Week 20 - referrals are the best!

Elder Wright and I are having a blast! It's been kinda weird getting used to someone different, but I love serving with him and I'm looking forward to see what we can do together. 

As we keep asking for referrals we get more and more and it is so great. I'm surprised how many referrals we get from people who aren't even members! We talked to this 15 year old Catholic kid yesterday and he was pretty receptive to the message. At the end of our lessons we usually ask people if there is anything in particular we can do to help them out in any way, and he just randomly asked us if we could visit his friend sometime. We didn't even have to ask for a referral and he just gave it to us! It was a great experience. 

This week has been great! We had the opportunity to visit P. and M., and they're awesome! They already love us and they are so sweet. The first lesson, we went in and P. straight up told us that she didn't want us to try and set a date for baptism or anything. She just said that when she feels a witness from the Holy Ghost that it's all true, she'll let us know. Then she asked us to both bear our testimonies and it was kinda random but it was really cool. It was a really spiritual experience. After that we just talked about her beliefs and got to know her and said she really wants to learn about our Plan of Salvation, so we have a lesson with her tonight and that's what we'll share. I'm really excited!

That's way fun that you guys get to watch Zach play on his J-Jazz team! I wish I could be playing with him, but I'm glad he gets to enjoy that with his friends. Oh how I miss the days when I could play basketball all the time.

Well that's really all for this week. There are some great things happening in our area and I can't wait to see how it all turns out! I love you guys!  Thank you for keeping me updated on life at home. Thank you for your help and support as well. I love you!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Week 19 - New Companion and an organized apartment!

We didn't get a letter yesterday because it was MLK day and the Libraries were closed, but we finally got one today...yay!

This week has been really good! Some exciting changes have taken place as I recently got a new companion. His name is Elder Wright. He is from Springville, UT and he has been on his mission for 8 months. He's a way nice guy and he is a lot of fun. He's super diligent and has a really good attitude about missionary work. Another great thing is that he's super clean and organized, so now our apartment looks great! I'm really excited to work with him this transfer.

"Brother Coffin" is actually President Coffin and he's my branch president. He's a way nice guy. I'm glad they're all hooking you up with pictures since I don't send all that many... sorry.

We actually have our first lesson with P. and her husband M. l tonight. I'm really excited but also really nervous. I just want everything to go really well because I have really high hopes for them. We will be teaching them along with their daughter A. who got baptized in November.

Something that we've been working on a lot more is asking people for referrals. It's something that I didn't really focus on all that much, but I have been trying to get more consistent with that and I've already seen it start to pay off. We've started to ask literally everyone we come in contact with and it amazes me how willing people are to guide us to their friends and co-workers. So we have been receiving a lot more referrals and we're hoping that we can get some solid investigators out of it. 

Something else we have been focusing on is visiting less active members. There are a lot of less active members in our area and I find that they get overlooked sometimes. It's just such a great feeling when you visit someone who hasn't been to church in a couple of months and then you see them show up to church the next Sunday. And then other times I have to work on my patience because it's hard to see someone commit to coming to church and then not show up. 

I told him about an old Mother's Day card that I came across that he wrote to me when he was 11...it was soooo cute!  Haha I'm glad you could find that card that I wrote you so long ago. I'm also very glad you could figure out the "secret message". I wasn't sure how hard I should make it, but I promise the next code will be a bit more challenging ;)

Love,

Elder Thayne

Elder Thayne and his new companion Elder Wright

Week 18 - I never thought it could be so cold

This week was SO cold. Tuesday was by far the worst. I didn't know I could be that cold. Biking in the snow is really hard. Especially in crazy wind! It was seriously the coldest day of my life! We haven't had to stay in because of the cold yet, but the YSA branch cancelled their sacrament meeting because we were expecting a HUGE storm yesterday but it wasn't even that bad. 

I am excited to get a new companion! I'm not sure who it is yet, but I am staying in the same spot for at least the next 6 weeks. I'm also pretty nervous about it. I just hope I'm ready! 

I wrote to him about a quote from Elder Uchtdorf's talk Living Life Joyous from the last conference about living the commandments:  Yeah I haven't read that talk by Pres. Uchtdorf, but I have heard that quote before. I love the idea that God ALWAYS wants to bless us, but he is just waiting for us to let him. I have definitely seen in my own life that I am happiest when I am obedient to the commandments. They truly are a blessing. 

I wrote to him about some things we talked about in Stake conference, 1) Member referrals are much more successful investigators, 2) Serving others is a very effective missionary tool:  I have definitely seen the truth behind both of those things in missionary work. When a member refers a friend, as Pres. Hinckley said: "there is an immediate support system". It helps so much to have that friendship and support from the very beginning. I haven't had a ton of opportunities to do service in order to find people teach yet, but that is something that we are considering doing. We might start shoveling people's driveways in the neighborhoods around our apartment.

