Elder Thorpe's final words...

" As I think about my mission, so much has happened.  I've learned and changed so much. I feel like there literally aren't words to describe it. I feel like Mormon how he says 6 different times throughout the Book of Mormon that he can't write 'but a hundredth part' of what happened. Anytime someone asks me these questions that's how I feel. I can try but it will never do it justice. I am a new person than I was 2 years ago. I've grown so much. My faith in the Savior has increased exponentially. My charity for others has done the same. I feel that I've really learned how to rely on the Lord to receive revelation for how to best help other people come back to Heavenly Father. My testimony of the Savior is so strong, I don't know that I really had "my own" testimony of Jesus Christ before my mission and I learned so much about him on my mission from my mission presidents. But this last conference Elder Bednar said something that struck me. He said, "If all you know about the Savior is something that someone else has told you, your testimony is on a shaky foundation." That statement pierced my soul. I felt he was talking directly to me. (Remind me to tell you the experience I had on Easter Sunday when I get home.) 

 The Gospel of Jesus Christ means everything to me.

 I remember being in my first area with Elder Kish and we talked about how both of us had realized just how important this message is. I know that only in and through obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ can we find true and lasting happiness in this life and eternal salvation in the next! Elder Bonvissuto told me multiple times "stop relating everything to the Gospel" haha. I didn't even realize I was doing it until he said something to me a few weeks ago. I realized and told him that the reason I relate everything to the Gospel is because the Gospel is everything! I don't know what my life would be like without it. Nor do I ever want to find out."  

 Elder Jantsen Thorpe

"It ain't over till the fat lady sings!

Hahahaha I can imagine what that would be like getting a random call from the mission president! But that's cool he called you. In my departing interview he told me that he and the Lord were very proud of me and he felt like he needed to tell my mother that too. So he asked me for your number! He is an amazing man too, the Illinois Chicago mission is in great hands! 

So good to hear you guys were able to make it down to president and sister Binghams homecoming. now you understand what I mean when I talk about them. I respect and look up to them so much! They definitely changed my life! I wish I could have been there to hear them speak. But I'm glad you got to meet and talk to them, and that they had good things to say about me lol. 

I can't wait to hug you too! Only 3 more weeks. It's hard to believe and it doesn't feel real. There is still work for me to do here. It ain't over till the fat lady sings!;) president Bingham gave me some really good talks about returning home and I know for sure that it won't stop in 3 weeks, but I will be a servant of the Lord for the rest of my life!! 

This week was great! Idk if I told you about Leady and Fernando, but they are two kids 11, and 9, and we are preparing them for baptism on August 3rd. They are on track and I'm praying so hard that they stay on track and I get to see them make that covenant with God!! Their family is so awesome, so much fun. We meet with them on Thursdays and Sundays and the mom, Idania, always feeds us the best Dominican republic food. I'm excited to tell you all about how we found them when I get home. It's such a cool story! The Lord definitely has his hand in this work, Mom. I know that he lives! 

Brother Filio is taking us downtown for our preparation day so it should be a good time. I love you and miss you guys lots!

- Elder Thorpe 

"God bless the USA"

We haven't heard from Tyler yet but Leo is so solid! He met with the missionaries last week and went to church on Sunday!! We asked him about it and he said "it was great, I had a good time. I'll definitely be going back next week" so dope.

 Man I'm excited to get into the come follow me when I get home, it sounds pretty awesome!! I love acts 2. I feel like all those people who think speaking in tongues is just rambling in an unknown language have never actually read acts 2. It's so clear what the gift of tongues Is!

The 4th of July is one of my all time favorite holidays, I love America. Haha elder Bonvissuto was probably annoyed with me because I was singing "God bless the USA" all day long haha. We had a typical missionary day, nothing different. We did go to dinner at red lobster tho just us. Elisette gave us a gift card, it was so nice of her.

We met president Shumway this week! He is awesome! So is his wife and family! I love them, sad I only get a few more weeks with them. I also had a departing interview with him yesterday which was super good. He gave me some great advice and a blessing too, good stuff. 

Love you all!

Elder Thorpe

1. 4th of July dinner

2. Knee high on the 4th of July! 

3. Good times

4. Me and my posterity. Gibby, Freeze, Bonvissuto, and Egbert 

- Elder Thorpe 

Independence week!

