Gotcha!
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Mar 11, 2012
Hey, That is really cool the temple is almost finished. I've looked at pictures and it looks like it should be a good one. I miss our Sunday dinners with the Pitchers... soon Riley and Landon will be missing from those as well. Yes I am very excited for our Euro trip next summer as well, you guys will love meeting all of these people. I think you might need to contact the mission president though and get his permission to do so. Oh, and I think that the first sunday in May is mothers day, which is coming up soon! So I will be able to call then (I don't know if I'll be able to Skype this time). I actually could call you guys this weekend, because it is European mothers day this sunday, but I have decided to wait until May as you can only pick one or the other and not both. That is great to hear about Riley's blessing, patriachal blessings are pretty cool. Did the ancient Smith dude do his again and it took like 2 and a half hours?This has been a pretty sweet week. There are a lot of highlights. First off, we just got a senior couple here in Slough! My whole mission I have not like having senior couples in the mission, because all I know about them is that they steal our cars and make us have to use buses. But now that we have some in our ward, I am really excited! They are from Idaho, and Elder Wood served his mission in London 43 years ago! They were at church yesterday, they are both really cool and both really excited about missionary work and also really wanting to come meet our investigators and do everything they can here. They are going to be setting up a YSA center, which is perfect as we have like 10 YSA age Nepalese investigators! I think it will be great to have them. Our ward here is seriously dysfunctional, and so far for the last 6 weeks we have brought someone to church, but not any of them have ever come back for a second time. So this week we decided that from now on we have to assign friends to our investiagtors. So we took people aside and told them to fellowship our investigators at church--to sit by them, introduce them to people, talk to them, and to show them when are where the classes are. It went really well yesterday! And the senior couple was awesome with talking to our investigators as well. We had the whole Baral family at church! They loved it, and the ward was really excited to have a family at church. The ward employment specialist has a foster daughter from Nepal, and so him and Dr. Baral clicked and they had a meeting for like an hour after church where they went over his resume and Visa and everything. And the connection they have with the baptist church we might be able to overcome, as the Woods daughter-in-law is acutally a baptist and so they know all about them. The other amazing thing is that last saturday when we saw dr. Baral and he was sober he told us he would never drink again. And so far, he hasn't! He has been 9 days clean now! The first like 4 days he was shaking really badly, and couldn't focus and was really weak and just struggling. But he is getting better each day. His wife is a little concerned that he may have lost his mind a little bit, but I think it will start to come back more and more. We have tried to commit them to be baptized a lot now, but they won't do it. They are very upper class Nepalese, and that means they pretty much have to be Hindus in that country. I have learned a lot about the society/culture of Nepal these last 2 weeks. The Barals don't have a permanent Visa yet, they are just here on a working Visa. And they said that Christianity is growing in Nepal, but only among the lower class. So if they aren't able to extend their Visa into citizenship, and they have to move back to Nepal, if they have converted to Christianity they said that they will be completely rejected by their families there. And in that culture, that means they would just be total outcasts. So we have a bit of a tricky situation here. The good news is that the Staines ward, which is a neighboring ward, there are like 8 active Nepalese members. One of them, who is endowed even, volunteered to help us out. So last teach with the Barals, we called him and he explained more about the Book of Mormon and overcoming family concerns in Nepali with them. It was really cool, and they talked for like 30 minutes. But the Barals and us have become such good friends. Mrs. Baral told us that she wants us to come over every single day to eat dinner with them. We know they are struggling financially, so we had to say no, but literally every time we go over there now she has prepared a really good Nepalese meal. And also the Nepalese crew of Laxman and all those guys seem to cook for us everytime we go there as well. They are the most hospitable people ever. Actually, there was one point during this week where I ate 8 meals in 29 hours. After district meeting we all went out to eat, and I bought an entire chicken and chips. Then we went to see Jay, who had cooked us a roast dinner without telling us, of chicken and potatoes and vegetables. And then we went to see Laxman and them, and they made us another big meal of pasta and some eggs. And then we had our D.A., with one of the American families in the ward, and they cooked us a ton of food. We had meatloaf. And then we went with them to young mens because we were running young mens (Lukas, the son in the Baral family, came to young mens with us. And actually, he loved it. He told his parents he had never had so much fun in his life. We played spoons and chair football and wallball and just some fun games like that). And then after young mens, the young mens president was happy so he drove us home and on the way home he stopped and bought us chicken and chips from this dodgy resturant on the high street. Like he bought us a ton of food. 4 pcs. of chicken each, a XL chips, a large box of popcorn chicken each, and a milkshake. And then he had a breakfast the next morning of leftover chicken and chips, and then a d.a. for lunch that day. I have seriously never been so sick. I used the toilet like 100 times. I was so fat. And most of this stuff happened when I was on exchange, so I had Elder Izatt with me. He just started his mission like a week ago, and so by the third meal he just couldn't eat anything and just left it on his plate. I didn't want to be rude though, so I seriously ate everything. I felt like I never wanted to eat anything ever again. I have since recovered, but I will never forget that day. The other good news is we are teaching this lady named Lee. She is like 40, english (for once!) and is single and pretty successful career wise. We had two teaches with her now, in which we talked about the plan of salvation and she loved it. She called us and asked to come to church, and so yesterday she was at church as well. It went really well, she told us that a few things that were said really resonated with her. It probably helped that this was the best sacrament meeting I have been to in this country. We had a really solid and funny 22 year old YSA girl speak, and she is a really good speaker but also had really good points. She mostly talked about youth and about her experiences as a EFY counsellor. And then the new Senior couple each talked, and they were both really good, and then we had a counsellor in the stake presidency here so he said the closing talk. It was sweet. And gospel principles was about prayer, and Lee was like asking really deep questions and having really good personal insights. So then we had to send her to relief society, alone. The greatest fear of every missionary with female investigators. She came out of there, and as she left the church she said she was confused and told us she has a lot of questions and issues she wants to talk about. I have no idea what went on in there. Other than that, we saw a 82 year old guy who just wants the company and a 20 year old guy who was intrigued when we told him we have physical evidence that God exists. Also, Ernest was supposed to be coming to church this week but was working. So he isn't getting baptized next sunday. It is really frustrating. Me and Pettersen had a really good week... we are really good friends even though we are really different. I actually really like him (most of the time).So things here are going really good. I can't believe Mom didn't email this week. love Elder Steed
Mar 4, 2012
Hey, I am glad to hear of your revelation about being impatient waiting in airports. For some reason, I am always impatient with people who are impatient in those situations. I just think it's really dumb of them to get worked up about something that they have no control over. And I think that is a life lesson, that there is no reason to get upset about something that is out of your control. That principle has definitely helped me on my mission. Because sometimes I wonder why people use their agency in such stupid ways, but it's not like I can change that. How did you send me that email if you were on a plane? It's been great to hear about how good alyssas bball is, but too bad about Jacksons team. I haven't heard from those kids in forever! How are they doing?Haha and I can't believe you are talking to me about how good of a feeling it is to walk through the front door of your home after being away for a long time. That will be the strangest feeling, but one I won't experience for about 16 more months. I am pretty sure I have that talk, Your Mission will Change Everything, already on my iPod. But I have never listened to it, so I will try to find time to listen to it this week. I just never seem to have any free time these days. I am really struggling to find time to write in my journal every day, but so far I still have not missed any. I considered for a while sending my first journal home, which I filled up around my 6 month mark, for you guys to read. But I decided against it, and you will have to wait until I am home to look through it. What is really good about Petterson is that he is almost as clean as me. He likes the house to be really clean, which is such a welcome break from the untidiness of my last companion. It is strange how every companion has different things you like about them and different things you dislike. I am still waiting for a companion who I really click with, and feel like we have made a lifelong bond. I really felt that, and still feel that, with Simmons, but since then I feel like that