they almost broke the building down with joy

So, last week I sent such a terrible letter that I thought I would try and send something a little better this week... so all week I wrote down little things to share with you all. Let us start with the weather, because it is always a good conversation starter.

I don't know if any of you keep track of the weather in the world (probably not... I wouldn't), but there has been a lot of rain here recently. So much rain in fact that the work is getting harder. This last Sunday we got caught in the rain with our Sunday clothes on and no preparation... let me explain. So, the church is like three miles from our house and our area is between us and the church. So we normally go straight to a member’s house to eat after church. Normally we leave our jackets at the member’s house and get them on our way home. Well, this Sunday we couldn’t. The member’s house was too far out of the way that we just went out in our suits, besides it was cold. We went to a new area to open it up... an area where there are no members and no investigators. Well, while contacting people it started to drizzle... and we found someone and entered the house. Right after leaving it started pouring down rain. So we took off and tried to find cover, but it was too late. We just went to the closest member (1.5 miles away) and then to the pinch because it took us so long to get there in the mud that we had to go straight home. The best part of the story is that the family we found is amazing. There was this lady that freaked out at the pamphlet we gave her and ran to a back room to pull out that same exact pamphlet. She said that she had received it like six months before and enjoyed it so much that she saved it waiting for us to come back. It was a wonderfully simple and spirit filled lesson. We taught and testified about The Book of Mormon and she and her family decided to read it together!

The photos are when I got home to the pinch. There was so much mud on me and I was so wet that I just jumped in the shower to wash me off. The difference between the photos is that one is from six months ago... when I wasn't in my suit... the new one is this week... in my suit.

Bad/good news... my shoes broke again. Don’t worry, I’ve fixed them... but anyway, here is what happened. About four months ago they broke, the stitching snapped. So I did a quick fix with the strongest thing I had... fishing string. It is plastic and I knew it would get old and break, but I had nothing else in the moment. Well, at a ward activity on Tuesday they asked me to play soccer for 10 minutes... during those ten minutes my shoes busted open. So I bought some good string and sewed them back up... no drama. But the coolest thing was that the members were all surprised that I could do it... so they started asking me about what I did before the mission and I was able to share my talents and help people in new ways, it was cool.

In my agenda I wrote down "shopping bags" but I don't remember why. I’ll think about it and get back to you.

Funny story, we went to a less active member’s house and sat down inside to teach them. Then someone clapped the house and the wife jokingly said, “Must be the Jehovah’s Witnesses”... turns out it was! So their father asked us to go out and greet them. With gusto I went out and we chatted a bit. It was funny seeing their faces. They were not expecting us to come out. We shared a bit of our message with them and them with us... then they left. It is always interesting being instantly recognized as a member of the LDS church. It happens here a lot, and I am glad to say that we do a pretty good job representing our Lord and Savior... If I’m allowed to say that.

One last thing: My companion and I have been working hard to do everything possible. We have been finding lots of new people and teaching lots of new lessons, but it all seems to be coming to nothing. We sat and talked about it and started thinking about how the Lord doesn’t always want us to do all these things just so we can baptize, but so we can be faithful. And then how sometimes when we do everything right, God just puts people in our paths. Well, about four days ago that blessing came. We went to visit a suffering member and their 11 year old son comes up from nowhere and asked us, “When can I get baptized?”. We thought he was some street punk because he is always dirty and never reliable. But we taught him and saw his sincerity and took out a fecha with him. Because of the rain we only had 8 members go to church. But this young boy that so willingly decided to get baptized got up early (without his parents) and came out in the rain with us to walk 2 miles in the mud to church. It is amazing the love people have for doing what is right and I love seeing the people be blessed for it. In about a week he will be baptized!

Sorry, LAST THING: We did a district activity for our district meeting. We went out of our church and tried to bring people into it to teach them. It was a really fun activity and in total we found 8 new people as a district. It was really cool! Oh, and our zone is doing really well... We have been all working hard and united-ly towards our goals and the assistants told me last night that according to our effort and efficiency scales in the mission... our zone is the highest!!! I loved seeing the other elder’s faces when we told them... they almost broke the building down with joy.

