March 5, 2012

hello every one i am doing great and am loving my mission it is a blast. wu family-elder sommerfeldt found them before i got here. they are doing great jon wu is ready to get baptised and is waiting for his wife to be ready. george the blind kid is 7 he is pro at the bop it toy. he maxed out the score at 999 times without messing up he is an awesome kid. everybody in the ward loves them and is fellowshipping them. the wu family were suppose to get baptised on march 11th but we had to push back their date to march 18 due to a probelm with the baptismal questions.

Kira we found on the street. he really loves the family home evening with the ward singles. he is from china so he is starting to wrap his head around god. but he is loving is time at church and is really feeling the spirit. We also pick up three new investagotars this week all of them young single adults one is named derek he was super receptive to our message and already has a felling that the book of mormon is true. he asked us a lot of questions about us. he wants to do everything god tells him to. me and elder sommerfeldt got the feeling that he wanted to serve a missioneven though he isnt a member of our church yet. also we picked of two ysa girls they are both really religous in theirnondenominational church because it has a youth group. we told them about our young adults group and they are really excited to come visit it and to visit our church. Just kidding we got 4 haha we taught this girl named eunice. her dad is a pentacostal preacher and has congregations here and in england and in africa so he is gone a lot. she is a pretty proper black girl who didnt really know what she was meeting us but she said she just felt like she needed to. we gave her a book of mormon to read and she said if she knew it was true she would get baptized. we explained to her how had that would be with her family, but she said that if it was true that they would just have to understand. she has a strong spirit about her.Yeah we have a microwave but i havent used it yet. every morning i eat eggs for breakfast and then i just usually wait and eat at someones home that night. all the other elders that are in our district are super jealous that we get feed a lot. cause they only get fed once or twice a week. 

My ward is absolutly awesome there are about a 100

people there each week. except for this week we had 8 investagors at church it was crazy we were running around the whole time trying to meet with everyone! during church we gfet there early to greet all; the members and to try to get to know them. President and sister scott are super awesome sister Scott really liked the picture of our family!she really liked me because i was really good with her grand kids that were there. also i had an interview with president Scott he is a great man he is a great leader an a great example.Elder Sommerfeldt might be related to jenifer Tucker ha ha isn't that crazy! he is awesome we pretty much have the same personality. we get along really well! we are working hard and are working every minute of every day. we had about 30 lessons last week with investagors and less active members. ha ah also he is terrible with directions same as me but he has a gps in our car. i think i need to get one of those. is becca using that one she got for her birthday maybe you could send it to me...? yeah i am staying really warm i havent even used my big coat yet i just wear gloves and my rain coat and i am fine. um yeah you should send me hard copy ones so i can keep them.So just last night i was out street contacting and i met this man named tim. he really opened up to us and told us about is life story. he said that well he was gone to war in afganistan his wife had left him and moved on to another man. so when he got back he didn't have anywhere to go to and his kids still loved him but not his wife so it was awkward there. also he lost his job he was suppose to go back to. he was comtemplating one night and went for  along walk. he went on a bridge and was disscussing with god everything that had happened in his life. he was kind of praying and asking god why all these things had happened to him and if he could please hurt any less. he put hishands on the railing of the bridge getting ready to hope over the edge he looked down and inbetween his hands were the words in white paint HURT LESS. it was at that moment he said he was overcome with a feeling of joy. he said that the only time he really felt like god was there is when he went on these walks. we explained to him that it wasthe holy ghost. and told him if he would talk to the missionaries that he would have that feeling again. he really wanted that feeling and asked how long it would take and if he could have that feeling forever. it was then there on the street that we told him joesphs smiths first vision. he was touched. for some reason we asked if he was on one of his walks and he said yes. it was an amazing insidentice but the story doesnt do it justice. he lives in kingston which is out of are area but we gave the missionaries his number in kingston. 

Also i thought this would be funny to tell you but there is this 93 year old member that always comes around with us to are teaching appointments. he is really awesome and is in excellence shape he moves around like he is in his 20s he is super funny to see driveing his car becasue he is really short. haha but i really like him and he helps us teach a lot. he has a ton of wisdom he shares a lot of life stories that us missionaries dont have because we are only 19.

tell everyone i am doing wonderful! and i am loving it here me and my compainion are rocking it we are doubling the standards of excellence! and doing better then every one else in our zone! i love you all! andenjoyed reading the whole familys e mails. sorry i didnt respond backto everyones. love,elder strobel