On Monday, August 8, 2016 3:01 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Hello everyone,
I am glad to say that I am fully recovered from last week's hike- all scrapes and bumps have been taken care of. On Tuesday, we had our typical district meeting, and I gave a training on how we can improve our personal study. After a lot of thought of how the heck to do that, I thought of the Savior. I realized that studying Christ is the only way to go. See, if we study out his life we will find out how to better live and teach ourselves. So, seeing as the point of studies is to grow close to Christ, that is the way to do it. So, for the last little while I have had that focus. Later Tuesday afternoon, we in had a lesson with Shanay our recent convert, and we covered the word of wisdom. What I love about this lesson is it goes way beyond just not taking illegal drugs and not drinking alcohol. It is an overall guide to health. The Lord blessed us with bodies, and we ought to take care of them. I don't wish to lessen the importance of the no drugs and no drinking side of it, but I love how encompassing it is. After all, how could the spirit reside in an unclean temple (our bodies)?
Wednesday was a great day, and, of course, a sad one as well. August 3rd marked the passing of my little brother Cody. It's always a tough day for us, but we find peace and hope through the Atonement of Christ. He suffered and died so we can be forgiven of anything and so that we can live with him again. And, if we take the proper steps in this life by following his gospel, we can live with our families forever. The gospel, in my opinion, is the only thing that takes away the sting of death. What helped me a lot this day was we were super busy. We have a new investigator named Levi. He is 11, and he is living with a member family now, the Faalogos. We, this week, got through our first two lessons and have a baptismal date for him for the 27th of August. We also had a great lesson with Lance in Apple Valley. He is doing a great job at trying to understand the scriptures. We are reading from the beginning of the Book of Mormon with him, and he is eating it up. We just pray he can get work off at some point, so he can come out to church.
Thursday ended up being pretty interesting. We started off on a great note by having a lesson with Jordan. He is another Samoan investigator, and he said he would come to church and he enjoyed the lesson. Bummer was that he got called into work, so he was not able to attend on Sunday. We had a bit of a throw down lesson with Daniel, and we are giving him one last chance to read the Book of Mormon on his own. Then came the interesting part of the day. We visited a medically less active member named Sister Beard. The prospects of this lesson scared the living day lights out of Elder Ockey who has been there before. Apparently, she is a little creepy. So we went and began talking with her, and it went fairly well. The whole time she was showing us these interesting pictures she draws with liquid pens. We finally got around to sharing our spiritual thought and all was still a bit normal. Then she vented at how she hates the rule she can't hug her "boys" (the missionaries). Then, as we left, Elder Ockey shook her hand and while making solid eye contact she said in the most creepy and sincere voice "boy do I love you". It took every fiber in my being to not laugh out loud. Then as I left, she just called after me and said "your coming back right, you better come back". Creepiness level: high. She is harmless, but for the love of it! In the evening, we got a couple of referrals from the Hamilton family in the ward that we will work on this week.
Friday was weekly planning...and not too much else. Only thing really of note is that we got sushi with Elders Jarvis and Shumway for lunch. Saturday was a little better as we saw Levi again. It was a bit of a distracted lesson due to the Faalogo girls (13,9,6). They just had these off the wall questions, and we are there for Levi. So we suppressed that issue and did our best to focus in. We had buffet for dinner, and, well, I ate too much. It was a good meal to lead into fast Sunday. Church on Sunday was great until the First Councilor in the Bishopric, Brother Mauu, grabbed us and assigned us to give a talk in sacrament meeting for next week. We have the topic of missionary work, so I guess they chose the right guys.
This morning we played some basketball with the youth and then shopped and ate. I love you all so much. Have a fantastic week. Also, it is Cody's birthday tomorrow, so it will be great to celebrate that!!!!!
Mosiah, chapter 15, verses 7-8 is the scripture of the week. "Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father. And thus God breaketh the bands of death, having gained the victory over death; giving the Son power to make intercession for the children of men-"
Love,
Elder Thelander
Photos- me with homemade bread from my nana and one with a cute little puppy and my companion Ockey
