adventures in Africa

the this is a view from my backyard and a banana tree in my backyard and the next is there is always a crowd of little people following me so I thought I would take a pic and when the village saw the camera the little kids came out of the wood work! it was sweet! sunday comes and im getting ready for church setting up chairs and sweeping and a snake pops out of the chairs and into the chapel so im trying to get it out so finally I just man up and grab the snake by the tail thinking its not to big and it doesnt look to mean so as im holding it the snake it stricking and its fast! and mean so I get to scared of it throw it hit it with a rock and chop its head off then our sr. couple comes and I show them our cool little snake and turns out it was a mamba! so im a true man now cause I grabbed a mamba by the tail and was playinig with it

Africa Week 3

well first you were right, the village i live in is about 45 min drive or more to the city of Beira so we have to get on a shopa, it's a minivan and you pay 15 meticas to ride it from balanca to beira its about 26 meticas for a dollar right now so we ride it. There are four rows of seats, all can seat four people in them but the more people you can get in the more money you can get so most the time a low number is 17 and a high number is 36 people just crammed in there, so it's a long nasty ride but so is all of africa! we don't have a house address, no one in are village does your just marked by GPS coordinate. so you cant send a package you just send it to the mission house and we get it on the next transfer. You can email photos here i just got some of jakes magic farm! and i can send a few back to you but the internet is so slow i can only send a few pics at a time and i have to buy a card reader first so i have to find one! then i can! so one day you can get pictures. im doing great the jet lag in gone now im just trying to get use to the country! the weather channel is right its freezing here! its not really that cold but for africa its like in the all time lows ever its cold! the people just sit in there house with a little fire all day trying to warm up! so yea its the warm dry season right now then come december like it gets the hot wet season and thats the only two we have here! and as for the people there just a lost, cause i've been trying to teach them just that but there just to lazy and stuck in the traditions of their fathers to change but still trying one of them will get the hint some time! but that's all the questions here a normal day in the life of me so we get up at 6:30 eat breakfast then have 3 hours of study personal then language then companion, so for that i'm just using all my time to read the book of Mormon in Portuguese. Both language and personal trying to get that under my belt then for companion. My comp wanted to learn the bible better so were reading that. Were in exodus 22 right now NO FUN! haha then we got out and teach we can most the time get in 2 lessons then lunch then 2 more some days 3 lessons then we teach piano then seminary then we can get one lesson in then its dark and since we live in the middle of no were they don't have electricity in 95 percent of the houses so we have to go in at about 1700 or 5 ish then we just do what every we want until bed time its a good life! somethings about it get old like when ever i want water i have to go to the back yard and fetch it out of a well not just turn a nozzle! so that not so fun but for the most part i love it's just a giant camp-out! the people are crazy, the other day we were walking home from a lesson and some drunk guy was calling us little men little men so we just thought he was on the phone then he grabs me so i whip around and he tells me look i'm a little drunk right now but i want to change my life i want to be a Jesus man help me, so me and my comp decided to see if he really wanted to change we would have him take us to his house and he would pour out the beer in front of us which by the way is 10 meticas cheaper than water so everyone is drunk. So when we get to his house he looks and looks and can't find any, so my comp tells him so go get us some water so we can wash our hands, so as he is doing that i steal an empty bottle from the ground and fill it with dirty soap water i found outside, when he comes back out i was like look i found it. So he grabs it from me smells it and was like yep, then we open it and before i can say anything else he chugs it! then after that he stops drops the bottle gets the funniest face ever then with all the strength he could find screeches NNNAAAA then runs to the corner and throws up! i couldn't hold it in so i was laughing my head off, he asked what was so funny i just said it didn't translate well to Portuguese then i told him if he really wanted to change come to church then we left. He didn't come but i know he wouldn't but that was just another normal day. All the girls have kids and they just breast feed right there in front of you just take there shirt off and start feeding, it was supper awkward at first but i'm getting used to it now. It happens like 6 times a day! but thats just crazy old Africa for you. Any other questions just send them my way! love you have a great week!

Africa Week 2

well yea so i made it to balance ok im alive um... so my house is the chapel and yes its just me and my companion living out there we have a nice little place its sitting on like 10 aches and its all gated in its sweet in are front yard in a pineapple field in the back is mango and banana trees on the side are cashew trees and then all over we have coconut trees thrown in so its a nice little place i like it i would say if you could find the worst house in garden it would maybe be a little nicer than this house but for the village we live in its like a mansion! so the village is called balanca and yes it is out in the middle of nowhere, where the only house in the town is made of concret the rest are made of rocks or mud so we have it nice. um church... well my companion is the branch president i dont think he has counselors, there are about 40 people that come to church just a few of them are baptized and active! but were working on that i teach the young adult class and then church is over we only have 2 hour church so thats pretty nice! my companion is elder Peterson so far he is just like ryan seger to the T he is the state champ wrestler of utah he was in collage wrestling and pretty darn good, he has malaria right now so we just sitt around the house all day but he is feeling better so i think we will be out by tomorrow! yea the time difference is crazy here! it sometime hard to go to bed on stay up in the middle of the day but i am getting use to it! so the first day i got to my area in balanca if it will help explane how getto we have it we had to hunt a goat then we killed it then ate it for dinner that next day so its pretty crazy! its a wild city but because im white everyone is super super scared of me because here white only means two things money and power so every time you confront someone they are very very shy and just want to leave so you have to be extra open and make sure they know your a nice guy! the work is pretty hand right now just because i cant speak the language yet so its coming supppper slow but its coming i hope well i dont have much else cool that happened that i can tell you with out you freaking out so i will just save those stories from when i come home! needless to say its a crazy crazy town here and its everyman for himself! well im off but hope you are having a great time i love it here!

