Week 2 in the mission here at Eagle Mountain, Utah (Provo Mission) was pretty good! I had a down day or 2 but other than that I've found a lot of joy serving the people here. For those of my friends who are hearing from me for the first time, I am serving for 3 months full-time here in the Provo mission before I get my second call elsewhere in the world!! I like it here. The people are very welcoming and such. We have had no baptisms yet, but we have a few investigators and a few possible investigators. One of our possible investigators is Karen, who is a vegetarian who owns an animal shelter. We can't mention anything about meat in front of her or we will lose our trust with her. He husband thinks we are sent by God to them, but we haven't taught them yet because she won't really let us...yet. We met another investigor this week named Scott Jasmer who is an ex-Army guy. He really doesn't like the church at all but we had a good 20 min conversation on his doorstep. He believes that it wasn't fair that Jesus had to pay for his sins, but that he should have to pay for them instead. We told him that wasn't necessary. I think we're going to share with him D&C 19 and also about Saul (before he became Paul) that might help him out. We visit a lot with two other ex-navy/army guys as well! They are kind of hardened though from all of the experiences they've had in war. They've said they just don't think they can be forgiven for the people they have killed; they can though because it's not a sin to kill when you are fighting for freedom and liberty. They need to read the war chapters in Alma! One of the ex-navy guys is named Bert Smith. He kept flaking on us this week and telling us he was sick. He finally let us in for a few minutes pm Saturday, and we will be stopping by to teach him this week. His voice sounds like he's been a smoker his whole life, but nonetheless he is a very nice guy with a huge great dane dog!
The other navy guy is Richard Kruelisky. I don't even know where to start. He kind of scares the b-jeebers out of me because he is so nit picky and cynical. He will make fun of you and even punch you. The first day he made fun of my tie because I guess it was crooked. It certainly doesn't help that I'm serving a mission close to home either! He's just teasing though. He has PTSD and was abused growing up. That's why he is so hardened. He's also fun to talk to at the same time. It's weird. He's like my dog Kako--I hate him, but at the same time I love him! Richard looks like the guy on Hot Rod that Rod tries to save so he can beat him up!!!! No joke!!! He acts just like him. His wife is a stalwart member of the church though and keeps him grounded sort of. Yesterday I was putting up this awesome BYU flag for Richard's kids in his room and he was making fun of me the whole time because I was under a lot of pressure with him staring at me! He is also kind at times because he steamed my tie that had wrinkles on it. I hope Richard will let us teach him someday. He needs the gospel more than anything! Please pray for him, he needs all the prayers he can get!
Here in Utah, it's hard to work these sorts of people that think they've got it all figured out and know everything about Mormons. We have another investigator named Teagan who's kind of a punk kid, but we commited him to be baptized and go to church with us. His brother got baptized and says he kind of regrets it, but after we spoke to them about the afterlife he softened up a little. We're taking them to the Payson temple open house this week! We're also taking another family to the open house, Marcelo and his family, this week who just got ordained to the Aaronic preisthood this week!
On Wednesay after ZTM I got kind of discouraged for some reason. I didn't want to be on the mission at all and was being a poophead. But in the car we played a fun game where you mention a movie, and then you have to try to think of a movie that starts with what the last movie ended with. Elder Fenton (my trainer), told be that he felt prompted to play that game so I would be happy. It worked! By small and simple things are great things brought to pass!
We also have been working with a newly activated family, the Waltons. Trevor --the Dad-is an awesome guy and has taught me to be a master at ping pong. I freaking love Ping pong! I hope I get called to Korea like my dad when i get my next mission call so I can keep playing ping pong. The Walton's fed us an amazing steak garganzola dinner on Friday--seriously the best meal I have ever had!! (sorry Mom). It's basically a tenderloin marinade with alfredo sauce and fettucine noodles! I'm craving a bite of that right now, and actually the Walton's just barely gave us another steak to cook and I am about to eat some in a few minutes!! We got fed steak twice last week and ribs twice! I haven't gained a pound though because I do 50 pushups everymorning and I do situps.
It was really rainy last week, but the thunder was way cool while we were at the Payson open house with the Stacey Family. Mark Stacey is about 50 years old and he has really bad anxiety. Until recently, he hadn't been out of a single room for over a year. He also has recovered from cancer recently! They are going to be sealed hopefully soon, but they need to get sundays off and start going to church.
I am adjusting pretty well to the mission. Most days I want to just go back to bed because i feel like a zombie! elder s likes to sleep with his fan on full blast and so I don't get any sleep! But he leaves in a couple of days and so we won't be in a trio anymore! My faith keeps me out of bed though.
Well sorry for the long letter. I get carried away sometimes!
Love,
Elder Soutas
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