Elder Nathan Steed: Email received June 30, 2014

Hey Guys!

Soooo, our new mission president, President Mortensen is flying in to Houston within the next couple of hours. Crazy stuff. The Pingrees will definitely be missed. On Thursday we had Specialized Training in the temple at 6:30 AM! Had to get up at 4 AM and of course, we stayed up late. haha. Still trying to catch up. Anyway, the training was awesome. The temple president and his wife were there also. It was a really cool experience. Also very sad because it was final goodbye to President and Sister Pingree. Last night Elder Fa'amausili and I left a voice mail on president's phone. We sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again.

Well this week was a little better than last week. We were able to meet with Anthony! It went really well. We watched the Restoration DVD and afterwards asked him if he believed that the church and gospel was Restored. I was a little worried about the answer to be honest haha. There was some silence and he said, “yeah, absolutely”. haha I love when those surprises happen. Lexie, his fiance, a recently re-activated member, bore her testimony and it was super powerful. Both are very awesome people. Currently there are some obstacles in the way for him to be baptized. Mostly all caused by the agency of others. We are encouraging him to stay strong and keeping improving his faith and testimony as he waits for the obstacles to resolve. He's awesome.

We're having a really hard time getting into contact with the other investigators, but we'll keep trying. This week at church we had a combined third hour in 2nd ward. It was centered on missionary work. They asked both a young man and young woman who are soon leaving for their missions to bear their testimonies on missionary work. They were both awesome and brought the spirit really strong. Then the sisters talked for a few minutes and challenged the members to do something called the “21 day promise” maybe you can google it. idk. Too lazy to explain it all (sorry) haha. Then we talked for a few minutes on the subject of “Hastening the Work.” We talked about what that means and how the Lord is hastening His work. Then we gave some suggestions of what they could do so that they can be part of that work and not just spectators. We read D&C section 4 and talked about the last verse, which says “ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you”. We need to make sure that we are constantly asking for missionary opportunities and not just expecting them to come without asking. We then shared D&C 84:85 and D&C 68:4. We don't need to think/rehearse some elaborate sermon in order to share the gospel. We just need to ask for opportunities, recognize them when they come, and be living our lives in a manner that the Spirit can be present to tell us the words we should speak.

It was a really spiritual meeting and the members loved it. We got a referral from one of them and several others said they felt really encouraged and inspired by it. Honestly, there are areas where the missionaries can find lots of prepared people. But what I personally think “Hastening the work” means is that members need to play a bigger role. Missionaries can talk to everyone they see and knock on all the doors we can, but we need all the help we can. The stake presidents were asked to tell us to have a member with us in our lessons at least 60% of the time. I truly believe that's how the work will hasten: by the members. Either way the Lord's work will hasten with or without us (individuals). The real question is, will we be a part of it? I hope you all have a great week. I love you all!

love,

Elder Steed