BIRTHDAY!

For those of you emailing Tommy this week please remember to wish him a Happy Birthday!! Tommy turns 21 on Wednesday.

The bathroom is pretty sweet.

Okay... first to the questions:

Q: what kind of place do you live in? I assume it's an apartment...one room?...upstairs?...bunk beds?...what are the wash facilities?...and the cooking facilities?
A: We live in a 4 elder apartment that is behind the house of the owner (not member). It has 4 rooms. Every apartment, or pench as we say, has to have: Full Bathroom, Kitchen and Sleeping area. The mission is trying to get rid of all the 4 elder penches. So we are looking for a new one currently. But for the meantime we live in this one. It is outside our area, so we are looking for one inside our area. ANYWAY. It is a one level apartment. There is one set of bunk beds that the other elders have... but they don’t use them like bunk beds. The "washing facilities" would be a bathroom. Oh, and a large sink outside if we want to hand wash out clothes... but we don’t have time, so we bring them to a cleaner. The bathroom is pretty sweet. You can basically use the toilet while showering... pretty cool if you think about it.
The coolest part is that there is an area outside the door with plants and a little grass. Over the years elders have planted a lemon tree, pomegranate tree, onions and a few other things I don’t know the names of. They don’t give us a lot of food... but it is good food.

Q: Do you eat often at members? or not at all?
A: We do eat with members. We have a set appointment every Wednesday and Thursday to eat lunch. On Tuesdays we eat dinner with someone. On Sundays our ward mission leader gives us food at church to eat at home. Every once in awhile we eat with someone outsides of these appointments. But basically this. Our branch is pretty small... Basically all the active members give us food.

Q: You walk everywhere...so how do you figure travel time between appointments and clapping houses?
A: Well, we take a bus every morning and travel to our area. Then we walk. We measured it once... we normally walk about 1-2 miles in the morning and 9-10 in the night. It sounds like a lot... but isn’t too bad. You have to remember that we talk to about 20 people for every mile. Anyway... we normally go to an appointment in the morning. After that we travel to another appointment or plan and while traveling we clap houses. Basically whenever we are walking we clap houses. It helps pass the time and progresses the work. If we are in a hurry we just speed walk and skip the clapping. Our area isn’t that big, but big enough to make things difficult.

ANYWAY... this week:

We worked hard this week, but it has just been a bad week. We kind of got thrown off with the activity we did last Tuesday. Then we had interviews the next day. Then an activity the day after. It was just like boom boom boom. We`ve been working hard... and for that reason the week seems forever long. People say that when you work harder the time seems to speed up. I’ll be honest, that is a huge lie! Well, for me at least. The "harder" I work, the more things I have in my mind... the day never seems to end and the weeks feel like months. When you talk to 500 people a day and know half their names... when you are constantly thinking about addresses and people who need help today... it all seems so long. BUT that means we get 5 times the work in. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining... I’m just telling you so you understand. It is kind of like that story in the scriptures when God gave "the good guys" a little more day light to finish the battle. Well, God slows down time so we can do what he wants (we don’t work as fast as him).

We have had the wonderful fortune of finding and teaching all sorts of people this week. We have a solid list of people we teach and lists of others. It is wonderful when we can strengthen people. When people move from the "other investigators" section to the "progressing investigators" section. We have a lot of people who are progressing and becoming THAT much closer to being baptized or coming back to church. Our baptismal dates are still going strong. The weather has not been the best, so that has slowed some things down. I swear, one little rain cloud and everyone is sick. All well... at least it passes with the bad weather. PS I love muddy roads. It makes walking a lot more interesting.

Well, sorry this is a shorter one. But things have been crazy. I’m doing wonderful though. We played soccer today and I feel great. Going out and running is fun. I’m staying active both spiritually and physically. My beloved friends here are progressing as well as the Elders around here. I’m becoming more obedient every day... all is well. I don’t know what else to say. Sorry no crazy cool stories again. Next week yeah!

Love you all,
Tommy

PS This is the last week of the transfers. It could be that next week I’ll be in a new area.
PPS SMILE!

What would the world do without missionaries?

