The Quest of a Lifetime: June 9, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Whoa! Another week has simply flown by! I can't believe time seems to be racing by so fast! It's almost half way through June! But things are still going fantastically. We got to go to the Louisville Zoo with the Perrero's and the JTown sister's this morning and it was a blast!!! I'll be sending pics.

As for the area, things are still progressing! Woot! There are so many people we are currently working with it's crazy! It's so interesting to me to look at everyone and see that they are all on different learning planes. Each person we are teaching has different problems they are facing and they each have different concerns that we need to help resolve. If you were to just look at what we are expecting missionaries to do logically, it wouldn't make sense. There's no way that we could change someone's life. There's no way we could get someone to quit smoking. There's no way we could understand each and every person's needs and help them individually. But the Lord can. Isn't that amazing? He can literally change someone's soul: heart, body, and mind. And He has given each of us authority, as His representatives, to act in His behalf to accomplish His goals. Wow. We are so blessed to be a part of this work. :)

So Chris came to church again! We committed him to quit smoking again last Saturday and... he hasn't texted us since then. We are a little worried about him. But we have complete trust that he is in the Lord's hands. Misty wasn't able to come to church because of work and last weeks lesson went awesome! Her bf even sat in on it and was pretty cordial! We are seeing her again tonight and can't wait to continue to watch her testimony grow. We are also meeting with Judy. She is really interesting to teach. Judy is very very catholic but is willing to meet with us. I can't remember if I've told you about her. We are meeting with her again on Tuesday. Our last lesson went really well and though she is still very stubborn, you can see her inching forward with little bitty baby steps. We are going to try and meet with Francis and Jason this week. Both of them said to wait a couple weeks before contacting them again because of vacations and school. So we are excited to see them again this week. We are also visiting Elizabeth. She also claims to be very Methodist and doesn't want to change, but she is willing to meet with us. I have full faith that if we can get her to feel our personal testimony of the Book of Mormon, she will start to soften. So that's what we're focusing on with her this week. Then there are a couple other people we have lost contact with and are going to try and meet up with again this week. We'll see how all that goes.

So this past week we had 2 crazy experiences. First was meeting another Tim aka another person telling us we are doomed to hell. What is up with this??? We must be doing something awesome. :) Haha Eat that Satan! He is a baptist and started the conversation telling us that we don't believe in Jesus Christ. Can I tell you how annoying it is to have someone tell you what you believe in? We were just like... um.... ya we do. And he replies with no, I've studied Mormons and you don't believe Christ is divine. Whoa! So sorry dude. You've studied them? Well, I've grown up as one. So I must be wrong. Golly gee whiz! Baptists..... Second was really cool. We had Zone Conference this past week and President and Sister Woodbury gave us their final departing words. They leave the last week of June. :( It's so hard to tell them goodbye, but the spirit during that last training was incredible. We did this one role play with the Elders that just reduced all 4 of us Sisters to tears. It was truly a revelatory experience.

As for your email:

1) Thanks for the mission leave dates! When are y'all doing Marsh? After Brit and Em leave?

2) Goblin Valley sounds very adventurous and SUPER awesome!!! I hope that I get to go with y'all sometime! That would be SO sweet!

3) Brit: I am so proud of you for bearing your testimony on the spot and more than that, following what the Spirit and your Heavenly Father needed said to those boys. That is the most powerful tool you can have as a missionary. Don't lose that. I'm sending you my list of 15 things you can do today. I'm still waiting for that IOU.... :)

4) Have a great week! I love you all so much!!!! :D

Love always,

Sister Thorne

P.S. Got the package! Thank you so much!!! It was exactly what I needed at that time. It had been a hard day and each of your letters helped a smile come back. :) Thank you!