written: 3/22/2021
Week 12
This week was not what we expected it to be, but we have learned to expect the unexpected! We had lots of lessons planned with new people, we were finally going to get new amigos and be able to teach! Well, we had 9 appointments fall through and we just had to keep pressing forward, knowing eventually we will be able to teach! A cool experience was one of our amigos loves basketball, I am sure I have mentioned him in past emails. We set up a time to play basketball with him and he ended up inviting 3 friends with him! Before we played, I knew we needed to at least share 1 scripture in the Book of Mormon and I thought why not give all of them their own Book of Mormon. We shared our scripture, gave them all their own Book of Mormon and explained a little, and began with a prayer. We enjoyed our game and set up a time for this upcoming week to play again! Our amigo called us yesterday and he told us his friends loved that we shared before we played and loved that we prayed before as well, so hopefully this week we can get their numbers and have the opportunity to share more with them!
This past Sunday I was able to give a talk in my branch! Now let me begin by telling all of you... it was in English. Let me explain. The president of the branch a week and a half ago gave me a talk and told me he wanted me to deliver a talk in English which will then be translated by another missionary into Spanish. Confused, I accepted and was going to figure it out. I get to the chapel to begin working on my talk and search for the talk given by Elder Bednar. Now the funny thing about this talk was that it was given in Peru, so as Elder Bednar spoke in English, it was dubbed in Spanish and only published in Spanish! Now how was I supposed to write a talk in English over a 27 minute talk in Spanish? Well, I had to do some thinking, as again there was not even a written transcript I could find on a church website. What I ended up doing was opening up YouTube's time stamped transcript, copying that into a translator, realizing the formatting will be 4 words per line, and then realizing it repeated phrases almost every line or two. After finally getting the format complete, the repeated phrases deleted, and the talk translated, I could finally actually write my talk. On Sunday, I delivered the talk by reading a sentence, followed by the male senior couple speaking that same sentence in Spanish, and we continued line by line, english then Spanish. In the end, it was a great experience and it was a great talk! The process truly went from English to Spanish, back to English, talk written in English, then delivered to the branch in English then Spanish. Hope that all makes sense, but anyways, it was a cool and unique experience!
Lastly, to begin the week I was a little stressed out over small little things and I was losing focus. I continually remembered some words from a family friend in which he told me that his mission was amazing as he did not worry about things and he was able to focus solely on one thing, others. It really changed my perspective and I had to choose to stop worrying about the little things and realize I was thinking only of myself in those situations as well. Once my mind was able to de-stress a little, I felt so much better. Just let the good times roll!
I love all of you!!! Thank you for all your support!
Love, Elder Collin Steele
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