Email received December 16, 2013

Hello Family!

Once again I hope that you all had a great week! Elder Hillebrant and I have had a couple of rough weeks on Tuesday we had to drive up to the mission office because someone keyed the side of our car really bad. We had to go to a shop and get an estimate of how much it would cost to replace it. After that we went to Specialized Training. We took a picture after and it's up on the mission blog. Most of us look retarded because the sun is right in our face! I look double retarded because I just got a fresh haircut. Anyway, the specialized training was about using our time wisely and using the Lord in our planning efforts. It was awesome. I wish you guys could meet President Pingree. He is so amazing and a great teacher. He also would make a great comedian.

The reason this was a hard week is because everything fell through! There was one appointment that we had that didn't fall through. It was with Michael on Wednesday, but I was on exchanges so I missed it. haha. I went on an exchange with Elder Hamelau. Who is a Spanish missionary. One of the appointments we went to was really cool because I understood like half of what was said. Of course I didn't really have any input but oh well. haha. At least I can bear my testimony in Spanish. We went to an old lady's house that someone told Elder Hamelau to go visit. It was such a cool experience. She's in her 80's and has been told repeatedly that she could go any day. We talked for about an hour about the gospel and she bore her testimony to us of it. We gave her a blessing and it was awesome. The Plan of Salvation is so great. She shared an experience that she had that goes along with something in her Patriarchal blessing. I won't share it because it's kind of personal and I don't wanna put her story all over the internet haha. It was just a great experience.

On Thursday we went over to Gilbert's house and watched The Testaments with him and his wife. I'm sure most of you have seen it but it's probably been awhile since you last saw it. I encourage you to watch it again. It's great and very spiritual. On Saturday our zone went to do some service at the Houston Food Bank. We were surprised that it got approved because it was outside of the mission. It's in the East Mission! So I was in Shayla's mission for about 4 hours! It was great. We put boxes of food into trucks and then we made bags of oranges in the preparation room. At the end they tell you how many pounds of food that the volunteers collectively loaded and prepared. That morning we loaded 18,000 boxes! It was great fun. Other than that our week was pretty disappointing. Full of dropped appointments and hundreds of wasted miles going to those appointments. haha. I guess I shouldn't say that miles are wasted. haha. I did get a letter from a great friend this week so I was very excited about that :) Yesterday we got a new Ward Mission Leader in the Melbourne ward. He's young and he's very excited and motivated. Hopefully we will get to see some improvement in the ward effort. We are really excited. Although Elder Hillebrant is probably out this next transfer. He's been here 7 months! I finally had my first correlation with the Ward Mission Leader. haha. Well that's it for this past week. Sorry there wasn't much to report about. I've heard a lot about friends deciding to go on a mission. I'm proud of them and I know that they won't regret it. I love you all!

love, Elder Steed

Email received December 9, 2013

Dear Family,

I hope you all had a great week. Mine was pretty good. Last Monday we played Frisbee with most of our zone and that was really fun. Tuesday we had 3 really great lessons. The first was with a man named John. We reviewed what the Apostasy was and why a Restoration was needed. Then we watched the Restoration DVD. That lesson format has been working well for us. It's hard for people to understand the whole Apostasy/Restoration/Priesthood concept and that lesson plan has been working well for us. He said he now has some reading and praying to do.

We later met with a lady named Paula. It was my first time having a lesson with her. We almost dropped her a bunch of times and she is now working from home. So we should be able to visit her more often. We read the BofM with her and touched on the importance of church. She said she was gonna come but she didn't :( it's really frustrating.

We had another lesson with Laura this week. And it was awesome. We talked about The Gospel of Jesus Christ. After Elder Hillebrant taught baptism, I told her that as missionaries we have prayerfully considered a date for her to be baptized, the 28th. She said she wants to be but she was a little confused. She thought that it would mean being committed to do what we as missionaries do. This is why it's so important to have members come to lessons. So they know that we are normal people. She said the only obstacle is she likes the church she goes to and the people there and would miss them. She understands that this church is that one lord, one faith, one baptism stated in Galatians 4:5. She said she would be coming to church, but she didn't come. That means that her baptismal date has to be pushed back because she has to go to church at least 3 times before she can be baptized.

