I’m going to burn 90%

Well, this has been a rather long week. I'm writing you all on Tuesday because today is when we took our P-Day. We went to the temple for the last time today. The temple here in Argentina will be going under serious changes... so it will be closing down for 2 years... in October. So we went as a Zone and will probably not be returning. I did my last session in Spanish for a very long time. Very sad, but a lovely experience. My old companion Elder Kushlan leaned over to me as we were finishing up and said, "The next time you`ll be in the Lord`s house you`ll be at home". Scary thought!


This last week was a crazy mess of events. I did exchanges for the first time with my district. We baptized 2!!!! I’ve been trying to send you photos of these people, but it is really hard. Computers here don't run the same. But trust me, we baptized the 2 cutest little girls in history. We reactivated the family and then baptized the little girls that were too young to get baptized with the family. It was a fight though. A million and one top things that can go bad in a missionary week... went down. But it was fun, and a challenge. We ended up baptizing the girls and Elders Jones and Coats baptized a young man all on Saturday. Right after the baptism we gave them the Holy Ghost because the next day was Stake Conference. It is always an interesting experience telling someone: "Receive the Holy Ghost". But I’ll admit, I love using the Priesthood.

So, here are some cool things about my new calling as district leader: I ran my first district meeting yesterday. That was interesting. I planned it all out and then we did it. It was pretty straight forward... definitely time to improve. We also did exchanges. That was fun. I went to another area and we found 5 people and took out a baptismal goal. I’d say it was successful. Not to mention I got to spend some time getting to know my district. I went on exchanges with an American... so we talked English the entire time we were in the apartment. Really weird after spending 6 months only speaking Spanish in the apartment. We quoted Brian Regan to celebrate our new found English freedom.

We had Zone Conference this week. The President talked about the 12 tribes of Israel and how we need to separate the wheat from the tariffs. I always love listening to President Asay, he is simply amazing. There is no way you can know how amazing mission presidents are without meeting with them. They are simply amazing. We now have the goal to baptize EVERY WEEK, and find at least 10 new investigators every week. All of you ex-missionaries might understand how hard those two things are... but hey, it`s happening. We`ve baptized 2 weeks in a row... and not just one person, lots.

Um, there is not a whole lot of cool new stuff to report on. I explained to my dearly Momas this, but I’ll tell you all the same. Most of the stories I have I can’t share now. They all include private information that I don't feel comfortable sharing to the Internet world. Needless to say, wonderful people are making breathtaking leaps and bounds of faith. I love watching it happen... but you`ll all just have to wait about a year to hear the best stories.

Good news: I bought new garments at the temple today... I’ve decided that before I go home I’m going to burn 90% of my clothing because it is just not worth the effort of bringing it home.

Well, I hope all is well. I know lots of things are going on that I don’t know about... and even though I don’t know what they are... I hope they end well. I’d like to think that I’m still going strong. I feel good, I feel Great... I feel WONDERFUL. Baby steps, ya know.

All my love,
Elder T. Steinkuhler

PS It`s hot again. I’ll have blond hair in no time.