Aug 28, 2011

Thanks as always for the updates. Sounds like you guys are
having way too much fun. Why didn't we do that kind of stuff when I was at home?

Keep praying for those missionary opportunities, and listen
for answers. I have seen the joy it brings to members here who have had a
rough week, then they come out with us for a few hours and it just totally
brightens their day and their week. Our family has been extremely blessed and
we need to make sure to do everything we can to help those around us who are
struggling. God loves them just as much as us, but he cant always come in
and fix their lives personally. Sometimes we need to step in and be the
answers to their prayers. I remember a few times when you have been the
answer to different peoples prayers, and those are amazing stories.

Im glad to hear you are keeping everyone
excercising. I am glad I dont have a scale in the flat, because i am getting a
bit chubby already.

I think when I get back I am going to have to try to become
a little bit better friends with Hayden. I could use an interior decorator for
my house when I get home. If I were Riley I would be pretty excited as well.
Its good he has some good friends going down there with him.

And ya we have a really nice house. Its really messy actually right now. And
our oven broke. We are going back to clean it up really good though with the
rest of our p-day. Actually first I am trying to teach Elder Simmons how to
play the piano. He has never played before, so he really has no idea what he is
doing. Also, we have ping pong tables and a pool table here in the church so we
will probably play some of that today.

Im so excited for that care package!! Elder Bednar is giving
a talk this saturday in Redding for the missionaries, so we are driving up
closer to the Temple so hopefully if the package arrives before that someone
will bring it to me. Im also really excited for his talk. Ive been reading some
of his past talks all week in personal study. He is by far my favorite apostle,
and I cant wait to hear him speak in person. Every missionary in the mission
will be attending also, so I will get to see a bunch of my friends from the
MTC.

I really like what you said about the
opposition/discouragement. Last week was a tough week, but this week was a
great week. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday! Josh and Stephaine (the
Norweigan lady I told you about) and then Chris Thomas (the smoker) and also
some other lady who i had never met but one of the members brought her. We
taught a great gospel principles lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and
Josh had some amazing insights into baptism. We also found a new investigator
knocking doors this week who we are going to teach on wednesday morning. She is
in the navy and has a little daughter, but thats about all we know about her.
She seemed really interested and invited us back though. We also got a few more
chances to serve ward members this week, and I am really feeling like I am
starting to gain the trust of more members here. Hopefully this will lead to
them allowing us to meet with their friends. I am sick whenever I think about
September 14 (transfer date) and the chance that I might be leaving this area.
I need to stay here until like at least Christmas.

We also did exchanges this week. Because Elder Simmons is
district leader, I exchanged with Elders from both the other areas of our
district. It was really interesting serving with other missionaries, to see
what they did differently than my trainer and what they did the same. I stayed
in Helston for both the exchanges. For one of them, I was with another guy in
my MTC group Elder Evans, so we were both greenies but we did the best we
could. I couldn't believe Elder Simmons stuck us together. He says he was
directed by the spirit, but Elder Evans' companion, Elder Palmer, is a really
good friend of his so I have my suspicions that he just wanted to serve with
him for a day. Regardless, the exchanges were really useful and helped build my
confidence as a missionary, something that I often find I am lacking here. The
only downside is two of our investigators, Daisy and Dellah, called and dropped
us. We had an appointment to see them on wednesday night but they called and
said they would rather not meet with us anymore. I was crushed because they
seemed to interested, and Dellah even said a closing prayer, but im sure things
like that will happen a lot out here.

Thanks for everything,

Love Elder Steed

p.s. I don't usually do p.s.'s, but if I have time I am
going to attach some photos of the safety vest/flashlight prank.

Aug 21, 2011

Sounds like you guys are still having some awesome
adventures this summer. All this talk of the great outdoors makes me jealous.
Although we did take a trip to Lands End today which was really cool. We went
with the Elders from the Red Ruth district. Elder Evans serves there and he was
one of my good friends from the MTC so it was nice to spend time with him. Ive
attached some photos which you should enjoy. And lizard point is in my mission
but we havent gone there yet.