connection just hasn't been there. I have a lot of people emailing me... but as time goes on, they email less and less. So I used to get a weekly email, but now I am getting like a monthly email from a lot of my friends, and when they all come on the same week it means I have to try to reply quickly because I want them to reply quickly. But it still doesn't really work. What everyone says is that the first 6 months everyone writes to you, then they all forget about you in the middle year, and then the last 6 months they start to write again in anticipation of you coming home. So I will have to wait for those last 6 months I guess. Dad actually shared quite a lot of his stories with me before he left. I think we had a couple long road trips together where he told me a bunch of mission stories. I loved it. That is crazy how much Tyler struggled at first. Is he doing better now? That does sound like a really tough mission to be in... I don't care if I don't baptize 100 people, I am glad that I get to live in a developed country. I don't know if I could have served 2 years there, I might have called it quits. So its a good thing I was chosen to come to England. That is crazy how 9 of the 12 have gone home... I wonder if worldwide more missionaries are not finishing there missions. Because out of the 34 in my MTC group, I think like 5 or 6 have already gone home as well. Ernest finally came to church yesterday! He was sick of his old job and how he always had to work on Sundays, so he went to London on MOnday to look for a new job. He found a really good one and was really excited that now he could come to church. The only problem is that now he has moved to East London, and he is coming back to Slough on the weekends to live with his cousins here. We were like Ernest... this really doesn't solve the problem. He is living partly in the other mission now, so we might refer him to those missionaries or we might just baptize him here. We don't really know yet. He should be getting baptized next sunday, but because our bishop is paranoid about people going less active, he needs to come three weeks instead of just two. We also had some miracles with all our new Nepalese friends... they had us over Friday night and made us a big Nepalese food feast. We had an awesome night with them, and they want to do more studies and then be baptized, which will be awesome. And the Baral's are making progress. We went over to their house Friday morning at 1030, and Dr. Baral was as drunk as always. We rebuked him, taught him the restoration anyways, and then commited him to be sober the next morning when we would come back at 1030 to see him. When we had to leave, he said he wanted to walk us home. About half way home, we walked by a liquor store and he was like 'well guys, I will go home now, see you later.' I guessed immediatly what he was thinking, so as we walked away I walked backwards so I could watch him. He walked for a coulpe of steps back towards his house, and then glanced over his shoulder at us. He saw I was watching him, and so he started to wave goodbye to us. I waved and then turned around and started walking home, but glanced back a few seconds later, just in time to see him try to duck into the liquor store. I turned around and sprinted back to the store. I ran in, grabbed his arms, and dragged him out of the shop. We then walked him back to his house, and reminded him that he had just promised like 5 mintues ago that he would not drink again before we saw him the next morning. So I bet Petterson 100:1 odds that he would be drunk when we went back over. And miracle of miracles, we got there and he was sober. He was shaking horribly, and really on edge, but he hadn't drank, which was amazing. We watched the restoration film, talked more about the gospel, and his wife was much happier and she made us a big Nepalese feast for lunch. So perhaps there is still hope for Dr. Baral. He showed us his Ph.D. thesis paper, and it was amazing. It had a proper cover, it was like 200 pages long, and the physics in that thing was so far beyond anything I could comprehend. There would be like 4 pages in a row of just symbols that was all just one massive equation. It was all about the physics and the fluidity of glacier ice flow. I don't know what happened for him to fall to the point he is at now, but if he stops drinking he is a genius and has such amazing potential. The work here is going great, and the Lord is really blessing us. Good luck with you school/paper this week! I'm sure you will do great. Love Elder Steed
Feb 29, 2012
Hey
Moves day today. I'm staying in Slough. Elder Curran has left though.He is training a new missionary in Aldershot, which is in the same zone so I will still be seeing him around. It is pretty crazy he is training after only three moves. We had a good 6 weeks, but I am happy to be serving with Elder Petterson now. He is from Norway, and has been out for 6 months now. He seems like a good guy, he is very quiet but seems nice. We have a lot of good things going on in Slough right now. I've only just met him like 2 hours ago, I'll write more on monday. Unless you are online and want to chat for a bit.
Love Elder Steed
Moves day today. I'm staying in Slough. Elder Curran has left though.He is training a new missionary in Aldershot, which is in the same zone so I will still be seeing him around. It is pretty crazy he is training after only three moves. We had a good 6 weeks, but I am happy to be serving with Elder Petterson now. He is from Norway, and has been out for 6 months now. He seems like a good guy, he is very quiet but seems nice. We have a lot of good things going on in Slough right now. I've only just met him like 2 hours ago, I'll write more on monday. Unless you are online and want to chat for a bit.
Love Elder Steed
Feb 25, 2012
Hey,
Was I really that bad in grade 10? I thought I was worse in junior high and I was better in high school... maybe not though. So Alyssa is doing okay? Not going crazy or getting in with the wrong crew or anything?
The cruise sounds decent... I probably would rather just go hang out at our Mexico place, but I'm sure it is nice to be able to hang out with the whole Skinner crew. I can't wait to hear either the Aunt T stories, or the Allison stories. Or both.
This week I have seen possibly one of the biggest miracles of my mission. The zone leaders have been baptizing a bunch of Nepalese people, and so we have always been on the lookout for some Nepalese people to teach. So last week we met this drunk guy on the street, he gave us his phone number and we gave him ours. He called us like an hour later, totally incoherent, but I was able to get his home address out of him. Elder Jones and Elder Curran stopped by their house when we were on exchange. They met the drunk man (Dr. Baral) and his family. Dr. Baral is actually a real doctor, he has a P.h.D. in physics. I thought he was just nuts and making up the Dr. thing, but I guess not. He speaks multiple languages, and was the vice-principal of one of the top schools in Nepal. I don't know how or why, but he has thrown that all away because of alcohol. Apparently he has not been sober a single day in 2 years. He wakes up still drunk from the night before and just starts immediatly. He is jobless, and his family is going through a really tough time because of his choices. His wife is working like non-stop to try and pay the bills and take care of their
2 kids. One is 9 and one is 11, and they are both really bright kids.
They are such an amazing family, except for the dad. I don't know how to help him. The addiction recovery program is too far away. All I can really do is to pray for him and try to teach him. I have not yet seen him anywhere near sober, but we will teach him anyways. And the Bishop said that he can come to church as long as he isn't rude to people.
His family is so amazing though. They came to church with us yesterday, and really enjoyed it. And the wife, Mrs. Baral, introduced us to 3 of her friends from Nepal who live in Slough also. They are all early 20's, and are all going to univeristy here. 2 already have their masters degrees and one of them is just finishing his degree.
They were raised Hindu, but said they have realized how it is not true. Last night, we got a member to drive us to the London Temple to go to a fireside hosted by Pres. and Sis. Shamo, and we took two of these Neplaese guys with us! Laxman and Arbind, and they loved it, and they loved the temple. The best thing was, all these Nepalese people that have just been baptized recently by the zone leaders were there as well, and they all started talking. All of the Nepalese started to walk around the temple grounds together, and one of the (who is a very strong and endowed member) started to teach these guys and testify to them. They also have 2 other house-mates that we haven't even met yet!
So we have like 10 new Nepalese people we can start working with. They are going to have us over Friday and cook us dinner, which will be awesome. They have met with Jehova's witnesses quite a bit, but we will just teach them about the truth. They all believe in Jesus, and after last night they said they would like more teachings and to be baptized. It almost seems to good to be true. I am so excited for all of this, and I pray I do not leave Slough on Wednesday.
That was pretty much the highlight of the week for me. Tonight we are taking Ernest with us to the temple visitors center, which should be awesome as well. He keeps having to work Sunday's, so he can't come to church. But we called him today and he was in London looking for a new job which I thought was pretty cool. He really wants to get baptized.
We have lost a lot of ground with Jay and Amit, we didn't see them at all this week and Amit has made up his mind and Jay is just unable to take a stand. They are great guys, but we are no longer going to teach them at the same time as it just doesn't work. We are still working with a lot of great people, but the Nepalese people seem to be my main focus at the moment. We are going with them tomorrow to distriubte photos of Dr. Baral to all the local shops and try to get them to agree to stop selling him alcohol. Mrs. Baral just doesn't want any government involvement (such as health care or the police) because she is afraid it will jeapordize them being able to switch their skilled-workers VISA into UK citizenship. It is a tough situation, but we will find a way through it.
