Sept 11, 2011

Hey,

A bunch of old ladies were using the family history center like all day today here in the chapel, they finally just got off but left us with not much time for emails today. Me and Elder Simmons and one of the members here (Paul) and Ken, our investigator, are going golfing in a few minutes. It has been rainy and cold every day this week, but today it is sunny and really nice out. So we picked a good day to golf. You're right about the realtionships here. These guys all feel like brothers. After golf we are all going back to Ken's house and Toni is making us a big roast dinner and then we are finishing teaching them about the 10 commandments. Actually I need to backtrack a little bit.
This has been an amazing week. Last week on wednesday, we went over to Ken and Toni's to teach them about the ten commandments. However, when we got there we just started talking about different things. I guess Ken had been looking online at a bunch of stuff about mormons. He had found MOTAB, and absolutely loved it. He said it was the best choir he had ever heard, and he had bought 30 of their songs on iTunes. He then told us he had watched every mormon message on youtube, and most of the other church videos on there. We had left him with an assignment to watch the joseph smith movie, and he did. Twice. he prayed before-hand, and while watching it recieved an amazing spiriual confirmation that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. They both told us they knew this was the true church. Ken asked us if he could possibly serve a mission, like we were. He then asked how long it would be until he would be allowed to be sealed to Toni in the temple. We answered their question, and took the opportunity to extend a baptismal date. They accepted, and they are going to be baptized on Oct. 16! They still aren't married, but they are working with the bishop and are going to have a small wedding here in the church in Helston as quickly as possible.

It was such an amazing spiritual experience. We had Paul with us on this teach, and you guys know I'm not usually an emotional person but there were no dry eyes that night. We have since taught them about tithing, keeping the sabbath day holy, and sacrifice. They prayed and accepted all these things as true. THey are really struggling financially right now but they are still willing to pay tithing because they know they will be blessed. I wish you could meet these guys. Elder Simmons is sure that Ken is going to be like a stake president or something one day. I also see great things ahead for this family.
We finally got them out to church this week as well. It was our missionary sacrament meeting, so Elder Simmons and I were the speakers. I kind of lost track of time up there, and I was the first speaker, and talked for like 25 mintues about becoming better member missionaries. I felt really bad, because I left like no time for Elder Simmons. I don't think I have every talkd that long in my life. But Elder Simmons still gave an amazing talk and Ken and Toni loved the meeting. A lot of the great ward members down here really fellowshipped them also. They stuck around for an hour chatting with people, and were invited over to some members houses for dinner this week. I'm so excited for them, and with transfers coming up, there was nothing I wanted more than to stay and be here as they finish their conversion process.

And my prayers were answered! Me and Elder Simmons were both blessed to be allowed to continue to serve together here in Helston. I felt really bad praying and asking to be allowed to stay here, so I tried praying and saying 'just send me wherever I need to go and let me be okay with that' but I think deep down the Lord knew my greatest desire was to not go anywhere.

So it has been a good week. We also got 4 more investigators, we knocked in to a couple peoples houses. We finally caught up with some people we found like over a month ago and finally had time for us this week. We are teaching a lot of navy families. It seems with navy/army people, they either have a really strong belief in God or none at all.
Josh and Stephanie have gone a little bit MIA though. We stopped by their house and saw them for like 10 minutes late last week, but they hadn't been returning our calls or anything. However, today as we were getting gas at Tescos, stephaine pulled up right beside us! It was a miracle, and we talked to her and it turns out she was DJing some wedding (she is like 7 months pregnant also...) and lost her phone so she didn't know we had been calling. But she said she will call on Joshs phone, so things should be back on track with them. They are so cool also. They have had us over for dinner quite a few times now, and we get on really well with them.

Elder Simmons passed his UK driving test, which was pretty cool and something he was quite stresed about.

Sounds like you guys are doing great. Thats amazing how you did in Banff. I may never beat you in a triathlon at this rate. But I will definitly try when I get back.

Ya you might need to keep reffing if youre going to be able to afford those 17 dollar McDonalds meals we keep getting.

Uncle Mike is bound to be at least a 70 someday. If you talk to him, tell him I would love to hear from him. But there were definitly some stupid questions, but for the most part they were really good and we all learned a lot.