Well, one week down. 64 to go... not that I’m counting or anything.... my companion is though. This week has been the most packed and longest in history. We played soccer... talked to a million people and worked like there is no tomorrow. We finally have everything running smoothly in this wonderful little branch. We have a wonderful lady by the name of Hercilia that is going to be baptized next month. We have been working a lot with her and others. The blessings are starting to pour down from all the work we have done. It really does feel wonderful to see the Lord`s hand in action as his work goes forth. If there is one thing I’ve learned out here it is this: We are doing the Lord`s work. We are actually guided by the Lord and he will force us to do it the right way if we are doing it wrong.

Well, this was a very un-eventful week to write about. But this one funny thing did happen. My companion FORGOT HIS PLAQUE (name tag) on his shirt when we washed our clothes. How, I don’t know... but he thought he lost it. The next day it falls out of the laundry.... all messed up. It has some of the letters gone and doesn’t close anymore. So last night we boiled it to try and fix it a bit. If we damage a plague it takes about 7 months to get a new one.... so we have to use this for now. See photos for reference. The boiling process worked fairly well... it made the plague look old and faded... but at least it closes.


Today (being Tuesday) we are going to do a zone activity... so we switched our p-day again this week. But don’t worry... it isn’t a usual thing. Next week we`ll be back on the Monday schedule. Today we we’ll be watching a movie and eating Argentino BBQ.

We had a cool dance this week also. A young lady is getting married in our ward... so they invited us to the wedding reception. It was in the church, at the same time as the stake dance. Well, none of the youth were dancing. So Elders Kushlan, Trujillo, Vargas and I busted it up. We looked in the rules and it actually says NOTHING about dancing... so we went out there and started acting like clowns. Everyone thought it was hilarious and joined it. By the time we left, it was a real dance. What would the world do without missionaries?

All right... that is about it. I’ll try to think of something more interesting for next week. Sorry this is so lame. I’m excited for all that is going on at home though... Of what I know about.

Take care everyone, I send you all my love,

Elder Tommy S.

they look at my smile and break down

I had a QUESTION!!!! What is the country like...? They say that our mission is "the armpit of Argentina". Whenever we tell people where our mission ends and starts, they tell us that we happen to be in the ugliest part of Argentina... geographically speaking. There are no mountains, one river (that I still think is the ocean), no hills and lots of trees (you can just throw seeds out your door and the next day have a garden). It is not Washington, Utah or New Hampshire... that is for sure. And currently it is VERY cold. I don't know how it changed on me like that... but I like it.

ON that note: It rained here a few days ago... and with the cold I wore my long trench coat (I’ll send pics). Dogs naturally hate missionaries and this one in particular. It came up to us and I started whipping my coat at it (if you play with the dogs they like you more). It started acting like I was a bull fighter and he was the bull. It was pretty fun for awhile. He`d lunge at my coat and I’d pull it out of his way... we played for awhile as we walked... until a girl took a few kicks at it for the noise (she missed).

ON that note: The day before we went out trying to find someone late at night. It was dark and cold and we were thinking about just going back to the pinch. I pulled out the name of one last member and we headed off. The house did not exist. So I clapped another one to ask what happened. A boy came out and I asked him about this member. He asked us to wait and took off back inside. THEN... it started to rain... HARD. My companion always, ALWAYS, has his umbrella.... except that day. The kid looked out the door and yelled at us to come in, we would get all wet. We entered the house and found a young family. We chatted a bit and they wanted us to come back... so we set up an appointment and left. As soon as we walked out the door... the rain stopped. Oh... how amazing the mysteries of God.

Elder Trujillo received a package this last Tuesday and inside was a bunch of balloon animal balloons. None of us have a clue how to do it... so I picked one up, practiced and ended up going with a monkey (I’ll send pics). It was awesome. I want to call him Jerald... el mono. I found that I like balloon animals, go figure.

Something EVERYONE always says is to keep smiling. I would like to once again comment on it. My first baptism (Martin) sent me a letter this last week. It was dearly wonderful and I got my animo back from it. He commented, "I’ll never forget your great smile that you always had." There, my friends, is proof I smile. I like people watching when we travel. People here look like missionaries feel... tired. Everyone is frowning and glum... like they are afraid of something. I now understand why. But I find myself smiling every time I see that. I find myself smiling all the time. When I don’t... people mention it. People have let us in because of my smile. People think I’m a lot younger then I am and have pity on us. So they look at my smile and break down. I’m glad God prepared me from the beginning for my mission. He really is a wonderful father.

