Week 7 - Español Rápido

 written: 2/15/2021

Week 7

Hola everyone!!!

I am safe and alive in Chile! I am on Day 4 of quarantine but that has not stopped us from working! 

First, my journey to Chile was incredibly long and tiring. It started at 9am on Thursday when I was dropped off at the airport by my parents. I then had a flight to Atlanta, small layover to get some food, flight to Santiago, very long layover, arrival in Osorno, then a 1+ hour car ride to get to my area. All in all, it was over 30 hours total. The worst part about it all was probably once we arrived in Santiago, we got off the plane and immediately joined a line that we had no idea what it was. Turns out, it was for the health screening, and we were in that line for 3 1/2 hours with no air and so many people in line. However, thankfully most of the Osorno missionaries were grouped together and we were able to talk and get to know each other and it made the time after as we waited for our flight to Osorno go by much faster. 

Now to explain my current living situation: we arrived to our house on Friday in Puerto Montt and to our surprise, 4 new missionaries including me were told this is where we were staying and there were 2 trainers. We are living as neighbors in the 2nd floor of a home where a member lives on the 1st floor. One part of the house is 2 new missionaries and a trainer, as one missionary is waiting the arrival of his trainer from the US, and I am living in the other side with 2 other elders. Due to quarantine rules, I was unable to go to my assigned area until I complete my 10 day quarantine. However, once quarantine ends I am going to an ISLAND! I have to take a 2 hour boat ride next week and I get to go to a place called Chiloe. I am so excited to serve those people and I have already met members and amigos in Chiloe and I love them already. 

I just want to share a cool experience I had. We were on a video call (I have to call my companion in Chiloe everyday to do missionary work, we are on the phone for almost the entire day) with amigos (people we are teaching) and they speak incredibly fast Spanish, Chiloe is known to be even faster than typical chilean Spanish which is already fast. To my surprise, I actually understood what they were saying, until they both started talking at the exact same time haha. They had to go and only could talk for a little but I was so surprised at how much I understood. After the call, I told my companion I felt like I knew them for forever and I loved them. I told him our goal is to baptize them when we are in Chiloe and I can already see I want them to received the wonderful gift of the gospel. I cant wait to serve these people and I know that little by little I will continue to understand Spanish and be able to effectively communicate. I can do all things in Christ.

I am loving everything Chile has to offer and although at times I feel discouraged and sad and overwhelmed due to all the newness of everything, I just continue to work and pray and trust it with all work out, and it has and I know it will continue. I cant wait to share my experiences with all of you and I am so excited to see the amazing things that are going to happen!

Love you all! CHAO!!!!

Love, Elder Collin Steele

Week 6 - When you Trust in the Lord, Everything Works Out

written: 2/10/2021

Week 6

I don't know if all of you know, but I got my flight plans last week! I am going straight to Chile, no reassignment! I fly out tomorrow, and begin my journey in SLC, then to Atlanta, then to Santiago, and then one more flight to get to Osorno. It is going to be over 24+ hours for my entire journey to Osorno, but it will be so worth it. I am flying with 11 or 12 other missionaries to Osorno, so we have a pretty decent sized group. 

I completed my online MTC on Monday and it was an amazing experience. It feels like just yesterday I was stressing trying to memorize Moroni 10:5 in Spanish and worrying about how I am going to get through this and when it was finally time to say goodbye, I wanted to stay and keep learning and being with my amazing district and teachers. We did a survey that asked us how our online MTC was and one of the last questions was along the lines of "if there were no health risks, how would you have liked your training" and to my surprise, I instantly selected all online. I loved online MTC and would not have wanted it any other way. It was amazing to feel so close to my teachers and district over zoom, I was able to spend so much time with my family at home, and I still learned a good amount of Spanish. Another blessing of being at home was I was able to celebrate my birthday with my family and it is crazy to think I will only be celebrating one birthday in the field. 