Well, we tee of in like 12 minutes. So I better go.

Love Elder Steed

Sept 4, 2011

Emails are also something I look forward too every week. Sadly I wont be able to email again until September 15th I think. Next week is transfer week, so monday we dont get a p-day. We get our assignements on where we are moving to on wednesday and then thursday we move/get our p-day. So Ill write back then. If I am moved out of Helston I am going to be devastated. Im always tempted to pray to ask the Lord to keep me here but I try to remember that he might need me to do something else somewhere else. Wow that is really expensive. I hadn't really realized that. However, it was two meals as I payed for myself and Elder Simmons. He says thank you.

We really do have amazing investigators. This week Ken had a really rough week at work. He is like a bouncer at a pub in Falmouth and works 12-4 am every night. I guess he had a really hard night on saturday night, and he was way too tired to make the 30 min drive to church. He got home that night and couldn't sleep, and went on youtube and just watched mormon messages for like 2 hours and said it calmed him down and he was able to get to sleep. However, he also came across a couple of anti-mormon videos on youtube and had a lot of questions for us about polygamy and joseph smith and some other concerns. What was amazing was that he wasn't really shaken by these things at all. He said he could tell right away that the guy in the video he was watching just felt like a bad person. It was my first time meeting with anti material. It went totally fine though, he understood our explanations and his comment was 'I dont believe that a church that puts so much emphasis on strengthening families could ever be considered evil, regardless of whether or not it is true.' He has really felt the spirit strongly as we have taught him. He tells us of the warm/peaceful feelings he gets when we teach them and when he prays. He has started saying the closing prayer vocally when we go over there and he has a testimony even though he might not realize it yet. We have been talking a lot about baptism with them, and they seem to be warming to the idea. Toni also said her first vocal prayer this week, and was really nervous but said an amazing prayer and I could really feel the spirit as she stumbled through her first prayer in which all she did was give thanks. These people are those prepared people you are talking about (the elect). I wish my descriptions could do them justice or even that you could meet them.

We did find a couple new investigators this week. Joan and Leslie, probably in their 70's. They are devout Methodists, but invited us in and we have now met with them a few times. I don't know if they are just bored/lonely old people who just want to talk yet, but so far they have been keeping their commitments. When we assign them a chapter to read, they will usually read the 3 chapters before and after it as well. And they always pray about it. They haven't got an answer yet, but I know from my own experience that eventually they will.

Sean is such a stud. Im so excited for him to get on his mission. I would give anything for that guy to come to England London South.

I never knew you had the other side of heaven guy meet with you that much. Im sure he would have had some amazing experiences.

Our trip to Reading (pronounced Redding) was amazing. I was the only driver, so I had to do the 7 hour drive on friday and saturday without getting a nap or anything which was tough. Also, we picked up a couple of sister missionaries in Exeter and it was really weird talking to girls again. But the time we spent with Elder Bednar was amazing. It was just us, about 130 missionaries, and Elder Bednar and two members of the quorom of the seventy and all of their wives. And it wasn't like a normal talk. We had been assigned to read two of his talks and study them before saturday, and Elder Bendar just started by having us comment or ask questions about what we read in his talks. We would just stand up and talk to him and then he would answer our question or make a comment and expand on what was said or ask us a question. We then got to have a question and answer session with him. That was amazing, we got to ask an apostle any question we wanted. I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask, but over the course of what he said he answered them as he answered other questions. I would love to tell you everything that was said and everything I learned, but I wrote in down in my study journal which is back at the flat. He really had a few main points he kept on coming back to though. First of all, as we teach the gospel our job is not to teach, but to act as conduits of the spirit and then just get out of the way. Nothing in what we say or how we say it, or in how we look or act, should draw attention away from the spirit. He also kept saying 'this work isn't about you, and it isn't about me,' which really stood out to me. And his main point would have to be that the whole point of our existence is to act as agents and not objects. Agents act, and objects are acted upon. He also told us a lot more about priesthood keys than I have ever understood before. Another thing he kept saying is that this would probably be the last time in our lives we ever got this chance to meet with an apostle in such a small group. I guess the role of apostle is changing, and many of the things apostles used to do (like this confrence he gave here) will be taken over by members of the 70. Ill try to let you know next week if i think of anything else really interesting he said.

