Email received September 29, 2014

Hello everybody,

We had an interesting week this week. On Thursday we went over to visit a referral that we had gotten. He ended up just wanting to bash and just pulled out so much anti stuff. It was so lame. It was pretty ironic though because the first thing he said when we showed up was that he didn’t wanna bash or be rude. Which is EXACTLY what he did. haha. At the end he wouldn’t even shake our hands because we don’t believe in the same Jesus as him. It was fantastic. haha.

We taught Ayad the plan of salvation this week and it went well! In ward council yesterday the ward talked about what we could do for him. There were lots of members that introduced themselves to him and fellowshipped him at church yesterday. One even gave Ayad his bike to help him with transportation throughout the week! Alan hasn’t really responded to us as of late, which is sad. Hopefully we can get in touch with him this week.

On Wednesday we got to watch the “Meet the Mormons” movie. Wow! It was awesome! The church said that after testing the movie, 74% of watchers said they would refer a friend to watch it. It’s not threatening, it’s funny, and it’s spiritual! It’s definitely something that the church is hoping will help people understand who we are and why we live the way we do. But beware, any mothers with children on missions will most likely cry. So bring your tissues to the theater :) haha.

Well, there are the highlights of the week! Sorry for such a short letter, love you all!

-Elder Steed

 Cool sunset and a mosque in our area.

 Katy North District. Elders DeLuca, Steed, Bergman, Allen, Sapp and Sister Sapp.

My comp made me a cake for my yearmark!

 1 year!

 awesome sunset!

Email received September 22, 2014

Hello everyone!

We had a great week here in Bear Creek! We met with Ayad for the first time. He is from Iraq but moved here for a safer life for his wife and kids. He worked in the oil and gas industry and has met lots of friends from around the world. He had a coworker from Canada who was a member. They weren’t really allowed to discuss religion at work but he learned some stuff about the church. After he had moved here, he told us that he prayed one night telling God that he wanted to learn more about the LDS church. The next day some sister missionaries came up and talked to him. He started coming to church and that’s where we met him! The lesson went well. He’s been reading the Book of Mormon and is already in 2 nephi. He agreed to be baptized. He is waiting to get his work permit so that he can get a job, but in the meanwhile he doesn’t have any income. Yesterday at church we found out that he had walked all the way to the church! He lives right next to us, which is a 15 minute bike ride. Ayad is awesome!

On Thursday we went over to the church for a family history class. I was able to find some new names! Which was an awesome experience. I’ve always known family history work is important and that it’s part of missionary work, but I had such a strong feeling that what I was doing that night on the computer was equally important as what I do day to day. I felt so strongly that it is the same work. While we were at the class, a member walked into the church with one of his friends who was interested in learning more about the church. His name was Brandon and he is awesome. We got his information and will hopefully be meeting with him this weekend. :-)

On Saturday we met with a man named Alan. His wife was an investigator but she has since passed away. His interest has been sparked because of his wife’s interest in the church just before she passed away. We taught him the Restoration and he really enjoyed it. He said he will start reading The Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, neither Alan or Brandon came to church yesterday, but it’s all good.

Some other exciting news, we are getting together as a zone this Wednesday and will be watching the new movie, "Meet the Mormons". We’re pretty excited. Well those are the highlights of the week. I would say the thing I learned the most this week is that I now KNOW that family history work is the same work as normal missionary work. I’m grateful for the Plan of Salvation, and that the Lord has provided a way for those who weren’t able to receive sacred ordinances in this life. What an amazing plan! I love you all, have a great week!

love,
Elder Steed

Email received September 15, 2014

Hello everyone!

We had a few really cool things happen this week. We were going through our list of members that the ward gave us to contact. We went to one of the addresses and they no longer lived there. However we got to talking to the man that did live there. He was really cool. He's a little older and has been doing a lot of work in his yard. We offered to help and we will start going over there to help him with his yard work.

On Friday, district meeting was all about family history work. After the meeting we headed over to the library with the senior couple in our district to do some family history. They were busy helping others so they weren't able to show me much. However, I found a lot of cool pictures of Grandmother and Grandfather. I also noticed a lot has been updated recently by Jamie and some of the cousins! It made me really happy. I also found a line that went all the way back to Adam and Eve. Pretty cool stuff. We are going to be meeting with that senior couple once a week to do family history. I'm really excited. The library also expressed some interest in maybe having the missionaries teach a genealogy class in the future.

On Sunday, a man who the sister missionaries met right before they were taken out of this ward came to church. His name is Ayad. He's from Iraq. He is so cool! He has had an interesting life and has moved here for a safer life for his wife and children. He's very intelligent, humble, and pure. We gave him a Book of Mormon in Arabic and hopefully will be meeting with him this week. I'm really excited.