Okay, I’m gone. I love you all and want you to know that I am happy. I am working hard and looking fondly to the moment when I will see you all again. All my love again,

Elder Tommy Steinkuhler

PS Today we went bowling and I found out that I stink at it... There are a lot of things that need to be practiced within 2 years or you just lose your touch... like rock band.

putting our feet to the work

Well, another long week down. We had zone conference and stake conference. They were both amazing. I cannot believe that President Asay is going home before I do. I can’t imagine the mission without him.

We had a cool meeting this week with the stake president. He meets monthly with the zone leaders to chat about the stake. It was a great meeting and I was superbly impressed by how much the church is run by God’s election.

One cool thing: we put some great zone goals some time ago and are slowly accomplishing a lot. We have 8 baptisms for next week and found about 22 people more this week. I don’t have time to explain anything, but we are really excited and working hard to keep the increase going so fast.

We had some really spiritual lessons this week, but the biggest thing was putting our feet to the work and finding new people. We have been doing better at talking to lots of people and have been able to increase our teaching pool greatly.

Okay, I’m lame, but this is all I can send today. I’ve got to go and get ready for FHE tonight. I love you all. I’ll let you know more next week. I’m sorry this is so short. Today is an Argentine holiday (no idea what it is) so everything is running slow and making us late today.

Love you all,

Elder Tommy Steinkuhler

PS We will be baptizing 2 this week.

I don’t cry.

The Baptism of Karin

Okay, today I’m really pressed on time... sorry. But at least you have a few nice pictures to enjoy.

First of all... I’ve decided what I want for my birthday... If you want to send me something, send me sweets or American stuff I can give away. People here love that kind of stuff.

Funny story, I got a letter from my mother and she mentioned Elder Merrill of the 70. I think this is the only time in my life until now and into the future when someone can tell me the name of a general authority and I can see their face in my mind... go figure.

The Family of Oscar... And Elder Chatwin

Also... I’ve realized something. A lot of people like to send me spiritual experiences. I use to hate them, because I got a little bored with them. Now I still dislike them, but because they make me emotional. I can now relate spiritual experiences to my own life and things become so personal... and when it is personal the spirit touches people... and when I’m riding in a crowded bus I don’t like to get chocked up... even if I don’t cry. All the same, it is a good change in me that I’m happy with. The mission really changes you to think personally and spiritually. I love Alma 37:36 because it helped me realize how to be happy.

Elder Steinkuhler and Elder Lucas

Another quick thing: My new companion is amazing... we are working really hard. But one thing he said is that we should try doing a zone fast. So we talked with the zone and put some goals down. This Saturday we did a zone fast for our goals and that day we double our success in those respective goals. We are really focused now on what to do and how to do it. I feel so good working closely with people. Elder Lucas has really helped me see how to help other people through our calling as zone leaders. We have planned a stake baptismal day for next month. I’m excited about that. ALSO, we cleaned the pinch... it looks a lot better. One of the office elders took a picture of it before we cleaned it to show as a bad example of a pinch in the mission. So after cleaning it we sent him a clean pinch photo and he is going to use it in a mission presentation as a miracle job or something like that. It feels good to live cleaner.

Well, I’m off, things to do and people to see. I love you all and will see you all soon.

Love ya,
Elder Steinkuhler

PS Tinkerbelle is still in the pinch... HAHA

Tinkerbelle

A day of tears... mostly of joy, but also of loss.

Sorry, another quick one. I don’t ever have time on the first p-day of every transfer. What with all the traveling and meetings I don’t get to e-mailing until I need to be out to work... and I need to do my zone leader duties before writing you guys... sorry.

This week was great. There were a lot of things that happened and I can’t talk about all of them... some highlights:

We had 3 new people in church this week. And sacrament meeting was great! It started out with the confirmation of Karina who got baptized on Saturday (I’ll explain the baptisms later). I was asked to do it and it was wonderful. I said it wrong though. I did the whole blessing and she was crying and I wanted to cry and it was very tender... but then my companion told me that I only confirmed her a member of The Church of Jesus Christ... not The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So we went into a room after the meeting and I did it right, but I was inspired to tell her things that I hadn’t told her, personal things... it is interesting how the Lord works.

