Maganda Umaga Po Sainyo Lahat,

  Hey everybody this week was definitely a crazy week for me and my companion, Elder Basalo. I learned a lot of great new things this week that our mission will progress if we do these things. Our mission president, President DeLaMare is the greatest mission president in the world, he's super strict, but I love it that hes that way. Even though we don't have the freedom that other missions in the Philippines has, but how well our mission does compared to other missions here in the Philippines ours is the most influential. The blessings are seen right away. He has promised us many blessings if we are obedient. Strict obedience is really stressed in our mission. I have seen such an impact from it in my life. The reason I say this is because we had a zone conference with President DeLaMare as well as Temple Tour and to follow it all off is have a baptism for Romela!!!
 
 So we had zone conference with another zone in the mission the Pasig Zone. It was such a great time we learned alot of stuff from our mission president, President DeLaMare. That man is such a spiritual giant not by the fact that he is 6'4 but also spiritually hes an amazing man I love him so much its been so amazing to be under his direction. He is definitely a man inspired of God that constantly receives revelation for this mission. Every week we add something new to our mission to continue the great work that we do here. We see the blessings from following his counsel. I always constantly strive my best to follow his counsel and apply what we learn daily to better myself as a missionary. Actually with that we were able to teach one of our progressing investigator families the Retoni family we shared with them about the Restoration and actually used the Restoration DVD to better help them understand it so, when we shared that Brother had alot of great questions and we did our best to answer all of them and what he said will always stay with me is I'm searching for the truth and i think that this is the closest that comes to the truth. As well as what we learned at zone conference. Our mission president, President DeLaMare had us apply this scenario with this stress, we were applying giving a baptismal date and this 5 minutes we have is what we have to teach this person the only time we have to teach this person it really put stress on us, but you realize how much time we really have as missionaries I did the district meeting workshop today and I really stressed the 4th Chapter in Preach my Gospel and why in this short time we need to listen to the Spirit. Great thing that I learned this week constantly learning new things everyday I swear the mission is a learning place talaga squished in only 2 years.

 Speaking of that this week we had temple tour this week and we brought the Silla family as well as the Galleon family they both had a great time at the temple so did I. I got to see alot of the members from all of my last areas and got to see how they're doing and got to see the Corrales family there the family the I baptized in my first area, Quezon City 3rd Ward. I was definitely happy to know that they are still going so strong and really have that desire to still go to the temple as a family. It was an amazing day for sure.

 Also this week you guys asked about a very special event, well Romela Salazar Alati-it on Saturday September 22nd was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and was confirmed right after the baptism. WAHOO!!! She is my 8th baptism in the mission and I'm really excited to see how she goes throughout her life as a new member. It was amazing when she bore her testimony she thanked all the members that had helped her, but gave her special thanks to the 2 missionaries that found her, Elder Thompson and Elder McCoy, as well as her sister who is actually a returned less-active member that's how we found her. I was really touched by her testimony and felt so good to see all of my good work that payed off!! I love being a missionary so much its the best job in the world with the best pay just think about it!! With your questions I have thought about going out to BYU-Idaho, but we will definitely see on that when I get home. What else o with my Christmas package I would definitely want some new shirts the ones that are the STAFFORD EVERYDAY the ones without buttons on the collars I don't like the other ones they are way to stinking thick!! If that's fine other than that that's what I can think of for now, but that's a long time from now so don't worry about it now. Anyways love you guys so much I love serving the Lord here in the Philippines its a special opportunity indeed!! I love you all and wish all the best of muck in everything.

 Mahal kita,
  Elder Thompson



Jordan's district pic



A family with Elder Thompson and Elder B at Manila Temple

Another family doing the temple tour.

Baptisms



#8  baptism for Elder T with a special young lady



Baptism

Magandang Hapon Saiyo!!!
   Hello everybody another great week in the service of the Lord has gone by and it just keeps getting better and better the work is amazing and I'm loving it. So this week we had a great turnout this week for all of our investigators at church. We had a number of 4 of our investigators come to church and one of them was Romela who by the way last Saturday passed her baptismal interview and will be baptized on this Saturday on September 22nd. Really excited for this also with the fact that she asked me to baptize her so I'm really excited to be able to do this. Lots of progression with alot of our less-actives in this area as well. Especially one named Niki De-Vera who was less-active for a long time but has been coming back now. She came 3 weeks in a row, but had a work thing that she had to do so she wasn't able to come last week to church, but yesterday she came to church and is still always so happy when she goes every time we go there she always feeds us so its a win-win situation over there. With you question on the relief effort its still going, but its done in our area we didn't get badly hit as some other parts of our mission. With the rain it just keeps coming and i don't think that it will ever stop with that is if you forget you umbrella and get wet you will definitely get sick i don't know if this happens with the other 2 in tropical areas, Elder Schmid & Elder Reidhead, but i did not forget my umbrella, but since the squatters are so freaking jam packed together you cant get anywhere and well i got wet and the past 3 days i have been in the house sick with a nasty fever i don't know why it doesn't happen to the other guys, but it does here maybe its just so freaking bi-polar weather here. You wake up and its bright and sunny then after 5 minutes you got a rainstorm its ridiculous here, but i still love it.
 So this week we had a lot of success me and Elder Basalo we keep finding new investigators in our squatter parts of our area NIA. We found a family this week the Retoni Family a full family that is very awesome. Brother is from the province of Ilo-Ilo and all of family as well has his wife are doing there best to do all they can to get by. We found them through a member or a referral given to us and first time we went to them taught them about finding Faith in Christ. We used the video for that and it was a very good first lesson with them since the Spirit was very strong and Brother started crying he told us that he has been looking for the right religion for his whole life and he feels we have something that he has been looking for so we have set a return date and will continue to teach them so wish us luck.
 So like i said this week had its ups-and-downs, but it a was overall another awesome week doing the work of the Lord in the Philippines i love you guys and all that you have done for me.
Mahal kita,
 Elder Thompson


