week 24: a spanish Book of Mormon

This is for my mom...since the last time she asked for a tag picture

I sent one of the back of my tag!

Well we had transfers this week, me and Elder Leocadio are staying here in Lerdo another transfer. One of the other Elders in the area left and now Elder Garcia is with Elder Bradshaw. He's from Texas (yay for another English speaker!) and Elder Garcia was his trainer, so a father and son are back together. 

This week was a little tough. We found out that one of our investigators who has been progressing isn't married so that is a little sad. We're trying to find people but it's been a little tough here. We've also been teaching a family that we found a couple of weeks ago. The parents aren't married, but they've got a son we can continue to teach and baptize. 

Also this week I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish! I'm pretty pumped about that. I just want you all to know it's true. Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, Mormon, Moroni, and every other person in it really lived and they all wrote their experiences for us. Above all, I know Jesus Christ lived, died, and lived again for us. He is our Savior and loves us all. 

--Elder Thompson

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

A little more info on our investigator...he is actually married...to someone he has been separated from for 12 years. He is living with his girlfriend now. Divorce here is really expensive, so he has never been able to afford it. We're sad about the situation, but it's more common here than you would think.

Our branch here has around 800 members, but we only get 60-80 that come on Sundays. Many of the members have been inactive for years, and their idea of what can/cannot happen in the church is a little out there sometimes. But there are also some really good people that are doing really good things.

We did have a family invite us for lunch and dinner Christmas day, and a birthday party for their daughter, so we'll be well taken care of!

We went to see this really incredible waterfall...

Mexiquillo Falls

about 2 million stairs to get down to it,

and about 3 million stairs back to the top.

if the wind blows hard enough,

I look like I'm a little chunky...haha

Me and Elder Leocadio

this is a memela...delicious!

pretty much a giant taco!

week 23: doing the work

Hey Guys,

    So this week was pretty fun. We had zone conference Thursday and that was fun. I was able to see some people I know, and we learned about setting goals and using whole stories from the Book of Mormon. We also taught a guy named Raymundo, he's the guy that just showed up to church last week, and he's got a baptism date for the 28th of December. He also came to district conference which was crazy, because it's like an hour and a half away from where he lives. We also started teaching a family and it's going really well. The mom's receptive but they aren't married yet, so we've got to work on that. Things here are pretty normal. One of the other elders in this area is getting transferred so we'll so who replaces him next week. I'll be staying here with my comp for another 6 weeks.

Until next week...

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

I'm glad to be staying here...we're just feeling like the work is starting to move forward. 

The pic of Christmas tree is for my mom...I got her Christmas package last week and the tree was part of it. I remembered as we were leaving today that she wanted a pic of the tree, so I hurried and took one for her. (Obviously, I (his mom) wanted a pic of him and his comp with the tree...oh my!!)

My stomach hasn't been real happy about the food here lately...hoping that clears up soon!

The language is coming along pretty good, and I'm able to understand so much.

week 22: reindeer pinatas

Happy Thanksgiving!

     Well another week down, and it's already December. I'm going to be honest, it feels nothing like December. 

    This week I was in a trio with one of the other Elders in my area because his companion was sick and went to the port, so we've been working both areas. It's been fun and this Sunday we had some really cool things happen. We had some random guy show up. We started talking to him and found out he has some friends that are members and they invited him to come. We spent the second hour teaching him the first lesson and he accepted baptism. It was awesome.

    After church we ate and there was a branch activity we were going to when we ran into a family that's new to the ward. The two parents both served missions, the wife served here in Veracruz, and they lived close to the offices and worked a lot with the missionaries, and they gave us some really good advice. Two things that really stood out were first, we are literally representatives of Jesus Christ and need to act as such, and second, that whenever missionaries start breaking the little rules, it leads to big problems.

After we talked to them we went to the ward activity which was awesome. We took a bunch of clothes, toys, and some piñatas to a place with some poorer people and it was the best. The piñatas were very fun. There was one of the young adults that was in charge of holding the kids back, and when the piñata broke he would throw out the candy that didn't fall out. One time he didn't make it to the piñata in time and within seconds every kid there was on top of it. The last piñata was a reindeer and it broke in half. Then one of the older kids grabbed the half with candy and took off with it, leaving a trail of kids running after him. We set up some appointments to return with a few of the families. One of them was really cool because the lady had been taught before but when she moved she lost track of them. She told us that she had been praying to find the missionaries. 