I hope you guys have a great time on the cruise, give everyone my love.
Love Elder Steed
Was I really that bad in grade 10? I thought I was worse in junior high and I was better in high school... maybe not though. So Alyssa is doing okay? Not going crazy or getting in with the wrong crew or anything?
The cruise sounds decent... I probably would rather just go hang out at our Mexico place, but I'm sure it is nice to be able to hang out with the whole Skinner crew. I can't wait to hear either the Aunt T stories, or the Allison stories. Or both.
This week I have seen possibly one of the biggest miracles of my mission. The zone leaders have been baptizing a bunch of Nepalese people, and so we have always been on the lookout for some Nepalese people to teach. So last week we met this drunk guy on the street, he gave us his phone number and we gave him ours. He called us like an hour later, totally incoherent, but I was able to get his home address out of him. Elder Jones and Elder Curran stopped by their house when we were on exchange. They met the drunk man (Dr. Baral) and his family. Dr. Baral is actually a real doctor, he has a P.h.D. in physics. I thought he was just nuts and making up the Dr. thing, but I guess not. He speaks multiple languages, and was the vice-principal of one of the top schools in Nepal. I don't know how or why, but he has thrown that all away because of alcohol. Apparently he has not been sober a single day in 2 years. He wakes up still drunk from the night before and just starts immediatly. He is jobless, and his family is going through a really tough time because of his choices. His wife is working like non-stop to try and pay the bills and take care of their
2 kids. One is 9 and one is 11, and they are both really bright kids.
They are such an amazing family, except for the dad. I don't know how to help him. The addiction recovery program is too far away. All I can really do is to pray for him and try to teach him. I have not yet seen him anywhere near sober, but we will teach him anyways. And the Bishop said that he can come to church as long as he isn't rude to people.
His family is so amazing though. They came to church with us yesterday, and really enjoyed it. And the wife, Mrs. Baral, introduced us to 3 of her friends from Nepal who live in Slough also. They are all early 20's, and are all going to univeristy here. 2 already have their masters degrees and one of them is just finishing his degree.
They were raised Hindu, but said they have realized how it is not true. Last night, we got a member to drive us to the London Temple to go to a fireside hosted by Pres. and Sis. Shamo, and we took two of these Neplaese guys with us! Laxman and Arbind, and they loved it, and they loved the temple. The best thing was, all these Nepalese people that have just been baptized recently by the zone leaders were there as well, and they all started talking. All of the Nepalese started to walk around the temple grounds together, and one of the (who is a very strong and endowed member) started to teach these guys and testify to them. They also have 2 other house-mates that we haven't even met yet!
So we have like 10 new Nepalese people we can start working with. They are going to have us over Friday and cook us dinner, which will be awesome. They have met with Jehova's witnesses quite a bit, but we will just teach them about the truth. They all believe in Jesus, and after last night they said they would like more teachings and to be baptized. It almost seems to good to be true. I am so excited for all of this, and I pray I do not leave Slough on Wednesday.
That was pretty much the highlight of the week for me. Tonight we are taking Ernest with us to the temple visitors center, which should be awesome as well. He keeps having to work Sunday's, so he can't come to church. But we called him today and he was in London looking for a new job which I thought was pretty cool. He really wants to get baptized.
We have lost a lot of ground with Jay and Amit, we didn't see them at all this week and Amit has made up his mind and Jay is just unable to take a stand. They are great guys, but we are no longer going to teach them at the same time as it just doesn't work. We are still working with a lot of great people, but the Nepalese people seem to be my main focus at the moment. We are going with them tomorrow to distriubte photos of Dr. Baral to all the local shops and try to get them to agree to stop selling him alcohol. Mrs. Baral just doesn't want any government involvement (such as health care or the police) because she is afraid it will jeapordize them being able to switch their skilled-workers VISA into UK citizenship. It is a tough situation, but we will find a way through it.
I hope you guys have a great time on the cruise, give everyone my love.
Love Elder Steed
Feb 19, 2012
Hey Dad,Thanks for sending that photo, it is good to see you all. You look really tired though in that photo. I did manage to buy a cord for my camera. However, I got it at a really dodgy shop. It is a really big shop, but just has one tiny desk with some cords hanging on the wall behind it then just a ton of empty space. There were like 4 guys working at the same time, and none of them seemed to be doing anything. They were all Indian as well. They made me bring my camera into the shop, and then just opened up this drawer and starting pulling out loose cords. They tried a couple, and finally found one that fit my camera's USB port. I was like 'How do I know this works?' So they turned their laptop around that was sitting on the desk and let me plug my camera into it and make sure it connected, which it did. They then took the cord and put it in a ziploc bag for me. Needless to say, they only accepted cash. I had to pull some money out, but I pulled it out of my debit account because I don't think they charge me the cash advance charge like my VISA does. It was only 8 quid, so not to bad.
Alyssa's team sounds awesome in basketball. And next week you need to get me in on the Flames game betting. I'll give you my predicitons over email!We had another good week. Yesterday was really funny... a lot of the people who were supposed to be coming to church bailed. Jay, who was supposed to be baptized on Feb. 26, has backed out of his baptism because of his atheist friend and also he just hasn't recognized his answer. That was on saturday, and that was really disapointing. Ernest was also working again this Sunday. He really wants to be baptized, but can't seem to get work off Sunday's. We are going to see him in an hour. But we did manage to get Alla and Shivonne there. Alla is lady from Latvia who speaks Russian but does pretty good English. She was a teacher in Latvia and is going to college here to become a teacher assistant. She is really funny, and I think she mostly wanted to come to church to talk to our ward employment specialist. He really helped her, but I also think she really enjoyed church (although she said it was too long) and loved meeting all the people. She doesn't know very many people here yet. We had munch and mingle after church as well which is always good for investigators. Amazingly, we have a lady in the ward also from Latvia who speaks Russian who we are going to try and work with. Shivonne is the lady that has a lot of issues, I think I mentioned her in an earlier email. She has like OCD and depression and stuff. She is carrying around a ton of baggage and unresolved issues from her past. Our gospel principles lesson was on the plan of salvation, but it turned into a discussion about repentance and forgiveness. At the end of the class, I noticed Shivonne was crying. Everyone left and me and Curran stayed behind, and she broke down. She asked if she could just speak with me, so Curran left and she started telling me all these things she has never been able to come to terms with from her past. This was crazy stuff, and I had no idea what to say, so I just sat there and listened. After like 30 minutes, we went and got her friend Sandra (Sandra gave her a lift to church and has been coming on a lot of the teaches with us) and they went off and talked for another hour about everything. When they finished talking, Shivonne was happy and laughing and said she is going to really try to learn about this church and try to overcome these things through Jesus Christ. It was really weird at first but I think it ended up being what needed to happen today. After church is when things got funny. We had our Elder quorum president drive us and Alla home. He might have a crush on her... they are both like late 50's or 60 and single, and Robin (the EQP) was driving like a maniac, I'm pretty sure he was just trying to show off. Me and Curran were busting up laughing in the back seat. After we dropped her off, we went to stop by a potential. We were going to knock on the door, when Curran turned around and yelled 'ROBIN!' Turns out he had forgot his handbrake. His car was rolling away down the road towards a house. Robin took off after it, and we both froze for a second and then sprinted after him as well. The car got over the curb going towards the house, but we all jumped in front of it and managed to stop it. It also helped that it went into the hedge of this persons house which slowed it down. We quickly left and went to another potentials house. Also yesterday as we were making phone calls, we called a refferall we got from another set of missionaries. Turns out, this guy was also a gyspy. He seemed really interested on the phone, but eventually the topic turned to money as it always does with gypsies. As soon as Elder Curran said the words 'We can't help with money, but we can help with Jesus Christ,' he immediatly hung up the phone and wouldn't take any more of our calls. We thought it was really funny. Also this week we got to go to zone conference. It was really good, it is always great to see some of the guys I haven't seen for a while. Like Elder White was there, who was my zone leader for my 6 months in Helston. And one of the AP's, the same AP that was there to greet me after I got off the bus from the MTC, goes home in like 2 days. He was a great guy, and it was good to get to say goodbye to him before he goes home. Transfer week is next week! I am hoping I can stay in Slough again, it would suck to be moved again after 6 weeks and just as I'm settling in. What else happened... I got a Swiss Elder to order me a awesome Swiss army knife from back home. And we met this really cool guy named Jarome who is 20 and seemed really interested... we taught him the restoration and he loved it. But when we went to pick him up for church on Sunday, no one was home. Hopefully we can find him again. Well I am having difficulty with my camera getting photos uploaded... these library computers stop you from doing a lot of stuff. I will try to send some in another email. Other than that, it's been a pretty normal week. We did manage to get 5 d.a.'s this week though! Which is better than our usual 1 or 2. Hope you guys have a good week! Love Elder Steed
