Week 40

Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 9:33 AM

Brothers and Mothers...Sisters and Misters...  

Hey family,  

Well, Life's good.  Okay, to start, the cookies were absolutely delicious. (they are almost gone ;) They were broken mostly, but definitely still edible and delicious.  They mostly broke at the leafs aka the 4 clover pieces and the middle were separated ..make sense??  Oh, and the cashews were  delicious as well.

Anyways, I got letters from mom 39  and Tyler Brennan.  I think that was it though.  Okay, so this last week.  let's see.  We saw some huge miracles.  We found a few new investigators as well as we met this man who was a miracle encounter.  We were on this street in a town and we were trying to talk to this individual that we talked to a few weeks back, but they weren't home.  So, we were almost going to leave, but we decided to knock on a few doors in the area, in order to give the Lord our best effort.  Well, we knocked on one...no one answered and we were going to knock on one more when we saw this man walking down the street.  We didn't want to make things super awkward, but we walked over in front of his path and when he was close enough, we asked how he was doing...he said he'd been better.  aka to make a long story short, he had just gotten out of the hospital after waking up there and it clicked with him that something's got to change, since last night things just about changed a direction he doesn't want them to go.  Finally, they let him out of the hospital in the morning, and he was walking to a friend’s house and we "happened" (yeah right) to be in his path.  It was an amazing experience.  Definitely NOT a coincidence.  I don't believe in coincidence's anymore...minus maybe the fact that we both wore green ties today or something ;)

Next, that's intense that we have 10 missionaries from our ward.  Question: do y'all know anybody from our stake or anything serving in Lubbock Texas mission?? I thought I remember someone going there, but I can't remember whom.  Anyways, on the vitamins...I eat them things occasionally when I remember...if you want to send some vitamin c ones, you probably can.  Sounds like Chris is a stud.  Tell him to tell his quad to stop being a bum.  

Okay, here's something interesting that I'm not sure I mentioned.  So, probably the biggest single source of employment here is the Nuclear Power plant.  Well, currently they are in what is called an outage which is where they shut down the plant so they can replace 1/3 of the fuel rods.  Well, since the plant is shut down, this is when they do all their other repair and maintenance work.  It lasts about 1 1/2 to  2 months.  It started the beginning of March.  Anyways, I'm ready for it to be over because it is KILLING us on exchanges.  We only have like 15 active families or so in the branch and too many of the men we try to go on exchange with are being dominated by the outage...the reason being they have to work 12-13 hour shifts 4-5 days on, 1 day off.  And some of them...it's nights or other goofy hours.  The other funny part about this is whoever designed the roads here (dad, you would probably have a heart attack) decided that the theme of the county would be...can anyone guess it...

BOTTLENECK!!!!!!!!

HURRAY!!!!

So basically, if you want to go anywhere you have to go through this one cutoff light area which is beautifully one lane all directions...and also, they have thousands of contract workers here right now for the outage...aka...ridiculous traffic way too often.  If all you measured was the amount of sirens you hear going off and the amount of backed up and I mean backed up traffic you have, you would think you were in LA...and then you would remember that only like 20,000 people live here or something...(I don't know the real number, but it's small).  What a joke ;)

Oh, and I also got the ballot.   I'm sending it off today.  

I don't have much else to say.  I hope spring break goes well for y'all.  Should be fun.  Next time we write, it will be April.  Who would have thought ?? :)  Maybe I won't write since it's April fool's day :) haha just kidding.  Of course, I'll write.  I'm super excited for conference again.  Like ridiculously excited.  (I use that word ridiculous a lot ;)  Should be amazing...as usual.  I love this church and the teachings of Christ.  I love my Heavenly Father and his most amazingly thought out perfect plan that he made for our benefit completely.  Totally unselfish...His joy comes solely through our joy and happiness.  That's pure.  I wish people could just understand what and how I understand.  Life would just be a ton better for all involved :)  

Anyways, 

Have a fantastic week :)

Love you all sooo much ,

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 39

Monday March 18, 2013

Hey family, I think I was just writing you...yesterday...or was it a week ago...who knows... ;)

Well, here's another Monday, and honestly, I'll try to make this letter semi-good, but don't expect anything spectacular...

First off, I forgot to write last week what letters I got, so for the last two weeks, I've received mom 37-38, 3 from grandma I think, Rachel, Sis. Nelson, and Matt Friesen.  

