Some very awkward lows were set this week - Nov. 12

So I am emailing today because Monday was Remembrance Day in Canada so the library was closed. I think I will be emailing next Tuesday as well because it is our temple p-day and the temple is close on Mondays. so the awkward lows will be somewhere near the middle of this email and you will know once you read it. So last p-day we played basketball again. I spun off one defender and then boom! Elder S and I hit heads hard! I wasn't aware that he was there and we hit hard. There was blood on the floor so I was like, "What did I do to myself now?" But to my surprise it was Elder S. We hit so hard that his chin split open and was bleeding. So I felt bad but not too bad because I know what its like splitting a chin open and because it really wasn't my fault. But I still felt bad haha. This week has been very busy with service stuff. On Tuesday we went to the church to do service. They got 1000 new chairs so we hauled all of the old ones off and into a truck and then brought the new ones in. They also replaced like all the folding tables as well... must be nice, haha jk.

That night as we were riding the bus, there was a lady that got on that you could just tell was super poor. We were at the bus station so the bus driver was taking a pit stop, so I was like sweet! free ride for her! But when the driver got on, she went up and paid. I was really surprised. It just shows that there are still good people in the world. I also found out that Elder P. went home. I knew he wasn't ready but I still feel bad for him. It also makes the possibility of us becoming comps even more likely (if he comes back out) but I've come to accept it and I say bring it on. If it does happen i have come to the conclusion that there will be no patience in regards to his shinanigans. They just won't happen. But, that compship hasnt happened yet so we will see.

Riding the bus.... is somethimes very interesting. We rode it at 3ish and that is not a good time. All the school kids are out so everyone plus all the kids ride the bus. It was freaking packed. I straight up basically spooned with a sikh guy because it was so packed (a sikh guy is an east Indian who wears the turbin hat thing. I think of Aladdin when I think of them) But not only did that happen once... no no it happened the next day as well. We went at 4 thinking it would be better. This time though instead of spooning room, there was enough room for me to get hit in the junk a bunch of times by a lady's purse. straight up awful haha.

As a missionary, I have become adapted to the stupid dorky missionary humor. If you watch the district where the missionaries try to teach German the law of chastity, it is hilarious! A couple key phrases are use throughout the mission and one is our morning alarm( although it really doesn't work too well but we will get to that later). Another is I was reading in Alma and came to ch. 60 vs 7 which is a great phrase to use if your comp is taking too long in the john. it says "Can you think to sit upon your throne in a state of thoughtless stupor while your enemies are spreading the work of death?" When I first read it I died laughing and then I realized it was just stupid missionary humor.

Because the sister missionaries have been hogging all the dinner appointments, we have eaten out a lot. They get all the dinner app because they are in Relief Society and the calender gets passed around there and they guilt their way into them feeding them. We however are like oh, we dont have a dinner tonight. Well that sucks. I don't like guilting my way into things, I think that is the cheap way to go, but whatever floats your boat I guess. So I am becoming a little worried because we tend to eat at Macshak a lot(Mcdonalds) and I am starting to enjoy it... I don't know if it is the Canadian beef or the cheap missionary budget but I'm worried that it is starting to become enjoyed by myself. And I wouldn't mind if we were working out every morning, but it is extremely hard to get up in the morning. We haven't done morning sports because the gym is getting repairs to the walls so we don't really do anything anymore. Hopefully we start up again. I am in a walking area but that only does so much. And because I am in a walking area i seem to get blisters often. for whaterever reason I get them once a week. But they aren't too bad. They are just bothersome.

So yesterday for p-day we had a couple extra hours at the church. The people move their stuff to the side so we could do stuff. so we played basketball and then dodgeball. After dodgeball or during actually, I came to the awful realization that my baseball career is over. Not that I was going to try or anything, but even if I wanted to, I couldn't. Every time I throw there is a sharp pain in my shoulder. It is so frustrating but stupid stuff like that happens. Maybe it is a blessing in disguise.

I also have a really hard time waking up on time for whatever reason. It has just started to become a problem. The alarm will go off and have no effect. so if anyone has any tips i would certainly be willing to listen!

Love 

Elder Thompson

Is the white stuff sand? November 4

So this week we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and I had my first tracting experience! So we went to the door, I knocked and a lady opened the door with

"Whaaaah!"

"Hey! How's it going?"

"Fine."

"Great.  Well,  we are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

She looks at the door bell. "What the doorbell doesn't work?"

"Well I guess I could have rang it but ..."

"Yeah you could have. We're not interested."

So there you have it, I was denied because I didn't ring the doorbell ;) Once you get denied you see that there really is nothing to worry about haha.

Later that night we went to a less active house where a 9 year old was date to be baptized. The only thing left was to teach her the law of chastity... haha so that was awkward. But there is a saying here. toast. Thrive on awkward situations today. So it was rather awkward but we got through it.  Then they fed us nachos! The next day after our studies we were trying to decide on lunch. Then we got a text sayng that allotment was in. Allotment is the money the church puts on our church issued debit card. So I'm pretty sure everyone from the mission went out to lunch haha. That night after tracting and what not, we tried to catch a bus back to our place. It wasnt supposed to come for another 2 minutes so my comp left for like 30 seconds. When he was done the bus had already come and gone...It reminded me of the spongebob episode where he keeps missing the bus because of things like that haha. once i brought that up, we were laughing for awhile. But we got a ride from the YSA missionaries so it was all good.

