January 28, 2013 - Work without ceasing

Hola todos!

 

 

How are you all? I hear that it is freezing back in Utah and Idaho. It has been similar here but today it warmed up to 62! I am loving it. I am really excited to share what happened this last week. I assume that you all have gotten the pictures that went along with this email by now. Sandy went to the temple to do baptisms! It was seriously a joyful day. My companion was not able to come with me because our mission president said that only one companionship was able to go at a time so I was able to go on exchanges and be with Sister Minall who had taught Mayda and Dave. I had been praying and praying that nothing would happen and that Sandy would follow through with our plans to go to the temple. She had been pretty sick with the flu and I was worried that she may not be feeling well, but she did end up coming and she really enjoyed it. Something else that was really cool is that Mayda and Dave had done some family history work before hand so they were able to be baptized for Dave's mother and father, some aunts and uncles and also some cousins. Isn't that so cool?! Their very first time doing baptisms for the dead and they get to do the work for such close family members! Honestly I am not really sure how to describe how I felt at the temple during this time because it was so special. As I sat in the chapel waiting room, waiting for Sandy to go and do baptisms I was just in awe at how many wonderful things that I have been blessed to witness as I have been serving as a missionary. I am not sure how much longer I will be in the Raytown ward but I do know that I was supposed to be here. Having the chance to have taught Sandy means SO much to me. She is family to me now and I will love her forever. I think that perhaps the reason why I love her so very much is because through the gospel of Jesus Christ we were united and when a friendship is founded upon such a base as the gospel it feels so much more strong and everlasting.

 

Our mission was blessed to be able to have a general authority come and visit and teach us this last week. Elder Gavarret of the seventy came and taught us during a conference last Thursday. At the beginning of the conference he wanted to shake each of our hands and say a few words to us. He is from South America and so I was able to speak Spanish to him and his lovely wife. They actually both struggle quite a bit with English and it was nice to remember that other people have to learn new languages as well and that they experience the same kind of frustration that I do when they are trying to express themselves. I think the reason why I love conferences so much is because I feel so renewed afterwards. I do not like the feeling of being stuck in a rut and that tends to happen to me sometimes as a missionary because we do the same thing everyday. Sometimes I find myself saying the same prayer over and over because we pray so much. Within the last few days I have been really trying to work on my prayers and to really be open and honest with Heavenly Father. Some nights and mornings I am just so exhausted and what I really want to do is to go to sleep so I find that my prayers are really rushed or not super heart felt. Something that the Lord is teaching me is that if I put my whole heart into keeping His commandments He will make up for whatever I am lacking, including sleep. I know that if I take an extra ten or fifteen minutes to pray and to really pour my heart out to the Lord, thanking Him, remembering others who need help and letting Him know how I really feel He will give me the energy that I need to be a good missionary and to feel happy. It sounds so simple saying it, doesn't it? For me though in the moment it is a lot more difficult! I guess it just comes down to faith. He will provide, He always does.

 

I want to share something that has really gotten me through my mission. This little secret is laughter. Some days it seems as if everything goes wrong. EVERYTHING. Some days it seems as if every sister at the visitors' center is being a bit hormonal(I am not exempt from this) or that I say the wrong thing or that my teaching is off. Somedays I just want to cry but I have started to resort to another form of release...I just laugh. Maybe someone is angry with me even when I try to fix the situation...I then go into my room or find a place that is at least semi-private and I tell Heavenly Father about it because I feel sad and or frustrated... and we laugh. Maybe an investigator who was progressing nicely and who I just KNEW that we were supposed to meet drops us suddenly so I cry...and then I find something to make me and my companion laugh. Laughter helps us let go of the negative emotions that would drag us down to a level that is far below the one that we were born to occupy. I am  not be able to youtube something to make me laugh while I am a missionary so I have really been forced to become more creative. Maybe it is more fun this way. I just felt like I should share this. Can you imagine me laughing even more? Well...it has happened. I know that there is a time and a place so when I cannot laugh I am trying to just smile. Sometimes it is hard to smile, but it seems to have made SUCH a difference. Try it. :D

 

Oh man I just love you all so much! Remember who you are. "Doubt not, fear not."

 

love,

 

Hermana Thorne

January 21, 2013 - Freezing winds and warm hearts

Hola todos! 

