CHRISTMAS!

Hey gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack we have turkey on turkey on turkey! We had tons of left over turkey from our ward Christmas party and it all came to us. We've been eating turkey sandwiches for breakfast lunch and dinner! 

On Christmas Eve we had a snow storm, so after church us and the North elders went and shoveled! We rigged up our bike rack to carry our 4 snow shovels and we went to some older ladies in the ward and then we would just shovel a couple of their neighbors. A couple of the neighbors that we shoveled came out and said how thankful they were for us and offered to pay us. We told them we wouldn't take their money and they were dumbfounded that 4 teenage boys would just come and shovel their driveway out of the goodness of their hearts! 

This Christmas was awesome! We went caroling with the north elders, Spanish elders and the hermanas. We went to two rest homes and sang to all the people there. It was so cool, they would all sing along and clap for us, the spirit was super strong! I love christmas and the happiness and joy it brings when we focus on our Savior Jesus Christ! I hope y'all had a very merry christmas!

Elder Thorpe

Turkey on turkey on turkey!

Stanley's baptism in Joliet

Rock River and downtown Rockford

Merry Chrysler

Went to Wisconsin and their stop lights are wack.

Our shovel rack

(We loved seeing and talking to Elder Thorpe on Christmas day!)

BAPTISM!!

Hey gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack, (unfortunately I don't have a picture), but this week on exchanges, Elder Parkinson and I ate dinner at a members house. They are a younger couple who are vegan... so we had vegan veggie burgers. I'm not sure what veggies were in this patty, but there were all sorts of seeds. They said "our meal was going to be entirely vegan, but we decided to put cheese on the burgers."  I know for sure now that I will never be a vegan!

Solid week this week, our investigator Jesse got baptized! It was awesome, he invited lots of his friends and we had tons of people there. We confirmed him in sacrament meeting and elder Bagley conferred the Aronic priesthood on him after church! We are still trying to get 10 hours of recurring service and we started this week at the northern Illinois food bank. We did a lot of labeling and sorting canned food. When we sorted it was nasty, we had to take out the bad, dented, or punctured cans. The punctured ones would leak and so they were all rotten and had bugs crawling out of them and boy they smelt horrendous. We were all dry heaving haha. 

We are teaching this guy named N L who is from the Congo and barely speaks English. He and his family were able to come to our ward Christmas party which was awesome! A lot of the members introduced themselves to them and we found out that Solomon (a young boy also from Africa that is a member) is friends with N oldest son! We are excited to keep working with the L Family! We found a new investigator on Saturday named Cynthia, she is awesome and so ready for the gospel! We had a member pick her up for church and she loved it. She participated a lot in gospel principles class too! I invited her to be baptized on January 20th and she accepted! Things are going well here in Rockford! 

I hope y'all have a merry Christmas and focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I know that we have a savior Jesus Christ who died for each of us. But most importantly I know that he was resurrected and lives today and because he lives, we too will live again!

Elder Thorpe

Fillin' the font with Elder Bag Rag

My man Jesse got dunked!

I've seen more car accidents here in Rockford than I have in my whole life!

Miracles!

Hey Gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack we have a money meal that we cooked up for ourselves. We got a rack of ribs that Elder Bagley and I made in our crock pot, we threw some applewood rub on there and smothered her in BBQ sauce and it was phenomenal. The North Elders didn't have a dinner appointment either so we took the ribs to their apartment and Elder Hollist, being the great Idaho potato farmer that he is, whipped us up some Idaho mashed potatoes. We had worked hard this week so we had to treat ourselves! 

We had a pretty amazing miracle happen this week. On Monday night we were at our ward mission leaders house for MCM and the North elders get a call from a member in the ward and he tells us that he is having a stroke and he wants us to meet him at the hospital. So we leave MCM and go to the hospital. We are waiting in the parking lot for him to get there and we see another ward member pull up and get out of his car and start hurrying into the emergency room. We get out of the car and he sees us and says, "come on elders let's go". So we go into the ER with him and we ask if brother DeCoto is there yet, and the member looks at us confused and says what's wrong with brother DeCoto? He proceeded to tell us that he was there because a family in our ward was flying their plane home from Florida and they had just barely crash landed at the airport. We found out that the 3 kids on the plan were in the hospital that we were at and they were all pretty beat up but in stable condition. We were also informed that the dad, flying the plane, was in critical condition over at a trauma 1 hospital in Rockford. So Elder Bagley and I hurried over there and the North elders stayed with the 3 kids. We got to the other hospital just in time to get in and give him a blessing right before they took him in for surgery. He wasn't a pretty sight, the doctors said he was in very critical condition and they weren't sure if he would make it. He was really bandaged up and what we could see of his body was pretty gruesome. When we put our hands on his head for the blessing, the doctor said we had to be very careful because he has very serious lacerations on his head. I have never seen someone so beat up. Afterwards we went back to the North elders and waited with them at the other hospital until almost 11pm. We found out that brother DeCoto, who thought he was having a stroke, really just had a sinus infection and drove himself home from the hospital. When we finally went home we talked about the experience we had and We realized that the reason brother DeCoto called us and had us go to the hospital wasn't for him. It was so that we would be in the right place at the right time to use our priesthood to help another family in our ward. I know if we weren't at the hospital When we found out about the plane crash, we wouldn't have been able to get to the dad soon enough to give him a blessing before surgery. 

