June 17, 2013

Hey everyone,

How are things going back home?  Things are going pretty well here.  We are working really hard to be able to help the people here the very best that we can.  I really like what we are doing right now because it's actually pretty different from what I've done for most of my mission.  We are working a lot in strengthening the branch which means working a lot with the members, especially the less active members and the members who are somewhat weak.  It means that we spend a lot of time visiting members and helping them to be able to make the changes in their lives that they need to make to be able to return to full activity in the church.  I think that it is actually a really good preparation for other responsibilities that I could have further on when I may need to work more with members to help strengthen them and help them to feel the blessings of the Gospel more in their lives.

One experience that was really great this past week happened yesterday.  We have been working with a man who used to be the branch president here.  However, for problems with his health, work, and other members, he stopped coming to church.  We have been working with him for a while, and he had told us that he would come with us to church this week because he didn't have to work.  However, we passed by his house a half hour before church started yesterday, and he told us that he wasn't going to be able to go because he had had problems with receiving his paycheck so he could buy new dress shoes, and his old ones were too small.  We tried to reason with him for a while trying to convince him why he should go no matter what he wore.  But despite everything, he stayed strong in his determination that he wouldn't go like that.  My companion then told him to bring his dress shoes.  When he brought them, my companion took off his shoes, and put on the member's shoes.  However, the shoes were still too small.  So then I took off my shoes so that he could try them on.  And guess what, they fit!  So I put on my companion's shoes and the member put on mine.  He then quickly got ready and decided that he would go.  We could definitely tell that he really had a lot of fear, since he hadn't been to church in a while and wasn't sure how people would react.  I think that was a big part of the reason why he didn't want to go to church.  However, in the end, he realized that that was the most important thing that he could do, and he came with us.  After sacrament meeting, he had to leave, but he told us that he was really grateful for all that we had done to help him come back to church.  We took a picture with him outside the church, and hopefully he will continue taking the necessary steps to return fully to church.

Yesterday, we also had a good experience for Father's day.  We went with a family that we are working a lot with here in the branch.  They have a house that is really on the side of a mountain, which is cool because there is no one else around.  It actually reminded me a lot of going up north.  Things are just calm and relaxed there, away from everything.  They even have llamas!!  Haha.  But yeah it was a nice way to be able to celebrate Father's Day.

Well I hope that everything is going well back home.  It is awesome to see that Curtis is back home and happy.  And I was really surprised by Matthew in the pictures as well... he's really changed a lot!!!

Elder Stollenwerk