Christ's Love For Us

Sharisa - I've combined a "hard copy" letter we got in the mail this past week and the weekly email he sent today into this one post.

I’m sorry I don’t write all that much in my emails.  1)I don’t have a ton to write about because not much goes on at the MTC, 2) I don’t have a lot of time on the computer.

I am learning so much here at the MTC it’s crazy!  We spend so much time studying the gospel and the language and I've really grown to love all the learning.  When I got here, I restarted reading the Book of Mormon.  I’m already in 3 Nephi and still reading so much every day.  Also, I started reading “Jesus the Christ” on Sunday and I’m already more than halfway through. I love how much time I have to study and just immerse myself in this perfect Gospel.  By the time you get this letter, I will probably be done with both the BoM and “Jesus the Christ”.  J  I have also read “Our Search for Happiness” by M Russell Ballard, and I loved it!

So as of now, we have only 2 “investigators” (because they’re pretend).  One of them is named Carolina and the other is Fernando.  I like teaching Fernando much more because he actually asks questions and it’s more like a discussion than a lesson.  Elder Seegmiller hasn’t had any experience in Spanish prior to the mission, so I generally lead the discussions.   All of my Spanish classes are definitely helping!  So much is coming back to me and it´s been great to have that solid foundation to start off.

We have been loving teaching and it´s really coming along.  One of our ´´investigators´´´was telling us that he can´t meet with us anymore because his mom is very catholic and does not like him meeting with us.  He asked why God would make this happen if this is something so good that he needs in his life.  I shared Ether 12:6 with him and told him we must show our faith in God, then we will receive a witness that will strengthen us and our testimony.  I felt inspired to share Jeannie Park´s conversion story and how her mom didn´t want her to be baptized and doesn´t want her to serve a mission.  It really helped!

Time here goes SO SLOW!  I’m sure it will get better. And I just can’t wait to get to Indiana already!  I can’t wait to eat American Food again!!!  Awh  I miss little Jax so much!

I LOVED conference! It was so great to watch it! I really loved the talk by Elder Jorg Klebingat.  It really helped me to know what I need to work on in order to improve myself spiritually.  I loved how much they talked about how the Prophets and apostles are called of God and it made me think about how greatly blessed we are to have modern day revelation.  I also loved the talk about knowing which way we face.  I know I need to improve and focus on ways I can please God instead of man. I can´t wait for the next conference!

Today we went to the temple.  Sadly, the temple is closed so we only went to the visitors center, but I loved it.  It was great to be there and to feel the peace and the spirit that resides there.  I love the temple and it was exactly what I needed.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about God as our literal Father and how much love He has for each of His children.  We watched a devotional by Elder Bednar the other day and he talked a lot about the character of Christ.  He talked about how Christ turned out [thinking of others) [as opposed] to the natural man who would turn inward (concerned only about himself).  He talked about how Christ often showed His love through service and acts of kindness.   One of the examples he gave was when Christ was fasting for 40 days and then he was tempted by Satan.  After he went through all of that it says in Matthew 4:11, “Then the devil leaveth him and behold angels came and ministered unto him.”

Now, I don’t know if you already know where I’m going with this or not, but I want you to go and read JST in the footnotes for that verse (Matt 4:11)

It’s incredible that Christ, after going through that physically and spiritually exhausting experience, would selflessly send his angels to minister to John instead of himself!  He truly is the most loving being to ever live on this earth. 

Another example Elder Bednar shared is when Christ suffered in Gethsemane.  Christ brought with him his chief apostles and asks them to only stay awake for one hour.  After suffering unimaginable pain in Gethsemane, he comes and finds his apostles asleep 3 different times.  Elder Bednar states that Christ would not have been mad at his apostles, but we imagine he’d be somewhat disappointed.  After which, he is betrayed by Judas.  After all of this happens, Christ still reaches out to help one of God’s children.  After suffering unimaginable pain, being let down by his chief apostles, and then betrayed by Judas, He witnessed Peter slice of the ear of one of his captors and proceeded to heal him.  Not only did he serve others in his hardest times, he served one of Caiaphas’ servants.  That amazes me. 

