-Conclusion-

I never thought I could love someone else this much. I remember at the start of these past two years, I had this feeling that I truly understood what it was like to unconditionally love someone. I felt as though I truly desired and hoped the best for others. I thought I really loved and knew my Savior. I have come to the conclusion, that I was wrong.Moroni 7:47-48"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."I have come to realize that charity is something that we must work for. I thought that I had charity because while at home I loved being around people. I have further come to realize that it is part of our condition as mortals to have the tendency to be selfish. It's always about, how does this benefit me? What do I gain from this? As part of overcoming the natural man we need to focus less on the me and mine, and move forward with a tunnel vision on the thee and thine.
Charity is a natural consequence of heartfelt service. My love for ALL others has grown as I have laid it on the line, daily, to their blessing. As I have focused on changing and blessing others, I have felt the Lord focus on changing and blessing me. It's been amazing.
"Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye." -H. Jackson Brown, Jr. This quote kind of sums up my feelings. As I have grown to love others, I have come to see them in a more eternal and divine way. I now see them for where, with the Saviors help, they can be. I no longer focus on where they are currently. My heart has been changed without a doubt.I think the greatest love I have gained is a love for the Savior. I now understand at a greater and deeper level the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for His love and sacrifice in my behalf and in all of yours as well. He has paved the path, and just asks us to walk it.I truly can say I have loved my mission. I have loved every moment. Just thinking back on all of these people I have served and loved in each and every area I feel tears start to fill my eyes. My life has forever been changed because of the love that I not only have given, but also by the love I have received.I love you all. Thank you so much for the support and prayers you have sent my way throughout these past two years. I have felt that sustaining power from both sides of the veil. I love you, and am going to continue to need your support and love as I make the adjustment in coming home. I have really put my heart into this and I think it's going to be hard for me at first. I know this is Gods work. This is the truth. I have lived the gospel and seen its changing and sanctifying effect in so many peoples lives. No young man, who is physically and mentally able can miss out on this chance to serve a mission. The Lord has called each one of us to bless, build, lift and inspire others to rise up to their divine potential. As we lay down our sins and our fears at the Saviors feet, He will lift us up to salvation. And in Him saving us, we are expected to help lift others to the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom which God has prepared for all who will repent and change.After all, this is all about Him.Love.Elder Mitchell Ryan Thayne

"God is Easily Pleased, But Hard to Satisfy." --George MacDonald

Wow. Another week down. This coming week is the last full week of my mission. I know, I know, I say this all the time, but I CAN'T BELIEVE IT HAS GONE THIS FAST. I have so many mixed emotions.

The funniest thing happened. This elder has a South African Flag that he has everyone sign their name and put their most often said quote on it... Well, I couldn't think of anything that I said all the time. Then I asked the elders there what they thought. Elder Mohale said, "Cmon Boza, everyone knows what you always say! 'I love you man!' That has to be your quote, that's how we all know you." Everyone then shouted their agreement. It was a wonderful feeling to have that be part of a legacy that I get to leave behind, my love for my brothers. They can feel it, and I love that.

This week has been an interesting one. We really hit the ground running... and then we just haven't really stopped. Last Monday I was in East London when I wrote everyone. After emailing, we went out and played soccer with the Mdantsane and East London Zones then rushed over to the airport to make sure we didn't miss our 6:00 PM flight. Well, jokes on us, we got there and then, AFTER we turned in our car, we found out that our flight had been suspended so we needed to sit around for another couple hours til 8:00 PM for our new flight. So we pretty much just chilled out in the airport, read our Preach My Gospel's and tried contacting people. We spoke to people til everyone in the area around us had kind of dispersed. We got a few contacts and sent them to the elders though. No effort is wasted!

The rest of the week can be summed up in one word: Transfers. We have sat down, reviewed, revised, prayed about, counseled and planned out the transfers with President Merrill a few different times this week. I love seeing how he, as a priesthood man, works in his life. It is inspiring and makes me want to do more, and be better.

I have thought a bit about "Enduring to the End" the past few days... The reason is obvious. I am almost finished with my mission. Wow, this is one of the hardest things to come to grips with. James 5:11 says, "Behold we count them happy that endure." And it's true. It's a wonderful feeling to now see the finish line up ahead and to know that I have been giving everything. Each stride takes effort, but it's a wonderful feeling to know how far I have come, and to be able to feel change and strength that I have gained. Yes, at the end of the race is usually when you are the most tired and the most aware of your weakness, but at the same time, it is the moment when you know how much you really have invested. How hard you really tried. 

Luke 9:62 (One of mine and E. Johnson's favorites) says, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." 