Well that's all for now

--Elder Thompson

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

I celebrated Thanksgiving again...store bought turkey sandwich, chips, and oreos...what else do you really need?

We still have ants...everywhere. You can see trails of ants on the walls leading into the outlet boxes...the floor...you name it. Sometimes if we're bored, we'll spray bug spray onto the ants...it kills just a few, and totally confuses the rest of them when they try to figure out how to get around the bug spray on the wall. That's right...entertainment at its best.

I got my Christmas package today so I'll be opening it tonight..pretty sure my mom is as excited as I am that it made it here. She made me promise not to open the presents until Christmas...hmmm.

I know, I know...you're so jealous of this feast.

branch activity

All that mission paperwork that said "no backpacks"...

well...every missionary here ends up buying one...

don't worry, the mission pres is all good with it.

the kids were so happy!

when the pinata breaks open and every scrambles for the candy

week 21: Thanksgiving??

This is the city where our church building is...we live a bus ride away in a smaller town.

Five Months Today!

So real quick something I forgot to say last week is we lost power Saturday, but the place we needed to pay at is closed on weekends, so we had a good flashlight as our light and no more hot water which meant it felt like I was showering in snow. Monday we went to pay, but it was a federal holiday so we couldn't pay until Tuesday...longest 4 days.

Other than that, the week was pretty normal. We had divisions with our District Leader Wednesday and that went well. We found a few new people. I thought Thursday was thanksgiving since it was the third Thursday, so I made a turkey sandwich and ate potato chips for dinner, but turns out it's this week so I'll be eating that again this Thursday.

Not much else happened, the work goes on like always.

Until next week

--Elder Thompson

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

We went with a less active sister this week to visit one of her friends. When we got there, the friend's son was laying on a bed, nearly passed out drunk, throwing up...he was in bad shape. We offered to give him a blessing, and his mom wanted us to. I anointed him, and before I could start the blessing, the less active sister was rubbing the oil into his head...strange, but we kept going. My companion started the blessing, and part way through, the less active sister put her hand on top of ours. I was panicking a little and praying a lot. My comp didn't realize it had happened until I told him as we left..haha! We're gonna meet with the less active sister and talk to her about priesthood and how things work so she understands the next time. It was all pretty funny!

We had 8 people commit to coming to church Sunday, but not one of them showed up...so pray that the people we're teaching will feel the Spirit and really want to come to church. 

big fish...haha

Sugar Cane fields

week 20: no electricity, no bueno

Hola Everyone,

   This week was pretty busy. We had a service project this Tuesday that took up the majority of the day. We were helping someone move a bunch of stuff out of the garage and into a room in their house. We had divisions Wednesday with the District Leader, and we tried to visit this guy named Antonio and his family, but he had a drunk cousin over. His cousin lived in the U.S. for 22 years and was so excited I spoke English! He immediately started talking to me. It was a very interesting conversation, in which he told me, among other things, that the blacks in America are more dangerous than the whites. Finally we just said we had to go and that we'd come back another day.

    We had to drop a few investigators this week, but we found these two people that were awesome, and even came to church. One of their family members got baptized not too long ago and they're interested. We had a ward activity this week. It was a dance for the youth and young adults, so we helped out a bit with setting up and a few of the games. It was pretty fun. The only other thing worth mentioning was the primary program. I had a lot of fun watching it and the church had about 110 people which is great for this branch.

Hope all is good,

--Elder Thompson

Bit and pieces from family phone calls:

We got our fridge delivered on Friday.

On Saturday, we woke up and had no electricity in the apartment. Turns out, in this area missionaries pay the power bill every month, instead of every other month like my last area. We went to the building where we needed to make the payment, but being Saturday and a government building, it was closed. We went today to pay the bill, and as luck would have it, it's a holiday of some kind, so the building was still closed. With no lights at night, we've been making good use of the flashlight my mom sent with me. We have no hot water, and showers are SO COLD. I've never showered so fast! A nice neighbor is letting us run an extension cord from their apartment through our window so that we can charge our phone at night. Hopefully we are able to make the payment tomorrow! 

