December 24, 2012
‘And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had read these things which were engraven upon the plates of brass, my brethren came unto me and said unto me: What meaneth these things which ye have read? Behold, are they to be understood according to things which are spiritual, which shall come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh?
And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest unto the prophet by the voice of the spirit; for by the spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of men according to the flesh.’ [1 Nephi 22:1-2]
For centuries the prophets had prophesied in great detail the birth of the promised Messiah.
‘But thou , Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ [Micah 5:2]
‘Hath not the scriptures said, that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?’ [John 7:42]
Joseph and Mary understood the spirit of prophecy. They understood that prophets speak, and we hear. Then, with the help of the Lord, we work tirelessly to fulfill our part that prophecy might be fulfilled.
‘But Bethlehem, more than eighty dusty, dreary miles away, was the destined place for the birth of the great Deliverer. So it was written by the prophets; so it must be. Out of this small place, insignificant among the villages of Judea, must come Him whose going forth have been from of old from everlasting. Mary knew this and Joseph knew it; both had seen the angel…..They must go to Bethlehem and there attend to the coming forth of a Son, lest any of the Messianic prophecies, by so much as a hair’s breadth should fail.
They went to Bethlehem because they had no choice; Caesar had spoken, and Herod was echoing the word. But this was only the occasion, the vehicle, the excuse, as it were. They would have moved heaven and earth, if need be, to place themselves in the City of David when the hour arrived for the coming of the Son of David. We cannot suppose that a considerate and loving husband, having a wife big with child, would cause her to walk, or ride a slow stepping donkey, or traverse in any manner the dusty roads of Palestine, camping out overnight as they traveled – all as the hour of her confinement approached—unless there was a reason. Joseph and Mary were going to Bethlehem for a purpose. It was the one and only place where the Messiah could be born, and we cannot but suppose that they knew it and acted wittingly.’ [The Mortal Messiah, Book 1, by Bruce R. McConkie pgs. 340 and 341]’
Do we understand the spirit of prophecy as Mary and Joseph understood?With all things, in all our work, our focus should be on supporting and sustaining the "work and glory" which is the Lord's goal of bringing Eternal Families Home to Him.
Through this Christmas Season and as we carry on after, we should all do our best to support our families, to love one another, and to serve our Father's precious children to fulfill the mission and life of the Savior and to invite others to feel the Love which the Gospel brings.
I love you all!
Elder Steele
December 17, 2012
Well this last week was pretty boring. We didn't do a lot of missionary work. ie, there were a lot of meetings and class, and more meetings. Thursday we had a big Asian Zone meeting. The Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese Elders all met at the Mission Home with President and Sister Bowen to discuss the methods we use for finding and working with members. President told us at that meeting that there would be some surprises coming up. Well. That night, the Assistants called missionaries to let them know if they received any leadership assignments. Two elders in our District (Elders Leonard and Wadsworth) were called as Zone Leaders, which means our district is once again down to 4 elders. Everyone knew Elder Leonard was going English, but it was a surprise to have two elders go. I am staying with Elder Woolsey. That's almost a bigger shock, because it means the native Vietnamese elder who just finished being trained will complete the training for elder Anderson. Elder Anderson's Vietnamese ability will shoot through the roof. It will be good for us.
Besides that, we have a Christmas party coming up for the English Class students. We are going to be singing Christmas songs and reading through the story of the Savior's birth in Vietnamese. I hope it goes well. We are always looking for Vietnamese people to teach.
Here's the story of the Savior's birth. May we all try our best to embrace and share His love and charity as we go through this Christmas season.
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all athe world should be btaxed. 2 (And this ataxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is calledaBethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5 To be taxed with Mary his aespoused wife, being great with child.
6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her afirstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the binn.
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the aglory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you agood tidings of great bjoy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is aborn this day in the city of David a bSaviour, which is Christ the cLord.
12 And this shall be a asign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 aGlory to God in the highest, and on earth bpeace, good will toward men.
15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16 And they came with ahaste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18 And all they that heard it awondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things, and apondered them in her heart.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
21 And ... his name was called bJesus, which was so cnamed of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Love you all! I have been reading through the Book Of Mormon still. I am in Mosiah 5. Keep reading every day!
P.S. I will email you all next Monday, but please make sure everyone is there on Tuesday. They will allow us to Skype for probably 30-45 minutes. It will be a good opportunity to say hello to everyone. Please do not exclude anyone. I expect to see Matt, Erin, Zac, Sarah, Savannah, Brandon, Liz, Jesse, Jon, Rose, Hunter, Santy, and Madison, and also Mom and Dad and Grandmas and Grandpas, too, if that would work.
