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.