Letter Home 3-22-2015

Hello family and friends!

What a wonderful week and just as you all know the weeks are just flying by fast. It is almost Easter and a time to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ, he is someone that I have come to know really close, His love, comfort, and of His example. This Sunday the members had the opportunity to talk about the importance of the sacrament and how we should take that moment to make it holy. We should keep our thoughts on the Savior while the sacrament is being passed out, not thinking about what we will be eating or doing after church. Remembering what our Savior sacrificed for all of us. Here is an insight; baptism gives us that cleansing process signifying that we are promising the Lord that we are showing him that we are willing to serve him all our life and that we are moving forward and letting go our old life and starting a new perspective of life. That is great that baptism does that but here's the catch, we are not always clean so we can't be baptized every time we make a mistake. Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, have given us the sacrament to help us continue being cleansed through the atonement without having to go through the process of baptism again. The sacrament is a symbol of us renewing or re-making those promises that we made with our Heavenly Father when we were baptized. It is acknowledging that are willing to allow the atonement to cleanse us from our sins. Even though we have been baptized we still need that continual thirst for the sacrament. A person who doesn't continue to partake of the sacrament is one that will see themselves further distancing themselves from the spiritual protection. In all the sacrament is very important and will be a impact in our lives if we take a minute, think and realize what we are taking, who we are making these promises to and how it can continually protect us. 

This week we worked hard! To the point that when Sunday rolled around our eyes began to be baggy. It was truly that first week on my mission that my companion and I were able to truly push ourselves to opening our mouths and start spreading the gospel nonstop. At times we were usually in a rush and thinking we needed to get to an appointment on the other side of town and then from there to go another one as well. That worked well, but the difference this week was that we were able to seek those people out even if they were interested or not in the gospel and truly invite them to hear the message we had to share. My companion and I were biking from neighborhood to neighborhood, from house to house looking for the opportunities to invite people. We would practice every morning, taking an hour or two in our study to practice how to do brief one minute power statements so that the spirit can touch the hearts of those we would talk to. We noticed that teaching takes the skills of not only talking but also, listening, watching carefully, and listening to the promptings of the spirit, knowing what to say and do at the right time and moment. As missionaries we have had the time in our life in two years to develop these skills, but we are still a work in progress. It takes time little by little to be fully were we need to be. Why am I talking about this? Well it is because it is to show that everyone of us has this ability to become a teacher just like Jesus Christ. It is a like someone learning how to play a sport for instant basketball. The person who wants to be in the big games takes all their time and energy to practice that one shot or free throws so that when he or she gets that opportunity to play in the big game he doesn't have to have that feeling like he is not ready to perform, rather he is fully confident that all the practices that he did is well worth all the time. Just like us, we can be put on the spot in life were for an instant, like a missionary, we need to open our mouth to share the gospel or for those at home stand, we need to stand up for what we do believe in. We won't have to be unprepared. Just like athletes who learn the basic fundamentals we as Later Day Saints can grown and learn the basic fundamental principles of the gospel to help us in times of needed reassurance. Learning the basics is something that my companion and I have found that has helped us during this week. For example one basic would be opening our mouth to share the truth. 

During the week our investigators have been progressing and accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ. For example two of our investigators named Con and Peter are accepting the challenges that are put in front of them all because they are willing the change their life and follow our Savior Jesus Christ. Peter is giving up his addiction to smoking and is willing to read the Book of Mormon for that extra protection of spiritual armor. Con is starting to recognize the spirit and is willing to give up his past and follow the path of our Savior. He has been taught by many missionaries but this time it is different because he is very meek. Also Dentzen, a mom that is stuck in her wheel chair and can't move, is finally softening her heart to the spirit and is now understanding what she is needing to do to move on. She has a smoking problem. She is wanting her family involved in the discussions. Everything is going great, we are getting rain and the work is moving along. My companion and I are excited to push ourselves and to be more in tune with the spirit. 

Thank you all for the help and prayers, hope you all have a great week! Elder Thorpe 

a visit from Elder Bednar

Hello Family and Friends!

