Week 32 Castillo Obregón

This has been a very good week, but a very, very hot week. We had two divisions with other Elders in our district and those went really well. In our ward, there were 3 baptisms during this week, which really shows how much success we have. It really is possible to have a baptism every single week here. We have our first baptism scheduled for the 25 of August, and if things go well, it will be a great time. Two youth will be baptized, our investigator, Saul, and another named Dulce.

I have the opportunity again to help play piano for a choir that will be singing in stake conference this Sunday. Yesterday, I was given three songs that I need to practice, and they are a lot more difficult than the average hymn. At least in this choir, the majority actually sing well and it will sound very good with harmonic parts and all. I just hope that I can do my part well so that they we all sound well.

Other than the choir and the baptisms, the rest of the week was about the same. We talked to a bunch of crazy cholos, had a lot of lessons, sweat a ton, and worked really hard. Oh, and we also tried some of the hot dogs and burritos here. I thought they were good in Sinaloa, but here, they are so much better. If you ever have the chance to go to Obregón, try the Mummy Dogo.

Have a good week everybody!

Elder Steele

¡Sea Feliz, Sea Mormón!

Hey guys, the food that they sell here is amazing. 

America invented the Hot Dog, but Mexico perfected it. 

This Hot Dog is called ´´Dogo Embarazado´´ (pregnant hot-dog).

Also, the burritos here are way better than in America.

Week 31 Castillo Obregón

Hey everybody. This week was definately different. Castillo is a lot different than Ahome. The people are a little different. In Ahome, the majority of the people would let you talk to them but here they are a little more closed. There are a ton of cholos here that ask for Book of Mormons. They don´t want to read them, the pages are really good to smoke drugs with apparently. We have met some pretty sketchy people here to say the least.

It has rained pretty much every day since I got here, which is awesome because it hasn´t been that hot, but 15 minutes of rain causes huge puddles all over the streets. Our area is so much smaller than my area in Ahome, in fact, in only a week, I know the area really well.

We do have one ejido, or outside town that we visit also, which I don´t know at all yet. The ejido is called Campo 60. Campo 60 has one branch that we attend on Sundays. We went yesterday, and unfortunately not a single member of that branch went to church. It was pretty sad. We just talked and waited and eventually we went back to Castillo. I hope that it´s rare that that happens. Not even the Branch President showed up.

The Castillo ward is super awesome. Right now, they are super motivated because they want to split the ward. At the rate that they are baptizing, they´ll be able to split the ward in no time. We don´t have a lot of investigators right now, but I got pretty good at finding investigators in Ahome, and we´re increasing our pool of investigators quickly, including some families. We have three sets of Elders here and they are all super awesome and work hard.

Well that´s about it for the week. I hope everybody has a good week back home. Good luck in the first couple days of school. Bye!

There are lots more missionaries here, so we can actually join to play sports on P day now!

Our new zone, Zona Yaqui.  (Jaden's head is the face of the clock)

That's my new house! Without the car though.

Week 30: Last week in Ahome :( New Area, Castillo Obregón

Well, I got transfered after 6 months of being in Ahome. I left my amigo Elder Martinez, and now my companion is Elder Rivas. He is from the Dominican Republic and has about 17 months in the mission. I am in Ciudad Obregón in the Castillo Ward. It just had to be August when I transfer to Obregón. The hottest month of the year.

During the week, nothing super crazy happened. At church, we had even more investigators than last week. At least I left Ahome with them about to have a lot a success. It's a shame that I won't be with them when all those investigators that I helped find get baptized. I will miss Ahome a lot.

Well I don't have a ton a time, and I'm still trying to get accustomed to this area, so I will keep this letter short. Have a good week everybody.

Leaving Elder Martinez in Ahome

 Adios Amigo

Here´s the last picture of the Relief Society district before I left it. haha

More photos of leaving Ahome

Saying goodbye to my companion and sister missionaries

Apparently people think this kid looks like me. 
Normally he has his hair spiked up like mine.

This is the Santos Family they are super cool.

Saying goodbye to Hernandez Family- photo with Teresita and Alex

They were awesome and fed us good

Dog named Morgan, likes to bite

My new companion is Elder Rivas

He is from the Dominican Republic. He seems pretty cool so far. 

I am in the ward El Castillo. Which is in the Yaqui Stake in Ciudad Obregón.

This new area will be good. There were a lot of things in Ahome that caused little stress here and there, but here everything is nicer. The house is smaller, but newer. The fridge works!! The shower is taller. The area is smaller. I don´t have to pay a ton of money for buses all the time. There a way more members so that we don´t have to go to restaurants all the time to eat. We are closer to the offices so we can get supplies and packages faster. The streets all have names and are paved. And we have a keyboard in our house! A lot of little things make the mission a lot easier. I´m gonna miss Ahome a ton though. The challenges there made me better!

Week 29 Ahome

Hey everybody. 
This week was pretty good. We actually got some good rain. We took advantage of the fact that it was downpouring and we visited some of our bishop´s neighbors. They were kinda forced to let us in because they couldn´t just let us get soaked. So we found a new family that way, haha. They are super cool.

