Letter Home 6-22-2014

Hello! friends and family! 

Well this week is the last week of my mission President before he goes home! Sad weekend for all of us because President Lekias as been so great to all of us and to see him go and be done is the weirdest feeling but also most happiest moment because of the new Mission president moving in. This week was also transfers week...another sad time because Elder Lewis and I were getting along and moving the work here along fast. Elder Lewis went up North while I am still in the same area in Henderson with my new companion. Since I have been out for awhile, (I will not name how long yet..) transfers and changing does not bother me as much as it used to. It is just like President Lekias said "we are passing on the baton to the next runner and they keep on going". That applies not only with the new mission President but also with new companions that we get on our mission, we continue with our work in the area either if we stay or if we move. 

This week Elder Matua, my new companion and I decided to walk our area...well we didn't have a choice because I broke my bike and that is not good because our area is massive and walking to and from appointments takes about an hour or so just to walk to the houses we need to see. Yes I know I have gained some weight so I believe that is the reason why my bike broke. Not really, it was because I thought it would be more interesting if I tried to do a bunny hope over the side walk, next minute my bike broke. Don't worry mom and dad, lucky I am in a really friendly ward that loves to help missionaries because one of the members is fixing up my bike so we can get back to full speed on the work. That was on the side note of what all happened. Anyways back to what I was saying, Elder Matua and I were walking down a neighborhood were there wasn't many lights on the streets. Having the two thousand stripling warriors behind us we were too scared too keep on walking. We had no idea why we needed to be on that street but we kept on going, we stopped and said a prayer to ask for guidance to see which house we should go to. Elder Matua had an impression to go to one of the houses that happened to be right next door to one of our members house. We knocked on the door and a man name Ben opened the door. We started talking to Ben for awhile and got to really know him, cracked a little joke here and there to get him comfortable with him. Later on in our conversation, he told us that he his mom passed away a couple of months ago. With the impression on my companions mind and mine we started to share a little bit about the plan of salvation. Ben started to get teary eyed talking about his mom and listening to what we were talking about. My companion shared a personal experience that touched Ben's heart and he was fully open with us. Afterwards we gave Ben a plan of salvation book to read and said a prayer with him. He told us to come back again and that he would give the book a read and wanted to have a discussion with us. 

I can relate this experience just like Nephi's experience in the Book of Mormon. Nephi not knowing were he need to go in the city to find the gold plates relied on the Spirit of The Lord  to help him. With the faith that he had, Heavenly Father showed him a way to get the plates by putting Laban in his pathway. Just like Nephi, we can express that faith that he had in our daily lives when we come to a fork on the road not knowing were to go or what to do. Expressing that faith is a way of us to take that action to let Heavenly Father know that we will do what we can but will not loose faith in Him. That he will help us get out of those situations where we are stuck. I have seen that happen on my mission and everyday I am always exercising my faith by reading the Book of Mormon, getting up on time, praying, and searching the scriptures for messages that I can apply in the work and in helping with the investigators. That not only applies for missionaries but also for families all over the world. The gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ are what we need in order to strengthen our faith every single day. There is a chapter in Alma that I read a lot, it is Alma 32:21 "faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things, therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things that are not seen but are true" (I probably didnt say that right but it is something like that). Heavenly Father is like the wind, you can feel the wind but you cannot see it. We can see him but we can feel his presence with us every single day. 

Elder Matua and I, on Saturday morning, went to a helping hands service project that our ward was doing. Mom, your going to be amazed at this but yes, I was weeding and this time without complaining. Helping out and cleaning the park was a blast! Most of the members were there and were ready to work, laugh and have a great time together. It is funny how well the ward gets along with one another. This week was our ward conference and it was great to see everybody smiling and helping out with cleaning the park. Its an island tradition that when you have a big service project you also have to have a BIG FEED! Islanders love there food and music. We later went to a less actives house to have lunch (I know what you are thinking, that is a lot of food in one day and I do agree with you there). We found out that the less active is family friends with Elder Matua, my companion. The less active and Elder Matua's dad grew up as childhood buddies back on the island of Samoa. That is not all, my companion and I literally related to most of our investigators.....that is our ticket in to saving their souls and hopefully baptizing them.

