December 28th, 2015

For the last week I have been thinking about all that has happened here in the mission, who I have become, and how much I have grown closer to Christ and while thinking about this I asked myself the question, "What do I want to accomplish by the end of my mission and who do I want to be as I come home" Although I have learned a lot here in my mission and I have grown a lot, I know that there is even more for me to become and more for me to learn. If I were to say that I have become a perfect missionary it would be a lie, but what I can say is that I have tried to follow the spirit and put my trust in the Lord and I feel like as I have done this I have become closer to my Savior and have become a better person. I know that these next 6 months are going to go by super fast and I plan on taking advantage of every moment that I have to become a better person.

This last week being the week of Christmas was so good. My companion and I didn't necessarily teach as much as we wished we could have, but it was still a great week of Christmas spirit and filled with the love of Christ. I feel like this Christmas I came to understand the importance of the birth of the savior and his life even more than I have ever understood it. My testimony is that He came into the world as the perfect gift of the Father to us so that he may be the light and life of the world. He came to show us that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that through him, being the light, we might find our way to make it back to the Father. He lives and stands as our light. I love him and know that because of him we may live.

I love you all so much and I hope that you have a great New Year. As this new year approaches let us all ponder the question given to us by servants of the Lord, "What lack I yet" or in other words, what can I change this new year to become more like the Savior. 

Love,

Elder Thorpe

December 21st, 2015

First of all I wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone! What a special time of the year that we are able to reflect on our Savior Jesus Christ. Many times we get caught up in all of the business of the world that we forget how simple and humble the very first Christmas was. If it wasn't for the humble yet powerful night that our Savior Jesus Christ was born we wouldn't have ever had any type of Christmas. I love the Word Christmas because it literally means more Christ. (Más Christ) It truly is a time that I have learned to love and cherish here in the mission. Although this will be my last Christmas in the field, I look forward to sharing to great message of the birth of Christ and the love that God had for us to send his only begotten son that we may have eternal life. I love it so much! This past week you could say that my companion and I witnessed a Christmas miracle. We had been praying for our investigator Manuel so that he would be able to be baptized. Friday night we went to his house and asked him how he felt and he told us that he knew that he was to be baptized the very next day. We scheduled him an interview and was baptized at 8 pm Saturday night.

I love Christmas so much and I love how much happiness this holiday brings. One of my favorite Christmas songs is Mary Did You Know. I love that song because it shows the power and importance of the birth of Christ and how important he is to each and everyone of us. A couple of missionaries in my zone and I were able to sing that song for a Christmas devotional. What power I felt as we harmonized in singing "Mary did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new, this child that you've delivered will soon deliver you"

I hope you all know that I have such a strong testimony of Christ the Lord. HE is our Savior and he is risen. He came into the world to do the will of the Father and thanks to him we will live again. I love him and am a representative of him. In this Christmas I will represent him and just as he, do the will of the Father.

I love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Thorpe

December 14th, 2015

There is one thing that I have learned this week that will be a lesson that I will never forget for the rest of my life and that is the reality and power that Satan can have upon those that yield their agency unto him, but even more important is the power of God and how he is able to take the bitter darkness and turn it into light. Although we may have trials and although times get rough, we must always trust in the Lord and his power because Light will always beat darkness!

This last week has been a little interesting. There was a lot of things that happened this week that I have never experienced in my mission and what I said up top explains my feelings about this week. It has been rough to see Satan working his power among these people, never-the-less, I know that God is here with us fighting in this battle that Satan is trying to win, but won't win.

I know without a doubt that the gospel is true and that it is through the gospel that we are able to have everlasting happiness. I know that through the atonement of Christ we may be healed and brought up to higher ground. God lives and loves us. He wants us to succeed and to feel his love. I have felt his love and do feel it every day!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Thorpe

December 7th, 2015

This week has gone by super fast. I'm not sure what was different about this week, only that it flew by. My companion and I had a little more success this last week and so that was good. We have been working on finding new people to teach since we are hardly teaching anyone and we had a little success with that. The weather here has been pretty insane. There is something that is called the kid phenomenon that comes to Peru every 10 years. It's pretty much a huge rain storm that never stops.. So every single day it has been raining a ton! There are a few other things about the phenomenon being natural disasters, but hopefuly those don't happen this time. We have been talking to a few people here and they say there will be a huge earthquake in Lima, like bigger than there ever has been before, but I'm not so sure about that. If it happens in Lima I'm not sure how it will effect Huaraz since we aren't too far away from Lima. 

Anyways, this week has been a week to reflect on the Atonement. I had 2 situations that both happened this week that have been probably the hardests situations that I have delt with here in Peru. I won't go into detail about them, but let me just say that if I didn't have the spirit leading me to say the things that these two individules needed at the time, I don't think they would have been able to understand the importance of the atonement and how it heals us. They are 2 different situations that I won't ever forget especially because of the power of the spirit that I felt as I and my companion were able to offer blessings of comfort. 

For p-day we went up to a glacier called pastor ruri. It was a neat experience to go up there with the whole zone. 

Well, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Thorpe

November 30th, 2015

Trujillo Temple