Dear wonderful mother of mine,

    Yep this week has been another great week here in the Philippines. So yea this week has flown by so quickly its ridiculous. Time here just flies so quickly it feels like I literally just got here I'm the Philippines. So yea its been so weird we had another great week here me and Elder Webster. We have been having so much success in this area it feels so good to find new people. This area is going so great we have made this area grow. Many less-actives have been wanting want to come to church. So I actually am going to talk about some of the less actives in my area cause our mission has now focused more on bring our less actives back and establish the church again here in the Philippines. 

  So anyways the amount of members in the Philippines is 650,000 and the amount of members that are less active are 559,000 so yea that's a big problem. So we have alot of less actives in our ward so we have been having a good time teaching those people and many have already been coming back its so great to see how they feel when they do come back. So yea first we have a less active family the De Ramos family there is actually just two in the family though. The tatay and son cause he had his wife die also his brother so we have been building them back up. The dad or tatay has forgotten everything cause he is very old and he has been less active for a long time. So what we have been doing is bringing back the good things they remember as members and being active. His son John Ray actually has come once with us to church and we have built a really great relationship with him. We were actually able to bring him to a members family home evening he had a great time and is really doing great so is tatay, but we still need to work on some things especially his smoking problem so yea but they are so stinking cool. 

   Next we have Robert, he is a 13 year old member that was actually baptized back in September by two elders he has been active cause he was baptized by his good friend here in the Philippines, but then his friend that was his fellowshipper or the person that he went with to church went on his mission so after he left he became less active. So we have really been working on him especially the fact that he is the only member in his family so its especially hard for him. He is so cool though he is about the height of NG, but makes all of us missionaries when we play with the ward look like the cruddiest players remind you my comp is 6'5 and he made him look bad so hes really good at bball.  Hes really good though and he wants to come but the thing in here in the Philippines is no one wants to come to anywhere by themselves, so now on we go and get him until we can find a friend for him to come with him.

  One more we have this less active named Mariel, shes a less active in the ward shes 19 years old her grandparents are active in the ward her, her ate (sister), and her mother are the only members in her family. The thing has been is her mom has been working on Sundays so they haven't been able to go cause like I said no one here in the Philippines don't like to go places by themselves. Plus though her mom finishes her work in March so ibig sabihin they will be able to go to church again and be active, we are actually teaching her sister who is not a member so that's another plus. Yea the life here is so fun.

 I loving life here and I'm really looking forward to this week cause this week we have a mission tour this week. What mission tour is we have one of our mission area presidency come to our mission and visit missionaries in their areas. We are being visited by Elder Nielson of the Seventy what he does is tomorrow for me we have a big conference with him and get to meet him and hear him speak and then he goes around after the conference and visits every apartment makes sure its clean and that the area books are updated. So I'm really excited about this. So I love you mom and cant wait to tell you how it goes this week love you.

 Mahal kita,

 Elder Thompson

Elder Thompson with member

A Gagamba

 

Hey my wonderful mother of mine,

   This week has been very great or amazing. Holy crap Noah's freaking 12 its crazy how quickly time flies by when you are doing the Lord's work. I love it here in my area they are doing a good job of replacing my last area. The ward in this area is very supportive especially the bishop he is very masipag in his calling and has helped us alot already even though I just got here 3 weeks ago. Yes we all do it it wasn't just me and Ed hahahaah i knew NG wasn't the perfect child hahahaha. I thought he was going to be different from me and Ed it just proves that when you grow up with me and Ed its just proves you become like us, except if your a babae, like Addy. It scares me that Addy is going to BYU Idaho cause alot of the elders in the mission going home this year are from Idaho and also that BYU Idaho has been also nicknamed BYU I DO. So ibig sabihin she will be married before I go home. She says that shes going to find a wife for me which wont probably happen cause she does not know what I want in a wife. So anyways I want to tell you a little bit about my new area.

   So my new area is called Quezon City 4th Ward Area, our area is covered in Barangay Bahay Toro, or in English House of Bull. Haaahaah wierd huh? The city of Quezon City are separated into Barangays or certain areas. Mine is called House of Bull. My area is all stinking city again. Yes I know its where I'm needed, but I really hope I'm needed in some province areas soon. Maybe like Mindoro??? Yes I a fatty desire to go out there. I know I stink at Tagalog but I still want to go out there to learn it even quicker.  One elder my district leader, Elder Taurabakai has only been out for 2 transfers ahead of me and he was out there for 3 transfers and now hes stinking fluent in Tagalog, so I really want to get out there and get beast at Tagalog. So anyways I'm getting off subject so Ill talk about my area now. So my new area is covered with Less Actives its ridiculous. So we usually spend our days going to get many less actives to go to church they're so many I cant say we are never not doing anything, but we do get punted alot, but its nice to find new ones and see the blessings in them coming to church. So now about investigators.