Alyssa's team sounds awesome in basketball. And next week you need to get me in on the Flames game betting. I'll give you my predicitons over email!We had another good week. Yesterday was really funny... a lot of the people who were supposed to be coming to church bailed. Jay, who was supposed to be baptized on Feb. 26, has backed out of his baptism because of his atheist friend and also he just hasn't recognized his answer. That was on saturday, and that was really disapointing. Ernest was also working again this Sunday. He really wants to be baptized, but can't seem to get work off Sunday's. We are going to see him in an hour. But we did manage to get Alla and Shivonne there. Alla is lady from Latvia who speaks Russian but does pretty good English. She was a teacher in Latvia and is going to college here to become a teacher assistant. She is really funny, and I think she mostly wanted to come to church to talk to our ward employment specialist. He really helped her, but I also think she really enjoyed church (although she said it was too long) and loved meeting all the people. She doesn't know very many people here yet. We had munch and mingle after church as well which is always good for investigators. Amazingly, we have a lady in the ward also from Latvia who speaks Russian who we are going to try and work with. Shivonne is the lady that has a lot of issues, I think I mentioned her in an earlier email. She has like OCD and depression and stuff. She is carrying around a ton of baggage and unresolved issues from her past. Our gospel principles lesson was on the plan of salvation, but it turned into a discussion about repentance and forgiveness. At the end of the class, I noticed Shivonne was crying. Everyone left and me and Curran stayed behind, and she broke down. She asked if she could just speak with me, so Curran left and she started telling me all these things she has never been able to come to terms with from her past. This was crazy stuff, and I had no idea what to say, so I just sat there and listened. After like 30 minutes, we went and got her friend Sandra (Sandra gave her a lift to church and has been coming on a lot of the teaches with us) and they went off and talked for another hour about everything. When they finished talking, Shivonne was happy and laughing and said she is going to really try to learn about this church and try to overcome these things through Jesus Christ. It was really weird at first but I think it ended up being what needed to happen today. After church is when things got funny. We had our Elder quorum president drive us and Alla home. He might have a crush on her... they are both like late 50's or 60 and single, and Robin (the EQP) was driving like a maniac, I'm pretty sure he was just trying to show off. Me and Curran were busting up laughing in the back seat. After we dropped her off, we went to stop by a potential. We were going to knock on the door, when Curran turned around and yelled 'ROBIN!' Turns out he had forgot his handbrake. His car was rolling away down the road towards a house. Robin took off after it, and we both froze for a second and then sprinted after him as well. The car got over the curb going towards the house, but we all jumped in front of it and managed to stop it. It also helped that it went into the hedge of this persons house which slowed it down. We quickly left and went to another potentials house. Also yesterday as we were making phone calls, we called a refferall we got from another set of missionaries. Turns out, this guy was also a gyspy. He seemed really interested on the phone, but eventually the topic turned to money as it always does with gypsies. As soon as Elder Curran said the words 'We can't help with money, but we can help with Jesus Christ,' he immediatly hung up the phone and wouldn't take any more of our calls. We thought it was really funny. Also this week we got to go to zone conference. It was really good, it is always great to see some of the guys I haven't seen for a while. Like Elder White was there, who was my zone leader for my 6 months in Helston. And one of the AP's, the same AP that was there to greet me after I got off the bus from the MTC, goes home in like 2 days. He was a great guy, and it was good to get to say goodbye to him before he goes home. Transfer week is next week! I am hoping I can stay in Slough again, it would suck to be moved again after 6 weeks and just as I'm settling in. What else happened... I got a Swiss Elder to order me a awesome Swiss army knife from back home. And we met this really cool guy named Jarome who is 20 and seemed really interested... we taught him the restoration and he loved it. But when we went to pick him up for church on Sunday, no one was home. Hopefully we can find him again. Well I am having difficulty with my camera getting photos uploaded... these library computers stop you from doing a lot of stuff. I will try to send some in another email. Other than that, it's been a pretty normal week. We did manage to get 5 d.a.'s this week though! Which is better than our usual 1 or 2. Hope you guys have a good week! Love Elder Steed
Feb 19, 2012
Hey Mom,I didn't get many emails this week, so I have time for a good email. I can't imagine a branch of 5 people... what do they do when they have no visitors?
For the first few months I thought a mission was the hardest thing I had ever done. I thought Dad was crazy, because he always said how missions aren't hard. But it is actually somewhat true... there are just no worries out here. You don't have to worry about friends, or money, or your job, or homework, or anything like that. The only worry is really for the people you teach. But these last 5 weeks have just flown by, it feels like I have just got to Slough a week or two ago. I wouldn't say it is easy, but I would say that being a missionary is something that I honestly enjoy.So Riley and Amanda broke up but he still went and stayed with them? Weird. Sounds fun though. The Fairmont trip sounds awesome, I can't wait until I can snowboard and everything again. But ya, I imagine the May Long weekend trip being cancelled was not a popular decision... they are probably old enough that they could just go down by themselves and camp there if they really wanted to though. That's what I would want to do, May Long at Fairmont is classic.I'll talk about my week in dad's letter, but I guess if you are curious I can share some insights with you from my personal study. Every morning I study Preach My Gospel for 30 mintues, and then study the BoM for 30 mintues. It is slow going, but yesterday I studied 2 Nephi chapter 8. Obviously a lot of my insights might seem dumb or obvious, but I just try to break each chapter down verse by verse. verse 1: significance of family history. 3: The Lord will not only comfort the people of zion, he will make the area or land of zion comfortable. 4-8: Notice how many times the Lord (this chapter is Isaiah speaking as if he is the Lord) says the words me, my or mine. He is trying to help us understand him and tell us what he can do and what he will do. Then in verse 8 we learn that if we can understand him, we will not fear men. (for verse 5, see 1 Nephi 22:4). 9-11: Isaiah changes the point of view. He is now speaking on behalf of the children of Israel. They are offering a plea unto the Lord for help. Notice how the Lord 'wounded' and 'cut' Rahab (Egypt in the days of Moses) and the Dragon (satan) and didn't kill or destroy them. 12-15: The Lord answers the plea of the children of Israel. Trust the Lord, not in the arm of flesh. See 2 Nephi 4:34.16: Amazing missionary scripture. 20: See Revelations 11:1-12.21: See 2 Nephi 6:18. 23: The Lords people have been in spiritual bondage (notice the reference to the soul being asked to bow) as well as physical bondage. 24-25: If Zion (or Jerusalem, or the Children of Israel or whatever) remember the Lord, then they will come out on top. That's it, I think these Isaiah chapters are much deeper than the level I am at, but if you can see anything else really interesting in that chapter I would love to hear your or dad's insights. Love Elder Steed
