Week 46 - Some miracles finding investigators!

Mom,

I'm glad you all were safe and had a good time at beaver! I know, it would be weird without me there ;) I can't wait to be able to share that tradition with all of you when I get back.

This week started out kind of slow. We were tracting a lot early in the week but nobody seemed to be answering the door, let alone listening to us. It was kind of discouraging but later in the week, we were greatly blessed.

We have been praying a lot to find someone to bring to the temple, and it seemed to be in vain as we were seeing very little success at the beginning of the week. But on Thursday we decided to stop by a long-time investigator we hadn't talked to in a while. Her name is C. and she usually answers the door pretty quick when she's home, so I was a little worried after I knocked a couple times and there was no sign of her being home. I felt we should knock one more time, and then about 20 seconds later, her son came and answered the door. We walked in and C. was sitting in the kitchen and looked quite sad and a little worried. As we began to converse, she told us that her mother had passed away on Sunday. We shared scriptures from the Book of Mormon about the state of our loved ones after this life and bore testimony of the Atonement and the blessing we have to see our loved ones again. We then invited her to come to the temple and shared why temples are so important and that in the temple she would find the comfort she needed.  So we went to the temple on Saturday and the Bello family came with us and Brother Bello was able to translate the tour into Spanish for her. The spirit was so strong and C. loved the temple. It was an answer to our prayers.

On Friday, we were eating with the Bello family in their backyard, and right before we started eating, their neighbor walked into the backyard and told us she had just visited the temple with some coworkers and she loved it! She sat down and ate with us and we spent more than an hour talking about the temple and the importance of the temples. She was asking so many questions and brother Bello bore powerful testimony as he shared personal experiences of his in the gospel. 

We have another investigator that someone in our branch had invited to church named J. E. We met him at church and invited him to the temple and he said he'd love to come and see it. We're praying for him that he can find the truth and the peace he is looking for. 

I've been able to translate for a couple temple tours myself and it's been awesome to be a part of the blessing of the open house. I've also been translating a lot in church ever since I've been back in the branch so I'm getting a lot of practice. 

I love you Mom! Thank you for everything! I'm glad you guys had fun last week! I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Thayne

"This truly is the house of the Lord"

Elder Ryan and Elder Thayne

Week 45 - Finding it hard getting anyone to progress

Mom,

This week was a little better. There weren't nearly as many people fighting us this week so that's good. We've just been having a hard time getting anyone to progress. Like, we find people and teach a lot of people tracting, but we seem to lose them after that and it doesn't really go anywhere. But we're trying to do our best to invite everyone to the temple so they can feel that spirit and we're hoping it will be a pivotal point for a lot of investigators.

I am in the same branch that I started in and I'm definitely getting to know a lot more people that I didn't know before. It's weird being on the other side because a lot of the people I saw often aren't around so I'm seeing completely different people that I didn't really associate with before. But there are some really great members here on this side. One of my favorite families is the Bello family. Brother Bello grew up in New Jersey so he speaks perfect English but his wife doesn't. They are such nice people and they always invite us over to eat. It's great to have people that take care of us here. To kind of have a home away from home. 

 And I feel like on this side of the city, the Hispanic population is a little more spread out so it's harder to find them. But we're working hard and trying to find those who are ready for the temple. We do have a full-time car so we rarely bike. We just have a certain mileage allotment so we have to bike every once in a while to save those miles. Our area is the biggest one in the city so it's a little stressful trying to work with the miles but it's alright. 

Yesterday we had a pretty cool experience. We were trying to teach just one more lesson before the night was over but appointments were falling through and nobody really wanted to talk to us and we just weren't having any luck. Near the last minute, I had the impression to stop by this lady we had met when we first got here. We went by and they let us right in. Her husband was a little stand-offish toward the message. He said he'd talked to missionaries before and he said it was against his traditions as a Catholic. We talked about eternal families and the temple and invited them to come see the temple. The parents still seemed a little stubborn, but their 16 year old daughter was really interested and asked us for more information. We gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and invited them all to pray about it. It was cool to be able to see that little blessing at the end of our struggles. 

