"Work hard and work smart"

THIS WEEK WAS SO AWESOME!!!$%"·!!·%&/

on Tuesday we had zone conference with President Obeso. oh how i love that man! i´m so grateful for him. he talked about a lot of things i really needed to hear and things i´m really excited to apply. i´m grateful that the Spirit could testify to me of those things. President talked a lot about hastening the work of salvation...and working with the members. and this week we had at least one lesson with member present every day. it was so sweet. stan always says "work hard and work smart". i know that working hard is my part...i should be doing all that i can do help the work progress here in Puerto Varas. but this week i learned what "working smart" means. it´s working with the members. the work runs so much better when the members get involved. it´s like a truck stuck in the snow...we can spin our wheels and work really hard but we wont get anywhere unless we have chains to help us get out. and the chains are the members.

so we have this new investigator named Fernanda. she´s lovely! honestly, God prepares His children to hear and accept the gospel. this week she told us she´s been praying everday to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet...and she said she feels really happy. she understands she has to act upon what we teach, not just listen. it´s a miracle we found her...last month we fasted to find Gods elect...and yesterday we fasted for one of them.

anyways, i hope you´re all doing well! i love you all SO MUCH! SO SO MUCH! i pray for you always. have a great week! 

XOXO, hermana steele

Allegory of the Olive Tree!

guess what? I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.

this week i read jacob 5...the allegory of the olive tree. i read this part and it hit me: "And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit." i feel like the past few weeks i´ve been asking the Lord why i´m in this sector. it´s been rough and i wasn´t sure why God was planting me in this part of his vineyard. but i love His answer. the Lord knows this is a poor spot of ground and He knows that it can bring forth much fruit. i´m here to nourish it...and that may take a long time. sometimes i ask (like the Lord did) "What could I have done more for my vineyard?" but the answer is in verse 71..."Go to, and labor in the vineyard, with your might". i know the Lord asks that i go, and labor in His vineyard...and i know without any doubt that the Lord is laboring with me (v. 72). and if i serve Him faithfully with all my heart, might, mind, and strength he will tell me "blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and have brought unto me again the natural fruit" and i will have joy with Him! it´s not easy. it´s not supposed to be. but i know if i do the Lords work in His way, i cannot be frustrated and i can be truly happy. in D&C 42:8 it says "and inasmuch as ye shall find them that will receive you ye shall build up my church". so the question always is "did i build them up?" my desire is to build God´s kingdom here in Chile. i love being a representative of my Savior and i love working with Him in His vineyard.

anyways, i hope you all have a great week! 

XOXO, hermana steele

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO COSETTE! i love you so much cosy!! 

I love my purpose as a missionary!

hey family! this week was another hard one. i´ve felt a little discouraged...the work seems to be going really slow. and i wondered why the Lord has kept me here in Pto Varas. on thursday i asked for a blessing from a brother in the ward. it was a beautiful blessing!! he blessed me with energy and strength to keep working hard. in the blessing he talked about the power of my calling and how i can turn to the scriptures for the comfort i need. i hadn´t told him anything about how i was feeling but the blessing was perfect and it was just what i needed. at the end of the blessing, i was crying and so was hermana meacham. the spirit was very strong. i felt Gods love and i realized that in this time of trial i can choose to turn to Him or i can turn away from Him. and no one else can make that decision for me. i know the only solution is to forget myself and give it all to him.

i love my purpose as a missionary. i absolutely love what i do...invite others to come unto Christ. the word "come" is a verb...it requires that people act and that they personally accept that invitation. and when they do, they change and become happier. i´ve learned that i´m not here just to invite others to come unto Christ. that invitation is for me as well. i personally have to act and accpet the invitation from Christ. and as i do, i change and am happier. i know that Christ suffered for me so that i can return to live with my Heavenly Father one day. but i also know hat He died so that i can change and become more like Him.

we´ve been working with a less active who doesn´t understand that very well. she´s committed lots of errors in her life. she knows God can and will forgive her someday...but she doesn´t understand that she can be forgiven now! we´ve been working with her for a long time now and i love her with all my heart. she hasn´t been to church for over 6 years because of the guilt she feels. but she´s been to church the past 3 weeks now and it´s been a miracle. she´s changing and i can see she´s much happier as she accpets Christ and His Atonement.

