Week 43 (7/18/2016)

Happy Monday everyone!

First off, it's really really hot here in Piedras. It is way hotter than when I was here in February (obviously). It's about 41 C every day...In the shade. :) Regardless, Piedras is where I started the mission so if I end up dying of heat stroke here I think that's okay. Haha! I think this will be an interesting next six weeks especially because it's the hottest part of the year.

The other day we were walking to lunch and it was really really hot. I was looking forward to getting into the members house because it is usually cooler inside because of the fans or cooling. I was very wrong. It felt like a furnace in the sister's house. I asked to use the bathroom hoping that it would be slightly cooler but it was the opposite. I think someone must have just taken a shower or something because it was really humid in there. Gladly, most members have better fans and AC which helps a little.

My new companion's name is Elder Domiciano and he's from Brazil. He has a four more months than me in the mission. He's pretty cool, but it's still a little weird changing from Elder Bauer where we almost only talked in English and we liked a lot of the same things to a companion who's primary language is Portuguese. I'm excited to see what I can learn and how this change goes.

It's kind of weird getting back here after three changes because all the Elders here have changed. No one in this zone was with me other than Elder Muñoz because he came back to Piedras with me. I can't remember if I said but Elder Muñoz and I are sharing a ward now. It's kind of weird to be spending so much time with my trainer but I can't complain. It's good to be around Elders I'm familiar with.

Our house  is pretty nice. We don't live above members so there will never be surprise cake or pineapple juice at the end of the day but it's still good. We live in a duplex with the other elders. There's a washer and dryer but we have to pay in quarters to wash :( We have a good cooler and it's a comfortable house. We are also able to spend a lot of time with the other Elders because they live next door.

This area is pretty cool and it has a lot of potential investigators and baptisms. We found 10 new investigators this week and that's without working at all on Tuesday. I'm confident we won't have much trouble finding people to teach here. I just hope we can find those that are ready for us and will be able to be baptized. We already have several progressing investigators but Elder Domiciano and his previous comp basically cleaned out all they had before I got here.

This area is also really nice because there are several areas with standing water. That means there are a lot of water birds that you don't see very often! This weeks birds are:

-Mourning Dove

-Great Egret

-Killdeer

-Double-crested Cormorant

-Rufous Hummingbird

-Black Vulture

-Common Poorwill

-Black-necked Stilt

-White-faced Ibis

-Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Well, that's about it for this week. If you have any questions or concerns or whatnot just write me. I'm having a good time here and I feel comfortable aside from the heat.

Thanks for all your support and love. I love and miss you all!

-Elder Steiner

P.S. If you want to send me a package or letter tell me and I can talk to a brother from the ward or stake to get it from Texas rather than sending it to the mission office. Thanks!

Week 42 (7/11/2016)

Hello everyone and happy birthday Ameirca!! 

This week has been pretty good. We have mostly been preparing area so that if we were changed the next elder(s) could baptize this month. It's been a little hard with no progressing investigators but we changed up our contacting methods and we very quickly got several lessons. In this tiral I think God was letting us figure out what we needed to change. It took some time and lots of knocking doors but I think I learned what I needed to.

On Thursday we had our first zone conference with President Cahoon. We saw him briefly on Tuesday after our district meeting but we actually got to learn a little bit about him and his wife. Sister Cahoon spoke to us briefly but she doesn't speak Spanish so a sister missionary was assigned to translate. After that we started making a list of things we want to improve on so President could learn a little bit more about the mission. He seems really cool and I'm excited for the next half of my mission.

On Saturday we taught Alejandro, Jose Garcia, and Pedro Mata with the bishop and a high councilor to help them receive the Melchizedek priesthood. It was kind of last minute but we got them all interviewed and ready so they could be sustained in the priesthood meeting the next day. I was really happy to help them especially for Alejandro because his baby is coming next month and he'll be able to bless his own son.

Yesterday we had a pretty regular Sunday. It was a little hotter than usual which was pretty bad but I'm getting used to it. But the best thing that happened was with Jose Rocha, the investigator who can't leave his house very easily because of anxiety. We went with the bishop later in the day to see if he could come with us to help Jose. I think we woke him up but he was happy to help us. Haha! We ended up making it all the way to the church with him! That's the farthest he has gone from his house in 12 years! We didn't go into the church but I was really happy we could help him arrive and see the goal.

Today we ended the change. Elder Gallegos (my comp from Piedras) is now the new assistant so his companion, Elder Johnson, spent all day with us. We left early in the morning to find out where the president assigned us and I'm leaving Saltillo and headed back to Piedras Negras!!  Elder Bauer is staying here and then goes home in August. I'm not sure how I feel about being sent back to Piedras in the hottest part of the year... I'm excited to hopefully see some of the people I met while I was there and to get to know a new companion but I'm going to miss this ward and Elder Bauer. I think these two last changes have been the most fun of my mission even if they were the hottest and sometimes hard. I'm really happy to be here and I hope that I can make it in Piedras.

I leave for my new area tomorrow in the morning. It will be my eleventh bus ride between Saltillo and Piedras. I wish I could have been in Piedras today because you can see the fireworks from the other side of the river.

Well, that's about it. I hope everyone is well and that you enjoy your fourth of July!

Thanks for everything. 

-Elder Steiner

Week 41 (07/04/2016)

Hello everyone!

This week was kind of boring. Not a lot happened and we've just been going nuts contacting people.

This week we were supposed to have two baptisms this Saturday so we finished up the lessons and did a practice interview. The two are daughters of a less-active member and their names are Casandra and Careli. We arrived at their house with the zone leaders on Friday in the afternoon for the interview (basically a miracle because we're all out of money and we still managed to have enough coins for the taxi) and then they said that they didn't want to be baptised on Saturday. They had said they wanted to that morning so I was sure they would be all good for the interview. The funny thing is that right before we went in I was talking about how rough it would be if they said the didn't want to be baptized.

It hit us a little harder than normal because this week we have lost almost all of our progressing investigators. We've found several new ones that have potential but we were kind of in a slump. We had an activity at the church Friday night and I ended up sitting on the floor, cutting plastic leaves for the activity. It probably looked a little sad. Haha!

I feel fine today. Sunday and Pday are pretty good refreshers. Today we did a deep clean of the house. After that we played chess and then went to the mall. We ran into some other elders there and looked at ties for a little bit. Then Elder Bauer bought a hat and some bread. Normal pday stuff. :)

The best thing about this week was that we almost got José to the church. He still has trouble leaving his house but the bishop has helped us and José's anxiety is getting better and better. He knows and believes everything but he just can't get to church. :/ I think we'll get him there this week, though! He's made a lot of progress and It's so great to see the Atonement work in someone's life.

Here's the bird!

Scott's Oriole

Once again, not many cool birds this week...

Well, that's about it. Thanks for everything! I hope everything is good there. I feel good here even though the baptisms fell. :) We're working hard.

Oh, this was also President Rodriguez's last week. President Cahoon gets here tonight and we'll meet him pretty soon. I think Thursday.