November 27, 2012 - Thanksgiving and lots o' love

Hola todos!!!

 

So how did Thanksgiving go for you all? I just sent a huge batch of pictures for you all to enjoy. I have really been LOVING my time here in the Raytown ward. My companion and I get along really well and I am learning to love the time that I have at the VC. I still find myself pacing around like a mad woman at times because I cannot really stand having to sit all day and not being able to be out in our area helping the people that need the gospel, but then I feel the comfort of the Holy Ghost reminding me that I am where I need to be. I then find something to clean or someone that I can make laugh and then I feel a ton better. I seriously LOVE to clean, it just refreshes my soul. Thankfully my companion really likes to be clean too because we have a very well organized room, just how I like it.

 

I can hardly believe the success that we are experiencing right now. I feel so humbled by all the Lord is blessing us with. We have a baptism this Saturday and then three more in the month of December. We also found some really awesome people to teach yesterday and we are looking forward to seeing their progression as we continue teaching them the restored gospel. The baptism that we are having this weekend is for this awesome girl named Amanda. She has been investigating the church now for 2 years so this baptism is a really big deal. We have even made invitations and there is going to be a pot luck dinner after the baptism on Saturday. This is SO different than anything that I have ever experienced on my mission so far. Our ward mission leader is INCREDIBLE. He is polynesian and I already just adore his whole family. Not even kidding, he tells the ward to feed us at every single chance he gets. Apparently at the last baptism that the ward had right before I got here he was conducting and spoke about how the ward needs to make sure that we are getting fed. Also he says it when he is sharing his testimony. Needless to say we are very well fed because no one wants to mess with a big Samoan man who loves his missionaries...ha ha! Seriously though he will get mad if we don't call him when we don't have a dinner. We had dinner with his family on Sunday night and it was so much fun. He overheard me say that I love roasting marshmellows and so when we got to their house he had started a little fire in the pit for us to roast marshmellows as our dessert. So then while we were roasting and eating the marshmellows him and his sons were playing their ukelele's for us. I love the feeling in their home. They work hard and they play hard. I want my future family to be like this. I feel very blessed to be here in the Raytown ward.  

 

Thanksgiving was really great. We had two dinners which was really hard for Sister Lettig(my companion) because I don't think that she has ever had to eat two dinners before. I was pretty used to it and just made sure I did not eat too much at either meal. We were able to eat with our investigators. I absolutely LOVE these women. They fed us this wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and then Sandy(the mother and grandmother) took us back to the VC because we were on shift. We asked her if she could come in for awhile and so she did. She was completely blown away by the VC. She loved the statue of Christ and she kept saying "I need me one of those!" ha ha. Sandy is one of the strongest people that I know, although she probably would correct me if she heard me say that and say that she is actually weak but I know the truth. Her husband died in a car accident a year and a half ago and she loved him very much. We took her through the presentation at the VC called God's Plan for His Family. It is about a family raising their children on the principles of the gospel and the plan of salvation. She just cried and cried through it and I felt so filled with the Spirit as we assured her that she will indeed be able to see her husband again. She can hardly wait to have his temple work done when she found out from her daughter who is a member about the temple and what we do inside. Keep in mind that we have only been teaching Sandy for 2 weeks. She has been very prepared to hear this message. Up until a few weeks ago she was totally against hearing anything about the church and did not want anything to do with it. Now she has received a blessing to help her stop smoking, she has come to church the last two Sundays, and her new favorite place in all the world is the Visitors' Center. God knows His sheep and they are numbered. He loves them all and knows them all by name and need.

 

The day before yesterday as we walked into the VC their was a very familiar face waiting there for me. I don't know how many of you remember this but when I first got out here, like a year ago, when I was on exchanges we found this 19 year old kid named Brandon. How we found him was that as we were using his driveway to turn around he poked his head out the door and the Spirit told me that we needed to go talk to him. I ignored the prompting for a moment but then I knew we needed to go back to his house so we pulled the car over and I told the sister I was with that we needed to go back that kid's house. Well Brandon was the kid and he has since been baptized and moved to Utah. He will be turning his mission papers in in December. It was SO good to see him. He is my friend forever and I love him so much! I cannot believe what a difference it can make if we really follow the promptings of the Spirit. I will forever be thankful that I listened that day because the Lord knew better than I do and He always does. If you are worthy you can received guidance from the Holy Ghost and he will lead you places and allow you to do things beyond what you have ever imagined for yourself and for others. Pray for help in hearing what the Lord would have you do, for then you will be able to be an instrument in the hands of the Creator. What could be better than that?