   So we have a new investigator, Kevin Blaza, he is 14 years old and is actually the brother of one of Elder Webster's recent converts in the ward. She introduced us to him and he is so freaking cool. When we taught him about of the Book of Mormon, 2 days before we taught him the Apostasy and Joseph Smith, and he said during the lesson we decided to reiterate prayer and we asked about his prayers and when that was asked he said he has already felt that what we are teaching him is true and we asked how he has felt it was true he said because of what we said after reading from Moroni 10: 3-5, and the intro of the Book of Mormon  saying " Thru the power of the Holy Ghost you can know the truthfulness of this gospel". He said that he has felt really happy every time we teach and another plus of that is he has his sister there for him when he has any questions. Its really through family that everything out here comes to pass. Its great how close the family is out here and really makes me miss you guys, but what I always say to myself that the people out here are my family and they do a really good job of accepting the Elders here especially the white ones. They treat everyone here the same here its no one separated, if we need a fellowshipper we get one literally the next day. I love it. So we gave Kevin a bap date on March 3rd so yes I might have a baptism after Addy's B day. Yes I haven't forgotten the birthdays Noah I will actually send you something from here to show off to your classmates when you give your report, it might just be a shirt cause those are the cheapest things here.


     So we also have another investigator, but its a family. The Pascua family I actually just met the other day on Saturday. They are so stinking cool family. Brother is a taxi driver and we met them through his brother who is actually a stake president. They have gone through many missionaries, but they have the biggest desire to be baptized. The problem is that brother has been married before, but he does not know if it was real or not. Same thing with the sister they don't know if they're marriage is legal or not. So now we have to pray that both of them were fake so that they a both be baptized and go through the temple. So if one of them is really married they can be baptized but one of them cannot go through the temple. Which would be a big letdown. So we have been really praying for them so we might need some from the homeland.
  So yea that's the life of Elder Thompson i miss you guys and good luck with all the fun stuff that will happen soon.

 Mahal kita,

   Elder Thompson


Elder Thompson, Elder Webster with new investigators







Glad he keeps a neat desk!!

The bathroom, the bucket and ladle are his shower.

View of the apartment.

 Dear wonderful mother of mine,

   This week has been awesome the area that I have transferred to has been known as one of the hardest areas in the whole mission, its really hard, but this week was awesome cause my comp is really good at the area cause he has been in this same area since he first entered the field so ibig sabihin he has been his original area and has been his area for about 6 months which would probably drive me just a little insane. So you want to know a great story since you brought up Hudson being very thin I got a good story for you I have actually lost 30 pounds out here in the Philippines cause all you do is sweat, but I actually bought some facial stuff for me in case I might break out, cause alot of missionaries have never broken out until they came here so I got a head start on that so that I don't do that. I don't want to be known as Elder Pizza Face seriously. Tell NG congrats its such a great day to be able to be ordained a deacon believe it or not I actually remember the day that I was set apart as a deacon and it was great day. I love the priesthood and the opportunities to be able to use it almost every day. I love being able to bless people lives by using this power and all that it does to families. It really is a gift given from God. Sounds like that you had fun with his party brings back some of the good days. I remember playing football with my friends like Christiaan, Preston, and Tanner and now we are all out doing the Lord work in places across the world.

 So about my new companion, Elder Webster is a great comp that has only been out no less than 1 transfer than me. Hes about 6'5 and is really pretty good at his Tagalog. He was actually like I said in my last email he was in my district in the MTC he was in the oldest district when I first entered into the MTC. Hes way cool, and my house is pretty fun, but at the same time probably the most serious house at the same time. Everyone in my house since there is 4 of us we all have been out no less than 6 months. I'm actually kabahay with one of the elders from my batch, Elder Oettli. The new house so far has been awesome we have actually had an opportunity to kill 2 mice in one week plus about a million cockroaches. I'm just glad that I don't have rats in our house cause they are huge. I have seen rats i houses and they are not small they are usually about the size of a small dog like dachshund size. The hose is actually nice but just like most of the other houses, we have to use a bucket to wash ourselves, cause our shower heads are broken. What we do is we fill our bucket with clean water then just grab a scoop and dump the water all over ourselves. Its actually nice cause most of the houses have only cold water. The only house with warm water is the mission home and The AP's and Office Elder's house. So yea its a nice place to do my studies and my area is very cool and the ward is very supportive, and actually just yesterday, I was already able to speak in church. Its was good and actually got a alot of compliments on my Tagalog which totally made my day, cause I know I'm really still not that good. There is not much other than with senior comps we are not able to just blame our senior comp cause we are a junior comp. I love it cause I love my new comp he is really good and I'm really looking forward to our transfer together. I love you mother and miss you alot of bunches.


