September 24, 2012- la semana pasada

Hola todos,

Oh como estan?!!!! Espero que todo esta bien y que ustedes estan leyendo sus escrituras y tratando a crecer mas circa de Dios. Les quero mucho!!! This last week was honestly AWESOME. Last p-day we went to this huge market place that is actually not at all far from our apartment. When we walked in I thought that I was in Mexico because it reminded me of shopping in Tijuana, but it was funny because it was also full of black vendors too. One of the places was selling teeth grills(golden teeth, also with jewels if you are really classy like that), don't worry I will be attaching a picture of the aforementioned grill vending. It was a nice trip to Mexico and it was not nearly as scary trying to get back into the United States as it was last year when I visited Mexico...

We are still teaching and preparing Lawanda and her daughter Tiana to be baptized although we have to move their baptismal date because of some information that we received while going over the baptismal interview questions with Lawanda last week. All will be well and we are hoping that we only have to push it back a week or two. I absolutely adore visiting their family. We have been teaching them a new primary song every time that we visit them because it is motivation for all of the kids to be quiet during the lesson. After the lesson is over we pray and the primary party starts, ha ha! They LOVE to sing these songs. The first one that we taught them was "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man". We then taught them "Head, Sholders, Knees and Toes" and this one makes them go crazy! They love it when we start out slow and do it faster and faster. Last time they begged me and Sister Castellano to have a battle together to see who could go fastest. They are amazed how fast we can do. I tell them that they will be that fast too once they have been doing it as many years as we have(thank goodness for my Primary rearing). They laugh and laugh and laugh and they love Primary so much. I never really realized how blessed I am to have had the chance to go to Primary and know all of these fun things. They are so much closer as a family and you can feel the love in their home. Can you even believe it? It is like night and day from when I first went over there. Everything that the Savior touches lives. 

So then that brings me to Ivan. Ah I love Ivan!!! This last week we have been finishing up the things that he needs to be taught because he is being baptized this Saturday. We also got to take him with us to the adult session of stake conference. Before we went to pick him up with our member friend that was driving us he asked if we could help him shop for some church clothes. We did not have a ton of time but of course we told him yes. We went to Marshalls and we were running around like mad people trying to hurry and find him church pants and shoes. He has never in his life worn a white shirt, tie, church shoes and slacks. I almost cried when he put it all on. He will be baptized on Saturday and then received the priesthood shortly after. He is a different person than when we first met him smoking outside his apartment on a bench. What a miracle. He was so prepared to hear the message of the gospel. I am so excited for his baptism!!! I will send pictures of him in his church clothes.

So stake conference was INCREDIBLE! I really would like to share with you all something that our stake president, President Priday, shared with us. These are ten keys to building a celestial home.
1) Make covenants and keep them.
2) Always be financially honest(never let money come between relationships and pay tithing first)
3) Have personal and family prayer. He said that family prayer is the best deterrent to sin and the best provider of happiness. Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion.
4) Have personal and family scripture study.
5)Express love and show it. Remember how every time the Lord introduces His son He says "This is my Beloved Son". The Lord wants us to express love one to another.
6)Forgive and forget. Doctrine and Covenants 64: 9-11
7)Keep your voices down. Matthew 6:14-15
8)Be grateful
9)Make time for family.
10)Never give up. 
As I was listened to our dear stake president speak of how to create this type of home I knew within my heart that if I follow these steps I will be able to create a celestial home for my family. I do not want to settle for less. If we strive to have this, although we are not perfect we can be happy and have a save and enjoyable home for our children. I invite you all to read through these points, ponder and them, and then discuss them in your family. I know that you will see incredible results and success.

Well transfers are this Thursday. I am praying that I am not leaving Kaw River but the Lord knows my heart and where I need to be. I will of course let you all know how it turns out!

One of the pictures I am standing next to a member of our ward, Brother Netherland. He is cousins with Michael Jackson, no joke. His dad is brothers with Michael Jackson's dad. They never really hung out though because the Jacksons got rich and thought they were better than their poor family. True story. Then in another picture I am standing next to Michael Jackson...yeah it was a week of celebrities.

Les amo con toda mi corazon!

Hermana Thorne

Ps. I have to send the pictures in another email because this one is too big to send with them. :D

September 17, 2012 - la vida de una misionera

Hola todos! 