 

The work continues moving forward! Because of the influx of new missionaries our mission will be getting 50 new missionaries increasing our numbers to over 300 missionaries. We are the biggest mission in the world!!!! No...seriously we really are :D  Work as hard as you can and do all things thoroughly, then play and laugh like there is not tomorrow because there isn't, there is only today so do your best! 

 

I love you all!

 

con amor,

 

Hermana Thorne

November 20, 2012 - The Raytown rigor

Hola todos,

 

 

I am sitting at the computer thinking how grateful I am for all of the wonderful people that I love so much. This last week was absolutely wonderful and SO different than anything that I have yet experienced as a missionary. My companion and I work so well together. I feel like she is really helping me heal and let go of some pretty hard things that I delt with in the last area. We talk very openly and we are able to express our love and respect for one another and for the work. I think a big reason why our companionship is the way that it is is due to the fact that we both know why we are on our missions and we also have confidence in who we are. I find myself feeling so rejuvenated and really happy. We have had some great success even in the short time since I arrived here. We have four baptisms set for the month of December and three of them are people that we just met within the last week and a half. The most awesome part about this is that they are all progressing and all of them attended church this last Sunday. Everyday we have been working our very hardest to be exactly obedient and to be thinking about the people that we are teaching instead of being distracted. Man I am sleeping SO good these days. We usually get done planning late but we always feel like we are really prepared for the next day so it is so worth it. 

 

Coming back to the Visitors' Center has really helped me to realize how much I have changed. I absolutely love to work hard. I love to work hard because I know that working hard in the end really is the easier way. When you give what you are doing all that you have you never have to feel regret or worries later on. When you work hard, playing hard is SO much more fun! I find myself having to continually evaluate why I am doing what I am doing. Why am I here? The number one reason has and I know always will be that I love God. I love God and I love His children who are my brothers and sisters. We have this presentation at the VC about God's plan for his families. If you have not seen it you really should visit your nearest church Visitors' Center and check it out. It goes through the life of a family and really plainly teaches the Plan of Salvation. I like to tell the visitors that it is the "why" of the gospel. Having the knowledge of this plan is so much a part of why we do the things that we do as a church. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for the knowledge that I have. There is a part in the God's plan presentation where it shows the grandpa of this family passing away and the grandma talking about how she was not ready for him to go but that she is okay because she knows that she will see him again. Well due to the fact that my grandpa passed away over the summer and I was able to talk to my dear sweet grandma on the phone the day after it happened, I know that she is feeling very similar feelings. My first day back here I took some visitors through this presentation and I couldn't help but cry as I though of my grandpa and how because he made and kept promises with God we will see him again after this life. I am not thankful for the passing of my grandpa and for the heartache that it brings to our family, but I am thankful for the perspective that this experience has brought to my life. I have had the sacred opportunity to share this experience with some of the visitors that I have taken through the VC and I know that it has really touched them and helped them to open up and talk about areas in their own lives. I am so thankful for opportunities to grow and develop even when there is pain involved(and sometimes especially when there is pain involved) because I know my Savior Jesus Christ more than I ever have in my entire life. Because I have this relationship with Him the desire to share the knowledge that I have of the gospel has developed into a fire that I know will not die down if I keep feeding it with regular scripture study, heartfelt prayer, and pondering. I really do love the Lord.

 

I don't think that I had realized how much I was missing being around all of these amazing sister missionaries. I love living in a house full of sisters. I have the chance to get to know each one of them and to develop a friendship that I know will last forever. I love how each and everyone of the sisters brings something special to the VC and I love them all. I love that there are other Spanish speaking sisters here too because we can practice together. I must admit that sometimes I do enjoy confusing the other sisters who are called english by randomly speaking to the other spanish sisters in spanish. It's just funny. I have had the chance to take a few more families through the VC in Spanish. I am continually learning and I always need more practice but if anything my love for Spanish has only grown since being here. I miss getting to speak the the members in spanish yet it is nice to be in a culture more similar to what I have back home.