Today I am not entirely sure what to write about, but I am sure as I start talking that I will get my creative juices flowing and I can remember what happened this last week. The directors of the Visitors’ Center, Elder and Sister Adams left on Saturday. The Thursday night before we had a farewell reception for them here at the VC and I just cried so hard to think that they were not going to be here anymore. They have been here as long as I have been here and they have become some of my dearest friends. Man I never thought that it would be this hard to say goodbye, but it really is. I know that I will see them in not too long though and I really look forward to this. There is something about serving with someone as a missionary that builds a bond with them like no other that I have experienced.

We did have an awesome thing happen to us this last Saturday. We had a few hours where we did not have set appointments so we were really hoping that we would be able to find some solid new investigators. We ended up knocking on the door of this guy’s apartment and we taught him lesson one. After we introduced the Book of Mormon to him he just stopped us and told us that he is not sure if this is what he is looking for but he had a feeling that it might be. He had been praying to find something more in his life because he really had been feeling like there was something missing. As I bore testimony of the ways that this gospel has changed me and my life I just felt a surge of the Spirit and I know that he felt it to. At the end of the lesson we actually talked to him about a few other things and he said “Man this has been an answer to prayer.” He told us that we were like angels. It was kind of funny actually because what do you say when someone calls you an angel? It’s kind of awkward because I don’t feel like an angel and so I just laughed(what I do best), and we left after setting him with a baptismal date for the 9^th of February. It is so true that our job is to find those that have been prepared beforehand to meet us. It really just makes our life so much easier! We are so very blessed!

This last week I felt a type of comfort that I never knew that I could experience. Everyone asks me how long I have in the mission and so I am forced to talk about it when I would prefer not to think about it. I have already thought about the things that I think are the most important to think about for when I get home, but I know that there is no need to think about something that is still awhile out and I don’t want to get distracted while I am a missionary. I received some letters that said some things that made me start to feel anxiety about going home and I just felt sick to my stomach and some old feelings that I used to feel before I was a missionary came back to me. The cool thing about this situation was that instead of allowing myself to freak out I just allowed myself to feel what I was feeling for a few minutes and then I prayed. In my mind the words “How am I going to do this? How am I going to do this?” kept running through when all of a sudden I found myself asking the Savior “How are we going to do this?”. This changed the way I was thinking and instead of shutting down I started to think of how although it may be difficult when I have to make the change of going home, the Savior and I make a really great team. If I can be a missionary and learn Spanish out here in the field, I know that I can do anything that I need to when I do finish this call. With the Savior I can do all things. He is my light and my strength and He truly has made me a “new creature”. If I can do this I know that you all can as well. As I write this there are tears rolling down my face because this is the truth. I am new and I owe it to the One who suffered all for me. I am so thankful that I still have more time to spread the good news of the gospel to those who do not know of its joy and gladness.

I am happy and I pray that you all are as well. I am so thankful for the letters. Thank you for the support you show and the blessing you offer in my behalf. Believe me, I feel those prayers.

Have a wonderful week and keep on smiling!!!!

Love,

Hermana Thorne

January 14, 2013 - Dearest loved ones...

Hola todos,

 

Hermana Thorne here. Today I am feeling great! I went to the doctor last Tuesday and turns out that I had Bronchitis and Laryngitis so the doc put me on an anti-biotic and also have me an inhaler. Yeah I have never used one of these in my entire life but it really helped me and I feel SO much better. It's funny because I really did not want to go to the doctor so on Tuesday morning when I woke up I told my companion that I was fine because my voice had come back a bit. I told her that I did not need to go to the doctor. I then started getting ready for the day and I knew that I really needed to go to the doctor. I actually felt a really strong impression from the Lord asking me nicely to please go. So I went and I am incredibly glad that I did so. Later that night I was looking at the paperwork that my doctor had given me and I realized that I was supposed to be resting my voice but I really had not been. Although I did not have much of a voice I had been trying to use what I did have all day long, Because I did not want to cause permanent damage to my vocal cords and I really needed to get better quickly I decided that the day after I went to the doctor's office I would not talk at all. Now this may sound like a small thing but believe me, it really was not. Can you imagine me not talking? It is rather absurd right? Well the temptation to speak was too hard to stay upstairs and the doctor ordered that I rest but I could not stand being downstairs in the VC watching any more church videos. I had gone through most of them all in Spanish and English by this point. I then decided to clean out the guides' room where all of the sisters eat and store their belongings. I ended up taking out two big, black trash bags full of garbage and from the fridge and cabinets of things that had been there for a very long time. It was FANTASTIC! It felt so good to be making a contribution to the Visitors' Center even though I could not take guests on presentations.

