Week 73 Jardines Obregón

Hey Guys! This week was transfers again. Me and my companion are still together. We have had a ton of success together. We had those 4 baptisms that I mentioned last week. In total, we´ve had 9 baptisms in 6 weeks of being together. Our zone had 14 baptisms in May, which is pretty good actually. It landed us in 2nd place again.

It´s always interesting that right before we have baptisms something bad always has to happen. It is Satan trying to stop the people from doing sacred convenants with God. This time, our investigator had a ton of doubts the day before her interview. We read her the interview questions, and she started freaking out about what we believe on Abortion and Homosexuality. She had a problem accepting those two things, she had to have an interview with President Munive. Also, the day of the baptism, some cholos decided to break into another church building. They broke the doors, windows, pulpit, pictures, baptismal font, piano, and some other stuff. They actually didn´t steal anything. They just caused chaos. The bishop of our ward works as a contractor for the church and they called him to go fix everthing. He was supposed to baptized all of the 4 investigators. (They were also baptisms in the other building too that day). So basically, we showed up to the baptism, the bishop calls us to tell us he can´t come.... But everything turned out good. 4 baptisms!!!

And my time is already almost up. I had to make a bunch of calls during my writing time, but whatever. These transfers were pretty crazy. Everyone was expected Elder Yoo to be assistant to the president, but President chose another Elder who was Jr companion to a District Leader. No one believed the transfers until we actually saw the guy with President. Poor new AP, he looks so nervous. Also in these transfers, they sent Elder Coello to our zone as one of the District Leaders. So that will be interesting. If you don´t remember, he is my dad, (the one that trained me). I will be sure to get mad at him as much as I can for everything his district does bad. The son is now the boss, hahaha. He should do a pretty good job.

I´m kind of stressing out for tomorrow. They assigned us to train during the Leadership Council Meeting. If you know me, you know that I don´t have anything prepared yet. We´ll see what happens tonight. I know for I fact I´m not as nervous as the new assistant though.

That´s about it for this week because of the time. Les amo mucho!!! BYE!!

-Elder Steele

Week 72 Jardines Obregón

Wow, I have never felt more satisfied in all my mission with the success that we are having. I feel like Elder Yoo and I click really well together. To be honest, we have never done a practice together, but our teaching has been super effective. This Saturday, we baptized Pedro, who will be going to the temple on the 28th to do baptisms for the dead with his family, who are also recent converts of ours. :)

This Friday we will have a baptismal service for Gregorio. We are also hoping that Olga and her two sons get baptized that day as well. They have gone to church 4 weeks in a row, have attended various church activities, and are in MOSIAH in the Book of Mormon. They still say they aren´t sure, but with faith, we will have 4 baptisms this Friday.

If you´ve been keeping track, with all those baptisms, it´ll be 9 baptisms in one transfer (6 weeks). Like I said, I´ve never felt more blessed in all my mission. The success that we having is because of our daily diligence in working hard, and our love that we have for our investigators. They are our glory. Yesterday, we were able to bring 8 investigators to church, 7 of which have baptismal dates.

We had another Zone Conference this week, so we had to plan another training. We just kept it really simple, really short, but super spiritual. It went really well I thought. It was actually President Munive´s last time doing Zone Conferences in all the zones. He announced a new change in the missionary clothing standards. The sister missionaries are now encouraged to wear dress pants instead of skirts, and we can wear hats and sunglasses. I don´t think I´ll wear a hat though, because I don´t want to look like a Jehovah Witness. 

This is already the last week of this transfer. Man the time goes by fast. But, this trasfer by far has been the most successful ever. I imagine my companion will be made the new asistent to the president next week. It´s either him or Elder Aleman, my old Zone Leader. It´ll be interesting for sure. Anyway, that´s about it for the week, it wasn´t a super detailed letter but oh well. I love you guys, Take Care!

-Elder Steele

Week 71 Jardines Obregón

Hey everybody. The weeks are flying by here in Obregón. This week the heat started for real, and it´s still just starting. I´m not ready for the 6 month long summer of intense heat... 

