"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