Letter home 9-14-14

Hello Family and Friends! Hope you all had a fantastic WEEK! It must of been a good one because all of the e-mails I have been receiving from everyone have been happy. Sounds like the weather is starting to change at home from summer time to winter time, that is okay with me because the sun in shinning over here in New Zealand and the tanning season is starting once again, YES!!!!!

My old companion Elder Long left and went down to Auckland, he is serving in the very first area that I started my mission which is Manakau. Surprisingly I still remember the name of the first area I served in. He is in the Nui program which is a language program. You are all wondering "why is it that Elder Thorpe is getting new companions!" well..that is a good question because I don't know why...maybe it is because they get jealous of my wonderful smile or hair style. Who knows but the mission president is always inspired. We both said our goodby's, little tears here and there and laughs. Elder Long was happy to leave Whagarie because he has been here for six months, so half of his mission, it was good to see him happy but at the same time I was sad to see him go. My new companion is Elder Hall, it is an easy name to say which is already a check mark off the good companion list. Elder Hall is from England!!!! Chip Chip Cheeryooo!!! He has a hard proper English accent, not like American English because nothing is more proper than the American language. He is the best! Funny story is that when I was in Henderson in Auckland with my old companion, Elder Lewis was in the same place were I met Elder Hall, so we pretty much knew each other before we got put together. Elder Hall is the new district leader, this is his first time being a district leader, he told me on the car ride up here that he was so EXCITED to be my companion....so honored to be loved by other missionaries. 

This week was a fast week because of transfers! Elder Hall and I, on our first night together, went out to go teach a lesson already set up with an investigator and we brought a member with us. This investigator we taught, his name is Sterling a 18 year old boy who is looking to change his life. Background story of his life, is that Sterling grew up playing sports, was talented and could have possibly of gone pro. He hung out with the wrong group of kids that drew him down the wrong path. My last companion and I met him a couple of Sundays ago, found out that his grandparents he is staying with are active members in our ward. Going to the lesson on Thursday night just after getting back from transfers meeting in Auckland which was a three hour drive, we were ready to teach Sterling. Brother Maxwell a recent convert to the church came out with us that night. Brother Maxwell never was interested in the church, but his wife was always a member, long story, short, brother Maxwell decided to take the discussions with the missionaries and be baptized. My companion, me, brother Maxwell and Sterling started having a discussion. In the middle of the lesson brother Maxwell started bearing his testimony to Sterling. We sat there watching Sterling's expression when brother Maxwell told about his testimony and his story of joining the church. Knowing about brother Maxwell's background, Sterling felt at peace and comfortable. He told us later that he would like to take the discussions to see where he should be. Sterling is so humble, he will sit there and listen to every word we tell him and he takes it to heart. An 18 year old who is looking to change, is humble and welling to do anything to change his past is an 18 year old looking for the Savior!

On Sunday we went to the branch that we covered instead of our ward. We had planned already to go to Pie Pie Wie. The branch was having the primary program. It was amazing to see the little ones go up and share their talks. There was this one primary song that I really got into. When I say that what I mean is that I could have gotten up in the middle of church and started dancing, but I didn't. I forgot the name of the song but it was a good song. We were able to meet two investigators at church and found out that both have been coming to the branch all their life. One is 16 and the other is 18, not brothers and don't know each other but have been coming to church. The 16 year old boy, which I have forgotten his name, is gay but knows about the family proclamation is looking to change his life. He had an interview with our bishop and understood the circumstances and is wanting to change. We will go by next week to his moms place to ask if we could possibly start teaching him. I don't see him any different than a brother who is wanting to change his ways and we as missionaries are here to be guides to help those understand the teaching of our Savior and how his teachings can help us change.

     The 18 year old is Abraham and he is MASSIVE, not too round but fit and TALL!!!!!. We went to our members house that he was staying with. His partner, who he had his baby boy with, is part of the member family that Abraham is staying with, so she is the daughter of the our second counselor of the branch presidency. Elder Hall and I started talking to Abraham and asking him about his understanding about the church. Found out that he used to be taught by our zone leaders, knows everything about the church. We asked him what was stopping him and he told us that getting permission from his dad is something he wants to do and having that family support. Elder Hall and I sat there and waited for the spirit to tell us what to say to him, then without an hesitation we challenged Abraham, before the 18th of October, to ask his dad's permission to be baptized. Then we asked him to be baptized on that date and he said yes, without thinking at all. We were BOLD towards him but not over baring that the spirit was able to touch him. Sometimes it just takes those simple words of love and encouragement to tell those we love and care for to show how much the Lord is wanting them to take that next step to change. Not us, but the Lord. 

