41s President: Hermana Steele, your life is going to be really.. rare (strange)... today.

From December 15th:

What? Just about a thousand things go through your head when your mission President says that to you. I've been sick, is he sending me home?? Am I going to have a really tough and crazy companion? Did someone die?? Did I do something wrong??? (be prepared for a very dramatic and detailed description of my life the past week hahahaha)

Saying goodbye to San Luis was so hard. And surprise, they took out both me AND my comp. 

bishop's kids!

<N> was baptized on Saturday, but he was really torn up that we both left. Suuuper sad. Hermana Renteria was able to go to the baptism because she stayed in the South, but I wasn't, because I got transferred to Tegucigalpa. BUT <N> GOT BAPTIZED!!! He called me before the baptism to tell me how much he appreciated me. It meant a lot. I miss San Luis. But I'm super happy in my new area.... heh heh

Elder Rigby and I, he told me his mom reads my blog so we took a picture for her hahaa, hi Sister Rigby!! :D

So Wednesday after the 3 hour bus ride, we pull into my old Esperanza stake center (if you remember, I started my mission in president's ward, and my building is the stake center where we always have changes). I get off the bus, and the AP Elder Hatch comes over to me <hermana steele President needs to talk to you after the changes meeting> Okay that's weird. Then I take a few steps and see President motioning for me. Me? Wait right now? Okay esta bien. Hi President!

We start walking to an office in the stake center.

<hermana steele!! how is your health?>

<it's good president Im really getting better>

<hermana steele you know Im watching you limp right now, you can stop telling lies>

<ah haha well its cause i had to stay up all night packing for changes and cleaning my house!! soooo everything kinda hurts>

<thats exactly what youre NOT supposed to do, exhaust yourself! well hermana steele I wanted to talk to you before changes so youre not suprised and confused. Youre life is going to be very rare (I think she means strange)  today.>

<.....okay....................................>

<well first, we are going to call you as a Sister Training Leader>

<What president thats awesome yay thank you!!!!!!> 

and Im thinking, thats not weird. what is he talking about. and then...

<But... we are going to put you in an area you have already been in before.>

<....What? Im going back to la Esperanza????>

<Yes hermana steele>

<IM GOING BACK TO LA ESPERANZA EN SERIO PRESIDENTE GRACIAS GRACIAS WHAAAAAAT>

<So youre happy? we were worried that->

<YESSSSS I'M SO HAPPY THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER>

<okay hermana steele calm down calm down> lolololol

So, Im back in Teguciglapa, in my FIRST AREA. Same house, same bed, same ward, same creepy neighbor, (mom needs more info on THAT) same broom, same cockroaches, same streets, same noises, same dogs, same tiny bathroom, same members that I love so much, same desk... 

Different companion, different investigators, different calling, different hermana steele.

Different climate too. I'm freezing my butt off.

So yeah, this change they decided to change the sister training leaders area for the first time in years. And they decided to make it my old area. And put me in it. So I'm lovin it.

I LOVE THIS FAMILY fam r

I did my first divisions (when companions split up and go with other missionaries) on Friday. They were so fun. I went to an area called Miraflores where my trainer hermana Groll started her mission. I got to teach one of her converts!! I think divisions are going to be my favorite thing ever.

Problem is.... Chikunguya.

 I can't do the same thing for very long. Can't walk too long, stand too long, sit too long, lay too long on the same side... I'm getting better! I think. 

The cold climate is really helping (seriously Im freezing I miss the South sooo much). The ice cold showers that I swear will kill me one day. So I still have to be resting sometimes. I was really surprised that President Bowler called me to be a STL (sister training leader) in this condition haha but he loves me and I love him. This will be a fun adventure.

BUT MAN I MISS THE SOUTH. My zone down there was sooo pilas. So fun. So united. This zone... well.... we will see. haha

My companion is absolutely wonderful. Her name is Hermana Castellanos from Guatemala. I love her soooo much. She is such a wonderful missionary and she takes care of me so well.

comp selfie!!

