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