Week 18 10/27/14

10/27/14

Hey everyone!

So this week was Just such an amazing week!! It was the last week of transfers and so it was just the week that the blessings started pouring out from heaven! We had An investigator at church yesterday and found a whole bunch of new prepared people! We've been so busy teaching i really don't know where the week went! Alabama is just prepared for the gospel!  I love it too, Its so amazing to be busy, to be teaching, to be really progressing the work of the lord!!  Heres some of what i sent to my mission president, its pretty cool!

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This week has been Awesome, We have seen just amazing blessings from the lord! For example, last night we were walking between a couple appointments and all of the sudden some guy from behind us just starts yelling "HEY, HEY, HEY YOU GUYS!!" It was a bit iffy at first because we were in an area that is kind of ghetto and it was dark, but when we turned around it was like an 18 year old kid running up to us. It turned out he really wanted a picture of christ for his bible and is looking for truth in his life, he is way excited for us to come over and teach him. Its just such a blessing to be in the right place at the right time because of the lord! in addition we have found some awesome new investigators this week, we had investigators come to church, and we have the ward working with us and fellowshipping these people too. The work is starting to heat up in huntsville.

In addition I went on exchange with the zone leaders (Elder Wilkins and Elder Smith) I learned a lot from them about how to teach using to BOM. How to truly use the Word of God and the spirit to answer questions of the soul. So it was an awesome exchange.Other then that I am excited to be done training and have a new companion. Its sad to have elder jackson leave but he is an awesome elder and will really progress the work no matter where he is. 

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The Last Part of that Email is Something Kind of important!! I am Staying in Huntsville! Its a pretty awesome place and i will be here for at least another 6 weeks to continue working with my investigators!! Elder Jackson is moving and so on wednesday we will go to transfer meetings and he will go somewhere new and i will come back to huntsville with a new companion! it is one of those things, its good for change but its sad, your trainer is someone your always close to! Hes like my brother! We will both go do some awesome things though! 

i dont have a ton more time today, so i wont take up to much time but i want to share a cool scripture! 

Mosiah 18:30-31

 30 And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon,yea, by the   waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful   are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their  Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise   forever.

 31 And these things were done in the borders of the land, that they might not   come to the knowledge of the king.

and one more...

 24 For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and   this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to   receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory.

i just love this because it shows how amazing the place, the people, the day is that you come to the knowledge of your redeemer! It also shows how much love you can have when you work with and help people come to that knowledge! Please go out and be one of those angels that are preparing people and helping people receive the word of god! I love you all!

Elder Steele

Week 17 10/20/14

10/20/14

Hi guys!

So, It was a bit of a busy week! A great one though! Before i get into it though i need everyone's help! My mission has made a goal of reaching 500 baptisms by the end of the year, Its a bit of a tall order being in the heart of the bible belt. However, I know we can do it! We are all praying very hard to be able to reach our goal and to help the people in Alabama come unto Christ and receive his restored gospel! Thus, if anyone has a bit of extra time, please pray to help progress the work here. Prayer is one of (if not the) most powerful forces on the earth I know that if we all have faith and pray, we can see great miracles! 

Its just like the brother of jared in ether 12:30

30 For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin,aRemove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it wouldnot have moved; 

wherefore thou workest after men have faith.

Anything is possibly through faith in our lord and savior! So let us all exercise faith together in this missionary work and lets do the lords work!!

Alright, so here is a little bit about my week. This week was a good week, First off our English classes up here are starting to draw Hispanics in! We have had 3 new really strong investigators in the last 2 classes. They are all very open to learn both English as well as the gospel and all 3 have expressed desire to come to church and receive more lessons! We have Fernanda who is a young mother and who is very open to the gospel. We are working with her with the sisters as well as branch members and she feels very welcomed and fellowshiped at the church. We are praying that her, as well as the 2 men (Louis and Eric), can come to church on Sunday, They already love English class and all of the branch members they've met from our branch sports nights. We plan to keep working hard to help them come unto Christ!

In addition to that awesome opportunity to find and work with new investigators, I also went on exchanges with Elder Virtue this week. We worked really hard and ended up teaching some awesome lessons FROM TRACTING! it works! Hopefully him and Elder Habonimona will be able to continue teaching these new contacts! in addition, we also taught one of the most spiritual lessons ive ever taught on my mission. The sisters gave us a referral to a man named Billy and he gladly welcomed us in. We taught him about the plan of salvation and showed him it was all backed up from the bible and BOM. He expressed desire to read the BOM and to learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Ive never felt a stronger spirit testifying of truth then when we taught about the spirit world. It was an amazing experience.

So, Exchanges went awesome, Elder virtue is a good elder, he and i taught very well together. Me and elder Jackson are doing very well, we are striving to help the mission reach its goal and striving to be the "6:29" kind of missionarys. not the "6:31".