Cheese empanadas...best breakfast ever.

I woke up one day this week and the homesickness hit like a ton of bricks...thank goodness it just lasted for the day. 

I feel like the language is coming along well, especially when I'm talking one-on-one to someone. It's a lot harder when there's a group talking...still hard to follow the conversations and be able to join in...so pray that I'll keep getting better.

week 20: the work goes on

Sunset in Cabada

Shorter Email Today,

Not much happened this week. It was raining, or almost raining the entire week, and we found a few different people. There were some cool things that happened while we were working. We were contacting and while we were walking past a house the family called us over to ask about who we were and it was awesome! We'll be meeting with them again this week. Then while we were going to the church one night, a guy on a motorcycle pulled over and asked us if we would talk with him. He said had seen the missionaries pass by for years, and finally decided to talk to them. We've started teaching him and it's going really well. I'm hoping he'll progress to baptism.

The work keeps going, but some weeks not too much interesting goes on.

Until next week, ''Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes'' (Someone better know what movie that's from)

--Elder Thompson

bits and pieces from family phone calls:

We found a fridge...now we're just waiting on money from the mission home so we can buy it, and then we can get some food! We're picking up quick snacks at convenience stores...and yes, my mom is grossed out by that.

My mom was very happy to hear I found sheets..twin size! 

I ate the worst tacos of all time this week: tacos de chinchurron....boiled pig skin tacos...they taste as bad as they sound. I managed to eat all 4 that were given to me, but I definitely could do without eating those again.

There are dogs everywhere here, but if you act like you're going to pick up a rock, that scares them off...apparently they've had a lot of rocks thrown at them, so if they even suspect you're gonna throw something, they take off.

week 19: hot water

saying goodbye to Elder Iongi

We had transfers this week and I left for Lerdo. 

So I packed up my stuff and went to the transfers meeting. Transfers were pretty fun. The way President Palmer does them is he calls up a missionary, sometimes he'll ask them something or say something about them, and then he says their new companion and where they're going. I was waiting to get called up, and I kept waiting, and finally I got called up and found out my companion wasn't there. I went to Lerdo on a bus (about a 2 hour ride) and ended up waiting for another hour at the station because my new comp got told I was going to a different station.

So we don't actually live in Lerdo, but we live in a town nearby called Cabada. It's so freakin awesome, we have HOT WATER!!! My first shower there was the best shower in a few months. We had a lot of heat Wednesday, followed up with cold wind and rain the rest of the week. We've definitely had a few of the streets feel more like rivers. Saturday was amazing, we had a baptism! Her name is Yamila, and she's 17. We don't have many more people to teach, so we'll work a lot on finding this week.

I'll talk to you all next week

--Elder Thompson

Bits and pieces from family phone calls:

The Lerdo Branch had about 50 people there Sunday, so lots of work for us to do!

It's a long bus ride to the church, and for district meetings and emailing, we take an hour long bus ride into Lerdo, so our pdays go quickly. We have district meetings first thing in the morning and then we can call home and email.

The members here are amazing and still feed us lunch most every day.

There are a couple of hermanas in the ward that do our laundry every week which is so nice.

We also don't currently have a fridge in the apartment. The previous elders had just moved into our apartment from another really awful place, so we need to try and find a fridge this week.

I still haven't found sheets the right size, so I currently have a mattress cover and my own pillow for sleeping. I've been sleeping in my sweatshirt since nights are getting a little cooler, and I don't have sheets or a blanket yet. My mom is a little grossed out that I don't have my own sheets...and concerned about the blanket, but I'm sleeping just fine.

All the elders in my immediate area are native, so my language skills are picking up.

Pray for us this week that we can find new friends to teach!

last zone conference in Veracruz

Elders finding out about new comps!

best guys I know!

still waiting to find out where I'm going

my big moment came....

and I was one of a few elders who was solo

until we could hop on buses and get to our new areas.

my new companion

Thompson is a good name!

District meetings get crazy..haha

Yamila's baptism

It was so AWESOME to get to baptize Yamila

and have her family all there to support her!