At the close of the meeting, when he bore his testimony, he was literally glowing. I was blinking and stuff because I thought I was just tired or my eyes were just playing tricks on me, but as he bore his testimony he looked like he was shining. There was a golden light around him. I cant really explain what it looked like to be honest. I think it was just pure glory/spirit/light. Regardles, it was amazing. This confrence really helped to strengthen my testimony, especially in the fact that we have living prophets on the earth today.

Thanks for the letter,

Love
Elder Steed

Sept 4, 2011

I know you are probably no longer at the Orrs house, but if you are tell em that I miss them also and that Im doing just fine. Those guys really are so much fun.

Im sure Rileys place is much better than mine. Maybe you and sis Draycott could fly out here and fix up our place for us.

Please do send me that picture and any other cool ones you have. I would love some pictures of you guys, I think I might be forgetting what people look like.

Sounds like school should be good for everyone. I have been talking to alyssa a little bit about how hard it was for me to start at a new high school but im sure she will do great. Jackson I hope will be fine, have that kid email me and tell me about it. And what happened to rebel drifters emails?

Im sure you guys will find your niche in that ward. You can always seem to make friends wherever you go.

Thats really nice of you to feed the missionaries. I always remember thinking it was weird/awkward when the missionaries came over for dinner, but I dont know if thats just because we had weird missionaries or we just didnt see them enough. But over here I feel like we just have such a great realationship with like all the ward members. We have a member feed us (a dinner appointment) at least once a day, sometimes twice, at there is one family (the Morris', who I think I mentioned briefly in my last email) in particular that honestly feels like my home away from home here. We were at their house last night for dinner and to share the sacrament with Laura, who has been sick, and it was so hard to leave. They got three kids from ages 6-9 who are so cool and Paul and Laura are both just so loving and kind, going out of their way to feed us even when we know they are stuggling financially. Actually a lot of the ward here is not doing well financially at all, and I find it amazing that they are still so willing to feed us.

But in terms of what we cook... so far we arent doing that well. We actually just finished our grocery shopping. We always plan out a list and try to keep it around 15 pounds a week each, but we get in to the grocery store and just lose control. we ended up spending 53 pounds on this weeks groceries. We bought 4 litres of pop, 6 litres of juice, 2 tubs of ben and jerrys ice cream, frozen pizzas, frozen cornish pasties, a kilogram of bacon, 2 blocks of cheese, a kilo of egg noodles and 4 bags of ichiban, and a bunch of other things we should never have bought. We need to stop shopping while hungry. At the end of the week we end up throwing out like a ton of expired stuff because we always buy way too much food.

We actually had a really great church service sunday as well. We sadly had no investigators this week, but because of this we were able to attend the gospel doctrine class instead of teaching gospel principles. I would love those notes also, so send em next week.

It sounds like you and dad have been spending way more time together than usual. I don't know if this is because dad is an emotional wreck because of his two sons moving out or just for fun. But anyways, it is really great you are, I have already learned so much about how important our family really is to me out here. And how important it is that we stay together forever.

Shes marrying like a 53 year old or something isnt she? Thats crazy, she seems way to young. I took her to mcdonalds once after seminary. not like a date or anything, just because we both wanted a junior chicken.

That RS president sounds a little bit rude to be honest with you. In my YSA everyone was really nice but maybe I just think that because I sat in the back and didnt talk to anyone except brooks and tyler for like the first 3 months. But im sure they will find some nice 18 year old girls who are looking for some cute preemies and not some R.M.s who are going to propose on the first date. Ive been emailing sean every week. Sounds like he really is doing great. Him and Katianne were hanging out a lot this summer, im sure she had a great influence on him. I actually havent heard from carson yet. Hopefully he is still doing well though.

Ill talk about Bednars talk in my email to dad. But it was amazing.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 28, 2011

Thanks as always for the updates. Sounds like you guys are
having way too much fun. Why didn't we do that kind of stuff when I was at home?