This week was the most successful of all when it comes to how many progressing investigators we have. We have 5, which isn´t a ton, but it´s our best so far. What has been helping is that a few of the members have been really amazing reaching out to help some of our investigators. Our investigator, Trini, has a ton of friends in the church, but she still isn´t completely ready to be baptized. She is already part of the ward though. Alma (the blind lady) is progressing fast and has brought family members to the church. She will be baptized the day after her birthday and she is excited for that. Those two are the best one that we have.

That´s about it for the week. Not much new happens that I can talk about other than the progress of the people that we are helping. Next week is transfers and I am hoping to stay in Ahome again so that I can be there for all my investigators baptisms. Have a good week everybody!

-Elder Steele

-¡Sea feliz, sea Mormón!

Photo in front of church in Ahome

Dinner with the Hernandez family

Week 28 Ahome

Hey everybody. 
This week was good. We are now in the hottest 40 days of the whole year when the temperature rarely drops lower than 35 celsius. I´m doing well in the heat though. I´m keeping myself hydrated and staying in the shade as much as possible.

We have had a lot of luck this week finding people on the street. We contacted only about 40 people, but we had 21 of them give us their addresses. That´s a pretty good statistic. We should contact a lot more and we could have a ton of people to teach.

Our investigator, Trini is doing really well and we hope to be able to baptize her on Saturday.

Our investigator, Alma has the most trials that I have ever seen a person have in life with being blind, having diabetes, being a single mom, living in an extremely poor home, and having almost no support from any of her family, and she always feels alone in life. We were finally able to bring her to church yesterday and she loved it.

On Saturday night we found a tarantula in the house. It freaked us out and we decided to start it on fire. After it was scorched we put it next to the scorpion on the shelf. We have a collection now.

That´s the week. We´re working with a lot of investigators now. Hope all you guys have a good week wherever you are. Remember to help the missionaries in your ward, we´re all in this work together.

-Elder Steele

Our investigator, Alma 

Guess what I found in the house this week? And how I killed it. It was pretty awesome!

Our house is super sketchy.

We were about to go to bed and I opened the bedroom door and saw a huge tarantula!

Here is it walking around a little bit.

Another one a little closer up. We´re about to kill it now.
HOW DID WE KILL IT??

It dies by fire!

There´s nothing in the house that can start on fire. Here everything is made of concrete. 

All we burned was paper and the tartantula. 

We have an awesome video but it´s too big to send through email.

The roasted tarantula. We have another creature to add to the collection.

Week 27 Ahome

Hey everybody. 
Nothing out of the ordinary happened this week. Our #1 investigator, Trini, is still progressing really well.

We planned two activities for the members on Friday and Saturday. Friday was kinda like the preparation for the real activity on Saturday when the members were going to help us talk to people in the street. We had about 18 members show up on Friday and 1 show up on Saturday. That shows how much we need to motivate the members to support the work of salvation.

The rest of the week was good. It was extremely hot, but we´re making it through. Right now we are trying to replace some non-progressing investigators with brand new ones. That might be one of the most difficult parts about the mission, finding people who actually want to apply what we are teaching them.

I´m having a super hard time thinking about what to write. I guess I´ll leave it at that. Sorry for this sad letter, haha. Next week will be better. Have a good week everybody!

Our investigator, Trini

  I forgot this also. We gave one of our study tables to the sisters in the area because they only had one. Now we only have one, but we made the best of it. The sisters have tons of our stuff now, haha. Our table, 2 USBs with music, our bucket, and one of our purified water jugs.

Hopefully you didn´t notice my incredibly horrible neck tan-line. Haha.

Week 26 Ahome

Hey everybody. 
This week was a really good week for me. Here´s the highlights.

We have a perfect investigator finally. Her name is Trini and she has been to church 3 times in a row now and is progressing faster than anyone I´ve ever seen on the mission. If you remember back a few weeks ago when I said someone invited us in after we simply said "buenos tardes", that was Trini.

The house was a zoo this week. We found an iguana on my comp´s bed, and a cat had babies near the pool in the back of our house. (yes, we have a pool, pool parties every p-day! haha) My comp almost got stung by a scorpion in the kitchen while he was washing dishes. Also, I went on a cucaracha killing spree with over 50 of them that live where the water drains outside.

This week, I feel my ability to teach effectively increased dramatically. Ever since a lesson on Thursday with Trini, I have felt the spirit so much more in the lessons. It is because I changed my mind-set a little bit. I have always cared for the investigators, but now I imagine the investigators as one of my best friends from back home and I want them to accept the gospel in their lives. It´s something that works really good for me.

The weeks are getting faster it seems, the heat doesn´t seem too bad,  I am 25% done with the mission already, and we have una investigadora de oro. Everything is going real positive for me here in Ahome. Have a good week everybody!

-Elder Steele

We Live in a ZOO...

This first one will make mom sick. !CUCARACHAS! 

There were 11 in the shower. Most of them I found outside the house where we drain the water from the laundry machine. After I took the picture I found more. There were more than 50 in total.

This next one we found in my comps bed. ¡Iguana! 

We cought it in a box and then let it outside.

This one is the most dangerous. ¡Alacrán! (scorpion) 

My comp almost got stung by it while he was washing the dishes. He didn´t notice it. 

The last one. ¡Gatitos! 

A cat had some babies in our patio.

Here´s another picture. It´s an attempt of the whole zone.