Week 61 - Awesome Awesome Awesome Week!!!

written: 2/28/2022

Week 61

Awesome awesome awesome week!!! It flew by and it was action-packed!! I can't believe that today is the last day in February! It is definitely making me appreciate the time I have here and makes me want to keep working diligently to see all the progress I am hoping for. 

This week we were able to continue progressing with Javiera and this week we were able to get a baptismal date with her!!! We thought she would choose a date later in March or even in April but she chose March 6th, this Sunday!! We have had a lesson with her almost every single day for 3 weeks and she is more than ready! This week we went over the Word of Wisdom and we knew that she liked to drink coffee and we were wondering if it was going to be a problem, but after we had explained what is the Word of Wisdom and the blessings, we were able to take all of her coffee with us in my backpack with 0 problems (funny picture will be attached). It has been awesome to see her progress these last 3ish weeks!! 

This Sunday our branch president wasn't there, neither was his 1st counselor, so his 2nd counselor had to lead the sacrament meeting and all of the people that were supposed to give talks fell through, so as we know, the missionaries were called on to help. It was my turn, as last time it was Elder Levar, so I had to go up there and do my best improvisation and I think it went pretty well haha, as I decided to just focus on love and charity and invite all of the members to really be there for each other because they are a small branch and they really need to help one another or they are going to keep dwindling in numbers and everyone is going to keep inactivating. The best thing again though of Sunday was seeing my primo, Jorge, again!! And he stayed for second hour and keeps showing his willingness now to attend and it is so awesome because I have definitely seen a shift in his attitude and happiness!

Lastly, this branch is just awesome!! This Sunday, Moises, the best member, decided to use his only day when he doesn't work to go out in the pouring rain and cold to go to a few lessons! It hadn't rained the entire day and then literally right as we walked out the door at 5pm to go to the first lesson the rain started falling, but it didn't deter Moises at all!! He is a super good example to me as to what a member of the church is and how to continue being a "member missionary" after finishing your 2 years as a missionary. 

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: Elder Levar and me; Beautiful Coyhaique; Bye, Bye Coffee... Hello, Baptism!; Lookin' good, Elders!

Week 60 - The Hand of God

written: 2/21/2022

Week 60

Amazing week!!! This was a little shorter week as we had P day Tuesday and it's already P day today on Monday, but hey, not complaining here! My love for Coyhaique hasn't gone anywhere and I'm enjoying it more and more everyday!!

This weekend we had interviews with President Meek and they went awesome :) I'm hoping that I'll be able to stay in Coyhaique for a while and continue seeing amazing things happen here. The zone is still incredibly small as there's still only 6 of us in all of Coyhaique, but hey, it's kinda fun just being out here away from everyone and doing our own thing.

The best thing that happened this week was with my awesome friend Jorge!!!! Also known as "primo" (cousin) as we call each other!! He's so awesome and he attended church yesterday, definitely the highlight of the week!! He's an awesome member who sometimes needs just a little push, but he has the purest heart!

We continue working with a good set of people, and are continuing to progress with one specifically. She continues progressing and we are still basically having daily lessons with her. Something awesome she said after I asked her why she had read ahead in 1 Nephi when the only commitment was to read one chapter yet she read 3. She said "well I don't really like to read but I just had to know what happened with Nephi and I love his story" to see a change like that after never wanting to read is something I love!! That's what happens when people just give the Book of Mormon a chance, it can actually work its way in their hearts!

As we talked with Hermana Meek this weekend, she talked about an image she loved of Jesus Christ where he is reaching into the water to help Peter after he had started doubting his ability to continue walking on the water. I always remember how it is my mom's absolute favorite photo and there's a ton of different meanings depending on how we look at the image. As we are struggling, under water, all we need to do is just extend our hand a little bit and Jesus will be there to help us out! 

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: Hermana Meek, Elder Levar and Me; The Hand of God by Yongsung Kim; Elder Levar and Me; Me and Jorge (aka Primo); and Save the Maté

 

Week 59 - Happy to Stay in Coyhaique

written: 2/15/2022

Week 59

This week was AWESOME!! First off I got to celebrate my birthday here in the mission and it was definitely different but an awesome experience. Funny story, I had gotten out of the shower and heard two people outside the house.. I quickly changed and ran outside to find a lady and Buzz Lightyear with a birthday surprise for me, shout-out my second family here in Coyhaique (Karen, Moisés, Fabiola and Javiera)! I also got to enjoy not one, but two cakes with members and also have a great busy day in the work!!

We were able to continue to strengthen our relationship with the branch members and we had a ton of visits with them and I just love this branch. The coolest thing that happened was actually yesterday! We weren't having too much success, we had plans canceled, our backup was to look for people that used to be taught by missionaries but even then, nothing. However, the second to last house we checked we were invited in a house and I immediately could tell he was not an old investigator but rather a member. So we asked him, he confirmed, but then he said "but I've been inactive for 20 years and no one in my family is a member, but I teach them how to pray, they know about God, and that I'm a member of the church" we talked a little more and asked if his family would be interested in a message and if it was more convenient we could return another day... He immediately went upstairs and then we hear footsteps down the stairs and the entire family comes down!! It was my first time being able to teach an entire family and it was awesome! With it being the pandemic and only really finding references of one person, it was awesome to find a family!

Other than that, we still are seeing a ton of progress here in Coyhaique. This past Sunday was transfers and my heart was pounding out of my chest as I DID NOT want to leave, as I said in my last email, my heart is in Coyhaique! Luckily when President said "and now to Coyhaique... No changes.. Onto the next" and I celebrated!