Keep praying for those missionary opportunities, and listen
for answers. I have seen the joy it brings to members here who have had a
rough week, then they come out with us for a few hours and it just totally
brightens their day and their week. Our family has been extremely blessed and
we need to make sure to do everything we can to help those around us who are
struggling. God loves them just as much as us, but he cant always come in
and fix their lives personally. Sometimes we need to step in and be the
answers to their prayers. I remember a few times when you have been the
answer to different peoples prayers, and those are amazing stories.

Im glad to hear you are keeping everyone
excercising. I am glad I dont have a scale in the flat, because i am getting a
bit chubby already.

I think when I get back I am going to have to try to become
a little bit better friends with Hayden. I could use an interior decorator for
my house when I get home. If I were Riley I would be pretty excited as well.
Its good he has some good friends going down there with him.

And ya we have a really nice house. Its really messy actually right now. And
our oven broke. We are going back to clean it up really good though with the
rest of our p-day. Actually first I am trying to teach Elder Simmons how to
play the piano. He has never played before, so he really has no idea what he is
doing. Also, we have ping pong tables and a pool table here in the church so we
will probably play some of that today.

Im so excited for that care package!! Elder Bednar is giving
a talk this saturday in Redding for the missionaries, so we are driving up
closer to the Temple so hopefully if the package arrives before that someone
will bring it to me. Im also really excited for his talk. Ive been reading some
of his past talks all week in personal study. He is by far my favorite apostle,
and I cant wait to hear him speak in person. Every missionary in the mission
will be attending also, so I will get to see a bunch of my friends from the
MTC.

I really like what you said about the
opposition/discouragement. Last week was a tough week, but this week was a
great week. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday! Josh and Stephaine (the
Norweigan lady I told you about) and then Chris Thomas (the smoker) and also
some other lady who i had never met but one of the members brought her. We
taught a great gospel principles lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and
Josh had some amazing insights into baptism. We also found a new investigator
knocking doors this week who we are going to teach on wednesday morning. She is
in the navy and has a little daughter, but thats about all we know about her.
She seemed really interested and invited us back though. We also got a few more
chances to serve ward members this week, and I am really feeling like I am
starting to gain the trust of more members here. Hopefully this will lead to
them allowing us to meet with their friends. I am sick whenever I think about
September 14 (transfer date) and the chance that I might be leaving this area.
I need to stay here until like at least Christmas.

We also did exchanges this week. Because Elder Simmons is
district leader, I exchanged with Elders from both the other areas of our
district. It was really interesting serving with other missionaries, to see
what they did differently than my trainer and what they did the same. I stayed
in Helston for both the exchanges. For one of them, I was with another guy in
my MTC group Elder Evans, so we were both greenies but we did the best we
could. I couldn't believe Elder Simmons stuck us together. He says he was
directed by the spirit, but Elder Evans' companion, Elder Palmer, is a really
good friend of his so I have my suspicions that he just wanted to serve with
him for a day. Regardless, the exchanges were really useful and helped build my
confidence as a missionary, something that I often find I am lacking here. The
only downside is two of our investigators, Daisy and Dellah, called and dropped
us. We had an appointment to see them on wednesday night but they called and
said they would rather not meet with us anymore. I was crushed because they
seemed to interested, and Dellah even said a closing prayer, but im sure things
like that will happen a lot out here.

Thanks for everything,

Love Elder Steed

p.s. I don't usually do p.s.'s, but if I have time I am
going to attach some photos of the safety vest/flashlight prank.

Aug 21, 2011

Sounds like you guys are still having some awesome
adventures this summer. All this talk of the great outdoors makes me jealous.
Although we did take a trip to Lands End today which was really cool. We went
with the Elders from the Red Ruth district. Elder Evans serves there and he was
one of my good friends from the MTC so it was nice to spend time with him. Ive
attached some photos which you should enjoy. And lizard point is in my mission
but we havent gone there yet.

