New Investigators

Hello,

This was a really great week. The biggest news was that we got an awesome new investigator named Krishna. He's a 19 year old guy living by himself here in Bangalore. He actually came to us. He has a friend living in the states that told him to look us up. He called last week and he had us over to his house. He's a super cool guy and just wants to learn as much as he can. He even came to church yesterday! He seemed to really enjoy it and wanted to learn. A returned missionary from our branch named Sister Ravi spoke in sacrament yesterday and I think he really enjoyed hearing from her. It was also good because we have been working with Sister Ravi's mother for months but couldn't get her to come to church very much. Now that Sister Ravi is home her mother has been coming every week. Awesome! 

We've been finding tons of new homes of less active or inactive members. There are so many good people out there that don't come to church anymore. I think I'm starting to see a pattern; Someone learns about the gospel, gains a testimony and is baptized. They are active for a while and then are offended by someone in the branch so they go inactive. It's hard but I understand how they would feel.

Don't have a ton to report this week but we had a fun time. They started selling watermelons near our apartment for 15 rupees per kg. They are some mighty delicious melons. We bought three of them last week and ate them all (mostly me). They're just so good!

The pictures are of us with Krishna at church yesterday and also some watermelon. 

Everything is going well and we're having a great time! Hope all is well for you.

Love,

Elder Thompson

Elder Cloward, Krishna (the newest investigator), and Elder Thompson

Watermelon...yum!

Flat Stanley came for a visit

Check Out The New Signature

Here is my signature in English, Tellegu, Tammal, and Hindi

Elder Thompson
India Bangalore Mission
No. 2, Rear Building
Garudarcharpalya, Mahadevapura Post,
Opp. ABB Tech Park          
Whitefield Road, Karnataka
Bangalore 560048
India

Elder Thompson

ಎಲ್ಡರ್ ಥಾಂಪ್ಸನ್

ఎల్డర్ థాంప్సన్

எல்டர் தாம்சன்

एल्डर थॉम्पसन

Hello

Hey Everybody,

This week was really great. We did some really fun things and visited some really cool people. We were able to pick up some new investigators as well as visit a ton of current investigators. Teaching with Elder Cloward is really fun. He's a really great teacher. Our friend Megha has been coming on exchange with us at least once a week. I feel bad to take him so much but he is always available. He's a 41 year old guy that is pretty much always home and ready to come with us. Also, he knows just about every home nearby to him so it's so helpful. We were out finding the other day and we were asking everybody where this brother's home was and nobody seemed to know. It's hard because the streets are not labelled very well and the door numbers are pretty much just random numbers. It's hard. We took Megha with us the next day and he took us right to this brother's home. He's got to be one of my favorite members.

One of our recent converts, Mehesh, gave us an awesome referral named Asha who is his wife's sister. We met with her at Mehesh's house the other day and had a really great lesson. We could honestly call her a "golden investigator" meaning she was super interested and asked a ton of questions. The best part was that all of the questions she was asking led right into the next thing that we would want to share with her. I would love to keep teaching her but the only problem is that she lives in the zone leader's area. We'll have to make sure they keep good care of her. 

Valentine's day was fun. Nobody really celebrates it but it was fun to joke around about it with some members. 

I don't really have any crazy stories or anything too exciting for the week other than we taught a ton of people and had tons of fun. Being on a mission is such a great experience. 

Here's a few pics from the week. The first is a chicken that I saw the other day that looks just like our chicken named Steve from back home. It was fun to this this little guy running around. Also, another classic example of why my English is going downhill. 

Hope all is well back home.

Love,

Elder Thompson

Steve's Indian twin

More Indian grammar 

Zone Conference in Indiaranagar

What a Week!

Hello,

We had an awesome week and were able to teach tons of people and find a bunch of new homes also. We did some finding and it was so great. I guess something I have learned on my mission so far is how to ask for directions or help. It's so much easier to ask than try and figure it out on my own. We found a few homes of inactive members and had good visits with them. Hopefully we can work with them and help them come back to church some day.

On Wednesday we had zone conference and I saw two of my batch mates, Elders Hymas and Armstrong. They have been waiting for their visas in Ventura, California. It was cool to finally see them here in India. Now all of my batch is here in India except for Elder Harris who was my MTC companion. Hopefully I will see him soon. 