Daren relayed a story to Josh that we heard from a visiting seventy at our stake conference, Elder Von G Keetch about a team of baseball players that one by one decided to throw a game during the last at bat to allow a disabled boy to get the winning home run and the first hit he ever had that season.  It was quite a moving story of service:  I love that story about the baseball player. Loving one another definitely applies to missionary work too. It would be really hard to serve someone without first loving them. 

Yeah I heard that Colts game was pretty good! That would be fun to have them win the Super Bowl while I'm here. Go Colts!

We wrote about some fun recipes we tried on Sunday:  Wow all that cooking seems like a lot of work! I definitely miss all of your food though! Tortillas are good and all, but they seem to be a little fattening ;). I miss your home cooked meals!

That's good that Dad has joined you in your "Project Swoll" ;) wish I could join you guys! I definitely miss being able to go to the gym every day. 

This week has been pretty good for our area. We have a lot of good things happening recently that are opening some doors for some potential baptism candidates. :) The sister Missionaries in our area have been trying to teach this Hispanic lady named P. for about 2 months now (which is frustrating because she literally doesn't speak any English so I don't know why they didn't refer her sooner.) They were teaching her with the help of her daughter A. who also speaks English. It turns out that during their lessons, A got interested and she ended up getting baptized about a month ago. Now the sister missionaries finally decided to let us come teach P and she seems really interested about the church. They are from the Dominican Republic, and all the Dominicans I have met are pretty hard to understand so we'll see how it goes!

One of the more discouraging things this week happened with our investigators O. and V..   We went over to their house to teach them our fourth lesson, but V. (the husband) wasn't home so we just taught O. (the wife)  She read 3 Nephi 11 in the BoM, so we answered her questions about that and then we went over the Plan of Salvation for a little bit. At the end of the lesson we decided to ask her about baptism. We have already invited them to be baptized twice and they hadn't really given us a straight answer, so we just asked her if she had been thinking about it. Then she told us that it was no where on her mind and she had no intentions of changing from the Catholic religion. She stated that she really likes when we come, but she doesn't seem to understand that our church is THE church of Christ on the Earth. She thinks that all churches are more or less the same and that they will all lead us to the same place. So luckily, she still invites us to come talk, but it will be tough to get anywhere with her. 

Thank you for everything you do for me! I love you and thank you for sending the iPod! You're always in my prayers!

Week 17 - Happy 2015!

This week has been WAY slow, but it's been pretty good. New Year's Eve was kinda boring and we were in bed by 11 p.m... But then we had New Year's Day off so our zone got together and we played Rugby that morning even though it was FREEZING. It was a lot of fun though. Then we went to our branch president's house and hung out there and played games. 

I asked him about a picture on facebook that a member posted with him holding a sign that says "I'm the Man!":   Oh haha that picture was from when Kim Lyon's husband took us all out to white castle because Elder Schoeneman bet him he could eat 20 sliders and he had that paper ready for a picture after Elder Schoeneman ate them all and he just wanted to take a picture with me holding it for some reason. He's a funny guy.

I definitely miss the New Year's Eve traditions with the fam, because a missionary New Year's Eve is kinda lame. I'm glad you guys had a good time though! Keep those Thayne traditions alive because they're the best around! :)

So we still haven't been able to meet with/contact J. since she blew us off on her church tour, but we're still trying. We have been teaching some other people named O. and V.  . They are some of the nicest people I have ever met and they are always willing to listen to us. They are very open to our message. The only problem is that they are very active in the Catholic Church, but they have started reading the BoM so I know that will help. 

It was really cool, because the first time we were teaching them, I was really stressed out about it and wanted it to go really well. Right before the lesson I prayed with all my heart to have the spirit with us and to have the gift of tongues. Throughout the lesson I was still nervous, but then whenever I opened my mouth, it seemed that the Spanish came out almost as easily as if it was English. And then as I recited the First Vision I felt the Spirit testify of what I was saying. I had never had an experience like that before and it was very humbling and such a good experience. 

Another cool thing that happened this week is that we found some former investigators we had been looking for for a long time! We have their teaching records and an address for them, but we went to go see them and found out they had moved. Then the other day we were visiting someone in an apartment complex. After we visited them we had about 30 min before our next appointment so we decided to knock on a few doors. We knocked on 2 doors, and then when we knocked on the third one there was a guy who invited us right in. He said he had talked with missionaries before and him and his wife used to be on a baptismal date. We asked them what their names were and it turns out that they are the people we have been looking for! Their names are Jesus and Stefani and we committed them to baptism on Friday! Sadly they did not come to church yesterday, but we will start visiting them more and more. 

Well I am super excited for this New Year and for all the experiences and blessing that it will bring! Thanks for all your love and support Mom! I love you! Talk to you next Monday

Love

Elder Thayne

Week 16 - Puppy Saver!

It was so good to call you guys and hear from all of you! I'm definitely looking forward to doing that again on Mother's day. Christmas went by way fast for me! But it was cool to have a different Christmas as a missionary. It was definitely hard being away from family, but there was a really good spirit about it.

