Hola familia! It's been another solid week here at the MTC! Only 5 days until I leave for Mexico! My Spanish has been coming along really well I think - Our entire district decided to speak only in Spanish for our last week here and it's helped us all out a ton. It's been nice to kind of get a feel for how well we're doing and what it will be like for us when we get to Mexico. We've been teaching "investigators" much more frequently. It's cool being able to teach a whole lesson in Spanish and being able to understand just about everything they're saying. I can understand the language really well, especially on paper, but speaking it is a whole other thing haha. But I'd still say I'm doing pretty well as far as speaking goes too.
We've only been able to teach one real investigator here but we helped teach her and some other Sisters got her to commit to be baptized! Her name is Ivette and she's getting dunked in October haha. It was so cool to see someone progress that much in the gospel. In only about a week and a half, she went from barely even knowing who God was to being able to try and help us by sharing her conversion experience. Such a cool experience.


As far as this Monday comes, I leave the apartment at 3:30am to get on a bus to SLC. From there, I get on a 7:15am flight to Phoenix and then a 9:45am flight to Hermosillo. So by 11:00am on Monday, I should be out in the mission field!  Other than having to wake up super early in the morning, the flights should be nice and easy with not much of a layover. It's crazy to think that in only a few days I'll be out preaching the gospel in Spanish!! I feel like I'm as ready as I can be so I'm way stoked to just go!
The past week I've been itching to get out there. The MTC is great and all, but it's become super repetitive and old. I need something new haha. I've made so many awesome memories but I just want to make new and better ones en Mexico. 

Not much new has happened this past week since the Vegas trip unfortunately. We've heard some awesome talks at the devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday. Oh just kidding I ran into some friends while I was there! I ran into Kale Smith (again), Josh Matthews, and Nadene Kimball! Those devotionals are the only opportunity to really see the missionaries that aren't speaking Spanish because I'm stuck over here at the MTC West campus. I'll try and include some pictures.

Other than that, not much else has happened! I'm way excited to leave and I hope everything goes smoothly for me! I love you guys and I appreciate all the support I've gotten from you. Tengan un buena semana!

Love,
Elder Thayne

Hola familia! Como estan? In case you didn't hear, I had to fly to Las Vegas yesterday morning to get my Visa for Mexico. But let me tell you, it was definitely one of the most memorable days I've had here at the MTC. I had to wake up at 4:00am (keep in mind I could only got into bed at 10:30pm the night before) to catch the 4:30am bus to the SLC airport. We were all so dang tired but we knew we had to do it so we forced ourselves out of bed. We get into the airport, and EVERYONE takes a glance over at us (I mean, who wouldn't take a look at the Mormon missionaries haha) and we head over to our gate. There's just something about actually being out in public while being an Elder that makes you feel like your calling is somewhat real haha. So often I feel like I'm just in college learning about the gospel and Spanish here at the MTC, so it felt really nice to remind myself that I'm actually on the Lord's errand and doing His work.
We, as a group of 8 Elders and 2 Hermanas, brought a total of 10 Book of Mormons with us on our trip. Just on the plane ride down there, 2 of the missionaries placed BOMs with people that seemed super interested. We land in Vegas and have to hop in this Mormon-mobile van that holds like 12 passengers haha. We all think we're heading to the Mexican consulate to just get our Visas but nope. We end up going to the Mission office in a church building where we had this senior service missionary kill time and talk about whatever he felt like talking about for FOUR hours. We only had one bathroom break and he demanded our full attention the entire time. To put it plainly, it sucked. Really sucked. I wanted to kill myself. Even debated taking off my nametag and just walking home. Haha just kidding. But it was more boring than any other class I ever had in high school. We were all hoping to go out and get lunch somewhere, maybe visit a place or two because after all, it's Vegas. That didn't happen. Pero estaba bien. We finally get to the consulate at 1pm and we just take a picture and give them our fingerprints and we were out of there by 2pm. Everything went fine and I got my Visa. So the old missionary, Elder Greer, drops us back off at 2:30 at the airport. Keep in mind, our returning flight is at 6:30pm so we had a solid four more hours to kill at the airport. We were all starving we decided to get some lunch. I may or may not have dropped 15 bucks for two whoppers at Burger King because I was so hungry haha.

