Our Zone Is "On Fire"

Saturday was day for our mission's goal of having tons of baptisms. We are so very happy to report that 14 wonderful people throughout the zone made a covenant with Heavenly Father and entered into the waters of baptism!! What an exciting day! When we did our follow up calls last night, it wasn't hard, we didn't feel overwhelmed afterwards, we just felt excited and pumped up. Our zone did amazing and we are "On Fire" right now. The assistants told me that our zone is leading the mission as far as baptisms for the month of December. What an exciting time it is to be here and serve with all of these superb missionaries! So basically everything is so good that I fell asleep last night with a smile on my face.

Now is the time to go forth for January, February, and March with an even greater commitment! 

Anyway, tons of stuff has been happening recently so I'll send a ton of pictures with explanations. 

Ingat!!!!! 

-Elder Thompson :)

It was so cool to Skype with my family this week!

The Sisters' baptisms. Brother Jessie and sister Aiden were baptized by our district leader, Elder Binhaon. They were legally married an hour before they were baptized so that they can keep the law of chastity. Also incredibly prepared.

Our faithful and prepared investigator Teddy with his wife and son and daughter. Man this guy was so ready. Him and his wife travel and hour and a half to church every single week and now have a goal for a temple sealing next year.

L-R: Elder Penugao, Brother Jiggs, Brother Joel Pacalan and his wife and Elder Binhaon. Joel was the investigator of these two fine missionaries. He's the son of Sister Pacalan who has been a member for a long time. Brother and Sister Pacalan were married an hour before the baptism service as well! Wow!

All of these wonderful people were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Even two children!

Saw this the other day. It is literally an "Egg Plant." I'm not sure how that is possible.

The crocodile farm

Our district had a P-day activity a few days ago at the crocodile farm. L-R: Sister Narag, Sister Martinez, Elder Sorronda, Elder Binhaon, Elder Thompson, Elder Penugao, Sister Holzworth, and Sister Defacto.

Our zone performed at The Baywalk last week. It's a place where lots of tourists like to go, right next to the the bay. There was a big stage there for us to sing on and we sang some really nice Christmas hymns.

With Elder Penugao

Christmas Day Skype

We were so excited to be able to Skype with Kent on Christmas Eve.  He Skyped from the home of the Morales family.  Sister Morales is a widow.  Her husband was killed in the military.  She has a young son named Kent!  Kent told me that they must save the name Kent for the most handsome people in the world. :-)   She served a delicious Christmas dinner to Kent and the other three missionaries in his apartment and let them all Skype with their families.  I am so thankful for her kindness!  We didn't get much of an email on his P-day....just a few sentences in response to some pictures I sent.  Here is what he had to say....

"Oh yeah Elder Ball told me that he got his visa and will leave next week. Pretty exciting. Maybe that means that I'll get mine soon also. I'm excited to speak with you this week and the timing sounds perfect. Looking forward to it. Unfortunately I have zero time to send you guys anything this week...sorry about that. But I love you and can't wait to talk on Christmas. Oh, and Elder Cloward got his visa also. Sounds like the whole batch is going back."

He Skyped from the Morales home.

Sister Morales is a widow with a young son, named Kent!  She fed them a delicious dinner.

They have a dog named Fish.

This was just before Fish chewed through the charging cable.

Elder Thompson, Elder Sorranda, Elder Binhaon, and Elder Penugao.  It was fun to talk to each of them .  They are all stellar young men!

Mission Tour By Elder Bowen

This week was really cool because we got to spend much of it with Elder Shayne Bowen from the first quorum of the seventy as well as his wife Sister Bowen. He trained the leaders on Tuesday at MLC, The Manila missionaries on Wednesday (which we got to attend most of because our flight was delayed), The Palawan missionaries on Thursday, attended our mission's Christmas party on Friday and came to our Branch's Sacrament meeting on Sunday. He was so wise and I really learned a ton from him.  Sister Bowen was so good also and she had about a five minute Tagalog testimony memorized.  They are so cool!

The Christmas party was really fun. We played some fun games, sang some songs, watched a movie about the Savior, and then Elder Bowen bore a very powerful testimony and witness of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while Sister Bowen played the piano.  It was a great time.

On Saturday we went to visit our investigator Teddy who literally lives 100 feet from this beautiful beach. Teddy is so prepared to be baptized on the 26th!!  He's reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, keeping the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity and coming to church regularly. We're so blessed to help him make this great step in his life.

Elder Thompson

Elder Thompson, Elder and Sister Bowen, Elder Sorronda

Santa came to our party!!

