Feb 2nd "Don't Do Gangnam Style"

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

(Transfer 1, Area 1: Valencia)

So I'm here in sunny, (relatively warm), California! My companion/trainer and I are in the Santa Clarita valley, covering the Santa Clarita 1st Branch. Our area is pretty big- we live in Valencia and cover a lot of the valley, including Val Verde, Sagus, Castaic, part of Newhall, Santa Clarita and Valencia. There is a lot of work to do! 

We had a chance to meet with a lot of members this week. We teach an English class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7, and it is always an adventure. We usually have been 4-6 people show up, and they are so funny! Our classes almost always run long, but it's fun to see the progress they're making with English. Wednesday we met with some recent converts, Peter and Rebecca, and taught them about the 10 commandments. They are pretty young (under 11) so we were doing some of those fun hand signs to help them learn the commandments. At one point, we were teaching the 8th commandment (thou shalt not steal) and we crossed our wrists to look like they were in handcuffs. When we asked them about which commandment that was, Peter looks at our hands for a second and then says "...don't do Gangnam style?" We probably laughed about that one for a solid ten minutes. Kids are the greatest!

We got the chance to teach some new investigators this week, Manuel and Susana. They are both from Peru and they are super sweet. Their friend and member of the branch. Hno Munoz came. The Spirit was so strong! Manuel received a priesthood blessing a few weeks ago, even though he is not a member, and it is amazing to see the faith and understanding that they already have. I was able to bear my testimony to them about how much our message and the gospel will bless their lives, because I know how much it has blessed my life. 

We also are able to teach some sweet teenage girls. The testimony that they have- wow. If we could have faith like this in the church, we would move mountains. We meet with Marili, Yousely and Rosie 1-2x a week and they want to be baptized so badly, but Marili and Yousely's family live in Mexico and didn't give them permission to be baptized. They live with their sister, who is Rosie's mom. We fasted yesterday that they could be baptized, and even President joined in on our fast. We are hoping that hearts will be softened and that they can be baptized soon! 

We also learned this week that a gnat, a TINY GNAT, is at least strong enough that it can control a touchscreen computer. That was fun while we were trying to show this video and it kept clicking out the video and onto other videos. Ha ha! Who would have thought? 


I learned some really amazing things this week. I was using my study journal to study charity, and in the bible dictionary, it says that charity is the most pure form of the love, the pure love of Christ. I was able to read a couple of scriptures, and it was so interesting to me to learn about how we can love others with the same pure, unselfish love that Christ had. Love inspires all righteousness. 

I love you all. I'm happy to be here and I'm working hard.

Make me proud!

Hermana Steele