For the first few months I thought a mission was the hardest thing I had ever done. I thought Dad was crazy, because he always said how missions aren't hard. But it is actually somewhat true... there are just no worries out here. You don't have to worry about friends, or money, or your job, or homework, or anything like that. The only worry is really for the people you teach. But these last 5 weeks have just flown by, it feels like I have just got to Slough a week or two ago. I wouldn't say it is easy, but I would say that being a missionary is something that I honestly enjoy.So Riley and Amanda broke up but he still went and stayed with them? Weird. Sounds fun though. The Fairmont trip sounds awesome, I can't wait until I can snowboard and everything again. But ya, I imagine the May Long weekend trip being cancelled was not a popular decision... they are probably old enough that they could just go down by themselves and camp there if they really wanted to though. That's what I would want to do, May Long at Fairmont is classic.I'll talk about my week in dad's letter, but I guess if you are curious I can share some insights with you from my personal study. Every morning I study Preach My Gospel for 30 mintues, and then study the BoM for 30 mintues. It is slow going, but yesterday I studied 2 Nephi chapter 8. Obviously a lot of my insights might seem dumb or obvious, but I just try to break each chapter down verse by verse. verse 1: significance of family history. 3: The Lord will not only comfort the people of zion, he will make the area or land of zion comfortable. 4-8: Notice how many times the Lord (this chapter is Isaiah speaking as if he is the Lord) says the words me, my or mine. He is trying to help us understand him and tell us what he can do and what he will do. Then in verse 8 we learn that if we can understand him, we will not fear men. (for verse 5, see 1 Nephi 22:4). 9-11: Isaiah changes the point of view. He is now speaking on behalf of the children of Israel. They are offering a plea unto the Lord for help. Notice how the Lord 'wounded' and 'cut' Rahab (Egypt in the days of Moses) and the Dragon (satan) and didn't kill or destroy them. 12-15: The Lord answers the plea of the children of Israel. Trust the Lord, not in the arm of flesh. See 2 Nephi 4:34.16: Amazing missionary scripture. 20: See Revelations 11:1-12.21: See 2 Nephi 6:18. 23: The Lords people have been in spiritual bondage (notice the reference to the soul being asked to bow) as well as physical bondage. 24-25: If Zion (or Jerusalem, or the Children of Israel or whatever) remember the Lord, then they will come out on top. That's it, I think these Isaiah chapters are much deeper than the level I am at, but if you can see anything else really interesting in that chapter I would love to hear your or dad's insights. Love Elder Steed
Feb 12, 2012
That seriously sounds like an amazing lesson you taught them. The video at the end with Janie and Connor sounds genius. The church needs more lessons like that, I'm sure the girls really appreciated how much time you put into that and I'm sure it went great. I don't have a ton of time to write. I was looking online with Elder Jones for the right swiss army knife, but I found a good one. I have met many people from India now. They all seem to just be really nice people. Especially the Seikhs. I'm really excited, as always, to hear about Rileys progress. The patriarachal blessing will be so good. I don't read mine nearly enough. And before he knows it he will have his mission call. I will have been out about a year by then!Haha was that the video with Janie and Riley as well? I don't know if I remember that one... unless it was the one where we were acting really gay. I just remembered a really good thing said by Elder Bednar at the conference when he addressed all of us missionaries. Someone asked him why there were no longer any really bold prophecies in today's world, but in the 1800's there were a ton. He went on to prophecy that there will be 100's of millions of saints. He then talked about the family proclomation to the world. Back in 1995, no one would have thought that a proclomation of that nature was neccessary. But now, when if you don't believe in gay rights you are a bigot, anyone could see how inspired that document really was. Thanks for the great email, as always, make sure to always keep me posted on what is going on in your guys' life. Love Elder Steed
Feb 12, 2012
I really should get a cord for my camera. The other problem is that I left my charger for the battery in Helston but I will be getting that back on Wednesday. We have a big half-mission conference in Crawley on wednesday, which I always look forward to. I am starting to know most of the missionaries, and it is always really good to get to go and hear from Pres. Shamo and just get to see all the other Elders. This week has been sort of a crazy week... mostly because of the district here was starting to fall apart. Everyone just seemed to start cracking all at the same time. Luckily Elder Jones, one of my really good friends from the MTC is just a really solid guy and really helped to hold everything together. I went on exchange with him on Wednesday, he served a year in the swiss military before he came out, and he is very wise and just someone good to talk to. I actually just got off the phone with him. He is ordering me a genuine swiss army knife for my 72 hour kit. I am going to get the rest of it together next monday. I already found a lightweight sleeping bag in the flat. Yesterday was a really good day. It started out badly, as Jay and Ernest both couldn't make it to church. THen Shivonne texted us and she said she felt ill. And Cherise and Lilieth didn't show up either. That is, until about 11 when a lady sitting in front of me said she saw two african ladies, through the tiny window in the chapel door, walk into the church and then turn around and walk out. I ran out of the meeting, grabbed a jamaican sister who just happened to be in the hallway, and got out to the parking lot just in time to stop them from driving off. It was CHerise and Lilieth, and they said they got lost and were really embareassed they were so late and so they would just come next week. We managed to talk them into staying, and I think they really enjoyed it. Their 7 year old daughter loved primary as well. Our ward mission leader was supposed to teach gospel principles, but at the last minute said that he wouldn't be able to anymore. So we did an impromptu lesson about the sacrament that I thought went okay. They both said that they really liked how at our church we have discussions and not just get talked to. And then after church we called Jay, and Ernest, and they were both free. So we got our Elders QUorum presidnet to drive us all to Staines, the stake center, where Pres. and Sis. Shamo gave a fireside about the BoM. They both met a lot of people, a lot of recent converts as well, and both said they had a really good time. I sadly missed the whole thing, as I had to interview 3 people for the zone leaders who they are baptizing next week, but I was finished in time to get some of the refreshments at the end. Jay had a really rough week. He really is getting a hard time from his landlady and her family (who he lives with) for his investigation into our church. It got so bad this week that he is being forced to move out. He does so much for them, just because of his gratitude and his love for them, he cooks meals for them and cleans up after them everyday. And yet they have been treating him horribly. He says he is feeling really confused and is facing a lot of opposition, which is why he didn't come to church. But we managed to talk him into coming to the fireside. He just needed to realize when we are down that is when we most need to turn to the Lord, and not the other way around. I think it uplifted him a bit, Pres. Shamo is a pretty spiritual dude. Another really cool thing this week was the help of this guy named Elvis in our ward. He is Phillipino, and I guess loves working with missionaries but none of them had talked to him for a while. Last sunday we were talking and he told me he wanted to come out with us on tuesday. So for like 4 hours tuesday morning he came with us, knocking doors and teaching lessons and driving us around. He is such a funny guy. One of the lessons he started talking about how he was into drugs and stealing stuff and violence and all this crazy stuff before he was baptized, and then after his baptism how he changed. The investigator was like 'wow, how old were you?' Turns out he was baptized at age 10. I don't know how he got up to all the stuff at that age. And as we were walking by this fruit stand, he stopped and asked the guy what a bowl of oranges cost. He asked for two bowls, but then saw this huge crate of oranges. He bought the crate instead for like 10 pounds. THere were literally at least 50 oranges in there. And he knocked off like 4 of them in the next five minutes, and kept trying to get us to eat more and more of them. I could only eat two. Elder Curran only ate one. He only eats maybe 50% of the meals that members feed us as well... most of the time he just says he isn't hungry after he takes one bite. He is very picky. Maybe this is why we get like no D.A.s here...Anyways, it was a pretty good week. It still isn't Helston, and never will be, but I am starting to warm up to the place. We have some great investigators and ward members here, and I am really enjoying my time here. We actually had another big snowfall this week. Not as big as the first one though.THe address I gave you is wrong. THe real one isFlat 3 Stoke house23 Upton ParkSlough, BerkshireSL1 2DAWe live in a flat (apartment). The lady that lives under us is always smacking her roof to tell us that we are too loud, even though we are very respectful and quiet. I think she is a little bit crazy. That snowmobiling sounds pretty cool. I would love to do that, but it sounds like it might have been dangerous. Falling off the snowmobile multiple times?Windsor castle cost 17 pounds to get into, and I'm trying to be better with my credit card so I didn't go in. Some Elders did, and the rest of us had a big snowball fight in a field and played some snow soccer. It was still pretty good though. Ya we are very close to Heathrow. I don't really notice many planes though. That is too bad that video didnt fit... I would seriously have loved to see that. Hope all is well back in Canada. You got any good missionary stories yet seeing as you are ward missionary?Love Elder Steed
Feb 12, 2012
