Week 68 10.12.15

10.12.15

Hey everyone!

What a week!!! weve had interviews, MLC (missionary leadership conference), Zone Training (Were we train other missionarys on what was presented to us at MLC), Exchanges, Service projects, and more! 

Thanks for letting us borrow your son! we love him and he is a very hard worker and wornderful! 

-Jill Carter

^^^^ I left the computer for a second and that was left be the member who's house we are emailing at today! They are awesome! (she told me i had to send it)

Anyways, here are some cool storys from this week! Despite the business, we were determined to work hard and see miracles, so we saw so many! the lord is truly blessing us!

One evening we were starving after being on team ups, and helping people move, etc. So although it was close to 9, and we could have easily gone home and made food, we both felt super pushed to go and get a bite to eat and contact for any last bit of time we could. Through a series of events, we ended up at Chipotle. Where we ended up placing 2 copies of The Book of Mormon and meeting 2 wonderful investigators whom we will definitely be teaching! I know it is interesting to say, but the lord wanted us at Chipotle that night. 

Among many other Emmaus expiriences this last week, that was one of my favorites. However, we also are now teaching a man named JD who became interested in the church when he watched "The Book of Mormon musical". a few months later he got on LDS.org and Mormon.org to research the church and then requested a Book of Mormon sent to him. The lord sometimes brings the investigators to you i guess! 

I would share more, but to keep this manageable, i just will say that i know the lord is blessing My mission! I also know that it does not matter how "busy" we appear to be. There is always time to go out, to preach the gospel, and to be a missionary! Im so grateful for every second i have out here to teach and talk to people. its the best way to be happy! I just wish i could instill that, what i know now, into the newer missionaries. I know it would've helped me so much more through out the first months of my mission! Hopefully i can aply what im learning here to my whole life!

Today was also a blast! Some P-days you dont do much and others you are jam packed! today was jammed! We fished, and went to some awesome caverns with members! Im sure my mom will add pictures to the blog so i wont talk to much about today, after all, a picture is worth 1000 words! 

Well, love you all, stay strong!

Week 67 10/5/15

10.5.15

Hey everyone!

We've stayed pretty busy all week this week, with new missionaries coming in, planning the new transfer, district meetings to attend, and conference. There wasn't much time for a dull moment! Thats what you like as a missionary though, a busy schedule! hah

Wednesday we had a bunch of new missionaries come in, 3 new spanish elders and 2 new spanish sisters.(as well as many other English missionaries) Elder Littleford and I helped the AP's the night they arrived. He did a baptismal interview with one of the AP's (a man named Chris who was baptized on thursday!) whilst i stayed and helped shuttle the new missionaries to the hotel they stay in on the first night. Were very excited to have them in the mission! Specifically there is a super awesome elder being trained in lorna by Elder Bartlett. We work often with them so it will be great to have him.

Along with the coming of a new transfer, we have decided to make a bit of a theme for the next six weeks.  That theme is "Believe", although inspired by a josh groban song, it is not meant to promote a theme of Christmas, but more so faith!! We are focusing on believing in the power of the savior and what he can do through us! Believing in ourselves, our companions, and our investigators. Believing in the new missionaries, the old missionaries, and the wards we serve in. I fully trust that if we really put our faith in the lord and really believe that through him we can do anything. (Philippians 4:13) Then we can do anything! Faith is real and very powerful! :)  The scriptural part of this is found in Alma chapter 32...

 27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

Hopefully we can believe to increase our faith and if we do, we will see miracles! 

This last week was, as you all know, conference weekend. It was such a blessing for us to be able to listen to all of the prophets and apostles!!! We are especially excited for our 3 new apostles. I am 100% certain they are called of god and will serve wonderfully as his special witnesses on this earth! However, one of my very favorite talks, did not even come from an apostle. It came from Devin G Durrant ( 1st counselor of the Sunday school general presidency) and was titled "Ponderize" It is a concept that I have never thought of before, but makes great sense. To choose one scripture a week and ponder and read it every day. as you do, not only will the spirit be more often with you, but also you will be able to more easily memorize scripture passages and where to find them!  I invite everyone to listen to all of conference, but specifically to listen to this talk here.....---> https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/10?lang=eng&vid=4531487647001&cid=4 <---- 32:27.="" a="" about="" above.="" actually="" alma="" already="" and="" awesome="" be="" bit="" by="" each="" hopefully="" i="" ill="" is="" it="" learn="" love="" me="" monday="" more="" much="" my="" nbsp="" nd="" next="" o:p="" one="" ponderize="" scripture="" share="" shared="" so="" the="" then="" this="" to="" week="" will="" with="" yall="">

Other then those things, the mission is wonderful here in Alabama (Roll tide). I love all of you and hope your doing well! 

