August 27, 2012

Hey everyone, how are you all doing? Enjoying the last little part of the summer vacation? I hope so.  It's actually cooled down a bit this week, and that has been really nice. I suppose first of all, I should tell you all what is happening for this next transfer.  Mom, your prediction wasn't 100% correct, but actually not too wrong.  I am going to be staying here and working with an Elder Hfrom..... Utah...  Haha.    He is in his second transfer, so I don't know him at all, but I will be finishing the new 12 Week Training Program that the church has implemented.  Which means that for this next transfer we will have 4 hours of study every day instead of the usual 3.    Plus, the good thing about having the same address is that I will get so much more mail because you don't have to worry about it being sent to the wrong place! *Hint* Another good thing is that Elder H hasn't been in Germany for 6 months yet, so he can drive!!!  Which will be really nice.  There are quite a few less-active members in the ward who want to come back to church, and we are going to help them, unfortunately it was almost impossible to get there without a car (some would take about 2 and a half hours.  One way.) So that is really exciting.  

This week was a pretty eventful week.  On Sunday, with the new Branch Presidency, Elder N and a woman in the ward sang in church.  There was a non-member there who is really good friends with the Stake President, and she is awesome.  She asked if Elder N would then sing in the Cathedral here in Bad Säckingen.  Which of course was okay with it.  The reason was because it was the 7th anniversary of her husband's death and she, as a Protestant, holds a service for him, who was Catholic every year.  It was very interesting to say the least.  It was a little different than when I went to church on my exchange because here I actually understood what was being said (at least the German parts.  My Latin is still a little shaky). 

So, after we sang, she took the ladies of the Relief Society Sisters out to drinks and then they invited us to come.  So after singing in the Catholic church we went out for drinks with all the Relief Society Sisters... They all ordered alcohol free martinis, and Frau Raiber (the non-member) tried to get us to as well.  I just went for some Ginger Ale, and Elder N got some apple juice.  It was pretty funny to look at.  Everyone was staring at us.  And I don't blame them.  I would have too.  Haha!

In all honesty, the more I think about the rest of the week I cannot really think of other specific things that happened.  Haha!  But it was a good week.  Still pretty slow, but we are working hard and still trying to find new people.  We have met some very interesting people this week, and have a lot of good things ahead of us for the next transfer.  I am really excited about it.   I am excited to work with a younger missionary too because he will be excited about everything! 

I love you guys a lot!  Hope everything is going good!

--
Sincerely,

Elder Thompson

Mensch Meier! Es ist mir sehr warm!‏

Hey! First of all.  Just in case you were wondering what the weather is like here.  It is WAY hot.  I think it's 38 degrees today.  And for whatever reason it has been really humid, and since it is terrible for the environment, we do not have air conditioning anywhere in Europe.  And in case you had forgotten, Europe is not known for it's sense of personal hygiene, nor it's sense of modesty -  there are a lot of gross smelly, half naked people everywhere.
  This week was an okay week here.  Unfortunately, not a whole lot new in the way of investigators, but a good week nonetheless. 
On Monday, we didn't do a whole lot special.  Just cleaned a bit.  It's weird... I really am not a huge cleaning person, but I really want everything in our apartment to be clean, we didn't finish everything, so we will hopefully get everything today, and it will be perfectly clean just in time for me to get transferred.  Haha!  Irony stinks... 
I actually don't know what will happen for transfers.  I am pretty sure that we will no be working together again, but what that entails is a mystery to me.  I guess we will just wait and see what happens on Friday. 
On Tuesday, we had exchanges and I was able to work in Singen with Elder D.  We taught a lady from Sierra Leon who was baptized on Saturday.  It was a very funny appointment.  I had taught her another time on exchanges about a month ago, and so it was neat to see the progress that she made.  She still has a way to go, but she is willing to change and come closer to Christ, which is great.
 The rest of the week was just spent finding, and although we met some cool people who were really nice, and seemed open and positive not a whole lot happened.  For example, we met this older lady (probably in her late 60's), who came up to us and was like 'You are Mormon missionaries right?' when we said that we were she was like 'I saw you yesterday while you were on the other side of the street.  And I wanted to talk to you, but I was busy and I couldn't do it.  So I decided if I ever saw you I would talk to you.  My aunt moved to Utah and joined the Mormons and wrote me a letter and said that at 94 she finally found the right  religion, namely the Mormon church.  I want to see what you guys are about.''  We tried talking to her, but she didn't have time, and then we couldn't set up an appointment or anything because she just left.  We gave her a card though and she said that she would come to church, but after hearing that thousands of times, my faith is a little low in people.  But we will see.  Lots of things like that happened, so maybe someone will phone us or something cool will happen.  Who knows?  We just need to pray hard and keep on working hard.
On Saturday, we had lunch with an American family because her and Elder N were singing something in church.  It was really good.  It's nice to get a little piece of home everyone once in a while.
 On Sunday we also had a crazy day because the Branch Presidency changed, and so that meant a lot of visitors in our tiny church, and everyone was really excited.  The changes will be good, and I think it will help people get a little more excited about missionary work.  Hopefully.  Haha! 
Things are good here.  A lot of crazy things, and crazy people, but all in all really good.  I am doing good, and although it's really frustrating, am still happy to be here.  I love you guys a lot!

--
Sincerely,

Elder Thompson

P.S. Did I mention that Elder Nelson is coming to visit the mission?  It will be in the 2nd week of September, so that is really exciting.  It will be cool.  Hopefully I will get to see it, since I missed when Elder Bednar came, and when Elder Christofferson was here too. 