Wow this week was unbelievable! We David A. Bednar come and visit us along with the Hamilton Mission on Tuesday. It was unbelievable to see him in person. He is so funny, he started cracking jokes with us and also with his wife, sister Bednar. They both were joking around with us missionaries. There were some missionaries who would get up and ask a question and before they would start he could tell they were scared so this is what he would say "Elder, don't worry I'm not going to yell at you". Just being in the presence of a apostle of Jesus Christ just would overcome the elders and sisters. Elder Bednar was all about understanding the Holy Ghost and how big of an impact the Holy Ghost has in our lives. He taught by the spirit, he spoke by the spirit of the Holy Ghost and he invited and asked questions directed by the Holy Ghost. It was amazing to see how he taught a full chapel room of elders and sisters just about one principle. He taught in a way were it was more of a discussion than just him preaching to us, he got everyone involved, showing us what the difference is when we talk by the spirit and when we don't talk by the spirit. Something he said is that "a conversion is something we all need", what he means by that is that our testimonies are great to have but we need that solid foundation of gospel principles to help our testimonies to be planted firm in rich soil. A conversion is were we study gospel principles, the modern day prophets teachings and learning more "line upon line, precept upon precept". It takes time for us to be able to grown and understand all things. It was a wonderful experience and one to never forget. My companion and I came out of that meeting with new knowledge and understanding. Elder Bednar taught in a simple way so that we could all understand on our own level as well. Just after that meeting I just couldn't get over the feeling of wanting to understand the Holy Ghost more!

This week was great! Mostly all our miracles happened on fast Sunday. My companion and I were able to follow the spirit and invite two of our members out to teach some of the investigators that we are working with. We first went out during the afternoon with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Paki. He stayed out with us for two hours until dinner. It was amazing to be able to go out with brother Paki. We went over and visited this lady who is in a wheel chair. We got this referral from the members. It was the first time ever seeing her and we could just tell by listening to her she has been through a long trial in her life. She was explaining that she would never ask for help because she just felt guilty asking. Brother Paki, my companion and I were able to extend the Lords hand to her and express to her that we were there to serve her and her family. She had surgery on her back that made her unable to use her legs from the waist down. She was living all alone with her daughter, just two of them in the house. After talking with her, she wanted us to come by again and teach her more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. After we got done visiting her, we had the impression to go to another house. We decided after a time of pondering to finally go and see this home which happened to be one of our less actives house. She explained to us that we were supposed to come see her and talk to her about how she could help her family get back into the routine of coming to church. She wanted a My Family booklet so she could give it to her grandchildren to remember where their family came from and who they were. We were directed by the Spirit. Later that night we also went out with one of our YSA member, his name is Clinton. We were able to visit some of our YSA less actives with Clinton and he had a great time. We were walking down the road in the neighborhood at night time and saw this lady that had her car broken down. We helped her move her car while it was in neutral into a safer place to park, the look on her face was a look of relief that she was able to be helped by a group of LDS boys or missionaries. We then were lead into another part of the road, ran after this giant tree of a structure... Tongan guy walking down the road and caught up to him. We caught up to him and were able to leave him a pamphlet to read. We then turned around and bumped into another person named Terry. We met Terry sometime during the week and all of us were surprised a about running into each other again..Terry was in shock. We caught up with him, and at the end he said that it must be a sign that we ran into him twice in one week. He invited us back to his home to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. After he left, Elder Fitzsimmons and I ran up and jumped up bumping into Clinton like a sandwich, we were filled with joy!!! 

Having those experience brought to memory the time when Nephi went back into Jerusalem and had no clue were he was going but he was lead by the Spirit. We were lead by the Spirit and were put in the right place at the right time. It was an amazing start to the week! The lesson was just follow the Spirit and the impressions that we had on our hearts and mind. The Hly Ghost works on us all the time, we may not feel it because of how we get used to it but it works by nagging on us when we need to do the right thing until we finally come to a decision to follow it and also when we just go and do without thinking there are those moments when the Holy Ghost is there to guide and protect us. It was a great testimony build up that we were blessed with. Love doing the Lords work and seeing the gospel in action. Listen to the Spirit and follow its counsel!.

Have a great week, see you all again in another week! here we go March! 

Elder Thorpe