This isn't me looking back and focused on what has happened. I am just taking a moment to share how wonderful it has been to be out here serving the Lord. I have NEVER been happier and have NEVER felt like I have done something so important. I am grateful that I have endured my mission. Not in the just painful "hanging in there" sort of way that we think about. But a deliberate and constant effort to magnify this moment that the Lord has allotted to me. As I have endured in this way, I have felt the Lord shape and bless me in my life, and I have seen him do the same with those whom I serve. Enduring has been a sanctifying process that has helped me come to see and know the Savior in a way that I never had before.

With all this, I am not saying that it is over. My calling to be a disciple is a lifelong one, and I do realize that. I plan to apply and live everything I have felt these past two years. The Lord has taken the time to invest in me, and that is something I am eternally grateful for. I left for mission out of duty, but I want to stay out of love.

I plan to do the best I can with these last moments. I have a life and ministry ahead of me at home, and I plan on keeping Christ at the center of my life as he has been for these past two years. "God is easily pleased, but hard to satisfy." I know He has approved of my mission. I feel that He is pleased. He is not satisfied though. Now, He wants me to give back and bless even more people's lives. I just love it. Thank heavens for this blessing of a mission. 

I'll see you all soon.

- Elder Mitchell Ryan Thayne

Us at a Garage in Somerset west.

Exchanges with Elder Williams.

Elder Martey and I in the car, that's where we spend most of our time together. Driving.

Me and a bunch of cute kids in the Langa branch that we visited on Sunday.

It's Going Down For Real

What a week. It has been full of legendary exchanges. I have learned a lot from each missionary I have been with.

Tuesday: Elder Dangerfield, from the Isle of Man which is next to England. We taught a few lessons together, did hours of service and felt the spirit big time. It was a great experience being in East London again. SUCH A STUD.

Wednesday: Elder Meijsen and Elder Randrianamampiherinaivo - Yes, that is his real surname. He is from Madagascar, and Elder Meijsen is from Jo-burg. Anyway, our exchanges were in my greenie area of Mdantsane. I served in NU 7, 8, 10, 11, and 12. So we were able to go there, teach many people, and see a few of my recent converts and other people I taught. It was amazing.

I also found out, while I was there about my first baptism of my mission/life. Siphenathi Nake. Well, he was an amazing young man. Walked to church every week. He knew the gospel. Had a desire to serve a mission. He was 19 years old, but didn't have much support from home. We baptized him, along with several others.. Well, after time he was peer pressured into drinking. After doing so he felt so guilty he stopped going to church and meeting with the missionaries - the people and the place that could help him overcome those challenges and repent! After almost a year, I called the elders serving there and asked them to go find him. They went to his house, and he just grabbed his scriptures, shoved them in their hands and said, "I don't need these anymore. Please take them away." Several months later, while on drugs and dealing with the burden of sin, he ended his own life.

Wow, it was a pretty shocking blow for me as a missionary to take. I was so sad. So sorry to hear that someone who I loved, felt the spirit with, and personally baptized had digressed to that point. It gave me a testimony of two other things though. 

1. We all have the choice. Agency is a gift to all men. 2 Nephi 2:27 tells us of the choice that we have to choose happiness or misery. It states,"and all things are given them which are expedient unto man." That means God has given us everything we will need to be successful and to make the right choices. He has given it to us, and lets us make the choice. I gave him everything I could to help him be successful. He had the choice, and he chose to walk the forbidden path rather than the straight and narrow one. That is something that makes my heart ache, but I know he has a LOVING and merciful Father in Heaven who understands what it is that he has been through.

2. Ultimately, this is EXACTLY why we need to have members and missionaries working together. Because of his lack of support and fellowship from members of the church, when he, as the lost sheep, wandered from the fold, there was no one who left the ninety and nine to go in search of him. He was left to the wolves. That is also due to my lack of understanding with how to involve the members and help THEM do their missionary work. We need the members in every phase of this great redemptive work.

Sorry, I am finished with that sermon.

Thursday: I had a killer exchange with Elder Mashego, who is from Mpumalanga, SA. We worked in Mdantsane, Ward 1. Taught several people, and ended off with a real nice dinner at some lady named Babes' house. It was really nice. The best part of the exchange by far was when we sat in the car for another hour outside of our flat and told each other the our stories. We felt the sprit and were able to testify to each other how God has blessed us and changed us throughout our lives. It's the best feeling to be able to connect with a brother from a completely different background, who is a different color, lives on the opposite side of the world, and just see how similar we really are. People in this country, and in other places, focus on color too much. I found a brother, and I love him!

Friday - Sunday: I was with my main man, Elder Johnson, from Northern Utah. We were working, then went to church, in Queenstown. Gosh, I love this Elder so MUCH. It's funny how he is so much younger than me, but I look up to him so much. We went out and worked hard together. We laughed most of the day, and I was able to show him a few less active families and show him a few other Father-Led families that I had been working with there in QUEENSTOWN. It was awesome to see so many of the people that I love and that I had worked with who were still so strong in the gospel. I saw three of the guys we baptized stand up and get sustained to receive the Aaronic Priesthood right there in Sacrament meeting. Everyone was so excited to see me. I had people throw me a late birthday party and others who just couldn't stop flipping out that I was there. It was so special.

