June 24, 2013

Mission changes in the air...

Hey there,

How are things going back home?  Things are going pretty well here.  As you know, I have been here in a struggling branch, working hard with Elder Saucedo to help see some growth here in a branch that hasn't improved much over the years.  And the great thing is that we are finally starting to see some great results.  We had 2 members that we have been working with come to church for the first time yesterday along with several other people that we have been helping.  We have even seen changes in the branch president, who is now very excited for the changes that he is seeing in the branch.  Hopefully things will be able to keep improving, and we will be able to see deep, lasting changes in this branch. 

This week has been full of fun experiences.  We had a conference on Tuesday with the mission president.  He gave us his final message and said goodbye to all of us.  It was a really great, spiritual experience.  At the end there were some special musical numbers and they asked me to sing, so I sang the song that I sang for the Christmas devotional.  I feel like it went really well.  [On a side note, Elder Archuleta came up to me afterwards and congratulated me on the song.  That will always make you feel good, when a professional singer tells you that you did well :) haha].

Then last night we had a worldwide training broadcast about missionary work.  It was a really great meeting that really helped motivate me to work even harder here.  It is crazy to see all of the changes that are happening now in regards to missionary work, and I feel like there is a really great urgency to move forward at a much more rapid pace.  It will be really interesting to see how everything ends up working out.

But that is about all for now.  I hope things are going great back home.  I'll see you later.

Elder Stollenwerk