June 30, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Well, President and Sister Woodbury are officially home safe in Salt Lake City, Utah. We will miss them terribly. I know I already do. :( We now have President and Sister Brough! I haven't gotten to meet them yet, we will do so Wednesday at Zone meeting, but I've heard from everyone that he's really awesome and exactly what this mission needs. I'm so excited to get to officially meet our new mission parents!

So this past week has been a really good week for us! Well... it started really really REALLY crazy, but after priesthood blessings for both Sister Minson and I, it got much better. So in explanation, Sister Minson and I got a referral for two teenagers last weekend and we contacted them via phone and they both seemed really excited. We got there and the parents were leaving, taking the two younger kids to dinner and said the two older ones were inside and excited to meet with us. The parents were also really kind. It was a trap. We got in and Jailyn (14) and Justin (17) talked to us for an hour and a half about how we were wrong, going to hell and have been deceived by Satan. They had a paper with scriptures to "prove" this to us. They are southern Baptist. We can only assume their pastor or parents put them up to this to "pit" their testimonies against ours... Sister Minson and I left, very very shook up and heart broken to be told such awful things from the mouths of children. We both ended the night in tears. Tuesday, we got priesthood blessings from a ward member and from there the week just got better and better. Wednesday was a little rough, but Friday and Saturday ended by running from appointment to appointment with miracles and great experiences at each. Opposition in all things. :)

Other than that, we are officially passing Chris off to the Louisville Singles Elders (aka the Assistants) because he is 26 and has a major crush on a woman in our ward and may have a crush on us. So we figured the Elders would be a much better fit for him. We will pass him off to them on Wednesday.

Misty, has had a really rough week. Her father passed away Saturday night but she's handling things pretty well. He's had cancer since December. We got her a priesthood blessing from Bishop and the Rolling Hills Elders during Sunday School and have been staying in contact with her.

Other than that, we've been meeting with a lot of LA's and working a lot from that angle. We will see how it goes!

Sounds like everyone is doing great on the home front! Staying SUPER busy and having many adventures! I hope they are being written down in journals! Please tell Elisa welcome for me and I really wish I could get to know her more. She sounds super adorable!

Love you all so much! Talk to you next week!

Love always,

Sister Thorne

We got a birdfeeder this week and we got to see a beautiful blue jay!!!! They and the Cardinals are my favorite. :) This is Tipsy. As you may be able to see, he constantly feels like he's going to fall so he always keeps one wing slightly unfolded, just in case. His lack of balance earned him the name Tipsy. He's my favorite. :) 

 Someone learned how to hijack our BIRDfeeder...... Silly Squeakers. 

We taught the Sharing Time lesson yesterday so we talked about writing the name tag on your heart and being an example. We also talked about the importance of the 2 different names on a missionary name tag: your family, Christ and the church. It was fun!

June 23, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

GUESS WHAT?!?!?! I'm staying in Beckley with Sister Minson!!! Which means she is going to get to kill me and I'll be here until I die!!!! :D :D :D :D :D WOOT! I am so excited not to have to get to know another place so quickly before I leave and to get to just solely focus on this amazing area. With Sister Minson! We are going to rock Middletown to it's core and have a blast doing it! :D

Haha well, in other words, the work this week was very slow at first, out of 18 set lessons, 9 canceled on us. It was super frustrating and I was getting a little discouraged. But then yesterday, Heavenly Father just put together a couple miracles for us. Chris was able to come to church and the mission fireside. He had a really great experience at each and I was able to learn a lot of things that I needed. He always seems to help me end on a good note. :)

So as for Chris, he is still smoking but we have a new game plan. We want to go through and finish the lessons, really focusing on reading the Book of Mormon and building his testimony of it and the Atonement and then come back and attack WofW again. We'll see how that goes.

Misty we weren't able to meet with. Her family is going through a really difficult time right now and she has just kind of secluded herself away from everyone. She's very hurt, so we are just focusing on loving her right now.

Judy wasn't able to meet with us, but should be good to go to meet with us this week.

We picked Andrew and Jennifer back up and had a really good lesson with them. Sister Minson did great with dealing with Andrew's stubbornness and teaching in a way that allowed him to teach himself. She is such an incredible teacher.