On Wednesday we were finally able to meet with Carlos again. We touched on the Apostasy and watched the Restoration DVD. It was a great lesson. It's just that his same gender attraction is a big obstacle. At the end, he wanted his family to come in the room and hear him pray so that they can see that his faith is growing. His family is Catholic and he has been atheist most his life. His family isn't very supportive so he wanted them to hear him pray. It was cool. We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday and the Christmas devotional yesterday and no investigators came :(. I can't possibly tell you how frustrating it is when they don't come after saying they will. Oh well, that's part of the work. Well there is a little update. Hope you all have a great week and stay safe! Love you all!

Love

Elder Steed

Temple trip number dos!

I told him I'd take a cool picture for him.

Ugly Faces R Us

Best Buds. We have way too much fun.

cool accident photo. Looks like it should be in a magazine!

Productive Companion Study

Typical dinner with bbq chicken, veggies, and pizza.

P-day frisbee!

Email received December 2, 2013

Hello Family,

This week was pretty interesting. Unfortunately we weren't able to have our lesson with Laura this week :( but we have one scheduled with her tomorrow! Some sisters in our zone gave us a referral for this lady that they had pretty much already taught everything to. She is very interested but wants her family to be interested in it as well. So we went over there and taught her whole family! We weren't sure what they had been taught so we just watched the Restoration DVD and answered questions. It was awesome. That was pretty cool. 3 new 'gators! We were able to finally meet with Michael again. Maybe you still remember who that is or maybe not. He is like the biggest homie ever. He's this huge, buff black guy that is just the coolest guy ever. We met with him twice this week. we read the book of mormon with him and got him interested in it again. Later on in the week we watched the Restoration DVD with him and were able to clearly explain the Restoration and Priesthood authority. It's actually a hard thing to get people to understand the claim we are making that this is the one true church. We committed him to come to church but he didnt come :( its frustrating. haha. Well, as far as appointments go, that's all we had. All the other ones fell through. It was pretty discouraging. We did have a couple of miracles happen this week though.

So here's one miracle that happened this week. We decided to go street contacting on a street where there is usually a lot of people. Before we got out of the car, we prayed that the Lord would place someone in our path that is prepared to hear our message. Well, we walked around for about an hour and a half and talked to everyone that we saw. It was pretty much the worst street contacting session that I've had. People were really rude and it was just not fun at all. Well we were on our way back to our car and we were passing by an apartment complex. We were almost back to our car when we heard "Hey Mormons!" and it was some lady sitting on the balcony of her apartment. We walked around so that we could go inside the complex so that we could find her. We asked how she knew who we were and she said that her an used to go to a mormon church and that she used to go with her (she was about 8 at the time). Turns out she went to the same building and the same ward that I am currently serving in like 25 years ago. We asked if we could come teach her family and she said yes. We got her number and we have her address so we will try to contact her this week. It was truly a miracle. We prayed that we could contact someone who the Lord put in our path but someone contact us! It was awesome! I know that it wasn't a coincidence that we walked by at that time.

Well there's a little update. The work is going well and we have some awesome investigators that we feel are prepared. Unfortunately, sometimes peoples agency gets in the way and they don't do the things that we've committed them to do. It can be really frustrating and discouraging at times, but I'm having a blast! I hope you all have a great week and I hope to hear from friends and family soon! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Steed 

Email received November 25, 2013

Hello there!

I hope that everyone was able to have a great week! Mine was not the best haha. It started off with a bed bug problem. So last Monday we found out we had bed bugs. Some people at the mission office gave us this chemical called Permethrin. We basically had to spray everything with it. Our mattresses, box springs, sheets, carpet, walls, clothes, everything. We ended up having a lot more than we thought. There were some blankets covering the window next to Elder Hillebrant's bed and we found a bunch wehen we took them down. I was relieved when I saw that they were mostly by his bed. But then we looked under the lip of my mattress. Yeah, horrifying. so gross. So we ended up having to spray EVERYTHING and vacuum soooo much. It basically took us two whole days! Then on Wednesday and Thursday I was sick, so that wasn't fun.

One really cool thing that happened this week happened last Monday. We knew all day that when we got back to our apartment we would have to try to get rid of the bed bug problem. We were dreading it all day and kind of just putting it off. When we got back to our apartment we said a kneeling prayer to help us to have a better attitude and to know what to do to get rid of the problem so that it wouldn't be a hindrance to our missionary work anymore. Well it was really cool because something that we had been dreading and had been in such a bad attitude about ended up being fun! The Spanish Elders came and helped us and we had a blast! We worked until midnight and then set up fans to dry our mattresses. We slept in the other missionaries apartment that night and the next day started working again. We started finishing the process and cleaning our apartment at 10 and didn't stop until 5:30! We think that we were able to get rid of them all! (fingers crossed).

