Letter from Kelson - Week #30 - WHOO WHOO THANKSGIVING!!!

Good Morning From Sunny California!!!!

It is Thanksgiving!!!! Can't you smell the turkey?! Don't you hear Christmas peaking its head around the nearest corner? Don't you just wish that the radio stations and the people of this Country could celebrate one holiday at a time?...hehe

Sorry I had to vent because I hate it when as soon as Halloween is over, the Christmas candy and decorations are placed in the Halloween candy and decorations spot and Everyone just forgets that Turkey day is in between those two!!! People don't even celebrate the underground holiday of Thanksgiving...Black Friday before Christmas is celebrated...Where are my Black Friday Tunes, Where are my Turkey days of Thanksgiving...Where is the love for the Indians who saved us poor white people back when we thought that if we wished hard enough we would have lived...? 

Thank you for reading my rant on the whole one holiday at a time...I hoped you learned something and will forever make the same pact that my companion and I made...no Christmas until after Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a tradition called the "Turkey Bowl". We get up pretty early on Thanksgiving morning and play two-hand touch Football. I am telling you of this tradition because I participated this year. My team won, by the way, but that is beside the point. We get together to play football and during our football this morning we had some of the best plays imaginable. There were diving catches, sliding saves of the ball, QB sacks, and we even had a few interceptions. Everything a football game needed and then some. It was the "then some" that got us into trouble. It has been raining all week and because of all the rain the ground is super saturated with water...(Chemistry Lesson: Water mixed with dirt creates MUD!!) There was mud everywhere, and the ground was so slick that it helped us to make those diving catches (Not on purpose), or those sliding saves (again not on purpose), or to get the QB all covered in mud through a good sack (That was on purpose). All in all it was the best turkey bowl I have ever had...because my ward back home was either too small or wanted to have the game too early, plus I wasn't a missionary then...hehe

Now on to the good part of this whole letter. THE WORK!!! We are seeing wonderful things up here in El Dorado hills. My companion and I are doing awesome. We are completely in sync and because of that we have 4 people getting baptized in December. Michael Z. and Austin McD. on the 1st, and Pat and Pina McD. on the 15th. These people were very well prepared by the Lord though different influences in their lives, and so we just had to come in and teach them the lessons. As a missionary I am noticing that if I just step back and keep myself ready for these kind of people, plus go out put forth the effort to find new people, the Lord will take my sacrifice of time and bless me with an abundance of success. This success isn't without effort though. I invited the McD's like 6 times to be baptized before they finally said "Yes."  Michael was just a shoe in though, very well prepared though his family.

That is how things are playing out in California and I am loving every minute of my work here. For those who are reading this I am sorry it took until Thanksgiving to write, but this was my P-Day this week. I had to work though Monday and I must say this was the hardest week yet. Those who haven't served a mission don't realize how vital the P-Day is. I felt almost like a Zombie walking around Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because I didn't have that day off to relax and enjoy my time not going out all day. This work is very hard and taxing on the body and mind. It was not meant for the weak and fragile...Dang it, That describes me to a "T."  I can just tell you that by the time I return I will be broken...house broken that is...hehe.

I know this is kind of short and you all expected more out of me other than this small letter, but I have told you all about what I have been doing and it just doesn't seem to need to take up more room.

This Holiday Season I would ask of all my readers to please take a step back and remember the true meanings of this season. Remember that we all have things to be thankful for and we all have been blesses by the Saviour of the World, Jesus Christ. As we approach Christmas and think about what the special deep significance this great day has to our individual lives I pray that we will be swept up in the Spirit of Christ and not the Spirit of "buy more."  I love receiving gifts, and getting cool new things, but the one thing I love more is my Saviour. Thus my Missionary Service.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday and remember that Thanksgiving needs to be celebrated first before we start the Christmasy stuff...hehe

In the Service of Almighty God,

Elder Wheeler

P.s. Mom I love you remember...Please make sure I don't make a fool of myself with all of my typos...hehe