Week 55 Villa Bonita

It was my first week with my son, Elder Alvarenga. We get along great. I feel bad because in his first week we did a ton of walking because so many of our appointments fell through and we've had to leave a lot of our investigators and start finding new ones. So this week, we didn´t have a lot of success, but I´m not too worried because we had an amazing start to this coming week. Yesterday after church we had 5 lessons with members present and found 5 new investigators. My companion did his first baptismal invitation, and the investigator accepted.

At church we only had two investigators: Ricardo and Pablo Ruiz. We are still planning on baptizing Ricardo February 2nd.

We have a zone conference tomorrow and I was asked to give the training. I'm a little bit nervous, but it should be a good experience for me. I actually don't have much time left because I've been trying to plan my training. 

Have a good week everybody! 

-Elder Steele

Week 54 Villa Bonita

Hey guys. 

This week we received our transfers.  I am still in Pioneros Ward in Villa Bonita. I am training for real this time. This time, my son actually showed up on the mission. His name is Elder Alvarenga.  He is from El Salvador. He speaks English really well and seems super chill. We´re gonna have a lot of success!

The elder that I was supposed to train two transfers ago finally got here too, but he is with Elder Reader.  

On Tuesday we had interviews with President. It was the best interview I´ve ever had. We sat down, and he said "All the missionaries are asking about Elder Steele and how you are having so many baptisms in Pioneros. Tell me, what are you doing to have so much success?" I know he said that just to boost my confidence even more, and it worked. In the interview he told me that he wanted to keep me as district leader in Pioneros and that I was going to train. I was hoping he was going to tell me that I would be a zone leader, but my work here in Pioneros isn't done yet. I´m actually really happy that I finally get to train someone.

When I left the interview, I found the opportunity to motivate my companion a ton. Normally if you would say to someone that it would be their last week, they would die. I told him in a way that motivated him to make his last week the best week we've ever had together. And it was.

This week we were able to have 15 lessons with members present, which is more than we have ever had. Elder Rojas was able to gain a ton of confidence of a few members in his short time here. We told those members that it was his last week and that they needed to take advantage of the time with Elder Rojas. We taught with Moroni Bahena every single day except for Friday, when we got super sick. The lessons we had with Moroni were super crazy awesome lessons that only happen on rare occasions on the mission.

These last 3 weeks with Elder Rojas we were able to start teaching 28 new investigators, which for me, is unbelievable. I know a lot of people think of Elder Rojas as a frito, but I had more success with him in 2 transfers than with any other Elder in my mission so far. We baptized 7 people together. Me made a good fit. I was the super sincere and direct teacher, and he was the clown that helped us gain a lot of confidence. It´ll be different teaching kids without him. He didn't go too far, but I´m gonna miss him.

Since we have so many new investigators, I can tell you about some of them.

Luis Angel: He´s not new, actually we were almost about to leave him. He is the bishop´s daughter´s 15 year-old boyfriend. She apparently broke up with him, and the next Sunday, he showed up to church for the first time in forever. The next time we taught him, we made sure he understood that the church isn't just about winning the love of his girlfriend (even though it´s pretty awesome he´s willing to get baptized for her) but that he needs his own testimony. He told us sincerely that he would pray to ask for his answer. He also went to church yesterday and his a baptismal date for February 2nd.

Ricardo: Ricardo is Ivan´s older brother. He has been to church ever since the confirmation of Ivan. Things are going well with him. The challenge with be his dad, who has full custody of him. I don´t know if you remember hearing about that story. Anyway, Ricardo will be baptized February 2nd also.

Pablo Ruiz: He has been to church 5 times and wants to be baptized. He is 72 years old, and lives in a free union and can´t get a divorce from his old wife to get remarried. He is cool. He still gives us rides to church on occasion.

Jesus Alberto: We had taught his son one time, and one day we were looking for him again when we found Jesus. He told us that his wife left him with all his kids. He seems like a he would be a pretty sucky husband and dad, but when we found him, he was in the most humble and depressed state I have ever seen someone. He said the other day, he tried to kill himself, but stopped himself and decided to pray instead. He made an inner promise with God that if he would do whatever it takes to get his family back and that he would be a better husband and father, if God would send help. The next day we show up at his door. I promised that if he went to church with us, that his family would return. We talked for a lot more, and the lesson went really well. He still didn't show up to church. We´re gonna go chew him out.

