The Quest of a Lifetime: February 17, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Wow. This is my last time emailing you from Morehead, Kentucky. Only God knows where I'll go next! I'll find out Tuesday at transfer meeting. It's a very bittersweet moment. I am going to miss my family here desperately. I have grown to sincerely love so many people and it will be so weird not to see them everyday. But I have been itching to get somewhere new, meet new people, a new ward, everything! So I'm so excited and so sad to get transferred. The crazy roller coasters of life. :)

As for investigators: there are 6 progressing; Yoyo, Janice, Leslie, Pam, Crystal

Yoyo is back!!! We got contact with her last night when we dropped by her house! Apparently she doesn't have any minutes on her phone and she has forgotten her security question to get in to her bank so she can't pay her phone bill.... so we set up a new mode of communication! We are bringing a laminated envelope that we are periodically checking and leaving messages in for each other. So hopefully we can stay in contact that way! She still wants to be baptized but has gotten confused by some powerful baptist and catholic influences around her.

So we have moved her bap date to Mar 30 and are working on helping her find her answer through prayer. Woot!

Janice is awesome! We found her tracting a bit ago and met with her and Sis Jex this week. They clicked immediately and we had a really powerful lesson. She is reading on her own and has read up to 1 Nephi 5. She has great questions and truly has real intent. No bap date yet, but that should be coming soon.

Leslie didn't come to church but is still reading her way through the Book of Mormon and Bible. We are meeting with her again tonight. We meet with her once a week to answer her questions and help her out in any way we can. She is coming to Institute FHE nights on Monday night so that's good too! Some good fellowship should help her.

Pam has started reading in the Book of Mormon but still won't come to church. I'm not sure if she's just curious or really wants to learn... we'll see.

Crystal is a new investigator that we found while contacting. We taught her L1 this week and she seemed really interested. We set a bap date for Mar 30. She is reading and praying this week and should be coming to church within the next week or two. She's already super active in her church (cross point. Argh). But she has a lot of questions and has been looking for answers. She's married and really wants to have a christ centerd home.

As for your email:

1)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EMMA!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED FOR YOU! YOU WILL HAVE SUCH A BLAST! OH MY GOODNESS! I CAN'T EVEN CONTAIN ALL THE ECSTATICNESS I'M FEELING RIGHT NOW! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! *cough cough* anyways, Congrats Emma-sue! I am so very proud of you for making this decision to go on a mission. You will do such amazing things. You are going to change lives. Stay strong! You're amazing! And speaking of, when does Brit get her call?! I wanna know so bad! And also ditto all of the above for Jennica. I'm so proud of my sweet girls!!! :D (P.S. Jen- there are some AWESOME members of our Morehead ward that just moved down to Baton Rouge. She is the Provost of the Louisiana University Systems. Her name is Karla Hughes and her husband is Colonel L.R. Hughes. I'm still in contact with them so I'll have to tell them to keep an eye out for you!)

2) I will be thinking of everyone tonight as I'm packing and all day tomorrow through transfer meeting. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you so much for the strength you have lent me and the example you have shown. I know that Grandpa is watching over me and now he can have a first hand witness to the work I am blessed to do each day. He is my guardian angel. I am so grateful for the love he has shown me and the example of a life he led. I will miss you Grandpa. Until we meet again.

3) Oh no! Josh's doesn't fit?! Man... my little boy has grown a lot... I'll make another one and get it to you by your bday. No worries. :) The glass dish stem shattered? :( :( :( That was given to me by Sister Hughlett in Jasper and I don't have room to pack it so I was hoping it would get home safe. That makes me super sad... but I guess everything happens for a reason. Speaking of, y'all should be getting another package this week of a bunch of stuff I don't need and don't have room to pack. Keep it safe for me? :) Love you!

4) I did get the package! I made it through everything until I opened up the envelope to Lori's letter. I looked and it and just started crying. I read her letter through the tears and felt the spirit confirm to my heart the love she wrote of. I will be replying to her letter soon. :)

5) Both sweaters were amazing! I love them! Thank you so much!!! I also got Amy's package on Wednesday too! It was SO cute! She had balloons with dollar bills, those new years streamer popper things, some adorable sticky notes and a cute notepad, along with a couple presents! I felt so spoiled!

6) Yep! Hair cut!!! :D Sister LeFevre talked me into it. It was also because if I did trim it, it would need to be trimmed about 4 inches because the split ends were so bad. So I just decided to cut it all off! The back is cut to just below my neck so it's a super cute a-line cut. Krysti Pignolet (a member) cut it for me. She's awesome! She started off cutting hair and now she looks after all the smart styles hair salons in the Walmarts all over Kentucky and all the surrounding states. So she's seriously a pro and knows what she's doing and I figured I'd better have it done when I can get a pro cut for free! And she gave us a bunch of free hair products to style it a bunch of cute ways! We seriously had over $200 worth of product. I love that family!

7) Tell everyone hi for me today at the birthday party! I miss them all dearly!

As for my spiritual thought: my thought this week is on how important the spirit is. Sister LeFevre and I had a pretty awful experience this week where we were teaching someone and the spirit was not there. At all. We even said the first vision and it was the first time I have said it without feeling the spirit. We couldn't understand it afterwards. If we were representative's of Jesus Christ, endowed with power, why couldn't we bring the spirit into that situation? As we were discussing it later with our District Leader, he had us read 2 different stories: Mark 9, Moses 1. In Mark 9, the apostles have tried casting a devil out of this boy and they couldn't. When the Savior came, He was able to cast it out immediately. When they asked why they couldn't do it, He replied that that power comes from much fasting and prayer. So we must truly dedicate ourselves to fasting and prayer to gain more power and there are just some instances were we are simply not ready or not powerful enough to over come Satan in that circumstance. In Moses 1, Moses commands Satan to leave 4 different times. The third time he calls upon God to help and the final time, he commands him to leave in the name of Christ. Finally, he does. So sometimes, the time is just not right and we need to be patient and continue to call upon God until it is time for us to be delivered. So as I pondered about this experience I learned a couple different truths. 1) I NEVER EVER want to lose the spirit ever again. It's an awful feeling. 2) I know that I can get the spirit back, no matter what I've done to lose it. We are never too far away from God's love. 3) Patience is a heavenly virtue and sometimes required for us to learn the lesson we need to. But God will always give us the strength we need to get through until our patience is rewarded. So a lot of really good lessons this week. I would invite everyone to really look for the spirit in your daily life. Notice when it touches your heart and listen to it. Give thanks when you hear it. Then it will continue to grow stronger.

Love you all so much! I'll let you know next Monday where I am! Woot!!!

Love forever,

Sister Thorne