Mom made you give a lesson? What kind of lesson? And haha that is funny, because I just love waking up Monday morning and thinking of the whole day ahead of me to relax. Slough actually is pretty good, it is kind of a rough area but so far I have always felt safe. And no way! Longboarding in Febuary? That is pretty sweet, I wish it was that nice over here. Okay... you want a good story.Do you know what gypsies are? Well over here, they are people from Eastern Europe that come to places like England to try to pickpocket people. They usually live either in tiny flats with like 20 of them or outside in tents, and they are always trying to avoid paying taxes and rent and just doing all kinds of dodgy things for money. This week, we had some other missionaries tell us to go try by a lady named Sarah, and they gave us her address. I guess they met Sara while street contacting and they found out she lived in our area. So we went over there, and knocked on the door. THey let us in and seemed really happy to see us. We came in and sat down, and in horrible English asked us 'OKay, so why are you here?' We were like 'we teach people about Jesus Christ.' They said 'Okay...' And we are like can we teach you? They said 'yes...' and we are like 'right now?' And they are like 'sure.' I had no idea what to say, they couldn't really understand basic English let alone the discussions we share. So we just tried to tell them about the BoM. Elder Curran didn't help me out at all either, he just sat there and said nothing. BEfore we left, one of the men just said like 'I need help.' And he led us upstairs to a bedroom. He told us that is was Sarahs bedroom, and sara didn't have enough money to pay the rent. He started asking us to pay rent for her. We are like 'no... we are not paying your rent.' He kept persisting and we just kept telling him no. We go back downstairs. We asked Sara if we could come teach her more another day. She said 'sure' and so we said when should we come back? THen she told us 'I don't live here.' We are all like 'What?? We just saw your room and know you need to pay rent.' She is like 'no, I live somewhere else now.' I was like 'no you don't your room is upstairs.' She kept saying she lived somewhere else so I was like 'Okay, where do you live?' Then she was like 'I forget.' 'You forget where you live?' 'Yes.' So I ask okay, well can we get your mobile number? She said she doesn't have one. I was like, you called us on a cell phone last week, what was that? She said it was her friends. At this point I was just trying so hard to laugh because it had got to the point where it was just so ridiculous. We said we have to go, and left. But I can now say that I have tried to teach gypsies the gospel. It might have been one of those things you had to be there for. Anyways, hopefully that brigthens your MOnday a little bit. Love ELder Steed
Feb 5, 2012
Wow, you guys had a crazy week it sounds like. I can't wait to see Alyssa play some ball when she is in grade 12, sounds like some pretty exciting games. And like always, no one seems to be able to beat those southern alberta teams. I would love some sushi. It isn't a big thing at all here, most people haven't even tried it. All those historical details about the world at the time of the Bible and Book of Mormon are fascinating to me as well. If you find any really cool things out you should tell me. Coming into London a lot more people know the Bible and will try to use the Bible to prove our church is false (we call this bashing). I try to never bash, or get in arguments, but knowing your bible and especially the context of the bible seems to help a lot. Those guys all got their mission calls!! That is so sweet, they sound like they are all going to awesome places. I would have loved to go to Montreal. And Connor might not even be coming back alive from Nicaragua. I guess Riley and Landon are next. Tell Riley to get his started, because if he gets his call when Pres. Shamo is in office, there might be a chance I could skype home while you guys open it. But that isn't guaranteed even with him. It really is a colorful week. All of these African people are really nice, but they seem to have no concept of time. We set an appointment, and we show up on time, and no one is in. We call them, and they are like an hour away or in another city or something. So we call people like everyday for 3 days leading up to the appointment to make sure they know about it. It snowed here two days ago! It was actually quite a snowstorm, and it left about 2 inches of snow on the ground. If that. The whole city just ground to a halt. They have no way of clearing the snow other than salting it. So 2 of the Elders in this district had their church meetings cancelled, and ours was just a two hour service with less than half the usual attendance. It was so crazy to see the whole country just fall apart because of a little snow. We did manage to get Jay out though, and he really enjoyed testimony meeting. He really wanted to go up and talk as well, but he chickened out in the end. We also had this guy Eric at church, a Ghanian who I literally cannot understand a word he says but I know he is speaking English. He was supposed to be baptized last week but always cancels when he have appointments. Ernest didn't make it to church, because of the snow. Same with Cherise and her mom Lileth. Another of our investigators Spencer is just too lazy to come I think. He always cancells saturday night. Another lady Victoria was busy with work or something. Amit had to study for exams. Patrick was busy with something. We have a lot of investigators, but it is proving difficult to get them out to church. The ward here is really great. We are finding a few really solid members that are willing to come on lots of teaches with us. We had 9 teaches this week with members present! That probably means like nothing to you, but that really shows that this ward is on board with the missionary effort. We usually get like 3 member present teaches and the most I ever had before this week was 7 and that was my first week in the mission. Ernest is the most prepared investigator ever. We taught him on Saturday and the first thing he said to me when he finally got home an hour later than we planned, was 'Steed, I am eager to be a Mormon.' He also said he wants to be '100% mormon and then go back to Ghana and be the prophet.' Haha.... we should probably clear that up one of these days. He is always telling us about how the BoM clarifies the Bible and helps him to understand it, but he has only read like the first few chapters. This is also the barber shop guy. He can always get us laughing when we teach him, and he is an amazing guy. I don't know if I've mentioned Cherise and Lileth, but they are a Jamaican mother and daughter that we have the craziest teaches with. Every time we ask Lilieth a question, she manages to turn it around and relate it to how when we are faced with temptation, we must yell 'The Blood of Jesus!' And she does this repeatedly in every teach, and shakes first fist in the air and everything. So we have stopped asking her questions. Cherise is solid though. She is just trying to find the true church she says and she said that these teaches have opened her eyes. After we taught Cherise last, we had some free time so we knocked some of the flats in her building. One of them had a no cold callers sign on the door, so we skipped it. Not long after, Elder Curran went back and felt like he should put a card through the mail slot, and put our number on it. The next day, I got a phone call from Shivonne. It took me a while on the phone to figure out who she was, but then I realzied it was the lady with the no cold calling sign on her door! She called us back! She said she wanted us to come over and teach her more about Jesus Christ. We felt this was such a miracle, and we got over there as quickly as we could. Turns out she has family issues and struggles with depression, and she really says she just is unhappy and hopeless. We taught her a bit about the Atonement, and we are going back on Tuesday. She really needs the gospel, and she is really open to it. Oh ya just a heads up, Jay menitoned that he wanted to come to Canada one day. I said if he did, he could come stay at our house. He immediatly took me up on that offer, and has made plans to come next summer. He is seriously already making travel plans, so that is seeming like it is definintely happening. He has a step daughter in Calgary as well. He is 44, but a really cool guy and I think it would actually be fun to have him over. He is getting baptized on the 25th if all goes well. Same day as Ernest. Well, we have a zone pday today at Windsor castle. because of the snow, it is going to be tough to play any football, but we might have a snowball fight. The zone leaders can be pretty lame sometimes, so they didn't feel like having a zone pday and in the end I had to organize it. But it should be really fun. One of my best friends from the MTC is the other district leader here, and so it will be nice to get to see him again. Have you guys still be emailing Ken and or Toni? I think they are doing great, and me and Ken have started this tradition of always talking to each other on Sunday nights before I go to bed. It is nice just to talk with him and be reminded of those great Helston days. I can't wait until they get to Canada or America or you guys come here and get to meet them. Well I better go. Thanks for writing, I loved hearing about your guys' week and I hope you enjoyed hearing about mine as well. 'Be obedient and wise.' I like how every week you end your email with a little nugget of wisdom. I try to do both of those things, but I still am always trying to do better. Love Elder Steed
Jan 29, 2012
Hey Dad,
That is so cool Jackson has the priesthood now. That is so amazing, he is going to love passing the sacrament on Sundays. Was he pretty excited about it? Him and Riley have both taken big steps in the priesthood, that is really cool. We really did have a crazy deacons quorum. I really do hope that Jackson's will be a bunch of solid guys that get on missions, I think that helps a lot. Finding is something that I have definitly improved in, but I still have a long way to go. There are some missionaries I have seen who seem to be able to strike up a gospel conversation with just about anyone. I have a long way to go to get to that point. I mentioned in the email to mom we had a really funny teach with Ernest.
