Dondo the land of...honestly I don't know

Well it only took a week but I am finally here in Dondo and wow. Africa. Like real Africa is kindof rough. Just to start I wanted to talk about my pleasant 20 hour drive from Maputo to Dondo. I remember at times I would complain about the roads in the U.S. but I will never do that again. Here in africa there are more pot holes than asphalt. And anyways that whole journey kindof really sucked. But finally I arrived in Dondo! thank the heavens!

 My companions name is Elder Flitton and another blessing it that he is ridiculously awesome. He is from Cali/Utah but lived in Italy for a year so he knows Italian which helped him already learn Portuguese and he has been out here for only 6 months. Currently we are the youngest companionship in the mission and here's the kicker... Elder Flitton said that President is going to make me a trainer.... probably in about two transfers. Holy crap am I scared. If that really happens Ill have been in Africa for 3 months, and I will be teaching another missionary about this place? HAhaha God works in mysterious ways I guess. But I am seriously having the time of my life.

 We live in an awesome area. Surrounded by mango trees, coconut trees and other exotic stuff I don't know about. The house... isn't awesome and we run out of water and electricity regularly and we definitely take cold showers but besides that it is pretty much great! Mosquitos are definitely one of my least favorite things here. Holy the first day i was bitten 24 times. Also I had my first experience in AFrica using an outhouse. Dang am I thankful for the bathrooms in America. I literally had to sit on a sketchy cement box and wash down my product with scoops of water. And then of course no one there has toilet paper but I definitely was blessed from heaven because they somehow had stolen a copy of the Liahona from the church and tore it up so I got to use a picture of the Conference center. That was pretty comforting.

Also I GOT TO BAPTIZE SOMEONE FOR THE FIRST TIME!! I was asked to give a talk at the Baptism and that went good to. His name is Isaki (Izaki) and I had the honor of performing the baptism! The only catch was that the whole city was out of water so we had a slightly dirty small pool in front of the church that we used and we had them sit in the pool and we kneeled next to them and that was how we did it. So we also baptized another girl here by the name of Finesa and that was a really cool experience too. The work here is going so fast. Baptisms are happening extremely fast and the people are really nice. The only difficulty here is that I definitely don't speak Portuguese... haha I try but it is soo hard but it is coming... ever so slowly. Lets just hope I can learn a little bit more before I am supposed to Train...haha.

Our area is HUGE though. Like the second biggest in the whole mission and we walk everywhere. Around 14-15 miles a day and of course Elder Flitton probably could be in the Olympics for Speed walking so I have been so tired. Never thought walking could be so hard. The food here is good. I've actually had a really good time here with Elder Flitton making food. So far we literally just make different forms of either pasta or rice everyday but its all good. Plus the fruit here.... AMAZING haha i love bananas here. Who knew bananas could be better but apparently they can. Live here in Africa, its hard. Genuinely hard and I miss my home and my friends a lot every day but the work here is amazing and much needed. The people here are suffering and the message we have is the only one of its kind. I know its true and the people here know it's true as well. I love this gospel and the happiness it brings. I will continue to live in whatever conditions needed so these people can know but don't get me wrong I will be excited when I can have a nice bathroom again.

Peace out till next week

Mozambique, Dondo Region

This very well could be a long one so buckle in. Africa....
wow there is so much to talk about but we will start with the plane ride. SO I got really sick the day before we were supposed to leave for Mozambique and I was really feeling down. I was praying so hard that I would be able to feel better and enjoy my trip. THen that sunday we had Elder Ballard come and talk to us in the Devotional and boy did my perspective change. I remember sitting there feeling all sorry for myself and then he started to talk and I felt the spirit telling me, its not about you so stop asking for yourself. Lets just say that the way I starting praying was very different. I was asking that my sickness would not stop me from sharing the gospel.

Anyways we got to the salt lake airport and got all of our tickets and everything and it turned out that all the other missionaries got seats together and I was the only missionary that had to sit by myself. At first again all my thoughts were about myself and even as we started the flight I didn't have a super positive attitude about it. Then I received a tiny and almost seemingly insignificant thought that maybe I should be using this time to read my scriptures. So I pulled out my portuguese scriptures and began reading them.

Anyways a little background info was that I was sitting in the middle between two people and the man to my right wasn't doing anything during the flight and I had been thinking I should talk to him about the gospel but for some reason at the same time I felt like he wasn't the right one to talk to, but the lady sitting next to me had her headphones in, covered her face with her hair and obviously did not want to have any kind of contact with anyone. Anyways when I pulled out my book of mormon it caught her attention and she asked me if I spoke portuguese. I couldn't say yes because I suck at portuguese but I said I was trying..... and then SHE STARTED SPEAKING PORTUGUESE!!

IT was so crazy and I couldn't believe this was happening. ANyways me and Elder Cox (different Elder than my MTC companion) pretty much talked to her for the next hour and eventually gave her a book of mormon and sent her off with some information to contact the Church. Wow that was a powerful experience for me.

Now for the other stuff. After a 16 hour long plane flight... which by the way I was again sitting by myself... I was in Africa. After another flight we were all in Mozambique. NO traffic laws and driving on the left side of the road was literally all I could register the night I came in on.

Over the next two days we saw our group leaving for their areas here in Mozambique but Me and the studly Elder Lemmon were assigned to outside ish areas. Thee Elder Lemmon is going to the Maxixe (ma-sheesh) area. Known for its coconut trees and tourists and beautiful beaches. HAHA if you look up Mozambique on the internet the beaches you see are definitely from there. He is technically the first Elder to be trained in a far outside area of the mission so obviously he is pretty flippin awesome...

