Email received July 28, 2014

Hi!

Not too much to report on this week sadly :( First off, congrats to Eric for serving a full-time mission! It's nuts how fast that went! So here's what happened this week:

Yesterday there was a farewell for a missionary leaving this Wednesday for Peru! His talk was awesome! He also had an open house last night that tons of people went to. It was pretty weird to see all of that go down while being on the other side of it. Seems like just yesterday I gave my farewell and had missionaries at my open house. Oh how time flies. Anyways, he will be a great missionary. Such a stud. A lot of this week was just trying to find people. We didn't get as many invites as we would like due to some days where we were feeling pretty sick. We met a guy who let us in and gave us some water thankfully. Except that he ripped us apart for the next 30 minutes. haha. I hate those situations. You want to answer the questions they ask you but there really is no point. Don’t cast your pearls before swines right? haha. But seriously, all it would do would lead to contention. Literally anyone could have a religious "debate" for hours and not accomplish anything. Anyone can make themselves seem right no matter what their views are. That's why it's so important to learn truth through the Spirit, rather than cunning words of man. Anyways, we finally ran into Anthony! We were just on the computers doing our weekly family search time and he walked by and said hi to us. He said that he and Lexie have been working crazy hours but that he definitely wants to meet up soon. So that was a cool little miracle we had this week. :-)
Well, today is the start of my 8th transfer! I'm staying here in the Woodlands and so is my companion. For the first time since being with Elder Hillebrant, I will stay with a companion for more than 6 weeks. haha. I'm really short on time, sorry that this is such a lame letter. I love you all and hope that you have a great week! :)

Elder Steed

Playing pool in the apartment office waiting for the dang kids to get off so we can email home!

hehe.

Email received July 21, 2014

Hey Guys,

Whew, what a week. Crazy stuff has happened. This past Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president. President Mortensen is awesome. However, what the interview made me realize is that I am nowhere near the missionary that I should be and was called here to be. This is pretty sad to admit, but honestly, over the past while I have kind of lost some of the fire I used to have and wasn’t trying as hard as I should have. A few months ago, President Pingree set a new standard in this mission to invite AT LEAST 25 people every day. Until this week, there was one time where I got 22, and another time where I got 37. Other than those two times, I haven’t even gotten close. Well, with how stinking hot it is outside now, there is literally no one outside. haha. So I thought that getting 25 would be pretty much impossible. In the interview this past Tuesday I committed to get 25 invites a day. It’s really not that hard. My companion and I have decided to suck it up and actually do not only what we’ve been asked to do, but called to do. :-)

Here is a miracle that happened this week. On Saturday night we were a little behind on the invites and I was scared that we weren’t going to even get near 25. We ended up getting a ton in a short period of time. However, at 9 o clock we only had 24. Honestly I was pretty annoyed that we got so close but didn’t get the minimum of 25. As we were walking to go up to the stairs that lead to our apartment, there was a lady walking her dog. We started talking to her and were able to invite her. I truly believe that IF we do all that we can to live up to our commitments, the Lord will make up the difference of what we can’t do without His help. Whether it be having a person placed in your path on the way to your apartment to get the last invite, or giving us the words to say when we approach someone about the gospel, the principle is the same. However, it’s only if we do our part.

This week we have done a TON of tracting. Before this week I have done a little bit of tracting in this area and after those experiences I wasn’t too excited to do it again. However, with the weather, it’s pretty much the only way we can fulfill our commitment of 25 invites. We’ve been keeping that commitment. We have done so much tracting. Which isn’t the most fun thing to do, especially in such a rich area. However, what we’ve noticed is that as we have been diligent in keeping our commitments, the Lord has blessed us. For example, after tracting all day and doing our part the Lord blessed us to come across certain people at certain times. We met a guy named Greg at the park who is now a potential investigator and we had a great conversation with him. I know that if we hadn’t done all that we can to keep our commitment that day, our Heavenly Father wouldn’t have put us in Greg’s path. We need to earn His trust and do the things he has asked us to do, even if we don’t like it, in order to receive His blessings. Here’s another way to put it, if I have a friend who is interested in the gospel, I wouldn’t want to introduce him and have him taught by missionaries who aren’t diligent in doing what they’ve been called to do. I think it’s the same for Heavenly Father’s children. I’m somewhat sad and embarrassed to admit that I haven’t been doing all that I should have been doing and sacrificing all that I should have been sacrificing. I’m ashamed that it’s taken me 10 months to realize this. However, I am ready to give it my all. I’m ready to do all that I can to get 25 invitations a day. I’m ready to become the missionary I was called here to be. I love you all. Stay safe and know that someone in Houston Texas is constantly thinking about you and praying for you.

love,
Elder Steed

P.S. Another miracle that happened this week: In a follow-up interview with President I asked for a priesthood blessing to help me as I try to improve and start this new stage in my mission. A lot of the things that were said were unbelievably similar to what is said in my patriarchal blessing about my mission. I’m grateful for the priesthood and priesthood blessings. I know that they are real. I’m also grateful for the opportunity and blessing that we have to be able to change. To become better, and to learn from and put behind us things from the past.

