Sept 9, 2012

Hey mom,

I can't believe that this time is finally here. Riley leaves on what day? And tell that clown to email me from his ldsmail account.

Sounds like quite the meeting. Both you and dad and actually also grandpa talked about how many people were there and how great of a meeting it was. Grandpa said it was really spiritual. Tell the teachers not to use vodka next time though.

And the after-party... I guess we know who the more loved child is.

Sounds like way more of the family and friends turned up for his. Oh well, I can live with that.

I am trying to picture you and dad these last few days... haha I bet you guys have just been a total mess. Breaking down at all times without warning. Try to be happy, you're going to see him at Christmas which is actually pretty soon. He will probably get out to the field right before Christmas which will probably be really tough for him.

I'm trying to think of things you or dad could put into his bag, becasue you both asked me about things he might like. The things I remember for mine was a big shoebox full of candy that was really good to have in the MTC. Also dad gave me a card with 'The Standard of Truth has been erected' on it which I have always remembered. I have loads of awesome missionary music I have picked up along my travels.

My 8 gig ipod has been full for months and I keep having to delete more stuff to cram new stuff on. So when I get home I'll make him some awesome CD's and send those to him. Make sure he has a good camera.

And a case. A journal. A watch. I have really loved crayola twistable crayons for marking my scriptures and PMG. A credit card. Actually one thing a lot of misisonaries have that I don't is a picture book. Most have an album with photos of friends and families that they will sometimes look at and they can show their companions and stuff to see who their family is. That could be good. An electric razor has been nice. And my gps. Ipod speakers. There is loads of stuff that I didn't think about before my mission but now I couldn't live without. I'm sure if he has a credit card he can get these things as he goes along.

That's all I can really think of.

I guess I should probably talk a little bit about our week... okay well the highlight was our trip to Jersey. There are 2 sisters there, and neither of us ever see any other missionaries so I organized a workover. We went early wednesday morning, and came home late thursday night. We spent the night at a members house who was really cool. We were supposed to leave thursday afternoon but we took too long at pizza hut for lunch and ended up missing our ferry by like 3 minutes.

The ferry was still sitting there, we were still 30 mintues early, but they had closed to doors and couldn't be bothered to open them again.

I decided not to make a scene and just go later that day. We did lots of contacting, had some good teaches, and I learned a lot. The sisters there are two of the best sisters in the mission and are great at everything they do. It really helped Erickson as well to see someone else and see how they do things. We obviously coulnd't really split up like a normal workover with elders, but we paired off and contacted down the high street and around town always staying within like 10 meters of each other. Erickson, who is usually fairly negative/down/moody has been pretty happy since Jersey. It has been nice to be able to crack some jokes and have some conversation and stuff. I think he is doing a lot better lately.

Other than that, we still are seeing Ursula and Bernadette. Ursula made us a really good roast dinner saturday night, and then backed out of church sunday morning at the last minute. Bernadette is doing alright but just works too many sunday's. We do lots of finding, and we might have found someone really good. We found her like 2 weeks ago knocking, but every time we have gone back there is no answer. So we went yesterday, and she answered! Turns out she has read into 2 Nephi already and really liked it. So we are going back wednesday and I just have a really good feeling about her. We really need some new people, we have struggled to find some the last few weeks. We taught one ancient guy who just sits in his living room smoking all day and he just said yes to everything we said. He said yes, he believes in the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the first vision, that ours is the true chruch, etc. It was like he was zoned out the whole time and you could grab his attention for like 5 seconds and then he would zone out again. And when he zoned out his just nodded his head and said yes to everything. And I was dying of second hand smoke inhalation. So that is not exactly the people we are looking for. So we are still looking.

Riley is going to be having a bad week when he only baptizes 2 people that sunday. But even still, I really don't envy having to live in Guatamala.

That's pretty much it. Have a good week with and without Riley! He will be great, he is prepared and he will light it up.

Love Elder Steed Sr.