Change of Seasons

Dear Mom and Dad, 

Yes, this week has been super crazy! One of our Zone Leaders was on an extension for 6 weeks but his family called and asked If they could have him home a week early so he left one week before transfers. That means we only had one Zone leader for a week, Elder Fornaro, he is awesome! Since his companion was gone, Elder Russell, He, and I were in a trio. and we had to cover two areas for a week. It was super busy to say the least but really fun! We had a Zone Conference this last week too so I got to see President and Sis Simmons. That's why you got the picture of us with her. It was an amazing conference, the spirit was so strong and I got to see some people from the MTC! So it looks like Elder Russell and I will have this one last transfer together before I will be running the Manly area. That's scary to think but it will all be good! I am so excited to be here on a mission! It's weird to think that's its nearly April and I've been here since January. Doesn't feel that long at all. Probably because it really hasn't been very long. I have a LONG way to go still haha. 

I think I am getting my bearings as a missionary better and better. Hopefully one day I will have enough experience to know whats always going on. I think I know a lot more than I think i do though. I just always feel a little lost. but thats probably just part of being a missionary. It would be no fun if there was no uncertainty! That's what keeps it interesting! I have learned that I really love change! Things just get boring if they stay the same all the time. It's nice to change things up and challenge yourself every once in a while, if not frequently!  Set my first every baptismal date this week. 11 year old named Deacon! he is super cool!  Kids learn so easily, it's amazing! he is scheduled to get baptized April 21st because they are going to new Zealand for 3 weeks.  I'm really excited though! It's probably been like 7-9 months since there was a baptism in this area! This transfer we hope to get like at least 2!  It's so awesome to see a child of god enter the waters of baptism.  

Sounds like everything is running pretty smoothly at home! I miss everyone for sure! Sorry I'm a day late to reply. Transfers delay our p day. I look forward to getting pictures from home! I love you! 

 

Love, Elder Thompson

Spring is in the air, or is that fall for you?

Dear Mom and Dad,

I had no doubt that the package would be coming soon :) Thats awesome to hear that spring is coming around! The 60's is almost the perfect weather! The weather here is starting to cool dawn quite a bit, which is nice. Really really nice! Soon we'll be able to go out on the sand of the beaches and play rugby and stuff! Still won't be able to swim, but that's ok, ocean water tasted like salt anyway (thats how i defer myself from fantasizing about surfing). That dang wind storm ruined our pool cover?? Curses! 

Holy cow! Kolton is always winning stuff! What a lucky guy! I'm so jealous.. I don't know how the heck he wins so much stuff. Jazz season tickets, nascar tickets, pretty much can win anything he wants! I wonder whats next! hahaha I want some pictures of Tage and Alisons new house, thats so exiting! And also about tage being ordained an Elder, thats just so so so so awesome. I am so joyous about that! He'll be able to give his baby girl a blessing in a few months. :) 

Sounds like you are having a good weekend and a nice layed back sunday! Something I miss dearly, but not THAT much :) haha That's pretty crazy about the farewells today! I can't beleive they put that many people in one church building! maybe they should have moved it to the conference center! 

I email derek and ryan every week but I need to figure out some other friends email addresses. They are having such a great time! Africa sounds really comical! We haven't had daylight saving here yet, i think it's pretty soon though. I should probably find out though, hahah just one day I would randomly be an hour early for everything. The door handle into our flat still isn't fixed yet. We did get a new lounge though from a member while helping him move! It's so comfy! Our old couches were terrible! 

Things are going really well here! I don't feel like I've been here very long.. and I haven't. haha I look forward to the rest of my mission and all the things that I will accomplish witht the help of the Lord. I love the people here so much. The pictures of people I am with are the Wixom's who are american and just left to go live back in Dallas. They are so awesome! I think they added me on facebook so make sure their friend request gets accepted! The other guy in named Josh Fakai and he just left today on his mission. He is on his way to provo and will serve in the phillipines. He is super cool and looks just like will smith huh? Anyway, I'm about out of time. Keep up the fun at home for me! 

Love, Elder Thompson

Dear Makayla, 

I sure loved your pipe cleaner braid you made for me! Green Bay Packers colors. That's absolutely right! I have it on my desk and look at it every day and think about you! 

