There is nothing more wonderful on the mission than someone telling you that they know that The Book of Mormon is true.

First things first... I’ve been informed that I need to inform you all to inform President Tanner to be ready to release me when I get home. So I’m guessing you all know when I’ll be getting home. If not, it would be about 10:30 Wednesday the 3rd. If President Tanner could release me about that time it would be superbly wonderful.

I don’t have much to write about. This week was a lot of working and running around and little to write about. The World Cup is a killer here. NOTHING happens during the hours of the game. There is literally NOTHING to do during that hour and a half. But it is cool being here in Argentina while Argentina is winning. I hear a lot of new things about soccer here. For example, I didn’t even know that they play soccer in Germany... but I guess they are one of the best teams in the world. Go figure. It doesn’t help that I’m a German looking and sounding as it comes. I might be killed this week if Germany wins. Naw, I’m sure that nothing will happen... I’m actually just glad that the US lost. As much as I wanted them to win, I’m glad we are not going to play Argentina.

We had some really spiritual appointments this week. One of them was with Antonia. She is a recent investigator. We taught her the basics of The Book of Mormon and the family. We returned to teach her about Joseph Smith and we asked her if she had read and prayed about The Book of Mormon... very seldom do they do it the first time... and never have they told me that they received an answer the first time. She told us very quietly that she read. She explained how she read and prayed with her family right after we left. And that she didn’t feel anything. But that night she re-read and asked again and felt the answer. She looked up at me and I asked her how she felt. She smiled and said should couldn’t explain it. She said it was a very good feeling in her chest that came from somewhere else. That same feeling filled my frame and we were both edified. There is nothing more wonderful on the mission than someone telling you that they know that The Book of Mormon is true. After that the rest is just details. When a person really knows that The Book of Mormon is true, baptisms will follow and blessings will spring forth.

The same thing happened some time back with an investigator named Isabel. It was so funny because she reads really poorly. When she reads aloud she gets all the words mixed up and it doesn’t make since unless you are following along in your own book... but she understands PERFECTLY!!! She too quickly received an answer to the challenge we gave her.

We had a little meeting I like to call Jedi Council this week. It is a meeting with all the zone leaders of the mission. We go over trainings we will go through and all that good stuff. The best part was that the president asks everyone who is going home that transfer to give their testimony. So that means that I could give my testimony as well as all my close friends... but also the president. He leaves next week. His message was amazing. It was by far my favorite meeting in the entire mission. I would do it injustice explaining what was said. I don’t want to offend the Spirit and explain all the things that were explained to us through him... but I do want to tell you that it was a wonderful meeting. It truly gave me excitement to work hard this transfer. One thing the president told us last Monday is that we will not be judged off of what we did during our mission... but off of what we do this last transfer. That kind of put the heat on and motivated me to work hard this transfer.

I guess that is it for me. I bought some new shoes today because I want something nice to go home in. And... I’m kind of boring. Sorry. I’m just working. Work... as in work work is not that exciting to explain.

I love you all and will see you soon.

Tommy

PS My camera broke. It won’t take photos with flash now. Sad day. I don’t think I’ll be sending more photos home till I get home. Sorry... Um, just suck it up and deal with it.

He shared his great wisdom once again with me

I’ve officially entered into my last transfer. I'M SCARED!!!! Today was a huge day! Let us start with today and see how far I get.

Today the president gave his farewell talk... along with his wife, a senior couple and a lot of beloved fellow elders. It was a wonderful meeting and my brief explanation of what they said would not do them justice, so I will leave it to this: "It was wonderful". Lots of people came because almost everyone knows the president. But the biggest visitor for me was ex-Elder Sagripanti. That is right, my trainer and papi. It broke my heart to see him again. We all left the meeting to take a picture of all the missionaries and while waiting for the picture I saw him. After the photo I ran up and gave him a huge hug. We were able to talk for a bit and he shared his great wisdom once again with me. I know that my group and I are the oldest people in the mission (including the president) but Elder Sagripanti was just so much wiser than us. I truly felt like a child with his father again. He is well. He is dating and continuing the life the way it should be. I didn't have my camera, so I hope he sends me a photo.

To go along with this, we had interviews with the president this week. It was weird going into his office and talking to him for the last time. We always need to recite a memorized scripture, so I did Luke 2:1-18... it took on new meaning with him. He liked it a lot.

