Sister Thomson's Mission

Monday, April 6, 2015

March 30

Dear Family,

What to even say in this last email. This week has been a blur. I've been given a blank piece of paper to write my testimony on for the mission and I've been staring at it all morning. How do I put words around what the mission experience has done for me? But I'll try.

First off I know that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of the world. I am constantly slipping up and becoming so aware of how weak and imperfect I am. I feel so blessed that He chose me to serve Him: someone so weak and simple to do such a great and incredible work. I have seen so many miracles that I hope to never forget. Everything good I have ever done has come because of Him. He's helped me to change my heart and my actions and to slowly let all the things that don't matter slip away. I hope to continue to do that. There is an incredible Spirit as a missionary that I believe I can take with me the rest of my life and that each person can feel as I (and all of us) truly consecrate ourselves to the Lord for our whole lives. That's what I need to do in order to stay on this path.

I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. How often do we hear that statement? But I know what I share is true. I have felt the Spirit every single time I share the First Vision. Every single time. This morning as Hermana Williamson shared it in Spanish in a role play, I again felt in my heart that what she was sharing was true. I know it with my mind as well. I have studied it out. It makes sense. That's the best part of the gospel! It comes from a loving Heavenly Father who wants to give us everything He has, but first we need to understand how to do that. So He makes His gospel simple enough for a child to understand, and deep enough to learn from for the rest of our lives and probably into the eternities.

The Book of Mormon has changed my heart. It has invited me to come unto Christ on more occasions than I can count and showed me how to choose to be happy and grateful in every circumstance. It has taught me how to be a better missionary, a better friend, companion, and most importantly a better disciple of Jesus Christ. I have seen real miracles from the power of this book. It has cast away anger, doubt, fear, and loneliness in so many of the people that I have taught and testified to and especially to me. I aim to study it for the rest of my life, because it literally contains the words of Christ, even His very own words to me, Sister Thomson.

I loved in Women's Conference how they compared and empty soda can to a full one. The empty one was so easily crushed while the full one remained unharmed. I loved the comparison to us being filled with the Spirit or spiritually dead. What a contrast. The beautiful thing about this is thought that President Benson has promised that "a power will begin to flow into our lives the moment we begin a serious study of the Book [of Mormon]." We can be filled. The adversary will not be able to crush us because of the rock upon which we are built. (Jesus Christ)

Miracles still happen. As soon as we make ourselves available to God, He will let us be instruments in His hands because He wants us to feel how much He loves those around us. By feeling that, it gives us a better understanding of His own feelings for us, the weak and the simple of the earth. On Tuesday we were walking around and unexpectedly a wave of people who seemed interested in our message just kept crossing our path. As we were talking to one guy named Eric, he introduced us to his friend Kathy and then they waved to a guy named Greg. Greg walked away but then came back and started to talk to Sister Han in Chinese. WHAT. Literally a white guy in this small town of maybe a thousand people just came up and started speaking Chinese. What are the chances that we would even run into him as he was working inside the medical clinic? And guess where his learned his Chinese? Taiwan. And he married a Taiwanese woman we met in a store about a month ago or so. Miracles happen.

Bigger miracle. :) A man from Beijing walked into the church in Prince George about a month ago. On Saturday, he was baptized. He shared his testimony and Sister Han translated. It was incredible. He understands and he wants to live this the rest of his life. His wife is just barely learning this week but Sister Han and I sang "As I Have Loved You" in Chinese and Kiko cried. She felt so happy.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is literally on the earth again in it's fullness! (Picture me saying that bounding with excitement because that's how it sounds in my head and how I would say it were I there.) It has been brought back because God loves us and reaches out to us through living prophets. It is the message we knew and understood before this life and it all fits. What an exciting time to be alive. The best part is that if we have questions, God will answer them. He answers the sincere seekers of truth. He wants us to know the truth, but like my investigator Amanda said last week, we have to be willing to show our faith. And then as we do so He will answer in His own way and in His own time. But the answer will come and when it does it will be glorious but very gentle.

I love you all. I'm excited to see you and hug you and bore you with all my mission stories until you want to kick me out.

But really please let me share my experiences with you. :)

It's a legitimate fear.

See you on the other side.

