Oct letter of the week

October 15th

Dear Mom and Dad,

Been a crazy week here.  Transfers!!!!!!! and...... I'm staying an Bankstown! I got a new companion Elder Bringhurst, he just became a Zone leader and we really get a long. I think we will be together for quite a while which is cool! Elder Bringhurst is from Ohio and loves to work out and diet and stuff. So now I'm on a diet.... :(  oh well I need to lose weight anyway.  He also loves cars too so we talk a lot about cars and stuff. It's fun.

Sounds like another busy good week for you guys! So, I watched conference! You can tell me about your favorite talks and stuff now if you remember.  General Conference takes on a whole new meaning when you are a missionary. The significance of who they are and what they say is really noticeable. This is a cool experience between me and God because all the people who spoke, especially the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are all his mouthpiece. They say exactly what He would want us to hear. I really liked all the messages but I think my favorite one was probably Elder Bednar. I like how he distinguished between testimony and conversion. When that doctrine is understood by people, it will really change their lives.

Something I would tell someone if they were leaving on a mission next week would be a simple piece of advice I got from coachThrow, he said, "You don't have to be a different person, just be the best version of yourself." I really like that, because it says to still be yourself, keep all the good attributes that God has blessed you with, magnify them, and get rid of anything else that takes away from that. So profound!  This applies to life as well as missionary work. I don't think I'll ever forget that one.

We haven't heard anything about skype yet.  We'll probably decide what happens for that at the next zone leader council. All the zone leaders in the mission counseled together last year to decide not to do skype because of inequality reasons but it might be different this year. We'll have to see. I just want to let you know of my testimony of personal revelation,revelation for ourselves, and for those in our stewardship.  God speaks to us personally through the spirit.  He wants to help us because he loves us. Because he wants us to learn and grow, he often waits until we are humble enough to ask him for help. Nothing in the world can teach us the things we learn from revelation. No one is neglected by God.  It's true! :)

Have a great week! :)

Love, Elder Thompson