Email received January 5, 2015

Hello All,

It was a great week here in Bear Creek! Elder Beck and I found a new investigator. Her name is Olivia. President Mortensen has been emphasizing that we spend the hours of 6-8 pm finding. Due to the fact that it’s cold and dark that leaves us with no other option than to go tracting. We tracted into Olivia and she said that we could come back the next day. We went over with a priest named Seth and taught the Restoration. It went well. She seemed interested and she felt the Spirit but she also seemed a little hesitant and nervous. Seth did an awesome job though. We also tracted into a lady that let us in, her husband wasn’t too happy to see us. He said there were a lot of differences in what they believe and what we believe. But he told her she could listen to us. We started to teach and then the kids went crazy. She asked us to come back some other time during the day. I really hope we get to teach her again.

So we taught the Restoration to Jimmy this week. He has had missionaries over a lot but he recently agreed to go through the lessons. The lesson went really well! We have 9 o clock church this year and he wasn’t too excited about that. But guess what, he came! Not only did he come but he came in a white shirt and tie. He looked great and his countenance looked great also.

Yesterday was a great sacrament meeting. I love this ward so much. I don’t want to leave. We still haven’t been able to teach Mark yet. He was sick all this week too. Sounds like it’s really bad. I’m out of time, sorry I can’t write more. I love you all and miss you. Have a great week!

-Elder Steed

p.s. There is a really good chance of me getting transferred next week :(

We were biking by and saw this gem on the side of the road. Let me tell you, this picture took Awkward Family Photos to a whole nother level!

We had to pose next to it!

 Welcome to the Family. Lol.

Email received December 29, 2014

Hello everyone!

It was so great to be able to see you this past week! Especially the whole clan there. Everyone looked so good and looked happy. Couldn’t ask for more. So, besides Christmas, the week was pretty uneventful. Lots of things falling through but it’s all good. We were able to spend a lot of time with members and get to know them better. The members here are awesome and have come up with some awesome ideas to share the gospel!

So, I’ll tell you how my Christmas went. In the morning we walked over to the Young’s home and had breakfast. They fed us burgers for Christmas breakfast. Heck yeah. Ok, I still have this burger on my mind. Goodness, this thing was a 3 cheese stuffed patty with peppers and onions all stuffed in. Then it had cheese, bacon, and was on some kind of super fancy bread. This thing was like top-notch restaurant quality. RIP burger. I miss youuuu.

After that we headed over to Jimmy’s house. A member in the ward that we are working on teaching the lessons to. They were having their Christmas lunch and insisted that we have some. So I reluctantly made an entire plate and ate it. haha. After that we had to find a ride to our dinner appt to skype. We were finally able to find one and as I was signing in to skype I got a text from dad. That was WEIRD. haha. After skyping I force fed my way through a very delicious, large Christmas dinner and Apple Pie. All things denote there is a God. Including how much food missionaries are somehow able to consume sometimes.

We weren’t able to teach Mark this week. We were able to talk to him on the phone and he said he would be at church but he didn’t show :(. We are going to head over there tomorrow. Church was awesome. We’ve started to spend our time with the priests 3rd hour instead of the elders quorum. I wish I would have done that sooner in my mission. We taught the priests yesterday and talked about missions and did some role plays and such. It reminded me so much of my pre mission life and the awesome elders that I got to spend time with. We closed out the week with a dinner with the Douglas family. Sister Douglas reminds me so much of Stephanie. They fed us deer and holy cow, er I guess deer, it was good!

In conclusion, it is hard to be away from home and family during this year, but it was definitely a wonderful Christmas! I hope you all have a Happy New Year, awesome anniversaries, and wonderful birthdays this week! Love you!

-Elder Steed

Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas morning: The Aftermath