Ineffective Crappy Poop Pick-Up

On Monday, September 21, 2015 1:09 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:

This week was totally full of service. By full, I mean we did service Tuesday through Saturday. The first came at the home of Bill Jenson. He is the one who is making sure the local airport is in good hands, and that requires lots of paperwork to be sent to the government. He did most of this, but then got news that a whole new set of papers would need to be copied for an American law agency. So we got to copying again and it really helped him out. We got a great dinner out of it on our only day without a signed up dinner (people invite the missionaries for dinner in their homes most nights). Then Wednesday we got to do service at the local zoo. It is small but has some pretty famous animals. Aslan from Narnia, like the actual lion from the movie is enjoying retirement at the Hesperia Zoo. They have the Meow-Mix cat there as well. We got there, and they has some jobs for us to do, and Elder Coburn and I got to go to the Deer pen. The deer were nice, but these particular deer pooped quite a bit. The pen has a dirt floor, so we would rake up this poop and pick up more dirt than anything else. We spent 3 hours in there picking up, and when we got done it seemed as if we did no work at all. It was a bit depressing. The deer won this fight, and one of them took a little bit of fabric from Elder Coburns shorts- haha. The next day we did service at a local farm called Squash for Friends. It is non-profit and is run completely by volunteers. This service is done by the zone every week, and this week our job was to uproot everything that was dead to prepare for the next round of crop. We moved tons of buckets of dirt and got down and dirty in weeding. It was good, but the two days put a good bit of sun on my face. Friday service just kind of sprung upon us. We got to help over at a local food bank of sorts. We carried lots of boxes and then got together care packages full of food for families. This only happens once a month, so the people were very thankful for what we were doing for them. There was a couple of other sets of missionaries there, but the rest were non-members. It was really good to talk to them about what I am doing on my mission. Who knows- maybe that will lead to something. Saturday was looking like no service was going to happen. We got finished up with a lesson and while walking back to our bikes, we saw a woman doing some yard work. We asked if we could help, and she said well of course. We dug a little trench to lay some bricks into to make a liner to a path to her door. She had a student of hers there helping, and we got to talk with him about what we are doing. We were invited back to do some work there again next week.

We have had a couple of more great lessons with the Campbells this week. The first was on the 10 commandments, which is usually pretty typical and easy. Pam was very receptive and happy to hear the message. Larry though had about a million questions about every commandment. Some were easy to answer, but some were darn near impossible. We did the best we could, but probably left some unanswered questions. Overall, after the lesson, he told us we did a great job explaining everything. He keeps saying that if he wants to do this he want to go full out and be sure. I totally respect that. The next lesson is a tough one as well. The law of Chasity. We expected some questions out of Larry again, but he agreed with everything, and we had extra time. We watched a talk by the Prophet Thomas S. Monson. It was fantastic, and the spirit was super strong there. They weren't at church again, probably due to Larry's back issues. We need them to come so please pray for them.

The next set of lessons was with Jheri and Amy Davis. They are super great, and their niece and nephews are looking solid for baptism as well. They ask really good questions and have been to church the last 2 weeks. They totally eat up all of the things that they are taught, and it is really impressive how committed to the church they already are. They are on date, as well as Pam for October 17th. The other elders in the ward have two people on date for that day as well. That is shaping up to be a really special day. Lots of things need to work out, but they can and will happen. I have faith that we can teach them, and that they will stay solid to their commitments. In other news, we have had some visits with Juan and Jocelyn. They are recent converts, and they are as solid as can be. They have not missed a day of church since baptism. Jocelyn is in the primary, and shared a scripture in front of the whole group, and next week gets to share her testimony. She doesn't really know how to do this, but we will help her and she will be great.

One of my favorite people here is Cole. He got baptized three weeks ago and his girlfriend in the ward had a lot to do with that. He investigated for 11 months and was waiting on a spiritual moment. He finally got it and the next week was baptized. Now he is receiving the priesthood next week, and will go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead in two weeks. That really is the end goal. People going to the temple is so special, it really is the Lord's house where the spirit can be felt strongest.

We Elders in the Arrowhead ward have a great idea. We have taken everybody's birthdays down, and on that day we will come to their house, sing happy birthday, and give them a card. This is great to boost the ward's trust in us, and let's them know we really care about them. This next week should be really good, and I look forward to working hard to make great things happen.

I love you all so much. I love you all more than you know. Have a great week!

Elder Thelander