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!!!

showdown between the towns people and the cops

This week has been crazy! I was a good little elder and wrote down things to tell you all about. But truth be told this week was super interesting, so it would be hard not to be able to write something. First of all, thank you for all of your ideas... it really has helped me to get an outlook of what I am writing. I’ll try to include them in my next letters. But all in all I’ve decide to be a little more explanatory about our dealings in the everyday world. So I might be including some more interesting and colorful details... but I do so believing that no one will worry about my health. :)

There has been this slight problem going on in our area for the past few days. There is this huge field in the middle of our area. There are a lot of people who decided to take that field for their own and put houses on it (which is obviously illegal). We were returning home late one night and saw a ton of people out in this dark field putting up lines and burning grass... so we asked what was going on and they told us that people wanted to put up homes there. Turns out that they got caught because the next day there were a ton of police and everyone was sitting around the field waiting for the police to leave. Well, they are still there. It has been like a week. It is this showdown between the towns people and the cops to see who will leave first. People have basically set up a little city there with a soup kitchen and tents and fires and everything. The area is totally unrecognizable. Every time we go by there people yell at us and stuff. It is so weird... the middle of our area is just SO different. But hey, what can you do?

This week was our ward conference... the relief society president was in charge of putting together about 35 little wagons. Well, I went over and helped her sew and glue and get things ready. It turned into this big problem, but it was nice to help and use my talents.

Speaking of talents. My companion and I were asked to help with the ward choir... so every night this week we had to walk to our church and practice (so we’ve been getting home like an hour and a half late every night this week). I started out with the melody part to help them... then I was moved to the Alto part... then Tenor, then Bass.... The choir was small and needed a lot of help. In the end my companion sang tenor and I directed! It was so weird teaching people how to sing and then directing them... I am so not a director, but we got a lot better with me directing. No one knew how to direct or sing... so I was like a music king within the members... it was funny. And on Sunday they sounded pretty good. Not as well as we had practiced, but good all the same. It could be that they were all in shock from seeing a train wreck on the way to the church (I’m telling you... we had the weirdest week). There was this dumb person who tried to beat the train and lost... No offence to the people here... but they don’t know how to drive.

It is super cold! All of the sudden it got really cold, especially at night. It was really hot one day, then the next we needed coats. Go figure.

We are teaching some amazing people now. We were praying to be able to find someone to be able to baptize this transfer but we were not able to find anyone super ready until recently. Two Sundays ago this inactive member and his family just show up in church. I sit with him thinking he is an active member (because I’m still new) and find out that he was inactive for like 4 years and felt called back. He has twin daughters of the age of 9. So next week we will be baptizing them and another wonderful lady by the name of Karina. Elder Chatwin really wanted to baptize his last transfer and it looks like we will have at least 4 this transfer. YEAH!!!!
We also found this other lady named Mari who is just super ready, but she needs to get divorced and then married. I don’t know if I’ll be around when she gets baptized. But we found her and she is just GOLDEN! She came to church yesterday and loved it. She has 9 kids and stays home all the time. She loves reading and has already read a lot of the Book of Mormon... she read all of Moroni between visits because she liked the book so much. I love her, she is really great. She wants all of her kids to get baptized and become like the members of the church. She is just so wonderful.

I had a question about marriages. Here is the deal. Most people don’t get married here. And if they do, they get separated quickly and getting a divorce takes upwards of six months to a year with a cost of 1000 to 3000 pesos... which is what most people make in 6 months. It is really hard to get divorced and with everyone wanting divorces, people always think that it is just better to live together without any legal attachments. People don’t see the importance of marriage. They all say that they are married in their hearts and that is all that matters. Well, before the eyes of God they are in sin... so the people we teach really need a strong testimony to get married before baptism... because if they are living together and not married they can’t get married... that whole law of chastity thing.

I also had a question about what the standards (or goals) of the mission are... so here is a quick overview:

1 baptism weekly
8 overall fechas
2 new fechas
5 investigators in the sacrament meeting
10 lessons with member present
30 other lessons
10 lessons to inactives/recent converts
12 new investigators
2-3 divisions (depending on companionship)
20 references contacted
50 contacts

That all probably doesn’t make any since... but if you read Preach My gospel it will make a lot more since.

Okay... I need to dash. But I’ll work on my next weekly update for you all.

