November 19, 2012

Hey everyone,

How are things going back home?  Things are going pretty well here.  I
guess I will start off with the exciting news from last night.  So we
were sitting home getting ready for bed at around 11:15 or so when all
of a sudden we hear a bunch of gunshots.  18 to be exact.  I realized
that it's kind of funny how you will just automatically start counting
the number of gunshots when you start to hear them.  It was weird
though because they just kept going.  I was ready for them to stop,
but they just kept shooting off at random short intervals.  It
probably lasted a good 30 or 40 seconds with those gunshots.  I'm just
happy that I was inside.  Chances are that they were probably just
some drunk people shooting a gun off into the sky.  So that's why you
don't stay out too late.  It's much better to hear gunshots when your
inside a house than when you are in the street.

Alright now the real good news.  This last Saturday we had a
baptism!!!  Her name is Scarlett, and she is 11 (almost 12) years old. 

She is really great.  She is the distant cousin of a recent convert
in our ward.  From the beginning she was always really excited about
going to church, learning, and participating the activities with the
youth.  The nice thing was that her mom and her grandma were able to
go to the baptism as well.  I think it was a really good experience
for them.  They seemed to be touched by the Spirit as they were there.
So... hopefully we will be able to start teaching them more soon.
One thing that I really enjoy doing at baptisms is doing special
musical numbers.  It is fun to be able to use my talents and share
them with other people.  I realized that so far, in every baptism that
I have had, I have done a special musical number.

Now the only problem is that there are not a lot of really strong
investigators that we are teaching.  There are some good people, but
we definitely have to do more to be able to help them start
progressing, learning, and making changes in their lives.  We will
really be working hard to help some of these new people even more.

Well have a great week everyone, and I will see you later.

Elder Stollenwerk