I can't believe you rode 65 km on a tandem bike. That
honestly does not sound enjoyable in any way to me. I actually started driving
yesterday. It is really hard to stay in the middle of the lane on the wrong
side of the road. And the roads here are super skinny. Now that im driving, my
companion is the one who has to back the car up. The next part of this story is
quite embareassing. I guess in the first week when I would always go
upstairs and go sleep until like 1015 while he did accounting on the phone
downstairs, he called the zone leaders and the other district leaders and made
up the story of how the guy got backed up into by his companion and that we now
had to wear safety vests while backing up the car. So the next time i talked to
the zone leaders they told me that story and how we had to go get safety vests.
I thought it was strange but just went along with it. At district meeting and
stuff I would be backing up the car in the vest and all the other
Elders just said they hadn't been able to find a vest anywhere because they
weren't usings vests to back their cars up. And they all would take pictures of
me while i was backing up the car which I thought was odd but didn't look into
it too much. Eventually when this wasn't funny anymore the zone leaders called
me and told me that a new rule had been implemented. Everyone now needed to
wear a safety vest and also to hold either flashlights of ping-pong paddles in
their hands to make sure they are always visible. Looking back I have no
idea why i went along with this, but I grabbed the two flashlights we had in
the flat and later that day we were backing up in a parking lot and I had the
safety vests and were directing the car with the flashlights much like people
do at the airport. Elder Simmons took a video of this on his camera, and was
just dying laughing. At this point I realized that something wasn't right. He
admitted it had all just been a big prank. I was not impressed. There is talk
of putting some of the pictures taken into the weekly missionary newsletter
under the safety segment.

Anyways, I made a list this week of all the things that I
wanted to tell you about so I wouldn't forget anything. I actually had possibly
my first 'Allison moment'. I am not positive that this story is missionary
appropriate but you did ask for funny stories of me and my compainon and I
just have to tell you it. We had a dinner appointment at a members house. He
lives in Penzance and is kind of an old pirate. A little bit crazy. So we ate
dinner and were just talking in his living room. me and him were talking about
gardening, and he was talking about his tomato plants he was growing. He said
how expensive the seeds were; they cost like 2 pounds for 5 seeds. So I guess
he harvests the seeds of the tomatos he grows and uses those so that he doesn't
have to go buy them. He said he had a bunch extra, and he stores them in some
dry soil. So without really thinking, i blurted out 'oh, well have you ever
thought about selling your own seed?' Elder Simmons on the couch beside me
erupted into hysterical laughter which he tried to cover up by coughing. I
actually was laughing also to the point of tears and yet the member had no idea
what was going on, he was just staring at us. i guess he didn't really catch
the connotations of what I had just said. it was so funny.

Actually I have a couple other funny stories. One morning me
and Elder simmons were fighting in our flat. I guess it was more friendly
wrestling. Anyways he is way bigger than me, and at one point he picked me up
and threw me into my bed. The impact shattered a piece of the the wood 1x6
frame and the bed just collapsed. We have yet to tell the landlord, but we did
go to a hardward store and buy some wood glue and a clamp, so we repaired it
somewhat. Right now we have about 12 book or mormons stacked underneath the
break to support my weight as I sleep. I had to sleep on the floor the first
night.

Another time we were driving to an investigators house and
were messing around in the car. Elder Simmons stole my badge and started
wearing it so I took his and put it on. We totally forgot about it, and got to
the investigators house. We had met the investigator knocking the week before,
and only spoken to her for about 5 minutes so she didn't really know our names.
However she invited us back to share a message, and so we got there and the
investigator, Dellah, had a daughter we had never met before named Daisy who
agreed to sit in on the lesson. As we went to introduce ourselves, Elder
Simmons realized our badges were messed up so he introduced himself as Elder
Steed and I introduced myself as Elder Simmons. We had a great lesson, but I
guess midway through the lesson, Elder Simmons said 'What do you think about
that Elder Steed?' while looking at me. The investigator was like 'why are you
talking about yourself like that?' and we had to sheepishly explain what had
happened. However the lesson still went really well and we are going back to
teach them on Tuesday night.

