"Emergency Transfer"

Last words in the last minutes of his PDay hour while IM'ing with us: 

"I just got an unexpected call from President and they are moving me to KL (Kuala Lampur) for two weeks. This is totally unexpected, an emergency transfer! I am going to leave in 3 days....I am a bit in shock... So many emotions already... I can explain next week!"

Parker's email before we got the Transfer message as he logged off:

Miracles thru the Haze

Yep, the haze has set in here in Singapore and it's right about that time of the year! The wind direction changes and the burning in Indonesia supplies a nice think smog every day here in the city. Doesn't mean the miracles have to stop! The smog brings back some cherished memories from about a year ago to the this day:  It was my first day in Malaysia and , what an adventure that was, haha!  I have lived on this side of the earth for 1 year now, and I can still remember stepping off the plane my first hour here and getting slapped in the face with this humidity, love it!

Onto the highlights this past week:  Last P-day we did something called duck tours here in Singapore. You ride around in the old 'land and water trucks' they used in WWII here, and they give you a tour of the city as well as the Marina Bay. That was fun to sit and relax although it was expensive. Everything, is expensive here in Singapore. Land of the high rollers! 

 

We had a chance to teach a couple lesson with our bishop this week and then afterwords we went and got some great Indian food with him and we got to know him a lot more!  It was great to talk to him and the food was delicious. Indian food is great when it goes in....but the next morning you reap the rewards. It is always a bittersweet cycle here with the food. Ah man, I love it, haha.

During weekly planning this we try to get the energy up.  We decided to get a game of, "in the apartment cricket," going: Used a spoon, wiffle ball, and some shoe racks, and the game went great! 

But, small miracles are happening here in Singapore and I don't care what the perception is of Asian missions! Day after day, we are taking down this idol called, 'money,' and one by one we are changing pride and tradition to humility and repentance. Love you all! 

Elder Thompson

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Draper, Utah Missionary Letters seen thru Aug 27-2016

Heaven Week

How is it? ( How are you in 'Singlish' ):

This week was a week full of miracles and here's why. We started out this week and we called it "Heaven Week." Contrary to what you would call "Hell Week", but that is how we worked. We went hard to try to provide a spark for our area that has been down for too long. Guess what? It worked! Heaven week was a success. All week long, every day we saw miracles. Nothing like getting down and dirtying up the ole' ties! 

Now changing directions, earlier in the week we headed to the Singapore Zoo for P-day with the zone! That is always a way sick and amazing place that will blow anybody's mind. I got a whole lot of pictures of random animals but for the most part it was just great to be able to relax. Good preface to the heaven week!

We play basketball most Saturdays with a bunch of Filipinos and it is getting way fun as we are getting to know all of them! They love playing with us and now we are starting to teach some of them. This kind of missionary work is the best kind! Some great pictures are coming. 

Other than that, that's about it for this week! Sorry for being brief but I guess I will have to make up for it. Hard work pays off. Lesson learned this week...again. Haha

Elder Thompson 

 

 

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Happy Birthday Singapore!

This week was Singapore's celebration of their day of independence on August 9th! Also Singapore got their first gold medal of the Olympics with this Schooling guy who beat Michael Phelps. It's pretty big news and everyone was going nuts. They even announced it in sacrament meeting yesterday... What did Singaporeans do on all the other days of the week this week?? They walked around and they played this, Pokemon Go game, day and night!  It came out some time ago here in Singapore! It's alright, more people to talk to! Man, that is Singapore this week in a nutshell, what need I say more?

I'll still say more don't worry! For P-day last week we played some Wiffle Ball as a house (basically Baseball) and that was pretty fun! It was good to release some stress and compete a little bit with some baseball players haha. Always a good time with our house!

  

On Singapore's birthday we had a great time barbecuing with some of the Filipinos in our ward! If anyone wants to know the Filipinos are way good at BBQ. Not to mention they are always a good time no matter what! We had a sweet BBQ pit location right on the beach and a nice night to go with it. Everyday feels a little like paradise here!

To add on to the Pokemon Go game stuff, you have to imagine, I live on an island that is not much bigger than the Salt Lake Valley as a whole.  There are 6 million people here. It's Asia. We're talking technology and gaming craze here....So there are MASSES of people walking around trying to find Pokemon. EVERYONE is playing it. EVERYONE.

On another note we are a having a blast playing basketball with Filipinos throughout the week. They love to play basketball and they love to play with us Americans. We give 'em some nice competition and we get a nice workout in as well! 

Those are some of the highlights from this week for Elder Thompson! Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Thompson signing out.

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Draper, Utah Missionary Letters seen thru Aug 13-2016

"Obedience Sprinting"

Hey! Another week gets written in the books and P-day is already here! It has been a pretty mundane week with not a lot of success in our area, that we have been anticipating for awhile, but that's ok! There are a few things I can pick out that I can share that made the week better.

I will explain the title of the email first off:  So, a couple of nights this week we have come home pretty late, almost to point that we miss the time we are supposed to be in the apartment.  We get off the train and we can't run in the station, so the second we get to the top of the lift and we are on the street, we hit a dead 'sprint' so we can be home on time. You can imagine a couple of big Elders from America running at top speed up the side walk.   We are way bigger than everyone and we both play football, agility kicks in when you have to bob in between littler people on your way home, haha. You scare some people but mainly you just get filmed and looked at a lot!  We were in a tri-companionship with Elder Cook in our house this week. He is an athletic guy and Elder Miller and I mesh well with him so that whole day was way fun. Add a third guy to the team sprint getting home at night and then you get a race with stiff-arms and spins and all these crazy moves....gotta keep it fun, haha.

  

 

A funny thing this week. Every time we are talking to people on the train we always get asked how old we are. We always as ask them to guess for us. It's pretty funny when you get the typical answers of 21-25 years old. What is even funnier is when you have someone who thinks you are 35 or 36 years old!? What the?!? I know I look old to all of these people but come on?! Haha it is pretty funny talking to people randomly, we have a good time!

Love you all and be safe! 

Elder Thompson

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Draper, Utah Missionary Letters seen thru Aug 5-2016

Staying  in Singapore with Elder Miller

Hey everyone I am staying another 6 weeks here in Singapore with Elder Miller! More fun to come, that is the truth.

Here is the short and sweet run down for the week! First off we had a lot of members invite us over to visit them and eat. Member dinners and lessons are always way fun! This week was a rough one in terms of our success so it is always nice to have the members to lean back on. I think I love the people here way too much everyone....

WE played some basketball with some Filipinos and we taught a short lesson afterwards. That was so much fun let me tell you! Playing a nice street game again was just what I needed. Even better when your members are excited to do missionary work and this is there way of doing it! Filipinos love to ball!

A cool experience we had this week. We were teaching a lesson, or we were about to, and the Spirit took over! We had a lesson plan but we had forgot to grab the supplies we needed in the morning but we didn't recognize it until we got there to their house! Anyways our member present randomly starts talking about Tithing and all that stuff and we are like "Uh.....no. no not yet!" in our heads. But we let it roll and we ended up teaching the full lesson of Tithing and Fast Offerings on the spot. It was totally by the Spirit, they committed to live it, and to top it all off we ended the lesson by dumping all of their alcohol down the sink. Oh yeah. Sis Lisa in one of the investigators and she prayed out loud for the first time! She started crying while she prayed and it was so spiritual. Good lessons!

That is it for this week! Love you all! Pictures coming!

Elder Thompson

 

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Draper, Utah Missionary Letters July 30-2016