Email received June 22, 2015

Hello everyone!!

We had another great week here in College Station! The recent surge of Chinese investigators is still going well! We currently have 4 Chinese investigators with baptismal dates! We started teaching someone named Charles (that’s his English name). We met him on campus at A&M and it was one of the coolest contacts. We met with him 3 times this week and he’s just been soaking everything in. We had 4 total investigators at church yesterday, it was so cool.

Tom is being baptized this Saturday. The kid is so interesting but he’s funny as heck. We’re excited. We found a new family that we are going to be teaching. We first met the wife and when we went back she was asleep so we just met with the husband. He was pretty closed off and was just kinda like “whatever” but he opened up a little at the end. We think that it was good that we met with just him, because he probably would have been the one holding her back. We had an awesome visit with the other family that I’ve written home about, the Zaragoza’s. It was just a drop by visit and we talked and answered questions. They love us! We set up an appointment the next day but their baby was sick so they cancelled. It’s hard because they keep canceling and then we can’t contact them by phone. We’re determined though. They need to get baptized!

We got a new bishopric in the YSA ward yesterday. They bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting and it was by far one of the best sacrament meetings I’ve been in. It was so powerful, big things are going to be happening here. There’s a new couple that just moved in to the family ward and they are so solid. They’re both RM’s. In fact they actually served in the same ward at the end of their missions. They’re so on fire and we’ve already started teaching their neighbor.

Being on a mission is literally so hard, but it is so worth it. I know that God lives. That’s been something that I’ve always just believed and haven’t really appreciated all that much, but since we’ve been teaching all these Chinese people, it’s really helped me grow my testimony and understanding of that simple, yet all important principle: that God loves us. He knows us and wants the absolute best for us. And because He wants the absolute best for us, He has provided a specific plan. I love teaching people about this plan, God’s plan of salvation for His children. I love sharing it because it brings answers, it brings change to those who find it, and it brings HOPE. What could be more important to share than that? It’s amazing how much we have and how much we know. I hope we can gain a greater appreciation and understanding of these things. I know that if we do, we will have greater desire and drive to share it with others. I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Happy Father’s Day Pops! I hope it was a great one! Love you! I’m sending you a letter, sorry it’s late!

Til next time,
Elder Steed

We finally got to go to the temple again!

Email received June 15, 2015

Hello everyone!

We sure had an interesting week! There was a lot of ups and downs. We had an amazing miracle that happened! On Tuesday, we went up to campus in the morning to go finding. We always park our car at the institute building for free parking, and then walk to campus. We got out of the car and we both were just not feeling it. We had no desire to go talk and try to find people.

We decided to stop and say a prayer before we started. We asked that we would be led to someone or have them led to us. Literally, as we said amen we heard the sound of flat tires on a car and shortly thereafter saw a car stop at the light with a completely blown out tire. Luckily, the institute building is on the corner so we waived her into the parking lot. We had no idea what we were doing. My companion and I kinda know how to change a tire lol but we were just rolling with it. She ended up not having a spare tire so we went into the institute building to see if the institute director, Brother Garlick, could help us out by giving her a ride to buy some tires.

We went inside, Bro Garlick was there, but he was on a conference call. We had no idea what to do! He came out and said he felt impressed to get off the phone. Long story long, we took her to Hearne, TX, a 30 min drive to get some tires. She was in a car with 2 elders and the institute director! We taught her the Restoration and it was so powerful! It was all such an amazing miracle, but she ended up dropping us the next day, saying she’s not ready :/

We’ve started teaching a guy named Alfred Tsai! He’s from Taiwan and his father and sister are members. He’s so genuine and sincere! I love it! He wants to gain his own testimony and we are working on face timing his sister in on the lesson this week.

There’s so much that happens in the week i don’t even know what to write. Gah! We see miracles every day. I love being a missionary and i love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Steed

ADD-ON:  Yeah, the missionaries going home July 1 didn’t get an ipad. Haha and I got some ties! Thanks so much!

Email received June 8, 2015

Hello everyone!!

We had another great week here in College Station!! We got our iPads on Tuesday! It’s so awesome and helps with the work so much! It makes studying and preparing for lessons so much better!

So we had an awesome lesson with Chantal on Monday! It was so sick! We set a baptismal date for July 18. Unfortunately her family is not too keen on the idea and we have temporarily stopped the lessons. I think we’ll start up again soon though. She knows it’s true. We were able to find 4 new investigators this week so were excited.