another less active family we´ve been working with has been to church for over a month now. they want their youngest daughter to be baptized so we are preparing her for that and helping the family at the same time. the husband of the family said this to me yesterday: "we are so glad you´re still here. we need you here." i can see that this family is also accepting Christ and are MUCH MUCH happier!!

i know God see´s and knows things we don´t. i know He knows us and give us commandments because He loves us and wants to bless us. his commandments aren´t punishments but are the way we change. i know He loves all of His precious sons and daughters here in Chile. and i know the only way to have true happiness in this life is by following Christ and accepting His invitation to come.

XOXO, hermana steele

The spirit always testifies of truth!

HOLA!

i had an eye opening experience this week. i´m not sure i´ll be able to describe it very well...but here it is...

so ever since i got here to Pto. Varas we´ve been trying to find Shery and Ignaica. They were both baptized like 3 years ago and haven´t been to church in about a year and a half. Shery is basically Ignacias mom because she died when Ignacia was really young. anways...THEY ARE NEVER HOME. but last sunday we were in their neighborhood and (like always) we passed by. they didn´t answer the door...there´s this huge gate on the outside of their house. so then like an hour later we got a call from Shery...she asked us if we had knocked and said she was in the shower and asked if we could come back the next day. so anyway, we went and got to know them...shared a scripture (we didn´t have a lot of time) and then went back yesterday. our job as missionaries is to teach all the less active members the lessons like we do to our investigators. so yesterday we decided to teach lesson 1 about the restoration. lately i´ve been in this rountine of teaching that lesson just to teach it...because it´s my job. i know it´s true with all my heart...i would never doubt it. but i guess it´s just been hard because we´ve been rejected so much the past few months that i´ve forgotten how powerful our message really is. so we started teaching and they remembered everything really well. then when we started teaching about Joseph Smith we had Shery read in James 1:5. "if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God" then we had Ignacia read the first vision. after they read Shery started bawling. the spirit was SO strong. SO SO strong! she started telling us that she doesn´t know how she´s gotten to were she is now. it was such a great reminder that the Spirit always ALWAYS testifies of truth.  

in the end they both kept telling us how grateful they were we came. Shery said "you don´t know how much you´ve done by teaching and reminding us of this simple truth. thank you so much". they both said they´d pray to know if Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God. we told them we would do it too! i know we are going to see lots of progress and i´m really excited to work with them. they are great and i really love them.

we´ve also been working with a family with 3 girls...they are such a cute family! they´ve been to church every sunday for the past 5 or 6 sundays. it´s been a miracle as well. the oldest is 19 and wants to go to BYU next year...so Hermana Meacham and I have plans to be her roommate.

so anyways, we also did a contact in the street the other day that ended up inviting us into her house and then accepting the invitation to be baptized. so we are excited for her...pray for Marisol.

hermana meacham and i are staying together for another 6 weeks! i cannot believe she´s finished her training. she´s such a great missionary. i´m very grateful for her. i love her a lot.

have a great week! i love you all SO MUCH! "the church is true and the book is blue."

XOXO, hermana steele

A week of rejection and miracles

hey family!

this week was a rough one. a really rough one. but we saw some pretty sweet miracles too. i learned a lot this week. i donno where to begin.

the beginning of the week was rough because there weren´t a lot of people at home for new years...and if they were home they would NOT open the door. so after new years there were finally a few people that opened...and we were rejected pretty bad. but i donno, not just rejected but attacked. people told us we don´t know who Jesus is...that we need to go read the bible. so that was pretty frustering. friday night we had an appointment with a couple we are teaching. we ended up watching the Joseph Smith movie with a member here in the ward. after the movie we shared our testimonies with them. and then they were like "no this isn´t true. the bible says to beware of false prophets." and he went on and on and on. in the end we invited him to pray and to ask God about it and promised him that if he asked, he´d get an answer. the next day we went to a less active that doesn´t remember anything about the church. we taught her the plan of salvation. my companion started talking about our life with God before this life. she freaked out telling us that we did not live with God before. we read some scriptures with her but she still didn´t believe it. we invited her to ask God. i truly believe that if people want answers to their questions they can ask God and recieve answers. its important that we ask with right intentions and with faith. and with hearts willing and ready to act on whatever our answers are. 

