Week 18 - Lluvia Loca

written: 5/3/2021

Week 18

The weather here in the south of the world is LOCO. This past week was rain, rain, rain, and oh yeah, more rain. We rarely left the house, but when we did we were soaked, and even a large rainproof jacket won't keep every part of you dry, especially with the wind here. But a little bit of rain won't stop us! On Wednesday we were finally able to begin going to neighborhoods and search for members on our list. We were walking house to house, mainly no one answered or they said they were busy, but we were able to hand out a Book of Mormon and begin cleaning the list! We were only outside for maybe 2 hours, but it was a nice little experience of what missionary work used to be like. And one more note, there are an abnormal amount of dogs here and especially in the neighborhood we were in, nonstop barking, and fearing these dogs were going to jump us, but all good, still alive :)

We had a mission advice meeting, and at one point, I hear "and Elder Steele" and I immediately freeze and try to hear what I need to. President Meek said "and something really amazing I read in all of your weekly letters was from Elder Steele. Elder Steele could you tell everyone the 3 words you used and 3 words you added after" and I thought oh no, because I did not remember at all. After a brief second to think, I remembered the main idea and was able to share with everyone what I had emailed. Those words were "go, go, go" and now "stay, stay, stay" and this was in response to wanting to leave the house everyday. My view of wanting to leave the house really has changed and the work has grown exponentially and we are never going back to the old way, only pushing forward. Last april, we had 80ish references from social media. This April, we had over 300!!!! CRAZY! 

This week was relatively slow in the amount of lessons we had and we kept having connection issues or something would come up, but we kept trying and never gave up. On Saturday, we were finally able to have 3 lessons in one day and we were able to have some really powerful lessons! 

Elder Calderon and I along with the other companionship in our sector got to have some amazing food! We got to visit the restaurant where one of our friends in teaching works at along with her boyfriend. I got an amazing burger with guacamole, fried egg, bacon, and a fried onion and finally fries that were cooked all the way through. 

Lastly, a reference Elder Calderon and I received about 2 months ago but moved to a different sector is getting baptized today! Elder Calderon and I knew after the first lesson she was going to be baptized and although we aren't the ones baptizing her, it is just awesome that she made the important decision! 

Even when things get hard, don't give up! Things don't always go our way, but things will eventually be made right if we have faith in Jesus Christ and try our best. 

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: Rainy day in Chiloe; some of the best food so far! Elder Pillpe, Elder Calderon, Elder Bennett, and Me; Basketball is a great missionary tool!

Week 17 - Missionary, English Teacher, and 5K Runner

written: 4/26/2021

Week 17

The weeks just continue to go by incredibly fast, it feels like just yesterday I came to Chile in February, and now it is almost May!! My training is coming to an end this week and any day now we will receive transfers. There is still a slim probability that Elder Calderon and I could stay together, but we are prepared for anything!

This week was almost identical in terms of English and lessons, it seems like we have gotten into a pretty nice groove and all of our amigos are progressing in English, even the ones who struggled mightily when we began, so that is pretty awesome! From about 4pm until 9pm, there is a pretty good chance we are either teaching English or teaching a lesson to one of our English amigos. It can get overwhelming at times and a little repetitive, so we like to switch things up sometimes, practice different ways to teach and experiment. I was also recently asked to become an actual English teacher for the mission with my own personal class! I will be in charge of a class anywhere from 8 students up to 15 students and we will hold weekly classes through zoom! From the words of the missionary in charge, it will be "your baby"! When he called me to extend the invitation, I laughed and said of course, I already am used to teaching English 15-20 times a week, so no problem. I am excited to get even more material so I can be better prepared to teach my class and our individual students! 

We were able to participate in a 5k this past week with one of our friends in teaching! Guess it was good I have been running in the morning so I didn't completely die when we had to run up one of the longest and steepest hills to begin the 5k. But thankfully the last 2km or so was beautiful, flat, and literally next to the water and it was so peaceful. Running a 5k in Chile, who would've thought that would ever happen.

For the spiritual side, we are really focusing on the needs of our amigos. This week we talked a lot about the importance of family, how families can be together forever, and how the family is the most important group to Heavenly Father. I am so thankful to have such a supportive family and have the knowledge  that I will be with them forever. We have also been able to give out a lot of Books of Mormon this week! We were able to give one to an amigo in teaching as he said he wanted to know if we had a book about our religion and he is already reading a lot! Another cool experience was as we got off the bus to go to our house, a man put his stuff down and said "missionaries, missionaries" and we went over to him and he told us that he had communication with the missionaries before the pandemic and he has been searching for a Book of Mormon but hasn't been able to find one! We were able to get him one immediately, get his information, and he was so happy to have the book! #NotACoincidence 

This past week I was reading in Mosiah and focused a lot on King Benjamin's address. I loved reading it and studying it and I just imagine the strong spirit that was there while he was speaking to all the people. I also noticed how the people were so receptive to the spirit and all desired and ended up choosing to change and make covenants! The spirit is the most important thing in missionary work and it is vital to have with me in my day to day life, especially in lessons with our amigos. I know that the Holy Spirit has the power to convert the hearts of others and to help facilitate the messages my companion and I share.

