This week has gone by so fast! This email might be shorter
than usual, just because as I try to remember each day this week it all just
melts together in my head. I need to be better about writing something down
each day in my Journal so this doesn't happen :)
In our district we were down 1 Hermana Arnold this week
because she was super sick after eating some bad food. We gave her a blessing
yesterday which was a pretty cool experience. She's much better today luckily.
Other district news includes, way too much leftover Halloween candy in
packages, more district volleyball, district spikeball, and translating
Star Wars quotes into Spanish!
One thing that was new this week is TRC. TRC is where me and
my companion go and teach a 'real' person to teach in Spanish. (I say 'real'
because they told us some are and some aren't. We treat them as real.) My
person's name is Jerald. He's a younger guy from Bolivia who wants to know more
about the Church. So far we've had 3 lessons, but they've been cut short each
time due to scheduling issues in this TRC building. Jerald doesn't really like
to talk so we're working on just getting to know him better so he feels
comfortable talking to us. It's definitely good practice for all parts of being
a Missionary!
We're starting to memorize phrases for all the lessons in
Spanish now. The pace we're supposed to keep is memorizing 60+ new words and 9+
new phrases per day soooo we're definitely always busy. I realized the other
day that In class, I can understand 99% of everything our teachers say! The gift
of tongues is real! We're also starting to get in to some more grammar-heavy
works like past preterit, past imperfect, and future tense. It's a lot of new
info but compared to English, Spanish is a breeze. I have so much respect for
the missionaries that come to the MTC to learn English! I've met missionaries
from China, Japan, Brazil, Switzerland, Korea, Thailand, and so many
more!
One thing we've talked about a lot this week is loving
people. Charity is probably one of the most difficult Christlike attributes to
develop, but is definitely one of the most important. There are so many people
in this world that do bad things, say things that offend you, or maybe even
just inconvenience you. I'm learning more and more every day how important it
is to love everyone. Everyone has their own things they are dealing with in
their life and people make mistakes. That's just a fact of life, but as members
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we carry a special
responsibility to be representatives of Christ at all times. I believe that is
one reason why President Nelson made the course correction for the name of the
Church. Christ would never talk badly about someone behind their back, Christ
would never dislike someone because of what they look like, and Christ would
never turn inward on himself and label himself more important than someone
else.
1 Corinthians:13 is a great chapter about Charity. I invite
you to read it and ponder about how you can be more like Christ. Similar to
"What would Jesus do?" the scripture, 3 Nephi 27:27
"Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be?
Verily I say unto you, even as I am."
is a great motto to live by. I'm learning more and
more every day that life is to short to be sad, mad, angry, or depressed. You
get this one mortal life... Live it as Christ did. Love others, serve
others.
I wasn't planning on writing this much about Charity, but I
guess I just felt like it was right! I'll get off my soap-box now :)
Los amo a todos!
- Elder Thompson
Pictures this Week
1. Elder Fifita being cool as always
2. Me being....less cool as always :)
3. District Temple Visit
4. Provo Temple
Familia!
Just some other stuff that I didn't include in my group
email....
At the MTC copy center they have a little Kiosk where you
can order a T-Shirt for your mission. I just ordered mine and I should have it
by next P-Day so I'll try and send a picture if I remember. Choir is way fun
here! The director is really good, and he has lots of good stories to tell us.
We sang a really pretty rendition of the Hymn "Precious Savior, Dear
Redeemer" this week for the devotional. Probably just as fun, if not a bit
more fun, is our Shower Choir. Pretty much our whole corner of the residence
building likes to sing so when we are all in the showers we sing hymns, Disney
songs, and whatever else comes up! It's pretty goofy but it's a blast.
To answer mom's questions: Yeah I got the flip-flops, they are great. Thursdays Saturdays and Sundays are the longest days so I'm
getting tired but I'm doing good. I played volleyball this morning and I
usually have exercise time at like 7pm so it's throwing me off. My body thinks
I should be asleep right now :) Thursdays we do
75min of service at like 6:15am. It's usually like sweeping or cleaning the
residence bathrooms so not the most fun jobs. Then we have class right after
for like 6ish hours with a break for food. Then we study till 10:30. Saturday
is P-Days so we have class from 6-9:15pm. It's just a little hard to be working
all day then suddenly sit down right as your body wants to sleep. Then Sundays
are literally 13 hours of church. We have Priesthood, District meeting,
Sacrament, Doctrine Class 1, Doctrine class 2, Choir, Devotional. Most of those
things are more than 2 hours and none are less them 1 :) it's also mostly in
English which is quite a trip when you spend all day speaking Spanish. Nothing
bad though these days just seem to go slower.
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