Elder Thorpe's final words...

" As I think about my mission, so much has happened.  I've learned and changed so much. I feel like there literally aren't words to describe it. I feel like Mormon how he says 6 different times throughout the Book of Mormon that he can't write 'but a hundredth part' of what happened. Anytime someone asks me these questions that's how I feel. I can try but it will never do it justice. I am a new person than I was 2 years ago. I've grown so much. My faith in the Savior has increased exponentially. My charity for others has done the same. I feel that I've really learned how to rely on the Lord to receive revelation for how to best help other people come back to Heavenly Father. My testimony of the Savior is so strong, I don't know that I really had "my own" testimony of Jesus Christ before my mission and I learned so much about him on my mission from my mission presidents. But this last conference Elder Bednar said something that struck me. He said, "If all you know about the Savior is something that someone else has told you, your testimony is on a shaky foundation." That statement pierced my soul. I felt he was talking directly to me. (Remind me to tell you the experience I had on Easter Sunday when I get home.) 

 The Gospel of Jesus Christ means everything to me.

 I remember being in my first area with Elder Kish and we talked about how both of us had realized just how important this message is. I know that only in and through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ can we find true and lasting happiness in this life and eternal salvation in the next! Elder Bonvissuto told me multiple times "stop relating everything to the Gospel" haha. I didn't even realize I was doing it until he said something to me a few weeks ago. I realized and told him that the reason I relate everything to the Gospel is because the Gospel is everything! I don't know what my life would be like without it. Nor do I ever want to find out."  

 Elder Jantsen Thorpe

"It ain't over till the fat lady sings!

Hahahaha I can imagine what that would be like getting a random call from the mission president! But that's cool he called you. In my departing interview he told me that he and the Lord were very proud of me and he felt like he needed to tell my mother that too. So he asked me for your number! He is an amazing man too, the Illinois Chicago mission is in great hands! 

So good to hear you guys were able to make it down to president and sister Binghams homecoming. now you understand what I mean when I talk about them. I respect and look up to them so much! They definitely changed my life! I wish I could have been there to hear them speak. But I'm glad you got to meet and talk to them, and that they had good things to say about me lol. 

I can't wait to hug you too! Only 3 more weeks. It's hard to believe and it doesn't feel real. There is still work for me to do here. It ain't over till the fat lady sings!;) president Bingham gave me some really good talks about returning home and I know for sure that it won't stop in 3 weeks, but I will be a servant of the Lord for the rest of my life!! 

This week was great! Idk if I told you about Leady and Fernando, but they are two kids 11, and 9, and we are preparing them for baptism on August 3rd. They are on track and I'm praying so hard that they stay on track and I get to see them make that covenant with God!! Their family is so awesome, so much fun. We meet with them on Thursdays and Sundays and the mom, Idania, always feeds us the best Dominican republic food. I'm excited to tell you all about how we found them when I get home. It's such a cool story! The Lord definitely has his hand in this work, Mom. I know that he lives! 

Brother Filio is taking us downtown for our preparation day so it should be a good time. I love you and miss you guys lots!

- Elder Thorpe 

"God bless the USA"

We haven't heard from Tyler yet but Leo is so solid! He met with the missionaries last week and went to church on Sunday!! We asked him about it and he said "it was great, I had a good time. I'll definitely be going back next week" so dope.

 Man I'm excited to get into the come follow me when I get home, it sounds pretty awesome!! I love acts 2. I feel like all those people who think speaking in tongues is just rambling in an unknown language have never actually read acts 2. It's so clear what the gift of tongues Is!

The 4th of July is one of my all time favorite holidays, I love America. Haha elder Bonvissuto was probably annoyed with me because I was singing "God bless the USA" all day long haha. We had a typical missionary day, nothing different. We did go to dinner at red lobster tho just us. Elisette gave us a gift card, it was so nice of her.

We met president Shumway this week! He is awesome! So is his wife and family! I love them, sad I only get a few more weeks with them. I also had a departing interview with him yesterday which was super good. He gave me some great advice and a blessing too, good stuff. 

Love you all!

Elder Thorpe

1. 4th of July dinner

2. Knee high on the 4th of July! 

3. Good times

4. Me and my posterity. Gibby, Freeze, Bonvissuto, and Egbert 

- Elder Thorpe 

Independence week!

This is a little bit of what Elder Thorpe sent this week:  (No group email)

This week was great! Do you remember Tyler? He is the summer sales guy that we have been teaching. Well we met with him last Monday morning and he brought his friend Leo. Holy cow was Leo prepared and he motivated Tyler to be more into it too!! They decided to stop the summer sales out here and go back home so they both left on Saturday. Bc Leo was so into the gospel and he kept saying "it all makes so much sense" we ended up meeting with them every morning this week before they left. We taught them all the lessons and they both committed to be baptized and they are excited to meet the missionaries in New York (tyler) and New Jersey (leo) and continue preparing for baptism! It was such an amazing experience getting to know and teach them, I love those guys so much. I'll send some pictures we took with them.