Then on top of that, Elder Johnson and I had the chance to give two blessings to two different people. I gave one to a Tata who was sick and needed one, then He was able to give one to a fellow missionary who was struggling with doubt and discouragement. It is such a wonderful blessing to be able to have this priesthood and use it to bless and strengthen those who are feeling, for a moment, overcome by the world. It was awesome to see what a priesthood man Elder Johnson has turned into and to be able to see how the Lord is preparing him for service in the future. I shared Alma 13:3-5 with him, because he is someone very involved with Leadership and was called for a real specific reason. It was a spiritual and growing experience. I'll miss him a ton.

AND then we came back to East London and now I am writing all of you. So that's been my week. 

I have almost loved hearing about the persecution and the attacks that have been made against the church. Then despite all of that, I just see how the Lord's work just continues to move forward completely sure and consistent in it's course. It strengthens MY testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. The Lord gives no heed to those who try to derail and deride that which we believe, so why should we? "Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true." - Pascal - That is so true. There are those who are living in a way contrary to what they feel deep down to be true, and would rather make excuses or attack the truth in a futile effort to justify the sin in which they indulge in. It's interesting how people think it is easier to just say the truth is false and live with the burden of their sin, rather than to take responsibility and turn to the Lord for help.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie once said: “Keep all the truth and all the good that you have. Do not abandon any sound or proper principle. Do not forsake any standard of the past which is good, righteous, and true. Every truth found in every church in all the world we believe. But we also say this to all men—Come and take the added light and truth that God has restored in our day. The more truth we have, the greater is our joy here and now; the more truth we receive, the greater is our reward in eternity. This is our invitation to men [and women] of good will everywhere.” That's where the money is. This is the truth. We accept and embrace all truth, and just invite others to do the same. Amazingly, there is still so much opposition, but it's alright. We are on the Lord's side.

Here is an awesome poem I just got sent from one of my favorite missionaries who went home just over a year ago. Keletso Obonye.

"FATHER IN HEAVEN"

Father of love,

He is our Father above, 

He is our loving FATHER IN HEAVEN.

God of truth,

Yet also God of forgiveness,

Humankind is drenched in filth, we are unclean,

Yet He gives us a marvelous gift, REPENTANCE,

He is merciful FATHER IN HEAVEN.

Perfect in all things, above all things, 

He has all knowledge, He is the KING OF KINGS, 

Yet of all these things, He prefers we call Him "Father".

Yes indeed! He is the pure Almighty  FATHER IN HEAVEN.

SIN separates us from Him, 

But He draws us in, through His beloved Jesus Christ, we are not lost; darkness prevail, NO we cannot FAIL! 

For He is light! : therefore let us always remember to Him with all our Might! 

Don't forget He is our glorious FATHER IN HEAVEN.

He sent us to the earth to gain a body, 

To learn and grow, But I know, 

When we see Him we will be like "OH!" 

WE REMEMBER THEE.....

"He is our loving FATHER IN HEAVEN"

And there you have it. He is our Father in Heaven. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is GOD'S church. I know it. I learned that truth when I knelt down at 15 years old and asked Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith is a prophet. I have lived and applied this gospel and the Savior's Atonement full-time for almost two years now. I know this is it. This is the truth. This is Salvation.

LOVE YOU ALL!

See you in two weeks Tata and Mama.

- Mdala Mitchell Ryan Thayne - 

Highways and Byways

Whoa.

Hey guys, guess what? I am so tired!

All day everyday we are driving. We travel so much as Assistants, and it's just something super foreign to me. But it's a cool experience, I get to reconnect with so many of my SACTM brothers that I didn't think I'd get to see again.

So, picking up from where we left off LAST week. I was in Port Elizabeth with Elder Branch. I went and got my first haircut from a Salon in 16 months! YAY! She supercharged me.. 86 Rand. Then on top of that, I am pretty sure I can give myself better haircuts than she did, but it's cool. I guess I need to get used to doing things the "American way" again. Psych, South Africa FOR LIFE!

We had a great little Family Home Evening with the Chimuti family (the friends of the Dube's) Monday night, and then said goodbye's to them. Gosh, it was like I had served there for three months... I was only there for three days... Mama was wanting to hug me and say how much they will miss me and how they want the family to come visit them. Such darling people. I really love them and appreciate how these people can just accept someone in the family that quickly and miss them so terribly when they are gone. Something I think we can all strive to be better at, Christlike LOVE.

