Marching On

Mom and Dad, 

I DID get the package from Tia! I LOVED IT!! The family pictures really turned out extremely well! I love them! Getting my artwork was awesome too! People like it :) Tell Makayla I like her bookmark too! Go packers! I have the calendar hanging up now too! Yes my nose is in the air in some pictures. and yes, it is because I am smelling flowers in the ocean breeze. I love it! The picture i sent of the drawing "where can I be baptized by proper authority" is about priesthood authority. The reason we want people to be baptized by us is because we hold that proper priesthood authority that has a direct link to Jesus Christ, the authority restored to Joseph smith in this dispensation. The little guy represents perhaps a "golden investigator" who is lost and is looking for a true church. Just a funny little doodle that I did on my study desk. 

I did get Aunt Carol's card. I have replied but I have to go to the post-office and pick up some stamps for places in Australia. I need to get some more stamps to the USA too.  Thats fun that you got to go play cards! We cant play cards here.. but then again we would never have time anyway hahah something we really want to get is RC boats that we can drive around in the lakes and stuff! That would be awesome!! 

It has been super rainy here. Apparently it was a pretty lousy summer but I wouldn't know. It's still winter for me so I can't complain! We never see a forecast either, so we have no idea what to expect weather wise. We just look at the sky, smell the air, and make sure our hips don't hurt before we decide  to leave behind the umbrellas. But then again, that approach doesn't work too well in Australia. We'll still get randomly soaked. When it rains, it doesn't rain strait down. It rains from every direction. Sometimes I think an umbrella is almost useless. It pretty much just keeps my hair dry.. which I don't really care about! Our water got shut off for a few hours one day and when I came back on the water was yellow-brownish and when I drained there was a pile of sand at the bottom of the sink.... eeek.  My birthday is soon! Pretty much all I can think of that I want is a new charger for my toothbrush, and a Utah Jazz shirt. 

I think broken door handles are a family curse. Getting back from shopping last week our door handle broke and we couldn't get in.. Elder Russell had to climb up the balconies and lift the milk and eggs up with a string. We then spent almost 2 hours getting the door off it's hinges. We still don't have a new door handle. Just a hole... and a dead lock so it's not too bad.  We do daylight savings here. I'm not sure if it's at the same time or not though.. I don't think it will really throw me off though. After all, I AM on the other side of the world anyway. Couldn't get a whole lot weirder than that! 

My favorite thing about my mission is..... being a missionary. Spending all day everyday doing gospel things is so fun! No matter how many kangaroos I see, however many cool weird things I get to eat, no matter what quirky things happen to me or things that I do with other missionaries for fun... nothing compares to sitting down with someone, opening with prayer, teaching a lesson, feeling the spirit, and closing with prayer. That's when being a missionary is the most rewarding. I know this church is true and that the happiness felt here is exponentially better than any pseudo-happiness that satan can temp us with. Til next week! 

Love, Elder Thompson