'May 27, 2013

Hey everyone, here I am again!

I think that this is maybe my 100th letter from my mission.  Pretty strange eh? Where has the time gone? Really though, WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?  I still feel like a little greenie missionary who doesn't know anything.  But it is all good.  I think at the beginning of my mission I had this image that at the end of my mission when I was 'old' I would know how to be a sweet missionary and know what to do in every situation and just be awesome.  I feel like I am still waiting for that day to come. Maybe waiting isn't the best word, I am trying really hard for that day to come, but it will just take a while.  On the bright side, there are still lots of opportunities to practice at home too.  But that will come later. 

In any case these week was pretty good.  We saw a lot of good things, and then some that weren't super great.  But that's just the way it goes.

On Monday, we had family home evening with Sister V. She is great.  We've done service for her before, and she is just the funniest lady.

On Tuesday, we had an appointment with an older couple who are sort of eternal investigators.  It actually went pretty well, and we are making some slow progress with them (which is good since we have only met about 2 times) so we will see what happens.  The secret is for the members to do stuff, so we will see how that goes.  We also had an appointment with the M family which was a lot of fun.  It's always awesome meeting with the members when they are really excited about missionary work. 

Wednesday we had a District Meeting and then I worked in Heilbronn with Elder J, who is just a little baby in his second transfer.  He is boss though.  It was a good exchange, and I learned a lot from him.  I remember when I was so new.  It feels like it was just a little while ago though.  Oh well....

We also met with the S's again and had a member there, which was really helpful.  They were really honest and now we know a lot better what to do with them.

On Friday not too much happened, we went contacting and dropped off some cookies for a less-active member who had a birthday.  Then we set up an appointment to come back.  Score!  It was good.

On Saturday, we were in Pforzheim and did splits with members there for a finding day.  It was really cool.  Members are great.  We also went with the Sisters to a lesson with a man who is preparing to be baptized which is also way cool. 

We were supposed to have a lesson with a really cool couple who we found a week or so ago who were really interested, and on the search for a church (something that doesn't happen too often), sadly, the phoned us about 4 hours before and said they didn't want to talk to us anymore, and that we should come pick up our Books of Mormon.  Bummer....

But such is life.  We will keep going, and learn from it.  (Not really anything else to do)  On Sunday we had a good day.   After church we went to the D's, who are awesome.  They are one of my favourite families ever.  It's good.
All in all, this was a good week.  I am just trying to make the best of each day.  I don't have too many left... Weird....

Anyways, I love you all!
Don't think I am too busy to read e-mails! *hint hint*

Take care and have a good week!

May 20, 2013

Hey everyone!

I don't have tons of time this week.  That may be a common theme until I get back since we want to use all our P-Days as sweet as possible.  Which is only 3.  Crazy!!  

In any case, things here are going really well.  I realize that my letter last week was also pretty poor, so I will try to cover things a little better than I did last week.  Not going to make any promises though.  Especially since I get headaches when I look at the computer for over 30 minutes (an answer to Dad's many long years of prayer?) and we don't have tons of time. 

Anyways, we had Mission Tour with Elder Jose A. Teixeira, he is the Europe Area President and the most loving man ever.  It was way good, and despite having 31 Elders sleeping in an apartment where normally 7 sleep, it was pretty good.  I took one for the team and slept on the floor beside the bathroom.  That might have been a bad choice.  Oh well....  

All of our investigators are doing really good.  We found 5 new ones this week, which is really sweet because that doesn't happen too often.  

It was all in all just a really great week.  And last week was sweet too.

We went to the Mercedes-Benz museum, which was really cool.

We have also just had a lot of cool experiences with being in the right place at the right time.  It's nice how that works out so much.

I also learned that Hay Fever (I think that would be the translation.  Heuschnupfchen) is an actual thing, and I was actually sick on Monday and Tuesday (it was pretty bad those days), but then it got better.  I am pretty much completely healthy again.  So that is good.  

Things have been a little tougher with our part member families because they are still on vacation, but they should be back pretty soon so that will be really nice.  Until then we will be meeting with the new people who we found.  Two of them have said that they want to be baptized, so we will see how that goes.  It would be really sweet to see another baptism before I go back, but if it doesn't happen I know that it will happen right after I come back home.  And in all honesty, it doesn't matter if it's now or then.  The important thing is, is that they are coming closer to Christ.  It's not about writing as many names as possible in the cover of my Preach My Gospel. 

Anyways, I gotta run.  Just saw that our train is coming sooner than we thought.  Can't miss it, or else we will be late.  And Germans do NOT like that at all.  Take care! Thanks for the pictures and the emails.  I love you guys lots!

Hello!

Hey family!

I cannot believe that another week is already gone.  Where does the time go? It's crazy.  This week, was really good.  The weather wasn't super great, but things will be better this week, and everyone in Germany was pretty happy because there are two German teams in the Champions League Final.  That probably means nothing to any of you.  But it just means that there are going to be some crazy busy nights where dooring is a really, REALLY bad choice.  And that there is a little more beer on the streets than normal, although that just happens the warmer things get.
In any case, I will try to give you the run down on what happened this week.  On Tuesday we had our District Meeting, which was really good.  Our District is really great, and it's always fun to get together.  Afterwards we had an appointment with M which was really good.  She is a really neat lady.  We also had an appointment with the B family, who is awesome.  We have tons of good families here.  I really am so blessed. 

On Wednesday we had a Ward Barbecue! Which was awesome! 

The barbecue was really good because we had quite a few less-active members, and part member families, and a couple investigators there so it was really awesome. 

Since I am a District Leader we had a meeting on Friday and talked about the problems that missionaries are having, and just a lot about how we can help people remember that we are actually teaching and finding the children of God here and not just numbers.  It was interesting.  Missionaries are great.  Some are strange.  Quite a few are just crazy.  But I love them all.  We then later had an appointment with the G family that went really well.  We are hoping to talk to them about baptism now, except we have a problem... They are going to be gone for three weeks on vacation... No!! Luckily one of the daughters isn't, so we are going to work a lot more with the ward with her, and we are going to meet again before they go.  I think it will be really good.  They are a great family.  And I will still be here when they get back, so it's all good.
Saturday we did service (I have never done so much service my entire mission before) for another family.  We then visited a less-active family who was really nice, but it's just an interesting situation.  We will work there too.  There really is tons to do with a lot of people. 

On Sunday we had church, which was really good.  It was Fast Sunday, but sadly no kids bore testimonies this month.  It was also a super crazy Sunday because all the stores were open.  Normally nothing is open on Sunday except for restaurants, but this Sunday it was almost like Spectrum (we couldn't find the Mini-Donuts sadly.  Which I guess wouldn't have been super great since we were fasting, and it was Sunday...).  We talked to some great people, and all in all it was a good day.  And to top it all off Oswaldo came to church, and finally learned my name! Haha! 

This upcoming week is looking really good.  We have Mission Tour in Munich on Friday where a member of the 70 will be there.  It should be really good.  The problem is that is starts really early in the morning, so we either sleep over somewhere in Munich, or leave really really early the morning of.  Either way it will be something for the journal.  Haha!  We also have quite a few appointments, and things will just be great.  Life is good. 

--
Sincerely,

Elder Thompson