so anyways, it was a week of lots of rejection. i was feeling really sad there are so many people who need the gospel but aren´t willing to accept it. i want it so bad for them! i started doubting my efforts as a missionary as well. wondering if im doing enough...teaching the gospel efficiently. and i realized that Christ himself was rejected by many. He was the the perfect missionary that ever walked the earth and there were still many people who didn´t believe Him and His gospel...but you´d never call Christ a failure.

like i said, we did see a ton of miracles this week too. we had 2 investigators at church and 7 less active families that we´ve been working hard with. so that was pretty cool. happy happy happy! we´ve also been training some of the members on "how to share the gospel"...haha there´s kinda a culture here that the missionaries do missionary work. so we went to their homes and practiced with them how to give a book of mormon or a pamphlet to someone they know. it was TONS of fun and the members got way excited. so hopefully we´ll see some fruits from that here soon.

anyways, i love you all SO MUCH! thanks for all your prayers! you guys are the best. have a great week!

XOXO hermana steele

Our imperfections are a sign of our humanity, not our worth!

hey family! guess what? I LOVE YOU!

this week was fun...not too much happened. we couldn´t work christmas eve or christmas day. but it was so good to see you all! i´m glad you´re all doing well!

one of my favorite talks is called "his grace is sufficient" by brad wilcox. in it he talks about a child learning to play the piano. we know we can´t be perfect at first...we don´t expect him to be. it takes practice. but as long as he is progressing in the right direction we are happy. im so grateful for the Atonement. i´ve learned so much about it out here on my mission. i feel like i will forever be indebted to my Savior. the Atonement has changed me, and will continue to change me forever. i know that because Christ spent time in the garden of gethsemane so i can get out of mine. he suffered so that i don´t have to. giving Him everything is hard sometimes...but it´s always my intention to do His will.  sometimes i want to sit down and be able to play the piano perfectly. i know that the Lord loves us much more than we love ourselves and i know He is pleased when we do our best. when we´ve given all we have it´s like paying a full tithe...all that was asked. i know that the Lord doesn´t want half of us, He wants ALL of us. and when we give ourselves to Him, we change. i´ve also come to learn that our imperfections are a sign of our humanity, not our worth. God sent us here to make mistakes, but with the Savior and His Atonement, we cannot fail.

well i´m really excited for the new year! i cannot believe 2014 is over. it went by SO FAST! but i´m really excited for 2015...i´ve got good vibes. i´m super excited to set new goals to help me become more like my Savior! i hope you all have a happy new year! and that you can also set some goals that will help you to come closer to Christ.

shout out to everyone that wrote me letters for my christmas package this year! it was so good to hear from you all! it was definately the best gift ever! thank you!

XOXO, hermana steele

Luis and Anna are progressing!

hey family! MERRY CHRISTMAS! i´m so so so grateful i get to be on a mission this time of year. i don´t think christmas will be the same after the mission. i feel like i´m a lot closer to my Savior and my Heavenly Father this year. the material things just really don´t matter. i know i´m giving the people here in chile the best gift they can receive here on earth...and it´s a gift that can change their lives. there´s NOTHING of greater value. let us all be grateful for the gift that we have in our lives...the gift of knowing we have a Father in heaven who loves us so much that He sent His son to be our Savior so that we can return to live with Him someday. when He came, there was no room for Him in the inn, but i hope  there is room for Him in our hearts this season and always.

so remember luis and anna? yeah they started progressing A TON last week. it was so fun to see...and then guess what happened? they moved. we were really REALLY sad! we didn´t even get to say goodbye either...but i know they will keep progressing and one day have the gospel together.

this last week we found a lady named paula that´s just super sweet! i love her so much! she´s had a pretty rough life...it´s been hard to get her to open up. pray for her! she came to a relief society activity we had on saturday and she really enjoyed it! the sisters were super great with her too! we could hardly talk to her because all the members were. we are excited to work with her.

