January 27, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Hello! This week is crazy and we really don't have much time! So here's for a quick letter!

As for progressing investigators: we have Chris, Yoyo, Leslie and Michael.

Chris is still good to go for his baptism this weekend!!! We fit him in his jumpsuit yesterday and we just have some commandments left to talk about and we are doing that tonight! His baptismal interview is this coming Saturday and his baptism is Sunday! Yay!

Yoyo has a new bap date that we set yesterday for March 2 and she also committed to live the Word of Wisdom! Apparently she has been living it and she is very much anxious for her baptism so we are looking to hopefully move her bap date up to the last Sunday of the transfer.

Leslie has a bap date as well for March 9th. She is Hannah's roommate that came to church last Sunday and was also at church yesterday. She has been reading the Book of Mormon on her own and has a true desire to know if this is true. She's amazing!!!

Michael wasn't able to make it to church because of the weather but he is still reading. We also weren't able to meet with him but we will be meeting with him this week and will hopefully set a bap date then!

Also to keep in mind, Barb has a bap date for March 9th but is not progressing because she hadn't read when we last saw her. But we will be following up with her this week and will hopefully have her at church this Sunday! Connie and the grand girls didn't come to church and are seeming more and more disinterested. We'll see what happens.

As for your email: Sounds like everyone had a really fun week and how fun to go surprise the Duffins! I'm glad that all of them are doing well too. :)

Yep! It certainly has been FREEZING cold here and it's not done yet. It's supposed to get into the negatives for the next 2 nights and be cold for the next week. Yay! Thank goodness for tights. :)

Connie, Maddie and Harley we just met tracting. Knocked on their door and asked if we could say a prayer with them. They said yes, the spirit was felt and they let us come back! Tada! :D Yay prayer approach! Maddie is 13 and Harley is 10. Their parents aren't really around. Connie raises them.

You're working with Jeff! Whoa! No such thing as a coincidence. :) Talk about what could be a cool missionary experience! Just keep letting your light shine Mom!

There's a new NEW temple film???? Why did they already change it???

Thanks for the pics Daddy and thanks for the snow globe!!! Looks awesome!!! :D

As for my spiritual thought this week:

This week I have regained a testimony of the priesthood. I was really having a hard time this weekend. I felt super depressed and tired all the time and I couldn't figure out why. I couldn't seem to muster any energy to smile, let alone laugh and everyone was noticing. I just felt... really down on myself. For some reason, I felt like a failure to the Lord. Yes, Ian, I know I need to be easier on myself. Let me finish. ;) So for the last week, I have been praying specifically in my prayers and asking if the Lord has accepted my mission so far, if He was proud of me. Then I asked one of the Elder, Elder Green for a blessing on Sunday. In that blessing, he (not knowing anything of what I had been going through) said specifically, "The Lord has accepted your service so far and wants you to know that He is proud of the instrument you've become." Wow. I nearly started crying. As he continued with the blessing, he promised me that these negative feelings would disperse and I would soon feel once again an abundance of joy. As he talked, I felt the cloud over my head slowly dissipate. By the end, I could smile and laugh again and since then, I have felt much more like myself. :) And when those negative feelings start to come back, I just remind myself of the words of my Father in Heaven who truly does love me. My invitation this week is to partake of the priesthood. Don't be afraid to ask for a blessing even if you feel that it is only for something small. I can promise that it is important to the Lord. He loves us.

Love you all eternally! Have a great week!

Sister Thorne

 The AP's and us. That's Elder Evans (if you remember, he was my first district leader in Evansville. He's absolutely amazing and everyone knew he would be AP one day), Elder Hicken (Elder Hicken is one of the famous elders from Jasper. He baptized the LeMonds and the Hughlett's. He's one of the best Elders we've got and he goes home this transfer.) then me and Sister LeFevre.

 I went on exchange with Sister Dickerson to Jessamine County this past week. So much fun! Sister Dickerson is not much older than me and absolutely amazing. I love her to death!