Something else to go along with that... one of the elders I trained is about to train. They will both be in my zone this transfer, so I’ll be able to see them both. Elder Mortensen is going to train. That means that in the mission they would call me a grandfather if we were to still use such language.... but seeing as we don't... don't worry about it.

Cool experience... we went to get investigators on Sunday morning. And while walking with them to the Church I saw a man stuck in the mud with his truck. It has been raining here a lot and there is a LOT of mud. I told my companion we needed to help... he looked at me, and then at his freshly shinned for Church shoes, then at the investigators, then came with me. We pushed and pushed and finally got the truck out. We didn't even really get muddy (the shoes were not shinny). But we just waved at him as we walked past and continued on our way. About 2 minutes later he pulled up next to us and gave all of us a ride to church... saving us about 1.5 miles of walking. We did a contact with him and will be sending missionaries to his home... I LOVE doing service and seeing it pay off.

One more cool experience:
We did a map system to get references from members. We draw a map and have them write all the names of the neighbors that they know. We did this with a fairly popular guy and got a lot of references. Over the past few weeks we have been slowly contacting references from him with little luck. On Friday we were contacting the last of them and had one left... it was pretty far away, and we were thinking about going to another area to work. I meditated on our options and felt we should contact the last reference. My companion thought I was crazy, but we went anyway. We clapped and out walked a lady we had seen earlier that day. She is a friend of Karina (who got baptized a little bit ago). Earlier that day she had blown us off and we thought she didn't like us... but we started chatting with her and found out how much she was suffering. We shared a brief message about The Plan of Salvation and entered into her house to read a part of The Book of Mormon. It was a really spiritual lesson. It was good to help her and see the spirit touch her. We have a return appointment tomorrow.

One cool note for my mother:
We just changed our bishop. Bishops normally change every 5-8 years around here... and in the 4 wards I’ve been in... 3 of them have changed while I’ve been in them... but that is not what I wanted to share. Bishop Monaco is our new bishop. We ate with him this last week and chatted a lot about The Lord of the Rings. He knows elvish and basically everything about The Lord of the Rings. He is also really excited work with us because he has been working with the stake for awhile and hasn’t been able to help us much. So we will be working hard with him soon.

That is about it. I guess I’ll just finish with that and tell you all how weird it is having everyone tell me that I’m going home soon. I don’t feel like it. The president today told us that we all have 6 months left. And if we focus on that we will not begin to slack off. I suspect that with the change of president I will not have 5 seconds to think about home, but we will see. I know that I should be humble though and ask for your help. So, don’t let me get trunky please.

I love you all,

Tommy

PS I’ll send pictures soon... I promise.

PPS I know what I want for my birthday. If people want to chip in so that I can buy new scriptures that would be cool. I know what I want, so I would like to pick them out... but if you want to help me buy them I would love you forever.

They made me cut it and eat the head because it was my birthday

This week was craziness. We did a lot of things and I’m beat! Where to start... TODAY.

I’ve had a lot of questions about what a zone leader does. Basically we do what everyone else does, but we also need to plan for everything the zone does. So we spend a lot more time planning and talking about our zone then our area. The truth is that we focus a lot in the area, but when we are at the apartment we basically call the other elders and focus on their needs. I feel somewhat like a father. For example, today we did a zone activity. We can do one every transfer and we decided to do ours today. We didn’t think that it was going to rain (which it is doing in abundance). So we were going to get together and cook an American breakfast and then play Olympic games. Well, we did eat an American breakfast... at lunch time. So here is what happened. Being the zone leaders we had to plan the activity, see what people wanted to do... decide who would do what and where and when and then verify everyone five million times to make sure it goes as planned. We also needed a plan B to everything. We actually didn't end up playing Olympic games. But we did play dodge ball and ping pong. It was actually really fun and we cooked a ton of food. We made pancakes, eggs and hash browns for 23 people (but like 30 ate)... WITH HOMEMADE MAPLE SYRUP! How cook are we? Two elders in the zone, a sister and I cooked everything. It was really good. We all had fun and got wet getting to the stake center. It all turned out good, but not as planned. So, that is basically what we do as zone leaders. We animate and plan for everything the zone is going to do. We also try to help the elders get to the zone or mission standards. We teach elders on exchanges how to do certain things and try to show them an example of what we are capable of doing as missionaries. We also meet regularly with the church leaders, including stake president to learn their desires for the zone. I don't know... we don’t really do much, we are just normal missionaries when it comes down to it.

