Cliff Diving

On Monday, August 1, 2016 6:10 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Okay, so this week was pretty sweet. Nothing really to report for Monday. On Tuesday, we had our weekly District meeting, and that went well. We are talking a lot right now about the importance of time management. I really like the example that Preach my Gospel (our missionary handbook) gives. Two fisherman go out and are away from the apartment for 12 hours each. One is shocked he didn't have as much success as the other. Come to find out the more successful fisherman (missionary) had his line in the water for 10 of those hours while the other only had his line in for 3. It's great to be out all day, but it is how you use that time that counts. How long is your line in the water each day? Later, we had a lesson with Lance, and that went quite well. With him we are reading from the Book of Mormon from the beginning. He wants to come to church, but he has work. He was baptized a long time ago, but his gospel knowledge is low. Then we saw the Salveas in the evening. Sister Salvea's husband is gone for months at a time for work, so she really appreciates us coming by and sharing uplifting messages. We will see them tonight for family home evening.

Wednesday ended up being a little lame, but we had a great lesson with the Tago family (the g in samoan is pronounced ga but with a n sound at the beginning). She is struggling with smoking and wants to quit. So we had a real talk with her, and she laid it out on the table for us as well. I think we have a great base as to how we should move forward. Thursday, we lifted weights with Cencere Jackson and taught a lesson about our baptismal covenant. In our sacrament prayer, the things we promise to do for God are listed and the promise he makes to us is also listed. I feel a great source of strength from knowing I can have His spirit with me always if I live worthily. We then had a Plan of Salvation lesson with Joseph. He really enjoyed it, and I felt like I taught solo- haha. At one point, I looked over and Elder Ockey was on our phone and so was the member that we brought with us. It all ended well, but for that moment I was alone.

Friday was alright. The coolest part of Friday was fasting for the District. We are trying to become more united in the work and looking for miracles to occur (they happen all the time :). We weekly planned and saw Lance again in Apple Valley. When we broke the fast we went to this place called Apollo Burger. We happened to go on a day where they offered a special burger called the Luther. It consists of two artery clogging Krispy Kream donuts with two huge juicy tender patties of mean in between. Needless to say, my hunger was stopped. (a photo is below)

Saturday was magical!!!!! I was in my area on exchanges with Elder Butcher. Yes, that same Elder Butcher who was my MTC companion. It was a great reunion. We spent the day in North Adelanto and got work done. We began with a lesson with Timothy. He loved our lesson on the restoration and was still excited to come to church. Then we taught Sister Ingram, the Enos family, and brother Capps back to back. They are all less-active members, and all but the Enos family came to church on Sunday!!! The Enos' can't due to medical limitations. We also found three new investigators. One was with Brother Capps, and he came to church, Larry. The other two are Robert and William. A couple of cool guys who want to learn more and get their lives more on track. We ate dinner at Denny's because for like the first time in forever, the members didn't come through for us because there was a ward beach trip. Being with Elder Butcher was great- he has made leaps and bounds since the MTC. Sunday was church and finding a new investigator in the evening. Levi is his name, and he lives with the Faalogo family. He was just adopted as both of his parents have passed away. He is only 12. Really sad situation, but he is honestly in much better living conditions and has great grandparents to take care of him. He has not been baptized, so we have been told to begin teaching him. Today we went on a sweet hike in Wrightwood. Same hike as a couple weeks ago, but we spent like 5 min in the mine and explored a little bit. It was myself, Elder Shumway, Ockey, and Weidel. We scaled shier rock cliffs, and to get back down basically baseball slid down the side of the mountain. It was a blast. A super successful day.

Scripture of the week is from Alma, chapter 28, verse 12, "While many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in the hope, and even know, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell at the right hand of God, in a state of never ending happiness."

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

Love,

Elder Thelander

photos- donut burger and hike photos