Teaching update

Dear Family,

Another good week is in the books. I got pretty homesick talking to all of you on skype. Sorry you had to watch me break down in tears. I just love you all so much. I've never felt so much love before. I'm very grateful to have you all in my life. I can't believe Ben is getting married this week. That is so weird to think about. I wish I could be there. Oh well. 

Thank you everyone for sending me packages and letters. Thank you Mom & Dad and siblings for the new shaver, sweater, and goodies; Feil Family for the Christmas card; Grandma Lynne and Grandpa Bob for the sweet BYU sweater;  and Grandma Elaine and Grandpa Allen thanks for the awesome tie!

We had a few experiences this week that are worth sharing. On Monday we ate a dinner with Fransisco. He cooked us some kind of mexican soup that was really good. After we talked to him about the importance of reading scriptures everyday. He said that he doesn't read very much because he is pretty illiterate. But we told him that it would help him a lot in his life if he would even just read a verse every day. Fransisco is one of the most faithful members of the ward. He drives us around a lot, too. He doesn't quite understand everything because of the language barrier, but he is doing his best. Plus, we found out that he is 1 of 19 siblings in his family.

On Wednesday Mike F. dropped us. He had been reading anti-mormon literature for the last little while. The thing about anti mormon literature is it's primary goal is to get a person to "look beyond the mark" as Jacob describes. Mike had so many concerns about things that are so unimportant such as, why is it that in the pearl of great price it says nothing about Abram changing his name to Abraham, but in the Old Testament it does. Or, it can trick a person to taking things out of context. Mike told us that in Galatians 1:8 it says "Though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Mike took that to mean that the Angel Moroni ministering the gospel to Joseph Smith was a fulfillment of that scripture. Personally, I don't see any angels from Heaven giving me false information, maybe an angel of the devil from hell (see Alma 30:53). There's a reason why the Book of Mormon is the most correct book on the earth, and the Bible is not. The Bible is still pretty good though :)
It was disappointing to see Mike make this decision especially after he knew the book of mormon was true and wanted to be baptized. At one point, he wanted to be the bishop his own "Mega-mormon" church. Of course we told him he couldn't do that, but that just shows how much he really enjoyed the gospel. But for now he will be a Lutheran. Perhaps one day he'll change his mind. He'll be held accountable.

Also on Wednesday we talked to a guy named Ben. He is a former army guy. He has severe PTSD. He cussed the f word so many times while we were there. He knows the gospel is true, he is just afraid of being around people because of his anger problems and PTSD. He told us while we were there that he tried commited suicide several times but got wouldn't let him. He pulled the trigger to his head with a loaded gun a couple of times and the gun would just click. Also, in the army he told us how God preserved him after being in an explosion. Turns out, in the convoy he was in, his commander had him switch his seat to where he normally sat. The place where he normally sat was his friend, who was killed in the explosion. So Ben has obviously been preserved by God. No  question about that.

On Christmas Eve we had district meeting. We each bore our testimonies. It was a good experience. We all pretty much expressed that missions are super hard, and God's grace is sufficient to magnify our efforts if we surrrender our will to him. Be completely dependent on him.

Yesterday at church was a music program. I was asked to accompany singers on the piano 4 different songs (O little town of bethlehem, beautiful savior, the first noel, and He sent his son). In one of the songs, the Bishop sang O Holy Night since he has a really good voice. His daughter got up there at pretended like she was playing a hard piano piece, but really it was just a cd playing the song. It was pretty funny. I don't know about that one though. 

AFter church yesterday all of our plans fell through, and so we walked around in the rain for a while. The wind broke my umbrella. We did find a guy in his 20s who said he was going to come to church. He was pretty interested. We didn't drive our car to church that day to save on miles, and so we tried to figure out how to get back home. While walking in the rain I was dreaming of eating a delicious honey baked ham. A few hours later we got a call from one of the members of the ward inviting us to their late-Christmas dinner since their father worked christmas. So, we got a ride back to their house by Lehland and got to eat one of the best christmas dinners I've ever had. They had goose, smoked turkey, and ham. Remember how I was dreaming of eating a honey baked ham? The Lord answers prayers. The food was delciious and I really want to eat some right now. After dinner we shared a message about hastening the work of salvation. We seriously need help from the members to find us people to teach. There's know way the work will hasten on our efforts alone. Tracting is super unaffective. Elder McMullan finally realized that yesterday. He looooves tracting. It's okay I think. There is a much better way of doing missionary work though and that is through the members. The members here don't like coming out with us that much though. Our new ward mission leader, Brother Cox, is determined to change that though.

