Well, this week had been a load of fun... but also a load of work. My companion Elder Harmon is at this moment waiting for his plane to come so that he can return from 2 years on a mission. Yes... that does feel weird. I am now companions with Elder Kushlan. He has about 4 more months then I do and is RUBIO!!! Sorry... blond. Um, we will be staying in Villa Zula and working here harder then ever before. He seems like a cool guy and I like him (again, VERY IMPORTANT). Well, because my companion left today... my last week was somewhat odd.
Monday I went to a little out of the way area and slept there for the night. I was with my Zone Leader Elder Smith because Elder Harmon and the other Zone Leader went to Capital. We didn't get together again until after district/zone meeting on Tuesday. Elder Harmon and I then returned to our area to work. We had the goal of doing 30 other lessons this week to help him finish strong. An "other lesson" in our mission is any time that we teach a principle from Preach My Gospel, leave a challenge and they promise to do something (in our area, buses and stuff don't count). 30 is about 3 times what a normal companionship does in our zone. To top it all off... it was raining almost every day (I loved it... Elder Harmon hated it). Anyway... we worked until Thursday night, when we took off and switched companions again. I went to the Zone Leaders area this time and the leaving elders took off to the temple... a special treat because we don't get to go much. We got together late Friday night and worked again Saturday. Then all of Sunday we traveled trying to find old investigators/members again before Elder Harmon left. We spent all day traveling around our mission and visiting people. When we finally got home we both just crashed. Then this morning at 5 we took off again for the transfer meetings. Needless to say, I'm tired. We didn't quite get 30 other lessons... but in only 3 days, we did get about double the norm. Well, I'm sorry if this message is a bit crazy. I blame it on the tiredness.
Cool stories: On our way to church from the train station... a man called out "you Mormons?" I stopped, realized we were in front of a Catholic church... turned around and basically said "you betchya". It turns out he had recently found a Book of Mormon and wanted to be baptized. So we invited him to church and he started walking with us. We started teaching him about what he needed to do before he could get baptized. As he was smoking, we told him we don't smoke or drink. At which he threw his cigarette on the ground and chucked his package of other cigarettes. "Fine, I’m done" he stated. We got to church and he stuck around almost the entire time. He was really cool and the Elders there will be going to teach him soon. So, that was cool.
Cool Story 2: There is no form for contacting... you have to realize that before I go on. Well... we contacted this lady who told us to come back. So we were coming back to our "finding appointment" and she wasn’t there. So we turned around heading to another destination. I turned to my companion and said, "I think we should clap here... Good people live here". My companion just laughed and said, "Sure, but its yours". So I clapped and a man came out. I said this in Spanish, "Hi, we are representatives from The Church of Jesus Christ and we pass by your house all the time. But today we want to talk to you and share a message about prophets. Is that okay?" The man just stared at me for a second and I could feel my companion already starting to turn away... at which is said "Bueno, passen". Or in other words... cool, come on in. So I walked in and turned around to see my companion standing with is mouth slightly open staring at me. We came in and taught him. Cool guy, good family. We`ll go back soon. Sometimes the simple words work best.
Cool Story 3: Transfer meetings are basically a huge gathering of about 250 or more missionaries. About half end up taking one train and the other take another. We all have it timed out as to how long it takes to get to the mission house. So, we normally all end up on the same train... even if we live miles apart. Anyway. We got on the train at about 6 today and had a 3 hour ride to the mission house. During the ride an elder pulled out his Ukulele (little guitar from Hawaii... I can’t spell). Because of the fact that there were about 100 missionaries on the train... we started singing and passing out pamphlets. Five of us were doing it and because of that... about 1000 people on the train all got to hear a little of the gospel and all the other missionaries had people coming up to the asking them about the gospel with a pamphlet in hand. It was amazing. I felt good. Oh the power of a few tired, bored kids with a message and musical instrument. :D
Okay... those are just some good stories. I’m not sure what else to say. Any questions? It has been some time since I’ve got any.
Well, I’m going to get going and start the long trip home. Wish me well... Sometime when I get home I’ll tell you all about traveling in Argentina... it is pretty fun stuff. But alas, there is no time today... nor will I remember next week. That is, unless someone ASKES me about it.
I love you all. Keep your Spirits up,
Elder Tommy Steinkuhler
PS Boom Digidy.
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