The most interesting thing I learned this week is that I'm the only elder with college experience. All the others are fresh out of high school and it's weird. So many times have I said "At BYU..." and they all just look at me. But just because I'm older, does not mean I'm wiser. We were teaching Marco and wanted to find James in the Bible. James in Spanish is Santiago and I forgot that, so for 5 minutes I was trying to find it with no success. Luckily it references it in the pamphlet so it worked out.
Wed- Was P-day so not much happened. It's nice to get a break for a day but if you're not careful it can throw you off and really hurt your ability to teach a lesson in the evening.
Thurs- Great day. We got Taco Bell for lunch and on top of that, got the Sprite cans with Drake lyrics on them. So I had 3 cans just to collect some of the quotes. When you ironically listen to Drake for a year, you just feel a connection with the quotes. This week was also new mission president training which meant we had the privilege of having one of the new mission presidents come teach us for an hour. We had Presidente Rios, who will be the president for the new Peru Trujillo South mission. They only spoke (very fast) Spanish and it was exhausting to keep up. But it was fun because we had this 4' 11" Peruvian yelling Spanish at us, and our favorite part was when we talked about the Holy Ghost and he kept saying "El ESSPIRITUUU SAAAANNTOO!" with so much energy. It was great. Even with the language barrier we were still able to learn.
And then after the lesson all of the Hermanas had to immediately to go an impromptu meeting only to be told that their building had bats so they would all have to move out. So then we spent the next hour helping them all move. By this point we were exhausted and we were annoyed with someone in the district so at dinner we talked about how to deal with it. Elder Hardcastle told us to have charity and then yelled "Yo Soy Castidad!!!" Charity = caridad, Chastity = castidad. So that was a great laugh.
Fri- We had more of Presidente Rios and this time we also had Elder Pino from the 70 with us. It was another exhausting experience to focus to be able to try to understand but it was all good. We then got to teach Marco the Plan of Salvation and he loved it. I was prompted to invite him to be baptized! He said probably but he wanted to pray and read the Book of Mormon a little bit first. It's so cool to feel the spirit so well and to teach.
Sat- Went by so fast. Not much happened except that I learned how much of a giant goofy lovable dork my companion is. He's the best. He had all of us laughing to the point of a complete breakdown for 10 minutes. And then we got Chick fil a for dinner, so it was a great day. On a more spiritual note, we started memorizing the first vision in Spanish. The first vision has always been one of the strongest times I can feel the spirit. It just reaffirmed my strong testimony of Joseph Smith and I remembered why I'm here.
Sun- Sundays are such a great day. It's the best spiritual boost, but it is so hard to stay awake all day. Fun fact: We found out Thomas S. Monson drive a Silver Audi A6 L because we saw him get into it. For the devotional we all expected a General Authority because they were all here the past week, and we all were a little disappointed when it was someone else. By the end of the devotional, it was one of the best I've heard. The sass, humor, singing, and spirit were all so strong. Great way to start the new week. Also, please take the time to watch Elder Bednar's "Character of Christ" it's a little long, but life changing.
Mon- Pretty uneventful. I learned not to kick a volleyball barefoot because I destroyed my toe pero esta bien. And that night, Hermana Smith and I talked for 40 minutes about the Bachelor/Bachelorette it was hilarious. I surprised everyone with my knowledge. I have to thank Bri, Heather, and Oakli for making me watch that first episode of the Bachelor because it's payed off in getting along with all the Hermanas.
Tues- I had a feeling that all day that I would have to give a blessing to Hermana Adkins. She got a volleyball kicked in her face pretty hard and she tore her retina (or something, Idk, I'm not a doctor) so then in the evening, my prompting proved right. So I've finally given my first priesthood blessing. It was a little stressful to focus so hard on the spirit, but it all worked out. Later we taught Marco and re invited him to be baptized. He said "Of course!" and it was the best feeling ever. We set the date for August 1st. Because it is the TRC (teaching resource center) there's a 50% chance he's a member and a 50% chance he's a real investigator. Either way it's an awesome experience.
Time is so weird here in that it feels like I've been here forever but at the same time, it's all gone by quickly. Can't believe how soon I'll actually be in Buenos Aires.
-Elder Steele
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