Email from 12.28.09

Well there isn't really anything to report since I have told you everything already on the phone on Christmas. So I'm going to tell you about a family we have been teaching. I just call it Mary's family or the Mary clan. Because there are 8 kids and Mary and I think there is a dad somewhere I just haven't seen him. Anyways, they are going to be baptized on Tuesday pretty cool huh? I will be baptizing 4 of them and elder Sepulveda will be baptizing 3 of the kids plus someone else so it is going to be a crazy the next couple of days. I think I might do some confirmations I'm not exactly sure, but they will be in English, because the whole family likes to speak English more than Spanish. Though they can speak both.

Also there is a guy whose name is Roy who comes over a lot I think because he likes the oldest daughter. Almost every time I have taught he has been there and he is now investigating the church so the Lord has really blessed my comp to find this family and me because I taught a lot. So, Mary's family is really excited about the baptism. I really had to make sure all of them understood the law of CHASTITY!! (Ya somebody kill me). Usually I do all the talking when its English, unless we are talking to just one person then Elder Sapulveda will give parts of the lesson with me. And that is kind of the way it is with Spanish, I will give little parts but he will do most of the talking.

Elder Sepulveda says he likes letting me teach English because my voice is kind of loud/strong and I am able to keep the attention of people. lol It’s pretty funny when he tries to imitate my voice, he tries to go really deep. ahh funny stuff. So things have been good.

Love you guys.

Christmas Zone Picture

Here is Sterling's Zone Christmas picture. He is on the last row to the right. His comp is on the front row to the left of Sister Hale.

At the Christmas Missionary Dinner:

Email from 12.21.09

Ya it has rained a lot, more than I have ever seen I think in my life lol. No problems though. My comp and I are in a car so everything is good.

My new place is an apartment. It is a small place with only one bathroom and four people in the house. It's definitely interesting.

My wrist is hurting more and I think I messed it up playing basketball, but the swelling has gone down. And, I have a brace I just don’t use it. Plus I’m in car so not much that can hurt it. My bike is still busted and I did bring it when I transferred.

Elder Sepulveda, my new comp, is from Puerto Rico, and speaks pretty good English for only learning it 9 months ago. He is a hard worker, and cares for the people, there is a language barrier sometimes, but we get through it usually. He is about 9 months in the mission. The other people in our apartment: Elder Barrett, used to be my comp’s comp, pretty good in the language and has about 7 months in the mission. Elder Orton, if you remember he used to live with me in the MTC but got moved because he already knew a lot of Spanish, he is comp with elder Barrett.

I’m in a branch and there are about 150 people in it. We have a lot of people we are teaching here in El Portal, around 15 people, and some of them have big families.

Where we teach there are only Hispanic and black people around. I’m definitely a minority around here, and yes we only teach Spanish except for some youth, and my Spanish is so bad, I realized that I have only been teaching in English basically for 2 transfers and now I’m really paying for it. My Spanish is really bad lol. Well, if I don’t learn Spanish here I’m not going to learn it anywhere lol. (That was a very nervous lol over here)

Well I got to go I love you all so much and the gospel is still very much true. Thank you again dad and mom for the gifts, I really appreciate them.

------------------

He is emailing from a Library and his computer has a timer on it so he can’t write as much. He said that he has sent some more pictures, so we are looking forward to that. Sterling is now in the Miami Beach area in the city of El Portal. Here is a picture of him and his comp:

Email from 12.15.09

Well first up I will be transferred again to what area you ask, I have no idea. It’s too bad; I really liked it here with these Elders and the people. I prayed for understanding, it’s hard for me, but I’m holding on to the knowledge that I at least know that the Lord knows what’s going on.

The heat over here got to 91 degrees can we all say ridiculous. It really doesn’t feel like Christmas at all over here.

I was supposed to go back to the doctors on the 24th but now that I’m leaving I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t wear the removable cast anymore even though I’m supposed to and they left half of the stitches in because they couldn’t get it out. They said it shouldn’t be a problem. Though I have this weird twitch in my wrist and eye... lol just kidding. My wrist feels really good so don’t worry.

