No 2 Days Are Ever the Same

Email written: 12/21/15

A "little" Christmas cheer thanks to Missionary Packages of Argentina

This week was a very different week to say the least. On Tuesday, we had interviews with President and we talked a lot about goals especially after the mission with a focus on marriage even though I still have a year and a half left.... But one of the things I took away from the interview is what president told me about whatever I do in this life I have to go big and it´s helped me keep working here and set better goals for after the mission.

Wednesday was a normal day but then came Thursday. Elder Cruz in the morning was talking about some back pain but he figured he could just sleep it off. So then we went to a member´s house and after 30 minutes of sitting down, Elder Cruz couldn´t get up. It took him almost 40 minutes to get up and walk to the door. We tried calling a remis but none of them wanted to enter the villa. Luckily after some prayer and thinking we had a member who had a car and took us to a public hospital. After 3 hours of nothing they told us to go to the private hospital that we have insurance for. At 5 we got to the hospital britanico and after some waiting the doctors had an idea but he needed and MRI and his appointment was at 11:30pm. So we had to wait around the hospital a lot, but luckily at about 9 the Elders from the area near the hospital visited us and brought us food because we didn´t eat all day. We got home at 3am Friday and had to go back at 9 the same morning to read his results. Luckily it´s nothing too serious, he has a bulging disc and needs about 3 weeks to recover. But we can still work, just not as much.

The heat this week wasn´t too bad (or maybe it was because we didn´t go out much) and the hottest it got was when we burned Elder Cruz´s shirt to celebrate his 1 year (and my 6 months). 

And on Sunday we had another baptism- Luciana. Her mom was the one I talked about 3 weeks ago as one of our miracles. Not only did we baptize Luciana but her mom is now full active again and has become our mom of our area.   -Elder Steele

Tex-Mex

Email written: 12/14/15

This week was the first full week in my new area and I really do love it. First of all, Elder Cruz is like my brother from Mexico and we get along and teach so well together (and our new nickname is Tex-Mex because there is no better combination). Aside from all the fun we did work this week. We had 7 progressing for baptism (minus 1 that was baptized yesterday and another one we had to drop) and we have been working so well with the members recently. We have continued to see so many miracles and it is truly incredible to see.

But with all the ups, there has to be a few downs. This week we had 3 days (thankfully not in a row) without lunch, the heat/humidity/mosquitos are killing us at night because we don´t have a/c or even a fan, we´ve been 3 days without a phone, and one of our strongest recent converts was drunk on Saturday and it was so heartbreaking. But those downs have really helped us appreciate even the smallest miracles we see day to day.

Like I mentioned above, we did get a baptism this week, Lucia. Her mom was baptized 2 weeks ago and now it was her turn. It was nice to see how happy she and her family were. Sadly we couldn´t get a picture because the ward mission leader wanted to speed things up. But I do have a picture of what happens when you show up early to zone meeting (the 3rd elder is Elder Romero from Spain and yes we do talk to him with the lisp and it´s really fun).   -Elder Steele

The White Elephant in the Room

Email written: 12/7/15

Well I had my first week in my new area. And all I have to say is WOW. It´s such a cool area. It´s a villa (villa oculta) and has the Elefante Blanco, which was planned to be the largest hospital in Latin America but it never got finished so now it´s just a giant abandoned building in the middle of our area. Seriously, I love my area and Elder Cruz is the best. We´ve worked really hard this week and have 4 baptisms set for the next 2 weeks and a ton of more possibilities. This has started out as an awesome transfer and we know it´s only going to get better. 

Photo courtesy of Roberto Montano

One of the reasons it´s gone so awesome is the amount of miracles (both big and small) that we see everyday. Everything from the members instantly gaining our trust and giving us references without asking to meeting old members who have children and grandchildren of baptism age. One of them is Miriam. We were looking for a house and this lady crosses us and says ´´hola elderes´´ and I looked at her and figured she was a member and because I´m new I don´t know many so I shrugged it off. Then she said it 2 more times and was walking away. Then Elder Cruz asked me if she called us Elders and then he ran after her and talked to her. Turns out she was baptized 10 years ago in Formosa but was inactive. She told us her daughter is 9 and wants us to baptize her. We have seen so many amazing things this week and we know that if we grow out faith, stay obedient, and work diligently, we are going to do great things here in Villa Oculta.    -Elder Steele

Remember The Alamo

Email written: 12/1/15

So today is transfer day and for the first time in 4.5 months I am in a different cyber with a companion that does not speak English (ok he speaks a little bit). I got transferred to Parque Avellaneda Oeste and am with Elder Cruz from Mexico (hence the Alamo). As much as I loved last transfer, I am ready for some changes and this seems to be what I needed. I am really looking forward to see what we can do in this area. When we arrived to the pension I felt something I didn´t think I´d feel; I actually miss Soldati. I think it´s because Soldati was my first area and I finally left.

So for my last week in Soldati it was like most of the others; a lot of work with little to show. It was like we had really put all our efforts in to Guadalupe and Brian (and some other possibilities) and since they are baptized we were kind of left with nothing. But Brian´s Dad was drunk yesterday and got in Elder Garcia´s face and wanted to fight him. Other than that nothing exciting.

Sunday was the despedida and it was good but a little long. And after on the train there were some people singing/playing guitar and one of the songs they did was Forget You (but you know the word isn´t forget) and I just looked at Elder Garcia and said Seriously? Then one guy sitting by us turned to me and said in English ´It sounds better with the word Freak right? So then we got to talking and he is from Argentina but learned English on his mission (same mission as my MTC teachers Hermano Weekes). It was funny to talk with him. 

Thursday we got to have a special meeting with the whole mission which probably was really good but I don´t really know because... (Mom and Dad I don´t want you to worry so don´t read the next part.) I was sick. I had something they call here the Double Dragon (which pretty much means that I was in the bathroom at 3am with my lunches coming out both ends.  #welcometoSouthAmerica). So after the meeting President´s wife told me just to go home and drink lots of water and sleep so that´s what I did. Then Friday,Saturday and Sunday I was still kind of iffy but yesterday I was able to eat and be fine so I´m all better now.

Can´t believe it´s already 6 months, BUT I can´t be counting down the days because Hermano Montaño told me that every day in the mission isn´t one more day in the mission, but it´s one less and I have to work and enjoy every single one because it won´t always be like it is here on the mission. 

-Elder Steele