We were able to have another lesson with Laura this past week. It was by far the coolest lesson I've been in yet! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it was cool to see how it answered questions that she had. She had just read the first half of Genesis so Adam and Eve were fresh in her mind. It was cool because we were able to explain to her WHY the fall happened, what it means that it happened, and how it fits into God's plan. We were also able to do the same thing with the Atonement. She knew what they were and what they mean but she didn't really understand why they had to happen. The Plan of Salvation is so cool because it teaches us why things happen. She's a very christian woman and it was cool to show her the plan. She was completely blown away by it! It was so cool! I'm glad that the gospel has been restored and that we had a way to learn God's complete plan for us. We are working on getting her to come to church. I think that she is hesitant to come and to read and pray because she has a fiance that is not interested in God at all. And she is afraid that if she came to a knowledge that these things are true then she would have to end things with him. We also had a pretty cool dinner appointment with Gilbert and his family this week. We talked about temples the whole time and he is excited and is preparing himself to go to the temple with his wife. After he has been baptized for a year, Elder Hillebrant and I will still be in the mission so we will have to chance to go with them to get their endowments and to be sealed! That would be great!

Well there is a brief rundown of my week. I hope that you all have a great week and a happy Thanksgiving! Eat tons of food for me! Also, here are some pictures! Love you all!

love,
Elder Steed

1. A kinda cool picture near downtown Houston
2 and 3. All four of us with our Permethrin bottles spraying everything! Die bugs!
4. Our soaked mattresses. We had fans on them all night!
5. Me with a cute puppy. Although we think it might have problems since it's dad is it's mothers son. haha. :(
6. Senior Missionaries, Elders, The Smiths, and Sister missionaries after Gospel Principles.
7. Minute maid park from a distance haha. It's actually in the South mission :(

Email received November 18, 2013

Hola, Yo naci en una pupusa.

So there is a set of spanish missionaries that live in the same apartment complex as us. They are really cool and we are all really good friends. I've been practicing my Spanish with them and like to say really random things to them. (hence the introduction) haha. So this week I went on another exchange with a spanish missionary so I got to learn even more. On Saturday (with my normal companion) I bore a simple testimony in spanish to a guy we tracted into. I did the missionary intro in Spanish and he said that he was a christian. I said "creemos en Jesucristo tambien y que El es el hijo de Dios y el salvador de todo el mundo. Yo se que el libro de mormon y la biblia es la palabra de Dios y que podemos orar para que sober que las cosas son verdad." It probably isn't completely correct but it was pretty cool. We were able to get his number and give it to the Spanish missionaries!

Yes I got both a jacket and some sweater vests. Thank you! If the gift cards you are referring to are Whataburger and Luby's then yes I got them. Thank you so much! The Whataburger sure ran out fast. Hopefully we can go to Luby's sometime in the near future!

I'm sorry to hear about your face, that sounds not fun. I have some bad news too. We have bed bugs. Those suckers are nasty and I've read up a lot about them. They can withstand lots of things. punks. We're going to talk to people at the mission office today to see what we can do about them. I'm sad that you got to eat dinner with those Elders. They are so cool and I miss them a lot! I was wondering how Elyssa was doing when I heard about the storm last Monday. Hope she is doing well :) Henry's story is so cool, I really had no idea until mom told me he got baptized haha. I didn't even know he was taking the lessons.

This past week we had another really awesome lesson with Laura. She just gets it. She is continuing to meet with us and is now interested in reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. She understands that if she finds out that it's true, that this is the only true church and that she couldn't go to anyother churches anymore. She said that to us without us even telling her that. It was really cool. She also was expressing interest in going to church. Unfortunately she wasn't able to make it. I know she had a big weekend this week with a birthday party and some other things so maybe that was why she wasn't able to make it. We are meeting with her again on Tuesday  and maybe we can get a picture so I can show you guys what she looks like.

