Elder Dube

On Monday, September 19, 2016 5:23 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:

If it weren't for an amazing meeting on Friday, this week would have not been the best. It was just a little slow. Not much we could have done more, but I'm sure that this next week here will be fantastic. On Tuesday, we had a very fun district meeting. Our district leader, Elder Cloud, is a funny guy- kind of goes by the beat of his own drum. We made the best of that, and then we tried to stop by to visit a lot of people with no success. After a fantastic dinner, we went on splits with a member of the ward, Fuli Mau'u. We tried to visit a family he is responsible to visit once a month only to find they have moved away. We met though the family that moved in, and they happened to be members of our church. They invited us in, and we found that they have 7 or so kids, the oldest of which is like 10. Some of their kids are not baptized, and they could be, so we let some elders in that area know and they will begin teaching them. It's pretty amazing how the Lord leads you to where He needs you.

On Wednesday, we spent the morning deep cleaning the house. It was not that bad at all, but we were told that Elder Dube, of the Quorum of the Seventy (this is a group of leaders who help watch over the church if you're wondering what a quorum of the seventy is...), might check out some missionary houses while he was here, so we wanted to make ours shine. He didn't come to our house, but now it is extra clean and nice. We saw Brother Enos in the afternoon, and he was in pretty bad health. His back just kills him. But, after the lesson we shared on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, he was visibly in a better place. Our dinner was with the Savea family. They have a house full of crazy kids. They were all wrangled up stairs, and we miraculously ate in peace.

On Thursday, we started off our day with a visit to Sister Ingram. Things are coming together nicely for them right now. It is so cool to see Sister Ingram realize how the Lord is blessing her life. She knows that the Lord will answer her prayer, and she knows it will be in His timing. And that is so true, the Lord knows us perfectly and can because of that, He will give us perfect advice at the perfect time. In the evening, we had splits with a couple of members of the ward, Brothers Hill and Sagapolu. Both were very effective. With Bro Hill, we visited a family he met earlier that week. They live in very hard and humble circumstances. They reside in a little RV that has no water and electricity. We were able to help them out and get them a couple cases of water. The wife of Mike the Samoan is Justina, and she wants to take the lessons, so we will see her on Wednesday. With Bro Sagapolu we visited the Tualia family to check in on them after their car wreck. The Lord is good and the worst injury was a fractured finger. The rest of the family literally has no bumps or bruises. They enjoyed our message on Christlike Love.

Friday was the coolest day ever. Elder Dube from the Quorum of the Seventy came to visit our mission. He is the most peppy guy you will ever meet from Zimbabwe. He has a really cool accent and has a deep love for Jesus Christ and his Gospel. While there we covered a lot of cool things- which things I will now sum up for ya, just gotta grab my notes sheet real quick. Okay, here we go. He had a really cool experience where he heard a voice tell him that his service is not about him, it is about me (The Lord). That sums up missionary work pretty well right there. Love is the essence of the gospel. He reminded us to remember our potential as a son or daughter of God. He also really hit on the teaching model we are to use. TTIPF- Teach, Testify, Invite, Promise Blessings, and Follow-Up. There are a ton of other things, but the biggest thing I will take away from the meeting is how I felt during it. I felt the spirit of the Lord, and I know the work I do is amazing and that the church I do it for is the True Restored Church of Jesus Christ again on the earth. During the meeting, myself, Elders Wilding and Guerra and Sister Delreu sang an amazing musical number.

Saturday, I was on Exchanges with Elder Cloud, and we did a lot of service. We did some set up for a walk for some disease at a baseball stadium which made me miss baseball more than anything (see picture I call contemplating life). Then we did some service for the relief effort for the Blue Cut Fire. We were at a site of a burned down home clearing things off the foundation and clearing out scrap metal. It was cool to help out people in need, and at the same time there were tons of questions that came my way about the church, and I was able to tell them about my service as a missionary.

Sunday was a great day of church. In the evening I called President Taylor to talk about the service project in the mountains as it will happen again next weekend. By the end of the call, I received permission to have the whole high desert go to the project if they are able. That could be 80 plus missionaries over Friday and Saturday coming to help!

Scripture of the week is from 3 Nephi, chapter 12, verses 43-44, "And behold it is written also, that thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy; But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you;"

Love you all so much. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Thelander

photos- contemplating life at the baseball stadium and my mission with Elder Dube