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.

Email received July 28, 2014

Hi!

Not too much to report on this week sadly :( First off, congrats to Eric for serving a full-time mission! It's nuts how fast that went! So here's what happened this week:

Yesterday there was a farewell for a missionary leaving this Wednesday for Peru! His talk was awesome! He also had an open house last night that tons of people went to. It was pretty weird to see all of that go down while being on the other side of it. Seems like just yesterday I gave my farewell and had missionaries at my open house. Oh how time flies. Anyways, he will be a great missionary. Such a stud. A lot of this week was just trying to find people. We didn't get as many invites as we would like due to some days where we were feeling pretty sick. We met a guy who let us in and gave us some water thankfully. Except that he ripped us apart for the next 30 minutes. haha. I hate those situations. You want to answer the questions they ask you but there really is no point. Don’t cast your pearls before swines right? haha. But seriously, all it would do would lead to contention. Literally anyone could have a religious "debate" for hours and not accomplish anything. Anyone can make themselves seem right no matter what their views are. That's why it's so important to learn truth through the Spirit, rather than cunning words of man. Anyways, we finally ran into Anthony! We were just on the computers doing our weekly family search time and he walked by and said hi to us. He said that he and Lexie have been working crazy hours but that he definitely wants to meet up soon. So that was a cool little miracle we had this week. :-)
Well, today is the start of my 8th transfer! I'm staying here in the Woodlands and so is my companion. For the first time since being with Elder Hillebrant, I will stay with a companion for more than 6 weeks. haha. I'm really short on time, sorry that this is such a lame letter. I love you all and hope that you have a great week! :)

Elder Steed

Playing pool in the apartment office waiting for the dang kids to get off so we can email home!

hehe.

Email received July 21, 2014

Hey Guys,

Whew, what a week. Crazy stuff has happened. This past Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president. President Mortensen is awesome. However, what the interview made me realize is that I am nowhere near the missionary that I should be and was called here to be. This is pretty sad to admit, but honestly, over the past while I have kind of lost some of the fire I used to have and wasn’t trying as hard as I should have. A few months ago, President Pingree set a new standard in this mission to invite AT LEAST 25 people every day. Until this week, there was one time where I got 22, and another time where I got 37. Other than those two times, I haven’t even gotten close. Well, with how stinking hot it is outside now, there is literally no one outside. haha. So I thought that getting 25 would be pretty much impossible. In the interview this past Tuesday I committed to get 25 invites a day. It’s really not that hard. My companion and I have decided to suck it up and actually do not only what we’ve been asked to do, but called to do. :-)

Here is a miracle that happened this week. On Saturday night we were a little behind on the invites and I was scared that we weren’t going to even get near 25. We ended up getting a ton in a short period of time. However, at 9 o clock we only had 24. Honestly I was pretty annoyed that we got so close but didn’t get the minimum of 25. As we were walking to go up to the stairs that lead to our apartment, there was a lady walking her dog. We started talking to her and were able to invite her. I truly believe that IF we do all that we can to live up to our commitments, the Lord will make up the difference of what we can’t do without His help. Whether it be having a person placed in your path on the way to your apartment to get the last invite, or giving us the words to say when we approach someone about the gospel, the principle is the same. However, it’s only if we do our part.

This week we have done a TON of tracting. Before this week I have done a little bit of tracting in this area and after those experiences I wasn’t too excited to do it again. However, with the weather, it’s pretty much the only way we can fulfill our commitment of 25 invites. We’ve been keeping that commitment. We have done so much tracting. Which isn’t the most fun thing to do, especially in such a rich area. However, what we’ve noticed is that as we have been diligent in keeping our commitments, the Lord has blessed us. For example, after tracting all day and doing our part the Lord blessed us to come across certain people at certain times. We met a guy named Greg at the park who is now a potential investigator and we had a great conversation with him. I know that if we hadn’t done all that we can to keep our commitment that day, our Heavenly Father wouldn’t have put us in Greg’s path. We need to earn His trust and do the things he has asked us to do, even if we don’t like it, in order to receive His blessings. Here’s another way to put it, if I have a friend who is interested in the gospel, I wouldn’t want to introduce him and have him taught by missionaries who aren’t diligent in doing what they’ve been called to do. I think it’s the same for Heavenly Father’s children. I’m somewhat sad and embarrassed to admit that I haven’t been doing all that I should have been doing and sacrificing all that I should have been sacrificing. I’m ashamed that it’s taken me 10 months to realize this. However, I am ready to give it my all. I’m ready to do all that I can to get 25 invitations a day. I’m ready to become the missionary I was called here to be. I love you all. Stay safe and know that someone in Houston Texas is constantly thinking about you and praying for you.

love,
Elder Steed

P.S. Another miracle that happened this week: In a follow-up interview with President I asked for a priesthood blessing to help me as I try to improve and start this new stage in my mission. A lot of the things that were said were unbelievably similar to what is said in my patriarchal blessing about my mission. I’m grateful for the priesthood and priesthood blessings. I know that they are real. I’m also grateful for the opportunity and blessing that we have to be able to change. To become better, and to learn from and put behind us things from the past.

 How did the missionaries receive extra help? They FaSteed.

 Roadrunner!

 I love the sunsets here!

Derp.

 His first time having Sonic. He said it was "yuck". My first time in 10 months!

 

Service for dayzzz!

Email received July 14, 2014

Hello everyone,

Today is a very good day. It started off by playing pday volleyball at the chapel with some priests and some sister missionaries. We started at 6:30 and played for about 5 hours. I am so dead. haha. Here's another reason why today is so great. I found out that Laura, from my first area, is progressing and has a baptismal date for Aug 2! I've been so hyper ever since. haha. I can't wait for the day of her baptism. I feel like after that day I will be completely satisfied with my mission, even if I never teach anyone ever again! Wooo I'm so happy!

So sad to hear about the family in Spring. Many missionaries, including one of my old companions Elder Pongi, were very close to that family. I can't even imagine the pain that comes from that. It just strengthened my testimony of the Atonement and how enormous and infinite it is. He has felt that pain that we all, and especially the young girl, have felt. He went through that for all of us. So that he may know "how to succor his people". Amazing.

Well, things still are pretty slow. He haven't been able to meet with Anthony. We have started sharing a message with members to help them in their missionary work. We call it "Accomplishing Things With God". Here's some of what it entails:

1. Qualify for His help- we do this by keeping the commandments and being able to have the Spirit with us.
2. Find out what He wants us to do.
3. Do everything we can to achieve it.
4. Ask for the blessing and help that we need.
5. Thank Him for his help.

We then share how the Brother of Jared used these steps in doing what God needed him to do. First off, he was qualified. Then he prayed to know what he needed to do. He started to build barges but they had no light. He then asks how they will have light and all the Lord says in reply is, "What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?" I think sometimes He answers our prayers that way and He wants us to figure it out. The brother of Jared then goes and molts 16 rocks with the intent of asking the Lord to SOMEHOW make them light. We need to do everything in our power to accomplish what He has asked us to do. This may just be my opinion, but I wonder if the brother of Jared felt pretty silly molting those rocks. Maybe his thought process was "uhhhh I have no idea what I'm doing but uhh sure yeah I'll molt some rocks and the Lord will make them light." He did all that was in his power and then asked God for the blessing to accomplish the task that he could never accomplish by himself. The Lord then touches the stones and makes it possible for them to travel to the promised land. It's important to thank Him for his help so that he will help us again in the future. We are challenging the members to use this same process in their efforts to share the gospel. We need their help. haha. Have a great week everyone!

love,
Elder Steed