Fast Sunday

Sept. 25, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

We had fast Sunday today because of General Conference next week. It kind of threw me off a little to have 2 fast Sundays in a month and to pay fast offering twice, but I've adjusted.

I spoke with Diane Goodwin yesterday at the women's broadcast. She loves reading the letters from you and also Tyler Rasmussen. It's interesting to read how much your lives intertwine even though you're not in the same area. 

Speaking of our women's broadcast - everything went well on my end. We got the stake center set up in the morning so I even had time to get back and go to lunch with the family for Nikki's birthday yesterday. Nikki chose Costa Vida for our lunch spot.  She was really torn between that and the Great Wall. We were all hoping it wasn't Great Wall :)  For her birthday she got a new iPod(purple)-dad and I scored at the pawn shop! She also got some money, a DS charger, a new barbie and lots of gum. She was happy.  That night the girls all worked on a two layer cake together. I was gone for that part at my meeting.

Here's a picture of Nikki we found in one of dad's drawers. I love it!

The stake rs dinner went well, the background music was wonderful, the food was not only tasty but also was set out and decorated beautifully. Some women are so talented in that area. The broadcast was so uplifting. Pres. Uchtdorf spoke on 5 things we must never forget and likened it to the forget-me-not flower that he loves (it has 5 petals). I'm going to listen to it again on Tivo and make some notes so I don't forget.

Today dad and I subbed in the 5 yr old class. That's always fun. Some of those little kids are sooo smart. I was impressed. I was clueless as a 5 yr old.

Loved your pictures from the county fair. I can just picture you in the booth talking with people and enjoying the evening. Have you had a chance to follow up on any of those people who signed up to know more? Deep fried oreos?? really?? I may just have to take your word on those that they're good.

Nikki had her great boat float which was extremely impressive. Those parents really go all out on stuff like that. Actually a lot of boats looked like they were made largely by the kid and it was fun. Here are some pics.

Kristina just got home from the Eagle 5th ward's YW personal progress recognition. She was supporting Mallory Moss getting her award. I can hear her driving the Mustang from far away. I love it.

Funny story from Kirk-he was texting Sarah last week and when he was finished he wrote I love you very much. A few minutes later he received a text from Sarah's dad who had just received Kirk's text by mistake. He replied, I love you too but I don't know how Sarah will feel about this. LOL  Later on Kirk was skyping with Sarah and her dad walked by, leaned down into the computer and said, Love you Kirk! I'm never going to let you forget this one. 

Kirk said it was so funny. My phone does that same thing, just sometimes it has a mind of its own and even though I push one person's name, my text goes to some other random person. My text to Tracey today went to dad.

This week there was another baby in the family. Heidi and Cameron had a baby boy, McKay Smith. He was tiny, just 5 1/2 lbs. and kind of looks like Cameron a little and even Heidi already as a baby. Anyway, they are having a lot of fun with him in their family now.

We had a great football week here too. Eagle won Centennial 38-0, BYU won their game finally, and BSU, of course, won their game easily. Leah is still a big BSU fan, Dad still gets nervous/upset whenever BYU plays and Eagle seems to be on its way to a state championship.  We'll see if that happens this year.

Over the weekend I sold the swingset/slide combo and I also sold the rowing machine on Craigslist. With the money I'm going to buy dad a new laptop. The one he uses is old and is sooo slow. I may even go get it tomorrow. Now I'm looking around the house to see what else we can sell so we can paint the Mustang!!

I spoke with some women at the broadcast who had recently moved here from Kentucky. They were talking about how strong the Baptists were there and how many sermons they give about the Mormons. One sister who has been in our stake for years said she grew up there and that her parents used to be Baptist. One Sunday the preacher gave everyone a pamphlet on the evils of Mormonism. Her parents brought the pamphlet home and after her dad read through everything, he went out and got a Book of Mormon. He read it immediately and told his wife to find the numbers for the missionaries of our church, said he wanted to learn more. They were both taught and baptized shortly after that. So take heart whenever you see those marquee's talking about Mormonism or their upcoming sermons about the church. Maybe a few people each time will actually be converted because of it.

