6-8-14

Hello! Da Jia Hao!!!

This week we have been blessed and uplifted so much!!! Heavenly Father is just pouring out the miracles. Luckily, He's also sweet enough to give me the strength to keep going. I swear if I sit down for more than 5 seconds I'm instantly fighting sleep anymore. It's an interesting experience...

Monday, our whole district went to play in YingGe for awhile. It was so much fun. I love my district!!! They also all loved YingGe. Not as much as I do of course. But it was funny because on the way Elder Lee looked at me and was like "Sister Thomsen, your area is so beautiful." haha. I then told him "I know, why do you think I wanted ya'll to come see it?" Then he later told Sister Singh that we have to be 2 of the fastest-biking sisters in the mission. The elders were having a hard time keeping up with us!!! haha. Miracles happen.

Monday night we went to visit a new investigator from the week before, the vietnamese lady. She's so cute. She was telling us how much she was hoping we would come back to see her since we hadn't been able to visit at the time we'd set and we hadn't been able to get in touch with her. She needs the gospel so much. Poor thing. My heart breaks for her since her husband is really not good to her at all...

Tuesday we had zone training. I got out of giving my final testimony since we just had Zone Conference on Wednesday. I'm glad they didn't make me do it 2 days in a row... That night we met this awesome girl that lives in Daxi. We were able to give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. I hope she reads it. She's already Christian so maybe a miracle will happen :D

Wednesday was zone conference then English class. It was such an amazing zone conference. I'm so fired up to just be a missionary for eternity!!! It just added to my fire. I walked out of zone conference with a lot of great inspiration from Heavenly Father. It was amazing. As I said, I also gave my final testimony there. So sad to think that it was my last zone conference. It was amazing though. I honestly don't remember what I said besides telling them over and over to be exactly obedient (haha guess we all know what goes through my head, eh?) but I had several missionaries tell me it was really powerful. I guess I did what I was supposed to and was able to be a tool in my father's hands then. That's always amazing. Sadly, we also found out that a sister missionary from Taibei had gotten in a bike accident Tuesday night. She flipped over her handlebars and broke her collarbone so had to fly home for surgery and such Thursday. So heartbreaking.

Thursday we did exchanges!!! We also went to visit an LA and an investigator. It was amazing how in sync Sister Johansen and I were from the get-go. That's never happened when I've been on exchanges before!!! Then Friday we ended up staying together all day because my companion wanted an outside view on some people. Those lessons went really well as well. We went to visit the Bishop and talk about home and visiting teaching as well as LAs. I have such a strong testimony of home and visiting teaching now. DO IT!!! They need you!!! Then throughout the day we went to visit several LAs. It was so good to be with Sister Johansen though. She has so much spunk. Plus, she's only a transfer younger than me so she said exchanges with me are like a break because I already know what I'm doing so we just work hard and do the work. But she really touched my heart as well, apparently I'm at peace now. Really helped me to see how much I have changed. I am okay. I've worked hard, a job well done and will continue to do so until I'm on that plane next Saturday. It still hasn't fully hit me that I'm coming home. I don't think it will until right before I crash out on the plane from the utter exhaustion. haha.

Saturday was AWESOME!!! Most of the day was spent traveling but we had 3 super awesome lessons. One was with an LA that's doing so much better. It's true, serve and love people and they will change!!! She even agreed to come to church. Sadly, she didn't but she is still slowly coming along.

After we got back from YingGe (our LA lives in YingGe) we met with another member and her friend. Her friend is super awesome and really curious. She's not willing to commit to anything yet but she'll keep meeting with us. I think she has a lot of potential. I'm excited to see what happens.

Finally, we went to a qingke with a recent RM. She's only been home for a little over a transfer, probably about 2 months. So weird because her boyfriend was there too. So weird to think about, haha. But we had fun talking. I really love my members here and will really miss them. They've all become some of my best friends... I have to say my goodbyes on Sunday and I think it might break my heart, wont lie.

So yea, it was an awesome week that we worked hard and had fun again. I'm so grateful for the blessings my Father has given me. I'm excited to see what happens this, my last full week in Taiwan. So weird to think about. Pretty sure no matter how many times I say it, my heart still hasn't accepted it. haha.

Hope this e-mail finds you all well, sorry it's a little more on the boring side again. Love ya'll!!! Take care and of course JIAYOU!!!