Mahal kita,
  Elder Thompson

  So yes my beautiful mother of mine. So this week I transferred from my original area finally after being in that area for 3 transfers. I was moved from the Quezon City South Zone to the Tandang Sora Zone. The Tandang Sora Zone is actually a zone that was just split off from the Quezon City Zone so its actually a very small zone. It was actually just organized just last transfer. My ward is the Quezon City 4th Ward, so its actually weird is my last areas ward was called the Quezon City 3rd Ward. Its really not that far from my original area I actually could take a jeepney and get to my last area in like 10 minutes. They actually shotgunned our area. Shotgunned means both the original elders in there like say me and Elder Hopkins were both pulled out of the area and 2 new elders go in. The funny thing is that elder Hopkins just transferred to a different area in the ward since this last transfer the mission decided to finally have the zone leaders as companions. So I'm still in the stinkin city UHHH!!! So yea  I have already stepped up to co senior companion. My companion is Elder Webster, hes from Utah WOW!! We are Co Senior companions, the funny thing is he has only been out on his mission one transfer ahead of me. So yea its going to be very interesting but also very fun cause what else is cool is he was in my district in the MTC. So yea not much to talk about since I was able to transfer into a new area, but next week I will be actually able to tell you more about my area and my comp next week cause its only been 3 days in my area. One of things that I do know is in this area the ward is very supportive and the area is a very good area so I'm really excited to work in this area and with an elder only 1 transfer ahead of me. I love this mission and I'm really looking forward to this new area. MAHAL KITA!!!

 Elder Jordan Thompson



Jordan sent these pictures last week.  They were taken on their Pday.
 They went to the wild life Reserve in Quezon city



Hey wonderful mother of mine hey yes I did get to go to the Memorial Circle and it was so awesome to be able to go there its so freaking cool over there. They have these really cool lights that light up the tower at night and they also have a big fountain in the middle of the circle, like the one out in Fountain Hills, but at least a 100 times cooler yea. Anyways so I have a big announcement, I'M TRANSFERRING!!! Yea it does sound like I'm glad I'm leaving but at the same time I'm really sad cause I have already grown to love the members in the ward and all the investigators and less actives that I have been able to be in contact with so today I will be going to members houses that are my recent converts house and get their addresses so that I can write to them to keep them going in the church. Other than that its what happened this week other than what I will talk about now.

   So yea this last week we had alot of things that we had to do this last week. So yea it really turns out that I will be leaving this area with an impact cause so many of the members have said that I will be greatly missed for all that I have done for this ward with both Elder Burgan and Elder Hopkins. Its been a great 3 transfers in this area and I'm really excited to see where I will be going next. I don't know if you know but both my comps from the MTC are training this next transfer. Elder McDonald and Stallings are training its so stinking cool to see them doing such great things like that early in the mission its so cool. I don't know much else but alot of things are going down in this mission cause its such a young mission here. So they really want the younger missionaries to step to DL's and trainers, or maybe even just Co Seniors. Its crazy but I'm really excited to see where I will be going to my next area. I'm really hoping to transfer to an area with province areas, cause I'm already sick of the city. I love the city don't get me wrong, but i don't enjoy getting jeepney smoke in my face everyday. Its actually really masarap(delicious) but I love it here in the mission. Yes I'm really excited who I get as a comp. I'm really hoping for a Filipino cause first of all all my comps sop far have been American so I would really like a Filipino cause when we walk we will be speaking in Tagalog and not in English, something that I really want to do and it will get me better at Tagalog. O yea by the way Tagalog you thought it was the same as Spanish NOT EVEN CLOSE!! It has some words from Spanish but the sentence structure and grammar are totally different. Its tough but I'm really starting to get the hang of it. Yea it still stinks to not be fluent but its getting alot easier as the days go by. What else yea I will be loving my new area and I will be praying for both Dad and Addy. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

 Mahal Kita,

  Elder Jordan Thompson