Keep in mind that all I would ask for for Christmas is that pair of shoes and the small study journal binder from Deseret book. I have a huge thing full of candy that I got in packages, etc. Love you all!
Elder Steele
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is calledaBethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5 To be taxed with Mary his aespoused wife, being great with child.
6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her afirstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the binn.
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the aglory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you agood tidings of great bjoy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is aborn this day in the city of David a bSaviour, which is Christ the cLord.
12 And this shall be a asign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 aGlory to God in the highest, and on earth bpeace, good will toward men.
15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16 And they came with ahaste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18 And all they that heard it awondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things, and apondered them in her heart.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
21 And ... his name was called bJesus, which was so cnamed of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Love you all! I have been reading through the Book Of Mormon still. I am in Mosiah 5. Keep reading every day!
P.S. I will email you all next Monday, but please make sure everyone is there on Tuesday. They will allow us to Skype for probably 30-45 minutes. It will be a good opportunity to say hello to everyone. Please do not exclude anyone. I expect to see Matt, Erin, Zac, Sarah, Savannah, Brandon, Liz, Jesse, Jon, Rose, Hunter, Santy, and Madison, and also Mom and Dad and Grandmas and Grandpas, too, if that would work.
Keep in mind that all I would ask for for Christmas is that pair of shoes and the small study journal binder from Deseret book. I have a huge thing full of candy that I got in packages, etc. Love you all!
Elder Steele
December 10, 2012
Thưa gia đình ơi!
This past week has been great. About the same as last week. It went by super quick. Here's a rundown:
Monday: We played dodgeball. Again. This is the only P-day activity we've done since I've been here. This will change in the next few weeks, hopefully. We also had an FHE with the usual monday night crowd. They are awesome. From them I have learned that family home evening is an inspired program and by obeying the instruction from the 12 Apostles and having time set aside weekly for EVERY family member to be there families are blessed greatly! There are no greater blessings in this life than family.
Tuesday: We changed our approach a little bit to see if people were home earlier in the day. It turns out not too many people are home at 11. We had our weekly English Class Coordination Meeting as a district. We planned a party for the English Class students to help them understand the real meaning behind Christmas.
Wednesday: Wednesday was exchanges. I went with Elder Anderson (the newest Việt elder). I was senior companion for a day. Things are a little different when you have no one to look to for interpretation and I had to step up a lot with the language. If you think talking to toothless people in English is hard, try it in Vietnamese hahaha. We taught a lesson to a less active man with many missing teeth. It was an hour-long guessing game of what he was trying to say. Regardless, we still felt the spirit and I believe we all left better people.
Thursday: Thursdays are always spent in fancy-town Irvine. It's like Pittsford on steroids. If you do research on it, you'll find out that Irvine is a company called the Irvine Company. A wealthy man purchased all the land in an area and leased out portions of land for homes. Because of this, they are able to maintain stricter standards of living for the inhabitants. It is kind of like Communism, but you still have more rights. No one owns land there. Anyway. Irvine is really nice. We have a weekly district meeting there and a Zone training meeting once a month. This past thursday was Zone training. We received training on making each contact more direct and spirit-driven. To accomplish this, we were invited to memorize scriptures and share them with those that we meet. Elder Woolsey and I have been trying to memorize scriptures in Vietnamese and quiz each other on them throughout the day. It is an effective way to memorize them. I got the package from Mathieu and Erin and Grandma. Thanks a ton! I now have plenty of cadbury chocolates and Christmas candy, etc. You guys are the best. :) I hung up the pictures from Ella and Delainey! Thanks!
Friday: Friday was spent searching in Santa Ana for less active members. We went with the Branch Mission Leader to find a few less actives and fellowship them. No one was home so we spent a few hours in Mexico-town looking for the few and far-between Vietnamese people.
Saturday: We labeled Saturday as free-food day. We had the assignment to clean the church with the Branch on Saturday morning. After that, the 1st counselor took us out to eat Phở. We had studies and class, and then our Zone leader visiting on exchanges bought us pizza for lunch (he serves in English and gets fed every day). We went to visit a recent convert to share a lesson with her, which meeting ended up changing locations to another ward's social with the recent convert's daughter's family. We were able to get food there and teach the intended lesson.
Sunday: Church. Lesson with some now-former investigators. Nothing new.
We're heading up to SpyGlass Hill Park today in NewPort Beach to take some district pictures. We are making a christmas card for the students and family (hopefully!) before things change in the district.
I have continued my daily reading in the Book of Mormon. It's pretty awesome. I'm at Jacob 5. Wish me luck with the chapter haha.
