October 19th, 2015

It amazes me that we are already to the 19th of October! My companion and I were thinking this morning about everything that has happened these last few months and we are just amazed at how fast all of these events happened. This week was no exception. Since we had received our leadership training the week before, this last week we gave our zone training which went pretty good. I'm not sure what it was about this last zone training that we did, but I felt the need to study a ton for it and to prepare myself even more than I normally prepare myself and so that is what I did. Every morning I sat down at my desk to study for what the Lord would have me share with my zone. I prayed often to know what it was to share and I received a very clear answer which came to me as a surprise. What we had been preparing was a bunch of paperwork talk coming from the area book, but as well as the way we are using our time and how we plan. The answer that I received while preparing was this. "Austin, you can't share the information that you know. What you need to share is the spirit that makes you want to do all of the paperwork and the hefty tasks that you do as missionaries. I understood my answer quite clearly and again. The next day Elder Nielsen and I spent hours planning powerpoints and presentations for our zone, all saved on my USB. 

The morning of the zone training we were just about ready to leave when I realized that I didn't have my USB. I had somehow lost it and it was nowhere to be found in the room. We went searching for it because our whole zone training was on it, but sadly ended up without any results. I decided that I needed to counsel with my Father and so I put myself to prayer. While praying I once again received an unexpected answer and what I felt or rather heard was, "There is something that you need to learn today and I am going to teach it to you."

There was something that I needed to learn that day and that was to trust in the spirit at all times. I have thought about this experience that I had and it makes me realize that this isn't my work. It isn't my zone, nor was it my zone training. The Lord is at the head of his work and he guides it. My testimony of leaders of the church that are called of God has increased immensely. Our Father in Heaven calls us to serve in callings to help direct his work and He expects us to confide in him and do his work how he wants it done. What I felt at first as my answer still was true. It wasn't me nor my companion that taught the zone, but it was rather the spirit that testified. The zone training was a little difficult to give without the powerpoints and without the notes, but I sure was able to learn something and able to grow through this experience. 

The rest of this week was really good. The zone is stronger than ever. In fact, I just got off a phone call with one of our assistants asking about what we are doing in the zone to have so much success. I told him the answer is easy. We have been focusing on what our objective is as missionaries. "Invite others to come unto Christ through his gospel and Atonement." I feel blessed to work with such great missionaries and to help them become the best servants they can be. 

Here in the ward we are doing really well. I love so many different people here. The ward members flock to us to be able to teach with us. I feel like the Lord has truly touched the hearts of these members and has allowed them to see more clearly what it means to be a part of the work of salvation.

I love you all so much and you are always in my prayers. I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Thorpe

October 12th, 2015

As I was studying in the scriptures this morning there was one scripture that came to my mind, which led to more scriptures that came to my mind, all having the same meaning and message and that message is, I am called of God to be a disciple and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ in everything I do. I am a light to the people here and I am to share the everlasting gospel to my brothers and sisters that are here in Peru, waiting to hear my voice and the message that I bring. At times I feel overwhelmed and inadequate of my calling, but then I remember my commision, 

I am called of God.
My authority is above that of kings of the earth.
By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him--to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.
My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine.
My Commission is to do what He wants done; To say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous Latter-day work.
How great is my calling!

I know that this commision is true and that I am here to represent my Savior and to do what he would have me do. I love my calling to be a missionary and to share the everlasting gospel to my brothers and sisters. I know that I am on the Lord's errand and doing what he would have me do. 

I often think about who I represent, not only the Savior, but all of you. I think of how you would want to see me as a missionary and what you would want me to do, and as I think of this I am strengthened to be the best missionary that I can be. I know that I am not perfect and that I have a lot I need to learn still, but I also know that the Lord strengthens me and lifts me to places that I can't reach by myself.

This last week was a pretty good week. I have been thinking so much about my zone this last week and what we can accomplish as a stake. We have had a lot of meetings this last week with the stake, President Rios, as well as with the zone, and I think because of all these meetings I have been thinking a lot about my zone. We had our monthly meeting with the stake President and Mission President which went really well. There is so much growth here in Laureles and I feel honored to have a part in seeing that growth. We also had our monthly leadership training. It was long, but inspired. I am excited to share the same spirit that I was able to feel at the leadership council. I love giving trainings because I love helping missionaries! I look forward to sharing this training with our zone this Wednesday!

This week has been pretty crazy when it comes to food. Elder Nielsen and I are offered so much food it is insane. For example, this last week we ate 6 days straight free hamburgers, and they aren't bad Peruvian hamburgers, they were actually pretty good. I love the members here in Moche and how much they want to help the missionaries, even if it is just giving them a bite to eat. 