This week was my birthday... it was a good one. I got an amazing jersey from a wonderful sister in our ward. It is a blue Argentine jersey. BY THE WAY, Argentina won their first game in the soccer competition... thing (I don't know its name in English). We are not allowed to watch, so we stayed in the pench to plan and heard people yelling and shooting off gun shots every time Argentina did something good. It was exciting and we didn’t even get to watch it. Anyway... my birthday was really tranquil. We didn’t do much out of the normal. The biggest thing is that we went to a members house at the end of our day because she had cooked us dinner and wanted to give me my gift. It was really a fun work day. As missionaries we celebrated it after planning on Saturday. While people were going crazy because we (I mean Argentina) won, we cooked up some genie-pig and ate them... long story. Basically an elder from Peru decided it would be cool to cook me up a Peruvian specialty for my birthday. It took some days to get it all worked out... I’ll try to send pictures. I felt bad, because he bought them alive and then killed them and cooked them. I only saw them alive and then dead... fortunately I wasn’t around for the killing, I would have freaked (this elder also wants to eat Tinkerbell when I leave... NOT going to happen). It was pretty good. They made me cut it and eat the head because it was my birthday... I tried the eyeball... not so tasty... and that is all I have to say about that.

For the lunch we bought hot peppers... REALLY hot peppers. One of the elders said he would give me his scarf if I would eat half of one of the peppers. I was brave and did it... And it was HOT!!! We are talking bigger and hotter than Jalapeno. But I won a scarf! The elders just looked at me with awe as I bit off the pepper. No one thought I would do it... I don’t even know why I did it, but it was fun and funny. The States don’t really have hot peppers.

Well, with all the rain we have a mud pit of an area again. I love it. I got my leather boots fixed so now I can walk around without using huge, bulky rain boots. I’ve learned very well how to walk, run, jump and slide in the mud without getting myself dirty. It takes a lot of skills and practice to be able to walk for 3 hours in 3 inches of mud without getting your pants dirty... :)

This week we had a really good experience with finding. We worked hard all week to find. We contacted more references then in any moment of my mission this week. We also did normal contacts a lot. But by Sunday we had only found 6 and we wanted to find 12 by the end of the day. So we went out to do our normal visits and decided to run by this lady we had found the week before. She wasn’t there, but her husband and other family members were. We had been praying to be able to find people that day because we had really been working our tails off to find and were not seeing the blessings. But once again the Spirit guided us and we found a wonderful new (big) family and accomplished our goal.

Also, we had this family that we have been teaching. We can only see them like once every other weekend. We took a fecha out with the two of them last week and this week we met up with them again. To get to their goal they need to get married. So although we want to wait normally to teach the Law of Chastity, we decided to do it early. We taught a really spiritual lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We knew that the Spirit would be vital in this lesson so we did all we could to invite it. And it came strong. They felt it and when we asked them why they hadn’t got married until now they said it was a money issue... but now that we had explained the Spiritual importance they wanted to change. They made the decision for themselves and are going to make a plan on how to do it for next weeks appointment. I love how the Holy Ghost shows people what they need to do return to God... and I love it even more when people listen to that Spirit.

I’m off... I love you all and will try to send pictures next time.

Love,
Elder Steinkuhler

PS I’ve realized again how soon I’ll be home this week. I can’t believe it... I don’t feel trunky though... that is the good thing, I know lots of you are worried. No worries.

God put me here on Earth to do service

I remember what shopping bags means...

