16 Sep 2007

Sept 16, 2007
Dear Elder Sean,
The days are going by both quickly and slowly as we approach our time to go and pick up Kirk. I feel like there's so much to get done around the house, getting ready not only for Kirk, but for those who will be staying here at the house while we're gone and for those who will be coming to see Kirk when we get back. Excitement is in the air and it's also very bittersweet having him return. I love having my boys out on missions. The feelings and the blessings are incredible. I love your letters each week and my anticipation for them never diminishes. Kirk's mission I'm sure is different in many ways from yours, a different set of challenges, but all in all it's similar since you are both hunters and fishers of men whom the Lord has prepared. You and Kirk are very different, yet the knowledge you both have of the truthfulness of the gospel is the same and you have the same eternal goals in life. It's the same thing that I feel and know and it means everything to me. Keep up the this Thompson tradition.

Last Monday was Grandpa Trumbo's 78th birthday. He said they threw him a party at Susan's and actually placed all 78 lit candles on the cake. He said it was a bonfire. I'm looking forward to them coming here next week.

The girls and I were busy tonight making tons of zucchini bread. Since we planted our garden so late this year, we are just now getting the zucchini and when it comes on, there's usually plenty. So we took loaves around to some people in our neighborhood and ward. Then when we got home we found out the Kent's had dropped off some banana bread as a thank you to dad for getting this little plastic thing out of Chandler's ear. They actually had to go to dad's ER just to get it out because it was so wedged in there. So now we have sweet breads a-plenty.

Church was good. Nikki gave a talk in Primary and did an excellent job. She had almost the whole thing memorized. She's a little whippersnapper (to use some ancient vernacular). The other day she declared to us in the car that since it was the month of her birthday that she ought to be able to choose wherever we go out to eat. She knows how to work the system.

Saturday Alex had his MEN all day choir practice with a concert at the end. It was good. You can tell Mr. McMullen has fun with his MEN's group. Tonight Alex registered for the ACT. I warned him about how many questions you have to answer just to get to register. He wasn't happy about that but managed to make it all the way through.

The night before dad and I went to a primary board mtg/party at the Pinder's. Randy is the game master. In fact, he has a website partygamecentral.com. I never even knew that. Google pays him each month. I wish I'd thought of that. l love games. Anyway, he tried out a lot of games on us and I loved them. You would have been so proud of dad and I. We got split into groups of 4 for a Name That Tune game. Randy had a playlist on his iPod that he used for the game. They were for the most part popular songs, 70's, 80's and a little 90's. Every time dad and I would shout out an answer, everyone would say, Bishop, I can't believe you know that song. In the end we both shouted out the correct answer to the final question and got the win for our team. Randy played only about 2 notes from a song and I immediately shouted out The Monkeys and dad then shouted out the name of their song. No one could believe we knew it with only 2 notes. I had a lot of fun playing the games, you know how I am about games. Love em.

It's crazy to hear you talk about how hot it is now. Seems like you skipped a season there. We're in the 70's and low 80's now. My favorite time of year. I can't believe you guys don't have AC. How do you do it? I guess you must have to acclimate. Do you guys use cell phones there? Just wondering how you communicate with your ZL's and Pres, etc.

Have you gotten our latest pkg? Hopefully you got a few of the things you were hoping for. Let me know. You haven't mentioned how your Spanish is coming along--how are you doing with it? Are you feeling pretty comfortable or still struggling now and then?

Dad just called from work, his last shift before our trip. He's put in so many shifts already this month in order to take off time. I know he's going to love being off for a while. He said to tell you he loves you and will be writing you from the DR. We're taking the laptop on the trip so we can keep in touch with everyone. So next week we'll be writing from Puerta Plata on the northern coast of the DR.

How has your teaching been this week? About how many lesson appointments do you have on average a week? I know you've really stepped up your contacts with people, but I was just curious about how many of those contacts turn into lessons in the home. I know it feels frustrating to have people letting their commitments slip through, but that's even a problem in the states. Even when people are baptized, they still don't always follow through with word into action. They accept callings but somehow don't ever feel a strong level of commitment to what they've just accepted. I don't know how you instill that in a person, but I know I got it from watching my own parents, so example is a powerful teacher. I still find myself learning so much from other's examples. So it's all in who you surround yourself with. Testimony and commitment beget testimony and commitment. I truly commend the pioneers in any nation who start the trend. It's a tough beginning road. Just love the people for who they are now and help them become surrounded by people whose examples will naturally lift them up one rung at a time.

Alex said that Tyler called tonight (since Alex has your old phone) and was going to drop by, but he didn't ever show up. It would be nice to visit with him again so I hope he stops by soon. I'll write him and at least tell him when Kirk's homecoming is so maybe he'll come to that.

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the work. It must be about transfer time again since Kirk is having his last transfer this week. Have a great week.

Que tengas un bien día!!

Love you,
mom
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo