Week 88 - Audel's baptism!

This week was great!! We had 6 baptisms in our zone which is awesome! Audel's baptism was on Saturday and it went great! His wife, Wendy, spoke on baptism and she talked about how happy she was to see him join the church and that they are united as as couple. Now we're just praying that we'll be able to work with Wendy's 13 year old sister Y. She's been taught everything and really wants to be baptized, but her dad doesn't want to give her permission to be baptized yet because he thinks she's too young to make that kind of decision. We're praying that his heart will be softened and that he'll see the goodness that comes from the restored gospel. Evidently, my companion and his last companion didn't have a ton of time to tract a lot last transfer, so now that Audel got baptized, we don't really have anybody we're working with super closely... so, we'll just have to hit the pavement and knock a ton of doors!! Should be fun!

This past week we found a sweet family from Guatemala that we're planning to teach on Wednesday and they seem excited to meet with us! They're pretty open so we're hoping we can use that opening to help them feel the spirit of our message and really take interest. It's hard to find those people who are really willing to learn and make the changes necessary to accept the gospel, but when you do, it's a great feeling.

We have a great service opportunity this week! There's a fairly old war veteran in our area who's known the missionaries for about a year now. He goes by Uncle B. He's catholic by tradition, but loves the missionaries, so we go to his house and do service for him every Wednesday. He has a french bulldog named Buddy who is sooooo fun to play with. Uncle B went out of town yesterday, so he asked us to stop by 2 times a day and take care of his dog. It'll be fun!! 

That's pretty much all that's happening here! I hope you guys had a great week and that you're enjoying beautiful California! Love you!!

Elder Thayne

Week 87 - If you are humbly willing to help the Lord, he will use you

It was so great to see you all yesterday and talk with you! I appreciate all the things you shared with me and I'm excited for all the great things happening in the family! I can't believe Zach is receiving his mission call so soon, and I anxiously await the news! 

We had a great week! Our investigator, A, had his baptismal interview yesterday and he's good to go. R is struggling a bit, so we'll see what happens with her. We're excited about things happening in the branch! There's so much growth and it's great to see this unit progress so much since I started my mission here. It was a real treat to hear about all of your missionary efforts and I know that no matter how small the act, it goes a long way. Members are so crucial in this work. 

I talked to you yesterday so I don't really know what to say....

On Friday we had our Mission Leadership Council meeting in Carmel, IN at the mission home. Pres. Cleveland goes home soon and he really emphasized that as leaders in the mission we need to lift the mission with our performance. He mentioned how we can all be much better and do things to inspire the missionaries in our zones. He quoted a talk by Dean M. Davies titled "God Will Use You, God Will Bless You" He said,

Don’t you know that since the beginning of time our Heavenly Father has reached out to those who were average and used them for His purposes?

I know that we all have weaknesses and shortcomings and sometimes we may feel like we're "below average" or "nobody special", but the Lord uses his humble servants and sculpts them into the tools he needs. As long as we are humbly willing to help, he will use us. I love that knowledge!! We also learned a lot about teaching skills from PMG Chapter 10. I have always struggled to develop those skills found in that chapter and it takes constant practice and dedication. But my companion, Elder Porter, is a great teacher and I'm learning a lot from him. 

Sorry, I don't really have much to say since I talked to you yesterday. I love you Mom!! I'm so so so very grateful for all that you have taught me and for the example you've been to me. I can't thank you enough for what you have done for me. Many times throughout my mission, I've thought back on what you taught me and I doubt not that my mother knew it :) I love you so much and I miss you with all my heart. I'm so excited to see you and spend time with you and Dad again, but I will definitely take advantage of my time in the Lord's work.

I love you!!

Elder Thayne

Week 86 - Sanctify yourselves, for tomorow the Lord will do wonders among you

This week was great! It's good to be back in the Zone and I love being here in the White River 2nd Branch again. The branch has grown SO much since I left! There are some great members who are willing to help us. This week we were able to teach 18 lessons with a member present! It was great! The most I ever taught in a week before was 7! 

