Such a great week!

Hey gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack we have quite possibly the best shake ever! The chocolate cake shake from Portillos! Portillos is a notorious Illinois restaurant. It is freaking packed anytime you go there and the food is dang good! Anyways this cake shake is the real deal hahaha, just like how an Oreo shake is a vanilla shake with Oreos in it, the cake shake is a chocolate shake with chocolate cake in it! It's incredible! Boy is it rich and filling, a large cake shake totals up to 1490 calories lol! This will be the first place I bring you all to eat in a few years!

This week was great! The fam received the BEST miracle (Just Heavenly Father doing His thing!  We are promised if we are faithful and follow the commandments we will be blessed!  And that's exactly what happened!  Like that quote I shared from Elder Renlund, I learned that if I focus on others out here that God will work His miracles at home!)  and I finally got my companion Elder Kish! He is a cool guy from San Diego California. He played center for his football team so we talk a lot about football! He's still getting used to being back  into things, haha I have to wake him up every morning. Things have been going really good! It was so awesome getting to see C and S baptized and getting to talk on the Holy Ghost. C started crying when she stepped into the font and cried pretty much the rest of the time, she really felt the Spirit! She asked everyone if they felt "light like a feather" when they got baptized haha. S is more quiet and shy and so she didn't say too much, but I know she felt the Spirit, too! In my talk I told the story of mom and dad's honey moon accident, and how dad was prompted to tell mom to put her seatbelt on! The ward here is awesome! We do lots of service and I love it! We have painted a house, helped build a shed, and helped people move! We helped the Hollingshaus family move a few days ago and, crazy, they are moving to Mapleton!! She lived in Springville when she was younger and I told her where we live and she knows the area! Maybe you all can see them!

We had a really cool experience yesterday! We walked to an appointment we had that was pretty far away. It was about an hour walk to get there, and by the way it's been super hot and humid this week, like 98 degrees haha it doesn't feel like fall. Anyways so on our way back from our appointment we passed this lady who was on front steps smoking and crying. I stopped and went back to talk to her, and she was really nice. She told us she had been having a really hard day and she just needed someone to talk to. We talked to her for a while and she vented to us about her life. I told her that we teach people about Jesus Christ and how through faith in him we can experience joy and happiness in our lives. She then asked if she could "Have a pamphlet or something to Read about us" hahaha so I was like boy do I have something for you! I gave her a book of mormon and the restoration pamphlet and she said she would read it. We gave her our number and she said she would text us a time we could talk again. Hopefully she does! Right before we left hahaha she asked me how old I was and then told me I had beautiful eyes haha it was a little weird! But she was a super sweet lady!

I hope everyone has a great week! I'm pumped for conference, I hope y'all watch it! Love and miss yall!

Elder Thorpe

                                                      Chocolate Cake Shake from Portillos
                                       

                                              Have you ever seen the golden sunset over an Illinois cornfield?

                                                           The famous Portillos!

                                                                    Need a fire hydrant?

Stanley's Special Nachos...

Hey gang! 

This week on #whatsmysnack we have a beautiful plate of "Stanley's special nachos"! Stanley is an investigator of ours who is doing really well, he comes to church almost every week with his brother and cousin, and we are teaching him the lessons. He wants to be baptized! But not until December haha. He has a learning disability so he is a little slow, but I have come to love him so much! Anyways these are his nachos, made with not just tortilla chips, but nacho cheese doritos (genius right?), some queso dip, salsa, ground beef with his special seasoning (I'm a little nervous to find out what is in the special seasoning), then he adds fresh tomatoes on top to make it even more nutritious! It was definitely an interesting dinner, but none the less I'm very grateful Stanley made something special just for us!

Well this week was awesome!! We had zone conference on Tuesday, mission conference on Saturday, and a special stake conference on Sunday! It was awesome to get to see all of my MTC buds again! They are all doing great! On Saturday we had the privilege to hear from a member of the 12! Elder Renlund along with 3 members of the 70, Elder Taylor, Elder Nattress, and Elder Scott spoke to us! We all got to shake their hands and tell them our name and where we were from. It was sweet, Elder Renlund spoke a lot on the sacrament and on Jesus Christ. One thing that he said that really stuck out to me was, "Your mission will have a huge influence on your life only if you focus on others and forget yourself. God will work his miracles at home and in your personal life, focus on others and how you can help them." I really loved that. It felt very applicable to me! I know that as I focus on the work and helping others, Heavenly Father will work miracles with you all back home! 

