Email received March 9, 2015

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a great week. We did here in Bear Creek. We were able to find a new investigator this week and were able to have 4 lessons with other investigators. All of which we were able to bring members along. It was sweet. Our new investigator we got this week is named Johnny. He’s a guy that Elder Allen and I found in like September. I think I wrote home about him and how we were chopping down his backyard with machetes. haha. Well yeah, we used to do a lot of service for him. Then we started sharing spiritual thoughts with him, and now we are starting the lessons with him. He’s the man. The word of wisdom will definitely be a challenge but we’ll see what happens.

We were able to meet with Sherry a couple times. We taught her the Restoration and the spirit was really strong. Especially during the first vision. She was excited when we told her how there are prophets and apostles on the earth today with the priesthood. She said “wow, I did not know that.” She has been reading in the Book of Mormon and we will be going back to see if she’s gotten an answer.

We were able to meet with Jeffrey again. He told us how he’s been praying and praying for one thing. And that’s to be happy. He has been telling us that he’ll read and pray once all this stuff that’s been going on in his life blows over. We told him that this is the Lord answering his prayers. He’s praying and praying and the Lord’s trying to answer but he’s not listening. He agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. I know if he does, then he’ll get an answer. It’s all been so crazy with him. From how we met him, the events that have happened, and our timing. There’s no way it’s nothing short of an answer to his prayers.

Well, as you heard, we did speak in church on Sunday and I have no idea why or how it turned out so well. haha. But yeah, I had some gnarly allergies Saturday night that allowed me to only have 2 hours of sleep. So I’ve been a zombie the past couple of days. Anyway, there’s the update. Love you all! Have a great week! :)

-Elder Steed

 Elder Strickland and I after speaking in sacrament meeting.

 We went go karting for P-day and had to wear those weird doo rag thingys lol.

Elder Roberts and I at the driving range. 

Driving range! This place is the bomb!

A buddhist temple we do service at.

Email received March 2, 2015

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty rough but got good at the end. This whole week has been wet, dark, and coooolllldddd! Up until the weekend it seemed like an endless bike ride in the cold that didn’t end for 4 days with not much else happening. haha. So here are the highlights of this week.

The Martin’s son, Cole, came home from his mission on Monday. He served in Everett WA. He came over to our apartment Monday night to meet us after he got released and we talked with him for awhile. There’s something about being around RM’s that’s really cool. I don’t know what it is. Ok, the next highlight was we had another lesson with Mary this week. We went over and brought Cole with us. We read the first 2 chapters of the book of Mormon. It went well. She seems really curious but also really hesitant. We will be meeting with her again this week. On Saturday we had another lesson with Margaret where we read the first 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon. It went well. Ok, so here’s the best part about the week:

Sunday. Besides church, all day has been really slow. At night we do some tracting. It got really cold all of the sudden and we decided to bike back and get our jackets. Well, we get to the apartment, use the bathroom, grab our jackets and you can tell that my companion and I really just do not want to go back out there. It’s 8:30, it’s way too cold, and the air is just way too wet. Well, we both grudgingly decide we better go back out and do something. We went over to visit a potential investigator that we tracted into at the beginning of the week. When we first met her a couple nights ago we said a prayer with her for her husband, and left her a book of Mormon with a promise that it would grow her testimony and knowledge of the savior. So Sunday night we go over there, she lets us in and we have an awesome discussion with her. She told us about how she has a hard time forgiving others. We talked about forgiveness and the atonement. She had already started reading in the book of Mormon! Anyway, it was a powerful visit and we are going back tonight. It was a really cool miracle because we could have easily stayed in or could have easily decided it was too late to go visit her but it worked out well!

So there’s the update of the week! Love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Steed

Email received February 23, 2015

Hello everyone!

This has been a very interesting week! Lots has happened. Still rather shocked that I am staying in Bear Creek another transfer. Well, I am running short on time but we were able to find 3 new investigators this week! 2 of them were by tracting and the other was a former investigator. On Wednesday night we went tracting with Bro. Martin and we decided to say a prayer to decide which direction we should go. We felt strongly to go to the left. We met a lady named Mary who we went and taught 2 days later. The lesson went really well. She understood everything. Her biggest hold up is she believes strongly that Saturday is the Sabbath, but she did say that she would read and pray to know if it was all true.

On Thursday we tracted into a lady who let us in right then and there. The lesson was great and the spirit was strong. We are going back tomorrow. The 3rd new investigator was someone that we tracted into awhile ago that the sisters used to teach. We were finally able to have a lesson with her this week. It went well. She really could progress if she takes the time to truly and sincerely find out. It’s such a hard thing to get people to take the time and effort to find out.

We saw Jeffrey again this week. He is doing better. We brought a member with us and testified of trials and what can be learned from them. He just needs to realize that this is what he needs. Well, there’s the updates of the week! Love you all! Happy birthday Shay and congrats to Elder Bevell for a wonderful mission served. Until next time.

-Elder Steed

The classic "tree of life" photo at Bro Everitt's. Every companionship in bear creek has to take this photo in front of his tree. haha. 

 Elder Strickland and I.