August 25th, 2014

Hey!!!

So I have some news. I'm going to be training for the last little part of my mission. I am super excited because I really wanted to train again. They told us who were going to be the trainers this last week. I am super excited and can't wait to start. There are going to be 30 new missionaries and in total we are going to be 60 it's a third of the mission. So President wants us to be super prepared and turn these Elders into leaders. We have been receiving some private training for the assistants and President and we will continue to receive it until the new Elders get here.

Our investigator Ana is so awesome. She is so excited for her baptism this Saturday, and we are too!!! She used to be a Jehovas wittness so she still had some questions for us about authority and missionary work, and other things. So we sat down with her and just cleared up all of her doubts and questions and it was such an amazing lesson. She now feels super comfortable with us and we all talk like we are best friends.

So I really love the area where I am at. It truely is a Paradise! The members are so nice and love to feed the missionaries! We just need them to start sharing the gospel. We are working with a few less actives and they are super excited in fact a less active family that had been less active for about 8 years came back to church this Sunday! It was awesome!

Well love you all!!

Elder Thorpe

August 18th, 2014

Hey Everyone,

So this week was full of milagros!!! It was such a crazy week and it all started in our Zone meeting this past Monday. They were telling us all that as a mission we were struggling a lot with getting people to go to church and baptizing. They said the mission has plenty of baptismal dates but not very many baptisms happening. (I am really struggling writing in english) Anyways at the end of the meeting they told us that if the missionaries in Casas Grandes dont baptize in the next six weeks, President is going to take all of them out and put in new missionaries. Well that got everyone super nervous and I felt calm and the words that came to my mind in that instant was ¨You will baptize someone in your area this transfer.¨ After I heard that I felt like I should stand up and commit myself and my companion to baptize someone. But I didn't... But I did receive that impression. Well the next day we had to go fix our light bill because while we were in Casas Grandes they cut our light off. Well while we were waiting for the bus a large family yelled over to us Elderes! We waved to them and they started walking towards us. When they got to us they explained they were a new family  to the branch and had just arrived the day before. Well we kept talking to them and they had brought their babysitter to watch the kids while they worked during the day. Well her name is Ana and she hasn't been baptized and she was listening to the missionaries in Tamolipas, Baja California and she wants to get baptized. She believes all of it is true and we are teaching her everything again just to be sure she knows everything. She will be baptized the 30 of August!!!

I know the Lord works in mysterious ways and that this is his true church!

Love you all

Elder Thorpe

August 11th, 2014

Hey Everybody!

So this week was a crazy week. We got to our area and it was pouring rain! It's actually been pouring almost every day this week. This week pretty much all we did was get to know the area and the members. We learned where some of our investigators live. We had some really good lessons with some of the members. They all understood very well what we were trying to teach them.

We also went on some visits with the Elders Quorum President to visit the less actives in the area. We had some really good lessons with him about the Temple and the importance of the Temple. I was so excited for the experience that I had with my convert in the temple and that I was able to share that with them. Many of them said that they wanted to come back to church and start preparing to go to the Temple. It was awesome!

So the area where we are at is super amazing, probably the most beautiful places that I've had in my mission. I'll send pics for you to see. So far the polygamists haven't been a problem, although they are always trying to find a way to talk to us and we kind of have a rule from the mission president that we can't talk to them about doctrine.

I love you all and miss you all!

Love Elder Thorpe

August 4th, 2014

Hey!

So this week was probably one of the most spiritual experiences of my life! I know that God loves me and knows me personally and that he knows the specific blessings that I need! I know this because this week I saw God more in my life this past week than any other times. I´m going to start back when I was in Satelite as a DL. I went to a training meeting for the DL´s of the mission and one of the elders there was in my first area (Oasis) He came up and told me that my first convert Vicki was going to be entering into the Temple but they weren't sure when. I thought to myself wow what a blessing I was in an area really close to the temple and I wouldn't have to pay a lot or travel very far to go. I was super excited. Well that's when I got changed all the way down here and I thought to my self ¨why, how could this happen¨ I was really frustrated. But I kept working and doing what I was supposed to. This week we received a call from the assistants telling us that I had to go up to have a DL training meeting and they were sorry they didn't invite me to it when it was in Casas Grandes on Monday. So we started getting ready to go to Juarez the next day...when the phone rang again. We didn't know who it was but we answered. As we talked they told us they were the Elders in Oasis....they then asked if they could talk to me. They told me that the next day my convert Vicky and her sister, who I had helped to reactivate, would be going through the temple. I was so happy to hear that I was going to be able to go to the Temple with them! It was such a blessing because we were going to be heading up anyways the next day for my training.

After the training from the asistants they told me many times ¨Elder Thorpe we need you as a leader in this mission, THE LORD NEEDS YOU AS A LEADER IN THIS MISSION!¨ It was kind of crazy to hear them repeat that so many times because I had been thinking that I was not good enough to be a leader or I don't have what the mission needs. But it shocked me to hear that.

While I was in the Temple I felt the spirit so strong as I rememberd the Covenants that we make with our Father in Heaven and I remembered how much he loves me! It was incredible.  I was so happy for Vicky and the choice that she had made! I love this gospel and the happiness it brings. While I was in the Celestial room I asked Heavenly Father why he needed me so badly as a leader in this mission. As I read the stories of my scriture heros, I recieved my answer of why he needed me so badly.

Elder Thorpe, Vicky and her sister at the Temple