This is a little bit of what Elder Thorpe sent this week:  (No group email)

This week was great! Do you remember Tyler? He is the summer sales guy that we have been teaching. Well we met with him last Monday morning and he brought his friend Leo. Holy cow was Leo prepared and he motivated Tyler to be more into it too!! They decided to stop the summer sales out here and go back home so they both left on Saturday. Bc Leo was so into the gospel and he kept saying "it all makes so much sense" we ended up meeting with them every morning this week before they left. We taught them all the lessons and they both committed to be baptized and they are excited to meet the missionaries in New York (tyler) and New Jersey (leo) and continue preparing for baptism! It was such an amazing experience getting to know and teach them, I love those guys so much. I'll send some pictures we took with them.

- Elder Thorpe 

This is Tyler and Leo.  Also Sister Bayne, the member who found Tyler, all of our lessons were in her house.  Then a picture of her son Adam who sat in on the lessons too.  He is inactive, but still bore some awesome testimony!

BAPTISM! "Just couldn't wait!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have an authentic Estonian meal. Sister Riismaa in our ward is super cool and feeds us good Estonian food, this week she made us some good pasta with some baked chicken drumsticks. Good stuff. Elder Bonvissuto even said the pasta was good!

The highlight of the week was for sure Elisette's baptism on Saturday! We met with her pretty much every day this week to help her be ready for Saturday! She was so excited and showed up 45 minutes earlier to the baptism because she "just couldn't wait". She asked me to baptize her and elder Bonvissuto to confirm her. It was an awesome service and she was so happy!! It was pretty cool to have elder Bonvissuto confirm her too, he was really nervous but he did an awesome job! The gift of tongues is real! 

We had a couple really solid lessons with Miriam this week too, she is doing great! We have been teaching her the commandments and she knows she needs to make some changes in her life. She is super sincere and when she prays in our lessons she asks God to continue to help her to get on the right path. She brought her 5 yr old son to church on Sunday, man he is a cute little kid. After church he just wanted to arm wrestle us haha. We are really excited for her!

Things are great here. Crazy that this is president Binghams last week as our mission president, he will be greatly missed! But we are excited to welcome in president and sister Shumway! 

I hope y'all have a great week!

-Elder Thorpe 

#whatsmysnack

Baptism of Elisette

"Cited our minds forward by taking us backward."

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some straight up coconut! We bought it on Monday, cracked that bad boy open with a hammer. It was the first time I've ever had legit coconut like that and the milk is dang good! We snacked on coconut throughout the week, it was good stuff! 

We had another great week this week. We met with Elisette 3 times and she is looking super solid for her baptism this Saturday!! Nathan has been out of town for a bit and hasn't been able to come to church so we pushed his baptism to the 29th! Things are going really well for that family! 

We have been teaching this Hispanic woman named Miriam and she is another one of the Elect that our father in heaven has put into our path. We have taught her the first 3 lessons and she came to church on Sunday! She always sets up the appointments for us and she even asked us if she could come to church before we invited her! She is loving it and is on date for July 20th but if she continues to progress like this we will move it up! 

We had our final zone conference with President Bingham on Friday. Such a bitter sweet day. We got to the buffalo grove stake center at 8:45am and didn't leave until about 7pm! President "cited our minds forward by taking us backward". He taught us for a solid 3 hours straight about foreordination and the pre-mortal life! It was so good! I'm going to miss that man and his infinite wisdom very much! At the end when he and sister Bingham bore their testimonies and pretty much said their goodbyes the whole room was in tears! We are excited to continue to progress this mission with president and sister Shumway! 

The Burg continues to be booming! This is the Lord's work and I'm so grateful to be apart of it! I hope y'all have a great week! 

-Elder Thorpe 

#whatsmysnack coconut

Only pic I've got for the week, but it's a good'n

"Is this what it's always like?"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have a spam, egg, and cheese sandwich, made by a Navajo! Elder Eltsosie had some spam and was talking up his spam sandwiches so we had him make us sandwiches after district council. Elder Freeze's mom sent him grandma sycamore bread so we were eating good.

It's been a good couple of days since I emailed last haha. On Saturday and Sunday we had a mini missionary with us, it was a real good time. His name was Derrick and he is a member up in Rockford and he is from Tanzania. He and his family came here 7 years ago, met the missionaries and got baptized. We had a lot of success with him, we found 2 new people and put 3 of the people we were teaching on date. In all of our lessons he bore some awesome testimony about the book of Mormon. The day started out rough tho haha we had a lesson cancel so we tracted for an hour and a half and literally no one opened the door. We were only able to talk to 3 people that were just out and about, it was brutal. Derrick said, "is this what it's always like?" Haha poor guy, luckily the rest of the time was a lot better so he got to see both sides of the work.