Well I better wrap this up. I know that Jesus Christ is at the head of this church. The Book of Mormon is definitely the word of God. Any person who reads it with an open heart will know that it is true. It is impossible to find the Book of Mormon to be false if your heart is open. It's okay to have doctrinal questions, but they can be resolved through prayer and study, not looking at Anti-mormon literature. Elder Andersen said, "Studying the Church … through the eyes of its defectors,” Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, is 'like interviewing Judas to understand Jesus. Defectors always tell us more about themselves than about that from which they have departed.'” This week I have also come to know how important it is to write down spiritual impressions that we get so we know how God is involved in our life. i've been keeping a little notebook in my pocket to do that.

Also, since it's almost New Years, take a look at this video when you get a chance.
http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/new-years-look-not-behind-thee?cid=HP_MO_12-28-2015_dPFD_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_

Love,

Elder Soutas

Oh my goodness, BYU! It's so hard to be a BYU fan. I'm so glad I didn't have to watch it. I'm so happy for Jordan and Alex!

My letter this week is going to be pretty short.

Our mission has been pushing to reach a goal of 375 baptisms for the year. Unfortunately, our area isn't going to have any baptisms. I'm not sure if there is something we are not doing or if it's just the agency of others. It's kind of frustrating. This area is such a huge area and is so hard to juggle so many things at once. 

However, we did get 2 new investigators up in Vandalia which is really far away from where we live. Brother Gleckler takes the missionaries once a month up there to do his hometeaching visits. We got an online referral a couple days before. A lady named Mary stumbled upon mormon.org somehow. She had been praying to get her life back on track. She didn't expect us to show up at her house. She and her husband Troy are willing to have us come by every Sunday now.  It was a cool how we were an answer to their prayers. We were also an answer to someone else's prayer too. This guy named Will who was a referral, has anger issues and one night he was praying for help. The next day we showed up and set up an appointment. A few days later we had a short discussion with him and towards the end he realized that we were an answer to his prayer! He is willing to meet with us after the holidays because he will be out of town. It was cool to see how God will send help to those who really seek Him. I studied a little bit about prayer this week. It's been pretty hard to have meaningful prayer lately. I wake up most mornings super beat. But prayer is a form of work. I learned that praying in the name of Christ isn't just something we say at the end of a prayer, but it means that we surrender our will completely to him. Then we cannot ask amiss. My whole life I haven't relied on prayer all that much. I would always do it without fail every morning and night, but I didn't really try to recognize God answering my prayers. I still struggle at that honestly, and I'm not really sure how he does it,  but it's something I will be working on.

Well I've got to go. Look forward to talking with you on Christmas. it will probably be around 4pm. 

Christmas Talk

Hey Everybody,

fyi, when it says "you" I am referring to my mom because I copied and pasted this from my email I sent to her because emails take way too long.

This week was cool. All of our investigators who were on date dropped their dates for the 26th which was a bummer. We got one more on date for Jan 9 with Beau (see Dad's email for details.) Jose who was the most ready to be baptized wants more time to read the scriptures before he gets baptized. Mike Y. needs more time to pray about it. Mike F. is looking at anti material and will probably have to be dropped because he won't commit. It a hard situation or him though. We will see what happens with him. 

In other news, we had a less active member named Bryan come to church this week. He really wants to change his life around. He also brought his friend Lisa who is kind of our investigator. She kind of just sits in. Bryan also brought her 7 year old daughter Lily. We were glad about that. In other news, Brother Barfield is doing super. He has now not only finished the book of Mormon, but the doctrine and covenants and most of the pearl of great price. we will see him again tonight. Next we are going to have him get to the temple to do baptisms. He passed the sacrament again this week. In other news, our bishop was shouting loudly over the pulpit basically forcing people to sign up to do merit badges for the boy scouts since someone quit their calling. I'm not sure how our investigators (Mike, Beau, and Lisa) felt about that. Luckily the rest of sacrament meeting was better. And just out of curiosity, how are the ward councils back home run? Are they effective? because our mission president has been stressing this a lot lately to hasten the work of salvation. Our ward council is pretty ineffective at this point. People just don't get it. 

We were asked to talk in church. I was the last speaker though and so they ran out of time. Which means I didn't have to speak. I had mixed feelings about that.   I gave the lesson in the YSA class 2nd hour of church about what I originally planned to give in my talk. 

I was going to speak about the things you sent me in your last email about building a stable family foundation. I couldn't really remember all the things you said about each of the nativity characters so I sort of came up with my own. 

Mary- she was a pure chosen vessel who was virtuous. She also bore a lot and that's what mothers do. They hold the family together. 

According to Jeffery R. Holland from last conference,  "You see, it is not only that they bear us, but they continue bearing with us. It is not only the prenatal carrying but the lifelong carrying that makes mothering such a staggering feat...Thank you. Thank you for giving birth, for shaping souls, for forming character, and for demonstrating the pure love of Christ.” 

