Happy Easter

March 31, 2013

 

Dear Mom and Dad

Happy Easter to you too! This weekend has been a good Easter weekend. There was a special spirit at church as we focused on the ressurection of Jesus Christ. It was also a good first week at the Minchinbury ward! It feels like I have been here for ages!! It's just been a busy week because we were preparing for a baptism. We baptised a Korean girl named Olivia on Saturday. She is a friend of a member and just started coming to church at the beginning of the month. It was such an honor for me to be able to be part of all the final preparations for the baptism and being able to teach the last few important things. Back in Bankstown they also had 2 baptisms of African sisters from a part member family that we have been working with for a month or two. It is so funny that we get so excited over a couple of people getting baptised. Something that the rest of the world doesn't really even care about, but that means so much for the eternities. I just wish everyone had the same awareness of sacred things and hey.. thats what I'm trying to do anyway! haha :)

We had a nice dinner for Easter. They fed us a nice tuna casserole.. I haven't had a casserole in like a thousand years! It was really delicious. and yes we have way too much chocolate. I forgot how much chocolate I got last year but now I remember. I'll try to not eat so much and if I do then I'll do a few more situps or something haha!  I forgot April fools day was today until I flipped to the next page of my Dilbert calendar! We are trying to think of something we can do to our flat mates.. they are on bikes so we we're going to steal them or something. We are running out of time though.. P-day ends at 1:30 today because of zone leader council. We'll see what we can do! 

I like what that guy said about pride. I read the preview in the Ensign about the teachings of Lorenzo Snow book and have been craving to read it for a long time, I finally got my hands on one this week and read out of it for personal study in a chapter about leadership in the church. It really humbled me. 

I'll keep that in mind about the comet for Thanksgiving! I always say to people that I wish we had more moons. Think how cool it would be to look up and see a bunch of different size, different color moons all over the sky. It would feel like Star Wars or something! 

I am super excited for General Conference! We don't get it for another two weeks though so don't give things away!!!!!!!! That's like spoiling a great movie!!! Just please refrain!! :) 

I hope you all have fun doing Easter egg hunts! I wish I could see the excited look on their faces! haha they always get so excited to find some eggs :) Tell everyone I say hi and send my love! :)

Until Next week!

 

Love, Elder Thompson

Marching into new seasons

March 25, 2013

 

Dear Mom and Dad,

So transfers happened this week... and I am now in an area called Minchinbury! :) I got moved to be the Zone Leader in the Penrith zone. My companion is Elder Robinson. He used to be in the Mortdale zone with me. I have always thought it would be awesome to be his companion and now I am! I am also in the zone that I have always wanted to go to! It's the biggest zone in the mission. It covers an area probably a little smaller than Texas!  Most of it is the outback though and there's nothing out there! This zone borders with the Brisbane, Adelaide, and Melbourne missions! It also has the most remote area in the mission called Dubbo which is about 6 hours west of us here in Minchinbury which is about 1 1/2 hours west of the coast. It is awesome! I should be seeing a wild kangaroo soon :) I had an emotional experience in an accounting prayer I had with Heavenly Father the last night in Bankstown. I wept as I recounted all of the amazing experiences that I had and also for the experiences that I have had my whole life. It was really nice to feel His love and approval of the work that I have done for Him. I haven't cried in a long time! at least not like really crying. I am very, very excited to be here with Elder Robinson though. It is a new challenge andwe are ready to work hard and do everything we can, together.

Easter should be pretty good here. They have a huge easter celebration at the olympic park that goes for like 2 weeks, so this is a holiday they actually do good!

I've started working on the papers for the visa extention... there's ALOT of paperwork and a lot of stuff I have to fill out that I don't know so I will have to email those questions to you. I was going to do that today but with transfers and everything.. stuff is just hectic. I still haven't tried kangaroo! I will have to go buy some. I've heard it's really good though :)

Haven't seen a comet or anything.. haven't even heard about it! Sounds pretty cool, I don't know if I'll be able to see it though because we don't spend a lot of time outside during the night, speaking of which I think daylight saving is soon here. I'll have to check! 

Anyway, you can look up on the map how big my zone is, it's pretty crazy! :)

 

Talk to you next week! 

