June 10, 2012

Hey,

Yes Guernsey is just like that. It is probably a bit different than from back then. All the locals complain that there are too many cars.

And there are a ton of latvians and portugese people that have moved over here. So I'm sure it is a bit different. But it really is laid back and peaceful. Most of the shops are just like mom and pop places.

Everyone is laid back. The max speed limit on the island is 35. THere are a lot of islands you can see on a clear day, but I have never been to the place you can see France. We have actually been in some of these German bunkers along the ocean, you guys will love it if you ever come over here after my mission.

The investigators are doing great. We have a weekly sunday roast with Jason and Steisha... she is really interested and comes to church every week but he just thinks we are cool guys and likes to talk to us. But they aren't married, so even though she reads the BoM everyday and goes to church she can't get baptized. We had a member of the stake presidency over (they come about once a month) and taught Luke and Louise and they are doing good, I think they will be working towards marriage hopefully sometime soon. Holly though is the real miracle. In 2010 the branch presidents wife got baptized. Before that in 2006 a lady got baptized but went inactive or moved away immediatly. So in the last 10 years that is pretty much all that has happened here. Everyone is pretty excited. The Lingauds (a phillipino family that is the branch presidents family) have a 5 year old son who has desperately wanted a primary. A year ago president Shamo came over and re-dedicated the island for missionary work and specifically for finding Joseph (the 5 year old son) a primary so he wouldn't be the only kid. Holly has 3 kids, and they love primary. I think that prayer is being answered. We were having a problem finding her a place to get baptized in. She didn't like the idea of the ocean, and we went around to every hotel with a pool and none of them would let us reserve the pool for a baptism. So Holly took it upon herself and found a friend of her dad who would let her use her private, heated, backyard pool.

So in five days she will be getting baptized! It is a very exciting time. She has read the Book of Mormon every day for a few months now, and she is actually smart so she understands what she is reading which is really nice to see in investigators.

The other crazy news is the Barals... I don't know if I have mentioned much but they have had the baptists trying to get them into their church the same time we have. In the weeks leading up to baptism and also the last few weeks since, they have been going over in gangs, like 4 or 5 at a time, and just throwing a ton of anti material and trying to change them. Pettersen told me all about it, and I gave them a call and asked Pratigya about it. She was so cool... she was like 'we have already chosen, we will never change our mind, we know this is the truth, they won't even read the BoM,' and all this other stuff.

I was really worried about it but it sounds like things are okay. I always text Lukas good scriptures to look up. I guess the baptists came over and tried to tell them we do baptisms for the dead and that it wasn't biblical. Lukas flipped out at them and pulled out the scripture in 1 Cor. that talks about it and confounded them. Even Dambaru has said he realizes that this is the truth. It didn't help the baptists that one time they came over they took a BoM and then threw it in the garbage. Pratigya kicked them out and put up a bunch of stuff on it on facebook and stuff. So I am still a little bit worried about having the baptists over too often, but they are so solid and handling it really well.

You should email Toni though. She said she hasn't heard from you in a while.

There are only 4 priesthood holders here including us. So the stake presidency guy wanted to set us apart one of us as a member of the branch presidency and one as the EQP. But because Shamo goes home in like 2 weeks he said he doesn't know what Millar (the new guy will

think) so that they should wait. So I got set apart as elders quorum teacher and Martins is sunday school teacher. That is only my second time ever getting set apart.

Sounds like the hockey went well. It was pretty funny to hear about the fall of the Sasquatch. I also hope you guys aren't in wheelchairs when I get back.

And also I'm sad I missed seeing the Skinner clan. I haven't seen them in ages.

Oh, I also read those talks you sent me. The ones Riley was told to read. They were pretty good... the Lock Your Heart talk was pretty funny. Good advice though. You hear a lot of stories as a missionary about dodgy stuff.

Those donughts looked so weird! Were they any good?

Well we are going over to Luke and Louises to do a little FHE with them and the kids. We've had a great day today. But I'll talk more about that in dads letter, it's something I think he would find interesting.

So jealous about the breakfast for dinner... where we are we don't get too many D.A.s, there is no fast food and the groceries are just stupidly expensive. So we have like 3 staple meals we always eat...

chicken nugget wraps, frozen cheeseburger, and pasta with mince (hamburger). We just eat cycle through every 3 days. I haven't had a pancake in so long, let alone french toast or waffles. THey just don't eat them over here.

Send me one of those homeade donughts. Actually, if you are ever going to send another package, I would love some rootbeer and ranch dressing. I told Jason I will have him drink rootbeer as he had never even heard of it. He thought we were talking about real beer at first.

Well, see you later,

Love ELder Steed