March 18, 2012

Hey,
Ya I figured calling in May would make more sense. It's not to far away... is there any chance Riley would have his mission call by then? So we could open it up at that time?
And I got that recording of Alyssas song on my iPod, thanks for sending that it will be cool to have something she recorded I can listen to.
I actually never really play piano at church. I'm not good enough. At some district meeting I will play the piano to accompany our singing, but then I can only really play the right hand and a few chords of the left. Luckily in this district we have two concert pianists, so I haven't had to worry about playing the piano for a while. Although I do play some intro music before sacrament meetings some weeks but I have to play quite slowly.
Haha I can totally see the look of disgust on your face upon recieving the 16 dollar (I almost said pound) steak. I haven't ate a single stake my whole time in this country, except for like the second week of my mission me and Simmons bought a couple of like 4 pound steaks and cooked them over an instant charcoal grill in the backyard. They were pretty gross but we were both really excited to have steak. I'm sure everyone loved the food... my mouth is watering just thinking about those meals we used to have. I can't wait to come back and enjoy more of that kind of food. But yes, I have eaten millions of brussel sprouts. Everyone here seems to eat them with roast dinners. My first like 10 times of eating them I just hated them and had to force them down. I still don't really love them now, but I don't find them that bad. I find I can eat pretty much any food and eat as much as I have to so that no one gets offended. But yes, I am already a fatty. I have what appears to be a beer belly. And I think my legs are starting to rub together when I walk. Whatever.
Speaking of Vulcan, a new missionary just came into this mission named Elder Silito or something like that. He is from Vulcan, and apparently is related to a bunch of Steeds. I think his uncle might be Marlow Steed? I have no idea who Marlow is, but I feel like I have heard the name before. Me and this guy might be related, which is kind of weird. He is in the same zone as me at the moment and is still really green haha.
Nice dream... not. I still do feel discouraged at times, but I think most days I am pretty happy and really hopeful for the investigators that we have here at the moment. My first few months I thought of coming home a lot and I was sure I would never last two years, but they say if you can make 6 months you can make 24, and unless some crazy stuff happens at 2012 I'll be out here for a while yet. I remember thinking how hard it was at first and how I did a lot of things grudingly, but over time you can see the effects that living this way has on people.
 Writing in my journal is actually one of the hardest things I have to do. I am getting tired of spending like 10 mintues of my limited spare time every day on writing.. but hopefully I will have the motivation to keep doing it.
Did you and Mom buy new laptops? Mom mentioned her mac, and also mentioned your computer. I'm assuming you aren't still using that relic that you used to use.
Well I better write one to mom as well. Ernest is getting kicked out of his house or something and wants to store a few bags at our place for a few days so we need to go help him soon.
Love you guys, hope all is well.
Go Flames Go!
Elder Steed

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

Aug 14, 2011

Okay it says you sent that about 6 hours ago, so I was actually doing some scripture study. I actually memorized DnC 122:7-9 this morning. Its a great scripture for hard times. And this week was pretty tough. We did a lot of knocking but didn't really have much sucess. We would knock for 3 hours some days and not find a single new investigator. Its hard work, as you already know, and I don't think ive ever been this tired.

But the Lord is blessing us and every time I feel like I can't do anymore, or knock on another door, the Lord will provide a spark to keep me going. Early in the week, we were knocking around an navy housing complex, so everyone who lived there was in the navy. Most of these navy guys have seen some horrible stuff and seem to not believe there could be a God because of it. Not much was really happening, but then we knocked on a door and this young girl answered who was probably in her early twenties. We talked to her for a bit, and found out she had just moved here from Norway with her new husband. I guess her mom is a member of the church and she was raised in a mormon home. She said the only reason she wasn't baptized was that her step-dad wouldn't let her. She said she didn't know there was a church in this area but she wants to start coming. She lived in London for a couple months before she moved to Cornwall and had been going to church there. And her husband josh seemed really cool and open to hearing about our message and coming to church also.

It was such a boost to my testimony. The ward here needs young families and this was an answer to our prayers. We are going to their house tommorow at 230, and we hoping for the best.

One of the families we are teaching, Ken and Toni, are in their mid-twenties and are really interested in the gospel. I cant remember if i mentioned them in my last email or not. We have taught them all the plan of salvation and about faith, repentance and baptism, and they are genuinely interested. They ask amazing questions and they read the book of mormon every night. They are slighly uncomfortable praying but they are getting better at it each time we see them. They have a four-year old daugther Jessica who is the cutest little kid. The last time we taught them was amazing. We explained the holy ghost, and they both told us that they had felt these feelings of warmth and peace and comfort as we have taught them lessons and as they have read the book or mormon. I have really high hopes for this family.

The ward members here are amazing. Almost every lesson we teach we are getting a member to come out with us. One of the members here, Brett, is an RM and a jewler. Ken had a broken watch and he took it to his shop and fixed it for him for free. I think that little things like that can often make all the difference.