As of today the 3 kids are doing well, one daughter had to have surgery to relocate her hip but other than that they are all ok. The dad is alive and is recovering, very slowly but still recovering! I know that the Lord works miracles through his servants! The rest of the week went pretty great, we taught some lessons and did lots of service. We did service with the north elders at a members home, he has a ton of land and he wants us to till it all so we were chopping down some trees. I loved it, it made me feel like i was working at the cabin again!  We taught Jesse a bunch this week to prepare him for his baptismal interview on Saturday, which he passed with flying colors! I'm pumped for him to be baptised on Saturday! 

Rockford is dope and things are going great, I love and miss you all! Have a great week and #lighttheworld

Elder Thorpe

Helping a member insulate his house.

Zone Conference

Rockford Illinois!

Hey Gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack we have some Beast Powder #gainz. In my new apartment in Rockford, we have some weights and a bench press, so Y'all know I'm gonna be gettin yoked! I'm not exactly sure how old the protein powder is, it says it was Elder Hunters and none of the missionaries I've talked to know who he is haha. But hey protein is protein right?;)

I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father answers prayers and that he is always there for us. I prayed really hard and a lot this week because I wasn't too pumped about the transfer and leaving Joliet. But this week was awesome! My comp Elder Bagley is a great guy and an awesome missionary, he has been out 16 months so he has lots of experience, he's pretty shy though. We split an area with 2 other elders and we are also YSA, so we are the Rockford 1 south & YSA missionaries. We are around the elders who have the north half of the area a lot! It's Elder Parkinson and Hollist, Elder Parkinson came in with me and Elder Hollist came in the transfer after. They are dope and we have a ton of fun! They definitely would have been homies back at home.

So today I am wearing a short sleeve shirt, I honestly did not expect to be wearing short sleeve shirts in December in Illinois. It has been upper 50s all week here. Sadly that is supposed to end tomorrow, and the high for this next week is 28, so I'll finally really have to start bundling up. The area is great here, we have two guys who are YSA that we are teaching, Jesse and Andrew, and they are both gonna be baptized on the 16th! We have taught a couple lessons over Skype and that has been a pretty cool experience! President Griffin gave me the okay to go to Joliet and baptize Louie on Saturday so I'm super pumped for that, hopefully everything goes well and it happens!

This week my testimony was strengthened on the fact that everything that happens is totally by Divine design. Just a little example is we had a referral who requested a bible. So we went to go take him the bible and when we got out of the car and started walking to the door Elder Bagley said, "oh dang, I have no idea why I grabbed 2 bibles... oh well." So we knocked and his mom answered the door, she said he just left, but that she would take the bible for him. We told her about the Book of Mormon and she got excited and said, "Dang, I want to study with you boys, can I have a bible too?" We have little experiences like that so often everyday where we do something, not really sure why we do it, but in the end it works out and we see that there was a reason for it. I know that I am out here doing the Lord's work and as long as I keep being faithful and obedient, I will continue to be an instrument in his hands!

Elder Thorpe

Y'all know I'm gonna get yoked...

New apartment who dis

The boys big time chillin on preparation day.

Crappy pic of Rockford...

TRANSFERS!

Hey Gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack we have my 2 Thanksgiving meals! The first was a Philipino lunch at the Rancheros, the only thing I knew for sure I was eating was turkey... it all tasted pretty good though! The second is my Thanksgiving dinner at the Abbenes! That family is so awesome and they make some awesome food! I can now say I've had lasagna for Thanksgiving! And their sweet potato casserole was phenomenal!!

