Hey!

Hey everyone! Can you believe that it is Monday already? Where does the time go?  I remember Jesse talking about the MTC saying that the days go really slow sometimes, but the weeks go flying by.  It's the same out here still.  Except, quite a bit of the time, the days go really fast as well.  Strange...

  On Monday, we just kind of bummed around with the Elders in Singen, played Mini-golf and had fun.  We will be seeing them a lot in the next two weeks as we will be out of our area for 7 days in the next two weeks.  Yikes!  Which just means we need to work twice as hard for the times that we are here.  But it will be good.  They are having an Open House for their new church building on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of October so we will be in Singen that whole time.  Then for Conference, the 6th and 7th since Conference isn't broadcasted here we will have to go to Villingen-Schwenningen, and since it will be so late on the 7th then we will probably not come home until the 8th.  And then transfers are on the 11th.  And we will see what happens there. 

On Tuesday, we had District Meeting, and then we went contacting the rest of the day since we don't really have any investigators.  We met this really nice older Russian lady and were able to give her a Book of Mormon.  We made out an appointment to come back so we could give her one in Russian since that would be easier for her.  (There are a lot of German-Russian people here. I think during the war, or after the war.  I'm not too sure, but at some point, a lot of Germans were taken to Russia, and for the past ten years or so a lot of them have been coming back since Germany is a little nicer than Russia to live.  So they are Russian people who are sort of German)  She was really nice and said that she believed on something, but it was hard for her because she grew up hearing that there was no God, and after being told that so many times it's really tough, but she wants to believe, and that 'desire to believe' is all that we need here. 

We went back to her on Wednesday and introduced a little more, and then gave her the Russian one, as well as a Family: Proclamation, and Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

On Thursday, we had another cool experience.  We were in Rheinfelden contacting and I didn't know where we should go.   So I was talking to people as they came by, and then there was this nice lady who stopped.    I told her about the Book of Mormon and then she said that her mom would be really interested in something like that as well.  We asked if we could come by and give her and her mom copies of it, and she was like ''Why don't you just come right now?''.  So we came and taught them both about it as well.  They are both Italian, and really nice and friendly. 

Nothing too special happened on Friday. 

On Saturday, we had a Branch Brunch.  Which was really good.

On Sunday we had a good day at church, and then because there was so much food left over from the brunch we ate again after church.  Woohoo!!  I hate cooking.  Haha!  And I love eating.  Which is a bad habit to have while single.  But when married.... Haha! 

Thanks for your prayers and support.  I love you guys a lot!

--
Sincerely,

Elder Thompson

September 17, 2012

Yeah... This week has been great... Haha!  In all honesty, it was better than last week.  It took a little bit to get there, but it's better.  And next week will be better too.  I will just go through the week.  In all honesty, not a whole lot happened because I was sick on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and am still a little sick today, but it's just a nice man-cold.  Yeah... The problem is that on a mission you don't have enough time to sit around and then get better, so then it gets worse so then you just have to sit around and get better.  We've been taking it a little slower, so hopefully I will be good soon.  I feel like I am on the up-swing too so that makes things nice. 
Tuesday night we went to Singen because we were going to go to Zurich on Wednesday Morning (We had to be there at 8:30 which means we need to get into Zurich before 8:00, which means we had to take a fairly early train), and so we went a little early and helped them to move some things at the church.  The branch here just got a brand new church building (they were meeting in a rented building beforehand) and so yesterday was their first Sunday there.  They are having a big open house in a couple of weeks so we will be coming and helping quite a bit with that.  It will be fun. 
Anyways, on Wednesday, we ended up taking the 6:51 train to Zurich.  Which means we have to get up earlier than 6:30 to say the least.  When you consider that we also had 8 elders and one shower and bathroom and we had to make two trips to drive everyone to the train station, it means we started people at 4:15.  Awesome...  But it wasn't too bad actually (although one of the Elders there was sick, and I think I caught it from him.  That and a mix of no sleep/stress).  So we ride the train and get there.  And then had a meeting with Elder Nelson and Sister Nelson.  What an amazing experience.  I don't know how anyone could talk to him and not think he's an apostle.  He knew so much and we had a sort of class with him for 2 hours where we could ask questions and he used the scriptures and knew so much.  His wife was also way funny.  She spoke to us for about 20 minutes too.  She was hilarious.  Another reason, I want to marry a Canadian.  Hahah!!  It was such a neat experience.  Especially because President and Sister Miles were able to talk to us about Elder Nelson as a person, and Sister Miles told us some stories of growing up and the funny things he would do and memories they had.  It was really neat to see that.  They talked about how they knew that he was called as an apostle because they saw the change in him that happened after he was called. 
Brother T was also called as our GML, so that was really good.  We are going to start work on Thursday with our first meeting.  He phoned us today and asked if he could bring an investigator.  We said yes.  We can talk business after they leave, or some other time.  We really aren't working with too many people, so we are no position to say no to investigators. 
The past week was little tough with being sick.  I believe it reached its low last night when in an attempt to make some comfort food I tried to make apple pie.  Only to realize I have no idea how, and I am way to lazy, and you can't buy shortening here.  So instead I just chopped up all the apples I had (like 9) because I remember that was always nice to eat.  But I was too lazy to peel them (that is a mistake), so then I just cut them up and put some cinnamon and sugar on them since we didn't have lemon juice.  That's a new low...  But it helped.  Sometimes you have to have a moment like that and realize how pathetic you are before you can get better.  Hopefully it will work.
  I love you guys a lot! Thanks for the e-mails!  I am doing better though so things are good.  This week will be awesome!  I know it!
And if not I can just cut up some more apples (peeled of course)
--
Sincerely,

Elder Thompson

Sept 10, 2012

Hello family!

