Seahawks!!!

So I get updates from members on sports so you best believe there was much rejoicing when I found out the Seahawks beat the 49ers and are going all the way!

This week was pretty interesting to say the least. It started off great. A member took us to The Keg for dinner. For those of you who arent familiar with this place it is a super fancy restaurant with $35 steaks.... so yeah. We were like seriously when we pulled up but hey I guess working in the oil business is paying off for them. Afterwards, we stopped by my favorite family just becasue Brother Siakaluk is super sarcastic and loves sports. So I love visiting with them. But Elder Taylor was getting transferred so we stopped by so many members, so not a whole lot got done. But that is just how it is.

Transfer meeting was fun. I got to meet up with my mtc buddies so that was great. It was so weird seeing the missionaries that were going home. I feel like I've already been out for 2 years and I haven't even been out for 4 months! But I have heard that is how everyone feels, so hopefully it picks up. That night we stopped by some members one of which is black. I had to throw that in there becasue he is the only one. He is super funny and just has that black personality for lack of a better explanation. But we stopped by members to introduce the new comp.He is, well, a bit of a gong show. The first night he lost the keys which included the church keys, so we are hosed there, and he is into cooking and fashion so yeah we will leave it at that. He also takes things way too seriously. He needs to relax and have some fun with it. This work can be fun if you let it. Brother Harvey came up to me at church adn must have realized that I was going through a big change because he started talking about his mssion and his companions that he didt necessarily get along with. He said you just try to learn to love them and get through it. But I have noticed that if I just focus on the work, everything will be fine. It will be an interesting transfer.

The next night we stopped by our ward mission leaders home for dinner. His kids are a little spoiled and disrespectful. Like if you imagine your kids, multiply that by 4, it was really awkward. But we want to work with the youth more and take them out with us so hopefully we can get that to go down a bit.

This week has been incredibly warm. On average it was about +3 which is acout 36 in Farenheit. It felt so good. Plus the sun was shining like the entire week! Whenever the sun shines, it just makes the day so much better. If only everyweek could be like this week!

seeds consumed in a 2 week period. most are regular sized cups plus a 1 liter jug

Another plus that came out of this week was we picked up another potential. He is also black so that is way cool and he is a pastor for his church. So he knows the Bible very well. In our meeting with him the other day he told us he loves everything about Mormons and the religion except for the Book of Mormon. He thinks it is like a personal history of Joseph Smith and that Joseph Smith was acting as the Savior. So we had to explain that wasn't the case and then he thought we worshipped him and Mormon. So we explained that as well but he wasn't quite clear on everything. so we are meeting with him this next Saturday to hopefully clear some things up. The hard thing is that he is very knowledgable on the Bible, which isn't the bad thing, but he throws scriptures out left and right. So we, well I could bash really easily with him. The funny thing was that with every "problem" he brought up, I had a scripture that resolved that, or answered his scripture. It was just funny to see how easy it would be to bash. With Elder Taylor, we had the mentality that we didn't bash, but when we did we won. So it is a really big change with the comp because he won't do it at all, partly because he can't. But who knows, maybe it is a good thing. He also wanted to drop this guy, and I was like hold up cowboy, once we resolve his concerns, he is a legit investigator. So it will be fun trying to keep everything moving along, but it shouldn't be too bad.

I think my highlight of the week though was eating at a Chilean woman's house. She made us tacos and I had to cut myself off they were so good. I really miss Mexican food. But it's great to get it once in a while.

 We updated the area book this week so Quote of the week once again comes from Sister Meyers of the District

"If you don't update the area book...you don't understand the atonement"

Keep it real and have a great week!

Elder Thompson

Greenie No More!

This week was so much fun! Mainly because we got to go to the Harry Potter exhibit at the telus world of science, but I'm also not a greenie anymore! It feels so good to be done with 12 weeks and not have that extra hour of studies. But the Harry Potter exhibit was so dope! The only thing that would have made it better was if they would have let us take pictures, dang warner bros. But we also got to go around the telus world of science and we did get to take pics, so i got some there. Hopefully I'll get to send those this week. This fine gentleman sitting across from me is using my usb cord along with his to charge his phone so who knows. I also drycleaned my suit this week in anticipation for transfers. I am staying here and getting a new comp  who is from Ontario Canada so at least it's not utah or idaho.

This week we had interviews with President Manion. I love that guy haha he is just straight up with you. He doesn't sugar coat anything and he just says it like it is, in a loving way of course haha. He told me that there were comps he had that were just flat out fat and were not athletic whatsoever so he really had to learn to get along with those types. I've been lucky that hasn't completely been the case these first 3 months and shouldn't these next couple. from what I have heard, my new comp is fairly fit so that should be good. And President Manion told me ill enjoy serving with him so I am excited!

