First week in Hyde Park!

This week on #whatsmysnack we have an interesting concoction Elder Noble and I came up with. We were hungry and didn't know what to eat for dinner. We had a bunch of ramen, but ramen didn't have enough nutritional value so we did what any logical person would do. We just threw some  eggs in there with it! It didn't taste half bad, and we got our protein! #gainz

First week in Hyde Park was super sick! Being in the city is so different, but so cool! Hyde Park is basically little Nigeria, 90% of our investigators are all immigrants from Nigeria! They are all super humble and so ready for the gospel. We are teaching 2 main families right now, the B's and the O's. They are super cool, solid families who are going to be baptized this transfer!

My new comp is Elder Noble, from Mesa Arizona and he is a stud! We get along super well and work super hard so things are A1 here in Hyde Park! We split a ward and so I'm here with elder Bingham and elder Spahr as well. Elder Bingham is from Spanish fork and went to MM and we are pretty tight. On Thursday elder Noble and Spahr went to the cubs game so elder Bingham and I were comps for the day. Neither of us knew the area at all so it was crazy, but a ton of fun, we just contacted like all day it was sick though.

On Friday, Elder Noble and I got to go downtown to the brand new church building for an interview with a guy from the missionary department. He was just interviewing the leadership in the mission about the mission merge and it was pretty chill, he was a super cool guy, I don't remember his name though. Then we walked around downtown and contacted. It's so cool being in the city, haha I love it! Life is real good in da hood!


Elder Thorpe

View from our crib.

#whatsmysnack ramen and eggs.

Ocean Michigan.

The Bean baby!

Elder Bingham.

"Who do I really think I am?"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some moleberries! There is a big moleberry tree right outside of our apartment and everyday when we go out we stop and pick a few to eat! They are delicious! A guy we did service for told us this story of him having to walk 30 miles without food or water and coming up to a moleberry tree and it replenished him so he could make it home. I don't know this dude was old and a little crazy but I guess they save lives too!

We met with S and A again this week and they are still doing awesome! We had a crazy lesson with S on Thursday. We met with her under the pavilion and taught her the plan of salvation. About halfway through it just starts dumping buckets! It was insane, and we were all soaked head to toe! But we kept teaching, ya know because "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing". She even accepted baptism on August 18th amidst the massive thunderstorm! It was pretty cool.

Saturday was legit, I got to baptize T woot woot! She is so awesome and was so ready for baptism! It was such a cool experience to be in the font with her and to see her bright smiling face as she came up out of the water! S and A made it to the baptism, too, and had an awesome time! A came up to me afterwards and said, "I feel it man, I feel it right here" pointing to his chest. Then he said, "I want to know what it feels like to go under and come back up!" Haha I told him on August 25th that would be him! Man I love that guy!

Transfer calls came last night and I'm sad to be leaving Frankfort, definitely one of my favorite areas! But I'm super excited to get to serve in Hyde Park! I finally get to be downtown Chicago, it's gonna be a different experience for sure but it's all the Lord's work wherever you go!

We went to a stake preisthood meeting last night and one of the councilors in the stake presidency talked about our identities. It was one of the best talks I've ever heard. He talked about how when satan came to tempt Jesus, he attacked his identity as the son of God. He said if satan would try attacking the savior's identity, we better believe he will attack ours. He challenged us to ponder the question, "Who do I really think I am?" I know that I am a child of God!

Elder Thorpe

Elder Elton and our little homies.

Post crazy rain storm lesson with Shelbie

Terry got tized!

Bomb bday package from the Thorpe Family

Pizza, pizza and more pizza...

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we celebrated Elder Elton's birthday and Elder and Sister Ranstrom, a senior couple in our district, took us out for lunch! We went to Aurellios which is a fairly popular pizza chain in Chicagoland. Pizza, pizza, and more pizza haha I think I've eaten more pizza in the last year than I have in my entire life!!

This week was another awesome one! We taught a couple lessons with my man A, holy smokes I love that guy. He is so genuine and so kind and really just wants to know the truth! On Friday we went over to his house at 8am to help weed his big garden that he has in front of his house. It was so funny, we would work for like 10 minutes then A would say, "c'mon guys it's too hot let's go sit in the shade and take a break!" So we would haha. We got it all weeded just in time for us to head over to the stake center and change so that I could interview the Joliet sisters investigator, T, for baptism! It was an awesome interview, T is so ready to be baptised. Pretty cool, at the end of the interview T asked me if I would baptise her!

On Thursday we got a call from a random number and it turned out to be 2 sister missionaries serving in France! They told us about a girl named S that that have been skyping once a week for the past 6 months who lives here in Mokena! So we got her information and contacted her and had a lesson on saturday. She is amazing! She knows so much, she said for the past 3 months she has been studying everything she can about Mormons, and is almost done with 3rd Nephi! She even went to Palmyra 2 weeks ago and visited the temple and the sacred grove and told us about some pretty cool spiritual experiences she had. However, she lives with her parents and they have absolutely no idea she is doing this. So she has been very nervous about coming to church and baptism.

Sunday was legit, both A and S made it to church for their first times! It was so awesome seeing Al in the white shirt and tie we gave him. So funny, he wore the tie like a necklace and didn't put it under his collar. Haha he said, "I don't want it to be choking me." They both loved church and are excited to come back next week! It's so sweet getting to see people make these steps in developing their faith. We are so excited for A and S!

Life is good, at least one more week in Frankfort! Love and miss you all!