We baptized Manny, he’s a great kid only 14 years old and he was so excited to be baptized. Here is a pic of him.

I think I had the FLU, I’m not exactly sure why it lasted that long but it was partly miserable. Luckily i had AFRIN the miracle drug. So that was good. I actually haven’t been a 100% since I started my mission, I’m always kind of sick lol, kind of weird, but I don’t notice it much after 11:00 AM.

I don’t know when I will be calling on Christmas but that will be a fantastic gift just calling you guys.

The stages are to pack all my bags, take them to transfer meeting, find out my new companion, say hi, drive to my new place, then unpack, then meet everyone and meet some members in the new Ward.

Email from 12.07.09

So just a funny story to tell you guys. After the surgery they told me about this nerve block they put in my arm, which numbed my whole left arm. They said I need to keep it up at all times and to keep it away from anything super cold or hot, because you won’t know something’s wrong until you smell your burning flesh. I thought well that's a little morbid but whatever. So I say ok then hold my lifeless left arm to my body and get into the car to drive home. Well, when I get home I have to use the restroom, and I thought, boy this is going to be hard I can’t let my left arm go below my waist so I saw some potential problems. Oh, by the way my arm was in what looked like a big cheese thing and I had to have it on all day and night for that day and then every night until the check up. So I went in and I realized I have to sit lady style lol. Because you know one arm has zero feeling and the other arm has to control the arm with no feeling from falling down so that left me with no arms to control other things lol. So I get up then I realize some potential problems. First, I need to pull up my pants and I need to keep my arm elevated. So what do I do? I put my arm which is in that big cheese thingy up on the towel rack as I tried to pull my pants up. Well I got my garments up and my pants half ways up when I realized, my left arm is slowly falling out of the big cheese thing, and I'm thinking oh crap so I quickly grab hold of my left arm and can’t put it back in the cheese thing because I have zero control over my freaking left arm and my pants fell back down. And I'm slowly losing the battle to keep my left arm from falling. So, here I am in the bathroom arms falling out, my pants are down, I don't know what to do so I yell for Elder B. I said something like "Elder B. I need your help right now hurry." so he runs in and just starts laughing so hard that he wasn't able to help at all. So I grab my arm the best I could and, had my pants around my ankles and I slowly scooted out the door around a now on the floor laughing Elder B. and into my room. I crawled on my bed then turned on my back and proceeded to put my arm back in the cheese thing and pull up my pants. So that's the story. Pretty funny huh? Lol Ya we have had some adventures over here lol.

Well I think I found the answer to my question while reading one of D. Todd Christofferson talk in the book of Mormon study guide about unity with the Savior and the Father. So, I will work on that. It is great that we can get answers to our prayers because the Lord loves us. It is sometimes hard to follow what is asked of us huh? I love our Savior and Heavenly Father, I really do.

I just hate feeling like I can’t do all that I need to be doing with the investigators, because I want to say so many things to these people and tell them about the gospel. It’s just frustrating that I can’t do it as well as I want too. I completely rely on the Lord, and I know He knows the struggle I’m going through cuz He knows me personally through the Atonement. Well, all things will be good. Here are some pics of me in the cheese thing and after Thanksgiving so you can see my hand all wrapped up.

Email from 11.30.09

Work is going fantastic. We are going to baptize a couple more people this week and next week for sure. Next week’s baptism is Gonzales. He is so prepared, he read all the brochures and is reading the Book of Mormon daily and has read the gospel principles book twice, and asks the greatest questions. Like one question was "what is the gathering of Israel". And he is asking how he can share the gospel and, talking to us about celestial marriages. This man is just so prepared its amazing and he is a super nice guy I will send some pics later. He is like 35 or 40 years old and will be baptized this week on Saturday. The next guys name is Manny, he is 15 and he had no religious background. He didn’t even really know who Jesus was and had no idea who Adam and Eve were. We really had to teach simply but he is also a very prepared young man, who is soaking up everything we teach him, and he loves all of it. So he will be baptized on the 12th of Dec.

We will have another transfer in 2 weeks and I’m not sure if I will be transferred, I haven’t had my PPI yet so we will probably have one over the phone sometime. I was at the hospital when the Pres. came over to our house. So, Elder B. and I will have our PPI's over the phone I think.