We have been teaching Selepa, Jade and Junior as of right now and they are our progressing investigators. Selepa, we invited her to church Saturday night but had a lesson with her and is moving slowly but close to finding the truth for herself. She has been praying and reading the scriptures daily. Jade and Junior are partners and are moving, but slowly, Junior doesn't want to move away from the church. His family grew up Catholic which we having nothing against and understand fully. We met with Junior when he was home alone, we started chatting with him and our conversation changed to a spiritual conversion. We went over with him on how Joesph Smith was in the same exact place as he is, he didn't know what to do, where to go, or who was right and what was right. What came out of our mouth was not from us at all because I could see in Junior thinking really hard and I could feel the spirit touching him. We are working on him slowly but Jade is moving on really well and really wants to know more and more about the church. 

We had a really good week for being together for only about four days. This area is rising up and moving really quickly along. Elder Lewis is in another area but the work still goes on for Elder Matua and I, and having bikes would help a whole lot more but hey no complaints still loving it!! EVERY DAY, EVERY DAY, EVERY DAY!

Hope you all have a wonderful week and are still keeping those smiles up. Thank you for your emails and your thoughts, they really do help me while being out here. You are all in my prayers and I hope you listen and act on that faith of yours and act on those promptings.

From Elder Thorpe 

Letter Home June 8th

Hello family and friends! Well it looks like I'm in the adult world now....darn...thank you all for the 21st birthday wishes! 

Yesterday was Sunday and my birthday! The ward I am in which is called Henderson Valley Ward is great. The parents and families found out that it was my birthday yesterday and it was all thanks to my good companion Elder Lewis. He thought he would be sneaky enough to take our food calendar and write my birthday on it but he wasn't sneaky enough because I soon found out after a ward member told me. On Saturday we went to a members house to eat dinner, their names are the Wellaby family. Sister and Brother Wellaby made us some American burritos! My companion and I had the biggest smiles on our faces and almost cried because it has been way too long since we both had a burrito and Mexican food. It was DELICIOUS! They don't make Mexican food down here, it is all about meat, meat, meat and meat (which isn't too bad unless you are a veterinarian). The Wellaby's wrapped some presents for me and baked me a cake for my birthday with a 21st candle on top. Later during the week our bishop gave us a call after planning and I thought it was going to be him asking us how we are doing. I was wrong because he asked Elder Lewis and I to give a talk on Sunday. The next day we gave our talks, bishop asked me to talk on commandments and for Elder Lewis to talk on the Restoration.

Our ward is full of nice people, mixed with islanders and white kiwi members. After sacrament was over one of the moms asked us to go into Relief Society to give a brief talk on Priesthood power and authority. You probably are thinking right now that birthdays are supposed to be relaxing right? Well not on a mission. We later had a lot of appointments set up with our investigators so we took our ward mission leader out with us and another member, Brother Kipo and Brother Joesph who both served a full time mission in Australia and Kitabish near the Marshall Islands.

This Sunday was filled with tons of excitement, tears, and building up new friendships! I love this area and this ward, they welcomed me really fast even though I have been here for not that long. It is amazing to see that the members have so much respect and gratitude for us missionaries. At dinner time, Jade and Daniel, our two recent converts who were baptized by the last missionaries in this area and I barely know them, but they were kind enough to bake me a cake and wish me a happy birthday! Best 21st birthday I could ever wish for! 

