Week 42 - Thy Will be done!

This week was a good one! I am getting transferred on Wednesday, so by then I'll have to be getting used to a new home, branch, companion, and area. I'm not really looking forward to it. I love this area and this branch and I'm really gonna miss all the members here. To me, that's one of the hardest things about being a missionary. You make so many friends and become so close with people and then you have to leave them again, and again, and again. But I guess we have to follow the Lord's will even when we don't want to. 

That's actually what I spoke on in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. I spoke about conforming our will to God's and having a "thy will be done" attitude. It went pretty well. As I prepared the talk, I was reading the talk "Swallowed up by the will of the Father" by Neal A. Maxwell. He speaks about consecration and sacrificing our will for the Lord. He speaks about the less obvious sins of omission that we fall to on a daily basis and how we can do better as members. I really love this scripture in the bible that shows Christ's example:

 38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Just like Him, we didn't come down from heaven to do our own will, "but the will of him that sent [us]." I also love the story of Nephi and his example in Helaman:

 5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

Nephi had reached this point where his will was the same as the Lord's to the point where anything he asked would be done unto him. I hope we can all strive for this level of conversion. 

[I was alerted by Brother Alarcon that Elder Thayne was planning on playing a musical number in Sacrament Meeting.  He played a beautiful arrangement of "I know that My Redeemer Lives".]  I was pleasantly surprised that the song went really well. Considering it was the first time I'd played piano in front of anyone since I was like 16, I was really nervous, but it turned out okay.  

We haven't met with M. and M.  for quite some time. Either they truly never have time or are never home, or they're just avoiding us. I hope they can make it to church more in the future and feel the Spirit there.  

We had a baptism in the branch on Friday for someone the Goshen Elders have been teaching. Her name is A. She has been investigating the church for about 5 months and she has wanted to get baptized for a long time, but her husband didn't want her to, and we aren't supposed to baptize anyone without their spouses permission. Before her husband gave her permission, we were doing the baptismal interview. Our Zone Leader, Elder Conradt, was conducting the interview, but he doesn't speak any Spanish so he asked me to translate for him. Still unsure about whether or not her husband would give her permission, she expressed her frustration and told me she didn't understand why the missionaries were having her read the Book of Mormon and pray and come to church if her husband was never going to let her get baptized. She felt that it was all a waste and that it wasn't doing her any good. After I translated to Elder Conradt, his response was profound and something I hadn't really thought about. He said that it didn't really matter if her husband gave her permission tomorrow, in a month, or in a year, but the Lord would not withhold any blessings from her for the decision of her husband. After she understood this, she regained hope, and about a week later, her husband gave her permission. 

Her husband is very hard-hearted and doesn't want anything to do with the church. Surprisingly, he came to the baptism, but left as soon as she got baptized and sat in the car for the rest of the service. We're praying that he sees the blessings of the gospel and softens his heart.

Other than that nothing much happened this week. President told me it's a possibility that I'll be training after this next transfer so that's a little nerve racking. But I'm looking forward to meeting new people and doing new things even though I don't wanna leave this area.

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

Love,

Elder Thayne

With Elder Cruz, my companion.  My piano teacher back home (Lori Lee) sent me these Seanstrong  bracelets in honor of her son Sean who is fighting cancer.  He just got back form his mission to New York earlier this year and they found a large tumor in his abdomen.  He is in treatment right now and we are showing we can be "Seanstrong" here in Indiana!

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Juan and me with a bottle of Coke that says Joshua!

At Maria's high school graduation (Juan's sister).
 I like how Elder Thayne is photobombing this great family selfie!

Week 41 - Happy Father's Day, Birthday, and treasuring up continually the words of life

Haha!   I'm glad you guys enjoyed my Father's day card! I was hoping you'd get a kick out of it. [He sent Daren a Father's day card in Spanish.  We had fun trying to translate it on google translate and then found the English text written on the very back in small text :) ]   I've grown to love the opportunity to celebrate the lives of my parents. You have both done so much for me and continue to do a lot for me as I am here serving the Lord. I really appreciate you two and I love you both so much.

My birthday was a great one! We ended up working in an area that I didn't really know too well, so as we were biking to our desired destination, we took a wrong turn and turned a 10 minute bike ride into a 45 minute bike ride! It was tiring but soon became worth it as we found some people with a lot of potential in the place where we tracted. We also got to see some beautiful scenery in the country of Indiana. I remember before I left I kept hearing people tell me how beautiful Indiana is, and as I arrived right before winter, I saw the ugly side of Indiana. We are just now seeing how beautiful all of the foliage up here is in the summer. It's crazy how similar it feels to Hawaii sometimes with so much green everywhere and the humidity. 

