CHRIS LEARNS TO HITCHHIKE

Hey family! Alright, this may be short, I'm so so dead, we went to hike another mountain today - like 40 minutes up Logan Canyon, then hidden in a small trail - a drive of like 15 minutes - to Tony's Grove, a small lake in the top of a mountain. Well we went there this morning at 8, then from that point hiked 3.3 miles to Naomi's Peak, the highest point anywhere around. STEEP. INTENSE. Poor elder Sigal, the highest he's ever been is 4000 ft above sea level. He is breathing heavy even just in the car. You just go up and up, then another fair sized valley, with an even TALLER rock face with switchbacks on the opposite side. "is THAT Naomi's peak?" nope, its past that and higher.

After doing that a few times, we got to a large hill (large=huge), climbed to the top of that, and then a little higher.... and there you are Naomi's peak, gorgeous, you can see every mountain for several hundred miles, with all the canyons and peaks spread out below. On the opposite side of where we'd been hiking was a steep bowl like 2000 feet deep, and we could see a glimpse of Cache Valley - actually we could see a part of Logan, with two small white dots, which we surprisingly were able to confirm as the temple. Cool, being so high, and still in sight of the temple. THEN we ran down for an hour, got to the lake again, and most of the Elders went with their ride back to Logan. Our problem, as I have had many times, was that our initial ride was unable to help take us back, so we were stranded an hour from our area in a mountain.

So obviously we began to CONTINUE walking (mind you, we already have gone 6 miles, to the highest point around, with only a handful of trail mix and a 3 bottles of water between four of us) and hoped someone would give us a ride. after an hour of walking and waving our badges at passing cars, finally we knelt down on the highway and prayed, acknowledging how dumb we were for putting ourselves in that situation. 5 minutes later we flagged down a member family who stuffed us into the back of their car (they were coming back from camping with 3 adults and 5 kids, it was a van and they had a camper). So I rode all the way back to Logan next to a 4 year old named Jacob. I wanna be 4 again. He was delighted every time he saw a green tree (all of them), or a rock, or the river. Fortunately there were a constant supply of these, so he was always amazed and shouting about them. Then we played eye spy - I'd name a color, and he'd ask if it was his shirt. On his turns, he'd say "I spy a watch." "Oh, is it... my watch?" "YES!!!" Yup, amazing. So thankful for kind members.

The work is going well, good people and good success. I hope that all is well at home, it seems everyone is really busy with the weirdest things, so thats good. Congrats on the Eagles! Thats so cool! And the missions, and the school starting etc. Very good stuff. I love you guys, think about you a lot and am excited for all the fun you have. Take care, be happy, and keep moving onward. I know the Church is His Church. I know Jesus Christ is the Savior, and knows us personally. I've seen Him personally respond to my prayers as well as 1000's of others. He loves us, and has the power to help us.

Love you all, have a good week!
Elder Thelin

Ps dont worry about transfers. Technically its in 2 weeks, but we had another one this monday. Just smile and wave, thats what we do, ha

Pspps I'll check on contacts situation thanks

Psps Grandma and Grandpa - congratulations! 60 years happily married is one of the best accomplishments I've heard of in a long time. You've always been really great examples to me, of love and how to be strong and faithful. I love you very much and use your marriage as an example often of what marriage really is all about when we talk to people. Have a wonderful anniversary, and I'll see you soon!

Pspsppspsp I have a somewhat interesting request: Elder Baquedano wants to know if you could put some things on a cd for him - specifically pictures of when we served together in Layton, such as baptisms, or belt wars pics or videos, pranks haha, uh, anything of that sort - like from march to may. If that could be done sometime, that'd be amazing. Glad you all liked the pics, hehehehehheheheh. Trying to make more. :)