Letson Baboy!! (grilled pig). Sobrang masarap!!!!

Our investigator, Teddy, lives 100 feet from this beautiful beach.

Boats near the beach

Busy Busy Busy

We have been sooo busy lately. We didn't have any time to email yesterday and are just barely fitting it in today. It's been really crazy. We've been having meetings almost every day for leaders, new trainers, district meetings and all of our planning and zone leader follow ups. We spend all remaining time doing our studies and working in our area. Basically we have a lot to do. It really is great though. The elders in our zone and the members in our branch are so fun to work with and really know what they are doing. On Sunday we went on splits with our members to help them get some extra home teaching done. It was really helpful to go and meet some less active people in our branch. Our investigator Teddy is really progressing and will totally be ready for baptism on the 26th of this month.

Yesterday we flew back to Manila for our monthly missionary leadership conference or MLC which was today. Elder Shayne Bowen from the seventy did the training and it was really great. We learned a lot of things to take back to our zone. Elder Bowen will also be visiting our branch on Sunday so that will be a great blessing for our members and investigators. We were supposed to fly back today but our flight was delayed so we got to come back to my old area and see Elder Mangaoang and Niutupuivaha and work for a little bit. So fun to be back here with my buddies. We'll fly back to Puerto tomorrow. 

I'm really short on time right now but I hope you all have a great week. And if you have time, visit christmas.mormon.org. What a wonderful time it is to think about our Savior. 

Love, Elder Thompson

Landing in Manila with the other Palawan zone leaders and the sister training leaders. The other STL Sister Mabeza is hidden in the back.

Santa's sleigh has wheels because he's in the Philippines.

New Responsibilities

So I don't think that I have ever explained what the Philippines Manila mission actually includes. Here in our mission, we have the city of Metro Manila as well as the entire Palawan Island which is west of mainland Philippines. Since I came to this mission, I've been serving in Metro Manila.  Geographically, Palawan is most of our mission. Anyway, I got a call from President Ostler on Wednesday telling me that I will be transferring to Palawan to be one of the zone leaders in the Puerto Princessa zone! Wow! What a change. So basically we finished our day on Wednesday, I packed my things, and flew here to Puerto on Thursday morning! It was pretty sad to leave my ward in Manila because I have already come to love the people over there. That's one of the hard things about being a missionary is that you have to say goodbye to good friends many times. Elder Mangaoang is going to stay there and finish training Elder Niutupuivaha.

My new companion is amazing. He's a Filipino named Elder Sorronda and has been on his mission for about 18 months. He really knows his stuff and is super friendly and helpful to me especially being a new zone leader that doesn't know the language yet. We're already best friends and have the best intentions for our branch and for our zone. However, being a zone leader is a HUGE new responsibility. There's an elder in our apartment named Elder Penugao who was companions with the district leader for our district but that district leader just went home so that means that Elder Sorronda are also the district leader and we have to spend time in Elder Penugao's area as well. On top of that, Elder Penugao still has a little bit of his training left because he's a new missionary so we're in charge of that as well plus all of our normal zone leader kuwan. So BASICALLY, there's a lot for us to do. We literally spent the entire evening last night doing follow up calls on two different phones (Elder Sorronda did the district leader follow ups and I followed up with all of our district leaders as well as the assistants. Fortunately, all the district leaders know how to speak English.)

The members here seem to be really good and know how to function as a branch. That will be a great blessing to us especially as we work towards this goal of having a "White Christmas." We put on a fireside last night about how we can work together to achieve this goal and it went well.

Seriously though, Puerto Princessa Palawan is absolutely beautiful! It's kind of like a village which reminds me of my old area in Rajahmundry except it's cleaner, more beautiful, and more tropical. There's a huge underground river right in my area that lots of tourists like to go see. Unfortunately, it's bawal for missionaries so maybe next time! It was a full moon the other night and that had to be the brightest moon I have ever before seen. We're sitting right in the middle of the ocean with not a lot of heavy lights or large buildings. I'm excited to see what the stars out here will look like without the moonlight. When I stepped off the plane, my new companion greeted me with a warm smile and said "welcome to paradise!" So yeah, I'm living in tropical paradise right now.

I still don't really know much of this language but I'm really trying my best. Elder Penugao doesn't know much English and I don't know much Tagalog so we're learning from each other. The members are supportive of me and they seem to listen more intently when I speak English since they don't understand it as well. 