on thursday we had a zone activity for christmas! it was lots of fun! we went into the busy part of the city and sang christmas hymns for like 2 hours! it was super fun. this week our district (which is us, the zone leaders and district leaders) are going CAROLING! i´m super excited!! i just love the christmas hymns!

so we´ve started having ward counsel every week. its been good but there are always a lot of leaders missing. yesterday the bishop starting yelling at everyone because the ward is doing nothing to help us with missionary work...so that was a little rough. all i know is that when we´re upset or angry or even stressed out it´s almost impossible to have the spirit...and without the spirit, the work of salvation doesn´t happen.

anways, i´m REALLY excited to see you all this week!! i love you all so much!!

merry christmas! hermana steele

Christmas package!

i LOVED my Christmas package! i seriously i loved it sooooooooooooo much! i love all my clothes! it was all i wanted! the 12 days of christmas is the cutest thing ever. i love all the stories. reading them every night it seriously one of my favorite parts of the day. they just melt my heart! hermana meacham and i read them every night together! i get so excited to open the envelop everyday!

I know that we can be perfect in the eyes of God!

hey family! 

so hey don´t worry about my feet! they are much much better!

also, my christmas package was the cutest thing ever. THANK YOU SO MUCH! i loved all my clothes!!! thank you! i´ve started my "12 days of christmas" and i love it so far! you guys are the best.

so this week the doctor came and spoke to us. i thought he´d talk to us about taking care of our bodies or something. but he stood up and said "we are weak. but the Lord is strong and with Him, we are perfect." perfection is a commandment from God...and He never gives us commandments without a way to accomplish them. so He sent His son to earth. the Atonement works in the past...we can be forgiven of the sins we have already committed. but it also works in the present AND in the future. there was a lady that always said "well, 10 minutes after i take the sacrament i´ve already sinned again...so why do i even take it?" the Atonement doesn´t just help us with the mistakes we´ve made in the past, but the ones we will make in the future. God has asked us to put off the natural man and become as a child. but why? because children are innocent...they are perfect in the eyes of God. they have no sin...they are covered by the Atonement of Christ. i know that we can be perfect in the eyes of God. i know He loves us. i feel so blessed to be here in chile helping others make promises with God to become more like their Savior and receive all the blessings of the Atonement.

anyways, i´m so excited to skype with you all! i hope this week is a magical one! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

XOXO, hermana steele

I Believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God!

hey family...you know how last week i said it was the fastest week of my life? yeah i lied. this last week was the fastest week of my life. 

the weather has started warming up! we are so happy! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

so now that its warmer cool thing happened...

pretty much my whole mission i´ve worn my sorrels or my hunters for the rain and cold. My boots were always kinda damp and humid inside. and in valdivia we didn´t have fire to dry our boots out. my feet started looking like rasins a while back....and as soon as it started warming up i started wearing flats...my feet started killing. long story short the nurse told me i have "trench foot"...like the soldiers from WW1. My feet started cracking and bleeding once they started drying out. anyways, i dont really know how to explain it but im putting creams on my feet and im taking an antibiotic and some other medicine. just pray for my feet haha. i am feeling much much better. i know God takes care of His missionaries.

so last week we went and visited a couple we´ve been teaching and asked them about their reading in the book of mormon. they told us there is no possible way that the book is true because there is no evidence that the events actually took place. they bashed us pretty hard for about 15 minutes...and while they were talking i started thinking about faith. faith isn´t to have a perfect knowledge of things...if you have faith you hope for things which are not seen. that´s the basis of religion...any religion, not just ours. most people have faith that God exsists...that he is real. but they cannot see Him. we pray to God and we have faith that He listens and answers. it´s the same thing with the book of mormon. we believe it´s the word of God, we believe Joseph Smith translated it...and that is our faith. we may not know where Zarahelma is but we know it existed. we´ve received a witness from the Holy Ghost that it is true...and any person that reads it with faith will receive that witness as well. i know it.

speaking of the book of mormon, i have a goal to finish it by christmas. i´m really excited! on my mission i´ve come to really love the book of mormon. reading it in spanish has been super cool...and another testimony to me that it is true. i will defend that book until the day i die, and nobody can tell me that it is not the word of God.

