I'm.....alive.....

Howdy y'all,

Just Elder Thornton here from Nacala Mozambique!

Hahahaha things are incredible here. Internet sucks so if you don't
hear from me don't think I'm dead. I'm all good. Elder Latu is incredible!
He is a legend and loves to work so we have been getting after it.

So, we opened up the church here in Nacala. It's a group of a branch of the
mission Mozambique. Hahaha, so it's small. Elder Rees and Elder Francom have been here a couple weeks before us and they were here during the very
very beginning with attendance of about 14 people. Then all four of
us went to work the week we got there and the frequency that week.....
50! hahaha it was a huge miracle.

Then the next week we had out first baptism. Her name is Elvira and she is incredible too. She is also being called as the relief society president here so we are super excited for her!

The next week we had 58 people and this week we had 65. There is about 18 members here in Nacala so every Sunday we leave at about 6:30 in the morning to go and bring people to church and me and Elder Latu have had about a solid 30 people at church every week. The work is going incredibly well.

We are working with so many people and trying to help a lot of people come unto Christ through baptism. We hope to have about 5 to ten baptisms this next month but we will have to let you know how it's coming.

Next week I'll try to show you some of the specifics, but the chapel has also been through some major renovations due to the rapid growth of the church here.

Miracles are happening in Nacala Mozambique and its been incredible to
be a part of it. God works through our faith. And we are really trying
to put all of our faith into the growth of Gods Kingdom here.

Love you all!!
-Elder Thornton

No pics because internet sucks here but let me tell y'all.... Nacala is
soooo beautiful - you guys are going to die when I can send them.

Hayden sent this picture of the 3 Darts:)  Elder Rees, Elder Grange and Elder Thornton

Visit from Elder Koch to Mozambique Mission

Elder Koch visited the Mozambique Mission from January 20-24.  These are some pictures that showed up on the Mozambique Mission Facebook page.  We did not get a letter on the 14th and a short 2 liner from the 21st because of the internet service in Nacala!  But at least we have these to show he is alive and well:)

Jonny's letter through Pres. Senna:)

(Jonny did not write last week and again we thought we might not get a letter today.  Pres. Senna found out and asked Jonny to send him a message that he could give to us and this is what we got:)  Glad to hear he is still alive and hopefully when he goes to Nampula in a couple of days to be with Elder Koch as he tours the mission, Jonny will be able to write and give us a lot more detail!!😉)

Hey I just wanted to say that I'm still alive and I love y'all a ton! Nacala is incredible it just doesn't have a great place to do internet so I'll write when i can. 

- Elder Thornton

Sooo...still not there yet

So Elder Thornton again,

Currently I am in Nampula, a little bit outside of Nacala.  We had a lot of drama go down with the flights that we had direct to Nacala but now its all good.  We should be getting to the area tomorrow and next week I will have much more to tell y'all. But for right now I'm here with Elder Grange and I'm still alive and I'm way excited to get to work in Nacala.

Everything is going good with Elder Latu, I really don't have a lot to tell this week because I was in the office helping Elder Silva learn how to work with South Africa (as he doesn't speak English and he has to communicate with them a lot) so that was fun and pretty much the only thing I've done the last couple of days.

For now I just wanted to say a little bit about a word that really touched me this week. Diligently. I was doing the study for the Come Follow Me program and some other personal studies and I noticed the word Diligently so many times. It hit me that the only way to really measure our desires is through the evaluation of our diligence. That we can all strive to improve our faith and therefore our diligence is my hope for all of us.


-Elder Thornton

picture of baptisms last week

picture with Elder Van Orden and Elder Draney with members

Eternal Secretary

Alright, so I just want to say that I'm sorry it took me so long to write but this week has been craaazy and a lot of changes happened.

So first off we had Alberto's baptism that was super great! Of course he got there about 45 minutes early and was way excited for everything. He even helped set up for a wedding before everything started. So the baptism went well and also the couple that we helped out a little to get married this last week, the wife got baptized with Alberto and that was pretty rewarding.

After all that, we also had a great family night with some of the people that we were teaching and have dates to get baptized this month. They taught us how to make something called Frango a zambeziano (Zambezi Chicken).... which is incrivel (incredible).

When transfer news came it turned out that both Elder Draney and I would be leaving. So we showed the new Elders a bunch of stuff and people in the ward to try and help them get a good start.

Then, I took Elder Draney to his new area with my car and then I became for the next week,..... a secretary!! hahaha again.... but it was all good because I spent a ton of time with Elder Mere and Elder Hansen and we did a ton of secretary stuff. ...Driving people to their new areas, buying stuff for the mission and taking people to the airport. Some crazy visa stuff went down here for Elder Hansen, so one day we had to go and resolve all of that....so we had to run over to Swaziland and go in there and try to help him get some stamp so that he can stay here in Mozambique..... so I drove a ton on January 2nd...the trip went well and we ended up getting everything worked out for now hahaha..

Also, just barely I got to meet my new companion Elder Latu. He is probably the most laid back guy I've met out here. He comes from California and played a lot of Football. Hahaha, yeah he's a pretty strong guy and his family comes from Tonga. He has a pretty good sized family and is learning Portuguese super well.

But it looks like we are still going to be here in Maputo for a while as the embassy is closed for the holidays and we need to have clearance to travel. So we are here with the secretary's and we are just helping out with some electrical emergencies and other fun stuff that's been going down this week.

Thanks for all the letters and love. I also love ya'll and I'm excited for the new area with Elder Latu.

Love y'all

Goodbyes in Mahotas