Actually this week I am going on 2 different exchanges to
the other areas of my district. It should be alright.

I also taught the gospel principles class in church on
sunday. It was a little scary but went quite well.

I can't believe you are going to missionary mom luncheons.
That seems so weird to me. There have actually been seperate occasions this
week when I had a memory flash back to me about you and dad, and I've really
been realizing how amazing of parents you guys are. I am really sorry when I
was ever rude or took what you were doing for granted or even just didn't spend
as much time as I wish I would have around both of you. I have really realized
how much I love both of you and have really started to miss you guys.

Sorry I didn't have as many spiritual experiences this week.
I wanted to keep this weeks email a little lighter. We had 5 investigators
commited to coming to church on sunday and only one came. And he was the 10
year investiagator. So we were both pretty bummed out yesterday. Elder Simmons
is always really stressed. He is an amazing missionary but way to hard on
himself. I am trying my best to keep us happy and having fun but sometimes when
he gets really down it gets contagious. Im just glad I had some of these
fun/funny experiences this week.

I think im giving up a little bit of my old self each day,
its slow progress but I think eventually I will lose myself in the work.
Hopefully I never get to the point where emails are no longer something I look
forward to every week.

Aug 14, 2011

Thanks so much for all the detail about what is going on back at home. Reading these emails so far has been a highlight every week. I love hearing abou what everyone is up to.

If it was a blue car in front of the house, it is probably ours. Actually a really scary thing is that my companion has been here for a year on August 21, so his liscence expires. Which means next week I will be the one driving. We are planning on doing some practice this week so I don't kill us.

Alright here are a couple stories. I found out that we used to be able to play board games in this mission on p-day, until during a heated game of risk one of the guys punched his companion in the face. So we can't do that anymore. Also, one of the mission rules here is that every time we back up the car, the companion not driving has to get out of the car and make sure they dont hit anything. I guess yesterday someone was backing up and the companion outside the car wasn't paying attention so his companion backed up into his legs and crushed him against a wall. These were proabably not the smartest missionaries, and now we have to buy reflective safety vests and wear them whenever we are out of the car backing our companion up. People are going to think we are even weirder than they already do.

And this really is a hard thing. Theres already been a lot of hard days. It really does help thinking about everyone back home who is praying for me. I read my patriachal blessing last night. What stuck out to me was that I was blessed with endurance. I will need that more than ever for these next two years.

I can't believe Riley already quit that job I got for him. What a slacker.

Ya i really hope sean and carson can eventually go on missions. i email sean every week, Ill start talking to him about it.

Congrats on your excercise, sounds like you are doing awesome.
I really dont have many photos, I will try and send some soon though. I had no idea the MTC president would be posting those photos online. The one of us singing the anthem was really funny, we lifted our hands in the air for the final 'thee' in the song. And the short guy singing with us was just some french guy who i had to teach the anthem to. me and him were good friends in the MTC. my compainon was Elder Banks, a bit taller than me, short black hair, pretty big/solid guy, usually wore a grey suit and made really weird faces in photos.

I would share more stories about my companion now with you but there isn't much to share. Every night I am exhausted and try to go to bed at like 10, because he is district leader and has to account on the phone for a while every night with other districts so I just go up to bed while he is talking. He found out what I was doing though and now he always comes and wakes me up. He is a really awesome guy, he keeps me going on a lot of the hard days. He does operate quite slowly though, he likes to really take his time and think about things wheras I just like to do things as quickly as possible. Ive been trying to slow down though so I can recieve more promptings.

Thanks so much for your love and prayers

Elder Steed

Aug 14, 2011

Okay it says you sent that about 6 hours ago, so I was actually doing some scripture study. I actually memorized DnC 122:7-9 this morning. Its a great scripture for hard times. And this week was pretty tough. We did a lot of knocking but didn't really have much sucess. We would knock for 3 hours some days and not find a single new investigator. Its hard work, as you already know, and I don't think ive ever been this tired.