love elder Steel!


well i wasn't all alone on the bus! the presidents daughter is adopting a mozambique girl who is like 10 or so, so the president had her go with me because she needed to go back to beira to get her adoption papers! so i had a little friend! but it was at night so i just sleep most the time. yea your lucky you got that email off cause i dont know if you would have caught me but i heard that some times you can caught me online then we can chat back and forth so if you ever get the right timing on a monday morning maybe! my week has been good my companion has malaria so i didn't do anything yet just got to my house unpacked just messed around in the yard chucked some coconuts and just cleaned the house a little but he is pretty much better so were out in beira today to email and shop so i think we will be ready to go tomorrow then i get my real first lesson. so sunday i just got up my house in the chapel so mopped the floor and set up chairs then we had church about 40 people showed up which is about normal for that branch then the people who were going to speak bailed so my compaino and a sr missionary had to speak but my comp said that happens almost every week so just have a talk ready! then afte sacrament we split into young men young women's and primary and the old people class the sr. missionary taught primary my comp taught old people and i had a kid about 15 teach are class because i wasn't there and prepared but he did a good job! so after that we went to the next town of dondo the other elders have a house there and we stayed there so that the trip today wouldn't be so long and busy other wise we wouldn't do to much email in are little jungle out there! so its kinda true that were not baptizing because we can baptize but it has to be after at least 5 weeks and they have to be living every commandment with exactness, because the week before i got here they had to x comunicate like 10 members cause they were baptized just because it the missionaries asked them to and then they went right back to sleeping with everyone and smoking and selling drugs so we dont baptize much unless they are really ready, president said it best what is more importrand the wedding day of planning the marriage so thats what we work off of! and they to get the members more involved they baptize them so even if we had someone ready they members will baptize them not us. so that kinda cool! and that will be in effect till i get a new president at least! im to help you visualize just think of Hawaii with crazy amount of trash and naked people running wild! that is were i live! and i think i will be able to get pictures cause they said packages are good to send and come in! so i will be able to do that no letters just packages so i will try to send you some cool stuff! nothing will get robbed because if you rob in this city they beat you till your limp stuff you in a tire and light you on fire its a pretty nasty thing to see! crazy place but good new cause im not getting robbed! haha! well talk to you next week i hope your having a great time dont worry about me i have the lord on my shoulders plus they pray for me in every temple and in most mormon families so im in no harm pray about ryan and tayler! love you miss you bye
Amo, Elder Steel

First Week in Africa

My president is way way cool i love him so far we had a giant training today on the way things are done here and what everything is really about and so far he is a way way sweet guy! next my companion is named elder Petersen i meet his Saturday but they says he's really cool he is the branch president of are area and he sounds cool! the country... well for you all i can say is... its great NOTHING like i pictured it if your thinking of a third world country your proable wrong cause its way way worse than that! but i love it so much its 10000% better than the mtc! well in dads letter it says were im going so there is that the bush! its sweet and yes as for telling what language is this YES i told the guys that right when we got here hey do you know on best 2 years when... so i know how that feels if we stray off the topic of the evanlho im way lost!


hey there president steel its elder steel right now im in africa freezing its not what you think africa is! its crazy down in this country i love it its nothing like the mtc its way way better the president told us today that were not baptizing here were just building a foundation and building members up so its a lot different he told us everything you learned in the mtc is great but it doesn't work on mozambicans so here is what you need to know.. its sweet i love it you can for sure tell its a third world country tho! lots of crazy stuff already! im assigned to balança a few hours out of beira the president says its almost as jungle part of the whole mission so that will be fun a 18 hour bus ride to there so i learned i cant speak Portuguese unless its talking about the church but you learn fast when everyone is talking it! Well talk to you later love you chow!

Last Week in MTC

well i would be ok with getting a transfer just because i feel like i could teach anyone anything in english perfect but i think it would be a lot harder to pickup pork and cheese if i didnt talk it at all for a few weeks so its would be a win lose but i think they will just keep me hear but nao sa they didn't tell us anything about anything yet were just in the dark waiting! thats cool that your getting another car if it makes you feel better mission presidents might drive a avalon but elder oudorf drives a camry and president monson drives a lincon town car! yea the temple is sweet to go to each week i love it try to get it all in before i leave because i cant go to one in africa! the lessons i teach are right out of preach my gospel the words of the prophets are what i use so just read that with teh spirtt and tahts what im teaching im try to be a p.m.g missionary! just trucking along so if its in there im trying to do it! my nose is good and so is the rest of me but right now my spirit is down because as i was walking in some girl had a weedeater and i could smell the gas burning and man did that smell good and bring back good times! hahah oh well better ones on the way! obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles! bye love you have a good week send me the stuff itold dad to please!!!!