March 25th, 2019

Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a great week and had many opportunities to serve and share the gospel!

So our baptism from Saturday actually got moved to this Saturday, but it's still happening so thats good!!

On Tuesday we had interviews with President Whitney! It was so good to talk with him and get council from him and visit with his wife. They are such a sweet couple and I'm very grateful for them and their service!
After interviews we went over the The Blatters house, (senior missionary couple) and they taught us how to make fajitas, it was so fun. We had such a good conversation with them about how we as humans cope with life or just our hard trials and our weaknesses.
I'll give an example of what I'm trying to say..
When we are going through something really hard or stressful or when we feel down or even depressed, what do we do? Usually people will take a nap, watch some TV, listen to music, or watch a movie. While these all may be great things, they all have one thing in common. They are complete worldly. They are things of the world and they are the things that Satan WANTS us to rely on for strength and to cope.
Something that I have noticed as a missionary is that here on the mission, you are literally given one option to cope with your trials and your weaknesses. But, I have a testimony and I have come to the knowledge that it is literally the only way on this earth, that will completely heal you and strengthen you. And that is through Praying to our Loving Heavenly Father.
Jesus Christ didn't suffer for our sins and feel our pains and hardships for us NOT to rely on Him! He has done all the work, he has felt the depression or the anxiety or the stresses that you are feeling!! And he wants to help you, and I can promise you that if you rely on Him and go to your Father in Heaven and just ask Him for strength, you WILL find that strength and that guidance and that peace that you are searching for! Satan doesn't know what it feels like, so who is he to say take and nap and "you might feel better". It doesn't work like that. But I promise that Jesus Christ knows how you feel and he is here with His arms stretched out to help you.
1 nephi 21:16
"Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."
Sorry I kinda went off on a tangent but I just want you all to know that Christ is THE ONLY way and to just trust in Him and rely on his grace and mercy. 

So anyways, We also had exchanges this week! so on Thursday night our sister training leaders came down to Cove and picked me up and one of them stayed here with Sister Blaney. We went up to their area, which is in Temple. On Friday me and Sister Baker had such a great day full of miracles! So backstory, we as missionaries hand out a lot of pass-along cards. And so there was this lady, Bonnie, who happened to come across one, and she decided to call the number on the back to get her free book of Mormon or Bible that you get when you call the number. (which usually no one ever actually calls the number) but she did!! So we went to her house and brought her a Bible and a book of Mormon and you could just tell that she is prepared to hear the gospel. It is something she has been searching for and she didn't even know how to find it. But Heavenly Father knows her and he placed us, or the pass along card, in her pathway, to help her find her way back to Him!!

On Saturday we also had a few miracles, but one that I want to share is about Bill. Who is someone we are teaching. He is someone who is very hard to get in contact with, so we have only taught him one lesson.. But he has come to church twice.. It's a super weird situation, but anyways we just were prompted Saturday afternoon to go stop by his house and see how he was doing. We started walking up to his yard and he came outside just as we were getting there. He said he wanted to get out of the house and go for a drive. But when he saw us he said that he didn't wanna come to church anymore and that he was basically done. We were super confused because we literally had only taught him one lesson, so there was no way he could know enough to know that this wasn't right for him at this time. So we just started talking to him and basically told him that he didn't have to come to church but that we wanted to continue teaching him the lessons so that he had a better understanding of the gospel before he dropped us.
He started talking about random stuff, and telling us about his finishing boat and his paper work that he's been doing, and by the end of this very long conversation he said, "you know what, I'll be at church tomorrow, I was trying to find a reason or a way to convince myself not to go, but I think I'm gonna go now"
It was so cool, we didn't even tell him to come to church but we could feel the spirit within us and it testifying to him that we were sent there at that exact moment in time to just have a simple conversation with him. And the spirit "told" him to keep going to church.
It was such a cool experience! I love how strong and exact I can feel the spirit every single day as a missionary!