QGCs got so much harder to get after Z(ed) TM. Now instead of just talking to somebody about the gospel and have them talk back, now we have to do that, get their name, number, address, and a specific return appoinment. so we think that will change fairly quick. Hopefully. Because the other day, i talked to this Sikh guy who had to be like 85 and had a really good conversation. We talked about church and I told him when our services were and he said he would tell people. So now, we get absolutely nothing for that. That being said, if we were able to do that, it should be more effective. The only problem is there aren't people that like to talk to us. And it's frustrating when we work our butts off and get nothing, and the sisters are lazy sacs and go in early and what not, and they are rewarded with a referal that actually works. But I feel like this transfer, things will start booming. we have so many close potentials that are jsut hung up on something that only they can sort out for themselves.

This week we got to go on exchanges with the Zone leaders. So much fun! I went with E. Lear and he is basically exactly like me. Sarcastic, Athletic and basically just a cool guy. But he is from idaho so that kinda dims the light a bit. But it was super fun and while we were on them we did service for a former who had apparently been told by previous missionaries that she was going to hell. Like come on really? But it was good. i don't think she actually though we were going to do it but we did!

We had the oppurtunity to go to a Spanish baptism and it was all en espanol! It was so cool. After the first sentence I was so excited because I understood the whole thing! But then they started talking faster and I was just lost.

Man I miss the sun. on average, I

Space toilet

see the sun maybe once a week and it just makes the day so much better, no matter how cold it still is outside. But only a couple more months till it pops out a little more.

Quote of the week comes from Brother Stoltz " just some advice for you guys, Women are balls out crazy man. Good luck" haha my new comp has no idea he is about to become relief society.

keep it real!

E. Thompson

Best Ten Bucks Ever Spent 1/6/14

Last pday we did some shopping and I may have made the most responsible purchase of my life... I bought socks with pictures of tacos on them and a shirt with Obama tebowing on the oval office desk. (pics might have to be sent next week) haha I chuckle every time I look at it it's so funny. We also got to play bball against the hs last pday. E. Groskreutz threw down a dunk on their center it was so sick! There were way too many people there though.

New years was kinda boring. We had to be done at 6 so we weren't out on the streets with all the drunk drivers and what not. So we just chilled and played basketball at the church. We didn't stay up because it's kinda pointless as a missionary. But I did not sleep well that night. Our neighbors on all sides had parties and I just could not sleep. It was awful. But we went on with our day as usual. We met with rowdy Roddy, who we have been trying to set an appointment. with for ever. He is a member who just seemed totally uninterested in us. but his family is actually pretty sweet. Just goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover ( even though I hate that saying)

Thursday we had district meeting and the whole time we just talked about finding ideas because tracting and bus contacting get really old when you do it all day every day. it doesn't help that we aren't really very creative. But we are working on it. For lunch we got donairs.... so flippin.... good! I don't know how they arent in the us. That same day we did our mormon.org time and i watched the Tyler Haws vid " a work in progress" it was so good! i dont know if it was actually super good, or if thats the closest I'm going to get to college basketball for a couple of years. I don't know but I watched it a couple of times.

The next day we had the privilege of going to a filipino house where we got to eat Balut. Those pics you will not want to see but im sending them anyway. Sure there were some questionable moments where there almost was some projection from my mouth but I sure kept it down. It actually tasted like turkey, just the thought of eating a half developed duck egg is what gets ya. One of their sons didnt even like it. I got on camera him eating it and then throwing it up. haha so funny!

The next day we couldn't even go outside. it was only like -25 but with wind chill it was too cold according to mission rules. it was so boring. we ended up calling everyone in our phone, only one person got back to us and we rearranged our appartment. so that was good I guess. plus all this time we were fasting becasue since nobody in our ward feeds us, we started our fast after lunch on Saturday, so that was fun.

On Sunday, we went to church at 9. our ward showed up late to 11 oclock church so you can imagine how they were getting to church at 9. That same day we went to gospel doctrine and it was actually somewhat interesting. it was almost like the teacher put some time into the lesson. It made me think about the trip we took to NY and OH for the church history tour. i would enjoy it way more now than before so I will have to venture over there again some day. Later that day, we were out tracting and a car accident happened 5 feet away from me. scared the crud out of me! i was dialing a number on the phone so I wasn't paying attention and then boom! Like I said, it scared the crud out of me. Just for your info, they were two East Indian people, not to be stereotypical, but yeah. Today we are going to the Harry Potter exhibit down town. Getting super nerdy today. i dressed up like slytherin ( as much as i could as a missionary) because I'm a greenie. We also made ourselves wands out of old nasty wooden spoons. haha so legit!