 How did the missionaries receive extra help? They FaSteed.

 Roadrunner!

 I love the sunsets here!

Derp.

 His first time having Sonic. He said it was "yuck". My first time in 10 months!

 

Service for dayzzz!

Email received July 14, 2014

Hello everyone,

Today is a very good day. It started off by playing pday volleyball at the chapel with some priests and some sister missionaries. We started at 6:30 and played for about 5 hours. I am so dead. haha. Here's another reason why today is so great. I found out that Laura, from my first area, is progressing and has a baptismal date for Aug 2! I've been so hyper ever since. haha. I can't wait for the day of her baptism. I feel like after that day I will be completely satisfied with my mission, even if I never teach anyone ever again! Wooo I'm so happy!

So sad to hear about the family in Spring. Many missionaries, including one of my old companions Elder Pongi, were very close to that family. I can't even imagine the pain that comes from that. It just strengthened my testimony of the Atonement and how enormous and infinite it is. He has felt that pain that we all, and especially the young girl, have felt. He went through that for all of us. So that he may know "how to succor his people". Amazing.

Well, things still are pretty slow. He haven't been able to meet with Anthony. We have started sharing a message with members to help them in their missionary work. We call it "Accomplishing Things With God". Here's some of what it entails:

1. Qualify for His help- we do this by keeping the commandments and being able to have the Spirit with us.
2. Find out what He wants us to do.
3. Do everything we can to achieve it.
4. Ask for the blessing and help that we need.
5. Thank Him for his help.

We then share how the Brother of Jared used these steps in doing what God needed him to do. First off, he was qualified. Then he prayed to know what he needed to do. He started to build barges but they had no light. He then asks how they will have light and all the Lord says in reply is, "What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?" I think sometimes He answers our prayers that way and He wants us to figure it out. The brother of Jared then goes and molts 16 rocks with the intent of asking the Lord to SOMEHOW make them light. We need to do everything in our power to accomplish what He has asked us to do. This may just be my opinion, but I wonder if the brother of Jared felt pretty silly molting those rocks. Maybe his thought process was "uhhhh I have no idea what I'm doing but uhh sure yeah I'll molt some rocks and the Lord will make them light." He did all that was in his power and then asked God for the blessing to accomplish the task that he could never accomplish by himself. The Lord then touches the stones and makes it possible for them to travel to the promised land. It's important to thank Him for his help so that he will help us again in the future. We are challenging the members to use this same process in their efforts to share the gospel. We need their help. haha. Have a great week everyone!

love,
Elder Steed

Email received July 7, 2014

Hey!

So, this week we met President Mortensen. He gave an awesome training that blew all our minds. haha. We all like him a lot. He is really funny but also really spiritual and just overall really cool. He pretty much spat fire the whole training. Very Holland-esque. haha. We have interviews next week and I'm pretty excited about that. I got to talk to him personally for a few seconds and it seemed as though he was staring into the windows of my soul. haha.

Well, we had another really slow week. We are pretty much starting completely over besides Anthony. Here is a miracle that happened this week: There is a family that we visit every Tuesday, the Beyeler Family. He was inactive most of his life and was re-activated about 5 years ago. Anyway we go over and visit him and his wife who has dementia. She's not a member and neither are any of his children. When we went to the gas station to get gas a man came up to us and asked where we were from. He told us that father goes to the church just around the corner. He ended up being Brother Beyeler's son! He isn't interested at this time but he thanked us profusely for helping his dad take care of his mom. It was a blessing to see how sincere he was about it. It made me grateful that I was somehow in some way being a blessing in the lives of their family. It was great to feel like I was actually doing something. My companion and I were pretty down and felt like we really weren't doing much.

It sounds like you all had a great 4th of July! I went to bed at 10:30 and didn't see any fireworks! haha. They are prohibited here in the Woodlands but there were still plenty of bangs heard. We thought about going onto our balcony to see some but there's too many trees to see them. You could only hear them. haha. Church was really good. Both wards had really great testimony meetings! Just wish we could have had some investigators at them. Yesterday we had dinner at a members home, the Bartholomew family. When we called them to confirm on Saturday night, they asked what we were craving or what we want. We told them that we really haven't had any Texas barbecue since we got here and we really wanted some. Oh. My. Goodness. They made us bbq chicken and ribs, hot dogs, baked potatoes, corn and salad. He had a homemade barbecue sauce. I fell in love. haha. I love Texas barbecue! Well, that's pretty much the majority of what happened this week. Hopefully sometime soon I'll have some actual things to report on. haha. Have a great week! Love you all!

love,
Elder Steed

6 AM Temple Training!

 We made burgers for dinner. Way too good.

 Literally perfect.

Look how beautiful that is.

We weren't invited anywhere for the 4th. So we took care of ourselves!