I reecho the words of Jeffery R. Holland to you, mother. For the first time on my birthday this year I realized that I shouldn't be the one being celebrated for, but you should have because you carried me for 9 months. I appreciate your love you give me and I am starting to tear up as I type these words. 

If you are crying now, I'd give you a tissue if I could.

(yes I started to cry when I read this)

Joseph--like you said, he was a just man. Alma 13 (which is a chapter all about the priesthood) talks about how just and holy men were given the priesthood. Also about Joseph, he presided, provided, and protected for Jesus and Mary (see Family Proclamation). He heeded the angels warning to take them to Egypt when Herod was going to kill the newborn babies under 2. He surely provided for Mary as they made the long trek from the city of Nazareth to Bethlehem. He is a good example of what a father should be like. 

Shepherds-- what do shepherds do. They watch over the flocks and prevent their prey from entering in. Likewise, in our families we must watch and pray always as families so temptation and contention doesn't creep into our home. The Shepherds also "came with haste," which means we need to be quick to observe, to obey our parents when they ask the first time

Angel-- a stable family reaches out to other families. They don't keep to themselves. The angel brought "glad tidings of great joy unto all people." As families, we can't be content with just having the gospel for ourselves, but must bring these glad tidings to other families, especially those in the ward that are struggling. The angel of the Lord also said "Fear not." Likewise our home should be a place where we need to learn faith instead of fear. The home should be a place that is sacred and holy where we can enjoy peace and rest. 

Jesus-- Lastly, but certainly not least, Jesus represents Charity of course. The pure love of Christ. Christ must be at the center of our homes. If there is not charity in our homes then our families are useless. Jesus also represents humility since he was born in a manger. Members of a family must be humble enough to forgive each other and look past their idiosyncrasies and shortcomings. 

Another thing I learned this week is that you need to be careful not to misinterpret the scriptures. I was reading in the bible dictionary under "dispensations." It says in there that "there are things reserved for the fullness of times that have not been revealed previously (see D&c 121:26-27). And so I read that which says:

26

God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit , yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been revealed since the world was until now; 

27Which our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times, which their minds were pointed to by the angels, as held in reserve for the fulness of their glory; 

So I read that and my mind was blown. You see, I read it thinking that it meant that they gift of the holy ghost hadn't been revealed until Joseph Smith. I thought to myself, how could this be? In the book of Mormon it talks about how they got the gift of the holy ghost. As well as in Acts 2 and acts 8. So after rereading ( and I actually prayed to know the meaning behind all of this) I came to realize that the verse was talking about knowledge that had not been revealed before. It wasn't referring to the holy ghost, it was referring to knowledge. The way it was phrased was kind of tricky. So yeah, kind of neat study experience. 

Yeah so send me any cool study insights you get while you read this week. I'll try sending you a separate email every week from now on.

I love you! all

Elder Soutas

A good week

A lot of good things happened this week. 

 Transfers were Wednesday. My new companion is Elder McMullan. He is a funny guy.  He is from Maryland and will be going home pretty soon. He is really good at getting referrals from people because he asks everyone. We got like 10 referrals since he's been here.

On Wednesday we tracted accidentally into a less active family named the Sliningers whose grandmother passed away a few days earlier.  We took the sacrament to Sister Slininger every week. It was really good timing that we tracted into them. Brother Slininger has been inactive for quite some time now. He is divorced and living with his 7 year old daughter and his brothers and sisters. He also has a non member friend named Lisa living there who is willing to take the lessons now, though she says she is Catholic and never changing. They are all coming to church this next week though.

Jose is doing so good. It's looking like he is going to be baptized at the end of the month at this rate. He loves reading the scriptures. He is solid. 

Mike F still isn't coming to church. He wants to but he has to ask his parents but his parents aren't supportive. They won't even let us meet inside his house ever. We tried buying a pizza for the family to see if they'd let us in. Didn't work. Good pizza though. Don't know what we will do about him.

Mike Y came to church! He asked us if we could come back later and have a testimony meeting with him. He shared us his whole life story and told us everything. We'll see what happens with him. 

We had 3 people come to church yesterday! One of them was unexpected. Our investigator named Beau who I was talking about last week came to church! On tuesday he was so desperate and so I bought some pretty nice boots from him for 40 dollars since I need them. I may have given him 10 more dollars which I'm not supposed to do that. It's hard to follow that rule when people are desparate. Like do I just turn them away? But anyways, Fransisco let Beau stay over at his place for a day and took him to church. He enjoyed church he said.  He is going to meet with us Thursday. I've been praying for that guy a lot. Unfortunately, he moved back in with his girlfriend yesterday and still is jobless. We will see how things go.

So that's pretty much what happened this week.

I'm ponderizing this week James 3:17-18

 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

have a happy week!

Elder Soutas