Happy 4th of July

July 8, 2013

 

Hello! 

Well, now that the mission is split there are a few things that are way different. Seeing that we only have half the mission to look after, we potentially have a lot more time to spend proselyting. However, President and Sister Lew are brand new to Australia and they need a lot of help figuring out how things work here, mission things, cultural things, logistical things, administrative things, driving especially haha! Lot's of things to show them how to do. President Lew is very on to it though. It hasn't been hard at all! This week, we have lot's of Zone conferences all over the mission. It will be pretty busy but fun at the same time. Last night we had our first recent convert fireside in the Sydney South Mission. We used to have them every first Sunday at the old mission office location but now we had one down south and it was really great. The recent converts who spoke were very good. Lot's of members, investigators and other recent converts showed up as well. It was a semi-stressful thing to plan out but it was all worth it. 

Today we actually had a pretty real P-day as well. President Lew is really supportive of us having a P-day because he know swe haven't had one in like 2 months so today was really nice :)

Crazy to know that Ryan is home now... I can't believe it. I am very proud of him and know he was a great missionary. Speaking of coming home, I have an interesting decision to make. See if you can make sense of this. My proposed release date is 25 December but that's Christmas day. We have been planning to send me home 3 December because it is the transfer right before the 25th.  I also found out that President Lew has the authority to send a missionary home up to 30 days before or after their original release date, visa situation permitting. A transfer is 42 days but since my release date is mid-transfer, I would be able to stay another transfer longer which would put me home about 14 January. So I have to decide. Do I want to come home 3 December, or 14 January? I have been praying about it alot. I  have to decide by tomorrow what I will do. I am very torn and would appreciate any input or information from you guys.  Will you email me back about this tomorrow?  I need to let Sister Haynes know by tomorrow whether or not she should book a plane ticket for me or not. 

Well, I have to send this off, but I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow! :)

Love, Elder Thompson