 

Wow! Time is running short! I must end this letter. I love you all very much and I pray that you are all doing well and staying close to Heavenly Father. I would love to hear from you!

 

con amor,

 

Hermana Thorne

 

Also i attached a pic of me and my cootie patootie companion, Sister Lettig

November 13, 2012 - CHANGES

Hola todos,

Como estan?!!!!! Wow...I don't really know where to begin here. It feels like the last time that I wrote was SO long ago and I am in a TOTALLY different mission! I was transferred back to the Visitors' Center here in Independence Missouri. I was not really expecting this but it has turned out to be a REALLY big blessing in my life. I am now serving in an ENGLISH speaking ward for the first time in my mission. The ward is called the Raytown ward. I moved back to the house that I used to live in my first six months of the mission. It is so strange to be back! The first few days that I was here were honestly quite rough and I am still adjusting. It is a big difference to not be walking the streets all day and having all of the day to contact people and teach. Last Thursday was my first day here and I felt like I was in a completely different universe. As I sat down at the VC knowing that I would be there for the next six hours I thought I was going to lose my mind for a moment...but then I took a deep breath and began to pray and let my Father in Heaven know that He really needed to bring me some divine comfort or I was going to have a flip out right there in front of all of the bran new sisters at the VC. Do not worry your little heads, I was able to get ahold of myself and at least make an effort at studying. It did not help that I was exhausted out of my mind either. It is funny how tired I really was from serving in the Kaw River ward. Now that I am gone from there I can let it out(or maybe you all already knew?) that it is a pretty scary place. It is like night and day getting to feel the Spirit in such abundance as I do at the VC. I have been blessed beyond all human imagination. My new companion is an ABSOLUTE doll and I adore her already.

Leaving Kaw River was quite bitter sweet. I knew in my heart that it was time to move on but at the same time I did not want to leave Lawanda and Tiauna and all of the kids or say goodbye to the ward and Ivan and Brian Jones. Lawanda fed us dinner before I left and we were able to have a really wonderful time while we were there. I was able to say the closing prayer before we left and I hardly made my way through it I was crying so hard. It is really hard to explain these tears...they were tears of the most tangible happiness that I have ever known and yet tears of incredible sadness at having to say goodbye to people that I love so dearly. Thankfully as we left the house I was really sweaty from all of the laughing that we had done because we said goodbye with smiles and promises of future contact and more memories. Not sure why I told you I was sweaty...but I was. Ha ha! Kansas City Kansas's goodbye gift to me was having someone steal my camera on the public transit on my second to last day there. I guess the city loves me so much it wanted to keep a piece of me...oh well! If there is one thing that I have learned from serving in the Kaw River ward it is to say "OH WELL!". Sometimes things happen like this and you just learn to let it go because there is no point what so ever in getting all upset over something that you really cannot change. Wow...this type of situation happened to me almost a year ago now and I flipped my lid! This time I know that there are way more important things...I just can't get upset, I no longer have it in me. So if any of you have an old digital camera that you are not using let me or my mom know. I would really appreciate it. This is why I am not sending any pictures with this email...they were stolen with the camera! Oh! And I can't use my companions camera because two weeks ago HER bag was stolen with her camera in it...I literally don't have one picture with her yet. It's quite ironic. I have laughed about it often.

The ward that I am in right now is AWESOME!!!! The members absolutely love the missionaries and treat us so well. We are the only missionaries in the ward so it is different than the other ways that I have served in for that reason as well. Also there are a lot of white people. Seeing as how I am now a red headed latina I feel quite out of place, but do not worry I will somehow manage...Our ward mission leader is Samoan and SO AWESOME. Last Saturday night we got to go to a real luau. They had buried the food underground to cook it. It was so weird and awesome. The polynesian culture is SO different than the hispanic culture. I seriously am experiencing culture shock right now. I do love it here but I am really still adjusting. Oh and my p-day is now on Tuesday so that is when you should be getting my emails.