 She has been a STL for one change and her comp, hermana Flynn, just went home. She was a little upset they changed the STL area because she loved it.. but Im super happy :D still don't know why they changed it but I'm content :D

This change was hard. I finally had mission friends go home. Man, people told me how much I would love the members and investigators in my mission, but no one warned me about how attached Id get to the other missionaries... MY TRAINER WENT HOME WAAAAAHH but really. Hermana Groll is one of the most wonderful, consecrated missionaries the world has ever seen. HERMANA GROLL I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! :P My zone leader for 4 changes, Elder Torres, went home too. That was hard too. We had 35 missionaries go home this change. It. was. hard. The mission is changing.

I love this work and Im super happy.

 Keep prayin for me please :P 

I cant tell you how wonderful it is to be back in Esperanza. I have received the warmest welcome. I had no idea these people loved me so much. Especially <Fr>. Remember <Fr>? I started teaching him with Hermana Saldate and he was baptized after I left the area. But I have never seen him so happy. He was so happy to see me. AND <MAR> IS SO PILAS OHHH MY GOSH. Literally I love her so much. Im so happy to be here.

Ill see if I can figure out how to send pictures :P love you all!! write me letters!!

love, 

hermanita steele

hna <G> and her daughters I LOVE THEM

<N>!!!!!!!!!!

<A> and <B>

hahahaha I love them

 <F> and <E> and baby <C> :D

I found him in my bed last night so I put him in a jar. he's still there

hahahaha Elder Mendivil and Elder Hatch in the background

 MY LAST HUG

38s Chikungunya: se cayó hermanita steele

From November 24th

gah.

 so theres been an epidemic of dengue and chikunguya for like a little over a month (both diseases are pretty similar and spread by mosquitoes) so Ive been Offin' it up (using Off, you know the mosquito repellant) LIKE CRAZY to not get sick. Literally there was not one person I knew who hadn't been sick, besides me. Most of the missionaries too had already fallen (ill) but are almost recovered. 

But on Wednesday I was like hey why do my wrists and feet hurt? It must be my carpal tunnel and I got new shoes sooo.. 

And on Thursday, what my feet are a little worse what is this nonsense. 

and on Friday WOW alrighty then I need to get some different shoes it feels like knives in my feet but not important I am singing at multi zone conference today let's GO 

then after conference on friday ummmmm I can hardly walk.

 And then a few hours later BOOOOM covered in red spots. Feet swollen. Fever. Can't walk. Cant move. Go home lay in bed. Can't move or walk until yesterday afternoon. 

Everything hurts. 

im sooooooooo siiickkk booooooooooooooooooooooooooaweihtlaiweurha but its okay im getting better

HOW CAN A LITTLE MOSQUITO DO SUCH AWFUL DAMAGE.

 I'm still on bed rest for this week too.  IT SUCKS no being able to WORK!!!! That's the only thing I want to do and I can't. Even if I tried I wouldn't be able to. It was bad enough just taking a taxi to the stake center to write this morning. 

To top it all off my white blood cells plummeted and so now I have a lovely throat infection, I think it's strep, so Im going to the doctor later today (happy p day to me and the APs) to get some antibiotics. 

Hey I didn't even go to church yesterday. The zone leaders and the assistants to president (APs) brought me and my companion the sacrament which was awesome but a little embarrassing cause the last time I had showered was definitely Friday morning. But I showered today!!!!! I was finally able to haha. Im getting better don't worry. It was just a miserable few days lemme tell you.

Zone Conference, right before the virus hit!!

ON THE BRIGHT SIIIDE -N- IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Havent had a baptism in forrrever. But -N- is awesome. He's this 20 year old guy that we found because he moved in with his uncle who has been visiting with missionaries for like 2 years and loves the church and has a testimony but he just needs to get divorced so he can marry -A- and then they can get baptized. But anyway -N-moved in in the middle of October and we started teaching him on the 21st and he's already getting baptized either this saturday or the next. he is so pilas. We taught him the word of wisdom (health code the LDS church has) and he quit smoking just like that. We taught him the law of chastity and he legit just broke up with his girlfriend, just like that. And yeah he's awesome.

I feel sort of awful so Im going to lay on the floor now here in the family history room haha but I will be better soon don't worry. Just with time and patience. We're watching a movie as a zone today so that should be fun too. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! please pray for me Im sort of suffering haha

love, hermanita steele

8S Colonia Esperanza, Tegus: Cucaracha count: 3

They’re like as big as the ones in the movies. The first two were in the shower... third on the mini fridge.