im excited for this week! to keep working hard here in chile and finding Gods elect. i love being a missionary! and i love you all so much!

love, hermana steele

Happy Birthday Lily!

hey family!

first things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY! 8 years old!? what happened!? how crazy! you´re getting so big! are you getting excited for your baptism?!

this was the fastest week of my life. i cannot believe it! and i´m pretty sure it´s just gonna get faster from here! 

a couple weeks ago hermana meacham and i had this crazy goal to talk to every single person we passed. literally everyone. the first day we started we did pretty good and we did a TON of contacts...and one of those contacts was a guy we talked to that had just walked out of his house. he told us to come back another day...so we did. he lives with his wife, gloria. they are pretty awesome and we are really excited to teach them and help them to come unto christ. i know God prepares people...we just have to open our mouths.

other than them we are kinda struggling with people to teach. i know that this sector has so much potential and there are people waiting for our message...we just have to find them. so we´ve been trying to think of ways to find new people. ideas? we started a english class so we will see how that goes! 

at byui someone told us "if we work our missions hard, they will be easy. but if we work our missions easy, they will be hard". i know it´s important to work hard, but i think there is more to it than that. i know that this work cannot be easy. it´s not supposed to be. even though sometimes i wish i could make people understand our message and make them come to church and read the BOM, i´m actually grateful that people have their agency to choose if they want to act or not. it´s my job to put it all on the table. so hermana meacham and i have been thinking about what we could do to be better missionaries. one thing i love about being companions with hermana meacham is that we always have TONS of goals. and we are always working towards being better. so we´ve decided to do a purification process...basically we´ve made a list of all the things we are doing that are driving the spirit away and we´ve commited ourselves to stop doing those things. i´m super excited. 

anyways, i cannot believe it´s already december! i´m so dang excited for christmas!! thanks for everything! i hope you all have a great week!

love, hermana steele

Happy Thanksgiving!

hola amigos! happy thanksgiving this week! i hope we all remember how truly blessed we are! they don´t celebrate thanksgiving here but i´m grateful for the opportunity i have to remember all my many many blessings. this week hermana meacham and i started playing "i´m grateful for..." while we were in the street. it was a great eye opener. i will never be able to express how grateful i am for my mission and all that i´ve learned being a representative of Christ. i´m also very very very grateful for all of you. i love you lots.

this week was pretty crazy. it started out inviting a less active member to be baptized haha. we had no idea she was a member. no joke, every week we add to our list of less actives. i´m grateful for the opportunity i have to work with them and help them to remember and live the covenants they´ve made.

luis and anna are doing well! they are progressing slowly but very surely! last week we watched the joseph smith movie with them and during the movie anna turned to us and was like "hey he´s just like me! i wanna know which chruch is true!" so after the movie we talked about prayer and how she´ll find her answer...and it was exactly like a practice we had done the day before. then a couple days later we taught the plan of salvation. we taught it straight out of the Book of Mormon. man i love that book with all my heart. i´m grateful for it, for luis and anna, and especially the spirit.

last sunday the bishop asked us to go and visit all the leaders of the ward because he feels they don´t know how to be leaders and he wanted us to talk to them about how to hold a ward counsel. so we started visitng all the members of the ward counsel and it was pretty rough. as soon as we started asking about the ward counsel they all started bashing the bishop. we ended up having ward counsel (first time in 3 months) and it went pretty well. i know it´s goona be a process helping all the members be exciting to do the work of salvation. but i´m grateful that the Lord has given me the opportunity to work here in Puerto Varas....this ward has SO much potential and i´m grateful for the opportunity to help them see that. i´m also grateful for the organization of the church in the US. everyone pray and give thanks for the bishops and leaders you have. i thought of this scipture all week...

"Now I would that ye should remember that God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also."

anyways, i love you all SO MUCH. i know that God takes care of His church. i know that things can´t be perfect in this life, because if they were, there would be no progression nor learning. have a great week! 

con amor, hermana steele

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LIL SIS ISABELLE! i love you so much izzy! have a great bday!

reply to momma Steele

thats how it is here too. we just gotta keep a good attitude because it´s way harder than what we expected. i guess we thought it´d be easy...like everyone would want to listen and be baptized. but like elder holland said

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” ¹⁶ then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

This week was awesome!