I love you,

E. Tommy Steinkuhler


PS I’ll be calling home for Mother’s Day. Probably after church here... at like 1 PM here... or perhaps later if it would be better... let me know. The thing is that mother’s day is my companions last day on the mission... so I don’t know if I will be able to call at a reasonable time. So let me know what you want and I’ll think about it and let you know.
PPS I’m happy.

We’ve only had Tinkerbell for 5 days

las fotos de la zona Villa Elvira Bis

We have had a really long week... and I don’t know why... perhaps it is because Mother´s Day is around the corner, or because I’m going home soon... but I don’t have any desire to write home anymore. I’m sorry if my letters are really lame, but I just don’t feel it anymore. For that very reason I wrote down a few things this week that I wanted to share with you all. But none of them are very good.

We were supposed to baptize again this week, but she got super attacked by her family and ex-pastors. She had a really rough week and on Saturday when we went to fill the baptismal font, a member met us there and told us she had decided to put it off. BUMMER!!!! But we talked to her and everything is good again. In a few weeks she will be going through with it. It was really cool though because she asked me to give her the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We asked her who she wanted to baptize her and give her the Holy Ghost. She doesn’t know many male members... so she looked at me and said... you seem to have a lot of experience with the Holy Ghost, will you give me the Holy Ghost? I laughed inside but was really highly happy.

A little note about the church... it is in the middle of the most ghetto city ever. It is funny because on one side there are these old smelly houses and the other side is a construction cite... and in the middle is a house of God.

 Sorry... no time this week. Next week more.
Love ya

__________________________________________

Turns out I do have more time.

Here is a tidbit more about what we are doing. My life has been so overwhelmed with the mission standards that I don't do much else but focus on getting the standards. We put the goal to get all the standards this week... we were so close. I don't know why we call them standards, because they are so high that only one area in the entire mission has gotten them... and only once! We of course want to be cool too... so we are working for it. But with all the meetings we have as zone leaders and all the other... "ish" we need to do, it is hard (is "ish" used in the states?). So we are super tired. It is funny because at the end of the week we just can’t do anything because we are so tired. It is obvious with our words. We are often found teaching on any Sunday afternoon in a weird Spanglish slur that people don't understand. We mix up words and don't get doctrines across right. That is why God sent us out two by two. Elder Chatwin and I are having a great time together.

This week we were able to find some really super awesome families. We found this one lady who has 10 children... 9 girls and one boy. She is just waiting for the truth. She was a reference from one of the members. We simply asked her what her neighbors names were and what she knew about them. This member is not very social but had lived there in that house for about 10 years. So gave us a list of names and we visited a few. Some were good, others not so much... but this one lady is simply prepared. Her name is Mari. She lives in humble circumstances and works diligently to keep up their home of 15 people. We’ve only visited her twice, but she is wonderful. She already believes the Book of Mormon is true and wants to go to church. Not many people are that prepared in one week. She is just lovely. The truth is that finding people like her and so many other prepared people is really what keeps the excitement of the work up. We love our work because the people here love God. It is hard to explain, but I'm really happy to see so many of God’s chosen children become closer to him through what the true church has to offer.

I’ve also got some other news. Some interesting news. It all has to do with animals. Our pinch here is huge! And has been rented by missionaries for forever. There are some things that go so far back no missionary in the mission knows where it came from. For example. There is a dog that lives in the yard. Her name is Margarita. She is a short, long, fat, deaf dog with few teeth. Everyone assumes she is the house owner’s dog. But we don’t know. All we know is that we don’t feed her, and no one ever has... but yet she lives on... fat¿! She is funny. She knows not to enter the house and is truly a nasty dog, so gets very little love. But she is always around when we get home. Also, people here don’t get their animals fixed. So there are a lot of unwanted animal pregnancies. So there are a lot of unwanted animals in the streets. Most die... it is the sad truth of South American countries. I’ve often found kittens or puppies in the street and helped them out. We clean them up and find them a nice home before anything weird happens to them. This week we found the cutest little kitten. So we brought her home and cleaned her up. We even named her... Tinkerbell. We have been trying to find a family for her, but 3 member families have recently had kittens in their homes and don’t want them or any other cats. So, I don’t know what to do. We have a precious kitten that we can’t let outside because of the dog and we can’t find a home for her... I’m totally unsure as to what we are going to do with her. I’ll keep you updated. The truth is that she is adorable and super friendly. We’ve grown really fond of her. It makes us happy to come home and see her there waiting. The more time that goes by and we can’t find a home for her I get the feeling that the same thing happened with Margarita... but we’ve only had Tinkerbell for 5 days... so I’m not too worried yet.

