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?