Hey Family

Hey!  Sounds like you all have had a pretty crazy couple of weeks.  I also got the notes from the family reunion.  It's official.  We have the best family ever.  Grandpa summed it up best he wrote, 'Grandma and I are so lucky to have such an amazing family'.  He's right.  We are all so lucky.  It was a lot of fun to hear from everyone, and to see that while a lot of things change, a lot of things are still the same.

This week, was another tougher week in the way of investigators and as far as missionary work goes.  Suffice it to say.  We had a grand total of 0 lessons.  Yeah... It was tough.  I mean, we didn't have a whole lot of people to meet with to begin with, but the few we had are either one vacation, or they have just disappeared, or don't want to meet with us.  It is tough. 

Our P-Day was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, it was really ugly and rainy.  But the jist of Hohentwiel is that it is built upon some random volcano.  It was untakeable, and was a huge castle.  Somehow it was destroyed (I think in one of the World Wars?), but the ruins are still there, and really neat.  There was a point though, where we couldn't see anything off of the peak because it was so cloudy, and we were in the cloud.  Which was a neat experience.  

This week we also had Zone Conference, which was a really big spiritual high.  We talked a lot about missionary things and the such.  Elder N, Elder S and I also sang for a musical number there.  It went pretty well actually. 

Hey

Hey everyone!  Sounds like you are all doing really good!  Good to hear that everything is going well with the renovations and what not.  It sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun.  Which is good.  I know of some people who wouldn't find it that much fun.  Haha! 

It's pretty strange to hear how fast things are happening there.  I remember about a month ago thinking that not too much would have changed since I've been gone, but apparently that is not true anymore.  But that's okay.  Change is good. 

News from me this week.  In all honesty, this week was about as good if not 'better' than last week.  So... that was fun. 

But we still did have some good things happen this week.  On Tuesday, we had District Meeting, and then went on exchange.  I was with Elder S.  Which was a lot of fun.  We did a lot of contacting, and had an appointment with T.  She is a Russian lady who we met a couple of weeks ago and we just finally got to meet with her.  It was good.

Thursday not a whole lot happened, we just did a lot more contacting, which is good.  I think everytime I feel like I am getting okay with talking to people sometime in my brain goes crazy and then I get really bad at it again.  I don't know how it was on Jason or Matt's mission, but strangely enough, there are not too many people here who really like to talk to people about religion.  But we keep trying, that is all we can do.  We did have an eating appointment with the T Family.  They are awesome.  J was there and we talked a lot about Temples and what goes on there and what we do there.  She is probably a better member than half the people I have met.  In 3 months she's read the Standard Works, and everything that we are studying right now in Sunday school and what they do in Relief Society.  She's way cool.  I really love her.

On Friday, we had an appointment with Brother B.

On Saturday, we spent the whole day finding and nobody wanted to talk to us.  We didn't even get a single phone number or address.  Which is way frustrating.  But it just happens.  I am really being reminded how important patience is, and how I need to work on it still.  Things will happen in the Lord's time and in His way.  Not how I want it. 

On Sunday, we had an eating appointment with the M family.  They are really cool.  She studied music (voice) at the University of Indiana (one of the best schools for music in America), and he is something for RBC (no joke).  Her and Elder N are singing in church and I am playing piano for them so we practiced and then they fed us, and it was great.  They have a son who is in the phase where he just says things the way they are.  Right after he told me that I had small ears, he pointed out that my hair was very blond.  And then said 'You sure have a lot of blonde hair on your head!'  Best. Kid. Ever.  Haha! 

 

At the end of the week, Elder N and I sat down and talked about it.  It was a tough week, but you know what? Those happen on missions, that is part of our mission.  And all we can do is keep working and make things better next week.  Sorry this is so short.  I love you guys a lot!  Good luck with everything at home!

July 30, 2012

This week was an okay week.  To be totally not a whole lot happened investigator wise.   But I don't want to complain, so I will talk about the good things that have happened this week. 

First of all, we had a Leadership Training in Zürich.  Which was neat to get to go into Zürich.  Sorry to disappoint Bobbi-Jo, but Swiss German is terrible.  Haha!  It was really neat though because it was basically a Zone Conference, but for all of the three Swiss Zones.  So there were a ton of missionaries in what was almost a regular North American church building (without a water fountain of course.  Oh, how I miss those...)  There was such an amazing spirit there.  We talked a lot about not letting things get us too discouraged.   We have seen so many miracles, and there are so many things happening, and I think every single missionary who is serving cannot say that we are alone here.  This truly is the Lord's work.  I really know that it is.  I just get a good feeling thinking about it.  And thinknig about how much we can help people.  And we are slowly seeing some things, and we are going to keep working until things get way better. 

While dooring, we had a really funny experience, where we talked to a lady who was 96 for a while (she looked 70 tops).  And then she was like ''So are you Catholic or Protestant?''  We then explained the church and she was like ''So... Catholic or Protestant?''.  Then we explained it again, and she was like ''So.. Protestant?''.  She was a little crazy... But was a really friendly lady.  Trying to explain where the church was and inviting her there seemed to produce the same confused result, but we will see what happens there. 

I love you guys a lot, and it's way exciting that things are going so good back home.  The more I think about it, the more happy I am, and it makes me glad that I am on a mission.    Good luck with everything and all the renos.  It sounds fun.  I am sad to be missing it.  Hah!  Not!

Hope you have a great week.  I will hear from you next week.  Or maybe in a letter?  Haha!  Sorry this is so short.  But really... nothing exciting happened.  Things are doing good.  Keeping the course.  I am remembering who I am and what I stand for.  What else is there to do?  Love you!

Elder Thompson