September 15th, 2014

Dear Family,

This week has been pretty great! In fact, I have learned so much this week from my personal studies, even though we only have an hour a day to study. I have learned so much from Predicar mi Evangelio and in Doctrina y Convenios. I never realized how much Doctrina y Convenios can help me as a missionary. It has honestly given me so much strength throughout my days, as they are long and very difficult, but as I have been reading, I have more of a desire to work and serve even harder than I am able to and that is because if we put all our trust and faith in the Lord we are able to serve and are blessed with unimagineable things. The amount of strength that I receive has honestly amazed me, and I feel so blessed, because I know that without it, I wouldn't be able to do this work.

This week Elder Porter and I taught a lot of different and new people. We received so many contacts from members this week and so we have I think a total of 7 new investigators. Along with that, we have been teaching a lot of Menos activos throughout our days, and I honestly have seen so much progress in so many different people. 

We also had stake conference this week, so the baptism was a false alarm. The baptism is now this Saturday for sure and I am still super excited for Frank and his decision of being baptized. Elder Porter and I have been working really hard with getting all of the blessings and ordinances down in Spanish, well mainly for me because he already knows them, but I am happy to say that I have them all memorized and not only this but we have given multiple blessings throughout this week! 

Today for P-day we are going up to some mountain with a church at the top of it, so hopefully I will be able to take some pictures and send them home!

Thank you for all of your love and letters. I appreciate them so much and I have so much joy as I read them! I love you all and I pray for you every night!

Love,
Elder Thorpe