MIRACLES HAPPEN

It is hard to believe, I know. I am sure most of you resigned yourself to the assumption that this blog was never going to updated again. Jokes on you! It has been a few months.... so here is a recap of Elder Thompson in action


In April he celebrated his 6 month month by lighting a tie on fire. Seems normal.

He killed a chicken:

In May Elder Thompson had another baptism:

and another

and another and a wedding

Transferred, new companion, more baptisms:

A thought he shared with us that I loved:

Gordon B Hinckely and he complained to his dad during his mission about how hard it was and whatever things we complain about and his dad responded and said

 Forget yourself and go to work.

And that quote had a lot of impact on me. Nowadays its all about me. me me me me me, but in reality, its about others. Almost every problem we have today is from selfishness or pride, so if we can forget ourselves and go to work. everything will be alright.


Here is a picture of the homes that the people Alex is teaching live in...

Elder Thompson has been very sick a few times, but has been blessed enough to get well pretty quickly. It is a good thing our Mom doesn't find out until he is well.

He also decided to start a gang in Paraguay:

So there is the speedy recap of the last few months. I am going to be on top of this situation moving forward hopefully!!

We miss him but we are pretty proud of him!

Mail Galore

Do you favorite commentator of all things Missionary Alex a favor and keep sending him notes and mail! Look how happy it makes him! Y'all are great friends and family and we truly appreciate your support! Muah!

Birthday, Baptism and Bromance

Seriously. Best sister but worst blogger ever. We will just keep it our little secret that I update this blog once a millennium. What he doesn't know won't hurt him. Right? RIGHT?

Here is an update on our favorite Missionary

BIRTHDAY

Alex had the first of two birthdays he will be celebrating in Paraguay. Thank you for all of the cards and emails. It meant a lot to him!

He said;

"Had an amazing birthday! Went to church, had an amazing lunch with President Otazu, got some presents, watched the Superbowl, got to swim, got a massage, got to relax, got to go to some waterfalls, it was amazing! Ok after presents I lied but it was an amazing birthday so thank yall:)"

I died laughing. I am sure our Mom has stock pile of gifts ready in the corner of his room for when he gets back to make up for it. Like probably a BMW and a Harley and maybe some nice slacks....

BAPTISM:

Elder Thompson had his first baptism! This is so exciting for him, and totally and completely what he is in Paraguay trying to accomplish. 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN BOYS AND GIRLS LISTEN UP

We had a baptism this weekend!!! Her name is Faviana and shes a single pregnant mother of two little girls. She was down on life, and we found her and taught her some lessons. She said she wanted to get baptized but did not know if it was for sure the right thing to do. So we shared Moroni 10:3-5 and how if you pray to God with a sincere heart, you will receive an answer.Well she got an answer for sure.Next day we came over to share a lesson and she said that she had a dream last night. In her dream she was in the water and she was looking up and there was a big mirror above her, and in the mirror there was people watching her. And me and Elder Baxter just got chills. BECAUSE that is exactly how a baptismal font looks like if you've never seen one. And keep in mind she had never been to church before, that weekend we took her to church, showed her the font and she just smiled ear to ear and said it was the exact same thing as her dream. It was so amazing to see the results of a mission, one of the coolest experiences of my life easily.Its crazy because during the process you`re thinking oh man I do not want to walk 3 miles to this persons house and be exhausted, but when you see your results in person, its all worth it.That, is why I'm serving a mission.

BROMANCE:

Just for your reference on your mission you are always with a companion. To help you teach and stay safe and well, companionship! You don't keep the same one for very long as you transfer around the region every few months. Just like in school or in your career you sometimes adore the people you are with, sometimes you don't have as much in common... 

Alex's first companion was a guy named, well.. Guy Baxter. Elder Baxter. APPARENTLY he and Alex were like the same person. Alex said a few weeks ago that Elder Baxter would have been one of his best friends in Cypress. He is so lucky to have met someone right out of the gate that he connected with!

Whats crazy town about Elder Baxter is that he happens to be (as we discovered after some clues and internet stalking) the nephew of someone our family has known for over 25 years! My Moms very dear friend from when their husbands were in Law School in NYC! This is someone who taught me Sunday School when I was three and found it appropriate to run around with my dress on my head at church... a habit I only engage in every couple of Sundays now... AND he is the cousin of a friend of mine from college.  I am the best private investigator thanks to Mark Zuckerberg.

Unfortunately Elder Baxter was transferred away from out little buddy, but I am confident they will remain friends forever! 

 

Alex said:

Well well well ya favorite missionary is a big boy now!