So yeah! That's my report for the week. One thing I learned from President Ostler a few weeks ago is that stress will only come from two things. 1. Disobedience and 2. A lack of trust in Heavenly Father. I know that as I continue to be obedient to all of the mission rules and learn how to have more trust in Heavenly Father that we will have great success in this area.

Sige na muna,

Kita tayo mamaya.

Elder Thompson

Off to Puerto Princessa

Elder Thompson and Elder Benting

Traveling to Puerto Princessa

We caught a Gecko!

We have our very own house. It's really nice.

On Saturday we had a community service project. Our task: Destroy an old house! It was pretty fun.  Here is the 'before'.

And the 'after'.

General Authorities, Birthdays, and the Temple

Wow! What a great week it was for us here in Manila. So many cool things happened so I will describe them to the best of my ability!

First, our mission had visits from Elder Richard Maynes of the presidency of the 70 and Elder Allen D. Haynie of the Seventy. Elder Maynes is the one who spoke last conference about keeping our lives centered on Jesus Christ just like a potter should keep the clay centered on the wheel and Elder Haynie is the one who also spoke last conference and he told the story about jumping into a muddy hole with his friends and not being allowed to enter into his house after. The things they had to share with us were so amazing and powerful. They literally had me on the edge of my seat the entire meeting. Elder Maynes took over for most of the meeting and did a question and answer kind of thing. He ended up teaching us a lot about how we need to be constantly finding new investigators if we are to be successful in missionary work. If we're so focused on our current appointments and not trying to find new people, we're not going to have much success. It was so cool to hear all of his teachings, stories, and experiences. I couldn't believe how much success and wisdom this man has had throughout his life. I could have sat there and listened to him speak all day long! 

Here are a few of my favorite points from the notes that I took.

1. GOALS + CONSISTENCY. Missionary work completely depends on  it. We need to set our goals and then be consistent every single day to find new people to teach. Not just for my mission but for my ENTIRE LIFE! Everybody that has ever been successful in life has understood the concept of making goals and being consistent.

2. Thinking about your goals every single day and acting in such a way that you can achieve them. It's one thing to set a goal, but if you forget about it after a week it's useless.

3. He told us a quote by Michelangelo. It goes like this- It's better to aim high and fall short than it is to aim low and make our goals.

4. FIND THE SEEKERS Heavenly Father has prepared people that are ready to hear our message! We just need to find them! Once we do, it will be easy to get them to church, easy to get them to read the Book of Mormon, and easy to baptize them. Once they understand the gospel and the atonement, they will want to do it on their own. We won't have to drag them to be baptized.

So this week we've been taking these teachings into serious action! We have been adamantly talking to every single person we could and just trying to find people that will listen. 

On Saturday, we celebrated Elder Mangaoang's 26th birthday. Man this guy is so old! We got a delicious chocolate cake and joyfully sang happy birthday. It's cool to be working with somebody that's so much older than me. I'm learning a lot from him! 

Today was so amazing to have the chance to visit the temple. I haven't been in over a year and it was just so great to be in a place so clean, so peaceful, and so sacred. It's such a blessing for me to have the chance to attend the temple while I'm here in the Philippines.

That's all for now. Have a great week!

-Elder Kent R. Thompson

Celebrating Elder Mangaoang's 26th Birthday with Elder Jim and Elder Ramos

Happy Birthday, Elder Mangaoang!

Manila Temple

Elder Thompson, Elder Niutupuivaha, and Elder Mangaoang

Heading to the temple

November 16th

Hello,

We had our zone meeting this week and discussed a very exciting goal that has been set for the 26th of December. Our goal is to have a "White Christmas" which means 200 baptisms in a single day throughout the mission! What a lofty goal! We have somewhere around 200 missionaries so that should mean about one baptism per missionary. It's meant to be a pure step of faith. I have been feeling a bit skeptical because we haven't had any investigators progress very well lately but yesterday we had a mission wide fast that we would be able to achieve our goal. As we asked for Heavenly Father's help, a former investigator named Josephine came to church completely randomly. I've never even met her before! She stayed for church and we were able to go and teach her. We had a great lesson and felt the Spirit very strong. She hasn't met with the missionaries is quite a while because she's a single mother and works pretty long hours but she's been reading the Book of Mormon quite consistently and is now half way through Alma. She really wants to be baptized but has a small issue with the word of wisdom and works on Sundays. Regardless of that, I feel like this has been an answer to our prayers and fasting. She really could be somebody that Heavenly Father has prepared to be baptized on December 26th and we are prepared to do everything in our power to help Heavenly Father do this thing. I've learned more about faith since we started this goal. We'll continue to pray and work diligently so that Heavenly Father can open the windows of heaven.

