Transfers and Missing Thornton Family Reunion

July 7, 2014

Dear loving family,

Thank you all so much for your kind emails. Thank you mom for sending all the great pictures as well. I love to see each one of you. You are all looking great! :) As you know tonight we find out who from our zone is being transfered. I am very anxious and curious to know what will happen. I am willing and happy to follow what the Lord would have me do. 

Last Thursday we had a meeting in La Ceiba for all the trainers, and those who are being trained, and with the people who are going to train. It was great to spend time with President Klein and Sister Klein and learn how we can be better. Sister Klein is having us all start to prepare 72 hour kits and have them ready in August because hurricane season is coming up! That night as we were back here in Jazmines visiting people I started not feeling very good. Friday and Saturday I was in quite bad conditions. On friday I worked with Elder Wilson in his area and Elder Rodriguez worked with my companion in our area. I dont want to go into details but that day and Saturday if I started walking around within minutes I had to use the bathroom. We would teach a lesson and then start walking to the next house but I couldn't make it without asking a member or investigator if I could use the bathroom. It was not fun. Oh and some of the bathrooms that I had to use made out houses look like heavenly toilets. :) Yesterday I was a lot better and am doing good today thankfully. :) 

All is well here. We are still preparing and helping Visente, and Lilian prepare for baptism as well as other people but them for this month. That's the goal. Change is hard and we are trying to patiently help others make big changes in their lives. It's definetely a challenge but I know with the guidance of the Holy Ghost and as each person we teach turns to our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement they will have the power to change. 

The Book of Mormon is a great blessing. It is a very powerful testament of Jesus Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that the Church is true. Those who read it myself included have come closer to Jesus Christ and have been strengthened to overcome trials and changes in life.

I need to go but will hopefully talk with you on Wednesday. Keep having a great Summer! I love you all so much! Keep going strong! 

Love Elder Conover

July 9, 2014 (Wednesday)

Hello dear family,

Ive been transfered to Roatan!!! haha no I'm just kidding I'm going strong here in Jazmines! None of the 6 Elders here are being transferred. Today I have 6 months here! This will be my 5th transfer. I'm grateful to spend more time here with my companion, the other Elders, the members, and our investigators. The only problem is the more time I spend here the harder its going to be to leave. 

We were given permission to watch one game in the World cup so we watched the game today. Argentina vs. Holland. So that was kind of fun even though the game wasn't too exciting. We stopped watching after the first overtime. 

In the morning today we played soccer with the other elders and a few of our investigators at the church. Three brothers Fransisco (17) Denis (16) and Orling (14). It was a lot of fun. Then we went to the super market ¨La Colonia¨. It's where we always buy our groceries for the week. Today I started buying for my 72 hour kit. 

I love you all so much and hope that your week is going good! Please keep praying with all of your might for our investigators. That they will soften their hearts, read the Book of Mormon, and recognize answers to their prayers. 

Love Elder Conover

Thornton Family Reunion

Dear Family,

I am going to miss so much going to the family reunion this year. It's always so fun. I love you all so much and miss each one of you. I hope that all the family (including those I don't have the emails of) is doing great. I owe much of who I am to each one of you. Thank you for giving me a great legacy. Have an enjoyable weekend. Send my love and let everyone know that I am doing great and love what I am doing. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he leads the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that the work of salvation is true and marvelous. I encourage each one of you with all of my heart to continue working to bring souls unto Christ. God is our loving Heavenly Father and He wants the very happiest life for each one of us and He wants us to return to Him and live with Him and our families forever. I know this to be true and I don´t know what my life would be like without this knowledge. I love you. Be happy, we have the truth. :) I know that we are not alone as we share the gospel. Have a great week!

Lots of love from Honduras, Elder Conover

2 Nephi 31:20 

Keep Building the Kingdom of God: June 30, 2014

Hola familia!

Thanks for all of your emails! I love you all so much! Sadly I am almost out of time so I can't write as much as I would like to.

Things are going good here in Jazmines but could be going better. Last night and today I have been sick but I took some tylenol and am starting to feel a little better. 

Things are going alright with our investigators but it's so frustrating when they don´t keep their commitments! I think I feel a tiny portion of what Heavenly Father feels when people don´t keep their covenants. The good thing is we have been finding a ton of new investigators! 

Visente sadly did not pass his baptism interview again. He still is not fully commited to keep the commandments. He unlike many others though is growing and progressing a ton! He is now reading in Alma! He is also consistently coming to church. He has very strong desires to change. We wrote down a plan with him to help him overcome his temptations and are preparing him to be baptised at the end of July. 

This transfer has gone by super fast! I can't believe next week is transfers! We will see how that all goes. I almost have 6 months here in Jazmines! On Monday we will be writing in the morning. 

