Week 82 (04/24/2017)

Happy end of the cange! I guess that's not as significant for all of you but it sure is great for us. :)

This week went really well with lots of good lessons and a miracle baptism! The person we baptized is named Diana. She is ten and her mother and older brother were baptized a little more than a year ago. It was a very special baptism because Elder Reid and I have been able to baptize every week the previous five weeks but we didn't have anyone ready for this past Saturday. We fasted and prayed specifically to find or recognize someone who could be baptized this week. The next day, Sunday, Diana and her family came to church. Her mom, Lorenza is a convert but she hadn't stayed active because of difficulties in her work schedule. We had visited with Lorenza and Diana before but we hadn't gone very much and not recently. I had actually forgotten who they were when they got to church... We visited them on Tuesday and taught about repentance and baptism then asked Diana if she would like to be baptized. She and her mom both said yes so we put a baptismal goal for the 22nd. We taught her everything this week and she was ready to be baptized. It was one of the coolest experiences I have had in my whole mission. I really have a testimony of the power of fasting and faith.

This change has been my most successful in my whole mission. I have learned a lot from Elder Reid and I am sad that I won't be his companion for much longer. I am now going to be a zone leader but I'm staying here in Acuña with Elder Painter, my new companion and we will be in the other part of the branch I am currently in. Elder Reid will actually be with us in a trio for about two weeks until his companion gets here. That means that for two weeks we will be working the whole branch which is a lot of area, but between the two we already have six potential baptisms in these next two weeks. Woo hoo!

I'm not sure if this will be my last area or not but we'll just have to see. I've already got less time left on my mission than I have been with Elder Reid... That's crazy!! I'm going to be home before I know it.

Well, I hope you are all well and that you have had a good week as well. We'll see how this next change goes. :)

Love,

Elder Steiner

Week 81 (4/17/2017)

Happy Easter everyone!

This week has been about normal. Then again, my normal weeks have been really good lately. :)

This week we did some special activities with the district for our weekly meeting on Tuesday. The zone leaders started a relay race in the zone with teams to get us to exercise more. We lost the race so that was kind of a downer. Haha! After that I had to teach the district so to keep them from getting bored I try and do activities. This week, in honor of Easter we hid eggs around the chapel (Thanks to Nan and Grandpa for the plastic eggs!) for the Elders to find. We made it into a little competition so it was fun. I think I'm finally getting a hold of this district leader stuff.

On Thursday we started helping our convert fix his house. His house had burned a while ago so the roof is pretty bad. The Elders in the branch and we went to help replace the damaged beams. We worked all the morning on Friday and Saturday to replace beams and then shingle the roof. It ended up looking really good and we started teaching a friend of our convert who is helping with the roof! He seems really interested and has had a lot of changes from his old life to now.

On Saturday we baptized three people! Liliana, Emily, and Cristian were baptized at 7:00 Saturday night. I was able to baptize Liliana and Emily then Elder Reid baptized Cristian. It was a great baptism and the whole family has really been integrated into the branch here.

The next day we were able to do the confirmations and then ginve the Aaronic preisthood to five of our converts, Cristian included. We have been working really hard here and during our time we have gotten three new families to come to church and be baptized! This area has been a great belssing and I'm really happy to have had these experiences. I know that the Lord is preparing people in all places to receive his gospel.

Today we went to the dam with some members. First we went and took pictures with the eagle statues on the border and then we went to a little creek to have lunch. I was able to see two new birds and I was able to hear a canyon wren from on top of the dam. While at the creek we got inspired and started building a little wall in the water to make a baptismal font for this weekend when the other Elders baptize. I think it would be so cool to baptize someone in a river. I'm going to do it before I finish my mission.

Well, I hope you all had a fantastic Easter and that you have a great week this week. Thanks for writing and for all your prayers and love!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Steiner

Week 80 (04/10/2017)

Happy Easter week!

 

This past week was a little stressful but very good. We were able to baptize two investigators on Saturday named Juan Jose and Juan Jose Jr. The baptism ended up being a little tricky because the dad only has one leg and he can't support himself on his leg so we had to put him in the font with his wheel chair and than dunk him backwards. It was a little tricky because his clothes started to float so there were three of us in the font pushing all of the clothes down to get him fully immersed. The son's baptism was also kind of tricky because he is afraid of water and had a little bit of ainxiety. I tried to baptize him the first time and he was almost under but then he shot out a hand to grab my shoulder. After that we had to help him calm down enough to basically sit down in the font and immerse himself. It was kind of stressful but we were able to get it done and I will always remember this baptism. I have now baptized, over the course of my mission, two people with one leg and two people who are scared of water.

 

Today we went and took a self defense class from one of the members. He invited us to try it out and it was really interesting. I have never had to deal with anyone trying to attack me or rob me but at least now I can pretend I would be sort of safe. haha! We also went and bought a tie and a wqallet for our ward mission leader. The other elders wanted to give him a gift so we all pitched in to help out.

 

Elder Reid, my companion, and I get along really well. I have always gotten along with my companions but Elder Reid and I are really similar. He doesn't like birds as much as I do and he makes fun of me for it but at least we work well together. haha! This has also been my longest companionship. I have now been with Elder Reid for almost five months which is about a month and a half longer than my longest companionships. I think that in two weeks we will probably be changed but these will be some good two weeks.

 

I hope you all have a great week and that you can all spend some time to think about the last week of our Saviour's life. Chirst is our perfect example and we should all stirve to live as He did. Also, you should all watch the Prince of Peace video on mormon.org. Happy Easter week! 

 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Steiner

Week 79 (04/03/2017)

Hello everyone and happy General Conference!