Now that last part is really important! 6:29 or 6:31. In reality its only 2 minutes right? but how great of a difference it makes! When we as missionarys strive to be obediant over 100% of the time, and not only that but to better ourselves 100% of the time, we can become so much closer to our savior! Yeah 2 minutes is only 2 minutes, but over the course of a mission that's over a full day of wasted time,24 hours! Thats time to use working out our preparing lessons, working out, preparing to be a better missionary! I have a strong testimony that obedience brings blessings and that as we as missionary's. ALL OFF US as missionary's, if we are obedient to the commandments, we can see miracles and see peoples lives change for the better :) So i challenge everyone to 100% obedience to the commandments of the lord. YOU WILL BE BLESSED IMMENSELY!!  you dont have to live a missionary schedule, but strive, everyone, to live up to the commandments of the lord :) IT IS WORTH IT :)

To end i just want to share a few links to amazing quick videos from conference! hopefully you can share them with friends :)

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-10-270-elder-jeffrey-r-holland-highlights?category=october-2014-general-conference-highlights&lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-10-130-elder-lynn-g-robbins-highlights?category=october-2014-general-conference-highlights&lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-10-170-president-dieter-f-uchtdorf-highlights?category=october-2014-general-conference-highlights&lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-10-510-elder-m-russell-ballard-highlights?category=october-2014-general-conference-highlights&lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-10-570-elder-david-a-bednar-highlights?category=october-2014-general-conference-highlights&lang=eng

These and many more are all amazing videos!! Please check them out and invite your friends :)

I love you all so immensely! have an awesome week!

Week 16 10/13/14

10/13/14

Hello!

This week was just a week full of new people and exciting things!!! Miracles everywhere!! 

One in particular is with an investigator we taught one lesson to a while ago and since we have not been able to see him again. His name is Joe and we had been working hard all day, we had met a few people but nothing super super solid. Anyways, we decided to go try knocking on his door. Low and behold he was there. We taught him an awesome lesson about the book of Mormon and he saws he would want to be baptized after having the rest of the discussions! So hopefully we will continue teaching him! :)

Another awesome miracle happened in finding a new investigator this week as well!  Her name is fernanda and she is super cool! So we have english classes every Wednesday and Friday nights and we put a bunch of flyers around in all of the Hispanic areas. So on Wednesday we had this lady just show up for english! She is very nice, has 2 young kids, and she has been to church once before with some other missionary's! Even better she doesn't work on sunday! Immediately she was fellowshiped by members and the missionarys and it is just so cool! We are starting to teach her the lessons and English and she is so elect! We are so excited to hopefully get her to come unto Christ! :)

It was really cool to see how she saw that flyer and decided to come learn, to improve herself! Now we are starting to teach her not only english which will help her immensely, but also the gospel which will help her for eternity! Its just awesome :)

Later in the week we had stake conference! Our Mission President came and gave an excellent talk during the conference as well! He talked on the "So What" of missionary work. Because when we talk to people, we can tell them all about josehp smith or the BOM or anything and if we dont tell them why its important or how it will help their lives, whats the point!? 

Its like this, If i go up to start talking to someone who is a single mom with 3 kids, and all i tell her is that "hey this is a good book, you should read it." Do you think she will read it!? NO!!

However if you tell her that "This is The Book of Mormon. Its a sacred volume of scripture like the bible and contains the testimony of prophets about Jesus Christ, it also contains the knowledge of how families can live together forever with our lord and savior jesus christ. Would you be interested in learning about how familys can be together forever?"  All of the sudden she has a reason to read, she can see how this book can help her. 

So I encourage all of you, as you strive to go out and be missionarys, give people the "So what". Tell them why this gospel can change their lives! Because it can! and it will! Just as the gospel changed Alma the younger, If you can help change someone who knows how much good they can do! Let them see how all of their strife can be changed to joy just as Alma experienced in chapter 36!

17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with  torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my  many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my  father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of  one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the  world.

 18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on  me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

 19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory   of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea,my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

When we give people the "So What", we help them change, like alma did, we can help them understand that the true joy of this life comes through jesus christ. I encourage you all to read all of Alma 36 (because its just one of my favorite chapters!) and also to share the gospel! Give people the WHY! 

I love you all so much, You guys are awesome!!!

P.s. I hope everyone had a chance to see Meet the Mormons! If not you should go watch it! it is a fantastic movie! :) Share it with your friends and non-members especially! 

Week 15 10/7/14

10/7/14

Hello everybody!

I have had just a crazy week! Packed full of all sorts of uplifting spiritual experiences and chances to learn and grow! In addition to general conference We had a zone training this week which really helped us here become just a little better missionaries. here is a little bit about it! As well as the rest of a bit of my letter to president this week haha.

