August 1, 2011

Hello again! It seems like it was forever ago that I wrote you last time. Time goes so slow on a mission. Apparently the first 3 months feel like 3 years, but then the next year and a half feels like 3 months. I'm looking forward to the time when it feels like that. Haha! Not that it's bad, just a little strange adjusting to say the least.

This week was so busy. I always heard missionary work was exhausting, but never knew how exhausting. I have almost been here 3 weeks (feels like 3 months, sometimes years, Haha!) but already I'm amazed at how tired I am. Luckily when we are really busy, we don't even have time to realize how tired we are, and then when we have our daily planning every night I doze off and am so tired. But it's good. It means that I can at least sleep the whole night.

The weather here has been really ugly lately. Really rainy (I think every day it's rained, except for Sunday) which makes the people a little less happy. Usually they are pretty nice. Especially to me. It's so interesting to see how people treat Americans and Canadians so differently. I am constantly amazed by it. Even the members of the ward to an extent. It was funny, one of them was telling me how Americans and Canadians were the same, and I said that it was very similar to Germans and Austrians. They thought about it for a bit and were like ''Oh... Well then, I love Canadians!'' It was funny. I'm very happy to be Canadian, being away from Canada always makes me realize that. People here are just very straightforward. If you are fat, they tell you. Luckily this hasn't happened to me yet! Which is good. And all my clothes still fit. I haven't had to buy any new clothes except for a companionship tie. Apparently every time you see the Mission President you buy a companionship tie. So I guess I'll have to be buying a couple They are only like 5 €, which isn't too bad. If I have to, I guess I can buy more ties. Haha! I will have so many when I come back. It's going to be awesome!!!!

So, this week. Monday was P-Day and we didn't do too much. We actually spent quite a bit of time (Monday evening and a good chunk of Friday) cleaning the old apartment here. There used to be 4 Elders here in Innsbruck, but for some reason they changed it to be only 2. Which is fine, but we had to clean out their old apartment, which hadn't been lived in for 4 months. That was a ton of fun! Apparently Elder H and Elder E (his old companion) cleaned out quite a bit, but it was still gross. Why are Elder's so gross? While we were cleaning it though, I was so amazed by the members here, as I am every week. They are amazing! Our ward is truly amazing, that's the only way to describe it. Our Ward Mission Leader, C, is like 26, but he is super. He spent a whole bunch of time cleaning the apartment and didn't tell us about it so when we went there it was way cleaner then we left it, he also comes to do joint teaches with us if ever we need it, because most of the members don't live right in Innsbruck, they live between 20 minutes and 2 hours (The branch President is 2.5 with trains and buses). So we cleaned pretty much all Monday evening, which is awesome! Haha! I love cleaning so much. It's interesting, at the beginning of your mission you hate doing stuff like that, but I've heard that by the end you are begging for opportunities to do stuff like that to take a break from tracting or whatever else.

Tuesday was a good day as well. We had a district meeting with Elder H and I, (Elder G was out of the hospital, but not feeling up to a meeting) which is always weird when it's just us two. My absolute favorite thing to do is Role Playing. NOT! Haha! It's really good to learn, but just super awkward. After our meeting we went dooring, and didn't really meet anyone, just got a lot of ''No time!'' ''No interest!'' or my personal favorite ''I'm Buddhist!''. That one is especially good when you can see them wearing a cross, and they are the typical Austrian with blonde hair, and blue eyes. Funny people. After that we had FHE with the JAE (YSA) in Innsbruck. There were 7 of us there and we made pizzas. It was interesting to say the least. Haha! It's always a lot of fun, just different. It's so weird to go from Lethbridge where we had 7 YSA wards to Innsbruck which doesn't even have its own YSA ward. I'm sure it's an even bigger adjustment for people who went to BYU or something. But it's a lot of fun, and I really admire all of the kids here who come to all of the activities and do everything that they do. It is so much harder here, but at the same time, I think it makes them that much closer and reliant upon each other.

Wednesday was also good (Everyday is good! Haha!) We got let in for the first time dooring. It was interesting to say the least. The guy was smoking a lot, and it was sort of sketchy because he had all of his tools and everything out. I was convinced he was going to shank me or something. But he was actually really nice. He had been really prepared to meet us. His name was A and he had been homeless for the past 8 years after his divorce, until about 2 months ago. His life was sort of just starting to get back together and made good and that is where we met him. He seemed interested in the church, which was good. And was a good, funny guy. After that we did some more dooring and got let in again by a student named L. She is studying Biology and is from South Tirol. South Tirol is weird because it's in Italy, but the people speak German. It was given to Italy during the 2nd World War, and the people went from being Austrian one day to Italian the next. I don't really know how they feel about it, but I imagine it's not too great.