Love you!
Elder Steele
December 3, 2012
Thưa ba mẹ và các anh chị em ơi!
How are you all? This past week has been great for me. Mcdonald’s today was even good. We got to talk to some guy about his beliefs and met a member that talked to us for a while about what is important to him. It just goes to show that sometimes there are crazy homeless people here but there are some sane people that want to have beneficial discussion.
I have been continuing my studies in the Book of Mormon. Jon is trying to catch up to me, but he might slingshot past me and beat me through the book. I found a line in it that is small and probably easily overlooked. Nephi writes, “upon these things I write the things of my soul…” The things Nephi shares are the things that are of the utmost importance to him. He talks about keeping his family unified when Sariah complains. He talks about following the commandments when his brothers disobey and murmur. Nephi has a very different perspective on things because he 1) was the Prophet’s son, and 2) was the next prophet. I was looking for things that are of this matter, things “of the soul”. One of the books on my desk is titled “Our Search for Happiness”. How appropriate. I think that fits the bill perfectly. I read the book once on the plane on the way to the MTC, but never touched it again. I was a little nervous and out of it on my way to Utah, too, so I figured I’d have to re-read it and actually see the process involved in our (everyone’s) search for and eventually finding true happiness. Go figure, Elder Ballard focuses on the same thing Nephi focused on and the same thing almost all of the prophets have and do still focus on. Family. Obedience. Faith. Some quick, but IMPORTANT themes I pulled from “Our Search for Happiness” ((I read about half of it the other night, so I’m not done yet)) are that sometimes we lose faith. Our faith weakens. We have less of a desire to act according to the will of God and less of a desire to do things that he would have us do. Sometimes bad things happen, and we have to do our best to fix them and make them better, even when we’re doing our best. We can repent and change (no one is perfect. And everyone has to change, ie. Repent) . Heavenly Father sent His Son to the World so that Jesus Christ could understand us and understand ALL the pains that we go through and the things that trouble us. This act, the Atonement, allows us to repent, to forgive others, and to have our pain swallowed up in the Savior. I love my awesome family. You guys are the best! Use this opportunity to repent! It’s never too late to FIX something in this life. I made a small list of things that I’ve learned in the last 6 months that are the most important to us:
Family prayer. The Lord commands us in 3 Nephi 18:21, “Pray in your families that your wives and your children may be blessed.” Pray with your family and have weekly family home evening.
Unity in our relationships with others. Having a companion can be pretty difficult sometimes, regardless of whether they’re great or not-so-great. The instruction for this is found in Alma 30-something. Ammon and Alma teach us about having patience, being longsuffering and serving others, even if it means serving others without a physical reward. The Lord will bless us as we do this, so much more than we can imagine.
Go to the Temple. Make the temple an important part of our lives. Develop a schedule to go regularly and go with your loved ones. Those of you that are married, schedule a time to go with your spouse and let them know that you love them. You will be happier. I promise you this. Your families will be happier, too. Heavenly father gives us these opportunities to serve Him so that he can bless us.
I love you all! I promise you that those three things will help us so much in your/our lives. Make these things a priority. Make your family a priority. Serve others, too.
Thanks for your great examples!
Elder Steele
November 26, 2012
Gia đình và các bạn bè đều Ơi!
Hey! Let me give you a rundown of this past week. It wasn’t too busy. Thanksgiving changed things up a bit for us.
Monday. Preparation day. Pretty bình thường. We went up to Deseret Book to see if we needed anything there. I might get a study journal from there to help me with the Vietnamese and I’ll also be doing some organized studies by topic. Deseret Book has some nifty small 3-ring binders that use small paper. Our appointment fell through, so we went to our favorite boba place as a district.
Tuesday. Tuesday was a pretty average day. We contacted a past English class student to see how he was doing. His name is David. David is a 13 year old boy who lives with his Grandmother. We talked to him and set up times to teach him English and to get to know him.
Wednesday. Wednesday was exchanges with Elder Leonard, my previous companion. It was a blast. We had a very full day. Eight hours of knocking on doors. A big ZERO success. But it was still okay. Elder Leonard gave me some advice on how I can improve in how I prepare for the day and how I can be more successful. An English class student took us out to lunch for Elder Wadsworth’s birthday. She gave him a cake decorated with, “Happy Wadsworth’s Birthday!” It was pretty classically hilarious. Things like that happen all the time. (Last week I was teaching English class, and I asked the students, “How many hands does a dog have?” They all responded almost simultaneously, “No!”). Zero and No are the same in Vietnamese.
