April 2010 photos!

April 26, 2010 update

Hey everyone! Hey so wanna know something crazy that I forgot to tell you guys about last week? Before I came to this sector, I had a dream about it. I dreamt about the pension, the streets, and even the courtyard that´s in front of our house. It was weird though because I didn´t remember about the dream until I got here, and then everything began to seem so familiar and I realized the night before that I had a dream about it all. It was strange. Oh I also forgot to tell you last week that the week before I received that package with the 8 books that ana and add sent. Thank you very much for sending those. I´ve been using and reading them quite a bit now and I am learning bunches.
Hey I attached some pics. The first is of Marcelo, our investigator that got baptised by Marco a member in the ward. The second is of Pablo, our other investigator that wants to get baptised. He might even be baptised by now, heheh. the third is of my MTC group while we were at changes. The forth is of my new comp Elder Soto and I.
Hey so Mom you´re gonna be happy about this. Elder Soto drinks mate and I might get in to it. I had mate at a member´s house the other day and it wasn´t bad at all, it was just super hot and searedmy tongue when I drank it. It was still good though, and I wouldn´t mind drinking it again.
So we´re gonna have 2 baptisms this weekend. One´s name is Ignacio and he has 11 years and the other´s name is Cristian who is 9 years old. They both had their baptismal interviews yesterday and are now ready to be baptised. We might even have one of them get baptised by his father. He just needs to have an interview with the bishop and we´re hoping that everything pulls through because it would be a whole lot better to have the dad do it rather than one of us.
Last night was pretty cool. We were going to our last appointment to share our family mission plan with a ward family and on our way this guys said hola elders to us. We asked him where he was from and he said just around the corner, and then we kind of got into a little conversation and it turns out that he is a member, but the rest of his family isn´t. So we´re planning on going over to his house soon to share with him this message we have here called permanaced and it´s directed towards activating members and keeping them active. We´re also hoping that we can get the children to listen and the wife too and maybe they´ll eventually end up getting baptised. Hopefully.
Hey I´m gonna be able to call you guys May 7-9. So hopefully you guys don´t have anything planned those days because it´s gonna be awesome talking to you all again. It´s been about 4 months or so since we last talked. Even more crazy it´s been 8 months since I left for the MTC. I can´t believe how long I´ve been out here! Time flies as a missionary.
I have a favor to ask you Mom. Could you obtain Jon Duerden´s mission address for me? His mom might have a facebook and you could get it from her. If not, that´s OK. I could mail one of my friends and ask them for it.
Hey I also wanted to thank Slade for his letter. Thanks for the letter Slade! Man you´re getting good at painting. Maybe you´ll grow up to be like Picasso some day.
Oh yeah, our zone is going to the temple this thursday. It´s gonna be awesome! I haven´t been in half a year and pretty soon you guys will be able to go as well! Aw how awesome.
Well I think that´s it. I love yall and the church is true.

Elder Steinagel

April 5, 2010 update

Hello everybody. Aw this is so nice. They just recently changed the myldsmail website so now it is so much easier to use and more useful. Well, this weekend was great. On Saturday we had general conference and we were able to watch it in English. So we watched the first 2 sessions and then following the second our district leader interviewed our investigator named Marcelo. He's getting baptised this weekend! Wooohooo! the weekend before I leave this sector. We have changes next week on Tuesday and it is very probable that I get changed. Anyway, conference was amazing and I took a lot of notes. I just thought Elder Holland's talk was incredible, as did many of the other missionaries. He always speaks with such power. All of the apostles speak with a lot of power, but Elder Holland just has that way of speaking, that just astounds. Then between the second session and the priesthood session, we did divisions and went out to proselyte. After that, we got back and watched the priesthood session, which was also amazing. It was so cool because the morning before conference, I decided to write down a few questions to see if I could get the answer, and then I went to Moroni 10 in the Book of Mormon and I looked at the part where it talks about the gifts of the spirit. I saw the gift of healing, and I really felt like I should write the question down of how can I get the gift of healing. So that's what I did and voila! There was a whole talk about healing by the priesthood. It's awesome how miracles happen like that. Another awesome thing is our investigator named Pablo came to most of the sessions and he even brought a notebook and pen to write down stuff during conference. He's way receptive and we have a baptismal date for him on the 24th. He's gonna make a great member.
Oh yeah, one more really cool thing. Our stake president, president Nuñes is getting released this next stake conference and wanna know why? Because he just got sustained to be a seventy. It was crazy because he said that him and his family were gonna leave last week to go to Utah so that they could see conference. Then on Saturday he ends up getting sustained as a seventy. So I thought that was pretty cool.