Well that's pretty much it for today. We're hoping to find someone we can invite to baptism, so we're praying and fasting to find someone humble and prepared enough. I love you Mom. I miss you and I pray for you guys all the time. Have fun in Beaver! Be safe. I wish I could come, but I can't wait to see all the pictures. I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Thayne

Week 44 - The Lord knows us and our needs and guides people to help us

Mom,

This week was a little rough. There seemed to be a lot of people that wanted to fight/argue with us and tell us how wrong we are. It was kinda discouraging. But it turned out okay because we had the opportunity to tour the Indy temple yesterday as a mission! The whole mission was there and we all got to see the new Indy temple a week before the open house. It was so beautiful!  My favorite painting was a local one original to the Indy temple that depicted Christ in the Americas and all you see is him standing in a jungle setting with 2 little Nephite girls on each side of him. It was such a beautiful temple. 

Afterwards, we had the opportunity to clean the temple as well. Elder Ryan and I got the job to dust in the temple so we got to walk through the whole temple again pretty much alone. It was so cool to be there by ourselves and feel the powerful peace and love that our Father has for us. 

Like I said, the week was kinda rough. We were having a pretty hard time, but on Friday a member from the branch randomly called and said she felt like she needed to share a scripture with us. She read a few verses from D&C 6 and it brought so much comfort to know that the Lord knows us and our needs and he guides people to help us in our lives. 

Later, we were eating at a member's house and he was talking about how Satan tries to do what he can to stop the work from progressing. He shared his testimony and some personal experiences about this is his life. Afterward we told him about our rough week and he pointed out that the Lord knew we needed to eat at his house so we could realize that Satan will try his hardest to stop us from doing what we need to do, especially with the opening of a temple in the mission. It showed us that our Father knows us and he knows who we need to talk to. 

Well that's pretty much it for the week. We are excited to bring investigators to the temple open house so they can feel the spirit there. I love you Mom and I'm so grateful for everything you do for me. I pray for you always. 

Love,

Elder Thayne

Elder Latu, Elder Thayne, Elder Ryan

"I love this Temple!"

Indianapolis Temple

Week 43 - Back in Indianapolis and going the extra mile with confidence in the Lord

Well, I'm in a new area and I'm back in Indianapolis! I'm back in the branch I started in, but I'm on the east side of the city now. We got double transferred into our area, so neither one of us was here before. Our area is HUGE, and we don't know any of it so it kinda stresses me out. But we're trying to get to know the area more and more each day. My companion is Elder Ryan from Oregon! He's hilarious! He's only a transfer younger than me so we're both learning a lot from each other. He reminds me a lot of Justin Male haha

Going into this transfer, I felt we needed to do a special fast to know the will of the Lord so we can do this work His way instead of our way. So I told our district and invited them all to do the same so that we can hasten the work in this branch.

In our Priesthood meeting at church, we had a great lesson about doing more than is expected of us and going the extra mile. It reminded me of a scripture in Philemon 1:21

 21 Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee,knowing that thou wilt also do 

more than I say.

During the lesson, I thought everything was great, but I didn't really think much about it, and honestly, I had kind of forgotten about our fast. After the class was over, Elder Hansen (yeah he's still in my district. going on 10 months in the same district) turned to me and said "Elder Thayne I think that's the answer to our fast!" And I remembered it and decided to see if that is what the Lord wanted us to do.

So we were tracting in an apartment complex right after church and we weren't finding any Hispanic people to teach. We had a meal appointment in about a half hour so we both kinda decided that we'd just go early since nothing was really happening. But then I remembered the lesson we had and I said, "Let's just knock these next 4 doors." And on the second one a man from Mexico named J. opened the door and let us right in. He was there with his nephew and his son. We taught about the Restoration and they were really receptive to it. At the end of the lesson, J. said, "Don't you guys have that Book of Mormon?" we said yes and he told us that he was talking about it with his son and nephew literally the day before. They said they'd be willing to come to church next week and we're planning on inviting them to the temple open house.  It was a confirmation that the Lord wants us to go the extra mile and keep going when we want to quit. It was a great miracle to meet some of the Lord's prepared children.

4th of July was pretty good. We had a branch activity where we played soccer and volleyball and had a barbecue. We had the day off,  but we weren't allowed to handle any fireworks, not even sparklers. 

I hope you guys had a great 4th! That was the last major holiday I hadn't already celebrated as a missionary! Next up will be my second round on Halloween. I love you! 

Love,

Elder Thayne

With Abi from the Elkhart Branch

Elder Thayne and Elder Cruz w
with Juan and Sister Alarcon