But the Lord is blessing us and every time I feel like I can't do anymore, or knock on another door, the Lord will provide a spark to keep me going. Early in the week, we were knocking around an navy housing complex, so everyone who lived there was in the navy. Most of these navy guys have seen some horrible stuff and seem to not believe there could be a God because of it. Not much was really happening, but then we knocked on a door and this young girl answered who was probably in her early twenties. We talked to her for a bit, and found out she had just moved here from Norway with her new husband. I guess her mom is a member of the church and she was raised in a mormon home. She said the only reason she wasn't baptized was that her step-dad wouldn't let her. She said she didn't know there was a church in this area but she wants to start coming. She lived in London for a couple months before she moved to Cornwall and had been going to church there. And her husband josh seemed really cool and open to hearing about our message and coming to church also.

It was such a boost to my testimony. The ward here needs young families and this was an answer to our prayers. We are going to their house tommorow at 230, and we hoping for the best.

One of the families we are teaching, Ken and Toni, are in their mid-twenties and are really interested in the gospel. I cant remember if i mentioned them in my last email or not. We have taught them all the plan of salvation and about faith, repentance and baptism, and they are genuinely interested. They ask amazing questions and they read the book of mormon every night. They are slighly uncomfortable praying but they are getting better at it each time we see them. They have a four-year old daugther Jessica who is the cutest little kid. The last time we taught them was amazing. We explained the holy ghost, and they both told us that they had felt these feelings of warmth and peace and comfort as we have taught them lessons and as they have read the book or mormon. I have really high hopes for this family.

The ward members here are amazing. Almost every lesson we teach we are getting a member to come out with us. One of the members here, Brett, is an RM and a jewler. Ken had a broken watch and he took it to his shop and fixed it for him for free. I think that little things like that can often make all the difference.

We have a few other people we are focused on. One of the guys Chris, who lives in Penzance has been investigating the church for 9 years. He knows the scriptures inside and out but he can't quit smoking. We are trying to help him with this and we call him every night and ask him how many he has smoked that day. So far he has cut down from about 25 to 10. We also are teaching the family of a less active lady with a 10 year old daugther. She said she would be baptized but im not feeling to good about it, and she doesn't really have a desire to be baptized or go to church or anything, she just isn't bothered by it either way.

Those are pretty much the 4 solid people we are focused on right now. Most of our other time is spent trying to find more people to teach, as 4 isnt that many. This district hasnt had a baptism for over a year, but me and Elder Simmons have set a goal of baptizing 6 people this transfer. Its a lot, but we know with the Lords help and guidance we can do it.

Good luck with your books. I'm going to take a nap, to catch up on my last two weeks of not-laziness.

Thanks for your love and great example.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 14, 2011

Okay it says you sent that about 6 hours ago, so I was actually doing some scripture study. I actually memorized DnC 122:7-9 this morning. Its a great scripture for hard times. And this week was pretty tough. We did a lot of knocking but didn't really have much sucess. We would knock for 3 hours some days and not find a single new investigator. Its hard work, as you already know, and I don't think ive ever been this tired.

But the Lord is blessing us and every time I feel like I can't do anymore, or knock on another door, the Lord will provide a spark to keep me going. Early in the week, we were knocking around an navy housing complex, so everyone who lived there was in the navy. Most of these navy guys have seen some horrible stuff and seem to not believe there could be a God because of it. Not much was really happening, but then we knocked on a door and this young girl answered who was probably in her early twenties. We talked to her for a bit, and found out she had just moved here from Norway with her new husband. I guess her mom is a member of the church and she was raised in a mormon home. She said the only reason she wasn't baptized was that her step-dad wouldn't let her. She said she didn't know there was a church in this area but she wants to start coming. She lived in London for a couple months before she moved to Cornwall and had been going to church there. And her husband josh seemed really cool and open to hearing about our message and coming to church also.

It was such a boost to my testimony. The ward here needs young families and this was an answer to our prayers. We are going to their house tommorow at 230, and we hoping for the best.