The next day was Halloween. One of the things we were looking for was the number of skanky outfits we saw. We call those types of girls harlots of babylon haha.  So we were expecting a higher number. Sure enough in the hour that we were out, we counted 11. So now to keep things interesting we have an hc or a harlot count. That night our zone leaders got permission for a zone halloween party. The first hour comprised of me playing this kid one on one. I won obviously. then we had a competition of junior comps vs. senior comps. where we had a skills thing and a food challenge. So I did all the skills and the others did the food. Oh and I was captain. We won all because of my captaining ;)

Another thing is tracting really sucks because Jehovah Witnesses tract a lot too. So we would be going up to a door and they would either lock their doors, we could hear it lock, or they would talk to us as if we were jdubs untl we told them we weren't. 

I have only gotten homesick a couple of times. One was when we were going to members houses, We went to one where he was watching college football. Man do I miss that so much. Then that night I had the most realistic dream I have ever had where the Canadian government kicked us out, so I was home and about to watch college football and text people and I woke up. but it's not too bad anymore. The thing that sucks is tracting in the snow. Everything is covered except the face. Eventually though it just goes numb so that's a plus I guess. And I think tracting on Sundays is stupid. It is a day of rest for everyone... except the missionaries. Something that would make the week go by so much better and faster is actually having appointments and dinner appoinments. Since we have sisters in our ward, we never get fed because I guess the elder who was here before me burned his bridges... idiot. but that's been our focus is bettering our relationship with the members which seems like it is getting better once they see it's me and not him.

Not a whole lot went down this week but this next week looks like it is going to be better.

Keep it real and make good choices!

Elder Thompson

Elder P. and Elder Thompson

Elder Thompson's zone in the MTC

Elders with Brother Pickett

Elders with their teacher

MTC West Campus

MTC West Campus

Elder Thompson with Brother Balzar

Elder Thompson's "Greenie" dinner

First snow

Elder Thompson on the Meeting program

From MTC to Greenie

So last p-day when we went to the temple something amazing happened! I saw Jeri! She started tearing up so I had to get out of there because I would have too! Some of the guys got on me for hugging but I was just like bro it’s my sister there isn’t nothing in the rule book that says you can’t hug family. They were fine after that.

So I was super nervous to go into the field. More so than when I entered the MTC. I think I was just about as homesick leaving the MTC than I was leaving home! Crazy I know but we developed good friendships at the MTC. That night we were joking around how much I was called on to pray. I just told everyone that when I got married I was going to send everyone a picture of my trophy wife so that they would all be depressed. It was funny because they all agreed.

Monday night was probably the best lesson I've had and it was with a different person. I was with Elder Duncanson and Brother Picket was teaching us. When I think or thought about judgment day I always thought about it as good tallies against bad tallies and the bad tallies getting erased by repentance. But with Picket he explained to us that it's not so much that but more like if our progression is going up instead of staying the same. As long as we are truly striving to be better we should be good.

But over all I had great teachers. It was funny though throughout my last days at the MTC, I was just getting really fed up with Ponnada. Every single time, and I'm not kidding, that I thought badly of him and his stupidity and questioning God why he would put me with such an idiot, my nose started bleeding.  That happened about 5 times ha-ha. Then I realized that I needed to humble myself. So every time a thought like that would come into my head I pushed it away as fast as I could because I didn’t need to lose any more blood ha-ha.

So the Tuesday we were to leave the MTC we needed to be at the bus at 3:30 am. We woke up at 3:30 am... I don’t think I have ever gotten dressed and packed so fast. But, it was all good. The bus hadn’t even gotten there yet. But that was just the beginning of the stress. Boarding onto the plane after the layover in Phoenix, Ponnada was nowhere to be found. He had gone off with another elder. Shocker I know. All I could think about was how President Manion was going to tear me apart if he didn’t make it. So Duncanson, Brevard, and myself said a quick prayer and no joke 5 seconds before the closed the door, he showed up. He was talking to his family for over 3 hours combined that day. Never in my life did I want to strangle somebody so hard.

So we arrived in Canada and we met our trainers. I got Elder Taylor from Idaho and he is an awesome trainer! I feel like I can learn a lot from him so that’s good. He's been out 9 months. But he had a meeting so I went with another elder for a while that day so I didn’t really get to meet him till that night. But for lunch I got a donair because I heard they were good and they were! For dinner we went to McDonalds so you bet my stomach paid me back for that combo! I also got a package from Grandma and Grandpa that day filled with food! So we didn’t have to do any shopping. WE were happy.

In the morning for workouts, we go the gym with a bunch of other missionaries and play a bunch of sports in the gym. It's legit! So much fun and it wakes me up.

Elder Holland spoke about 10 minutes in a stake but we weren’t invited because we weren’t in that stake. That was kind of stupid but whatever. I also have to play the piano for district meetings... and the days are super long because we have to walk everywhere. Our area got switched to a walking bussing area but they didn’t get us passes because it was so close to the end of the month. But we should get them today.

Saturday we helped a family move. It reminded me of working at Padgett’s so it was weird when she gave us donuts because usually I just got paid for it. Later that night we ate dinner at the Harvey’s. It was very interesting ha-ha. He is a super cool guy around 30 and they gave me a greenie meal. Everything was green. He took a picture and made it the picture on the front of the program for church! I had to give a talk about why I came on a mission and when I introduced myself I said I was the beautiful face on the front of their programs. Later I found out that only 6 of those programs were made... so that was kind of awkward.

And after church we had choir because we got drafted into it. I wanted to shoot myself. And it is already so freakin cold! It snowed yesterday for the first time and it is -6 today. Celsius of course because it would be too easy to use F in Canada. But it’s fun here and the ward is super cool. If you want to send me anything make sure my first name is on it because there are 2 elder Thompsons. They almost sent my package to an outlying area. Oh and I’m in Mill Woods. It’s the southeast part of the city. And I am in the Meadows 1st ward. I’m such a greenie.

Keep it real,

Elder Thompson