Sister Thomsen

6-1-14

Hello! Da jia hao!

This week was a roller coaster again but with more ups than downs. Another week that I can't help but praise my God. He has been so good to us, I will forever be grateful to Him.

To start off with, Monday we had an awesome miracle out contacting after p-day. We were knocking doors and had many shut in our faces, as usual. But as we got to one of the last houses on the street, I'd started singing "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" (yea, I know, never thought you'd hear ME say I was singing a Christmas song in the middle of the year...) and we knocked another door. We of course did the usual "we're missionaries and sharing a happy message that we'd like to share with you." The funny thing is, this sweet lady then looked at us and asked "are you going to sing for me? That was you I just heard singing right?" We told her we'd be more than happy to sing for her and so she called her daughter down to let us sing for them and share our message with them. They don't have a specific religion but they more follow the traditional taiwan buddhist/daoist traditions but were more than willing to let us come back. It was a huge miracle. Right after we walked out of their house we were just overwhelmed with joy. Funny thing is, a guy was getting out of his car and my companion was talking to him. Lo and behold, he's a member picking up his children. His daughter was so excited to see the sister missionaries, it was super cute. I feel like he's also an LA too, but we're not quite sure. It was really cool.

On Tuesday we had another awesome miracle. We were supposed to go english boarding but had a wrench temporarily thrown in our plans so decided to go knocking nearby. As we're slowly walking up the street a man looked at us and asked "are you Christians?" Of course we told him yes so he walked to a door nearby, threw it open and said "come on in." Sadly his wife was busy and so we couldn't visit them but he's more than willing to let us come back. It was just really cool to have someone so excited to see us and be welcoming. I guess this late in my mission, I can still have some firsts. :P Another first happened that night on the way home when Sister Singh used the "finger of faith" My companion stopped at a red light and pointed across the street, asking if the lady would stop there (why it's the finger of faith) and she did! We then had an amazing lesson with this beautiful daughter of God who really needs the gospel in her life. She's had a really hard life. Her dad passed away I don't know how long ago and her brother has cancer. She said she's also been sick too. This poor girl was once Christian but felt that God had abandoned her or just didn't exist so hasn't prayed in years. It broke my heart, especially since her story had a familiar ring to me. I was grateful to be able to promise to her that God is listening and would answer her prayers, that He'd help her through it. Then we got to hear her say one of the most beautiful prayers ever heard. It was amazing!!!

Wednesday was a harder day with little success. Sadly, on top of it one of the elders here got in a bike accident. Luckily he's okay, just got a sprained ankle but I think it drove it a little closer to home for all of us missionaries again since summer's here and so more people are out and they drive crazier than ever. We're blessed we missionaries always have guardian angels :) It was also sad for me to hear that from his companion since I've been with this Elder since he moved to Xizhi 4 transfers ago so we've served in the same area for 5 transfers. It's always crazy when you get those reminders. I promise I'm being safe though so no panicking :)

Thursday was also a rougher day in general. But that night we got to go eat good food at a member's house with many of the amazing friends I've made here. I really enjoyed it. This week it's hit me again exactly how blessed I am with the friends I've made, they really are friends of eternity, not for the brief space that I'm a missionary and it's truly incredible.

Friday we had another awesome miracle. Several in fact. But I think my favorite (and one of my favorites all week, probably because I have a soft spot for LAs) happened while we were english boarding. We wanted to english board at a school but ended up being 40 minutes early so decided to go to a small lane nearby and knock and english board. Well, we got to an area I've been before with Sister Wu a long time ago and gave a lady an english tract. As we walked away, I realized she had our church sticker on her door and I knew she was one of the lost sheep, I could feel it. We walked away and Sister Singh and I just stopped and talked about it. I told her she was a lost sheep and her response was "dang it, I knew I should've talked to her. I knew I should've followed the spirit (funny how you always know after that it was the spirit)" So we decided to go back and talk to her. She really was an LA that has struggled a lot. She's younger (in her 30s) and felt like a misfit at church. I think she also never really had a strong foundation so it was easy to fall away. She was happy to meet with us and let us come again. I think she really can come back. One thing that struck me Friday and Saturday was that twice we heard members (one less active and one semi-active) tell us "I thought the church had forgotten about me." Broke my heart. Heavenly Father really does lead us to the prepared, and sometimes those prepared are already members that need a little boost.