 

This week was really good with a wedding (finally) and Carlos's baptism! Then we finished with General Conference which was even better.

 

We had a lot of success this week and found 17 new investigators, baptized, and had seven investigators come to General Conference.

 

We had our baptism on Friday which turned out really well. We were a little slow getting everything together and we had to run around a little bit but we go it all done. We rode in the back of a truck with several other elders for most of the running around part so that was a little rough but we pulled it out in the end! Now all of Carlos's family is baptized so they can start preparing to go to the temple next year and hopefully Elder Reid will be able to go with them!

Friday night there was a Relief Society activity with lots of desserts so that was a great was to finish a crazy day.

On Saturday we had general conference all day and we even ate in the church. All of the sessions were really great and I can't wait to read them later. We had a crazy storm in the the middle of the night on Saturday and I woke up three times. Twice from lightning and once from tornado alarms. It was really crazy but we were all okay.

 

Sunday was also really good and I really liked all of the talks. We were able to watch all of the sessions in English in the church office. That was really convenient.

 

Today we had lunch with the zone leaders because we met our goals for last week.

Birds: There are a bunch of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers around here lateley. They are really pretty birds. I see them fighting sometimes as we walk in the morning.

 

That's about it for this week. Thanks for everything! I hope you have a great week.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Steiner

Week 76 (3/13/2017)

Sorry I missed last week but I'm back safe and happy in Acuña! I was not able to write last week because I had to go to Saltillo for my visa. I'm glad that it went a lot more smoothly than last time. At least I wasn't illegal for two days like last time. Haha! The secretaries are doing a little better now than a year ago.

This week was really good and I'm glad that I'm still here in Acuña. Today is changes but our whole zone is staying the same. I'm even staying with Elder Reid for another six weeks! Last week the assistants told me I was about to be chosen as secretary but President chose another Elder instead. I'm glad that I get to stay here now because we had a lot of success this week. Even though being secretary would be really fun I'm glad to be here with Elder Reid.

We are going to have a baptism this Saturday and then three more next Saturday if everything works out! I'm really glad because everything just seemed to work out perfectly so we can have these baptisms. One of the investigators was in Saltillo for her cancer treatment (which went well and she is almost cured) so I was worried she wouldn't be able to meet with us. We went to her house looking for her granddaughter (also going to be baptized) and she was home! She bore her testimony to us of the BoM and said that she was finally sure that she wanted to be baptized. The girl to be baptized this week is Lucia and the three next week are Carlos, Jenifer, and Lilia. Please pray for them and that they can be baptized!

Along with our success in baptismal dates we were also able to find 20 new investigators! It was really cool and we were able to meet our goal. I think that by looking for more people we have been showing our faith and God has blessed us for it.

This week I saw a Peregrine Falcon for the first time in a looooong time. It was messing around with some swallows and they were mad so they chsed it and picked at it's tail. Little birds can be really brave. I also saw Sandhill Cranes on my bus ride to Saltillo. That was pretty cool.

That's about it for this week. Thanks for everything and I hope you have a great week! If you work with faith God will bless you no matter what!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Steiner

Week 74 (02/27/2017)

Happy Monday everyone!

This week was average in terms of missionary work. We had an exciting pday last week with the other elders and then on Tuesday we had our district meeting. Lately we have been focusing a lot on finding new investigators and our district hasn't been completing very well, us included. I gave a pretty good training paired with an inspirational video from the zone leaders which actually helped out a lot. After the meeting we went and contacted new people in the other elders' area. All together we found 13 new investigators in under two hours. We plan on having activities like that in a different area each week to help keep us going finding new people to teach. By the end of the week we had a total of 60 new investigators as a district so I think we're doing pretty well. Haha!

The next day we did divisions with the zone leaders and helped them with their baptism that afternoon. I went with Elder Painter to his area but Elder Painter never uses maps so I was kind of in charge of getting us to the lessons because he would get us lost. Divisions are really fun especially when I get to learn a lot from the other elder.

Yesterday we had a good time in church and I also got some packages! Woo hoo! We had three investigators in church which was really nice and we also helped out with the choir that night. Elder Reid can sight read music like a champion.

Our baptism for this week ended up not happening because our investigator didn't feel ready. That was kind of hard but we are shooting for the eleventh of March so we can get him baptized soon. I'm really glad for the work I have done here in Acuña and I hope I can keep it up before I leave here.

Well, that's it for this week! Not a lot of bird news this week but I'll keep my eyes out for next week.

Thanks for everything! I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Steiner

Week 73 (2/20/2017)

Hello everyone! I hope you have has a great President's day! Mine has been pretty normal but at least I get the day off with you.

This week was pretty normal. It was a little harder because we had to budget our taxi money a lot so there was a lot of walking instead of taxi rides. We were really blessed by members and investigators who gave us some extra money to get by. I really saw the tender mercies of the Lord this week.

I have also been a little sick this week but not too bad. It has made it awkward in lessons when I'm pulling piece after piece of toilet paper out of my pocket but I guess they understand. Haha!

The craziest day was Saturday because we had to run from lesson to lesson and we had to be pending all day for the other elders' baptism. To top it off it was Elder Reid's birthday so we got two cakes which are still in our fridge.

Today we went and had a picnic with some converts of the other elders. We went to a little river and I saw a bunch of cool birds. I saw a vermilion flycathcer for the first time ever which was really cool. I even identified it from far away because of it's flying habits. I felt like a birding pro. Haha!

Well, that's it for this week. I think we are going to baptize this Saturday but I'll let you all know how it goes.

Mucho amor!

-Elder Steiner