Oh man, I thought that story about Mario's (the hamster) leg was pretty funny. It's funny how he chewed it off afterward and then gave it to you guys as a token of his gratitude. Hahaha, that made me laugh Dad.

Hey, last night we had another aftershock. It was a really weird one, because it started out as a loud noise that just sounded like a big tractor driving outside, but then suddenly the whole house just started shaking, and then it stopped just as fast as it came. It was strange, but then I just went to sleep.

Well, I think that is it for this week. Oh Mom, I still haven't gotten my package yet, but we get pouch this wednesday, so maybe it will come then. Hopefully :)
I love ya all and I'll talk to you some more next week.

Elder Steinagel

Update 3-22-2010

Hey! This week has been pretty awesome. On Wednesday we had interviews with President Jones and District Meeting. It´s so cool because every time I get done having interviews with him, I feel way uplifted and ready to go and preach the gospel. That day we had a lesson with a 10 year old convert named Francois. He was very full of energy and it was hard to get his attention, but then finally a scripture came to my mind (I think 2 Nephi 9:24) and I read it to him. We were teaching lesson 3 and after I read that scripture, I just started teaching about blessings that Francois will have if he endures to the end. It was cool because I taught in a way that got his attention and he started listening to us. At the end of the lesson, I couldn´t really remember everything I taught. Pretty much I´m sure that the spirit was teaching through me and put those ideas in my mind of how to teach him. It was awesome. The church is true.
Then we had another lesson later that day with some Peruvian investigators and we brought Brother Jose Bergonje, who is a member in our ward. We taught the first part of lesson 2 and then at the end we kind of switched over to lesson 1 again. Brother Bergonje started testifying to them and he totally said everything to one of our investigators that he needed to hear because he had a bunch of doubts before, but now I think they´re all answered heheh. Then we had another lesson with Marcelo and we taught him lesson 3. He´s gonna get baptised the week following general conference. We´re way stoked because he´s got a strong testimony already and he´ll make a great latter day saint.
We also found 2 new investigators this week and one of them is really awesome and we think that he will accept baptism after a couple lessons. Then we got another investigator that we´ve been working with named Patricia. She is really awesome and accepting, it´s just that she has a problem with alcohol and cigarettes. We had a lesson last week that went really well. We started with a hymn, which she liked a lot, and then we taught the restoration. Then we ended with 2 more hymns and left with a prayer.
Pretty much, this last week was totally guided by the spirit and Elder Zmoos and I have gotten a lot of success. Yesterday was what really capped it off though. Usually we have about 1 or 2 investigators come to church, but yesterday we had 5. 1 came on his own, another came with her dad, another with some members, and the last 2 we picked up. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever and made me say “my life is good, rheel good.”
So yeah, that´s pretty much how my week has gone.
Hey I got a request or 2 actually. I was wondering if you guys could send the 4 books that missionaries are allowed to have in the mission to me. I never bought them while I was in America. So if you guys ever feel like sending another package, that´s an idea for ya. The other request was the address of the mission office. I´m pretty sure that I already have the address in my pension, but not completely sure.
Hey you guys asked if everyone is recovering all right from the quake. Yes they are. It´s funny because the news made it look a lot worse than it really was. They only showed all the places in the south that got totally demolished, but really over here in Santiago everything and everyone are pretty much all fine. Everything is up and running again and it´s almost like an earthquake never even hit us.
You also asked me about my Spanish. It´s coming along great. I´m able to understand just about everything now and I can say pretty much all that I want to. I still studder here and there, but I just keep on speakin and getting better.
Well I think that´s about it for now. I love you all, thought the pictures were great, Mercedes is quite cute by the way, and the church is true.

Elder Steinagel
P.S. Happy Birthday Slade!!! Man I can´t believe that you´re 11 years old now! That is so awesome. You´re getting so tall. Pretty soon your voice is gonna start changing and then you´ll start getting liked by all the girls, heheh. Hey man, I hope you´ve enjoyed your birthday and I´m gonna try and send you a letter today, so it ought to be there in a few weeks. I love ya man!

More Rumblings!