Here´s the status of the progressing investigators:

Pedro: He was the one that told us that he wanted to be baptized as soon as possible, but we have to help him stop smoking. He´s doing remarkably well. Actually his baptism is this Saturday. We have already baptized his wife, Ivonne, his daughter Milagros, and his mother-in-law Maria.

Olga: She is progressing really well too. Her 11-year old son Leonel read like 20 chapters in the Book of Mormon in like 2 days. She has gone to church 3 weeks in a row and has went the the mothers day activity. She sounds like she is pretty sure that she wants to be baptized. She has a few minor doubts/questions, but should be baptized with 2 of her sons next Saturday.

Gregorio: He is progressing slowly but surely. He always has a ton of questions. At first he didn´t want to rush a baptism because his sister got baptized but after many years of listening to the missionaries. She is actually a returned missionary and is helping us out a lot. He seems really interested in the church, and is planning on being baptized next saturday with Olga and her sons. It´ll be 5 baptisms in one day!

Those are the investigators that our progressing. This week, the most interesting thing that I did was that we had divisions with some other Elders. I got stuck being with an Elder with is known throughout the mission as the most annoying guy in the whole world. I got through it though. I just tried to ignore him the whole day. I don´t want to sound too negative, so I won´t get into the details.

On Thursday we will be having a zone conference. The last zone conference with President Munive. I feel like this next transfer is going to be super crazy getting a new president and everything. A nice little change will sure be what I need to keep working hard and finish the mission off strong. I love you guys a ton. Take care!!

-Elder Steele

Week 70 Jardines Obregón

Wow, this week was a pretty great week. Here´s some of the highlights:

On Monday, we had a Family Home Evening with our recent converts Maria and Milagros and our investigator Ivonne. We had 9 members present in that family home evening. It was perfect and what we needed to motivate Ivonne to get baptized.

On Tuesday we had the Leadership council. It was pretty interesting. The activity was that we had a baptismal service. The Ponce family finally got baptized. They are a family Elder Poaletti from Pioneros taught. I got to teach them a few times too. Elder Poaletti got transferred to Los Mochis as Zone Leader, but the family showed up as a surprise during the meeting and he got to baptize them. Another Sister missionary was there, Sister Garcia Soto, who had actually found the Ponce Family more than a year ago.

I got to see my whole old district during the baptism (except for Sister Cruz). It was great to see my son Elder Alvarenga again.

On Friday I had my first zone meeting as a zone leader. It was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to turn out. They want us to give the exact same training that we saw in the leadership council, so that´s what I did. It kinda takes away our creativity, but it´s super easy. I always thought that the zone leaders prepared all those amazing trainings, but they are just copies of what President and other leaders come up with.

On Saturday we had a baptism! Ivonne got baptized! Her husband Pedro also came to the service. He lives outside of our area so we haven´t been able to teach him yet. He went to church this week and last week. When he showed up, he told us that he also wanted to be baptized so that he could get sealed with his family in the temple. I was actually mopping the baptismal font when he said that, and I was just like, "alright, how about May 28th?" He said yes. We weren't even in a lesson and were able to place a baptismal date. It was pretty awesome.

Sunday was super awesome too. Obviously the best part was when I got to talk to my family on Skype. Another great part was when 5 investigators showed up to church by themselves with baptismal dates. I've been amazed how chosen all of our investigators are. All have read a ton in the Book of Mormon, have said their prayers, and walk to church on Sundays. They are self-sufficient, which means that when they are baptized, they are going to stay active.

Olga: She is amazing. She is a single mom with 4 sons. 3 of them live with her and she has brought them to church. She is almost to 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon already. She seems to fit in perfectly at church. Her problem is that she went to church years ago with one of her friends. The missionaries never started teaching her, but they did teach and baptize her friend, who went inactive afterwards. Olga doesn´t want that to happen to her. I know it won´t, and I can already tell that she knows that the church is true.

Gregorio: He is kinda weird honestly. His sister is a returned missionary. Yesterday was the first time that Gregorio had gone to church. His problem is that his sister took like 12 years to be baptized, so he doesn't want to rush the decision either. He always has a ton of questions.

