LIFE IS GOOD

Haaaaaaaalllllo, how're you doing Thelin clan, you're so lucky, the people here have already gone to school, so you guys have more freedom out there. Hope it’s just barrels of fun, no envy though...

So yes, no mountains today, just the temple as usual. We hurt for quite a while after last week's adventure. Bleggh. I've decided we need to go to a Demolition Derby sometime, they had one here, and we happened to have an investigator we needed to see who was working on his car to destroy, we got all the way back to where they were trying to pull steering wheels out of engines and stuff, but the police officer spotted us (not hard, we were in white shirts and ties....) and kicked us out :( Only Demolition personnel allowed back there, you know...We should do it sometime.

New cousin! Emmeline! How many new cousins have I had in the past 18 months? I've lost count, I feel like I know them and what’s happening with them, but I haven’t met ‘em...

"Beowoof" sounds pretty sweet, Jeffrey. Glad you could take such a captivating story and make something good out of it. Have fun with Grendel, ugh. Anyone taking anything super interesting in school this year? Choirs and everything still?

Heidi - loved the package. Are silly bands really a fad? We've been enjoying ours, they smell really good, and we keep shooting them at each other. Intense stuff, does everyone just wear them, or do you have to take ‘em off to show what shape they are, or do you play some game with ‘em? Sounds amazing, just saying...

Congrats on the Eagle, Jeff, sounds cool. Glad you got it figured out in the wilderness without burning everything down or anything too bad. Welcome to the Eagles nest. Yeah...

Most interesting happening of the week... um, BAPTISM. Pablo Lambaren Jr. (Yes, we are just working through all of the members of this family). Pablo's family got baptized in January - they are cousins of Norma's family. Pablo, 16 years old, was in Provo for a year on a program. Well he just got back, announced he had listened to the Elders down there, and at the baptism of Norma, we asked him how he felt (amazing) and asked him to be baptized too. Well, he accepted, taught him the basics, the Elder interviewing him was really impressed, and he was very excited. Sunday we had the baptism after church, and it was great. Pablo's dad baptized him, his recently baptized cousin Desarie (8) bore testimony of how she was feeling the spirit, and his other cousin Dyana (12) also bore testimony, and gave the talk on the Holy Ghost (and also had spoken in sacrament meeting). Pablo's mom spoke, saying she knew her remaining two children one day soon would accept the gospel (working on that). Also a Sergent from the Logan City Police Force spoke - knew the family really well, from unexplained past encounters... So cool, Spirit was pretty strong. Good stuff. It’s cool, this family got baptized, but come from a pretty rough background, have trouble staying out of trouble. They've been judged a lot, and left the church for a month or two, but decided to come back no matter what people may say. So proud of them. It’s so hard to stop something like gossip. I've found that even I do it sometimes, just talking about people. Something I want to stop completely. But not easy.

Wellllll, what else? Hmm, this might seem kinda trunky, but a lot of elders are signing up for colleges and such - just seeking advice, I think I mentioned my plan being come home, try to earn money out in VA until September to pay for college on my own, and then go out to BYU in the fall of 2011. I don’t know how the job situation is out there, or if that sounds good or not, but just thought I'd through that out there. My current college major is classified as "something interesting"...

Well, love you all, miss you guys. I know the gospel is true, and that if we follow it we'll be happy and saved. Seek the Savior, follow Him. BYE

elder thelin

ps we'll probably be back here later on, comp needs to email more
psp I just noticed the keyboard says the following: "some experts believe that the use of any keyboard may cause serious injury." Just wanted to thank you for risking your physical safety to communicate with me.
pspsp did you know that the capital of Brazil was designed in the shape of an airplane, with all the governmental buildings in the cockpit?
psj its already getting cold here, crazy...
ppi met an elder that served in spanish in the fredricksburg stake a few months back. I've met a lot of people who've served around home - met someone who was a district leader when Culpeper was just a branch, and he had visited it when it was in that bingo hall or whatever way back in the day. cool... what year did you serve your mission Dad? Just in case someone happened to have been there at the same time...


PS (later that night) What a sweet Pday, holy cow - so after doing shopping and eating some cheap tacos made of who knows what, we were walking out of the restaurant, and someone called my name... it was a lady named Lupe and her two kids - who we baptized in October! I hadnt heard ANYthing from them in almost a year, and I just remembered that I wasnt sure how converted they were, they were my first baptisms after being made a sernior and put in charge, and I had felt that I had done everything wrong. They remembered me, are happy, and are really active! And then just now, I got a random call - it was Sinesio, who was baptized in my first area, the man who we met by inspiration late one night walking 5 minutes before going home, and that wanted to be baptized in a river - well, after his baptism, I left the area, and I heard from someone that he left the church, lived with a woman and didnt want to hear anything from the church. I was really sad and worried about him, and have prayed for him often over the past year - well he just called me! He's going to visit us here in Logan on one of our Pdays, and is back at church, active and doing really well! Just thought I'd share, man, that makes me feel so much better about my mission - sometimes I've looked at things like that and felt I had something to do with their failures, but its cool to know that not everything that looks like a disaster has to stay that way! Very good stuff! Blessings pouring down!