4th Floor, Last Door

On Monday, November 21, 2016 2:22 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Time is flying!! Just had to say that. I feel like I just got to Chino, and now we begin week three here. This transfer is weird because it is only 5 weeks long whereas it is usually 6, then next transfer will be 7 weeks to make up for the lost week. On Monday, we had our Family Home Evening at the Vega home, and we had a guy named Andrew come to join us. He is not a member of the church, and he loved the activity. It was really cool to see him there.

On Tuesday, we had just a normal day. The usual district meeting was cancelled due to our big zone conference on Thursday. So, we took a lot of the morning to plan for that. As the Zone leaders, we would have 2 hours of instruction time to fill for a portion of that meeting. After the planning, we met with the district leaders in our zone to discuss our plan for the zone and how we are going to be great. It went very well, and each person gave a lot of great insight. We have great district leaders which is a huge deal. Following the meeting, we went to teach Jose. A weird lesson it was... He was very jumpy with his words and just told us stories on how his buddies tell these crazy stories with lies in them to get girls. And he was like, I don't want to lie and make Jesus mad, but I want the girls too. We were like, Jose, you have no need to lie, just have them like you for you. So that was the topic for an hour, and all we got to share was the commandment to not bear false witness.

On Wednesday, I spent the day in the area of Elder Taylor. He is a newer missionary and is really awesome. He was about to go to smaller college to play football, but he made the hard choice to come on a mission. It is so cool to hear him tell of how worth it it has been so far for him. We did our studies and then stopped by to visit their investigator, David. He is an older man who is super funny and... drunk all the time. We had a good lesson with him, and then as usual there, we played ping-pong afterward. He has had no trouble in the past beating the elders, but I gave the old man no mercy. Toward the end of the game, he said he couldn't see and his balance was off so he quit. I give the man credit though, he is darn good for a man who was really drunk at 11 am. We then did some service at a Thrift shop which was a blast and off to dinner we went. We taught a lesson to the family afterward, and the 7 year old daughter gave the cutest answers to our question. We asked; Who can you turn to when you need help? Jesus!!!!! She answered. Then we asked; How? Prayer!!!!! She answered again. All this she said in only the innocence a child can have in front of her father who is not yet a member of the church. We could tell it touched him.

Thursday was the zone conference. It was awesome. We heard from President and Sister Taylor and some members of the Chino Stake that came as well. The messages were simple and to the point, and it really helped us keep focus. After those words we split off into our individual zones (there were 4 zones at the conference). That is when Elder Jeppsen and I took over. The first half we talked about our zone goals and different focuses we wanted to have. We determined as a zone to study out of the 12 week booklet which is given to you to use while being trained as a new missionary. It focuses on the fundamentals of missionary work and helps us come closer to Jesus Christ. We talked about obedience as well; the Lord will bless us when we keep his commandments. We then had lunch, and then we had more instruction. We heard some different trainings from members of the zone that went awesome. I then ended our portion of the meeting by showing a Mormon message entitled "The Will of God." I will put the link to the video at the bottom, watch it!! Even the best of us can be better, and that will include a little bit of being cut down by the Lord, but that is just so we can be stronger afterward. After the meeting we had a lesson with Kimberly, our investigator for the YSA ward, and it went really well. I believe she really felt the spirit.

Friday was a really good day as well. We set up for a piano recital at the church and then weekly planned for a while. We then had our dinner and afterward tried to see some people. We had no luck and had two and a half hours left in the day. We decided to knock some doors. But where would we do it? Elder Jeppsen said to me, "wanna see the big houses?!" No more discussion, we were on our way. We had to park down the road and then we walked on into this gated community with monstrosities for houses on the inside. So, we started knocking away. In the first hour and a half we only talked to two people who were nice but not ready as of yet to hear the message. We had a good time and were nearing the end of the night. We had knocked a ton of doors with no success. We made a round about and were nearing the other gate and there was one house on the corner. It was already 8:45 pm and time for us to go. I just looked at Elder Jeppsen and said "4th floor, last door?" quoting President Uchtdorf from this last General Conference. Elder Jeppsen responded, "It's always, the last door." We we walked on up and knocked away. A woman answered and asked us what we were doing out in the cold (it was like 55 degrees- Cali people are weak) and then her husband came on over and asked if we were the Mormon boys. We said yes to that and without hesitation they invited us in. We both said sweet letting our excitement show a little bit and went inside. They began by asking if we wanted some hot tea. We thanked them for offering but explained we don't drink that or coffee. He thought about it and said something to this effect, "Hmmm... Well caffeine raises your blood sugar, and fasting and exercise lower it, and Jesus fasted before his ministry so that must bring us closer to God. I'm not drinking anymore coffee or tea." That was a really cool start to our visit. We ended up talking for two hours with this couple. They asked us of our conversion stories, our faith, about the Book of Mormon and a lot of other things. They also related to us how their 17 year old son is in rehab in Utah (the Mormon connection) for heroin use. He is doing better, but we were able to testify of the healing power of Jesus Christ, and it brought them a lot of peace. They really liked our message and us and said they would read the Book of Mormon. They said they are home most nights and that we could come anytime. The Lord blessed us for knocking on that last door. On another note, we also obtained some couches on Friday due to an unplanned act of service. Yay for Friday!!!!

Saturday we did some more service and taught Jose a more normal lesson on the Book of Mormon reading from the book of Mosiah where a king gives a masterful address to his people before he dies. During that lesson Elder Jeppsen got his bag urinated on by a small dog- I about died laughing. It was not a lot, but the dog nailed the zipper rendering the bag unusable. Sunday was amazing as well since we had Jose and Kimberly come to church!!! That is a huge stop for Kimberly, and Jose is still doing amazing.

Scripture of the week is from 2 Nephi, chapter 27, verse 23, "For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

Love,

Elder Thelander

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/stories/mormon-messages/the-will-of-god-2