We got to go on some exchanges this week! It was so good!  I loved it. We went on exchanges with our District Leader Elder Ruiz then also his comp Elder Aguirre. They are the Spanish speaking elders in our area. They are awesome, both super fun and great missionaries. It was so great going tracting with Elders who weren't afraid to go knock on some doors and strike up conversations with people on the street! It was crazy because pretty much everyone we talked to only spoke Spanish,  so I really had no idea what was going on the whole time, I imagined that I felt just like Payton did at the start of his mission in El Salvador! It was really cool though! 

C and S are doing so good! They are right on track for baptism this Saturday! We finished teaching them the lessons yesterday. C asked me if I would give the talk on the the holy ghost at their baptism! I'm a little nervous but super excited! I'm so lucky to have been placed in the Joliet area and to be able to participate in their baptism! President Griffin told me that Elder Kish will get here today around 1:00! I'm so excited! We will get a new apartment, so no more sleeping on my air mattress!!

I hope you all have a great week!  Love and miss you all!

Elder Thorpe 

"Stanley's Special Nachos."

The whole mission with Elder Renlund at mission conference!

How cool, on a poster in the church is Mr. Haderlie! 

Satan will do whatever he can to keep you from reading your scriptures, including sending big 'ole spiders to crawl over them.

Elder Kish returned!  This picture was sent from Sis hollingshaus from the Joliet Ward on Friday, Sept. 22.   She said, "Hi! Your elders helped us move some large items tonight (we are moving.)  We really appreciated their help!  Thanks so much for sharing your son with us!"

After a week in the mission...

Hey gang! 

Lol, I decided today I'm gonna do a #whatsmysnack every week in my emails, either meals that are super good or some that are a little sketchy! I didn't take any pics of the food I ate last week, but I will this week! 

So crazy week, Haha! I've never been so tired! I'm exhausted! Our apartment is only for 2 people so I have to sleep on an air mattress that, by usually 3 or 4 am goes flat and I wake up just sleeping on the floor with Elder H snoring. During the day when we drive, I fall asleep, pretty much every time we get in the car! Haha so I'm definitely looking forward to getting a new apartment and a bed! On Tuesday I got my companions. So yes, I am in a trio with Elder H and Elder E. H has been out 6 months and E has been out 10 months! They are my trainers for about 2 weeks until my real trainer, Elder Kish gets back from his tonsillectomy surgery! They are great missionaries, I'm very different from both of them, though. Elder H has 9 siblings and has never been to a public school.  He was homeschooled all the way until freshman year, then he took high school online. When he told me this it explained so much about him haha. Elder E is from Texas, he was in the band and played some instrument I've never heard of haha (I'm not very musically cultured), and he also sings. So we sing in the choir at church (yep) and yesterday at our practice the choir lady asked me what part I sing? I just stared at her and was like uhhh..... haha then she said "Just the melody?" So I said "yep, I'm just the melody guy!" I learned a little more about Elder E when we got in the car and his music varied from Lord of the Rings soundtrack, to some album called "greatest video game music" haha! So we have our differences and a lot of the time we sit in silence, but we have one thing in common. We all love our Savior Jesus Christ and want to invite others to come to Christ, so it works out! 

It was so awesome to get to teach real investigators finally! We have quite a bit of investigators, two of which are planning to be baptized September 23!  They are two sisters who E and H found tracting, they are very interested in the Gospel and read the Book of Mormon and have tons of questions! I hope it all works out and they are baptized on the 23rd! The weather here has been awesome! It feels like fall! A few days ago when we were teaching the two sisters, we had to teach them outside and so we sat on their front lawn around noon on Saturday and it got pretty toasty haha I was sweating! But usually from 6-9 if we don't have appointments we walk around and street contact/tract and the weather feels so good! It does get a little chilly in the evening and early morning, Mom, you'd be freezing, but the rest of us can handle it ;). Brother Ranchero, a guy in our ward, took us out to eat at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant and it was so good! And we sat with this young family who were awesome, they reminded me so much of our family! They have 4 boys and 1 girl, just like us, the dad is a coach for an all-star travel baseball team and the kids are spaced in age about the same as our fam! Brother Ranchero and I talked to them a lot. The dad told us about how much he loves his kids and how there is nothing greater, and Brother Ranchero got their info so they could potentially be future investigators I'm hoping! 