Sister Thomson

PS. I got my dying wish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hahaha guess how much Heavenly Father loves me? He's let me stay these last few days with the Vancouver Spanish Hermanas. We get to teach in Spanish tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to say something. What a blessing.
PPS. I'm not so sure this city life is for me.... I kind of like the bush. :) We're going to H&M later though so maybe I'll change my mind.

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March 23

Dear Family,

I had one of the best weeks of my life. To say I don't want this to be over is like saying the temple is a good place. Such an understatement. I still feel this sense of focus. Each time I meet a new person or teach a less active or investigator or anyone I just feel this sense of excitement for them and the journey they're about to take and then sometimes I remember that I won't be undertaking it with them. But then I forget about that and just feel happy that I get to start it or be a part of it. How lucky I have been to be able to take part in this. Missionary work is something I will be doing for the rest of my life. I love it so much more than I can put words on. It is worth every sacrifice. It has taught me so much. I want to magnify every calling I have for the rest of my life. I love God and He deserves so much better from each one of us.

We watched a clip at our six hour zone conference this week (the Spirit was so strong. It was almost too much for me to handle physically.) from a football movie--maybe we are Marshall? This man was blindfolded and had to go down the football field with another football player on his back. The coach wanted to show how when we give our best it is so much more than we think it is. He was yelling at the player-Give me your best! I want your best! Don't tell me you can't handle it! Don't rest--keep going, give me your best! as this player struggled across the field. We cried. I have realized that there is always so much more I can give. There is no time to rest and no room to fall down before the finish line. And the Savior is standing there (sometimes crouched down) coaching us through it all. He is cheering us on and He deserves my best. I've learned from President Burt that we cannot limit our potential--we cannot tell the Savior that we're giving our best and we won't give any more. There is always more to give and when we feel like we're going to break we can yoke ourselves to Him and accomplish things we thought were impossible. This means no turning down callings or not magnifying them and striving constantly to improve. This means always following the Spirit and His promptings.

This email is in no way to portray that I'm doing so good. I know that I am so weak. That I can never repay the Savior or Heavenly Father for any of the gifts they've given me. I will never be out of debt. I'm just so grateful that they've lovingly shown me how to repent and improve over and over again.

We got to teach Amanda this week. She is amazing as Sister Han told her. The reason she came to church last week was because she decided that she needed to show God her faith. She said, "I know He hears me at home and He's listening, but I needed to show Him my faith before He would answer me." The Spirit that was in that room as she shared that testimony with us was so strong. She is so right. She felt so happy and the strongest sense of peace all day after she went to church. She felt the Spirit. She's going through a difficult time in her life--job is not paying enough to make ends meet, trying to find something else that's full-time, in courts right now for personal things (that I won't share online) and just having a rough time. So meeting with her is difficult because she's just so sad, but she loves what she's learning and she is just so sweet.

My recent converts are struggling a lot. Addiction is so hard. It's so sad for me that it's hard to talk about or express over email. My heart breaks for them.

What else to say. There is always so much. I love the church so much and especially Heavenly Father. I know each experience is from Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, is actively leading His church today. If we will follow our bishops and stake presidents and other leaders, I know we will be following Jesus Christ. He loves us and if we have a question about the gospel or something within the church, it is good because it will send (us) "the honest seekers of truth to their knees." (Elder Anderson??) God is the source of truth and we can only gain spiritual truth for prayer. It is the scientific method for gaining answers to the questions of our souls. And the Book of Mormon.

I love you all. I've decided to just be positive about everything. When the time comes, I will choose to be happy. No matter what.

Love,

Sister Thomson

PS. The pictures that I sent were not of us operating machinery... We just went a little into the bush with a potential investigator to get wood for Neca and Jimmy. Bishop Arnold used his machine to load the truck bed.

PPS. I learned how to drive in deep mud this week. (Vanderhoof is so muddy in the Spring. The loggers call it break up and none of the loggers can work right now because it's too muddy.) Thank goodness for the Spirit that teaches me how to drive in crazy conditions in the very moment I need them. Hahaha I will take a picture of our truck before we wash it.

March 16

Dear Family,

Internet is down in Vanderhoof mostly. Here's some of my email to President. Maybe I can email tomorrow or later this week. Had a great week and love you all.

Dear President,

The internet is down in most of Vanderhoof and we're sharing a computer this week so we won't be able to send much of an email.

