How Great Is My Calling

Note from mom:  I have mentioned to a few of you that Kent will be going to the Philippines to renew his visa soon.  He told me last week that he would be going on August 5th.  I assumed he meant September 5th since August 5th had already passed.  I asked for clarification this morning while we were emailing and he said he actually meant to say October 5th.

Hello,

We had some really good times this week and got a lot done. I enjoy being here to serve the people of Rajahmundry. Sister Bodupalli just returned from her mission in the Philippines and has been going crazy with the missionary work in Rajahmundry. She's been referring many of her family members and friends to us so we have been very busy with them. They are great people and anxious to follow Christ and stop bad habits. It's so great to see recently returned missionaries come and continue the missionary work in their home branch. 

On Tuesday, I took Elder Burnett on exchange. He has recently come back to the India Bangalore Mission after waiting for his visa in the Philippines for a very long time. It was interesting for me because that was the first time I have been on exchange as the district leader. I'm supposed to be the one to give instruction and guidance, but in reality he is the more experience missionary. We had a great time and enjoyed learning from each other. 

We've been getting the members so involved in the missionary work recently. We've been having a member come with us on exchange every day and even went on splits last week. Going on splits was such a fun experience. Elder Bunga went with a returned missionary named Kishore Kandukuri and I took a future missionary named Chandra Shekar. It was so good to spend some time with someone who has given a lot of time and sacrifice to prepare for his mission. He will be a great missionary. Hopefully we can do splits more in the future. Twice as much missionary work goes on and we really connect with the members. 

Yesterday morning we had an insane rain storm. For that reason, many of our investigators and even members didn't come to church. We had a fun time going to our area in an auto to pick up an investigator. We were pretty wet by the time we got to church. Autos aren't exactly water proof.

Today for our preparation day, we visited a Hindu temple that is high on a hill. We climbed about 600 very steep steps to get to the top. It reminded me of the hill workouts that I used to do in cross country. It felt good to get some real cardio in. We saw tons of monkeys and had a great view at the top. 

Visiting a Hindu temple

Monkey Family

David's 13th birthday party.  (He's the one next to Elder Bunga in
the red shirt).  The entire neighborhood fit into this small house.
It was great!

These are two of my favorite kids.  Every time we walk by
(which is at least a few times every day), they freak
out and come to shake our hands.  So fun.

I hope you all have a great week.  I love hearing from you all.  The gospel is true!

Love,

Elder Thompson

Hello

Hello,

We have been teaching so many investigators these past few weeks.  Since Elder Bunga can speak Telugu, we've really hit hard on the part member families.  We're teaching many of our members' parents and relatives.  It's great.  The branch also seem to be very happy that there is a Telugu speaking elder here. 

We found the Torlapati family when Elder Willis and I were companions, and they are making a lot of progress. They've been coming to church and people are there to provide fellowship. It's great. They've been so nervous about committing to a baptism date for the longest time, but we were finally able to set them with August 23rd. I think that they are ready. We'll continue to work with them and help them progress to baptism.

This week I had the opportunity to do a baptism interview for a young man living in a place called Dowleswaram. It was exciting to visit with him and see the changes he has made in his life. He has completely given up alcohol and smoking and decided that he is ready to follow the Lord and be baptized. He was baptized yesterday and Elder Touthang performed the baptism.

Last week I got a custom made blue dress shirt made. It looks pretty sweet. The fabric and stitching together cost about ten dollars. It's amazing how inexpensive those kinds of things are here in Rajahmundry. 

We're doing our emailing in an internet cafe this week because the church system was busy. I don't want to plug my camera into this computer because it's kinda sketchy, but I'll be sure to send some pictures next week.

Life is good!

Love, Elder Thompson

Hello

Hello,

This was a great week!  We had a bunch of investigators come for church so that was great!  We're really making some great progress here in Rajahmundry.  Elder Bunga and I are having a great time.

Here we are visiting one of our investigators, Sister Sathya.  Recently, she moved homes but hopefully she can keep coming to church.

There's a popular place down the street where we can get noodles for dinner.  I was on exchange with Elder Patten and Elder Battraw the other day and we whipped out the hacky sack while the guy was cooking our food.  A couple of school boys were quick to come join us.

We had to go to the police station to get some foreigner registration work done last week.  It usually means lots of waiting and nobody to teach, so I played some hacky sack with Elder Touthang.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Thompson

Back in Rajahmundry!

Namaste!

We've had fun these past few weeks while staying in Hyderabad. Elder Bunga took me around to see a bunch of his friends and show me some of his favorite restaurants. Preach My Gospel camp with President and Sister Berrett was really good. We focused on the basics of Preach My Gospel. We're trying to improve our teaching as a mission, and the best way to do that was to look at the basics and practice. I learned a lot and especially gained a better understanding of how to recognize the Spirit. That's something that I have always been trying to learn more and more about. I think that my teaching will definitely improve.

On Saturday, the Hyderabad Stake had a Pioneer Day Activity put on by the young adults. They did a great job. It was just like the Pioneer Activities that I remember having as a primary child. They had activities like a stick pull and pulling a hand cart over blocks of ice. They finished off the night with testimonies and refreshments. It was so cool to see that even in Hyderabad, they give such significance to the pioneers.

