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

Soldati is on the Comeback

Email written: 11/23/15

What a week. Every companionship this week had a baptism and it was just a really good feeling that all the hard work that we´ve put in not only this transfer but the past few transfers. 

The 2 baptisms we had were Guadalupe and Brian. 

Guadalupe has known the missionaries for almost a year and 2 of her kids got baptized in March but she has just kept waiting and there was always something to make her push her baptism back but she finally entered the waters of baptism and she was so happy and after she told me she was waiting for a missionary like me and I was really humbled. 

Brian got baptized too and he is such a sweet little kid. Now his family is complete and it´s helping his mom get back to church. 

This is the last week of this transfer and I feel good. Everyone in the zone thinks I´m staying and yesterday I was thinking and I´d be ok with another transfer here. I´m ready to just keep working.    -Elder Steele

The Heat is Turning Up

Email written: 11/16/15

So this week we went in to it feeling really good about reaching our goal of 52 lessons. We had a good start then everything just got stacked against us. It´s either been brutally hot, or pouring rain which means no one wants to be outside so we can´t contact. Then Elder Garcia has been sick all week so he´s had to deal with that. And to top it all off everyday our members fell through, so we could not reach our goal, but we worked harder than ever.

 On Wednesday morning I was talking about how I haven´t done tramites yet (aka I've been illegal for 1 month) and just then the phone rang and it was the secretary telling us that I had tramites on Friday. Then Thursday while setting up a baptism for Friday afternoon  we got a message that we were going to the temple Friday morning. So that night was a sick companion I had to plan, coordinate the lunches for the 8 elders (because the new relief society president is in our area), and figure out how we are going to the temple, tramites, and having a baptism. So I called the secretary and he said because we had the baptism, we could skip tramites. After a good temple session (and photoshoot beforehand. Just look at that picture) we left to check our phone to see if everything was good for our baptism, but the message read ´´Elderes. Ella no llegó a la capilla.´´ and I was done. It ruined the rest of the day up until we went to see her that night when she explained how she had to go to the police station and her phone didn't have credit. So we moved her baptism to this coming week.

Speaking of baptisms, that same Thursday we had a vianda (where the member just gives us lunch in a tupperware container) so we took it to eat in the house of another member and with that we started talking and the family told us the son of the lady who gave us the vianda is 9 and wants to get baptized, so right after lunch we went to see Brian and we are getting him ready for Saturday where as of right now every companionship (4) in the ward of Soldati is going to be baptizing.

This transfer is almost over and we are running out of time to get work done in Soldati. Also tomorrow I hit 5 months and looking back it´s been rough and right now it feels like I don´t have much to show for it. A lot of people think that the mission is just one amazing incredible experience after another day in and day out, but in reality, it´s just a lot of hard hard work waiting for the day when it will be all worth it. It feels like time is running out already because so much time has already passed and in reality I don´t have that much left, and with those feelings I can either use them to get discouraged or work more. I just don´t want to fail. 

-Elder Steele

Shake n´ Bake Baby

Email written: 11/9/15

So this week was the week we worked hard for. When they first told us about the 52 lesson goal we all thought how in the world, but last night when filling out the weekly numbers, Elder Garcia and I got to fill out Lessons with Member: 53. we couldn´t believe it and it was such a good feeling. We had truly worked all day every day giving everything and we ended up with the lessons. But it´s more than numbers, we learned that greater things are possible if we can put enough faith, patience, and diligence in. We only have 1 with a baptism date, but we have a lot others we are working with this week and the greater miracles are going to be coming in no time. 

So speaking of Shake n´ bake, it´s how Elder Garcia and I have been able to do our contacting goal. I have really tried to eliminate all fear of talking to people but because I really don´t know what I´m doing some of the time and that´s where Elder Garcia comes in and seals the deal. It´s a pretty good system. 

So with our 1 investigator with a date, Aldo Esteban, it´s very interesting. When we first talked to him we kind of though no way anything will happen because he smokes wayyy too much. But we´ve been talking to him and he´s been to church 3 times already. I was a little nervous to teach the word of wisdom but we taught with a lot of authority and put goals to help him quit smoking and get ready for his baptism date. 

Ready for another week of hard work and miracles. 

-Elder Steele