Marcela and Javier: Marcela is Orlando´s sister and Javier is her boyfriend. They seem really cool and want to be baptized but have super busy lives and haven´t been able to make it to church yet.

Portugal: She is Moroni´s friend. We went to teach he, and had invited her to be baptized and she accepted. At the end of the lesson, her parents showed up and her mom wanted to dispute about everything and was really angry. I answered every doubt without contention in my voice and with such clarity that they were left speechless many times and I could see in their eyes that they almost started believing that what I was saying was true. But Satan was still in her heart and she didn't believe. She actually made us participate in the Lord´s Prayer at the end. Such apostasy.

I´m realizing that I've been writing for too much time now, and will have to write about the other investigators next week. I didn't even get into detail about Friday when we were sick, haha. Anyway, I love you guys. These transfers are passing by so fast, it´ll be Christmas again before I know it. Bye!!!!

-Elder Steele



These are the extra photos and things he said to us as a family this week:
As a mom, I thought this was the best apartment yet.  It was great to see that he actually has a Fridge now!

We actually had interviews with the president on Tuesday and they told us to bring 10 pictures of our house to show that we actually keep it somewhat clean. It turns out they didn't ask for the pictures, but I can show them to you guys.

It doesn't have much. But it´s home

Yay! A Fridge!

Eggs are super cheap and taste good with Salchicha and Chorizo.

Did you notice we have to heat up water in a bucket to be able to shower?

And today the president made a new rule that we can´t do that anymore, so I´m going to have to buy an electric shower head. They won´t let us heat up the water because apparently it´s super dangerous and we could electrocute ourselves, even though I've been doing it every day for almost 6 months now.

Mom's response- "That sounds even more dangerous having an electric shower head."  

His response-  "It is more dangerous. Sister Munive was talking about how people have been been in the shower and they start feeling tingling on their back. I have never been shocked by the water heater that we use."

The last photo in front of our house with Elder Rojas

Elder Rojas transferred to Esperanza. The northern boundary of my area is the southern boundary of his area. It's funny because with Elder Rojas, we were teaching a few investigators that live in the boundaries of Esperanza, and now it´s his area.

Here is a funny story he sent us as a family.  We all got a laugh out of it...  Just had to post...

I found out something crazy and funny about my companion Elder Rojas. It´s that on Friday we got really sick, so we stayed in our house that day. I was more sick than my companion, I couldn't function at all and just slept almost that whole day. My companion started complaining that he was bored and asked what he could do. I told him to just do whatever, and I was going to rest. He asked me if he could play a video game. I responded, "sure" because I assumed he was being sarcastic as he always is and that he would read or something. 5 minutes later I woke up and he was playing on a PSP! I had no idea that he even had one, and I was with him for 3 months. I responded really surprised that he had it. He knows that I don´t like to scold people and when he noticed that I didn't like that he had it, he stopped playing. On Sunday when we found out the transfers, he decided he would give his PSP to Orlando (our convert) for his Birthday. I asked him if he was really going to give away a PSP to Orlando, and he said, "Yeah, don´t worry, I have another one that is better." My frito comp had 2 PSPs! When he said that he spent all his money on candy, that was a lie. At least he never played on them except for that one occasion. Que loco!

With my new companion Elder Alvarenga in the mission home

Week 53 Villa Bonita

Hey guys,

I don´t have hardly any time to write today because I went to Guaymas to renew my visa, and that took up the majority of the day.  It was like 2 and a half hours in bus.  So I´m just gonna put the highlights of the week.  It was a nice change of scenery.   We saw the ocean! I pulled out my camera, but by the time I had it out we couldn't see the ocean anymore. There are a lot of cool desert hills/plateaus covered in cactus. 

Andrea got baptized. This time the water wasn't freezing cold, actually it was almost too hot. Also, her son told her where she was supposed to enter the font, and she thought he meant in that moment. So when we were going to start the baptismal service, she was already in the font, just barely above the ankles though so it wasn't too bad.