I am so glad I followed my promptings and that I am here serving a mission and about to go preach the gospel to so many people in Chile. The biggest lesson I have learned, as you can see from the subject of this email, is to trust in the Lord. I was very worried about online MTC and serving during the coronavirus, and that was one of the main reasons I decided not to go this past summer. I see now that by trusting in the Lord, everything worked out. I actually loved online MTC when I thought I would hate it, I see the need for missionaries during this time, and I have practiced some of the work I will be doing in Chile, such as teaching lessons over zoom, Facebook messaging, etc, and I love it all and time flies because I get so into the lessons and interactions and I know it will be even better when it is real people with real needs that I want to help get closer to God. I think I told a few people this over text as they wished me a happy birthday, but my recipe for success is to just be positive, be obedient, and trust in the Lord. I have seen the difference a positive mindset can have and I know that even when things get difficult and if I have a positive attitude, I can get through anything. I have been told countless times to be obedient and that obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles. I want those miracles and I want exact obedience, so that is what I am striving to do as I immerse myself in Chile!

I know that if we put our trust in the Lord, things will work out. I know that this is the path I am supposed to be on and that there is nothing else I would rather be doing. I am so excited and ready to get to Chile and serve the people there and give it my all. Things will get tough, I will have bad days, bad weeks, but in the end, there is a positive in every day and trials build faith. I hope to tell all of you how amazing Chile is next week in my email and I can't wait to share my experiences with all of you these next two years! Adios from the great USA!

Love, Elder Steele

pictures include: Our final day as a Home MTC District

Week 5 - Perspective is Everything

written: 2/3/2021

Week 5

It is crazy to think that I am on my last week of at-home MTC, it seems like just yesterday I was stressing out on memorizing Moroni 10:5 in Spanish, which looking back on it I kind of just laugh a little. I have definitely grown a lot, and I am really looking forward to getting out into the field. This past Sunday I had the opportunity to have a short video call with my mission president in Osorno and his wife. Their goal and hope is that I will be among a group of Americans arriving in Chile at the end of next week! The COVID rules in Chile are currently pretty strict, but I would love to be there in any condition. My mission president's goal is to hopefully assign me to a Chilean trainer, which would definitely force me to be all in on Spanish, but thankfully accelerate my language training even more than I am now in the MTC. I am hopeful and ready to go anywhere, I just want to get out there and put my learning into real practice.

As the MTC winds down, our classes are beginning to almost be exclusively grammar and practice lessons with our teachers as investigators. My companion and I at first struggled to get a lesson plan together and felt we were all over the place when we first did these practice lessons. As we have continued to practice, we have grown every single lesson. Recently, we taught both our morning teacher and afternoon teacher the plan of salvation. Both have different "profiles" and we formed the lesson around their needs, but the plan of salvation is such an important lesson. Neither of us wanted to mess it up because we know the power and influence it can have. As we were planning our lesson for the afternoon, I told Elder Peterson we should invite our interested person to be baptized after our lesson. He seemed a little unsure but agreed. After we had taught our lesson and were wrapping up, the Spirit continued to tell me it was the right idea. We extended the invitation and she hesitated and said she didn't know. We both testified of the importance of baptism and told her to ponder and pray about it and we will revisit it next lesson. After we wrapped up and she was back to being our teacher, she told us how powerful it was, and if we had asked her again after we both testified, she would've said yes. The reason I tell this experience is that it was such a joy and I felt so happy to extend a baptismal invitation to my teacher, I can't even begin to imagine how great it will feel when I offer this same baptismal invitation to someone in Chile and they accept. I look forward to teaching these lessons to interested people in Chile and I can't wait to see the lives I touch.

Lastly, I was watching our weekly missionary devotional and the speaker asked "What will you remember 2020 as?" 

I'm sure most can remember how I would've answered that question a few months ago, as I had decided not to serve a mission due to COVID-19 and I would have said 2020 was awful because it prevented me from going on a mission. 