Our investigator David wants to be baptized on April 18th. He needs to get married and completely quit smoking and weed (he does it about once or twice a week or so). He doesn't drink alcohol or coffee or strong tea. :)

Our investigator Amanda came to church yesterday! Before it started, she told me she wanted to go to the Catholic church next, then a church in PG, then a different one after that. BUT after church she felt a such a strong feeling of peace that she wants to come back next week. She had a baptismal date, but she wants to search it out more.

Love,

Sister Thomson

March 9

Dear Family,

This week Sister Han got to teach a guy from China who is living in Prince George. His English name is Tony. He has a four-year-old boy and a wife who works a lot. He just walked into the church last Sunday because he got a mormon.org card from missionaries in Burnaby and decided to go. He's only been here for a couple months, so his English is really basic but he loves church so he wants to go. He wants to get baptized too!

Sister Han is teaching me the First Vision in Chinese. It's super hard, but hopefully I'll get it by the time I see you all. :)

On Saturday we went to a place called Fraser Lake. It's an hour away from here but has a bunch of houses close together. I've never really seen anything like it. We are supposed to park the car on Saturdays, so we parked it and walked around all day. We found out (would you believe it) that among all these white people there's a family from Taiwan there! WHAT. Their baby was getting baptized, so we kind of poked our heads in for a second (it wasn't at a church) and we need to go meet them when we go back.

Also, after we talked to a super anti- guy, he followed us around and talked to his neighbors after we did. He was crazy. When we were walking up to one of his neighbors he said, "Don't go there! They're Christians." Guess what? We went there.

I feel like Satan was working super hard on me this week. I just kept having these feelings of doubt and frustration. Sometimes in a small town it can be hard to find people to talk to. But it gives me hope because if he's working that hard, it stills means I can do a lot of good before I go home, or else he wouldn't care at all. But he sure cares. :) In a way I think opposition is really good because it helps me to realize that even though I can't see all of my potential, God can and the adversary perhaps can to some degree too. And if he thinks we're threatening his work enough, he'll work hard to stop us. So those thoughts of what difference can I make are completely false. We can make all the difference! And I can take comfort in all of those different things being thrown at me because I know that God will still let me work miracles until the very last minute.

So I'm super sad that I have to go home. I just watched a video called "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go." Amen I guess. Even if it's hard. And I don't really know how to deal with it, but I guess I won't for now. I'm just going to sprint to the end. Please pray for me. :)

I love you all. I love this work more than I can express. God has been so merciful to me.

Love,

Sister Thomson

March 2

Dear Family,

What an awesome week. We attended our first Elder/SIster District meeting (we're the first ones to do it but eventually the mission will be like this.). Our Zone Leader invited us to go home and say a prayer and repent and then he promised if we would do this that that day we would find the person in our area he knew was ready to be baptized in March. It was a pretty incredible promise and took faith. By the time we got back to Vanderhoof, Sister Ritchie and I (on an exchange) had to run into our lesson and had no time to prayerfully repent. It was with a former investigator named Amanda. We taught the gospel and the Spirit was so incredibly strong. I knew when we started teaching her that she was the one. When we taught baptism the Spirit was so incredible and she said yes. AND she said yes to March 21! She was just so excited about it all. Then on Friday she was hospitalized because she was so sick. Not cool, Satan. So she didn't make it to church this week, but I know that no matter the challenges or obstacles, God will win. She said in the lesson, "there is nothing I can't overcome without God's help." :)

My birthday was awesome. We met a pastor of a church that teaches how to convert the Mormons, etc. I know for sure that the promise that we will not be confounded is so true. We just shared testimony of simple truths and it was amazing. I felt so happy talking to him. I know members have been working on him and softening his heart and he was not too unkind. He even told us he could see we had a love for God Elohim. (What else could he say after I told him I was spending my 21st birthday trying to invite others to learn about and come unto Christ?) Sharing the gospel just makes us happy.