 We were shoveling the snow and the two adorable neighbor kids came to help. But when we asked to get a picture with them, they both ran. :P Guess I'm too scary. ;)

So... we found this super creepy hallway and of course had to knock on the door. Maybe the person behind it wants to be Mormon!!! But we also had to take silly pictures. Of course. :)

January 21, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Brr! Hello from freezing cold Morehead! We've got about 2-3 inches of snow out this way and it's still snowing! But don't worry, we are staying safe and driving even safer. We are very blessed to have so many people who are watching out for us. :)

As for investigators: we have 6! Chris, Yoyo, Michael, Connie, Maddie and Harley.

So first off, Connie, Maddie and Harley. Connie is the grandparent of Maddie and Harley and she has guardianship over them. They are doing so well! Maddie and Harley came to church and they really seemed to enjoy it. Harley especially. We are meeting with them again this week and we've already brought up baptism. This week we are going to try and get a bap date with them. At least for Maddie and Harley. :)

Yoyo came to church! We haven't been able to teach another lesson so she won't be getting baptized this week... but she is still set on getting baptized and loved church! So we are hopefully going in to reset the date this week.

Michael also came to church! We met with him yesterday and brought up baptism again. He says that he wants to make sure that he makes this decision for himself and not because of anyone else so he is still praying about it. I'm actually really proud of him for making this decision. I know that he will get baptized eventually, he feels it. And when he does, he won't ever waver. :)

Chris wasn't able to come to church. They actually had to put their family cat down on Saturday and  then they slept in, so it was a crazy weekend for them. But we have another lesson with him tonight and Bishop is coming! As long as he doesn't miss church again, he should be good to go for his baptism February 2!

As for your email:

1) The mural is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Oh my goodness! Gpa Ralph! You're so incredible! I can't wait to see the finished product. :)

2) Sounds like everyone is doing awesome! Lots of fun adventures this week! I'm glad to hear the everyone is safe and sound. :)

3) I'm not sure about Matthew 9. I'll study into that and get back to you next Monday.

4) I actually do know God's Greatest Creation. We get 2 hours of mormon.org time each week and we usually watch Mormon Messages on it. That's one of the new ones and it's so cool! Bro Curry is actually making us a DVD of all of the Mormon Messages. :)

5) Have fun in San Diego Daddy! Say hi to the sun for me!

As for my spiritual thought:

This week I've been spending all my free time reading the Book of Mormon, trying to finish it so that I can start on the Gospels. I actually finished Alma today! For me this week, it has been really interesting to read through all of the war chapters. I don't really know the last time I read them all consecutively and it was really very interesting to see how the war's all fit together. The first thing I learned is that I'm not sure I look up to Moroni as much as I used to.... in his chapters it rarely ever mentions the Lord's name and a lot of the time it says, "Moroni won this battle, Moroni got this city back." And he kind of seems to have quite the temper, especially with Pahoran. But as I read through Helaman's letter to Moroni (Alma chapter 56-58) I realized how incredible Helaman is. He is constantly attributing all that he did to God. Constantly. And that brings me to the second thing I learned. You know Alma 56: 47-48. It's about the 2000 stripling warriors and how they did not doubt their mother's knew it. Well, I didn't realize how amazing those boy's faith was until I put that story in context. Apparently these boys are being chased by a huge Lamanite army and if they stop, they will be over taken and surely die. But suddenly the Lamanite army stops chasing them. Helaman then comes to these boys and says, "Okay, either they stopped because Antipus's (good guy) army caught up to them and they may need our help or it's a trap and they are waiting for us to turn around so that they can take us down. It is your choice my sons. We could be walking into a trap or Antipus may really need us. What do you want to do?" It's then that they say, "Let's turn around. We trust that our God is with us an he will not suffer that we should fall. So let us go forth." As I read through that, I got chills. What incredible faith and courage that these young men had. And as they go back, Antipus is just about to fall into the hands of the Lamanites and they get there literally in the nick of time. Because they trusted in God. I would invite each of us to read through this story and then ponder on what you would have done in that situation. Where does your faith, courage and trust stand? And are you willing to do what you need to, to get it to where it needs to be?