Then we drove over to Kwanobuhle on Tuesday the 27th of October. - Three days before my birthday. I went on Exchanges with Elder Nienaber who is from Johannesburg, South Africa. We had a good day and were able to teach a ton of lessons together. We really bonded and had a great exchange. We totally just hit up lessons with a powerful mormon message, had them share what they felt, then said something profound and ended the lesson. It just left the investigators and members sitting there with their mouths open just totally feeling the spirit. It was great. I also found a guy named Sinethemba, and took a picture with him and Mr Tall, AKA E. Neinaber, that Elder Bohn - one of my mission buddies - had baptized. So cool. It's such a small world.

While there I was also able to reconnect with Elder Matini. My Samoan companion that I LOVED working with while I was in East London.

Then on Wednesday, the 28th of October, we were working with the Kwano Zone Leaders in their area. It started with us up on a roof painting... it took almost three hours to get HALF of it done. And the project ended with sunburns for the mlungu's (white guys), and a cut from a rusty nail while jumping off the roof for Elder Oswald. So we all had to run to the hospital to make sure he was all good. We ended up waiting in line at the hospital for another three hours. Yeahh, we did our fair share of missionary work while there, but we were sad we had to miss some appointments. I took a selfie in the nasty bathroom there at the hospital. It's a must see.

But in continuation of Wednesday, I finished up the day with Elder Mwanza who is from Zambia. Such an incredible missionary. He was previously a Jehovah's Witness, but then was converted at the age of 18. He continued and finished school, then was disowned by his parents when he came on mission. He has such ROCK SOLID faith, and has seen miracles as the Lord has softened the hearts of his parents. We taught some great lessons and ended with a lesson with Tata Vena. Who was previously a Methodist pastor. We took a picture together in his house then one of him holding the picture of his baptism. Such a sweet and powerful old guy. He told us how he had met President and Sister Merrill at a stake conference and just kept saying, "Elder, I made him laugh!" It was so sweet to see how he could recognize, love and respect President Merrill as a Priesthood man.

Thursday was good. We went to Cleary Estate to work with some Elders. Elder Monyo - From Tanzania, and Elder Thulari - from Mphumalanga, SA. There is a place there called Salt Lake, it's a little township, we took a picture over there and saw a mosque. So it was like the salt lake temple. We got a kick out of that. I loved working with and teaching with Elder Thulari. We taught a less active guy named Jamie and found out he had been drinking and fell back into drugs so was ashamed to go to church. We invited him to repent, he asked me to give him a blessing and it was such a powerful experience. HE felt the spirit and was crying. He said, "I know that blessing was from God, because you couldn't have know that I needed to hear what you said." Powerful. Then we took pictures at the Dixon's house. Such sweet people.

Friday - MY BIRTHDAY - we had a district meeting in Port Elizabeth again, then we hit the road. I got a cake from the Senior couple, the Pershings and got to drive all day. So nothing too exciting. It was beautiful to see so much more of the mission on the drive from PE to East London. When we got there we went to Mama Priscilla's home and saw some member there. I was able to have baptized mama Priscilla almost 8 months ago, and now her daughter is baptized as well and mama is a RS instructor. Then I ended my birthday off at the Humans... THE BEST people ever. I love them.

Saturday we drove with President and Sister Merrill to Mthatha to visit the branch out there. It was fun to drive with them and talk a bit. Anyway, when we got up there I was able to go on splits with Elder Pope - a previous companion from East London. Wow, that was SO awesome. We taught a bunch together, and tracted for days... just like old times. The cool part was when he stopped me and said, "Elder Thayne, I am sorry I didn't really open up to you when we were together. I learned a lot from you, more than just about anyone else. Well, uhh... yeahh, I love you man." Probably one of the coolest things he has said to me. It really made my day and I was able to hug him goodbye feeling like we both really helped each other.

Sunday the branch President, President Boatang, was surprised to see me again, he thought I had gone home. And he was so stoked to see that President Merrill was at church! He was telling me, "Ahh man, I wish I knew President was coming, then I would have had him teach or give a talk or something!" I just told him, "Don't worry about it, use President for whatever you need!" Preisthood meeting rolls around and the Branch President stands up and says, "Brethren, we have our mission president here for the first time and it is such an honor. We will now pay attention and listen to the spirit as he instructs us." President just looks over, and I winked at him.  It caught him by surprise, but of course, he knocked it out of the park.

Then we had the long drive back after church and the senior couple, the Stapley's who rented a place for us to stay while in EL, fed us Fijita's. It was great. I love Mexican food.

I don't have time to say much more, but I do want to share my testimony. This is God's work. I have seen it bless SO many different people. It has brought greater purpose and happiness in my own life. I have LOVED my mission, and after this experience, my mission will never stop.

I love you all. If any of you would like, please write my companion Elder Martey. He has no family or friends who write him, and I think it would give him a real boost.ephaim.martey@myldsmail.net

- Mdala Mitchell Ryan Thayne -