28 December Email

Subject: Happy New Year

Hey family,

 

I would like to wish a happy new year to everyone from down here in brasil. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and the vacation time. Not much has happened this past week. The ward here gave us a nice christmas basket. I hope you guys can enjoy the photos.

 

Love you all, Happy New Year!

21 December Email

Subject: Dear Family

Oi Família!

This past week has been great. We have been getting a lot of references for christmas from the members which is nice. Are you all excited for Christmas?!? This time I will be able to use skype with video without breaking any rules. The missionary department in salt lake liberated all the missionaries. I think it is worldwide. The first presidency of brasil has also lowered the age to go on a mission to 18 due to the severe lack of missionaries worldwide and of the diffuculty that the americans are still having with there visas. email me back if anyone is online and wants to get on skype.

13 December Email

Subject: Weekly Email (Transfer Week)

Hey My Family! (Transfer Week)

Transfers are tomorrow. Both my companion and I will stay in the area for another transfer. Élder Soares will be my first companion to stay with me for more than one transfer. This past transfer has been great and I have a learned a lot of new things with him. We have worked a lot and have been able to help a lot of people. We just haven’t had any baptisms as of yet, but I am sure the Lord will bless us abundantly in this next transfer. This past week has taken a while to pass by, waiting for the transfer and all. I like the area a lot. Most of the members are willing to help us out and the people here are receptive. The only difficulty that we have is that the Chapel is 2km from the area and not many people have cars and don’t like to pay the bus fare. They can’t put a chapel here because the land here is all stolen/invaded and no one owns the land, but the city is in the process of legalizing everything and soon after the church will be able to install a new chapel. This Friday there we be a mission leadership training held for all district/zone leaders and trainers.

This next week I will be calling to arrange the hour of my Christmas phone call. I don’t know if president will liberate Skype this time. It sure will be nice to talk to everyone though. I hope you all have a great week and that you can all feel the spirit of Christmas and remember the sacrifice that the Savior gave for us.

Love you all.

7 December Email

Subject: Weekly Email

Hey Family,

 

Everythings great here in Guajuviras. We had our christmas conference last saturday, but it wasn't really that christmas like. Elder Walton was there also (He is from zach and sarahs ward). They talked alot about the work here. It's been getting pretty hot here lately. Lots of heat and humidity. Sometimes it makes it even hard to breath. It doesn't really feel like christmas much. This will be my second christmas away from home. The package hasn't arrived yet, but I'm sure that it will get here soon. It looks like rem got a pretty nice deer. Congratulations. I will try to send the package this week if i get a chance. It's hard to send stuff from here because we don't have a post office in our area. I hope you are all enjoying the wonderfull snow that you have there. Have a great week.

 

Love you all.

 

Élder Steele

 

P.S. Thats cool that you guys have a foreign exchange student from Brasil. Which part of Brasil is she from?

30 November Email

Subject: Family


Hey family!

 

How was Turkey day. We didn't celebrate anything here. Christmas is coming up in less than a month though. Not to much has happened this past week. Today our lunch was at a members house and there son was having his birthday party, turning 20 years old. We ate lasagnha and cake. I sent some pictures of the cake. Thats way cool that the twins got the exact same score on there SAT. Now neither one can say that they are smarter than the other. I will try to send the package this next monday if i can. This week we wont be holding our district meeting due the the christmas conference that we will be holding on the 4th of december. A area 70 is going to talk, president also spoke that he is going to being going around a few of the apartments of the mission, good thing our house is already clean. The conference will have 4 of the 6 zones together. Should be a big meeting with about 80 misionaries, will be nice to see them all. I willl send you photos of the confernce next week.

 

Love you all

 

Elder Steele

23 November Email

Subject: Guaju-2 Week 3

Dear Family,

 

Dear family, everything is going great here in Guajuviras 2. The ward is really great here. My companion doing great also. The investigators here are great and pleniful and the area is super small so life is good and without stress. Chrismas is right around the corner (In brasil they celebrate christmas in the middle of the summer on the 25th day of december). It's been fairly hot lately, and super humid. Canoas is one of the hotter cities in the Rio Grande do Sul (the state here that i'm in). But we drink alot of water and Guaraná and Coca-Cola to pass the heat. Not much has happened this past week. Me and my comp are pushing some of the highest numbers in the mission these past 3 weeks. Hopefully it will lead to some baptisms. My and my companion have been eating alot also (the members are really good here) so we are going to start running in the mornings.This week I am going to get a christmas package ready.

 

talvez mateus podia fazer algums pedidos já que eu esqueci o que que tem de diferença entre aqui e aí.

 

Here is a list of what i will be sending so far

Guabada

Farofa pronta

Farinha de mandioca

rosies present

sarahs present

 

have matt send some ideas to complete the list and i will send the package to you guys after my next p-day.

 

Hope you are all having a great hunting season and a great thanksgiving(they don't celebrate thanksgiving nor huntingseason here, crazy né?). Looks like everyone is getting some nice deer. Send me some more pictures if you guys can. Next year i should be able to hunt a part of the archery season and then the whole gun season complete.

 

Love you all,

 

P.S. Happy birthday to Madison!!!! PÁRABENS PRA VOCÊ!!!!

16 November Email

Subject: Templo

hey family and friends,

 

Everythings excellete here in guajuviras B. My comp is great. I have some pics for you all but i will not have time to send them. We gotta run right now, we are going to the temple this afternoon. Love you all. Tchau!

 

Elder Steele

9 November Email

Subject: Hey Family

Dear Family,

Everything is going great here in Guajuviras.  I am here with my new companion Élder Soares working in the Guajuviras 2^nd Ward. We have been working a ton this past week. The area here is awesome – just strait ghetto. One of our investigators got shot in the head last week.  He wasn’t really progressing anyways. The ward is great here and the members are excellent.  My companion is from Brazil, from Minas Gerais.  He has 3 months on the mission (greenie), but he is a great missionary. They have put some sensors here throughout the city, that detect gunshots -the crime rate has dropped dramatically since then.

I gotta go now, but i will try to write you all more next week.

 Love you all

Élder Steele

1 November Email

Subject: Transfers

Hey Family,

Today is transfer day eve. I will be transferred tomorrow and I received notice that I will be accepting the cargo of District Leader. Tomorrow I will also Hit 11 Months, and 1 week from today i will only have a year left till I'll be heading home on the airplane. Pretty neat how time flies so fast. I think i might have some trouble packing up all of my bags today, Have been accumulating a lot of books and clothes from all of the packages. My luggage isn't in the best shape either. I think I will end up buying at least 1 new peice of luggage before the future transfers. Hope the ones I have will hold up until I arrive in my new area. 

Everything is going great here in osório. This next week will be great for my new comp. Full of appointments and he doesn't know where many of them are. I wish him luck though. We have a lot of great investigators in potential here that will for sure lead to some baptisms in the coming months.

I gotta go pack my bags now and say goodbye to a few families. I hope everyone has a great week.

Love you all
Elder Jonathan P. Steele

P.S.
It sounds like the peak of hunting season is soon approching for the whitetail deer population in upstate NY. I wish you all great luck and would like to remind everyone of the QDM program that we have running. I hope everyone will have the patience to hold off on the trophies until I get back home in a year. 

My Christmas Wish List
-Cabelas Magazine
-Cadbury Mini Eggs
-Leaves from the Hill in Lamanate
-... Will add more at a future date