We were finally able to meet with Renee again. Remember when I had emailed about her? We lost contact with her for a long time. Well we were supposed to meet with her but her husband wasn't home so we had to schedule another time when he would be home. Well when we went there her husband sat in on the lesson and is now interested in reading the Book of Mormon and taking the lessons. We are working on getting him a bigger copy of the BofM so that he can see it. We are meeting with them tonight! Hopefully that goes well!

Well that is a little rundown of what happened this week! Also I am no in my second transfer! I am staying put. Crazy I've been gone for 8 weeks! Thanks for sharing that dad. We actually have been listening to those lectures and listened to that part with Brigham Young. We listen to a lot of talks while in the car. We listened one by John Bytheway the other day where he mentions when someone asks Joseph Smith who he is and he replies "Noah came before the flood. I have come before the fire." John then goes on to say something along the lines of "can you imagine being the one who asked him that? what would you say after that? Ok thank you." hahaha I guess you just have to hear him say it.

Hope you all have a great, safe week!

Love,
Elder Steed


[from papa steed: below is translation from Nate's Spanishing in this letter:

Hola, Yo naci en una pupusa. [Hello, I was born in a pupusa]

Creemos en Jesucristo tambien y que El es el hijo de Dios y el salvador de todo el mundo. Yo se que el libro de mormon y la biblia es la palabra de Dios y que podemos orar para que sober que las cosas son verdad.  [We believe in Jesus Christ as well and that He is the Son of God and the Savior of all the world. I know that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are the word of God and that we can pray in order to know that these things are true.]

Email received November 11, 2013

Hello family,

I hope you are all doing well. I got 2 packages! Thanks for the shirts!! and thanks (shay) for the package! I love the bags of Flipz and I'm going through them so fast haha. And thank you for the music! That must have taken forever but I'm glad that I have it and it will be put to good use! The blog is pretty sweet. We are allowed to go on it as well so that is pretty fun haha. Sister Koch is pretty cool. She is in my area and she played volleyball! So we usually pepper every Monday! Sounds like Henry's baptism was awesome! Tell him I said congrats and that I miss him.

So guess what I had the privilege of doing today?? I got to teach seminary haha. We had to wake up at 4:40 to get ready to go to the church. There class is from 5:40 to 6:20 and we taught about 2 Nephi 26. It was alright. I just don't know how you do this everyday, dad. I mean it's hard enough to get up everyday to go but it's a whole different thing to get up to go and to teach to these kids. Man, it's like talking to a brick wall. haha that's alright though. It was an interesting experience.. haha. Hopefully it's not an indication for the future...

So this week was pretty good. On Wednesday we had exchanges. There are only 2 english elders in our zone because our area is so densely hispanic. So I got to go our with Elder Valdez and listen to people speak Spanish all day and try to guess what they were saying haha. Sometimes I actually knew what they were talking about so that was pretty cool. Ensenamos un mensaje sobre la restaruacion del evangelio de Jesucristo. I got to say that a lot on Wednesday haha. So other than that we had some pretty cool lessons this week. One was with Laura, I think I have written about her before. She is awesome and the lessons we have with her are really powerful. We watched the 20 min Restoration DVD and the Spirit was really strong. She said that she feels like she is in the situation of Joseph Smith and that she needs to find out. We got a soft commitment from her (she will be baptized if she comes to know these things are true). We are meeting with her again this Thursday! I'm excited! We had a lesson with Gilbert this week (recent convert). We set a time for him to go to the temple to do baptisms and he is really excited about that. We also talked to him about getting the priesthood and that he could baptize his kids when they get old enough. He was really excited about that. He was able to get the Aaronic priesthood yesterday. It was really cool to be there for that. We had a lesson with a man named John. We taught him the Restoration and it went really well. Hopefully we can meet with him again soon. Last week I wrote about Carlos. We are still meeting with him and are trying to work around that road block. We are planning to have a lesson with him where the bishop can be the member present. We figure that's something that he could better address than us haha.

Thanks for the quote from President Eyring! It's a good one! I hope that you all have a fantastic week. I will be thinking of you everyday. Love you!

Love,
Elder Steed

Pictures:
1. Bro Elders
2. Crazy drunk guy that we talked to. He said we can visit him, although he probably won't remember us haha.
3. A drawing that a LA girl drew for me!

