Elder Thayne

Well, Trent, I hope you enjoyed that nice cold camping trip, because there's none of that happening here. We're getting into the hottest part of the year, and oh boy is it hot out there. What a blessing it is to have air conditioning here in the office for these few months, haha.

Sounds like a pretty cool institute class, Mom. Or pretty crazy and hard to understand. The last time I read the Isaiah chapters in the Book of Mormon in Spanish, I had NO IDEA what was going on. I basically just skimmed through it because I could understand at all. And it was a real relief getting to the end of it. You'll have to share with me what you find out!

Things are going well in the office, a lot more calm than last week for sure, but still busy enough to keep me moving. The misionecuadorguayaquilsur.blogspot.com blog I did create (with Elder Sawyer, who, by the way, is back out in the field working and feeling great), but it's not going to be updated until next christmas :) They only use it as a christmas card to parents. So yeah. BUT, I am currently working on a snazzy brand new website for the mission, so when that gets done you'll have to check it out.

Luis' baptism went really well. We took Mayra, one of our investigators, and she really enjoyed it. It was interesting because everyone at the baptism was introducing themselves to her and asking her when she was getting baptized. I think that helped her to realize that it's not something weird that we do, but everybody's just like, "Hey, I got baptized a few weeks ago! Everybody's getting baptized! When are YOU getting baptized?!" And by the end of the night she was like, "WOOHOO 23 DE MARZO, VAMOS!" So yeah, that was good.

Martha, right, just didn't go under the water all the way. She has a dead leg that she doesn't have any feeling in and Elder Maldonado said that it kept floating up out of the water. And, she didn't like the water. After the fourth time she said her heart was starting to fail... yeek. But they gave her a blessing and finally on the last one, they just did it really fast and got it over with. Crazy.

It is really nice working in a ward where the members help out a lot. It's especially nice having someone to accompany us to just about every single lesson. Last Sunday it started raining like crazy. For a couple hours it was just pouring and we didn't have any umbrellas or anything. Just walking around in our nice clothes. But we also had two members with us that are AWESOME. They accompanied us the whole night, even in the rain. We were all drenched by the end. But it was a lot of fun, and they were more than happy to do it.

So what have you all done recently to help the missionaries out in your wards? If your heart sinks into your stomach when I ask that, then I have a proposition for you. I'd like you to give them a call and ask when you can go and do visits with them. Especially the couples. It is so incredible when we have a happily married (and sealed) couple to accompany us to someone's house because everytime they can seriously feel the light emanating around the couple. It gives a serious witness of the happiness that families can have in this life: exactly what we teach to everyone! So will you do that for me? It would make me more than happy, because I know how happy it will make the missionaries over there! And I want to hear about your experiences because I know they will be beyond wonderful. THANKS!

Okay, that's all folks! Or as "El Cerdo Porky" would said, "Eso es t-, eso es-, eso es t-t-t-odo, amigos!"

Love,
Elder Thayne