JOY TO THE WORLD

Hm, ok, lame, so they told us p day was switched to monday just this once, so i have approx 30 minutes to squeeze out an email to you all! gr, crazy!


OK so MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Tis the season! This has been a crazy time for all of us, running everywhere, trying to get things set up for things, mission conference, etc etc. BUT its been a good week -we had a baptism on saturday! 10 year old Leonidas from El Salvador. smartest kid ever (well, besides our family of course) but yeah, sweet baptism, he actually wanted to get up and say a few words afterwards! Unfortunately we had to fill the font with buckets again... apparently that's "just how you do it" here. Excellent.

Well, I guess we'll start with transfer news - Elder Tetelpa is getting trasferred to STAR VALLEY Wyoming! aka the Death Star, its a whopping -30 degrees up there, and he's going to be in a zebra area (half spanish half english). Gonna miss him, he's one of my most imteresting companions. Gone through a lot of change in a short time, lived pretty wild before the mission. Hearing him turn everything into a rap song was interesting ... hilarious guy. But he needs to go up north! And I'm going to be staying here as a district leader with a new elder. Good kid, from Mexico, convert for a year or so. Speaks little English. He has had a rough mission so far, so I'm a little worried about how I can help him grow and feel comfortable and want to stay here. We shall see. I've felt the Lord's promises to strengthen me lately. I was thinking maybe I'd get a really strong companion and baptize 50 people, but He has different plans. There is a purpose in this, and we will have huge success in any case. It'll be interesting... no more rap or beatboxing though, heheh...

Hmm, well, THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGES!!! "Frank and Bob's Christmas in a Box" has definitely made the apartment festive!, Thanks frank and bob! I love it - I had made a tree of colored post it notes, but the one you sent is so much better and real! And thank you Royston family! We're anxious to wait till the 25th! Many Elders were jealous of me walking out with so many packages from Mission Conference. THAT was interesting - all 180 missionaries together in one place all day friday. We did a Christmas talent show - the Spanish Zone in the South did a really funny skit about the crazy antics we have to go through trying to get people legally married here so that they can be  baptized (welcome to the Spanish program, nightmare... It goes something like this..."No, I'm not married to my girlfriend I've been living with for 12 years. Can't marry her because I'm married in Mexico. No, we can't call her. No phone.  Oh, and my girlfriend needs a divorce too. Same deal. Me and my girlfriend have 5 kids." YIKES. The Law of Chastity is always fun to teach! And then we sang "La Bamba" and "Feliz Navidad" to the mission (fun, I know all the words now... "para bailar la bamba se necesita una poca de gracia"...) Other highlights included a movie we made on P day - an Elder Limon from Canada is basically my twin in everything, movie making is a favorite hobby, and he knew a professional movie editor with film equipment, so we made a mock-companionship inventory(where we as companionships evaluate ourselves at the end of the week) and did it kinda like the Office... fun) So yeah, good stuff, it was fun. Crazy to see all my former companions, find out about people we baptized in other areas... Poor Elder Minson got his Dear John, dated and baptized the girl before the mission for 7 years, all he talked about was future plans with her... has 5 months left and she revealed she'd been dating another guy for a year...rough. All who are waiting for a missionary, don't wait till the end to Dear John someone, ouch...

Well, family, I'm excited for Christmas - I have 40 minutes to talk, probably easiest to call in the morning hours, like maybe noon for you? If not, maybe a little later on - I can call at noon and then if its not good just tell me when to call and I'll hang up and try again... and I'll call the house? hmm. Dang. We haven't planned this well. Ok, well, if all is lost and you are somewhere else with a different phone, or soemthing, and we havent been in contact by noon on the 25th, my number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. But I'll try calling you first I guess. Heck, we'll figure it out. Ok, well, love you all! Focus on why we are here, why Christmas is special - remember the Savior! He is real, and he lives. That is the meaning of Chrismtas. Joy to the world!

Love, Elder Thelin



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!