We have 2 people preparing for baptism for May 14th. One is a 20 year old girl named R M who is now best friends with another 20 year old returned less active from Idaho named S. They have become best friends since they met about 3 weeks ago and R is so excited to be baptized. 

We are also teaching a man in his mid-20's named A who is the husband of a lady that got baptized almost a month ago. A really wants to be baptized too, he just learns kind of slow, so we're trying to meet with him 3 times a week at the least. 

We had a zone meeting on Friday to start off the transfer by setting some zone goals. The theme for our meeting was found in Joshua 3:5 "Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you".  We had a great meeting and set some good goals and I'm sure the zone is really excited for the transfer and the goals we set. 

We're having tons of fun here! My companion, Elder Porter, is from Kaysville, Utah and he's been out only 6 weeks longer than I have. I've never served around him before, so I didn't know what to expect, but we get along really well. We're working hard and time is gonna fly this transfer! 

Other than that, not much is going on. I'm excited to work with the great missionaries in the zone and hopefully we can get a lot of work done! 

I can't believe it's almost Mother's day already! I'll see you next Sunday!! 

Love, Elder Thayne

Me with the Contreras family. I love them :) 

Me with one of my fav members, Bro Rene Rodriguez

With one of my future college roommates who went home yesterday

Week 85 - What Sucess on a misison looks like

Hey Mom!! We had a good week! I got the call from President saying that I will indeed be getting transferred tomorrow and I'm going to Indianapolis to be a Zone Leader in the White River Zone, so I'll be returning to the White River Spanish Branch once again! So now I will have served in every area in that branch. It's been weird only serving in 2 branches my whole mission while other missionaries "branch" out to other branches (haha get it?), but it's good to be able to make such good friends in the branches I have served in. So the zone I'll be over will be twice the size than the one I'm currently in, so it will be a new experience. My companion will be Elder Porter. 

We taught a lesson in jail!! Remember S?? Well he's been in jail for about 5 months and we were thinking about him the other day and we decided to go try and contact him. We went to the Elkhart county jail and set up a video visitation over there. It was only a 20 minute visit via a computer in the jail, but I still spoke through a black telephone like in the movies, so it was pretty legit. We had a good conversation and he said the earliest he'd get out is in June, so we got some contact info from him and hopefully the missionaries can contact him after he gets out. 

This week was great! We got a lot done and were able to teach a lot of lessons, but sadly, still no progression in this area. Sometimes I feel like the Lord of the vineyard in Jacob 5 when he says, "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" Sometimes it feels like we do everything we can and the people still don't change. It gives us a very small glimpse of how our Heavenly Father must feel. 

I know this time of difficulty has been a great learning experience for me and that the Lord wants me to take something from it. I've learned a lot this transfer about what success really is in a mission. There's a page in PMG Ch.1 that talks about success in the mission field and list some points that will be evidences of success throughout the mission. I found it interesting that not a single one of those points talked about baptisms or converts. It talked more about things like:

• Being diligent 
• Feeling the Spirit guide you
• Watching people come closer to Christ
• Serving others
• Loving investigators
• Being exactly obedient
• etc.

I've learned a lot this transfer about success and that just because we don't have baptisms, it doesn't mean we aren't successful. I've worked harder than ever this past transfer and I've been doing my best and although I still have many things I need to improve, I'm confident the Lord is happy with what I did here.

I had the opportunity to share my testimony in sacrament meeting yesterday and I testified of the 2 most important things I've learned thus far in my mission: That God loves and knows each one of us personally, and the divine role and purpose of Jesus Christ as our Savior. It was a blessing to be able to share that with this branch that I have come to love so much and it's sad to say goodbye to them. 

I'm looking forward to a new transfer and a new area! I'll learn a lot and grow from the new experiences I'll soon have. 

Have a great week and I'll see you in about a month :)

Love, Elder Thayne

Week 84 - Following through on spiritual guidance

Whaaaat?? A new nephew?? Awesome! I can't wait to meet little Lucas! Man, all my sisters are taking that "multiply and replenish the Earth" commandment to heart for sure. There are so many nephews I need to meet! 