Cool thoughts from this week. :) Love you all eternally!!!
Sister Thorne

 Yes, yes that is a squirrel. Yes, yes I am cutting it's leg off. It's called "working it up" and it's a Hill Billy thing. No, it's not weird. It's cool! :D

 This is Smiley. Well, his real name is Jordan. But as you can see, he is ALWAYS smiling and giggling. Never have a I seen a man giggle more than our dear Smiley. And last Sunday was his birthday! So this was his bday party with our dear Emily who planned it all. We didn't have any bday candles... so he just blew out a normal candle. :)

 I don't even have words.... welcome to Kentucker y'all.

We had a blood drive yesterday at the church and the Amish came again! I got to see Katie and Susie! The incredibly tall Elder is our district leader Elder Behling. His family owns a huge farm so he was SO excited to see a horse again! And he talked farm with all the Amish people. He fit right in!

January 13, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

This week sure went by really quickly! We are so busy! Especially these past few days. I think Friday and Saturday, we didn't spend more than 15-20 min at home! It was really really exhausting, but I'm very grateful for the blessing to be able to be busy. :)

As for investigators, we have 5 progressing. Chris, Michael, Tiff, Kim and Kay

Chris is still good for his bap date. He came to church with his mom for the first time yesterday. He found a friend from school immediately and really liked it. We also got the cub scout master to come over and talk to him for a bit about scouts and he will be participating in the Pinewood Derby this coming month. He's really excited and can't wait for his baptism! :)

Michael we weren't able to meet with this week because of his work schedule but he is still reading and we will be meeting with him tomorrow. He should also be at church again this coming week. :)

Tiffany and Kimberly: We also weren't able to meet with them this week because they were both super sick and then they went home one last time before school started up again, but we are meeting with them this week and they should be at church next Sunday.

Kay is a new investigator we found tracting. She has actually been taught by missionaries multiple times before but we don't have a former investigator form for her. She is super talkative and has read the BoM multiple times. She just hasn't commited yet. We're not really sure of the reason, but that's what we're working on this week. 

School started back up today so Yoyo should be back. She hasn't responded to our texts so we are going to try and drop in on her tomorrow to see how she's doing. Also Jenny didn't have her babies on the 10th because one is too small so we really don't know when they will have them. But we did meet with them last night and invited them again to read from the Book of Mormon. We hope to focus on that some more with them.

As for your email:

1) Thanks for all the fun pics! Oh my goodness Chels looks amazing! She's so beautiful! And Malia looks like a mom! It's so crazy how much she has changed. And the Anime is AWESOME! I drew an anime last week too actually. :P You look awesome. :)

2) Thanks for all the suggestions to watch. :) We get 2 hours of library time each week to look up movies and things for lessons so I can take that time this coming week to look at those movie clips. :) I did quickly watch the CES opening number and saw my gorgeous little sister!!! :D

3) Sounds like everyone had an awesome week full of adventures! Love you!

As for my spiritual thought: 

This week we had a really awesome district meeting where we discussed desire and it's importance in missionary work. Elder Behling left us with a question and 4 different ideas to study which I have been studying in depth since Thursday. He asked how we can increase desire? We discussed 4 different ideas: through the Spirit, through prayer, through faith and through obedience. In my studies, I have specifically found 3 really interesting scriptures about desire. Mosiah 5:2, Enos 1:9 and Alma 32:27. As I pondered all of this, I really thought, "What is the desire of my heart? Is it in line with the Lord's desire for me? How can I fix it if it isn't?" Then this morning I studied Alma 47 and it was a stark contrast. In this chapter I realized that desires are not just ideas or things we want, they are motivations, they can be very very powerful. And this can be for both good and evil. I think the past little bit, my desires have gotten clouded by fear and discouragement. But I KNOW that those are not feelings from the Lord. This week I would invite everyone to search deeply into their personal desires. What are your motives? What keeps you going? And then if it is not in line with what the Lord my desire, how can you fix that? Desires are powerful. I definitely have a testimony of that. And I know that as we each notice our daily desires and align them with God's that we will find more peace, comfort and assurity in our lives. 