Saturday was a huge miracle day. It started out by visiting the semi-active member that I think is struggling a lot. She talked about how the missionaries used to always visit her so I think at some point the ward really worried about her. She's originally from vietnam and is divorced with a little boy who is now 8. I feel like her son is probably a little on the special side and they just need a little extra encouragement. We've decided we're going to keep visiting and helping them, let them know that even if the church has forgotten about them, their Father in Heaven most certainly hasn't.

After that member, we went to visit an LA in YingGe and that was pretty incredible too, she's progressing. She looked happier than I've seen her since I came here and really, we both agree that she's doing better in general. It's amazing. We also met some really awesome people contacting that day. But that night we had another "finger of faith experience." A girl had stopped next to me at a light and I had a couple seconds to talk to her then asked if she'd be willing to pull over and talk for a bit. Then we were also able to teach her about prayer. It was incredible! Heavenly Father has blessed us so much this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another cool miracle I just heard about is that one of my really stubborn investigators in TaiDong that we all knew would get baptized but just didn't know when got baptized next week. A huge miracle. I'm super grateful for it :) Yep, I'm definitely blessed!!!

I also loved as I was looking back through old journals last night and could see the change from then to now. I definitely feel a lot different now and that's a huge miracle in and of itself. I love this amazing blessing and that I can see it. Missions are awesome, they really do change lives, most of all the missionary's life. I will be forever grateful for this amazing experience I've had.

Sorry for such a long novel this week, but I wanted to share my awesome experiences with ya'll. Hope this finds you well! Keep working hard and taking care of yourselves. Jiayou!

Love you!

Sister Thomsen

5-25-14

Hello! Da jia hao!

This week was so jam-packed full of miracles I don't even know where to start! Heavenly Father has blessed us so much. Sister Singh and I were definitely having an "Ammon"-moment from Alma 26 last night where he says that "I will not boast of myself but I will boast of my God" I definitely feel like boasting of my God. He has blessed me so much and given me so many miracles lately.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty hard on me, hadn't quite hit the boasting in God yet but were still kind of stuck in the "trial of your faith" area. Tuesday it hit a climax for me in district meeting which makes me super grateful for my companion since she really helped me through it. Then right after we all went out English boarding (handing out tracts inviting people to our free english class). It was so fun and so cool. It gave me a break from everything I'm doing wrong and helped me to have a lot of awesome experiences of being self-contacted. We'd brought the signs they handed out when we started this new English program at the beginning of my mission. However, this is the first time we've ever used the signs when I've gone english boarding and I really had people asking me for tracts! I've never had that before! So cool! But after that, the miracles were still waiting in the ranks, cumulative with a migraine and all. So we had a fun lesson with an LA that night since he's usually hard to understand most of the time, often my companion has no idea what he's saying and my brain was struggling with my head pounding. Probably one of the worst lessons we've ever had with him.

Wednesday however, the heavens opened and started pouring rain. As it poured rain it also poured miracles. We were knocking doors in the morning and I kid you not, the first door we knocked opened and let us in. It was amazing. She's already Christian and said she's super busy but it was still a first in my mission :)

That afternoon we went to YingGe and ended up almost bible-bashing using the Book of Mormon with one of our LAs. She's a very special LA that seems to have gone to a lot of Christian churches and has just made her own religion from all the teachings of the different churches. And she takes every word of the book of mormon literally and leaves no room for interpretation. She also said she can't say she believes the prophet's words are the words of God. It was really sad to see. But I'm really proud of my companion and I since we quickly took a step back and stopped bible bashing and just went by the spirit. It was amazing to see how it happened.

After that LA it was literally POURING rain! There is no other word for it, the rain hurt my eyes as we were riding around, they were like water-bullets. So we went to do a pop-visit on an LA and met with her sister then she came home and we met with her. Sadly, her sister's not really interested but it was good to see more of their family dynamics. They're really not very nice to each other.