For me I am going to Dondo.... Hahahaha it is two hours outside of Beira and is known for literally being a jungle.... haha SO my starter pokemon for my mission will probably be a Mankey. I am looking forward to it and it will definitely be an adventure. I met the Professor for this region Professor Senna (also know as the mission president) and he is a Super awesome guy. So the area of Dondo is known for a lot of good work and I am so excited to get working.

 ANyways, so Me and Elder Lemmon thought we would be flying out this Thursday of Friday but things got kind of crazy. There is an Elder here at the Mission home because of Some health problems and SO his name is Elder Barreri. So the three of us have been companions and it has actually been super amazing. Turns out that Sisters for the first time are being sent to Beira and they need a car so apparently we will be driving................. 6 hours to Elder Lemmons and 16 hours to my area..... HAHAHA I LOVE IT.... so anyways honestly we have done a lot of sitting around and exploring the city.

We have gone on some splits and gone teaching and man I have literally had a headache trying to understand people here but I love it. Africa is so different. I will explain more about what it is like next week but for now just know it is different.

Today we went to the abandoned zoo in Maputo and that was pretty awesome. I love the people and I love the work but most of all I love the Lord and that is why I am here.
Ate Mais.
-Elder Thornton

P.s. I so far I have had the best cake and the best Ice cream of my whole life so.... YEAH i love Mozambique

His missionary arrived very well!

Dear parents and leaders,

I am President Senna of the Mozambique Maputo Mission. I am writing to say that your son (his missionary) arrived very well!

They are happy and healthy, we will return them to you in 24 months! Happier and very healthy and full of joy and rejoicing to perform this wonderful and amazing work!

Thanks for letting them be in the best place to serve today !!

I'm not in Mozambique today, I had to travel to South Africa for a training with the presidency of the South West Africa Area.

My counselor and his wife (Brother Dinis & Sister Caroline) welcomed their missionaries!

Return on Friday and we are anxious, me and sister Senna to embrace them and to live with them in this memorable experience that will be the next months in Mozambique, a paradise of God on earth.

I love you and what you do for this wonderful work.

Anything I can do for you please just call me.

Atenciosamente,

Presidente Senna

Missão Moçambique Maputo

Missão Moçambique Maputo,
o Melhor  Lugar Para Estarmos Hoje!!!

Howdy Y'all!!

I'm not supposed to really email a lot right now so I am just here to tell you that I will call you guys when I am laying over in the Atlanta airport. I honestly cant remember your numbers right now so the only one I remember how to call is the home phone. If you guys want me to call a different one you need to tell me before dinner!

I wanted to say a HUGE thanks for the package I got. Wow everything in there was perfect and exactly what I needed. I am so grateful for our family! It was crazy that I got to see Matt and his Family walk through and that was pretty cool. I think the longer I am out here the more I really appreciate all the things that our family did right and the amazing things you did for me
Mom and Dad. THanks for everything you are doing too. I am so excited  to get out there and teach and I will talk to you more here in a couple of days!

Love Elder Thornton

Season Finale of the MTC

Another week here at ye old MTC has come and gone and time FLEW. There were a lot of super cool things that happened this week at least in my eyes and so Ill try to write them all here but I don't have a ton of time.

First off I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has been sending me things and helping me with the adjustment to this life. I love it to death but that doesn't mean it hasn't been hard. I'm pretty sure I converted all of the guys in my district to Tim Tams so Thanks for that Mandy and Tyler;)

Anyways to start I had the opportunity to hear from a super educated and spiritual speaker the other day. It was so special that we actually stayed out past 1030 for it to actually finish but anyways his name is ELDER BEDNAR AND HE CAME AND ANSWERED QUESTIONS and it was soooo amazing really. I could feel the spirit stronger than I ever have during my whole MTC experience. He said a lot of things that had a huge impact on me and the way I think about the mission.

Just a little homework assignment for all you guys from an apostle of God. REad Ether 3 and think about why The Lord touches each rock individually and what this might symbolize. HE also talked a lot about receiving gifts which was super eye opening. He said that we can not want the gifts and yet we need to desire them but ultimately we will only be given spiritual gifts when we are in a position where that gift can directly bless the life of someone else.

HE blew my mind in so many aspects and it was really awesome all around because it being the first fast Sunday of my mission I had been fasting that this Sunday I would be able to have an experience that really strengthened my testimony in certain aspects because I have been struggling feeling like I am not good enough to be here but the things he said spoke strait to my heart and not only strengthened my testimony of those things but also of the power of Fasting.

Anyways ALso this week we got our travel plans. Man that was honestly so weird. I have always known that I would be leaving here and going to Africa but for a while I was starting to feel like this MTC experience was what my mission was going to be. The second I looked at those flight plans it hit me that I am going to be in Africa in about a week...... insain... but I am so excited at the same time. I cant wait to share the unique message of this gospel with people who really need it.
Also I decided it was time to cut my hair I thought so this week I cut my hair and my thought process was ... well I don;t want to have to cut it anytime soon in Africa so I told the Barber to cut it as short as they could.... HAHAHA i mean it wasn't bad or anything but when i got done almost everyone in my zone told me they could barely recognize me and that when I don;t smile it looks like I am super angry at everything and that I am about to kill someone. That was definitely entertaining. My friend named Elder Baker when he sees me he always salutes because he says it looks like I am in the Army. fun stuff.

Every day is starting to just mush into one day and things are just going so fast. I know I say that a lot but I really feel like I came into the MTC like last week and now I am already leaving. I really have loved it here. The language is hard and teaching is hard but so far everything has been how I thought it would be, nothing good comes without significant effort and sacrifice on our part and that is exactly how the MTC has been. As I work more with a purpose instead of just working hard I have learned so much more and I feel ready to get wrecked by Africa!

And so The Adventure Continues.....