Love,

Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: What a beautiful view during the 5K run!; Mmmm... Kuchen!; and Chiloe Zone: Elder Martin, Elder Pastene, Elder Pillpe, Elder Bennett, Elder Petty, Elder Repol, Elder Calderon, Me, Hermana Chandler, and Hermana Cartajena

Week 16 - Apples and Unicorns

written: 4/19/2021

Week 16

This week was incredibly busy, filled with many awesome lessons and english classes! 

We had 18 english classes this week, and we are now up to 8 students! We base every lesson, except for one rockstar student, on material called English Connect, something the church has put together or partnered with to allow english to be taught everywhere. We set up a zoom meeting, share our screen, go over and practice english for 20-30 minutes while also practicing throughout the week on WhatsApp, so our WhatsApp has turned into English basically, good for me, but Elder Calderon sometimes struggles. Unless the connection is bad, or we run out of time, we typically follow every class with a spiritual lesson and we are seeing progress out of lots of our friends! Every single student has improved so much in english and spiritually! We have one rockstar student, Daniela, who every class surprises us. Our first class a week or two ago instinctively started with the alphabet and the basics, and she followed along and did great. After, she just blows through the course and now we don't even use the course, we just have an English conversation for 30 minutes, we even practiced asking for a raise, role playing, and she tells us all about her life. We learned she actually lived in New Zealand for 3 years and is waiting to go back but has to wait due to Covid!! Her english is so good already, but we keep trying to find new stuff for her to learn! It was also her birthday this past weekend and we dropped off some oreo cheesecake at her house, which ended up being just about as far away from our house as you could get, but she was so happy we thought of her! (And the cake looked so good I had to get myself a slice and it was definitely some of the best cheesecake I have had) 

We have a new friend in teaching who we are so excited about. We invited our amazing member Ulises to the first lesson and they clicked and the enthusiasm Ulises had was infectious. He was offering to go drive to the country, as that is where our amigo lives, about 45 min away by car, to personally go say hi! We talked about the bible, the Book of Mormon, and he is actually coming into town this week to get a Book of Mormom from us!!! He is excited to read it and we are so excited for him. Elder Calderon and I have thought about him constantly and we are so excited for the future. We got a few texts from our amigo, one of them being "So I heard once you can't drink coffee, is this true?" Well, yes, but to us the most important thing is he is really investigating the church and he said he has many more questions, and we said we are here for everything! 

Lastly, this week I began to just focus more on trying to be happy in whatever circumstances. We were in the house a lot this week, but honestly I loved it, and we made the most of it. Elder Calderon and I picked up running, and we ran 3 mornings, including one morning when it started raining on us mid run, but I didn't care and actually enjoyed it! We have played a lot of soccer for our exercise in the morning too and although I am still terrible, I am definitely improving. And lastly, I had some awesome food this week! Milanese sandwiches from a member, the AMAZING oreo cheesecake, and I have a newfound love for green apples and I got the steal of the century, 12 apples for $880 pesos, which is a little over $1 USD. I control my happiness and I have seen that it is all about my attitude. I control what I can control, and leave the rest up to God. 

I'll end using my two most used emojis  why a unicorn? I have no idea, but why not!

Love you all!

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: Nothing's gonna stop me!; Elder Calderon and me;  I LOVE green apples, oh yes, I do!; Oreo Cheesecake was worth every peso; Milanese for the win!

Week 15 - Maestro de Ingles 🇺🇸🤓

written: 4/12/2021

Week 15

Hello everyone!!! This week we focused on two things, english classes and revising/going through the list of members in our branch, and we were very very busy.

First, our English classes are a hit! We are in the process of teaching 6 people and everyone is super grateful we are offering free classes and we even have one person who 10 minutes after class ended had already sent us her little assignment and homework, so not only are people excited, they are ready to work and progress. After we have our english class, we simply explain again how we are missionaries and that we would love to share a quick thought with them, and everyone person so far has said yes with no hesitation! We keep our messages brief and powerful, and focus on aspects such as prayer and faith. 

Second, the cleaning of the list of members. We have been working on trying to figure out the list so that we can make a stake here in Chiloé. There is a massive list of members, but as we have been going down the list we find that lots have moved, people have passed away, or many other reasons why our job is super important. We are contacting people any way we can, going to their house, phone call, email, facebook, facebook messenger, you name it, we are doing it to clean up the records. We are trying to get a temple here in southern Chile!!!

Short and sweet email, and I just want to end by saying I know the scriptures are true and they are so important to me and I know they can be important to all of you!! There is so much to be found and learned in the scriptures and especially the Book of Mormon! 

Love,

Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: Reading the scriptures on a rainy day!; Sporting a new jacket

Week 14 - ChiloFe Gran Isla

written: 4/5/2021

Week 14

Hello everyone!!! Busy and insanely fast week here in ChiloFe (to be explained shortly)! 