It's 3:00pm by now so we decide to do some airport preachin'. In about 3 hours, we placed 6 more of the BOMs. Every one of them seemed genuinely interested and a couple of them even bought the missionaries lunch. I still didn't have any luck finding people that were interested with my companion so I kept holding onto my BOM. Still though, miracle after miracle continued to happen and so many people were willing and accepting of our message, it was crazy. Heck, even one of the companions in my district taught a real investigator in Spanish and placed a BOM with him. Our 6:30pm flight got delayed to 8:30pm so we had another two hours to kill. We did almost everything imaginable to keep ourselves busy haha. Anyways, the good part of the story is about to come up.

We finally get on our plane, after an extremely long and tiring day, Elder Noorda and I start talking to this really nice guy from Georgia. We talked about football, work, our missions, everything seemed perfect for us to break the wall and talk about the gospel with him. Around the end of our flight, we decide to pull the trigger and try to talk to him about Jesus Christ. He said no thanks in a bit of a rude manner but we still felt good about what we did. We tried our best but just couldn't find anyone who's heart was soft enough and ready for our message. I had been praying all week to find someone to give it to, but nothing happened.

However, as we were getting off our plane, Hermana Peterson ran over to me and asked if I had any BOMs left. I was holding the last one left out of the ten in our entire group. I told her I did so she took it from me and ran over to this woman she had been talking to on the plane. The Hermana and the lady both started crying and hugged one another from the Spirit they felt immediately after she gave her the BOM. Apparently they had talked for an entire hour about the gospel and she taught the first three lessons to her all there on the plane. Hermana Peterson was praying that we would have one BOM left to give to this woman. Her prayer was answered with the BOM I had which had my testimony in it. We got back to our apartments last night at 12:30am, only to have to wake up at 6:30am the next morning. You can say I'm tired!

Well, that was my Vegas experience. The rest of the week has been great and I hope everything back at home is going well. Let me know how things are, specifically news, sports, events you guys are all up to, just anything.

I know it wasn't a coincidence that I had that last BOM to give to that woman. I think that God knew she needed it more than anyone else I would have came in contact with and it was the answer to my prayer.

I know that this Church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and anyone can find peace and joy from reading and following its' teachings. To anyone that may be struggling right now, I encourage you to read it. You will find comfort and the Spirit will testify of its' truthfulness unto you. It has helped me overcome so many challenges. At times when I've felt alone, sad, or down on life, it's helped me feel like I'm on top of the world.

I love you all, have a great week.

Love,
Elder Thayne

Hey fam bam how's it going? This week has been another one for the books. I've been here for 3 weeks and already passed the halfway point! I leave for Mexico on the 1st of September (right before your birthday Jamie). I've been progressing and learning a lot in both the gospel and in the language. We've begun teaching 2-4 lessons a day in Spanish to investigators about the gospel, plan of salvation, restoration, and tons of other stuff all in Spanish. It can be a bit frustrating when you have a good thought to say to the investigator but you just can't express it in the Spanish language, but the most important thing is the Spirit. If you and the investigator can both feel the Spirit, you know you've done your work. It's been amazing to see the growth in the gospel among the rest of my district (and hopefully myself too). I was released as district leader this Sunday (DLs are released at the 3-week mark), and I must admit I'm a bit sad. It was a huge blessing (and responsibility) to me but I think I did the best I could. On Thursday night I called a devotional for my district in this small room in our classroom apartment, and I honestly don't think I've ever felt the Spirit so strong in my life. We all shared a brief testimony with each other and we all just felt so much love and peace, it was crazy. It's hard to put the feeling of the Spirit in words but all I know is that I love it and it always reassures me that I'm doing the Lord's work.


The days have been pretty long for all of us here. The studying can be exhausting and we have virtually no free leisure-time. The Sunday and Tuesday night devotionals are probably my favorite part about the MTC. The entire MTC gets together and we hear just about anyone from the Church speak. I've really grown to love the church hymns, they bring the Spirit so well and it reminds me of home and family. Oh also, Mom, my scripture I wanted was Alma 42:31 for my plaque. Thanks! My companion and I have been getting along really well. We're both pretty chill and I don't think we've ever argued about anything. He's really nice and wants to work hard like I do so we mesh really well. One of the Elders in my zone, Elder Snoozy, told us about lucid dreams and how he has them all the time. I don't know if you guys are familiar with them but essentially it allows you to be able to control your dreams and apparently they're really weird haha. So essentially everyone in my entire zone has been trying to have one the past few nights but only one of us have been successful. They sound super trippy but I still haven't been able to get it to work yet. Anyways, the food schedule here rotates every 2 weeks so I'm sooo sick of the food. It's great and all to be able to eat a lot, but I feel like we eat the same thing all the time. Other than that, my week has been great and busy!