I can't believe you rode 65 km on a tandem bike. That
honestly does not sound enjoyable in any way to me. I actually started driving
yesterday. It is really hard to stay in the middle of the lane on the wrong
side of the road. And the roads here are super skinny. Now that im driving, my
companion is the one who has to back the car up. The next part of this story is
quite embareassing. I guess in the first week when I would always go
upstairs and go sleep until like 1015 while he did accounting on the phone
downstairs, he called the zone leaders and the other district leaders and made
up the story of how the guy got backed up into by his companion and that we now
had to wear safety vests while backing up the car. So the next time i talked to
the zone leaders they told me that story and how we had to go get safety vests.
I thought it was strange but just went along with it. At district meeting and
stuff I would be backing up the car in the vest and all the other
Elders just said they hadn't been able to find a vest anywhere because they
weren't usings vests to back their cars up. And they all would take pictures of
me while i was backing up the car which I thought was odd but didn't look into
it too much. Eventually when this wasn't funny anymore the zone leaders called
me and told me that a new rule had been implemented. Everyone now needed to
wear a safety vest and also to hold either flashlights of ping-pong paddles in
their hands to make sure they are always visible. Looking back I have no
idea why i went along with this, but I grabbed the two flashlights we had in
the flat and later that day we were backing up in a parking lot and I had the
safety vests and were directing the car with the flashlights much like people
do at the airport. Elder Simmons took a video of this on his camera, and was
just dying laughing. At this point I realized that something wasn't right. He
admitted it had all just been a big prank. I was not impressed. There is talk
of putting some of the pictures taken into the weekly missionary newsletter
under the safety segment.

Anyways, I made a list this week of all the things that I
wanted to tell you about so I wouldn't forget anything. I actually had possibly
my first 'Allison moment'. I am not positive that this story is missionary
appropriate but you did ask for funny stories of me and my compainon and I
just have to tell you it. We had a dinner appointment at a members house. He
lives in Penzance and is kind of an old pirate. A little bit crazy. So we ate
dinner and were just talking in his living room. me and him were talking about
gardening, and he was talking about his tomato plants he was growing. He said
how expensive the seeds were; they cost like 2 pounds for 5 seeds. So I guess
he harvests the seeds of the tomatos he grows and uses those so that he doesn't
have to go buy them. He said he had a bunch extra, and he stores them in some
dry soil. So without really thinking, i blurted out 'oh, well have you ever
thought about selling your own seed?' Elder Simmons on the couch beside me
erupted into hysterical laughter which he tried to cover up by coughing. I
actually was laughing also to the point of tears and yet the member had no idea
what was going on, he was just staring at us. i guess he didn't really catch
the connotations of what I had just said. it was so funny.

Actually I have a couple other funny stories. One morning me
and Elder simmons were fighting in our flat. I guess it was more friendly
wrestling. Anyways he is way bigger than me, and at one point he picked me up
and threw me into my bed. The impact shattered a piece of the the wood 1x6
frame and the bed just collapsed. We have yet to tell the landlord, but we did
go to a hardward store and buy some wood glue and a clamp, so we repaired it
somewhat. Right now we have about 12 book or mormons stacked underneath the
break to support my weight as I sleep. I had to sleep on the floor the first
night.

Another time we were driving to an investigators house and
were messing around in the car. Elder Simmons stole my badge and started
wearing it so I took his and put it on. We totally forgot about it, and got to
the investigators house. We had met the investigator knocking the week before,
and only spoken to her for about 5 minutes so she didn't really know our names.
However she invited us back to share a message, and so we got there and the
investigator, Dellah, had a daughter we had never met before named Daisy who
agreed to sit in on the lesson. As we went to introduce ourselves, Elder
Simmons realized our badges were messed up so he introduced himself as Elder
Steed and I introduced myself as Elder Simmons. We had a great lesson, but I
guess midway through the lesson, Elder Simmons said 'What do you think about
that Elder Steed?' while looking at me. The investigator was like 'why are you
talking about yourself like that?' and we had to sheepishly explain what had
happened. However the lesson still went really well and we are going back to
teach them on Tuesday night.

Actually this week I am going on 2 different exchanges to
the other areas of my district. It should be alright.

I also taught the gospel principles class in church on
sunday. It was a little scary but went quite well.