This past week has been really great, but it was really sad for me to get a transfer call on Saturday. I was really praying that I would get to stay in Joliet another transfer and continue to teach all of my investigators, but the Lord needs me in Rockford! I gave a talk on Sunday about having a grateful attitude in every circumstance, its funny the way the Lord works, he knew I was really gonna need to learn that as I have to leave Joliet. I've met some of the most amazing people here that I will remember forever. I, for sure, will be able to come back to baptize Louie, but Carol and Stanley both asked me to be at their baptism too, and Rockford is a 2 hour drive away. So we will see if President gives me the okay for that. 

It's really a bummer to leave Joliet at this time because when I got here we had close to zero investigators, but we worked really hard and we now have 8 investigators on date for baptism! The work here in Joliet is just starting to boom and I get the boot right before I can see any of the baptisms. We started teaching this new family who moved from Columbus Ohio, the Smith/Curry family. It's a mom with 5 kids ages from 11 down to 1, and her fiance. They are ready to receive the gospel, we taught the restoration and they were so interested and impressed. I invited them to be baptized and they said they would love to! We set a date for January 18th! I'm praying they all continue to progress towards baptism!

Today we have a lot going on, we had to wake up at 3am to get ready and head up to Naperville to teach seminary, I guess some kids from our ward requested us. Now I have to pack all of my stuff up which is a real bummer, I hate packing. I thought my suitcases were full when I left but I've gotten a lot more stuff and I have no idea how I'm gonna fit it all... I'm probably gonna have to wear a couple layers of clothing haha. We just got a call from a member who's brother has cancer and needs a blessing, so as soon as our laundry finishes we will head over to give him a blessing. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and the opportunity and authority I have act in God's name!

As I have finished my 12 week training and am moving to a new area, I've had a quote that one of my favorite coaches would always say, running through my mind. "Lets get after it!" -coach Bills 
I'm excited for the opportunity to go to Rockford and I know there is a reason I'm supposed to be there at this time, and I'm ready to "get after it!"

Hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Thorpe

Two great Thanksgiving meals!

The District

Louie and Carol

The Martins

The Dodds

The Abbenes

The crew!  Sure gonna miss serving around these elders!

Thanksgiving Week...

Hey Gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack we literally have an English muffin with butta and jam! Nuff said.

This is the last week of my 12 week training woot woot!! Pretty crazy how fast this transfer has gone by, we get transfer calls on Saturday! Elder Ruiz will be going home, which is sad, I love that guy! He is an awesome missionary and an even better person! I'm praying that Elders Einboden, Butler, Aguirre, Yount, Kish and I all stay here in Joliet for at least one more transfer! We've all grown pretty close! But we will find out Saturday if we all get to stay or who is going where!

The first part of the week was really solid, we had an awesome lesson with Louie and Carol! We taught the restoration again for Carol and after we testified of the Book of Mormon Louie asked, "Have you both prayed to know if it's true and gotten an answer?" We both said yes, then he says, "well, ok let's give it a try." So he just starts praying while holding the Book of Mormon and he asks Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon is true and if he should take it seriously. After he said amen, he paused and we sat there for a bit, then he said, "ok, I have my answer, its true!" Haha it was pretty cool, so we invited them both to be baptized on December 9th and they both accepted!! Louie asked if the Bishop does the baptism and we told him that it was entirely up to him and he could choose a worthy priesthood holder to do it. After we told him that he said, "oh ok good, because I have someone in mind. Thorpe I want you to do it since you're the one who first talked to me outside of my house and you've been there every step of the way!" I almost started crying haha it was so awesome!

On Wednesday and Thursday we had exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Champneys and I were out tracting and we walked past a house and we both stopped and looked at it and decided, yeah it doesn't look like anyone is home, but let's knock anyway. A lady answered the door and Elder Champneys told her that we are missionaries and we do bible studies, which is something we never really say for door approaches. She said, "oh we are just starting bible study right now, come on in!" It was pretty cool, they gave us chicken noodle soup and we studied with her and her husband and their friend! Thursday evening we did lots of service, raking leaves and we also finished helping the Hollingshaus move.

Something I learned this week was that Heavenly Father, most of the time, answers our prayers in ways that we don't expect. Even though they aren't answered the way we expected, they still are answered and it's what is best for us. For example in 2 Nephi 5, Nephi prays to Heavenly Father because his brothers are really mad at him. He prays for them to soften their hearts, but instead his brothers anger increases and they seek to take away his life! It seems as though Heavenly Father didn't answer his prayer, but in reality he did answer his prayer, just not in the way he expected! God's plan was for Nephi and his people to separate from the Lamanites, and that wouldn't have happened if Nephis brothers hearts were softened. Learning this has made me think about my own life, that those times that didn't go the way i planned or wanted them to, was God leading me to where I am today. I truly feel that right now I am where I need to be, doing what I need to be doing! I know that the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth in these latter days. I know that Jesus Christ is the savior and redeemer of the world and that it is only through him that we can return to live with our father in heaven. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of this gospel and for the opportunity I have to bring this knowledge and joy to the people here in Illinois!!