We are well here. The fall weather is finally making its way here. It's my favorite time of year. I hope you're feeling a little cooling down there too. I also hope you're feeling "at home" in your new area now. How is the ward? How's your ward mission leader? Are you in need of anything, new white shirts, socks, etc? I know you can easily pick things up there too, but just in case. We love shipping things to you too. Let us know.

I hope you enjoy Conference weekend. I'm really looking forward to it and I hope you have some investigators who will also make it to a session or two. Is it broadcast on TV there?

Here's a quote for you:

"If we choose the wrong road, we choose the wrong destination."
--Elder Dallin H. Oaks, "Be Not Deceived," Ensign, November 2004, 44

Have a wonderful week. 

love you,

Mom xxoo

Another Sabbath in Eagle

Sept. 18, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

It was great hearing from you last week, hearing all about your new area. I love that you're back in the backwoods now, the under belly of Tennessee. It sounds rather exciting to me to go into an area where you have to do all the sleuthing, exploring, investigating and phoning. You may even have to earn the trust of the members there, you never know.

Nikki gave a talk in Primary today, yes, another one.  She loves speaking and says she gets nervous up there (which was evident by her shaking back and forth while speaking) but she says if she speaks more and more then she won't get so nervous. Who thinks like that as a kid? She spoke on missionary work, well, she actually read what I wrote about missionary work since she totally forgot she was speaking until we got the call late last night. I told her to try winging it, but she said she's not ready to do that yet. I don't blame her.

We had wonderful talks about temples today. Bro. Tuttle and his wife spoke in sacrament. It was an unusual sacrament since there was no bread after we finished singing the sacrament hymn. So we moved to the youth speaker, then we had bread but it was frozen so we had to wait for it to thaw, so we moved on to the first main speaker. Then we sang another sacrament hymn and proceeded with the sacrament. I rather enjoyed hearing a couple talks first, because they really invited the spirit into the room. After the sacrament we had the concluding speaker, sang and closed. 

In Sunday School Randy Thompson taught us more about covenants. He is such a gifted teacher. When we were discussing the covenant a man and woman make when they marry, he made a point that stuck with me. In Corinthians it says, neither is the man without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord. Bro. Thompson said that God is 2, a man and a woman together, there is no other way to get to that state. I had never really thought of it in those words.

We had a fun day yesterday. We went to Mountain Home for the airshow, we went with the Billings from the 8th ward and met dad there after his shift. The show was awesome. I had never seen the Thunderbirds fly before and they were very entertaining. My favorite part was when 4 of them flew to the center and did some slow rolls upward. They had music playing in the background and it was beautiful soothing music as we watched them climb to the sky. Then out of nowhere from our left comes one of the soloists flying only a few feet above us at some super sonic speed. It caught everyone by surprise and most of us practically jumped out of our seats. It was so loud and the jet whizzed by us so fast, you couldn't help but scream, then laugh. They had totally planned to catch us all by surprise. I loved it. After that, they buzzed us unaware a couple more times. The Blue Angels have never done anything so sneaky, but I wish they would now. Anyway, it was a fun day. The girls even stayed afterwards and got autographs of the pilots.

We had our first stake humanitarian work day last week and it went really well. There was a good turnout, many donations and several projects worked on. I'm looking forward to having this day every month and for more and more sisters to participate in our humanitarian projects. We made little dresses, rice bags(can be microwaved and used as warmers), bereavement blankets for St. Luke's and St. Al's, ABC books for ESL agencies in our valley, children's blocks sanded for women's shelters, loomed hats for homeless shelters to give away and a quilt tied for LDS humanitarian center. I'm looking forward to several more projects. There is always so much that can be done.

So how is your area now that you're getting to know it better? Were you ever able to meet with the family of 8 kids? I love how this month's Ensign is all about the Book of Mormon and its power. There are wonderful articles and stories of conversion from around the world because of reading/experiencing the Book of Mormon. I hope you get a chance to read it. I loved the article by Elder Gonzalez and how he talked about how there are different ways that people will come to know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. They are 1.by hearing its teachings, 2.by reading the book, 3.by doing what the book teaches, 4.by asking God.  He said we all get converted differently which I'm sure you've noticed as you've been teaching people.

