Week 6! Last Letter at the MTC!

Hallo van de MTC!

This last 6 weeks have gone by crazy fast, but kinda slow at the same time. Time is messed up here. We are heading to Nederland at 4:50. We are all packed up, and will be out of the MTC at 11:50. I am super excited!

I am feeling pretty good about the language. I still don't know enough normal vocab to have a normal conversation, but I can say most of what I want to about gospel stuff with good grammar. I have been practicing my verbs a lot, so I can say most sentences with dutch structure and only a few nouns that I don't know. The Gift of Tongues is so real. We spoke with a member from Suriname (a previous Dutch Colony) over Skype for TRC, and he was super surprised that we had only been learning for 6 weeks.

My testimony has been strengthened in all ways, but especially with Joseph Smith and the Holy Ghost. I KNOW that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and there is no other explanation for the Boek van Mormon and the feelings I have felt in the MTC. The Spirit is so strong here, and I hope to maintain the level I have reached throughout the rest of my mission. I know more fully understand the meaning of the "constant companionship of the Holy Ghost." Before my mission, I only felt the Spirit every once in a while. Now I have promptings and revelation all the time and it is so cool.

For those of you who are planning on going on a mission, or are not sure yet, GO ON A MISSION!!! I promise you will not regret it! There is seriously nothing better you could do for your life than to serve a mission. But make sure not to just go on a mission because people tell you to. You have to be here for the right reasons, and if you are, God will bless you so much. I know that with God all things are impossible, even something impossible like a mission. God is real, and he wants what is best for you, which is a mission.

Sorry if that letter got a little preachy, but if you know me, you know that I would not say it if I didn't think it was completely true. I love all of you, and I hope you will continue to pray for me and the other missionaries, because I have felt it.

Met Liefde,
Elder Thornton

From Mom Thornton: I had to add this little fun tidbit from a personal letter from Lance, because it's so him!: "Elle said that Kurt said he is going to be taller than me when I get back, which I think is baloney, but wish him good luck anyway :)."

Elder Thornton will be calling us from the airport any minute and we are super excited! I just got a text from a random number with a photo of Elder Thornton and several traveling companions on the train to the airport!

One Month In!

Hey Everybody!

This week was pretty great! I got to host the new missionaries on Wednesday, and we have been learning the language and how to teach pretty fast.

When I hosted I got to escort two of my friends, Elder Robert Kennedy, and Elder Martin Edwards (and kinda Elder Laren Edwards cause they are twins.) It was super great to see several familiar faces. I wanted to host Elder Bryson Williams, but he was a little late so I missed him... I also get to host next week, so I am pretty excited for that!

The language has been going pretty well. I am far better at understanding than speaking. I know the grammar rules, I just don't think far enough forward to use them. I currently working on that. As we have been getting better at the language, we have realized we have been saying a few things wrong, a couple that are really funny. During our lessons, I have often wanted to tell the investigator (usually my teacher) that Jesus died for them, so I said, "Jezus dood voor ons." I understand now that this actually means "Jesus kills for us," which is not quite what I wanted to say. :)

Another good one was when I was practicing conversational past tense. "Heeft u de verzoening gebroken?" I thought that it meant "Have you used the atonement?", but it actually means "Have you broken the atonement?" My teacher got a pretty good kick out of that one. :)

This Sunday we had President Holland speak to us!!!! (The one in charge of UVU :) )

He gave a really detailed story of Joseph Smith, and I learned a lot of things I didn't know about. We never hear about how crazy his life was before Palmyra. His family was constantly in debt, they moved around so much, and a couple of these times when they moved he still was recovering from the famous leg surgery, and the cruel mover forced him to walk. He also pointed out how it would have been impossible for a poorly educated boy to translate an ancient record as fast as he did, and to especially make up such a detailed record. It was pretty powerful, and it really helped me because one of my goals is to gain a stronger testimony of our Prophet Joseph Smith.

