Week 97 - Transferring to my last area!

I'm getting transferred! Pres. Carlson called me on Saturday and told me I'll be serving in the Spanish branch in Columbus, IN! It's a branch I've never served in before, so it'll be good to "branch" out (hehe). I will be a district leader in Columbus. Since there is a lack of leadership in that branch, I am also assigned to serve as 2nd counselor in the branch presidency!! It'll be a different experience.

This week was a great one! We had a ton of success this week! We committed 3 people to be baptized and I'm sure they're gonna make it! I'm really sad to leave this branch and this area. Things are really picking up lately and I really hope the next missionaries to come here keep on top of things. 

We also had a HUGE miracle this week while we were on exchanges with the Avon Elders. Do you remember R? She was supposed to be baptize on May 14th, but she disappeared and we never heard from her again. Since then, I have been praying almost every day for her to come back and to get baptized. On Thursday, the sister missionaries had an appointment with an investigator at the church. For some reason they felt impressed to show up about an hour early to their appointment. After they got there their investigator texted them and cancelled, so they went out to their car and said a prayer asking what they should do with their time. As they finished praying, R pulled up to the church and said, "Is Elder Thayne here? I need to talk to him." Since R doesn't have a phone, the sisters called and I got to talk to R! We were on bikes that day, so I told her to meet us at a grocery store in Avon, and we waited for her but she never showed up!! We haven't heard from her since, but it was a miracle that she contacted us! If the sisters hadn't showed up early to their appointment, there would have been nobody at the church! 

On Friday, we had Mission Leadership Council with Pres. Carlson, and it was really good! It was weird after going to so many MLC meetings with Pres. Cleveland and then seeing how different he is. He's such a calmer and gentler man than Pres. Cleveland was and it's a huge change of pace for us. But I have already seen that the Lord has called him and that he's here for a reason. At MLC, Pres. made a huge emphasis on studying Preach my Gospel and on teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really good meeting about the basic and important things in missionary work

Besides that, there's not much more to say! We're seeing miracles out here and I'm so excited about the things that are happening in the mission. 

I love you Mom!!! Have a good week!! I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Thayne 

I had to take a couple classic "corn field" pictures 

Here I am with the Lyons Family.  I love them!

Week 96 - "Christ would have heard what they are really saying. He would have heard their pain."

We had a good week!! It hasn't been that long since the last time I emailed, so not much has happened. 

We  are going to give G and A a break. We finally found her 2 good jobs that she would only have to work Monday-Friday and we basically just gave her everything on a silver platter and she still didn't take it. We've been fighting and struggling to get her to progress, but she just doesn't seem to want it bad enough. So we'll give them a break for a little bit and come back in a few weeks. 

J and E are still having a hard time too. It seems to us that they are only willing to come to church if there's absolutely nothing standing in their way. Obviously there will always be obstacles and challenges that they have to work through, but they aren't willing to do what it takes. We'll see if we can help them get there this week. 

This week we went on exchanges with the Elders in Greencastle. Greencastle is a pretty small city about an hour south of Indianapolis and we don't get to see the Elders serving down there very often, so it was good to spend a whole day with them in their area. We visited a member down there named Brother Jefferson who's wife passed away shortly before he joined the church. He has a great love for the gospel and he has a strong testimony. He's pretty old and loves to talk, so we got Hoosier'd pretty bad (in other words, he talked our ears off), but he actually taught me a very important lesson. As we go on exchanges with other Elders in their area, we usually take the back seat to see how they do and how they handle things. So I let Elder Hock start the message and he shared a scripture from Romans 5:3-5 and a great thought on patience. I added my two cents, and then Bro Jefferson taught me a profound lesson. He asked us, "What do you usually do when people persecute you while you're proselyting?" We both responded that we try to sit and listen patiently, but that sometimes it's difficult. He then said, "You have to listen to them. But not just to their words. Listen to what they're really saying." I asked him to explain further. He replied, "Christ would have heard what they are really saying. He would have heard their pain." That hit me pretty hard, and I realized that I could be a lot better at that. It's easy to take offense and talk back to people when they persecute you. It's even easy to patiently listen and just brush it off. But Christ would listen with the true intent to perfectly understand them and the real message their saying and then he would respond with words of love and of healing. I instantly thought of times when I could have listened more intently and been more understanding and I decided that I want to improve that in my life. 

uI love this quote by Pres. Spencer W Kimball: 

“My life is like my shoes—to be worn out in service

Things are going great here! We have transfers next week, so I'll be getting a new companion and possibly be moving areas. I'll know for sure by Saturday. We'll keep working hard and seeing miracles. I love you and I hope you have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Week 95 - Happy 4th of July!

Our week was pretty good!! Unfortunately a lot of our lessons fell through this week, but we had a lot of time to tract and we found some pretty cool people!! 

Our 4th of July was alright. We didn't do much. We had the day off, so we got with some other missionaries and played basketball at the church for a total of 6 hours. We also had a good branch activity with food and games! There were a lot of non-members there, so it was a really successful activity. Afterwards we went to Wendy and Audel's house (recent converts) to watch them light fireworks and then we went home and watched fireworks from the back deck at our apartment. 

