Travelling to Indiana this week - Nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus"

Josh traveled to Indiana today from the Mexico MTC.  Because of this, he was allowed to email us yesterday.  He had to get up at 2 AM this morning and be on a bus by 3 AM to make it to the airport.  He called Daren and I from the Atlanta Airport and we talked for about 15 minutes.  His only option to call was a free phone the airport provides, but you can only talk in 5 minute increments, so every 5 minutes he'd let us know when he had 30 seconds and then he'd call right back.  It was hard to say goodbye again, but so good to hear his voice!  He is excited to begin this portion of his 2 year adventure finally arriving in Indiana and arriving in his first working area.  We received an email from his mission president that he had arrived safely along with a picture.  I think his p-days will be on Mondays,

Hi mom!

That´s so awesome that Zach got a buck! Man I´m so jealous I wanna shoot a deer! He looks so happy in that pic. (Zach shot his first buck on the deer hunt this last weekend)  

These past few days have been awesome.  I came across a scripture in Romans 8:35, 37-39:

35:Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

37:Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38:For I am convinced, (in English it says ¨persuaded¨, but in spanish it says ¨convencido¨ which means convinced and I like it much better..) that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39:Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us form the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I really love that scripture.  Paul [tells of ] his knowledge of the love of Christ so powerfully and it fills my soul with comfort. I actually had an opportunity to share that with a volunteer at TRC on saturday.  She shared that she has 2 sons who are RM´s and they have both stopped going to church.  She said she´s been having a really hard time and I felt inspired to share that scripture with her. I could tell it really touched her and the spirit knew that is what she needed to hear.

Guess what else happened on Saturday??  Neil L. Andersen came and spoke to us! It was SO good! He spoke about the atonement and how it relates to missionary work. He said that the more we learn about the Atonement and feel it´s power in our lives, the more we´ll want to share it with others.  Before the devotional started we all got to shake his hand as well! It was a great experience.  [He shared on his phone call from the airport that They built a huge stage to accomadate Elder Anderson so that each missionary could come up and shake his hand.  He said that one day the stage wasn't there and they built it all in one day.  He said the day was amazing!]

Yesterday was our last Sunday here so we all decided to give each other blessings of comfort before 6 out of the 10 people in our district left for their missions in McCallen, Texas. I asked Elder Budge to give me a blessing and it was a great experience and a huge help. [2 of his district are going to Knoxville Tennessee where our son-in-law Kevin served and then Josh and his Companion will be in the Indiana Indianapolis Mission]

I´m super excited to get out to Indiana and share the fullness of the Restored Gospel to all the people the Lord has prepared! I love you so much! Tell Zach I´m proud of him for his kill! Let him know I´m gonna have to catch up to him when I get back ;)

Love, Elder Thayne

Josh with his District (13A) at the Mexico MTC.  6 are going to the TexasMcAllen  mission, 2 going to Tennessee Knoxville mission , and Josh and Elder Seegmiller going to the Indiana Indianapolis mission.  

District 13 A studying together

Josh and the 4 remaining Elders in his district after the 6 left for McAllen, TX on Monday

Josh arrived safely in Indiana!  Pictured with President and Sister Cleveland