Our week was pretty good! The weather has been beeeeeauuutiful over here! This week it was in the 70's and 80's and I loved it! It was a good change for sure. 

This week was a little frustrating in terms of teaching lessons with members. We've been trying so hard to try to bring a member to every single return appointment, but either the member ends up not coming or the lesson falls through. We had about 7 of them planned this week and only taught one, so that was rough.

We did exchanges again this week, and I always go into exchanges unexcited and not wanting to do it (because I'd selfishly rather be in my own area), but in the end we always have great experiences and end up enjoying it. I went with Elder Reidhead, an English Elder in Elkhart on Thursday. In our mission, Pres. Cleveland expects us to tract at least 2 hours every day, so we did. We didn't really talk to many people in those 2 hours, but we were confident that we had been obedient to the schedule. After those 2 hours, we could have gone on to doing something else, but we decided to tract for one more hour. At the 2nd house, a 17 year old girl named J answered the door. We talked to her about church and stuff and she told us that last week she saw a movie about our church called "Once I Was a Beehive" and she loved it! I'm not sure what that movie is about, but it sure left a good impression on her. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and she had so many questions! About halfway through the lesson, I felt the prompting to commit her to a baptismal date. We invited her and she said yes! She's now preparing to be baptized on May 21st. It was a miracle! 

This past weekend we had Stake Conference up here in the South Bend Stake and we had the privilege of having 2 members of the Quorum of the 70 come. Elder Randall K. Bennett was assigned to come to our stake, and he brought with him a newly called 70, Elder Beheshti. They were all great meetings! For the Saturday evening session, Elder Bennett had asked each member of the stake presidency to prepare only a 5 minute talk. When they got to the meeting, he told them to throw all their talks and notes away and to speak by the Spirit. They did so and it was great! But even better was that after every talk, Elder Bennett asked everyone that was willing to share any spiritual impressions they received. Every time somebody would share something, Elder Bennett would ask that person a question such as, "Based on that spiritual guidance you received, what are you going to do?" They would reply and then he always answered back, "When are you going to do it?" I was so inspired by that teaching method! A lot of times we ask people to read or pray or do something to come closer to Christ, but I love the idea of directly asking them when they will complete it. I received a lot of personal revelation during Stake Conference, the most frequent being that I need to be more open to the guidance of the Spirit in my life. 

That's it for the week! We're still working on finding somebody that's willing to progress and accept a baptismal date! It's been tough but we won't give up.

Elder Thayne 

Week 83 - March Madness with Pres Cleveland

This week was great! The weather was freeeezing and winter decided to come back and it snowed up here again. Luckily, the weather is looking good for this week. 

On Monday, we had the opportunity to spend p-day with President Cleveland. Our zone went to the Stake Center in Mishawaka where Pres. Cleveland gave us his March Madness clinic. Since he was a college basketball coach, around this time of year he goes around the whole mission and does a little basketball clinic on P-day. So we did some dribbling, layup, and shooting drills and it was pretty fun! Tuesday we had interviews in our zone, so we spent the whole day at the chapel helping with interviews. It's always fun to spend time with President and Sister Cleveland!

This week we started teaching some great new people! The English Elders in our area had been teaching a 19 year old Mexican girl named D They hadn't been able to contact her for a while, so they suggested we go over and try to talk to her mom who only speaks Spanish. We went, and she wasn't too open to it the first time. We came back on Friday, and her daughter D was there. We all talked, and Daniela told us that she no longer feels any connection with the Catholic church and feels much more connected to my church. She said she's been reading the Book of Mormon and she loves it! She really helped her mom open up some more and we're gonna go teach them tomorrow. 