Wonderful news... we took out two more baptismal dates this week. We are really tearing up the area. I probably won’t be around to see all of the fruits... but I feel it now as I look back. I’m glad to finally report that I’ve made an impact here in Villa Zula. Here I was thinking I was a failure, but... go figure.

Last note... I probably can’t send it, but there was a kid juggling on the train today. HE WAS AMAZING. I videotaped it and will try to send it with the other pictures next week. Sorry. But he was AWESOME. I love traveling in trains here. I think people could live on the trains if you want. Food, comfort, and entertainment.

Well, I’m out. Sorry this is short. We played soccer as a mission today. It was fun, but it took all our time. Just so you know, I was the goalie and kicked some trash... And I now have a sweet Argentine jersey.

All my love,

Tommy

I think it was unanimous

This week has almost killed me. They say that as you get farther out in the mission... time gets faster. If this week is a sign of the next year... I’m done for. I will admit that I am tired, hurt and want to sleep. I am happy though. I’m glad that I’ve done all the work I have... I feel good about that. We have really exploded this area. We have taken a dead area and turned it into a smooth running machine! But it certainly does drain ones energy. But talking to the family yesterday was certainly an uplifting experience. I’m glad to hear that everyone is doing so well.

Well, a little heads up. Next week we are changing our P-Day to Tuesday because we are going to play a huge mission wide soccer game again. It is Zone vs. Zone. So today we practiced and I was asked to be the goalie. I think it was unanimous... so I guess I’ll do it. The only problem with that is that I have NO time today. My apologies. I did just talk to everyone yesterday... so I hope people won’t be too mad. I’ll give you one quick story though.

I did a contact about 2 weeks back. She said I should come back... so we did... and she told us to come back again. Some people say that so that we just lose interest and they don’t have to reject us openly. But I felt good about it... so we went back a third time. She invited us in and we taught her and her son. They were very open people and very receptive. She had even been to church before. Well, we taught them lesson one and she said that being baptized by someone who actually had power from God would be a good thing. So we are working hard to help her get that blessing. We have already taught her twice and we are returning today. She and her son are reading the Book of Mormon and praying about the message it contains. This next Sunday they should be at church again. I love the way the Lord works. We really are being blessed here for our labors.

Well, I’m off. Sorry this is short. Know that I send my love from Argentina and that I’m safe and sound. I’ll try to get something more interesting out next week... but with the championship and all... we`ll see.

Take care until I return at least.

All my love,
Elder Tommy Steinkuhler

Truth is really the only weapon we have

This week has been a rather long one. I would like to make a few corrections about my previous e-mail that seem to have been misunderstood. First of all... I know I said that the transfers were not that exciting and I want to clarify that I meant the changes... not the fact that I was staying in Villa Zula with Elder Kushlan. As a matter of fact, I love being in Villa Zula and cannot think of a better person then Elder Kushlan to work with. We are the perfect team. We compliment the faults of the other person... so together we are a powerful force of bringing the gospel to the good people of Villa Zula.

I would also like to clarify one other thing... um, we do not have bikes anymore. I know I wrote that we bought them. But after discovering a few problems with having bikes in Argentina... we have reverted back to the good old walking method. Sorry to disappoint.

Well, now on to our extremely odd week. We had transfers last Monday... which means we did not get that day of rest. So all week we`ve been dragging our feet. It is hard giving up the one day of rest we have for an 8 hour bus/train ride across half of Argentina. So, I'm sorry to say that Monday and Tuesday were not that effective. By Wednesday we had picked up our game again and taken off. We found a lovely lady named Elvira who accepted our message warmly and we have a return visit to talk to her whole family. Actually, I would like to point out a funny side note. My companion keeps on calling us "Villa Zula- the finders of women". We can’t seem to get any man in our area interested in our message. So we have a huge long list of ladies we visit. Which is hard because we can’t enter their houses when they are alone (fortunately you don't have to enter the house to teach them). We`ve found that most people in our area are single women with kids. We`ve also found out that of the ones that are not single... all their husbands work away from Villa Zula. This makes things particularly hard. That is one reason it is SO IMPORTANT for the members to help out the missionaries.

