Elder Sharp

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