 

Okay. This day that where I could not speak taught me a few wonderful lessons. It is so crazy how much more I noticed when I did not speak at all. I was able to realize how much words make a difference whether for good or for bad. There was a situation that happened where I was not able to explain myself when one of the sisters at the VC chose to be offended because I had pointed out that her that garments were showing and I thought it would about kill me that I could not answer back. I really wanted to be able to tell her why I had pointed out that her slip was too high but she went on the defense right away and because I could not speak I could not defend myself. I then realized that I had not been rude at all or judgemental, I just had let her know something that would have wanted to know if I was in her shoes and me trying to explain myself would not have helped. Some times people choose to get angry when they know that they are not in the right, I know that I do it and because I was not able to say anything to her I was able to really realize what was happening. It is crazy the power that can come from REALLY listening, not just listening because you are waiting for the other person to pause so that you can put your two cents in. I believe that this is how the Savior Jesus Christ listens. He does not make a judgement right away or try to interrupt so that he can get His point across. He listens because He really and truly wants to understand how we are feeling and because He really and truly loves us. You know those moments when there is something that you want to say to someone while you are in a conversation and so you are waiting for them to get done speaking so that you can say the thing that you want to say but the subject changes and so you don't get to explain yourself or to prove your point? So many times in my life instead of just letting the thing go I felt like I just HAD to say was I was going to say, and time and time again what I had to say probably was not really important and just ended up hurting someone else. A lot of the time the thing that we want to say is just in defense of ourselves, but when we really know who we are we will not feel a need to constantly be defending ourselves. Feeling like you always have to be defending your point of view or your intentions can get exhausting but when you are trying your best to be close to the Spirit these feelings can be eliminated and you can enter into a type of rest that the Lord speak of in the scriptures. Your life will not all of a sudden cease to have trials but you will know where your true source of happiness and peace lie. You will feel whole and happy in a world that will not be able to give you those things.

 

I want to share a miracle that my companion and I experienced the other night. Due to the fact that I had been quite sick we had not found anyone new to teach last week and we were both quite bummed about it. On Saturday night our appointments fell through and the temperature had dropped to freezing. We both did not know where we should go or what we should do so we said a prayer and decided to head over to a less active's house because I was not supposed to be out in freezing weather for too long as I was still getting over the Bronchitis. Well the less active member of the church lived in an apartment complex but we did not have their apartment number. We then started looking for them and as we walked over to their building we saw some people standing outside of one apt and as we came close they went inside. There were loud voices coming from inside of the apt where the people had went back in so my companion and I looked at each other and we knew that we were both nervous to knock that door because we did not want to be cussed out or worse...finally I just knocked on the door and the lady who answered the door invited us in and we ended up teaching her and her husband and her daughter! We were able to get 3 new investigators! It was awesome and such a tender mercy from the Lord. I had been praying so hard for Him to help us find someone to teach and instead He helped us find 3 people, we just had to do something that made us feel a bit nervous...ha ha. We had to step into the dark and bit and have faith that the Lord would light the way. He always had and I know that He always will.

 

Okay one last little bit of news...this morning I finished reading the Book of Mormon out loud in Spanish! I feel so happy about this because it was a pretty intense thing to do. It took me a little while because I was not only reading it out loud but I was writing things down and also marking it a ton. I actually read the whole book of Ether yesterday at the VC and also 6 chapters of Moroni. By the time I went to bed last night my brain was exhausted. As I finished up this morning with the words of Moroni my eyes filled with tears because I realized that I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me. I just finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish when a year ago I could not even speak Spanish and I have not even had formal training since junior high. How is this even possible? It still leaves me in wonder. I know though that it has been by small and simple things. I read from the Book of Mormon in Spanish everyday and I recite from memory our purpose as missionaries, the first vision, the baptismal invite, and the question for referrals in Spanish each morning. I have not been perfect with my studies but I am continually trying to progress. I know that the Lord blesses us when we do those small and simple things. He will open your mind and illuminate your understanding. He has done it for me, I know that He can do it for you.

 

Continue doing those small and simple things my friends, and you shall come off conqueror!

 

I love you all!

