My First Week in Garrison Creek!

Dear Family,

This week has been awesome! Garrison Creek Ward is so great! It is supposed to be a bike area, but we are walking because Elder Ward had a bike accident last transfer and broke his wrist. This week has been full of adventures! Elder Ward and I have run into some interesting people, some more than once, this week. As we have been showing them kindness, they have slowly been opening up to us.

My first full day in the area we ran into a man. He looked like he wasn't completely there, but we talked to him anyway. When we asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ, he grunted something and kept walking. He passed us and after a few steps he turned around and shouted, "I love God!", then kept walking. That was interesting.

Well, the next day, we saw him again. This time he had his dog with him. We were waiting to cross the same crosswalk at a busy street. He didn't have a leash on his dog because it would follow him wherever he went. He told us the dog had fleas, so we didn't pet it. When the walk signal came on, we started walking. Halfway across the street, we looked back and saw his dog still on the other side, unaware that we were crossing because it was scratching itself. The time was almost up to cross the street. The dog might cross at the wrong time and get hit. So we stopped the man as he was walking (he walked with a fast pace) and we pointed back to his dog. We reached the other side as he was calling for his dog. It ran across the street right as the light turned green, but the cars saw it and slowed down. The dog made it safely across the street.

The man was pretty happy that we cared enough about him to help him. After that, he was willing to talk to us. We had a long conversation going down the street. In the end he said he wasn't interested, but he said we can talk whenever we see each other on the street again.

Doing good deeds is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. I love the Christmas initiative that the Church is doing this year (#LightTheWorld). It gives us a simple challenge each day to serve others. I know that if Christ was here, he would be serving others. I know that this church is true. If you want to feel the Christmas spirit this year, you will do the things that Christ would do.

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

Love,
Elder Bretton Steiner.

​This is Elder Ward standing above the real Garrison Creek.

We got some snow this morning! I haven't seen snow like this since I was in Utah!

Have to get that name tag picture while we can!