We had a pretty cool miracle this week with a member of our branch. There's a 18 year old kid named C in the branch who was preparing for a mission the last time I was serving here, but since the time I left and came back, he had decided he didn't believe in God and that he didn't want to come to church anymore. We eat at his family's house every Monday night, and for the past few months, every time we would bring up the topic of God and church, he would completely close off. He LOVES basketball, so I thought that since he didn't want to talk about the Gospel, I'd talk to him about basketball and see if I can start a good friendship with him, and in the meanwhile, I decided I'd pray for him. For many weeks, there was no change, but one day when we went over to his house for dinner, his mom asked her 15 year old son to bless the food, and suddenly Christian said, "No, I'm gonna do it." He prayed, and after the prayer we were all shocked. He's been coming to church every Sunday since then and he has made a 180 degree turn in his life!! I'm so happy about it!

We had a lesson scheduled with J and E yesterday, but they weren't there, so we hope they're still doing ok. We found a couple of jobs for G that are only Mon-Fri, so hopefully she takes them so she can start coming to church on Sunday!! 

Yesterday, we had a meeting and we were able to meet President Carlson!! He is a lot different than Pres. Cleveland was! He's a lawyer from California and he's a lot more soft spoken and gentle than Pres. Cleveland. He talked to us a lot about the importance of focusing our studies on the scriptures and he also talked about chapter 9 in Preach my Gospel and the need to constantly find people  to teach. He quoted the same scripture I sent you last week in 3 Nephi and he said he wants us to internalize that scripture and always remember it.  He and his wife will be great leaders of this mission and I'm excited to work with them!

That's all I have for this week! I'm excited for another week here in Indy! I can't believe my time left is so short and I'm going to make the very best of it. I love being a missionary and I know I won't have another chance like this :) Love you mom!!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Week 94 - "I have been called of him to declare his word"

Mom,

This week was good!! We have made some good progress with our investigators and we're excited!! 

We actually saw a great miracle with J and E this week. We stopped by randomly throughout the week and they seemed much happier than usual. We asked them how they were and stuff and they said they were good. All of the sudden, E randomly said, "I'm going to go ahead and call the court to start getting our marriage license... we were shocked!! They said they've been praying together like we told them to and they've been thinking about it and they think it's what's best for them. It was such a miracle!! They both came to church yesterday with their crazy kids and I spent the whole time in the back coloring with them and trying to keep them under control. 

A and G are doing ok. They didn't come to church this week -__- G works Sundays. Yesterday after church we stopped by their house and had a lesson about commitment and faith. We were pretty bold in telling her to look for another job and that God would provide. She doesn't yet have the faith necessary to do that, so we'll see what happens. We'll be praying for her! 

G and E are doing well too, and G still really wants to be baptized. In order for that to happen, E would just have to get divorced and then they would have to get married. I don't see it happening any time soon, but we'll see what we can do. 

This week I've been trying really hard to be more fearless and talk to everyone we see. I've often worried about bugging people or making things inconvenient for people when I talk to them, but I've realized that I should never apologize for doing what I was sent here to do. It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures in 3 Nephi 5:13

 Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been ^acalled of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

I need to put my fear aside and talk to anyone no matter what the circumstances. I've been putting it to practice this week and it's been great!! I'm expecting more miracles to come. 

That's pretty much all that's going on here!! On Tuesday our new mission president gets here!! Pres. and Sis. Carlson are officially going to be presiding over this mission!! It'll be weird, but I'm excited to see the inspiration and guidance that Pres. Carlson receives for this mission. 

I love you Mom!!! I hope you have a good week!! I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Week 93 - I'm 21 years old!!

This week was a good one!! We had a ton of rain this week, but it was a good contrast to the 95 degree weather we've been having. 

We met with J and E twice this week, and sadly it's still not going too well. They are still having relationship problems and them getting married is really the only thing keeping E from getting baptized. They said they've thought about separating, but there are 3 kids that make that complicated and it'd be hard for them. I don't know how you can go ahead and have 3 kids with someone without being sure that they are the one you want to be with, but I guess that happens a lot. We told them that they should meet with our branch president so that he can help them since we're not really marriage counselors, so hopefully we can get that set up with our busy branch president. 

We also started working with a part member family!! E has been a member since she was 16 years old and we're meeting with her and her partner G.   E  was married in Guatemala, but they got separated and she came here and met G and now they're living together. They want to get married, but E still isn't divorced, so we have to wait till that happens. G really wants to get baptized, but can't yet since they are living together. Before my mission I never thought I'd meet so many people that wanted to get baptized, but can't. It's kind of frustrating. 

We recently started teaching A's mom, G as well and she's way solid!! They're both committed to be baptized on July 23rd, and they came to the 2nd hour of church yesterday! We just need to find some members to fellowship them. Things are picking up in our area!! 

On Thursday, we had a zone conference to say goodbye to Pres. and Sister Cleveland. Pres. spoke on "Enjoying the Journey" and talked about how joy is eternal in contrast to happiness or fun and it comes from having the presence of the Spirit in our lives. 