The only other thing to watch out for us tonight we will have our first lesson with Jailyn and Justin (bro and sis possibly). They are Mormon.org referrals and we contacted Jailyn and she was SUPER excited to talk to us and get a Book of Mormon. We haven't met with them, but they seem to have incredible potential. We think they are about 16-18 years of age because Jailyn said she was still living with her parents. So we'll see! I'm super excited!

As for your email:

Sounds like everyone was able to have a great week! It was so good to get to see Grandpa Ralph and Grandma Mary again! They both look so happy. :)

How is An and Kris? I miss them so! I hope they were able to enjoy the adventure and especially the fudge!

Britney! Stop being so crazy!!! Calm down and enjoy these last few weeks. Take this one from me. You need to chillax.

Mandy, STOP DATING!!!! AH! I don't think I can handle that idea! It will blow my mind. SO NOT okay. Grarg....well... I guess it's kind of okay... but only if you write me more you little stinkpot! Love ya! ;D

Josh and Brandon, keep going! You're awesome! Love you all so much!

I think that's it for this week! Love you all!

Love eternally,

Sister Thorne

 It's kind of hot......Yep. It officially hit 100 degrees. It has been SUPER gross this week and it's only going to get worse. We hear August is going to be miserable. Good thing we get to go knocking on doors in it every day! Well, Sister Minson and I are currently have a contest to see who can drink more water. She's winning.... but I WILL beat her!

 The Hurstbourne District!!!! Back row: Sister Thorne, Sister Galloway, Elder Benham, Elder Downs, Elder Davis, Elder Hancock, Sister Bready, Sister Minson. Front row: Elder Stohel, Elder Champion, Elder Forrest, Elder Polson

We said goodbye to the Woodbury's last night. They go home Friday. I will miss them so! I love my mission parents!!! 

June 16, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Another week flown by! This week was full of ups and downs, but it was a seriously awesome week! We had some sad let downs, but also saw miracles. So, the usual for missionary work! :P

This week we were able to meet with Misty! Our lesson went really well and everything was all set for church Sunday but... she didn't come. Apparently she woke up sick Sunday morning. We were kind of bummed about that, but Steve (son, baptized a couple weeks ago) and John (son getting baptized soon) came and we think John's baptism will really help her to get moving a little more.

Then we met with Chris. It was kind of difficult to stay in contact with Chris this week because he lost his phone at the church, which gave us a perfect alibi to get him to church! But... his ride (Chris Berry) came to church empty handed. Chris just totally skipped out on us. We picked up his phone for him and took it back to him. He had no excuse for missing Sunday, but we were able to get his phone back to him.

We also met with Judy! She's actually our only progressing investigator and my miracle for the week. If you remember, she's super hardcore catholic, but this past week she totally had her Bible and Book of Mormon out and ready for our discussion. She was really excited to meet with us and she had not only read the chapter we prescribed for her, she had also reread and studied it and read a few more chapters! So she's starting from the beginning of the BofM and reading the whole thing! It's amazing to see her heart softening bit by bit. Right now, her biggest hardship is understanding WHY we need a Prophet. An interesting question. It's fun! :D

Then for our new investigator this week, we have been trying to work more closely with the ward council so this week we visited several formers that our ward mission leader suggested we try back on. One of them was Mikaela. We were able to catch her at home AND schedule a return appointment! Woot! We will be meeting with her this week.

As for your email:

1) I'm hoping I stay here too! If I pass by safely this Saturday then I will be here until the end of my mission and Sister Minson will get to kill me! Woot!!!!! :D

2) The Rush Funplex huh? Well, it will definitely always be the Syracuse Fun Center to me. Please see if you can find Derek there! And get pics with everyone! Tell them all I love them tons and I miss them sooo much!

3) What's the name of the neighbor family? I would love to pray for them specifically.

4) Sounds like everyone had a fun week! Love you all tons!

Love always,

Sister Thorne

 Sister Minson and I always try to find new games to play while tracting. Fortunately for us, it had just rained so there were big puddles everywhere. A whole new world of possibilities! So we found a huge rock and threw it to see who could aim to the puddle better. Sis Minson won.... but I will claim a rematch next storm.

 Sister Minson was completely weirded out by my freaky ankles. Maybe Ripley's Believe it or not will want this picture? Haha.... Yay flexibility!

A delicious Sunday breakfast for lunch with omelet's, hash browns and cinnamon rolls. Yum!!!

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!

