BIRTHDAY AWESOMENESS

Whooooo! Okay, well this weeks been nuts. First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!!!!!! 9 YEARS OLD!! ALMOST to double digits here. INTENSE. Hope it snows and you're not in school right now. I agree with Holly, why can't we call and say happy birthday? But yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY kiddo, love you a ton, hope your birthday is awesome!

THANKS for all the birthday awesomeness that was sent to Logan this past week - the package got here SATURDAY so I opened it Saturday - it was sweet! We really enjoyed the mixup jelly beans -me and Elder Contreras were eating them for like 20 minutes the other night, seeing if it was licorice or skunk flavored, peach or barf, coconut or baby wipes. They nailed all those flavors, its exactly like what the say it is... ugh. Really fun. Also, I like the Calle shirt, its like spanish and soccer combined here, ha, dont know how much soccer I'll play in this area, the Spanish Central zone went against an English zone, got intense, and someone broke a finger, so Soccer is outlawed at the moment. But the shirt is super comfy, I wore it this morning! And I appreciate the CDs, its very refreshing. Charlie Brown Christmas has been the #1 cd I wanted to have last Christmas, so thanks!

I celebrated Dyana's birthday on Monday, just passed by to eat cake with them and their neighbors - he's wanted in 10 states and is on "break" from jail for September on like a 5 year sentence, really nice guy. I'm not really sure if the jail knows he's out... -and then on Tuesday, MY birthday, we gave a training to our new zone, it was cool, and then had interviews with President Olson, then an exchange with the APs of the mission. We went by the Lambarens, and the kids were all still in school, but the mom woke up and came outside just to talk to us for a little while, which is all I really wanted to do anyway. It was cool, because she was telling us about some hard things she's been going through, tough decisions, and how she's been praying and getting answers about them, and also how she keeps having dreams since her baptism of aunts an grandparents that have passed away... coming in white, being nice to her, approving this or that. She is excited to do family history work now. Very cool.

We ate Enchiladas at a really funny guy's house for dinner, and then when we were walking, I decided to go see a guy thats been dodging us for a few weeks. "This is the last chance we'll give Antonio" I said. I was about to leave after knocking, but he opened the door, unusally just let us in, and started to tell us about some marriage problems he was having, and how he was going to leave and get divorced, like right then. It was really cool, because we just started talking about his family, about praying about it, and how Jesus was going to help his marriage and guide his kids. He gave his first prayer at the end, and he was 100% different, he thanked the Lord for sending us there, because he said he needed to talk it through with someone, and then asked God for humility and help in fixing the problem, for keeping his family together, and he said he knew the family wasn't going to fall apart. Really awesome, best birthday present I could have asked for.

But I do feel very old.

Thanks also to the Maguras! The bread is awesome! Grandma Pat, THANKS for sending the card, I loved it! Grandma and Grandpa, gracias for the card, that was really nice! Thanks also to mis hermanas for the notes and candy and everything in the package! You're all awesome. Holly, love you too. GET BETTER.

Industrial Design sounds really promising. Not sure if I'm creative enough, feel like some creativity may have been sucked out of me the past 19 months, but heck, we'll see! At least it doesn't sound boring!

Well, I gotta go, Sergio picks us up in a few minutes. Oh he sang me two Mexican birthday songs on my birthday. That was part of the whole experience. Sweet. Love you all, I know the Lord lives and its super fun to teach His gospel and see people change their lives. Thanks for the love and continual support!


Love, Elder Thelin