I also experienced a really cool thing the first day that I was back at the VC. I was able to take a presentation in Spanish for some people that had come with there friends and did not speak any Spanish. They were from Bolivia and after I took them all the way through the VC on a separate tour from their friends because they wanted theirs in English I found out that the friends that brought them here are from Hazelton Idaho. I got all excited and asked this couple from Idaho if they knew my great grandpa Mel Harmon. They said yes they did and that the man actually had been his bishop before he died. Then he asked me if I knew Ronn Thorne. I told him yeah I am pretty sure that I know him  seeing as how he is my grandpa. We all laughed and then he told me that he had just interviewed my younger cousin Layne for his mission!!!! Also he said that my beautiful cousin Leah(Layne's older sister) will be filling out her papers sometime soon as well! I just felt so very thankful that I had been there that day. If they had come just one day before I would not have even been there. The Lord puts us in the exact place that we need at the exact time that we need to be there. A lot of the time when we are doing righteous things it really just happends naturally and we don't even have to worry about it. I continually ask myself "Am I doing what I need to be doing so that the Lord can direct my life?". If the answer is not yes then I use the Atonement until it is yes and I can feel comfortable knowing that I am doing what the Lord would have me do.

I would love to get more letters from you all. It really does help me to have support from home and I sometimes wonder if you all are still alive! Are you...? I hope so, and I hope you are happy and enjoying this time in your life. They holiday season is almost upon us! Next week is Thanksgiving! I can hardly believe it...

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

con amor,

Hermana Thorne

November 5, 2012 - Kansas Bliss

Hola todos, 

Como estan?! I pray you are all healthy, happy and living life to the fullest. I am still here in Kaw River but rumor has it that I will be transferred this week on Thursday. We will see how accurate these rumors really are. I do feel like I will be leaving though because I have been here six months now. I can hardly believe that I have been here so long! I am forever thankful for my time here it has been the best experience of my life. 

This last week was a pretty great one. We were able to teach Lawanda and Tiauna about temples, eternal marriage and family history work. I was SO excited to teach them about this, especially Lawanda because she will LOVE the temple. She did really like what we taught her but we didn't have a chance to really talk as one on one as I would have liked because Mariah(her youngest and my little baby girl) was sick and kept crying. We gave here this video called "Between Heaven and Earth" and she is excited to go to the temple to do baptisms in the next few weeks and then to go to the temple in a year. I assured her that Sister Castellano and I will be in attendance when she goes through the temple in a year here in Kansas City.

Yesterday at church I got up to share my testimony in sacrament meeting and just about five minutes later Lawanda got up too to share hers! As I sat and listened to her say "My testimony starts with the sisters, they came at a time when my life was so full of sadness..." and then she just cried and bore the most beautiful testimony that I have ever heard. Tears streamed down my face as I listened to her tell of how lost she really was and how at home she feels in the gospel. I wish I could put in accurate words the way that I felt at that moment and the way that I feel now but honestly words cannot fully describe it. I know with all that I am that Lawanda was my friend before I was born and I very much look forward to the future and seeing her 6 children raised in the gospel, having lives so different than that would have had otherwise. Lawanda's family actually came to the Trunk-or-Treat that we had last Tuesday night. The kids had a blast! They are all starting to develop friendships in the ward and they love coming to the church activities. I will send a picture of all of us at the Trunk-or-Treat.

So I have some other wonderful news! We are now teaching Lawanda's son Mikey and the kids grandma Becky. Mikey is ready to be baptized within the next few weeks and Becky should be ready within the next month! It was funny because Becky almost always listens in on the lessons but did not want to fully participate so we decided to make a special visit to the house just to see her this last Thursday. The Lord blessed us with a miracle because not only was Becky there, but she was alone without any kids which is something that I don't think that I have ever seen in the whole almost five months that I have known them. The Lord really blessed us to have that quality time with Becky. I felt like she just needed us to be upfront with her so I just said "Becky we know that you like to listen to what we have to say even though you pretend like you are not listening sometimes, can we now teach you please?". She just laughed and said yes and then told us her only problem was being baptized because she already has been in the Catholic church. We then were able to talk a bit more about this concern and to show her that the Lord loves her and we set up a return appointment. It was awesome! I am so thankful for this beautiful family.

