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
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