Went on splits with 3 missionaries at the MTC  from Cambodia



Magandang Umaga po sainyo lahat,

  Hey everybody everything is going so very good I'm just loving life so much its going so very good the work in this area is going so very good me and Elder Basalo are having the time of our lives!!! So just for your information i could not get a picture with Elder David A. Bednar since my mission president told us not to bring our cameras. Sorry i wanted too but our mission president discouraged it we actually didn't even get to shake his hand sadly but its OK since we know that they have a very busy schedule. I loved the experience though it was definitely an eye opener since we really needed to hear that and I'm very surprised that you actually prayed for that since that it really did have an impact on a lot of things for me as a missionary.

  So this week we had a very good week me and Elder Basalo alot of great things came as we wanted from our hard work as well as our prayers for this area. This week we were able to find 6 new investigators for our area!!!:) It was definitely a successful week for me and Elder Basalo as well as we were able to visit alof of the less-actives that I wasn't originally able to visit with Elder McCoy. 2 of the investigators are full families so really happy for that to have been able to be found!! Of those investigators none of them came to church but some of the investigators that me and Elder McCoy found through the members came yesterday to church one them the Denosta Family is really doing good its a single mother family with 8 kids yea its going really good they all came that we are focusing on especially her oldest daughter who is 18 years old is really progressing. By the way this Saturday Romela Alati-it has an interview with our District leader to be interviewed for baptism so yea we are pretty excited for that she will be baptized on September 22nd I'm really excited for this opportunity to be able to bring this person into the gospel. Shes doing so very good shes attending every activity with the YW so really happy as well as loving life always. Her family are really happy too so yea couldn't be more happy to hear how things are doing from the kabilang buhay. Really glad to see that you guys get to enjoy that time with Allen and Kristi. As well as Dad to be able to visit one of your old companions hey i got 3 companions from Utah so ill be able to visit alot of them after my mission. It must be good to be able to see how they are doing after the mission. What else so yea I'm just doing the best that i can to be an obedient missionary which i feel is very important. Other than that really I'm just doing the best that i can to be an effective missionary for him. Also today we looked at Joshua 3 and how we can relate it all to our purpose as missionaries. It was really cool to see really how much you can relate anything to the scriptures. I've started reading the Book of Mormon again since that it really is the greatest blessing for me and all that i do as a missionary. Always we need to remember that we need to always act on our faith since we can really rebuild ourselves and families. (Ether 12:27, Alma 32:21,Helaman 15:7-8) I love you all and always remember that we need the Lord more than we think( Alma 37:37) I love you all.

Mahal kita,
 Elder Thompson


Elder Thompson called this pic "the field is white already to harvest" with his new comp Elder B




Elder Thompson wants one of these when he gets home (think they call these tricycles there)




One of the streets in Elder Thompson mission called Agahm Rd.




Elder Thompsons fav dried fish and rice.



Hello My Dear Wonderful Mother of Mine,

So the things that have been going on are  so much better now since I had the talk with President DeLaMare, we have solved it and funny things is that during the visit with Elder Bednar he actually answered the question which actually caused this problem.  So now I'm so happy  and could not be any better,  the work is amazing and I love that me and my new companion have to do this transfer . We have a baptism coming up soon so I'm really excited for this, this September 22nd we will have a baptismal service for one of our investigators who is progressing so much. By the way my new companion is actually a Filipino, Elder Basalo from Zambuanga Mindinao the southern part of the Philippines. Hes really cool and is only 2 transfers behind me so I'm really excited since we are both very experienced missionaries it is awesome. Elder McCoy got sent to Mindoro lucky duck!!! Anyways we are having a blast me and Elder Basalo he is an amazing companion. The thing that was really discouraging me has passed and I couldn't be more happy since working is really what has been helping me the most. The work here is amazing!!!

 So this week we had a lot of great stuff has come our way. First we got to meet Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was a great experience indeed. Learned alot from that experience along with why its important to act on our faith!!! He also along with him had Elder Tad A. Callister of the Quorum of the Seventy and Elder Ian S. Ardern of the Seventy with him as well. Great experience with him and learned alot talaga!!! Lots of things that i needed to know so that I can continue to progress as a missionary!!! Also had a great experience at one of our temple tours on Saturday. While there 2 elders from my first area came up and said someone wanted to talk to me and guess what its was one of the people that I was the first person to tract and start teaching her. She was baptized just a month ago I was so happy you don't even know even though I didn't baptize her she still remembers me as the first missionary to ever go to her and teach her and bring this gospel. I was so happy this week was just happy week for me talaga!!! I love missionary work and the opportunity to see the fruit of my labors its awesome!!! I'm so happy also to hear Kylie and Marc were sealed that's the greatest thing that anyone can do its a blessing indeed!!! I'm so happy for them and the joy they got to feel from that!!! I love life now and there is no stopping me now I'm a old missionary and need to keep going!! Like Dad says" just quit you wining and go to work"!!! I love you guys so much and all the prayers you have sent to me!!! I love you all

Mahal kita,
 Elder Thompson