We found an awesome lady named Miriam  on Wednesday. We tracted into her and at first she was not having it, we started talking to her about her family and how much her two little kids mean to her. She then let us teach her the restoration and we set up a return appointment for Sunday. When we came back she was there with her cousin Mila and we taught them both. Miriam had read the pamphlet we gave her and asked a bunch of great questions. We put them both on date for July 20th!

Things are good in the burg! Have a great week!

-Elder Thorpe

#whatsmysnack spam,egg and cheese

Dinner with Peruvians, Egyptians, Italians and a Utahn

Apt selfie

Boutta teach some lessons

"The weather is warm and the gospel is true! That makes me one happy missionary!"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have Some authentic Italiano pasta made by the hands of a full blown Italian! Elder Bonvissuto was tired of me telling him that the pasta the members fed us was good haha he said, "I'll make you good pasta!" It was very simple but super good. It was just pasta cooked perfectly, butter, lemon, tuna, and salt! It was probably the best pasta I've had honestly. Living with an Italian isn't too shabby. 

It's been a while! Because Monday was Memorial Day, President Bingham had us change our Preparation day to Tuesday, except we had new missionary training on Tuesday so we had to wait until Thursday! Memorial day was great tho, except that there were major thunderstorms and tornado warnings! We were tracting and were teaching this guy named Mike on his porch and his tv was on inside. While we were talking about the Book of Mormon the tornado warning came on the tv and we heard it but just kept teaching. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing.

Unfortunately Betsy didn't go through with her baptism last week. To make a long story short, she does not have the testimony that this is the only true church. We fasted with her on Sunday and she told us she got her answer that she needs to stay in the Catholic church. Sad. But Elisette, Nathan, and Tyler are all still doing very well!

I got to have a departing interview with president Bingham which was awesome!! He is definitely a role model of mine. It's incredible how much knowledge and infinite wisdom that man has! We talked for a good hour and a half. He gave me some great advice. I sure will miss him when he leaves in 3 weeks!

The weather is warm and the gospel is true! That makes me one happy missionary! I love and miss y'all, have a great week!

-Elder Thorpe

"It's gonna be a great transfer!"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have a classic mozzarella and basil home made pizza and a traditional Columbian meal. The Linares family has some relatives from Columbia staying with them and they speak absolutely 0 English but they made us some really good food. For the pizza brother Linares made the dough and also grows basil it was tasty. 

First week of the transfer was solid. Like probably one of the best weeks of my mission. Picked up my new companion on Tuesday. Elder Bonvissuto is a stud. He is from Italy and has been learning English for the past 9 weeks in the mtc and he is picking up English pretty well. I've realized this past week that I don't know how to speak English lol Nebo School District didn't do me too good. But I do the best I can. English is hard. He is teaching me some Italian which is sick. We say E' stato un parto after we do anything hard. It means something like "oh what a child birth" lol. We get along super well and have some real good laughs and 75% of the time we can't understand each other haha it's awesome! 

We saw a lot of success from our hard work this week. The Lord is definitely blessing us for our hard work. We found 7 new people to teach which was awesome. 3 of which are an African American family that we taught on Wednesday. We taught a solid restoration and elder Bonvissuto invited them all to be baptized and they all said Yes! Pretty hyped. It's a mom, Fara, and her two kids London and Braylin. 

We also had a dang good member referral from sister Bayne who is one of the best members. She totally followed promptings of the spirit and helped a summer sales guy on his path to get closer to Jesus Christ. His name is Tyler and he is one of the coolest people I've met on my mission. Mid 20s and he is from new York and he has started his own solar panel summer sales business. He worked for Vivint before and knows lots of members of the church. We taught him a restoration in the Baynes home and he was way into it. He accepted to be baptized. Sister Bayne called him last night to talk about the lesson and he told her that he loved it and has been reading the Book of Mormon since he got home and was 15 pages in and he "can't put the book down". We are super excited for him. It's gonna be a great transfer! 

Love y'all, have a great week! 

#whatsmysnack Columbian meal

We saw a pillar of light

Geese are everywhere.  And they are like honey badgers...they don't give a crap!

Picking up Elder Bonvissuto

Training another missionary!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have our last super for Elder Freeze at the Bohman's. Brother Bohman grilled up some real good chicken. Sister Bohman made some Peruvian tamatio rice and baked some Brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes. Real good food with real good people made for some real good times.