Love, Elder Thompson

Happy St Patricks Day

March 17, 2013

 

Good morning! for me :)

Yes it was St. Partrick's day and yes I made sure that I wore a green tie! Alot of people or rather everyone I talked to didn't even know that you are supposed to wear green on that day.  And in our flat, I didn't even hear the words "St. Patricks's Day" uttered by anyone! Oh well I guess it's my last one anyway! Oh yeah and nothing was green except for the grass and trees like always! I haven't even seen a picture of a four leaf clover anywhere! :(

So we got an interesting announcement this last week from President Howes, he said that he was told from higher up that we are allowed to email family AND friends now! I think this is a worldwide rule too because a missionary who just came from Milwaukee who was waiting for his visa, said that rule came out there while he was there for just a few weeks, interesting stuff! So if you want to put that on the blog or something with my email then people can just email me now! 

Two really cool things happened this week. Nia got her temple recommend and went with the youth to do baptisms for the dead and is going to get her patriarchal blessing soon! She is a total transformation! Also, Brother Havea who got baptized in November, recently received the Melchizedek priesthood and just baptized and confirmed his 8 year old son! When he did the baptism, especially while saying the words, the spirit was very very strong. It was like invisible lightning that went through the room and I know for certain that it electrocuted everyone who was present in two weeks we have two more baptism and then 3 more set for April! 

I'm glad to hear that what I typed in the newsletter touched someone. I hope that those boys in the 8th ward can be able to make the decision to serve. There's just no other satisfactory substitute. I hope when I get home I can be an instrument to be able to help lot's of people go on missions and just really be converted to the gospel.  

I've got the tax forms signed AND a picture of my pants. I'll be putting the letter in the box today and the picture of the pants in attached. I just have both pairs in one picture.

This Saturday is transfer calls again so we'll see what happens! To stay or not to stay! :) Let me know how Quinns farewell is and if you get this in time tell him I say hi and congratulations and also say.. time to work.

Til next week!

 

Love, Elder Thompson

As the seasons change

March 10, 2013

 

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well it's been another good fast week. Can't believe it's P-day again! We might train into the city today and look around.  It might rain though so we'll see. Things are going really well. We have 7 investigators with baptism dates so that keeps us busy.  The one for this weekend is going to be tricky. Her name is Debby and she just moved from New Zealand. She is 17 and is living with her sister and her sisters partner. She had gone to church before in NZ and wanted to get baptised but her dad is hardcore into this Samoan church and would not allow it. Since she was living here, her sister was her legal guardian and was going to sign for her baptism but her dad just moved here yesterday so we'll see what happens. We have to call her today. She is really awesome and knows the church is true without a doubt. We just have to hope that her fathers heart is softened so that he won't stop her from following her desires to go to heaven. I am amazed at how some parents will support their children if they get into criminal trouble but won't support them in their desires to follow Christ or things they feel are for their good. Hopefully everything works out! I still have hope!

Sounds like everything at home is going well though. Getting warmed up and flowers sprouting. I love all the seasons! There is something I absolutely love about all 4 of them. Speaking of which I have now been in Bankstown for all 4 seasons! I got about half of winter, all of spring, all of summer, and now we're just getting into autumn! This transfer is up in about 2 weeks though so I don't know what will happen. I would just send the package to the mission office again. That's the easiest way to do it.

Elder Kuyler Thompson

Australia Sydney Mission

756 Pennant Hills Road

Carlingford, NSW 2118

Australia

I'm really glad to hear that you are still reading scriptures everyday! Keep it up! I LOVE the scriptures! My P. blessing predicted that and it is right! The scriptures are the thing that bring me the most truth out of anything I could ever study. I have also been reading my patriarchal blessing a lot and really thinking about it and I have had thoughts lately about maybe one day becoming a seminary teacher.... it just feels right and matches everything that is said in my blessing... I'll put more thought into it later but that's just a very deep impression that randomly hit me this week.  What do you think?

I hope you are able to get that flag pole! How tall is it? Could we put up a Layton Hills Mall flag?  That would be awesome hahah but probably improbable.  As for our shopping, we usually do all our shopping on P-day but if we really need something from the store we can use our hour of lunch time to do that. There's nothing that says we can't. :)  

Anyway, I've got my list of things to do written down and I'll get on it. I didn't take pictures of my clothes yet but I have looked at them! The taxes are on my desk, brought them in this morning and just need to sign them so everything is set to go! 

Hope you have a great week and that the weather gets warmer! I believe this week is St. Patricks day so don't forget to wear green!