For me I was initially converted by listening-to my parents, teachers, prophet. Then I received a much more powerful conversion when I read through the Book of Mormon as an adult and I read it in just a short amount of time. It's something I'll never forget. To this day, I now have wonderful spiritual experiences whenever I read the Book of Mormon. It just keeps building on what I felt as a young person. I'm very sad for people who don't know the blessings you can receive by continuing to read the BOM over and over again. They're really missing out on a great part of life.

Well, Leah has just made brownies and it's smelling pretty nice in the house now. Nikki is testing her boat for the big boat float this week in Mrs. Bunn's class. I'm crossing my fingers that it will float. Kristina is studying history. The dogs are barking at something imaginary in the back yard, Kirk is probably skyping with Sarah in his apt in Rexburg, Sean is probably at Steve and Carolina's enjoying stories of Laura and Axel's birth of their twin girls this week, Mary and Esther. Dad is in Mountain Home working hard for the family wishing he was here. I'm home writing my missionary son knowing he's where he's in the right place at the right time with the right people and looking forward to hearing his news Monday.

Be well and remember the prayers of your family always.

love you,

mom xxoo

Writing from SLC

Sept. 4, 2011
Dear elder alex,
I'm sitting here in g & g thompson's basement writing you on the iPad. Kirk just took off with his girlfriend, sarah to go walk around temple square for a little bit. Yes, I said girlfriend. He met her on the plane from Nairobi to Uganda and they've been in constant contact ever since. She drove all the way down here to Utah from Canada to see him. We've finally met her and we all like her a lot. We'll keep you posted on how things go there.

We spent yesterday in Provo. We went on a hike to Stewart falls in sundance. You start out by riding on the chairlift, which was a beautiful ride. The hike was probably an intermediate level and I was proud of Nikki for making it the whole way. She complained that her legs were shaking, but she kept going. I'll send some pictures.

Afterwards we spent the day at steves watching byu win against ole-miss and then bsu won against Georgia. It was a good day. Axel and Laura came over. She looks like she's going to burst any moment. We were hoping the twins would be born while we were here. No such luck. They won't let her go past the 13th. Also Jen was there with little James , whose actually not so little. He has cute double and triple rolls of fat on his arms and legs. We also saw david lutz and his girlfriend, and lindee. Kassi went on the hike with us and Dakota is getting her papers ready to turn in for her mission.

Everyone says hi. Dakota wants me to start sending her your letters. I guess carolina hasn't been sharing your letters with her. She's very excited to get going on a mission.

So how has your week been? It's definitely feeling like fall now with the kids in school.  The family is remembering funny stories about you right now, like when you asked me if I was faking it when I was walking down from bearing testimony where i had cried a little bit in Hilton head. Anyway, we're having some good laughs while I'm writing. 

On Saturday Tyler trumbo got married to his girlfriend leticia. She's from Mexico and doesn't know much English, and now they're moving back to San Antonio Texas where she won't need much English. He sent a picture from their wedding and they look very happy. Tyler was in his navy dress uniform, the white one with the blue neckerchief.

Tomorrow we're helping around here, picking grapes, etc. I'm going with grandma to pick out new appliances for their upstairs kitchen which got flood damage from a leak. So they're redoing their kitchen with new cabinets, counters, etc. It will be very nice for them.

Since I'm writing on the iPad, I don't have pictures to send you, but when we get home, I'll send you some.  I hope you are doing well, finding people to teach and enjoying meeting and talking with people. It's all good missionary work.  

You're in our prayers always, you have so many people just in our trumbo Thompson family alone who love you and care about you. 

Have a great week and remember your blessings.
Love you, mom xxoo

Back to 5

Sept. 11, 2011

Dear Elder Alex,

Just writing that date brings a sobering feeling. Can't believe it's been 10 years since 9/11, many images and feelings ingrained in my mind. We watched the special on KBYU today with the spoken word on 9/11.  It was very nice.

