"Do y'all say prayers?"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have what we call a missionary breakfast! We were on exchanges with the north elders and Elder Taggart gave me the idea. We put in brown rice, fried potatoes, hamburger, onion, and eggs. Good stuff!

So we prepared for JP's baptism all week then on Thursday he sends us a text right before we are about to head over to his house for a lesson. He says, "I need to cancel tonight, tomorrow, and the baptism Saturday." And that's it.... we were kinda freaking out so we called him and talked to him for a little while. He told us his wife has an eye infection and she doesn't want him to be baptized when she can't really see it. So we were able to reschedule it for may 12th! Hopefully his wife's eye is good by then! 

This week we went on a quick little exchange with the zone leaders because they had 2 lessons at the same time they had to go to. I was able to be with Elder Bolton again, such a stud, I love elder Bolton. We did some street contacting after the lesson and we were able to have a cool experience talking to this younger lady who was sitting in front of her apartment with her two kids. She was drinking and smoking and after a while of talking to her she really opened up to us and told us she has made a lot of bad decisions and wants to change her life but she feels like she's too far gone. She said the father of her children just left her and she is really struggling. We were able to teach her about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how we are never too far gone! The spirit was super strong and she was crying. Right before we left she thanked us and told us she thought we were sent to her from God! Such an awesome experience being an instrument in the Lord's hand to help God's children know there is hope!

The weather was fantastic this week so elder Gibby and I did a lot of street contacting. It was awesome, people are a lot nicer when it's warm haha. We were able to find a couple investigators on the river walk Sunday night, it was awesome, everyone was out on a stroll! While we were at a stoplight waiting to cross the street, a car was stopped and rolled down the window and yelled "Do y'all say prayers?" We said of course! So she drove across a couple lanes of traffic and pulled up next to us. She got out and we said a prayer with her and her family. We ended up teaching her a little bit and we will be stopping by to teach them more this week! Life is good in the hood! 

Much love,

Elder Thorpe

Grilled pineapple on the barbie!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some dang good grilled pineapple! We were on exchanges with the zone leaders, elder hunter and elder Bolton, and they remembered they had a member give them a grill. So we whipped that bad boy out and started throwing stuff on there! Nothing like a good ole BBQ!

On Tuesday we were able to make the hour and a half long drive down to Naperville for Elder Gibby's new missionary training! The very last new missionary training in Illinois Chicago West mission history! Pretty crazy that only 8 months ago I was at my new missionary training! It was great to see some familiar faces!

Our investigators are doing awesome! We were able to meet with JP a couple times and we finished teaching him the lessons and reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him! Then on Saturday he had is baptismal interview with elder hunter and he passed! He and sister P made it to church on Sunday too, so he is ready to be baptized on Saturday!! K is still a stud! We met with him on Saturday and we taught a full restoration and invited him to be baptized on may 26th and he accepted! He came to church again and our young men's President told us he was participating a ton in priest quorum while they talked about the first vision! We are so pumped for him!

We have had some nice weather so we have found a lot of success in walking around town street contacting people! Hopefully spring is finally here and it stays warm. Life is good in Glockford! Love and miss y'all!

Elder Thorpe

My 3 point percentage would be through the roof with this bad boy.

#whatsmysnack grilled pineapple on the barbie.

Elder Taggart is pretty good at making fires.

My man, Elder Bolton, bought us Taco Bell.

The boys

Read the Book of Mormon because there is "...so much good stuff in there"!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some good freaking cantaloupe! We were working at the food bank and we were making these dairy bags in the giant fridge for like 2 hours straight, pretty cold not gonna lie. But after we finished, Joyce, the main lady, told us we could make a bag for ourselves, so we filled up on some milk, cottage cheese, and yogurt, then elder taggart and I found a couple cantelope so we snatch them real quick. It was good, but not as good as our homegrown cantaloupe back in the Ville!

This week was pretty bomb! We found a new investigator over Facebook proselyting which was pretty sweet. We were just friending some people that lived in Rockford and then we started messaging back and forth with him. He told us he grew up just down the street from our church building and that he went to a Lutheran church and school all growing up. He stopped going to church once he turned 18 and said he is really struggling with his faith now. So he was willing to meet with us because he saw us reaching out to him as a sign from God! Pretty sweet, he came to church, too! He does have some pretty big hang ups, but hopefully we can work through those!

Another big plus this week was K. He is a 17 year old junior in high school who is dope. We found him a few weeks ago, but haven't been able to meet with him because he was out of town. He canceled our lesson Saturday because he had to get his prom tux fitted so we invited him to church! We had our young men's President pick him up and sit with his family. The topic for sacrament meeting was apostasy and restoration (talk about divine design) and he asked a ton of questions to the member and he answered them all for him! After church we talked to him and he told us he learned so much, and that he "needs to start reading the book of mormon, because there is so much good stuff in there"! He's a stud and we are so pumped for him!