I had another really cool experience, but it will be hard to explain. As most of you know, I am not the most outgoing person. Honestly, I'm pretty awkward. I have to get comfortable around people to really be myself. Once that happens I'm outgoing and all, but before that, not so much. It's a wonder that I have any friends. haha jk. Anyway, I was in a dinner appointment with a member and the senior missionaries. The comment was made that I hardly talk. It was made a handful of times to the member and it was pretty embarrassing. It's something that I've always struggled with and am well aware of, and now it's being announced on the spot to a member. I felt really awkward, inadequate, and alone. The next day I decided to fast to basically feel comfort. I don't know if as a result I'll be more outgoing or less awkward or whatever, but I know that as a result I felt a lot of comfort. Today I feel great! Even though yesterday I felt VERY inadequate and alone. I have a testimony that fasting and prayer can help with any trial, no matter what it is. Well, there are the highlights for the week! I miss you all so much, but I'm happy to be where I am! Until next week!

-Elder Steed

 Personal study selfie. Lol.

New companion, Elder Allen. Mid-stretch. lol

Email received September 8, 2014

Hello all,

I had a pretty good week this week. It was my first in my new area, Bear Creek. The ward activity rate is pretty low so we are spending most of our time on meeting less actives. We’ve met some really great ones and I’ve come to admire them already! We also visited a family named the Durgins. Brother Durgin grew up in Las Vegas and they lived there for a really long time. He went to Rancho so we had a cool conversation about the bone game and some other high school stuffs.

The biking is going good. First 2 days were hard and I hated it but I’m already used to it and remembered how much I like it. Although there’s been a ton of rain lately, so that’s not very enjoyable. 

So I’m still pretty lost and feel like I don’t really know anything. So I’m sorry that this letter is pretty lame. haha. Our mission president keeps emphasizing using family history in our teaching and finding efforts. We are now going to meet with a family history rep once a week so they can teach us how to use it. We are supposedly getting iPads soon as well. They’ve been saying that since I got here though, so I guess we’ll see.

So, best news of the week. I found out that Laura, from Melbourne ward, has a baptismal date for the 27th of this month! I was sooo stoked when I found that out. Her baptism day will be such a great day. Well, that’s all I have for this week, hopefully I’ll have more idea of what’s going on by next week. haha. I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Steed

Email received September 2, 2014

Hey!

So, lots of changes have happened. Transfers came a week early because of some meeting President Mortensen has to go to. So this past transfer was only 5 weeks and this upcoming transfer will be 7 weeks long. Well, I am no longer in the Woodlands. Which is sad. A lot of families finally came back from summer vacations and I was just starting to feel comfortable around them and get to know them and then I get transferred. It seems like that’s how it usually goes. The surprise, though, was that my companion got transferred as well. We were not expecting that. :)

Well, my new area is called Bear Creek. It’s in the Katy Stake but isn’t quite in Katy. I’m still in Houston. It’s pretty much 15 miles west from my first apartment off of Little York. I don’t have too much to report on because today is my first day here. I’m not too sure what to expect. My new companion is Elder Allen. He’s from Ogden, he’s 20 years old, and has been out for 7 months. I’m in a bike area again and boy it kicked my butt biking to the library just now. Luckily it’ll be cooling down here soon. :)

My stay in The Woodlands was awesome. It was very challenging but I had a lot of great moments. Some of the families in those wards are some of the best people in the world! They are those kinds of people where you just expect that they will get translated at any moment. haha. Well, hopefully I’ll survive the biking this week. The first week in a bike area is the worst. haha. Have a great week, love you all! Here’s my new address:

Elder Nathan Steed
5450 Timber Creek Place Dr #706
Houston, TX 77084

 Our last photo together. Elder Fa'amausili was an awesome companion!

 Sister Wahlen is going home!

Woodlands 1st and 2nd missionaries!

