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