I had a pretty good birthday! On Friday, we got a call from the mission office saying that our zone was needed for a service project at the annual Color Run on Saturday morning.. It was hosted by a company based in SLC so they called up the mission office to get some help. We helped set up and start the race and then we took down. Sadly, I didn't get any of the colored powder on me, but I had some fun. Later, Juan Carlos came down, and we were on exchanges that day, so he took Elder Ferreira and I out to lunch. Elder Ferreira is from Brazil and he's serving in the Spanish branch so he's doing his best to learn Spanish. He's a good guy :) 

After that, we had a branch activity to celebrate Father's day and the whole branch sang a happy birthday song to me. It was so nice! I love the branch and the members that I've become close with. 

That's pretty much it for the week!! Thank you for the package! I got it the night before my birthday, so it was perfect!! I'll find some special people to give those Books of Mormon to :) I love you!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Selfie with President and Sister Cleveland.  I'm going to miss them! 

Week 92 - things progressing slowly but working hard!

This week was great!! It's been really hot and muggy here lately, but I still prefer it over the freezing cold! I can't believe we're already about halfway through the year!! Time sure does fly. 

We had a Zone Meeting on Friday to start the transfer off and set some goals. We gave some trainings about faith and getting investigators to church, and it was a really good training. I'm excited about all the missionaries in our zone this transfer and I'm hopeful that we'll have a lot of success

We had some really great lessons with E lately about the Plan of Salvation. She is really progressing well, it's just that J is holding her back quite a bit. She wants this for her self really bad and she said that no matter what she will continue, but J just doesn't have the same kind of commitment. He says he wants to be baptized and all that, but his actions say different. We may just have to let him be for now and focus on E.   The problem is, they're always fighting now and having a lot of relationship problems, so E isn't so sure she wants to marry him anymore. We're still working on getting them both to come to church, but J is progressing very slowly. 

We got a text from A this week telling us she was going to get baptized for sure and that she decided she was done smoking so we were pretty excited!! But to our disappointment, we set up an appointment with her and then she flaked out and hasn't responded yet. It's been quite the roller coaster with our investigators, but we're hanging in there. 

Yesterday, we had a fireside called "Why I Believe". It's a meeting where a lot of the recent converts in the stake are invited to speak and share their conversion with others and it's great! Our zone put together a musical number for Pres. and Sis. Cleveland since it's their last month in the mission. We did a medley of "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" and "We'll Bring the World His Truth." It went really well and the Clevelands loved it!! This week Pres. and Sis. Cleveland will tour the mission and go to different Stake centers to meet with the missionaries to give us all a final farewell. It's weird to see them go!! 

I hope you guys had a great time in Japan! I'm sure it's great to be back in the US!! Tell Zach to enjoy it while he can ;) I'll talk to you next week!!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Here is the Albert family! Sis. Albert is from Ecuador and her husband is a white guy. Sis. Albert liked me a lot because she said I sounded like a mexican :) They're moving to Utah on Saturday

Week 91 - Most likely finishing out my mission in this area

This week was good!! This week is the beginning of a new transfer and Elder Porter and I are staying together as Zone Leaders in the Indy West Zone. I will most likely finish my mission here since I only have 2 transfers left. We're getting some really good missionaries in our zone this transfer so we're excited to see the success that we'll have!

Not much new has happened. We're still working with J and E.. E came to church, but once again, J didn't show up. We're still not sure about his level of commitment, but we have an appointment with them tonight. Usually it's pretty hard to teach them because their kids are so crazy. They're always running around and yelling during the lesson. During our last appointment with them I just took the kids right outside the open door and played in the gravel with them. Elder Porter stayed inside and taught the lesson. I heard bits and pieces of the lesson from the porch, but it was basically him just teaching so that J and E could focus on the message and the Spirit instead of their rowdy kids. We're thinking we'll probably have to keep doing that in order for them to get a lot out of the lessons. Maybe tonight we can bring coloring pages and stuff for them. We'll see.

A isn't doing so well. We taught her last week and are still working on getting her to quit smoking. We even took some of her cigarettes, broke them open, put them in a pot, and boiled it into a tea to make her drink it. Evidently it tastes awful, so it gives them a good idea of the garbage they're putting into their body. We set up a ride for her to come to church and everything was set for her, but she ended up not opening the door when her ride came and we haven't been able to contact her since. Hopefully we can talk to her soon. 

We had Mission Leadership Council on Friday at the mission home in preparation for our upcoming zone meeting. Pres. Cleveland got really emotional during the meeting since it was his last one before Pres. Carlson and his wife come to the mission. It'll be a cool experience to work with Pres. Carlson as we make the transition. I'm excited to see how the Lord wants him to lead this mission. 

That's all I've got! We're going to have a great transfer the next six weeks! I love you and I hope you guys have a great time in Japan!!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Our District Photo after our last district meeting

We visited the Motor Speedway the day after the Indy 500.
It was the 100th annual running, so it was a pretty big deal.