"The church was true in 2018 and it still will be in 2019!"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some Red Bull!! Lol a few weeks ago we were down town on preparation day walking around and this Red Bull car pulls up in front of us and these two chicks hop out of the car with red bull jackets and red bull cooler backpacks full of red bull and they just start handing them out to people. So we all grabbed one and then they asked us if they could take a picture of us haha. It was nice, and free Red Bull! Elder Shipp loves red bull so we gave them all to him and he pounded them all haha.

I'm convinced there is no such thing as a bad week in Hyde park! I love this place and could spend the rest of my mission here! We've had lots of lessons like usual and lots of solid people to teach! Last week Sister Bello called us and said she has a friend who she wants us to teach, so we hopped on that right quick. She referred us to her friend Shadi, I think that's how it's spelled, it's pronounced "shawty" haha. She is so awesome and hecka prepared! She has 15 and 12 year old sons, the 15 year old is named David and has very severe autism and can't communicate. The 12 year old is named Joshua and he is the coolest kid! He's a genius and loves the scriptures. He tells us that he loves our "preaching" every time we come over. They all came to the baptism last week and to church this week and they are preparing to be baptized on January 26th! Super solid!

All of our people are doing really well. Joe Ibekwe is preparing to be baptized on January 12th and he's looking real good. Cerenity is also preparing for the 12th, so January should be a real good month too! Elizabeth and Wale and doing awesome, Wale's mom just got here from Nigeria and came to church with them. She barely speaks English but we got her a Yoruba Book of Mormon and she started reading it! Nicole is still awesome, haha this week she said to Sister Pope while we were standing there, "Thorpe's part of the family, he's got a little color in him!" Haha she explained it was because I play sports, I can understand her lingo, and because I love Chance the Rapper! Lol I knew my boy Chance would win me some brownie points down here in the south side!

I love these people so much and I love this gospel!! The church was true in 2018 and it still will be in 2019! I hope y'all have a happy New year!

Elder Thorpe

Dara Opadele wanted to take a selfie.

Christmas Service

The Hyde Park Elders with our bowties courtesy of Bro Pope's daughter.

#whatsmysnack Redbull

"...a day full of food, friends and the Gospel of Jesus Christ!"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some classic Nigerian pepper soup! We had a lesson with the Opadele family on Sunday and afterwards Ibukunolu asked us if we wanted to come over on Christmas for pepper soup, of course we said yes! Elder Egbert is a really picky eater and he was really nervous for it haha so we had to go on a mini exchange and elder Bingham came with me. This was probably the sickest thing I've ever had in my life! We were sweating bullets and breathing fire Haha! The taste wasn't horrible it was just hecka hot! Apparently they cook it with ginger, garlic, and this dry pepper, and they throw in some cow leg... which is basically just bone, gristle, and cartilage. Somehow, by the grace of God, we were able to finish the soup! The bucket next to me in the picture is just full of soapy water and after you eat the soup and cow leg you wash your hands in the bucket haha.

This week was a good one!! On Saturday we had our baptism!! Unfortunately not everyone we were hoping for got baptized, so we only had 11 in the ward! You know things are going good when you use the word "only" to describe a baptism of 11 people!! A couple people will be pushing their date back to to January 12th, but they are still excited and looking forward to being baptized!! For our companionship, we had Elizabeth Awoniyi & Wale Aderemi, Vitus Ndu, James Komolafe, and Nicole Young all get baptized! Serenity Andrews was one of the investigators who decided to push it back to the 12th but she is still solid! Lots of good work going on here!

On Christmas eve we did a serve project with President and sister Bingham at this university, which was fun! We started off the whole project by all reciting the Lord's prayer which was great Haha! Before the mission I had heard/ read the Lord's prayer like 2 maybe 3 times. Out here I hear it almost everyday! Christmas day was awesome too! We had breakfast with the bishops family, lunch with the Opadele's, early dinner with the Quezada's, and late dinner with the Adeguns! It was a day full of food, friends, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ! No better combo in my opinion! I hope y'all have a great week, and a happy New year!

Elder Thorpe

The whole team

Elizabeth, Wale and Emmanuel

Nicole

Vitus

James

#whatsmysnack Nigerian pepper soup

Dara and Moore

"Life is good as usual here in the Southside."