On Thursday we rode our cycles to a hospital in an area called Koramangala to give this guy a blessing. He recently had surgery on his nose because he fractured it about a year ago. The hospital reminded me of the one that I worked at in Ecuador with my dad a few years ago. Big but sort of ghetto. 

On Saturday we met with some new investigators that we met last week. A member named Megha came with us. Megha was so nice because I believe he came with us three times last week. He was really helpful. Our investigators fed us lunch and it was probably the nicest meal I have had at someone's house. They fed us egg noodles, this stuff called chicken kebab, fruit salad, fanta, and ice cream cones at the end. They even gave us glass plates and a fork! It was quite heavenly.

Yesterday we had a nice time at church. Elder Cloward and I are teaching the primary children how to sing "I know That My Savior Loves Me." It's a great song but we have to teach because they don't have it on the cd and I'm the only person that can play the piano. Figures. Elder Cloward is really good with the kids so it works out. Last night we saw a few other people and finished off the week with a lot of success.

Here are a few pics. A few shots from our adventures of cycling and finding and also a classic example of why I think my English is getting worse and worse. 

Everything is great here in India. We've had some really fun times and so many laughs in the last little while. I've had a little bit of a cold but other than that my health is great. 

Love you all, 

Elder Thompson

Indian traffic

Cycling and finding

A classic example of Indian grammar

Big Changes!

Hello,

This has been a really good week with many exciting changes. At the beginning of the week, a former investigator that I have never met before randomly called and told us that he wanted us to teach him. I was on exchange with a guy from Visak named Elder Bandi, so we had a good time teaching him. During the rest of the week, I spent time with the Zone Leaders waiting for my new companion and also running errands. Transfer weeks are pretty insane. Elder Grimmett left on Wednesday morning and Elder Cloward didn't come until Thursday evening. 

When Elder Cloward finally made it we were pretty happy. We are basically the same person! We like all of the same things, except that he likes country music and I don't. I even found out that he likes to burn incense in the apartment just like I do. (A weird habit that I picked up from Elder Grimmett) But yeah, we have had a super great time so far and have been tearing it up as far as teaching people goes. Elder Cloward came from Hyderabad which is a city that doesn't have many of the luxuries that Bangalore does. He has been pretty excited the past few days! Today I am going to take him to some huge malls and maybe get some western food. 

We're still working with our progressing investigators, Shilla and Sam. They are really cool and are willing to make commitments but, they have a hard time getting Sam out of the house because of his mental disorder. Hopefully they will be able to make it soon because they are awesome.

We found out last night that Elder Cloward and I are really good at teaching in unity. He knows his stuff really well too so I'm excited to learn from each other. 

I got a call from one of the elders in the mission whose home is in the area that I am serving right now. He told us to go visit a sister down the street that hasn't come to church in quite a while. We stopped by on Saturday and we couldn't go in because there wasn't a brother there.  We were able to simply say hi. She came to church the next day so that's exciting. I guess all it takes sometimes is to let someone know that you care about them. 

It's been weird being the only one that knows the area. It feels good though and so far I haven't gotten us lost at all. Also, we have two other elders living in the apartment with us now. Elder Anderson, who just finished being an AP, and also Elder Peter, who is brand new from New Delhi. His skin is completely white and the only reason you would recognize that he is not American is from his accent. A really nice guy though. He's also a vegan because he's allergic to most animal products so we will have to be really careful. The other day Elder Cloward made dinner, and accidentally stirred the eggs and the noodles with the same spoon and it made him sick. Poor guy. 

All but one of my batch mates have safely arrived in Bangalore. The one that is still in the states is my MTC companion, Elder Harris. He says he likes it there so that's good at least. I hope he gets his visa soon. I had the chance to see one of them, Elder Singh in the mission office while I was there earlier in the week. Also, I saw a young man from the branch that I'm serving in that just finished his training in the Philippines. I saw him at the mission office as well. His name is Harish and it was weird to refer to him as "Elder Thambi". He is now in Hyderabad. 

I think that's about all for this week. 

I didn't take any pictures, so here's one of me and Elder Cloward.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Thompson

Elder Thompson and Elder Cloward emailing on P-day