As I am wrapping up at home MTC, my thoughts on 2020 have changed dramatically. I now think about 2020 as one of my favorite years. It allowed me to spend time with family that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten. I was able to find a new passion in sports cards that I know I will love for a very long time. I was able to spend another semester at the end of 2020 at BYU-I, where I grew in so many ways, learned how to cook (thanks Hyrum), and truly found myself. All of this led to the greatest aspect of 2020, my personal decision to serve a mission. I will remember 2020 as a monumental year, one that shaped my life for the better and will positively impact my life for eternity. I am thankful for my changed and eternal perspective. 

I love all of you! I look forward to continuing to share my experiences with all of you. Yo se que Dios es nuestro amoroso padre celestial y el evangelio es verdadero. 

pictures include: My last HURRAH with my great companion, CHIEF! (For those that don't know, my amazing grandpa has taken me to lunch and anywhere I needed to go on my p-days while I have been training! He's the best!; Some of my food creations this week: Sparkling Cider Pound Cake, candied bacon, and Romano chicken with lemon garlic pasta.

Week 4 - Families can be Together Forever

written: 1/27/2021

Week 4

Another great week at Home MTC that flew by! I only have 10 days of training left until I either go to Chile or a reassignment. I am looking forward to getting out to the field but I am going to miss being at home and being with my great district.

There was a really cool that happened this week during MTC. At the end of last week, during our afternoon class, our teacher told us she was messaging someone on Facebook and wanted our help in messaging her as a district. She later informed us that this girl had liked her repost of a video the two sister missionaries had made going over a brief lesson in Spanish. Our teacher had checked who had liked her repost and they were all members of the Church except for one. She recognized her name from school and decided to message her. Well after going back and forth for a little, she invited her to our zoom class. She spoke 0 English so we really had to put our Spanish to work. We were all a little shocked that we were actually speaking to a non-member and knew we actually had to speak and say something, so thankfully a lot of us said the best we could. She had mentioned that her mom had passed away when she was young, so in my broken spanish I asked her if she believed she'd see and be with her mother again. She said she didn't know but she hoped so. I testified families are forever and she will see her mom again. It was just a really cool experience and I look forward to getting to know so many people and being able to testify to their needs. 

This weekend I was also blessed that my brothers and their wives along with my niece and nephew were all able to spend time with me. We got to take family pictures and they turned out great. We were able to play games and laugh for hours and I was able to just enjoy time with my family! I'm going to miss them but I can't wait to be together with them when I get home! 

Another awesome experience was on Sunday. I mentioned to my brother Austin that I had to teach a lesson the next day and I wanted it to be really good. Even though they were packing up to leave and had to really get going, he took the time to sit down and help me plan out my lesson. When I taught my lesson on Monday, afterwards my teacher told me what a great job my companion and I did and that we had done everything right! I definitely wouldn't have been able to do that without Austin's help, so I am so thankful for that and for family in general!

Lastly, last night I was able to go out and celebrate my birthday 2 weeks early and "celebrate" me leaving for my mission. It was such a great night and the food at Ruth's Chris was amazing. It was awesome to be able to celebrate as a missionary and just focus on family and making a few more memories before I am gone for a quick two years!

I am so thankful for families and I know that families can be together forever. I am blessed with that knowledge and I can't wait to share that knowledge with everyone I come into contact with. The gospel is true and I am so excited for everything that is going to happen these next 2 years!

Love, Elder Steele

pictures include: This little man is my favorite!; Morgan, Austin, Collin, Kyle, Alanna, Mom, Grant, Dad, and Evie; and One more hug!

Week 3 - Halfway done with MTC!

written: 1/20/2021

Week 3

I am halfway done with at-home MTC and it is flying by! Sometimes I wonder how much I have really learned as the days and lessons tend to blur together, but I am slowly but surely learning more every day. I am beginning to comprehend a lot of what I am reading and I can comprehend some parts of spoken Spanish. What I am struggling with is speaking exactly what I want to say because I know what I want to say in English as a response to what I heard but I can't form a correct sentence a lot of the time, but I know once I am in Chile surrounded by Spanish 24/7, that will come and I am feeling less nervous about the language now.  I am super close with my companion, Elder Peterson, and we get along extremely well together. Every day I feel like we grow closer and it makes the MTC even more enjoyable. We have a very similar sense of humor and it feels great getting some laughs in. We work really well together on our practice lessons and I look forward to improving my teaching skills even more over these next 2 1/2ish weeks. 