All of this has taught me so much about the love that god and his son Jesus Christ has for us.  It amazes me so much.  It give me hope and it give me strength to know that God loves me enough to help me as long as I try my best. 

I am grateful for all of the things I have learned here.  4 weeks ago I wouldn’t have known all that stuff I just wrote about.  My testimony has been strengthened so much more than any time in my life.  I’d like to bear my testimony in Spanish. 

(Sharisa –I’ve written this from Josh’s own handwriting…so hopefully it is correct since I don’t’ know Spanish at all.  I typed it all into a translator and it comes out pretty much right I think. A few of the words don't translate, but I don't know if it's my deciphering or Josh's use of words...)

Yo sé que Jesucristo es mi Salvador. Yo sé que Cristo morió para los pecados de todas las personas en el mundo.  Yo sé que por medio de la expiacion, yo puedo ser limpio otra vez.  Yo sé que sin la expiación no podria regresar con Dios.  Yo sé que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial.  Yo sé que Dios tiere on plan para yo y para usted.  Yo sé que Dios y JesuCristo nos aman mãs ue podemos comprender.  Yo sé que esta Iglesia es la Iglesia restaurado en el mundo.  Sé que Dios y Jesucristo aperecieron a José Smith.  Sé que yo soy un Hijo de Dios.  Estoy entusiasmado para enseñar Las personas en Indiana.  Yo sé que esta Iglesia es verdadera sin duda.  Digo estas cosas en el nombre de mi Salvador y mi redentor, Jesucristo, Ameñ.  

I love you so much! I hope you guys have a great week and I can´t wait to hear from you!

Love, 

Elder Thayne

Josh's District at the Mexico City Temple which is closed for maintenance

Josh and Josh Budge ("Budge") on Budge's first day

Josh at the Mexico City Visitor's Center

Halfway through the MTC!

This week was much better.  Sundays are great.  In the mornings we have from 7-9:30 for just personal study time and I love it.  We then go to priesthood which is always so good and then we go to sacrament meeting which is all in Spanish.  I have yet to give a talk but there´s still plenty of time for that.  I was reading in the BoM on Sunday and in Alma I was reading about the stripling warriors and came across a verse that really helped me: ´´They were taught by their mothers that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them´´ that gave me so much hope.  I know that my mother has definitely taught me that all my life.  As long as I just continue in this work with faith in the Lord, I know He will strengthen me and help me along my way. 

Twice a week all the Elders in the whole MTC get together and watch a devotional.  We watched one that was recorded from a Christmas devo that elder Bednar gave at the Provo MTC a few years ago.  He talked about the Atonement and said that there would have been no Atonement without the character of Christ. He stated that Christ turns out when the natural man turns in.  I learned that I need to strive to turn out and serve people as much as possible. 

We also had a devotional from president Pratt about the Atonement.  He said the Atonement is putting ´´At one´´ those who have been estranged.  All of us as mortals have been ´´estranged´´ from God, but it brings me so much joy to know that we can be made ´´At one´´ with our Father in Heaven again through the Atonement of His Son. And I can´t wait to share the same message with all the people in Indiana!

All but two of the people in my district are from Utah.  One of them actually lives in Cedar Hills and went to Lone Peak so he lives quite close to us.  So I live in a house that has about 5 separate rooms in it. Each room has 4 elders. about half of the Elders in my house are in my district. All the guys in my district are super funny! There are two Hermanas and we are all from the U.S.  On p-day we usually just do laundry, clean the house, and relax :)

My Spanish is going really well.  I´m able to give the first 3 lessons with little to no notes.  It´s so cool to be able to understand the language and have an intelligent conversation with people!

I´m really excited for conference this weekend.  They will be broadcasting it in English, but I might go see a few talks in Spanish just to see what it´s like.

Thank you for the packages and all the support and love!

September 25 - Mexico MTC week 2 (short letter this week!)

[I wrote to him about the Ogden Temple dedication]
 I really wish I could have gone to that temple dedication with you that would have been so cool.  In response to your question about the food.,  The food is really just Mexican food that tastes really bland and every once and a while they´ll have some poorly cooked hot dogs or pizza or something.  

