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:
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."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..."
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 ThompsonMisión Paraguay Asunción2881 Del Maestro Casi CaballeroB HerreraAsunción, 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 FYIAnother 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)