I finished The Book of Mormon again this week. I then re-started Jesus the Christ because I’ve only read a few chapters. It is good reading. I wouldn’t say that it is as good as the Book of Mormon, but it is good.

Well, I’m out of here.

Love you all,
Tommy

PS Like I said earlier... I’m dying out on my letter writing. Can you please send me some suggestions. Like questions or whatnot.

We’ve been running and running and running (or, speed walking)

I’ll be honest with you all... I have no desires to write home. This week was too complicated. We have been working the very skin off of our feet. We baptized this week and made a lot of other progress in the area. The President has said that all the Zone Leaders need to be getting the standards of the mission. One of those standards is baptizing every week! I know that the Lord is making it possible and working for us, but it is killing me.

We took out a baptismal fecha with this family we found a few weeks ago. But they need to get married. So last night we went by and told them that if they wanted to get baptized they needed to get married (a usual problem for us missionaries, so we know how to resolve it). We asked them to pray about it and tell us what they think. The mother was all for it... the father was iffy. He told us that he would pray and tell us in the morning. Well... that would be this morning. BUT to have them get baptized by the goal we have placed... they need to take out the marriage date today. So I woke up at 4 in the morning... took a bus to Varela and got in line with another Elder. At 7 my companion and another elder went to the house of these investigators... I wasn't there, but apparently he said no. So I’m tired and bummed out today. We’ve been working craziness like this all week. It is really wonderful and spiritual, but I’m tired. Every day this week has been like that, we’ve been putting our faith in action and have seen a lot of success. We took out 51 references this week, baptized, did intercambios, and 3 new fechas. I know that is all nothingness to you all... but it means a lot of work to me. We’ve been running and running and running (or, speed walking) and seeing a lot of success.

The baptism we had was super chill. The man was totally calm and happy, even though his family didn’t come. Elder Chatwin and I were talking about him this week and noticed something. We both noticed that he has pure eyes. We looked into his eyes and saw pure humility and charity. He is full of pure light. I have had the blessing of seeing changes in people... but even more than the changes, the thing I am most grateful for is being led by God to prepared people. There are some people who have been so prepared that when we find them they basically jump into the water. Then again, there are some who need to be given a tranquilizer before baptism. This week we will be having another baptism. She is one of those really prepared people. I’ve grown to love her a lot. Her name is Karina... I’ll try to send pictures next week of everything. The computers here are really slow. And I want to take a nap before leaving to work today... I’m really tired (HA sometimes I do tell you all when I’m not perfect).

Along those lines, I should probably apologize for not writing all of everything in my life. I’ve been reprimanded by quite a few people in the past few weeks for not "telling the whole truth". I’m sorry. If you have any questions... I’ll be happy to answer them. Feel free to ask.

Love you all,
Tommy

PS I’m not depressed... just super tired. I think I came off as bummed out... sorry.

Did you realize Im a Zone Leader? I went to my first Jedi Council EVER! It was fun.

This was a way long week. We did so many things that I don't know where to start. Hmm... let me explain some more about my companion and the pinch (apartment). Elder Chatwin is one of my favorite people ever... he is fun and crazy all at the same time. He teaches and testifies powerfully and has a strong desire to share the gospel. But at the same time he is totally wak! We laugh almost all day. Our personalities blend perfectly together. In our pinch there are four elders. One of them is brand new and on his second day in the country (my third day as companions with Elder Chatwin) he asked me how long we had been companions. He was shocked beyond words to hear that we had only been together for 3 days. The truth is that it feels like a month ago that I last wrote you... but in that monthly-week, Elder Chatwin and I have become great friends. I respect and love him until the end.