An amazing miracle that culminated on Thursday came as we've been going to areas we'd chosen in our Weekly Planning Session throughout the week. It was definitely led by the spirit! We've had several lessons from it, given out a couple copies of the Book of Mormon, and even found a super awesome new investigator that really needs the gospel in her life right now. It has been incredible to see the evidence that as we chose those areas in WPS last week, we really were being led by the spirit. I'm excited to see what happens this week! But the super awesome new investigator is also a super interesting story. My companion came up with this fun story of what kind of new investigators we were looking for as she always does. She said we were looking for parents who were home but their kids were on the way home from school. We hit towards the end of our time with very little success but came to this alley that we decided to knock. lo and behold, there was only one door and the lady happily let us in. She's from Vietnam and struggling a lot being so far away from home. Her husband was home and then headed out to go get their son who was on his way home! What the heck?! My companion predicted so much! And we definitely felt the spirit. We finally got to where we could say a prayer with her and when we opened our eyes she was crying. She felt the spirit. Then we shared Alma 26:36-37 with her that God is mindful of all people in every land. It was amazing and I know it really helped this beautiful sister. I was grateful for the spirit :)

However, I think my favorite miracle happened last night. I've mentioned the Wu family in several of my e-mails, they're a part-member less active family I've been working with since I came here to BaDe. They were the first family to get baptized in YingGe but ended up leaving, and I'm not really sure on the reasons why. However, the dad has become really active again lately, still progressing but he's come really far this last month and it's been miraculous to see. Last week we felt like we should focus again on helping their daughter work towards baptism. Last time we'd brought it up she told us she had no desire to get baptized so we felt like we shouldn't push her but should give it some time and help her family come back. However, that is one of the biggest miracles I've seen is this process of how the spirit has been working with us all along. It came to completion last night as we met with them once again. We decided to focus on the atonement and how Christ drank out of the "bitter cup" for us, that it can give us all a new start. The spirit was so powerful in that lesson! Also, it was completely led by the spirit. I'm still totally in awe from it. The mom or daughter brought up that it's a new start when we're baptized or partake of the sacrament. So we asked if they would want that, which of course they all agreed to. Then, the daughter committed to be baptized! We wanted to do it in June before I left but with the Taiwanese culture of school being the end-all be-all and that she has a performance, we scheduled it for the first weekend in July, the earliest they were willing to agree to. It was miraculous to me as we then turned to her father and committed him to prepare himself so he can be worthy to baptize her. Their whole family will be working together towards this goal and it is already amazing to see. The dad even asked her to promise him she would truly work to prepare herself to be baptized that day. I'm super excited for the day I get to see them all in white in the temple, they're such an amazing family and I love them all to pieces! Another miracle associated with this was also feeling the difference I've been able to make in their lives. It even came up that I leave next month and they were all so sad. They told me that they will never forget me and were rather sad that I will not be here for the baptism. At first I was sad too, then Heavenly Father instantly made it okay for me, helped me to see I've really helped them and made a difference, that I've done what I came here to do. It was such an incredible miraculous experience. I don't even have sufficient words to describe it, in any language.

We've had many more amazingly incredibly miraculous experiences but I think I've written enough of a novel for the week. My heart is bursting with gratitude and I truly do feel like shouting from the rooftops and boasting of my God. He's so incredible and I feel his love so much. To sum it up, if you want to know more about my week and how I feel about it, go read Alma 26. It's a great read and explains a lot :D

I hope this e-mail finds you all well and you're also recognizing His hand in your lives! Love and miss you!

Jiayou!

Sister Thomsen

5-18-14 Pics

District P-day! Our new elders actually want to hang out with us! We got to the church last week and they were already going all out on MaJiang! haha. So fun! On the left is Elder Bake, Elder Gao is the dark one, the other one you can see his face is Elder Stewart (who's from Gig Harbor, WA)

Hey! Now you can actually see Elder McKay's face :) haha And Elder Lee is teaching him how to play MaJiang like a pro.

 My companion's awesome. She decided to buy pizza. Such a treat for the district. Definitely a district party! We have such a great district, I'm excited to party with them again today :D

My darling Annie came to say goodbye to me. Oh how I love this sweet girl. I will miss her so much!

5-18-14

Hello! Welcome to another rainy day in BaDe!

This last week... I really loved doing temple tours on Saturday. It gave me a chance to see some of my members from my former areas since they came to the temple. One of which was my RC, Annie, from my first area. The only investigator I've been blessed to see through the whole process (except the physical baptism itself). That was a really amazing experience, to be able to hug my sister and tell her how happy I am for her and how proud I am of her. She even started crying, it was so sweet. I'm so grateful she came to say goodbye to me. I can't wait until the day I see her again. She's truly one of my best friends. Aren't missions incredible? We also saw some of our members from TaiDong. It was fun to reminisce with them. Helped me to be reminded that maybe I haven't had high numbers or anything throughout my mission, I've still been blessed enough to see people change their lives and to help influence their lives. That's always a miracle, when we're reminded of those little things. Let's be honest, it's those little things that help us get out of bed and get to work sometimes.