Elder Thorpe

English Muffin...yum

Zone leaders exchange round 2

J1crew in our matching sweaters

The Gospel brings so much happiness and peace...

Hey Gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack I would really like to tell you what exactly it is that is on my plate, but to be honest I have no idea haha. Brother Ranchero, a member who we are around a lot, invited us over for dinner for his 60th birthday! He and his family are full Philipino. Some of the food tasted super good and some not so much haha. They had some fish that was the whole fish, head and all! I was pretty skeptical about it, but I tried it and it was pretty good except every bite you'd also get a bunch of little tiny bones. I'm not complaining though because it was a ton of food for free!

This week was full of some ups and downs. Tuesday was a highlight for sure, we had a lesson with Louie and at the end he asked us what the requirements for baptism were. So we told him basically to be keeping the commandments. We mentioned the word of wisdom to him, then he says, "so that requires me to give up drinking?" We said yes and he got up, went into his room, and came out with a bottle of alcohol and he set it infront of me. He said "I want to give this to you to get rid of, to show you both how committed I am to this , I'm never going to buy anymore of that!" It was such an awesome experience! It is amazing to see how much he has changed and how the gospel is blessing his life! So Louie's sister Carol was pretty against us because some of the teachings of the church were not in line with what she was doing, so she would never talk to us and didn't want Louie to talk to us. Then Louie convinced her to pray with him and to ask God if what she was doing was wrong. He told us right after the prayer they both got the answer that yes, it was wrong. He said she was devastated and would just lay in her bed and cry and not do anything, so he texted us asking for help. So I had the opportunity to give her a priesthood blessing! It was really an awesome experience. On Sunday Louie told us that now she is feeling a lot better and she likes us, and even wants to start listening in on our lessons! The power of the priesthood is real!

We did a ton of service this week with brother Martin, we raked a ton of leaves and also helped his ex wife for like 4 hours! She just moved into a new house so we built shelves for her and moved a bunch of boxes and organized her garage! On Friday we got to get up at 4am, and go teach early morning seminary for some youth in our Ward! I'm so grateful I had seminary at school, I definitely took that for granted! The youth in the ward are awesome! I got to bless the sacrament on Sunday and I was so excited, I've missed getting to bless the sacrament every week! Sister Abbene told me after church how much she loved me blessing the sacrament, it was cool! So as I'm sitting on the stand I see this young man walk in that looks so familiar to me. As I walked down from the stand I realized it was Ryan Hollingshaus! He recognized me too and we got a picture after sacrament meeting. It was cool to finally make that connection. It felt like I was back in Mr. Frossard's math class haha. 

We had the opportunity to help brother Dodd give a blessing to his dad and that was awesome. It was such a spiritual experience seeing a son bless his father, who is very sick and not doing too well, that he will have peace and comfort and a stronger testimony of the plan of salvation. It was powerful! He gave us a ride home and on the way he said something that stuck out to me. He said,"the same priesthood we hold is the same priesthood that Jesus Christ used to create the Earth!" That really put the priesthood in perspective for me. I'm so grateful for the priesthood and the opportunity I have to hold it and bless others lives with It! 

The church is true! The gospel brings so much happiness and peace to people's lives, I love It! I hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Thorpe

Brother Ranchero's food.

Built some shelves.

Louie's alcohol he gave us.

Pretty sunrise after early morning seminary.

Tracting in the cold...

The crew, minus the Naper 3 sisters and Elder's Yount and Champneys.

His grace is sufficient for all!

Hey Gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack I am throwing it back to some outstanding French bread pizza I made! One pepperoni and one BBQ ham and chicken!  I'm pretty proud of the BBQ chicken, it was a masterpiece if I do say so myself! I mean it wasn't as good as Pier 49's BBQ chicken but hey, beggars can't be choosers!

Pretty stoked to hear my boys on the football team are headed back to RICE! Leave everything out on the field boys and do me a favor and bring home that ring!