This week I was reading the talk "Stand Forever" by Lawrence E. Corbridge (you can find it on speeches.byu.edu)
I would recommend ALL of you to read this. Member of the church or not, it is such a great talk and I believe all would benefit from it. Something that I really liked that he said was, "you should be true to your beliefs but you cannot be better than what you know"

Well I hope you all have a great week this week, feel free to email me and update me on your lives haha I miss you all so much!! ️

Also if anyone knows how to convert music or send music as a file attachment then let me know, I have a favor to ask 

Love, Sister Thorpe

March 18th

Hello!!

Gabriella gets baptized this Saturday!! I am sooo excited for her. She's 9 years old and seriously the smartest little girl ever, she just absorbs all the lessons that we've taught her. She is so ready to be baptized and become a member of the church!
I have had some real crazy experiences this week, so first... There's this member in one of the wards who called us brainwashed for correcting her on calling us Mormons. We were a little shocked hearing that one, but it really is so amazing how fast of a transition, at least for me, it is to hearing us be called "Mormons" instead of members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Being called a Mormon just sounds so wrong now and disrespectful in a way.

ALSO, we found two new people to teach, Gary and Nolia! We were out walking the streets one day and saw Gary in the front yard and just decided to chat with him, and we ended up planning a return appointment. So Friday afternoon we went over and met with them and had a really really great conversation. We talked with them about Joseph Smith and the restoration. The power behind the first vision account is crazy. It is so amazing how the spirit works, especially while sharing the gospel with others. While we were talking with them I had the biggest prompting to ask them to be baptized. So I asked them, and later that night he texted us and said he wants to be baptized but that his wife needs some time to think about it, but he thinks she will get there. We plan on meeting with them again on Wednesday, so I am PUMPED for that!!

The youth in one of our wards did a book of Mormon marathon. They read/listened to The Book of Mormon in two days. So on Saturday they were finishing it up, and Sister Blaney and I were the ones who got to read the last chapter to them to finish off the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so present as we were reading. After finishing, we all sang the song "come unto Christ". Literally everyone was in tears, it was amazing.
Bill is doing good as well, he came to church again yesterday and then after church he called us and asked us to come over and teach him a lesson. So we talked with him about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. We were talking with him yesterday about the book of Mormon and he was asking about the Bible and if he needed to get rid of it and stop reading it, he even had the king James version. But we explained to him that we believe the Bible as well as the book of Mormon but it was just so cool to see how willing he was to give that up, all for the knowledge of the Book of Mormon.

Things are going good down here in Texas, the Lord has been preparing these people for them to receive the fullness of the gospel and its so cool to be the one to share it with them. The knowledge of the gospel is the biggest blessing in my life. Without it I don't know where I would be!
I hope you are all doing well, and have a great week this week!

Love, Sister Thorpe

March 11th 2019

Hey everyone!
This week was a very busy and eventful week for me and sister Blaney. We got a lot done and even found a new person to teach!! His name is Bill, he's such a cool guy. We walked up to his house and he had a 2019 corvet in the driveway, he took off the cover and showed it to us and it looked like it had never been driven so honestly who knows how often he drives it, but yeah it was a very nice car. But anyways, we ended up talking with him and we invited him to church and so yesterday he came to church which was so awesome and he really seemed to enjoy it. We went to second hour with him and so i got to go to my first priesthood/elders quorum class which was a little bit different lol. But yeah I'm so excited to start teaching him and helping him progress in his knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel.
We also met someone who is new to one of our wards, her name is Jamie and she has been a member of the church for about a year now. She is super cute and someone who I hope to be friends with long after my mission is over. Last night we went over to her house and studied come follow me with her. And she told us all sorts of cool stories and experiences she has had in her life. So that was a lot of fun and it was nice to be able to focus on come follow me.
Saturday we went to our relief society presidents home and helped her with a project she had been working on. I believe she's building a planter for her backyard.. I think that's what it was. But that's what the picture below is.
Other than that this week we've just been doing a lotttt of contacting and trying to find people to teach!
Thursday me and my companion just didn't have the best day. It was a long slow day and we just felt like we got nothing done. So we went home and decided to point out all the good things we had done, the "seeds we had planted", and all of the blessings we had seen that day. We ended up writing down a hugeee list and it honestly turned our nights around. We went to bed in a better mood and the next day was soo much better and I honestly think it is because we took the time to count our blessings and see the good in our day. So ever since that night, every night before bed we write down all or as many blessings as we can remember from the day. So if you're ever having a bad day or even on the good days, I would encourage you to sit and write down your blessings because it will totally change your mood and outlook and you will notice how blessed we all really are!
In 1 Nephi, the very first verse it talks about how they had seen many afflictions in the course of their days, well the footnote for afflictions is actually blessings. which is something I had never noticed or wouldn't have ever thought about, but it was a good reminder to think of our afflictions or our hard and troubling times as blessings. Because in the end we will be blessed if we endure our trials well and rely on the Lord for strength and keep having faith that it will all work out and be okay in the end.