Email received November 4, 2013

Hello Family,
I hope that you all had a great week. I did out here in Houston. We had a baptism this past Saturday. Since stake conference was the next day we had to confirm him at the baptism. So on Friday we had our last lesson with Gilbert before his baptism. We taught him some of the commandments that we hadn't taught him last minute but he didn't have a problem with any of them, so that was good. We asked him how the word of wisdom was going and he said that he shouldn't have a problem with it. He had a drink the night before but said that was the last one. Apparently, you're supposed to not do things like that for a week before you get baptized. We goofed because he kinda was under the impression that, like tithing, he had to do it after he was baptized. Anyway, we had to bring some other missionaries with us so that after our lesson the ZL could come inside and have Gilbert's baptismal interview. While the interview was going on, we called President Pingree and asked what he thought about him not abstaining from alcohol for a week. He told us to read D&C 20:37 and to see what the Spirit tells us. We felt that he was ready to be baptized and he sure was! His baptism was on Saturday and it was great. Elder Hillebrant baptized him and he asked me to confirm him. Giving a blessing by the Spirit is awesome. A lot of people said that the blessing that I gave was beautiful, but it wasn't my blessing, it was from the Spirit.
We had a really interesting experience with an investigator this weekend. I have written about him before. He is awesome and last time that I met with him he said that he wants to be baptized but that he couldn't say that he knows that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. So in our meeting with him this week we asked him if he believed that he was a prophet. He said that he does and that the Book of Mormon gives him a peaceful feeling more than any other book. He's so ready. But then he asked us what the church's stance on homosexuality is. We told him that we believe marriage to be between a man and a woman, but that being gay isn't a sin. Only breaking the law of chastity and giving in to those temptations is a sin. He was very emotional and said that he has tried to change but can't. We haven't been able to get a hold of him since that lesson. We feel that now we could address his situations a little bit better after having some time and talking to President Pingree and the bishop, but he hasn't texted back. It sucks. It sucks really bad when someone is so ready and finds out but there is one thing that keeps them from accepting the Restored gospel. I hope that we can meet with him soon and explain to him a little better that being gay isn't a sin and that he can still be baptized. He just needs to commit to live the law of chastity.
We had one other super awesome lesson this week with a lady named Laura. We had a lesson about the Book of Mormon. From our first lesson with her, we taught a little bit about the Book of Mormon and where it came from and left her with one. This lesson we had this past week was awesome. We were able to fully explain that it is just other prophets in the America's teaching the same gospel and that we can pray to know if it's true to find out if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. She was under the impression that it was just a book of Joseph Smith's interpretations. She was so excited and felt the Spirit so strong that she couldn't even speak! It was awesome. Her mind was blown and she said that she would definitely read it. We are supposed to meet with her again this week so hopefully that will go well.
There's a less active family that we've been working with. At first it would just be the mother, who would reluctantly sit on the porch with us for a few minutes. But now we go to their house and everyone loves having us over. Now we have started going through the lessons and reading scriptures with them. It's really cool because everytime we visit them they seem more interested. The mom is interesting because she has BoMs everywhere and still reads it. She also has pictures of temples everywhere. It's weird how many people have felt that it's true but don't really understand the significance of that. She's interesting because she has a testimony of the BoM and Joseph Smith but goes to a Catholic church. Some people just don't fully understand the significance and the fact that this is the Restored gospel, the only one that is lead by Jesus Christ. This is His church and he leads and guides it. We are working with the family to realize what claim actually comes with the Restored gospel.
Well that's just a little bit of my week. If I told everything it would take forever. I hope everyone is doing well and that you have another great week! I'll send some pictures in another email! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Steed

Email received October 28, 2013

Dear Family,

How are you all doing? I hope all is well. This week was pretty good but kind of lame as well. We have a baptism Saturday. His name is Gilbert and I think that I wrote home about him last week. He was having trouble because all of his family is Catholic, especially his mother who is basically on her death bed. We gave him a blessing of comfort that he would be able to go through with what the Lord had told him to do. He seems pretty excited about his baptism. He asked Elder Hillebrant to baptize him and me to confirm him.