I love the gospel and I love my calling. As I said at the beginning of this email, I will be an example of those that believe by being a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ in all way, shape, or form. 

I love you all and pray for you always! I hope you have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Thorpe

October 5th, 2015

This last week was incredible. Can I just say that I love general conference. I feel so spiritually nourished and uplifted. The spirit of this conference was absolutely immense. I hope all of you were able to feel it. While watching conference there were a couple of themes that really stood out to me. The first was Eternal Progression. We are on a path of discipleship and we must continually remember the covenants we have made and the people who we are. The Journey of discipleship is one of continual improvement. It might not be perfect, but in the end the destination is Life Eternal. The Second thing that stood out to me was the importance of the Holy Ghost. As promptings come to us, we must act and choose to stand for what is right. As we so do, the Lord will guide and bless us. The Last thing that stood out to me is the testimony of Living prophets and apostles. I have witnessed such powerful testimony of our Prophet Thomas S. Monson as he struggled in this last conference. I truly know that he is called of God to do his work here upon the Earth. I love him and sustain him as the Living Prophet along with the 3 new apostles that have been called. 
I love the Gospel and I love my calling. I will, as the Prophet declared, stand as an example of all of you, being the believers of him who has suffered for all of us that we may return to our Heavenly home. 

Love,

Elder Thorpe

P.S. Elder Nielsen and I are staying together! We also made hamburgers last night and had a great change night party! 

September 28th, 2015

This week has flown by so fast. I have been trying to think of everything that we did this week and to tell you the truth, my mind is blank. I'm not sure what I did this week, so this email might be short.

Elder Nielsen and I had a lot of success teaching people this week. We somehow ended up with more time than normal to teach, so that was super good. We have been working with a few goals in our area, them being, work with members, obtain more new investigators, work with the ward council, and find the people that are able to progress. We focused a lot on each of these areas this last week and had a lot of success doing so. We are super excited to continue working with members and working with a ward council. We have had a few challenges with them because of lack of training, but now that we have done trainings and now that we have vision, I think we are going to be able to see more success. 

This is the last week of changes, and Elder Nielsen and I are pretty positive that we will be staing together, so hopefully that doesn't change! We are having such a good time together and we don't want to be changed! Especially because we printed out a huge photo of us at the temple! (I'll send the picture) 

I love the gospel so much! I feel so incredibly blessed to preach the gospel and to be here in Peru! I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week!

Love,

Elder Thorpe

September 21st, 2015

After 9 months of preparation and multiple spiritual experiences, Daniel was baptized. Daniel is someone that was called from the beginning and the Lord has been preparing him all the way up to his baptismal date. He had a hard time deciding to get baptized because he has OCD, but with much prayer and with the faith that he has, he decided to get baptized and continue forward. He is a very special person to me and I know without a doubt that he will continue to choose to do what is right. His baptismal service was probably the most special one that I have participated in. As we got into the water we were shivering and could barely breath, but as he entered completely into the water and came out, the water became warm. Daniel looked at me and said, "Elder Thorpe, I feel it. I feel good." That is the power of the gospel and of the Holy Ghost. I know that it is real and I know that He was present at the baptism. It reminded me of Jesus's baptism and how the dove came flying in after he was baptized. I can testify that he was there and testified to all that were present that the decision that Daniel had made was the right one.

This last week was really good. Felt a little short because we had our P-day on Tuesday, but all in all a really good week. Elder Nielsen and I are all settled in and have now added 2 other elders to our room. We have a great time together and I look forward to spending more time together. The work of the Lord is true. The Book of Mormon is true and helps us understand why we are here and what direction God wants us to take. I truly feel blessed to be a part of this work and to be a part of all the miracles and blessings. 

I love you all and pray for you always. I hope you have an incredible week!

Love,

Elder Thorpe

September 15, 2015

Another Month has gone and passed by. I can't believe that I have been on my mission for 14 months today! This time has continually passed by so fast and I'm not sure if It will ever slow down. Every week I have such a full schedule and before you know it my week is gone. My companion and I are just amazed how fast the time has gone by while being together. It is our 4th week together and it feels like we have only been together for 2! Elder Nielsen and I get along so well and we are having the greatest time here in Moche. The work is truly hastening and the Lord is at the head of it.