Well I hope you all had a great week!! I love you all and hope you're doing well!!️

Love, Sister Thorpe

March 4th, 2019

Wow I can't believe another week has already passed! This week has been pretty good. I'm still not even sure what a normal missionary day should look like, all the days are so different. We don't have anyone we're specifically teaching right now so it makes things a little hard. We just go door to door knocking and hoping that someone wants to listen to us and hear theeee greatest message in the world. We also meet with the members multiple times a day. I really enjoy meeting them and hearing each of their conversion stories.

I had my first zone conference on Wednesday. it was really nice to hear from President Whitney and his wife, and to meet and get to know all the elders and sisters in the two zones that met there.

Friday night we drove about an hour to a town called Lometta to meet with a part member family. They own a restaurant on their property so they fed us some good Texas BBQ which was very nice of them. We ended up helping them close, so we washed the dishes, moped the floor, and then afterwards they ended up giving us a whole rack of ribs and leftovers from that day, which was very kind of them.

Also one night me and my comp decided to organize this HUGE stack of church magazines that was in our apartment. At first we were just going to straighten them up a bit but that led to us organizing them by year. All the way from 1989-2019. So after all our hard work doing that we made them into a circle and took a picture lol, it was the most pointless thing I have ever done but it was a night I will never forget haha. 

I have decided that (so far) my favorite part of every day is when we have personal study time. I have grown to have such a greater love and appreciation for the Book of Mormon as I have been out here on my mission. I don't know how I went days without reading it. the spirit that it brings and that you feel is amazing. As you read the Book of Mormon the spirit will constantly be testifying to you that what you are reading is true. And each and every one of you can feel it if you really strive to listen to and understand the words of the prophets and the words from the book of Mormon.
I wanna invite you all to read Mosiah 27. It's about Alma the younger and how he came to have a testimony of the gospel. It is one of my favorite chapters right now in the Book of Mormon because of how strong I felt the spirit while I was reading it. I would highlight something in almost every verse because of how powerful the spirit was testifying to me that it was true. 

A cool experience this week tho was last night, we were teaching this girl named Sidney. Her friend (Trinity) was over at her house so we invited her to come and sit in with us if she wanted to. She said yes and so we started teaching the restoration of the gospel to both of them. As I was reciting the first vision account, I was just looking Trinity straight in the eyes and I watched her tear up and I could feel the spirit soooo strong in that room and I knew that she knew that what I was saying was true. This little 12 year old girl who had never heard the name Joseph Smith before was feeling the spirit testify to her of the truth. It was such a powerful and amazing experience for me. And I just want you all to know that I know without a doubt in my mind that this church is true, I wouldn't be here in Texas if it wasn't. And I know that no matter how far off the path you may think you are, that it is never too late to come back on it. Christ is here with open arms always. The only way to eternal life is through Jesus Christ and through living His gospel to its full extent. And I know that to be true. I love my savior and I love this gospel and the happiness it brings to my life.
I hope you all are doing well and have a great week!!

Love, Sister Thorpe