Mamma We Made it

Email written: 6/20/16

So I´m old now. Old in the mission that is. I've hit the year mark so it´s basically downhill from here. This time has passed by too fast and even though there have been plenty of days where it´s just "what am I doing here" there have been many more days of "this is why I´m here and I love what I´m doing" Even though it´s only been a year, I know that I've changed for the better. I have grown to love the Scriptures and my Savior. I have come to love people from all over South America. I have recognized my weaknesses and my strengths. The words Faith, Hope, Charity, Patience, which at one time were just nice words have a much greater meaning now. I don´t know how I've done it, and how well I've done it, but I made it to the "top of the mountain". 

But enough about looking back, I still have a year of work and experiences waiting for me. 

On Saturday there was a stake activity which was "CCM por un dia" which was a mini MTC in the stake center for priests and laurels. We came to help them go out and visit less active families, and on the way we were supposed to help them learn how to contact people. I did divisions and it was with an Elder from Virginia who has 3 months left and pretty bad knees, and the family we were assigned to visit lived on the other side of the city and it took a long time walking and by the time we got there we found out that our "family" was a lady who had died years ago. Then we got back late and some of the Elders were also complaining about the visits they did. On the bus back some of us were talking and focusing on some of the more negative aspects of the mission (because they all have more time than me). But in the end one of the Elders said "Hey maybe, just maybe, we go through all of these things to understand Christ. Now we understand better how he felt when he went to the temple and saw everyone selling stuff. Now we have walked more with Christ. Christ was perfect, and they killed him. They killed him. Think about that. It´s only fair that as his literal representatives, that we have to pass for similar things. Now we know hunger, thirst, cold, heartbreak and a whole bunch of other things. Christ needs us, and what are we going to tell him, that we´re tired? We get mad at members when they use that on us, so we can´t do that to Him. The mission is like that, and you have to love it" and that helped me change my attitude. 

-Elder Steele