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some real good baked chicken. There is a less active lady that we started teaching and she loves us and so she has us over for dinner once a week now. She is from Tennessee and she makes some real good southern food. This was like half a chicken baked with seasoning and cheese on it. Then she also made us some fried chicken with Cole slaw and that was bomb, I just didn't snap a pic.

This week we were running around like crazy teaching lessons right and left getting all of our people ready for their baptismal interviews that will be this week. Most of them are doing super good and are solid for the 22nd. Two of them however, Joe and Victor are still up in the air... They both have crazy jobs that require them to work ridiculous hours and so they might not be able to make it to the baptism. So they may get pushed back a week or two but we will figure it out this week. Everyone else, including the rest of the district, is looking really good for the 22nd. Despite not having any snow over here, we will still have a white Christmas in Hyde park!!

This week I was on exchanges with Elder Howe again. He is a good guy and we have lots of fun together. He forgot his glasses and contacts so he was walking around blind all day haha, luckily we had 9 lessons so he didn't have to do too much walking. Life is good as usual here in the Southside. I hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Thorpe

The Egbert

My man Elder Howe

Elevator pic

"So when are y'all coming back?"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack the boys hit up this hole-in-the-wall Mexican place on the west side, called Machettes. This place is big time, literally... They make 20 inch quesadillas!! They were freaking good too! 20 inches of corn tortilla, cheese, carne asada, pastor, cilantro, onion, and their special salsa! Muy bueno!

Another week closer to December 22nd! Our 8 people on date are still looking really solid! They have all pretty much been taught everything and are living all the commandments, they just need to get dunked! The 22nd is going to be a great day!! We stay real busy with all of these people we have to teach down here in the south side, it's fantastic!

We had a pretty cool experience on Sunday night, we got a referral for this lady named Yolanda. We confirmed with her and everything and we show up to her apartment at 7:30. We call her a couple times and text her and we get no response. A Lady comes out of the apartment building and tells us that Yolanda is home, but then the lady dipped out of there right quick before we could ask her to get her for us. So we decided to wait just a few more minutes. 2 minutes later Yolanda calls us asking if we are still there and we say yes. She let's us in and we had an amazing lesson with her. The spirit was super strong and she has definitely been prepared. She told us she had tons of questions about "mormons" but that our message pretty much answered them all. Before we could even mention a return appointment she asked, "so when are y'all coming back?". She told us right before we left that she had made up in her mind that us "mormons" were a cult and were of the devil and that's why she didn't answer our calls or respond to our text. But she said as she sat on her couch something inside her told her that if she didn't let us in, she would be missing out on great blessings from God! What an amazing testimony she shared with us, the knowledge of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ is one of the greatest blessings that we can receive! How well do we cherish that blessing? I'm so thankful for the opportunities I have out here to meet people like Yolanda!

The church is true!

Elder Thorpe

"It's gonna be the whitest Christmas of my 20 years of life!"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some Vita Malta! This stuff is pretty nasty not gonna lie. But the Nigerians love it for some reason so they always give it to us when we come over. It's some non-alcoholic barley malt drink that will put a little hair on your chest! Elder Bingham bet me Giordanos pizza that I wouldn't drink 3 of them in 20 minutes. I crushed those bad boys and he bought me pizza! 

On Tuesday I said goodbye to Elder Ward and picked up Elder Egbert! He's a real good guy from Fernley, Nevada! He knows the gospel really well and has very good teaching skills, which is super helpful because we teach a ton here. He has a powerful testimony that he loves to bear, it definitely brings the spirit into our lessons! 

Our people are looking real good right now. We have Nicole & Serenity, Elizabeth & Wale, Joe & Vitus, James Komolafe, and Victor Johnson all on date for December 22nd! And the rest of the district all has people on date for then too! The Hyde Park ward is looking to put up at least 18 baptisms on December 22nd! It's gonna be the whitest Christmas of my 20 years of life! We are hyped! 

I love this time of year and I love sharing this gospel!! I hope y'all have a great week! 

Elder Thorpe

Nicole and Serenity

#whatsmysnack Vita Malta

E Ward saying goodbye to the Bellos

Doin' service with Elder Bingham

The Bingham's, me and Elder Egbert

All the trainers and their greenies