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