First Christmas...Ever

On Monday, December 5, 2016 1:28 PM, Dustin Thelander <dustin.thelander@myldsmail.net> wrote:

What is up everyone? I really can't fathom that we are currently in the month of December. On Monday night, we had a dinner at this really cool little pizza place then we went to the Zavalas for Family Home Evening. I forget his name, but this guy who was giving the lesson is currently a SWAT team sniper, and he was talking about that process. The most minor error in calculations can mean complete failure. He connected this to the gospel by saying that when we make a little mistake, if not corrected, it can lead to pretty bad things. He then told a really cool story on how the Holy Ghost and powers beyond his own kept him safe in a pretty bad situation. A routine traffic stop turned into possible homicide, and he brought the guy out of the car and sat him down. He had used both pairs of his handcuffs earlier in the day and had no way to keep him down. At one point the guy stood up and approached him. He then told him to "sit down". He felt at that moment the spirit of the Lord in his voice and this man just backed up and sat down. Right after that a fellow officer showed up, and it happened to be Brother Vega, another member of the church. Brother Vega felt the spirit tell him to get to his friends location as soon as possible. It was a really cool story.

Tuesday turned out to be pretty uneventful. District meetings were awesome- for sure the highlight of the day.

On Wednesday, I was on exchanges in my area with Elder Schenk, a missionary I have known for a long time. He is really awesome and a stud missionary. We did service in the morning for an organization called Let it Be. They run events to raise money to take care of families whose children are suffering from a terminal illness- most of them having leukemia. We helped them move stuff around, sort items, clean, and talk to the staff. They really love us, and I just love doing service for people who help others so much. Later in the evening, we taught Paul and Paula another lesson. This one was on the Plan of Salvation, or plan of happiness. It went really well. What stood out to them the most was the fact that everyone that has lived and will live on this earth will have the chance to accept the gospel in the spirit world. This lesson contains information that is really new to a lot of people, so they of course had some questions. The spirit did a great job of teaching them, and they accepted what we said. I just love this plan. It provides so much hope. I don't think a loving God would not give all of His children a chance. Think of those billions of people that live in China who don't even know the words Jesus Christ! I would think that they should be given a chance as well, and they will! That is amazing. Thursday was supposed to be some training and meetings up in Rancho Cucamonga, but President Taylor had the flu really bad as did some other Elders that were supposed to be there, so they cancelled it. Well, that left us with 6 unplanned hours. But, we caught a break. We picked up some service for a guy in our ward. He is opening an office and asked for our help to paint it. So we spent a good while over there. I had the job of doing the top of the wall right by the ceiling. I did a pretty dang good job if I say so myself. After that painting fun, we headed off to dinner, and it was with our Bishop. He is really cool and works for Northrup Grumman. I asked him what he does, he then said, I can't tell you anything. He could literally be sentenced to death if he spills info. He did say though that if someone wants to go to war against us, we have some fun toys no one has heard of :). After that meeting we had a lesson with Sister Bean. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and how important it is to her. She told us of some hard moments in her life, and we were able to testify that all can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate this month.

Friday we picked up trash as service on the side of the road, and then we took the car into Pep Boys for some new tires and a check up. It took like 3 hours. We got some lunch and got back, did some planning there and then we got the car back. Plot twist, the guy got our car finished and then took lunch, without telling us the car was done. Now, usually in this situation I am up at the desk every 15 min to check on it, but Pep Boys is so notoriously slow that I just thought this was normal. So, it could have been two hours, but our man Marco took lunch. After our lento car stop we tried by Jose. He was home, and we had a really good meeting with him. He has been reading the Book of Mormon!!! He read 20 chapters in the last couple of weeks. He retains information crazy well as well.

Saturday I spent the day with Elder Liu, a Mandarin speaking missionary from mainland China. He is really funny. Elder Liu is from mainland China, and we helped a family set up for Christmas. He has never seen a Christmas tree or Christmas lights. He was taking a bunch of pictures and there was what can only be described as pure joy on his face. He is literally experiencing his first Christmas....ever! Later, we attended a baptism for some elders in our zone which was amazing. This family came from Utah 5 weeks ago, referred themselves and are now baptized. Such a cool story, the Lord for sure leads his children in the right direction when they are ready. Our investigator, Kimberly, came to the baptism. I asked her afterward if she could see herself in the font someday, and she said that she could, once she believes it to be true. That was really cool to hear, and she said that she would read the Book of Mormon to find out (which is what everyone needs to do to find out if the church is true).

Sunday was great as well. Church was great in both wards, and in the evening we attended the Christmas Devotional. It was really great to hear from each speaker. I just loved the references to the prophesies of the birth of Christ. What I find cool as well is that those same prophets prophesied of our day as well. We can look to them and learn from them to help us with day to day matters. Jose was at church which was great. Paul and Paula couldn't make it again. Pray that they can make it to church next week! I love you all so much!!!

Scripture of the Week is from Mosiah, chapter 26, verse 30, "Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me."

Love,

Elder Thelander