Email received March 24, 2014

Hey all,

This week was pretty good. Laura is doing great. About a week and a half ago we gave her a priesthood blessing to help her with the word of wisdom. Since then she hasn't had any problems. She always talks about how excited she is to be baptized and she constantly bears her testimony of the Restored gospel.
Well, we got transfer calls yesterday, I am staying in Melbourne! Today is the first day of my 5th transfer and I'm still in my 1st area. My companion is being transferred, crazy that he was only here for one transfer. Well, it is safe to say that I am really happy to be staying in Melbourne. I love this ward and I love the people here. It is definitely a hard area but I love it. It's starting to warm up and get super humid. There's mosquitos everywhere. It stinks haha.
Elder Valdez was just called to be the new AP. We were all really shocked because he only has 2 transfers left. So the AP's are Elder Hillebrant and Elder Valdez. Two of my most favorite people ever. They will be awesome. Elder Bergman is being transferred out and Elder Su'a is staying. I love this district.
Right now we are just continuing to try to invite 25 people a day. Laura is doing really good but the rest is pretty slow. Anyway, I have to get going, but I'm glad that I am here, and I'm glad for this experience I'm having. I'm nervous and excited to see who my next companion is. I hope we can have a really successful transfer. Hope you all have a great week! Love you all :)

Elder Steed

 Thanks for the new tie :)

 Hey guess what time it is? "It's time for Dodger baseball!" Wooooooo!

 

Yeah, he loved me that much. It was probably a good thing we got seperated.. ha

 

This is Laura. She went to a Why I Believe fireside up by the temple. Since she was going I got to go. It was great.

 Me, Laura, and Elder Hilder

 I think I was yawning?

Email received March 17, 2014

Hey all,

It's been a pretty crazy week. Thank you to all those who have wished me a happy birthday! This past week we had the biggest showing to our Book of Mormon class yet. There was quite a few people there. There was 2 investigators and a lady who hasn't been to church in 5 years. It was way cool. The highlight of this week happened on Saturday. A lady named Paula, who I have been teaching for the majority of my mission, got baptized. We passed her off to the sisters about a month ago and she got baptized on saturday. So awesome. She asked me to confirm her, and it was such a great experience. Paula is so amazing.

Things have been getting a little better. President Pingree has encouraged us to invite 25 people a day. Man, that is so hard. On Friday, we got 22. It was so cool. Although not much came from it, it felt really good to know that we gave it our all and invited all the people that we could. This week when we met with Laura, she told us she knows that she's ready and that she needs to be baptized. She bore her testimony to us of the Book of Mormon and the church. Such a cool experience. Well, sorry there isn't much to report. Not much happened this week besides inviting! In that sense it was a very good week. I figure no one wants to hear the details of all the invites we extended. haha. I was able to get 2 referrals for the spanish elders this week. So that was fun. I'm glad everyone is doing well. I love you all.

Elder Steed

 Elder Su'a and Paula. I got to confirm her yesterday. Paula is the best.

 Paula and the sister missionaries.

 Ms. Paula after the baptism!

 same.

Paula and some of the missionaries after her baptism.

 Elder Hillebrant came down for Paula's baptism. It was good to see him! He's also an AP now.

Email received March 10, 2014

Hello all,

Hope you all had a great week. I really enjoyed Brent's email about Brighton in little league! My favorite was the picture where he's decked out in all his Dodger gear! Made me so proud. I hope he likes it and is still playing when I get back! I'd love to go to his games. Well this past week was really rough. Transfer 4 is kicking my butt! We met with the man that we met last Sunday on Tuesday. My companion's bike tire popped so we had to walk. We were 20 minutes late so we only had time to teach the first half of the Restoration. We haven't been able to get in contact with Laura lately. We haven't seen her since Wednesday, which doesn't sound like a long time, but it is. haha. The rest of this week was just us trying to find people. Rejection after rejection. Which is pretty hard and discouraging, but I know the Lord needs to trust us to open our mouths before He will place prepared people in our path.

Here's a cool little experience I had this week. Friday, I was on an exchange with Elder Su'a. We were teaching these two people that we have met with a couple of times before. They are lovely people, but I don't think they can actually mentally grasp the concept of the things we teach. We watched the Restoration DVD with them and they liked it and felt the Spirit. I was sitting in there, during the lesson, and my mind was racing. I was thinking to myself: "What on earth am I going to do to help these people?" I was kind of stressed about it. I knew they were placed in our path for a reason but I had no idea of how we could get them to progress. As I was having these thoughts, somewhat selfishly, I looked up on their tv stand and on it they had 3 Book of Mormons stacked neatly and reverently. They had all the pamphlets we had given them neatly stacked next them. I got the biggest smile. I knew that although they don't really understand, they know that what we teach is important and sacred. I got the biggest feeling that although they do not have the capacity to understand and accept the gospel in this life, I knew that God knows that. I had the strongest feeling that, one day, when they can understand it, they will accept it. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of us and our individual situations. He will provide a fair way for of each of us to be able to accept His gospel. I'm grateful for these 2 people and the example they are to me. I love them. I also love you all and miss you. I know that this gospel is true. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. I'm grateful that I will be able to see you all again in 18 months, and that I will have the opportunity to be with you all for time and all eternity. Have a great week. Love you :)

love,
Elder Steed



P.S  Also I messed up on my grammar. meant to say. "As I was having these thoughts somewhat selfishly, I looked up...." Not I somewhat selfishly looked up. haha


And I didn't take any pics this week. sorry!