Stay Golden Pony Boy!

Sister Missionaries, Elder Elsmore (from Mona, UT), Elder Thayne, Elder Owain Banks & Sister Banks, Falkirk Scotland.

I have loved my mission. It has been the best thing I have ever done. I am so sad to go. this has been the most golden part of my life. This has also been the closest to Gold this rough stone has ever been. I have learned so much on my mission.

Last week was great! we found tons of new investigators. Our friend was Baptized and he has never looked happier. We were able to go to Linlithgow palace and Stirling Castle and the William Wallace Monument. We had a wonderful broadcast from Salt Lake Specifically to the Northern Europe area. Amazing miracles were happening left and right.

There is so much I can tell you about last week. SO MUCH! But I think that the most important thing I can tell you about before I come home is that I know that God is there and he loves us. He loves you so much that he gave everything you see around you. Jesus Christ is the savior. He has touched my life and I have felt his transforming power in my life. I would not be able to complete a mission without him. I know that I have done my best. I have so much relief in my heart. The Spirit has led me on my mission. Following Gods guidence and being on his errand has been the most fulfilling and happy time of my life. I wish I could tell you how happy I am but I can't. The English language has the largest vocabulary out of every other language in the world. Even with that, though, It can't express a fraction of my gratitude and happiness. 

If there is anyone out there that feels lost, alone, forgotten, overwhelmed, stressed, guilty, ashamed, sad or depressed. I am telling you as a friend to come unto Christ and be perfected in him. Repent of what you need to and let his grace fill your life and turn you into a new creature. While I am a missionary (and that is for forever) I will always invite people to come unto Christ. I love you all and will see you soon.

Elder Thayne

P.S.  I Didn't explain my title, I am praying that my mission memories will stay Vivid and Golden. I pray that the quality of my spiritual life stay Sensitive and Golden. I pray that the disciple I have come to be stay Faithful and Golden.  

My First Wedding

So this last week we have seen a lot of opposition but so many blessings at the same time. You are probably wondering why I am talking about my wedding. Well it wasn't really my wedding it was my buddies wedding. He has been wanting to get married and when he gets married he can get Baptized as well, but the law was stopping them for a while. They couldn't get marrieds for 2 years and then suddenly they were told they could get married but only if it was within 2 weeks so they through a wedding together as fast as possible. It turned out to be amazing. it was small and very few people were invited but they wanted us to come! It was really special. They had been looking forward to this for so long and finally it came. He seemed so happy.

On Sunday we had the Zone Leaders drive up to interview him. He passed with Flying colors. He is going to be one of the rocks in the ward. He is always talking about doing service and helping out at church. He will be such a strength to the Falkirk Branch

We Also went on Exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week in Edinburgh. It was splendid. It was the first time I was really teaching some chinees people and I realized I really need to teach simply. 

Also we have been teaching Bethan. Her brother had gotten into a car crash last Monday and the doctors suggested to put him into a medically induced coma. We told the branch and they have all been praying for him. Then a miracle happened. He has almost fully recovered and he is walking and talking now. It is amazing to see what the power of prayer can do. We taught Bethan on Saturday and she said she is really excited for her baptism on the 11th of March. Pray for her that she will be able to make that date. 

Life is good. I love the mission. I love prayer. I have really found that God is my most trusted confidant. I can tell him anything and he wont judge me. He is so helpful, he really is. This church is true!

Elder Thayne

Miracle After Miracle

So we have been really busy lately which is awesome. I have been seeing miracle after miracle this last week. We decided we wanted to really be sanctified my last 3 weeks of my mission and see what will happen. So on Thursday we had a interview with president. This is my final interview with him. Let me just tell you that I love this man. I look up to him so much. He has helped me so much on this mission. I know that I was called to the Scotland Ireland mission, partly, because of his leadership. I am really going to miss him. 