Thursday. Thursday was Thanksgiving. We had district meeting in the morning until 2 o’clock. We met with some members to record some Vietnamese to help us learn, and then we had our Thanksgiving appointment about 25 minutes away in Irvine with some very Americanized Viets. Vietnamese people don’t know what thanksgiving is. Close to none of them celebrate it. Our dinner was a good mix of Vietnamese food and traditional American Thanksgiving dishes. There were about 30 people there, a lot of them were completely Viet relatives that don’t know English. Conversation was good. We were asked a Vietnamese “play on words”/ joke. Of all the animals in the world, which can you not eat? The answer was “a screw”. Needless to say, none of the Vietnamese people knew the answer either.
Friday. Black Friday. We taught a lesson about Christ healing the 10 lepers. Only one said thanks. Even though he was a Samaritan “rival of the Jews”, he was blessed by the Savior. Gratitude is great.
Saturday. Saturday we went to dinner at a members home, it was an open house for one of the members who leaves tomorrow for his mission. It was pretty fun.
Sunday. Sunday was pretty normal. Church was good. We reviewed a talk from Elder Anderson where he encouraged boys to grow up and become men, and encouraged men to be better fathers, husbands, and providers. I have some good goals for after serving a mission that follow his counsel.
Elder Woolsey (He is my companion, dad…) and I are struggling to find people to teach. I hope and pray that the work picks up.
We had an interesting experience yesterday. I’ll share with you what I wrote in my journal. “Today Elder Woolsey and I had a different experience. We were trying to contact a former investigator. We could not find a place to park, so we decided we’d contact someone else. On the way there, we both changed our minds to return to the original plan. We parked a ways away and set out to walk toward the apartment complex. As we were walking, a small, modest car pulled up next to us and in broken English the driver called us to get in. Very puzzled, we approached the car. He showed us a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was in English and we knew he couldn’t read it. He spoke Spanish. Continuing in Spanish we gathered that he wanted to drive us somewhere. We were confused. We tried to call some Spanish Elders but they couldn’t be reached. I thought for sure that he was trying to return the Book of Mormon or maybe wanted a Spanish copy. I was still confused and a little frightened that he kept inviting us into his car. As we were about to give up, he pulled a little card out of his wallet. It was his temple recommend. I was struck by the fact that some man I didn’t know would pull up next to me and offer help. And I was struck by the spirit which bore witness to me that this humble man was an honest man who was worthy to enter the House of the Lord. I did not understand but two words he said (Amigo. Casa.), but I knew who this man was and I knew exactly how he lives his life…” I closed my night asking myself, “Am I doing enough? How do I know when I’m doing enough?”, because when I try my hardest I don’t always see results. I reflected on this experience. This man did not have a lot of worldly possessions. By most standards, he appeared to be getting by. But I ask, ‘Is he doing enough?’ The answer to me was clear. He was. He is. A humble man that has his priorities straight is doing enough. His first instinct was to serve. He wanted to help us. Even though we didn’t need help, he offered it. While he couldn’t help us directly, I walked away a greater desire to live worthy of the blessings which Heavenly Father promises us and a desire to serve. What a great example we can follow.
I love you all! Christmas is in a few weeks. It’ll be here sooner than we know. I’m sure I’ll get to talk to you about the Skype/phone situation before too soon.
Elder Steele
(Don’t forget Country Sweet! :)
November 19, 2012
Five sent me a few pictures. It looks like they had a lot of success the first few days. Nice shot, Hunter!!! Things here are great. Khang and Phượng were confirmed yesterday. It was awesome. We are struggling to find people to teach. We have some ideas to change our English class a little so we can share Gospel principles in class. We will use Mormon Messages. They're a great resource that the church puts out and the movies are coming out in better and better quality.
This Thursday is Turkey day. And the day after is Madison's birthday. (Happy Birthday Maddi! Love ya!) An interesting perspective, my companion and I were discussing the basic things we have and how much we take them for granted. I guess there's some crazy explosives going off in the Gaza strip. I'm glad we don't have to worry about that here. Outside of Walmart this morning was a homeless man riding his bike past the store. He had long, unkempt hair and a rough beard. His life was very obviously affected by drugs and alcohol. He looked sad. I felt bad for him. We don't have the negative influence of drugs, alcohol, or abuse. We've got families that love us. Life is good. Alma 34:38; and Alma 37:37. Are we in a routine of giving thanks to others for the things we have? Do we give thanks to God enough? It doesn't take a "season of thanks" to give thanks or a "season of giving" to give to others. I think Thanksgiving is simply a reminder or a pick-me-up to bring us up to a level of gratitude we should be giving. If we maintain an "attitude of gratitude" we will see everything in a different light. Our lives are so much better than they could be. If you're reading this, you probably have a computer. You probably live in an environment where you don't constantly worry about that computer being stolen.
