January 16, 2012

Hello family,

How are you guys doing? I would love to be somewhere a little warmer. Or at least back in a car. This week has been interesting without the car, to say the least, but it will be fine.

Anyways, I am sure that everyone is doing good. I am praying for you guys a lot. And I have really learned this week how well prayer works, and that our Father in Heaven hears and answers our prayers. We saw a lot of miracles this week. On Thursday in our daily planning session, we were wondering about what we should do from 1600 to 1700, we came up with a street that we should go to see, but still weren't 100% sure. We decided to pray about it and about one minute after we finished praying, a former investigator who we did not know at all phoned us out of the blue. She asked if we could come over to visit her and her husband. We said we would be happy to do that and asked when we could come. She said tomorrow at 1600 and we could stay for an hour. I have never been more shocked and amazed in my life. If that doesn't strengthen a missionary's testimony of prayer, I don't know what will. We hung up the phone and couldn't believe it and said a prayer of thanksgiving. We then looked at the map to find the address, and discovered that it was the exact street that we had thought about going to at 1600. It was such an amazing experiences. Being able to recognize these experiences and remembering them in time of trials is something that I would like to get better. I know that the Lord is helping us as we do His work. Her husband has a disease and is stuck in bed, and so she wants us to come and visit him and talk to him because it is good for him. But while we are there we can work on our teaching, and then we are also able to teach her, and she has a lot of potential. It was so amazing to see. That same day before we left we talked about what we can do to be doing better with our goals. President Miles set a goal for us to give out one Book of Mormon per day, and we have been... falling short of that. Although not for lack of trying, just lack of working smarter and having more faith. We prayed before we left and we both knew that we needed to give a Book of Mormon. We prayed where we should go, and to help us to find one person who we could give a Book to. We left and there was nobody on the street. Which is a little frustrating, but we walked towards where we had planned to go and we just felt good. The first person we saw we started to talk to and after a couple minutes we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and she said she would read in it. It was really amazing. I think something we think fairly often is, why are we so silly and forget to pray. I guess that is the pride cycle for you, but it stinks. I am really trying hard to be quicker to pray. I don't think that it offends Heavenly Father if someone prays a lot. I am fairly certain it doesn't. And it is a commandment to pray often. So... I think it's good.

We have had some good lessons with R, and Sister O as well this week. R and I were in church again. Which is AWESOME! Especially because they got to hear me speak. Which was interesting. I found out the day before that I had to give a talk. Which was a big surprise. I kept it pretty short (They only asked me to speak for a little bit because the Stake President or one of the councillors was speaking afterwards, and well... you know how it is. Haha! But I talked about the Book of Mormon and all of the promises in it. That is something that I have already come to love. President Miles challenged us to read 2 chapters a day and then by April we would be finished the Book of Mormon. It has been such an amazing thing to see how many things I have learned that I have never seemed to notice before. I wish that EVERYONE in the family would do that, and challenge you guys to do that. Even if you hardly read anything because you have (crazy) children running all over the place. I know that the Book of Mormon can help with any problem, and can help more than anything else. The more I think about it, the more excited it makes me. I don't think we can really comprehend all of the efforts it took to get it to us, and how important it is for us. I know without a doubt that it really is the word of God.

In other news things are going good. Elder P and I are getting along great. He talks a lot about how we keeps writing President Miles about how we need to stay together, which would be good. But interesting. We are both so young. At interviews, President Miles told the Woods to take care of us because we were 'babes in the woods'. I don't know what that means entirely, but it is probably true. But because we are so young we have learned a lot. I know I have. I have really learned a lot.
This week I really learned a lot about what I need to change to be the missionary that I am expected to be, and that I want to be. It is not going to be easy, but I will regret it if I don't. I love you guys so much. I am glad that you are doing well and are having so much fun that everyone but mom forgets to write me. No news is good news right? Haha! Also, I am not trying to be sarcastic or anything. I haven't written you either and you have a lot going on. Just remember how much I love you. And how much you love me and need to help your balding little brother.

Sincerely,

Elder Connor J. Thompson