We were finally able to re-connect with the Zaragoza’s. We went over Saturday night and it was just him at home. We talked to him for 2 hours! He really opened up and expressed some  concerns, we feel really good about it. Sorry that these emails get less and less detailed and
more and more lame. I love you all! I know this church is true. I know that if we have faith and do what’s asked of us, that we’ll have the spirit with us, which is such an awesome thing to have. I love being a missionary and I love all of you! Til next time!

love,
Elder Steed

 Photos

1. On the way back from getting our iPads!

The rest are me just having fun on my ipad!

Email received June 1, 2015

Hello all,

Well, to start off, I had a crazy experience at church yesterday. The bishop's wife is in charge of the bulletin and she takes a photo of every new companionship so that we can be on the ward bulletin. Well, Elder Spragg and I go out to take our picture, and while taking it I could see in my peripheral some guy trying to photo bomb us. In my head I was thinking "Who is this weirdo trying to photo bomb us?" I turn around to see who it was and... JAMIE??! haha. It was so crazy. I wish I coulda seen my face. It was probably pretty priceless. So I got to go to sacrament meeting with my oldest brother. haha. It was pretty cool.

So this past week Elder Spragg and I have been finding a lot of people that we can teach. Most of them are from China and India. They're great! One guy we met this week from India is Aasif. We invited him to come to the friday night activity that night to come play kickball and he came! While there he said (in a cute indian accent) "I feel so happy right now! I've never felt this happy in all my time in America!" Man, that's what it's all about. We're working on being able to teach him soon. We have 2 investigators that we are going to extend baptismal dates to this week and feel pretty confident about them. So I'm out of time. Sorry for the short update. I love you all. Have a great week!

-Elder Steed

Helicopter.

Elder Bullinger and I.

How awesome is this?

The oldest bro.

Email received May 26, 2015

Hello Everyone!

What an awesome week! I got a new companion. His name is Elder Spragg. He's from Salem, OR and was actually called to Brazil on his mission. After his first 13 months in his mission he decided to just stay here in Houston. Anyway, the coolest part is that Elder Spragg is actually the Elder that I met when I stepped out of the van when I got dropped off at the MTC. He was the one who took pictures on mom's phone for us. I actually have a picture of mom and I hugging with Elder Spragg in the background taking a picture with Mom's phone.

So Elder Spragg and I had a great week together. We taught a family! They had 5 kids and they were all so attentive and answered all the questions! It was the best lesson I've ever been in. Their name is the Zaragoza family. We also taught Tom again this past week and his sister sat in the lesson as well and is a new investigator. There was a handful of others that we started teaching this week and the members are working hard to get us referrals. One of our new investigators is a Muslim. He's so awesome, but it's kinda hard to teach him. I'm so used to teaching people that already believe in Christ.

Oh yeah, this past Sunday I met Taysom Hill. He was visiting the CS2 ward with his wife, who's from Cstat. He was already getting a ton of most likely unwanted attention so I just acted like I had no idea who he was. haha. There's been some pretty gnarly storms lately. Especially last night. I heard there were some tornados that touched down in some spots somewhat relatively close to where we are. Nothing serious though. What was scary was driving to Houston this morning for the mission conference. It was raining so hard that you hardly could see anything. It was crazy. We received training for iPads today and will be getting them soon. Everyone's excited. haha. Anyway, that's all I got for this week. Love you all! Have a great week! Til next time.

love,

Elder Steed

Elder V went home. I love this guy!

That's Elder Spragg in the background.

Email received May 18, 2015

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great week! We had a great one here in College Station! We found 2 new investigators this week! One is named Demarcus. We met with him on Wednesday and taught him the Restoration. The lesson went great. He’s honestly one of the most prepared people I’ve ever met! Unfortunately he moved to Houston the next day so won’t be able to teach him but we passed his info along.

We started teaching someone named Tom on Saturday. He’s been taught before and called the institute to meet with missionaries again. He’s a good kid. He honestly just wants to do good and be forgiven of the things he’s done. It’ll be hard to get him to stop smoking, but he’s done it before when he met with missionaries in the past. We set a baptismal date for June 13 for him.

We also found a family that we have an appointment with this week that we are going to start teaching. Elder Schinn and I have been praying to find a family to teach! Speaking of Elder Schinn, he is getting transferred tomorrow and I will be getting a new companion. Will be interesting to see who it is. On Sunday we got to go down to the temple with an investigator named Xing Hua for temple tours. It was a lot of fun! Xing Hua is so funny. Hopefully we can meet with him a little more now that it’s summer. Well, I’m running out of time and have to go, love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Steed

 Elder Anderson. We were bored waiting to use the computers.

New glasses!

 On the way to the temple!

Elder Barlow, Xing Hua, and Elder Schinn

Recent Converts and Xing Hua at the temple!