We also went finding in a trailer park that I'm pretty sure has Mormon Watch. Seven trailers in a row and no answer. The eighth one was a woman who just moved in, so I don't think they'd put her on the system. After no answer to a door, I noticed a chalk board with little kid writing on it. I erased it and started to write Helaman 5:12. Then the guy with his kids pulled up! "Hey... we're leaving you a message. :) But since we're here, we'll just share it with you now!" After sharing the verse with him we told him basically that's saying that no matter what comes your way, if you put your trust in Jesus Christ, he will help you to overcome anything. He looked so in shock but we had a good conversation and he's letting us come back tonight to teach his family. :) Yesterday a member came up to us and said, Hey you met my friend Mark. He called me and asked if I sent you guys to his door. You're going back on Monday evening. (Which made us happy because that means Mark remembers the return appointment. :))

We went to the baptism of two eight-year-olds yesterday and a little seven year old named Cameron sat next to me while I went through the pictures in the pamphlets with her. :) So cool. I love baptisms.

Did anyone fast yesterday for the conditions of the world?? Because we did! It makes me think about how much the world really needs the gospel. I think we sometimes, especially as missionaries, forget or don't know how it feels to live without it. No matter what happens, we have the resources we need to deal with any challenge we face. We have the Plan of Salvation, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the Priesthood, the Scriptures, etc and we just live in this comfortable bubble. But I realized that we need to get out of our comfort zones and share because these people are most definitely not in theirs. They don't have the restored gospel, yet they too agreed to follow Jesus Christ and were excited to prove themselves worthy. As I'm realizing how short a mission is, I'm realizing how short this time on earth is. These people are starving for the truth and need to feel peace in an unstable world of shifting values and economies. (And governments, and weather patterns, etc.) There is nothing more important than the gospel of Jesus Christ and nothing more pressing than the need to share it with everyone around us. I know this is true. I cried twice with the realization that my time is running short, but I know God wants me to be a missionary forever and I'm trying to take comfort in that. I love you all and know this world needs our message so much.

Sister Thomson

PS. The sun on my birthday. Signs in the heavens, anyone?

PPS. The cake I had for breakfast this morning. :)

PPPS. Sorry for the epistle.

PPPPS. There is no such thing as Mormon Watch. That I know of.

February 23

Dear Family,

What to even share.

I know this is so temporal and not spiritual at all, but we got a new truck! It's a 2015. I've only been driving it for a couple of hours and it's crazy... And I know this is so bad and worldly and whatever but it's really exciting. And I'm still the only Sister missionary driving a truck.

And can you believe it? We got to teach Arlene (one of the hitchhikers) again twice this week. As we left her lesson on Tuesday I just had the strongest sense of purpose. I felt so strong that we are going to open up the First Nations work here. It's so exciting!

Another miracle is that Sister Han ran into someone from Taiwan a couple hours ago. What! All the way in Vanderhoof. We walked past a store and I just randomly wanted to go in... and three minutes later this woman from Taiwan walked in. I had no idea what they were saying, but it sounded really cool. :) Taiwanese culture is super reserved though so no return appointment to see her. Yet. It's a really small town though. We already know where she lives. ;)

I guess you can gather from that that we're still together! :) I love Sister Han. She's the most humble person I've ever met.

The new Elder here was in the same ward with me in Chilliwack for three transfers at the very beginning of my mission. Crazy! This is his last six weeks too.

I got to talk to President Burt this week (on Tuesday morning) because Sister Han needed to register for school. He gave me the best advice--he told me to just forget that I'm going home and run to the end. :) As I was writing he called again (which was crazy) and told me to not burn out to just go! I know that sounds so simple, but it's exactly what I needed to hear, both times. So there will be no talk of going home from hereon out. :)

I got to speak in church yesterday. I have a testimony of fasting before you give a talk now. I literally prepared nothing. But I've been studying and teaching personal prayer and scripture study (my topic) my whole mission, so it was okay because I was blessed with a really good analogy to start with right before I was about to speak. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.

I love you all. I love this mission and am hoping for the most incredible week for me and for all of you.

Forwards and not backwards and on on to victory

Sister Thomson

PS. 21?!!!! How am I getting so old?? :)

PPS. 01171 A family that we love. :)

February 16

Dear Family,

So I am just going to forward my email to President Burt to you. :) It's faster.

Dear President Burt,

We had a really incredible week. Weeks like this leave me no room to want to go home. And this morning I was feeling kind of sad about it, because my last transfer is upon me. And I really don't want my mission to end. I don't want to go home. So I don't really know how to comfort these thoughts.