Our pinch is a huge old dirty house. It has two levels. They are separate and the only way to get from upstairs to down is by the stairs on the side. The upstairs hosts 2 elders: Elder Day and his new companion Elder Taylor. Downstairs we find the Zone Leaders and a mess of old objects left by all the missionaries who went home. The Zone Leaders have lived in this pinch for about 5 years straight... and never have time to clean or anything. Elder Chatwin has lived in the pinch multiple times and said that he has never seen the place cleaned. Needless to say I’ve spent long hours scrubbing and washing EVERYTHING. I thought about taking pictures to send you all but then realized that I don't want to scare you... nor do I want memories. The place is fairly clean now though. We have a couch too!!! I would not call it sanitary though, but there is a couch. OH, and a dog! She belongs to the owner of the house. My first question was who feeds her... and my companion told me that he has wondered that for over a year. She is cute and small and deaf. She reminds me of an uglier Violet.

This week we really started to pump up our work. The elder that I replaced just went home. And his last transfer he wasn't able to baptize. Elder Chatwin said that he didn't want to go home like that... so we have been working our tails off to baptize every week. We couldn't do it this week because of conference, but next week yes and the week after also. I love the ward. Our area is TINY. It is about 10 square blocks. It is so small, but full of humble people. WONDERFUL and humble people. There are no large buildings or restaurants or anything. We can’t live in our area because there is no place to rent. There is also this huge field that is technically our area... but there are only cows. The members are great and want to help us. It is obvious that they all have their problems as well... but they all want to help. I love righteous people!!! (not to say that I don’t love the non-righteous people).

Conference was amazing also. It was the first one I could watch all 4 sessions of during the mission. I loved it terribly. Elder Holland was wonderfully blunt again. Elder Bednar spoke to my soul again. And all the other talks were perfect. A lot of hidden talent. I was surprised at the family theme that was apparently not planned for according to Elder Anderson. I was able to watch most of it in English too. In Spanish it just isn’t the same. Some of the speakers do their talks in Spanish beforehand and we can hear their voice... but it isn’t the same. I love to hear the expressions and feelings of the people.

I had someone kind of give me bit of grief about not being straight up with you all. I am not only with the Zone Leader... but I am one too. For some crazy reason the President has asked me to be a Zone Leader... It is craziness... but I’ve accepted and am working hard to be the zone leader I always wanted. So I’ve been somewhat scatter brained recently. I apologize if I’m a little out of it from now till the end of the mission. I’ve got a lot on my mind.

In any case... I know that I love you all. I miss you and pray for you. Have fun this week.

Elder Tommy Steinkuhler

PS It is getting cold.

I am now in El Triangulo (The triangle)

So, this week was fun. We did a lot of things in preparation for a talent show we held on Friday. But before I talk about that... you should all know that I got transferred again. I’m no longer in Villa Zula. I am now in El Triangulo (The triangle). I’m really excited about this transfer, but terribly scared. The President kept me as junior companion... so I guess I don’t have to be District Leader anymore. And I know I will learn a lot this transfer because my companion is about to finish the mission. This is his last transfer and he is Zone Leader... so I’m sure I’ll learn a lot with him. His name is Elder Chatwin. I don’t have a picture of him because my camera is still packed up. But he was in The RM... so if you want to see what he looked like like 5 years ago... watch the movie. He is one of the twin brothers of the main character. The twin of my companion is in the Buenos Aires North mission. He is really cool. He was in my first zone. So I already know him a bit. The truth is that I’m super excited. I hear that our area is all villa... or ghetto. So we will be teaching humble people. That is a cool idea for me. No more city-ish areas. I’ll probably finish my mission here in this area.

In other news... I am changing my e-mail. The rules in the mission have changed. I can no longer use gmail. So please e-mail me at thomas.steinkuhler@myldsmail.net from now on. I’m not sure if that is the real address. So just to be safe, e-mail me at both from now on... please.

This last week we had a lot of success. We taught a lot with the members and took out a wonderful fecha. It feels so good leaving an area in good conditions. And the talent show we did was a blast. It was like going out with a bang. I did some magic and my companion read minds. We were the magicians. Others sang, some danced or drew. The truth is that I really enjoyed it. The saddest part about the week was saying goodbye to everyone again. But it was good because I said goodbye once and could see them again... perhaps God will grant me another chance.

I’m doing fantastic and will send more information next week. But right now I need to go and find my new pinch. Sorry this is a short one again.

Love you all,
Elder Steinkuhler

PS I’ve visited my new pinch before... it is HUGE!!!! :)