possessed microwave and a big snake

On Monday, August 31, 2015 12:58 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:

So the first day of this week was my birthday!! I'm 19 now, crazy. Anyway, Price Jarman said it best "these will be the two most humble birthdays of your life, enjoy them". It is so true, we went about the day as any typical day would go. The one plus is I treated my comps to dinner at Olive Garden, and it was super good. This day had one huge and totally awesome miracle. Our investigator, Jorge, has not only committed to baptism, he even committed to a date of the 13th of September. That is right around the corner, and he is totally ready. Ever since he read and prayed about The Book of Mormon, he has been totally solid in lessons and is getting a ton out of church. It really is a testimony builder to me of the power of The Book of Mormon, and the truths it reveals.

Brother Fraijo is a miracle in and of himself. Four weeks ago, he was totally inactive, and now he has been to four straight weeks of church, has a calling, and is being a fantastic member missionary. Not too many people can say that they share the Gospel with people like Brother Fraijo does. He does it right, too. He doesn't stuff gospel information down people's throats, he is simply kind to people. He knows his neighbors and they know he is LDS, other than that, he is just kind. When those neighbors are ready they will ask the kind of questions that the missionaries can answer- when they are ready. He is a great example to me of patience and being totally committed to learn. During his latest lesson with us, the TV was left of for his daughter to watch and was literally right in front of us. It was totally distracting because it was the equivalent to America's Funniest Home Videos. But, Elder Jennings and I paid almost no attention to it and made sure Brother Fraijo knew we were there for him. The lesson was amazing and the spirit was so strong. I once again left his home feeling totally happy, incredible what the spirit can bring. We need to work on Elder Brown who watched the TV the whole time- haha.

We finally got back in touch with Cece, so that is a huge relief. She had a rough week, but we got her back on the right track. We simply talked with her for a while, addressing her concerns, and by some miracle she was totally wiling to come back to church again and try to be better (she smoked up a chimney this week). She was at church, ALL THREE HOURS, and sent us the coolest text afterward. She just said "I have had a wonderful day, thank you". She even committed to a baptismal date in late September. It will be very difficult for her to do, but though fasting and prayer we can get her to the waters of baptism.

Saturday was really fun because I was on exchanges with our district leader, Elder Porter. Exchanges occur throughout a six week time frame between transfers, and I was last to go from my companionship. How it works is that I spend the day with the district leader in his area, and then we just go about a day of missionary work. The purpose is for the district leader to get a feel for how the missionary is doing. We had a really good day together, and I finally got to ride around on a bike. It was not too bad, except for my now weak legs getting the rust off. But, the worst part was it got to be about 106 degrees during the day. We were on bike from 2-5 pm.... the heat of the day. The good thing is that people, regardless of religion, are very generous with giving out water. The day was supposed to be filled with lessons, but all cancelled or were not home. The end of the day was really cool though. We got to visit a less active member family, the Grumble's. He hasn't been to church for a while after being offended, but he is a sweet guy. He is a county sheriff in Orange county. He also has a massive collection of snakes and other reptiles. His prized possession is his 13 foot long Boa Constrictor. He would have let me hold it, but the next day was feeding day, so with that large of a snake he takes no chances. Can't say I blame him, but it would have been cool to hold.

Now about the possessed microwave... We were just sitting at breakfast when the microwave went beeping all crazy and said the board shorted. It was annoying so we hit the clear button and it shut up. Then we sat down and the thing goes beep, and starts running for a 1 min cycle. Like it actually turned on. So we would shut it off and it would do it again. We ended un-plugging it, and are still waiting for a fix. Crazy. So now we are three guys trying to function without our primary source of cooking food...

Sunday was another wonderful 8 hours of church, and the talks in both sacrament meetings were awesome. My favorite part is how much they focused on the Savior and His words. They were simple, powerful, and spiritual. The time has been flying out here. I am quite literally in a state of shock that it is week 6. This is transfer week, and I know being in a trio that something will likely change, and I am dreading it. I love the way it is now. There is another huge group of missionaries coming in next Monday, so our trio will probably be split so one can go train a new missionary. People say the time goes faster after year one, and if that is true I'm in for a super fast mission. Guess that means I better get to work and make the best of the time that I have. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Thelander

DInner at a family's home in Ontario