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
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