The Alarcon's invited us for a birthday dinner and we ate my favorite meal milanesa de pollo. After that, a couple more families came over for a bit and we sang happy birthday and Elder Cruz smashed my face in the cake (yes, Hispanic tradition). [Brother Alarcon sent us a fun video with his birthday song.  They sing, then chant "Que le Sople" (Blow it) , then "Que le muerda!" (bite it).  They end up smashing his face in the cake...so funny!]

On Saturday, we had a Father's Day activity in the country and it was great! We had an appointment with M. and his family during the activity, so we were planning on leaving early, but then we just decided to invite them to the party! They came and they seemed to have a great time. The members all made them feel so welcome and made sure they had fun. We invited them to church and they said they'd come! They again invited their neighbor P. who agreed to come, but something came up and he couldn't make it. But M.  and his family came yesterday and they seemed to like it. Their daughter M.  was talking on the phone in the middle of the meeting and as the music stopped right before the Sacrament, everyone could hear her and she seemed to get really embarrassed, so her and her brother both left. But M.  and M.  seemed to really enjoy it. The help of the members really went a long way. 

Father's Day activity in the country with the Branch

So this week was pretty successful. We've really been struggling on getting people to commit to a baptism date. I guess sometimes I hesitate to invite people a lot because I'm afraid it will scare them off. But they encourage us to invite EVERYONE in the first lesson so I'm trying to be better at that.

I've definitely seen my studies in the morning be a huge contribution to my capacity to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I find that the days where I'm not as diligent in my studies, things just don't work out quite as well. Lessons aren't smooth and people don't really receive us. But when I diligently study and "treasure up in [my mind] continually the words of live" it seems to help the Lord to be able to work through me better. 

I love you ! Thanks for the birthday package! and I loved all the birthday cards I got! It was so nice to hear from so many ward members and friends. Have a good week!

Week 40 - The Lord tests our patience but then blesses the work

This week has been a stressful one, but good. It started out not so good as we were working as hard as ever and nothing really came from it. But later in the week, we saw the blessings of our patience and we found a sweet family! Their names are M., M., and M. When we first found them, they were kind of awkward and didn't seem too interested. Then, on Saturday we went over with Juan [His branch mission leader]  and they were still weird about it. But we invited them to come to church and told them we'd get them a ride and they hesitantly agreed to come. When Sunday morning  came we got a call from M. saying that he's sick and won't be able to make it. I was guilty of automatically thinking that it was just a lame excuse to not come and was a little frustrated.  Later, we were talking with a guy named P. who lives in the same apartment building as them. He was telling us that the guy upstairs (M.) and him were talking outside and M. had mentioned he was planning on going to church. He said that he wasn't able to go because of a painful ear infection, but was planning on going the next week. He then invited P. to come with them next Sunday when they went! Pedro said that he'd come with them if they went so we'll hopefully have both of them with us next Sunday. We then visited M. and his family and offered to give M. a blessing which he gratefully accepted. I'm hoping they stay interested and end up progressing.

This week I have definitely seen how the Lord tests our patience. I've definitely needed patience and I've been tested a lot for the past few weeks. It's been rough but I've definitely seen the Lord bless the work in ways I could have never thought. I just have to constantly look for the tender mercies of the Lord each and every day.

Well that's all I really have! Sorry it's kinda short... 

I love you!  I'm always praying for the family! Thank you so much!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Week 39 - On being guided by the Spirit and new investigators!

Mom, I'm sorry to hear about Grandma. I know it's hard, but I know you have a strong testimony about the Atonement of our Savior and the Plan of Salvation. You and Grandpa and the whole family will be in my prayers. 

We had a great week! It started out with me going to Goshen for a day and a half on exchanges. I went with Elder Hansen and I had a really good time. Elder Hansen and I have been in the same district for my whole mission so he's one of my favorite Elders. He's now our district leader and I'm learning a lot from him. He is by far the most obedient and diligent missionary I know and it was great to stick in his area for a bit. At the end of our exchange I asked him how he became such a good teacher. I expressed my difficulty with feeling guided by the Spirit as I teach and his response shocked me. He said, "you just literally don't think about it." I was surprised. He told me I need to just stop worrying about what I'm going to say and give the Spirit time to tell me what to say. I find that I often have a reloaded question or comment in my mind ready to go, sometimes even regardless of the investigators response/comment. But I need to learn to just listen to what the investigators tell me, and then wait to hear what God has to tell me. That way, I turn into God's investigator and he teaches me how to teach. So I've decided I need to stop relying on my own knowledge and abilities and trust that Heavenly Father will guide my thoughts and words.