Anyway, we have been going out trying to literally talk with everyone. I think that I’ve never talked to as many people in my life. We end up getting rejected a lot. But if we can actually share something with the person before they shoo us off we can normally come back. In our agendas there are pages for contacts. In this last week we have already filled up half the pages. We still have 5 more weeks to go. We have been doing so much walking and talking that I finally busted through the side of one of my shoes (Don't worry... I’ve already fixed it up). There should be a picture of that. We ended up finding 4 people this week who all have great starts and real interest in the gospel.


Good Story:
We have a couple that we are teaching who are not married... but she is pregnant. They are reading and praying... And this week we read the Family Proclamation with them. We dropped the cane on them for doing what they were doing when they knew it wasn`t good. The good young sir understood and accepted the fact that changes needed to be made. But the young lass was a little harder to get the message though to. My reason for telling you this story is because it was a wonderful experience for me. When we have the opportunity to preach the truth... the spirit often testifies back how true the things we are teaching are. This particular time I felt the truth rushing out of us and hitting the investigators hard. It really doesn’t matter how hard hearted they are or how much they don’t want to change or how much fear they are... the Spirit still has power to testify. Which is wonderful, because two 20 year old kids don’t know all THAT much about the Law of Chastity. We really don’t know all THAT much about marriage or eternal relationships. It is moments like that when the Truth is really the only weapon we have (the SWORD of Truth).

Not much else has happened. The weather is chilly at night and super hot during the day. We speak a lot of Spanish in the pench with our Latin friend Elder Vargas. My white watch died. We hear about a plague in the states all the time... what is up with that?

So... I’ll be calling home on Sunday. If you are wondering when... I would be too. I’m guessing about 3-4 again. But I’m not sure. I’m not sure when church is. Actually... probably later. I’m not sure at all. There is a 4 hour time difference. So if we call when we get back to the pench at 8... it`ll be 4 at home. But there are 4 of us and we have about an hour each. So... I don’t know when we`ll call. I’ll probably call home in the morning to tell you all when I’ll be calling home. Don’t worry. One way or another... I’ll call home this Mother`s Day. Sorry that things are not so sure... but hey, life isn’t sure.

Well... I would now like to turn the time over to questions or requests. I NEVER get many questions (except for you... and you know how you are). A lot of people ask "How are you" or "How was your week"... well. I promise Ill answer both of those each week. Any other questions? Actually... I have this WONDERFUL camera and LOTS of space for photos... I just don’t know what to take photos of. Any requests? What part of Argentina would you like to see?

I love you all! Hasta Lunes,

Elder T

PS This Labor Day we realized that EVERYONE in the world was not working... EXCEPT US! It was good for the work... but rather a drag. HAHA

I went up.

Well, for those of you who actually follow the whole 6 week mind set... you`ll understand that I just had transfers! YEAH!!! I’m staying in Villa Zula with Elder Kushlan (not too exciting). But the exciting news is that not only is Elder Trujillo receiving a Latino companion in our pench... but I went up. For those of you who don’t know what "going up" is... it means I "went up in the missionary power scale." I don’t know. It sounds like a whole lot of tish tosh to me. Pero... para que sapen: When a person goes up they first become senior companion, then district leader, then zone leader and then assistant. Somewhere in there there is training and going to the offices. Most people don’t make it up to Zone leader or even district leader. I just got moved up to senior companion. What does that mean... NOTHING!!! But it made me feel cool. Of the 20 some odd people I came here with only 2 have gone up. Elder Jones (he also jumped to district leader because he is amazing) and me. Really, I’m just excited about it because Elder Trujillo and Elder Kushlan were getting me all excited about it. The fact that I’m "going up" so young could mean X, Y or Z. It is pretty fun to try predicting the future mission life of missionaries. Well... now that you all know the gossip, we`ll return back to our program.


This week was amazingly... um... amazingly... a week. I don’t know how to give you a one sentence description on this week. It was a little all over the place. We worked a lot... and by a lot I mean a lot. We talked to more people this week then I’ve ever talked to in one week. We also taught more "other" lessons than any other week in my mission. We also bought bikes and took out a baptismal date. Things have not really been "oh my gosh did you feel that spirit crush over us" but more of... "We are working so hard that the spirit is the only thing keeping us alive". For those of you who know me well... you know I am loving it to death! I’m not so sure about the bikes yet. I’m surely not use to it in the rear area... if you know what I mean.