This week was awesome. Betsy told us she has made up her mind and wants to be baptized on May 25th, pretty hyped about that. Elisette and Nathan are doing super super solid. We consistently meet with them 3 times a week. Nathan also gave us a referral of his friend David who has also been solid. They came to church on Sunday and had an awesome experience. Elisette told me afterwards that she was so grateful we brought her here and that she feels at home. She exchanged numbers with a couple sisters in the ward in order to get to know them better. Nathan also came and played basketball with us today, he is such a stud. They are getting baptized on June 15th! 

We had our transfer calls last night and Elder Freeze is going to be leaving and I am going to be training another new missionary. Hopefully I finish his training and end my mission here in Schaumburg. Life is so good and I'm pumped for this next transfer. 

-Elder Thorpe 

A Mother's Day pic of my dope fam, minus me papi.

#whatsmysnack at the Bohman's

A couple other pics

"Life is always so good!"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we went downtown and Elder Taggart and Elder Elton talked us into going to this authentic Puerto Rican place called Jibaritos Mas. We got these really good steak Jibaritos which is a sandwich with steak, lettuce, mayo, cheese, tomato, grilled onions and garlic all between two fried plantains. It was different but super good!

This week we had a killer zone conference with President Bingham. He told us he has been having insomnia and keeps waking up at 1am with revelation on "things he needs his missionaries to know before he leaves". So our zone conference started at 9:30am and ended at 6:00pm. It was packed with so much revelation it was amazing. President focused a lot on the signs of the times and how these really are the last days. He talked about how we have specifically been saved to live, and lead the Lord's church, in these last days. It was good, hard to explain, I feel like Nephi, I can't write all the things which were taught among my people.

We found a mom and son this week which was super cool. The Spanish elders knocked into the mom on Tuesday and she started crying saying that she had been praying for God to send help. So we went by that evening and had an awesome lesson, her name is Ellisette. She asked us if she could be baptized haha, that's the first time that's happened to me. Pretty cool. On Thursday we met with her and invited her son to join us and he did. He is a stud, 19 yr old. He has never been baptized and wants to be baptized with his mom. He is also coming to play basketball with us today!

I had a blast today, got to go down to the city. Elder Freeze wanted to buy a backpack, so we went to the chrome store and met up with some of my long time mission homies Elder Taggart, Elder Elton, Elder Stewart, and Elder Parkinson. Some good times catching up with the boys. Lots of laughs. Life is always so good! 

Elder Thorpe

#whatsmysnack

Waitin' on the metra

Brick wall pics

Sophie and her phone

"All in the Lord's timing."

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we roasted some hot dogs! Some members had us over and we were going to roast them over the fire but it was too cold and rainy, so we had this cool little thingymajig which got the job done! Nothing like some good old fashion roasted weenies!

We had a pretty cool opportunity on Wednesday. President and sister Bingham came to our district council  and president had interviews with us afterwards, love that man. He and sister Bingham then came out to a lesson with us. We taught our Nigerian friend Olivia and had a very powerful restoration lesson. Hopefully she will have the courage to talk with her father about meeting with us.

We were hyped for Kelvin's baptism on Saturday and everything was going good. He passed his baptismal interview with ease and he was pumped for Saturday. Friday morning we spent a lot of time calling members and setting up the program. We go to our lesson with Kelvin at 3pm and he isn't there and he doesn't answer our calls or texts. We were pretty stressed but went on with our day and at 9pm we went by with our ward mission leader and we woke Kelvin up. He told us his baptism wasn't going to happen because his mom, who is still in Nigeria,  won't let him be baptized without her being there. So unfortunately we had to push Kelvin's baptism to later this summer when his mom comes to visit. All in the Lord's timing.

The Illinois weather can't seem to make up it's mind. It snowed 6 inches two weeks ago then was sunny and 70 degrees then on Saturday it snowed another 5 inches! Still waiting for it to actually be spring out here. The church is true!!

-Elder Thorpe 

Pictures:

1.  #whatsmysnack

2. Spring

3. Spring...?

4. The weather is a bunch of rubbish

Easter!

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some dank sushi!! A Phillipino member took us to this new Asian place called Yummy Station and it was hecka good! Real good California roll, I didn't think I'd like sushi, but imma fan of Yummy Station. 

We had an awesome week being able to focus on the Savior. We shared the Easter initiative video the with all of our contacting and we saw some cool miracles from it. We found some cool people. Hopefully their return appointments go through this week! 

