NEVER STAY INSIDE IF YOU CAN GO OUT AND TALK TO SOMEONE!

The world is green in Virginia? We thought we were getting to that point.... then yesterday at 6 it started crazy raining, and we got out of a lesson around 9 and everything was covered in 4 inches of snow! Fun trying to fishtail our way up hills in the trailer park we were in, took a while getting home.... sheesh. Who the heck is still praying for snow, its not like they will get out of school for it :)


SO Conference Weekend was cool. In a surprise turn of events our mission president made a new rule: Attending Conference in Salt Lake City is fair game, so we we scrambled, found miracle tickets, and took Leticia and Leslie (the family that got blessed at the hospital that I talked about last week) and also a family E. Baquedano baptized in Hyrum, and we went down for the Sat Morning session. Pretty cool, being there with like 20,000 people, and the Mormon Tab. Choir... Intense. I think we got a picture in the Ensign, we'll see. But it was cool, being there with investigators that had no idea what was going on and explaining "This is a conference for our church shown throughout the whole world.  That is Pres. Monson--he is a prophet of God on the earth today..." Leslie was really impressed with how funny President Monson is. True! Cool stuff. And the rest of Conference was awesome. Jeffrey R Holland is hilarious, a tough topic well handled ("and some invite bad thoughts in for tea and crumpets... we shouldn't be serving tea anyhow..." haha) Priesthood was incredible, talked about how we get called as missionaries. Helped boost testimony that we aren't here just randomly. God really wants me here in Ogden.  Easter Sunday was good too! All good!

The week went well - we just had two English missionaires move in with us last night, now life is way more fun and a lot less sane. Pranking should be more fun with 4... haha.

OH, cool, we were at home yesterday waiting for the others to come move in, and we had 10 minutes. We debated staying there and doing some planning or something, or going out on a walk for 10 minutes. We decided a walk would be more productive, so we went out. First person we saw, we talked to. She said: "Oh yeah, I read the Book of Mormon a LOT, I'm halfway through. I actually went to Buenaventura branch for like a year (my first area) but the Elders got switched and then we moved here. I tried going to church, but they were in English." We showed her where the Spanish branch is, and asked if she was baptized. Nope. But was preparing before. THen she said "Yeah, I've missed it a lot. I'm still reading. I think that if the church wasn't true, it wouldnt be growing so much." HECK yeah, most amazing miracle contact ever.  I'm convinced she's getting baptized in 3 weeks. God gave us exaclty the miracle we were hoping for in the exact time we had. NEVER stay inside if you can go out and talk to someone!

Got the package, was great! Elder Baquedano stained his hands good with dye. I've got a good Elder Egg (Misiohuevo if anyone gets that...) The candy is sweet, the spinner from the Maguras is much loved for all its value... ha, but my companion got sick of the song and ran it over with the car or something like that while I was on exchanges. Greatness lived and died...

Glad everything is well with you all. Mole projects, plays, Turkey, roller coasters... man, life's crazy. THANKS for the letter Heidi, I'll write back I promise. I miss Culpeper I do admit, the "Ground Hog Dinner" looked like a blast... holy cow, Culpeper rules...

Please keep praying for Karla. We visited her last week, and asked how if her baptism was what she was expecting. She said much much better - because of what she felt. Everyone talked about the change of peace in her face from before and after. She's so strong, but still facing trials at home. Just please continue to pray for her father to have his heart softened or something. You always read stories about these kinds of things, but its different when you know the person... and you were the one that invited the person to make that choice. But we and she prayed, and the Spirit confirmed strongly how right the choice and the timing was, so we'll keep trusting. Please pray.

I love you all, and wish you a good week! You're the best. God loves us, and we can trust in Him. Jesus Christ is the Savior, and this is His church. The Spirit confirms it powerfully.

Love, Elder Thelin