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:09:52

Hey guys! We just had another crazy week that was full of surprises. As you all may have heard, there was an aftershock this last week on Thursday that was pretty strong. The epicentre was 7.2 on the richter scale, but here in our pension it didn´t feel that strong. We got a little spooked from it, but then in died down and nothing bad happened. We were doing our weekly planning when it happened and when in stopped we just kept planning. Then last night we had another crazy thing happen. So the night was sultry and elder Zmoos and I were just walkin along to our next appointment. We began to cross the street and out of no where everything just goes black. The street lights, the buildings, the lamps, everything. The only light there was were the head lights coming from the cars. So we decided not to go to the appointment and we just went back to our pension. Then when we got back our district leader called us and told us to go back to the pension, but we were already ahead of him, heheh. We heard that there was another quake in the south and it cut a line for the power to the city, so there was a complete black out. It was kind of cool to see the whole city without light.

Oh yeah, somebody told us that there was an earthquake in Turkey just recently. Is that true?

Hey so wanna hear some good news? I finally got my Christmas package! Hohoho! So now we know that if you guys wanna send me a package, you´ve gotta do it about 3 months before, haha. Also make sure that it´s a tough box because this one is pretty beat up, but don´t worry it looks like everything is all there. I´ve got to thank you guys for all the treats and the ties. Oh, I just had some of those truffles last night and wow they are good! I also enjoyed the Christmas tree and stocking. I´m gonna save those for next Christmas, hmhm.

Here's Jordan's latest update, FINALLY!!!

Hey!‏
From: Jordan Steinagel (gospelbomb921@myldsmail.net)
Sent: Mon 3/08/10 10:19 AM

Hey family! Aw man, I´m gonna have to apologize to everybody because you guys never got an email last week. Graugh, that makes me so mad. I wrote you guys this way long email telling about how the earthquake went and how everything has been going and stuff, and then sent it and it said that it was sent, but apparently you guys never got it. I am officially unpleased with myldsmail.net because there are so many problems that it has. Oh well, I´ll just tell you guys what happened again because I love you that much .
Ok, so the night was just like any other night. We planned, got something to eat, and then went to sleep. I was just dreaming along and suddenly I hear Elder Zmoos yelling my name, so I wake up. I looked at him and he´s standing there between the door and yelling “Elder Steinagel get out of bed! There´s an earthquake!” apparently I slept through the beginning of the earthquake because when I woke up it was already going. So I hopped down and the whole house was just shaking. It kept getting stronger and stronger until it felt like a giant man had picked up our house like a piggy bank and started shaking it to see if there was money inside or something like that. Then I looked outside and the whole sky was being lit up by flashes of blue, green, red, and yellow light. Those were coming from all the explosions of transformers of power for the city. It was crazy! I felt like it was the end of the world and started praying. I don´t even remember what I prayed for, but all I know is that it was crazy and eventually the pounding and shaking died down, but that wasn´t the end. Once the shaking ended, we could still feel the house moving and it felt like we were sailing on a boat or something. It was like the earth was adjusting itself after letting out a giant belch. We also looked outside and could see all the 20 story buildings rocking back and forth, but luckily none of them ended up falling. When everything finally mellowed out, it was funny because all of us were going crazy! We were all full of adrenaline and yelling “Terremoto Terremoto!” It was kinda funny, but then we settled down, had a group prayer, and went back to bed. I wasn´t able to sleep that well afterward though because aftershocks kept coming. It was a cool experience.
When we woke up, our district leader called us and told us to just go out in pday cloths and offer service to everyone. That´s what we did, but there really wasn´t that much damage in our sector. There was only one house that completely fell and there was nobody living in it because it was really old, so no one got hurt. We kind of just walked around all day searching for people that needed help and visiting members to see if they were ok and it turned out that they all were. Then at 6:00 our district leader called us and told us that we needed to return back to the pension for the rest of the night, according to orders from Pres. Jones. So we went back for the rest of the night.
The next day, we were supposed to get a call for changes, but our district leader called us and told us that we would be staying with our companions again for another week because there was a big epidemic of missionaries from the south coming into our mission. Changes would have just made everything a little more complicated, so President just decided to postpone it for a week.
A week passed and last night we got the big call, but it turns out that I´m gonna be staying in this sector with elder Zmoos for one more change. It´s crazy because I´m going to end up having 6 months in my first sector by the time I finish this change. I´m cool with it though because this last week went really well and we were really guided by the spirit. We found this young guy named Antonio who has 23 years and 3 kids already. He´s pretty faithful and he was interested in what he have got to say. So we set up another appointment with him and we´re excited to teach him. We also found another person named Blanca and she was really receptive to us. It was cool because Elder Z. and I were just walking to an appointment we had and suddenly Elder Z. just walked up to this one door and said we need to knock it. So we did and that´s where we found Blanca. We also found this other lady named Patricia who just left the catholic church because a family member of hers just died recently and the catholic church did nothing to help her out. So now she´s looking for some comfort in life and we´re here for exactly that. Then we got an investigator who has a baptismal date for the 20th and we are way stoked about him. His name is Marcelo and he´s got a strong testimony already. Also I´m gonna be here for his baptism, so it is gonna be awesome! Woo hoo! Life is good.
I think that´s all that´s been going on so far. All I can say is the church is true and I´m glad to have you guys as my family. I´m very glad for the blessing of the priesthood and this church, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is the only true church there is. Sometimes it´s just so obvious of how false other churches are, but that´s why we´re here so that others can know the truth.
Well, I need to go, but I miss you guys and the church is true.