Email received August 25, 2014

Hey Guys,

Sounds like a very eventful and crazy week. haha. Congrats to Steven and Chelsea on their return! I’m sure it was an awesome sacrament meeting! Well, here’s some of the highlights from this week. On Wednesday we were driving around and found a HUGE sports park. We went to go check it out. As we were walking around there was a group of people playing rugby. My companion’s reaction was like seeing a little kid on Christmas morning. He kept looking at the field and then looking at me with a puppy dog face. haha! I told him to go play. He went and played rugby with them for a couple minutes in his proselyting clothes. He pretty much showed them how to play. It was great haha. As we were walking away I asked him how it was and he responded “They’re pretty useless, eh.” haha! Apparently us americans are rather horrendous at rugby. We also had zone conference this past week. President Mortensen taught about the Restoration for like 2 hours. It wasn’t just the simple things that the missionaries and the members know about it, but he talked about it in the sense of the Abrahamic covenant, tribes of Israel, etc. All that Old Testament stuff that we love studying so much. :) It’s amazing how much we have, and how precise God has been in fulfilling all His promises made to them of old and to us.
Here is a miracle that happened this past week. We met with a family and did the master teaching. We left them with a commitment to invite one of their friends over for dinner. Yesterday at church the sister came up to us and was so excited. She told us that she had her over for dinner and that they had a gospel discussion. She said that she wants to come to church next week. We also are meeting with a referral from a member this Wednesday and are pretty excited about that!
We had a great sacrament meeting yesterday. One of the speakers talked about the conference talk by Elder Nelson about withstanding the spiritual whirlwinds of life. The speaker was a brother who talked about the spiritual whirlwinds he has gone through and how because of some of them he was inactive for years. It’s amazing to see how far he’s come and how strong in the gospel he is. It’s a common theme that I have been seeing recently, how the Lord will shape us with the trials we go through into much better people than we were before. It’s amazing how often His hand is in our lives. Especially in the moments where we don’t think he’s there or notice that he’s there. I’m grateful that He has always been there for me and always will be. I love you all so much. I really do miss you and think of you often. I left on my mission 11 months ago today! Crazy. Well, I hope everyone has a great week! :)

-Elder Steed

 we were walking by a park and some people were playing rugby, my comp was so excited to play. haha.

This kid is so funny! He loves wearing his "Missionary in Training" tag. haha!

Email received August 18, 2014

Hello everyone!

We had a good week this week! Every day we got our goal of inviting at least 25 people! It was hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be. The Lord definitely helped us and provided for us. Well, we have gotten a few potentials recently from our finding. Hopefully we will be able to meet with them. We have an appointment tomorrow with a baptist pastor. haha. Hope this goes well and he doesn't want to just bash. We will see :) haha. We also got a referral from a member in the ward who is preparing for her mission in November. We should be teaching her friend either this week or next! :)

We got a new investigator this week. His name is Greg. He was found by some other Elders and they realized that he actually lives in our area. So we are working on how to pass him off. We did attend a lesson with him and the other elders this past week. Greg is awesome. He has had a really rough life and wants to change. He said that he thinks we might have something that can help him with that. He basically wants to be happy, which is what our message is all about!

Our mission president, President Mortensen, has introduced to us something called "Master Teaching". Here's kind of a rundown of what it is. Basically, it's teaching in a way that the Savior would teach. So far on my mission all we have done is basically state doctrine to people. We just spew out information. Master Teaching is the belief that the truth lies within the person being taught. So we ask inspired questions for them to teach themselves of truth. It's hard to explain and even harder to do! haha. But we'll get the hang of it. We've also been challenged to do this with members to help them in their missionary work. We ask them questions so that they can have the Spirit tell them what they can do to help invite their friends, and then we challenge them to do it. It's pretty cool. :)

Well that's pretty much it for this week. Oh! We sang "We'll Sing All Hail to Jesus Name" in sacrament meeting and it reminded me of Jacob's arrangement of it. One of my favorite songs! It also made me miss Committed a lot! :/ Here's a quote from yesterday's sacrament meeting that I really liked. "Hope is believing that God will do His part, while faith is doing our part." I've always had a hard time distinguishing what the difference between hope and faith is, but that sums it up pretty well. :)

Have a great week! Love you all!

-Elder Steed

Email received August 11, 2014

Hello everyone,

Mom is going to be in Galveston?? Shoot, she might as well just come up to the Woodlands and take me to lunch :-) haha. I've heard a lot about Galveston. Mostly from missionaries pretending they are saving up all their miles so they can travel to Galveston and back. haha. You know what's funny? I've always hated swimming but now that I can't, and it's hot, and we walk by a pool everyday, I want to swim so bad. haha. Watch, I'll come home, get released and then not want to swim anymore. haha. We did better on our invites this week and have a couple more names to work with. :-)

