Staying in Frankfurt and transferred to the Illinois Chicago Mission.

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we've got some Gatorade protein bars #gainz. Elder Miner and I did service at a food pantry and they let us just take anything we want when we are done so we swiped a couple boxes of these protein bars! 

So we were on exchanges with the zone leaders, Elder Miner and Elder Giesel, this week. They are both studs and we had a real good time! We were in their area on Tuesday then after district meeting they came to our area. Whole lotta service, finding gators, and good times. On Wednesday, when elder Giesel and I got home, I needed a haircut so he whipped out the buzzers and gave me a sick fade. Pretty cool, Elder Giesel is 23 and played baseball at a JC in California before the mission! It was crazy to realize he graduated the same year as my older brother. 

Saturday was a good day, in the morning we went to this big park and played in a big pick up soccer game. Some members from the branch, the Barrancas, put it on and invited us. The Barrancas are from Mexico and they have a ton of family who live near by so us and a couple other members were the only ones there who were speaking English. All of the Barrancas friends and family were nonmembers too so that was why brother Barranca wanted us to be there, because we all know it wasn't for our soccer skills. These guys were freakin good at soccer, including sister Barrancas dad! Haha that guy is 75 and was out there putting people on skates, it was awesome! The best part was after the game was over, brother Payne brought a football because he wanted to see me throw, so we got to toss the pigskin a little bit.

After the soccer game we went with the Barrancas to help out a former investigator named Mike. This guy took all the lessons and was about to be baptized a couple months ago, then he kind of disappeared. Nobody heard from him until last week when he reached out to the Barrancas. So we went over and helped him out with some service which really wasn't much. When we finished he told us he really just wanted us to come over so that he could reunite with the church. He told us how much he has missed it the past few months and how good he felt when he was going and taking the lessons. So he said he wants to start taking the lessons again! He told us all about the struggles he has been going through so we gave him a blessing. We will be meeting with him tomorrow so I'm super excited about that!

This transfer sure has flown by, we got transfer calls on Saturday and I will be staying in Frankfort and my new companion is Elder McDougal. I've never met him and don't know much about him but I'm excited, it will be good! I sure am gonna miss elder Adams though, we have become good friends and sure had a lot of fun these last 6 weeks! Hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Thorpe

Elder Geisel and me

#whatsmysnack Gatorade protein bars

When it rains it pours and floods your little garden.

This pulled up next to us when we were getting gas.

Homemade ice cream sandwiches at the Payne's.

Also John Patton got baptized!! He asked me to speak on the holy ghost, but I couldn't get a member from our branch to take me all the way to Rockford for it. 

Elder Adams said goodbye to Marshall.

"Service to others is service to God"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack Elder Adams and I ate at Oy's! Oy is a member of the branch and her and her family have a little Thai restaurant here in town! They are so good to us and we go once every other week for dinner! She cooks some real good authentic Thai food! The entrees all come  mild, medium, spicy, or very spicy. I went with medium and it still had a real good kick to it. Elder Adams being the macho man he is, went with very spicy! My dude looked like he was in a sauna! Sweat was dripping off his nose and chin and tears were streaming from his eyes! But he finished that beef yum like a champ!

This week went by quick! On Tuesday we had our final zone conference with President and sister Griffin, talk about a tear jerker! President Griffin is the man.  I thought of Remember the Titans when coach Boone says, "You cannot replace a Gary Bertier". You definitely cannot replace a President Griffin, but I'm excited to have the opportunity to learn and grown from President Bingham!

We had exchanges this week and I threw it back to the MTC days with Elder Eltsosie! We had a good time working hard and we decided to stop at a garage sale and contact the older ladies running it. They were nice, but didn't like Mormons so we asked if they knew anyone who might be interested and they told us their neighbors just moved in and might be! So we went and knocked on the door and a girl came to the door. She attends Loyola and is just living with her family for the summer. She was super interested and took a Book of Mormon and said she'd love to have us come back, and of course her name is Alma! So that was pretty sick! Then later that evening elder Adams and I stopped by a bible referral named B. She lives on the far west side of our area which is technically Joliet. It's a lot less wealthy than Frankfort! She was super cool and let us right in to talk! She also accepted a book of mormon and wants us to come by this week to have scripture studies with her! Lots of good stuff goin' on here!

On Saturday we got to do some service with elder Bingham and elder Francom for a neighboring ward. We went to a huge ranch and bailed hay most of the day! It was a lot of fun to do some good hard work! It was a solid 95 degrees so we were cooking! It was a real good time because "service to others is service to God"  ;)   (if you haven't seen our videos yet, check out my Facebook) 

Elder Thorpe

More Fishin'

Green Illinois

Exchanges with Naper 3

"whatsmysnack" dinner at Oy's.

Bailin' hay

Hey Gang!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some freakin' good burritos we made for dinner last night! The food pantry we serve at gave us some skirt steak so elder Adams seasoned her up and cooked her on the grill. We cut some corn off the cob and mixed it in with some black beans and then we cooked some white queso Mexican rice! Topped those bad boys off with some cheese, sour cream, and salsa Verde. El burrito es muy bueno! 

