I love being a missionary and I love my Savior!

Hey gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack ya boy Elder Thorpe cooked up some real good spaghetti! Added about a pound and a half of beef in the "chunky vegetable pasta sauce" because, ya know, protein. 

What a week this has been, on Tuesday we drove down to Naperville where I got my new companion Elder Gibby! Fresh from the MTC! Then we treked all the way back up to Rockford! We almost ran out of gas on the way back too haha, I wasn't paying attention to the gas because it was my first time driving in 6 months and the gas light turned on and of course we were in the middle of nowhere Illinois. So we looked up the nearest gas station which was almost 20 miles away haha we barely made it, we were running on fumes! Elder Gibby is an awesome guy, and he is from Idaho. He is willing to work hard and he is an obedient missionary so this transfer is going to be a good one!

I was pretty nervous about district meeting and everything but it all went well, I have an awesome district who make my life a lot easier! The Belvideere Sisters had a baptism this week and we were able to get the L's (the African family we teach) and M (another investigator) to all come to it. The other two sets of elders in the district also got investigators to come so it was packed! It was awesome to have so many investigators there for such a spiritual experience!

We had lots of lessons this week and we also did lots of tracting, elder Gibby got a lot of good experience his first week. We had a good variety of contacts, we had one guy open the door and start yelling the F word and telling us how false the Book of Mormon was. We had another guy tell us he needed us to do a magic trick and disappear from his porch. But then we had someone who was pretty interested, accepted a Book of Mormon, and said we could come back anytime and teach him more! So elder Gibby got a good variety his first week! I don't really know how to describe the way I've felt this week, I've had so many things I've had to do with my district and training elder Gibby, I was a little overwhelmed but I noticed as the week went on and as I prayed for the Savior to help me, my responsibilities didn't disappear but my feeling of being overwhelmed did! It was crazy, although I was doing so much and had so much on my plate, I felt calm and peaceful! My testimony was really strengthened this week that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is not just for our sins, but it also helps us get through our everyday challenges! I love being a missionary and I love my Savior!!

Elder Thorpe

Homemade spaghetti from Elder Thorpe

The new Rockford crew chopping wood.

Elder Thorpe the lumberjack.

The Gibbster.

Fresh cuts from Sister Lee.

A bunch of changes!

Hey gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack we have a heart shaped pizza! On Valentines Day we were planning on eating dinner with the North Elders, but we weren't sure what to eat so we decided to order a pizza. While ordering the pizza the lady asked Elder Hollist if we wanted to make it a heart shaped pizza for Valentine's Day. So Elder Hollist said, "Flip yeah we want to make it heart shaped!" Haha! So my man elder Hollist got us a heart pizza to celebrate V-day!

This week was kind of uneventful. All of our investigators are very slowly progressing. A is still very spotty at messaging us so it's made it really difficult to figure out his baptism and everything. As a matter of fact, most of our investigators are really bad at getting back to our messages haha. On Thursday we were tracting in an area and we stopped to talk to this lady in front of her house. We asked her if she was religious and she said, "Honey, I'd probably catch fire if I walked into a church!" Then her husband/boyfriend came out onto the porch and yelled at us asking who we were. The lady told him we were from a church and so he said, "we've already got a church, we worship satan, we have a pentagram on the floor, get out of here!" Good ol Illinois. After this happened I felt pretty crappy. Just a few minutes after this I had a cool experience, though. We were planning to just keep tracting all the way around this block, but I noticed there was a little alley way that cut through. I felt prompted that we should go through there. It was pretty sketchy looking so I wrestled with this prompting a little, but then I decided to listen to it. I told Elder Bagley I felt like we should go that way and he said, "Are you sure?" And I said yep, so we went. Towards the end of the alley there was a guy working on a car. We stopped and started talking to him. His name is T, he has a wife and 5 kids ranging 3-11. He has a strong faith in Christ and asked us for some pamphlets to study. He then told us we could come over and teach his family! This little 1 hour tracting experience I think sums up most of the mission. You will have some pretty tough times but there will always be awesome spiritual experiences that outweigh the bad ones. 

Pretty crazy I hit my 6 month mark on Friday! The first couple months of the mission seemed to kind of drag on, but these last few have really flown by! Friday night the North elders came over and we had the ceremonial tie burning. Good times. 

We got transfer calls on Saturday and a lot is changing here in Rockford! Elder Bagley will be leaving and going to Peoria. I will be taking the reins here in Rockford as the new District Leader and I will also be training a brand new missionary! I'm pretty pumped! Unfortunately my main man Elder Hollist will being heading down to Oswego! It will be really weird not having him and elder Bagley here, but change is good!

Elder Thorpe

Our heart shaped pizza.

Tie burning with my boy Elder Hollist.

Waiting for transfer calls.

After a pump sesh with the legend, Bro. Lee.

More burning of the tie.

This week was a tough one...

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have the breakfast of champions. A scrambled egg sandwich with bacon and a little avocado on top. Then a real good cookies and cream protein shake, gotta get them gains you know!