We had an awesome zone conference on Halloween and L came! It was awesome, he loved getting to meet so many missionaries and he loved meeting sister missionaries, go figure, everyone likes the sisters better. All of the missionaries loved getting to talk to him too, it was great! President Griffin asked each district to set a goal for baptisms in December and at zone conference he announced what the missions goal was for baptisms in December. He reminded us that the highest baptisms in 1 month in our mission was 31, then he told us our goal.... 78!!! Hahah he said, usually he would have felt like we weren't being realistic, but for some reason he felt good about 78! The awesome part is 77 of the 78 already have names associated with the number! Good things are happening in the Illinois Chicago West  Mission! A quote the assistants shared stuck out to me, "If we are going to accomplish something we have never accomplished before, we are going to have to do something we have never done before!" I'm pumped for the work that is going on out here!

An awesome experience I had this week was also at zone conference. So I was pretty anxious about Louie being with us for the conference and making sure everything was going good with him that I didn't even noticed that President Griffin hadn't given me a hug yet. So the meeting is about to start, everyone is in their seats, President and sister Griffin are sitting on the stand and it hits 10:00 and President Griffin gets up. Everyone thinks he is just starting the meeting, but he walks down off the stand and walks over to my row. And I'm sitting in the middle of the pew, in between a bunch of other missionaries. He says "Elder Thorpe, did I give you a hug yet?" I was like, uh no I don't think so. So he said, "well then get over here!" So with the entire zone quiet and watching me, I squeezed passed all the missionaries and gave President Griffin a hug! As he walked back up to the stand he says, "there we go, that feels better, I knew I was missing someone!" President Griffin is such an amazing man who emulates the Savior. I know that's how our Savior is, no matter who we are, what we've done or how insignificant we feel, our Savior loves each and every one of us and doesn't leave anyone out. His grace is sufficient for all! I'm so grateful for the experiences I've had so far on my mission that have helped me come to know my Savior Jesus Christ and the unconditional love he has for me and for everyone who has lived, and will yet live upon the earth! 

Elder Thorpe

My homemade french bread pizza

Halloween party turn up

Corn pics for days

Awesome package from Gma and Gpa Thorpe

Lunch with Elder Butler

Another great week in Joliet!

Hey Gang! 

This week on #whatsmysnack we have, in honor of Halloween, a scary bag of Haunted Ghost Pepper tortilla chips! These were given to us by a philippino family in our ward. Apparently they got a couple bags and the son tried a chip and was like, "Dad, these are too spicy. I can't eat them. Give them to the missionaries!" haha! So he did and we all tried them and daaaaang! Luckily I only had about half a chip, but my face was sweating bullets after that! The warning on the back pretty much says it all!

So we had another great week in Joliet! The temperature is beginning to drop over here, the warmest it got this past week was 43 degrees, and that wind is a killer! I am in need of a good warm beanie to keep my ears warm, so the newer missionaries in Joliet are going to get some winter stuff today. In the mean time, however, I got really good at riding my bike with no hands so that I can cover my ears while I ride, to keep them warm haha! One of the highlights of the week (outside of our awesome missionary work) was  that a member took Elder Kish and I to the Harrahs casino, never thought I would go to a casino on the mish, but I did! We went for the buffet they have there. It was so good! They had crab legs and I was in heaven! The member who took us, brother Ranchero, asked me how I could possibly eat so much and still be so skinny, haha.

This week I gained a strong testimony that I truly was called by God to serve in this exact location! I know without a doubt that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now, and that there are specific people here that I can influence and who can influence me! The first experience I had was in a couple lessons we had with Louie this week! He was asking some difficult questions and I wasn't sure how to answer them, so while he was asking them I prayed to have the Holy Ghost with me and that words would be put into my mouth. Almost immediately after I prayed, an experience I've had with sports came to my mind. I shared the experience and it was perfect, Louie said a couple times, "yes, exactly, that's how I feel!" It was awesome. I know I was sent here to help Louie! The other experience I had was with a member. I've mentioned before the amazing Abbene family who feeds us every Thursday. I can recall the first dinner I had with them and I remember Sister Abbene looking me in the eyes for a little while and saying, "I really like you, I just met you, but I really like you." I thought it was a little weird at the time haha. But at church yesterday she came up to me and said, " Elder Thorpe, I've been wanting to tell you ever since you walked in my house for dinner the first time, I've felt very strongly connected with you." She told me she has never felt this connection with any other missionary (and she has been feeding missionaries every Thursday for about 7 years). She kept saying to me, "I know that we are related, its either that or I feel like we knew each other and were very close in the pre existence!" It was a pretty cool experience for me because she is such an amazing woman with a super super strong testimony! Anyways, I know that Heavenly Father is working in my life, and he has put me right where I need to be! I hope everyone has an awesome week!

Elder Thorpe

Haunted Ghost Pepper tortilla chips!

Closest we can get to water.

Some beautiful scenery

New whip who dis?