Just got back from a stake fireside for the youth, the one that Pres. Stafford holds each year on standards.  Pres. Cameron also spoke tonight. I love how frankly they speak. It's great.

So you're in a new place! I hope it's going well for you and that you're feeling a little settled now. How was the ward?  What's the town like?  It doesn't look very large on the map, but at least we found it. Is it a completely different zone? I'm sure it will be a lot of work since you went into a whitewashed area. Do you meet with the President before you go to at least get an idea what he'd like you to do there?  I know you'll be great there. It seems like you make such good friends so quickly wherever you've gone, and when the members get to know you well, they tend to think more often about their non-member friends.

It was fun hearing that you got to split with Elder Goodwin. Send us some pictures when you get a chance.

It was interesting to hear you had an experience learning about the power of Satan. Each one of you, Kirk, Sean and now you have learned this invaluable lesson. I know it's important especially for a priesthood holder on this earth to understand how powerful and evil the forces on the "other side" can be, but to know how powerful Christ is and how wonderful it is to have Him on your side. Being a disciple of Christ comes with innumerable blessings and miracles.

So our family is back down to 5. We took the extension out of the table.  Kirk is back at BYUI and Sean is in full swing at BYU of course. Kirk is going through withdrawals without Sarah, but it's good she's a bit of a distance so he can keep some of his mind on his studies. Sarah was here with us this weekend and it was fun having her here. It's amazing how easily she fits right into the family and it sounds like that's probably a good thing since they are talking very seriously now. Her parents have been praying that she'd find a strong LDS young man despite the fact that they live in such a remote, non-lds place, so they are thrilled about Kirk even though they've only met him on skype.  

Last Monday Sarah also spent the day with us at G&G Thompson's, where she helped pick grapes (a family right of passage). Then before we took off for Idaho, we went to lunch and her sister Nicole met us there too. Nicole just graduated from BYU and is working in SLC(actually she's waiting for her visa and paperwork to go through, but she has a great job lined up). In Sarah's family there are 3 sisters then a brother, the youngest, who is getting his paperwork ready for a mission. Sarah is #2 in the family. Nicole is #1 and her younger sister is married with one child.

Kirk is trying to make some other big decisions about his school work now, whether he should just get a degree in public health with a Spanish cluster(minor) then go on and get a master's degree, or whether he should take some pretty tough extra courses that are required by optometry schools, take the entrance exam and hope to get into an optometry school. The discouraging thing about the opt. schools are how much they cost compared to how much you actually make when you start working-a bit lopsided. So he'd going to talk with some counselors at school, fast and pray and then make his decisions.

I printed out your chempal newsletter tonight(the August letters) so I'll send that out tomorrow after you send an address. Sorry it's a bit late, but for some reason Julie Warr was not getting my emails. She says Cameron is doing great and loves reading the newsletter. 

The girls are all doing well. Leah, in particular, is loving school. She says middle school is the best especially her science class. She says she loves science experiments. Who would have guessed. Nikki says math is making sense now and she even did 9 to the third power the other day. :) Kristina is just anxiously awaiting her big birthday so she can say she's 16! I hope being 16 is all she's dreamed it will be. She's already trying to figure out who to ask for Sadie's this year.

Dad and I are always just trying to make ends meet, but have fun along the way. After all these years, I still look forward to his phone calls during the day when he's working and look forward to our days off and even love our little lunch getaways each day he's home. It may seem like a simple life to some, but the great peace we feel because of the covenants we've made make life so fulfilling. 

I've got some big RS events coming up, so I'll have some fairly busy next couple of weeks. This Thursday is our first Humanitarian Work Day. So many little details to make the day run smoothly. Then we have the dinner that we put on before the General RS broadcast next week. Again, lots of little details to make it appear effortless and enjoyable. I love the work and more than that, I love the women of this stake. I watch them and learn from them and so many of them are now my good friends. It will be fun to work hard with my new presidency too.

Well, I hope you are well, busy and happy. I bet there's lots of work that needs to be done there. Can't wait to hear what you're up to and who you're meeting and working with. Tell us about your new companion too.

Looks like you might be having a little cooler weather. enjoy it and have a great week. 

love you very much,

mom xxoo