How is everyone doing? It's weird to think that school has already started. Weirder to think that it makes a difference for the boys now.  And to think that they are riding the bus to school and everything.  I feel like that wasn't really too long ago for me at all.  Strange how fast the time goes.  When I think about when I come home and how fast they have grown, I honestly can't believe it.  It is so crazy!  But good to hear that they are adjusting well and doing good.  I am sure that for Kari it is fun to have some 1 on 1 time with Dex before the girls come, and for Kate I am assuming that 1 on 1 with Liam (when Luke is asleep) is not too bad either.  Really, it just means that you will all have more time for... LETTERS!

Haha!  Sorry, I think that always wanting more mail is just part of being a missionary.  But I really shouldn't complain because this week I got a package! Which was good.  It got here on Tuesday, so it took just over a week.  Which was way sweet.

Anyways, I will try to go through the week.

Monday, we had our District P-Day and played Basketball... It was about as much fun as it sounds.  Although, I have almost perfected my granny shooting abilities.  So that is a plus.  We went contacting and tried to contact a referral that some members gave us last week.  But sadly, we still haven't been able to get a hold of him.  Which is a little sad since it is the first referral I have ever gotten from a member before.  Then we did a little contacting.

On Tuesday, we had our District Meeting, which was good and then Elder S and I went on exchange.  It was awesome.  I love Elder S.  We also had our Ward Council on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we finished the exchange, and then we did a lot of contacting, and unfortunately it didn't really go too great.  But that is okay.  We just keep on working and improving.  Being with such a new missionary has helped me to realize how far I really have come and how I still have a ways to go.  

On Thursday, we didn't really have anything too special either.  Actually, not really anything at all.  Haha!  Just did some contacting.  

On Friday we had weekly planning. 

On Friday we also had an appointment with B.  We talked about baptism and he said that we could set a date next week which will be really awesome.  He came to church too so that was way sweet.

On Saturday, we went contacting again.

On Sunday we went to church.  Not very many people were there because a missionary in the Stake was leaving in the neighbouring ward, so tons of people where there and not in our ward.  Which meant that during sacrament meeting after the only speaker, with 40 minutes left they say, Elder Thompson will now give us a talk.  Awesome... Actually though I was able to give a 15 minute talk, which I don't know if I could even do in English since I hate speaking... It was pretty coherent too.  And afterwards people were like 'Your German is really good, that was a good talk.  Thanks!', so that was really good.  We went contacting afterwards, which was actually really good.

I love you all a lot!  Hope you are doing good.

--
Sincerely,

Elder Thompson

September Already!

Hey family! How are you doing? Can you believe that it is already September? I can't.  Things here in Bad Säckingen have been a little ugly weather wise, but we actually had a pretty good week. 
On Tuesday, we had our District Meeting like usual, where we came to Singen and then said good  bye to the missionaries who would be leaving the District.  On Wednesday, we went out for lunch with the lady who Elder N sang for.   Mostly because everyone gives us strange looks anyways, but being in a nice-ish (3 stars.  Is that good? It seemed fancier than places like Moxie's or Earl's for sure) to eat with a 60 year old woman, is for some reason strange to the people here.  Weird.... Haha!  It was also pretty crazy in the fact that she paid for it all (which isn't too strange, since it was her idea to go there, and German hospitality would indicate that she should pay), but it was a little weird because it cost over 100€ for all three of us.  Crazy!  After that we met with the E's and had a good lesson with them.    Afterwards, we had to go back so Elder N could finish packing.  Which meant that I got to clean some more.  I pretty much cleaned the whole apartment, which isn't too small.  It's about the size of the top floor in the now old house.  And after having missionaries live in it, may have needed some love.  It's for sure better.  Still a couple things though that I don't even care to clean.  Like the huge pile of junk that has been added to by every missionary leaving the apartment.  Ugh... But it's better.
Thursday was the big day.  Transfer day.  It was a little strange because normally you would go to Munich or Stuttgart to meet your companion, but since Ravensburg (Where Elder H was coming from, and where Elder N was going to) was on the way to Stuttgart, we just got off there, and then waited for a train that took us directly to Bad Säckingen.  Which was weird but good.  

 On Friday, we didn't have a whole lot.  We did our study, and went by on B and talked with him for about 30 minutes.  It was interesting.  I hadn't realized how fast he spoke, or how thick his accent was until at the end of the lesson Elder H was like 'What was he talking about? I didn't really understand anything.'  He told us that he would come to church, and actually it was a pretty gospel centered lesson.  

 Saturday was also a little slower because we didn't really have any appointments with investigators.  We had a meeting with a member in the ward, S who had his birthday this week.   I baked him some brownies, and then we went and played some games with him.   

 Sunday, was pretty much the same.  We went to church which was good.  I really love the ward here.  Sadly, we still don't have a Ward Mission Leader, which is a little tougher, but I was promised we would get one next week. That brings us then to today.  We are in Singen and are going to have a game day with our district.  Hopefully basketball will not be involved.  Haha!  Things are going good here.
Good to hear that everyone at home is doing good.  

 If you are bored.  I know someone who would love a letter.  Or even a postcard.  Just something to read.  Haha!  Love you!

--
Sincerely,

Elder Thompson