"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