17 May Pictures

17 May Email 2

I have some photos. Like I said we didn't get any photos of the baptisms. Both of the people we baptized should stay strong. We baptized a lady (Betty (pronounced Betch)) who had (has?) cancer and received a priesthood blessing from a member. She was a reference from the same member and received a stong testimony through her experience and peace that the blessing gave to her. Since we have started teaching her she has absorbed everything we have taught her. She even correrected Elder Halford (he was my companion for a day during a division) on who was the father of who, Mormon or Moroni, on the second visit.

The other person we baptized was Claudia. She has already been to church some 10 or 15 times and is great friends with a lot of the young women. I have faith that the young women's program and leaders here will make sure she continues going to church. We are teaching her older brother now who is married and has 2 kids. We haven't got past the 2nd lesson yet. Also the family of Claudia went to the baptism and her mom was even at church on Sunday. Integration with the ward is key.

I think our mission, PAN, has one of the highest retention rates for new converts in all of Brazil. I don't know how good Brasilia's retention rate is.

Anyway we have P-day here until 9:00. Bishop (who makes briefcases (the Prophet and almost all of the 12 Apostles have one (he made sure I knew))) is going to fix my bookbag and also sell me another one that he bought on his last trip to Idaho for 40 R$. All should be good there. I took out 50 Reis from my bank account last week to get me through transportation and the transfer. I should be good and I should have more soon since I sent in my reimbursment 2 weeks ago.

Last Thursday I was on a division with the zone leaders so that they could interview the 2 people we baptized. I went to their area and one of them came to ours - first time I made a division where I left the area ( My companion (District Leader) has left the area I think 4 other times to interview for the other dupla in our district (they baptized like 6 or 7 this transfer)). The work seems to be going pretty fast here. It's a little sad leaving the area. The bishop here spends about 30 hours a week doing work for the ward. They are going to find out if the ward here will split also in the next week or two. They are as of now 1 ward and 1 unofficial group (still takes part of the ward and participates in the Sacrament meeting the first Sunday of every month.) Since it is only a group and not a branch the 2 units (really just one) use the same leadership and because of this it has drained of lot of work and effort from the ward, and a few families from the branch went inactive also because the meeting location there isn't all that great.

Anyway when I was on the division last Thursday we had lunch and then went to our next appointment. There they (ZLs) had baptized a 14 year old boy and were working with his mother. She isn't married to her spouse and they were having problems, and to get baptized you have to either be married or living separate. So the day before they separated. Me and Elder de Maria (ZL) we sitting there conversing with them when the ex-spouse showed up and started kicking the fence and yelling bad words that I didn't understand (we were sitting outside because there wasn't a man present older than 18). Soon after he started throwing bricks at us and so we moved into the house for cover. He kept throwing bricks at us and trying to jump the fence, but he was too drunk to get over, so he kept throwing bricks. One of the bricks bounced off of the half open door to the house and hit Elder de Maria in the leg. He was mostly okay, but we took it easy the rest of the day. About 5 minutes later, after the drunk ex-spouse left, the police showed up and me and Elder de Maria left because we didn't want to deal with having to go into the police. I don't know anything else that has happened there more. The lan house is shutting down so I gotta go now. Love you all!

Until next week,

Elder Steele

17 May Email

I'm at the lan house for one more hour or so. I am being transfered. Won't know where until tomorrow.

The baptisms all went through good. They even showed up on Sunday to be confirmed and all. Me and my companion forgot to get any photos. My P-day is only today. Tomorrow I will go to the bus station in Porto Alegre to find out my new area.

4 May Email

Subject: Happy Mother's Day

Ola Família,

I hope everything is going well for you all. I will give the house a ring saturday and tell you guys the number that you will be able to call me on Sunday. I hope everything works out. I don't know anything about how the phone system works here. The past week has been good. Hopefully if everything goes as planned we should have 2 baptisms on the 15th of May. Perhaps 3. I guess I will talk to you all on Sunday. Have a nice week. Sorry I couldn't write more, gotta run.

Love,
Elder Steele

27 April Pictures

27 April Email

Subject: Hamburgo Velho

Dear Family,

Everything's going great here. It rained all day yesterday but the sun was out today, so all the clothes that I washed last week should finally dry. How is it using a dryer in the states?

Sounds like everything went well with the new baby. Congratulations! Sounds like you are all doing a lot of travelling to and from Utah. I hope everyone arrives to their proper destinations safely.

Not a ton has happened this past week. We are preparing a couple people for baptism. If everything goes right we should have a baptismal service on the 15th of May with a couple of people. We are working hard. Any advice would be appreciated. We are going to plan some activities every other week to help integrate our investigators and our members. Any ideas there would be appreciated also.

I hope that everything is going great for everyone at home. I've got to go now. I will email you guys about how I will be able to call on Mother's Day. I think President said 50 minutes for each person. And I will be able to call the day before to set up how you will be able to call me the next day. I will talk to you all next week.

P.S. My watch broke at the begining of the transfer and the prices of watches here are ridiculous. Maybe you could start getting my birthday package ready to send with a cheap watch that's waterproof and cool. Also maybe Dad or Matt could get me some business cards or something like that that I could leave with the members and investigators when I leave an area. I think that would be kind of cool. Any other ideas too? When the leaves come out I would like a bunch from the Hill Cumorah. It would be nice. Also, maybe when Pageant starts, if you're able you could send me the Pageant soundtrack (or if you can find it online or rip it from a CD at home, email me and I can make a CD). Thanks.

Love - Elder Steele

20 April Email

E ai!

Things are going well. Sorry I don't have photos this week. I forgot to bring my adapter this week. Thanks for sending me the battery and all the other things, too. I await their arrival!

Sounds like things are pretty exciting on the northern end of the globe. Earthquakes, volcanoes, engagements, and a baby. We had zone conferences this week - President spoke on the importance of working with the ward. It was good. He almost gave the exact presentation last conference but it was good because I could understand more of it this time.

Tell Liz congratulations for me. Tell Savannah congratulations for me, too. And tell Mathieu congratulations for me when they have the baby.

I gotta run now - we have a meeting at 6:30. Next time I will use a different lan house. This one here doesn't work very well (the other computer shut off on me and the keyboard on the one I'm using doesnt't work great). Anyways... I will talk to you all next week. Thanks Grandma Ayotte for the email also.

I love you all,

Elder Steele