The investigators are just teachers pretending to be investigators, but I think that sometime next week we start teaching real investigators/less active members.  That will be scary.  

Today we had a devotional where 2 general authorities came and spoke to us.  It was really good.  They both talked about how to find people to teach and that we shouldn't be teaching people just to baptize them, but to retain them as members of the church their whole lives. It was a really great talk and I got a lot out of it.  

I´m thinking about general conference and I wish I could be watching it with all you guys this year because I miss that so much. That was always one of my favorite things, watching conference with the whole family.

It´s stopped raining here for a while so its been really hot lately.  Luckily we´re not outside all that often so its not too bad.  I really love the package of chips and salsa you sent me, it was SO GOOD

A picture of me on the first day

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Here is a picture of a sweet rainbow we had. it´s so pretty down here

Some Elders from my house

Week 1 - Mexico MTC - First Pday!

This week was really hard and really long, probably the longest of my life, but it's already getting better. We started teaching our first investigator all in Spanish on our second day here! It was SO scary. My Spanish is really coming along though and we already taught her 5 times. I have already learned to love teaching the lessons. 

I just feel so good and happy as soon as we finish teaching and it definitely helps me through the week. We were listening to a talk by Elder Holland and he was talking about how we have to become our first converts. I am realizing how true that is. We have to be converted to the things we teach before we try to teach them to others. It's crazy how much I have to rely on the Lord out here. It really helps a lot to just pray all the time. 

In regards to your questions: 

1. What is your daily schedule like? I wake up at 6:30 every day and just get ready until 7 when we have to meet in our classrooms for personal study. Then we go to breakfast and the food here is kinda awful. I try to live off of fruit loops and nutella. Then we go to a language study class and then to a Book of Mormon class. After that we have companionship study and then lunch and then more language study and then we go and teach an investigator. After that we have study time until about 6:30 and then we eat dinner, and depending on the day we either have a devotional or just more study. Then we have a planning session for the next day and then we go to sleep. 

2.  Who is your companion and what is he like? Do you get along thus far? My companion is Elder Seegmiller. We get along really well and he loves Seinfeld so we're always quoting it ;) 

3. How was your first Sunday there? My first Sunday was so good. We had priesthood and Sacrament meeting and it was a nice breath of fresh air after all the classes and studying for the week.  

4. What is the food like? The food is terrible so I wouldn't be surprised if I've been losing a lot of weight here.

5. How hot and humid is it there? Does it really rain a lot? Do you stay inside most of the day?  Its not too hot and not all that humid. It's actually really cold in the mornings and it did rain everyday for the first 5 days but it hasn't since. 

6. How many sister missionaries are there in the MTC do you think…percentage?  Ummmmmm probably about 20 sister missionaries here. 

7.How far away is the temple from the MTC?   I'm not sure how far the temple is but it's closed for now so we won't be able to go :( maybe to the visitors center sometime later. 

8. What are your teachers like?  Our teachers are great but none of them speak English too well so it makes it a little hard. 9. How is the language coming? The language is coming along great! I can definitely feel that I'm getting tons of help from the Lord and I love it.

It really has been such a long and rough week, but it reminded me of a verse in Isaiah 

ch 54:8

´´In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee´´

I love that scripture and it brings me so much peace.  

I have gotten a little sick as well. I have little tonsil stones so that's a little rough, especially with all the talking we do here.

Love, Elder Thayne

p.s. thanks a lot for the donuts :) the elders in my house liked them a lot too ;)


Here are a couple of pictures sent by his companion to HIS mom...thankfully she shared!

Elder Thayne, his Companion Elder Seegmiller and 2 others

Recreating the famous Beatle album cover?

Made it to the Mexico MTC!

Josh made it safely to the Mexico MTC this afternoon. He sent a short email saying he made it but his next pday won't be until one week from tomorrow! Yikes...a long wait for a letter! He looks so great with his name tag on! My friend and her husband are serving in the Mexico MTC and she sent this picture of him when he arrived. So good to see him even though he's only been gone one day! - Sharisa