From Creek to Creek

Dear Family,

Another transfer has met it's conclusion and now another transfer has begun. I am being transferred to a new area: Garrison Creek ward, Renton Stake. I will still be on bike. My new companion's name is Elder Ward. I am sad to leave Lakota Creek ward, but I am excited for my next area of service.

This week has been pretty good. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Sister Lewis's house. She invited some non-members over and so we were able to share a short message with them. I hope that they will contact the missionaries when they go home. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

I got to go on an exchange with the Korean Branch Elders. I went with Elder Jang in the Korean Branch for one day. He is still learning to speak English, even though I think he is very good already. When I was there, we got to have an English class. A man who spoke Korean wanted to learn English so he can do better here in America. He could speak words, but he had a hard time learning English grammar. Wow, I didn't realize how difficult English is to speak. I am grateful that I know it so well. It was a cool experience.

I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.

The last district meeting of the transfer! My district was awesome! From Left to Right:

Top: Elder Jang, Elder Delp, Elder Jones, Elder Northrup, Elder Steiner, Elder Pickney

Bottom: Sister Zavala, Sister Beazer

Zone Conference Week!

This week has been crazy! Elder Jones and I are running behind on all of the exchanges we have to do this transfer, so we had 2 this week! I stayed for one and went to the other area for the other one. They were both great! It is really fun to go on exchanges with other missionaries because everyone seems to have their own teaching style, and we can both learn new things to become even better!

There was also a Zone Conference this week! President and Sister Rasmussen taught us about a new method of teaching. The way most of us are used to doing a lesson involves teaching, then setting up an appointment at the end. In this new method, we do all of the small talk at first, including setting up another lesson, before we even start teaching. Then when we are all done teaching, we "flee" or get out as fast as we can. We want to leave the Spirit with them to continue to testify to them. I haven't tried this method, yet, but it sounds like a great idea!

This upcoming week, our mission is being visited by another member of the Seventy. Elder Gay is doing a mission tour from Thursday to Saturday and he is going to speak to my half of the mission on Thursday. It is going to be awesome!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.

​I guess we are getting a little too excited for Christmas...

Rainy Adventure!

Dear Family,

This week has been rainy! Elder Jones got sick this week, so we had to stay in our apartment for a few days. We avoided much of the rain, but not the worst storm! On Saturday, the rain came down pretty hard for a long time. That with the combination of the many leaves from the trees resulted in all of the drains getting clogged. Elder Jones and I had to bike through a few deep puddles, one was a whole foot deep! There was water everywhere! I felt like I was going on an adventure. We made it back to our apartment just before dinner and we were completely soaked! I am so grateful that our apartment has a dryer!

We currently don't have any investigators because Brother Ili seems to have disappeared. He changed his phone number and moved out of his parent's house, so we are having a hard time contacting him. It might just not be his time, but I do know this: He has a Book of Mormon, he knows it is true, and he has a Heavenly Father that will not give up on him after just one try! He will come around sometime in the future, I am sure!

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.​​

Happy Halloween!

Dear Family,

I hope you have all had a great week! It has been an adventure for me! There has been rain on and off this week and a lot of biking. On Thursday, after our weekly planning, I got on my bike and realized that it was very wobbly. I got off and tightened the back wheel, but it still wobbled a lot! It was totally not safe. So, after calling members and realizing all of them were unavailable, we make our trek to the bike store. It wasn't actually that far away, just a 30 minute walk.

At the bike store, the worker took apart my back wheel and showed me what it looked like inside. The bowl that encased the bearings was cracked and looked like it was about to break apart! He said that if I hadn't brought it in, it would have broken within the next week and I could have gotten hurt. The result, though, was that I had to buy a new wheel. So, 1 hour and $71 later, my new wheel is put on (Thankfully it was in stock) and my bike is ready to roll! I am so glad that it is safe now!

My bike has been riding so much smoother since then! I had no idea it was so bad! It feels sturdy and safe. Then Saturday comes and Elder Jones falls off his bike 2 times. He is so sore! He spent so much time tuning his bike Thursday night, and he had to do it all over again because those crashes made some cords slip. It was funny.

Anyway, it has been an adventurous week! I hope you all have a great week! Happy Halloween! I love you all!


Love
Elder Bretton Steiner.

Elder Jones jumped off the curb with his bike and something fell off. I found out how hard it is to find a bike light in a bunch of leaves!

Elder Jones wanted a bench press, so he made one. It didn't work out too well. We are not doing that again!

That fog makes me feel like I am in a grave yard! Happy Halloween!
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