2nd, to answer Dad's preguntas...
no to transfers, we still have 1 more transfer of training left. We have a couple baptisms scheduled but likely some of them will have to be moved back due to people's agency.  We get a couple dinners a week.  No, investigators don't really feed us that often...once in a while.  Yes, we talk to everyone or most everyone when we are biking aka street contacting.  No to tracting...ever.  We have Oak Island, Southport, part of Bolivia, Boiling Spring Lakes, and part of Winnabow.  Miles across...many...probably ball park 25 e-w, and similar if not more n-s.  My bike. it's doing alright.  I still like biking.  My brakes could use some help.  I'll probably do a full check up thing soon...around a year or so...yes, generally most people are nice here when you talk to them.  Foods?? I definitely ate a lot more fish in Morehead.  So, the foods are pretty regular here, but they do have delicious barbecue (not what you're thinking)...look up NC barbecue...it's vinegar based :)

Okay, back to business...mother...teaching pool...about 8 right now.  The temple was amazing, as usual.  Definitely an uplifting experience.  A boost.  And it helped me answer some questions.  Always go to the temple with questions...questions invite revelation :)

We are finding a ton of people who have a lot of potential to become investigators, but the dots just aren't all connecting where they are becoming new investigators.  Appointments fall through probably more often than not.  

Well, I guess that's just part of missionary work, but we press forward in faith.  There are people out there who are ready...hopefully we'll be able to teach them...and hopefully the members will find them.  ;)

Honestly, there's not really a lot to say about last week.  We did work a lot with recent converts and less actives, which was good.   Hopefully, we can start helping them come back to the fold and stay.  I'm definitely really excited for conference coming up.  I love conference!!!! Also, that's the day that suit season ends which is just an added bonus!!!

It's definitely sad to see people that you come to love use their agency to not read the Book of Mormon, or to not come to church.  We do everything we can to get them there or to help them understand why reading is sooooooo important and they just don't.  Ugh, sometimes I want to just make people read and everything, but then again, we all know whose plan that was *wink,wink*

I honestly don't know what else to say...there's not really much to say about last week.  I'm glad y'all are doing well.  Stay that way, okay ?? :)  Oh and I also got the delicious package!!!! That was exciting :)  Thanks mom and family :)

Love you all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much.  

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 38

Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 11:50 AM

FROM Patrick Thornton TO You

hola amigos...tee hee ;) **SYL...  

Hey family, 

Well, another week has come and gone and all I did was blink...

So, this morning we had an interesting experience...I kind of woke up and was laying in my bed half awake when I thought about how it was kind of weird because I was not just crashing back to sleep or whatever, so like usual, I slapped my alarm clock to check the time.....7:17....wait a sec, did I fix the Daylight Saving Time adjustment...yes I did. Oh no.  Ah man, I jumped out of bed, realizing that we had forgotten to put the alarm back on since we had changed it for our Sunday alarm.  I went to Elder Mickelsen and told him Elder, you have to get up.  It's late.  Needless to say, that stunk.  Starting the day on the wrong foot. And also needless to say, we had to beg for Heavenly Father's forgiveness.  Funny thing was, just yesterday, Elder Mickelsen and I were just talking the day before about how getting up after 6:30 wasn't even an option in our minds.  Crazy stuff.  Anyways, 7:17 back in the day, would never have been considered "late" on a normal day :) haha

So, besides that adventure this morning, this week has been a really good week.  On Saturday, we had a baptism for a young man we have been teaching.  He's an absolute stud and I love him to death.  He's probably the most intelligent 11 year old I've ever met. Not joking.  His mom was baptized about 8 months ago.  I’ll send a picture for sure :)  The reason I didn't include this in the last email is because we weren't 100% positive it was all going to work out for this Saturday, but it did, thanks to our loving Heavenly Father...Truly...as President Monson says, He is in the details of our lives.  After the baptism, the young man said that he feels like a new man.  So amazing :)  This work is truly magnificent.  On top of that, it was Elder Mickelsen's birthday on Saturday, BEST...BIRTHDAY...GIFT...EVER :)

Anyways, the Lord has truly been blessing us large and small this past week.  Elder Mickelsen continues to do amazingly well, and I bet that he'll be training very soon :)  So this Friday, we have one of our semi-annual temple trips, (which we became aware of at about 10:28 last night) which should be excellent :)  I wish they had given everyone a little more time to prepare since we all have to find rides up to Raleigh, which can be a difficult task in a less than large branch down in the middle of no where.  However, luckily, we think we have a ride :)  The other thing is that that also moved our preparation day from today to Friday with emails still being today....however, for us boonie land areas that equates to no preparation since our 6 hours of travel time on Friday doesn't leave much room for preparing.  

It sounds like everyone back home is doing well.  Chris continues to become more and more of a stud every second.  Maybe my presence gave off a stud inhibiting pheromone that prevented his true stud from coming out until I was far enough away.  DJ sounds like he has become an international stud.  My lovely parents appear to have become multiple studs trapped within 1 body for how much you all have going on.  Overall, A+ to y'all.  Best Stud family in the world.  

It's hard to believe summer is almost here again.  So far, when I look back on my mission, it feels like a blink ;) ... maybe 2 blinks. ;) ;)  It's semi-ridiculous.  But things are generally going well.  I'm definitely not going hungry.  Elder Mickelsen and I still get along ridiculously well.  Did y'all hear that they are creating a Chesapeake Virginia mission which will be eminent domaining some of our mission.......