This past weekend, we went on exchanges with the Elders in Warsaw. I went with Elder Pittard, and we tracted a ton! We tracted in a suuuuper nice neighborhood with HUGE houses. It's always been a little intimidating to me to knock doors in rich neighborhoods since I'm so used to tracting in humble areas such as trailer parks. One lady we met was named S. She opened the door and we began to tell her who we were. She told us she was Muslim. We began to ask her her beliefs and everything, and she told us that she believes Muhammad was the last prophet to ever exist and that she doesn't think there could ever be a prophet ever again. I suddenly had the impression to tell her that there is and have been prophets on the Earth again. I hesitated due to her religious background, but then felt the impression again. I told her that we believe there is a man that has seen God and Jesus Christ and that there is a prophet today. Suddenly her face lit up and she got so excited. She rattled off a ton of questions about the modern day prophet and she wanted to learn more! We were both so surprised! When she told us she was Muslim, I didn't think it was going to go nearly as well as it did. It was cool to see that the Spirit was able to tell me what to say in order to spark her interest! 

On our way back up to Goshen from Warsaw, we decided to go visit R to see if she would answer. It had been almost 2 months since we had any contact with her. We went and knocked on her door and she answered! We were able to talk to her and she said she's just confused about everything and that she has some doubts. We told her we could come back and help her with any questions/doubts she has. We got an appointment for next Saturday!!! I was so excited. It was an answer to many prayers. 

That's pretty much it for this week. We have stake conference this Sunday which will be my 3rd stake conference in this stake. Pres. Cleveland will be speaking as he's making his last visits to stake conferences before his release.  

Have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Thayne

Week 82 - Loved Conference this weekend!

Our week was pretty good! We had a ton of meetings along with conference, so sadly it was a really chill week without much tracting, but next week we will be able to get a lot of work in. That's the only thing I don't like about being a Zone Leader. We have so many meetings throughout the week and it feels like we sometimes can't just mind our own business and work in our area. But I can't complain. 

On Thursday we stayed the night in Indy for our 9:00am MLC (Mission Leadership Council) meeting on Friday. We received some great instruction from President Cleveland and he's making a huge emphasis on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the New Testament. It was a powerful meeting. After the meeting we all played kickball in the cultural hall and President Cleveland pitched for us. It's fun to see Pres. get into sports and see the sports side of him that was such a huge part of his life before his mission. After kickball we started the 3 hour drive back to Goshen and that was when we did our only April Fool's Joke! After the MLC meeting, we're supposed to relay some announcements and such to our zones, and since the whole mission has been waiting to get iPads since Dec 2014, we told our zone that we'll be receiving iPads at our Zone Conference next month. There were a few that knew it was a joke, but many were still fooled and thrilled about it! After we told them it was a joke there were a few who were upset, but they got over it. 

On Wednesday, we started teaching another family! They live in a trailer park about 10 minutes from our apartment. The parents are T and E.  We tracted into T the week before and came back for our follow up visit. We wish we would have had a member with us because it would have been so much better, but it was still good! As we shared and testified of the Restoration, we could literally see the understanding enter into T's mind as she marveled at the beauty of the Restoration. We have another lesson this Wednesday so we'll see how it goes! 

Conference was great! I really enjoyed all the talks and my faith was strengthened so much from the counsel we received. Only one investigator came named C. He's the husband of a recent convert and has been investigating for almost a year. We still don't know what it is exactly that's keeping him from being baptized. He left before we were able to ask him how he liked it, so we'll have to see when we eat at their house on Friday. 

I especially loved Elder Holland's talk. Lately I've been feeling discouraged as I haven't been able to perfectly live up to all the expectations and duties that are expected of me, so his talk helped me a lot. I also loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk about the Atonement and what Christ can do to our broken souls. I receive a lot of great inspiration and revelation from many of the talks. 

I loved Elder Donald L. Hallstrom's talk. Especially when he said "You can have what you want, or you can have something better." That's definitely something hard to live by, but we must all strive to seek the Lord's will for our life rather than our own. 

It was a great week! I'm looking forward to the following days when I can study these conference talks and get even more from them! I'm so thankful for living Prophets and Apostles on the earth.