A really awesome experience this week was riding my bike last night after visiting an LA family. Their daughter isn't baptized and the father is finally progressing in coming back. They were talking about the influences we've had in their lives and how they'll never forget us. Well, on the bike ride home I was thinking about them and had the feeling that we really need to help the daughter get baptized, that needs to be our focus again. We'd stopped because there wasn't any progress and we'd felt we needed to help them come back to church. Well, I felt that we need to push for the daughter to get baptized and have her dad prepare to be able to baptize her. I'm excited to see what happens. I love this family so much and I'm excited to see them prepare to go to the temple.

Another really great experience was at church yesterday. At the beginning of the month we did an activity with our ward to encourage them to read the Book of Mormon. We were sad about the lack of people that came. But yesterday in Relief Society, our teachers was one of the members that attended and she was talking about how much she loved the activity and encouraging our members to attend the one for June. Then she was also telling all the sisters how because of the activity she felt like she should start helping her kids read the Book of Mormon and now her sons remind her every day before bed that they need to read the Book of Mormon. It was really touching to see the impact the activity had on them.

An interesting experience happened Thursday. We have Weekly Planning from 1-4 on Thursdays. Well, that morning was nice and sunny then in the middle of planning, it started raining a ton! So we got to go out in that right after planning. And ride to YingGe... Probably slightly dangerous with the crazy hills into YingGe but we felt like it would be okay. The funny thing was, as we're riding our bikes, there were points on the road that our pedals would go under water because the puddles were SO big! So crazy. Grateful that we always have angels to protect us :D

This last week we've spent most of our time in YingGe trying to help it progress. Well, it's definitely still a work in progress. Just need a little more faith and a lot more prayers... I'm excited to see what will happen this transfer.

I think that's all for the week. Hope this e-mail finds ya'll well! Take care! We're gonna go play in the rain in Daxi today on their old street. It'll be fun. It's a district activity with several of the sisters in our ward. I'm super psyched. I love these girls, they've also become some of my best friends. :D

Take care and jiayou!

Ai nimen-o!

Sister Thomsen

5-11-14 Pics

 Girl's Night!​ So much fun!!! Sister Singh, Bready, Ai Jiemei, Liu Jiemei. I love these sisters so much!!!

 ​Yep, I love being an YingGe sister! So much fun! This is an awesome huge park there. YingGe's known for its ceramics, guess they just had to have fun with it! :D

 I LOVE these sisters! Every single one of them has blessed my life so much. Some are R.M.s, some are preparing for missions, some have been baptized in the recent past, but they are all beautiful daughters of God and my darling sisters. Not to mention some of the best friends anyone could ever ask for!

Jia Xing was off playing somewhere else and wasn't in the big group pic so of course I needed one with her too. Another beautiful daughter of God :D

5-11-14

Hello!

Da jia hao!

haha guess I'll actually update you on life now. Though it's a little weird since I just talked to ya'll a couple hours ago... haha

This week really has been full of miracles! On Wednesday night I was able to finally set up with a referral I've been trying to call for 2 weeks. She's from english class. But her story is actually a lot cooler. It goes back to just after I first got into BaDe. We asked our bishop who in the ward he'd like us to visit. One of those names was a sister we couldn't find her address and her phone is no longer in service so the bishop just thought she'd moved. Well, as we met with this beautiful sister on Thursday, we discovered that she was the LA I'd looked for a few months ago and had been unable to find. But the story gets even better since as we were talking, she really opened up to us about how she's having a hard time and really needs peace. I feel like our lesson really helped her. She also agreed to go with us to Taibei for a temple tour this Saturday since it's our temple tour day. Definitely a big miracle. As she was walking us back to our bikes though, she was talking about how xingku we were for having to ride our bikes to YingGe so much (she lives in YingGe) and one day she saw us riding our bikes talking to people in YingGe and she thought to herself, "okay, I guess now I need to go to church!" So that Wednesday she came to English class. It's so true. Absolutely no effort is wasted. She just saw us riding our bikes and that got her to come to English class where we can work on helping one more lost sheep come back into the fold. Definitely a huge miracle.

