Week 36

Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 9:26 AM

Hey family, you are correct.

I did not write last week due to President's day.  We could have gone in sometime during the week to do it, but we decided y'all could wait an extra week without perishing (too much ;) )  We're just so stinking busy that cutting out 1 hour and 1/2 in the middle of the week just doesn't work that well.  

So, mother, I did receive 34 the previous week ( I just forgots) and now I've received  35 and 36 :)  Good stuff.  I also got letters from Kati Kamas, Dan and Zuleica, Holly, and Grandma.  

We received "snow" the other day, which is really a combination of sleet, rain, and hail, but hey, what do you expect :) :)

I have a little spiritual somethin somethin for y'all today.  The other day I was reading in Alma where Helaman was down in the far corner of their lands with his less than large army watching the Lamanites receive more food and men all the time, and it really hit me how difficult, both physically and emotionally/mentally, it must have been for them.  They didn't have communication really.  Their commander was off fighting battles many miles away.  They were weak and tired and probably wanted to give up on a daily basis.  And on top of that, there were no allies or teammates they could call on in a pinch...they couldn't beg for some help from the neighboring nation or hire some mercenary troops...they were all by themselves, like Jacob said, wanderers in a strange land, and if they fell, they would be destroyed, and no one would ever know about it (or so they probably would have thought ;) Helaman and his small group of soldiers were the last line of defense for all their people on that side of the line of defense.  But as they became more and more weary and discouraged, they realized that had one thing on their side that gave them the ultimate advantage (and I don't have my copy of the Book of Mormon with me so bear with me :))  They realized that they had God on their side and they crawled into the depths of humility, begging their Father to have mercy on them and to spare them from the anger of their enemies.  They pleaded with God to support them and comfort them and guess what,... He did.  Despite all the terrible things that we going on around them, and the exceptionally precarious circumstances in which they were placed, they found hope, strength, and comfort, when logic would have dictated they should have given up and fallen apart.  What an amazing demonstration of God's love and infinite power! What an amazing lesson for us to incorporate into our own lives!!

I love the Book of Mormon...True statement :)

Okay...dad, to answer your inquiries... Our Branch President is a complete stud!!!!! and I love him and his family to death.  He's great! and he's from Brazil and he's an engineer at the Nuclear Plant :)

Church attendance is less than a lot.  Probably ball park, recently, 40ish or so...maybe 50.  On the playing the piano bit, no one plays here in the meetings...they just have a high class electronic upright piano that has most of the songs prerecorded....aka...they have button pushers but no piano players...I miss playing the piano...

Anyways, time is going pretty quickly by us.  I'm not gonna lie, if the next year and a half end up being anything like this first part (it'll probably be faster) I'm gonna look back after 2 years and wonder what the heck happened.  The last 8 months seem like a blur...like 2 days...it's crazy stuff.  

Alright, y'all ready for the pun of the year...of the century....?!?!!?!?  Here goes...this came about totally not scripted when I was on exchange with another missionary.  He served a mini mission so he has had experience of going home and he mentioned how when he went home after the mini mission his girlfriend kissed him and it was super weird...ok...background story done...time for the ultimate pun

My comment:) :) :) (after a little more conversation)

"If a random girl came up and kissed me after my mission, I'd probably slap her upside the face! Just kidding.  I'd be too Christlike by then...I'll probably just turn the other cheek!!!!!!!" hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.  Super funny right!!!??? Well, it made me laugh...and a couple others as well :)  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.  

So, we have a baptism coming up for a son of a recent convert.  It's gonna be on the 9th and we're super excited.  (Elder Mickelsen is even more excited since the 9th is his birthday :)  Well, we're working hard and trying to work smarter...that's the trick of the century.  We're seeing more and more growth in us and in the area.  It's hard to believe this transfer is almost over.  Crazy stuff.  Last week, we had interviews with President and Sister Bernhisel.  I love them.  They are the best.  He is so much like a father to me here on the mission.  I'm gonna send a couple of pics I think.   Hope y'all enjoy.  Thanks for being the best family in the whole entire universe.  I love you all so much, and I'll tell you what...it's gonna be one joyous reunion in a couple years :) Anyways, keep life real.  Tell Velvet I love and miss her.

Luvs ever so much,

Elder Patty 

Week 35

Sorry everyone, but we received no email from Patrick this week due to the Holiday.  Stay tuned, and Week 36 will be posted soon.

Week 34

Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 9:45 AM

Hey family,

Life's going well here.  Well, my new son is a complete stud.  His name is Elder Mickelsen.  He's from Plane City (Ogden), Utah.  He's 18.  He's great already.  :) :)  He's a stud at bearing his testimony.  He's humble, desires to be obedient, and we get along super well.  Definitely someone that I will be good friends with for life.  I can tell that already.  He has a lot of eternal potential.  I can see that :)

We were going to have a baptism this month, but that got bumped back a couple of weeks, but we're pretty sure we should be having a baptism on March 9, which is actually Elder Mickelsen's birthday, so that would be pretty intense. :)  In terms of progressing investigators, we're working on that ;)  I'm not going to lie, missionary work is a lot of brain power.  You have so much responsibility, and you're always thinking of people and lessons etc and how you're going to teach something, or help someone or accomplish something.  It's intense.  In terms of  less actives, we're really trying to help the branch here even figure out who is in their stewardship still.  Our roster needs cleaning up, and about 1/2 of the less actives on there don't have numbers that work or numbers at all.  It's crazy.  