My year mark is on the 9th of this month. This does not even seem real to me. There is no way that I have been a missionary for a whole year. It feels like I have only been here for a very short time but it also feels like I have always been a missionary. I want to use every moment more that I have left to the fullest because time is not slowing down at all, more often than not it seems to be speeding up. 

I found a gem in my scripture study this morning. It is found in Alma 32:23  " And now, he imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also. Now this is not all; little children do have words given unto them many times, which confound the wise and the learned." The Lord "comparteth his word by angels". Are you choosing to be an angel of God? 

I love you all, have the best week of your lives! 

con amor, 

Hermana Thorne 

October 29, 2012 - Best. Week. EVER.

Hola todos! 


This last week was a wonderful one full of us trying hard to find new people to teach and also working every day with Lawanda and Tiauna to get them all prepared for their baptismal interview and for their baptism. Everyday that we went over to their house to teach them I was blown away by how ready Lawanda was to be baptized. She just kept getting more and more excited about her baptismal day and I could see the light in her growing. Her home is such a different place to visit now. She has become such a great example for her children. She gets so excited when we come over because she wants to learn more and more. So then...it HAPPENED!!! LAWANDA AND TIAUNA got BAPTIZED!!!! I can honestly say that it was the most beautiful baptismal service that I have yet experienced on my mission. This one baptism was worth all of the time, heartache, sweat, tears, and effort that a mission brings. I would totally do it all over again just to see Lawanda and Tiauna receive the gospel and watch their lives change. During the service I looked over at Lawanda(right before she was about to go to the font and be baptized) and she was crying. I have never seen her cry before, but I felt the joy that was radiating off of her and I could not help but cry myself. I have never felt so close to heaven in my entire life. I know that the service that day was packed with people, the ones that we could see and the ones that we could not. When I looked over at Tiauna I realized that she was receiving the gospel and being baptized right before she enters her teenage years. I know that this will effect the woman that she will become and that she will have so many more opportunities for success. As they both were baptized there came over the people gathered there a very very special spirit. Our ward mission leader got up to speak about the special feeling that was in the room and her got emotional as he talked about how special Lawanda and Tiauna are. He is so right. They are the most special people that I have ever met and I feel more blessed than I could possibly put into words that I have had the incredible opportunity to meet them from the very beginning and to then see them enter into the covenant of baptism. I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined that I would be a part of something so magnificent. My decision to come on a mission has been the best one that I have ever made. 

Yesterday they both received the Gift of the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting which is what Lawanda said "I am most excited about!". They both came back to sit with us on the pew after having received this most wonderful gift and I could feel the change in them. I wish that you could all see them! Lawanda is so happy that she just laughs all of the time. She reminds me of myself. She just laughs at everything now and is always smiling. Their lives continue to have hardships but they have an understanding with how to handle things knowing who they really are now. Tiauna actually got to be a part of the Primary Program in sacrament meeting yesterday. She did so well although she was super nervous. All of the kids love primary and Lawanda loves Relief Society. She also already has some great friends in the ward. Thank you so much to all of you who pray for me because when you pray for me I know that it goes to those who we are teaching because it really is about them and not us. 

My companion and I both have gotten el gripe (the flu). I actually was feeling pretty lousy on the day of the baptism and yesterday but there was no WAY that I was going to miss any of the meetings. The Lord helps us to do what we need to do even when we physically don't feel up to it. We really can do anything through Christ who strengthens us.

I made this journal for Lawanda that has Christ on it and Mary at the tomb on the front and says "Facing the future with hope" and then on the back it has Jesus and it says "Never give up". So don't. Do not ever give up on your righteous desires. The wonderful thing about the fact that we are all here is that before this life we CHOSE to be here. So choose to not give up. We have the wonderful gift of progression here. I think a real definition of hell is to not be able to progress. So our lives can be our own heaven if we are continually progressing. This is not to say that there will not be heartache, because there will be, but if we are learning and growing we still have reason to rejoice. :D

I love you all! 

Hermana Thorne