HOLA!

i seriously cannot believe how fast time is going! all the stores in the mall have their christmas decorations up...like what the heck!? christmas?!

this week was awesome. tuesday night we slept in puerto montt with the hermanas there. we got to work in their sector for the night...which was one of the sectors of hermana bennett. i got to meet Luisa and Belen...a family that was baptized while she was there in Puerto Montt! they were very special. so that was super cool! 

so then wed morning we woke up at 4 AM and went to osorno to listen to elder nelson. i loved every minute of that conference. his wife gave a pretty bomb talk about how we use our time. she said we don´t wanna go home with regrets. she said one day we will wish we were missionaries again. she talked about a really rich man named schindler from world war 2 who bought jews from the nazis. when he retured to the states he started looking at all of his possesiones. the worth of his car, his house, ect. and starting counting the number of souls he could have bought with that money. she read this quote from him..."This car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people right there. Ten people. Ten more people.This pen. Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would have given me two for it, at least one. He would have given me one. One more. One more person. I could have gotten one more person…and I didn’t."  i for sure do not want to feel like that when i get home from my mission. i know this is His time, and it´s so so so short and so precious. i was thinking about how it´s kinda like life in general. life so short...it´s so precious. are we doing all we can to live the gospel joyfully and to help others live it as well? do we spend our time wisely? ‘Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father:  Ye shall have eternal life.’

sister nelsons talk was really awesome....basically we just gotta work hard out here. i´ve set some new goals to be better because i love it so much. i always love going to conferences like that because it helps me remember that i´m not the only imperfect one if an apostle of the Lord has to tell it to the whole mission.

we are also trying to use family history more in our work to find new people and reactive less actives. so this week i went on familysearch.org and was looking at my family tree. it was really REALLY interesting. i started looking at my great grandma orullian, and her husband joseph, who immigrated from turkey. there were all the dates she was batized and sealed in the temple and everything...it was so awesome. there were also some pictures of her and her family on there. i was crying looking at some of them. it was the coolest thing learning a little more about her. i would LOVE to know more about her and all my other ancestors. and i definitely want to work on my family history when i get home from the mission. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers"

anways, have an awesome week! i love you all SO SO MUCH!

love always, hermana steele

ps. president obeso said it´s ok for you guys to come!

Pure Christ Like Love Can Change the World!

hola my wonderful, lovely, amazing family!

guess what?! elder nelson is coming to the mission next week! i´m SO EXCITED. it´s gonna be awesome. the elders called the other day and said my package finally came...that was really exiting as well...so they said they´ll give it to me next week when we go osorno for the conference with elder nelson.

guess what else? the fleas are back. and they are ALL OVER MY BODY. it´s horrible. pray for me? and in my next package could you send me some more anti-ich cream? speaking of packages...the mission has told us to tell our parents to start sending christmas ones so that they get here on time...and obviously not through UPS. hahaha.

so the work is going good. this week we found a less active member...he´s been less active for most of his life. he went inactive at 18.  he told us he used to go out with the missionaries all the time. and he still believes the church is true and he said he will never be able to deny it. his girlfriend isn´t a member. they live together and have a little boy. his girlfriends name is anna and is VERY VERY RECEPTIVE! holy cow. it´s awesome. i´m super excited for them. they are the cutest. pray for anna and luis. i know we´re gonna see miracles.

last week we had a really awesome district meeting. we talked about successful missionaries. our district leader talked a lot about how a successful missionary love who they serve. they have charity, the pure love of christ for everyone. i can have the spirit, i can teach well, i can baptize a lot but if i dont love the people, i am nothing. i can serve 18 months here in chile but if my heart isn´t right i cannot profit by it. i may change the lives of others but the good i do will do me no good unless i have charity. elder holland said "pure, christlike love can change the world." God created us in His own image...that means outer image AND internally. love is a quaility God has, and it´s a gift he gives us...and it never faileth. God wants me to become like Him, but change only happens if my heart is in the right place. i know that charity is "bestowed upon all who are true followers of Christ so that when He comes, we shall appear like Him." i know that we are all children of God, and i know He loves us perfectly. i know that we all have the potential to become like Him. it´s important for us to show love for others not only to change their lives, but to change ours as well.

hermana meacham is doing great. she´s learning a lot and getting better everyday. i love it!

i hope you all have a great week! i love you so much! i still love being a missionary! 

con amor, hermana steele

Guess what else?! I'm training a new missionary!