Wow, so I got here to the computer lab at the library and I looked over to the right of me and saw a man that we met one day at the library. He is hispanic and he was reading his Bible so I had started talking to him and actually gave him a Book of Mormon. Well I just sat down next to him and as I was about to start writing you all he leaned over and asked me "Te gustaría a cenar conmigo?" He whispered it and I was like thinking in my mind that he asked me if I would like to talk about the gospel but I felt a prompting to say no but instead I was like "Si claro" (yeah sure) and he was like "Enserio?"(seriously?) and then I had a sick feeling in my stomach so I said "Perdon, no se esta palabra 'cenar'" and he said "You want dinner with me?". I then tried really hard not to laugh and said "Oh, no, no, no, soy una misionera...no puedo." (I am a missionary...I can't). So...I just said yes to a date as a missionary. Okay on accident. But it was funny. He then proceeded to ask me for how long I will be a missionary. Man. Oops. When you don't know exactly what someone is saying, DO NOT say yes. Lesson learned. 

So our week was good! Lawanda and Tiana, the mother and daughter that are getting baptized on the 29th of September came to church again yesterday and they both loved it. I can't even express to you all how much I love this family. I think I sent a picture to you guys of them awhile back, the family consists of the mom, Lawanda and her six kids. They are black and these kids are the cutest little kids in the entire world! I LOVE THEM. Yesterday as Lawanda and Tiana were about to go home after church Lawanda asked Tiana if she could feel herself changing for the good inside, and then she said "Cuz I sure can!". They are really excited for their baptism and so am I. We have worked really hard with them for months now and finally they are really close to the waters of baptism and we can see the changes in them. It is the greatest thing that I have ever seen in my entire life. The youngest of Lawanda's kids is named Maria and she is my little buddy. As a missionary we are not allowed to pick up kids and it is the hardest rule for me. Instead I just pinch her little cheeks and play with her. At first when we were visiting them she would not even come near us, now she runs to me and tries to get me to hold her. I need to take a good picture with her and send it to you all. 

I have been thinking so much this week about the way that we as humans choose to set the tone of our homes and our lives. I see so much abuse and neglect going on in the homes of a good amount of the people that we visit and even our neighbors right now. Yesterday we witnessed this man yelling his head of at his little boy who could not have been more than 4 years old. He yelled horrible words and profanities at this cute little kid and called him horrible names. Man, what must this man have gone through that made him think that it is in ANY way okay to say things like that to a small child, let alone to anyone? I was talking with my companion about it because it made both of us sick and I told her that I wonder who yelled at him that way and if he remembered how it made him feel as a little kid. We have so many choices in this life. We can choose to use the things that have happened to us in the past as a crutch and repeat the cycle of abuse that may have happened to us, OR we can use the atonement of the Savior to help us let it go, and then use the example of the Savior to teach us how to be the best parents, friends, brothers, sisters, etc. that we can be. I then look on the other hand. Tonight we are going to eat with the daughter of the bishop in our ward. Her and her husband are not perfect people but they have chosen to have Christ be the center of their home and the difference compared to the kind of homes that we visit normally is HUGE. There is love and respect and the Spirit of the Lord abides there. I feel like I can breath so much easier in their home.  I want to raise my children with a good sense of discipline and at the same time I am going to love them very much and that is one thing that they will never wonder about. Sometimes I just want to cry because I want to pick up so many of these neglected kids that we see and hug and kiss them and tell them that they are so very loved. I always wonder if they ever have anyone tell them that they are loved. I wonder if they every have anyone touch them lovingly and tell them how special they are. People need to be loved. The more love that you give the more you will receive. 

I am sending some pictures of a night that we went and at soul food in one of the most shady areas of the city. It was so fun. The place is called Mama R's. They gave us SO much food! I had sweet potatoes, fried corn, fried pork chops, salad and mashed potatoes and gravy Cajun style. I thought I would burst after we were done. I did not even eat half of it. Hmmm...soul food. They should call it "make your hips big" food. 

Well I love this gospel. It is everything to me. I am continually learning so much. I really appreciate your love and support! 

les quero mucho! 

Hermana Thorne 

September 10, 2012 - Fall is in the air

Hola todos! 

Oh man, how are things going in your various parts of the country? I pray that all is well and that this email finds you all healthy and happy. I am doing well here in Kansas City, Kansas. We have less and less cockroaches as the days go on because some bug guys came and sprayed the whole apartments complex(pray answered!). They are slowly dying off and we are rejoicing in our many dead blessings...I have never been so happy to see a little dead carcass in my whole life...