This past weekend was great, as we were able to have Evie's baby blessing and it was a very cool experience to participate in a baby blessing at home. The power of technology is amazing and I am so thankful that the Church and for their continuing adaptability towards technology. It was also great having the Buth family stay at our house, especially because Sunday was filled with games and fun, and I love playing board games. Something different as I have been a missionary is not spending my entire Sunday's watching football, as I used to in the past once I got home from church. It has been difficult at times to not just plop myself down in front of the tv, especially during the playoffs, but I have been rewarded by spending my Sundays enjoying family time and focusing on what is really important! 

Lastly, this week my mom and I finished season one of The Chosen. As I had mentioned in my email last week, it is an amazing show. It made me want to study Christ's Earthly ministry and the New Testament even more and the show portrays Christ amazingly. I know that Jesus came to the Earth and truly performed all of these miracles and He loves all of us so much and wants to help all of us return back to Him. You will not regret watching the show and I felt the Spirit so strongly as I watched. 

Quick note, I am totally addicted to the new Mountain Dew Major Melon Zero. I had Zak, Kyle's father-in-law, look for it in a small gas station by Kyle's house and he bought the last 8 they had and then my mom went looking and bought me 18 of them. I might as well enjoy them while I can haha!

I am looking forward to this week and to continue practicing teaching and learning more Spanish and hopefully, I will get flight plans at some point so I can really start getting more excited about getting out into the field! I am extremely happy and I know I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. God loves all of you and I love all of you! 

Love, Elder Steele

pictures include: Kyle, Evie, and Me on her blessing day; and My mom's haul of my Mountain Dew

Week 2 - Mucho Espanol!

 written: 1/13/2021

Week 2

This week in the MTC was really great! This week we learned how to teach effectively and got many opportunities to practice. We have already taught two lessons to our teacher as an interested person along with talking with members in Mexico and Honduras and teaching them brief lessons... all of this completely in Spanish. Going into each lesson, my companion and I wrote out our lesson plans and got what we felt was enough to teach. There were multiple occasions where we had to change our lesson plans last minute and switch to our backup plan. Although it didn't go as smooth sometimes, we were glad we switch our plans because we felt like it was what we needed to teach. In one of the lessons with our teacher, I completely went off script and implemented what I had just learned in the lesson beforehand. It wasn't perfect, and it was really bad Spanish, but after the lesson, she complimented us that we had used what we learned in class and that it was awesome. The biggest thing I have learned so far in teaching in Spanish is that the biggest thing I need to do is follow the Spirit and even if I have no idea what I am saying or if I am even saying a coherent sentence, God will help show my efforts and know that I am trying!

Other than teaching a lot and practicing Spanish, we are getting into more grammar, and at times it can get overwhelming, but I just try my best, and our teachers and my district are really great at being positive and making sure we know that if we make a mistake that it is totally normal and to just keep trying. 

Something that I have really enjoyed about being a missionary is that I have so much time to focus on the gospel and deepening my understanding. One way that I am accomplishing this is by watching the Book of Mormon videos and The Chosen. I have really enjoyed seeing stories come to life and it allows me to understand stories in a way I never have before. Especially in The Chosen, I have only watched 4 episodes but it has allowed me to see Jesus in a whole new way and see how much he truly loved all those around him and the way he spoke and carried himself. I definitely recommend The Chosen to everyone, you won't regret it! 

I just wanted to give a quick shoutout of how awesome my tour of Carthage Jail was today! I was able to get a tour of Carthage jail from some of the sisters in Nauvoo along with Sister Cisneros and her companion and it was really spiritual. I was able to gain a deeper understanding of Joseph Smith and the spirit was so strong over Zoom. I am so thankful for Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith for their lives, and I know that they sealed their testimony of the Book of Mormon with their death and that holds such great power. I am so thankful for the sisters in Nauvoo and Carthage, and I HIGHLY recommend taking a tour with them, and I know you will feel the Spirit and have a great experience. 

