June 24th, 2019

hello everyone !! soooo much has happened this week, hopefully I can remember it all hahah

so first of all, we got transfer news yesterday, and on Wednesday I will be headed up to Mansfield, which is in the Arlington stake!! I am so excited!! 

NEW ADDRESS:

400 N. State highway 360 #1716 Mansfield, TX 76063

this whole week has been a crazy, busy, long, stressful, exciting, happy, etc.... week, all because of the Jones'. BUT I wouldn't have changed any bit of it. Thursday, we realized that we had told Dale (recent convert) and Nancy (member who is engaged to Dale), that we would decorate Dale's backyard a little for their wedding, that would be happening on Friday. 

well, what ended up happening was we recruited our friend Sister Holmes from the ward and our relief society Pres Sis Colby, to help us out with this. we made a trip with them to the dollar store and put our ideas together, with the help of pinterest, and got some stuff to make this the best wedding day for Dale and Nancy. we then were going to go get a cake from the grocery store, but then I told them that I missed baking stuff so I volunteered to make the cake. (side note: I'm not a baker, and I don't think I've ever really made a cake besides the pre-mixed boxed ones that you just throw in a pan and call it good, but I thought baking a cake sounded fun so I said I would do it) 

well after a very long Thursday, planning this entire wedding and throwing it all together last minute, while still having to be a missionary and go out in between baking and decorating to go teach the gospel, I'd say it turned out pretty nice. And Dale and Nancy were SO happy with how it all turned out. They didn't even ask us to do all this but we figured it was their big day and we wanted to make it special for them. And it all cost about $15 !! 

I am so happy for them though and excited for next June when they will get to be sealed in the temple :) 

yesterday I was able to speak in church about the Holy Ghost. as I was preparing for this talk I looked back on my journals and past talks that I've written, to gather some stories to share lol and it made me realize that one year ago I was in Tonga and one year ago on the 30th of June was the day that I decided to serve a mission. that seriously feels like just yesterday! now here I am, and I can't believe I have been a missionary for 5 months already. time flies when you're having fun ;) 

we have had some crazy storms here, which have caused lots of trees falling over and lots of destroyed houses/roofs from the tornado. (I'll put some pictures of the houses after the storm) but on Saturday we went by this lady's house that had a tree fall down onto their neighbors boat and fence, to help them cut it up into small pieces for it to be taken to the dump. It was a very big project but luckily a few members showed up and helped which made the job go a lot faster! 

a cool story that happened this week was with a lady named suenita. About 5 weeks ago, me and my comp sis ward and the YSA sisters went around a neighborhood singing to people the song "come unto christ". we sang it to this lady, and she insisted that we come back again and visit with her. we stopped by a few times earlier this month, but she was never home. well, Saturday night we decided to go stop by one last time before heading home for the night. she happened to be in her garage just as we pulled up, so we went up and talked with her. she told us that she couldn't visit for long but that she really wanted to hear another song from us. right when she said this I thought to myself oh no, this is not gonna be good. first off, it's just us two missionaries instead of the 4 of us like last time, second, sister ward has been sick all week with a cold so her voice is kinda gone at the moment. we quickly decided to go with the classic, I am a child of God. we ended up singing it, and I mean it didn't sound as bad as I thought it would. but that whole experience was just so spiritual and cool. this lady had felt the spirit so strong the first time we sang to her, that when she saw us again she was yearning for another song, just to feel the spirit present like she had previously felt. who knows if anything will end up coming of it, but I do know that Heavenly Father is aware of her. and I know that we were sent to her house to bring the spirit through our songs. :) 

well I hope you all have a great week this week! I love you all!! 

 Love, Sister Thorpe <3

June 17th, 2019

Happy Father's day to all the fathers and father figures in my life!!! I love you and am grateful for you all!

There is a crazy long story behind the subject...but it all started Friday evening, we were at our recent convert Dale's house teaching him the new member lessons. 

