MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

HELLO WORLD!!!

Merry almost Christmas. That also means I’ll be calling home soon. I HOPE my family has that all planned out. I’m not sure what minute exactly I’ll be calling. But around 11-3 WA time. I’ll be calling second. So basically whenever my companion is done... I’ll go.

OH!!! We just had transfers today. I’m staying in El Cruce with Elder Hakes. Which is cool but I kind of want to go out into the world if you know what I mean!!! Haha, all is well though. I’m excited to stay in "my" area for Christmas. We have 4 people almost ready for baptism and more progressing.

Well, this week was really HOT!!! It was fun and exciting. But HOT! We ended up walking a lot again. You`d think that people would let us in because of the heat. But there was a soccer game on, so no one wanted to be bothered. But it was chill... in the cool kind... or um? awesome. That is a better word. I’m really working off my baby fat... or whatever you want to call it. Lucky for me, my face refuses to change. And because I probably say that every time... remind me not to talk about it again.

I recently received two packages!!! TODAY!!! I opened one from the Whites and have to say... THANK YOU!!! I love recipes and music. Perfect. Thank you. The one from my Mother I will open on Christmas. Thank you all though. I really do feel in the spirit of Christmas now.

Well, I had a request for a day in the life of. So... since this week was a tiny bit slow... I’ll do that this week. So... every day is the same. At 7 we wake up and are supposed to work out. But... um, we don’t. I normally take that time to eat and fill the shower tank and heat it up. Our water system in THIS pinch is a little old fashioned. Almost all others are normal. But this one has a tank (that currently we fill up with a hose connected to the only water source we have) and needs to be heated up for awhile. So we do that while we eat and study. My companion takes a shower... then we refill and reheat. And I take a shower. During this time we study the scriptures and Preach My Gospel personally. Then we do companion studies. During this time we talk about what news our investigators have and finish off planning for the day. Then at 10:30 after we are all prepared we take off and go working.

If we have set appointments we go to those. If not we go to either find or swing by investigators/families of members. Really, we strive to be lead by the spirit if we don’t have a plan. Which happens often. So, we do that until about 1. At which point we eat for an hour (either we cook and eat... or eat with members and teach them). Lunch is the biggest meal here. Then we study the language for an hour while all of Argentina is napping. Seriously... EVERYONE!!! They take about a 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day. So we use that time to eat and study some more. Then we have about an hour of really slow tracking because everyone is asleep. But we got some work done there. Anyway. After language studies we work more. Appointments or whatnot. Every day of the week we have something special... like district meetings or ward meetings... something like that. So sometimes that changes. But normally that is what we do. Normally we work though dinner... or eat with members. We walk almost everywhere. So we don’t go back to the pinch much because it takes too much time.

After working a long day, we head back to the pinch at 9:30 to 10... depending on whether we are teaching or not. Then we call people for the next day’s appointments and plan the next day. While doing this we normally cook something up and then head to bed. It sounds kind of lame. But all that time I just throw in there as ¨work¨ is really when we are seeing the miracles of this work. We see people being healed... people finding truths in their lives... we serve people... all sorts of things. For ejemplo.... this week we cut a really poor ladies lawn. With Macheties (spelling?). I think scissors would be faster... but it was good. I really felt the love of God when we did it. I also darkened my already really dark skin. In truth, this time of working is the best. Also when we plan... we hear the spirit whispering to us who to teach... and when we show up we find out why we needed to visit.

This week we were walking and I was like... We really need to go see Alan. So my companion was like... okay. We swung by and it turned out that earlier that day he got in a fight with his girlfriend... kind of fiancé. He ended up smashing his guitar and ransacking his own house. We talked to him and he really was calm when we left. He hadn’t had faith in God before that... but I think this experience really changed his outlook. We will find out in a few minutes when we visit him. He has changed a lot and we have seen this change come over him. I just hope we are able to always hear the Spirit and help him to God.

Um... Mondays are our p-day. We work on these days... but normally only after 6:30. The rest of the day is full of clothes cleaning and pinch cleaning and buying food... and that sort of stuff. Only the best... right. And it always seems that we do something difference. But I always email... right.

Well, I’m off to go do the work of God. Wish me luck. Sorry no photos. But I’ll be calling on Christmas to make up for it. Probably 12:30ish.

I love you all.
Elder Steinkuhler

PS MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!