I went on intercambios (or companion exchanges) last week and I tried to show forth the best example possible. Well, I have this thing, I’ve always wanted to help someone carry their grocery bags because in missionary pictures they are always doing that for service. The people here try to run away from you if you offer because they think you are going to rob them. Well, I saw a lady struggling with her bags and I stopped to help her while on intercambios. The part of town we were in was rather nice and fairly friendly. She looked up at me and I smiled at her. It was great to see her old wrinkly face crack into a smile and said she would love help. I grabbed her bags (quite too much for her) and we walked some 5ish blocks to her house. We chatted about things as we walked and eventually talked about the gospel and how she knew we wouldn't rob her because we are missionaries. She loved our little stroll and accepted a return visit the next day. It felt so good to see once again how the pure love of Christ gets to the heart of people a lot faster than a word of testimony. I learned long ago that I God put me here on Earth to do service. That is why I was blessed with a big body and lots of free time. It feels so good doing service. This week we also did service. We saw a young girl carrying 4X4 beams into her yard with difficulty, so I stooped down and started helping. I think she only accepted because she could see that I couldn't run far with her wood and therefore had nothing to worry about. By the end she was a good friend of ours.

This is a little thing for my father: We did a zone learning activity this week where we got together with the Stake Family History Specialist. She taught us a little bit about the services available here so that we can invite people to come in. It was good, but she got mad at me because I told her that my father is a specialist and that I knew little to nothing about it. So I guess I’ll be learning something more when I get home.

The other day while on intercambios again (we do a lot of intercambios) we contacted a wonderful lady. We were looking for this guy and he wasn't where he was supposed to be (on the top floor). So we went down a story and he wasn't there either, and then down another... and still nothing. So I asked some neighbors and this wonderful lady answered the door. It was hilarious because I was looking at the handle and as the door opened the first thing I saw was a huge cross and as I followed the necklace up it got lost in a nuns hood. I chocked back a laugh at doing a contact with a nun and started talking about The Plan of Salvation. It was a good chat and we set up an appointment to come back and teach her and her family more. I was really shocked. But then again, we do share the truth and the spirit can touch any heart. I won’t be there to go back, but I’ll try to figure out what happens and let you know. She was really wonderful though and interested.

Funny side note about the intercambios... I did one this week with Elder Mortenson, one of the elders I trained. He is doing really well. We had a really successful day and I loved to see how much he has changed in the past 6 months. He has really grown up.

We baptized again this week. It was a really lovely baptism. It was a bright sunny day with lots of people who came. The father is a member and was able to baptize his kids. It was really one of those "How perfect" kind of moments. I’ll try to send pictures soon.

One of our recent converts, Oscar, he has taken up this saying. We keep on teaching him new things about the Gospel and he says, "Ah, mirà... que lindo"... or in English, "How wow, look at that... how lovely". He really loves the Gospel and everything it brings. He can’t stop learning and doing things in the church. Hopefully his son and daughter-in-law will get baptized this next month if everything goes well with the marriage and everything. They are such a wonderful family and wonderful people.

One last note: Our zone is number one in the mission and has been for two weeks straight. That probably doesn't sound that cool to any of you, but it does to me because I know the history of the mission. We are in the zone of Adroguè... which has the office elders and assistants. They can’t work all day because they need to be in the offices until 6 at night... sometimes later. So Adroguè has never been the number one zone in the mission. NEVER! Until NOW!!!! I was so excited that I wanted to do something for the zone... because we are rated on an average of every area... which means that every area is working well and hard. Well, I was pondering upon it and what I could do... when I went to a shoe shop to get my shoes fixed. The man was very nice and started talking about all sorts of things (I think he was a little lonely). He off handed-ly commented that he had received two large bags of leather that he was not going to use. I asked to see them and he said sure... and that I could take whatever I wanted for FREE!!! So I rummaged through the bags and pulled out a large stack of hard forest green leather. He looked at me like I was crazy and I asked if I could take it... he said that he had no use for it and that I could take it and whatever else from the bag I wanted. So I brought it home and started cutting. I’ve learned many tricks from my parents and friends about making things with limited tools. So I cut out agenda covers and then cut holes in them with a metal pen tip so that we can bind them to our agendas. I made 42 tops (it took a lot of time... I didn't sleep much). But today I finished them off and gave them to the zone as birthday present from me because they are all working so well. They turned out really well. I like them a lot and the zone was ecstatic. I’ll try to send picture of that too.

Anyway I’m doing well and am really tired. I’ve got to get going to work now... I love you all.

Elder Steinkuhler

PS I don’t have plans for my birthday... I will be working I think. The truth is that I have no idea what will happen.

PPS The World Cup for Soccer starts this week... I pray that Argentina doesn’t loose and that the USA doesn’t win... because if those things happen we’ll be in trouble.