May 6, 2012

Hey guys,

Yes I can do 2 pm on Skype. We have set up a dinner with some members who said we could use their laptop. So I will go on around 2. I can call Saturday night as well for 5 minutes (ish) like last time. 

This week has been still pretty bad. Not much rain, but just really cold. 

A mission should help anyone learn how to talk with anyone. Paul says something along the lines of 'To the Romans, I am a Roman. To the Greeks, I am a Greek.' But just like anything you have to make an effort and go out of your comfort zone and just do stuff like talk to strangers. It can be really awkward at first or whatever, but as you just do it over time it becomes more natural. Missionaries who are held back by fear and refuse to do the uncomfortable things don't get as much benefit. A lot of times junior companions will be happy to sit back and relax. But I really think Riley will be an awesome missionary. Way better than I am. He will probably know the scriptures better when he leaves than I do after a year. And I think he might be sort of secretly spiritual. 

Okay I am going to keep it short this week. We are talking in 6 days so we will just catch up then. I just want to tell you about the awesome week I have planned. 

Our stake is doing a father and sons camp out this weekend. The Barals have come to church like 10 weeks in a row and are starting to just feel like part of the ward. I'm not even worried about whether or not I sit by them in sacrament anymore because they know enough people. But so we really wanted to get Dumbaru and Lukas out to this camp. Mostly for Lukas, to help him get to know the young men a bit better as Lukas is so shy. They weren't really sure about it, as they have never been camping before. I was getting really excited at this point. I love camping. I called the zone leaders and asked for permission to go with them on this camp. They said no, but I talked them into asking the AP's. They asked the AP's, and the AP's said no. So I called President and talked to him about it. He did something last week I didn't really agree with, and we talked about it and he knew I was a bit upset. So I think he might have felt bad about that or something, but ultimately he approved us to go on an overnight camping trip! It was a really funny phone call. He said he gets a lot of calls from missionaries asking him to do crazy things, like go to an amusement park or something. But he said in his entire 3 years this was the first time any missionary has asked to go camping. I think it will definitely be a way to do missionary work though. So this Friday night we are camping with all the young men and their dads in the stake. I am so excited. I have called around and have now arranged to borrow 2 sleeping bags (for the Barals, we have our own), 2 tents and a ride for all 4 of us to the camp. And we are getting a ride with a semi-active guy and his son I've gotten pretty tight with, who weren't planning on even coming. So it should be really good for them as well. I am really just so excited for this weekend. I have like 3 exchanges planned, the camping trip, a basketball game, and then the phone call on Sunday.  So missionary work can actually be fun. I'm going to have an awesome week! See you soon,

Love Elder Steed