He is engaged to a girl named Nancy. So here's a little background about them, so that the story makes a little more sense. 

they have both previously been married, they are in there 60's and 70's. Nancy is a member of the church and when I first got to this area back in February, we had gone to visit her. She told us all about this guy at the seniors center who she had a crush on, but was too nervous to do anything. She said she could see them getting married though, and that she saw something special about him and that she wanted to share the gospel with him, but was too scared. So one day she told this man (Dale) about these girls who can teach him more about the church (us, lol). Eventually they out of no where got engaged and somehow we started teaching him the lessons. (I don't remember how that all played out and went) but long story short, he got baptized a little over a week ago, and they were planning on getting married in July, but then they heard that I could possibly be getting transferred next week and they made the decision to get married this Friday, the 21st! They heard that missionaries are able to civilly marry people in some circumstances with permission from the mission president, and they insisted that I marry them, so we told them we would ask President, and let them know what he says. Sadly he said no, but they talked to the bishop yesterday and he said he would love to perform it. So it's still on! But yeah, that is the story of how I almost married someone this Friday hahahah 

Not much else happened this week, we contacted a lot of people and rode around the city Lampasas on our bikes for a day, and almost died of heat but it was nice to be out and exercise in the middle of the day haha 

But I hope you all have a great week this week!! I love you all️

Love, Sister Thorpe

June 10, 2019

Hello everyone!! 

As I'm writing this email, I'm in a member's furnace room waiting out a tornado. (it's Sunday, so if I've sent this, it means I lived) 

anyways, this week was a very good week!! Dale, the person we have been teaching, was baptized this Saturday! everything went perfectly, he and his fiancè will be getting married at the end of July. I'm not sure if I will still be in Cove for it, but hopefully in a year I'll be able to come back to be at their sealing :) 

this past Thursday we had our last interviews with president Whitney :( I'm gonna miss him, but I'm super excited to meet my new mission president at the beginning of July, President Chapman!!!

PATTERNS OF LIGHT

there is this one video on the gospel media app of Elder Bednars series of videos called 'patterns of light', well actually all three of the videos in this series are amazing. he talks about the light of christ, which is one of my favorite things to talk about. he explains how in a dark room, when you light a match or turn on a light the darkness can never rule out the light. we ALL have the light of Christ in us. every single person is born with it. as we serve others, help those who might need an extra hand, exercise our faith in Him, our light grows and becomes brighter and brighter. when you are doing the things Jesus would do your light radiates, and people around you notice it, whether they tell you or not. no amount of evil or darkness can overrule your light of Christ within you when you are actively seeking and striving to have it be shining. 

in another one of the videos he talks about the patterns of revelation. he compares revelation to three  things, the first is a light switch. sometimes we receive answers in a very dramatic and very abrupt known way, like when you turn on the light and it becomes light and bright very quickly. it's clear. that way of revelation is not as common but it does still happen.

 the second way is compared to a sunrise, you can see the light, but it comes slow, not all at once. it's very gradual, you can discern the light but not all at once. this way is a little more common. 

 third, he compares it to a foggy day. you know it's light outside but it's so blurry and unknown, you can only see a small bit ahead of you. but there's enough just to take a few steps, to keep on going forward towards more light. 

doctrine and covenants 50:24

"That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."

*update on the tornado*

no one was seriously injured just a few wrecked houses, I think around 200 hahah but everyone is safe :)

well I hope you all have a great week!! love you all!! 

love, sister Thorpe 

June 3rd, 2019

I don't have a ton to write about this week, so sorry in advance hahah

So on Tuesdays we go to a rehab center and sing gospel songs with the people there. Every week I sit and sing with this lady named Louisa, she's such a sweet lady and loves looking at my rings haha she's really into jewelry. (she's the lady in the picture) 

Saturday night we went to a members house for dinner, they also invited the YSA sister missionaries over as well, so it was a house full of missionaries, it was super fun :)

(also took a picture with her) 

We've been teaching this 8 year old the lessons, and me and my companion have been trying to come up with creative ways to teach the lessons to him, and we were trying to think of how we can teach the word of wisdom in an object lesson. So when I was younger, we used to play a game called don't eat Pete at my grandmas house, so we decided to use the game don't eat Pete as a way to teach the word of wisdom! So that made it a lot of fun for him haha.

Lastly I gotta give a shout out to my brother Austin, his birthday is on Friday, so everyone wish him a happy 23rd birthday!! :)

I hope you all have a great week this week!!

Love you all!

Love, Sister Thorpe