Missionary moments: Not so shy anymore
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
Bernice Thomson joined the ward volleyball team and the ward choir before she joined the Church. In fact, she spent a year-and-a-half playing volleyball and a year in the choir, during which time the missionaries kept coming.
She had learned about the Church from her sister, Meredith Walters, who had joined the Church 13 years earlier. Sister Walters had given her sister a Book of Mormon.Soon, an LDS friend saw the book on Bernice's shelf and asked if she were a member.
"I told her no, and she asked if I wanted to go to Church with her," Sister Thomson recalled. It was there that she signed up for volleyball. Six months later, she joined the ward choir as well.
"We had a good team," Sister Thomson said of the singles' volleyball team that played for fun, rather than competition.
"And we had a good choir, too. I was so shy I was afraid someone would say, `She's not a member. Why is she singing in the choir?' But nobody did."
Over time, through her fellowship with ward members and a study of the gospel, Sister Thomson gained a testimony and was baptized on her birthday in 1973. She is grateful to missionaries - "many sets of them" - who didn't give up on her.
Later, Sister Thomson served a mission to Arizona in 1979 through 1980.
"I am not so shy anymore," she said. "I am so grateful to have gone on a mission. It really helped my self-confidence."
While she no longer participates in volleyball, Sister Thomson is still a faithful member of her ward choir, and, in addition, works full-time as a senior clerk in the Portland Oregon Temple. "I love working at the temple," she said. "I have a really deep testimony of the gospel, of prayer, of tithing and of the plan of salvation. I know Heavenly Father lives and cares for each one of us."
Today, Sister Thomson is a member of the Fanno Creek Ward, Tualatin Oregon Stake, and serves as the ward bulletin editor.