Another big miracle happened between Saturday and yesterday. Saturday night I called an LA family we usually visit on Sunday nights. He didn't want us to go visit because he wanted to spend the day resting, so I asked him to at least come to church. His response was that he was too lazy and his faith wasn't doing so great. I then bore my testimony of how much church would help him, that I knew he most definitely needed to be at church if he felt that way. Sadly, the conversation ended with me feeling kind of down because I felt like he hadn't gotten much better. So I was definitely shocked yesterday when I was talking to a member and hear my companion say his name. Definitely made me very happy. Then last night I called to tell his wife happy mother's day but also see how he liked church since he'd come alone. He told me how he absolutely loved church and it would've been a real shame if he hadn't gone. He also said he knows he needs to keep coming. Definitely helped me feel better, sometimes we really do get to be instruments in God's hands to soften hearts of these amazing people. I was grateful to be an instrument in his hands :)

This week I've also struggled a lot. I think because every missionary struggles hitting the end of their missions. But I also see that Heavenly Father has blessed my life so much. My poor companion has had to deal with it as people have said off-hand comments that have hurt my feelings or the moments that I've been sick and Satan decides to just hit me a little harder and knock me down a little farther. I'm really grateful for Sister Singh. She's been such a light in my life, especially lately. She's a truly amazing companion.

Monday we had a fun girl's night with some of our members. Well, the most of a girl's night you can get as a sister missionary. We went out to eat with Liu Jiemei and a few other people. It was so much fun. I love them. It was so good for me!

Tuesday we had zone training which means most of the day was taken up with meetings, studies, and traveling. Sadly, that day I also started to hit the downside on being sick. That night I ended up calling President for permission to get a blessing since I really didn't feel well at all. However, Elder Allred is incredible and was so sweet about it. I love it when Elders really understand the priesthood power they hold and have such a respect for it. It was a truly beautiful blessing. We also did it at Yue Bao's home, which is where I skyped from today. :) Yue Bao is awesome. I love her.

Wednesday I discovered my companion is actually more stubborn than I am. Didn't think that was possible! I was coughing so hard in studies, she made sure I went to the doctor's that day. Also, since I was still coughing really bad later, she got permission so I'd go home and sleep, even if it was only for an hour I think it still helped me :)

Thursday we went and spent the day in YingGe. That's when we found our miracle LA I already told you about. We also went to visit another LA that I love. She's one of the reasons I'm sometimes frustrated with Taiwanese culture. Their culture is all about family but also about working and money. She's had to work really hard her whole life and it's one of the reasons she's an LA, she has to work Sundays to support herself with her younger siblings. It's so sad because I feel like otherwise she'd be an amazing fully active member. She really seems to love this gospel.

Friday we had some lessons but I'm not sure I can say anything truly special happened in them. It was also transfer meeting. So it's official, I'm blessed enough to end my mission as an YingGe sister with Sister Singh. I'm so happy about this and so grateful for it. I love this ward and this area. This week I especially fell in love with YingGe. It's such a beautiful city. Sadly, I can't even give you a real taste of its beauty, it's just impossible to capture by camera...

Saturday was a great day. We went back to YingGe. We found an awesome new investigator. He's met missionaries before and didn't seem interested at first but we bore our testimonies and shared a scripture with him and he really changed afterwards. Yep, proof that scriptures are truly powerful :D

Sunday was a really good day with a really bad black spot. We went to visit some members that live in our boundaries but go to Luzhou. It wasn't originally our plan but we felt like it was the right thing to do. They spent the entire time criticizing our leaders and our ward. It was really hard on me. They were criticizing my family, and we all know how loyal and protective I am so it was hard to just sit there and listen. Then we shared a scripture and bore our testimonies. That was the black spot but I was really proud of Sister Singh and I that we both kept our cool. I guess we've both learned a little more patience lately :) But we also had ward conference yesterday and it was awesome! It was such a good conference. It was also heart warming afterwards since we took a big ward picture then us sisters took pictures with some of the members we've gotten to be good friends with. They really are my family and I love them to death. They about broke my heart when they found out I'm starting my last transfer and told me not to go. One even said she's coming to the airport to see me off. I told her I love her but she's not allowed to do that, saying goodbye in BaDe is fine. haha. I really love this ward.

It's been such a great week. Hopefully it's been just as good for ya'll. Hope things are good in your side of the world. Love and miss you all. Until next week. Jiayou!

Love, Sister Thomsen