So, we didn't have any lessons this week :(.  Here's the highlights of the week. On Wednesday a missionary from the Woodlands 1st ward came home. His name is Elder Belbin and he just came from serving in Carlsbad. He's awesome. Another highlight of the week was that there was a farewell yesterday. His name is Nick and he is going to Tempe Arizona. We've gotten to spend some time with him in just this week leading up to him leaving. He's awesome. It reminded me of when I gave my farewell and the awesome missionaries they I got to spend time with right before I left. They helped me out a lot and reassured me that I was doing the right thing. Anyway, I learned that a lot of times we don't think we have that much of an impact on people. But we all have people who look up to us and are watching us. I need to do a better job of being an example to those who are around me. We never truly know the effect we can have on people. Nick's talk was the bomb! It was very powerful. It's amazing how the gospel can take young, immature teenagers and completely transform them into confident, wise, powerful sons and daughters of God. :-)

I testify that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father who wants nothing more than for us to be happy. If we turn to him and apply the Atonement then we can be happy. If we serve others and put others first then we will see our lives improve, we will feel our burdens lifted as we help lift other's burdens, and we can withstand whatever comes our way. Hope you all have a fantastic week! :-)

Love,
Elder Steed

I don't want to talk to you right now. 

Isn't this the coolest thing ever?

Email received August 4, 2014

Yooooo!

So this week my companion got an ear infection. It was NASTY. hahah. poor guy. So we had an OK week. We didn’t get as many invites to learn as we would have liked but we still had a good week. We taught a guy named Ian on Friday. He’s 20 years old and he’s pretty cool. It was one of those lessons where I just really don’t know how well it went. haha. There were times where I could see in his face that he was feeling the Spirit, and then there were times where his countenance would change. We kept asking if he had any questions but he didn’t really open up. Makes me sad. I really hope that we will be able to meet with him again. :-)

Since we have decided to be more motivated and diligent, we have already seen tons of blessings even though we still have a lot to improve on to get to the point we want to be at. Not much has come from all of our tracting, but as we’ve been trying to invite we have gotten 2 media referrals, a nonmember has agreed to come to dinner at a members house and start the discussions (hopefully Wednesday of next week), and we have had a LA member come to church 2 weeks in a row and bring his nonmember wife. I’m glad that we finally have some names to work with and I know that it is a result of our change. :-)

So, we had a very interesting experience happen this week. A lot of it is very personal to the person involved so I won’t explain the situation in much detail. So on Saturday night my companion wasn’t feeling good at all. He fell asleep just after 9 pm. Our fridge had a funky smell coming from it and had some pretty old stuff in there. haha! So for some odd reason I decided to clean it then instead of waiting til the next day. As I started doing it i was wondering why on earth I was doing it then but I continued to do it. Anyway, I threw out all the old stuff and couldn’t just let it sit in the trash all night and stink up the whole place, so I woke up my companion so we could go out to the dumpster. He kind of gave me a look so as to say "Why right now?" haha. Can’t blame him. So we get back from the dumpster and my comp randomly asks if I want a haircut. And I say yes. He then gives me a haircut. While cutting my hair we both were thinking, why on earth are we doing this right now? haha. By the time the haircut is done and I get out of the shower its about 11 at night and my companion and I are both wide awake.
:-)

We get a phone call from someone we know who lives in our apartment complex. They had just gone through something horrible and needed our help. The door to the apartment was unlocked but it was stuck on something and wouldn’t [open]. We ended up going over and busting the door open for her (by "we" I mean my huge Samoan companion). She was in a spot where she needed someone and we were the only ones she knew. It was amazing to see how we randomly thought it was necessary (even though it made no sense) to clean the fridge and get a haircut so that we could be awake when she needed us. Anyway, here is what I learned from the situation after she vented to us and told us all the horrible things that she just went through:

I’m sure lots of you have been in the situation where someone needs you, they tell you what’s wrong and are completely distraught. You sit and listen and wonder what on earth you can say to make it better. But there’s nothing you can say. You literally feel useless. You want nothing more than to help them but what can you do? I’m just a kid. I’m barely starting my life. I still have acne for goodness sakes! As this person was venting to us I kept getting upset and wondering to myself why is her life so hard? Why is mine so easy? That’s all I could think of. Well, I don’t know the answer to that. Life is just not fair. If you think about it, the Savior lived the most perfect life right? We hear and say that all the time. He probably lived the most rewarding life as well. Well, he also lived the most unfair life. I don’t know why she has had so many huge challenges in her life, but what I do know is that if she turns toward the savior and the gospel-- the answer to all of the world’s problems-- then no matter how unfair her life is, in the end it will be rewarding. Everything that seems unfair will be made right through the Atonement if we use it and live the gospel. I hope that we can all be able to pay attention to promptings in the future so that we can be there for people when they need us. I’m grateful for all the people who have been there for me when I needed someone. I’ll forever love them for that. I love you all! Have a great week! :-)

love,
Elder Steed

 Saying goodbye to the mini van. ZL's needed to switch cars with us :/

Weekly Planning. haha.