December 23, 2009
Prologue:
Dear Mom & Dad: Please send this by email to everyone. I tried emailing this week, but I got logged out because my 30 minutes was up! I am sorry if you didn’t receive my email. This brings me to my next point that you should stop sending me emails and just send through dearelder.com. I only have 30 minutes to email which includes reading, sending, and actually logging in to my account which is dumb … but it happens. When these precious 30 minutes are up then it logs me off and doesn’t save my email or send it. This is troubling – we can land someone on the moon, but can’t automatically send e-mail. I had 2 seconds left and pressed the send button and then I got logged out. So let me know if you got the email. If not, forward this to everyone, thanks!
Business Matters:
Have everyone stop emailing and start using dearelder.com while I’m in the MTC. I receive the dearelder letters very fast, usually the day of or the day after.
Jessica: thank you for the calendar as well as the blog. Unfortunately, I can’t ever look at it in the MTC or my computer account will be terminated … Yikes! Also, Jessica, I have never gotten your letter that you said you sent me so I will give you my address again and will also be sending you mail.
Elder David Barney Steed
MTC Mailbox #199
Bra-SPS 0111
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793
Or www.dearelder.com. Select the Provo MTC and fill in my info. My departure date is 1/11/2010.
Nate, Sandrine and Family:
Josh, Cedric, and Taiva: Thank you for the pictures and cool drawings that you did. I really needed the pictures because I don’t have any from home. Also, I am wondering if you got my letters from Grandma and Grandpa yet that I sent you?
Sandrine: Thank you for the letter earlier this week. I learned a lot from it and I agree that Christmas on a mission is fantastic!
Nate & Mark: Keep up the good work. Nate, I didn’t think you would last this long in life either. It looks like we are both going above and beyond the expectation of each other.
Katie & Justin: How are you doing? Katie, thank you for the letter that you sent me and the testimony that you shared.
I need Jordon’s address because the one I have is in Thai and I don’t understand it, but it looks cool!
I also need everyone else’s address so I can write you all. I have 30 minutes to email, but hours to write.
Cedric, enclosed is a video that I did for your baptism
Life at the MTC:
Things are going really well here except for the fact that I got this 72 hour death virus! Also we have received 40 visas this last week, but none were for my District. However, 3 zone leaders are now gone … oh goodie. We will see what happens. The District has made a Christmas card and I want to send it to everyone so please just email your addresses. My district was chosen to usher for the apostle that is coming this week, but we don’t know who it is.
I learned something interesting this week about angels. A sister in our district brought up a scripture in section 84:88 which talks about Christ being on our right hand and left hand and his angels bearing us up. When I was reminded of that I thought of how as members who are baptized we are supposed to bear each others burdens. I then thought of the talk that Elder Holland gave called “The Ministry of Angels”. He mentioned that we as individuals can be angels. This spirit hit me very hard that the angels in section 84 were people like me and righteous missionaries who bear each other up. Cool, huh?
I love you all,
Elder Steed
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Letter 12-15-09
Subject: A new idea
Dear family,
So I have been thinking that since my camera can take videos that are really
good quality that mabye Jessica would want to start a blog and I can send
her some videos from the MTC and she can post them up there. Instead of
writing to you about my schedule I can just show you (a picture is worth a
thousand words right?). The only hitch is, is that mom and Dad have the
only memory card that I can do that on. I tried doing it today and it
didn't work. I was trying to show what a normal p-day is like. I think it
would be reallly neat for Josh and Cedric and for the other "Steed" cousins
to see what a real mission looks like. Anyways just a thought. You can
also post my recent e-mails if you so desire as well. I thought that it
would be a nice way to consoladate all of the information that I am sending.
So life in the MTC is well. We just had Elder Costa come and speak to us.
He is in the presidency of the seventy and was very fun to listen to. He
grew up in Brazil, and hearing him speak made everyone anxious to have our
visas and go there. I am learning a lot about how as missionaries we are
supposed to "get to know the investigator" and teach to their needs. I was
really impressed as I was teaching a lesson in english to a real
investigator and it wasn't going so well. I said a prayer in my heart to
try to know what to teach because I didn't know anything about the
investigator. I had this feeling from Heavenly Father that said "its ok if
you don't know them, because I do" he then gave me a thought to say to this
person and it changed the focus and spirit of the lesson. I was very
touched and came to the conclusion that no matter how much we try to get to
know someone we will never know them as well as our Heavenly Father does.
Thats why it is important to follow the spirit, Heavnly Father knows their
needs better than anybody.
In other knews this week we had the BYU mens chorus come and sing and it was
very enjoyable.
All is well,
Love, Elder Steed
Dear family,
So I have been thinking that since my camera can take videos that are really
good quality that mabye Jessica would want to start a blog and I can send
her some videos from the MTC and she can post them up there. Instead of
writing to you about my schedule I can just show you (a picture is worth a
thousand words right?). The only hitch is, is that mom and Dad have the
only memory card that I can do that on. I tried doing it today and it
didn't work. I was trying to show what a normal p-day is like. I think it
would be reallly neat for Josh and Cedric and for the other "Steed" cousins
to see what a real mission looks like. Anyways just a thought. You can
also post my recent e-mails if you so desire as well. I thought that it
would be a nice way to consoladate all of the information that I am sending.