One of the families we are teaching, Ken and Toni, are in their mid-twenties and are really interested in the gospel. I cant remember if i mentioned them in my last email or not. We have taught them all the plan of salvation and about faith, repentance and baptism, and they are genuinely interested. They ask amazing questions and they read the book of mormon every night. They are slighly uncomfortable praying but they are getting better at it each time we see them. They have a four-year old daugther Jessica who is the cutest little kid. The last time we taught them was amazing. We explained the holy ghost, and they both told us that they had felt these feelings of warmth and peace and comfort as we have taught them lessons and as they have read the book or mormon. I have really high hopes for this family.

The ward members here are amazing. Almost every lesson we teach we are getting a member to come out with us. One of the members here, Brett, is an RM and a jewler. Ken had a broken watch and he took it to his shop and fixed it for him for free. I think that little things like that can often make all the difference.

We have a few other people we are focused on. One of the guys Chris, who lives in Penzance has been investigating the church for 9 years. He knows the scriptures inside and out but he can't quit smoking. We are trying to help him with this and we call him every night and ask him how many he has smoked that day. So far he has cut down from about 25 to 10. We also are teaching the family of a less active lady with a 10 year old daugther. She said she would be baptized but im not feeling to good about it, and she doesn't really have a desire to be baptized or go to church or anything, she just isn't bothered by it either way.

Those are pretty much the 4 solid people we are focused on right now. Most of our other time is spent trying to find more people to teach, as 4 isnt that many. This district hasnt had a baptism for over a year, but me and Elder Simmons have set a goal of baptizing 6 people this transfer. Its a lot, but we know with the Lords help and guidance we can do it.

Good luck with your books. I'm going to take a nap, to catch up on my last two weeks of not-laziness.

Thanks for your love and great example.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 8, 2011

Thanks Dad, things are going great here. The field is white here. The ward is great and our knocking has been fairly succesful so far. The only problem is old people who aren't actually interested, they are jsut really bored and just like to come have us talk to them because they have nothing else to do. I have my meds pretty much figured out, I have been taking up to three different ones at times but now I am just down to this new prescription one I got here.

We fasted yesterday also and you guys were in my prayers.

The actual address is 155 Pendene Park, Helston, Cornwall, TR13 0SL. Its not the nicest place but it is much better than i expected. We spent a lot of time cleaning it up this morning. My bed is kind of old though.

Actually what would be awesome is if you guys ever send me a package to include some things like cheetos, kool-aid, jello because they dont have any of those things here. Also if you remembe those 2 books we had that were all object lessons for teaching like FHE and stuff i could really use one of those for teaching young families. And a disney CD or two would be great to play in our car as we drive all over the place. I think we have the biggest area in the mission in terms of acutal area, not people.

Try to keep writing. These emails are a highlight every week.

Thanks for all the support.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 8, 2011

I can't belive it either. It still hasn't sunk in yet. It almost sunk in last night but I didn't let it. Ya i will need to find a scale to see how my weight is doing. But actually Elder Simmons is a pretty good chef. So far he has cooked us two dinners, he made some chicken curry and rice one night and then some egg noodle sandwhich which is pretty good. And as I am emailing I just bought my first authentic cornish pastie from a nearby bakery, and it is delicous. But very unhealthy and quite expensive.

We actually have a lot going on here. We had church on sunday and the ward was great. really nice, welcoming people. I had to teach the priesthood and gospel principles lesson though. We actually have like 4 dinner appointments this week already. the only issue is that the ward is really old. There is a pretty good chance that within 3 months half of the ward will die of natural causes. Which will not help the ward goal, which is to double the attendance at each sacrament meeting this year. Its a lofty goal, but we are working hard and with the members behind us we are sure that we will find some new converts. we are trying to focus on young families, seeing as this is really what the ward needs.

My health is actually getting a little bit better. in the MTC i went to a doctor in Preston and I got a prescription for some stronger allergy medication than reactine and so Ive been using that and a benydryl every night and I am getting better. Although Elder Simmons is now quite sick with a cold. But he would never take a day off for anything. We actually spent the whole morning of this p-day cleaning our flat. the last elders were kind of slobs, so we had a lot of cleaing to do.

