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

My Farewell Talk

I report on Wednesday to serve in the Honduras Tegucigalpa mission.  The story of how I decided to go on a mission right now has lots of tiny details, the most important of which are the examples I have had in my life.  My parents have both served missions, I have a cousin on a mission right now and one who just returned home, and I have a lot of friends out on missions... I have a lot of people I can look up to to recognize that going on a mission would be the right decision for me.

 I have a very strong testimony of the power of a good example.  I believe that by trying to be a good example to someone, you are a light in their life.  I love that in the darkest room, if there is just a tiny speck of light, you will see it. 

Someone with the light of Christ can brighten up a room with their happiness in knowing that Jesus is our Savior and his Atonement was for us. 

The light of Christ [is] another source of inspiration [in addition to the Holy Ghost], which each of us possesses in common with all other members of the human family. If we know about the Light of Christ, we will understand that there is something inside all of us, and we can appeal to that in our desire to share truth.

The more we know about the Light of Christ, the more we will understand about life and the more we will have a deep love for all mankind. We will be better teachers and missionaries and parents, and better men and women and children. We will have deeper regard for our brothers and sisters in the Church and for those who do not believe and have not yet had conferred upon them the gift of the Holy Ghost. -- President Boyd K Packer

There have been so many people in my life with the light of Christ that have influenced me to be who I am today.  My parents and siblings have been a big part of me, some members in my ward, even the little 5 year old primary children I got to teach for just 2 weeks while I've been home.  There is just something so special and precious about such a huge testimony being shoved into a tiny tiny body.

I want to talk about the biggest role model I have in my life, my grandma Steele.  Now she passed away almost a year ago, but that hasn't taken away her influence here.  She was my example because she is the strongest woman I will ever know and that is why I look up to her.  Two years ago almost to the day, my grandma took me out to lunch.  At that point, I had no idea what I was doing with my life.  I listed all these options and she listened to me for a while, but then she told me “you know what Elizabeth, you just need to make a decision.  Those are all good options, just pick one!”  And I don't remember if I did “pick one” or not about whatever we were talking about, but that has stuck with me and although I didn't know it yet, it would later influence my decision to serve a mission.

Today I am pleased to announce that able, worthy young women who have the desire to serve may be recommended for missionary service beginning at age 19, instead of age 21. -Thomas S Monson

I had the very unique opportunity to be 18 years old at BYU when the mission age was changed.  It was amazing to be around all the women who suddenly could go on a mission in a month, or tomorrow, or immediately.  This was the first time I started to seriously consider a mission.  Time went on and I went back and forth a lot between yes and no.  But ultimately after my freshman year ended last April, the decision was “sort of yes.”  I had prayed a lot about it, and I didn't get anything! I didn’t get any answer, nothing, which was really hard for me, because this was something I needed to know!

My second year at BYU began this last fall and in New Testament class, my professor one day was explaining something.  He was saying, yes, you need to pray about the righteous choices in your life, like missions or marriage, but sometimes you need to make a decision on your own, and those “sometimes” are different for everyone. 

Well I went about that day thinking a lot about this.  I hadn't received an answer about serving a mission, so was this something I needed to move forward with on my own? Did I need to take the first steps in the dark and wait for confirmation? And then I heard my grandma's voice telling me to just make a decision!  And I figured that going on a mission would be a good decision, so I chose it, and here I AM. 

Now I started my papers and decided to go after that semester, but I was still not sure if this was the right thing. I had not received any confirmation, but at least I was doing something and not sitting around thinking about it. 

I figured Heavenly Father would stop me if he needed me at home.  I didn't receive confirmation that this is what I should be doing for quite a while.  It wasn’t until I had my unopened call in my hands that I received a very personal spiritual confirmation that this is what I was supposed to be doing.

In telling you that very short version of my missionary story, I hope that at least one of the youth in this stake will hear me.  My way of realizing I needed to serve a mission is really unique, and chances are yours will be too.  You just need to know that not everyone receives spiritual prompting and confirmation to serve a mission in the same way.  You can't give up when you haven't received an answer.  “Going on a mission” is not something you can say no to on your own.  You have to ask Heavenly Father if it is the right thing for you.  It does not matter if you don't want to go.  My mom told me she was upset when she got her confirmation that she needed to serve a mission.   If Heavenly Father wants you to go, then you will.  I've noticed soooooo many times in my life that if I'm going this way and Heavenly Father wants me going that way, somehow I will find myself on the path he wants me to be on. 

Please look for that in your own lives.  Life a worthy life so when the confirmation comes, you can serve right when the Lord and his people need you, without unnecessary trouble and pain.  If you don't know how to do that, strive to be an example.  Think of the Lord and think of others before you think of yourself.  I have found that trying to be a good example is what has kept me on the right path the most.  I know that there is a youth here that needs to hear this. Trying to be a good example is what has kept me on the right path the most.  Look at your siblings.  Look at your friends.  Look at the youth and primary children in your own ward.  You want them to have happy lives, so become someone they can look up to in order to grow into their divine potential.  “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity”

Alma 28:14 And thus we see the great call of ^adiligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the ^blight of Christ unto life.

A roommate wrote me a letter when I left Provo.  In it she said something very special to me.  She said “I am honestly so filled with sadness that you're leaving, but I also know that you need to go.  The people in Honduras need you, and you need them.”

It's true.  I need them, and some of them need me.  I don't know why yet but that's all part of the adventure.  I encourage every single one of you youth to prepare to serve a mission.  If you're not supposed to, Heavenly Father will tell you.  But if you need to, you have to be prepared to go.  Someone needs to hear your voice.