As a missionary, there are a lot of things that I don't have. I don't have a microwave in my apartment. We don't have personal phones. I can't go on facebook. We can't stay up past 10:30. We can't sleep in past 6:30. It's really easy to see these as things that we don't have, things that we can't do. Restrictions. But we have so much. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have a Heavenly Father that loves us. We have families and friends. We have direction.
November 5, 2012
Hello Family!
I heard all about the storm. I guess NYC and the East Coast got wrecked pretty hard. I hope you’re all doing well.
We have some great things lined up for this next week. Today is P-day. We went shopping already. I got some cereal, chicken nuggets, and some things to make a pumpkin pie. I don’t know what we do for Thanksgiving, but I figured I’d make a pie. It’s a pretty American thing to do. We’re going to try to have a family home evening with Phuong and her family today. Things are moving fast in that family. Her son, Long, goes into the MTC on the 28th of this month. She will be baptized next Sunday! It’s pretty exciting. We plan to meet with her twice this week to review some important things (ie. Enduring to the End, follow the prophet, van van…) She is really prepared to be baptized. We are praying that she will invite her husband to prepare to be baptized soon, too. This coming Tuesday (tomorrow) one of the old missionaries, Elder Jones is going to take us out to lunch. He was in the Vietnamese program for two weeks with me and then served English for his last transfer. He’s been home for a couple months now. Wednesday is a normal Wednesday. Thursday, though, should be great. We have a non-scheduled zone conference with Erich Kopischke from the Seventy. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s supposed to be great! I think he’s been going around to different missions and talking to the missionaries around the world. In the last Ensign (or at least the last Vietnamese Liahona) it said something about Elder Kopischke going to Germany and explaining the traditional family to a board which represented all of Europe. We don’t usually get GA’s here. Actually, David A. Bednar came here a few months before I got here, but it’s not too typical.
The past week has been pretty great. We’re teaching English to a couple in a part-member family. Our goal is to develop a relationship with the husband so we can teach him. They’re awesome. Khang is in a different area now, but he will also be baptized on this next Sunday. Things are really going great.
We were told not to go knocking on Halloween, but to be creative or plan for the next week. Hm. We tried to be creative. We went to a member’s house intending to play games with them for a little while. This was allowed. We got there and set up (we have the “Pokemon Board Game” haha), but after we set up all the kids went out trick-or-treating. They literally left us alone in their house with instructions to hand out candy. Well. We did for a little while until one of the kids’ dad came back and took over. We went over to the cousin’s house across the street and played a couple of games. The kids came back before too long. It didn’t end up being too bad. I just couldn’t believe they left us!
Elder Woolsey was sick yesterday. We were both excited to sleep in an extra hour with Daylight Savings, but I woke up around 5 to his unpleasant groans and loud hurling. I went a little crazy being stuck in the apartment all day, but it wasn’t too bad. I read through the Liahona and some Preach My Gospel. Elder Woolsey had me call Sister Bowen, and she told us the ox was in the mire enough that we should go get medicine and some Sprite to help his stomach. I felt weird going into Walmart in a shirt and tie with Elder Woolsey walking beside me in a sweater, sweatpants, wrapped in a blanket and carrying a pot in case he threw up. He bought $28 worth of soda and meds. It was pretty funny.
Last Tuesday was a pretty crazy day, too. We got the new Viet Elder, Elder Anderson. We were supposed to all go down to the Airport with President Bowen in the Mission Van, but things changed a little bit and we didn't get to go! We were all bummed about that. Things changed up a lot, though, as Elder Woolsey and moved out to a new apartment and Elder Anderson ( Kiên) moved in with Elder Leonard. Time is flying fast. It is almost Christmas. I should have some great pictures for you for next week!
On both Thursday and Saturday for English class we had our regular 6-week Evaluation Night. We played two review games with the students. It's hard to find games that are both entertaining and help the students learn and review, so if you know any ESL learning games, please share them! I can receive e-mails from anyone! I can only send them to my family, though. We played Spell Factor, which is a wager style game designed to test the students' spelling and translation abilities. We had to call the students out a few times for cheating, because we have a lot of different skill levels in class, and they can't resist shouting out answers. It's funny. We even had our 91 year old student playing games. I'm surprised she can get around as well as she does.
Love you all!