We had splits this past Thursday. We were finally able to get some members to go out with us. A member and I went to go visit one of our investigators named Carlos. It went really well (even with me leading the discussion cuz Elder Hillebrant was in another appointment). Carlos is awesome. He really gets it and he has felt the Spirit. He has family members that say bad things about the church to him (mostly Galatians 1:8) but he defends the church, it's awesome. He said that they are really closed minded but that it's really hard on him. I told him that lots of people have that problem. That friends and family members sometimes don't understand or that they are not prepared to receive it yet like he is. I told him that everyone will have their chance to either receive or reject the gospel. I think that helped him a lot. He said that he has been seriously contemplating baptism and he said that its something that he wants to do. He said, on the verge of tears, "I think it's something that I want to do, I want to be cleansed and I just don't want to do bad things anymore." It was awesome. we are meeting with him this Tuesday and are working with him to increase his faith that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and restored the gospel. We are also working with him to quit smoking. One thing that was really cool was that the member that came with me to Carlos' could relate really well. He is a recent convert and, like Carlos, grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school. It's been awesome how well member lessons have worked out. We had one other where the member we brought was a recent convert who was baptist, which is what the investigator is.

We haven't been able to teach Renee or Michael. Renee is out of town and she said she will call when she gets back. We have seen Michael a couple of times and invited him to the Trunk or Treat that was on Saturday. He came with his whole family but he came at 5 instead of 5:30 so he went home when he didn't see anyone there. He didn't go to church because there was a HUGE storm Sunday morning. Yesterday was fast Sunday because next week we have Stake Conference. Testimony meeting was awesome and the Spirit was really strong. Me and Elder Hillebrant bore our testimonies and lots of people seemed to enjoy it.

One last quick story before I go. There was a talk in the MTC that we watched by Elder Bednar. It was all about recognizing the Spirit. He said sometimes we wait for this big manifestation or we wonder if the thoughts we have are the Spirit or if they are just us. He said that as long as we are being good, keeping the commandments, and honoring our covenants, anything that is good is from God or from the Spirit. One night we had all our appointments fall through and nothing to do. Elder Hillebrant said let's just go visit the Patricks and he had me text them to see if we could go over there. Anyway, we went over there and just visited and shared a quick message. Before we left Brother Patrick said that him and his wife had been having a horrible day. The had a bad day at work and got in a contentious argument with another driver on their way home from work. He prayed for the Spirit to be able to re-enter his home. 20 minutes later we sent him a text asking if we could come over. He said we were an answer to his prayer. It's really cool how the Lord works. Anyway, I love you all and hope you are doing well. Thanks Dad and Chels for taking care of the letters and such. Oh, and happy birthday Jeff!

Love,
Elder Steed

There are so many dogs here...

...but none of them are as cute as Indie :)

His District

Elder Steed and Elder Hillebrant

Their small district (Sisters Bonner and Brown, Elders Hillebrant and Steed)

Email Received October 21, 2013

Greetings family!

This week was really good! We have some awesome investigators! We had one who said he would give us his answer about being baptized this weekend on Sunday (yesterday). He came to us and said so I know you guys wanted an answer today and I started thinking oh great and getting all discouraged, but his face changed and he looked all happy and said he would like to and that he feels it's right. He said he's torn though because his mom is a devout catholic and is on her death bed. He said he doesn't want to break her heart especially given the present circumstances, but he doesn't want to do it without telling her. He asked if we could give him a priesthood blessing to give him the strength to tell her. We promised him that he would be blessed and that it is a trial of his faith. We also told him that God has promised that everyone will have a chance to receive the Restored Gospel and I think that really helped him. We gave him a blessing and he said he felt better. It actually has to be rescheduled to the weekend after this weekend because of the trunk or treat but we're all very excited.

Yesterday, we went to visit this lady that we had scheduled a lesson with. She wasn't there, but down the street there was this huge festival going on at some church so we decided to just walk by to see what was going on. We went over there and got welcomed by some awesome hispanic guy that just said walk around go into the temple (that's what they call their church) and to just take a tour. So we went into this temple, its called La Luz Del Mundo (The Light of the World). It was pretty big and it was really cool. It was beautiful and it was really nice but it didn't have the same Spirit that is present in our buildings. Anyway these 4 hispanics came up and basically started like doing missionary work with us. They taught us all about their doctrine. It was cool but they talked forever and we were there for like 3 hours... Anyway there church is very similar to ours. They believe in an apostasy and Restoration. They have a leader who they believe is an apostle. Anyway the difference is we have the priesthood and are the primitive church. They kept telling us that they are the primitive church. There leader claims to have an experience similar to Joseph Smith. Anyway I heard that there leader used to be LDS so it explains the similarities. The only difference is one is truly called of God (Joseph Smith) and one wasn't. We felt bad because it's so close to the truth but it's not. They kept testifying that they have prayed and have got an answer that it's the primitive church and that Joaquin Flores is an apostle. Since I can't use the internet, Dad could you research some more stuff about the LDM church and let me know? It was very interesting.

