December 26

 FaceTime

 Elder Thorne's View

 Christmas Dinner

 Caroling

Angel Hosts!

It was so so good to talk/see you all yesterday! We are so blessed to have the technology to do so. We don't have many investigators... Alejandra and her mom are the only solid ones. We have some really good potentials, probably 5-6, but it's hard maintaining contact with them. Speaking of, Mom, in your letter include of course your testimony, and also why being baptized was the best decision of your life and how it has blessed you. I think that would be really good. I hope you guys love Taylor Furch as much as i did! He really is such an awesome guy. Mom, you can talk to him in spanish if you want. This past week was really good. Super busy. Idk what else to tell you.. Mostly told you everything yesterday! The Cantata went well. I had fun, even though I'm not good at singing at all. In this month's Ensign, theres a story on page 47 that is really good. I only read about half, but I really like that it explains that Christ looks for those who are lost. Cuz He wants those sheep back in His herd. Cuz He loves everyone. Mom, Thanks for hanging out with V. That means a ton. Thanks for delivering my presents too. Her birthday is on Jan 12, so I'll let you know what to get her then. Thanks :) Hmm... Not sure what else to say.. Oh sorry the email is late. All our normal places are closed so we had to come to the family history center here in the chapel. Thanks family! I love you so much! Miss you a ton!

December 19

 This week was super good. We had the Christmas parties for the 2 wards this weekend, english on friday and spanish saturday. Those were very fun. I'm reading the New Testament and there are some scriptures that I really liked. Matthew 9:37-38. It talks about what I am doing here. And Mark 4:1-20. That parable is one of my faves. We have to be good dirt. We can't be tangled up in our image or endure just a short while. Oh, and guess what. There's a Christmas cantata next week, combined both wards, and i'm in the choir. Sis. Braitewaite invited us to practice yesterday and I was the one who spoke up and said we should go. haha It should be fun. This past couple weeks we've been riding bike every day. They reduced our miles to 800 so we'll talk to more people on bike. We were riding along the main street, and Elder Smith stopped to talk to this older guy. We thought we saw  him at the spanish ward Christmas party cuz there was a guy who looked just like him haha. We've been extending baptismal invitations to everyone we harvest into, and it's been really cool. We've gotten a couple yes's and we're working on helping them progress. I'll let you know how that's going once it gets going. I haven't seen a popeyes in our area :( so i'll have to wait a while to have it. I love the ward and people here so much that i pray that I don't get transferred haha but i'll go wherever. I love you guys! Thanks for everything and we'll talk to you Sunday!! Love you!  

December 12, 2011

This week has been pretty good. I have had a lot of amazing experiences.  On Friday we went on 'fire exchanges' with both our zone leader's and ap's out harvesting. First I went with ZL Elder Wees and we blessed 2 people in an hour! Him and I did very well. Then after we finished that, the assistant's called and wanted to harvest with us too. So we met them and I went with Elder Matthews. He was so cool and so spiritual and good at harvesting. I actually had a ton of fun harvesting with him. We blessed 3 houses together and I talked to lots of people.  So I blessed 5 people and elder smith blessed 5 too. We left 10 blessings on Friday! The most we've ever had in one day was 3. It was an awesome experience.  Oh and on Thursday. K first, President Anderson has always said 'pray, plan, practice, do' with all our plans. So we prayed, planned where we were going to harvest, then went and harvested. We weren't having any success and I said we forgot to practice. So we stood in the middle of the sidewalk and did a couple role plays. The very next house: nothing. We walked across the street and knocked and a lady and her dad or someone answered and right then a truck pulls in the driveway. He gets out (Giovani) and instantly lets us inside. We blessed his home and taught about a 5 min restoration lesson. He committed to be baptized Jan. 7! And we're going back tonight. If it weren't for that 3-4 min we stood on the sidewalk practicing, we would have missed him! Crazy how the Spirit works sometimes. So Mom, We're teaching a 15 yo girl and her mom (she also has a 5 yo little girl) and she wants to be but isn't super committed. She knows all the lessons, it's just getting her to be super excited. They speak Spanish (Alejandra knows most English but prefers Spanish) so i was wondering Mom if you could write her a letter of your conversion and your testimony. I think that would really help. Just send it to me with your letter and I'll deliver it.  Welp... My week has been good. Just normal missionary stuff happening. It's so weird that it's December already. I love you all and miss you a ton. Till next time :) Love Elder Jaren Thorne

December 5th

My health has been really good. Being on a schedule definitely helps. Transfers were last Wednesday and there was like a 0.001% chance I'd move, but as you know, I wasn't. The next time I might be moved is January 9th but I pray that I won't be.. ha but I really love it here. The ward is amazing. So work here has been a lot better. We've found some promising people. Did I tell you about Iwa and Michael? Anyway. She prayed that someone would come and help them out and a couple hours later we blessed their home. When we called the next day to set an appt, she said only good things had been happening since the blessing. Which was really cool. We went back and taught them some of the restoration. She's pretty set on the Bible, so she'll be hard to crack. But hey, the Spirit can do anything. I'll let you know how that goes. We have some good investigators, they're just progressing pretty slow. This 15 yo girl and her mom (Her husband, the girl's step dad) just passed away so we taught the PofS and they've felt the Spirit and love it. They just don't come to church and I don't think they read the BoM too much. Alejandra (the 15 yo girl) has received the lessons and has been to church with her aunt who just got baptized in El Portal (just a little north of here). So she know the gospel pretty well. We just have to get her comfortable here. Our new roommate is Elder Diaz. His name is Jose Diaz. He's pretty cool. He's been learning English here on his mission and it's pretty good. But sometimes it's hard for me and him to communicate. I'll send a pic. Elder Furch should get in contact with you soon. Make sure the girls are there to meet him too (including V). Hey Mom, Were becitos big in El Salvador. Idk if I spelled it right. But it's when you greet someone, you kiss each other's cheek? It's a Latin thing and this is pretty much Central/South America. So I've been kissed 3 times on my mission... haha but they were sneak attacks and I couldn't avoid them. Anyway, Nothing else new. Still working hard, enjoying the beautiful weather. I miss you all and love you like crazy!