This week was a tough one. Our really solid investigator A who was supposed to be baptized on February 17th stopped responding to us again. So We are going to have to push his baptism back a week and hope that he gets back in contact with us. We had a super good lesson with a new investigator named K. We taught her the restoration and when we taught the first vision the spirit was so strong, she accepted everything we taught her. At the end of the lesson she said she wanted to be baptized so we were super pumped for her. As we left we told her we would find her a ride for church. The next day when we messaged her about a member picking her up for church she responded with, "tell them not to worry about it, I'm going to my church on Sunday and don't come over anymore, I'm going to do bible study with my church." Then she left the group message. It was a bummer going 100 to 0 real quick. 

We have had lots of success in finding new investigators and putting them on date for baptism but we have struggled getting people to church. So this week we really focused a lot on getting people to church. We taught everyone we had lessons with about the importance of the sacrament. We promised blessings on blessings to people if they came to church. Then a big snow storm came in this weekend, dropping 15 inches of snow, our YSA branch got canceled and we had 0 people come to the Rockford 1st ward. Pretty big bummer and I was pretty discouraged for a bit but then I had an awesome personal study. I studied in Alma chapter 8. In verses 9-15 it talks about Alma and how he goes to teach the people in Ammonihah. The people there are very hard hearted and don't accept the things he teaches them. Alma gets discouraged and leaves the city. Then an angel appears to him and tells him to get his head up and to rejoice because he has been faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord and tells him to get back out there! 

This passage hit me so hard and it was exactly what I was going through. I realized that I, like Alma, have great cause to rejoice! I have the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am being faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord. I know that no matter what happens here on the mission, or in life, I can rejoice and be happy! 

Elder Thorpe

The breakfast of champions.

Winter in Rockford

The shoveling crew

After a Skype lesson

Elder Bagley found an icicle

Helped an African family move

Sometimes crazy experiences are the best...

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have what's called a Tongan Pancake! Elder Hunter showed us how to make them on exchanges this week. Apparently some of the Poly missionaries would eat them all the time and they showed him how to make them. They are Ramen noodles, eggs, cheese, and whatever kind of meat you want! 

This week was pretty full of good and crazy experiences! On Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Decker. Elder Decker is a stud and excellent missionary. Unfortunately he got a call from President saying he will be put in a trio with the Spanish Elders tonight and Elder Hollist will get a new comp, Elder Gunderson. But we will still see Elder Decker every once in a while. Our exchange was awesome though. So this week Elder Bagley and I have really focused on putting people on date for baptism. Elder Decker and I had a cool experience on exchanges, we were working in an area and I remembered that a former couple we had been working with, but dropped a couple weeks ago, lived just down the street. this couple has been taught for almost 2 years now and the only thing keeping them from baptism is marriage. And they stopped progressing and meeting with us so we dropped them. I felt prompted to go and visit them and so we did. Miraculously they were there and they let us in to talk. After talking with them for 40 minutes we got them motivated about the blessings of the Holy Ghost and of Baptism and of being sealed in the temple. They decided together to make the goal to get married and baptized this summer and to keep meeting with us to prepare them for baptism. Pretty sweet. 

About 20 minutes later Elder Decker and I had one of the most Interesting experiences of my mission. We were trying to stop by a less active that we didn't know. So we go into this apartment complex and realize there isn't an apartment number for our less active, Arthur. There was an apartment down the stairs blasting some Elvis Presley so we decided to knock on the door and see if we could find Arthur. A super nice guy opens the door, talks to us a little about Elvis, sees our name tags and says,"oh are you looking for Art?" We said ya so he told us to follow him. He took us up the stairs, knocked on Art's door and out comes Art. I immediately recognize Art as the crazy guy who has some mental problems that came to church a few weeks ago. As we are standing in the hall a guy comes out of the door across from Art. Then almost simultaneously a lady comes out of the door next to him. Right after her comes a guy up the stairs with sunglasses on. So elder Decker and I are standing there with 5 other people who are all talking to us at the same time. Art is telling us to bring him the sacrament after his smoke break, the Elvis guy is telling us he wants a blue book from a mormon, the second guy is telling us God told him he will be the last prophet, the lady is saying she goes to church down the street, and the last guy with sunglasses is asking us to come into his room and that he won't hurt us! Hahah we quickly realized that we walked into a mental health facility! We taught these 5 about the book of mormon and they were all so excited to receive a copy for themselves! 

I had a very powerful experience that strengthened my testimony on fasting. I decided to fast for our investigator A who is on date for the 17th, but hasn't been responding to us for the past 3 weeks. I fasted and prayed super hard all day on Sunday that he would respond to us and be able to meet so he can be baptized. We went all day Sunday and still nothing from A. However I still had hope and faith that Andrew would respond. This morning I woke up and went to turn the alarm off on the phone and saw that Andrew had messaged us back during the night, for the first time in 3 weeks. He told us he was really sorry, but he had just been super busy with school and soccer,but he could meet with us on Thursday and Saturday! I was so pumped! I know that fasting and prayer are so real and that Heavenly Father hears those prayers!!

Elder Thorpe

TONGAN PANCAKE!

Elder Hunter tying his shoe in a Rockford alley.

Elder Hollist riding a tree like a bull.

Elder Hollist's pants ripped due to riding the tree like a bull.

Burnt Elder Bagley's pants in honor of his 18 month mark.

Post iron pumping sesh with Brother Lee.