Enough about me, I read all of your emails and I appreciate reading them every week! I really wish I had more time to write each and every one of you, so if you want to write a personal letter to me I'll be sure to write you back ASAP. They only give us 60 minutes to write people back and I really try my best to get to as many people as possible. 


Yuba Lake sounded like fun! I wish I could be there and spend another day out with the family. It's weird, I live so close to you guys but at the same time I feel so far away. I heard about Jamie getting into that online school, good for him! He's going to love Maple Mountain though, that place is awesome and I made so many memories there. Oh, funny story, I ran into Tom Jensen (from St. George) here at the MTC today at lunch! I could barely even recognize him it's been so long! I'll try and attach a picture of us at the bottom. 


Well family, it's time to go! I hope I didn't forget to answer any of your questions. Also thanks again Mom and Jamie for the package, all of my district loves the Takis so they were gone in like two nights haha. Feel free to send more. I miss and love each of you! Have an awesome week!


- Elder Thayne

Hey there family! How's everything going? I can't believe I've only been gone 2 weeks, it feels like 3 months! This past week has been awesome. This sunday was my first (and probably only) fast sunday I'm going to have. The MTC as a whole did a 24-hour fast and let me tell you...I was hungry!! We ate dinner saturday night at 5 and then immediately after we started our fasts. By the time Sunday night rolled around, I was down and ready to eat! I ate 4 plates of chicken cordon bleu and mashed potatoes haha. Anyways, I guess you can say I've been getting my share of food. With me getting a package full of goodies (thanks Mom), and at least one of my roommates getting a package of food and candy a day, I've been a bit spoiled haha. It's a good thing they give you an hour to work out everyday or else I probably would have packed on 10 pounds of fat! My district and I have been playing volleyball during our gym time, and man is it fun! I still miss playing basketball all the time, but we usually at play it at least once a week so I get my share. They only have dumbbells here so I haven't even been lifting weights at all (crazy right?) but I've still been doing pushups and situps and such. 
Our zone has about 35 people in it, and in the past two weeks, two districts within our zone have left and let me tell you, it's really sad to see them leave. There's just something about the MTC that instantly bonds everyone together. The spirit here in so strong and it's going to be sad to have to leave this place one daThe days are long, 16 hours of nothing but work, planning, eating, and walking. Our district likes to call the MTC 'missionary boot camp' because we feel so busy all the time haha. We've been going to the temple every wednesday morning around 8:30-9:00am, and the sessions have just been great. Last night at our tuesday devotional, we had a general authority come and speak and he shared a really funny quote with us about dating/checking out sisters here at the MTC: "If you don't look once, you're not a man. But if you look twice, you're not a missionary." The entire congregation was laughing louder than I've ever heard haha. Another funny thing, our district started a journal called "The Feelings Book." Essentially all it is is a bunch of deep or funny, sentimental inside jokes and quotes that we all find funny. I love writing in that thing haha. I would share a few but you probably wouldn't understand them. Last Friday, Elder Grenny went to the bathroom so we thought it would be funny to trap him in there. So we got some string and tied them across the hallway to another doorknob and locked him in haha. I'll try to attach a picture so you can see it. 

Anyways, enough about me! How are you all doing? Any big news as of late? How's life? Sports? Utah Jazz? How are the rookies looking in the summer league? Oh and thanks for the package mom, it was really nice to have some food to eat late at night when we were all hungry haha. I've really been craving pringles, triscuits, gummy candy, and corn nuts lately. Idk why haha so if you decide to send a package anytime soon those would be great! 

Well, I miss you guys and hope everyone has had a great week! I think about you all all the time and wonder how you're doing! I've got to go now but I'll talk to you next wednesday! Love you. Adios!

Love,
Elder Thayne