Lastly, I am thankful for family! As I mentioned last week, home MTC allows for me to just spend lots of time with family and I was able to see my niece Evie again. I do not think that it is a coincidence that our Church focuses so much on families and home MTC allows for family time that otherwise would not have gotten to happen. 

I don't have many pictures this week, don't worry if you know my mom you know I'll have lots of pictures once I'm out in the field. The only picture I have is just a picture of my MTC district that is awesome!

I hope all is well with everyone and I am happy doing what I know I am supposed to! I love all of you!

Love, 

Elder Steele

pictures include: MTC District via zoom

Week 1 - One Week Complete

written: 1/6/2021

Week 1

One week down and it has flown by! I have really enjoyed MTC at home and I honestly can’t imagine it any other way. I have great teachers, I’m giving plenty of breaks so I’m not staring at a computer screen for 10 hours straight, and thankfully they’re easing us in Spanish. I was really worried we’d be thrown straight into Spanish, although I know I’d learn either way, but they speak Spanglish to us in our classes and we’re progressively adding more Spanish to our classes and our daily speaking. We are teaching our first lesson tomorrow so hopefully, all goes well!

There are always trials during missions and I have definitely experienced one already. Almost immediately after I began training, they made it a priority to us that we’d be memorizing a lot and that it would help us learn the language much faster. I really struggled with this at first, wondering how I’d be able to memorize a scripture in Spanish and then memorize much more daily. After we memorized our first scripture, I kept going over it in my head, driving myself crazy, still not feeling confident. I prayed that night that I’d be able to feel comforted and to be able to memorize the scripture. The next morning, I woke up, and ever since then it has consistently been on my mind and I have mastered it! That scripture is Moroni 10:5, “and by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye may know the truth of all things” and in Spanish, it is “y por el poder del Espíritu Santo podréis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas.” I know that by the power of the Holy Ghost I can do hard things and that I can do things I didn’t previously think I could.

Cue it’s a small world after all... my companion, Elder Peterson, who when I got my picture of my district it said he was from Canada... just so happens to be from PROSPER TEXAS! What are the chances that me being in Utah now and his records partly being in Canada would happen to be companions... and we aren’t even going to the same mission, but someone in our district is. God doesn’t do random and I’m thankful we’re companions. We both are a little older, we both turn 20 within a few months, we both enjoy sports, and we both went to BYU-Idaho AND lived in the same apartment complex. 

Also, I don't know if everyone knows, but you'll be able to see in my picture holding Evie, that I have a broken left pointer finger (my dominant hand). I was extremely worried that I would not be able to write what I needed to write during my MTC training and that I'd not be able to journal or do what I needed to do. Well... I was way wrong. Not only have I been able to write while I have been training but I write a TON. I have written 5+ pages a day across my scripture journal, notes from class, and my personal journal. What a blessing it has been to be able to write and I am so thankful. 

I’m so glad I was able to visit Kyle and Alanna and see my little baby niece Evie! I’m so thankful I’m at home MTC and was able to have the day off for New Years to see her! Life is so precious!

All signs are pointing to me being able to go to Chile! We are gaining hope every day that I will be able to go there immediately after training, as I have not received a reassignment yet and Chile is opening up, and what a great way to celebrate my birthday!

One last thought I’d like to share with all of you. I’ve really enjoyed doing my personal study every day and this week I focused a lot on Alma the Younger. He was one of the most wicked people but after being struck down by an Angel and being unable to move or speak for 3 days, he completely turned his life around and preached the gospel for the rest of his life. No matter what anyone is going through, they are never too far away from God. He is so loving and will accept anyone who chooses to accept Him. I’m so thankful I’ve chosen to serve a mission and I love all of you!

Love,

Elder Steele

pictures include: Meeting my niece, Evelina Beth Steele born on December 28, 2020