This week Elder Lewis and I were concentrating on being more "out looking" meaning looking for more opportunity to share the gospel, do service work on the spot, and look for anybody who is needing some cheering up. We ride our bikes everyday up and down hills, everyday still with a smile on our faces and laughing along. At times we try to make the work more fun on bikes so it won't seem like we are doing the same routine everyday. I am glad to find a companion that pushes me until I can barely walk, keep my eyes open, and until I cry. We were one day coming out from a members house from teaching them and Elder Lewis and I were biking past a playground and noticed and dad and his kid playing there. We felt prompted to stop and started our way up the hill to the playground. As we were getting close to the playground we could see the dad grabbing his son and starting to walk away. In my mind I kept thinking... "Oh well he is leaving, lets just stop", but on the other hand Elder Lewis kept on pursuing him on his bike until we finally came to a stop at the guys car. He asked us what we wanted and we told him "We are going around sharing a unique message which is centered on Jesus Christ". He looked at us and started talking to us in a friendly matter. We answered his questions and I could see on his face that he was getting into the conversation. He later said to both Elder Lewis and I, "Can you two come over to my house later on today?" I was amazed at the question he asked. I couldn't say anything so my companion had to answer for both of us. We later went over to him and his partners. Their names are Junior and Jade. They have a one year old son named Orlando. Junior told us that the reason he wanted us over was because he would always see missionaries around but wouldn't talk to them and would just blow them off, but this time he wanted to know what they actually do and he wanted us to also teach his partner (not legally married). Elder Lewis and I taught them about the Restoration. They both had questions and were interested in learning more. Junior comes from a Pacific Islander church background and Jade isn't fully Catholic. She has some family members that are Catholic but she isn't really into the religion as much as her family. We found out that Jade was best friends with one of our ward members who is in the YSA. Both Junior and Jade knew the members that were in our ward. There was no accident in meeting Junior at the park. We told the member families that Junior and Jade knew about them both and they have accepted to fellowship Junior and Jade. I am thankful for Elder Lewis for going up there with full courage and determination and to go and talk to Junior. I felt bad that I couldn't be the same but am really thankful for Elder Lewis being a good example to me. We live and we learn and that day was a learning day for me! After our lesson, Jade and Junior were really happy and wanted us to come back again. 

On Saturday, Elder Lewis and I were headed up to go see a member who I heard go beaten up and has had a rough life. He lived alone and didn't have much company at his house with him so we were going to make our way to his house. Going down a hill we passed a house and out of the corner of my eye I could see a man and women sitting on the front porch of their house. During the whole day I was quite and was trying to keep on working even though I was exhausted and something that I was trying to do was fight to go to that next level of extra work. Passing that house I yelled to Elder Lewis who was in front of me and we both stopped. He was near the pathway to go into another neighborhood and I was near the fence by the house where the man and lady were sitting on their porch. Elder Lewis looked at me and I looked at him back, I took and deep breath and told him we needed to go back to the house. We both turned around and went back to talk to the guy on the porch. We got to the house and the man was still there but the lady wasn't. We went up and introduced ourselves to the man. He was friendly and really nice. His name is Hefi, half Samoan and half Cook Islander. He told us that he saw us and was hopping that we wouldn't be able to see him (in a joking way). My companion and I both laughed and said "you looked too comfortable on your porch so we thought it would be a good idea to stop by and say hi". We found out that Hefi had some friends in the church and they all went on their missions and are all back with families of their own. He lives in a house with his partner and his parents. He grew up around Mormons but never really took any lessons. He told us one of his friends name that returned from a mission not too long ago and as soon as he said the name, my mind clicked because I knew his friend he was talking about. His friend was in my last ward, in the last area I served in which was Manakau. Hefi showed me a picture of him and I was shocked because his friend was a good friend of mine as well! It was amazing to be able to relate something with him because he was opened to us and told us he wanted to learn. He was pretty busy at the time but we gave him a Restoration book to read and we set up another time to meet up with him again this week. Hefi also took a picture of us and posted it on his friends Facebook wall and wrote him about how we met. As we were leaving he told Elder Lewis and I that he was excited to listen and learn more, really nice guy and a miracle to find. 

What a miracle it was for Elder Lewis and I to find these two families. We were being used as the Lords instruments in working in his vineyard. Lessons were learned for both Elder Lewis and I and they were that we cannot do this work without the spirit. He is the one that leads us and puts us in the spots that we need to be in. We also need to act upon those promptings that are given to us. They are there for a reason to give us a clue or a hint that we need to stop, look around for a second and find that person. Don't second guess because I have learned my lesson not to second guess something. You will never know what that prompting might end up being, either you making a new friend, finding the elect souls, or simply someone needing someone to listen to them. That is something I am still learning even on my mission. Off my mission I was never good at following those promptings but the mission field has definitely helped and showed me what happens when I do follow those promptings and act on them. Some promptings are going to be ones that take us out of our comfort zone but we need not forget about who will be right next to us in helping us be bold and protected. Having that faith that He is going to be there to help us out on our journey is something I have been able to see and grow to notice and adapt to.

