did. Brother Curry from our ward gave us each a priesthood blessing last night too so we're all good. Oh the adventures of being a missionary!!! ;)

Well, I love you all so much! Oh to explain my subject line "You could say I'm in the middle..." I decided when i got transferred here not to tell anyone how long I've been out or when I go home. So, when people ask i say, "You could say I'm in the middle." It's funny because our Branch President announced that I was a new missionary ha ha. Brother Albers who taught Gospel Principles asked me, "are you really a new missionary? Cuz your talk didn't sound like you were." :) ha ha ha guess they will never really know until I pack my bags and go home.

Love you all!!!
Sister Thompson

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