Friday we GQ'd a guy that use to know some of the members that I knew in Dunfermline. The way he introduced himself to me was by calling me a Muppet. All I had to ask him was, "am I a muppet or am I a man?" haha he is awesome, he never takes anything seriously.He said he never got baptized because he was scared of water. We asked him if he want's to be baptized now and he said yes right on the street. We taught him and he will be baptized in 3 weeks. He doesn't have any legs so there will have to be 2 people in the font to baptize him. His name is Alister and he is a legend.

We found out that a man, Sebastian, that has been investigating the church forever is finally able to be baptized because his wedding is going through. He wanted to be baptized the day after the wedding but his wife said he should wait a week. I think he should enjoy his honey moon as well. When he gets back we will help him get baptized. 

We started to teach another girl named Bethan on friday and she said as we taught her she felt a warmth in her chest. We invited her to church and she came!!! She was being told so much about the Holy Ghost the whole time we were there. One of the ladies asked her how she felt and again, she described it as warm. She loved church and she turned to me later that day and said she is excited for her baptism. Keep her in your prayers because as we were teaching her today she got a call and she found out her brother is in the hospital because he was just in a car crash. So actually keep her and her brother in your prayers.

Life is good this week. I do want to share one more experience. He had a bunch of the "cool kids in town" making fun of us and telling us we were brainwashed this week. we paid them no heed. Later we saw one of the kids named Kai. He asked if anybody believed us and we told him they do. He said, "how can you show people he is there? he doesn't exist." we told him we could show him. He didn't believe us but we poked at his pride and said he would never know unless he sat down with us for 20 minutes. He said ok so we went into McDonald's. He was telling all of his friends he is going to prove us wrong and he kept saying things like, "Lets get this over-with." So he was pretty cocky. We sat down and taught him and it was one of those extremely powerful lessons about faith and about Gods love for him. He couldn't argue with us and at the end he said, "you know I never thought I would believe in God, but since we've been talking I know that he is there." it was so powerful! Later that day he brought all of his friends up to us and he told me that they didn't believe in God. They were all telling me to show them then Kai told them they would need to sit down with us for 20 minutes inside McDonalds and learn. It was awesome!! Kai was testifying along side us. He was using the analogies about faith that I taught him as he taught his friends. I would then give him a wink. It was a great experiance!

The Church is true. I love God and Jesus is my friend.

Elder Thayne

Companionship Study and Mini Ping Pong

Oh wow, I am sorry I have so much to say but I am tired. Amazing things happened. We have taught loads of people and found loads of investigators. We are happy and enthusiastic about life and about this area.

One thing we are working on though is our companion study. It really helps us teach in unity and have more power to our teaching. We are also working on relying on the Lord more. We are going to council with the Lord, first thing, whenever there is a problem. and we are going to pray before every lesson we have.

We have a mini ping pong net in our flat with miniature paddles. So when we are all ready for bed at night me sometimes play each-other on our dinner table. It keeps things fun. It is great because it we have gotten surprisingly really good at it. I never thought we would be able to do it with hobbit sized equipment.

Funny Story: This guy started walking up to me in the street the other day and he had an angry face. He said, "you have not been saved. You know why? because your Mormon. Guess what, you will never get to Kolob...because it isn't real!"

I kept my cool and said, "Wait...you've never been there?"

He was expecting more so he walked away angry.

Oh man, I love the Scottish people. haha they are some of the greatest people you will ever meet. Just become their friend and you will have a friend for life. Another great thing about the older Scottish people is how patriotic they are. Everyone loves a patriotic Scot. I think We need to be more patriotic.

I love you all. keep it real. 

Elder Thayne

Elder Furko, Me, Sister Kotter and Sister Smith

Falkirk

So sorry I don't have much time right now but I want to tell you I know that this is where I am suppose to be. We whitewashed the area and we had 0 investigators. So Elder Elsmore and I just decided to hit the pavement. We found loads of people and we were able to teach over a dozen lessons and set 2 people with a date. Great things are happening in Falkirk. 

