Monday April 7, 2014
Hey family,
Life has been good overall.
Chris's ankle looks Nasty. True story.
So, last Thursday, we had
the amazing opportunity to go mountain biking with President Bernhisel.
Just Elder Curtis and myself. It was awesome. President is in
ridiculously good shape. I did pretty well and only crashed a couple of
times. Seriously though, some of these drops where like 8 feet straight
down almost . . . in other words if you weren't on a bike, you wouldn't be walking
up this path, you'd be climbing . . . like up a wall. I thought I was
about to die (not really, but close) a couple of times, but somehow my bike
tires managed to stay on the trail just when I thought I was about to go
careening into a ton of trees. At the very beginning, (remember, this is
my first time mountain biking) I did what they call an Endo. Yeah, I hit
the brakes too hard on a hill and I went supermanning into the dirt. Not
too bad of a crash though, but I do have a nice 6 inch cut on my calf that I
took a picture of and will get to you sometime. It was super fun though.
I also got to borrow President's bike since mine is a disaster.
That night, we had dinner
at President and Sister Bernhisel's home, and then President came out proselyting
with us. We had a lesson with our Relief Society President and her
husband first, which went really well. It was definitely a good lesson
plan. Then, afterwards, she directed us to 2 of her neighbors that we
went and talked to with President. Neither was interested, but it was
really good. I love President Bernhisel. I will definitely be
visiting him in Florida someday. He and Sister Bernhisel are the best.
Sis. Bernhisel is just so full of love for everyone. Even when
she's upset with someone or slightly rebuking someone, she is so amazingly
loving; it's actually kind of funny sometimes.
This week, I also went on
exchange down to the Raleigh YSA ward in Apex. It was great. I
never served in a YSA ward so it was a good experience. The missionary I
was with is a really good, hard-working missionary. They are the zone
leaders in Apex. That night, we went to the YSA's capture the flag
bonfire activity where we gave a devotional about spiritual fire and how we can
keep our fires burning bright. One of their investigators also came and
had a good time. It was great.
Conference was great as
usual. I love President Monson's talk on love. I thought Love was a
heavy theme this conference, and his talk is something that I would like to study
more in depth because I think I will really benefit from doing so. Elder
Nelson and Elder Scott were also very good. I really liked the Bishop's
talk about the Olympic medalists that were LDS. That was really good.
Quick story: we missed most of Elder Holland's and all of President
Rasband's talk because as were sitting in the chapel, I heard this faint voice
calling out Hello or something, and I thought that someone was locked out and
trying to get in. This was when I was in Cary still, which is near Apex.
We go out into the hall to investigate and we see this older lady who is
slightly frantic and desperate. Apparently, she was trying to get up into
Wake Forest to go to her daughter's house but got lost and couldn't find the
beltway, and she happened to turn down the church's road and saw cars outside,
so she turned in hoping to find someone that could help her. She wasn't
LDS. Anyways, we got our GPS and helped her find where she needed to go,
giving her turn by turn directions on a piece of paper with our number and
such. She said that she is the believer in her family and that she tries
to help her family out faith-wise. I asked her if we could share our
message with her, but she said that she would have to think about it, but I
hope that she gives us a call. She was so thankful and appreciative of us
"fine young gentlemen." I love serving others. and I
figure that the Lord would probably have had us in the hallway of the church
ministering to one of God's daughters in need over sitting in the pews listening
to the apostles speak of ministering to others, so I think we we're justified
in missing part of conference. (I'll catch it later :) )
So, this week is going to
be crazy busy, but great! We have activity zone conferences in Wilmington
and Chapel Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are heading down to
Wilmington tonight, and we are going to go proselyting with a couple sets of
Elders this evening. Then on Friday, we get to go to the temple!! :)
I love the temple. and something that I've found is that our temple
trips always come up right when I need that direction and peace the most.
Ah, the temple. One of my favorite lines that the spirit really
brought to my heart with great power was when President Monson said that we are
a temple-building and temple-attending people. I think that that was a
surreptitious rebuke/command from the Lord's prophet to us that we need to be
attending the temple more regularly. Right now, I'm kind of limited on
that, but I promise to myself with y'all as witnesses that I will make temple
attendance and worship a regular and frequent occurrence when the opportunity
arises :)
Well, I think that is it.
I can't think of anything else to say. I did get a letter from
grams.
Thanks for being the best
family in the world!! Seriously though, I'm not kidding.
Love,
Elder Thornton #1
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