06/02/2010

Hey Family and Friends,
Things are going good. Confirmations: 8, Week 18, 10 behind. Wyoming
is harder than Salt Lake City. Its all good though. I really, really,
really appreciate the care package you guys sent. I was in a really
bad mood that day. We went from having no time (because there was so
much work in Salt Lake City; we could not even visit all of our
referalls) to having pretty much nothing to do most of the time except
tracting and getting referalls from leadership / members. They are
experimenting with my companion and I. They split an area, and gave us
one of the split pieces; the piece that had the least amount of work.
The mission president told us that he was going to give us a
challange, and they are basically trying to see if this area is
capable of producing baptisms by itself. The goal they set for us is
one a week. We have baptisms coming up, but are trying to replenish
our teaching pool so it will be sustainable, because after they are
baptized, we will have very few people to teach. And during our weekly
sport, my companion got mad because I got him out in scatterball (a
version of dodgeball) he ran into me from behind so I shoved him and
threw a punch at his face but he backed up. He left the gym for about
2 hours but we ended up resolving everything. So I really appreciated
the package. Seriously. Thanks so much you guys. I love you guys. I
have to go. My companion is waiting. Talk to you all later.
Love Sterling

May 10, 2010

Hey Everyone,
How are all of you doing? Things are going great here. We have had six
baptisms so far on the mission and our seventh is this Saturday.
Transfers are next Wednesday and I don't know whether I will stay in
this area or go somewhere else. I only have a few minutes to write. We
are going golfing with the mission president today. It was a reward
for our zone reaching 23 baptisms last month. Pretty cool. There are
some awesome people I have met since I have been out here. Who your
companion is, along with whoever is in your district and zone really
influences how much you enjoy the mission. Anyways, does anyone know
what my blog address is? I actually don't know it. I have some awesome
videos for it though. I better go. I love you guys, and I always
appreciate (extremely) your letters, e-mails and everything else you
do. Talk to you later,
Love Sterling

p.s.

Hey Everyone,
I wrote my main e-mail earlier today, then we went bowling for
preparation day, and now we are back at the family history center. I
was wondering if anyone could look for a book that taught the basics
of how to learn Arabic. If you could find one, that would be awesome.
Something that covers basic grammer, characters, simple phrases etc.
Easy difficulty, not moderate or hard, but not a book with 2 pages
that says only "Hi , bye, etc." Anyways, someone got upset for me
being on the computer. Got to go.
Love Sterling

Hey Family & Friends,
How is everyone doing? Things are going good here. We have 2 baptisms
scheduled for this weekend. The same people I mentioned last week,
Faten & Majedah Ghanem. Mission Weeks start on Monday. Baptisms: 3,
Week: 13, Difference: 10. So I am way behind :( . After this weekend
(next Monday) Baptisms: 5, Week: 14, Difference: 9. Currently, we have
4 people on date for baptism right now, and 8 people who are ready to
be baptized without a set date yet. Things are going great. Everyone
makes fun of the Salt Lake City mission. Very few people (even here)
know that it is the highest baptizing mission in the world. Actually
we fight with SLC South and Provo for first. It goes back and forth
between those three every year. The average missionary in the SLC
mission baptizes about 50 people within the 2 years they are here,
which totally kills other missions. The key word is average. The
average missionary (worldwide) baptizes 1.86 people (round up to two
to be courteous.) Hahahahaha. Just kidding. Our success comes from
referalls, which comes from members. Too bad. I was hoping it was just
my awesome teaching skills, but it isnt. Things are going good though.
Thank you all so much for your prayers, e-mails, letters and
everything else you do. It really, really helps. I am very grateful
for my family and friends. Thanks again everyone. Talk to you later,
Sterling

Hey Everyone,
Things are going pretty good. We have 2 baptisms this weekend. Pretty
cool! Hopefully they go through. If they do then I will only be... 9
baptisms behind... Lol! Jennifer is getting baptized, along with
Salaha. They are both pretty awesome. Guess what though. We have
baptisms scheduled for next weekend! Yeah! I am going to send my SD
Card back pretty soon, so you will get to see Stacy (10 year old girl
we baptized) along with the next 2 baptisms that are coming up. I will
take pictures of all of them. Maybe Nat & Joe will put them on the
blog. What was the blog URL again? Things are much easier than the
first transfer. My new companion is much more relaxed. With my last
companion, we would get in random arguments sometimes. We were talking
about cars. I mentioned the term "timing belt". He said "Do you mean
timing chain?" I said " No timing belt, you know, the belt that runs
from the engine shaft to the camshaft". He told me that there were
only chains and that "any engineer who used a belt would be a total
idiot because it would slip and destroy the engine". So we asked
someone else and they were like "Most cars use timing belts". There
was another day when we were copying something. It copied wrong. I
changed a setting to fix it and was ready to hit copy. He said "no,
let me look through the settings first." I said I already  fixed it. I
went to copy it and he stopped me. We argued heavily for about 30
seconds and finally I just hit copy in the middle of his sentence. It
came out perfect. Then I arrogantly threw it in his face (which was
wrong). Nothing like that has happened in this transfer with my new
companion. Before, it was constant (well every other day or so.) I
also became really upset when he told me to stop playing "The Spirit
of God" on the piano. Apparently the mission presidents wife said that
we cant play the second song in the hymnbook because it is too sacred.
I told him that that rule was not, in any way, Gods will, but that it
was entirely her opinion. He said "Are you going to pick and choose
which commandments you obey?" And he used the word "obedience" about
30 times in the conversation. And then he used the scripture talking
about the 2000 stripling warriors, and how they obeyed "with
exactness". I told him that God could care less if I played that song,
and that if he did, I would be willing to confess my mistake to him,
repent, and then pay the horrible price of playing the second song in
the hymnbook. I basically told him that he was full of garbage and
that the prophets and apostles instituted the hymnbook for the
members, not the other way around. I also said that the mission
presidents wife was "overriding" the entire church by telling us we
could not play it, and then elaborated heavily on that point. In the
scriptural sense, he was "straining at gnats and swallowing camels."
And then I brought up multiple events that proved my point directly
(which he could not deny). After I destroyed his argument, he fell
back on the word "obedience", and kept repeating "are you going to
choose which commandments you obey?" Then I brought up a long list of
commandments he did not obey, along with almost every missionary out
here. That made him angry. It got to the point where we were yelling,
mainly because A. He didn't win the argument and B. I was tired of
taking whatever he decided to throw on me. Before that point I had
been submitting to what he told me to do. Pretty funny now, but
frustrating at the time. That happened a lot. I have a lot of work to
do when it comes to becoming more humble. I really am not humble.
Especially when things like that would happen. I have a lot of things
I need to work on. I am just extremely happy now that I am out of that
situation, and that we are having success. I attribute it only to God.
I have not found any of the people who are getting baptized. They all
came to us. God has blessed us. Thanks for your letters and e-mails.
Thanks for your prayers. It all really, really helps and I appreciate
it a lot. Have a great week everyone.
Love Sterling