CULTURE SHOCK

Hey family, que pasa? Ha, dont worry about the email last week, its ok. Hopefully Heidi feels better by now. I saw Dad say he was going to write a letter, but we needed to leave so we figured I could read it this week. Seems like everyone is a bit sick right now. 103 is high, and bleeding tonsils arent cool. How long did it last? Hopefully her teachers scheduled the SUPER boring days for the ones she missed (they always seem like they make certain days ALL boring on purpose, you know?)

Wow, Grandpa sounds like he has some Mexican blood in his family - he really ate whole jalepenos? Thats pretty intense! A lot of people cant handle them. HA, the funniest thing in the world was when I had my Argentinian companion, he couldn't eat ANYthing, because in Argentina, they DONT eat ANYthing spicy. In Mexico, its 100% opposite. So, the first meal we ate he asked for a chicken torta, or like a sandwich. "Quiere jalepenos, or chipotle?" (you want jalepenos, or chioptle chiles?) He didnt know what they were, so he asked for jalepenos. He was all happy, took a sip of his horchata (a milk drink) and then pleased tried his torta. It had just a SMALL piece of jalepeno in it... His eyes bulged out, he started like hyperventilating and flapping his hands (I think he thought it would help), and making noises like "MMMGGGGG!! mmmMMMMMGMGMGgmggMMM!!" (sound that out, its pretty accurate) and then he drank his horchata drink, MY horchata drink, and ANOTHER one that they passed down the table to him. Needless to say, Jalepenos helped humble my prideful Argentinine friend quite a few times. Good job Grandpa for being a man and eating them straight.

Ok, I'll buy a suit. Thanks :)

Send the card here. I really could care less now if my address is secret - Elder Contreras is going home in 6 weeks, and he saw his parents for the first time after 23 months in General Conference. So of course they HAD to take us to eat lunch, and now they have our number, and just "happened" to pass through Logan on Sunday to do "something", so we took them up to see the temple, etc. Point is, if Brother and Sister Contreras can come see their son at his apartment in Logan, I'm pretty sure my parents can know where I live from across the country, haha.

"Live Like You Believe" is a good song, Heidi! Its on one of my efy cds. Good luck Heidi! Its so weird to think of all of them, Heidi and Virginia and all them, being like 13...

Jeffrey, good job being interesting. Good job for getting 6th, for going to a scary "school" dance, and for putting Alex in a dress. Wow. Good luck on the ACTs and junk.

Amy is incredible. Sticks are perfect combs. Film the Haunted Bathroom, please...

Hmm, what else have we been doing this week... teaching people? Trying, looking for more people to teach and obviously baptize. Did a lot of fun blitzes with like 15 missionaries in one area at a time, had to calm down the Tongan I was with because of a bad door contact. We knocked, the guy opened up the door and was looking pretty ticked. "Hello, sir, what's your name?" I said with my hand stretched out. He didn't take it, and just asked "You missionaries?" "Yes!" And the other hand flipped up with the finger... and a door slam (I moved my hand first). The Elder I was with said his family always thought beating a guy up worked a lot better than forgiving them, hahaha, had to work for a while to convince him not to go back and kill the guy! I love Tongans. Ha, there's another Tongan here, his first week his trainer said "hey, 6:30 wake up." Then 7:00, "Hey wake up" then 7:30, "Hey- " "HEY, I got an idea. We'll go outside and fight. If you win, I wake up. If I win, I sleep." The missionary let him sleep everyday. Then his 2nd comp was a tongan too. First day together they went thhrough the same routine. at 7:30, he said: "We'll go outside and fight. If you win, I wake up. If I win, I sleep." The new companion said "ok." So EVERY morning they went outside for 30 minutes at 7 and fought each other, like blood and everything, then finished hugging and crying and went in to go eat breakfast. I love how my culture just taught me to wake up and make some cereal.

Also we had transfers - I stay here again, prob will be here till February. Crazy, we had a visa waiter waiting to go to Mexico, they made him a senior and he was training ANOTHER visa waiter, and now presidetn prayed and decided to make him a district leader too! He has a whopping 2 months... hahahhahahahahaha.

WELL, family, love you all a lot. I know the Gospel is true. I know the Savior lives, and if we follow Him, we'll be blessed here and especially after. I love the line from President Uchtdorf's talk "We shouldnt think less OF ourselves, but less ABOUT ourselves." Do that! Hard stuff...

Love you all, Elder Thelin

Thanks for Kaylas address, I think she must be getting married because I havent heard from her in forever, lol. Any one else I know getting married?