I have been studying more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I invite you all to study along with me this greatest act of love to make it possible for us to return to our Father in Heaven. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that Jesus Christ leads His church today and that Thomas S. Monson and all the Apostles are special witnesses of Him and when they speak it's the same as listening to Jesus Christ. (D&C 1:38) Keep building the Kingdom of God. I know that He is the King of Kings and we are so blessed to be a part of His kingdom. 

I love you all so much! Keep having a great summer! :) Adiooooooooos!

Love from Honduras! June 23, 2014

Hola Familia!

Thank you for all of your loving letters. I have the best support team in the world. Things are going good here in Jazmines! Time is flying by as we are now half way through the change! On Saturday we had the baptism of Hermana Josepha! It was beautiful. She is 89 years old! The plan was to have her baptism next saturday but we felt that she was prepard to be baptised a week early. She also told us of a very interesting dream she had. She told us that the Lord told her in a dream that He was only waiting for her to be baptised to take her. When I was teaching her last week one day with our Zone leader Elder Cluff she told us that she had everything ready for her funeral. We decided we better baptise her! I thought she was talking about white clothes for her baptism but Elder Cluff told me she was talking about her funeral! I hope she still lives with us a little longer! She is so awesome and a great example of faith. She can barely walk even with a cane but wakes up early every sunday morning and walks to the church on her own.

Hermano Visente for some personal reasons didn't pass his interview for baptism but we have been visiting him practically everyday and yesterday the Bishop went with us and now he is fully commited to be baptised this Saturday! He will have another interview on Thursday. It should turn out well! Please pray for him.

Lilian and Irma, sister and cousin of Henry who was baptised in May are also preparing for baptism! Please keep them in your prayers as well.

Tomorrow we have a conference with Elder Ochoa! It is going to be wonderful! I'm very excited! I wish that I could write more but I'm out of time. Thank you for all of your love. Keep having an awesome summer! Talk to you next week! ;)

Love Elder Conover

When it rains it pours! June 16, 2014

Hello family!

Thank you all for your emails! I spent a lot of time writing Dad a email for fathers day and we have less time to write now than we did before. I'm sorry today I can't write to each one of you. I am so grateful for each of your emails and all you share with me each week.

Things are going good here in Jazmines! This last week has been a bit rough but we are learing how we can better help our investigators and I am learning to be much more patient. Christopher is great but our last visit with him we invited him to be baptised again and he told us that he wants more time to study. We explained to him lots of stuff to help him feel ready but at the end I felt inspired to ask him if he was willing to endure to the end. After asking the question he told us that he didn't want to endure to the end without his wife. He wants to be unified with her. This is obviously very good but also hard. His wife so far has not wanted to go to the church and is an active member of the Catholic church. It's hard to explain all of the details but right now we are hoping we can talk to them both the soonest we can. I have faith that Christopher will be baptised and his wife, it just won't be as soon as we were planning. I will keep you informed on how it all goes.

This week brother Visente has his baptism interview and if all goes well he will be baptised this Saturday!

Today we had pday with President Klein because in May we were the "Celestial Zone" It was a lot of fun. We had lots of great food, played kickball, and ultimate frissbee. Yesterday and today in the afternoon it started pouring rain. I like it. It cools things down and make things more of an adventure.

Thank you all for helping be stay strong and happy. This is a great and powerful work. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that we are members of His Church. I know that obedience brings blessings. Keep serving and loving Heavenly Father, and everyone. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love Elder Conover

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-03-07-he-lives-testimonies-of-jesus-christ?category=topics/jesus-christ&lang=eng&cid=HPTH061214233

Im sure you guys have seen this video but I love it. Jesus Christ lives!

Building the Kingdom of God is a joyful thing‏ June 9, 2014

Hey Family!

Thank you all so much for your kind letters. I love hearing from you every week. Summer sounds awesome. Keep having a blast!

Things are going good here. I am trying hard to improve in a lot of areas. I am so grateful for every moment I feel the Spirit and the peace and joy that comes when I do.

Tuesday morning I led my first District meeting. It was a very good experience. I chose to lead a discussion about relying on the Spirit. We talked and read many scriptures about how crucial it is that we do all that we do as missionaries with the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Where we go, who we talk to, what we say, etc. gratefully can all be influenced by the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we are worthy/obedient, have faith in Jesus Christ, study the scriptures, and pray earnestly we will have the Holy Ghost as our companion in every aspect of the work. Something that the spirit put into my mind as I was teaching is that all of this is equally true for our entire life not just here on the mission. I shared that these are things we must learn for our life not only for here. We also talked about the importance of teaching for the needs of the investigators, not just teaching lessons. At the end of the meeting I bore my testimony of Jesus Christ, the Church, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and this work. I felt the spirit bearing witness to me and re-testifying that these things are true. It was a very special meeting.

