Last Conference

This week we had our last conference together as "the office team." We still have one more week before transfers but we are starting to point out the lasts. The conference was in Angol and was for only Hermanas. Angol at this time is super hot so it was a nice welcoming into summer.

We met a family of 3 this week that seemed pretty cool. We went back to teach them and it turned out to be one of the more interesting lessons of my mission. They loved talking about God and all that stuff but whenever we got personal to them or even mentioned that they would have to do something they just shut down. We talked it out and they are 100% set on not doing anything ever. One of them is 25 and she said that she once looked for work but she rather "live in the house with  her moms retirement money until she dies." No matter how we went about it, we could not find any speck of motivation in them. They just eat and watch TV and every once in a while go to the bank to pick up their money and they acknowledge it with complete contemptness. They were some of the saddest people I have ever seen, however they were very inspiring to me. If you want to be happy, do the exact opposite of what they are doing. 

On the bright side, our progressing investigators are just as awesome as ever. At least two of them are coming to church with us tomorrow.

We saw an older lady and her 15 year old son with a bunch of heavy bags so we asked to help and ended up helping them move. We came back the next day to finish the job and the boy kept asking about what he has to do to be a missionary. His mom then asked the same question so we talked about baptism and they got pretty excited. I´m becoming a fan of miracles.

For pday today we did a service project cleaning someones backyard. I´m not the best shoveler but I have to say that afterwards it looked good.

Alright, that´s it. Love you all!

Training

For the past couple of months we have been working on a program called el rescate. It´s something that almost all the missions in Chile are doing to be able to clean up the church record system MLS. We have been working with the founders of el rescate over skype to get it set up for a while and this week we finally started it in the mission. That means doing an hour and a half long skype training with each of the ten zones. We started on wednesday and have done about two a day. I didn´t realize how much planning, thinking, starting over, running trial groups, waiting, and training goes into starting a program. But now the ball is rolling and there is even more work to do. 

Besides that, we have been able to get out to work every day. Our investigators are still progressing and one of them went to church! Also that same sunday we ate lunch with one of the rich members in the ward. And when people in Chile are rich, they are very rich. For lunch we ate stake, potatoes and blood sausage which I had never tried before. I´m still not sure if I like it.

President Bluth invited us over to his house to eat a big american breakfast to celebrate Elder Reynolds' birthday. I forgot how good we are at breakfast in the states. I don´t think anything can compare.

That´s about it, talk to you next week!

The Miracles Continue

Seriously, I don´t know whats happening but we have been seeing miracle after miracle. We found an 18 year old from Spain that "has been looking for truth for a long time" and she "want´s to follow christ and get baptized but just doesn´t know how she can be sure." She already read a big chunk of the book of mormon and was able to tour the chapel. 

Time after time we keep finding ourselves exactly where we need to be. I don´t know what changed but i´m liking it.

This week we also had to make a couple trips around the mission. The first trip we went down to Los Angeles but we took a shortcut on a dirt road that ended taking the same amount of time. On the positive side, it was absolutely beautiful going into the chilean countryside where most people only travel by horse and buggy (not an exaggeration). We got back a little late but were still able to teach an awesome lesson. That morning we were surprised with a flat tire. We probably should have expected that since it is a minivan. But, 2 and half hours later we were on the road down the coast. A road I think I have referred to as the chilean highway 101. I would suggest it to anyone going to Chile.

This week I have also started to get up a half an hour early to do exercises. A feat that I have never accomplished before.

For pday today we are just going to hang out in Concepción and maybe watch one of the church movies again. We´ll see.

Love you all! 

Gettin big

This week we basically acted as normal missionaries. We planed in the morning, called to confirm appointments, and went to San Pedro to visit people. Every once in a while we have been able to get out but there is always another project/emergency/deadline. This week we had nothing to do, so we just went for it. The first day we only had an hour and a half but we found three new people and set a baptismal date! The other days weren't as fruit full but equally as fun.

On wednesday we had to travel down the coast to help some missionaries move into their new house in the middle of the wilderness. It was tough on the minivan but really pretty.

Yesterday we were able to get our hands on a golds card. That means 20% off GNC products. We took it as a sign that we need to finally buy whey protein. I have been wanting to, but it is over twice the price down here and no one has that kind of money. Now that we have a healthy way to get the protein we need, we are finally putting the p90x videos to good use. You probably don´t care about any of that but it´s a big advancement for us.

That´s about it for the week. I put up the rest of the Antuco pictures on dropbox. Also, after today i´ll be using the windows thing that dad sent me instead of dropbox.

Love you guys! have a good conference!

Elder Thompsons mission address

Elder Paul Thompson
Castellon 1063  Casilla 3560
Concepcion, Bio Bio, Chile

Or Email at paul.thompson@myldsmail.net