Pedro: I already talked a little about him. I just want you to know just how chosen this man is. He volunteered in the Elders quorum to make the food for the mothers day activity this Wednesday. We are going to try to teach him as fast as we can so he can be baptized as soon as possible. We are thinking of changing his goal to the 21st of May so that he can go do baptisms for the dead with his family on the 28th when they go to the temple.

Well, that´s just about it for today. I have more investigators, but those are the five that are progressing. I´m loving it here in Jardines. Thanks for reading my letter. Feliz día de las Madres. Les amo a todos!

-Elder Steele

The Leadership council meeting last week

Mision Mexico Ciudad Obregon

"Ahora es el momento en que los miembros y los misioneros se unan, que trabajen juntos, que trabajen en la viña del Señor para traer almas a Él."        ---Presidente Thomas S. Monson

"Now it is the time for members and missionaries to unite, work together, 

work in the Lord's vineyard to bring souls to Him."     ---President Thomas S. Monson

Week 69 Jardines Obregón

Well this week I finally feel like everything is normal after the change that happen a few weeks ago. I know my area now, I´m able to joke around well with my companion, and I know most of the members. There are only 4 missionaries in this ward, while in Pioneros we had 8. With lesser missionaries, the members seem to have a better relationship with the few they have. They seem to really like my me and my companion.

What I am enjoying a lot more now, is that the majority of the people that we are teaching are people that I actually found while being here. So I´m not completely just harvesting all the work that the old zone leader did. 

This Sunday, we brought a new family to church. It was Olga and her 3 sons. She is super chosen. She stayed for all three hours and seemed to love her experience (even though some members share the weirdest testimonies). Saturday was a super popular holiday, Día de los Niños (kid´s day) so the primary leaders gave huge bags of candy to Olga´s 3 little sons.

We also have another super chosen investigator. Her name is Ivonne. She is Milagros´ Mom and Maria´s daughter (The two baptisms that we had last week). Ivonne hadn´t been able to go to church while Millie and Maria were learning, but now she goes to every single activity that the church has. She was planning on being baptized on May 21st when she recieved her answer, but on Saturday we were teaching her and she told us how strongly she felt the spirit every time we are teaching her and everytime she is inside the church. Also when she was filling out her Family History she felt her heart just tingling with the spirit. I asked her if she knew the church was true, she said yes, so we asked her if she would be baptized this Saturday instead of the 21st. She said yes with the biggest grin on her face and Millie ran and gave her a hug. It was awesome.

So with 3 weeks in Jardines, I will already have 4 baptisms. That is super awesome. We have 2 more planned for the 21st of May. They are Carlos and Zayda. They live in a house that literally has nothing. Not even a front door or windows. It turns out that Carlos is the cousin of Diana Ruiz, one of the nicest ladies ever from Pioneros. Carlos and Zayda learned a lot about the church before and had testimonies but didn´t get baptized because they weren´t married. Not that we found them, we´re gonna get them married, help them get off the drugs and get them baptized as fast as we can.

Olga and 2 of her sons who are in the age of baptism should be baptized at the end of the month too. She is a little hesitant to accept because one of her friends was supposedly pressured into to getting baptized and then she got innactivated shortly after her baptism. Olga doesn´t want that to happen. Olga went to church a lot with that friend, but a long time ago, but for some reason, the missionaries never started teaching her. Seeing how well she liked church, I´m sure she´ll accept a baptism date the next time we see her.

Here´s something that shows how chosen Olga is: After we talked to Olga for the very first time we left her a Book of Mormon. We hadn´t even explained anything about the book yet. We just said, next time we´ll talk about that book. When we came back 2 days later, she told us. "I´m so sorry I didn´t have very much time at all to read the Book. I only got to here." She opened the book to chapter 6 of 1 Nephi. That doesn´t sound like much, but for the people here, reading 1 page is like reading a whole Harry Potter book. She impressed me.

There´s a little bit about our investigators. Tomorrow we have the leadership council. That should be interesting. I think it may be President Munive´s last one, or second to last one, I´m not sure. Anyway, I´m super excited. But I´m even more excited for Mother´s Day this Sunday! I love you guys!

-Elder Steele