April 25th, 2016

Well at the end of this week we will be in the month of May! It is so crazy how fast time goes by here in the mission.

To start off I want to say that we had our baptism this last week! Hermana Lidia was baptized on Saturday! It was probably one of the most spiritual baptisms that I have ever had here in the mission. Lidia for the past 2 weeks has been expressing to us her desire to be forgiven and to be clean of everything that she has ever done in her life and we explained to her that through baptism she would be able to receive the forgiveness of her sins and be washed clean. When she got into the baptismal font she had such a calmness about her. She new that this was the moment to be washed clean and to be forgiven. When she came straight way out of the water she looked at us and started praying and publicly thanking her Father in Heaven for the forgiveness of her sins and then started to testify of Christ and that it is only through him that we can receive the remission of sins. It was such an incredible experience. 

This whole last week has been super good and full of miracles. I just love being a missionary and I love beeing able to be guided by the spirit and for the dirrection that it gives me to be able to help other people. I love my mission so much and I am sad that it is going to come to an end soon, but luckily I still have more time to serve with all my heart for these last 2 months!

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

Love,
Elder Thorpe

April 18th, 2016

Hey everyone! This last week for me was absolutely fantastic! My companion and I have really got a hold of things here in Bellamar and let me tell you, things are going super good for the both of us. This last week we were able to teach so many lessons it was so great! Something that I have been noticing these last 6 months of my mission is the way that I have been teaching. It has been so amazing to see a change from when I had 18 months in the mission until now and it wasn't necessarily a change in language but rather a change in how I present the gospel so that it is easier for others to understand it and apply it in their lives. Teaching the gospel is probably my favorite thing to do and I think I love it because it is something that I feel like I'm really good at. There is one thing for sure that I know and that is without the spirit, I wouldn't be able to teach how I teach and I wouldn't be able to help people with their problems and concerns if it weren't for the spirit. I feel like Ammon when he praised God in giving him such strength to be able to be a tool in his hand in converting so many of his Lamanite brethren. I love the gospel and know that it is true with all of my heart!

This last week we have been preparing and investigator that has been preparing for baptism. Her name is Lidia and will be getting baptized on the 23rd of April so if you could have her in your prayers that would be wonderful. We are also working with her husband Pablo as well as daughter Milagros and they hopefully will be able to make the same decision that Lidia has made. This last week we also found a young man named Cesar. He is such a great person and has the desires to change. In our first lesson with him he expressed his desires to follow God and do what he wants him to do and so we are super excited for him and to be able to help him achieve what he and God wants him to achieve. 

Well that was pretty much my week. I guess you could say that this last week I have been focussing a lot on faith and trust in the Lord which has really helped me this last week and I can for sure tell you that I saw many miracles and the Lord´s hand throughout this entire week.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Thorpe

April 11th, 2016

The Lord works in mysterious ways and at times the results of what he does don't even come in the time that we might expect them to come in but somehow they always come. This last week I was able to see a few tender mercies here in my area of bellamar. On Wednesdays my companion and I teach an English class in our church building. This particular Wednesday there was a familiar face that I recognized but wasn't quite sure who it was until after we started talking and I soon realized and he soon realized that we had know each other before. He ended up being an old investigator of mine that I was teaching in my very first area. It was good to hear from him and hear that his mom is doing excellent. His mom was a less active that we were trying to activate and from what it sounded like to me, his mom is still active in the church. Then on Saturday we took our district leaders out to eat and while we were in the mall I noticed that someone had called out my name and so I turned around and standing before me was another old investigator that I had in my first area named Soledad. I'm not sure if I told you but she was someone that was preparing to be baptized while I was in Buenos Aires but wasn't able to. I am happy to say that she has now been baptized and a member of the church. Where am I going with this? Well to be honest part of the tender mercy was the fact that I saw these two people again and that they are doing good, but more than anything is that the Lord works through imperfectness. When I was in my first area I didn't think anyone would understand me or even remember who I was since I was only there for a short amount of time, but this week I have received testimony that the Lord works through imperfect things to be able to bring to pass his perfect gospel, and through the imperfectness and the spirit, the gospel is taught and peoples lives are changed.

This morning I was studying a little bit about what President Nelson shared in conference about accessing our priesthood. I found myself studying in 1 Samuel chapters 9 and 10. Two priciples that I learned while studying these chapters is that, one, In order to access priesthood power we must go to where God is, meaning that we must study the doctrine of the gospel. And two, we must have a changed heart. Most importantly is that we can not change our heart BY OUR SELVES. God has to change our heart. 1 Samuel 10:9. I know that this is true and I have noticed that by having a changed heart and by understaning the Lord's doctrine is when we are able to access priesthood power.

This week has been a good week and I hope the next one is just as good. I love you all a lot and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Thorpe

Elder Perkes and Elder Thorpe

 Leadership training

April 4th, 2016

Well we have made it to April! Like I say all the time, March flew by and I'm sure April will be just about the same. This last week has been a really good week and not just because it was missionary vacation weekend but because we had a lot of success here in the area. We started out the week with a member calling us up asking if he could come and accompany us for the entire day which we said yes! It was really awesome because he is a recent convert from a different ward that is preparing to serve a mission. The entire time he was asking us about missionary life and what we did to prepare to serve a mission! I have no doubt that he is going to be an excellent missionary! We had a really good teaching day with him and so that was a plus!

On Wednesday we had our trimester interviews with President Rios. Those also went really well. It has got to the point with my mission president that we are so comfortable around each other that the setting feels like we are just great friends which I really like. Every time I walk into an interview my President always makes sure to tell me how much he trusts me and it wasn't different this time around. In fact he told me how the rest of my mission will be going and the reason why he still has me here as a zone leader after being a zone leader for 1 year! His response was simple, "Elder Thorpe, I need mature zone leaders that can train new zone leaders that will be coming up" A lot of the former zone leaders received different assignments this last transfer and so I was shocked when I was told that I would finish my mission as a zone leader, but I know that the lord needs me doing this. So that was really good hearing from my mission president how much he trusts in me and what he has planned for me as one of his leaders here in the mission. 

Here in the area we have a couple of people progressing such as Mitsuka and Milagros. We are working really hard with both of them so that they can be baptized.

Conference was absolutely amazing. I loved all of the talks and loved being instructed by my leaders. I sustain and support each and every one of them. I could probably go on for hours talking about conference, but I will leave that for another day. Just know that I really enjoyed it. 

Anyways, that is how my week went! I hope you all had amazing weeks and that this week as well is a good one!
Love,
Elder Thorpe

Oh I totally forgot to tell you all! I ran into my first convert this last week! He teaches dance classes here in my area and so I will be able to seen him often! If you don't remember his name is Dario. He is doing really good and hopefully I can help him with his desires to serve a mission! He told me that one of my trainers (Elder Diaz) Is planning on getting married and so that is exciting! I love you all!