I’ve got some more stories though because I know you`ll all dying to hear them.


When I got here I looked through the ward list to find some likely people to go by. One named popped out at me and I read the description written next to in put there by other missionaries. It said "Sons have assaulted/robbed the missionaries and will do the same to you". That didn’t bother me one bit, so I mentioned it to my companion who flat out refused to go. The same thing happened when Elder Kushlan came. But the mother`s name kept on coming up and I just put down my foot and said we were going by... "Don’t worry, I’m big... just stay behind me (unless we are running away). So we went and found the mother. She talked to us for an hour at her door. It turns out her sons (all 3 of them) were taken to jail for supposed murder. Needless to say, she wasn't exactly in the happiest moods. We warmed up her heart and came back a few days later. We gave her another Book of Mormon and when we did she said, "I’ve been praying to God that he`ll send me his Church. That he will send me whatever church he wants me to have." We sang and read with her. She said that she`d pray and has been doing a little bit better every day. I love when God sends ME to places marked with a "you will be assaulted" sign on it. That`s why I’m here.

We`ve found some really wonderful people this week. People who have read what we`ve given them because they have been searching. People who know the truth without knowing where it comes from. People who just want us to come by. I don’t know. I’ll be honest. Things are getting exciting around here. But I really lost all ability to convey it to you all. I’m getting lost in the work... or at least I hope I am.

However, one thing that is pressing on my mind: The 10th would be Mother`s Day. That is not this Sunday... but the next. I’ll only be writing home once more before then. So... um. Just don’t worry about it. Don’t call us... we`ll call you. I’ll give you more details later. I’ll probably be calling home sometime around 2 and 8 here. So that`d be like 8am-2pm at home... SOMETHING LIKE THAT! I don’t know. Just letting you know. Oh, and another scary thought that hit me this week is that at the end of this transfer I’ll turn 21! SCARY!

Well, I love you all. I’ve really got to go though. I’m short on time... as usual. I’m sorry I’m writing so short. I’ll write more when something more firm happens

Take care of yourselves,

Elder Tommy

I got my socks knocked off me in Spanish Scrabble

This feels like the longest week in history. So many things have happened... but they are really nothing that would interest any of you. Sorry. I mean, you don’t know who any of these people are and it would take too long for me to explain it all. Not to mention, it would be rude of me to put personal information in here about people I love. I think that is why so many missionaries don’t send much home to their families. Oh, and the fact that the fun things we do really shouldn’t be known by the world... if you catch my drift. But I do have a few fun facts for you all.

This week we went out into our "villa" or ghetto area right by the edge of our area. We saw two little kids in front of us with a slingshot. One of the kids picked up a rock and pulled the sling back (being his size made it so that he was basically spreading his arms out as far as they would go). He aimed up and released. We saw this poor bird just chilling about 30 feet above him just have its head kick back and fall. The other birds on the line didn’t move at all. And the kid just picked up the bird like nothing happened, like he does it every day. I was very impressed. I’m sure he would be a great hunter if he tried... I’m just glad he had a homemade slingshot.

We planned an activity this week for the two branches that attend our building. It wasn’t huge, but it was fun. We are going to start doing that more and more. We got inactive people to come as well as investigators... more like investigator, but still. It was cool! We watched Wall-E again (I’m glad I bought it). I crushed some people in chess. I got my socks knocked off me in Spanish Scrabble and ping pong. We`ll do it again sometime soon. I’ll get a little better every time.

I bought an MP3-4 player last weekend. But it is kind of cheap and I’m not sure how I feel about it. But it has been fun to use for one week (with 3 CDs on it... I need something new). I can also download the photos people send me and put them on it... so that`ll be nice if I end up keeping it.

We are also going to buy bikes soon. We got them picked out and everything. The bike guy just needs to put them together. I’m really excited because my shoes are getting a little thin. I take great care of them... but the bottom is just not steel. And the fact I basically only wear the black ones.

Um... that`s about it. Life is good though. I’m working really hard and trying to do my best. I’ve recently realized how sucky my Spanish is... so I’m making a new effort at perfecting that. I’m making a scarf because it turned into late fall over night (literally... over night). I found a cool sweater vest in the old fridge outside the apartment. OH! OH! I taught myself to cook burritos today! The only problem with them is the corn. I made a bad move with the corn idea. Um... Um... yeah, I’m out of news. Sorry.