We are a little short here on new investigators, so we do about three hours of knocking on doors a day. Its really hard. But in yesterdays knocking we found 7 potential investigators and taught one really good lesson with this guy James who was about 20 and very interested in where we go after we die.

We also have a great family that we are meeting with, Ken and Toni and their daughter Jessica who is four. They are very interested, and they have met with us once but they have met with other missionaries a couple other times in the past two weeks. We are meeting them again on wednesday and really hoping they will have a desire to be baptized. the only problem is that they aren't married... but they have been together for 5 years so hopefully they will be willing to get married.

I dont have much time left. I have so much to tell you guys but I will write more next week. I wondered that exact same question did. In this past month I have been guided by the spirit more times than I can count. And the thing about it is you dont ever really know if it is your own thought or if it is the holy ghost. The advice that Elder Bednar gave to us is that we don't need to worry about it. In a talk we listened to by him in the MTC he told us to be good boys/girls, to obey the commandments and honor our covenants and if we do this the spirit will fill our mouths and guide our steps. So the best advice I can give is to not worry about it. Just be good, do good things, and know the spirit is playing a part in everything you do.

I hope you guys all stay healthy and safe. Watch out for those cougars and bears and stuff. My biggest concern here is dogs biting my fingers as i slide cards in through mail slots.

tell Riley happy birthday from me.

I miss you guys and love you lots

Elder Steed

Aug 5, 2011

I just got to my area. I got to the temple in London two days ago. We spent one night there and then yesterday started off on the long drive to cornwall. Its about a 6 hour drive, but we stopped in bristol to drop some guys off, then in estex to drop off one of the sisters pieces of luggage and some mail, then our zone leaders had their car filled with petrol but it is a diesel car so they got stranded and we had to go pick them up and drove to plymouth where we spent the night at their flat. We got in at about 1130 at night. I had to sleep on the floor. My allergies are horrible here. But anyways we woke up and studied and stuff, and then at 1130 am two other elders finally arrived in plymouth so we picked them up and drove them to the area right next to ours. We just arrived in our area, Helston, Cornwall. We had an appointment at 6 but they just cancelled and so now all we have tonight is a dinner appointment at 5 and then we will be knocking on doors. My trainer is Elder Simmons. He is great and is the district leader of this area. So far we seem fairly similar in intrests and mannerisms, so I think we will get along really good. My p-day is monday now, so make sure to send emails before sunday or I wont get them. I'm just going now to check out my flat. Apparently it is a real house with a washer and dryer, so its one of the better ones.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 2, 2011

We have been taught that recently the biggest change in missionary work is that before we convert the investigators, we have to convert the missionaries. That is really the focus of PMG. And so far through studying this book and the scriptures, I think my testimony really has gotten stronger. Its an amazing book, I don't know why I never bothered reading it before my mission. Actually make sure to have Riley read chapter 3 and get a basis for all the lessons before he leaves. Also have him read chapter 10. So far I would say they are the most important.

I really appreciated the times you told me about your mission before I left. I told a couple guys about your roomate that disapeared in the middle of the night and they thought it was crazy.

There are some really funny guys here. One of the Elders today mentioned that he hopes a natural disaster strikes England soon so that he can have a break for a couple days. I found out yesterday that I am the youngest guy in our district and one of the youngest here. There are a lot of guys who don't end up leaving until like 20 or 21.

