Week 88

2-25-14 at 9:45 AM

Well hello there family, 

How are y'all doing today?? Hopefully fantastically well.  I'm glad the trip down to Gilbert went well.  Yes, I may know the Sister Oliver in this mission.  But she is here, or at least she was ;)  That's neat about the wedding you're doing, dad!  Those are probably pocket change to you by now :)  You're professional!  Let's see...what else to say...I received letters 86 and one from grams.  

Let's see . . . last week was good.  Fast, but good.  I'm still pretty congested, but I no longer have the flu-like symptoms, so that's good.

On Friday, we had some good success stopping by a few less actives. The Lord truly had inspired and led us as to where we should go.  The night previous, I had searched through the ward roster and tried to pick out some people to visit that jumped out to me.  I really don't know anybody in this area yet, so it would have been a shot in the dark, except that there actually is someone that does know all the people in this ward.  Wink wink...in fact, He knows everyone in every area . . . perfectly :)  We stopped by this one lady whose story breaks my heart.  She loves the church.  Absolutely loves it.  But she just doesn't feel like she has a testimony.  She doesn't like Two facing it, so she attends a non-denominational church right now.  She said that the people there in the non-denominational church still don't know their names.  It's really sad.  It's amazing how quickly I love people out here.  I just yearn for them and desire them to have all the blessings of the fullness of Christ's teachings and church in their family.  I really do feel the love the Lord has for them quickly sometimes.  Never take for granted your testimony.  Not everyone has one, and some people would do anything to have one.  Sometimes, I think people just have something they place in the way of them receiving a testimony and they just don't realize that they are doing it.  It's sad.  

I'm really trying to help the members of the ward here to be enabled to do missionary work.  We have a really good ward here, and a lot of the members have the desire to share the gospel and do missionary work, but most people, in general, don't understand how to get from people knowing they’re Mormon and occasionally having a conversation about a gospel topic TO their friends and acquaintances experiencing conversion or learning the message of the Restored Gospel.  I really want to help the members get there.  It's a process though, and I feel like it's not something that has necessarily been emphasized from the missionaries over the last several months...

The members are really great here though.  We had dinner with a family this past week, and the husband said something really interesting.  He's a great missionary.  He brought up how he figured out that they are the only members that live for x amount of miles surrounding them, and he said something to the effect that it's up to them to bring those people the good news of the Restored Gospel and the Book of Mormon.  I wish everyone took on that personal accountability in doing their Father's work.  Not knowing people is never a valid excuse for not sharing the Gospel.  If we don't know people with which we can share the gospel, then we best be getting out there in society and finding a way to know people.  Sometimes I think people think that if they can just stay in their house and never go out, they receive a pass on fulfilling their baptismal covenant to share the gospel with others...we shall see ;)

Well, that's probably about it.  We did find a new investigator last night, so that's exciting.  I have to get over feeling like I'm not doing everything I am supposed to do here just because I could do a task quicker than someone else.  It's a semi-pride thing, or a lack of patience thing, or something else-thing. The Lord has blessed me in a lot of ways, so I know He's trying to teach me something here.  I'm going to do my best to not mess it up :) and learn :)

Thanks for all you do, family and friends.  I love y'all so much.  Keep up the good missionary work, family, as well.  Y'all are the best!  Seriously.  Thanks for being such great examples.  It continues to astound me at how well y'all did raising us and at how diligent you were in doing the little things that are imperative to building a Christ-centered home and family. 

Love y'all!

Elder Thornton #1