Love, Uncle Elder Thompson

 

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

1 month down!

Mum,

This last week has been really awesome!! We have 3 new kids that we will be teaching so they can get baptized! It's really cool! We also found another family the other day while tracting! We were at that house for over an hour! Gave the mom a book of Mormon and she is interested and has some things missing in their lives that they don't really have answers to. Well I have news for her. She can get those answers!!! We talked about piano and stuff and she showed me this really cool old piano she had and had questions about how to tune and restore it. I got to play it a little bit too but it was in pretty bad shape! We talked about art too! Probably could have stayed there all day, but we had an appointment.. I'm probably going to be teaching lessons to her kids on art and piano :) They are cute kids and were really fun and excited!   I just laughed SO hard about what you said about the sandwiches.. thats brilliant as! 

Thats awesome you finally found some good contacts. Now you can go without glasses and not get them crushed by falling trees anymore! Yay! Plants and flowers grow super easy here. I haven't seen a single sprinkler since being here. Flowers just are randomly growing everywhere! It's really weird. The golf courses might have sprinkler systems though. I'll probably find out next week! I'll be looking forward to emails from unc John! I haven't gotten anything from Tia yet. Maybe I will today. :) Tell Makayla good luck for me! 

Dad,

Thats super funny about the door handle on the truck! I wonder what will break when you get the outside handle fixed? That's a cool sacrament about music and hymns! I was just reading the Hymn book this morning and never realized that there is a First Presidency Preface and the beginning of it! It's pretty cool! I really love Hymns. Did the congregation sing louder after that meeting? I sure hope so! Oh yeah, did my missionary plaque ever get done? I want to see it if it did! 

Well have a good sunday! Hope lot's of snow comes this week! I'm sure the valley could use some water this year. Who knows, maybe this winter will have been dry enough that bear lake and pine view will get their beaches back! I look forward to hearing from you again next week! Sorry I haven't included a lot of stuff about this week, I forgot my planner again which has my whole week in it! 

Have a good week and cheer on the Utah Jazz for me! 

Love, Elder Thompson

 

 

 

 

Letter of the week

Mom,

I'm glad you are enjoying my letters! It is REALLY beautiful here!! I forgot to bring my chord for my camera with me today so I wont be able to send home pictures this week! I want you to send me some pictures though! My art pictures that are on facebook I would like to show people. They all want to see my artwork!

Thats cool that Dalton is going to the phillippines! There are a lot of phillipinos here. They love americans and are really really cool. From what I hear, everything there is pretty american. They have to pay for their beaches though! Weird!

Keep hanging in there at work. The harder you work the more you feel success and blessings. I know that the Lord will bless you in everything you do and will strengthen you to overcome anything in your way. All you have to do is ask for help. If you get too bored you could try playing age of empires or something! hahahah bet you're getting pretty good at solitaire though!

Bummer about the house situation! I know they'll get an awesome place though. No biggie. The Lord will definitely get their back and help them to start a family of which he is super happy to see form. The family unit is such a blessing to have from our Heavenly Father and is how we can receive most of our strength and comfort. I'm sure you already know that though! You have created so many lives and families and good people with Dad. Just reading you talk about Makayla, Grant and Lydia is so fun! They are so dang cute!

That's bad what happened to Terrie! It's such a miracle that the Fed Ex guy came to her aid. If there was ever evidence of miracles, that is some proof right there. Miracles happen every single day. I will pray for her.

Speaking of dinners, Elder Russell and I are quite the dynamic duo in the Kitchen! We make some mean sandwiches and stuff! Every wednesday morning is pancake day and we certainly stack it up! I've had really good use of my apron too! Everyone is jealous of it! hahaha


Dad,

The week has been really good! I don't have my planner with me so I can't remember like anything i've done this week! I cant remember if some things I've done were weeks ago or hours ago! The way time flows is completely skewed! All I know is that this week has been really busy and really fun! and next week will be even more busy and even more fun!! I haven't seen any roos yet but I have seen some pretty cool birds, one cockroach, and some really huge ants! and REALLY huge spiders!!!! I want to see a roo really badly though. I already have a kangaroo coin pouch though. It works great!