Have fun working and at the cabin. I wish I could go backpacking with you guys, I'm going to miss the great outdoors.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 2, 2011

Alright, this last week we have been having a soccer tournament between the districts during gym time. Today was the final game, my district, Helaman distict vs. Nephi district. Sadly it was rained out though, so I got a little bit more time to send emails.
You've been a great mom. Its probably a lot more my fault then yours I didn't have many spiritual experiences. I still haven't had a lot here, but there have been a couple times when I feel like I asked an inspired question or took a lesson in an unplanned direction that ended up working out really well. In a devotional from David Bednar i learned that we often focus too much on whether or not what we felt was the holy ghost or just our own thoughts. His advice was don't worry about it, just do what you know is right and the holy ghost will fill your mouth as you open it and guide your steps if you are willing to take them.
Also dad, I have memorized that standard of truth quote you gave me. Me and this little chinese Elder Lee worked on it together. Actually we all call him Saint Lee.
I have been meaning since the first email to mention I really appreciated those letters you sent. I was actually the first missionary in the MTC to get a package. Also, I forgot to tell you about my street contacting. Last wednesday we went on a train into manchester and spent like three hours just wandering around the city sharing our message with people. It was really scary at first, but once we warmed up we actually had some really good discussions with people. People seem to really find it interesting that they can be with their family forever, that we have a living prophet, or that the same church Jesus Christ established in the bible is again on the earth. In these three hours we talked to a lot of people, and a lot of people told us to leave them alone or ignored us or whatever, but we actually had some sucess. We talked to this Jewish kid who was about 17 and had him commit to reading and praying about the book of mormom. A guy from africa agreed to the same thing and also to meet with local missionaries that week. We ended up placing a few more book of mormons and getting the missionaries a couple refferals, and overall it was a great experiece. It showed me that I have a lot of work to do, but it also showed me that I am able to do this. I hope eventually I will be at the point where I can help people feel the spirit while talking to them for 30 seconds on a busy sidewalk in downtown London. Hopefully one day Ill get there.
I have also realized a lot about what I need to do to be successful. In the back of my daily planner there are a bunch of 'key indicators,' like how many lessons you taught, how many progressing investigators you have, how many people attended church with you that week and how many baptisms you had along with a few other things. Everything you do should be geared towards these key indicators. I guess what I learned is that there are a lot of good things you can do but unless you use these things to help with key indicators then they are really just a waste of time. And i think that applies to life outside the mission.
This is embareassing, almost as embareassing as the fact that i don't know how to spell that word, but I have actually already gained 7 pounds here. I clearly am enjoying the food a bit too much. But I do 55 pushups and 90 situps a morning so who knows, maybe its all muscle.

Thanks for keeping me posted going on back at home. I always read it, even though I might not have time to reply to all of it.

I actually lied last week. I am still in the MTC. Tommorow morning at like 7 or some other ridiculous time we hop on a bus for a 7 hour drive down to london south. We have to drop off the Birmingham kids first.

One of the members in my district told me a great quote. 'People who say be realistic are those who never achieve greatness.' We have also been learning about goals a lot, and so I have set a goal for the number of baptisms I am going to get during my mission. I know its not just about that number, but at the same time having a goal for that will help motivate me and I will be able to work towards something. I am not going to tell you the exact number because you would just think it is unrealistic.

I really hope I get a good trainer. I have enough trouble getting out of bed at 630 as it is. I have no idea what area I am going to or who my trainer will be. I will find that all out tommorow. I am very excited to get out of here. Its really hard to concentrate right now because my companion finished his emails a few mintues ago and now he is rolling around the room on his wheeled chair, singing and talking aa lot but about nothing. I am not responding.

I just decided that in future emails I will try to refrain from mentioning anything negative about companinons.

Ya I love breakfast now. I eat this raisin bran type of cereal like every day, except it also has raisins and bananas in it, not just raisins. And they have this really good yogurt that in a container filled half with yogurt and then another half of like fruit syrup and you have to mix them together to make the yogurt taste good. It is called corner yogurt and is delicious. But I really wish I did have chicken dippits or bagel bites or any of that food like that.

I want you guys to make an effort to help the missionaries in our ward. We have been learning about how much of an effect members have on missionary work. I know that I will really appreciate it everytime a member helps me out, so if you guys ever have some time think about trying to help the ones you have.

i dont really know what day my p-day will be in the field. But i will write to you from the field next time you hear from me.
Sorry this is kind of short, I think I tried to reply to to many emails this week.

I love you guys, thanks for all the love and support.

Elder Steed