On Friday I was feeling pretty discouraged because we really hadn't taught anyone and when we tracted we didn't knock on doors which was weird to me, so we just walked around not talking. I was kind of questioning myself if this was how missionary work really was. But yeah I was feeling pretty down as we were walking around so I said a prayer in my heart that we would be able to find someone to talk to and my spirit would be lifted. Just after I prayed we came around the corner and there was a guy outside working on his boat. So we stopped to talk to him and he was very friendly! I told him we were ministers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We talked for a while, and he knew quite a bit about our church. He didn't try to bash or anything, he is Catholic and really tried to understand the things we told him. He said he probably wouldn't read the book of mormon because he struggles to read his bible and he hates reading, but he was happy to talk. So he probably won't progress, but I'm hopeful! Just getting to finally talk to someone about what I know was a relief and it made me feel a lot better! I know Heavenly Father is watching over us all and when we are struggling, if we pray with faith, he will give us tender mercies! 

Sometime this week I should get my new trainer! So I'm excited and I'll tell you all about it next Monday! I hope everyone has a great week!

Love and miss you all! 

Elder Thorpe

Here's an Illinois sunset.  This place is beautiful!

A pic of our room.  Elder H and E's beds and my flat air mattress. Haha.

Arrival in Chicago!

Hey everyone! I made it!!

Hahaha it's been a crazy last couple of hours, but it's been awesome. President Griffin is so cool! We are all staying in the mission home tonight! It will be packed with all 30 of us here! This place is so cool! I love the weather, as of right now;), and it's so green and beautiful! I'm pumped to go out tomorrow and meet my new comp and get to my first area! This past week has been awesome! One of the highlights was definitely getting to see the Porter family and then getting to host Elder Porter! Elder Gardanier, Elder Mortensen and Elder Porter came over to my residence Friday night and we all got to talk for a little bit and take some pics, just like the good ole days! It was sweet having almost half of the rampage all together for a little bit! I'm sure gonna miss getting so see my boys!

It was so good to get to talk to the fam this morning! You all sound great and I miss you all so much! (Even you brooksie ;)) This morning we got up nice and early to head to the airport, and when we got there we got assigned, not a new comp, but like another elder who we will sit with and be with until we get our new comp! So I'm sitting next to an elder from California named Elder Tu'avao. He is so dope. He is 21 and such a cool guy. He played football and rugby in high school and after high school he and his older brother did MMA!! His older brother is 23 and just left the MTC to go to Louisiana! Out of all 23 of us he is the only elder going to Chicago that is speaking Spanish!

 One sweet thing that happened this week was for our Tuesday devotional, Elder Eltsosie was asked to give the opening prayer because his uncle was the speaker (bishop Waddell). So Elder Eltsosie and I got to sit on the stage for the devotional! It was a cool experience and it definitely helped me not fall asleep haha. Bishop Waddell talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. He kind of chastised us for not using the Book of Mormon enough! He explained that the Book of Mormon is the most powerful tool for missionary work and we have to use it as such! I have read so much from the Book of Mormon these past few weeks and I have come to love it so much! The Book of Mormon will give us strength and help us grow closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ!

 It was sad saying goodbye to our amazing teacher Brother Lim! He is probably the most amazing, well rounded person I've ever met! He is an absolute spiritual giant. He made my MTC experience so much better! His last lesson... I don't even have words to describe it. You know how in the scriptures it sometimes says, "and some of the things which were taught cannot be written" that's how I feel right now haha. He taught us more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He went into so much detail and had so many scriptures to back up what he was saying. It really blew most of our minds. But to put it simply and not get into the details he taught us, the Atonement is Infinite! And it is the only way we can return to our father in heaven! By turning and relying on our savior Jesus Christ and living his gospel, his mercy can overcome justice! I know with all my heart that Jesus Christ is real, and is alive and through him we can be made whole! To top it all off, after his lesson we all went and took some pictures with him and said our goodbyes. After we said our goodbyes, he took off his tie. And walked over to elder Dietz and handed it to him and said, "Elder Dietz, you told me you loved this tie so I want you to have it. It's one of my very favorite ties and it means a lot to me, but you mean a lot to me too." It was so cool! We all were in shock, and I know it meant so much to elder Dietz because he looks up to brother Lim so much, well we all do. It was so amazing to see someone who is so smart and knows so much, be humble enough to give his favorite tie, from straight off his neck, to a young Elder just leaving the MTC. I'm so grateful for all that brother Lim has taught me and the example he is to me! One of the things I will remember the most is when he said, "Elders and sisters, on your missions you will meet people and to them you will be the closest thing to Jesus Christ that they ever know, so live like it!"

 A picture I took 2 minutes ago of a few of the chi-crew sending some emails from the mission home.

Tried to get a pic of us flying over lake Michigan

Finally a pic with district 38-a and one of our teachers, brother Hackman.

Pic of me and the man, myth and legend, brother Lim! 

Chi-crew and our CC gang sign

The Chicago West Missionaries arriving today.