I can however tell you all how glad I am to be out here. I’ve realized recently that it really is a blessing to be out here. I’m not terribly tired or anything anymore. One gets accustomed to things. I just haven’t realized until recently how blessed I’ve been over my time here. I’ve also realized how long I’ve been out. It feels really long ago that I went to the MTC. But my trainer Elder Sagripanti is about to go home. He has one week left. Wow, how weird is that? I like looking back after a long time and seeing all the ways God has put what I need in my path. I’m honestly in love with being out here. I want to be the perfect missionary, but I’m not. So I want to stay out till I am. Sorry family. I might not be coming home for a few more years then you were expecting. We`ll see what I can pull off.

I want you all to know how much I love you. It is such a blessing knowing that I have people rooting for me and praying for me every day. That I have true friends and family concerned about my welfare and trying to help me out. That there are people who listen to me and have gone out to help the missionary work. Thank you all. I love you more than my feeble words can describe.

All my love,

Tommy

PS I’m luckly still fat... for those who want to know.
PPS I finally broke a shoe lace too. They were the first things to go.

"Winging it" is not a missionary term

Well, this week was interesting. We had a lot of success... but also a lot of hardships. But thus is life. I really don´t know why this week impresses me like that, but it feels like one of the longer weeks of my life (but not the longest). Well, let’s start at the top.

Monday we were not going to go out and teach because we had preparation day and then a meeting with our district. But that meeting got cancelled, so we went out anyway. It was interesting working without a plan. Normally we have plans and go with the plan. "Winging it" is not a missionary term... but we did it anyway.

Tuesday we went to the temple. That was a trip! For those of you who have ever gone to the temple... you know that the feeling is amazing inside the temple. Well, the feeling was the same and I understood the Spanish better. But for some reason it felt even more wonderful to go and feel that peace. It had been so long. The best part was visiting the sealing room and seeing two huge mirrors reflecting each other. I just stood there and felt like I was seeing forever. I love the power of mirrors. I’ll send picture later.

The rest of the weekdays passed fairly uneventfully. Not to say that things didn't happen... I just mean that all the days run into each other, so I can’t remember exactly what day things happened. I just know when "p-day eve" or Sunday is... then P-day. Every other day just runs into the other. Haha... thus is life.

Some great stories for all of you out there wondering what we do.

The man that looks like me (I sent pictures). He asked for a blessing some... months back. And his daughter also. I gave the daughter hers. I felt impressed to tell her that her arm would heal, so I didn't argue and just said it. We left and I didn't hear anything about it until this week. The Hermana told me what happened. It turned out that after we left she returned to life and about a week later told her "ya know... I haven't had a problem with my arm since those boys came". I love hearing about how the priesthood has blessed people’s lives... especially when I was there to witness it.

There are a few people around here who are not having the easiest time. We sometimes randomly visit inactive people on the ward list. We had been trying to go by this one lady for some time. We finally got her number and called her. We set up an appointment and went over. She had just broken away from her abusive husband and was still struggling to get on top of things. We shared something briefly and she told us that she had thrown away everything from the gospel... Book of Mormon, folletos, all of it. So we set up another appointment to come back. When we came back she was upset and asked us to stop coming by. I think it was the next day that someone failed on us, so as we were going by her house on the way to another person... her husband ran up calling us over. We came over and he said "My wife isn't doing so well. Can you stop by?" We swung by and she was bawling her eyes out. We came in and sang. She felt the Spirit once again. So we gave her a Book of Mormon. We read and she felt really good. When we left she was basically giddy with joy. The next morning we came by again and watched the Restoration and sang some more. She was radiant with happiness. So we set up an FHE to come back and teach the family. And all of this happened in one week. Talk about a crazy roller coaster she must be going on. But in reality... she is doing great. We have learned that some people receive the Gospel... get baptized and then the missionaries get changed. Then they never hear from the missionaries or members again. It is SO important that they have the three required things (nutrients from the good word, a friend and a responsibility)... and continued visits from the missionaries.

