Week 46: Tuesday April 22, 2014

Family,

   Wow, the letters this week were #1! I laughed my head off when I saw the picture that Jazzy posted... & even harder when I read the comments!  I agree with Ryan. I don't think there's any doubt that I win.

   Easter weekend sounded like a blast! I'm bummed that I missed it, but it sounds like you were all pretty scattered out anyways. It kills me every time I see a picture of Dax. He is getting so big & he is so cute! His facial expressions are priceless. I can't wait to play with him when I get home!

   This week has been kind of up & down. The work has been wonderful! We had two of our investigators attend church this week & they are showing a great desire to follow the gospel. One of them, Mariel, would already be baptized, but her husband is in the military & away from home right now. Before she can be baptized they have to be married, so it's just a waiting game at this point. I'm not sure exactly when he'll get home, but he still has another year or two it sounds like. She has a lot of support though. All of her in-laws are very active & she attends church with them every Sunday. She shared her testimony with us about the Book of Mormon & it was such a great experience. The other investigator, Anthony, is a 14 year old boy & also attended with Mariel & their family. I have found that generally, if you can convert 1 or 2 families in a small place like that, generally everyone else will be willing to listen & tends to get converted as well. It's pretty cool.

   The down part is that I got sick this week! I suppose I'm pretty lucky that I made it 1 year without getting sick. I'm even luckier that it only lasted about 1 day, & I wasn't really that sick. I felt like I was going to throw up, but I didn't actually end up doing so. I just had really bad stomach cramps & nausea. I didn't have anything to eat for a few days, but I don't eat that much anyway so that wasn't really difficult. Even back home I feel like I didn't eat as much as other people.

   Another "up" of the week is that Elder Uata, my MTC companion, has been working with us in our area for the last 3 days. His companion is going home this transfer & had to go to Manila for a few days to get some security things done. It has been such a blast working with him & talking to him! Like a shared in a previous e-mail, even though we had a very rough start in the MTC, I have come to love & appreciate him so much. He has been my favorite companion that I have had, hands down.

   We have another zone activity this week. We are going to play ultimate frisbee, soccer, basketball, etc. so I am pretty excited about that. It should be really fun. I forgot my cord to put my pictures on the computer, so you'll just have to wait another week. I took some really pictures last week at the big tree.

  I love you guys! I am excited to talk to you again in just a few weeks!

Elder Staheli