Love you all eternally!! Hope you have a fantastic week!

Love always, 

Sister Thorne

 Em and Sister LeFevre and the goats. They were creepy if you ask me.... but they thought they were pretty cute!

 I was pretty proud of myself. Sister LeFevre taught me how to open a hard boiled egg in two halves instead of lots of little itty bitty pieces and I did it on the first try!

Me trying not to trip and fall on my face. It's a dangerously icy place for clumsy people like me!

January 6, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Cold weather? Yep. Sounds about right. ;P  When we came into the library, it said it was 8 degrees outside and dropping. So I would say a bit cold. haha But the library is still open! :D Yay! 

As for investigators: we have 4 progressing, Tiffany and Kimberly, Chris, and Michael.

First off, Yoyo should be coming back for school this week so yay! We've really missed her.

Second, Jenny and Adam are still on our list but we they haven't been keeping our commitments, ergo not progressing sadly. And she's going in to have her twins this week so hopefully we can still stay in contact with them.

Tiffany and Kimberly are still reading and praying but we weren't able to meet with them this week because they have both been extremely sick. We'll be dropping by their place today.

Chris is a new investigator with a bap date! He's 10 yrs old and the son of 2 LA's. He's very very intelligent but doesn't have much of an attention span. He and his parents both want him to be baptized and they were all going to come to church Sunday but they also all got super sick. But we are meeting with them this week and they should be coming to church next Sunday!

Michael is also a new investigator. He came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it! He's really amazing and has been very prepared to hear of the gospel. We taught the restoration and he is praying to know if it is true. So far so good!

As for your email:

1) For my birthday? I don't even know.... haha Emily Grubb's (my twin here) bday is February 10th so we are going to have a joint bday party which I am super excited for. :) But from home? I would really love another tape. I play it for each of my comps so they get to hear my family's voices and I would love to get another one. :)

2) Jenny and Adam weren't able to come to church because of the weather. They are younger, in their 20's. They do live together. And Sister Sperry and I found Jenny tracting and then we got to start teaching both her and Adam. :) 

3) Tiffany and Kimberly are roommates. Tiffany is a student, Kimberly is looking for a job. Tiffany is originally from Hazard, Kentucky. We found Tiffany by going to an appointment for Abdullah, which he skipped out on us and then walking outside to see Tiffany walking her two puppies so we decided to talk to her. Cool huh! 

4) Sorry for the confusion about Erin! There are indeed 2 Erins. One that is an amazing member, whom you met and then one that we used to be teaching who used to live beneath us.

5) Please accept Savannah! She's a friend here who also works at the soup kitchen we volunteer at. :)

6) As for your lesson, I think that is an extremely intriguing topic to teach about. (What is the purpose of life?) This question is actually a Question of the Soul from Preach My Gospel. I have studied this topic very in depth because we come across it at least every other day. A really good chapter to study would be Alma 34. That one is amazing. I have also studied "Why are my everyday choices important?" which is also answered in Alma 34 as well as in 2 Nephi 2. They are 2 of my fav chapters in the Book of Mormon. As for my investigators, I really do come across that all the time. We have one in particular who just had his girlfriend break up with him and he specifically asked us, "What is my purpose for being here? What am I doing? Why should it matter?" He was so very hurt by her and just didn't really have a purpose to carry one because he had made her his purpose. I also come across that in contacting. Most of the people we ask that question to say the purpose here is to serve others, serve God, learn more, be a good person. But sadly there are many who don't believe that there is a purpose. Wouldn't that just be an awful life to live? And even all of those other answers are good purposes and good reasons, but they aren't the one true purpose. As in Alma 34 it says we are here to prepare to meet God. As the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, we have the information about what truly happens after this life. We truly know how to prepare to meet God. That gives us a purpose, a hope, a reason to keep going. As for choices that have come back to haunt them, that happens all the time. It's funny that the worst consequences come from the most important laws, specifically the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. We had one investigator who (age 18) thought she might be pregnant. She wasn't, but we talked about how that choice could affect her life. We have another who is 18 but is a junior in high school who has a little 3 month old girl. There is yet another who is friends of an investigator who is pregnant and she is 14. Seriously. 14. Then I can't even count how many of our investigators smoke. Michael has actually been working on sobriety. He's been sober 20 months, which is huge for him! Sandy couldn't get baptized and enter the gate to eternal life because he drank again. Each of our choices have consequences. Whether to lead to eternal life or to captivity. And it is completely up to us which path we take. Does that help at all?