I’m going to the doctors today to check up on my wrist, and then he will put my wrist in something else, probably a hard cast possibly a wrist brace which would be nice. They gave me some oxycodone for my wrist after the surgery and it really messes with my head and I have to take it like every 4 hours. I truly hate it lol. So I don’t really take them all that much so I can focus every once and a while and teach. Lol. We cleaned up before Pres Hale’s visit; I did a lot cuz the others think cleaning means stuffing things into closets and just organizing your trash lol. But, the Pres liked our house. :)

We ate a huge amount on Thanksgiving. We had three appointments in a row, one hour after another. And they don’t let us choose how much we want, they just pile the stuff on and we just have to eat it. aggghhh.... I felt disgustingly full after the second meal, and I was pretty sure I was going to throw up. Thank goodness I didn’t. Our last meal was at the Bishops and luckily he had compassion on us and let us just pick how much we wanted. I did eat just so I wouldn’t offend anyone, but I didn’t eat a lot. We ate pork, turkey, and ham, and had potato salad at all three houses. I am thankful for the kindness of those who invited us over to their homes and fed us, but I’m thankful that it only comes around once every year. I don’t know what we do for Christmas. :)

New Info on Ster's Hand

President Hale called us last night and he said that the surgery went well and that Ster is doing great. Ster needs to lay up for a few days but otherwise all is well.

Zone Conference Picture - Nov 2009

Zone Conference image for his Area. Ster is in the middle row to the right. His comp is right in the middle.

Email from 11.23.09

He didn't write much today because of his broken hand so it was taking him longer to write. He said he wrote some letters that we should get towards the end of this week/beginning of next week. Here is some info from his email:

I am having surgery tomorrow. I’m not nervous from what the doc said this will be really quick and easy. If I didn’t get the surgery they would put me in a full arm cast up to my shoulder for like a month and a half then a half cast for another month and a half. The surgery will put me in a half cast for about a week then a wrist splint for a little while which I can take off whenever I want so there is hardly any down time. It's outpatient surgery. I have the car now because they don’t want me riding on a bike with my arm.

Oh, here is what is broken: Wrist, the bone below my thumb. Alright, so the break is from an old break at Mikes house when I was younger. It turns out that it might not have actually ever healed so it is in the same spot. The doc said that this particular bone doesn’t heal well because of how the blood runs through it.

His First Baptism...

So I (Pam) forgot to put his baptism picture up so I'm re-posting the information from his email in regards to the baptism and the picture. This baptism took place on November 8th.:

I baptized my first person yesterday in Spanish woot woot, it was an amazing experience, I baptized a kid named Leonardo Alexander Rosebelth who is 11 years old. It was such an awesome experience. And I didn’t mess up either I said it all perfectly, thank the Lord for that because I was pretty nervous but the Lord really helped me, and it was awesome to be part of His work and glory. I have a pic and I will send you guys showing us in white. The other kids that were baptized were Bridgett, baptized by Elder Hamilton, and Omar Rosebelth, baptized by Elder B.

Update on Ster's Spanish...

So from Sterling's emails and letters he still thinks his Spanish is bad, but when Pres. Hale called yesterday and talked w/ dad he commented that both of his companions have said that his Spanish is very good one even said that it exceeds what he could speak at this point. So we figure that he is just hard on himself and expects to be as good as those that are about ready to go home. :)

Update on Ster's Hand

Pres. Hale, the mission president, called and talked w/ dad. They are thinking that Ster is going to need surgery to put a pin in his hand. They are going to talk to the medical specialist first but they think that this is what they will be doing.

Email from 11.16.09

The previous 2 posts were from this email as well. Here is the rest of it:

My Spanish is really bad, but it’s all good. I will keep trying my hardest, and I will learn at some point because the Lord called me to teach in Spanish.

Ok, I have started putting gel in my hair cuz the mission pres has asked all elders to have a part in their hair. Here is a pic of me trying to figure out the style, you have to understand I haven’t put gel in my hair since middle school, so this pic shows me getting frustrated lol.