I have learned this whole week that CHANGE....is not scary but change itself means that we are willing to forget the past and move on forward. I used to think change is something that would be easy but looking back, the mission life has changed my perspective of the church. All the teachings of the church are all about having the will to change, just like when our Savior said to our Heavenly Father "let thy will be done", those words were coming from our Savior saying to our Father, I am ready to do what you ask of me, this is your will and I am ready to do it, to change, to become a better person, or to be who you have always seen me as. I have never been so happy in my whole life, the changes that have come in my life are remarkable. Stories, friends, and families that I will always cherish because they have all changed me.

     My words of advise to all those who are not serving a mission or are, is that you don't need to be on a mission to change. There are plenty of ways that are provided for us to have that chance to change, we just have to be willing to ask for help. Don't be afraid of changing, there is a quote I have been going by on my mission, "change shows that you are spiritually growing" or in other wards change means you are becoming that person that you have always where, are, and will become. 

Have a fantastic week! Dont forget to smile and to laugh once in awhile! 

From Elder Thorpe, the short Elder

Letter Home 9-7-14

Hello family and Friends!! it is good to write to you all once again. This week we have transfers coming up on Thursday....cross your fingers that no one gets transferred this week and that my companion and I stay together for another month or so..hopefully no longer than six months because that would be just too long to be with one companion. We are also having conference coming up in the next month but that is a while before that comes up.

This week my companion and I decided, well I didn't have any vote in this, but we decided to go on three trade offs in a row. On Wednesday the zone leaders wanted to go on a two hour trade off. I went with Elder Tibbits and we road on bikes. Elder TIbbits is from Utah and his family is from Morgan. In the two hours that we went tracking we were able to find two new investigators to teach. There was this girl name Kasey who just recently came out of jail. While talking to Kasey we were able to find out that while she did her time in jail she read a little book. The book that she was reading was a bible, while in jail she would take a read in the bible when she felt down. Elder Tibbits and I were able to share with her the importance of the love that Heavenly Father had for her. Having a scripture in the Bible pop in my head we then decided to read it out to her and it is found in 1 Samuel 16:7 which talks about how the Lord doesn't look at us for our "stature" or of how people look at us because the "Lord doesn't see as man seeth, but looketh on the heart". Kasey then felt really comforted and we could see in her expressions that she felt love and comfort. She later told us that she has a family of nine kids....NINE KIDS that is a handful of kids to be looking after. We were able to set an appointment with her to come back to talk more about the gospel with her and the family. 

Elder Long I had a baptism this weekend!!! It was the eight year old girl Qunisha!!! She was so excited and looked beautiful wearing all white. There were about forty people that showed up to her baptism. Qunishas mom, sister Cooper was very happy to see her little daughter be confirmed and baptized as a member of the church. While waiting for the time of her baptism just thinking, I had the feeling of comfort rather than being nervous. Meeting her in the font was an amazing experience that I will always remember!!! We both later agreed that being the font was warmer than being out of the font. She is the type of eight year old that I wish I could have been. What an example she is too all of us and the hearts that she has touched of all the members and her friends. The following Sunday we were able to welcome her as a member by all raising our right hands. 

Thank you for all the help and uplifting e-mails, the two years are going by fast and there is still a lot of work still to be done. One thing I would  like to say is...DON'T FORGET TO SMILE!! 

Hope you all enjoy your Month of September!! 

Elder Thorpe, A.K.A  "The Island boy on an Island!" 

Letter home September 1st

Hello to all those who are back home! 

This week was full of running around in the car and on our bikes! Winter is still here in New Zealand. Instead of snow we get rain, upon rain, upon rain, poured down on us.

To start off the week we had one of our members come out with us this week, his name is Brother McClougage. He is a convert to the church, was baptized about a year ago and now is our ward clerk. Brother McClougage is very smart, plays rugby, and is not Maori, but is English.  We were able to take him out with us to go visit one of our investigators named Lisa. Lisa is a single mom, her partner just left her to go to Australia and she is now currently taking care of three little kids. Brother McClougage was a big help because he and Lisa clicked. They are similar and both are not Maori. Lisa is the type of person that has a lot of questions, which is good for us missionaries but sometimes we have to  be careful with her and not loose her by giving her too much information. Lisa told us, "I know a lot about other religions but I don't know much about the Mormons." Having the impression to teach her briefly about the restoration, brother McClougage, Elder Long and I took turns explaining the restoration. Having brother McClougage there with us was very helpful. He was able to share his conversion information with us and to share his experience. It was good to have a member with us to show Lisa that not only us missionaries know this gospel is true but also someone close to her background found out for himself.

 Elder Long and I later on this week decided to do a service project for one of the less actives. Her name is Katalina. She is a single mom with an eleven month old baby. We didn't tell Katalina that we would mow her lawn for her, we decided to surprise her and show up on her front door with a  lawn mower. My companion and I knew that if we asked her ahead of time, she would just give us the reply that everyone tends to give us which is "no Elders, there is nothing you can do, you are doing enough by visiting us, " true, but hey Elder Long and I were cleaver enough to just show up ready to do service. This time her reply was different, it was more of a shocked response that she couldn't say no. In her own words "Elders you don't have to do this, but thank you." Just hearing her say thank you was enough for Elder Long and Me. We saw she needed help and without any hesitation we acted together to help one of our sisters. Doing that service for her started our day off nicely. 