I can't believe you are going to missionary mom luncheons.
That seems so weird to me. There have actually been seperate occasions this
week when I had a memory flash back to me about you and dad, and I've really
been realizing how amazing of parents you guys are. I am really sorry when I
was ever rude or took what you were doing for granted or even just didn't spend
as much time as I wish I would have around both of you. I have really realized
how much I love both of you and have really started to miss you guys.

Sorry I didn't have as many spiritual experiences this week.
I wanted to keep this weeks email a little lighter. We had 5 investigators
commited to coming to church on sunday and only one came. And he was the 10
year investiagator. So we were both pretty bummed out yesterday. Elder Simmons
is always really stressed. He is an amazing missionary but way to hard on
himself. I am trying my best to keep us happy and having fun but sometimes when
he gets really down it gets contagious. Im just glad I had some of these
fun/funny experiences this week.

I think im giving up a little bit of my old self each day,
its slow progress but I think eventually I will lose myself in the work.
Hopefully I never get to the point where emails are no longer something I look
forward to every week.

Aug 14, 2011

Thanks so much for all the detail about what is going on back at home. Reading these emails so far has been a highlight every week. I love hearing abou what everyone is up to.

If it was a blue car in front of the house, it is probably ours. Actually a really scary thing is that my companion has been here for a year on August 21, so his liscence expires. Which means next week I will be the one driving. We are planning on doing some practice this week so I don't kill us.

Alright here are a couple stories. I found out that we used to be able to play board games in this mission on p-day, until during a heated game of risk one of the guys punched his companion in the face. So we can't do that anymore. Also, one of the mission rules here is that every time we back up the car, the companion not driving has to get out of the car and make sure they dont hit anything. I guess yesterday someone was backing up and the companion outside the car wasn't paying attention so his companion backed up into his legs and crushed him against a wall. These were proabably not the smartest missionaries, and now we have to buy reflective safety vests and wear them whenever we are out of the car backing our companion up. People are going to think we are even weirder than they already do.

And this really is a hard thing. Theres already been a lot of hard days. It really does help thinking about everyone back home who is praying for me. I read my patriachal blessing last night. What stuck out to me was that I was blessed with endurance. I will need that more than ever for these next two years.

I can't believe Riley already quit that job I got for him. What a slacker.

Ya i really hope sean and carson can eventually go on missions. i email sean every week, Ill start talking to him about it.

Congrats on your excercise, sounds like you are doing awesome.
I really dont have many photos, I will try and send some soon though. I had no idea the MTC president would be posting those photos online. The one of us singing the anthem was really funny, we lifted our hands in the air for the final 'thee' in the song. And the short guy singing with us was just some french guy who i had to teach the anthem to. me and him were good friends in the MTC. my compainon was Elder Banks, a bit taller than me, short black hair, pretty big/solid guy, usually wore a grey suit and made really weird faces in photos.

I would share more stories about my companion now with you but there isn't much to share. Every night I am exhausted and try to go to bed at like 10, because he is district leader and has to account on the phone for a while every night with other districts so I just go up to bed while he is talking. He found out what I was doing though and now he always comes and wakes me up. He is a really awesome guy, he keeps me going on a lot of the hard days. He does operate quite slowly though, he likes to really take his time and think about things wheras I just like to do things as quickly as possible. Ive been trying to slow down though so I can recieve more promptings.

Thanks so much for your love and prayers

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 8, 2011

Thanks Dad, things are going great here. The field is white here. The ward is great and our knocking has been fairly succesful so far. The only problem is old people who aren't actually interested, they are jsut really bored and just like to come have us talk to them because they have nothing else to do. I have my meds pretty much figured out, I have been taking up to three different ones at times but now I am just down to this new prescription one I got here.

We fasted yesterday also and you guys were in my prayers.

The actual address is 155 Pendene Park, Helston, Cornwall, TR13 0SL. Its not the nicest place but it is much better than i expected. We spent a lot of time cleaning it up this morning. My bed is kind of old though.

Actually what would be awesome is if you guys ever send me a package to include some things like cheetos, kool-aid, jello because they dont have any of those things here. Also if you remembe those 2 books we had that were all object lessons for teaching like FHE and stuff i could really use one of those for teaching young families. And a disney CD or two would be great to play in our car as we drive all over the place. I think we have the biggest area in the mission in terms of acutal area, not people.

