April 22, 2013

Hello everyone,

How are things going back home?  I have some exciting news for this week.  I am now in a NEW SECTOR.  Something that I'm sure you will all be glad about is that now I am in the Paniahue Branch in Santa Cruz.  So that means that all I had to do is change study rooms.  It was a pretty drastic change.  I almost changed beds, but I realized that I like the bed where I am sleeping now and decided against it.  Haha.  I am very excited to be able to serve here.  I am with Elder Saucedo, a Mexican missionary from Hermosillo, Sonora.  He was actually with me in a trio a few weeks ago when his companion returned home after finishing his mission.  But in a weird twist of events, he ended up getting sent to Santiago with a new companion and a new sector.  However, that only ended up lasting a week before they sent him back here.  It's actually pretty complicated, but I'm super excited to be with him.  We get along really well, and we both have a lot of excitement to get to work here.  We are here to help strengthen the branch because it has really been struggling recently, with only around 20-25 people going to church each week.  But we are going to work hard to be able to see some real improvement here.  It definitely won't be easy, but the greatest experiences never are.

With my leaving the sector, we had a farewell in the house of the branch president for me and two other sister missionaries who left the branch today.  It was really great.  I think that there were around 50 members, or maybe more, that all came to spend some time together.  I am convinced that little activities like that work miracles to help strengthen a branch and the unity between its members.  The best part is that I am literally right next door, so I will continue to see many of the members of the branch from time to time. They told me that I need to let them know when I am going to leave this branch so that they can have a real farewell for me.

Honestly, I love the people here.  They are absolutely amazing.  There are definitely problems, and I have come to realize how much problems between members can damage the unity and trust of a branch and really destroy the spirituality of those members.  I have definitely learned a lot that will be very important if I ever have a leadership responsibility in the future.

I hope that everything is going great back home.  Keep working hard.  Stay close to the Lord, and you will surely see many miracles.

Take care,

Elder Stollenwerk