So life in the MTC is well. We just had Elder Costa come and speak to us.
He is in the presidency of the seventy and was very fun to listen to. He
grew up in Brazil, and hearing him speak made everyone anxious to have our
visas and go there. I am learning a lot about how as missionaries we are
supposed to "get to know the investigator" and teach to their needs. I was
really impressed as I was teaching a lesson in english to a real
investigator and it wasn't going so well. I said a prayer in my heart to
try to know what to teach because I didn't know anything about the
investigator. I had this feeling from Heavenly Father that said "its ok if
you don't know them, because I do" he then gave me a thought to say to this
person and it changed the focus and spirit of the lesson. I was very
touched and came to the conclusion that no matter how much we try to get to
know someone we will never know them as well as our Heavenly Father does.
Thats why it is important to follow the spirit, Heavnly Father knows their
needs better than anybody.
In other knews this week we had the BYU mens chorus come and sing and it was
very enjoyable.
All is well,
Love, Elder Steed
Letter 12-08-09
Subject: Crazy week!
Hello evreryone,
This week has been absolutly crazy. Everyone in my district got sick except
for me and another sister. I have been staying and taking care of most of
my sick Elders and making sure that their companions have the oppurtunity to
go to class and attend the temple even thought their companion's are sick.
It has been a good oppurtunity for me to love and serve my district and let
them have oppurtunities to learn and grow like I did before I came out.
Other than that things have been pretty good. I got the H1N1 shot so I am
now immuned and surprisingly had no side affects from the shot. I have
finally learned that I can delegate a lot of things to members in the
district and it has taken a huge load off of my plate. I used to have to
teach about two lessons a week, prepare a five minute talk in portuguese ,
interveiw every missionary, have about 5 leadershid training meetings.
Unfortunatley the only thing I can actually delegate is the lesson teaching,
but every little bit helps. I finally got organized to be a district leader
so things have been going smoothly. I have read in the first chapter in the
book of mormon in portuguese and understood all of it!! I found out that I
along with being able to understand spanish, I can also understand
Itialian,and Romanian, which is way cool. The language is coming fast and
efficiantly. I had my skype lesson with the Portuguese teacher in the
Brazil MTC and could understand most of what they were saying. Tell Bekah
that I recieved her letter and was thankful for it. There have been 4 visas
that have come in this week but they are still telling us to plan on serving
in the United States for a while. I will be here for about 12 weeks is what
they (travel office) are telling me. So I am trying to make the most of it.
My district is making a Christmas card and I will be sending it shortly.
Other than that things have been going smoothly here at the MTC. Oh!, so
one of my companions got 25 Christmas presents to open every day of December
the last day being Christams. Each present had a scripture on it that gave
a hint about what was wrapped. Not saying i'm expecting anything that
extravagent but as DL I have the responsability to get everyone's mail twice
a day. I have noticed that everyone gets more packages than I do
letters/e-mails. However that being said I will forget myself and go to
work, but I felt inspored to bring that to your attentioin...just kidding.
Anyways I love all of you at home and miss eveybody tons share with everyone
my love. Tell Jess I want a Christmas calendar.
Love Elder Steed
P.S. There isn't another Elder Steed here at the MTC!
Hello evreryone,
This week has been absolutly crazy. Everyone in my district got sick except
for me and another sister. I have been staying and taking care of most of
my sick Elders and making sure that their companions have the oppurtunity to
go to class and attend the temple even thought their companion's are sick.
It has been a good oppurtunity for me to love and serve my district and let
them have oppurtunities to learn and grow like I did before I came out.
Other than that things have been pretty good. I got the H1N1 shot so I am
now immuned and surprisingly had no side affects from the shot. I have
finally learned that I can delegate a lot of things to members in the
district and it has taken a huge load off of my plate. I used to have to
teach about two lessons a week, prepare a five minute talk in portuguese ,
interveiw every missionary, have about 5 leadershid training meetings.
Unfortunatley the only thing I can actually delegate is the lesson teaching,
but every little bit helps. I finally got organized to be a district leader
so things have been going smoothly. I have read in the first chapter in the
book of mormon in portuguese and understood all of it!! I found out that I
along with being able to understand spanish, I can also understand
Itialian,and Romanian, which is way cool. The language is coming fast and
efficiantly. I had my skype lesson with the Portuguese teacher in the
Brazil MTC and could understand most of what they were saying. Tell Bekah
that I recieved her letter and was thankful for it. There have been 4 visas
that have come in this week but they are still telling us to plan on serving
in the United States for a while. I will be here for about 12 weeks is what
they (travel office) are telling me. So I am trying to make the most of it.
My district is making a Christmas card and I will be sending it shortly.