Kelvin is still doing good, if everything works out he will be baptized on Saturday! We are hyped about that, he is a stud! He has given his friends copies of the book of Mormon and he also sent one to his mom back in Nigeria, he is so sick. 

Life is good! I love this work! 

~Elder Thorpe 

1 game day!!

Sorry I forgot to send this last week,

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have a low quality photo of a high quality meal! Brother Filio took us and the Bloomingdale elders out to the cheesecake factory with his family to celebrate his twin daughters birthday. Dang good herb crusted salmon, potatoes and asparagus! It's very rare you get to dine at a place like the cheese cake factory as a missionary. Tender mercies from the lord!

I don't have much time today. We are doing our 1 game day today! So a couple of the boys are going to the white Sox vs Rays game this afternoon! I'm not sure if I'm more excited to watch a baseball game or to be in the Southside again! I feel like I'm home!

Conference this weekend was amazing as usual! So many good talks that inspired me and hopefully all of you to be better! Especially presidents Nelsons simple words to do better and be better! I hope you all continue to study these talks from God's prophets and apostles! It's a great time to be alive!

We had some really good lessons this week with betsy & Del, Kelvin, and Kathleen. We have been able to have member couples come to all of our lessons with Betsy and Del and it has made a huge difference. They also came to church on Sunday and are making great progress. Kelvin we had 2 lessons with and he is solid, he watched conference and came to church on Sunday. He is looking great for baptism on April 27th!! Kathleen has also been making progress, she said she felt like she had better start actually ready the pamphlets so she did. She told us she feels like she really understands the apostasy and the restoration now! She is just really hesitant about coming to church for some reason.

Everything is going great in the burg! Except yesterday it snowed 6 inches, that was lame. But it's 55 degrees today and pretty much all the snow is gone. It is what it is.

I hope y'all have a great week!

-Elder Thorpe 

Watching Conference!

Cruisin...

Go White Sox!

Go White Sox!

See the small line of white in the stands up from the infield dirt on 3rd baseline?

#whatsmysnack Cheesecake Factory

Go White Sox!

"We are gonna have another good 6 weeks here in the Burg!"

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some hot nuts!! Lol these bad boys are good. Elder Romm got me hooked on them. They are peanuts with a crunchy shell covered in chilli powder. I guess I'm on the chili powder grind or something. The chilli powder has got it... I don't even know what it is, but it's got it!

It was a great final week of my 14th transfer. We spent a lot of time tracting this week. President has invited us to start setting a 2 hour block of tracting every night from 5pm-7pm because that's when everyone is home. So we started doing that this week and we have been able to talk to a lot more people, it's been pretty sweet. Nobody too solid yet, we got a couple return appointments but we will see if they happen this week. 

On Wednesday we met with Betsy and we invited her to read President Nelson's talk about the women's role in gathering Israel. Thursday morning we woke up to a text from her saying "you were right, I love it! I'm in!" We then went by on Saturday night to give her a blessing because she has serious abdominal pain and couldn't walk, she told us then that she had received an answer that God wants her to be baptized! Today she is feeling way better and is up walking around and is almost back to 100%. With Del being against her joining the church he told her she had to do her research. So she went on Google and searched "what is wrong with the mormons". Obviously she found hecka anti. So we are now working through that with her. But we love the grind. We will get her in the water. 

We found out last night that elder Freeze and I will be staying together! Good stuff! We are gonna have another good 6 weeks here in the Burg! Life is good and I'm pumped for conference. I hope y'all prepare yourselves to receive some major personal revelation! Have a great week!

-Elder Thorpe 

#whatsmysnack hot nuts.

"We must be doing the work to get the results."

Hey gang! This week on #whatsmysnack we have some popcorn with chili powder! Some dope members, the Escobedos, had us over for some dang good authentic Mexican food. Then they were telling us about how much they love chili powder on popcorn. They were out of popcorn at the time so they ended up bringing us some to church on Sunday. It's actually hecka good!

This week was great as usual, not much else to say. We had a dang good zone conference on Thursday, too. It was extra long, we were in Buffalo Grove from 9am to 6pm! But it was super good, president talked to us a lot about becoming better teachers. He said it all starts with our personal study. We must be doing the work in order to get the results. To understand the scriptures there is a price to pay!! 

Life is so good when you live the gospel of Jesus Christ! Keep on keeping on everyone, I love and miss yall!! 

-Elder Thorpe

Mirror pic

Twinning ties with Elder Romm

My boy Elder Howe

It's a beautiful day

#whatsmysnack popcorn with chili powder