Week 22 11/24/14

11/24/14

Hello everyone!

I do not have much time to write! but i still wanted to send everyone a message to keep you posted on whats going on in Alabama!

We are working really hard here, working with this really cool/interesting man named Angel. we knick-named him hulk hogan. He has huge faith in christ and has many family members that are mormon! We just need to work on getting him to church and he will be awesome! Love this man so much! He was a referal from our sisters here and although he may be a little hippy ish and he may not understand everything i think he will one day choose to come follow christ! we hope that day is soon too :)

(mom, can you attach the picture from my one drive to this? he is the big burly guy in the leather jacket im standing by haha)

Other cool things are im seeing some of the people ive found and work with almost ready for baptism!!! I ran into this awesome lady named stephanie one day and was really prompted to go talk to her! turned out she had read the Whole BOM! The english sisters have been teaching her with an occasional lesson from us and now on saturday she will be baptized! Its so cool to see that because i followed the spirit someone is being baptized :)

Theres also a lady named leonor who is going to be baptized next week! Me and Elder Jackson found her and started teaching her! The sisters have kind of taken over because she is a single lady but she is so prepared and is going to be baptized dec 6th! I also had the oppurtunity to give her a blessing this last week for health! it was one of the most amazing expiriences of my mission. The spirit was so strong there and just truly testified of truth! the next day all of her headaches and sickness were gone! i wont go into more detail but it was just an amazing expirience in every way :)

Just to see these wonderful people choose to come to christ makes every hard day on the mission worth it! i am so excited for both of them :)

Anyways, thats a little of whats going on! I love yall so much! Keep on keeping on! and look to have the spirit of christ in your life this holiday season :)

-Elder Steele

Week 21 11 /17/14

Hey everyone!

Its funny as a missionary, during the week you do so many different things and you think you are going to have to write a novel to fit in your whole week when you go to write emails. Then you get to the computer on p-day and poof! Everything is gone! No one knows what we did that week haha. Its like a black whole. 

Thats ok though! I think i can remember at least enough to be interesting! so here goes!

I found out this week that Alabama is cold for starters, but that's not going to stop the lords work! It actually helped us, we had the idea of doing a hot chocolate stand on Saturday in a park where a lot of people usually walk and hang out. It actually went fairly well as we got many contacts from it. Even better is that shortly an ice skating rink will open and hockey games in an arena will begin both right next to this little park. We plan on doing a few more of these hot chocolate contacts on Saturdays when its busy and hopefully we will be able to find some elect people!

In addition this week I have seen the lords blessings of Tracting, on an exchange with elder Jordan we tracted into a small Hispanic family and their friend. We taught a really spiritual plan of salvation lesson to them and we have a return appointment tomorrow. They are very kind and very open to the gospel. Hopefully this return appointment will go very well. the rest of that exchange was good for me as well, each time i go on exchange i can see different characteristics of my zone leaders that make them good missionarys. Different ones that i can then apply to myself to become better. Things like boldness and kindness, teaching when you find, talking to everyone, etc. Its great to be able to learn from those called, it just helps strengthen all of us here in the mission.

Other then that, Me and Elder Mayer are really trying to find a lot, we need some new solid people and family's to teach. our companionship is doing well and as far as i can tell he is still loving his mission and wanting to get work done. we are really going to try and put our shoulders to the wheel and push this work forward. 

hmm... what else... We got a bunch of referals to new areas of hispanics we have never been before! so that was cool! we plan on going out to these areas in the next few days. they are a little ways away but it should prove to produce some new awesome investigators and hopefully allow some people to come to christ by being baptized! :)

As for me, im still trying to run every morning even though its cold and im still trying to eat healthy and stay warm! One thing i have a strong testimony of is health! When you get good sleep and eat right and work out you just have so much more confidence! You feel heathy and strong and talking to others is just easy! so i definitely am going to try and be healthy! The missionary handbook says we need to anyway haha :)

To end i just want to share a few thoughts about some quotes!

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Eleanor Roosevelt

I really like that! every one of us has dreams, and the future belongs to those of us who have those dreams and seek after them, but also beleive in how beautiful they can be to others. I have a dream of helping others come to christ and i know that can bring more beauty to anyone's life than anything else in this life! The gospel Brings true happiness and beauty to ones life! :)

Here's the second quote.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Martin Luther

Thats pretty cool to me! Prayer is so important! god loves us! he wants to talk to us! we need that communication! Often all that is needed for blessings to flow from heaven is opening your mouth and talk to your heavenly father! I have a firm testimony that prayer can help us in every aspect of our lives and as we pray our faith can grow and can "[begin] to be unshaken in the Lord". (enos 1:11)

I love all of yall so much! Keep being awesome and dont forget to pray and dream! 

-Elder Steele

Week 20 11/10/14

11/10/14

Hey guys! well, this week has been a bit wild!