We have a few other people we are focused on. One of the guys Chris, who lives in Penzance has been investigating the church for 9 years. He knows the scriptures inside and out but he can't quit smoking. We are trying to help him with this and we call him every night and ask him how many he has smoked that day. So far he has cut down from about 25 to 10. We also are teaching the family of a less active lady with a 10 year old daugther. She said she would be baptized but im not feeling to good about it, and she doesn't really have a desire to be baptized or go to church or anything, she just isn't bothered by it either way.

Those are pretty much the 4 solid people we are focused on right now. Most of our other time is spent trying to find more people to teach, as 4 isnt that many. This district hasnt had a baptism for over a year, but me and Elder Simmons have set a goal of baptizing 6 people this transfer. Its a lot, but we know with the Lords help and guidance we can do it.

Good luck with your books. I'm going to take a nap, to catch up on my last two weeks of not-laziness.

Thanks for your love and great example.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 14, 2011

Okay it says you sent that about 6 hours ago, so I was actually doing some scripture study. I actually memorized DnC 122:7-9 this morning. Its a great scripture for hard times. And this week was pretty tough. We did a lot of knocking but didn't really have much sucess. We would knock for 3 hours some days and not find a single new investigator. Its hard work, as you already know, and I don't think ive ever been this tired.

But the Lord is blessing us and every time I feel like I can't do anymore, or knock on another door, the Lord will provide a spark to keep me going. Early in the week, we were knocking around an navy housing complex, so everyone who lived there was in the navy. Most of these navy guys have seen some horrible stuff and seem to not believe there could be a God because of it. Not much was really happening, but then we knocked on a door and this young girl answered who was probably in her early twenties. We talked to her for a bit, and found out she had just moved here from Norway with her new husband. I guess her mom is a member of the church and she was raised in a mormon home. She said the only reason she wasn't baptized was that her step-dad wouldn't let her. She said she didn't know there was a church in this area but she wants to start coming. She lived in London for a couple months before she moved to Cornwall and had been going to church there. And her husband josh seemed really cool and open to hearing about our message and coming to church also.

It was such a boost to my testimony. The ward here needs young families and this was an answer to our prayers. We are going to their house tommorow at 230, and we hoping for the best.

One of the families we are teaching, Ken and Toni, are in their mid-twenties and are really interested in the gospel. I cant remember if i mentioned them in my last email or not. We have taught them all the plan of salvation and about faith, repentance and baptism, and they are genuinely interested. They ask amazing questions and they read the book of mormon every night. They are slighly uncomfortable praying but they are getting better at it each time we see them. They have a four-year old daugther Jessica who is the cutest little kid. The last time we taught them was amazing. We explained the holy ghost, and they both told us that they had felt these feelings of warmth and peace and comfort as we have taught them lessons and as they have read the book or mormon. I have really high hopes for this family.

The ward members here are amazing. Almost every lesson we teach we are getting a member to come out with us. One of the members here, Brett, is an RM and a jewler. Ken had a broken watch and he took it to his shop and fixed it for him for free. I think that little things like that can often make all the difference.

We have a few other people we are focused on. One of the guys Chris, who lives in Penzance has been investigating the church for 9 years. He knows the scriptures inside and out but he can't quit smoking. We are trying to help him with this and we call him every night and ask him how many he has smoked that day. So far he has cut down from about 25 to 10. We also are teaching the family of a less active lady with a 10 year old daugther. She said she would be baptized but im not feeling to good about it, and she doesn't really have a desire to be baptized or go to church or anything, she just isn't bothered by it either way.

Those are pretty much the 4 solid people we are focused on right now. Most of our other time is spent trying to find more people to teach, as 4 isnt that many. This district hasnt had a baptism for over a year, but me and Elder Simmons have set a goal of baptizing 6 people this transfer. Its a lot, but we know with the Lords help and guidance we can do it.

Good luck with your books. I'm going to take a nap, to catch up on my last two weeks of not-laziness.

Thanks for your love and great example.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 2, 2011

We have been taught that recently the biggest change in missionary work is that before we convert the investigators, we have to convert the missionaries. That is really the focus of PMG. And so far through studying this book and the scriptures, I think my testimony really has gotten stronger. Its an amazing book, I don't know why I never bothered reading it before my mission. Actually make sure to have Riley read chapter 3 and get a basis for all the lessons before he leaves. Also have him read chapter 10. So far I would say they are the most important.

I really appreciated the times you told me about your mission before I left. I told a couple guys about your roomate that disapeared in the middle of the night and they thought it was crazy.

There are some really funny guys here. One of the Elders today mentioned that he hopes a natural disaster strikes England soon so that he can have a break for a couple days. I found out yesterday that I am the youngest guy in our district and one of the youngest here. There are a lot of guys who don't end up leaving until like 20 or 21.

Have fun working and at the cabin. I wish I could go backpacking with you guys, I'm going to miss the great outdoors.

Love Elder Steed