One of our teachers who served in het Nederland showed us some of her pictures, and it made me super excited to go there in two weeks! Nederland is so beautiful. She also told us an interesting fact. 33% or so of the missionaries in my mission end up marrying someone who served there as well. I thought that was pretty funny! (I'm pretty sure that won't be me.)

This week the choir had 1557 missionaries in it! (we currently have approximately 2,700, which is full capacity) We sang Praise to the Man, and it was so cool! I really enjoyed it. The director is super funny and spiritual at the same time.

Thank you all for your letters, especially my family one on the Wilcock side that wrote me during the reunion! I loved them so much! I won't be able to respond individually to all of them, so thank you!

Have a great week!
Elder Thornton

Week 3 MTC

Hey y'all! (we're not allowed to say guys, so most of us have adopted the "y'all")

This week has been one of the best weeks of my life! I have adapted to the MTC with the help of the Spirit, so I have been loving it. It is still hard, but it is far less draining than the previous weeks. There is a lot to tell, so I will just say the best stuff. Yesterday my companion and I got to teach the lesson in the District Meeting. I was nervous at first, but it turned out to be really easy with the S​pirit in the room. It turned out to be more us guiding a discussion than us teaching a lesson. Since it was just a district meeting, we got to ​have​ feeddback afterwards. It really amazed me how simple words I was prompted to say could completely change a person's outlook on the mission. The teaching of the Holy Ghost is amazing. Along with that, I have really grown to love Sundays. It always refills my spiritual tank because everyone shares their own personal insight, and you get to be a part of that.

The language is coming along well. It is not easy, but the gift of tongues has been helping me understand the grammar rules quickly, and learn vocabulary words pretty fast.

Yesterday for the Sunday movie we were going to watch Ephraim's Rescue, but it wasn't working. They then switched it to Joseph Smith. I have known for a while that I need to strengthen my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and this was a sign to me that God wants me to know how important it is for me.

Not a lot of abnormal occurrences have happened this week, so I'm just going to add some details I think my family will enjoy. You are totally welcome to stop reading at any time.

I have really grown to love my district. We spend so much time together, and it is so great to have everyone in the classroom doing their best to become the missionaries of the Lord.

My companion, Elder Vander Werff, is awesome. We don't get along perfectly, but we both do our best, and that is what counts. He is so open to the spirit, and it makes working with him a blessing. We have become one as a companionship, and I love it.

Elder Jensen is the intellectual side of our district. He is always finding new ways to explain gospel doctrine, and he will be an incredible missionary.

Elder Geddes is our district leader. He is always positive and he does a pretty good job with his position.

Sister Boyd is awesome. She is from Texas, and she like all of the sisters is a spiritual giant. She is always there if you need comfort, and she is really aware of other''s emotions.

Sister Vandenberg is the artist in our group. She loves to play viola, and art history is her thing. She always has a positive attitude.

Sister Walquist is really smart. She loves anatomy, to the point that some people call her Sister Vampire. I always really enjoy her comments, and she has been learning that language pretty quickly thanks to her background in German.

Everyone complains about the food, but I love it! I can eat however much I want, which is normally a lot. Everyone says I should be fat, but I still weigh the same as I did when I came :). The breakfast could be slightly more varied, but that is pretty much the only bad thing I have to say about it.

My favorite time of the day is exercise. We switch off between going to the weight room and the gym. When we go to the weight room I run on the eliptical for half an hour and go about 4.5 miles during that time. When we go to the gym, I play 4 square with the Albanians, which is so much fun! If no one is playing 4-square I run on the track upstairs. The other day I ran a mile as fast as I could, which was a 5​:44. I felt pretty good about that since I was on small track and there w​ere other people on it. I ran 3 miles after that. The photos are of my district with my first teacher​,​ who just moved, and me in my room. I think the poor quality is because they are emailed, not because of my camera. They look fine on the camera.

I saw Elder Ferrin for the last time at the MTC. He is going to the Spain MTC so he can talk to real Russian speakers. I also have seen Elder Callor a couple times. I get to host Wednesday, so I might get to escort some of my friends into the MTC.!

I miss all of you! I pray for all of you!

See ya in a while,
Elder Thornton