Quote of the week comes to you from Elder Taylor

"I've said it before, and I will say it again. Yoga pants are a privilege, not a right."

heck yeah i ate it! i dont back down from challenges! it was actually pretty good. tasted like turkey

Haha - yes. Gets me every time.

I know super nerdy but I don't care none. hand carved. so jacked to go to the Harry Potter exhibit!

Taco Socks! My new pday socks

Have a great week and keep it real!

Elder Thompson

New Years Adam 12/30/13

I know same lame joke from last week, but do I care??? Nope

This week was a total gong show haha with Chistmas and what not. We also got to help out at a blood drive that was held at the church. it lasted from 8-4... but we got to see some cool stuff. A couple of people passed out, so thats always fun (i can say that because nobody died) we also saw a guy who was apparently really into stretching. Maybe he thought it would make his maple syrup blood come out faster (We have concluded that all Canadians have maple syrup blood because they use so much maple syrup and the colda thickens up blood) He wore a Hawaiian shirt with a Christmas tie so thats how ylou know he meant business. and then once he got a chance, he did some determined stretching. eyes closed and everything, he went hard. So that was the funny of the week. Later that night we went over to the Andersons for Christmas eve dinner and they even invited a non member over so that was fun teaching a non member, even though he was completely uninterested. All we could really do was bear testimony and move on. And then we even got to go back over there Christmas morning. They even got us gifts! They gave us socks and handwarmers haha we were stoked!

Then after skyping, we got invited to a members house in another ward with their set of missionaries, which are the zone leaders who are in our district, and we got even more breakfast. They had homemade waffles and introduced ice cream on wafffles and it was actually good! Leave it to Canadians to find a use for ice cream in the winter( besides dessert. we always get ice cream for dessert) After, we went and played ball hockey in the cul-de-sac, i dont know how to spell that so yeah, and iat was super fun. It was super funny whenever somebody was by the snow bank, everyone dropped their sticks and went and checked them into the snow. Right after that we went to our dinner appointment around 2 and were there for athe rest of the night... so if you do the math(we were there till 10) we were there for 8 hours... it's not like we over stayed, they kept us there. They wanted to play sooooo many games. but iat was fun. they introduced us to the card game Wizard, which is super fun. I for like -100 points the first time we playe it(that's not good...) then went on to win the next with 500 points. Not to brag or anything haha.

I have also solidified the fact that naps are my best friend. i seriously dont know what I would do if I couldn't take a nap. Usually I take a nap durng our lunch hour so I'm not wasting time or anything like that. So our ward is really lazy. The youth do more missionary work than the adults. not saying that is bad, just lazy. so we are going to be working with the youth more now. Jared is 16 and he is already doing a fair amount of work. He is badgering(in a good way) a less active  kid his age to come ato church. We haven't even been able to meet with this LA because nobody knows where he lives. Jared is also working on getting a potential into a legit investigator. He is so close! the potential even has the standard works on his ipad and comes to church with his girlfriend like every other week. He just is worried about his family judging him. Jared is Filipino and super chill. We are going over to his house again this week to eat bilute which is a half developed duck egg. I just hope i can keep it down.

On Friday it dumped some snow on us. So we went around with the YSA elders and did shovel service. we went to a less active house and I have now witnessed the biggest Canadian moment. HE came out with shorts and a tank top, and no shoes.... haha he is super funny too. Just give me 10 minutes with him and I could get such a legit Canadian accent.

Just some advice to anyone that was wondering, don't eat old chilli.... haha just thought id throw that out there. It makes for some mega heartburn and some troubling situations the next morning if your catching my drift... no bueno.

Sunday we went out tracting. We went for just 30 min and still ran into a couple wak jobs. There was a possessed lady that would have started yelling and scaeaming at us if we hadn't left when we did and there was one where they just went to the window and shooed us away. That one was funny because we knocked and we could hear "Mom it's the people that go door to door talking about Jesus" Then he went to the window. Could'nt even give us the courtesy "we aren't inaterested." But thats ok. I used to really dislike tracting because of stuff like that and rejection and what not, but I was reading in D and C and I read that those we share the gospel with and those who reject it, we get to sit in on the judgement of those peeps. So I can't wait for the ones that cussed at us just being like hey, remember me. haha jk but that puts a whole new perspective on things.

Speaking by the spirit is a missionary's most powerful tool. That is what is going to touch investigators, not great teaching skills. sure that helps, bt that isn't the key to them feeling the spirt. Also we cant have a sin now repent after type of attitude. It's so frustrating when i run into somebody like that. I canat even describe what im trying to say, so well just leave it at that.

Quote of the month and excuse my language, but i am quoting this from a member "You gotta watch out, because Satan is a tricky little b...t...d." On that note, dont fall into temptation and have a great new year.

Keep it real,

Elder Thompson