 

con amor,

 

Hermana Thorne

Jan 7, 2013 = A FANTASTIC year

Hola todos,

Is it another Preparation day again? Man time seems to fly! It seems like New Year's Eve was just yesterday, does it not? Well yes, I did send you all quite a few pictures because this last week was jam packed with excitement. It was also CRAZY stressful, but stress can be good right? If is makes us get our fannies(as my mother would put it) in gear? We started off the week with a New Year and a fresh start. It is so crazy that for all of 2012 I was a missionary! Looking back it has been the best year of my entire life so far. There was SO much more good than bad because the bad stuff always lead to good lessons learned. It's true!

I want to start off by saying that right now I have a pretty severe case of Laryngitis and cannot hardly speak at all. It is a bit funny really, but it would be more funny if I felt better. I am getting better though, I can feel it so hopefully within the next few days I will get my voice back so that I can continue proclaiming glad tidings of great joy to the world.

We were able to have New Year's Eve dinner with a great family, the Lawsons. I sent a few pics of their cutie-patootie pooch, Eddie. They were so good to us and they showed us a ton of their mission photos. We then went over to another family in the wards house, the Thiemes. We were supposed to meet up with the friend of theirs that we had talked to on Christmas day during dinner but because there was a big snow storm he did not come. We then tried on some of Sister Thieme's antique hats for a few minutes. My companion and I still had on one of the hats when we walked into the Thiemes dining room to ask her husband to take a picture of all of us. I saw a glow from a fire and heard a crackling noise and I said to Sister Thieme "I did not know that you had a fireplace.". She said that they don't and that it is just a candle. I then said "Well it seems bigger than a candle.". We all walked around the corner where the noise was coming from and Sister Thieme's yule log was up in flames!!!  It was actually about to catch the Christmas tree on fire! Sister Thieme screamed "My yule log!!!!" and I screamed "Fire!". Then both Brother Thieme senor and junior ran and got something to pic up the yule log and throw it outside. Once the yule log was gone the house filled with smoke. All Sister Thieme could say was "My poor yule log..." but I kept thinking how glad I was that I had noticed the crackling of the fire...That could have been very bad! I asked them why there were not fire alarms and they said that there were, but then on further inspection they realized that there were in only a few rooms. They had just redone most of their house so that is probably why. It was for sure an eventful night. We almost DIED! Okay, well not quite but it was still a bit thrilling.

Okay, okay, so the moment that you all have been waiting for....drum roll please.....SANDY GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that if you saw the pictures that you already know this but isn't this fantastic?!!!!!! We had her baptism set for Saturday at ten am but Friday rolled around and while we were on shift at the VC I went downstairs to check our phone and we had 13 missed calls. Well I about peed my pants because they were from Sandy and her daughter Stacy and I was afraid that something happened and they were doing to call off the baptism like they had last week. I called them and they told me that they were on there way to Arkansas. AGAIN. This is the exact same thing that they had said last week. This time they said that they were going to be to the baptism tomorrow, they were just going to have to drive most of the night to make it back. I told them that we could push back the baptism a few hours. My companion and I then had to call or text all of the ward members that were involved yet again to change the time of the baptism. I seriously felt like a chicken with my head cut off trying to fix everything. Not many people were able to be there, the font did not hold all of the water and ended up draining halfway, the water was freezing cold even though we had just ran it and it was warm when we checked, I had lost my voice so I could not sing the number that I had prepared before hand, the Bishop could not be there so we had someone conducting who was nervous and had never done it before, Sandy was pretty tired from the drive the night before, and she had to do her interview 15 minutes before the actual baptism...yet it HAPPENED. She is a member of the church and it is all totally worth it and it would be worth it again. She is so happy and at her baptism she just glowed. None of the other stuff really matters and while all of the tribulation was going on I felt such a calm within me that it would all be okay. While Sandy drove to Arkansas with 4 other people they all smoked pretty much all the way there with her in the car and she did not smoke one cigarette. She told her daughter Stacy that she refused to change the date and that she could not let the Lord down and she didn't. This baptism means so much to me because I really told the Lord that I would do what it took to help her enter the waters of baptism. Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts on Sandy's behalf. It has really helped.

I love the work. Sometimes it is harder when you don't really click with your companion or when they have a lot of emotional issues that need to be dealt with. I am learning how to love even when it is REALLY hard to love. Maybe I have been that person that has been really hard to love at some point too but I know that the Lord helps me with these things and that He will not leave me to deal with it alone. We are all VERY loved.

I love you all and I pray all is going well.

con amor,

Hermana Thorne