Other than that things have been going smoothly here at the MTC. Oh!, so
one of my companions got 25 Christmas presents to open every day of December
the last day being Christams. Each present had a scripture on it that gave
a hint about what was wrapped. Not saying i'm expecting anything that
extravagent but as DL I have the responsability to get everyone's mail twice
a day. I have noticed that everyone gets more packages than I do
letters/e-mails. However that being said I will forget myself and go to
work, but I felt inspored to bring that to your attentioin...just kidding.
Anyways I love all of you at home and miss eveybody tons share with everyone
my love. Tell Jess I want a Christmas calendar.
Love Elder Steed
P.S. There isn't another Elder Steed here at the MTC!
Letter 12-01-09
Dear everyone,
dearelder.com is the best way to communicate with me however if you want to
send me an e-mail that's fine too. I recieve the dearelder letters the day
after you send them. We have had Elder Holland come through as well as
Elder Oaks which has been nice and we have Elder Bednar tonight!!! We have
had some health problems in the District, 3 Elders got sick and so it has
been tricky organizing exchanges for everyone. We still don't know when I
will be leaving to Brazil. Right now we are skyping the teachers in Brazil
because they are bored and have no one to teach because there are hardly any
elders there because of visas, whereas here we have too many. So it has
been crazy but fun. I wrote you a letter and will be sending pictures soon,
I love you all. Tell Josh that a mission will be the most fun and
worthwhile thing that any young man can do before he gets married.
Elder Steed
dearelder.com is the best way to communicate with me however if you want to
send me an e-mail that's fine too. I recieve the dearelder letters the day
after you send them. We have had Elder Holland come through as well as
Elder Oaks which has been nice and we have Elder Bednar tonight!!! We have
had some health problems in the District, 3 Elders got sick and so it has
been tricky organizing exchanges for everyone. We still don't know when I
will be leaving to Brazil. Right now we are skyping the teachers in Brazil
because they are bored and have no one to teach because there are hardly any
elders there because of visas, whereas here we have too many. So it has
been crazy but fun. I wrote you a letter and will be sending pictures soon,
I love you all. Tell Josh that a mission will be the most fun and
worthwhile thing that any young man can do before he gets married.
Elder Steed
First Letter 11-24-09
Here is Dave's first letter.
Bom Dia!!!,
I have finally been given the chance to e-mail you on my p-day. The reason
I couldn't send a quick e-mail when I got here was because I got in later
than most of the orientation things. The MTC is great, after the first
three days I have been called as the district leader and it has been a fun
experience. Our district is very close to each other and we love each other
and serve each other to the best of our ability. I couldn't ask for a
better district, they are doing everything that I have told them to do so
far. I have written and sent you a letter in a little more detail about me
being the District Leader. My companions are great they love to work hard
and they are doing the best that they can do. The Lord really wants to
bless this district that I have stewardship over. We are speaking the
language well and understanding it better and better each day. The spanish
elders who have been here for about 6 weeks always try to find the new
elders at the MTC and speak to them really fast in spanish, the funny thing
is though is that when they did that to individuals (including myself) we
understood everything they were saying and they didn't have a clue what we
were saying back to them. Apparently thats typical of portuguese. The
people in Brazil can understand spanish but people who speak spanish can't
understand portuguese...it's great!!! The sisters in my district are great
and are very capable of wonderful things and work hard. We have no idea
whats going on with the visas...it's a mess. They stopped assigning people
to state side missions because there are too many temporary state
missionaries and not enough full-time missionaries in the state. Some
districts have been here for about 10 weeks and could go to 15 weeks. So we
will see what happens. I can pray and bear my testimony in portuguese but I
still have much to learn. I love you guys over there and miss you lots.
Elder Steed
Bom Dia!!!,
I have finally been given the chance to e-mail you on my p-day. The reason
I couldn't send a quick e-mail when I got here was because I got in later
than most of the orientation things. The MTC is great, after the first
three days I have been called as the district leader and it has been a fun
experience. Our district is very close to each other and we love each other
and serve each other to the best of our ability. I couldn't ask for a
better district, they are doing everything that I have told them to do so
far. I have written and sent you a letter in a little more detail about me
being the District Leader. My companions are great they love to work hard
and they are doing the best that they can do. The Lord really wants to
bless this district that I have stewardship over. We are speaking the
language well and understanding it better and better each day. The spanish
elders who have been here for about 6 weeks always try to find the new
elders at the MTC and speak to them really fast in spanish, the funny thing
is though is that when they did that to individuals (including myself) we
understood everything they were saying and they didn't have a clue what we
were saying back to them. Apparently thats typical of portuguese. The
people in Brazil can understand spanish but people who speak spanish can't
understand portuguese...it's great!!! The sisters in my district are great
and are very capable of wonderful things and work hard. We have no idea
whats going on with the visas...it's a mess. They stopped assigning people
to state side missions because there are too many temporary state
missionaries and not enough full-time missionaries in the state. Some
districts have been here for about 10 weeks and could go to 15 weeks. So we
will see what happens. I can pray and bear my testimony in portuguese but I
still have much to learn. I love you guys over there and miss you lots.
Elder Steed
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