Two farewells in one ward?? Holy cow! That must have been really packed eh?? Sounds like a really spiritually packed meeting. My testimony on both of those things that they talked about are becoming constantly stronger day by day. The ABC's of the Australia Sydney mission are: (A)tonement centered, (B)aptism focused, (C)onstantly Improving.

I'm not really familiar with Sherem but I want to study to find out more! As for the rope lesson I really like it and will probably use it soon!

That's really reallly really disturbing what Josh Powell did. He just proved everyone right too. Did he hurt anyone else with the explosion? That's pretty messed up but I'm really excited to hear about the olympics maybe coming to Utah again! I would be 30 years old!!! WOW! Probably bringing my kids to see the bobsled............. weridddddddddddd!

Well I'm going to go round house kick some punching bags now. Till next week!

Love Elder Thompson!

Happy Valentines Day

Mom,
Last week was really good! We started off with P day and just went to the park with the district to play around a little bit! kicked a ball, threw frisbees, raced with each other etc.. I wore sunscreen but still got a little darkened from it. It was really sunny that day, which is rare of late. It just rains all the time! Wednesday we went to visit a lady.  Yeah so we are going to go try to teach her again this week. while we were there, they gave us "mineral water" to drink, which is just carbonated water and it was disgusting! People here just drink carbonated water! We also went to see a member who stays in a home for like elderly mentally handicapped people. Her name is Lynette. we go visit her every week. We had some dinner at the flat that night, and then that night visiting a family, they made us eat dinner with them too hahaha they feed us so well over/under/out here. Probably too well! I am taking my vitamins though and exercising! Not really losing weight or gaining any, but i'm getting in good shape. we are going to go work out at a youth center today. Thursday we went on exchanges with the Zone leader. So I went to a different area called Dee Why for the day. It was way fun! Elder Tehei was my companion. He is on his last transfer. He actually extended so he has been here two years already. I got some cool pictures with him that I'll send. He is a native new zealander. or a Mauri. Friday we just had a district meeting, and did a lot of tracting and our weekly planning. Saturday was pretty crazy. We went to a funeral in the morning for a guy named Arty. He isn't a member but he was a really good man I guess.  I thought it would be all depressing but they actally had a really loud traditionally dressed african choir, some cool eulogys and testimonies and cookies and stuff to eat. The people were really nice to us and even had some questions for us. I think we planted a seed in a few hearts while we were there. I spoke in sacrament meeting in church yesterday on "faith in missionary work". It was really cool, the spirit really dictated what I focused on. I'm not sure how long I spoke for, maybe 15 minutes or so. We then went to contact all our potential and former investigators and got in contact with one. He was happy to hear from us! Things are really picking up in this area. It's really fun!

 

Thats cool about the temple! You have a TON of names left. Save some for me ;) If I remember right, Jared will be taking his talents to south beach for two years.. (Miami). hahaha  Hooray for tanner clinic! Thats really cool! You are perfect for that job! People will love you! You're days have got to be hectic busy! Wow!  Thats crazy that Tage & Alison are already almost home owners! It doesn't feel like it's almost march yet! They are swiftly coming up on the 1 year mark! Dang. Doesn't even feel like that long. Hope everything works out in their favour!  I really like the name that Becky gave to her daughter! It's really pretty. And thats a really unique spelling of Isabella.

 

Before you know it, by walking those dogs, you'll be like the people here! They walk everywhere, and since there are so many hills they really get a good exercise. I am keeping your pinky promises dont worry! Hopefully the vitamins do my body some good!  I know that the Lord is really helping us out witht the work. It is completely beyond all human power and I'm sure glad that he strengthens us in everything that he asks us to do. I'm looking forward to tia's package! I sent some letters home to friends, but I didn't know that I had to put an air mail stamp on them for it to be delivered faster.. so.. they will probably take forever getting home. Oh well haha, tell anyone that does want a letter from me just to write me and then I'll reply with an air mail stamp haha

 

Dad,

Yeah it's awesome the hard work really is paying off! We should be teaching our investigators this week and leaving them with a commitment so we'll see how that goes! I'm excited! Yeah right haha mom not liking to talk to people? That'll be the day! haha Yeah I have been to tucanos! I thinks it's even better than rodizio grill! Did you try the deep fried bananas??? HOLY COW!!! Yeah my mouth started watering right when I saw the word tucanos.... mmmmmmmmmm  I've tried some interesting things, I did try vegemite. It's really not as bad as people say, but it's definitely an aquired taste! I had a meat pie which was good too. We found one mexican restrurant which we are dying to eat at. There is no mexican food here! I kinda miss them.