7) We have church at 9:30. There's usually only one ward in our building so the time never changes. That's pretty much true wherever you go out here. You rarely see more than one ward in a building and if you do, there's only 2 and that's only in really big cities. So yay! We always get 9:30. :P haha

8) I would love to be included on the RS newsletter! How sweet! :D

My Goals for 2014: I split them into 3 categories because I found that I have goals for the rest of my mission and then goals for things I want to do when I get home and finally goals I want to keep for both. So here ya go!

Mission Goals:

1) Finish my study of the BofM and my deep study of PMG

2) Get back to my original weight before I get home which will include not eating after 9pm, only eating 1 treat/sugar thing a day and not having any more carbonated drinks. I've been doing really good on that so far and I've already lost 2 lbs! So with this, could I maybe get healthier things for my bday package instead of candy? I really want to hold to that. :)

3) Get 4 more baptisms

4) Stay focused until the very end!

5) Train one more time

Life Goals:

1) Stay organized and continue to work on time management. Keep a planner!

2) Get a job

3) Find a place to volunteer once a week

4) Only listen to music that uplifts me and don't be leniant!

5) Continue to exercise 5 mornings/week

6) Study school materials 5 days/week to prepare for the next semester

7) Attend the temple weekly

Both Goals:

1) Repent daily-account to the Lord each night

2) Read the gospels with my Mum!

3) Read my patriarchal blessing once a week

4) Work on stress relief techniques weekly

5) Write Brit once a week after she leaves

6) Have a gospel conversation with at least one person each day

7) Review my goals weekly

As for my spiritual thought: I was studying today to try and find my new motto for the transfer. I decided that I wanted to work on humility. So I combined some quotes from Pres Uchtdorf's talk in the Oct 2010 General Conference and Helaman 3:35 and came up with this: "Charity is the source of Humility and True Joy." Along with this "We don't discover humility by thinking less OF ourselves, we discover humility by thinking less ABOUT ourselves. Humility directs our love towards others unto the filling of our souls with joy." I think that I specifically have been mixing the 2 up a lot this past transfer. As I studied this I realized that I need to not just work on humility, but on TRUE humility. Becoming humble as the Savior was when he said, "Father, thy will be done." I believe that as I work on this Christlike attribute more in depth that many of my daily stresses and problems will resolve themselves. I would invite each to study humility and discover the true meaning of being humble for yourselves.

I love you all eternally! 

Sister Thorne

 That's right! The gospel is spreading to every corner of the earth through CELESTIAL jamies! I can imagine the contacting now. "I see you're wearing celestial pjs. Care to know more about the Celestial Kingdom???" 

 Our Soup Kitchen crew! We volunteer at the Soup Kitchen every Wednesday morning. They've become our family. :)

 Working hard to get the car to actually open!

 Hi from KY!!! :D

My twinner and I. My dear Emily Grubb. Isn't she adorable! She's only 2 days older than me so we're gonna have some fun this next month. :)

All us missionaries moving Bro Curry's coworker into her new house. So much fun! We have such an awesome district! In order: Elder Behling, Elder Gerard, Sister LeFevre, Me, Elder Lowe, Elder Green