Week 66 9/28/15

9.28.15

Hey Yall!

First off, I'm sorry i didn't get a big letter sent out last week! Some days you get so busy (even on a p-day!) that you end up with no time to email anyone! Hopefully i can make it up with this weeks letter!

To start off, Yesterday Elder Littleford and i had an amazing experience at church. We had invited countless people, from when we arrived, and all the way up until the sacrament, nobody came. Then, we got a call from Brandi. She is a 22 ish year old black woman who has 2 young kids. She told us she was on her way with her friend Alexandra (who also has 2 young kids) and needed the address because she had lost the card with the address on it. She then apologized for being late, and told us that the reazon was because she drove all the way to Bessemer to pick up her friend and then come all the way back to our church! That's is an hour round trip! even more amazing, we had only met her the night before!! Luckily, they were able to arrive in time to see part of sacrament meeting, and then stay through the meetings and a wonderful linger longer we had after church ended. THEY LOVED IT! I had been praying super hard recently because we have not had anyone to teach the last couple weeks, all of our investigators had dropped us or where MIA. So, to have these 2 women and there children come to church, so ready for the gospel, was amazing! Definetely an answer to Prayer, Elder Littleford an I are stoked to keep working with Brandi and Alex in conjunction with the sister missionaries.

In other news, Rayshawn is doing awesome! She is just on fire with the gospel, the ward loves her, she loves them, and she is even going out and teaching with the sister missionaries! It's so great to see someone that you were able to work with continue to progress and she is doping great! She is applying for jobs and is soon to be moving away from home. All of which will be great for her. She definitely has a testimony of how much this gospel has changed her already!

We also had an interesting experience this week, we had an appointment to meet with a recent convert named Jamarcus, He is about 20 and a super awesome guy.  But, when we arrived to meet him, he was like limping out of his house, blood all down his arm and some make shift bandages trying to cover it up. He also had road rash all down his side. He had apparently been long boarding down a hill and fell super bad. So, due to the lack of medical supplies in our car, we went to walmart and ended up bandaging him up in the walmart bathroom before he had to  go to work. Pretty random thing to do on a mission i guess, but he is doing much better now!

In Other news, this coming Wednesday is transfer day! However, Elder Littleford and I are staying together in the Inverness ward here in Birmingham/Pelham Alabama! im super stoked because we get along great, work super well together, have a blast, and are having so much success! Sometimes after a transfer you are ready for a new comp, but other times, you need a second one!  So we are going to go hard and hopefully catch a few fish! <--- a="" activity="" actually="" and="" anything....="" away="" become="" but="" caught="" chance="" couple="" days="" else="" focus="" for="" get="" gives="" great="" guess="" ha.="" has="" have="" i="" it="" its="" just="" let="" little="" mind="" new="" not="" o:p="" of="" on="" one="" our="" ours.="" out="" p-day="" relax="" something="" that="" therapy="" these="" time.="" to="" version="" we="" when="" will="" yet="" you="">

To end, i just want to invite everyone to remember general conference and try to make a special effort during at least one session to sit down and really take some notes on it! I think the best learning experiences on my mission have come from being in general conference and listening to the words of the apostles! Which, btw, there will be at least 2 new of! (they may wait to call the third for time sake)

I love you all, hope your doing great!

-- 

-Elder Steele

ps. if you dont know how to watch conference, you can always watch it online at LDS.org

Week 65 9/21/15

9.21.15

hey mom, i kinda got distracted today and we are off fishing, can you just let everyone know im doing well? i will send a larger weekly letter next week or one tonight if i have time, love yall!

Week 64 9/14/15

9/14/15

Hey everyone!

I wont take to long today, weve got some big P-day plans of going fishing/hammocking! should be a blast!! but i do just want to let everyone know im alive, im doing well, and the life of a missionary couldnt be better!

Weve had a fantastic week as well! This last saturday we had a baptism for a girl named Rayshawn, We just ran into her while outside of her apartment complex and she is on fire!! The ward loves her and she is so excited to be a member now! She asked me to baptize her and elder littleford to confirm her. It has been a great last couple of weeks working with her.  We found her 16 days before she got baptized and every single day we were able to teach her in a members home!! Its been such a great expirience because it really shows how much members are the key to misionary work! I am sending a picture, i think my mom will probobly post more pictures to my blog so if you want to see more go check it out! The elder in the blue was the one who found her 9 months ago and then she fell off the map!  we are so blessed to have been able to work with her! 

Well, thats all for this week! I hope and pray you are all doing awesome! Love yall!