Elder Steinagel

Zone Conference with Elder Amado

Can you find the smiling Jord?

TERREMOTO! Sat. Feb. 27th 2010

Hey er body! If you didn´t know a terremoto hit here this
morning at 3:40.It was crazy because it was super strong
and we almost died. Just kiddin haha. no really everything
is all fine. You might have gotten a message from a member
in my ward and his name is marco vargas. I´ll tell you more
monday ¡Nos vemos!

P-Day Activities

Feb. 21, 2010

Hey fam, here are a few pictures that we took as a district
our last change (transfer) during pday. They´re pretty bacan
(cool), heheh.

I gotta ask for your pardon because this is gonna be a short
letter. Today has been pretty crazy and E´ Zmoos is waitin.

So this last week I went to center Santiago and got my visa
finally. You can only be in this country for a few months until
you have to get your visa, so I just barely got mine last
tuesday. It was fun because I got to stand in tons of lines
and one of the lines took 2 hours. You could only imagine. 
Then on Thursday we had a way awesome day. We found 3 new
investigators and we felt that God was leading us through out
the whole day. It was awesome.
Oh yeah, we have an old investigator named Marcelo who I´ve
only met with 1 time since I got here. He got in contact with
my district leader in my district leader´s ward and told him
that he wanted to get baptised. So We called him the other
day and told him that he ought to come toour church building
because he actually lives in our boundaries. It was awesome
because we set it up so that we will meet with him 3
times a week. We´re gonna set a baptismal date with him when
we teach him and get him baptised. We´re way stoked. It´s
probable that I won´t be here for his baptism because I´m
guessing that I´m gonna get changed (transferred), but what
really matters is that he gets baptised. He´ll be my first
baptism and it´s gonna be awesome! Woo Hoo!

Hey dad, I thought that talk that you had about the Book of
Mormon was way awesome and interesting. Thanks for sending
it to me. Well, I think that´s about it. I hope that everyone
is doing great and I hope Kenz and the new baby are doing
good as well. Love you all!

Elder Steinagel

Okay, the Chile Santiago West Mission Office has moved, so here's the new address for anyone that wants to write or send a package to Jordan:

Elder Jordan Steinagel
Misión Chile Santiago Oeste
Correos, Casilla 149
Chacabuco 166
Maipú
Chile

Thanks!

Jord's new companion, Elder Zmoos.

Good-bye, Elder Pedroche, and thank you!

Jord's apartment at Christmas, Jorquera family, and Arraya family

Mission Photo at Christmas

Here's a clip from Elder Steinagel's last letter:

Hey er'one. Como estan? Well, it sounds like everything is going just great for all, so I am happy. I need to say thank you for all your "happy birthdays!" to me. I'm so excited because now that I am 19 I'm ready to be a missionary! woo hoo, let's turn in my papers, haha.

Elder Steinagel also reports that his Spanish is improving. He says he understands more now, and that he's teaching more. Which is good, since Elder Pedroche is being transferred, and Jordan's getting a new companion. He's also still working toward his first baptism. It's been a good experience for him to see that missionary work in Sound America is hard work. He's so grateful for all those exchanges he went on with the missionaries in Ukraine. And Jord, it's been really good for the missionaries in Ukraine to hear that it can be hard to baptize in Chile!