  The Zoo!!! We went to the zoo with the Perrero's today

Selfie! We are such dorks. :)

It was a super windy day. We were supposed to get tornado weather but somehow it just kind of skipped over us.

June 2, 2014

Hey Thorne Fam!

Hello again my beautiful family! Here's Sister Thorne reporting on another wonderful week! We got to witness so many miracles this week! Chris is still progressing. We had a lesson with him on Thursday at the Brooksher's. It was my first lesson in a member's home!!!! He really had a lot of fun and it went really well. :) He came to church yesterday and he really enjoyed it. Then he texted us Sunday night and said that there were some things that he needed to tell us, but not over text. So we are meeting with him tomorrow. Continue to keep him in your prayers. Smoking is his biggest demon. But I know that he can overcome it.

We also picked up Misty! She's the one we called you about several weeks ago that is in the Elders area but wanted sisters. We were kind of unsure who should take over teaching her for a while, but as we continued to meet with Misty it because very apparent that she needed to be taught by us Sisters. So we started that, she came to church and loved it! We taught her Thursday, Friday and we will be meeting with her again tonight. Her testimony grows a little stronger each time we come. No bap date yet. Her biggest hurdle is the LoC. She's living with her boyfriend who doesn't want to marry her at this time. But I also trust God that all will work out. She's absolutely incredible. An amazing woman and I look up to her so much. :)

As for other new investigators: Elisha canceled our appointment Sunday. She had to go to Kroger. But she said we can try again for next Sunday. We also found Jenny. She is very interesting actually. When I was with Sister Smith, there was a night we came in but I really felt like there was still someone we were supposed to talk to that night. So I started calling through potentials. I eventually called Jenny, had an amazing conversation with her and said a prayer with her. But no specific return appointment. Then, a couple weeks later, I called her again and we had a quick conversation. She said she was really busy so still no return appointment. Last night, our appointment in her neighborhood fell through so we decided to just drop by. So it was the first time I had actually met her face to face. When we knocked and she answered she was originally very stiff. But after a while, she really warmed up to us. We got to meet her two kids, Ayden (9) and Kira (7). It was the weirdest thing. I feel such a connection to this family. Ayden reminds me exactly of Josh when he was 9. He looks the same and acts the same. And little Kira reminds me of me when I was younger. This family is absolutely incredible. I can't even explain it. There is something very specific Heavenly Father needs me to do for them. I just need to figure it out. I'll keep you updated.

As for your email:

1) First and foremost: So Em is going to Paris, Brit to Uruguay, Jennica to Louisiana. Where are Bridge and Sarah going? I LOVE THE FLAGS PICTURE!!!!!! Sister Minson agrees. Where did yall get the flags??? And the mission call one. Send me more pics as soon as you get them okay? You all totally made me cry. You 5 girls have been best friends for forever and you are all going to go out into all 4 corners of the world for a year and a half and you are each going to do miracles. You're amazing. The Hope of Israel. Go my Sisters of Zion!!!!!

2) Cute tea party Brit! Yall are adorable!!!!!

3) So it was actually a miracle that the dozer hit the water line? Cool! Can't wait to see the court all done. Is that the last big thing you have to do for the house?

4) 1 more envelope should be good. I don't think there's anything else I need. I just bought stamps today. So yep! Thanks!!! (Unless you want to slip in some sweetarts. Those are never a bad thing. ;P)

5) Good job mastering that rib stick Brandon! We saw a boy riding one the other day and I thought of Brit. Now you'll have to teach me when I get home, since Brit won't be able to. Okay? :)

6) Congrats Joshie on your 4.0!!!!! You are amazing!!! That's my boy! Woot woot!

7) How was the concert Mandy?!?!?! I totally want to hear!

8) As for the plans in September. That is totally so weird to think about. But YES!!!! I want to go to Marsh! That was the biggest thing I was sad about for my mission, was missing 2 Marsh Lakes. That would mean the world to me! Have my bags packed? ;) And yes again for Saints and Sinners. That would be so much fun to get to go with you, Julianne, Andra and Mandy. Count me in! So weird.....

9) Have fun camping! I want to see pictures!

10) I'm sorry to hear about Jeff. That is so hard when someone lets you down like that and leaves so much on your shoulders. It's not very respectful of your time or of the kids. Agency is a kicker isn't it?

Love you all so much! Hope you have a great week!

Love always,

Sister Thorne