Investigatorssssssss:

<L> She was living with her boyfriend <J> and her two children <A> (who was baptized by the previous hermanas in this area, shes 12) and <J> (he's 4 but he can’t talk). They were planning on getting married on May 3rd and baptized that night, if <J> could quit smoking. Well <J> did something really awful that I am not going to talk about. <L> and <A> still came to church yesterday, and after the service, told us that she was leaving <J> and taking the kids and they were going to wander around and find a place to live. She doesn’t have a phone right now so we are super worried about her. But I have faith that she is in the Lord's hands. She let us know that baptism is her priority right now. ay.

<B>. <B> is the mom of <A>, a 17 year old who was baptized in August. <B> is getting baptized THIS SATURDAY!! woo!! She is a silly woman. real small. real loud. She likes that I can’t understand everything and she likes to laugh at me, hahaha, man Latinos are blunt. I hear all the time "you're twenty?? NO LO CREO!!!" "what?! you look 15!!" and they also call each other fat if they are fat. I wish it was like this in the states. It’s fun. even though I don’t like getting called 15. Oh, <B>,  yeah she’s great. She has lots of faith. She had a LOT of doubts this last week but we helped resolve them. She was going off the other day about how she doesn’t think she will have time for the gospel after she is baptized so I bore a pretty strong testimony in Spanish about making time. Anyway, she's solid. She loved church this week.

We have others but those are the two with solid fechas (dates- for baptism). This week is Semana Santa and lots of people have school and work off and so there aren’t many people around. It will be interesting to see how the work goes this week.

The children love me and my companion because we sing to them and they just adore it. It’s so cute. There is this family of 5 children under 13 and the oldest brother is 18 (named <R>) that we met the other day. <R's> friend <C> was at the house (he is 24). we taught all of them about the restoration. They loved it. <C> actually went to the LDS church for 8 years. 8. YEARS. He went to SEMINARY. He went to DANCES. He believes Joseph Smith was a prophet. R8A734GQI3TzhE. He was never baptized because he couldn’t give up the things of the world. We are going to change that, dangit.

My trainer is great, my Spanish isn’t;  but it’s getting a little better. I mean I’ve only been here what a week and a half now or something. almost 2. I think. I’ve been here since the 1st. okay yeah I think that’s two weeks. What day is it? oh the 14th. yep 2 weeks. (I try to edit her writing,  but sometimes it’s just.too.much. lol)

Oh spiritual thought. Read Alma 7:11-16. But don’t just read it. Mark it. Mark in yellow what Christ did for us. Mark in orange why He did it. Mark in green what we must do. Mark in blue why we have to do it. Finally, mark in red our reward: eternal life. I did this the other day to help an alcoholic investigator we have (who sadly isn’t progressing. Pretty sure it’s because he’s drunk every time we teach him) but it ended up helping me waaaaayyy more. It will help you understand the Atonement and put into perspective what Christ did for us.

Sorry I cant send pictures still.

Be persistent and diligent always

2 Timothy 4:7

Love h.steele

ps my ADDREEEESSSSSSSS is the SIGNATURE to all my emails. write me something. you have no excuse. ;)

___________________________________________

Here's some more info from a note she wrote me:

 I live in the colonia Esperanza. I dont have an address.  I live next to a mechanic. There is a Chinese restaurant across from this internet cafe. OH. I live down the street from a big TIGO building. Its the major cell phone company here or something.  And yeah I was right by that Dunkin Donuts today (the one by the Honduran President's house- she lives near it). We went to Wendys to get frostys and read our letters. I got two of yours, the one with the pictures and the one with the letters from Chase and Josh. I also got a letter from Chase :D 

Yep, its Semana Santa.  Weve seen two weird parade things so far with people singing and dressed in funny clothes waving plants. There is hardly anyone in the streets. it will be interesting to see how it affects our work this week. I have a feeling no one is going to be home.

A message from some people from home!

Brother and Sister Steele,

We're also in the Oregon City stake and are serving at the CCM in Mexico City. Sister Steele is awesome! Her Spanish is impressive as is her lovely voice.  Best of all she is positive and radiates the joy of the gospel.  We'll try to send another photo.
Love, Elder y Hermana Gill

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This made me (mom) very happy!! :)

4º Semana: CCM de México

We escaped the CCM…

...and went to the temple!!