Elder Elsmore is awesome. He is from Mona, Utah. He loves Golf and he going to be a dentist someday. I get along with him so well. We both are working so hard and we both want to be the best we can be. It is great to have a companion that is willing to sacrifice something he wants for what is right. I really love serving with him.

cool story

The first day we were decided that we were going to work as hard as we could so we can get started on the right foot. We prayed that we would be able to find and teach 3 people that day. We made a promise with the Lord  that we would do everything we could to reach this goal. We went out there and taught 3 lessons that day. Emma was one of the people we taught. She was atheist but when we were teaching her about the spirit she felt a deep warmth and she told us she wants to be baptized. 

Life is good. I love the gospel. I will never leave this truth. I know too much. I know what I would be leaving if I did. I am so happy right now. Hope you all have a great day.

Elder Thayne

Nae Time

So I got the call on Saturday morning. I was so disappointing to hear from president That I will be leaving Motherwell for my last transfer and heading to Falkirk. But as the day went on I got over myself and accepted the Lord's will. Now I am in Falkirk with Elder Elsmore. 

Elder Elsmore is a great guy from Mona Utah. I am looking forward to working here and with him. I want to promise you all I will not die haha. Dying means giving up before you are going home. I am going to see what great things the Lord can do here in Falkirk my last 6 weeks. 

I know that this work is true. I love the church and Jesus Christ. Life is good today. 

Elder Thayne

(PS... I was a bit confused as to who is who in these pictures... so I will just put it here and we can make note later.

William Balintyne and Me, Me and Karl, Me and the Mitchell's, Craig, Elle, Megan, Andrea and Holly.)

William Balintyne and Me

Me and Karl

Me and the Mitchells

Jackie and Ron Taylore and yours truly

It's a Trap!

So this last week has been good. We have had a lot of fun with a variety of ways to do missionary work. On Monday we went up to Glasgow for an exchange with the zone leaders. it was really good. we were able to teach quite a bit of lessons on the spot. We taught a lot of Chinese people who are going to University while over here in Scotland.

Wednesday came along and we had a presentation to do in from of a college class. Background: Elder Agafonov and I sent out an email about 3 months ago to about 6 colleges in the area offering our services as guest speakers. Finally we got a reply and we went. it was an evangelical college and they had learned about us previously. The teacher who was putting it together told us we had 30 minutes but ended up only giving us 20 to do our entire presentation. Then they asked pointed questions for the next 40.suddenly Admiral Ackbar yelled It's a trap!. like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego we answered, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter.If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand." haha it was awesome. We answered their questions straight. We bore our testimonies. At the end we had everyone watch "Testimony of the book of Mormon." by Jeffery R Holland. The spirit was definitely there. They shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Afterwords I think the teacher was upset because he kept taking jabs at us before we left, but we wouldn't retaliate. It was a great experience. I learned a lot about the spirit and about testimony. We took an investigator name William with us. Later on when we taught William in the week he told us he was having some spiritual lows but ever since we did our presentation he had been on a spiritual high. He has such a strong testimony. This experience just enhanced it. Sorry kind of a long story.

Later on in the week we got a referral. So now we have taught these new people. They use to be every religion under the sun and currently they are Muslim. They are some of the smartest people I know though. they are from Poland. They were watching YouTube and they saw the Adele song, "Hello". Then they saw the parody with the Mormon missionaries. They were laughing so hard they decided to learn more. So we are going back again this week haha.

This sunday was a delight. Jack came to church again. He loves church, which is great. He wants to change. It seems like everyone that speaks is talking right to him. This high council member told him after church that jack needs to set a date to be baptized and then invite him. Jack is pumped so that is good.

Life is good. I love the mission. Time is so precious out here. Have a great week.

Elder Thayne

Me and Elder Huang, one of my Chinese Buddy's

Elder Furko got some sick toy swards