But back to the incredible week. :) We were driving back from Fort St. James in Sister Arnold's car and passed a hitch hiker. It was a girl. I had this little vision of her being in the car with us and thought about how cool it would be to be able to teach her. Sister Arnold turned to me and asked, should we pick her up? YES. So Sister Arnold turned around and we started teaching her! Her name is Arlene and she grew up on a small reserve 45 min north of the Fort. She had been living in Vancouver for six years battling all kinds of addictions and has finally worked through all of them. She said she's been going to church and she wants to go to university now to teach her people that there's more to life than drinking and drugs every day. And President Burt, I know her. I feel so strongly that I know her and I love her so much. Something tells me that I promised that I would rescue her. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy. She loved it. When she prayed at the end of our ride, she thanked God for the air in her lungs that day and her heartbeat. And she meant it. She's 27. Sister Arnold gave her a ride to where her mom lives--Stoney Creek. We're not supposed to go there unless we're with a priesthood holder or Sister Kochel, and Sister Kochel is excited about it, so she's going to take us on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The next day we were with Sister Arnold again :) and we saw two more hitch hikers. We were on our way from teaching David, who has a baptismal date, to see his partner's sister whose liver was failing. And they were too! We started teaching them too. :) (Hitch hikers have your full attention because they can't go anywhere.) They loved the idea of the plan of salvation and we read Enos with them. They were so touched and are going to read more. They asked us to come back and teach them. And the woman said, you should call the band office and do it there so everyone can come and hear you. Of course! And we found out they are Jimmy's cousins and tried, but couldn't make it to the baptism.

We went and sang to the family of the woman who was dying. The Spirit in that room was so incredibly strong. This family is related to Brandon who just got baptized as well as David and Jimmy and Neca.... They were so touched and one man asked us to come and teach him. His name is Leo.

We're also teaching a couple that moved here from Smithers a few weeks ago to get away from drinking. They are living in one of the Gulbranson's cabins.

So many miracles this week. I feel like the work with the First Nation's people is just beginning. I feel like we are fulfilling Book of Mormon prophesies as we teach them. These are families that are so torn apart, but there are so many elect among them that are trying to end their old ways and the wicked traditions of their fathers and I feel like so much can happen with them as well as with all the people here in Vanderhoof. I believe that is one of the reasons I was sent here to Canada. To work with the First Nations people. As well as with everyone else. :)

I know I'm super imperfect and I want to work on so many things. President Marks said yesterday, if I were God I would fire me. I feel like that's true for me too. But He loves me and is letting me serve Him and witness so many miracles. Thank you for the sacrifices you have made and all your hard work and diligence. We feel your love for us.

Love (you all,)
Sister Thomson

Also, we're teaching a part-member family. She is a member and was re-activated within the last year. His name is Roger and he read the Book of Mormon for two hours yesterday and an hour and a half the day before that. He's never spent that long reading anything in his life, but he loves the book of Mormon! He said it just draws him in. Yesterday he said, "I know there is power in this Book. I know that Nephi was a prophet." He believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet as well and has been coming to church and working in Nursery with his wife. We've invited him to be baptized (using Mosiah 18 and a bunch of other different scriptures) each time we teach him, and he just wants to keep reading the Book of Mormon and know each of them is a prophet of God. He wants to read the whole book before he gets baptized, but he loves it. Haha we just keep inviting him hoping one of these times he'll say yes. Sometimes I wish I had the faith of the Assistants. (Pretty much all the time.) But he is so close. :)

I didn't include this in my email to him, but I gave a Catholic nun a "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" pamphlet. It was when we were singing to that family of the woman who was dying. After we sang and Sister Arnold said a prayer, the Spirit was so strong and I felt so much love for each person in that room. I felt so much love for her and I felt so sad that she thought she was better than us because we will go home and get married. It broke my heart because families are God's plan of happiness. So I gave her a pamphlet and I felt so much love for her that she couldn't really say no even though I knew she was wanting to give it back.

Poor President Burt. I should have written him something much shorter....but I couldn't help myself.

AND WILL GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was the investigator I taught in Duncan who read the Book of Mormon in like ten days. I am so happy. So so so happy. I just screamed when I saw that.

On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 12:21 PM, Rebekah Thomson <rebekah.thomson@myldsmail.net> wrote:

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