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.

Ping Pong and Spanish Champ

Apparently Alex is not only learning Spanish, taking lots of classes and growing his testimony, he is schooling all of the other Missionaries in ping pong! Guess those Thompson Household Battleramas have come in handy. He also has taught the natives a little something called kickball. He thanks CyWoods for those skills.

He is still very happy and getting the goofy happy Alex pictures made my heart melt. If you want to be on Alex's email blast email him! Or if you want to just say hi I know he would love your support.

thompson.a@myldsmail.com

This week he did gave us a verse and word of the day. It is Esposa. Means wife and handcuffs.....

Proverbs: 21:19 It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman. 

Argentina or Bust!

After the tearful yet joyful good-byes at the Houston Intercontinental Airport, Elder Thompson had an interesting experience getting to Argentina.

His plane was delayed in Houston for an hour, so he missed his connection in Atlanta and was stranded!

In a later (his first!) email home he said:

"I arrived in Atlanta and had to take the train from terminal A to terminal F and while running in his suit and tie, arrive at the Gate in time to see them punching the gate code in. I have never been so sad or disappointed in my life"

Luckily he was able to get the number for the church travel services and took the next day's flight out.
He made it safe and sound!

He loves Buenos Aires. He said that he has "Never eaten so much fresh fruit in his life" and said "I could live here forever".

He is super busy and is learning Spanish at an alarming rate.

I asked him if he had a favorite scripture to add to his blog and he said he loves

Ether 12:27
And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.