Thursday we had Leadership Training so our whole Zone met in Salzburg. Which is beautiful! There is a castle right in the middle of the city. It's unreal! I haven't ever seen the Sound of Music (which takes place in Salzburg?) But apparently the house where it is filmed is about 2 minutes away from the Chapel there. It is also one of the only chapels in our mission with a water fountain, they just don't have them here in Europe. Just thought I would share that fun little tidbit with you. Leadership training was really good. The Zone Leaders taught us, and we all learned from each other. We have a really small zone of about 12, which is really small when there are 7 zones in our mission and about 170 missionaries. So we really got to learn a lot. President and Sister M came too, but they were late because of car troubles. They were able to teach us a lot about Charity, and how when we really love the people here, it won't matter about trying to get the numbers we want (any missionary will understand this. Ask them. If you don't get it, I can clarify later) because we'll love the people so much it will be easy to get those numbers. And about how we receive blessing based on how we react to the good times AND the bad times because that is when we really learn and progress. Both President and Sister M talked a lot about how this area is a Sleeping Giant. People here are prepared, we just have to do all that we can do to wake it up. Quite a few General Authorities have said that Germany and the rest of Central Europe are so close to becoming the next South America, which is crazy to think about, but the temple being built in Rome and in other places things are really changing here. It's awesome! When we got back from Salzburg we had a lesson with L, and it went really good. Before we start teaching them the lesson 1 in Preach My Gospel we have a lesson 0 to try and teach people what to expect and other things to generally set the pace for our teaching. We did that and we talk about their questions and try to answer a couple, and get to know them. Since we found lots of new people last week, and didn't have anyone the week before we have taught lots of lesson 0's. We also taught a lesson 0 to another investigator, M. We saw her about 4 times within 2 days and at first she didn't have any interest, but then said that because we were so nice she'd like to meet with us. It was nice to hear that! She had investigated the church about 20 years before and had made her kids go to primary with their member friends because she wanted them to turn out good. She is really prepared for the gospel I think, and I am so excited for her.

Like I said about Friday we spent a lot of time cleaning that other apartment, but we got it all finished. Mostly one of the members did. He was there from 7:45 in the morning to 22:30 . It was unreal. I am blown away by how much the members do for the missionaries here. He left the apartment at 2230, but his train back to his town didn't come until 2400. He was fine to do it, and was so kind. He's an amazing guy. Because the ward is so small here, pretty much everyone who is active has at some point in time been the Branch President, or Relief Society President, or any other calling, so they are all so strong in the church. We took a break in the middle of the day, and taught P, the lady from Trinidad we found in our area book about a week ago who we had taught who said that since she stopped meeting with the missionaries, something in her life was missing. We taught her with the G's and she had a friend with her who was so involved in the lesson and really felt the Spirit. It was awesome! There are so many people we meet who are so prepared for the gospel, it's ridiculous. We just have to try and not screw up in their conversion process.

Saturday was an interesting day. We met with A again, and he turned really bitter and was very anti church-y. I think sometimes as missionaries we forget how big of a change that is for people, and forget to teach them the basic things that we have learned since we were children. Something I need to work on better. Like when we teach people and I tell them something that I've learned growing up. I don't know how to prove it, I just know it. I know that it talks about it in the Bible or Book of Mormon, I just don't know exactly where. It's frustrating, but I know that as I study more and strive to understand and learn more then I will be able to better help the people I teach. After that we went to the church and I had to practice piano because they like me to play on Sunday. It's awful... I can only play like 6 songs in the English Hymn Book, but there are only 200 songs in the German one (340 something in the English) so lots of the ones I can play aren't in the Hymn book. It's the second time I've had to play, but hopefully the last. Haha! It's so difficult! Why did you ever let me quit piano. Worst decision I've ever made. I can almost hear Sister P laughing at me for having such a hard time, and her saying that if I wasn't such a brat when I was little then I would be able to play. But hind sight it always 20/20. After that we taught the C family. It was the best lesson I've ever been at. We taught them with the G's, and it was great! They are preparing to be baptized on August 14th, and so we had to teach the extra fun lesson of the Law of Chastity, Tithing, and we were going to do Word of Wisdom, but ran out of time. It was a really good lesson though. Sister G taught Chastity (THANK GOODNESS!), and then we all talked about Tithing. The C parents, J and D almost ended up teaching us more than we taught them. They know there Bible really well, and in Zimbabwe would always pay their tithing because they needed those blessings. It was neat to see how they already had a testimony of something that is hard for many members. They are really ready for baptism and I am so excited for it! It will be great for the ward. On Sunday they were at church and because it was the 5th Sunday, we had a combined Priesthood/Relief Society Meeting. J got up and introduced himself and said that he was so excited to become a full fledged member of the church, and was so excited to learn and teach with the members and to become part of the great organization and family that they had. It was really powerful, 2 ladies in the ward started crying. I'm so excited for them! I think they would be the highlight of my week. The G's usually teach them, but their children are coming to visit them (Senior Missionaries have hardly any rules at all) and so we will be teaching them for the next two weeks, every day to get them ready for baptism. I am so excited! Their three boys are really solid and will be great for the ward too because they need more youth.

Sunday was all in all good. Church was good, and then afterwards we taught R, the man we met at the Shashi bar. I have never felt more dumb in my life. He knows his Bible inside and out. Apparently he met with the Jehovah's Witnesses and then stumped them with all his questions so they just stopped teaching him. He was pretty proud of that. He is soo funny, but because he knows things so well he has a lot of questions that he wants us to answer. And they are hard questions, things that I had never even read before. But I know that with the Lord's help we will be able to teach him, and that he will be able to find the answers and we will teach him. He is a great guy, so wise, and so funny. You would love him.


I love you guys a lot, thanks for your letters and your support.

Sincerely,

Elder Connor J. Thompson

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