10 Months

Dear Family,

Yesterday marks my 10th month on my mission. I am at a loss of words.......... How could it have gone so fast?! Are you sure it is 10 months? I am going to pretend it has only been 3.

This week, I got to have another lesson with the C family! This time was awesome because President Eaton and Brother Whatcott were there! Brother Whatcott was the former bishop in Elk Run and is known to be a spiritual giant. When we let members of the ward know how our lessons have been going they would usually say, "Wow! You are really bringing in the big guns!" It is true. President Eaton helped the shy members of the family totally open up and share comments! Brother Whatcott shared a testimony that would convert anyone! It was pretty amazing. We taught about daily prayer and scripture study, especially as a family. When we asked them if they would pray and read the scriptures as a family every single day, they said, "Oh, we have already planned to do that." Someone from the ward showed them a conference talk about families and the C's have been applying what they found in it! Wow! The members of this ward are just so great! They have already been planning on going to the temple after Brother C. and I. his son are baptized, too! May 7th is their baptism day and they will be confirmed during Sacrament Meeting on Mother's day.

Elder Davidson and I have been pretty busy (as always) with office work this week. We got to go to the Elk Run Ward Chili Cook-Off on Saturday and it was awesome! The C's came and had a great time. I hope all of you have had a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.

This is kind of what Graham looks like. There is no highway, just all small roads and spread out neighborhoods. That is why it takes 1 and 1/2 hours to get to Graham compared to the 1 hour to get to Puyallup South (The stake just north of Graham).

We went down to Graham this week to close some apartments. Graham Stake has half of Mount Rainier in it (and it is the southern most part of the mission), so it looks really close!

Delightful Mission Devotional!

Dear Family,

This week I finally got to have another lesson with the Coate family! It has been 3 weeks! First they got sick, then they went out of town, and so finally the time was right for them! In this mission we have a policy that investigators must live the Word of Wisdom for at least 3 weeks before they are baptized. Sadly, Jamie had an iced coffee when they got back from their vacation, so we have had to push back the baptism date for May 7th. It looks like both Jamie and Isaiah will be ready for that date!

On Sunday, there was an awesome mission devotional! I had to run the lights during it. I would usually turn off the lights when a video was being played, but in the middle of the devotional, the computer froze! One of the assistants to the President told us to keep going with the program and skip the video. So I turned the lights back on and joined the choir for a song. Thankfully, the computer started working again after the song, so we were able to continue the devotional! Candice came to the devotional! Since she is paralyzed, she doesn't get out very often. In fact, this is the first time that I have seen her outside of her apartment. She said really liked the it.

Bethany, congratulations on making it into Limited Edition! You are awesome! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Bretton Steiner.

Spring Break!

Dear Family,

Not much happened this week. In terms of Office work, we got a lot done, but as for proselyting, everyone seemed to be out of town for Spring Break. Since we are behind on the lessons for the Coate family, we have moved their baptismal date back to the 30th. Hopefully, we won't need to push it back anymore. They are doing pretty good. They spent last weekend in Utah. They didn't manage to get into any of the sessions, but they listened to them on the radio. We happened to run into them at the grocery store today. It was funny. They just came back from their vacation this morning, so they looked very tired. :)

Elder Davidson and I got invited to the "Empty Nester Group" dinner last Monday. It was held at the Waldrun's home and they happened to have a non-member live with them for the last month before she graduates from medical school. We shared a quick message about General Conference and about how easy it is for us to hear the prophet today as compared to the past. Now that I think about it, that probably made them feel pretty old... We didn't really get anywhere with the non-member, but she liked the message.

On Saturday, I got to go on an exchange with my District Leader, Elder Nelson (the one from Kaysville, Utah). Everyone we visited got a kick out of the fact that we came from the same hometown! :) Miracles happen while on exchanges and this one was no exception! We contacted people that haven't been contacted for months and we met a lot of people! It was great!

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.

One more sunset! It is really different from the typical, gray overcast days. On those days, it is sometimes difficult to even tell where the sun is.

Heavenly Father's Miraculous and Mysterious Ways

Dear Family,

This week has been full of miracles! Probably too many to write them all. :) So I will choose some of the highlights.

On Thursday, Elder Davidson and I got to go and see Candice again. This time, though, before we started to read the Book of Mormon with her, Brother Bean, and Deanna, she requested a blessing to help with her cold. I was chosen to give her the blessing. I don't remember most of what I said, but I do remember feeling prompted to say something like, "God is happy for the work that you do. You are a light to all of those people who visit you, drawing them closer to God." Candice is paralyzed. She can't get up and do work. But when I said that, I could see her smile as she is visited by various members of the ward. Later that night, Brother Bean took us to visit another family, the Smith's. He had each person tell of a highlight of their week. Sister Smith said that her highlight was visiting Candice last Saturday. I felt right then that the blessing was true.

On Friday, Elder Davidson and I went to Federal Way to move around furniture and bikes. We went to an area that Elder Davidson previously served in. We picked up some bikes there and he felt prompted to give one to one of his recent converts (we were going to just donate it anyway). We drove it over to Sister Harper. When we knocked on her door, she opened it and was shocked. She knew Elder Davidson and was surprised at our visit. She said that she had been having a bad day because her much needed paycheck didn't come today. When she learned that we brought her a bike, she started to cry and said, "I know that God is still watching over me. He sent you two to comfort me right when I need it." She was very grateful for the bike and the visit.

General Conference was amazing! I got to see every session and I found myself surprised that it ended so quick. My favorite talk was by Jeffrey R. Holland in the Sunday Afternoon session. I think he hit spot on the fact that we have to "return to Earth". His message has inspired hope to me and hopefully to all of you. I love you all and I hope you enjoyed General Conference as well!

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.

The sun came out for the whole week, so you will get some good sunset pictures. :)

Sunset at Lake Sawyer. This selfie actually didn't turn out so bad. :)

Some more pictures of the sunset at Lake Sawyer!

This is the secondary storage for the mission. It used to have tons of furniture that had to be taken to the dump, so Elder Davidson and I cleared it out and are now using it as the bike storage for the whole mission. This is actually a garage from the townhouse that missionaries live in, so they made it into their temporary work-out room.