A sweet picture I took of the temple It’s closed for a year and a half though so we couldn’t go inside. But the Visitors’ Center was the most legit thing ever. It was so cool. And the Mexico City temple was so beautiful from the outside so it’s all fine.

I LOVE MY DISTRICT SO MUCH

The other picture is my wonderful district. I love all of them so much.  I get to be with these incredible people almost every waking hour of the day so its a dang good thing I like them!

The next picture is of my zone, one district left yesterday, so we will get a new one tomorrow and then next week another will leave and then the week after that WE LEAVE! WOO! Anyway it was so great to get out of the CCM today.

My zone!!!!!!

I got some really cool scripture cases. I also met an Elder who is serving in Mexico City South and he is from Honduras. He was so little!!! He was so excited that I am going to his home.  He was like "AHH YOU COULD SERVE IN MY WARD!!" but in Spanish of course. It was cute. Also fun fact, Blockbuster is here in Mexico and apparently business is boomin. On the way home from the temple, we stopped the bus to buy bananas.  Like 8 bananas for 10 pesos. DIEZ PESOS!!! They were so GOOD. best bananas ever.  People are selling stuff in the streets all over the place.

My new scripture cases I got at a little store called Zarahemla by the temple, hahahahahah LOVE IT

Something that was very humbling was seeing a woman sweeping the streets with a broom made of sticks.

I forgot to tell you last week that I gave a talk in sacrament meeting.  I got complimented a lot on my Spanish.  It was on the Atonement, all in Espanol!! sorry, the keyboard wont let me do special characters in gmail so I cant spell that right.  I also forgot to tell you all that a few weeks ago I told a Latino elder that I was going to Honduras and literally he laughed and said "oh really?!?!" but he didn’t speak enough english to let me know why haha. We actually became friends a little bit, he went to his mission somewhere else in Mexico yesterday.  I LOVE LATINOS

So there’s explosions that go off all the time (yeah we hear a few gunshots too), and every time we hear one we pretend its the cannon from the Hunger Games and we say "oh, another missionary sent home..." it’s pretty funny.

So the other day "Come Thou Fount" was stuck in my head and I was singing it in the hall of our classroom building.  Later when we were walking home for the night I was still singing it when we met up with two of our hermana friends (Hermana Terranova and Hermana Richins) and they were like WHAT, THAT WAS YOU?? and called to their Elders to tell them I was the one they heard.  I guess one of the elders left his classroom to search for me when he heard me singing.  So now I sing for their district every time I go in to say hi to my friends because all the Elders yell at me until I sing that Hobbit song for them. lol.

Speaking of singing, I taught some of the elders in my district last night how to sing Come Thou Fount. It was really fun. We were singing for like an hour. And then I found out Elder Turnbull can sing really well but he’s never sung before.  So he taught me the song Savior, Redeemer of My Soul and we sang that for awhile too.  After long days sometimes the Elders make me sing for them.  Its really funny but you know I enjoy it, lol.

OH BEFORE I FORGET apparently someone jumped the fence into the CCM two nights ago hahahahahahahaha. idk how thats possible. Or why someone would want to break IN here.

Tonight I have a solo for all the MTC. Literally! My zone and another zone are singing Joseph Smith’s First Prayer, and Hermana Jewell (the choir director) knows I sing so she is having me sing the 4th verse by myself until the chorus and then after the chorus I end the song by repeating the last line I think a capella.  Anyway that’s tonight! Pray that I won’t yell too loudly in volleyball this afternoon, haha.

Little bit about daily life: I study, eat, have class, teach a fake investigator, eat, study, teach a fake investigator, have class, eat, go learn Spanish on the computer, study, plan, go home and write in my journal, sleep. With lots of prayers like in between all of those. We pray a lot. Tuesdays we have devotionals in the evening; Sundays we go to church and a couple devotionals by important people here and we also watch a church movie every Sunday night, and after the movie there is a slideshow with the pictures of the districts that are leaving and everyone sings "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" SO HEART WRENCHING. I’m gonna bawl when I leave.

Well I gotta go. HASTA MARTES

con amor, hermana steele

     

classroom selfies                                                                                                   me and E. Brinkerhoff, lol

Andnnndnndnd THIS CITY IS HUGE

More pictures:

On the bus to Mexico City Temple

Mom put this in the blog, it’s so interesting. The pole you see? Mexico City is sinking.  That is how much the city has sunk in 31 years. The top of that pole used to be at ground level. The city is sinking around it. The temple is fine because the foundation is supported all the way to bedrock.