Tuesday Elder Baxter left for San Lorenzo in Tyuwasape, and I stayed in San Isidro and got a new companion! His name is Elder Kevin Gonzalez from El Salvador! Hes a super humble really nice kid who is ready to work. The first question i asked him was why is your name Kevin, thats a pretty gringo name, and he responded ´´my mom really liked Kevin Cosner´´ HAHAHHA Anyways he only has 6 days in the mission and I'm his trainer. At first I was super excited to be a trainer right out of my own training, but that first day after was rough. I was and am ready for the challenge and responsibility, but man its hard work. Every single second I have to teach him the ways of the mission and watch after him but its a great challenge to have.Right before I left my dad told me one of the truest things ever he said:´´ Alex, today starts the day of many goodbyes and many hellos, you´re going to meet a million people, build relationships, and then turn around and say goodbye before you know it´´ It was super sad leaving Elder Baxter, he was an amazing trainer and my best friend for 3 months, and then poof, he left. But I got Elder Gonzalez to build a relationship with and goof around while working.

Elder Thompson and Elder Baxter 

 Elder Thompson and his new companion Elder Gonzales

Meanwhile in Paraguay...

Apparently I am the worst blogger ever. Like in the history of blogging. This is probably why I am not Blog and Instagram Famous. It is most SURELY not because no one would care what I am wearing or where I shop.... It has to be my lack of timely blogging skills. (Emoji Winky Face)

Enough about me. Here is a rundown of Elder Alex's Emails recently:

Week 9:

Christmas came and went in Paraguay and we had the chance to Face Time with Alex! I posted a picture on Instagram. That was amazing! He said

"Christmas was weird waking up here in the heat and not having family around and a big breakfast, but we did what we could do to make it the best it could be and it turned out an amazing day, just different. I had the opportunity to Facetime my family which was the greatest Christmas present I could have ever asked for, it was so amazing to see their faces and talk for a little bit, it really re-energized my mission and I'm ready to get back to work!
We got three big Christmas presents, one was new mattresses, which the old ones were like 10 years old, so we got new mattresses and we got Christmas and new years off all day! So after talking to my family we played monopoly and soccer and basketball with my zone and it was a lot of fun. And our third big present was that we got to sleep in till ... wait for it... 7:30 Christmas morning!!!!! Instead of 6:30!"

Week 10:

"So we are still working hard and still sweating everyday, not much has changed. We have a lot of really cool investigators that were working with and the lessons we have are really good!
Paraguay is having El Niño right now and its destroying the northern part of Paraguay, apparently its basically underwater, we have a ton of rain here in San Isidro also, but its still super hot and dry sometimes, but yeah other missionaries have stopped proselyting some days just to help rebuild houses, its crazy.
One thing that has gotten really fun is simply walking in the streets, becasue all the kids always run up to us and ask us to say stuff in English, but they also call me trucko, for all the stupid human tricks I always show them. I do magic tricks, wiggle my ears, make weird faces and just every stupid human trick I have, its really fun. I also do handstands with them and whatever i can do to put a smile on their faces. I did a few backflips for kids while in regular clothes for service, but haven't tried it in my shirt and tie yet... mainly don't want to rip my pants..."

He also said that he is getting cat called. Geeze. Is there anywhere in the world people don't love Alex? His word of the Week: Donjuán : Lady killer/ Womanize. Naturally.

Week 11:


Apparently he is serving a mission in fruit heaven. I am sure it gets old for the people of Paraguy but I am convinced trees in Heaven are full of the ingredients to make guacamole and mango salsa.

So fruit here is in full bloom, so much fruit we did 2 service projects of just raking mangos and throwing them away, like 6 full 200 liter garbage bags full of mangos that we threw in the trash, its ridiculous how many mangos they have here and just throw away or burn. For a joke people give each other mangos as presents
But also avocados have bloomed and we have like 15 in our fridge, and we make more guacamole then we know what to do with, and also lime trees are full bloomed so we have a ton of limes in our fridge too, basically we dont have to shop for fruit, just walk 20 yards and pick fruit off the trees.

One thing that I did last week that cracked me up was we have this investigator named Arcenio, and he wants to quit drinking and smoking and so does his kids, so during a lesson I stood up and said I can help you. How many cigarettes do you have in you pocket, and I asked if I could count them. He gave me them, and then I asked what type of beer do you like, and he grabbed me a beer out of the fridge and I took it, and as uncle Rico says in Napolean Dynamite ¨I threw that beer bottle over them mountains over there¨ But seriously, I launched this beer bottle and smashed his cigarettes on the ground and said no more. He was shocked  Then I taught him about faith. Theres two parts of faith, 1- believing in something you cant see, 2- acting on that belief.

Also we had this old guy named Luis who said he didn't want to talk to us anymore, so we stopped passing by like 3 weeks ago. But Wednesday we were close to him and I had an idea to pass by, so we did. We clapped at his door (because he didn't have a door to knock on) he came by and asked why did we come by? We didn't say anything and he said last night he prayed for us to stop by and teach him again because he wants to be baptized, that was a really cool experience.

He has also kept track of his mission by the numbers
Push ups:17,400
Prayers: 784
Days Out: 87 days
Cat Called: 12 times
Haircuts: 5     

Week 12:

This weeks email!

