Oh man this last week was a bit of a roller coaster ride! So many twists and turns! CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!! This time before General Conference started I wanted to show the Lord that I am really serious about receiving personal revelation during conference so I used my personal study session right before conference and started to pray and study and think of some questions that I would really like answered and then to write them down. I did this and I ended up enjoying this General Conference more than I have any other conference. I had 7 questions written down and ALL of them were answered. There was even a few times that the question was answered in almost the EXACT way that I had asked it and I just cried. This experience with General Conference has helped me understand how it really is possible that God hears our prayers and answers each one of us in the way that we need it because if there were millions of other members praying to received answers at Conference and if all of our needs were met than that must be similar to the way that prayer works. Time after time I have been shown the miraculous love that Heavenly Father has for me and for His other children. There is nothing like it. I am continually amazed as I see the Lord's plan for the church and all the people of the world unfold. We are in a VERY exciting time in the history of the world my friends. We are blessed beyond belief and I pray that we all(especially me) can remember to thank our Father more often for what we have.
We had a zone training meeting this last Friday and I learned so much from it. I love getting to have meetings with our whole zone gathered because I feel of the good spirit of the other missionaries and I feel really motivated to work hard because it reminds me that we are all out here together working as a team, working as an army of truth and righteousness. One of our Zone leaders talked to us about the Christ-like attribute "Charity". For some reason in the past when someone would talk about charity I would feel myself start to zone out a bit because I really just did not understand what charity meant. You know when someone starts to talk about something that you feel like you are really lacking in and part of you just thinks that because you are just not really good in that area that you will never be and you might as well not even try? I guess I used to feel that way about charity because I did not understand what it meant. I felt like it was just love but some people call it charity. I raised my hand and told my zone leader these thoughts and he had us all turn to the definition in the Bible Dictionary under "Charity". This is the definition: "The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ. It is never used to denote alms or deeds of benevolence, although it may be a prompting motive." As we read this together I knew that Charity is loving someone because you serve them and serving someone because you love them. Love is a strong affection but it becomes Charity when we serve the person, when we put their wants and needs and desires above our own. This then made me think to myself "For whom have I Charity?". This thought has really brought some wonderful moments of studying and pondering so I invite all of you to ask yourselves the same question. For whom do you have Charity?
Okay. So now comes the time for a bit of a funny story. The other night we were at the home of one of our investigators, Victor. I know that I have written about Victor a few times before. His wife June is already a member of the church. I wish that I had more time to go into detail about Victor and June but if you would like a very funny story with lots of laughter on my part just ask me about them when I get home because there is MUCH to tell. So we were at their house the other night and my companion and I were both feeling anxiety because we found out last week that Victor has still been smoking although both he and his wife have been telling us that he has not smoked at all since we invited him to live the word of wisdom. We had been feeling like he was not being honest because their house would be full of smoke when we went to visit them and they said that it was from the apartment above them... well what could we say to that? "No it is not! You liars!!!!". Umm...No. We are missionaries! We had a member call us the other day that gives rides to June and Victor and she let us know that Victor was smoking when they got to their house to pick them up. This just confirmed what we already felt and because Victor had a baptismal date for this Saturday we knew that we were going to have to tell him that we would have to move the baptismal date back because he was still smoking. We went to their house and I decided to just take that approach of acting like it was a known fact and I said something like "Victor we are going to have to push back your baptismal date because it is really important that you have stopped smoking at least 2 weeks before your baptism." He went right along with it and we could both tell that he was a bit sheepish about it. I was very grateful that this went so well! By the end of the lesson I was really ready to get home because it was close to 9 pm(our curfew) and there is a couple of creepy men that live in their apartment building who always say inappropriate things to us when we walk by them. As we were wrapping up the lesson I heard the men outside so I reached into my bag for my pepper spray, I just like to have it in my hand when I feel nervous. I had my pepper spray in one had and with the other hand I went to rub my eye and adjust my contact with my finger because I have allergies here in the spring time so my eyes get really itchy. Little did I realize that when I had test sprayed the pepper spray a few days before it had left some residue of pepper spray on the outside of the container. Yes. As I touched my eye I had pepper spray on my finger and all of a sudden it felt like my face was on fire!!! I did not realize what happened, only that I was in a lot of pain. I stood right up and said "Oh my gosh! Something is in my eye!" and I ran into the kitchen. My companion, Victor and June just stared at me dumbfounded wondering what in the world was going on. I just was walking around their apartment for a moment and then I realize what had probably happened with the pepper spray and I said "There is pepper spray in my eye!!!" We ended up leaving right then because I was worried that it would get worse and then I would not be able to drive home and my companion cannot drive. Looking back I wish that I had been a fly on the wall in that apartment. I bet it was HILARIOUS! I sent a picture of right after it happened but you cannot really see the puffy-ness. Wow. Sister Altier laughed so hard when we told her and her companion and she said "Now you can really go home Hna Thorne, you have done it ALL."
We are currently teaching 3 families! I have wanted to be teaching this many families for the entire time that I have been serving. I am working really hard to prepare my dearest friend and companion Hermana Jorgensen to take over our area and to continue to teach these families and the rest of our investigators. She is really nervous for me to leave but I have SO much faith that she is going to do really well and succeed in all that she does as long as she asks for the help of the Lord and is obedient. One big thing that I learned from conference is that if I am obedient I shall not fear. Remember when President Monson said a few years back "The future is as bright as your faith"? Asi es.
I love you all!!!!!
Strive to put the Lord first in all that you do, study, read and pray!
con amor,
Hermana Thorne
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