We came to his house at the right time, but he wasn't in so we called him. He said he was at 'MoJeezy's,' a 'barbering' shop. We had no idea where or what this was, but eventually found it. It was this hair salon on like the 5th story of this run down building. As we climbed the stairs, we heard this really loud bass pumping. And the advertising sign for MoJeezy's said that it was open from 10am until 'late.' That was a bad sign right off the bat. Oh, and we had like our 60 year old ward mission leader with us. We get to the door of the salon and go in, and there are like 20 african guys in there. They all just stop and turn and stare at us. We are two white guys in suits with this other old, bald white guy. I just froze, I was thinking something along the lines of 'Oh no, I'm going to die,' but then Ernest called out from the back of the shop 'Steed! Whats up!' and I finally saw him and then everyone was cool. This hair salon was like nothing I have ever seen. There were like 6 chairs and barbers in this place, but like 4 couches around the outside of the room where all these african guys who weren't even getting haircuts were just hanging out. Once Ernest said hi to us, they were really cool and made room for us on a couch and talked with us a bit. There was this big flatscreen TV and music just pumping, like these crazy African electronic beats. The barbers were all black guys in their 20's, and they were all like dancing and singing along to the songs. They seemed to be mostly just talking to each other, like everyone in their must have been a regular cause they were all just like joking and messing around. It was like this weird hair cutting party. And no scissors were in sight. They all had clippers, and they were cutting all these guys' hair that was already like shaved off. Seriously, the haircuts took like 30 mintues, and by the end the hair looked exactly the same. They just ran the clippers over their heads. Me and Curran were just loving it, but our WML was a little bit uncomfortable I think, he mostly just stood by the door. Ernest finally got out of there, we asked if they would cut our hair and they said they can actually use scissors so yes they could, and we finally got to Ernest's house. On the way, Ernest told us that he really wants to be a prophet but he realizes how hard it is to become a prophet. By the time we got to his place, we didn't have a lot of time, so we talked about the Book of Mormon. I think Ernest might have been a bit confused by our last teach, as at the end of this one he said that he wanted the prophet to pray, and they pointed at Bro. Jolley, our ward mission leader. We were like 'What??' But just went with it. We will talk about that with him later. It was easily the best night in Slough I have had.
We also had a really great D.A. after church yesterday. It was with the Hitchens, they had like 3 kids in their 20's who were there so it was really cool to talk with them for a bit, as we had no YSA in Helston and it is nice to interat with people of the same age. The dad though, who is a solid member, kept trying to show us episodes of his favorite TV shows, and one of the guys just wanted to show us biking videos on youtube. It was pretty funny, we had a good time with them and they made a really great BBQ.
That experience with Ken and Chris this week really does make everything worth it. It is just incredible how it has all worked out. I hope your week went well as well. Are you working a lot or are you still getting pretty good hours?I am going to come home and be a big fatty and you will be in great shape. You are going to have to coach me when I get home.
Love Elder Steed
That is so cool Jackson has the priesthood now. That is so amazing, he is going to love passing the sacrament on Sundays. Was he pretty excited about it? Him and Riley have both taken big steps in the priesthood, that is really cool. We really did have a crazy deacons quorum. I really do hope that Jackson's will be a bunch of solid guys that get on missions, I think that helps a lot. Finding is something that I have definitly improved in, but I still have a long way to go. There are some missionaries I have seen who seem to be able to strike up a gospel conversation with just about anyone. I have a long way to go to get to that point. I mentioned in the email to mom we had a really funny teach with Ernest.
We came to his house at the right time, but he wasn't in so we called him. He said he was at 'MoJeezy's,' a 'barbering' shop. We had no idea where or what this was, but eventually found it. It was this hair salon on like the 5th story of this run down building. As we climbed the stairs, we heard this really loud bass pumping. And the advertising sign for MoJeezy's said that it was open from 10am until 'late.' That was a bad sign right off the bat. Oh, and we had like our 60 year old ward mission leader with us. We get to the door of the salon and go in, and there are like 20 african guys in there. They all just stop and turn and stare at us. We are two white guys in suits with this other old, bald white guy. I just froze, I was thinking something along the lines of 'Oh no, I'm going to die,' but then Ernest called out from the back of the shop 'Steed! Whats up!' and I finally saw him and then everyone was cool. This hair salon was like nothing I have ever seen. There were like 6 chairs and barbers in this place, but like 4 couches around the outside of the room where all these african guys who weren't even getting haircuts were just hanging out. Once Ernest said hi to us, they were really cool and made room for us on a couch and talked with us a bit. There was this big flatscreen TV and music just pumping, like these crazy African electronic beats. The barbers were all black guys in their 20's, and they were all like dancing and singing along to the songs. They seemed to be mostly just talking to each other, like everyone in their must have been a regular cause they were all just like joking and messing around. It was like this weird hair cutting party. And no scissors were in sight. They all had clippers, and they were cutting all these guys' hair that was already like shaved off. Seriously, the haircuts took like 30 mintues, and by the end the hair looked exactly the same. They just ran the clippers over their heads. Me and Curran were just loving it, but our WML was a little bit uncomfortable I think, he mostly just stood by the door. Ernest finally got out of there, we asked if they would cut our hair and they said they can actually use scissors so yes they could, and we finally got to Ernest's house. On the way, Ernest told us that he really wants to be a prophet but he realizes how hard it is to become a prophet. By the time we got to his place, we didn't have a lot of time, so we talked about the Book of Mormon. I think Ernest might have been a bit confused by our last teach, as at the end of this one he said that he wanted the prophet to pray, and they pointed at Bro. Jolley, our ward mission leader. We were like 'What??' But just went with it. We will talk about that with him later. It was easily the best night in Slough I have had.
We also had a really great D.A. after church yesterday. It was with the Hitchens, they had like 3 kids in their 20's who were there so it was really cool to talk with them for a bit, as we had no YSA in Helston and it is nice to interat with people of the same age. The dad though, who is a solid member, kept trying to show us episodes of his favorite TV shows, and one of the guys just wanted to show us biking videos on youtube. It was pretty funny, we had a good time with them and they made a really great BBQ.
That experience with Ken and Chris this week really does make everything worth it. It is just incredible how it has all worked out. I hope your week went well as well. Are you working a lot or are you still getting pretty good hours?I am going to come home and be a big fatty and you will be in great shape. You are going to have to coach me when I get home.
Love Elder Steed
Jan 29, 2012
I actualy talked to Ken last night on the phone for a long time, and he told me all about his amazing day yesterday. I cannot even say how happy I was to hear about that. It makes me really wish I had been there. Ken said he was so nervous, but I am hoping that experiences like this will help them to get out to church every week. I really miss all those guys in Helston.
Ya I have also really been feeling bad that I never talked to my friends more about the church... I guess I just wasn't really interested in it at all though, so I had no reason to share it. I would have loved to hear Darren's stories about my antics in priests quorum. I actually just wrote them a letter today. I could have probably shared a few more stories as well.
I can't wait to see the Calgary temple finsihed. I have seen some photos of what it will look like online, and it is going to be a really nice one it looks like.