{Doesn't he look like he put his finger in a socket. Too Funny! :) }

It’s weird to have gel in my hair and I don’t like it at all. lol. The reason is because the Pres wants us to have unity in the zone.

Does something look out of place???

Oh my goodness, this is too funny. This is Ster w/ his companion Elder B. And Shawn Bradley. Sean and his wife were in town last week because his wife served her mission in Ft Lauderdale and she spoke at the Sister's conference. So Ster met him and this is what Ster said about it, 'had a good one on one talk with him and he thought I was very mature, so I told him I was almost 24 and he said oh, that must be why.' lol.

For reference: Ster is 6'0" and his comp is 7'2". Shawn is 7'6"

My Name is still Awesome...

Well I was riding home with my comp back to the house (at night but that doesn't matter) and my comp was ahead of me, and you know he is 7'2" so I can't see past him. All of the sudden he swerves barely missing this guy on a bike. So what do I do? I swerve also the same way as my comp, but the guy on the bike swerves my same way, so we had a huge collision. Flesh and metal was everywhere. I kinda jumped and rolled, and when I got up I thought I was fine except for a pain in my side where that guys handle bars hit me. That guy was down hard, his shoes even flew off. Lol That's how hard we hit. So after all was said and done we rode off. On the way back my wrist really started hurting, then it was really swollen, and then I couldnt move it lol. So I went to the doc the next day, we took x-rays, and he said it was just a bad sprain. So I thought I dodged a bullet. But then the next day, an orthopedic surgeon called and said I have a broken bone in my hand so we will see what will happen tomorrow. They might take me out of this wrist brace and put me in a hard cast, I dont know. But thats not the end of it. The next day after the wreck we still had appointments so I still needed to ride my bike and on the way the thing holding my bike chain blows out and I can't peddle. So my comp had to tow me home with my broken hand lol. good stuff huh?

The top picture shows me in the brace until I go to the orthopedic surgeon to see what needs to be done. The following picture is of Elder B still laughing at me after the accident.

Email from 11.09.09

Well I got a new Comp his name is Elder B. I don’t usually say his last name because I sometimes butcher it. Well I will start with his height. He is 7'2" that’s right 7 feet 2 freaking inches, when I hugged this guy I hugged his belly button lol, and yes he does play ball. He will be playing for Arizona State when he gets back in like 5 months, also he knows and is acquainted with the GM for the Celtics and they are interested in him and will most likely play in the NBA, freaking crazy isn’t it? He doesn’t play ball with us on Mondays just because he doesn’t want to ruin his future which I completely agreed with. He is from Canada and sometimes he does have the accent lol. I just call him gigantor. He is a funny guy and his Spanish is really good. He said that I will be able to speak Spanish within this transfer so here is hoping. Also, I’m in the bike area now and that’s very different lol.

(Side note from Pam: Here are 2 pics of him. One is his mission pic and the other is his District picture from the last Zone Conference. He's tall huh? )

We live in a new house that is infested with spiders so that was a real treat cleaning up, a lot of bug bombs were used and two cans of spider and roach killer was used lol. And yes, there are three people living here with me, Elder Hamilton, Elder B. and Elder Seely.

We were shucking coconuts for the coconut milk and the meat inside and we were going to make coconut rings but we didn’t have enough time, and yes, one of those knifes were mine. (Side note from Pam: Here are some pics of him and his comps w/ the coconuts. Looks safe huh?)

I’m happy about the companion; he really helps me with my Spanish. Well we have about 12 investigators now, in our area, and we are planning on baptizing all of them.

Alright so I wanted to tell you now we weren’t able to catch that huge iguana. Dangit, but it was a funny story.

I baptized my first person yesterday in Spanish woot woot, it was an amazing experience, I baptized a kid named Leonardo Alexander Rosebelth who is 11 years old. It was such an awesome experience. And I didn’t mess up either I said it all perfectly, thank the Lord for that because I was pretty nervous but the Lord really helped me, and it was awesome to be part of His work and glory. I have a pic and I will send you guys showing us in white. The other kids that were baptized were Bridgett, baptized by Elder Hamilton, and Omar Rosebelth, baptized by Elder B.