Then later in the week we found tons of people who invited us to come back. We have been needing new investigators really bad and it's great to have some fresh starts with some people. We also had 2 people at church today. They were F.  and E.   F.  is what some call an "eterna-gator". He has been meeting with missionaries for the past 9 years. He want to get baptized, but he has a lot of things he needs to clear up before he can. Recently he's been reading the Book of Mormon and going to church more and he loves it. 

E.  was a lady we hadn't seen since my first few weeks in Elkhart. We never even really taught her anything, but she randomly called us on Thursday and asked what time church was. We told her and she showed up on Sunday. At first I couldn't really tell if she liked it or not, but as we were leaving she told us she loved it! She said she's planning on coming every week from now on. I really hope she continues to come and that we can start meeting with her. The members in the branch did a great job at making her feel welcome and it helped a lot. 

I'm so happy to add little Carson(Josh) into our family! That's so exciting to have 2 new faces already in our family. I can't wait to meet them :) 

Well that's it for the week. I hope you have a great week! I love you. Thank you for all the support and the prayers. You are all always in my prayers. I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Thayne

Elder Thayne and Elder Cruz

Priesthood meeting

Stopped in the middle of the highway to snatch this gem

Traded in my bike for this bad boy!  #borntobewild

and another one...

Week 38 - I can drive! ...and preparing the members for the Indianapolis temple open house

This week was a long one but p-day is finally here again. Good news! I can drive! I thought this day would never come, but I'm driving now! It feels good to get behind the wheel, and my speeding days are over (hopefully). It's really hard to break that habit since it's an inherited trait I got from my parents ;)

Yeah it's pretty wild to think I'm going to be 20 years old in a few weeks. It doesn't feel like long ago when I started driving/dating/shaving and all that fun stuff. Weird how time flies. And it's not that you and Dad didn't teach us how to work hard, I just wasn't really willing to learn. 

Elder Cruz is a great guy! He says he's excited to be speaking Spanish and to be eating Mexican food again. He said he was getting too used to mashed potatoes and casseroles. His parents actually still live in Mexico, but he came over to Chicago with his sister and her kids. There isn't too much of a language barrier between us since he speaks a lot of English, but there are a few words I say that he doesn't quite get yet. He's been practicing saying my name a lot since most Spanish speakers struggle with the "Th" sound. 

J.  is still progressing and she even told us she has a lot of neighbors that tell her not to listen to us, but she keeps telling us she's not going to take anyone's word for it and wait to see what God tells her.

That's crazy that Livi is getting so old! It's so weird to think that all my sisters will be mothers soon. Ew. We're all getting way too old. 

I'm sorry to hear about Grandma in the hospital. I will keep her in my prayers. It truly is a blessing that we all get to pass from this mortal state, but you're right, it's a shame we all have to get old and weak. 

There hasn't been a ton happening here. We have just been really trying to get all the members excited for the temple. We've started committing everyone to invite friends and family to this unique opportunity at the temple open house. It's a wonderful missionary opportunity for us. 

Well that's pretty much it! I love you! Thank you so much for your prayers and support. 

Love,

Elder Thayne

Me and Yaretzi - Brother Alcaron's neice

Week 37 - Heavenly Father knows his Children

I'm glad you guys got to all spend the baby shower together, but that's too bad that you all had to do so much work on memorial day weekend. Sometimes I wish I had sooner learned how to work hard, because now I am having to work harder than ever! But I learn from my mistakes and I hope my future children aren't as stubborn as I was ;)

This week was a great one! We had transfers on Wednesday and my new companion is Elder Cruz! He's originally from Cuernavaca, Mexico, but has been living in Chicago for about 6 years now. He was actually called English speaking, but Pres. Cleveland sent him to this Spanish area because we are losing so many Spanish missionaries and we don't have enough to fill all the areas. I'm really excited to serve with him! As you can imagine, his Spanish is really good ;) so I think it will help me to improve my Spanish during the time I serve with him. He is still learning English even though he already speaks it really well, so we are both helping each other out. 

Memorial day p-day was pretty much the same as any other p-day, except we couldn't email so we just had more time to play basketball and such :) We did, however, get to go do service at the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend on Saturday. We went in the morning and pulled weeds for about 3 hours and then they let us wander around the zoo for about a half hour. Sadly, my camera died after a couple pictures, so all I got were some pictures of a Tiger.

Last Monday, before Elder Latu left, we were biking home from the church when a lady in a van stopped us and yelled out the window, "Can you guys come by my house sometime and tell me about your religion?" Startled, we quickly wrote down her information and she drove off. About a minute later we saw the same woman pulling into her driveway. We asked her if she had time to talk now and she said she had a little bit of time. Her name is J and it turns out she had received lessons from the missionaries about 10 years ago but she remembered very little of what they talked about. She said the only thing she remembers is that they talked about different "stages" of heaven and that she had been thinking about that for a long time and she believes that it's true. We have taught her a few times since then and she loves listening to us. She's really open to the message and she's reading the Book of Mormon between lessons. We can tell she has a real desire to find truth and we can't wait to see the power of Christ's Atonement affect her life!