Elder Thorpe

Pizza at Aurellios

Exchanges with Elder Elton

This guy, Mike, beat me in chess in 4 moves.  Lol!  I'm trash.

"God bless the USA!"

Hey Gang!

This week on #whatsmysnack our friend Paola, who was born and raised in Italy, made us some lunch. She had some crazy Italian name for it that sounded pretty legit but I can't remember it. She told us in English it means "eggs in a basket". It's basically toast with an egg in the middle of it, and boy oh boy it was delicious! Paola is a freakin good cook, like the next Gordon Ramsey status!

This week was LIT in more ways that one! On Tuesday we had our first zone conference as the new Illinois Chicago mission! We got to meet President and Sister Bingham, and they are amazing people! Things are pretty different now, there are quite a few policy changes going from President Griffin to President Bingham, but we are still doing the same glorious work of salvation! President Bingham gave us some of the best news I've heard on my mission, in the new mission each missionary is allowed to attend one professional sporting event!! Wrigley Field here I come!! I also had a pretty cool experience at zone conference. Prior to meeting President Bingham I was struggling with the change of mission presidents because I had grown to know and love President Griffin so much. I had prayed a lot that heavenly father would help me gain a testimony that President Bingham is called of God! At the end of President Bingham's zone conference remarks, he talked about the spiritual witnesses he had received that he was supposed to be here at this time with each one of us. He then invited each one of us to pray and ask God if we are supposed to be here with President Bingham at this time. I'm not sure what it was but when he said this the spirit hit me very strongly and I received an answer to my prayers, I know that President Bingham is called of God and I am supposed to be here with him at this time!

Of course this week was LIT because of the 4th of July! "I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free (que Griffin Slavens). And I won't forget the men who died who gave that right to me and I proudly stand up, next to you and defend her still today, because there ain't no doubt I love this land! God bless the USA!" Mother nature added her own fireworks Wednesday night, there was a massive thunderstorm, but the firework shows were not stopped. Elder McDougal and I watched them outside our apartment in the pouring rain. I love America!

On Saturday I was on exchanges with elder Geisel and we had a real good time as usual. We had a lesson with my man A and brought our branch President along. On our way to his house we talked about our lesson plan and how we wanted to teach him the restoration. When we started talking to A he  talked a lot about how he just wants to live a good life and he has been searching for truth. He also mentioned his parents who had died and how hard that was for him. I began teaching A how our Heavenly Father has a plan for us, as I did I looked at elder Geisel to make sure we were on the same page and he was nodding his head with a big smile on his face! We taught an awesome lesson to all and invited him to be baptised on August 25th which he accepted! He is such a kind old man, I love him so much and am so excited to continue to help him on his path towards the waters of baptism! Life is good!

Elder Thorpe

#whatsmysnack "eggs in a basket".

My man Elder Bagley goes home in 2 weeks!

God bless America

After watching the fireworks in the rain.

Dope Mokena sunset.

Waited for a train for 20 min so we took a pic.

Live the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have Emergen-C! Lol I've been sick this past week so I've been pounding like 6 of these a day! It says they have 1000mg of vitamin C, and it's been kicking my cold so I'm all about that life! They don't taste half bad either!

So we had transfers on Tuesday, it was sad saying goodbye to elder Adams and President and Sister Griffin, sure am gonna miss them! But change is a good thing! I picked up my new companion, elder McDougal and we were back to Frankfort by noon! Elder McDougal is from Taylorsville Utah and likes to work hard, so we are gonna have a good 4 weeks! A little later that evening there was a pretty big storm, it was dumping buckets! Then all the tornado alarms started going off, so we waited it out in our car in an Ace Hardware parking lot! After the rain stopped we knocked a couple doors and one lady was like, "what are you doing out there? Don't you know there is a tornado?" I looked around in the sky and said, "oh really? I don't see it." She didn't like that and made us leave. Apparently there was a tornado that touched down in Manhattan, which is in our area, about 7 miles from where we were! The only damage was the roof of the post office got blown off, but that's it.

On Thursday we were working in the far west side of our area, which is technically Joliet. We were walking down a street and saw an older Hispanic man sitting under a tree in his front yard. He saw us approaching him and he waved and then pulled up two chairs next to him. We sat and talked to him, A, for a good hour! Such a sweet guy who genuinely wants to know the truth. We taught him briefly about a variety of different principles. He said missionaries have given him a book of mormon in the past but when he reads it he doesn't understand. We told him we would love to come read with him and explain things to him! He got really excited about that and so we will be going back this week!

The Highlight of the week was M. L.! He is a guy who was about to be baptised in April, but then kinda disappeared, a shattered heel was a big part of that. He reached back out to us and wants to get back into church! We met with him on Friday and had a great lesson. Unfortunately he is going to Wisconsin today and will be gone for two months. So he won't be baptised until the end of the summer. But he wants to do Skype lessons with us every week while he is away so that he can keep feeling the spirit! It was so cool, on Sunday he came to church and sat by us in his wheel chair. About halfway through fast and testimony meeting he leaned over to me and asked if he could do his testimony right from where we were. I told him if he wanted I would push him up to the pulpit! He thought about it for a sec then said yes! So I wheeled him up to the pulpit where he bore a powerful testimony about how much the gospel has changed and blessed his life! It was such a cool experience and reminder for me to see the affect that this great work has on people! Living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will bring us more peace, joy, and comfort than we can ever imagine!

Elder Thorpe

Here are some classic corn pics, Elder McDougal and "whatsmysnack" Emergen-C.