Unity is also key in missionary work. If two people cannot working something out the Spirit is not going to be there to help in the work. Having contention hinders the work of salvation, it drives the spirit away and our Heavenly Father can't help us. I am thankful to have a companion that not only listens to me but also has that trust for me on the promptings that I feel. Elder Lewis and I have something in common that I haven't had with my other companions and that is to talk things over if there is something in our minds, and to trust in each other. Unity is key, everything we do is not because of Elder Lewis and I, it is because we are both worthy enough to have to spirit to be with us in our work. 

My week was full of highlights, tears, and heart warming moments that I will forever treasure for turning 21! Thank you all for the Birthday wishes! I sure do really appreciate all the prayers that are said for my companion and I. I wish I could have been there to celebrate with you all but I know we will have more of those moments to come when my time on my mission is up. I now know what missionaries mean by when they say "time flies" it surely does! Time flies when you are working hard and having fun. I want to close with one of my favorite hyms "Have I done any good today?" This is the song I sing in my head everyday during the field when working. Have I done any good just says it all, always asks yourself what is there to be done? Is there anyone in need of help? What can I do next? Who is needing some of my help? Am I happy with myself and my performance today? Have I done any good today? If you ask yourself these questions everyday, i promise to you that you will have that moment where you will say "yes I have done good today, what is there more? " There is always more to do, there is always someone looking for help, there is always a lost soul looking for that true message of the Gospel. Don't think of the next day, or the day after that, FOCUS on right now! What can I do to help right now. I know this to be true and this is something I am working on. I have seen miracles come out of it when I centered my mind on one day at a time. Keep on working hard and keep those smiles up! Remember you are not alone! Hope you all have a miracle week! Until we meet again!  Love you all!!!! 

From Elder Thorpe

Letter Home June 1st

Hello family! 

This week was a good week! Elder Lewis and I have found new investigators to teach, and old ones that we have been trying to work on. This morning we had a devotional by our zone leaders and President Lekias showed up. The training that we had was on diligence and how much we apply this to the mission work. We can all apply diligence in our daily lives. Everyday we work hard and want to come home and go to bed. On my mission I have felt the way everybody has, at times in the field. Sometimes I would ask in my mind, why aren't we getting more people to teach? Is everyday going to be like this? Why am I so tired? Something that stood out to me today in the meeting is, "What would the Lord do?" That hit me and I starting thinking about how much the Lord went through. So much more than we do. Our Savior, Jesus Christ went through the pains and afflictions of the world, to sacrifice himself in order for us to be here on earth and make it back to Heavenly Father.  Even though Jesus Christ knew what was to be done, he did it without any complaining. In life we can all sometimes be so caught up in what we need, what we should do, and what is the be done today. The Savior has a plan for all of us, and it comes at his time and at the moment he wants us to realize He is there.

I have been reading from the book Infinite Atonement. The book has really, really opened my eyes to what life is all about. It is amazing to read about what is to be and what a big part the Savior really does play in our life. This book would be a good one if you are wanting to learn more about life and the Atonement. It is powerful and helps you grow your faith more and more each day. 

The investigators we have are good. There is this one girl named Longie, who is 20. Longie's dad was a member of the church but he died. Anytime we bring up Joseph Smith, she doesn't want to talk about him. She is into her new translation Bible. Interesting but good because I am so grateful for my companion and having my back. She was asking some questions that were hard and I didn't know how to answer her. Good thing Elder Lewis knew how to counteract back to her but with passion for the truth and with love. Pretty much Elder Lewis was the man that day. Her attitude was great! Really nice girl but just doesn't understand yet. This was probably my first time teaching a girl close to my age and I might say... wow was she hard to talk to. Not anything mean but girls are pretty good at countering back with questions. At the end I learned a valuable lesson, to listen carefully. We asked her to pray about the message we shared and to ask God if what we taught her that day was true and to ask if the Book of Mormon is true. Please keep her in your prayers and hopefully she will get her answer...well I mean, I know she will!! That was one of our teaching appointments but many of them weren't too intense like that one. We will be going back, teaching her again soon but next time we are teaching her about the plan of salvation. 

Happy birthday to Amy!!,  Kasen and Grandma Edna!!!! Love you three and hope you have a wonderfull birthday! Hope all is well for everyone. I will be keeping you in my prayers. This week is a special week for the THORPE FAMIY!! Miss everyone and love you all!!