Hermana Jessica Thompson - Mexico Cuidad Juarez Mission

This past week has been amazing. It's so hard to put the indescribable feelings I've had here into real words. All I can tell you is that the Spirit is in full strength here. In the words of one of our Sister Training Leaders, "There is no worldly comparison to the feeling of the Spirit." After I emailed last week, we had the immense pleasure to hear from Elder David A. Bednar. Here. In el CCM. It is something I'll never forget for the rest of my life and so far has been the highlight of my time here. I think, yes, it may be because we had an apostle come, but I think it's been my favorite because of the things the Spirit testified to me. It's my favorite because I was able to look past the words being said and focused on the things the Spirit wanted to tell me. I was able to receive answers to questions that I've had for a long time, since I got here, and to questions I didn't even know I had. The spirit was so evidently pre...

I met the rest of my district and I love them. It's me, Hermana Rogers, Hermana Benson, Hermana Burk, Elder Hemming, Elder Gammon, Elder Hooge, and Elder Despain. They are all such great people and our districts bonds really well. Our branch is pretty awesome too. It's with all the Latinos and we LOVE them. Its so fun to be able to talk to them and joke with them and teach them words in English. We love spending time together and they join us when we play volleyball. We are in an intermediate class so its complete immersion. All of our lessons and classes are solamente in Espanol and we are to teach completely in Espanol as well. It's been interesting to get used to, but I already find myself thinking in Spanish. Once, we had a practice lesson teaching the Plan of Salvation and our teacher let us teach it in English. I was very surprised at how hard it was. I kept thinking of the things I was going to teach in Spanish. The gift of tongues is so real and I...

 We pulled up to the big, white gates of the CCM. I was pretty excited. The gates opened and we drove in. They dropped us off at the tallest building on site which I would later learn was the Thomas S. Monson building. We went inside and sat down in a classroom. They introduced us to some things about the CCM and gave us our packet with our ID, Spanish scriptures and study materials. We got our luggage and went to find our casa and I met my companion, Hermana Rogers from Oregon. We then rushed to dinner and a devotional. It was a great way to start the MTC. I feel asleep to the sounds of trains that night. We have bunk beds and I'm on the bottom. I only reason I care to mention it is because they're ridiculously low and one time I woke in the middle of the night and smacked my head on the metal bars, so that was fun!

The flight from IF to SLC was uneventful for the most part and the cool part you already saw. (Jessica was seated next to her Trek Pa from this summer, he is our neighbor and it was a blessing to have someone she knew fly with her on her first leg of her journey) After that, I made it to my gate in SLC which wasn't hard to find because there were dozens of teenage boys in suits and girls in dresses milling around. No one had name tags so I knew they were going to el CCM. I did chat with a few sisters who had tags and were headed out to the field through a near by gate. After boarding the plane I realized I couldn't really watch or do anything. So I spent four hours looking around, writing in my journal, and reading through el Libro de Mormon. Then they gave us immigration cards and we filled those out. We got off and picked up our luggage. After we went through all the lines else we got to wait in another line for the buses to come and take us to...

 "This is what sets you apart from all the teachers within the world. You have been set apart by priesthood authority. This is why you cannot fail."  David M. McConkie

We were truly touched by the outpouring of love and support for Hermana Thompson tonight! I did a poor job of documenting the many, many friends and family that came to say goodbye but we love and appreciate you all! 

"Sisters, your sphere of influence is a unique sphere-one that cannot be duplicated by men. No one can defend our Savior with any more persuasion or power than you, the daughters of God, can- you who have such inner strength and conviction. The power of a converted woman's voice is immeasurable, and the Church needs your voices now more than ever."                                          Elder M. Russell Ballard

Last minute shenanigans. 

Hermana Thompson was able to fly to Salt Lake City and take the trax to an appointment at the Consulate of Mexico to finalize everything for her Visa. She was also able to meet up for breakfast with family and enjoyed walking around Temple Square with them before flying home.