This week was just full of being spiritually fed! We had just an awesome zone training, Elders Oliva and Wilkins and Smith just blew us away. They talked about loving everybody, how you need to switch how you see people. an example was a missionary jogging in the morning with one of the zone leaders. He may be speeding up and slowing down and thus irritating his companion, however when you realize that he is awake at 630 am and running! you realize that he is doing amazing! you can love him despite his faults. I also loved a training the sisters gave about our potential to be like god! It will come slowly, but because our god loves us so much, we can one day become like him if we are diligent and steadfast. Learning so much from my leaders and i love it!

Following that was my first general conference as a missionary, and i never have felt like ive been able to just grasp so much before! i never have felt so much like i could apply aspects of every talk. I have never seen how well you could share these talks to help others be converted until this conference. This conference was just awesome. I took so many notes and i saw so many things that i can do better on, but i know little by little and line upon line i can get there. 

Thats one thing i feel like ive learned from Elder Jackson (who by the way is just an awesome trainer, ive learned so much) That we do not need to be perfect in every little thing right now. But if we can really work hard every day, then each day we can become a little bit better. We always say "Poco a Poca" which is just spanish for little by little.

Alright, so there were some of my thoughts about this weekend, it was awesome haha. I do want to share though some thoughts on probably my favorite conference talk!!! I mean, all of the talks were just plain amazing. But the one that really stood out to me this conference was the very last talk given by Elder Bednar. It was about mission work and missionaries! So relevant for me especially at this time in my life, because by sharing a talk with a message like that one, i believe many can come unto the truth! heres the link to the talk...

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/10?lang=eng&vid=3822608486001&cid=10

He said, "We are a missionary church, we always have been, and always will be." Its so true because once you know the truth, the light of christ which can heal all wounds, you only desire to share what you know! you wish to share the truth with all others!

We invite not for ourselves but for others. we do not gain from helping you, we invite all to come unto christ because we want all people to feel the same joy we do from the true gospel of jesus christ!

Thus we do not feel the need to share the gospel out of duty, we share the gospel because we love others and truly desire others to come unto christ and experience the same joy we feel.

My challenge to you guys is to take elder Bednars talk, or a different talk from conference, and share it with someone who is non-member. Help them understand why we always invite and and zealously strive to spread the gospel. Ever member is a missionary! and it is easy! a 15 minute video is not long at all, share share share, invite invite invite, you can do it! :) 

That leads me to one of my favorite scriptures, Alma 36:24

"Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without 

ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring 

them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost."

This is alma sharing the account of how his conversion happened and how he received a change of heart. For when we are truly converted we will only desire to do good continually and to share the gospel to bring others to your joy. Thats what i feel tight now on my mission, that desire to bring the gospel to all, I pray i never lose that desire either, and i hope we all can become converted and seek to share the gospel with all others :)

I just want to end by saying how much i love each and every one of you! I am doing fabulous out here on my mission and i love it! I Love serving the people! Even when i have to serve all p-day and thus take my p-day on tuesday not mondayhaha (hence why this is on tuesday). But it is just the greatest opportunity to serve those around me and to be a servant in the lords hands. If you have questions for me feel free to email, I love you all and hope you have an amazing week filled with missionary opportunities.

Love, Elder Steele

10/6/14

Hey mom!

Ok, so good news and bad news first. Bad news is that i am completely exhausted because me and elder Jackson spent all morning today digging holes for a service project and thus might not have a ton of time to email you today. However, because we used almost all of our p-day doing service we were given permission to take part of tomorrow as P-day for us aswell! So tomorrow i can focus all my time to text and email you and Amanda and Lauren and Kason haha :) (so i guess that was really more good then bad news haha) Also my big letter for everyone will go out tomorrow probobly!

So are you guys going to go to the theatre to see "meet the mormons"? you really should cuz the previews look good!  It even looks kind of funny! So please go to it and bring friends! (expesially none member ones :)

also onto conference, you need to share president bednars talk, WITH EVERYONE!!! It was just so good! it so explained everything we do in our church and why we do it! That one as well as uchdorf's talk will just be amazing missionary tools!  

( https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/10?lang=eng&vid=3821430563001&cid=8 )

I have a random story to tell you too haha. So we were contacting at walmart last night and walking down by the toy isle. All of the sudden i see adults wearing ninja turtle masks and sword fighting in the isle! haha, so obviously i went to talk to them! They ended up being like 23 and just had a baby together (it was one guy and one girl dating or married, idk!!) the baby had a sitter and so they had taken a break from shopping to fool around ha. I ended up helping them video a vine then talking to them about the gospel. They are actually really interested! Plus, they feel bad because apparently they took a picture of us in our car and put it on facebook thinking we were Jehovas witnesses. All in all it was just a hilarious encounter that made my day! being a missionary isnt just boring! you have to be funny and kind and show your a normal person! then people want to listen to you! so yeah :)

All in all i am doing awesome mom! dont feel like the times going slow cuz its flying to me! Stay strong!

Here is my favorite scripture for the week (prolly) can ya guess why?

Isaiah 40:31

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and 

not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint

I love you all! stay strong :)

-Elder Steele