Member missionary work

We spend a lot of time looking for people and we are doing very minimal finding so we are working on what is called a family mission plan and it´s looking good. It gives member families the chance to do missionary work like we do. The plan goes a little like this: first, each person of the family picks somebody they know, writes down the name and the date that they want the plan completed. 

Step 1: Gain confidence through service. So basically be their friend and do some kind of act of service to show them they you care.

Step 2: Invite them to you house or an activity with the family. Through example they will see that your family has something different that they want.

Step 3: Invite them to an activity in the church. This gets rid of the fear of a Mormon chapel that many people apparently have and also shows them that all the families here have that same difference.

Step 4: Invitation to church on Sunday. 

Step 5: Invitation to talk to missionaries.

We have been passing by many of the members in our branch this week and teaching them the plan and they all seem pretty stoked. This coming week we have appointments we some of the people we found this week so I’m pretty stoked too. 

In order to help out with this plan we as missionaries have to provide a lot of activities in the church. If any of you guys have Ideas of cool activities to do, I would love to hear them. The only activities they every do here is soccer so we are trying to get creative and do something else as well.

So that's about it this week. It´s a lot of the same thing every week so I don´t have much to write about. This coming week should be good though. My Spanish is getting a lot better now that I don´t speak English anymore. My accent on the other hand is still very gringo. I still can´t pronounce the rr sound. But I´ve come to peace with that fact.

The church is true, 3 Nephi really is the best

Elder Thompson

Bienvenidos a Lebu

Lebu is exactly what I imagined when I thought of Chile before my mission. It is absolutely beautiful, very naturey, clean, there is a big river that runs through the center, and it almost always has ice cold wind to combat the heat. It is a lot more flat as well which helps when you have to walk around all day. The house on the other hand is lacking a little. They started to rent it a couple days before I came so we still don´t have a lot of things. Yesterday, they sent us hot water, beds, tables, and chairs. We are still waiting on having a kitchen and some other small things.

My new comp is Elder Williams from Ohio. He speaks Spanish really well and we live with just Latinos, so this transfer is when my Spanish will finally become more normal.

In a missionary sense, Lebu is in the same state as Lota. All this week we spent looking for people, knocking doors, talking to people in the streets, and thinking of creative ways to find. We finally found an awesome young family of 5 that had tons of questions and were pretty interested but it turned out that they live in Concepción. I´m on same boat as Rachel.

So that’s the plan, continue looking.

The people of southern Chile have many weird myths that are strongly believed. The most recent that I heard was that when pregnant women have cravings for food, the cravings are so strong that if she doesn´t get the food, the baby will die. It doesn´t sound like a bad excuse.

For Pday today, we hiked to the sand dunes and the beach. The name Lebu comes from a mapuche word for city of wind. And they aren´t lying. The wind is so strong and constant that in the dunes, our shoes would disappear in like a minute.

That´s about all the news I have. We do a lot of the same thing everyday so there isn´t much to report about.

Love you guys! The church is true

Elder Thompson

Me voy

This week was a little tough. I had been sick for a while and apparently I was worse than I thought so I had to take some pretty strong medicine. I am a lot better now but earlier in the week was a little slow, having to deal with side effects and being sick.

Our investigator reactivated! We have found and taught two people during our time here. One got really inspired by our message and got baptized in her sister’s church. The other, José, was slowing down in terms of progression but he started progressing again. I wouldn´t be surprised if he gets baptized this next transfer. 

In other news, I have been in Lota for 4 and a half months and I just got the news this morning that I´m leaving on Tuesday to Lebu, another coastal town. Yes! I only hear good things about it too so I’m pretty excited. It is going to be hard to say goodbye to Lota and all the people I’ve met but that’s just part of the mission. 

It was fun to see the pictures of the CES show. Sometimes I forget that that world still exists. 

Alright, I don´t have much time this week again but next week I’ll have tons of pictures and stories to tell of Lebu.

Love you guys! 

Elder Thompson

Las Angeles, Chile

We went to an art show

The year

It´s the year. 2014 is the year that I will spend completely as a missionary. Bring it on.

For New Years Eve we got invited to a classic Chilean new years party which I don`t know much about but I do know it has a lot to do with meat. But last minute we got a call from president saying we have to be in the house at 8:30 because Lota gets dangerous at this time. So we spent the night watching "the best two years" and I didn`t realize how correct that movie is to missionary life. It was a lot more enjoyable now that I have been a missionary and experienced the same kind of stuff. New years day we had a zone activity then went back to the house at like 6 because everybody goes to the beach on new years. Everybody. There weren’t even cars or people in the streets because everybody was gone. It was like living in a ghost town for a day.

The day after we went to Las Angeles for free dentist work and I don`t have cavities! My teeth are just bad and are going to hurt until I finish my orthodontic work. It`s not really a problem though.

Other than that, the week went pretty normal. My comp and I got sick but we got to see a doctor today so we should be set. Transfers are next week and I am most likely leaving. I´m hoping for a change but if I stay, I’ll have a new comp so that will be change enough. 

Shoot I ran out of time again. Talk to yall next week

Elder Thompson