Lots of good stuff going on here, gonna be a solid next few months! We had an awesome zone conference and President Griffin came out in all white and talked about baptizing and developing a baptizing culture. It was straight fire. That man knows how to motivate a group of 18-21 year olds!

Love y'all,

Elder Thorpe

Tender Mercy...found a baseball.

Grandfather, father, and son

8 months ago we were goolin in the MTC.

Freaking good cantaloupe

yum

The boys after a good pump sesh at Bro Lee's.

La zona.  Spanish for:  the zone.

The sweetest thing I've ever tasted...

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have Twinkie ice cream! Lol we went with the zone leaders to dinner with a Philipino member and she gave us some crazy stuff, not sure what it was. But this ice cream was the sweetest thing I've ever tasted.

First week of the transfer was pretty good! I was able to give my first baptismal interview this week which was awesome! It was the zone leaders investigator, who was actually our investigator at first, but his fellowshippers were all from the other ward so we passed him off to the zone leaders. It was so awesome to be able to see where he started and to where he is now. He was a super sad and depressed man at the beginning, his wife had recently passed away and he didn't have any hope. Now he has lit up, he is a totally different person! He has started to focus on helping others instead of focusing on himself and it's made all the difference for him. It's the coolest thing to literally see the gospel change people's lives!

Unfortunately A. missed our appointment with us this week and hasn't been in contact, so we will have to push his baptismal date back. JP, on the other hand, is doing great! His baptism on the 28th is still a go! We will be meeting with him often these next few weeks and praying hard for him because this is when satan works his hardest! One of our newer investigators was able to come to church for the first time yesterday and it was awesome! After sacrament a bunch of members came up to him and introduced themselves and were very welcoming. When they asked him what he thought He told them all that he definitely wanted to come back! He has some things to overcome but has shown some progress and we are super excited for him! 

The weather has been pretty cold out here, It snowed this morning. It's supposed to warm up this weekend though, so we should have a little more luck with contacting people! I hope y'all have a great week! Read your scriptures and say your prayers!!

Elder Thorpe

Twinkie Ice Cream!

Dinner with Brother Hobbs before institute.

We started burning some of the wood at the houses.

Just changing with Elder Taggart in the Lee's bathroom.

Amazing Easter weekend of General Conference!!

Hey gang! This week I am switching it up a bit and throwing in a #whatseldergibbyssnack! Haha my dude ate a full chocolate cake! A member gave it to us and I was gonna throw it away; Elder Gibby was like "No! I'll eat it!" He had a piece after lunch and dinner for 2 weeks and it was gone!

What an amazing Easter weekend of General Conference!! So much fire was spit from the pulpit, I loved it! President Nelson truly is a prophet called of God! It's so awesome to see the Lord literally Hastening his work, what a great time to be a member of the church! One of my favorite talks was by Elder Wilson, he talked about being spiritually self reliant and he said, "being spiritually self reliant is to be able to receive revelation for one's self." And then he went on to say, "the arrival of a typhoon is no time to dust off the gift of the holy ghost and learn how to use it." We must all learn how to receive revelation for ourselves so that when our "typhoon" comes we will be ready! 

Had transfers this weekend and I am staying here to finish training elder Gibby! Almost all of Rockford is staying the same so it will be another fun transfer full of some good missionary work! 

I had a pretty awesome experience this week. Elder Gibby and I were walking back from an appointment and we came to this big field and there was a guy in the middle. As we got closer he started walking towards us. We asked him how he was doing and he just mumbled under his breath. As we got closer I could see it was an older guy, probably in his 40's, with his hood on. I noticed that he was crying. We asked if there was anything we could do for him and he said no and started walking away. I ran and caught up to him and put my arm around him and I told him that he was a child of God and that no matter how hard things get in life he always has a father in heaven who loves him who he can turn to in prayer. The man stopped crying and we talked a little bit about his family and his life. He then said he had to get going to pick up his daughters. Before he left he looked at me and said, "Hey, thanks man, for taking the time to stop and talk to me!" Then we parted ways. I was able to feel so much love for this complete stranger and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've had on my mission. Sometimes we can get caught up in thinking that we are on missions just to baptize people, but I've come to know that it's so much more than that. God puts people in our paths for us to brighten their lives and share the light of Christ with them! 

Finally, a quote from President Nelson, "Keep His commandments and we will be alright!" That's as simple as it gets! Keep on keeping on!

Elder Thorpe

Elder Gibby's chocolate cake

Just some more Rockford accidents.

It took a lot of faith, and removing the door & the fridge door to get this big boy out of here!

The wood choppin crew.