Friday night we were driving around with nothing to do. We drove by a house and I saw the Dodger game through the window. I said lets go tract that house! So we did and we got a potential out of it. haha. I also watched about 30 seconds of the Dodgers (luckily it was still while it was 0-0, I got to watch Uribe strike out) hahaha.

Most of what has happened this week I sent home in the letter. (sorry chels). The stuff above is what has happened since I sent the letter. I love you all and think of you often! Keep being awesome!

love,

Elder Steed

(Added a couple minutes later: this is the temple we visited and people talked at us for like 3 hours haha (dad its the LLDM church, not LDM. we visited the LLDM temple in Houston)

Letter Received October 21, 2013

Dear Family, 

To start off I want to apologize for my wimpy emailing. Most missionaries have a huge, long email that they send to their families. So far I've done the opposite with having small, undetailed emails but long detailed letters. I guess I'm saying this because I know Chels is keeping a blog and she puts my emails up on there, and they don't have very much in them. I'll try to write better emails because I can't expect to make her type my letters and put them on the blog. I'll try to do better. 
Anyway, Houston is fun! My area is about 15 miles wide and 15 miles north and south. Most parts are really ghetto, but some parts are really nice. The ward is tiny, but the members are awesome. People are so different here. Everyone is friendly, even gangsters are really friendly and respect us. Everyone here is religious. It's really easy to get investigators (we have like 21), but it's hard to get them to commit to do anything. 
So far I've had plenty of interesting things happen. One of my first few days here we went to visit this guy. He pulled out a bong as soon as we sat down and started smoking some marry-Juana. We asked him if he could not do that while we were there and he respected that enough to stop that and to just burn through 4 cigarettes in the next half hour we were there. What made him so crazy was that he's just not right anymore. The things he has taken have messed with him so bad that he's not himself anymore. It's pretty sad. Another thing was he had the most evil, terrifying laugh. It was so loud. His average laugh would last about 5 seconds. The first 4 seconds would consist of this weird, loud laugh that is more comparable to a yell. The last second was a little half-grin at the end of his laugh. He doesn't even smile when he laughs! 
There's another family we visit and the first thing I noticed when I get in the door is me being attacked/humped by some ugly huge dog. Anyway, the family is really cool and they love having us over, but they have a 20 year old special son who is so depressed and so rude. It's not his fault, but it causes so much contention and there's constant yelling. We sit there all awkwardly while they yell and argue. We try to get them to pray together as a family and they do every so often. 
Okay, so I finally had my first real lessons. We have a bunch of investigators, but the two biggest and most recent are Michael and Renee. Before I got here they [the missionaries] taught Michael the Restoration and they said it went really well and that he understands it and said it makes sense. We visited him last night (16th) and since he hadn't read, we read the BOM with him. He seemed to understand it and enjoy it. After we were done he said it was very similar to the Bible. He made the connection that we can apply it to our lives today. He seemed to enjoy it and said he would read Chapters 3 and 4 before our next visit Friday (18th). 
The other investigator that I would like to share about is Renee. She's this really awesome, short African American lady with gold teeth! Anyway, we had our first lesson with her Monday (14th). Before that even began we asked her what she was expecting to get out of our meetings with her. She said that she felt that we know something that she doesn't know and that it was no coincidence that we met (we had no intention on stopping at her apt, but the garage door opened as we were walking by). She said that she knows that we were sent from God. 
So the plan was to do what is called "The Powerful First Lesson." Which basically is the lesson of the Restoration, but if, after stating Joseph Smith's account of the First Vision the Spirit is really strong, then we have a kneeling prayer and ask the investigator to pray to know if what we are teaching is true. After they pray we have them read Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." Then you ask if they are feeling any of those things. When they say they do then we testify that that is the Spirit and then ask them if they will be baptized. 
Anyway, so yeah, that was the plan. We got to the part about the First Vision. My companion asked if we could close our eyes while he said it. The Spirit was so strong. There was such a long silence after he finished and she finally broke it by saying, "That's nice. That's beautiful." She was really touched by it. It made so much sense to her, because it does make sense! So we asked her if she was feeling any of those things in Galatians 5-22. She said all of them and we testified that that was the Holy Ghost testifying of truth. We asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper authority of God and she accepted. 
Our next lesson with her was on Wednesday (16th). She was so excited to see us and to talk with us. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and read the first 2 chapters with her. At first she was really reluctant or hesitant at the idea of it, but as we read she liked how it was similar to the Bible and has lessons that we can learn from it. We really emphasized the importance of being baptized and becoming part of the true church because we felt that she didn't entirely understand that. (A lot of people here actually believe the Restoration and feel that it's true, but they don't understand the importance of it, that this is the only true church.) She said she will continue to read and pray and seemed very excited to do so. We meet again with her Friday(18th). 
I am doing well. Me and my companion get along great and have a lot of fun. I'm so glad I get to do this. It makes me sad that so many people don't get to do this. One thing that I've learned is that anyone who is worthy and has the desire to serve can do this. Anyone can become a missionary as long as they have those 2 things. I would encourage anyone who has those to do it! I'm starting to settle in! No more pukes for me (I hate that that's what I do when I'm nervous.) I thought that I would be fine since I didn't throw up before reporting to the MTC, but guess not haha. 
Well, I hope everything is going well back home and that everyone is well and happy! I'd just like to end by saying that the Atonement is REAL. It literally can take away burdens and guilt. It doesn't matter what you've done or how long you've done it, you can fix it and become truly happy. The price has been paid, but we need to use it and not let it go to waste. It's never too late. I'm thankful for it and it is why I'm here. I love and miss you all. I think about you every day. Let my friends know that I love and miss them. Also that I think of them often and hope and pray that they are doing well. I love you all! 

