First Transfer

Hello!

Well, this last week has been hectic! Probably the most busy week I have ever had as a missionary! Lots of lessons to teach and things to do. We knew transfers were coming up and so I figured I was going to be transferred after being in Manly for 6 months, it still being my first area!  We don't find out about transfers until Saturday night and we leave Monday morning. President usually calls up people who will be trainers and zone leaders on Thursday but we got no call Thursday, Friday, or Saturday so we figured it would be a pretty simple transfer.  Saturday afternoon I got the call from President Howes to be a Zone leader! I accepted it.  So now I'm in a new area called Bankstown and am a Zone Leader for the Mortdale zone. We have 12 missionaries in our zone. Get this! My companion now is one of my MTC companions, Elder Honeycutt! Right now me and both my MTC companions are all zone leaders. Crazy.

I am so thankful for the opportunity that I had to be able to serve the people of Manly for the last 6 months and I am excited now and grateful for the chance that I have to be able to serve the people of Bankstown and the Mortdale Zone.

My core experience with God this last week was being able to speak in Sacrament on my last Sunday in Manly. I spoke just before the temple president and his wife and it was one of the best sacrament meetings I have ever been to. The spirit was so strong and I felt so confident in the Lords work and in the role of the Holy Ghost in teaching and testifying to people. We have had an investigator named Lesley who has struggled to desire to pray and come to church but this last week was a miracle with her. She prayed with us no problem and then showed up to church the next day and received a very warm welcome from the members. I am sure that she will be back next week. To see the change in her over the last few weeks has been amazing. God really loves his children and will give them every resource they need in order to return to Him forever.

Doctrine and Covenants section 121 has helped me a lot lately. I just about have it memorized, just the last two verses to go. I am a Zone leader now which is kind of daunting but it's comforting to have the warning and the guidelines that this section gives to me. At first, my duties look a little unclear but I know that as I exercise persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness and love unfeigned, by kindness and pure knowledge then my soul really will be enlarged by the Holy Ghost. I look forward to all the responsibilities and things that the Lord has in store for me. I thank him daily for this chance I have to help others so intensely.

Anyway, I enjoyed the email from you guys this week! I did hear about the massacre in Denver! So messed up! Oh and I was wondering how I can vote! Oh yeah, and the number of full time missionaries is actually about 55,000!

Well, I can't wait to hear more next week! Love yous!

Elder Thompson

Time Flies

Hello again!!

Sounds like you guys have had another pretty exciting week! Isn't it crazy how fast each week goes by? Days are starting to go really fast for me. Every time I kneel down to pray and night, it feels as though I was just there and when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I just barely fell asleep. Each week when we do weekly planning, it feels like we just did it yesterday. Time flies... too fast. 

This week has been a really great week! By doing our 2 hours of finding, we are being insured for miracles. This week we were grateful to come in contact with 2 part member families and discover that they are just baptisms waiting to happen! One of them we were just going to visit to a member which we had never visited before, up in an area near where we were tracting. They greeted us warmly. The dad there has just recently become the high priest group leader and his daughter is less active, is really cool and is going to come back to church. She has 4 kids and they are all so cute! She also told us that her husband needed to be baptized. He has investigated in the past and had baptismal dates but his family kind of deterred him from actually making the step. Now that they have moved in with active members, however, he should be ready to make the step to baptism! Wow, what a miracle. Visiting a member that I didn't even think would be home and we end up waking out with the joy of being able to teach someone and help them be baptized. (It is a Tongan family, so we also walked out of there with a whole bunch of KFC that they had someone go get for us while we were talking to them!)  The other part member family is a couple who are not yet married and are really cool. Again, it is the man that is unbaptized. When we talked to them on Sunday at church, the girl said "Definitely you can teach Sete! We are going to get married, and Sete is going to get baptized. That would make it a whole lot easier if you taught him lessons." Double Miracle! I am so blessed to be a part of people coming unto Christ. This guy is really cool. He is a big tall Tongan. He was a professional AFL player for Tonga. Funny though, whenever we shake his hand he seems really shy and almost nervous around us.  Anyway, that's just a few miracles that have happened this past week. This next week is going to be a really good one. Lots of good things are already set up. I just love being active in serving the Lord at all times, in all things, and in all places.

I do miss everyone so much! I miss hanging out with my family and friends and just being surrounded by my loved ones. There are still people that I love here but it's just not the same. In preach my gospel, it says that Heaven is a continuation of the ideal home. PMG pg 85.  I was thinking about that. It's a really nice thought. What is your ideal home? When I think of that, I think of Christmas time. Everyone is off work and school, there are no worries. Everyone is together and happy. There is a good feeling in the air. There is Jesus everywhere. There's lots of uplifting and happy music. Just stuff like that. If Heaven is just eternal Christmas then I will be pretty happy! hahaha

Well I'm gonna head off! We're going to play touch rugby at Freshwater beach today with the zone.  We might even have a few National Rugby League players there with us :) haha courtesy of the Manly Elders. Hope you all have a great, not too hot week!

Love, Elder Thompson