This last week is a week I would like to call plan tacos! We have come to find out that Less actives love tacos, and so what we have been doing with all the less actives that we meet is that we have been setting up times to make tacos with them. This last week we made tacos twice and they were so good! Before the mission I didn't care too much for tacos, but let me tell you, the way we are making them with all of these less actives has been incredible and I can now say that I love tacos and guacamole! 

This week we wanted to help our Ward council out and so we created a training for all of them to talk about how they have such a huge role in the work of salvation and how we are able to be a part of the work hastening. Everyone in our ward council got super excited to start working a lot more effectively. We established a ward mission plan and we are excited to see how we will be able to work with all the members and the plan that we established.

We also decided to participate in the annual ward talent show here in Moche and we decided to sing Hallelujah in English and Spanish, so that was way fun. Elder Nielsen and I have been working with an investigator named Daniel and he decided to help us out a little bit with the talent show by practicing with us, but he didn't want to get out in front of everyone because he is a little bit timid. He decided that he wanted to get baptized though and so he will be baptized this Saturday! We are super excited for him and plan on visiting him today since it's his birthday. We bought him a couple things from the temple since we went to the temple today!

The temple was incredible. I love the house of the Lord and I know that I am able to receive inspiration and revelation as I search and ask diligently. I love the gospel and I love the Lord. I know that this is his perfect gospel and that he is calling on us all to take a part in hastening his work. He is asking more of us every day and it is our duty to answer his call in hastening his work.

Love, Elder Thorpe

September 7th, 2015

If there has been one thing that I have learned this week it is that there is always a reason why our Father in Heaven calls certain people to certain positions to serve and that is because they are ready to receive revelation and act upon it. I'm not sure what this church would do, let alone myself, if we didn't believe in divine modern revelation. The Lord loves us and wants the best for us and for that he blesses us with revelation when we are worthy and ready for it. 

To start off my week Elder Nielsen and I went downtown to go and grab a bite to eat and then to go and buy rope to jump rope since I left mine in my old area... I was really sad when I found out I left it and I was a little discourage about starting up again, but now that I have a piece of rope I am ready to get back into the routine. That night we had a Family Home Evening with one of our investigators and we watched Meet the Mormons. We are super excited for him because he is planning on getting baptized on the 19th of this month.

On Tuesday we had our monthly leadership training with President and the assistants which went really well. We talked about hastening the work of salvation and about the Book of Mormon. We focused a lot on our conversion to the gospel and how we can help others understand that the Book of Mormon is how we can be converted. After the training we went to play some sports, which this time they brought a basketball, so my comp and I went off to shoot with a few other people while everyone else played soccer. We both ended up playing soccer by the end of it. You would think that after being in for Peru for about 14 months now I would be really good at soccer, but that isn't true.

Wednesday was a pretty relaxing day because we were with Hermana Rios the entire day. We met up with her to do room checks which went pretty good. Being a zone leader I am in charge of all the money that we have as a zone and so doing these room checks kind of killed all of my zone budget, but that is alright. We took Hermana Rios to a restraunt in our area which is probably the best food I have had here in Peru. We told her that it was super expensive but all she said was if it was clean and good food, then we would go. So we went and had a great time with her. We were able to get to know her a lot better and so that was a really good experience for us.

The rest of the week we did a lot of shopping for supplies as well as planning for our zone training that we had on Saturday. Planning took a little bit of time, but it was all worth it by the end of it. We visited a couple of other people throughout the week including our pensionista who is really interested in the gospel, so we are super excited for her. On Saturday we gave our zone training, which went super well and was super spiritual. We talked a lot about the importance of members and how we can better work as missionaries as the Lord hastens his work. We are super excited for this next month and for the success that we are going to have.

Saturday night we had a lesson that we invited the bishop to which turned out really good. We have been working with the Casana Family for a little while now and they are now ready to take the next step by being baptized. The wife has decided, but the husband was a little hesitant, so this lesson that we had with the bishop was crucial. We talked about choosing now and not putting things off and as we each testified of the importance of acting on spiritual promptings José, the dad, was able to say what he knew to be true and decided to pray and continue working on being prepared for the 26th of September. The Bishop prophesied saying that he would get baptized with his wife and we know that we will as well. It was really cool after the lesson because the bishop was telling us that he had to say what he said because the spirit told him that him being over this area and this family, should help them understand what God thought and what his plans are for them.

I love how perfect the gospel is and how perfect the spirit works in us. I know it to be true. I have felt it and am guided by it every day to a point where I can't deny how incredible it is and what it means to me. I love the gospel I love my mission and I want everyone to know it. 

I love you all so much and hope you have an incredible week.

Love,

Elder Thorpe