On Wednesday the Argyles called us and said they were having a little BBQ and wanted us to join them, so of course we joined them, I mean come on don't be crazy! It was such a good time, the Argyles are the coolest family! They have 7 kids between 15 yrs old and 6 months old! I got to throw the football around with their 11 yr old daughter who loves sports. Then I threw her some BP too! It sure felt good to get the ol cannon loosened up again! On Thursday we got to go play basketball at a rec center with a bunch of our youth and brother Argyle. There are some real studs in this branch, we played some good ball! Nothing builds trust with the members like being able to ball out with them!;)

We cover an area called Manhattan, and we did some work out there this week. We met this older couple, the S's. They are hilarious. They opened the door and let us right in! They talked our ears off! They met with the sister missionaries a couple years ago and they told us that they can't join the church because they love coffee too much. Boy do they love coffee, the house is covered in coffee and Italy decorations! She loved talking to us though and wanted to make us a meal, but we told her we just ate so she made us a snack instead. They are super strong Christians who have potential as soon as they can come to know the book of Mormon is true and that Joseph smith was a prophet! 

Pretty cool, on Sunday one of the youth in the branch had his farewell and so there was a bunch of people in sacrament meeting. We had a linger longer afterwards and we talked to this guy we had never seen before. When we got done talking to him Joe, the kid who's farewell it was, came over and told us that it was James the Mormon's dad!! Apparently Joe's dad and James the Mormon's dad work together! Pretty cool stuff. 

Elder Thorpe

This Culver ice cream man scared the crap out of the little kid sitting behind us.

Took shelter from the rain under a tree.

Nothing like a Chicago Dawg!

#whatsmysnack bueno burritos

"Cottonwood fallin' like snow in July"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack, we've got some tasty pulled pork! We actually smoked this big 'ole pork shoulder like 2 weeks ago and have been eating it ever since. Elder Adams coated her up with a plethora of different seasonings and spices, smoked the oinker for a good 12 hours and she fell right off the bone! Finally ran out yesterday.  We were eating it with breakfast burritos, nachos, sandwiches, and just about everything else!

On Monday evening the branch had a Memorial Day/Graduation party for the 2 priests who graduated! It was pretty LIT, not gonna lie, pretty much the whole branch was there along with a bunch of the youth's nonmember friends! It was at a member's house who has a huge backyard. They had a ton of food, corn hole, spike ball, volleyball, a slip-n-slide for the kiddos, and some good tunes on their dope speakers (boy I miss real music lol). We played a ton of volleyball with all the youth then the adults challenged us to a couple games, it was 95 degrees and we were all sweating buckets, but it was a ton of fun! I love this branch so much, everyone is so tight knit, it's legit!

We rode the train to district meeting, to save some miles, and that was cool. After district meeting I had the opportunity to give a blessing to the sweetest old lady from the Joliet First Ward (a blessing). I got to know her pretty good 8 months ago when I served there.  She played a huge role in fellowshipping my first two baptisms, C and S! It was a great feeling to reconnect with her and exercise the priesthood! Later that evening we spent the day down in Peotone which is 45 minutes away at the bottom of our area. We had a priest take us down and spend the afternoon with us. We had a really good lesson with an investigator named J. He is a super humble guy coming from a real rough background who is looking for truth. He has a lot of potential and we are stoked to continue meeting with him. We then had dinner at a part member family's house which was an experience. As we got there the wife (the nonmember) was in the middle of cooking. In the 20 minutes while we watched her cooked she pounded 4 beers! It was crazy, she just kept putting them back, lol in my head I was like "chug chug chug!!" Right before we ate the husband asked elder Adams and I to help bring up a tv from their basement. This house was built in 1916 and the stairs to the basement were super steep and narrow then at the bottom there was a sharp turn into their storage room. Pretty sure the tv he had us bring up was from 1916 too;) it was a massive box tv that weighed probably close to 250 pounds. Boy was it an experience getting that thing up there. But we did it! This house had no AC and it was about 90 degrees inside and it had been stormy all day so it was crazy humid. When we were done we looked like we just got out of the shower!

Later in the week we got a call from sister A (the A's are a super cool family from the branch). She tells us all about her 15 year old daughter who shared the gospel with her school teacher! Apparently he saw her reading the Book of Mormon and he came up and asked her about it. The freaking good member missionary she is told him about the church, gave him a Book of Mormon and told him about us missionaries! Unfortunately school is over now so she doesn't see him. But with the help of sister A we found him on Facebook and sent him a message. It didn't look like he uses Facebook very much so we are praying he is prompted to get on and look at his messages!

Love and miss y'all!

Elder Thorpe

  

Helping out at the branch triathlon.

#whatsmysnack tasty pulled pork

Still helping out at the branch triathlon.

Fisher of men and fish.

Sweatin' buckets after hauling that tv.

"Cottonwood fallin' like snow in July."

Riding the train to District Meeting.