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: Birthday greetings from Buzz Lightyear thanks to Karen, Moisés, Fabiola and Jaivera; More Birthday wishes from Karen and Moisés; Birthday cake with Patricio; Giving Jaivera some pointers!; Ballin' it up with Elder Levar; and Still smiling under those masks!

Happy 21st Birthday, Elder Collin Steele!

Facebook posts: 2/9/2022

Elder Collin Steele celebrated his 21st Birthday in Coyhaique, Chile. 

Week 58 - Coyhaique Really Does Have My Heart

written: 2/8/2022

Week 58

This week was refreshing and had the typical challenges BUT even greater highs and I am super super motivated and excited for how the week ended up turning out. 

This week I flew to Osorno to go to a meeting that was super long but I definitely found a few good things to help me and apply to the sector. The best thing was seeing Elder Petty again, along with my old companion Elder Vilcherres. Always awesome to see my lifelong friends again. After we got back working in our sector, it was full steam ahead!!! Thursday night until Monday night was full full full!!

We began teaching an awesome new person! We have been slowly working with her over the last few weeks and it was finally time to jump into the lessons with her! Over the weekend, we were able to have 3 incredibly spiritual and powerful lessons. I felt like I wasn't even talking most of the time and I just let the spirit take over. I tried really hard to always find a video to make the lessons more interesting and they definitely worked! Seeing people progress is something that will never get old and especially seeing people I am super close with and have a super strong relationship with progress. Nothing better. We even had the chance to have a lesson on a riverbank during the weekend while I was sitting on a rock reading from the Book of Mormon... how awesome is that! I never want to leave!!!

My companion Elder Levar is a GRINDER for sure, we are always on the move and I love it! We are working super hard during the entire week and we always come home at the end of the day dead tired. We were able to meet some awesome new people to teach and see a lot more people progress as well. We had to stop teaching a BUNCH of people because they weren't making or keeping commitments and we are definitely seeing results now after starting over. I feel like I have an entire new and refreshed focus and it makes me want to keep working harder and harder. The people of Coyhaique really do have my heart and it is reminding me a lot of my time in my last sector where I never thought I'd find a sector just as good but I was wrong! 

Big shoutout to Moises and Karen! Two awesome members here in Coyhaique with the best family!!! They always take care of us and are always willing to help us in whatever is necessary!!! 

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: P-day fun

Week 57 - MasterChef & Lessons Learned

written: 2/1/2022

Week 57

A difficult week, but still positives... as always! The hardest part of the week was definitely receiving the news that Elder Petty got transferred and we only got an afternoon's notice and then he had to leave yesterday morning, it went by super fast! We had the best 2 months together and I'll be forever grateful for him! We were able to do amazing things together and we built a super strong friendship that developed into brothers from another mother, definitely a friend for life! 

My new companion is Elder LeVar from Arkansas! He has the same time as Elder Petty, about 19 months, but has only been in our mission for 6 weeks, as he wasn't lucky enough to be able to get here sooner due to all the covid issues. He's super cool and we already had a lot of discussions about our thoughts on certain things and we have a lot of the same thoughts! I definitely have high hopes for this next transfer, or however long we end up getting to be together as we are still doing transfers every 2 weeks! 

This week starting on Thursday we have been with Elder Ochoa, who was assistant for 6 months and is ending his mission by traveling to all of the zone leaders to give them training and to help them out with anything they've been struggling with. It's been great to learn from him and we've definitely learned a thing or two. Things haven't always been perfect, but it was a good lesson in humility to accept where I could improve and try to not think of the bad. 

We finally had our long awaited branch activity this past Saturday, MasterChef Desserts! We planned a ton, we were out and about for a week inviting every single person and we has super high hopes. We went to our friend Jorge's house to even make 3 trophies for the activity using parts from his garage including a car part, and they actually turned out super good for a pair of missionaries with little experience (that's me, 0 experience, because Elder Petty is a beast with that type of stuff). However, things don't always turn out how we plan, and we had a super super bad turnout with our activity. It was super sad honestly to see a bunch of hard work and to not see a ton of people. However... there were still some positives of course. Elder Petty made a BOMB peach cobbler (definitely should've won), and a non member and a less active member were in the top 3!! We got to try awesome desserts, we had 3 awesome judges with official scorecards and even played dramatic Masterchef music, it was a blast. We also got to see someone who had never entered the church see it for themselves for the first time and just a lot of small little tender mercies that I saw to make the activity all worth it and more. 

Lastly, we met a super awesome person!!! His name is Jose and he is a older man who is more than ready for the gospel! We were going house to house inviting with our old member list and we were finishing up and Elder Petty, with his infectious unlimited energy, said "THERE'S ONE DOT LEFT" and went running. We caught up to him, yelled our usual "HOLAAAA" and out came Jose... actually a different Jose than our list had said. He invited us in, took a first discussion and we actually already had a second discussion. He said he has lots of worldly things and no worries and we asked him "but Jose, is there something that you feel like you are missing" and he replied, crying "yes" and we promised him that it is the gospel and he is super ready for the gospel! 

As I write this, I realize that although I had really difficult times and bad moments, the week turned out awesome. Like we told an investigator this week, God doesn't work how we want it, but he sure will help us understand His perfect plan and give us even better things and situations we never would've expected or seen coming.

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: Check out our matching ties... THAT WE MADE!; Saying good-bye to Elder Petty; MasterChef trophies - handmade by Elder Petty and me; MasterChef chef set up; MasterChef winners