Your missionary's safe arrival!

Email received: 8/29/17

Dear family,

Äldste Steele has arrived safely in Sweden.  We have attached pictures of him with us here in Stockholm.  The people of Sweden will be truly blessed by his service. 

Thank you for your love and support.

Sincerely,

President and Syster Youngberg

Äldste Steele with President and Syster Youngberg

Welcome to Sweden!

Välkommen till sverige

Vi åka till Sverige på måndag!!!!!!!

Email written: 8/24/17

Hejsan!!! Hej på dig!!!!!

So this past week has been an absolute blast! Last friday we received our flight plans for Sweden and it has just made us more and more excited for our mission in Sverige! So we leave the MTC monday morning at the crack of dawn (3:30 am), catch a flight to JFK in New York, and then on from New York to Sverige! We will arrive to Sweden at 7am Tuesday morning. Nej sova till Sverige (No sleep till Sweden) is what we have been saying/singing this past week, so it's a great time. 

1. Holding the Flight Plans with excitement

This past week, the Danes (Missionaries going to Denmark) left and it was pretty sad for us because of how close we got to them. We would have story nights and just have the best time of our lives. I have truly made some lifelong friends here in the MTC. One of them, Elder Bailey, has grandparents serving in Sweden starting in December so I am super excited to meet them!! 

5. Elder Bailey and I

We finished our last language lesson on Saturday so we have been reviewing in class ever since. It's crazy how much we have learned in the 5 weeks we've been here. Lessons are coming by easier and easier, and I'm beginning to just automatically think of a Swedish word rather than an English word. It's absolutely crazy what miracles happen here in the MTC!

We've had really unique opportunities to serve here in the MTC this past week. We were able to be hosts for the MTC Open House and we also hosted new missionaries. We were able to meet so many awesome people and really practice "talking to everyone". The very last person on the MTC tour Saturday night was a missionary who came home from Sweden literally two days before. So by the end of the tour this guy had a whole posse of Swedish missionaries following him around and just asking him questions. It was such a cool experience. 

I love you all and I hope you all find success in your lives the next 2 years while I'm in Sweden. You will all be in my thoughts and prayers as I serve others! 

One final thought I had to share with all of you is: Have courage. It's Worth It. A lot of times in life we will have to make tough decisions and in the end we have to have the courage to choose the right. If it was easy, everyone would do it. So, be courageous, stand out from the crowd, make the right decisions. I am cheering you all on!

Pictures of the Week:

1) Holding the Flight Plans with excitement

2) Me experiencing the eclipse....pretty wild

3) My quote was written on the board of our classroom. It says missionaries + members= miracle

4) Aldste Wayment and I with our new friend

5) Elder Bailey and I

2. Me experiencing the eclipse....pretty wild

3. My quote was written on the board of our classroom. It says missionaries + members= miracle

4. Äldste Wayment and I with our new friend

1 Month Down, 23 To Go!

Email written: 8/17/17

Hejsan!! Hur är det?? 

1. District after the Temple last week

It's crazy to think that I've been in the MTC for a whole month now. The time is just flying by and I am going to be so sad when our district has to go separate ways all throughout Sweden. We leave the MTC a week from Monday and are supposed to get our flight plans imorgon (tomorrow)!!! I feel super excited to go out and serve in Sweden, but at the same time I'm so nervous to be speaking a whole new language, adopting a new culture, and trying to survive the sun-less winters. 

This week has been absolutely crazy. We heard from two apostles this week, M. Russell Ballard on Sunday and Neil L. Anderson on Tuesday. They spoke with so much power and it was awesome! M. Russell Ballard spoke on "locking our hearts" for the next two years because a lot of wild kids out on their missions are flirting and what not. He added that if we had someone back home we could lock them up in our heart...(hej hej lanna lol) Neil L. Anderson spoke on our flame of faith and how amidst rejection and what other people say, we must never let our flame of faith diminish. There are people out there in Sweden who are just waiting to hear the message of the Gospel!!!

Yesterday, we had a Skype TRC, where we had a lesson over Skype with a member in Sverige. We taught Mattias, a college student in Stockholm. He grew up in Sweden and served a mission in South Africa. I really hope I run into him in Sweden because he is such a cool guy. He likes camping, and rock climbing and skiing. We were able to understand pretty much everything he said to us and we communicated to the best of our ability! He asked us "How long have you been learning Swedish? Us: Fyra Veckor Him: OH MY GOODNESS YOUR SWEDISH IS GREAT) So yeah, I loved every minute of it. 

On a sad note, Syster Eborn left the MTC to start her real teaching job and we were all super bummed to say goodbye to her. We sang God Be With you Till We Meet Again and I held back the tears. 

Other than that, the Swedish is coming along nicely. I have several scriptures and the first vision memorized, and can comfortably teach lessons without any notes. We have so many teaching opportunities and so we learn very quickly. I love speaking Swedish. I feel really confident that I won't have a problem talking to people in Sweden. It is going to be AWESOME!

Jag älskar och saknar er, men jag ska se ni på tjugotre månader!