New Year's Eve is coming and I'm pretty excited. We have that day off so we are just going to the Branch Pres. house again. It will be nice to get another little break and then start off the new year working hard! 

This week was pretty good. We still aren't having tons of success, but it was a good week. We set up to give a church tour to Janet and we had a member come with us and everything, but sadly she didn't show up. It was really discouraging. Especially since we went to her house that same morning and confirmed the appointment with her. But we'll keep trying. I'm learning how to be patient :) 

On Friday we were tracting in this neighborhood, when we saw 2 little puppies walk up out of no where. One was a little Golden Retriever, and the other a Labrador. They were very wet and seemed very cold and neither of them had any sort of tag on their collar, so we decided we'd just pick them up and carry them from door to door looking for the owner. We walked from door to door up and down that street for about an hour and couldn't find who they belonged to. We decided to stop and say a prayer. About 20 minutes later, a lady drove by and told us that those dogs belonged to her Hispanic neighbors on the next street. So we followed her to her house and we were so excited to give these dogs back to a Hispanic family and perhaps turn it into a teaching opportunity ;) sadly, she did not want to talk at all. She sort of just took the dogs and shut the door in our face. But I'm glad we could save those 2 adorable puppies! 

It was great to have a missionary Christmas and I'm looking forward to the New Year and all the experiences that it will bring! I love you so much! It was great talking to you on Christmas and I'm looking forward to doing it again in 5 months! 

Love, 

Elder Thayne

At Our Branch President's House for Christmas

With the Martinez family children where we spent Christmas Eve

Week 15 - Christmas this week!

Christmas Conference was great! All the missionaries got together and we had a conference where the Presidency spoke and then a few missionaries and there were some great musical numbers too. Then we ate lunch and then we all played bingo (which I won :) ) and then we had a mission talent show which was way fun. Our branch party turned out pretty well too. We actually had American food haha. We had some sloppy joes, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes, but it was all very good! The branch probably has about 200 people, but there are a lot who don't attend church. It's actually really close to becoming a ward. 

On Christmas day we are going to the branch president's house and then to a member's house later. We will probably skype you from the member's house. What time would work best for you? We'll probably be over at her house from 5-9 so I guess that'd be 3-7 your time. Mexicans celebrate Christmas on the 24th so we have dinner at a members house on that day too :)

We haven't been able to meet with J. again ever since we set her on a Baptism date. We have gone to her house a few times this week, but she never answers. She hasn't responded to any of our texts/calls either. So we'll keep on trying.  

I haven't heard anything about going to the temple yet, but it would either be the Louisville Temple or the Chicago Temple depending on where I am when I go. But I am super excited to go again when I get the chance!

It's super weird and really hard to be away from family during the Christmas season, but I have found that this year I am more focused on Christ than ever. It's so amazing how great Christmas can be when you focus on the real reason for our joy. Everything we have is because of Him and when I focus on that, it helps me  be so much more grateful for the things I have and it helps me to be happier. 

I love you mom! Thank you for everything! Let me know when would be the best time to call. Feliz Navidad!

Love, 

Elder Thayne

Elder Thayne in downtown Indy

Elder Thayne and Elder Schoeneman with Christmas Stockings

Week 14 - We have someone committed to baptism!

This week has been pretty fast. Transfers was a couple weeks ago and we got new English Elders in our area and they are giving us SO many referrals on the Spanish people they find which is awesome! One of them is named J. and we have only been able to teach her once, but it went really well! We brought a member with us to teach her and they got along really well, and then at the end of the lesson we committed her to get baptized on Jan 17. I pray that she will continue to have the desires to continue on this path and find the happiness that this brings.

We talked to a guy who had an interesting van (picture below) and he seemed pretty happy about his religious beliefs. He tried to talk to us about the "Holy Ghost" baptism. And then he asked what differentiated us from other churches and we started talking to him about how we have a prophet. He was blown away haha.

I got your packages! Thanks mom! I also really love the little book of testimonies from the missionaries from our ward. That was super nice and it was great to read through them all. 

I actually got pretty bad at basketball since I left haha. It might be because I didn't really play it in the MTC much. We do play basketball with members/non-members and other missionaries every Tuesday which is a lot of fun. 

I love that scripture you shared from Mosiah. It's really similar to one of my favorite chapters in Isaiah ch 53. I love reading about the Atonement and how much we owe to our Lord and Savior. 

I'm glad to hear that Zach enjoyed the XC season.   I too noticed that my favorite part about the XC team were all the people on the team and the great environment it was. I really wish I could be playing with Zach on that Jr. Jazz team! Oh man I miss that dingus.

We have our Mission Christmas Conference on Thursday. I'm not really sure what that will be like but I think we're having a little Christmas party after that. And we're having a branch Christmas party on the 20th. It should be fun :) 

I love you all and I'm looking forward to talking to you in 10 days :)

Thank you for all the support! 

Love,

Elder Thayne

An interesting van we saw a few weeks ago.  

pretty exciting photos this week - lights on our balconey

Decorations on our window...yes that is Elder Schoeneman's head!