- Elder Thorpe 

This is Tyler and Leo.  Also Sister Bayne, the member who found Tyler, all of our lessons were in her house.  Then a picture of her son Adam who sat in on the lessons too.  He is inactive, but still bore some awesome testimony!

BAPTISM! "Just couldn't wait!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have an authentic Estonian meal. Sister Riismaa in our ward is super cool and feeds us good Estonian food, this week she made us some good pasta with some baked chicken drumsticks. Good stuff. Elder Bonvissuto even said the pasta was good!

The highlight of the week was for sure Elisette's baptism on Saturday! We met with her pretty much every day this week to help her be ready for Saturday! She was so excited and showed up 45 minutes earlier to the baptism because she "just couldn't wait". She asked me to baptize her and elder Bonvissuto to confirm her. It was an awesome service and she was so happy!! It was pretty cool to have elder Bonvissuto confirm her too, he was really nervous but he did an awesome job! The gift of tongues is real! 

We had a couple really solid lessons with Miriam this week too, she is doing great! We have been teaching her the commandments and she knows she needs to make some changes in her life. She is super sincere and when she prays in our lessons she asks God to continue to help her to get on the right path. She brought her 5 yr old son to church on Sunday, man he is a cute little kid. After church he just wanted to arm wrestle us haha. We are really excited for her!

Things are great here. Crazy that this is president Binghams last week as our mission president, he will be greatly missed! But we are excited to welcome in president and sister Shumway! 

I hope y'all have a great week!

-Elder Thorpe 

#whatsmysnack

Baptism of Elisette

"Cited our minds forward by taking us backward."

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some straight up coconut! We bought it on Monday, cracked that bad boy open with a hammer. It was the first time I've ever had legit coconut like that and the milk is dang good! We snacked on coconut throughout the week, it was good stuff! 

We had another great week this week. We met with Elisette 3 times and she is looking super solid for her baptism this Saturday!! Nathan has been out of town for a bit and hasn't been able to come to church so we pushed his baptism to the 29th! Things are going really well for that family! 

We have been teaching this Hispanic woman named Miriam and she is another one of the Elect that our father in heaven has put into our path. We have taught her the first 3 lessons and she came to church on Sunday! She always sets up the appointments for us and she even asked us if she could come to church before we invited her! She is loving it and is on date for July 20th but if she continues to progress like this we will move it up! 

We had our final zone conference with President Bingham on Friday. Such a bitter sweet day. We got to the buffalo grove stake center at 8:45am and didn't leave until about 7pm! President "cited our minds forward by taking us backward". He taught us for a solid 3 hours straight about foreordination and the pre-mortal life! It was so good! I'm going to miss that man and his infinite wisdom very much! At the end when he and sister Bingham bore their testimonies and pretty much said their goodbyes the whole room was in tears! We are excited to continue to progress this mission with president and sister Shumway! 

The Burg continues to be booming! This is the Lord's work and I'm so grateful to be apart of it! I hope y'all have a great week! 

-Elder Thorpe 

#whatsmysnack coconut

Only pic I've got for the week, but it's a good'n

"Is this what it's always like?"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have a spam, egg, and cheese sandwich, made by a Navajo! Elder Eltsosie had some spam and was talking up his spam sandwiches so we had him make us sandwiches after district council. Elder Freeze's mom sent him grandma sycamore bread so we were eating good.

It's been a good couple of days since I emailed last haha. On Saturday and Sunday we had a mini missionary with us, it was a real good time. His name was Derrick and he is a member up in Rockford and he is from Tanzania. He and his family came here 7 years ago, met the missionaries and got baptized. We had a lot of success with him, we found 2 new people and put 3 of the people we were teaching on date. In all of our lessons he bore some awesome testimony about the book of Mormon. The day started out rough tho haha we had a lesson cancel so we tracted for an hour and a half and literally no one opened the door. We were only able to talk to 3 people that were just out and about, it was brutal. Derrick said, "is this what it's always like?" Haha poor guy, luckily the rest of the time was a lot better so he got to see both sides of the work.

We found an awesome lady named Miriam  on Wednesday. We tracted into her and at first she was not having it, we started talking to her about her family and how much her two little kids mean to her. She then let us teach her the restoration and we set up a return appointment for Sunday. When we came back she was there with her cousin Mila and we taught them both. Miriam had read the pamphlet we gave her and asked a bunch of great questions. We put them both on date for July 20th!

Things are good in the burg! Have a great week!

-Elder Thorpe

#whatsmysnack spam,egg and cheese

Dinner with Peruvians, Egyptians, Italians and a Utahn

Apt selfie

Boutta teach some lessons