Try to keep writing. These emails are a highlight every week.

Thanks for all the support.

Love Elder Steed

Aug 8, 2011

I can't belive it either. It still hasn't sunk in yet. It almost sunk in last night but I didn't let it. Ya i will need to find a scale to see how my weight is doing. But actually Elder Simmons is a pretty good chef. So far he has cooked us two dinners, he made some chicken curry and rice one night and then some egg noodle sandwhich which is pretty good. And as I am emailing I just bought my first authentic cornish pastie from a nearby bakery, and it is delicous. But very unhealthy and quite expensive.

We actually have a lot going on here. We had church on sunday and the ward was great. really nice, welcoming people. I had to teach the priesthood and gospel principles lesson though. We actually have like 4 dinner appointments this week already. the only issue is that the ward is really old. There is a pretty good chance that within 3 months half of the ward will die of natural causes. Which will not help the ward goal, which is to double the attendance at each sacrament meeting this year. Its a lofty goal, but we are working hard and with the members behind us we are sure that we will find some new converts. we are trying to focus on young families, seeing as this is really what the ward needs.

My health is actually getting a little bit better. in the MTC i went to a doctor in Preston and I got a prescription for some stronger allergy medication than reactine and so Ive been using that and a benydryl every night and I am getting better. Although Elder Simmons is now quite sick with a cold. But he would never take a day off for anything. We actually spent the whole morning of this p-day cleaning our flat. the last elders were kind of slobs, so we had a lot of cleaing to do.

We are a little short here on new investigators, so we do about three hours of knocking on doors a day. Its really hard. But in yesterdays knocking we found 7 potential investigators and taught one really good lesson with this guy James who was about 20 and very interested in where we go after we die.

We also have a great family that we are meeting with, Ken and Toni and their daughter Jessica who is four. They are very interested, and they have met with us once but they have met with other missionaries a couple other times in the past two weeks. We are meeting them again on wednesday and really hoping they will have a desire to be baptized. the only problem is that they aren't married... but they have been together for 5 years so hopefully they will be willing to get married.

I dont have much time left. I have so much to tell you guys but I will write more next week. I wondered that exact same question did. In this past month I have been guided by the spirit more times than I can count. And the thing about it is you dont ever really know if it is your own thought or if it is the holy ghost. The advice that Elder Bednar gave to us is that we don't need to worry about it. In a talk we listened to by him in the MTC he told us to be good boys/girls, to obey the commandments and honor our covenants and if we do this the spirit will fill our mouths and guide our steps. So the best advice I can give is to not worry about it. Just be good, do good things, and know the spirit is playing a part in everything you do.

I hope you guys all stay healthy and safe. Watch out for those cougars and bears and stuff. My biggest concern here is dogs biting my fingers as i slide cards in through mail slots.

tell Riley happy birthday from me.

I miss you guys and love you lots

Elder Steed

Aug 5, 2011

I just got to my area. I got to the temple in London two days ago. We spent one night there and then yesterday started off on the long drive to cornwall. Its about a 6 hour drive, but we stopped in bristol to drop some guys off, then in estex to drop off one of the sisters pieces of luggage and some mail, then our zone leaders had their car filled with petrol but it is a diesel car so they got stranded and we had to go pick them up and drove to plymouth where we spent the night at their flat. We got in at about 1130 at night. I had to sleep on the floor. My allergies are horrible here. But anyways we woke up and studied and stuff, and then at 1130 am two other elders finally arrived in plymouth so we picked them up and drove them to the area right next to ours. We just arrived in our area, Helston, Cornwall. We had an appointment at 6 but they just cancelled and so now all we have tonight is a dinner appointment at 5 and then we will be knocking on doors. My trainer is Elder Simmons. He is great and is the district leader of this area. So far we seem fairly similar in intrests and mannerisms, so I think we will get along really good. My p-day is monday now, so make sure to send emails before sunday or I wont get them. I'm just going now to check out my flat. Apparently it is a real house with a washer and dryer, so its one of the better ones.

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