I don't have too much to report this week but that's what we have really been working on. I love my calling and I love my companions. I'm so happy to be here at this time. :):)

Ingat po kayo! 

Elder Thompson

Brother Jake putting some pig veins out to sun dry.

Each day we study for four hours.  Yep, you read that right....four!  We do our personal study, regular companionship study, 12 week training study for new missionaries, and language study.  It's long but a great opportunity to learn and grow.  Here I am trying my best to stay awake and focused.

View from our apartment at night.

Wow...Super Nice!

Hello po Everybody!!

My companion Elder Mangaoang always likes so say wow super nice whenever something good happens! He's just a stud muffin! 

This week has been soooo good! I'm really trying like anything to learn this language! I still can't talk to anybody or understand much but I was so proud of myself because I was able to use a small phrase the other day with one of our investigators. She was showing me a picture of her son. I asked her where does he live and she didn't understand me. I then said "Saan nakatira siya?" Which means where does he reside? She was so happy to hear me speak a little Tagalog. And even though I had no idea where the place she told me was, I was so stoked to be speaking her language. By small and simple things... I will learn this language!! 

This week I finished reading the Book of Mormon again. What a wonderful book it is!! My testimony and faith have grown so much from the time I have spent reading that book over the past year. The words in there are so inspiring and easy to understand. I get so pumped when I get to share with my companions what I learned in my personal study. 

Yesterday our ward had the annual primary presentation! It was so cute to see the children singing the songs and saying their lines. There were only about 20 kids but they sang with all their hearts! My favorite part was when the primary teacher lifted a very small girl up to the mic and in her innocence she said "I can always repent!"She was so excited about it! It's true though! It really is so exciting that we can repent of our sins and never look back! 

We've been teaching people in all kinds of crazy places and settings. Last week we taught a guy in the back of an automobile repair shop, a guy living in a construction site, and another man living on the street. I'm so grateful for the chance to come lift people's spirits and help them improve their lives. It seems like there's not really anything better that we could be doing. 

So my thought for you all is that if you are having a rough day or something is hard for you, go find somebody else that you can help. See what happens to your mood and your attitude when you do so. I bear my witness that it will cheer you up! 😀

With love,

Elder Thompson

The party place (our home).  We live on the top floor where all the white shirts are hanging to dry.  Did I mention that we wash our clothes by hand?! Super nice.

Respect.

My guapo (handsome) companions

Hello

Hello,

Things are well for me in the Philippines! My comps are amazing and ward is good. It's just a little difficult since I don't understand anything at church. I really miss Indian food and I know that I will also miss Filipino food haha. However, I found a store that sells all kids of Indian foods. I talked to the guys in there and they were from Punjab in northern India. One thing I remember from India is that people never really rejected us. If they were available, they always let us into their home to share a message. Here people always give us these lame excuses and don't let us in as often. So that was nice.

So, there's a ton of people that I really want to email personally this week so if it's ok with you, I'm going to skip the group email this time....I'll get it next week for sure!

Love,
Elder Thompson

New Missionaries!!

Mangandang talghali!! Good noon!!

Oh man, my Tagalog is coming along slowly but surely. Elder Mangaoang is helping me so much and I'm learning new phrases and words every day. Here in Manila we are doing great! ayos na ayos!! We got our new companion fresh out of the MTC on Wednesday. His name is Elder Niutupuivaha from Hawaii. This guy is a stud! He's taking missionary life and living in a new place so well. He clearly has a strong desire to serve the Lord and learn to be an amazing missionary. I love the extra fire and desire that he has brought into our companionship. 

Last week I hit my one year mark!! That's so crazy to me to think that I've been out for so long. Time is really flying by. Also, Christmas season has apparently started in full force here in the Philippines. We sang "Angels we Have Heard on High" In sacrament meeting yesterday... I laughed a little bit when the bishop announced that we would be singing that song.

I developed a habit while I was India that I like to call "cross the street whenever you want because there are no traffic rules and people will simply go around you." Elder Mangaoang had to scold me a few times and remind me that here in the Philippines, there are actually established traffic rules and people will not go around me. I need to wait my turn if I want to cross the road. I'll keep that in mind so I don't get flattened... 

Until next time... Ingat Ka!! Take care!! 

Elder Kent Richard Thompson

Elder Niutupuivaha with President and Sister Ostler at the mission home.

So many new missionaries!!!

Meeting for new trainers and missionaries.  (There are almost as many people in this room as there are in my entire mission in India.  It's so crazy!)