We had a really cool experience this past week. Every Thursday, we have a weekly planning session as a companionship. We were planning on what we can do to improve our finding efforts and Elder Cruz suggested we pray more when we tract. I agreed, so I decided I wanted to write "Pray Always" in my planner. I distinctly remember thinking out the letters as I wrote out "Pray Always" in the notes section. I looked up and we continued planning, and a few seconds later, I looked back down and instead of seeing "Pray Always" where I had intended to write it, I saw that I had inexplicably written "Angel".  Confused, I searched for reasons why I would have written that. My mind wasn't anywhere near the thought of Angel so I knew that I had written it for a reason. I eventually thought of the only person named Angel that I knew and made plans to visit him that week. But a nagging feeling that I had written it for a different, specific reason lingered in my mind.  

Well we finished up planning and had language study for about an hour and then decided to bike over to the local food bank to look for service opportunities. About a block from our house we saw a Hispanic man pushing his car. We offered to help him and he accepted, so we got off our bikes and ventured to assist him with his car problems. Elder Cruz introduced himself and asked him what his name was. Immediately he responded, "Angel". At that moment I had a strong spiritual impression that he was the reason I had subconsciously, or by some other influence, written Angel that same morning. We helped him with his car battery and ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes about God and the church. He said he had been thinking about getting into religion and was planning on studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses. After talking to him and sharing a little bit about what we believe, he invited us to come back.

So I don't know for sure that Angel will get baptized or if he'll ever end up coming to church, but I feel that the Lord sent me this experience as a way of reminding me that he leads this work and he knows his children.

Well that's pretty much it for this week. I'm looking forward to working with Elder Cruz here in Elkhart! I love you! 

Love,

Elder Thayne

Week 36 - A Trip to the Chicago Temple

This week was really fast for me! It seems like Monday always ends up coming back around super fast. On Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. We're only allowed to go do an endowment session in the temple every six months, but Pres. Cleveland lets us go whenever as long as it's with a recent convert for their first time doing baptisms for the dead. So we went to the Chicago temple with the R. family and as S. and R. did a session, the rest of us went and did baptisms for the dead. It was great to feel the spirit of the temple and to visit Chicago for my first time. I wanted to get a picture of Wrigley Field, but we didn't end up passing it so I didn't get the chance. 

It has been kind of slow with investigators and people to teach lately, but we received a huge blessing this week. On Thursday we were invited to go to M.'s   (a girl in our branch(Juan's sister)) choir concert. We are allowed to go to things like that, but I was really hesitant because I thought that there could be better stuff for us to do (tract, visit people, etc) but we felt like we should go anyway. While we were there, Juan (our branch mission leader)  was looking for somewhere to sit and he found a relative of some sort who went to the high school we were at. We sat down by him and Juan started talking to him and he expressed his desires to be baptized. We got his number and we told him we'd try to visit him next week. It was a blessing to have met him and I know that's why we were at that concert and that's where we were supposed to be. 

We are also having a lot of success with our investigator C.   We teach her and her family and she is definitely the most receptive to the message. On Wednesday we taught them about the Book of Mormon and invited them to read it and find out if it's true. We invited them to read 3 Nephi 11 before the next time we come over and the rest of the family gave a kind of half-hearted yes to our commitment and we left. Then, on Friday we decided to head over to visit C. at this taco shop she works at called Ricky's. We could tell she was super busy so we just went in, bought some horchata and said hi. As we were walking out to our car she ran out to come talk to us and we asked her if she had the chance to read. She told us that right after we left on Wednesday she sat her whole family down and made them read it together. She seemed to like it and we're planning on setting a baptismal date with her. 

We had our Zone Conference on Tuesday and it was great! Pres. Cleveland focused on the difference between a testimony and conversion. He said that a testimony is a witness received by the spirit, but conversion is achieved by consistently and loyally acting on that witness in obedience and diligence. It was a great conference and I learned a great deal from what was said. 

Well it turns out I'm staying here for at least another six weeks. I don't mind because I really like this area and the branch we have here. I just wish it wasn't so flippin hot. Elder Latu will be leaving and I have a clue of who my next companion will be and I'm really excited about it. It should be a good transfer! 

I love you! Keep up the good work. Keep Zach out of trouble.  Have a good week!

S. , Me, and Elder Latu

Me and A.

Elder Latu and I at the Chicago Temple

The Angel Moroni on the Chicago Temple

Elder Latu and I posing in front of a fountain at the Chicago Temple