We've had emails from Ster every week but he didn't have a lot of time to write so his emails were short. Luckily, he has started writing us letters that have given us more information about what has been going on in his mission. So here are the updates since August 3rd through this week:
Letter from Aug 5th (written 8/2/2010):
So, do you guys remember that talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley “10 Things to bring home from a Mission?” Well, I was looking over the list, and pondering about some of the things I have learned. Something I am most grateful for has to do with loving people. I know I never had a real love for the people around me except for my family until I went on my mission. President Smith (former Stake President) basically told me I had a hard heart (in so many words, but that is what he meant), and he was right, my heart was like the “Grinch’s” heart. But now I find myself just caring about others and hoping for their happiness. In the Book of Mormon, Mormon (73 years old) who had been a general of the Nephite Army and fighting the Lamanites since he was 16 years, seeing war and hatred all of his life among his people still was able to write one of the most loving epistles about faith, hope, and charity. (Moroni 7) He had such a loving spirit about him and now I know why. It was because of his faith in Christ and his love of the Savior of the world. I feel so much more happiness now then I use to. I am so thankful that the Lord changed my heart. That I can see people for who they are, which is a son and daughter of our Heavenly Father and we are literally brother and sisters. I love feeling this way about the people I am teaching and all the people around me. I am not perfect in my love, but I am so much better at it and hopefully will continue to learn even more.
Email from Aug 9th:
Things are going great over here in Homestead. We should be having 2-3 baptisms on the 22nd, so that’s exciting. We had about 5 people at church yesterday so that was good to see. But the speakers were horrible, well one was. It was a testimony shaker lol, I was even asking can this church be true lol, kidding of course, but we will be talking to some of the investigators later this week to see how they liked church.
Ok, so that thing in my eye is all gone there is no mass left. I am not sure what it is called. It was caused because my eye wasn't draining properly, so my eye just basically quarantined the bad stuff and closed it all off which made the mass. (pic of his eye after surgery)
So I was praying one night and I just felt this impression that I was going to stay English for the rest of my mission. So I asked about that to Heavenly Father and I got a confirmation that most likely I will stay English, so I told president Hale in an E-mail, and he said "that sounds right, we will go English from here on out." so there you go. It is alright though. I don't feel bad about it or anything but the Lord’s will needs to be done, right?
Letter from Aug 19 (written 8/15/2010):
Everything over here is fantastic. Life is good, we are actively teaching about 8 – 10 people and we have over 20 in our teaching pool. We hope to have some baptisms in the first week or two of September. We concentrated on finding investigators during the month of August, and will focus upon teaching and baptizing during the month of September. So things are progressing here in Homestead and Florida City. The Lord is really directing our paths and is showing His mercy towards us. Also the whole mission is progressing pretty well too. Our mission goal is to have 100 baptisms for the month of October.
I love you guys and I am continually thankful to the Lord for putting me in your family. God is our Father, and Jesus is the Christ, and I know He lives. I know that this is a Church of Revelation and it is the true church of Jesus Christ.
Something kind of cool happened. There was a Drug bust in Florida City, we teach a couple of people there, you would of expected the circus to be in town with how many people were there watching it was crazy, there were so many cops it was interesting.
I have seen many of the Elders change when they got called as DL and ZL and I don’t want any of that. I want to serve Heavenly Father without any of those problems. That is why I said I wanted to be just a regular missionary. Of course I will do whatever I am asked to do. I just don’t want to change and be different and act better than I am.
So next week on Monday I will get this ridiculous cast off, it is more exciting than hitting my year mark out here in the mission lol.
Email from Aug 24th (week of transfers):
So here is the update on my arm.... it’s still not healed lol, but the doctor said that there is some healing. There is also some deformity of my bone for one reason or another. So they put me in a cast again for 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks. So that isn't too bad I guess, but this cast isn't waterproof so that's a little lame. The doctor said he had high hopes though that it would heal. He also said that there is a chance that it won’t heal for a long time or during the next few years, it will just slowly fill in, so who knows. This whole bone thing is getting rather bothersome. Ya, I will still be using the bone stimulator for the next couple of weeks. Ugh.
So I'm staying in Homestead, basically the whole Zone is staying the same. We won't have any baptisms until September; we should have around 6 to 8 baptisms next month, if all goes well. Mission wide is doing ok, we have been struggling a little bit over the last couple of months but we are hoping for a dynamic increase in the coming months.
Well, that's about it. Love you guys!
