June 29th, 2015

Dear Family,

Wow I can't believe we are at the end of June! In just 2 days my mission will be officially split and President Rios will be here! I am super excited to meet President Rios! What I have heard is that he is super powerful and such a great teacher. Also that he is half my size! This last week in the mission Peru Trujillo has been a good last week. The Marler's set up a going away type of thing which was nice. They shared with us such great testimonies and advice for our futures which was nice. We also were able to go to a restaurant with them which was good. The departure was a little rough, but we all know the reasons why we are really here in Peru.

I have been thinking about something for a while and I thought I would send you my thoughts about a question that I have.

Why does the Lord require changes?

My answer is this. The Lord requires changes because he knows our potential. We live in a gospel of changes. Not necessarily the doctrine itself, but the people. The Lord is going to offer us opportunities to change and is going to bless us if we choose to change, because that is what it means to become more like the savior. To change. If there were no changes, we would never be able to reach our full potential. We would never be able to become like our savior, even if we lived a pretty good life without change. The Lord wants us and expects us to change. It is up to us to decide to allow the Lord into our lives and accept those changes so that we may become like him. 

On the other hand, why does the Lord require changes in his work. Once again the answer is easy. The Lord knows the potential of his work and will change it so that it can reach it's potential. Just as he changes missions, stakes, wards, and the actual work itself. If there were no changes there would be no progression and the work of the Lord wouldn't be.

This week has been a little rough because my companion was a little sick and the sickness got passed over to me, and so it was a tough week of sharing the gospel. The good news is, both my companion and I have bounced back and are excited to keep the work going. We had a pretty good talk while walking in the streets, thinking about what we can do with our zone and the vision that we want for our zone. We want to be able to set a clear vision so that our whole zone can be on the same page so that we are able to become more united and better servants of the Lord. We look forward to the leadership training that we will have with President Rios so that we may have a clear idea of the vision that he has and how we will be able to transmit the message to the missionaries in our zone.

I love this great work. I hope you all know that I have a huge testimony of the Work of the Lord and of the blessings that come from it.

I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week and a great 4th of July! My companion and I will be making Hotdogs to celebrate!!

Love,

Elder Thorpe