I thought it was really cool that Ken and Toni had started reading my blog... I hope I didn't say anything stupid in those letters. I would be interested to read them and see if my letters now sound any different than they did back then.
Noah sounds like a goof. It is going to be weird coming back and he will be like 9. I just remember him as my baby brother, but he isn't really going to be a baby when I come home.
I am feeling a lot better about Slough. I think the biggest change was at church this Sunday. At first I was really disapointed because no investigators showed up, but it turned out to be a good thing. Two of the talks were about exaltation, which is something investigators should not hear for the first time in sacrament meeting, in my opinion. And it also freed up a lot of time for me to go 'ward contacting.' I think I talked to everyone in the ward and introduced myself and just tried to get to know them a little better. Except one lady, I feel really bad because she snuck away right after church and I didn't say hi to her. I don't know her name even, and neither does Curran. I don't think him and Deal placed a huge empahsis on relationships in the ward, but for me that is like my primary focus. This ward has loved missionaries in the past, one of the AP's served here a year ago, but at the moment they just seem impartial towards us. Hopefully we will be able to change that and get them back on our side. I know that is how the work will really start to go forward. Actually, it already is a little bit. We have two members who talked to us and are inviting a friend to their house this week and us as well to go and teach them. Teaches in members homes are always the best.
I did another exchange with the zone leaders this week. They have a really bad rep in the mission. Everyone seemed to think that I would not get along with them at all because they are just compeletly by the book and really strict. Turns out they are pretty cool guys though, they seem alright so far. I think they are just really dedicated missionaries. Although I don't think it hurts to follow the spirit of the law sometimes. And I have decided we need to find some Nepalese people, because the zone leaders have like tons of Nepalese people getting baptized there and they are all just so cool and commited. We are working with Africans, who are also really cool but just seem to lack the committment somtimes. It isn't like the black people back home, who are pretty much just American/Canadian. These are like actual Africans, they are all like first generation, and have been here for like 6 months and many people here don't even speak English. There are also lots of Polish and Indian people.
That being said, we have got a really cool guy who accepted a baptism date this week. Last monday actually. His name is Ernest, we found him street contacting a few weeks ago, and we called him and he invited us over and we taught him a restoration. At the end, we extended a baptism invitation, and he accepted a baptism date for Feb. 19. He is such an amazing guy. He is probably late 20's, and lives in a flat with this other family from Ghana. We have taught him once more since then with a member, and he already testified that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and told us how it makes the bible so much clearer. He is currently picking up more hours in the week at work so he can meet with us weekends and get to church. The last teach was actually really funny though. I'll talk about it in dad's email.
The other guy is Jay, and he is someone Deal and Curran were working with for quite some time. Goulding and Curran extended a date to him on exchange, and he accepted and is hoping that by setting a date it will help him to recieve an answer to his prayer and he can finally know the Book Of Mormon is true. He has already read up to Alma 58. I think he knows it is true, he just hasn't recognized it yet. He has an atheist friend who he is always with, and they take all the lessons together. The atheist guy, Amit, is really atheist. He is always telling us scientific evidence of how there is no God. Yet he still loves coming to church and talking with us about it. Jay actually didn't accept the baptism date at first, but for some unknown reason Amit talked him into it. He told him that he thinks this will really be a good thing and help him get an answer to his prayers. These two guys are so funny. They just talk non-stop, and apparently the teaches go for like 2-4 hours, even though I have never been able to teach them yet as I have always been away on exchange.
We are finding lots of people, and teaching quite often. Most of our finding is actually so far just as we walk from appointment to appointment and we talk to everyone we see on the way. We have had a lot of success with this though.
Ken and Toni promised they will come up and visit sometime soon, which I really look forward to. There are lots of Nando's here, which is the best restaurant ever.
I hope all is well back home, I am doing so great don't worry,Love Elder Steed
Ya I have also really been feeling bad that I never talked to my friends more about the church... I guess I just wasn't really interested in it at all though, so I had no reason to share it. I would have loved to hear Darren's stories about my antics in priests quorum. I actually just wrote them a letter today. I could have probably shared a few more stories as well.
I can't wait to see the Calgary temple finsihed. I have seen some photos of what it will look like online, and it is going to be a really nice one it looks like.
I thought it was really cool that Ken and Toni had started reading my blog... I hope I didn't say anything stupid in those letters. I would be interested to read them and see if my letters now sound any different than they did back then.
Noah sounds like a goof. It is going to be weird coming back and he will be like 9. I just remember him as my baby brother, but he isn't really going to be a baby when I come home.
I am feeling a lot better about Slough. I think the biggest change was at church this Sunday. At first I was really disapointed because no investigators showed up, but it turned out to be a good thing. Two of the talks were about exaltation, which is something investigators should not hear for the first time in sacrament meeting, in my opinion. And it also freed up a lot of time for me to go 'ward contacting.' I think I talked to everyone in the ward and introduced myself and just tried to get to know them a little better. Except one lady, I feel really bad because she snuck away right after church and I didn't say hi to her. I don't know her name even, and neither does Curran. I don't think him and Deal placed a huge empahsis on relationships in the ward, but for me that is like my primary focus. This ward has loved missionaries in the past, one of the AP's served here a year ago, but at the moment they just seem impartial towards us. Hopefully we will be able to change that and get them back on our side. I know that is how the work will really start to go forward. Actually, it already is a little bit. We have two members who talked to us and are inviting a friend to their house this week and us as well to go and teach them. Teaches in members homes are always the best.
I did another exchange with the zone leaders this week. They have a really bad rep in the mission. Everyone seemed to think that I would not get along with them at all because they are just compeletly by the book and really strict. Turns out they are pretty cool guys though, they seem alright so far. I think they are just really dedicated missionaries. Although I don't think it hurts to follow the spirit of the law sometimes. And I have decided we need to find some Nepalese people, because the zone leaders have like tons of Nepalese people getting baptized there and they are all just so cool and commited. We are working with Africans, who are also really cool but just seem to lack the committment somtimes. It isn't like the black people back home, who are pretty much just American/Canadian. These are like actual Africans, they are all like first generation, and have been here for like 6 months and many people here don't even speak English. There are also lots of Polish and Indian people.
That being said, we have got a really cool guy who accepted a baptism date this week. Last monday actually. His name is Ernest, we found him street contacting a few weeks ago, and we called him and he invited us over and we taught him a restoration. At the end, we extended a baptism invitation, and he accepted a baptism date for Feb. 19. He is such an amazing guy. He is probably late 20's, and lives in a flat with this other family from Ghana. We have taught him once more since then with a member, and he already testified that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and told us how it makes the bible so much clearer. He is currently picking up more hours in the week at work so he can meet with us weekends and get to church. The last teach was actually really funny though. I'll talk about it in dad's email.
The other guy is Jay, and he is someone Deal and Curran were working with for quite some time. Goulding and Curran extended a date to him on exchange, and he accepted and is hoping that by setting a date it will help him to recieve an answer to his prayer and he can finally know the Book Of Mormon is true. He has already read up to Alma 58. I think he knows it is true, he just hasn't recognized it yet. He has an atheist friend who he is always with, and they take all the lessons together. The atheist guy, Amit, is really atheist. He is always telling us scientific evidence of how there is no God. Yet he still loves coming to church and talking with us about it. Jay actually didn't accept the baptism date at first, but for some unknown reason Amit talked him into it. He told him that he thinks this will really be a good thing and help him get an answer to his prayers. These two guys are so funny. They just talk non-stop, and apparently the teaches go for like 2-4 hours, even though I have never been able to teach them yet as I have always been away on exchange.
We are finding lots of people, and teaching quite often. Most of our finding is actually so far just as we walk from appointment to appointment and we talk to everyone we see on the way. We have had a lot of success with this though.
Ken and Toni promised they will come up and visit sometime soon, which I really look forward to. There are lots of Nando's here, which is the best restaurant ever.
I hope all is well back home, I am doing so great don't worry,Love Elder Steed
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