I don't want to say good bye to you.. So I'll just say good night

Welp. “B,” “J,” and “K” “M” are now members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. See you in a little bit. I'm excited but don't want to come home. Make sure we stop on the way home to get me some Beats. And we'll get my iPhone soon according to Hailey. I love you. It's been real. It's been fun. It's been the best 2 years of my freaking life. Introducing the new me. Peace.
Elder JR Thorne

Start strong, finish strong!!

Yeah. So have I talked about “TB” at all? He's a recent convert that was baptized about a week before I got here. He's a super cool guy. When the missionaries first started teaching him, his wife “N” was super busy with work. She worked every day of the week until late. She got a promotion lately and was able to switch around her schedule which gives her Sunday's and Monday's off. In the last week of August, we went to go see her and invite her to be baptized. (She's had a ton of contact with the church and already has some really good friends in the ward) She told us she was going to be out of town for a couple weeks for her brother's wedding in Chicago, so we set her to be baptized on the 15th of September, 6 days after getting home. Time passed and we were excited for it, then the weekend before, last Sunday, I totally forgot that we had her for the upcoming week. On Monday, we texted her a scripture, and set up to go by and see her on Tuesday. Well we saw her, and at the beginning, just mentioned the word baptism, and she's like, "Yeah I'm excited for this Sunday!"  And so we made all the necessary arrangements, taught her everything, she committed to it all, and she was baptized yesterday! And confirmed because next week is stake conference. Man it was so good. We had dinner with her, her 3 kids and a part member family afterwards. So much fun.

Much a great experience. I bet you're all thinking, it couldn't get any better than that.. right? Well here's a story for ya. 

Tuesday night. Exchange with Elder “T.” We're in my area. We had an ok day. We had a lesson at a member's home with the >M” family, “B,” “J,” “K,” “K” and “M.” We were at the “G” and “E” “C’s” home (he played in the NFL). We talked about the priesthood. We gave them the big picture of having the priesthood in their home with Bill and them being sealed as a family in the holy temple. I go 

"And you know the first step.." 

And they were like yeah yeah.. haha. “B” was like, "I'll let you know my answer soon". 

And I'm like, "Ok you gotta let me know before the 26th". 

"Ok". 

"Actually, before the 22nd, because after that things get really crazy." 

"Come on man I give you an inch and you're trying to take a mile!" haha.

 He was kidding of course. He's really funny. Anyway. We leave the lesson with no commitment. That night, Elder “T” and I are planning out the next day. We finish up and I hop in the shower because I have to change my pump. About 3 minutes in, I hear somebody banging on the bathroom door, 

"Elder Thorne!" 

I'm thinking to myself, 'What does he want?' "What?" 

"Uh.. “B” just called. He wants to talk to you"

......

......

PSH! Shower off. Towel on. Run out. Grab the phone. Call “B” back.

"Hello?"

"Hey “B,” It's Elder Thorne. How's it going?"

"Did you even have time to dry off? Come on!"

haha

"Ha nah I just wanted to talk to you! What's up?"
"I just got a question for you."

Ah..

"Yeah?"

"What's your favorite color?"

.......-__-....

I'm thinking like 'Are they gonna like knit something for me before I go home?'

"Um.. Purple"

"Hmm.. I saw you more as a blue guy.. So, do you want me to tell you my answer now? Or do you still want me to wait until the 22nd?"

"Tell me as soon as possible. RIGHT NOW."

"Ok. Ok. One more quick question. Do you only do baptisms on Sunday, or can you do them any day?"

"WE DO BAPTISMS ANY DAY"

"Alright. Well I have a pretty booked weekend, so I'll figure out my schedule and I'll let you know and we'll be baptized sometime next week."

 :O

.....NO WAY..... 

YEAH!!!!!!! I didn't know whether to cry or to scream, but I didn't want to sound like a girl in front of “B.” I was jumbling over my words I was so freaking excited. I didn't sleep that night. THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT.

Love you.

Start Strong. Finish Strong.

Training with Elder Ulisses Soares

Hello fam
This week was good. Super good actually. We had interviews with President on Wednesday, then we had a leadership council where all the district and zone leaders got together at the mission home on Friday, then we had mission conference on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. Sister “B” and Elder “B” were there on Friday (Sister “B” is a sister trainer leader) and Saturday, so I loved seeing them. I also got to see everyone at mission conference. Elder Soares was awesome. He's really cool and taught us a lot of good stuff. He talked about our commission as Representatives of Jesus Christ. How we stand in His place at all times. It was really really nice. 
Man. I don't even know what to say. We didn't have a ton of success this past week. We still have “J,” but she went to a friend's church yesterday.. “N B,” who is the wife of a recent convert “T.” is set to be baptized next Sunday! We set her with a date a while ago, but she's been out of town until tonight. So.. Yeah. I don't know what else to say. We can just talk about it soon.. I love you guys like crazy. K bye. 
I'm good by the way. Really happy, just totally sick of emailing..... hahaha love you!
Elder JR Thorne

Miracles

We went fishing today! I caught a Jack something..

