I’ve felt very much like a father

I'm super tired. We woke up at 5 this morning to get into the city early and get in line to take out the marriage papers for a few investigators. On the 12th of March they will be married and the 13th they will be baptized!!!! I hope I'm still around. Yesterday their youngest son came up to me in sacrament meeting and asked me if I would accompany him. I asked him where he was going and he pointed at the pulpit to give his testimony. This young, precious child is 6 years old and has never borne his testimony. So I smiled and went with him. He said the church was true and then talked about his parents a bit. It was cute. I then gave my testimony and felt like a father figure. I shared a testimony of the pure in heart and the blessings that come from them, especially children. This week and last I’ve felt very much like a father. All of the young children I know act as if I'm their father. Hmm... let me explain.

Most families here are not very organized and/or separated. So when we teach, we act a lot like a caring father... or uncle or whatever. So a lot of the kids look up to us like that. It also helps that everyone thinks I'm like 30 (My baby face is not working for me anymore). Last week at church one of the girls I baptized came to church with a lip piercing. She couldn't even look at me. When we went over to her house she was so ashamed that she took it out. She even said I was acting like a father. Life is weird as a missionary. The weirdest things happen and the weirdest thoughts go through your mind.

I’d say that my major joys from this week are that this girl took her piercing out, the couple took out all the paperwork to get married, another couple stopped smoking and one of our investigators stopped gambling to be more like Christ. That certainly makes the week great! I’ve been thinking that I should put my highlights of the week in every e-mail so that you all know that I'm happy and feeling joy. I don't know if you can imagine all of these things happening to you in one week, but it is great!

In other news, I bought one of those super noisy and annoying alarm clocks to wake me up. You know the one with the hammer and two bells on top. It actually wakes me up. I don't need to rely on my companion anymore. I bought it in a flea market last week. It works great and is a stylish fire truck red.

I’ve been taking more photos of the skies here and of people. I’ll try to send them next week because I forgot my cable today. I’m planning on making a tie today too... so I’ll let you all know how that goes. If there are any requests... PLEASE send me them. I don’t hear anything from anyone. What do my faithful listeners want?

Love ya’ll (for the Momas)
Elder Tommy Steinkuhler