It works like a charm.

Well, this week seems to have gone by slowly. So much happened, but at the same time not much at all. First of all, a few pieces of news:

The "pouch" system does not long come to Argentina. So all DearElder letters or letters sent to me via Utah will no longer get to me. It seems to be a problems for the church and with the whole raising the bar thing... we are trying to cut down on ineffective use of missionary time. Which is great... but means we won’t be writing as much as before.... but eh, whatever.

I’m still training Elder Gallardo. He is an interesting fellow and I found training a real trial at first. But the majority of the corners in our relationship have been rubbed out and we are doing fine. We have been working really hard here in Villa Zula. I don’t have any fun stories this week, so you`ll just have to settle for something more spiritual.

I’ve been trying out a few new techniques we learned from Elder Aidukitis. One of them is basically just walking into the person’s house when doing contacts. It works like a charm. We do a contact and then tell them we are just going to explain it and walk in. They are normally just like.... um...um... okay. And we find people. This is really good because I feel like I’ve talked to almost everyone.

We also took out two more baptismal dates this week. We taught this girl I’ve been teaching since I got here. She and her boyfriend finally agreed to a set day to be baptized. It was a huge experience for me. And I’m sure that when she gets baptized... it will be the best day of my mission.

We also taught this lady who started off the appointment telling us, "look, I don’t plan on going to your church or being baptized. I’ve already been baptized and I’m Catholic". I explained to her the Holy Ghost and she felt the power of my words. I testified of how I feel the Spirit EVERY DAY. How it puts Spanish words in my mouth that I’ve never learned. How it helps us find and teach. At the end of the lesson you could see the change in her countenance... She found the desire to pray and receive an answer. We`ll see. I love teaching like that.

I also had a few "drop the cane" appointments. Those are great. It really was an amazing week, especially since we doubled the attendance in sacrament this week from a few months ago. And we re-activated a 17 year old kid... who started visiting members because of what we taught him. It was amazing.

That and so many more things... that I don’t have time to explain. Just know it was amazing.

I hear Jamo and Becca tied the knot. Congrats. I hope everyone else is doing well... know I’m great.

Love,
Elder Steinkuhler

PS I’ll admit, I’m tired of the cold.