On Saturday Elder Long and I attended a members baptism. It was a wonderful to see how happy this eight year old girl was to be baptized! She had the biggest grin on her face and was happy to be a member of the church. She couldn't baptized earlier because she was going through some stuff and the member that was supposed to baptize her got sick and didn't show up. Back up plan was for elder Long to baptize her, good thing we heard about all this ahead of time because we were already at the chapel at five thirty in the morning filling up the font for the baptism which was later on in the afternoon. We were able to go get Elder Longs whites and return in time before the baptism started which was at nine. We didn't get any tickets for speeding, thank goodness. After that baptism was over we went to another baptism that another Elders in our district were holding in Dougaville, which was about an hour away from were we were. This is the part in our weekend that we did a lot of running around. Showing up to Elder Anderson and Elder Fermaus baptism was interesting. The investigator that was being baptized was in his fifties and didn't want a lot of the members to be there, just the bishopric. It totally it was just Elder Fermaus, Elder Anderson, Elder Long, and me at the baptism with the two zone leaders and bishopric. Out of all of us there, we were able to see one of our brothers join the church.

After all that was done we had to drive another hour back into our own area. Mind that we have been awake since five thirty in the morning and our eyes, while in the car, were getting a little sleepy, but it's a good thing we rolled down our windows to keep us awake. We were able to go see other person later on that evening around six. Her name was Marama Anderson, she lives right next door to our ward mission leader who apparently called us one day telling us that his neighbor wanted to blessing for her baby.  She couldn't meet with us last Tuesday because of a death in her family. We felt the impression to go see her late on Saturday. While walking up to her house Elder Long and Thought that because she knew our ward mission leader and she wanted a blessing for her baby a week ago, we thought that she was a member. We found out that Marama is not a member, but because she has known our ward mission leader her whole life, he took care of her. Marama's family are all members of the church just not her. She never was too interested at that time to be baptized. Her story is that because she is a single mom, has four children, ages 20, 17, 16, 14, and a partner. She is getting to that point in life were she wants to make sure that her kids grown up in something that will help them to better kids. She has seen a lot of deaths in her family and she doesn't want to die without knowing that she could have been part of something her whole life. She also didn't want her kids not knowing about the Mormon church. Then later on, in the middle of our conversation said "I want to be baptized in the Mormon church." Marama also said she wants to pursue this goal but knows that she would have to give up playing sports on Sundays. She is so inspired to change her life it was an amazing experience. 

Sunday rolled around, we had four investigators come to church. One of them named Tom, is really excited to be baptized this month on the 22nd. Tom has a crazy, one of the "ahh" moment stories. We found him because of our two zone leaders. Elder Tibbits and Elder Larsen were hungry and wanted to go get some food. While getting some food, in the process they saw Tom just leaning against the wall. Elder Tibbits before that had an impression to go get an Ensign in the back of their car. They talked to Tom, invited him to go eat with them and they opened the Ensign on the page with all the Apostle and the Prophets. They started teaching Tom about the restoration and Priesthood authority. Elder Tibbits and Elder Larsen took Tom back to the chapel to a baptism that the sisters were having. The sisters also talked to Tom about the restoration and Jesus Christ making such a wonderful sacrifice for us. Tom was asked to be baptized by the zone leaders and he accepted, putting his fist in the air!! They asked to go see him later that night. Elder Long and I were in a teaching appointment with Qunisha, the eight year old girl, the phone rang and Elder Larsen and Elder Tibbits told us we needed to meet up with them to go teach a lesson with Tom. That very night we were able to meet Tom, and found out that his parents died. Tom is a little slower than most people but has the heart to change and to learn more about Jesus Christ. 

What a week!!! Full of surprises and amazing moments to always remember. This all happened because as a zone we fasted about three weeks ago to find the elect souls! On top of all the that, eight year old girl Qunisha, that I talked about in my last e-mail is having her baptism this weekend!! She has asked me to be the person to baptize her!! Even though I have only known Qunisha for about five weeks, she wanted me to do it for her. What a privilege it is for me to be able to do my very, VERY! first baptism her in New Zealand. This will be a member baptism but I will take this as an honor for her to be my first. She even showed up this Sunday and sat with us in sacrament. What a blessing it is to see this little girl and her determination! Wow, wow, wow, wow is all I can say. The lord will prepare us in his time. 

Thank you for all the prayers and e-mails, hope you enjoy your week and remember to always SMILE!!  Have a fantastic week!

Elder Thorpe