Lov

March's Here

March 3, 2013
Dear Mom and Dad,

Oh where do I start?  We had another baptism this weekend. It was for a girl named Nia. She is a 16 year old Tongan girl. The day before her baptism we were talking with her dad and found out that he got baptized like 35 years ago in Tonga. He just did it though because a group of friends all got baptized at the same time.. We found Nia while tracting! First person I have baptized that we found through our own efforts. That says a lot about how to be successful. She is making a big change in her life and it is awesome. She has always been kinda quiet but she is starting to gain more confidence in herself and in the Lord. She, a while ago while teaching her kinda asked some questions about missionary service. She was almost implying that she wanted to serve a mission one day. During her confirmation, our first counselor blessed her to one day serve a mission... now that's cool. She was baptized by one of our Priests named Ravine. He went through a rough patch in his life and turned it around too. I have seen him come back to church and get his priesthood. He goes to school with Nia and so it was cool to see both of them turn around and have this experience. That was by far my favorite thing this week. 

So today we finally get a real P-day.. it's been about 3 weeks......haha!

Sounds like our house is a major hub for fun stuff!  I think it always has been though. On my dilbert calendar I noticed that today is Australian labor day but they only recognize it in Western Australia. Those bacon donuts look really good but just donuts in general look really good! Their donuts here are just not the same :( I miss going to Bowmans. they have the best donuts.

I'm not really sure how little Timmy is doing,  (For those who don't know, Timmy is the doll used for their nativity pageant movie) I don't think anyone has fed him in a little while so... he might be severely malnourished. ;)  The idea for the movie was all Elder Smiler and Elder Flintoft the Maoris from New Zealand.. they are hilarious and always have crazy ideas!

I laughed pretty hard about Grants favorite train! I would've loved to be there, looked like it was a really fun thing. I'm guessing that there were probably about 50 yellow trains haha!! On a tradeoff once, there was this guy with a bunch of old train stuff in his yard.. he had actual trains and stuff. I was pretty excited to get some pictures with it but when we knocked on his door he just skuzzed us off and was really rude. What a mean guy.  He doesn't have the spirit of trains in him. 

I forgot to take pictures of the pants but I do remember one thing I need for my birthday. I need a new umbrella. I accidentally left mine at the chapel in Manly a while ago and then never saw it again. You can't get an umbrella like that anywhere. It has automatic retracting and also the double layers which protects against wind turninginsideoutification. It would be really valuable to have one of those for my birthday especially with the cold rainy season just ahead of that. 

Still don't know much about the mission split but that President Howes will be the Sydney North President and the South president will be a guy named Larry Lew from the states. The north HQ will still be at the temple grounds and the South HQ in Mortdale (which is my Zone) will be used again. that's all I know so far :) Still waiting to start Visa Papers but I'll get those taxes done in the mean time. No worries!

Have a great week and say Hi to everyone for me!

Love, Elder Thompson

February's Gone

February 24, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad,

Glad you got the package :) Full of a bunch of random stuff but it's all awesome! That video was really fun to make.  

This week has been a crazy one. For the past few months it seems as though Elder Bringhurst and I have only been teaching women. The 5 people we have with baptismal dates right now are  18, 17, 16, 13, and 9 year old girls, but guess what?? We finally got some BROS!!!!!  2 fijian brothers and their cousin; 19, 21, and 22 year old dudes.  These guys are really cool too. They remember their mom always letting missionaries in when they were little and now that they are older and on their own they figured they would do the same. The first lesson was amazing. They all understand the restoration and the purpose of the book of mormon and are really excited to read it. We'll teach them again tomorrow. Looking forward to it! The baptism of Chelsi was supposed to happen yesterday but didn't go through because of after 2 years of learning and looking forward to the day she turned 18 to get baptised.. she got sick the night before and was unable to even come to church.  There will be more news on this subject later but that's the basic situation right now. We'll have to postpone. ugh. 

Good to hear that Alysha is visiting. Tell her I say hi and happy birthday. I miss her and am jealous that she gets to go out in the snow.  We haven't had super hot weather lately just really humid and rainy and sticky, yuck. 