Elder Steele
October 29, 2012
I am feeling much better. A cold virus swept through the district, but we are all doing well now. The worst that hit me was the sore throat, stuffy nose and headaches.
It sounds like there is a big storm moving in. I hope you all read my email a couple weeks ago about preparedness... And I hope you're all safe.
California driving is crazy. We were on our way to an appointment yesterday and I almost got hit. We're constantly fighting traffic. I'm perfecting my parallel park, though. The appointment went great. We have a few people that we're currently teaching. Khang is a laid-back college student from Vietnam. He's goofy, but great. The last lesson we taught him he pulled out his taser so we could see it. Around my first week here the young men went on a camp out to Yosemite park in the mountains, and Khang went, too. He didn't want to go, though, unless he had a taser to defend himself from the bears. This resulted in a $10 taser from ebay. I think he was shocked to find there really aren't many bears in Yosemite. It's a cool novelty item nonetheless. We taught him a lesson about the importance of daily prayer, obeying the law, and following the Prophet. He's awesome-- he will be baptized on November 11 with our other investigator, Phuong. Phuong has two children that are members. One of them, whose name is Long is about to go on a mission to Guam. She is motivated by his decision to leave and his great example.
We will get ANOTHER missionary in the Vietnamese program tomorrow. That means I've been here in California for 13 weeks already. It also means that starting tomorrow I'll be companions with Elder Woolsey (I met him when he was in the MTC). He's currently my companion, but we won't be in a trio any longer. It's kind of funny how different things are for me than for all other missionaries. In the Viet program, we know who our companions are well in advance. Elder Leonard will go English in 6 weeks right before Christmas, just for a transfer. Christmas is right around the corner, btw. But that means that Elder Woolsey and I will co-train Elder Anderson.
News from Dad sounds great. I would buy a copy of the book! Liz and Jesse- It's cool you're moving back to Bloomfield. Happy birthday Liz! On November 1. Love you!
Love you all!
Stay safe!
Elder Steele
October 24, 2012
I don't have a lot of news today. Things are still great. I am a little sick, I have a sore throat and have been feeling kind of out of it. Hopefully I have more for next week. I love you all. This Church is true.
Elder Steele
P.S. the pictures-- 1) We found a banana tree. 2) We had some Viet-made Thai food. It was an egg noodle soup with crab, squid, clam, tofu, and beef. It was pretty good. The egg in the Chopsticks is a quail egg. Quail don't run very fast so I'm sure the eggs are easy to steal. 3) On the left is Khang, our investigator, and on the right is Elder Ninh. At a family's monday night family home evening.
October 15, 2012
| Time is flying by here. We really had a great week this last week. It was great to meet some of our "higher" weekly goals. We have a new investigator who has really helped me see life in a different light. I am always looking for things to learn here, life lessons, and v v. We visited a referral from some Spanish speaking elders in south coast. We knocked the door once, and no one was home. The next day we tried to visit him again. After a little hectic knocking, hectic in that it was in Vietnamese with a few surprise English-speaking Viets and I seem to have forgotten how to talk to real people in English, we ended up at Phat's house. It was my turn to give the "approach". I was a little nervous but knocked without hesitation anyway. I introduced myself and shared that we were ba nguoi truyen giao tu Giao Hoi Cac Thanh Huu Ngay Sau cua Chua Gie Su Ky To hay la Giao Hoi Mac Mon. I told him how we shared a message explaining where we came from, our purpose for life and where we are going after this life and that we had a record of the ancient Americans which had these teachings. When I invited him to hear more about this message, he simply stood there nodding his head. I convinced myself that he didn't understand because I really don't have a good grasp of Vietnamese yet. People are out there looking for a purpose and a reason for living and they're not all "all set". This really isn't what I learned, though. When we met with him, he told us that he thought this life was a punishment for some sort of past life and that we weren't meant to experience joy here. How many people are really lost in misbelief? We shared the message of the Plan of Salvation, giving him the answers to the questions of life. Why are we here? Where do we come from? Where do we go after this life? We will teach him again next week.