This is called a jeepney.  It's how we usually get around.  It's fun to ride and really cheap.  I think I like it better than autos because it's a set price so the drivers can't rip you off.

Manila at night.

The sunrise from our apartment.

Elder Mangaoang, Elder Songcuan and me.  We were on exchange that night.

Exciting Times This Week!

So Elder Allen has finished his mission and will be going home tomorrow. The good news is that Elder Mangaoang and I will still be companions and we will be training a new missionary! He'll be coming in on Wednesday and we are excited to greet him. We don't know if he will be American, Filipino, or what but we are happy. We had a meeting with all the new trainers and the room was completely full with about 30 missionaries there. It's so amazing how many missionaries we have here in the Manila Mission. President Ostler expressed to us how the impact we have on this missionary will affect his mission and the culture of the mission as a whole. It's so important that we start this guy out strong and that's what we are going to do! 

I haven't improved too much on my Tagalog speaking but I'm sticking with it. I'm sure it will come with lots of time and effort.

Elder Ramos from our district was in the hospital with a dangae fever this week so we all took turns going on exchanges and staying with him in the hospital. We chilled out for a while and watched Meet the Mormons. Fortunately, he has been discharged today and shouldn't be going back!

I took a ton of awesome pictures this week that I'm excited to send out but unfortunately I forgot to bring my card reader today. I'll send those out next week for sure! 

That's all for now! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Thompson

Hello Philippines!

Well, I made it safely to the Philippines and this place is AMAZING! I literally feel like I am back in America. People know english that is really easy to understand, the food is absolutely delicious, I can basically find anything I need in the stores (7-11s on every corner), and the driving is on the right side with little to no honking. I made it to the mission home without any trouble and met my new mission president, President Ostler and his wife, Sister Ostler. They are so nice and greeted me with much love and support. Right when I got to the mission home we had a meal of BEEF STEW and GREEN SALAD! No masala, no chili peppers, and no eating with our hands.  What a strange thing it was for me!

I met my two new companions, Elder Allen and Elder Mangaoang. Elder Allen is from Utah and is finishing his mission in just a few weeks but regardless of that, we're doing some serious missionary work! He's super nice and fun to talk to. Elder Mangaoang is from the Philippines and is one of the kindest and most considerate people I have ever met. I am so happy to have been greeted by such kind people. The local people are also all so nice. I can't speak their native language of Tagalog yet, but most people can speak pretty decent English. 

The adjustment to a new culture has been interesting. Elder Allen keeps telling me not to talk in an Indian accent when I teach people. He says "just talk slowly and like a normal person." He also has to remind me quite often to speak in complete sentences. I hate to say it, but my English has changed quite a bit from living in India, especially from being in places where good English is very uncommon. So in the meantime, I'm learning Tagalog and trying to get my English to sound more like a normal person. Tagalog is a really cool language! From a foreigner's view, it sounds like a lot of ung or nung sounds. I've started to learn some basic words and phrases like ako po si Elder Thompson. (My name is Elder Thompson) and Taga Utah po ako (I am from Utah). People actually know where Utah is when I tell them that because they recognize the Utah Jazz. The NBA seems to be very popular here. In India, I had to tell them that Utah is "close to California" because that's the next closest state that they have ever heard of. Anyway, the Philippines is different but it's great. The climate is fairly similar but a little less hot. We don't have hot water, a/c, or a washing machine in our apartment which will take a little bit of getting used to but I'm ready for it. In reality, you really don't need any of those things to be happy and healthy! 

The work here is great! We've been doing a lot of street contacting and finding new investigators. I hope to learn the language as fast as possible so that I can be a better help to my tri-panionship. For now, I'll do my best and work to be blessed with the gift of tongues! 

Oh also, we watched General Conference over the last few days. It was great to hear the words of the apostles and prophet. Fortunately, they played it in English. Indeed a great experience. 

I'm so pumped about this! The Lord's work will press on throughout the Earth!

Love, Elder Kent Richard Thompson

I didn't get a ton of good pictures this week but here they are.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I REALLY miss India. That place is like my home!  It's ok though, it's a cool experience to be in a new country and learning a new culture.  I'll get my visa and go back but for now I will serve these people with all my heart!

My layover in Kuala Lumpur

Descending into the Philippines

Driving on the right side of the road!  With lanes!!!

Our zone!  This mission has a ton of missionaries in a pretty small geographical area.  It's really cool to see that.  I'm sure India will be like this some day.

My new companions!!  (Try to guess who is Elder Allen and who is Elder Mangaoang)