"DON'T WRITE ON THE WALL" AND OTHER LESSONS

Hey fam! How's it going?

You think there will be blizzard action this winter when I get back??? Great... I'm ready. Haha. Yeah, last p-day my companion just slept and so I had some free time to write, so I hope everyone enjoyed the letters. By the time I got to Heidi's, I was ready to start just doodling, so I thought I'd go all out. Amy, promise I'll write one that'll keep you busy next time. Hah. But now it’s YOUR turns to write ME, so we'll see :)

That's sweet that my mission is paid for! Thank you so much for all the generous support from everyone. I have only read a few articles in newspapers, but the economic situation still seems pretty grim I guess. I want to repay all that money you spent on my mssion, and pay my way through college. I need to learn to make it on my own, we've got too many other kids coming up that will need the money now. I dont know HOW to do all this mind you, I just know I NEED to. Something I want to master here is managing money, and I'm terrible at it. We've been blessed with TONS of "hookups" that give us free food or cheap ties or whatever - our President just outlawed ALL of them, so that means I need to learn to manage the money better. Whee. Loved the story about "Uncle Alfred"! right...

That's a lot of missionaries going out that we know, and a lot of updating on friends! Thanks mom! Hope everyone is progressing and get all straightened out in life.

Coolest things of the week (there’s a lot!):

Elder Robbins of the 70 came to Zone conference, again instructed us for 3 hours straight, amazing! He taught that in order to change behavior, we must teach doctrine. This is the key to successful parenting and leadership and missionary work. If we teach correct doctrine, TRUTH, it motivates more than any rules to obey and change behavior. God teaches us the WHY (doctrine), then explains the WHAT (principles), but RARELY teaches the HOW (rules) because that's our own application. In church lessons, we often mess up and teach the application too much. For example, we might hear "on Sunday we need to not shop, and read scriptures for like an hour, and we need to stay dressed up all day" Thats not doctrine. Doctrine is "the Sabbath Day is a Holy Day, and we must honor the Lord." Principles are the fact that we dont work, and we renew covenants, and that its on Sunday. How we choose to apply those principles of the doctrine are our applications. Interesting. Another example might be if a kid writes on a wall, we could teach that our home should be like a temple, and we don't write on temples. This will motivate more than always saying "DON'T WRITE ON THE WALL." He talked a lot about how the mission is preparation for family life -so true, super cool. Learned a ton, these men are really called of God.

Sunday we had a baptism, "Chuy", or Maria de Jesus, was baptized at 6 pm. It was way cool. She also was confirmed in the same meeting. From the first, she said she felt something very different around the young women at Church. She felt a difference in the spirit while she attended church. She knew it was true before we really started teaching her. At her baptism, I spoke on baptism, and then her brother in law baptized her. Her older sister Janet is like 22, and was baptized 3 years ago, then married Colby, a returned missionary, here in Logan. Janet's marriage was sealed in the temple, and has prayed constantly for her family - ANYone in her family - to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. For her, Sunday was a miracle - she got up and cried out of joy. Finally she pulled herself together and smiling welcomed her little sister into this new path, encouraged her, told about why it meant so much, what the temple meant, how she longed for their whole family to be sealed together, and etc. It was awesome. Colby, Janet's husband, confirmed Maria, and the whole branch banded together to welcome Maria (and the rest of her family. We're hoping more will be baptized soon! Praying for a miracle...:) The spirit was there, and Chuy/Maria said she felt super happy inside. I always ask how someone feels right after their baptism. They always feel it. It may be peace, coming home, happiness, joy, like God is around them, clean... but they always feel it.

I know this is the truth! It requires faith, repentance, baptism, following the Holy Ghost after receiving it, and enduring to the end in all faithfulness. It requires confessing, going through, and proving real conversion and devotion to the Savior Jesus Christ. I know He's the one guiding all of this. I'm super excited to go see living disciples of the Savior Jesus Christ this weekend at General Conference - we are going to all 5 sessions live!! When Christ was here, He would have been on the stand with them, OK, well probably on a hillside with them. I have faith that he is just as present now. Elder Robbins testified that the General Authorities are inspired. I know that is true.

Love you all a ton! We're doing fine here. Keep enjoying life, dont stress, I think about you all a lot, and can’t wait to see you all soon!

Love, Chris

aka secret agent Elder Thelin

ps will pray for Sister Badger and her mom. I was thinking of them last week - met a lady named Sister Badger, she had family in Virginia, but wasn’t sure if it was a John Badger...

pps congrats on the running, Jeff!