Transfers!!! I'm a secretary!

So quick little side note for yall..... never knew the mission could get so crazy but right now i am in Maputo and i am going to be an Executive Secretary here with Elder Stevens. I am doing super super well just didn't have a ton of time because of the move and everything to write a super detailed letter but i love you all.

 We had a baptism before I left of a guy named Alberto..... he is so awesome, I had been working with him since i got to palmeiras so that was a pretty sweet moment for me.

Lots of prayers as I am going to be going through a ton of changes! Love you all tons and I am doing awesome. I'll explain better next week but for now, "the church is true".

Love Elder Thornton

Here we have my last day with Elder Moreira (super stud) and also the baptism of Alberto. Then the last pic is of me and my new comp Elder Stevens. Hes super awesome love the guy. Also our office.

Conference and Driving

Welp, another week full of new people, crazy experiences and more responsibilities. A. Elder Palmer from the Seventy showed up out of nowhere this weekend and was presiding at our stake conference..... wow that was awesome. But funny story... all of the missionaries showed up for the leadership part of the conference to find out that actually the missionaries were not invited, so we ended up doing a blitz, or all of the missionaries that were there in our area (way far from their areas) went out and did contacts until the adult session that night. Anyways, one hour later we had done over 30 new contacts..... haha, I think this weeks going to be good.

Also this week I was officially given a new responsibility..... Zone Driver..... hahaha because the licenses of the zone leaders expired. Soooo now i am driving manual for the first time in my life (yeah i know pretty sad but its going good) on the left side of the flippin road... hahaha its so weird but way fun. Just having to stay up way late and wake up super early has been destroying me. But overall it's been way amazing.

Just a spiritual thought for the day. Our stake president gave a talk in the conference about a gigantic rock and a man who was told to push this rock every day of his life. He pushed and pushed every day but never even moved it an inch. One day he apologized to the person in charge, but this person responded, i told you to push the rock, not move it. The purpose was never to move the rock but to help you gain the strength and the muscles to do other things for me in the future. Just like this man who pushed and pushed but always felt bad for not moving the rock, we all have challenges that we will always try to overcome but sometimes we just never move the rock, what is important isn't the results it's the true effort.

Love you all, the mission is great and I haven't died yet on the other side of the road.

Love yall
Elder Thornton
                                       

               Jonny, Elder Moreira, Zone Leaders - Elder Godfrey and Elder Bailey

Hayden, Elder Mark Palmer and Jonny at Stake Conference

Mozambique News March 2018

Oh how the turn table turns....

What an adventure this week we found out that about 5 of our investigators that were about to get baptized in the coming weeks actually belong to different areas! hahaha but they already received almost all of the lessons and are super prepared so blessing for the other Elders.

Today we started a new transfer and wow our Zone changed a bunch. I and Elder Moreira will stay here nas Palmeiras and will continue to run from lesson to lesson. Hahaha honestly this week was super uneventful. Besides us having bed bugs for the last couple months and so we are going to burn our beds this week and get new ones... haha

But this week we had a lesson that really touched me. WE are teaching this girl named Nelma, she's 18 and has been one of our most difficult investigators. SO difficult at we actually decided to stop teaching her. Anyways we left her on her own for two weeks and didn't hear a word but this last sunday she shows up at church just a completely different person.... just super smiley and excited to be there. We planned a lesson last night and sat down to talk. The first thing she said, I finally did that pray you asked me to do, and I know that this church is true. Wow. Just to see the change that an answer from God makes in the life of people is incredible.

This week we had a baptism of a man named Jeramias. He also is 18 and his life story is just one of difficulty and loss. but here he is after all this getting baptized and I haven't ever seen him this happy, Saturday night after the baptism he called us for about 10 seconds just to say that he was so excited to receive the Holy Ghost the next day.... YEah he is awesome.

Love yall so much, the gospel changes lives and changes people. I know its true and I know the people we teach here know its true.
Love yall until next week. Elder Thornton

Pictures of Jeramias' baptism day

8 months down, 24 to go

Wow, today marks exactly 8 months since I entered the MTC all young and naïve and all that good stuff. HAHA who am I kidding, im still super naïve.... just a little less young.

But this week was INSANE hahaha the work isn't just coming along its running full speed ahead. This week we hit an all time high of people that we need to teach, 35.... yeah 35 people to contact teach lessons and help them come closer to Christ. It's been entertaining haha. But we really have seen the hand of the Lord in all phases of our work here.

Everything else besides that has been normal, more rain, more flooding and then on our way home doing our best impression of Par core (yeah please don't check my spelling because I have forgotten how to write 95% of all words in inglish) we just happened to both loose our balance and slam into a wall made of sheet metal, no big deal right? nothing broke no one was hurt but wait.... Someone had thrown a bunch of grease on their wall. Why? don't ask me but what happened is we ended up a lot darker skinned than we were before.

But this week I want to talk about the the little things. Something that I have come to understand here is that the big crazy blessing that we are looking for will usually come when we stop looking for them. When we focus more on what we can give than what we will get we truly become qualified to receive these things that we are asking for. Here on the mission i've found that as I get lost in the work, in the joys, sorrows and love that I feel when I work with this people I start to really see God and the way he is working here in Mozambique. It's been an experience for a life time and thankfully it's not even close to being over;) still have 2 years left in my mind.

Love the work, Love the Church and I want y'all to know that I am who I am but im not yet who I will be and that is thanks to who Christ is and what he has done for me.

Love yall
 Elder Thornton