This week we were challenged to find new ways to find people, especially through Facebook. One of the reasons being Chile is increasing covid restrictions for the time being and many places are moving back phases and more restrictions in general are being placed. But the Lord's work does not stop! We brainstormed ideas, talked with other elders, and we are currently in about 100 facebook groups in our area, advertising Free English Classes, Free service, free books of mormon, and free scripture studies. The church has an amazing initiative called EnglishConnect and that is the program I use to teach English here! Although I am far from a perfect teacher, it is really fun to begin to teach English here, and we hope to see miracles through our Facebook work! 

We had interviews this week, along with Mission and Zone conference. My mission President, President Meek, as he talked to us in our zone conference mentioned to us that we are not on the island of Chiloe, but rather ChiloeFe! I know we can see miracles here, there is lots of faith here in the island and we are going to be able to see these miracles as my companion and I continue to find new and exciting ways to share the gospel. Adapting is the name of the game here, and although not easy at times, the results are there and people are patiently waiting for us! 

Coincidentally, though not really as I have found coincidences are rather the Lord's doing, thus being apart of his plan, my favorite talk from General Conference centered around faith! It was from President Nelson's talk from the Sunday Morning Session. In his talk, he challenged us to start TODAY to increase your faith, faith takes effort, and shared ways to develop faith and trust in the Lord. I also loved how he mentioned to not minimize the faith we currently have. Before conference began, I wrote in my journal some questions I had, things I was excited for, and my plan to receive answers. This talk was word for word what I asked Heavenly Father for in prayer. Faith plays a key role in every aspect of life, and by learning and growing faith, answers to life's questions and problems will begin to come to us, and we will see we can get through anything. I loved this General Conference, and I look forward to hearing many more inspired messages in a short 6 months. I hope you all had the opportunity to listen, watch, and ponder! 

I hope you all have a great week and I love hearing from you :) 

Love, Elder Collin Steele

pictures include: ChiloFe; Beautiful sunrise in ChiloFe; Me, Front L-R: Elder Bennett, Elder Calderon, Elder Pastene, Elder Repole, Elder Pillpe Back L-R: Sister Meek, President Meek, Elder Warner, Elder Martin, Elder Rex, Elder Petty; Elder Pillpe, Elder Bennett, Elder Calderon, Me, President Meek, Elder Martin, Elder Pastene, Elder Warner, Elder Rex, Elder Repole, and Elder Petty; and Me and Elder Calderon; Me, Elder Calderon, Elder Pillpe, Elder Bennett

Week 13 - Just Do It!

written: 3/29/2021

Week 13

Hello everyone! This week was a very enjoyable week and a week of just trying different ways to serve and do the Lord's work!

I am very thankful that basketball is popular here, as I have been able to enjoy my favorite sport and incorporate it into meeting new people to teach and growing closer with members! This week we had another basketball activity with a young man and all his friends! We gave all of them copies of the Book of Mormon, and we hope to begin a night of sports to try to find and meet even more people. I love basketball and I love the gospel, so it is a great combination! 

This week we also tried finding service opportunities! We were able to help a member pick blackberries and another day pick apples! He loves that I am so tall and can reach the blackberries he was unable to. He loves to talk to us and he loves to help missionaries! He has already given us two references and he seems to just remember everything and have such a strong memory, as he still relies on little papers and notes but is thinking of making the switch to a smartphone! All of our meetings with him are in person as we cannot videocall or use whatsapp, but it gives us a chance to chat in person, serve him, and again he just loves helping us! 

Something about this week just made my appetite bigger than it ever has, and I am constantly hungry. What I am not a big fan of, still trying, but still not there, are vegetables. For anyone that knows me, I do not like vegetables. We had the opportunity to have a meal on Friday with missionaries and an amiga in teaching, and we had amazing Lomo Saltado! I chowed down the meat, french fries, rice, and made a nice little pile to the side of the massive tomatoes, onions, and peppers. I can typically manage if they are small and I just combine them with my other food, but these were gigantic. All the other missionaries cleaned their plates and I was the only one with anything left... so as everyone was looking and we were all joking saying "ahhh elder steele" I took my fork and just kept scooping all the vegetables until there were none left and that plate was clean. Now did I like the vegetables, ehhhh no, but I am glad I continued my tradition of finishing everything on my plate.. just needed some encouragement. Sometimes you have to do things you don't really like, but JUST DO IT! 

My last thought is how excited I am for general conference!!!! I am so excited to hear the prophet, living apostles, and other church representatives speak on subjects that we all need and how we can be better in this life! I know something in conference is waiting for me, and I know something is waiting for each one of you! So go find it! Prepare! 

Love you all!

Love, Elder Steele

pictures include: Picking blackberries; Messy hands, full heart!; Service Smiles; Basketball buddies; Lomo Saltado; and Elder Bennett, Elder Pillpe, Elder Calderon, and me

 

Week 12 - Let the Good Times Roll

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