Elder Brinkerhoff and Elder Flores are like some of my greatest friends here.

My Sister Trainer Leaders who left yesterday, both going to Oklahoma for their missions.

Me and my cute friend Hermana Mikael Thatcher from Utah and our zone leader Elder Ririe (who left today) photobombing us baha

3º Semana: CCM de México

I drew a picture of our district jajajaja (it is Elder Flores´s birthday today and I put it in his card so I thought I would take a picture to preserve it heh heh)

This is  Hermana Cole and I with this weird statue head thing here

Me before our weekly volleyball game

I went on a killing spree...

...killing mosquitoes in our house

For 3 nights, my roommates and I were devoured. I have no idea how many bites I have but its a lot. The mosquitoes would fly by our ears and Sunday night I was up most of the night trying to hide from them. So when I got home yesterday I went crazy and killed them dead. And we slept so good last night.

I hate mosquitoes.

I’m itchy.

Okay that made it sound like there were a swarm in our room.  

There were really only two.  

But it was awful anyways.

Hermana Steel and I

There is another Sister Steel (no e at the end) here at the CCM! She is awesome! We like to talk about how awesome our last name is. Its pretty great. We took a picture this morning.

Oh, right, the housing thing. We got into a tiny room in that little casa.  Our shower and sink were broken so we had to get them fixed so we didn’t have a shower for 2 days (don’t worry we used some friends’ showers). It was also really dirty in there so we had to clean.  But I like our tiny room because were all so close anyway.

Last Wednesday (every Wednesday we have a service project, basically some chores haha) we folded a bunch of sheets.  I folded fitted sheets almost the whole time with the other Hermanas in my zone (the Elders folded the easy stuff jaja).  It was funny because the little Hispanic man who was the supervisor told me (in Spanish of course so it took awhile for me to get what he was saying) that I was really talented at folding the sheets haha "¡¡muy rapido rapido!!" he said.  It was really silly.  Also they had Disney songs blasting in Spanish the whole time so that was super fun to sing along to.

My district tells me I sing like Sleeping Beauty and Anastasia.

Elder Brinkerhoff one morning last week walked into the classroom and pointed at me and sang real loudly "SINCE YOU BEEN GOOONE" so I pointed back and replied with "I CAN BREATHE FOR THE FIRST TIME!" and now we do that all the time to each other.

Just a fun one...yep

I go play foosball after dinner with Elder Backus and sometimes Hermana Cole and Elder Dessauer and Elder Flores play too.  It’s so intense and fun.  We play with 3 balls to keep it interesting. The other day a worker dude came out and asked if everything was okay. hahahahahahaha I was so excited that I won that I accidentally on purpose high fived the wall really hard.  I think the guy was scared.

Yesterday we got to teach an inactive member of our church (Samantha, 17) and a young man who was just baptized Sunday (Diego, 18).  It was so hard to understand what they were saying.  But I really felt the spirit there.  They, and another girl who I didn’t teach, were taught by 3 sets of missionaries from our district.  They said that all three of them now want to serve missions.  BOOM. MISSIONARY WORK. It was so awesome.  I loved talking so Sam and Diego.  Their hearts are so special.  

Heavenly Father is constantly blessing me with patience.  Okay so I want everyone to read this talk if they have time.  https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/i-will-give-myself-to-him?lang=eng

Now I actually haven’t read it since I saw it in November.  All I remember is that it was amazing.  I was thinking about it today and I don’t remember anything the guy said, but I remember that it was a very special devotional to me and I am going to read it again after I send this email.  I hope someone will benefit from it.

Mom said to write more about my daily life but I don’t have time so see you next week!

Notes from mom in blue… She did answer some of my questions.  Reluctantly, of course!

Who is the MTC president? mtc pres is Presidente Pratt

Is there a choir? yes choir and im auditioning for it on friday.

Do you get to go to the Mexico City Temple? yes temple in our 5th week but it is closed for 18 MONTHS (wat) so we cant go in. but we are going to the visitors center.

Me and my first two letters at the MTC! One from mom and one from Chase

KEEP ME UPDATED ON YOUR LIVES PLEASE! Have a good week!

Love always,

Hermana Steele