Love, 
Elder Steed

Houston, TX

Elder Steed safely arrived in Texas last week! Here is a link to the mission blog where you can scroll through the many pictures and play a game of "Where's Waldo Nathan?" and stay up to date on all the happenin's in his mission.

I was lucky enough to get a letter from him while he was still in the MTC and I just want to share a couple things he said. 

First is a quote. "[The MTC] is a place of miracles. You change into a completely different person in just a week. I know a lot of people who are thinking of serving a mission or have a desire to. I know that this is for everyone who has the desire. You learn things about yourself and about the Lord that you've never known before. Anyone who has faith and the desire can be a missionary." 
I like that last statement... that goes for everyone in all stages of life! I am not in a position right now where I can go serve a mission...but I can be a missionary right here. Right now. All I need is faith and the desire. And for those of you who ARE in a place where you can go serve and you are thinking about it, Nate's inviting you to join him out in the field!

And second, he just wants you to write him. And by "you" I mean YOU. You reading this. He wants letters! He wants addresses! He has said a couple times that he doesn't have anyone's address. So if you just send him an email with just your address, I'm sure he'd happily take it. As district leader he got to pick up all the mail and he said it was depressing how all the sister missionaries had tons of letters and he didn't. Haha. And I know he has friends, so let's make his week this week and all write him a letter! 

Elder Nathan Steed
301 West Little York Rd #1610
Houston TX 77076 

nathan.steed@myldsmail.net

And finally, here is his latest email along with some pictures:

Hello Family!

I'm now in Texas! My area is called Melbourne and it is huge! I'm actually in Houston and it's the most ghetto area in the mission haha. The south border of my mission is close to downtown and the scariest neighborhood in the city (5th ward) is in my area. It's really fun. People here are so different! everyone is religious and everyone is generally really nice. We have people thank us constantly for spreading the gospel and saving lives, it's really cool.

My companion is awesome! His name is Elder Hillebrant and he is really spiritual and a lot of fun. We get a long really well and are trying our hardest to do the Lord's work. This past weekend there was a baptism in our area that we were able to attend. It was someone that the sister missionaries had taught. Baptisms, as well as sacrament, are totally different as a missionary. I love it! Well I love you all. I know this doesn't give much but I will write this week! I have all week to write a letter and not very long on here. I love you all and miss you all! Dad, where the heck is the starting lineup?!?!?!?!

My address is below. You can send all letters there and have chels put it up. They ask that you send mail to our specific address rather than the mission home. So do that. But send packages to the mission home (just cuz in my area anything of value shouldnt be put in our mailbox.) lots of them are busted into and stuff. Love you all!

Elder Nathan Steed
301 West Little York Rd #1610
Houston TX 77076