The assistants to the president decided that it would be a good idea to save a little money on travel this transfer. The solution was to send us all back to Rajahmundry by train. It was a long and sketchy ride, but it was pretty fun. We left Hyderabad at 5:00 AM, and arrived in Rajahmundry at around 3:00 PM. We had a nice time traveling together as a zone, and had plenty of time to talk about the gospel with a few fellow passengers. It was really cool to travel through the middle of nowhere and see some nature. I spend so much time in cities that I forget how beautiful the world really is.

It's great to be back in my home of Rajahmundry. I realized how much I love this place when we rolled in. People have been calling and asking me to come to their homes and visit. The people here are so humble and amazing. Also, because Elder Bunga knows Telugu, we will start to teach part member families who have a father or mother that don't know English. I'm sp excited to finally have the chance to give those people the opportunity to enter into the covenant of baptism.

The church is true no matter where in the world we are!

Love, Elder Thompson

Pulling handcarts over the ice

Stick pull

Elder Thompson's grandfather, Elder Sharr (He trained his trainer's trainer)

The beautiful Indian countryside

A rice field somewhere in India

Rajahmundy Train Station

Good Times in Hyderabad

Hello,

It's been pretty fun here in Hyderabad. I've been meeting lots of cool church members. Church was pretty good. The building here is really nice and it was really nice to attend a ward again (not a branch). The bishop here is taller than I am, which is a shocker because I rarely meet people in India that are tall. I met up with my new companion Elder Bunga this week. He's actually from Hyderabad, so we have to be careful that we don't run into his family. He knows all the best places to eat around here, so we are enjoying nicely. 

We're riding lots of buses here. They are really fun to ride, because sometimes they don't stop at the bus stops like they are supposed to. Sometimes you need to run as fast as you can, grab onto the bus, and jump on. Last week, I was on exchange with Elder Sharr when we had a similar experience. We were riding a bus when the time came for us to get off. The bus started to slow down and Elder Sharr hopped off. Right when I was about to get off, the driver hit the gas. My only choice was to jump off and start running. I jumped off, ran with the bus as fast as I could, and met with my companion. It was really fun!

Today for our preparation day, we visited a place called Charminar. It's an area with lots of big mosques and places to shop. It was cool to see. We went inside this building to check out the view. It was a little frustrating because the fee to go inside was five rupees if you are Indian but one hundred rupees if you are a foreigner. They always get the foreigners on these kinds of things. I decided to swallow my pride and pay the fee because I will probably not come back to this place any time soon. Once we got to the top, it was really cool. There was a good view and about a dozen random people came to take their picture with me. I guess they see white people as celebrities.

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

Elder Thompson

Charminar

The view from the top of Charminar

Hanging in Hyderabad

Hello all,

So much has happened since I last sent an email. We've been doing really well in Rajahmundry. On Sunday, we had six investigators show up for sacrament meeting. Four of them are from a family that we have been teaching so much. They are a family of four that are really interested in the Gospel. They have been pretty solid with keeping commitments like reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and now coming to church. We invited them to be baptized last week and they were a little hesitant because the mother and father have already taken baptism in another church. We explained why it is important that baptism is performed by proper Priesthood Authority, but it is good that they already showed the faith to be baptized in another church. They didn't know what to do, so we invited them to pray and read and see what God tells them. I'm sure they will come around. We'll continue to visit them regularly and help them prepare for baptism. 

Elder Willis hopped on a plane to head home just the other day. It was sad to say goodbye, but he will go home and do great things. I really enjoyed being his companion. He's had so much experience as a missionary and has taught me so many things. Also, Elder Battraw has been transferred to Rajahmundry 2nd branch to be companions with Elder Patten. They will have a fun time. My new companion's name is Elder Bunga. He is from Hyderabad and is currently in Vijaywada (Near to Rajahmundry) on a special trip to find some lost members. I should meet up with him later this week.

Right now I am in Hyderabad because of a huge Hindu festival going on in Rajahmundry called Pushkaram. Thousands of people from all over the world are going there to bathe in the holy waters of the Godavary river. It's not safe for us to be there during the festival, so we all are here in Hyderabad. I'm with Elder Sharr while his companion is in Vijaywada with my compaion. It's fun to be with Elder Sharr because he trained my trainer Elder Grimmett, so he is like my grandfather. Hyderabad is crazy. It's a big city just like Bangalore. I'm pretty shocked to be here since I've basically been in a village for the past 3 months. I've seen shopping malls, nice cars, western clothing, and I've smelled some things that I haven't smelled in a long time such as perfume and Subway bread baking. It's amazing what things I didn't even notice until they are gone for a while and then suddenly come back. The weather is really great here. It's not too hot, and the humidity is not even noticeable compared to Rajahmundry. 

Sorry for the late email this week. We spend most of yesterday travelling. Today, we went to the zoo. It was nice to see some of my old friends and also some really cool animals. I figure we should take advantage of the things to do on P-day here in Hyderabad because there is not much to do in Rajahmundry. Hyderabad is a really cool place. I hope I have the chance to serve here some day.

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

Love,

Elder Thompson

A fish building in Hyderabad

Traveling to Hyderabad with Elder Lindsay

A white tiger at the zoo

Reunited in Hyderabad

Reunited

An elephant

A gorilla statue at the zoo

Hanging out on P-day

P-day

Elder Peter and Elder Thompson

Sister Deepica, Elder Battraw, Elder Thompson, and Elder Willis

A Few Pictures

A roadside banana stand

Random fireworks

Elder Battraw and some children