Do I need any clothes replaced.. Shoes are ok, socks are ok, shirts are ok, just got my suit dry cleaned and it's basically brand new again haha :) but I do need to replace 3 pairs of suit pants that got tears in the fabric not the stitching but it actually tore so I'll sent pictures to get them replaced. I only wear suit pants with my suit now. Elder Honeycutt when I got to bankstown gave me a pair of Dickies pants which we can wear so that's what I typically wear most days. For my birthday I have thought of two things I want so far. I just started using my last sonicare toothbrush head like 2 weeks ago which will last me a while but I could use one more new one after that to finish off the mission with. Also, I really want some graham crackers. They don't have those here at all. They don't even know what the heck they are! How am I supposed to make s'mores???? hahaha That's about it for now though. I'll keep thinking. 

Yeah we found out about the North mission last week. They told us before the church released it to everyone. President Howes made it really urgent that we read his email about it. Not sure why. We don't know exactly all the details of what will happen yet but President Hamula of the Area Presidency is doing a mission tour this week and will be presiding at the zone leader council so I think we will get more info today.  Our meeting starts early so our P-day is getting cut short by about 6 hours........ and last week P-day was cut short by about 4 hours for the temple... I'm really exhausted. I haven't heard anything about fires though.. had no idea haha I also did print out the taxes but haven't had time or energy to really look them over yet. Do I have to fill stuff out or just look for where I need to sign?

So I'll type up the thing for the newsletter right here. I don't have a good picture but you can attach one for them of what I've sent that you liked. I'll just finish up with this :)

Mosiah 21:5,7,8,11-15,19.

This story in the scriptures strengthened my testimony, but it mainly strengthened my conversion. The Lamanites in this story represent my trials, challenges, and mistakes.  They are all around me and seem overwhelming at times.  I used to be smitten and driven back every time I tried to go to battle with them. However, like the people of Limhi, it wasn't until I humbled myself before the Lord and sought help from his hand, that my burdens were eased.  What I had to feel is Godly Sorrow.  Godly Sorrow causes us to fix things in our life because we honestly feel remorse for disobeying Heavenly Father and hurting him. Not because we are afraid of temporal consequences.  I came across this story in a time of my life that I really needed it.  It also helped me learn how to liken the scriptures unto myself. King Limhi wouldn't leave the city walls without his guards to protect him from the Lamanites (verse 19).  I likewise have learned to not go anywhere or do anything without my guards (testimony, scriptures, prayer, Holy Ghost, church etc...) to protect me from falling into the hands of my enemies.  I love you all.  Save Souls!

Love, Elder Thompson

February's Letter

February 18, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad,

So the news on transfers...... nothing! still in Bankstown. It'll be my 6th transfer which will put me here for at least nearly 9 months. Thats a long time! I'm still with Elder Bringhurst too so that'll put us together for about 6 months! I'm pretty excited. Too much good news to share it all in detail but we currrently have 6 people with baptismal dates and probably will set another 3 this week! Crazy stuff. 

The next baptism will be Chelsi, she has been investigating the church for nearly two years now.  She has wanted to get baptized for ages but her parents wouldn't let her. This sunday is her 18th birthday so she's gonna go ahead and finally do it! I didn't think I would get to be here for it but I guess I will :) Pretty stoked!

For my visa situation things should be pretty smooth I think. This transfer is only going to be 5 weeks instead of 6 because we have to allign with the new 2 week MTC program so that puts my departure date at December 3, 2013. About 9 months away from now. Wow, fast!  Sister Hill is going to mail me the Visa papers to start working on this week or maybe next week. I have to go get a physical and some other stuff done first. Worth it though! 

The zoo we went to was just a Australian animal zoo. The big Zoo is Taronga zoo and I went there a while back with Elder Russell. That was awesome, it's right near the Harbour. They do celebrate Valentines day here but we totally forgot about it haha good thing though, keeping an eye single to the glory of God. 

Don't worry, I did send a package home, it's on it's way now. You will love the stuff in there :) This last Sunday was Stake Conference for us. It was pretty awesome, presiding at the meeting was President Thomas S. Monson via Satellite! Also accompanied by D. Todd Christofferson and a few other general Authorities. That was pretty cool to have that live broadcast as our stake conference. D. Todd Christofferson had my favorite talk, it was about 4 different levels of conversion and then he related each level to a scripture character. 

This morning we got to go to the temple :) that was nice, first time is about 5 or 6 months. And you know I like to go a lot more than just that! Are you guys making time for the temple? If not, you should :) 

Anyway, good to hear from you, hope everyone is doing well. I emailed Tia about the anniversary but will you wish her a happy one for me again? Thanks. 

Have a great week!!!

Love, Elder Thompson