Videos w/ his first companion group

This video was so funny because you can hear Ster laughing so hard in the background. Plus the expression on Elder Hamiltons face when he turns to the camera and smiles is hilarious!

Ahhh.... Ster & Swords And yes, one of those machete's is his.

Just a few comments from Ster. So good to see him.

Some Pics from his First Area...

Here are some pictures from his first area:

His first apartment:

Here is a pic of him standing in front of his closet. We thought that this pic was so funny because he added the 'twinkle' to his eye. We are always telling him that his eyes twinkle when he smiles. So funny.

Here is a pic of an iguana that is up in the trees that the missionaries are trying to catch. No luck so far. You have to click on the pic to see the real size of it. It's pretty big.

Their kitchen. Love the oreos, gummy worms and sugar cereal on display. They sure try and stay healthy. ;)

Can you guess which closet is Sters? (His is the way too organized one)

This is how they keep track of their investigators.

Email from 11.04.09

Well Monday, Nov 3rd, came and we didn't get an email from Ster. We were coming up w/ reasons on why we didn't hear from him but basically we were just disappointed. :) Come to find out they moved his PDay to Tuesday since they were doing transfers on Wed. Here is his email:

Well turns out that I will be leaving to a new home today, but in the same area. I’m not going to lie, this place is so plain and by plain I mean like twilight zone plain and spiders are everywhere. Needless to say I went at them with a vengeance, and killed all I could see.

I'm pretty sure with the new transfer I will be on a bike but we will find out tomorrow at the transfer meeting. I will most likely have a new comp but again, we won’t know for sure until tomorrow.

I haven’t written in my journal yet but I have started an oral journal on a tape recorder, and that’s a lot better, and it goes faster to and I can get into more detail. So that’s pretty good. I will keep that up and send it to you guys.

Well, since transfers are tomorrow, they make p-day today, so we can pack and be ready tomorrow, but then it goes back to its regularly scheduled program.

I'm constantly cleaning around the house, it’s kind of funny, because I have a hard time living in really dirty places so when we clean I really go deep and the other elders love me for that lol. My OCD pops in whenever there are dirty dishes and unclean floors lol. I have some cool stories that I’m putting in my oral journal, I think you guys will like them.

Every once in a while I get frustrated with my Spanish but then I just go on my knees and ask for patience. Elder Hamilton is going to the new house with me I think, but not sure.

Email from 10.26.09

Here is a pic of the Sanchez's and me:

To answer some of your questions: we eat at someone’s house a couple of times a week then we teach a little lesson. Yesterday for our lesson Elder Hamilton thought that we should sing a song just him, me, and a guy named Brian, in front of a whole freaking family. Yes to answer your question, it was uncomfortable lol, but we got through it and they said we did a good job. Also, I would like to tell you another story about another language mess up I had; so there is a guy Named Oscar and he is an investigator and last Saturday I asked him if he would be baptized. He kind of looked unsure so I told him that he should be prepared in two weeks to be baptized. Ok, but the funny part in this is when I was telling him that he should be prepared I accidently said another word so I was try to say "You will be prepared for your baptism in 2 weeks" but what I apparently said was "you will be prepared for your Beat Down in 2 weeks" WOOPS lol, But after a good laugh he said he would be baptized in 2 weeks, so there you go, the spirit can work through a fumbling fool such as myself. Now we just have to teach him some commandments that he is currently struggling with and into the waters of baptism he goes.

We are teaching about 5-6 investigators, and almost all want to be baptized but circumstances aren’t allowing them to. For instance, there are three kids that want to be baptized and their mom told them they can’t but the dad said they can. They are divorced, and the mom has custody, so I’m really close to going over there and dusting some shoes off, lol, if you know what I mean. In our companionship I am the more bold one, I constantly ask if the investigators want to be baptized and sometimes I have to ask elder Hamilton to challenge some of the investigators to something. For example, when we went over to the house with the three kids; for some reason when my comp and I went to the mothers house he looked really nervous then looked at me and said "You got this" then went and walked towards the kids and started talking to them. I was not so happy about that but I was going to ask the mom to let her kids be baptized. But she never came to the door, apparently she doesn’t like us too much. One reason I know this is because when the kids saw us at the door their eyes went really wide and they said "I don’t think mom wants to talk to you" I think that’s what got Elder Hamilton so uptight. But how bad can it be? They are all like 5 foot nothing lol. I’m basically a giant to them. Anyway, so we will be going up to her house again later.

