Dec 5, 2011

Hey,

I'm glad you haven't forgot about me! You both did amazing on that half marathon! I guess you are faster than we gave you credit for.

That is so cool that Riley is an Elder now. I am pretty sure that when he sends his papers in, I will be able to get permission to skype home when you guys open the envelope. As long as I keep behaving myself and stay on the Presidents good side that is. One of the greatest blessings of being an elder, and something I wish I would have done better before I left, is to be able to give priesthood blessings. It is such an amazing experience to be able to give one and really strengthens my testimony of the priesthood. It is really scary to give them, especially for the first time, but I hope Riley gets the opportunity to do that sometime soon.

If you haven't sent the pacakage yet, there is something else you could throw in there. My journal is almost full! I have wrote in my journal every single day, except maybe 2. So I need a new one.. but I want to find another nice one and I haven't seen any here. But other than that, why are you sending me another package? I don't think I need any more gifts. I did actually just send you guys a package yesterday as well. It was pretty expensive to send. It isn't much, but if you guys can wait until Christmas morning to open it that would be cool, because nothing inside is wrapped.

I'm so glad to hear that Alyssas bball team is a good team. Hopefully they can run some fast break offense and use their speed and small size to their advantage.

And no, I was not transferred. I was pretty sure I would be staying here so I wasn't to worried. But I am also pretty sure that now after Christmas I will have to leave Helston.

And here are some missionary stats for you. In my first 16 weeks, we taught an average of 11 teaches per week, with 3 of those being less-active member teaches. But, we have been having some success finding lately, and this last week we taught 17 teaches, with only 2 less active teaches! It was an awesome week, and it seemed like we were just teaching non-stop. So hopefully the work in Helston will continue to gain momentum. And as a missionary, as I'm sure you know, teaching is much more effective and enjoyable than finding. I don't mind finding, but I like teaching people a lot more. And sometimes when we find for hours on end, I find myself just kind of shutting down and just going through the motions. Which is something I am trying to work on. Having the 'faith to find.' But when it is freezing cold and raining, and everyone is just shutting their doors, it is hard not to think about great of a cook our dinner appointment is.

Alright, I will set up a skype account after I'm done emailing and send you the details next week. We have permission to call you guys on Christmas Eve, so I will call then and we can set up a time when we can skype and make sure everything goes smoothly.

Tell Brad and Toni I say hi back... I haven't had a good sushi in a long time. They don't seem to be very into that over here.

We figured out the baptism plans with Ken and Toni. Simmons is dunking Ken, and Oscarson is dunking Toni. I am confirming both of them in church on Christmas morning. I think it might be the greatest Christmas ever.

Love,

Elder Steed