Yesterday, I was asked to speak in church again for a 20 minute talk, but thankfully I remember my fabulous older brother mentioning how on his mission, he always prepared 45 minute talks because you never knew how much time they were going to give you.  Well, one of the other youth speakers, (there were 2 that were supposed to speak for 10 minutes each) got sick.  aka.  mas time.  The one youth speaker spoke for 10 minutes and that left me with about 1/2 hour or so.  But it worked out well :)  I gave a talk on the Lorenzo Snow teachings book and his background a little bit and how we can use the book and allow it to help us in our lives, how we can incorporate it into reality.  It went pretty well, but I'll tell you what.  Before my mission, the prospect of someone asking me to give a 30 minute talk would have blown my mind.  But now, it's not really that big of a deal.  The Lord has definitely blessed me greatly in many many ways.  

I got letters from Ricky and Chuck and Grandma last week.  I don't remember any others but there may have been some.  I don't think so though.  ps. Happy Valentine’s day.  And soon happy birthday Ryan.   :)  

Anyways, the work is moving along.  There is a lot about myself that I need to try and perfect (and I mean A LOT ;) ) That sometimes it's a little overwhelming.  I guess I just take it one bite at a time (that’s how you eat the elephant, right mom?? ;) )  I absolutely love this gospel though.  Everything about it is so perfect and wonderful.  It just makes so much sense.  My testimony and love of the Book of Mormon continue to grow and deepen.  I know it is literally the word of God, revealed by Joseph Smith to help us in our progression back to our Father in Heaven.  Our Father loves us SOOOOOOOOOOOO much.  It's amazing.  I am so eternally grateful for families.  Something I've begun to notice more since being on my mission is how absolutely wonderful it is to have such miraculous knowledge a part of my life.  The importance of families is something that I grew up with, so I never quite realized it, but our relationships are so much stronger and lasting and magnificent because we KNOW that they have an eternal purpose, that they are divinely inspired and designed.  I can't imagine being without any of you.  I love y'all so much.  

Take care of yourselves.  

Love with a ridiculous amount of love,

Elder Patty Thornton (member of the best family in the entire universe!!)

Week 33

Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 9:53 AM

Hey family and friends,

It sounds like life is going splendidly well for all of you :)  Church yesterday was good.  We had 4 investigators there which was really good.  One of them, a 10-11 year old kid, bore his testimony in Sacrament meeting.  

Missionary work is a lot of brain work.  You are constantly thinking about people, thinking about ways to help, why they didn't come to church, if they are struggling, if they need something, who's going to come to an appointment, why NO ONE calls you back etc etc.  It's crazy sometimes...

So yesterday, after church, I made Alfredo for my companion and myself (since I was going to make some for him before he left...aka...he's being transferred).  It actually turned out pretty good.  It's not Mom-Qual in any sense of the phrase, but it was pretty good...especially after I put the cheese in :) hahahaha.  That's right.  I put everything together and was like "Oh snap, I did something wrong...Alfredo soup...that's new"  and then I tasted it and was like "well it's pretty bland" and ding ding ding, the bell went off I remembered that I forgot to put the cheese in it.  Oops.  That helps ;)

Oh, to comment on the sister missionary part of the activity...we have 12 in the mission right now... this transfer we are getting 8...and we will probably get even more next transfer which means sisters will be training after 1 transfer most likely.  President Bernhisel said it is a fun challenge to deal with. :)  I'm glad Chris and Dad were able to go skiing at Telluride.  Sounds like a ton of fun.  I miss the snow :(  and the mountains...(what people call mountains out here are lower than the VALLEY I grew up in! hahaha ;)

So, the more and more I experience on my mission, the more and more I realize that there are no such things as coincidences...except for getting 2 tails in a row or whatever.)  So anyways, oh, you may need to know this fact before I tell the rest of the miracle story...I'm training again this next transfer.  Sooooo, the miracle story was that we need a ride up to Raleigh on Tuesday and we have a small branch, and we have very limited resources and we had only a couple people left that were possibilities that could take us and a bike.  Well we called one and he said that he'd be happy to take us but he has a Dodge Magnum which can't fit a bike in it, so if we could find someone who had a bike rack built for something like a minivan, he could take us.  So, I decide to call our Branch President to see if he knows of any avid bikers or anything who might have one.  He says he doesn't and checks with his wife and then he remembers that he used to have some sort of bike rack that he picked up from a friend who was throwing it out, but he himself may have already thrown it out since he never used it really.  Well, lo and behold, he found it super fast in his storage place and then we went up together to the guy who said he could take us and it worked!!!!!  Total coincidence, right?? NOT!! It's amazing what happens when we first trust in the Lord, and then do everything we can to accomplish it.  Reflects the cliche well, "Pray like it all depends on the Lord, and work like everything depends on you."  Faith--it works miracles ;)

Anyways, so yeah, I'm training again.  Pretty exciting, eh??  It's a huge responsibility that the Lord has given me again, but since He knows I can do it, I know I can do it.  I hope I can help him learn how to be obedient from the start and how to always work hard hard hard and smart smart smart ;)  Good stuff.  So we're leaving dark and early for Raleigh Tuesday morning.  Should be exciting!!!

Anyways, have a great week.  I'll be sending something home that you should enjoy, shortly.  Love God with all your might and ALWAYS TRUST in Him.  He is the Gardener here.  Cherish the message of the Restoration; share it with anyone and everyone.  It blesses all :)

Love, 

Elder Thornton

ps.  I got a package from the Hawks family, and letters from Fawn Brady, Garred Whiting (who is on a mission by the way!!!!!) Mom 33, Dad, and Grams.

pps. and Dad, the sunrises and sunsets here on stinking beautiful sometimes, but no, we really don't get that much winter weather.  Occasionally, we get a day that's cold, but that's it.  I think one night it got in the 20s...maybe ;)