 

That's funny that the missionaries spoke last week because I got to speak too! Like I said above. It was a really good experience. I focused a lot of how important it is to be invited and to invited people to church similar to what Elder Sulva talked about! Crazy!

 

Yeah I knew that Tyrell was engaged, I saw him like 5 minutes after he proposed. hahaha He is going to marry Sasha Russell, she is really cool. They are going to have really really really fast kids. (and/or have kids really really fast hahaha). He is supposed to be sending me a wedding invitation card thing so make sure he does that!

 

My Pday is on our mondays but last week it was on tuesday because of transfers, so thats why My emails were a little late. I'm usually online anywhere from 4ish-6ish pm on your sundays.  I really could go for a huge donut right now... that sounds soooooo good! They dont really have a lot of donuts here that i've found. Maybe im just looking in the wrong places though. Today I'm going to go get some oreos. I have been craving them! Anyway, I'll keep working hard and staying busy! The blessings are just so plentiful!  Oh and how are the Jazz doing?? GO JAZZ! hahah alright well I love you mom and dad and keep warm back home for me! Everyone who reads this I love you!! The church is true! Hold fast!

 

Love, Elder Thompson

there's pictures of me at dee why beach, me and elder tehei, a cool ocean side golf course, me climbing a ranom rope on a rock we found, a delicious sandwich i made (ham, mexican tuna, lettuce, mayo, swiss cheese, worcestershire sauce, and tamato sauce) and a cool design i did on sister luatua's guitar. I did the top part, and the stuff on the other side of the strings, the tribal looking stuff, was elder tiave.

 

 

Weekly Update

I'm so glad that E.R. and I are companions too!! Its so comfortable! and we are having so much fun! I'm really glad that Pres. and the Lord trusted us! And yesterday he blessed us with our first two investigators! YES!

AH YES!! Thats the news I've been wating for! A girl :) how awesome! I'm thrilled and I'm sure everyone else is too! Kinda a bummer that I wont be getting anyone named after me though haha I hope the house hunt is coming well! Found any keepers yet?  I'll be praying!

2 nephi?? Holy cow you guys are cruising! Learning anything new? How are your testimonies of the Book of Mormon growing?

Yeah this area is really beautiful! There's lots of rich people. I'm not sure if its a pine or a fern, i just figured it was a pine? The ocean is beautiful and everyone surfs, its cool to watch them! A member took our district to breakfast the other day right by the beach and he spent $245 dollars on us! Holy cow!! I'll have to send some pictures of the area. (yeah I figured i left my sewing kit behind.. dangit haha I guess I'll just buy one for a million dollars here!)

Oh yeah this area used to be a walking/biking/bussing area untill about 2 weeks before I got here and now we have a car so its really nice to drive around! Yeah they call them roundabouts here and they are EVERYWHERE!! stoplights are almost rare!

Yeah people can email me, but I would probably be able to write them longer letters and stuff through mail, just because we only have email once a week and don't have like all day to write people. Yeah if you send mail to the mission office it will be redirected to my flat (apartment) but I emailed you the direct address to my flat last week so you can use either one.

Yeah it's been pretty rainy here but not flooding or anything. I've actually enjoyed the rain though because its nice and cool! I finally got money on my card too! I had to wait about a week before they put money on it! Our flat is in these white brick apartment buildings. It's pretty nice, hot water, beds aren't bad, some couches, and a tiny tiny stove haha all the appliances here are really really small! Australia is basicallly Europe on the other side of the world.

yeah i remember the holdens! That would be kinda scary to go to China, it's so strict and crazy! When that mission opens, the church membership will raise by about 1.5 billion in about 3 years! haha

I heard that the superbowl was a pretty good game! I didn't really care who won, but it's nice to know that the Packers lost to the winners!

Anyway we are working super hard and its paying off bit by bit! Hope everyone is doing well! I pray for home all the time and Love all of you! Can't wait to hear from you guys next week!

Love, Elder Thompson