I slept through all the fireworks

Another week down... another transfer down... another companion down. The 6 weeks have passed, and a new companion has arrived. Elder Roy is my new companion. He is a wonderful sterling young elder from Nicaragua. The funny thing is that he is RETURNING to his first area. So this is going to be interesting. At least I won’t need to train him in the area. He is a fluent Spanish speaker... with little English understanding. I’d put him at about 5 foot, 110 pounds. Dark skin, black hair, great smile... I feel awkward now. I honestly don't know anything about him... He seems great, so I’ll give you more details about him next week.

This past week was... blah. Everyone was traveling for the vacations and those who stuck around, wanted to spend time with the family that came to visit them. It was rather a slow week for us. Full of hypothesizes about transfers and rain and walking and parties. The end was really sad... it is always so sad to see people leave an area. The investigators always cry and don't understand. The members understand and try to tough it out. I’ll admit it is nothing like home. I don't remember any of the elders that passed through our ward. But everyone seems to remember us... photos are taken and tears are shared... It’s just a sad day. I’ll miss Elder Mortensen.

Well, something cool I wanted to share that just happened to me. I’ve always wanted to give The Book of Mormon to someone while they were reading another book. Today on the train I saw a woman reading a book and just knew it was my opportunity. So I sat down next to her and began to chat. She was reading the first Twilight book. It was too perfect. I explained how it was written in my home city, by a Mormon... I asked her why she was reading it and she said that her friend suggested it. I asked her if she would read a book if I suggested it and she happily agreed. I pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon and gave it to her. I taught her a little bit about it and took down her information. I’ll be sending some elders to her house tonight. It is so wonderful to see the power God has. He turned my righteous desire into a wonderful experience.

This Saturday we did service for some orphanages. We put in a new floor so that they could sleep in more than one room. We also fixed the fence outside so that strange things don’t come in at night. It was fun to help them out. There were a lot of really cute little kids. The service was planned by our Zone Leaders... but due to weather and other things, it got delayed. Everyone was kind of cold hearted toward the activity when we left, but when we got there and saw the kids our hearts melted and we began to work. We got almost everything done in about an hour because of our desire to work and get the job done. We didn’t teach anything... we didn’t even wear ties... but it was good to serve the Lord in that way for a morning.

I have new goals for this year and new hopes. I’ve talked to my friends and connections and The Lord. It looks like I’ll be coming home in the first week of September. I’m sorry if you wanted me to come home earlier, but it looks to me like the Lord has other plans. I’m excited. I know I’ll really need you all to keep me excited too. I’m so grateful for all the prayers that I get from you all and support in various ways. I’m doing very well and my sickness is basically all gone. I’m excited and ready to go.

I hope that all of you take this opportunity to put goals down for the year. I never understood why we put goals down after new years. Then I realized that it is the best time of year, because we are all still focused on others after the Christmas Season. Now would be a great time for you all to get some goals down on paper and look at your lives. I know personally that it helps.

I love you all and keep you constantly in my thoughts and prayers.

Elder Steinkuhler

PS I slept through all the fireworks... :D