Man I can't even remember this past week.. Elder Soares of the Presidency of the 70 is coming here on Saturday for a mission conference! Super excited for that. 

We've been teaching a lady named “J,” who we met last Sunday. She has progressed super God's hand in her life in some way. She has really wanted to give it all to God, but didn't really know how. She had prayed for someone to help, and we showed up! She loves when we come by and teach her ways that she can have more peace in her life and have more of God's help. She is hesitant at first, saying she loved tea too much. But luckily we had a sweet member there who also had to give up coffee and tea for her baptism. “J” committed and she gave us her coffee filters and her box of tea right there! It was awesome to see how much faith she has! We went over a couple days later (She had to miss church because she opened at work), and she said that she was tempted to drink tea but she didn't! And she said she felt so good because of it. 
It's been crazy to see all these miracles every day. I love it. It's coming to a close but I'm not. I'm going to keep fighting till the end. Even though I'm super exhausted haha. I can't wait to go to General Conference! Ah it's the best. That Sunday is actually Sister “B's” birthday. Random fact. I love you all!

"Did God send you here?"

Hi family.

   Kind of a crazy week.

    We went down to Fort Laud this week and the best thing about going down to Fort Lauderdale is going to BBQ King. The BEST pulled pork sandwich you'll ever have. With fries and a drink for $6.89. Ah. Love it. A must go when we come back to Fort Laud. But that was fun. I absolutely love Fort Lauderdale so so much.
     Yesterday was full of miracles. The rest of the week was ok. On Friday, we went on exchange with the other Jupiter elders. I stayed in South with Elder “T” (I mentioned him in my last email because he asked if I told you that he's from Roy. As a joke. So I did haha). We started out the day by going and eating lunch at Sister “G's!” She's the best. She's 75 and has read the BoM 79 times! She makes the best food too. Ah man, her cole slaw is to die for. I got the recipe :) I'll try to send it home today. (Also, side note. I'm going to start sending stuff home today, so if I could get some money to do that.. :) thanks). Sister “G” has us over every week we have the car because she lives super far away from us. I love her a lot. We eat out on her back patio since she's a widow. It's so good. After that, we went and picked up “MJ.” He's an awesome old guy in the ward. He loves coming out with the missionaries. I had no idea since no one told me, but it was a great experience. Nobody was home.. But it was a lot of fun. We stopped off at Wendy's to end our exchange with him. The day wasn't over however. We went down to the apt complex where a recent convert lives, and started harvesting. We walked over to the building that we were going to start off with. We knocked on one door, no one was home. We looked around, and I see a building all the way across the complex, and point to it saying, "We need to go there". It wasn't some crazy manifestation of the Spirit or some compelling force leading us over there, it just felt good. It looked cool. So we head over there, walk around the lake in the middle of the complex. As we are getting up to the building, a man was walking out of the building. Elder “T” thought to himself (he told me later), "We need to talk to this guy". He said he thought that right as I started speeding up to talk to him. We introduce ourselves and ask if we can leave a blessing with him. He says of course. Elder “T” asks if we can do it in his home with his whole family and he agrees and walks us up two flights of stairs to his apartment. There was “T” (the guy), then his mom and 4 other little kids. Elder “T” leaves the blessing and before saying 'amen', he blessed them, "..to know that we were sent by Jesus Christ.." After the amen, we look up and the mother said, with tears in her eyes, "Did God send you here?"    Yes He did “J,” Yes He did. They accepted baptism right off the bat, and are super excited to have these blessings in their life!
    So yesterday, we got a new ward mission leader. Bro “M” got released and is now the 2nd counselor in the bishopric! Super cool. And Brother “C” is the new Ward Mission Leader. He and his wife recently returned from a mission in Russia. He's pretty cool. We had a meeting with him and Sister “C” (who got called as a ward missionary) after church. We got home and ate, and afterwards, I got a huge headache. Like one of the worst I've ever had. We talked a little bit about what we wanted to teach our investigators later that day (I was laying on the couch). It's bike week (UGH) so we thought we might as well use the new guy and have him take us out so my head wouldn't be rattling around all night. He said yes and came and got us. We first went and saw this teenage girl “N”who has been coming to church for forever. Just hasn't agreed to be baptized. It was a good lesson and we made some head way with her. She prayed about Thomas S. Monson and for help to decide to be baptized. Then we saw and taught a super awesome lady that has a date for the 8th. As we came out of her apt (same complex as before), we saw a big couch on the side walk with a guy and 3 ladies standing by. We offered to help them take it up to their place. Took it all the way up to the 3rd floor. We then offered a blessing, which they readily accepted. After the blessing, Trelaine (the guy) was so happy. You could just tell he felt the Spirit super strong. His response to baptism, church and a return appt "Anything to feel like this all the time!"
     Super cool. Love you. K bye. 
Elder JR Thorne   