For starters, on Monday we moved apartments. now i live with 2 other elders so there is 4 of us in one apartment. We are all the spanish elders too. So its kind of good cuz we get to better use the car and more effectively work together which is good! On the down side you have to deal with 2 different schedules not just your own so that can get pretty challenging sometimes! Im sure we will work out the kinks though and it will be a good move! For those of you who do not already have the address, my new address is.....

6500 Woods Ln. apartment A. Huntsville Alabama. 35806.

Well, After moving apartments and stuff we did actually end up having an effective week! 

One good thing that happened was one of our main investigators we managed to teach like 4 times and even better we taught a lesson to her boyfriend with her!!! they are now talking about getting married and praying to see if baptism is what they want! They both can really feel the spirit and they are awesome! she has come to church twice now and we are hoping we can get her boyfriend to come next week. The only problem is work! Hispanics work so much its crazy! they are truly the hardest working people i know but because of that they often work on sundays... Pray that he can have a day off to come to church! It would be so awesome for there family!

Other then that this week we taught more lessons and really tried to contact every person we could! We just set a goal today that as a zone we would invite 500 people to be baptized by the end of the year. Not to force people to be baptized but to give people that opportunity to change and to choose to follow Christ. So this week we are going to go and invite more and more people to come and be baptized and come unto Christ. So even though this week was good, im looking forward to an even better week this comming one! :)

Now i want to leave a little scriptural though i learned this week! I cant get lds.org to work so i cant leave any of the scriptures but here goes... The good Samaritan... Its a lot more symbolic then i ever realized! 

In the story the man is walking from Jerusalem (which is the highest point in isreal) down to Jericho (which is the lowest point in isreal). Its cool because as we walks down its kind of like us comming down to earth. and while we are on earth we receive wounds. If we would have stayed in heaven, or like the man in Jerusalem, we would have been safe but not progressed. However by choosing to come down, we all have received wounds both phisically and spiritually. while we are wounded, many would just let us suffer and die... but the the good Samaritan doesnt. He goes out of his way to save the poor man and to make sure he is taken care of. Then before he leaves he says "Whatever more that though spendest, when i return i will repay thee." (or something close to that) Its so cool to compare that to our savior. He came down to this earth to suffer for our sins and pains so that when we fall and when we are wounded he can pick us up, dust us off, and heal us. he has paid for all, not just the first pain or not just the little scratches. Anything you go through, the savior can help you because of the infinite power of his atoning sacrifice. He loves us so much!

i encourage you all to go read about the good Samaritan and see what you can learn from his sacrifice and the saviors. I know i learned a lot about charity :)

anyways, i hope you all have an amazing week!

love yall!

Week 19 11/3/14 New Companion and new apt/address in Huntsville

Hey guys! 

So this week has been just crazy!!!! We have been doing so many things and today we are moving appartments! check out this new address!

6500 Woods Lane Apt A Huntsville, AL 35806

so anything you have to mail mail to this address i will get it there! We are just moving apartments to the other spanish elders so we dont have to use so many miles driving half way across town. plus the other elders live closer to the spanish anyway. thus it will be a good move for missionary work!

Anyways, My week has been quite the adventure. Transfer day we had a catastrophe as Elder Mayers bike fell of the back of the car, (it was litterally like bouncing down the highway and flipped over the median onto the other lane of traffic) luckily no one was hurt, no one was even effected by it actually. The bike fell onto the median and we were able to get it. luckily it should only need minor repairs. (crazy for a bike that fell off at 70 right!?)Friday we also got chased by dogs through a neighborhood untill they must have got bored and stoped. It was good that they chased us though because there was some young kids trick or treating and it gave to parents time go get these kids out of the area of these crazy dogs!  That was one of the more wilder things that has happened thus far haha.

However through it all, we have been blessed! We had an awesome investigator at church (his name is angel) and taught some of the best lessons of my mission. We have 3 awesome progressing investigators who i think will be prepared for baptism shortly. All have been extended bap dates and all have said they would like to pray about the date before deciding. we are hoping to make some solid dates this next week and help these people come unto christ!

Also we had a really awesome branch party thing on halloween! best tacos of my life!! i love the branch members here :)

also it was transfers and i got a new companion! his name is elder Mayer! Its a bit different having a new companion, and me and elder mayer are definitely different. I do think though that we will be able to compliment each other well through this transfer. Elder mayer is a very bold missionary and i think we will do some awesome things! Putting our trust in the lord!

So yeah!  That was a bit of the crazy things that happened this week haha. Im doing really awesome though! I just love the mission and i love all of you! heres a spiritual thought to end! :)

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911029449001&cid=HPFR103114546

Check this video out and remember that through all of our hard times, the lord is there! he will help us! just like this really cool poem too :)

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand.Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

---

Mary Stevenson, 1936

remember the lord loves you! here is there for all of us! trust in him! if you dont beleive me go to proverbs 3:5-6

Love you all! Have an amazing week!

​

Elder Steele​