Flipping Mother Hot Sauce

On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 3:48 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:

This first week in Upland has been really fantastic. Elder Honeycutt and I have gotten along super well. It has been very nice to be able to talk the game of baseball with someone. He was a catcher as well, so that brotherhood is definitely there. So, beginning on Wednesday, we were able to meet with Maxine. She is a super old recent convert to the church, and she has loved coming to church. She lives with Japeht Lopez. He rents out 5 rooms in his home, and three of them are filled with people who have been baptized after moving in. Japeht is the best member missionary ever. He will spend at least 5 hours a day doing missionary work. He comes out with us a lot to do tracting. I have learned a lot from him in the best ways to do door approaches. He is very good at getting right into the restoration of the church, which is the unique message we have to share. I will take the things he has taught to me and use it the rest of my mission. In other news, Japeht is a little crazy. He makes his money by taking care of Maxine at his home. He is a nurse. Later that day, we saw some other less active members, and this is where my email title comes in. I will preface this by saying I hate spicy foods. So, Brother Pettit loves giving the missionaries food, and he gave me an unassuming hot dog. I took a bite, and what ensued was the intense burning of my mouth. I felt my airways close for a time. Then when I tried to talk, the burning was so intense that I was literally mute for a half hour. I did recover, thankfully.

Thursday was a day that a couple of miracles occurred. Before I move on, I want to talk about miracles. They occur around us every single day- we just fail to recognize them. Thursday, I noticed a couple of them. The Lord works in very mysterious ways. We would usually meet with Brother Cook on this day, but he was sick, so he had to cancel. We had put aside a good chunk of time to meet with him, so we had a good chunk of time then available. We then went to visit a potential investigator we have been trying to meet with. He lives with a less active member, and we knocked on the door 3 times and were about to leave when the door finally opened. It was Rose the less active member. She has had the flu bad for a couple of days, and promptly requested a blessing. We gave her that blessing, and then she told us she has not eaten in a while, so we returned later to give her some soup. It was the hand of the Lord that led us to Rose. If Brother Cook hadn't cancelled, Rose would have gone without comfort. Miracle two is that we actually had a lesson with Kevin. He lives with Japhet and has been very non-committal to missionaries in the past. This time he actually was around for his lesson. We taught him about repentance, and he took to it well and committed to us to come to church. Another miracle is that he actually came!!! He was there for sacrament meeting and loved the spirit he felt there.

Friday, we had tracting time with Japhet. We spent three or so hours on the doors and were lucky to come across some people ready to hear the gospel. Both of them we taught the restoration to, and both wanted to meet with us again. So for the week we found 3 new investigators to teach! It was really amazing. We saw the fruits of our hard work for sure. Our P-Day was really good as well. We had lunch with a member, did our shopping, and then had a great zone activity. The zone is full of really fun people, and I am looking forward to being here with this group.

Scripture of the week is found in Alma chapter 34 verse 38 "That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which He doth bestow upon you."

I love you all so very much. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Thelander

Photo above is me with Bill Jensen.

Photo below is me with the Rosado Family.