Saturday night was the parent/adult meeting for stake conference. While we weren't able to stay for all of it, the talks we heard had an overall theme of "Family Preparedness". Number 1 was spiritual preparedness. Families need to be strong. The spiritual strength needed doesn't really come from our jobs, our vacations, or the big things that happen. It comes from the small things we do. The habits we have are very important for giving our families spiritual strength. When families eat together, the thing children want to have most is time with their parents. Develop a habit of eating together with your families. If you have time off for lunch, eat with your spouse. Show them you care about them. As you become closer as a family, the spirit will be more present in the home. Pray together. Establish and continue a habit of praying with each other. Study together. Study scriptures together. You will be stronger and more capable as a parent and as a family. Where are our priorities? What are our real goals in life? No one looks back at the end of life and says, "I wish I had spent more time with my job." Spend time with your spouse. Number 2 was financial preparedness. Stay out of debt. If you're in it, get out as soon as you can. The analogy used compared interest to a working man. It never stops, works on holidays, through the night, in emergencies, in crisis, when there's a death in the family, when the car breaks down ,etc. It never gets tired and never slows down. Get out of debt. And number 3 was emergency preparedness. Have food storage, especially water. Prepare for the worst, and you'll be fine through the best. Do you have 72-hour kits?
Well, I don't have a lot of time left. A quick funny story- Khang came to church on sunday for Stake Conference and one of the speakers was in young women's, probaby 16 or so. I'm sure she was really nervous because it's really scary to speak in front of a thousand people. She was speaking really fast and Khang leaned over and said, "it is like she is a rapper or something, she is speaking so fast!" It gave us a quick laugh.
I love you all! Thanks for your support!
Elder Steele
 |
October 8, 2012
October 1, 2012
Happy Birthday Ella! :) Love you!
These get forwarded to all the Steele's, right? I haven't heard anything from Logan or Kaylee in a while. They are allowed to e-mail me because they're part of my direct family. I don't have grandma's email address, either.
I like getting on and chatting with Rosie and Jonathan. Good stuff.
So, things here are great. I think I usually say that, but really, they're pretty great. I've been told my e-mails are a little dry and boring. Sorry about that! Here's to trying to improve them.
Last thursday was our usual district meeting. We have them in Irvine with our Zone, so they're about a half hour drive from our apartment. Just like with any week, we went to the Taco Bell KFC afterwards. I even had the usual two-dollar meal deal, which, really, is beginning to be quite boring. The meal deals are all right because you get a beverage with it. 4 Diet Pepsis later we were on our way home. Half way home I really really had to pee. On a scale of one-to-having-gone-already I was an "almost". A little while further, Elder Leonard told me he also needed to pee, pretty badly. In the last mile, I started laughing uncontrollably at how bad I really needed to go. Elder Leonard also laughed. I couldn't control it after that, because his laugh was more of crazy noises trying to contain himself. Both of us were really pushed to the limit, to the point where I was yelling at the gate to open and could barely park the car. We both made it. But it was really close.
Another great thing. Yesterday in church, one of the youth got up to share how he got his mission call to Guam and how he's pretty excited about that. On his way to his seat someone just shouted out "What language do they speak?!" really loud in the middle of the meeting. Things like that are generally accepted here. It was hard to control my laughter. Oops.
We still get a lot of questions about Mitt Romney. We still get a lot of weird looks all the time, because, I guess missionaries aren't generally accepted in the United States? It's a little different than normal.
Gotta go! Love you all!
Elder Steele
September 24, 2012
| In English, the week before. So, I've been contemplating what to share in this email for a little while. I never really know what to say, and I don't know what everyone wants to hear. First, thanks for the packages! Grandma & Grandpa, Matt & Erin &&& Ella, Delainey, Sicily, and Mom & Dad. Everything is great. I found the Hootennanie recipe and made those last week and they were pretty good. Not as good as Dad makes them, though. I've eaten over half the granola from Gram and Gramps already, and some of the Smarties and Chips and Oreos. Thanks a bunch! :) It really is great to get mail every week. All the other missionaries get jealous because they can't get their friends and family to write them as much. It is what it is. We're in McDonald's right now, using their free wi-fi. The Vietnamese program has laptops. It's pretty great as we're probably some of the only missionaries in the world with laptops, quite literally. But this McDonald's has Halloween decorations all over. I can't believe I left in May and it's already almost October, soon to be Halloween. This past week went by SO fast. As they say in Brazil, "Everything was great this week. About the same as last week." So a few things from this past week... Yesterday was a pretty good day. We had branch conference and a lot of the Stake leaders taught. An important thing that the Stake President talked about was in the Bible, I think in Peter, about the parable of the Lost Sheep. He said, to paraphrase, when the Shepherd went to recover the lost sheep, he didn't send him a text message. He left the ninety and nine and personally found the one lost sheep. And then he lifted it on his shoulders and used his full strength to bring him back to the fold. How often are we the people to help others in need? Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared that most often, the people we interact with are people in need. This is very true. Without being offensive, we need to serve others. As we lift the burdens of others, our attitudes will improve. It was in His time of need that Christ turned outward and served others. In our time of need, and especially when we are not in need, we should be serving others. Losing focus of what we ourselves need and turning that focus to others will bring joy into our lives. As a missionary, I see this every day. Yesterday Elder Leonard and I went to visit a referral from a few weeks ago to follow up with him. He surprisingly let us into his home. His wife was just finishing a Buddhist worship which was very different from any practice I have ever seen, but that has no significance. The man, named Sanh, had a lot of questions for us which we were willing to answer. We taught him about the importance of families, and how we can strengthen our families by coming closer to Christ and living His Gospel. It was a great appointment. I wasn't able to contribute a lot, but I said as much as I could in Vietnamese. K, I have four new inboxes, so I'll read those and reply to Five and Rosie and whoever else. Don't have a lot of time left. Love you all! Elder Steele |
September 17, 2012
Friday morning after doing our studies, Elder Leonard and I left the apartment to go to the car. We park the car in the carport every night, but it's still quite out in the open. I went to unlock the door as I usually do and I noticed broken glass on the ground. It was good that it wasn't from our car, at least that's what I thought. I looked over and noticed the small back panel window had been smashed some time the night before. Dang. Elder Leonard and Elder Wadsworth had their GPSs in the car and they were both stolen. Whoever the thief was also took my $12 sunglasses and a lot of our time on Friday and Saturday. Friday temperatures were around 105 down here. The hottest it has been since I've been down here. We were in the mission office doing paperwork and cleaning up glass. We spent a lot of time inside studying Saturday waiting for the Safelite repair man. It was a little crazy, and I don't trust people as much here anymore. Oh well.
The last week has been pretty crazy, but great at the same time. Tuesdays were exchanges. One of the Zone leaders switched with me and went with Elder Leonard for the day. I went to Irvine with the other Zone leader. We had a busy schedule for the day, but it was great. We taught a few lessons and even had a real dinner appointment! It was interesting. The people whose house we ate at had a picture on their frigde of their son and his comp. in the MTC--The comp was Sean's friend from Ohio. As we were talking we figured out that the lady was from Brigham City, Utah and is a couple years older than mom. She gave me some info to send to mom--I guess she knew Grandpa Dee and remembers grandma Judy. I don't know if mom knew her but I'll send that to mom. It was kind of a neat find. It's a pretty small world.
Thursday was Zone conference. It was great to hear from President Bowen and to finally hear one of his stories. He talked about how the Holy Ghost works and how it can be a comforter to us. On his mission he was traveling back from a zone meeting, where he left around 1 am. After driving for a while (on a northern Canada backroad) he let his companion drive and went to sleep. He woke up to his companion screaming as the car was gliding across the black ice at 60 miles per hour. When his companion tried to fix the mistake, he turned the wrong way. President Bowen tearfully recounted how the vehicle flipped once, then twice, and another time until they landed upside down, pinched between two large boulders. He said they hung there in their seatbelts, unable to kick or elbow any windows, stuck. "Here we were, just hanging upside down, praying for help," he said. In this time, on a small backroad in Northern Canada, two 20-year old boys were trapped in a car, waiting for their frozen end. Physically unable to do anything but pray, Elder Bowen and his companion felt comforted by the spirit and felt reassured that everything would be okay. After over an hour of waiting, a car approached and was able to save their lives. The trust that he had in the Lord to provide comfort and safety are remarkable. As we as missionaries and everyone else as children of our Heavenly Father, we are being watched after. He wants us to trust Him.
It sounds like everyone is doing well! I'll be working on more letters to send out today! Love you all! Thanks for your love and support :)
Elder Steele
September 10, 2012
Last night we went to a part member family's home for one of the member's birthdays. We talked to our investigator there. It was a good experience. They are all about the food... They had Vermicelli with fatty pork and fish sauce, egg rolls, fish-eye vegetable drink, and durian flavored cake. Durian is the fruit that is banned from public transportation because of the smell. It was fun regardless. Every P-day we have an activity at the church. We play dodgeball and basketball with the members and some young English class students. Our english class student is bringing two friends today. It is great exposure for us because the YM president comes (speaks fluent Viet-- he served in Melbourne speaking Viet and now operates hotels in Vietnam with his wife for half the year) and invites the kids to Young Mens and scouts. They love it. They're really fun to play with and we usually have about 10 people. We play for a couple hours and then our p-day is over. We always get worn out because of it but it's great exercise. It's also the reason I haven't been able to write a lot of letters home or to everyone who has been writing me. I will get some more letters sent out today. Elders Cook and Smith wrote me last week. It was great to hear from them. They are probably fluent in Spanish already.
I will attach some pictures. Love you!
Elder Steele
No comments:
Post a Comment