On Wednesday the Bishop went and visted with us from 3-9:20. He is so dedicated and great to give a huge part of his day to share the gospel.  It was awesome! He is a very powerful teacher and it was a great blessing to have him with us. Our last lesson was with Christopher, we held the lesson in Miriam's house. We started the lesson asking Christopher if he had recieved an answer to his prayer. He told us that he had and started crying. As he spoke the spirit entered the room so strongly. He told us that he has been praying and asking Heavenly Father if the Church is true and that earlier in the day he was riding home from San Pedro Sula in the bus and he felt a great peace and felt so happy and blessed with his new job. He told us that he felt like Heavenly Father was sitting right next to him. It was one of the most beautiful and spiritual experiences in my mission hearing Christopher tell this story. We all were enlightened and blessed. My testimony was strengthened. Christopher has recieved a powerful testimony of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ. He has gladly received the invitation to be baptized. His baptism date was for the 21st of June and may still be but we told him we would be happy to prepare him faster now that he has received a testimony and move his date for this saturday the 14th. Tonight he is going to  tell us what date he feels is right. What a blessing it is to be involved in the conversion of Miriam and Christopher. If I could only count the experiences and fruits of our labor with just Miriam, the whole mission would be worth it. Its just like the scripture in D&C 18:15-16: 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

This work is the most amazing thing, I cannot explain it with words.

We had the baptism of Alejandra on Saturday! It was great! Sister Yolanda was also baptized by Elder Wilson and Elder Rodriguez. Today we played some basketball outside of the church on the court. It was a lot of fun. Good to shoot some hoops.:) Things are going good with my companion. We are learning and growing everyday. I love you all so much. Keep serving with all your might in the work of salvation. Each one of you can help bring souls into the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father. Doing temple work, sharing the gospel, and being a "light unto the world" and a friend to all are a few of the greatest ways we can build the Kingdom of God here on the Earth and in Heaven.

Love Elder Conover

P.S I'm really sorry I couldnt write to each one of you individually today. I love each of you so much. Thank you for your emails. That is crazy Steven and Austin are coming home! Wow. Tell Tiann congrates! That is so great! Keep having a great summer all of you!:)

Learning and loving, wishing I could be swimming.‏‏

Dear loving family,

Summer! That is crazy that another year of school has passed. I'm sure that you are all very happy. If you talk to Matthew on the phone please let him know that I love him and hope that he is doing flips over the wake. :) Summer continues here in Honduras but the rain is likely coming very soon. 

I feel honored and humbled to be called to train my new companion, Elder Ramirez, and serve those in my district. I have had to rely more on my Savior and pray more fervently and for this I am very grateful. On Sunday I interviewed a baptismal canidate for the first time. It was a great experience. She is an investigator of Elder Wilson and Elder Rodriguez. She is an older lady. She is the mom of Sister Susanna who was baptized a few months ago by Elder Reid and Elder Duran. I felt the spirit very strong during the interview. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to do interviews. It is the best! It strengthened my testimony so much to hear the story and reason for why she is making the decision to be baptized. Each person truly is a miracle. So far things are going well. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father is ready to listen always and I am so grateful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. 

Right now we have three investigators who have a baptisimal date planned, have accepted, and are progressing (reading the Book of Mormon, going to Church, etc.) Brother Visente, Sister Josepha, and Alejandra. Alejandra lives with her grandma Sister Lobo. Her grandma is less active. We are trying to help them both. Alejandra is 9 yrs old just like Miriam and Abby! (for a little while longer) She is a great girl and has made her way to church alone for more than 2 months. Her baptism date is for this Saturday. Brother Visente has a baptism date for the 21st of June. He is an older man probably in his 50's. He is great! The Book of Mormon was really hard for him to accept at first but now he is reading. He has come twice to Church now! I really hope things continue to go well with him. Sister Josepha is really old! haha she is in her 80's! She is so special. We feel so happy when we are teaching her. She has some serious health problems with her bones and it's very hard for her to move around and to even sleep. She lives alone and hardly has the necessities in order to live. It is hard for her to hear and remember the things we teach but little by little she learns. On Friday we asked her if she remembered her baptism date and she answered "28 de Junio! No voy a olbidar(im not going to forget)" :) The past two weeks she has woken up early, and walked to church alone. She is always one of the first people to arrive! Her house is not very close to the church either! She is absolutely incredible. She has so much faith. She is so special to me and reminds me a lot of my great grandparents who have passed away. I love her and all those I am blessed to serve here. 

