Week 36 - Trust + Love = Success!

written: 9/6/2021

Week 36

And just like that, this transfer is about to be over! We said goodbye to Elder Pillpe Saturday morning and Elder Vilcherres and I are staying in Puerto Montt for another transfer!!! The transfer flew by and we saw so many miracles and had so many great experiences and I know 100% we are going to see even more this next transfer. 

This last week was Elder Pillpe's last week so we focused a lot on member visits, but we made sure to also prioritize our lessons with people with a baptismal date. We are seeing lots of progress with almost all of them and we are confident! This week we are scheduled to have 2 baptisms!!! One on Saturday and one on Sunday if all goes to plan. They are amazing people and I am so excited to see their progress this week and for this amazing weekend we have planned. 

This week we also continued our focus on building our relationships with the members and we continue to see nothing but success with our members. A formula that I recently wrote in my journal is: trust + love = success. The members here trust us so much because we listen to them, we help them in any way we can, and we are able to talk with them in a loving way allowing them to open themselves up and for us to as well, and in return they help us with lessons, give us references, give us amazing food, and I am just having the time of my life here. We are constantly going from house to house and we just continue to see willingness to help us in every moment and the people in this ward always have their door open to us in every moment. I have just been able to focus a lot and think about the love I've been able to develop for these people and for the love they have been able to develop as well. 

One last quick thought I had, something I never thought I'd say a few months ago, was if this was my last transfer, and things were going like they are now, I would not want to leave. That really struck me when I thought that because now I really know my purpose and I'm having the time of my life and doing an amazing work. 

Love, Elder Collin Steele

PS - I have found Dr. Pepper! Best. Day. Ever!

pictures included: Just what the Dr. ordered!; Ward Missionary Group; L-R: Elder Robinson, Elder Saari, Elder Pilpe, Elder Vilcherres, member friend - Eduardo, and Me; Me, Elder Vilcherres, Elder Pilpe, Ignacia, Hermana Patricia, and friend