We had splits this week, so one day I spent with Elder Morrison in his area, which is the center of Obregón, where all the stores are. It´s a tough area, but we had a lot of success.

During the whole week, we had a lot of success. We had 11 lessons with members present. And the whole district in total had 36 new investigators, which is amazing. My district is doing an amazing job and we´re going to have a lot of baptisms soon. We personally are going to have a 3 or 4 week break without baptisms because we don´t have any planning soon.

I´m really running out of time now. I´ll leave it at this. Have a good week everybody. Congratulations Bryer on your mission call. Suerte amigo, sé que puedes ser un misionero bien suave si te esfuerzas. Toma la iniciativa, sigue el espíritu y vas a ser un buen líder. 

I love you guys!

Week 52 Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year!  

2016 started off with two baptisms: Ivan and Abraham. Abraham is Genesis´s older brother, if you remember who is Genesis, she is the little girl who was crying in the cold water as I baptized her. 

Abraham was actually baptized 7 years ago but was never confirmed, and there is no record of his baptism, so we did it again. Abraham was only here on vacation, but that doesn´t matter to us, we taught him extremely quickly and got him baptized. He´s already back in Mexicali where he lives. I´m gonna keep in contact with him through his mom to make sure he is actually going to church.

Ivan is a really smart kid. His mom is actually an inactive member, so that made it a little bit easier to baptize him. His dad didn´t support his baptism very much. He says that he is catholic, but his Ivan´s mom claims he is atheist. His mom got us permission from his dad to baptize Ivan, but Thursday (2 days after the baptism) we went to visit Ivan in his dad´s house. It was the first time that we had seen his dad. He opened the door and said "His mom gave him permission, not me. If you want to see Ivan, it has to be in his mom´s house, because this house is catholic, goodbye" Then he slammed the door in our face. We hadn´t even said a word. We also had brought Ivan´s friend with us to the lesson. I have been rejected before, but that was actually the first time that someone has actually slammed a door in my face and it was our recent convert´s dad.

When we saw Ivan at Church yesterday for his confirmation the first thing he said to us was "I told you guys not to go to my dad´s house on Thursdays" Ivan is such a good kid. He actually bore his testimony the day of his confirmation. The world really isn´t fair, how an extremely good kid can get stuck with 2 horrible parents is something I don´t understand. I´m just glad I got put with 2 amazing parents.

Tomorrow we´re going to have another baptism. We are going to baptize Orlando´s mom Andrea. We already had her interview and she is extremely ready. She is a single mom of three kids, and one grandkid, and she struggles a lot to get by. She doesn´t even have a fridge in her house. She worked herself to death to try to buy a few things for her kids for Christmas. When we taught her about the Sabbath Day, she said that she would stop working on Sunday even though her job is to make food for parties and the majority of parties happen on Sunday. She also used to drink 5 cups of coffee a day and she quit the day we taught her the word of wisdom. She knows that through her great sacrifices, that she will be greatly blessed. I have never met someone with so much faith.

I can´t believe that we are in 2016 and at the end of this year I will be with my family. My goal is to have at least one baptism in every month of this year. I already have baptisms for 6 months in a row. I have seen a lot of miracles in 2015 and 2016 will be much better, now that I actually know what I´m doing, jaja. I want to wish you all a happy new year, and I hope that you all experience changes in this new year that will make you happier. I love you guys a ton.

-Elder Steele

We had two more baptisms this week. Here´s some of the pictures

The two that got baptized are Abraham (15-year old) and Ivan (11 years old.) 

The guy that baptized them is Arturo Bahena. 

Ivan and his family at his baptism

Arturo Bahena and his wife and kids are in the pictures with Ivan and his family 

 The baptism of Abraham

 Abraham and his family

Abraham´s sister is Genesis, the little girl we baptized a little while ago.

We had a zone meeting and this is the majority of our zone.

Today we went bowling as a zone because our zone had the most
baptisms this month (just 10, which is sad)
We brought our friend Moroni Bahena with us, 
because he has helped us get a lot of our baptisms.
After bowling we ate fish tacos, then we bought our food at Walmart.
 And now we are here.

I had the best score on our team, but from the whole zone, 
I think our team did the worst. 
It was really fun though. I haven´t gone bowling in a long time.