BMW IN THE GHETTO

[Mom Note: Sorry this is late--we were on vacation last week so I didn't get it posted. New letter tomorrow, too! Bonus!]

Dear the FAM,

How's everyone doing?? LAKE MICHIGAN???? WHAT IS THIS??? Holy cow, going to a lake sounds like heaven... I have concluded that Stefan was always right and Virginia IS paradise - the desert is a little... HOT. Sheesh. So yeah, man, sounds like you are all having a blast! Keep it up! Sorry about Flat Chris, he's coming, I just haven't been able to finish the letters for the envelope yet... I'm also going to try to send a package with pics and some stuffs to come home. We'll see when I get that out... say hi to everyone there for me! I'm having a desire to play Camelot with pool noodle swords and watch Dad make a rudder, and get "toilet-flushed" (that water park sounded awesome), but yeah, I'll live it vicariously... heh.

Man, there WERE more fires! A 2nd one happened on Thursday - we thought it was Sinesio's!! It was the house next door... man, scary. Its becoming a problem here - make sure you have a fire extinguisher everyone, its rough. I wish I could have seen the news footage - we walked past the reporters, but the helicopters were everywhere...

Ethan's going to OKLAHOMA? SWEET! Ben Kay, Steven Alexander, Josh Reitz... wonder where they're going, good old days at BYU. Isn't that CRAZY? I started BYU a YEAR ago! Time is so weird. and I can't belive almost 6 months are up. What in the WORLD was Stefan doing in that picture??? We're not even allowed to OWN matches! Tradition is to burn something -a tie at 6 months, a suit later on, but man... hilarious...

The work is going here - ups and downs, finding and losing people - nothing too significant has happened this week. Our big problem right now is hard headed husbands that hate us. Not sure how to get around that, but we'll do it. Have to call up the special op's missionaries for that... man, we got a ton of people to church, but it was CRAZY - we had to take a guy's BMW down to a super ghetto street (signs everywhere, "BEWARE, DANGEROUS DOGS") and picked up a guy at a shack, then as our investigators were showing up at church ( an hour late) a kid fell and her head was bleeding everywhere - it was kinda funny watching them bandage her up like a mummy, though I'm pretty sure nobody was gonna take her to a doctor (no insurance)- then ANOTHER investigator's kid got a fever and they had to leave.... we did lure two new teenagers into the youth class with some of the young women... insanity... BUT we managed to get through it alive. So yeah. Nothing too exciting this week, but Elder Minson is a fun guy, and we're having fun with the area. Always thinking about you guys, and wish I could see people I knew every once and a while (Elder Minson's parents live in the mission and dropped off brownies to a member's house... the message got lost in translation though and they thought the Minson's were giving it all to them... oh well, hah) But yeah, I know the Church is true. We really do have a Father in Heaven. Christ is our Savior, and the Spirit is here to guide us-- to guide us through. I know that we have a prophet on the earth - how cool is that? SO many people have no clue. This mission shows you the best and worst of humanity, that really Satan has great hold over this earth at this time. He is running rampant. But every once in a while you meet people who know why they're here, and are focused on the eternal - and it gives some hope. We can overcome this world by faith. We can succeed in our test here on earth, and help others to realize what they knew before they even came to this earth. I know its true!

Well, we gots to go!
Love, Elder Thelin!

PPS To continue the epic tale: Then in the height of the battle... the koalas headed towards the tree the girls were in. The kanagaroos were hopping up the branches, and the pool noodle swords were shredding everywhere. They were all filling the top branches. Just as a little black koala was about to help Holly out the window, there were too many animals in the tree, and the tree bent over... and SPROING, the tree house went FLYING through the air TO....