.....and some of our missionaries....

I've already decided that I'm not one of them.  I refuse to leave President and Sister Bernhisel ;)  and the NCRM

Obviously, if the Lord calls me, I'll go, but I'll miss them dearly.  They make the switch in July.  They could be taking up to about 25% of our missionaries or so...we'll see what the Lord decides.

Anyways, know that I love this work of which I am a part.  I absolutely LOVE our Heavenly Father's plan for our happiness and salvation.  So magnificent and perfect for EVERYONE!!!  I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ who came and died so that I might live.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and proves that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet called of God to bring back Christ's church to the earth in its fulness.  Why did they do that?  Because they love us more than we will ever truly comprehend in this life.  I wish all would embrace these truths.  I love you all :)

Thanks for everything you do and all your support.

Love,

Elder Patty

Week 37

Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 10:23 AM

  

Hey family!!!!! and friends!!! and anybody that takes a peek at what Elder Thornton inscribed in cyber space!!!!

Life has been going mighty swell for me here.  Concerning the transfer...no I very highly doubt either of us will be transferred at the end of this transfer.  The training is a 12 week program and it is very unlikely that they will split that up...and I mean VERY unlikely...but then again there's always that 1% chance ;)

The mission allowance is going pretty good.  I eat every meal...it's not usually very exciting things I eat, but I eat ;)  pasta, pb&j, hamburgers, eggs, etc. 

So...I forgot to say last week, since I left my notes at home, that I also received a letter from Sis. Nelson/O'Dwyer, mom's rejoice card.  This past week I received the real 36 from mom, 2 from Grandma (because the post office decided they wanted to hold it for a while,) one of those had a goodie in it besides the normal goodie of a letter ;), I got dad's postcard.

Quick question: what 2 rivers join to make Grand Junction? My brain fails :(

NOOOOOOOOO...I haven't gotten ANY of Matt's letters :( :( :( :( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :( nor did I receive that ensign :( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :(:( :( :( that probably was devoured by the mission...you may want to send that in a separate package...who knows :(  anyways, make sure Matt is writing to the correct address...*sigh* sad day on mail being eaten mid transit...

Anyways, life is going pretty swell over all...true statement on how February is already over! Crazy stuff.  We're almost in Spring now...well, honestly, I’ve basically been in spring all winter down here minus a week :(  Elder Mickelsen and I still get along ridiculously well.  It's great.  :)  We have a lot of high hopes for this week, so that's good.  This Thursday we are going up to Kinston for a training meeting with President.  Should be fanstastic minus that part that it will eat up a ridiculous amount of our allotted miles...oh well...

We had stake conference yesterday.  It was good.  I realized that at home, whenever the mission president probably spoke in stake conference or temple presidency members, I probably just thought "oh, that's just another old guy speaking" but when it's MY mission president, I'm like "oh yeah!!!!!! This is going to be amazing.  Super exciting!!!!"  ah, perspective :)

Let's see...this morning I read Giddianhi's letter to Lachoneus regarding how the Nephites basically should just give up everything...and I'm not gonna lie...Giddianhi's letter was pretty dang eloquently written.  First he flattered Lachoneus talking about how he was a stud on the battlefield and how his intentions were sound in his twisted little mind, but it would just be better for all involved in they surrendered everything to a bunch of robbers and be pals.  You may think it would be easy to say no way, but it's a good thing it wasn't me because I probably would have been like "oh, that makes sense...hey guys, let's just give everything to our enemies, the robbers...yeah, all our land? we don't need that anymore"  Good thing Lachoneus was more studly than me...he was just like 'uh huh...like that's going to ever happen.  Who does that failure of a robber think he is?  Whatever...where was I....oh yeah...preparing to whoop* some godless robbers" Gotta love the Book of Mormon...I sure do :)

Let's see, these emails aren't very exciting...you probably should just not even read them anymore... ;)

Oh, we lost our phone last week...that stunk.  Little do you realize how reliant you are on that phone until one day poof! it's gone.  We have absolutely zero other ways of communicating with anyone and I mean zero...no internet no landline nothing...we can't confirm appointments, let our district leader know we're still alive etc.  Luckily, due to the failure of past missionaries to return the previous phone to the mission and the fact that we have an investigator that lives a couple apartments over, we made a few desperate calls to sprint Wednesday morning and got some phones swapped over.  Whew! That was an adventure...and it made us late to our meeting...I should say later...in Wilmington.  Good stuff. 

As always, I hope I'm doing what the Lord needs me to do.  Missionary work isn't easy, but it's always worth it...kind of like life :)  Thanks for all the support.  Know that I appreciate it.  And also know that I know that my Savior lives and cares about each one of us, His brothers and sisters.  I treasure dearly my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon.  No one could ever take that away from me, it's sewn upon my soul in permanent stitching by the wonderful Holy Ghost.  I love what I share...and I share what I love :)

Thanks to all

Love always,

Elder Thornton