You know we had a really successful week this week. We met a lot of wonderful people and we worked really hard to get members to come teach with us which has always been such a struggle in this ward because it is low income and a lot of people do not have transportation. Well we tripled our number of member present lessons! (okay so it was just from 1 last week to 3 this week, but still! HOOOORAY!!!!) Yesterday as we were walking I told my companion that maybe I was a bad missionary, when she asked me why in the world I thought that I told her because right in this moment I do not want to be working(we were tracting at the time...). We laughed and she reminded me that a lot of missionaries don't want to tract but we do it anyway. This has been such a lesson that I have learned this week. We live in a world where if people don't want to do something, they just don't do it. Because of this fact we find fatherless children, lack of discipline, unemployment, obesity...just to name a few. So many people have no self respect or level of self worth and I am starting to understand that at least in part it has to do with never doing things that they don't want to do(don't worry, I am totally included in this catagory...). This last week although successful was a bit of a rough one. I think it was Thursday night we were over at one of my favorite member's homes eating dinner. I had been excited to go all day because she is such a sweet old woman from Mexico who is a recent convert and also recently has had to deal with her son getting severely beaten and his eye gauged out down in Mexico. Also she loves me so that helps too:D anyway she made this awesome dinner for us and I was so excited! She had made homemade flour tortillas(ay mi vida!) and carne asada con papas, and there was fresh avocados and tomatoes, and mashed potatoes...all so GOOD! Well I started eating and as I was about half way through my plate my stomach started aching really bad and slowly got worse and worse until I had to run to the bathroom because I thought I need to vomit. Well I could not through up which was a bit exasperating because I wanted to feel better. I was in and out of the bathroom a few times until the last time my companion came and said that we needed to get me home but could I come and tell the Hermana that was feeding us because my comp does not speak Spanish. Well I went and sat down at the table and told her. By this time I was shaking a bit and my face was white, I just did not feel well. The wonderful Hermana had fixed me a big bag of the food to take home and eat the next day but just as we were about to leave she told me to sit back down and wait because she had something that she thought would make me feel better, she was just really worried about me(I LOVE her). Well she came right back with a little packet of something that she poured into a glass of water. When she handed it to me my companion whispered to me "It is antacid!". At this point with all that was in me I DID NOT want to drink that antacid. I was terrified that I would throw up on the darling abuelita! Well I did not want to be rude so I took a swig and it tasted horrific! It took everything I had not to spit it right out. The Hermana was just looking at me smiling all tender as I gagged. She told me to finish it because it would help me feel better. So I did. One of the worst moments of my life. So this story is pretty hilarious and the next day we laughed a lot about it. This is a silly example of doing something even though we don't want to, but a more serious one is how I have really changed the way that I do my studies in the morning. It is hard to stay focused some days, and a lot of time I just want to study the Book of Mormon or the Bible for myself because I love them so much. In Preach My Gospel we are asked to study specifically for our investigators. I have really worked on this and I feel like it is part of why we are having a lot more success. I have really tried to direct my thoughts to why I am doing the things that I do as a missionary because then I do what I don't what to do because I love God. I challenge you all to try thinking about the reasons why you do or don't do the things that you don't want to do. 

I am also including some pictures of cutie patootie animals we got to hold this week. I was in Heaven. 

ALSO our investigator, Ivan, came to church yesterday and we will be holding his baptism and hopefully the baptisms of 4 others(our family we are teaching) on the 29 of Sep!!! 

les quero much!!! 

Hermana Thorne 

September 5, 2012 - Kansas City Kansas, my home sweet home

Hola todos! 

Pues como está? Espero que todo esta bien y que sus vidas estan llenas de gozo. Les quero mucho!!!!! So because Labor day was on Monday I was not able to go to the library to write my email and yesterday we had exchanges so I was in another city called Overland Park, Kansas. So. I am writing today. My experience in Overland Park yesterday was crazy! This city is one of the wealthiest in all of Kansas so we actually tracted in an area with multi-million dollar homes...pretty much the exact opposite of what we do here in KCK. Yeah. I missed my area very badly. People were not friendly at all to us there. We did find a couple of people that were in the lower income parts of the area but it was still crazy because the lower income parts of that area are like the highest income of my area...needless to say I am so grateful for that chance that I had to go there because I feel so thankful for the mission experience that I have thus far had and I LOVE that I have had the chance to serve with some of the most humble people in all of our mission. For dinner a member family(they are actually from Twin Falls and that was pretty cool) took us to the Cheesecake Factory. Yeah I have not eaten somewhere like that since before my mission. It was nice but highly over rated. Why spend so much money on food that is so bland?! I needed some more spice to my food...man it's like Americans have no taste buds(no offense if you are American, ja ja!)! I would prefer a plate of beans, rice and carne asada with some corn tortillas on the side any day. The women in the wards that I have served in know how to cook, seeing as how a good amount of them are Latinas(and so am I now!...just a very freckly one... :D). Anyway. I love authentic Latin food. LOVE IT. 

