May 20, 2013

Hola Familia,
I am so excited about turning 19 this Friday. It's kind of crazy thinking I am going to be 19. One of the Elders was telling me about a story of when they changed the mission age from 20 to 19 and how the first 19 year old in that mission later became an apostle. That would be my favorite Jeffry R. Holland. He said, "you better prepare yourself Elder, your gonna be an apostle some day." I laughed and looked at him and said, "Funny." We have been working super hard in the mission, Our ward isn't the strongest of all the Wards in the world. Things here in Mexico are different with the Church. We found out that hardly any of the members are reading the Book of Mormon. So Elder King and I are doing something about that. We have a list off all the names of the families and we are going to each family and commiting them to read the Book of Mormon. Reading the Book of Mormon is super important. Especially reading it, meditating it in your heart, and praying about it. Just like when Joseph Smith was visited by Heavenly Father and Jesus they told him that none of the Churches teachings were right. They spoke highly of Jesus Christ but their hearts were far from him. Unless we take the teachings of Jesus Christ to our hearts, we are just like any of the other religions. Having the Savior in our heart is extremely important.

So we found some new investigators this week. We actually had a really cool experience with finding one family. We were on our way to go talk to a less active family, when we both had the impression to turn around and walk back through the park. As we had almost walked through all the park a man stopped us and asked us if he could talk to us. We agreed and we talked about what we do and what the church is about. He seemed super intrested and sincere and asked if he could cook for us and listen to our message. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

So we got a pretty sweet announcement this week. The Prophet and all of the counselors and the twelve are holding a special broadcast for missionaries and bishops in June. President Angulo thinks something big is going to be announced. Quien Sabe.

The food has been pretty easy to get used to here some of it is still kind of weird, but it all tastes good. It's increasingly getting hotter here and sometimes I wish I was somewhere cold. But I still love the heat and its all good.

-Elder Thorpe