After the confirmation we took the sacrament, Oscar (my last baptism) blessed it. It was wonderful to see this pure man bless the sacrament. Then my companion gave his testimony because he was leaving... Elders who finish the mission have so much power in their words. Then the bishop’s wife gave a talk and then I did. I testified of unity and Zion. I used a personal experience about a service I was once able to do and how it blessed me and others. As I got close to the end of the story I started to feel tears coming on... I hate crying. But as my voice trembled and I looked up to see who would witness me cry, I saw that most of the people were already crying. All of the 3 new investigators were absorbed in my words and had teary eyes. I finished my talk and sat down. I looked at my companion because he was suppose to play the piano and I was to direct. He was just gaping at me. Later he told me how he had felt and we both knew that that message that I was able to give was exactly what the ward needed to hear. It was a perfect day and all the investigators promised to come back.

Really quick, there was only one baptism on Saturday because of a lot of things that happened. But basically we just had to change the date and they will all be baptized soon.

Elder Chatwin is gone... for that I am really sad. His last day (yesterday) was really sad. I don’t want to go home. I don’t think I’ll be able to go through what he did. The people in this ward love us so much and have grown with us so much. The truth is that Sunday was a day of tears... mostly of joy, but also of loss. I will really miss Elder Chatwin. He is one of the best missionaries that I’ve known. I really respect him and will continue missing him for awhile.

I’m now with Elder Lucas, a great Elder from Paraguay... I’ll let you all know more about him when I can.

Love,
Elder Steinkuhler

PS I need to know what you all want from Argentina.

I’m so pumped.

I don’t have much time...but I’ll try to keep this sweet and short. First things first... calling home. There is this little problem. Sunday will be my companions last day in Argentina. So I’m sure that we will be visiting people all day. What with church in the morning and the fact that I need to be off the streets by 8... I’m going to have to say that the only safe time I have to call home would be after 8 PM here. Instead of going to the pinch I’ll swing by the church and call you all for a few minutes. Which means I’ll PROBABLY be calling home about 4:15-4:30. I hope. The truth is that I’m not really sure, nor am I that worried. I want to talk to you all... but I’ll be seeing all of you soon anyway. So if things change... I ask for forgiveness in advance.

I’ve been asked a few times about birthday things. I don’t really know. I don’t really want people sending me tons of packages with stuff I just need to bring back home... nor tons of sweets because I’ve entered into the family weight loss challenge. Perhaps it would be best to wait 2 months and I’ll just have a belated b-day party. We’ll make it a party, my coming home/birthday party... After Alex’s wedding. Or if you want to send me something... send me a hand written letter about something good. And/or photos.

So I would like to see photos of Leah’s baptism if I could... I’m really sorry that I missed out on it.

We had a great week... we worked hard and were able to see lots of miracles. We found a guy who said in our first lesson that the day before we came over he was meditating and a voice came to his mind saying, "This will be your last chance." Yeah, that kind of freaked us out... but it was cool. At the end of the cita he said that he felt like crying... but because he was happy and not sad. He couldn’t explain it and we just said, "Well, that is the Spirit." It was a great day.

Then we watched the new Joseph Smith movie with an investigator who is getting baptized this week. She was bawling at the end, as were we all. It was another great day.

The only day that wasn’t so good was Saturday because it was Argentina’s Labor Day... so no one wanted to talk to us and we walked all day.

This next week we will be baptizing 5 people!!!! I’m so pumped. Elder Chatwin and I pulled out all the plugs for his last transfer and got a lot done. We’re pumped and need to set things up still.

Truth be told, I’ve got a lot more I want to tell you all... but I don’t have time. I’ll just try to chat with you all on Sunday. FYI... everyone is invited who wants to go. (Cough cough, Alex). And anyone else in town.

Anyway... Queen just came on and I need to leave the cyber before I burst with worldly joy.

I love you all,

Tommy

PS Tink is so adorable!!!