So I am realizing something extremely important on my mission. The thing that I should be the most afraid of in my entire life is sin. Honestly on my mission I am not super tempted to commit a whole lot of big sins or anything. One thing that sometimes I do have an issue with is lack of...well I guess that you could call it oomf. Like the "I am so excited that I could pee my pants because I am a missionary and I want to convert the whole world" type of feeling. Some days I feel a lot more excited than others but I am realizing that the biggest fights that I am going to fight in my life are doing things even when I really don't want to do them. The world teaches us that if we don't want to do something then we don't have to do it and that it is our "right" not to have to do anything that we don't want to do. My area is completely jam-packed with these kinds of people. We see parents all of the time never making their children do things that the kids don't want to do...but how are these kids turning out? Kansas City has some of the highest crime, drug use, and gang activity in the entire country not to mention the insane amount of people living off of the government on some type of disability. I have compassion for people with disabilities, believe me I do, but when I say that the majority of the people that we come in contact with in the projects are on disability I am not even exaggerating. So. Getting back to my original thought. What would happen if I did things because Heavenly Father asks me and because really in my heart I have given EVERYTHING I have over to him, knowing and trusting that He knows the beginning from the end and what is best for me? From my personal and companionship studies recently I know that the Lord is asking me for my whole heart. Well I am about ten months into my mission, you would think that I would have gotten this down by now but the honest truth is that I have not. I find myself thinking about how tired I am, or how hungry or how stressed. I find myself thinking about the "outside world" sometimes and things from home, especially my family. You know all of this makes the work harder, not easier. I am realizing that one small choice at a time can help me give myself over more and more to the Lord. I am still human and sometimes I get scared that if I give myself over too much to the Lord that I am going to be a real weirdo after the mission and it will be even harder to give up this name tag and the work that has become who I am and I love who I am...well today I realized that this is going to happen anyway so I just need to let it go and trust that the Lord will provide. Sometimes I am afraid of my own potential because I feel like if I reach that high that no one around me is going to be able to relate with me because a lot of people I have found(on the mission and otherwise) can settle for a different level of commitment and hard work and feel fine about it. Well I think that part of my problem lately with focusing has been that I have not been trying to work my hardest and give all that I have. Jesus Christ says in 3 Nephi 12:6 " And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost." So if I put my whole heart into the work, all of my thoughts, my wants, my desires I know that I will "hunger and thirst after righteousness" and then I will be "filled with the Holy Ghost". As missionaries we CANNOT teach with out the Holy Ghost. This is it. I don't want to just feel the Holy Ghost, I want to be "filled" with the Holy Ghost. If I give my whole self, then every night I can lay down knowing that I was filled with the Holy Ghost and that I did not use my frail, mortal words to try to convey the most beautiful message that ever existed. A message of truth such as this needs to be taught by divine power so that the divinity with in all of those that I am teaching will be able to recognize it. So the key to this? Let go. Give it over. I am too weak. I need to give Him my wants, my dreams, my desire, and especially my thoughts and actions. So that is what I need to do. What do you need to do? How can you purify yourself before the Lord? How can you further receive His image in your countenance? 

So. A quick reference to the pictures I am sending. One of them is of a member of our ward who is very proud that he can fit a whole soda can in his mouth, his name is Benjamin. Ha ha! Then the others our with some of the lovely sisters that I serve around including my companion. 

An update on the mail situation, it has been resolved and my prayers have been answered! The senior sister missionary at the office sent all of the mail from the week before my birthday to an address that does not exist so if you sent me a letter and got it back you can send it to me again with the mission office's address and I should get it because she changed the address to our address. Thank you all for the love and support that you give me, especially letters because it really helps a lot. 

Les quero mucho! 

con amor, 

Hermana Thorne