Week of August 19

So we're teaching this way awesome girl named “H.” She's the girlfriend of “A,” I don’t know if I've mentioned him yet. Elder “S,” had served in Jupiter South and he was on exchanges here a couple weeks ago. He wanted to stop by someone he taught while he was here, “A.” “A” was going through a very rough point in his life at that point, and didn't really want to meet with the missionaries.. Last Friday, we were on exchanges again, I was here with Elder “B,” we went to go see them. “H” was there and we went in and taught her about the Savior and had such a powerful spiritual experience with her. She doesn't really have a huge belief in God, but she started crying because of how good she felt. We constantly expressed our love and how we were there to help. She totally loved that, actually gave me a big hug before we left.. haha. Now she's pretty solid. It's just been kinda hard to meet with her since though.. We have had good contact through phone :)

     There's an awesome Venezuelan family in the ward named the “C” family. They just moved from Utah, and the dad was baptized at the beginning of the transfer by the other elders. And oh man do they make some amazing food. She used to work at Cafe Rio actually. Anyway, they have a chubby little boy named “F.” This is him:

Little cutie right there. He just came and plopped himself down right next to me and took my tag haha. 

     Welp, I'm staying in Jupiter South for my dying transfer.. Elder “M” is leaving though. So I get to go to transfer meeting :) I don’t know what else to say.. That's about it. We went bowling again last week :) I got a 198. I was so mad I didn't break 200, but it was all good. It's surprising since I haven't been in so long. We're going to the lighthouse today. And maybe bowling again. I love you! Bye!

Remember!!

Biggest news from the mission world is that back packs are now forbidden, and we must wear shoulder bags. Elder “M” and I found some good satchels at TJ Maxx. We first went to the mall; we actually had to bike because we were out of miles and the other elders didn't have enough to come down to pick us up.. So we biked to the mall (it's a really nice mall over here), and went all over trying to find good shoulder bags. Well no one had any that were good, and the good ones were all at least $150.. Every time we'd ask an employee if they had shoulder bags for men, they would give us a weird look and then tell us no. Ha. It was kind of funny. We were at the mall for like 2 hours trying to find these flippin’ bags. Finally we asked someone if they knew of a place that would have them. The guy told us that TJ Maxx or Ross should, and that they are just down PGA Blvd. So we left the mall and headed east on PGA. We found the TJ Maxx, started in the purse section (I was so ready to just buy a woman's purse at this point), then we headed to the men's and they had small shoulder bags over there! So we got us some pretty sweet satchels. Elder “T” and Elder “B” got some bigger bags. But I know, I look pretty good.
    The “M's” are doing well. We saw them a couple times this past week, mainly just stop by's and answering questions or dropping something off. We feel like as much contact as possible will help them progress more. Man, they are so cool. They know everything, it's just a matter of them making the choice to be baptized. Sometimes people reach a point where they don't really see the importance of  or how many blessings will come to their lives as they are baptized. They just need to take the step of faith and do it. Actually dad, remember the article you sent me about BYU's athletic director? I gave that to them, I hope it will help. We're pulling out all the stops. We even gave her a copy of "Jesus the Christ"! I mean, come on! How prepared can you be?..

     I've been reflecting a lot this past 8 months, and especially this past couple weeks, on "Remembering". I don't think there's any more caring and repeated counsel throughout the scriptures, especially in the Book of Mormon, than that to "remember". 'Have ye retained in remembrance..?' Alma asks frequently in Alma 5. Helaman counsels his sons to remember, remember in Helaman 5. Nephi remembers who he had trusted and who had delivered him from his enemies in his poetic psalm in 2nd Nephi 4. And King Benjamin, in his "angelically delivered sermon", calls us to 'remember and perish not'. If you don't remember, you forget. Sometimes remembering the good is the only thing you have when times are tough. Sometimes a good memory is an answer to a prayer. When God has given you an answer to a prayer, and we ask again and again, it's kinda like when He talks to Oliver Cowdery, (in essence, of course) "I already told you. You already felt the Spirit confirm to you that it's true. Remember?" If we're not willing to remember the good, and if we just forget how good something is and we let ourselves forget, then we show God that important things don't matter. We let the little unimportant things take up most of our time. Remembering is a vital part of our growth and a huge part of God's plan for each and every one of us. For me, it's remembering everything that I've gained on my mission because of the struggles. It's remembering my sacred experience of having God's love given to me by an angel. Most of the time, that is the thing that gets me through my trials and troubles even to this day. It's been amazing to study these things out and especially apply "remembering" to my life. There's a talk by Elder Marlin K. Jensen that I printed and am going to read later on, I exhort that you all do the same. 
    I wish I had more to report on. Like always, we have some people that we're working with. We're struggling finding but I know it will happen. 
     Welp.. I miss you all like crazy. I can't believe the time is coming up. I love you all so much! Oh, and I told Hailey that I might not get an iPhone. So if you're planning to surprise me with those things (especially that Camaro.. :) haha), don't get the iPhone yet. And maybe not a laptop. I'm having a RC hook me up with some programs like AutoCad and Photoshop (Thank you for South Florida ;)), but it might just be for desktops. I love you guys! Bye!
Elder JR Thorne