We are also working with a member who is having troubles coming back to church. This week we went by and found her arguing with her mother. We heard them outside and clapped anyway. They let us in and we could tell they were in bad tempers. We read and prayed with them. We tried our hardest to bring the gospel light into their house and finally, right before we left, they felt it. They cheered up and started laughing. Oh the power of the laughter. Then on Sunday she came to church... for the first time in who knows how long. Dressed in her Sunday best too!

The funny thing is I'm almost out of time to write about all the others. Basically this is what we did all week. We went to people’s houses and brought the Spirit back. Especially to in-actives. We as missionaries are called to "invite others to Christ". But really, we are supposed to teach and baptize. But in some areas, the members are the ones who need the invitation. We work just as hard here in Villa Zula with the members as we do with the investigators. This week many more have realized the need to come back to church and have committed to come. People who have stopped going to church for years and years. People who have almost lost the light they once had. Though it doesn't look as wonderful as baptismal photos, it certainly does feel just as wonderful.

Little note about Easter. Here Easter is really Catholic based. A lot of people fast and stuff... and the whole Easter egg thing is kinda weird. They have chocolate eggs full of little candies. I actually learned how to do them... but it really is a lot more work than it is worth. I don't know why people do it. One interesting thing about Berisso (the actual city I'm in) is that they do a fake Crucifixion every year. We missed it because we were helping the other elders prepare for a baptism. But apparently a guy goes around town all day dressed up like Christ and carrying a cross. Then at night they tie him up to it for a few hours. Not exactly what I call fun... but interesting no...

Anyway... I’m off. Take care everyone and remember the REAL importance of why we have Easter... please.

Love you all,

Tommy

PS I’ll send picture next week.

I’m so glad I can be here.

Well, I’m um... tired. This week was crazy. It FINALLY got cold enough to make me feel cold! For the first time in about a year... I got cold. I’m loving it. I’m assuming that is the reason for why I’m so tired. The cold gives me more energy and so I’ve been working harder (in truth I don’t get more energy... I just feel more energyful).

Well, this week we worked our little tails off and found a whole ton of people. We also went around and taught with members! Really, people can’t get baptized or have a true desire to stay active if they don’t know members. So, we have really helped our investigators this week. The best part was when L. Tom Perry dropped the hammer on all the people in conference about how they need to find. I loved that. And also the part when we looked around and saw all the members squirming in their chairs. I think we`ll be getting more references and lessons with member from now on... ¡Ojela!

Well, I must admit... I didn’t see much of conference this time. We were not allowed to see anything on Saturday because we didn’t have any investigators with us. We did however see priesthood (Sunday morning recording) Most of Sunday morning and all of Sunday afternoon. It was so cool. We had a lot of inactive people come. We had a lot of success and a few really long days. I’m really trying to lose myself in the work now. I’ve realized that I can actually speak Spanish... so I’m working more and more at teaching and committing. So far... it really has been good.

Quick story because I’m short on time.
April Fool’s day... we went out tracking like always. Someone failed us... so we went to my brilliant back-up plans... which also failed us. So we were left with nothing to do for about 30 minutes. We were heading off to do contacts when we passed by an inactive members house. I had never talked to them... but I knew they were members anyway. We clapped and heard something that sounded angry. So we said thanks and started to walk away. Then we heard it again... and asked him to repeat himself. It turns out he was saying "Here"... so we came in and started talking. He is the son of a very old lady. She is a member, but he isn’t. He was sitting at a table in dim flickering lights... smoking and drinking mate. He looked like a wreck. We started talking and he told us about his problems. One thing I’ll always remember is him saying, "I’m closer now to my gun then my guitar". We taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We came back the next day... the day after and the day after. He progressed every day just a bit. He has not mentioned suicide in a while and is really interested in the gospel. He wants to stop smoking and change his life. We`re heading back soon and will teach him about baptism. I believe there are just some times when the Spirit calls you to a house where someone just needs a friend. Sometimes they just need someone to save them. I’m glad to be the one to come and do that for them. I’m so glad I can be here. The Spirit constrains me to say more... but know that I am loving helping people. This week I’ve realized what a sacrifice it is to be a missionary. And I’m glad to do it. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I love you all. I really hope everyone is doing well. Staying safe and keeping close to the Spirit. The Spirit is our only way back to real joy.

Take care... And don’t forget I love you,

Tommy