No one has gotten baptized yet, like I said things just keep coming up that won’t allow them to be baptized. But we keep praying and trying to do all we can. I have given a lot of blessings since I have come here; I even did a blessing on a home, because the mother of the house thought that her daughter was bringing in some bad stuff.

I will look out for that letter from Levi. Tell him he really is an Awesome Jr.

On p-days we do anything we want until 6:00 pm then back to teaching.

Things are going good over here, I haven’t heard any news about an upheaval of Atheism. Course, I don’t know much about what’s going on outside the world of south Florida. There is a huge amount of different churches here, some with names that I have never heard of such as "The Church without Walls" the question is, how does the roof stay up? lol

Here is my haircut from my comp:

Email from 10.19.09

So we wake up about 6:30 go downstairs lay around for a bit and sometimes sing a song depending on how tired we are, then the four of us have prayer. We eat, shower then at 8:00 we have personal study, and you study whatever you want.

At 9:00 we have companion Study, sometimes we will role play, other times we will go through and read parts of preach my gospel, or translate some pamphlets, there are a lot of things we have done. At 10:00 the English Elders (Elder Nutt and Elder Fredrick) leave to go to appointments, while Elder Hamilton and I do some Language study for an hour, usually reading the Book of Mormon out loud. I can actually read really well I just can’t speak the language.

At 11:00 we head out to our appointments, we come back at 2:00 for lunch. At 3:00 we go back out until about 6:00 when a member will usually give us some dinner, we teach a lesson, commit, and leave. We go back out until 8:30-9:00, we go back to the house, plan for a half hour, then just hang around and have good time until 10:30-11:00 then we go to bed. That is my day.

The bike stays at the house I have used it once when I went on exchanges with another Elder. and me and Elder Nutt and maybe the other two will be biking early in the morning for some exercise.

I cut Elder Nutts Hair 2 days ago and he said I did an awesome job except for almost cutting one of his side burns off lol. Then he cut my hair today, and he made super low cut its not a buzz but its short and it feels good out here in the Florida weather.

We usually go shopping on p-days and I usually get just a lot of bread for sandwiches.

Daniel Sanchez probably won’t be getting baptized this week or this month, we just found out what his real problem was, and it is his family, who aren’t really for Mormons, and one of them is a Baptist preacher. So we think he is afraid of being disliked by his family. So yesterday I gave them the story of how dad joined the church. I did it in English cuz I can’t tell a story in Spanish I have enough trouble trying to not tell people i love their wives let alone telling a detailed story about dad... sigh, so Elder Hamilton translated for me.

Yesterday we were fed twice in just one hour after the other, and they wouldn’t stop giving us food. I felt like I was going to throw up, so when we were at our second dinner appointment, me and Elder Hamilton started pocketing our food, because we couldn’t eat any more.

Well now that I have been out here for almost a month, Elder Hamilton has me Teaching some lessons mostly by myself, it gets hard at times but, I get through them. We found out that one of the members in our ward has three children that haven’t been baptized. So we taught them all the lessons, and all of them want to be baptized except one of the kids is in a gang and does some wrong stuff. I told him straight out he needs to change. He said he would. then I asked him how he would change, then he made a plan sort of on how to change.

We met an older couple who is about 80, both of them, and they called in to receive a free restoration dvd. They talk about the most random things and they talk all the time, it is so hard to keep them on track. The wife (we think) wants to be baptized but the husband told us "I was born Catholic. and I’m going to die catholic" lol, but he still wants us over kinda weird huh.

We receive Referrals by members usually but occasionally we receive one by text on our phone, saying that this person wants a free something, So we go over there and give it to them, and usually put in a quick restoration lesson.

We also live in Town House with another set of missionaries. Here is a pic of my comp and the other companions. (His comp is the one sitting on the desk)