HOLA FAMILIA!

well yeah i spoke yesterday at church. it went well. everyone understood my spanish so that was good....they laughed at my jokes. haha. i´m sure syd did great too!!

so last week we had transfers. guess what? hermana jenkins left. it was a REALLY sad goodbye. haha we were NOT expecting it. i really love her so much. she went to Valdivia! so that´s cool! guess what else? im training a new missionary! she´s from pleasant grove UT. hermana meacham. she´s the sweetest thing on the face of the earth. so so cute. doesn´t know a lick of spanish. (it´s pretty bad) it´s crazy to see how much spanish i actually know. when i got here to Chile i struggled a lot with the language. i felt like i´d never learn. i was exactly like hermana meacham. i´m really excited to help her learn and grow! we´ve already set lots of goals! she told me i speak really fast...it´s SO weird speaking slow hahaha. and the other day we were in a family night and the mom of the family was like "she doesn´t understand a thing...just tell her what i said in english" so i looked at hermana meacham and started talking to her but it all came out in spanish. and she was still confused. and then the mom was like "no just tell her in english!" and then i realized i was still speaking spanish. im not sure if i´ll ever be able to speak english again! i´m definitely learning to have patience with it all. i don´t know how hermana bennett did it with me. shout out to her!

so we´ve only been together for about 1 week but we are already seeing lots of miracles. the street contacts we´ve been doing actually stop and listen...and we´ve been teaching lots and lots of people in the streets. hermana meacham invited 3 people to be baptized in the street this week. it was awesome. she´s got a really strong testimony...the spirit is very very strong when she testifies. i feel very blessed to have the opportunity to train her. i´m glad the president obeso trusts me to do it...but more importantly that the Lord trusts me to do it. it´s gonna be awesome.

anways, i´m out of time but i love you all so much! thanks for you prayers! you guys are the best!

love, hermana steele

Guess What?! I have to talk in sacrament this Sunday!

so normally i´d be telling you guys the changes happening this transfer but president obeso wants to wait until tonight to tell us the transfers. so that will be interesting. i have no idea what´s gonna happen. i think im staying here in Pto. Varas for sure but i´m not sure if hermana Jenkins and i will have another transfer together! this morning when we left the house she prayed that we´d have another 6 weeks together. SUPER CUTE NO?! it´s crazy to me that the transfer is over and that hermana jenkins finished her training! she´s a big girl now!! 

we were supposed to have exchanges with the sister training leaders this week but we didn´t so that stunk. but we did have interviews with president obeso. it went awesome. i really love president obeso. when i walked in the room he asked me "why are you so happy?" 

so we are still in the procress of finding new people to teach. we actually lost like 3 investigators this week. so that was cool. i´ve been thinking a lot about why we haven´t found more of Gods children who are ready to accept the gospel if we are trying so hard to talk to everyone in the street. finding has never been my strength in the mission. i like to teach but i´m not a huge fan of finding. but i´ve learned (slowly but surely) that finding by the spirit is just as important as teaching by the spirit. and i realized that lately, i´ve just been talking to the people just to talk to them. i have the faith that they´ll stop and listen but i´ve had the attitude of "let´s go out and get it done...let´s talk to everyone that passes us." and i´ve realized that i have not been trusting in the spirit to guide me to the people that the Lord wants me to talk to. there´s a huge difference when we work efficiently and effectivly. in D&C it says that we are called to bring to pass the gathering of the elect because the elect hear the voice of the Lord and harden not their hearts. so this week, i´m going to find the elect. and guess what?! i have to talk in sacrament this sunday! i´m super nervous. i do not like giving talks. but guess what my topic is? it´s how do i recoginize and follow the promptings of the spirit. just what i need to be able to recognize and follow the promptings of the spirit better this week.

anyways, i love you all so much! i hope you have a great week!! pray that we can find the elect here in pto varas!!

con amor, hermana steele