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