Well we had our cambios (transfers) last Wednesday and I stayed in San Isidro with Elder Baxter, so nothing new. Its funny how I told yall like 2 weeks ago that El Niño was destroying Paraguay... well he left. IT WAS THE HOTTEST WEEK OF MY LIFE HOLY FREE HOLY WOOOOOWWW I'm not kidding it was hot. Like 104 degrees everyday, but that means our apartment can't get flooded when its not raining haha, gotta look at the bright side of life sometimes. And by sometimes I mean everytime!

So some people have asked for my address so this is it:

Elder Alexander Thompson

Misión Paraguay Asunción

2881 Del Maestro Casi Caballero

B Herrera

Asunción, Paraguay

We had dinner at this members house and they are SUPER POOR. Like I cant describe it, like on average people her make $2,000 dollars a year, and this family is bellow that, so we decided to by food for them and cook it at their house. We bought a ton of stuff for sloppy joes and cooked it for them. And as I was cooking meat, in this shack, in the middle of Paraguay, I stepped outside and looked at the stars and the moon and it was the coolest feeling I cant describe it. Like it was so relaxing to take a breather out of our hectic day and be thankful for everything I have and for the beauty in this world. 

Our sloppy joes were delicious FYI

Another cool experience we had we clapped at a random door, and a Girl named Montse answered, and we shared a scripture about faith and she asked why we came by and we were just kinda like I don't know just stopped by, and she goes on to say that her best friends brother died yesterday and she prayed to know if there was a god out there and we stopped by: booyah

Everyday is the longest day of my life, but its a blast out here, thanks for all of yalls support and love! 

ALSO! ALEX IS TURNING 20 ON FEBRUARY 7th! EMAIL HIM A BIRTHDAY MESSAGE! 

thompson.a@myldsmail.net

 Do it and you're cool! Do it and you're cool! (that's for you Brandon and Ty and Carter)

Snail Mail

If you want to send Elder Thompson a letter or a package (and I think you should, mail is the BEST and missionaries LOVE MAIL) here is his info.

Letters:

Elder Alexander Thompson
Mision Paraguay Asuncion
818 Casilla de Correo
B Herrera
Asuncion, Paraguay

Packages:

Elder Alexander Thompson
Mision Paraguay Asuncion
2881 Del Maestro Casi Caballero
B Herrera
Asuncion, Paraguay

Also, apparently people wont mess with your packages if you tape a Virgin Mary picture to it....or so he has been told.

Side note: Alex wants candy for Christmas. Literally.

PARAGUAY

Our favorite missionary made it to Paraguay! He has already had a few flooding issues in his apartment... "Welcome to Paraguay!" he said!

He has tried some amazing foods and already talked to so wonderful investigators.

"My first meal was something called Milanesa with familia Fouz, and its like carne with a fried outside with rice and its amazing, I loved it" he said. (which is amazing because he is super picky with food. He even ate a hamburger WITH THE BUN! (The kid hates bread). Maybe my fear or his starving to death is unwarranted.

Here are some pictures of our Elder Thompson on Paraguay!

Prosletismo

This week we got our email a little late... but late is better than never!

Alex feels like the time is flying by. It has almost been a month! 1 down 23 more to go!
He said that maybe one of the reasons is because he and his fellow Missionaries have come up with different "Holidays" to look forward to.

Every Thursday is the P Day or Preparation Day. Its basically a day off. They made up "P Day Eve" and "P Day Eve Eve" to be excited for at least three days. Pretty smart.

The big thing that happened this week is that Alex had his first real connection with someone. He tells it so well so I will quote:

Biggest thing that happened was during Prosletismo, the first weekend was a bust in reality and I was determined to not let this second try be like the first. We were dropped off a few blocks from our zone, and walking to our spot we stopped a man named Juan we met the week before and asked if we could practice our Spanish for a moment, and Juan was harder to understand than the farmer off of Napoleon Dynamite (if you don't know what I'm talking about look up a video of him) anyways he was impossible to understand but we talked to him for a minute and went on our way.

We stopped for lunch, and for some reason I had a feeling to take 5 more minutes to relax before starting up again, and as we stood up and old man was about to cross the street, and we decided to wait for him to cross and then talk to him, after he finally crossed the street he asked to talk to us and told us to sit back down. His name was Alfredo and was 84 years old, after talking to him about the gospel and Jesucristo, he mentioned how he was lonely ever since his wife passed away two years ago. We taught him about God´s Plan of Salvation that families can be together forever. After our lesson I offered a prayer for him, and when I finished I looked at him and tears were rolling down his cheek and he said,¨Thank you. I needed that. I knew when I saw you Elder Thompson you had the words I needed.¨It was awesome to finally give a real lesson to someone, and it amazed him that I had only been speaking for 3 weeks and was that fluent, which is true.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints is the fully restored gospel. I am so happy that Alex is teaching and impacting people already! He wanted to share the following scriptures:


1 Nephi 3:7 
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: Iwill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shallprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Alma 32:31
 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.