It just started pouring rain!! Tons!! Good thing I have plastic bags to put my books in! :) 

I love you all so much and hope you have the best first week of summer ever! Thank you so much for all of your emails and prayers. They mean so much. Even though you guys will probably be swimming everyday I think that I will be wet for more hours. ;) Keep reading the Book of Mormon everyday and going to the temple as often as you can. Remember that Heavenly Father always hears our prayers. I know He knows and loves us. I know Jesus Christ lives and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is His church and therefore the only true church on the Earth. 

Love Elder Conover

Soy un Padre!

(written 5/28/2014)

Buenas tardes familia!

I hope that all of you are still having a great week! Emily I hope you had a blast at Lagoon today and the Twins with field day! I hope that all of you are enjoying life and all we have to be grateful for.

I cannot really explain my emotions right now with words but I will do my best. Monday night we found out that my companion Elder Flores along with Elder Reid, and Elder Perez all were being transferred. Normally three aren't changed all at once but that's how it went. It was sad to hear that my companion and the others were going to be transferred but I always know it's what Heavenly Father wants.

We have been organizing a Ward activity and last night we had the activity. It was awesome! The theme was The Plan of Salvation. We all started in the presence of our Heavenly Father (chapel) and then we came to Earth; to represent our Earth life we had a bunch of different rooms set up in the church with different activities the people could choose to do. Video games, movie, church magazines, fusbol, checkers, and soccer outside. We explained to them that they would be judged for their actions on the "earth". After an hour or so we shut off all the lights except for the chapel and moved everyone into the chapel, we skipped a few things in the plan but at the end the chapel represented our judgment before Heavenly Father. We rewarded the people who went and spent their time learning and studying the word of God with cookies and explained to everyone that it's good to have joy in this life but we also need to give time to our Heavenly Father. Miriam and her son Christopher by the way were 2 of the people who went to the church magazine room for the whole time. :) The acitvity was a lot of fun and I hope that the members and investigators who came now understand The Plan of Salvation a little bit better.

Afterwards we went to Miriam's house with Christopher so that Elder Flores could say goodbye before he left. We gave Miriam 2 photos from her baptism with notes written on the back and shared with her how much she means to us. She too shared a powerful testimony and one of the greatest "pump up speeches" I have ever heard in my life. :) She told us that she will never forget the day that we first showed up at her house. She told us to keep looking for people who need what we have just like she needed. As we were about to leave Christopher said he wanted to say something. He started crying and told us how grateful he is that we came into the life of his family and that they needed us. We all gave each other a big group hug and by this time all were crying. We all felt the spirit so strong, I felt like we were in the Celestial Kingdom. I'm quite sure that Christopher has recieved an answer and that he very soon will be making the covenant of baptism. We are still trying to work out what Ward he is going to go to but either way he is gaining a very powerful testimony as he continues to read the Book of Mormon and talk with his Mom and other members. I felt like we were surrounded by angels last night. I cannont express the joy and gratitude I feel to know Miriam and Christopher, and be blessed enough to share the Gospel with them. All the rejections, all the trials, all the sadness and anger are beyond worth it because of Miriam and her family.

This morning we had the transfer meeting. We heard some wonderful testimonies and listened to a beautiful musical number and listened to a message from President Klein about Faith, Hope, and Charity. He taught us that we need faith in Jesus Christ, we can have hope for all the blessings we and others will recieve if we obey with exactness, and charity is serving others. He told us if we do these things we will have Power, Miracles, and the companionship of the Holy Ghost. After we listened to where everyone was being changed and who are our new companions. This is the part where I can't really express how I feel... honestly quite unexpectadly President Klein has called me to train Elder Ramirez from Bolivia! I did not think I would be training because I didn't go to the trainer's meeting this last change so that was very exciting to hear but very out of the blue. Everyone was so nice and pumped that I now have my first "son". He had just a few minutes before shared at the pulpit where he is from in English with the other new missionaries. Little did I know that I would be his new companion! I have been called to serve as district leader here in Jazmines as well. All I can say is that I will be praying harder than I ever have and that I will need all of your prayers and faith. I'm not sure how I will do it but like Nephi I know that Heavenly Father doesn't command us to do anything that we cannot do. I know that with the guidance of the Holy Ghost I can do it. My companion is great! I know that we will share so many great experiences together. I am so excited and blessed to continue serving in this area. Please keep my companion especially in your prayers as he is beginning his mission.

I love you all so much and please share any advice with me you have or extended relatives or anyone who reads this to help me serve the best I can. Have a great last two days of school! :) The mission is quite the adventure. I am so grateful and happy to be here. I know this is the work of God.

Love Elder Conover