-- 

Äldste Steele

Pictures:

1. District after the temple last week

2. Our zone after kickball. The picture has about half Danes half Swedes

3. Äldste Steele and Äldste Bird

4. Äldste Cummings, Äldste Steele, and Äldste Wayment

2. Our zone after kickball. The picture has about half Danes and half Swedes

Back Row L-R: Elder Cribbs (violin player going to Norway), Elder Bird, Elder Butler, Elder Steele Elder Bailey (my favorite non-Swede at MTC, his grandparents are serving in Sweden in December, he is going to Denmark), Elder Cummings, and Elder Wayment

Front Row L-R: Elder Francis, Elder Lichtenberg (the lone MONGOL also named Kyle), Elder Welch (Norway), Elder Bailey (Texas cowboy going to Denmark), Elder Egan (Norway), Elder and Elder (sorry can't remember names)

3. Äldste Steele and Äldste Bird

4. Äldste Cummings, Äldste Steele, and Äldste Wayment

It's Going Down in the DL's

Email written: 8/10/17

Hej Alla!

3) Me and min kamrat

Today has been another great week here at the MTC! This past week I was assigned to serve as District Leader (DL for short) and so now I am in charge of 8 other missionaries in my district. One of my responsibilities is to check the mail so now according to everyone in my district, I'm their favorite person ever. It really is such a great time and I was blessed with the best district ever. We all work so hard each and every day and we have such strong testimonies of Jesu Kristi evangelium (the gospel of Jesus Christ).

This past Sunday was probably the craziest day of the week starting off with a fast from food and water for 24 hours straight. My whole life I would eat all the way up until midnight and then eat right after church at like 1pm so this was a big change for me! I also had a lot of meetings to go to for leadership training and mission conference. At nighttime, we had choir(before coming to the MTC i could not sing to save my life, but somehow I can now sing more than just a high and low note, miracles are happening here!), devotional, and movie watching all in the same room so everyone was sick and tired of just sitting in uncomfortable chair for so long. The movie we all watched was an old devotional by Elder David A. Bednar (one of the twelve apostles of our church) about the Character of Christ and how we need to turn outward. Well, just as were about to give up physically and go to sleep, the MTC presidency announced: Elder Bednar and his wife will now answer questions for the next hour and everyone went absolutely nuts. It was so awesome to see an apostle answer our questions directly and hear him speak outside of general conference. He always knew the right things to say. Probably the funniest part of the Q&A was when an elder asked how Elder Bednar got so good at interpreting scriptures. Elder Bednar made the elder open his scriptures and read out prophets, seers, and revelators and basically told the missionary that he wouldn't be able to interpret scriptures the way he does unless he was an apostle...boom roasted.

The Swedish is coming along nicely and I learned two really funny things this week about the language:

2) They finally flew the Swedish flag

1. The word for vegetables in Swedish is grönsaker which literally translates to green things. Vikings are geniuses.

2. Swedes are a bunch of hicks. In order to say this book or that girl, etc., you would have to say this here book, or that there girl. 

Other than that, things are going so great! I also got a free haircut yesterday and man it is looking clean!  We head to Sweden in just 18 short days! The days drag on, but the weeks fly by. I enjoy hearing from a lot of you throughout the week! Jag älskar er!

Pictures:

1) Last P-Day after emailing we all ate real crickets, seasoned with sour cream and onion. It was wild.

2) They finally flew the Swedish flag

3) Me and min kamrat

--Äldste Steele

1) Last P-Day after emailing we all ate real crickets, seasoned with sour cream and onion. It was wild.

Poppa Steele och sina barn

Email written: 8/3/17

Hej Hej,

Well another week down here at the MTC and things are going very smoothly now. We are all picking up the language very quickly now and beginning to have more meaningful lessons with the people that we teach. 

1. Syster Eborn/Gabriella/Michaela

Currently, we are teaching two "investigators" Michaela and Na. Just like with Gabriella, it is a role-play type situation but we have such a fun time preparing lessons and teaching in Swedish!

This week, Gabriella (who is actually Syster Eborn) became our teacher and it threw all of us off! She is a lot more strict than Syster Adamson because she has a teaching degree and is actually going to be a middle school history teacher starting in the fall. But, she really is awesome. She explains grammar concepts very well and we are having such a fun time doing so. Syster Eborn and Syster Adamson switch off every other day when the teach us because some days they have to play the investigator, and some days they have to teach us, so it's a great time.

We also now have what is called "TRC" (teaching resource center), where we teach members of the church who speak Swedish. We will have one every Wednesday and in 2 weeks we will have a skype lesson with a member in Stockholm!! How cool is that????

We are so pumped to just get over to Sweden and just hit the ground running. Aldste Bird received a letter yesterday that included an excerpt about the missionary work in Sweden. Because of the diligent efforts of missionaries in Sweden, there have been over 90 baptisms already this year with over 100 more planned. The work is really progressing and people are coming unto Christ.

2. Mina barn

If you were wondering about the subject of the email, it means Poppa Steele and his children. Since I turn 20 in 2 months, and I have college experience, I help everyone grow and act as the "fatherly" figure for the group! I absolutely love it! I have the best district ever.

As far as activities go here at the MTC, we play lots of four square and sand volleyball. Elder Wayment and I absolutely kill it on the sand courts and we have such a fun time doing so. We played the Nords a few days ago for a little country rivalry and they just could not hang. 

I hope everyone is doing well back at home or wherever else you may be. I pray for you all every day, family and friends. 

3. A selfie showing that I look out the MTC and can see where I lived at BYU

If any of you would like to send a good ol letter through snail mail, my address for the next 3-4 weeks is:

Elder Kyle M. Steele

AUG 29-SWE-STO

2005 N. 900 E Unit 49

Provo, UT, 84602

Jag alskar er!

-Aldste Steele

Pictures for this week:

1)Syster Eborn/Gabriella/Michaela

2) Mina barn

3) A selfie showing that I look out the MTC and can see where I lived at BYU