Merry Christmas!

Hello family!

It's been a pretty good week I think.

These last couple of weeks we've really been trying to get this Christmas CD done! it turned out okay. Not close to professional, but good enough. For the Christmas initiative "Jesus worshipped through song and so can you" we decided we would delay getting the CD out and instead have members of the branch participate in making the CD.  So, we went to the church on mutual night, and after I taught a piano lesson to Sister Bingham's kid, Sister Bingham played a lovely harp solo of "Come thou fount".  Not a Christmas song, but it was too great not to put on the Cd. Then we remembered that Brother Griggs does gigs with his guitar and has an awesome song called "In Bethlehem" so we had him put on the CD. We also had our branch president's wife, Sister Wells record her version of "What child is This?"  We had a couple of the youth participate, and it turned out pretty great!  Now I 've just got to figure out how to mass produce this thing. I'm not sure how to put it in the right format. It's really frustrating since I am trying to send them to people for Christmas, as well as give them to people; hoping to bring people into the church.  Hopefully it will work

Other than that, this week, we've still been trying some other ways to find people to teach, although we found no one this week. I think in part to using our time inefficiently. I've been pretty terrible at that lately.

We tried going to our investigator's wedding, a less active's funeral. All great ways to find people but we just felt so awkward there and I didn't know how to bring up the gospel to people in those types of situations. 

At least we are trying though.

My new companion is Elder Burgoyne. I think he is great. He is an amazing  scherrenschnitter. Google that to figure that out. We made in awesome scherrenshnitte of the salt lake temple (well he did) while I did weekly planning which took hours upon hours. 

(Jen's note: I looked it up Scherrenshnitte is intricate paper cutting similar to this)

Dusty is doing pretty well this week. She has fought off some temptations and anger with her family. She is getting close to her baptism. I'm still not so sure if she's quite there yet though. She likes to tease me a lot. She calls me ornery and is going to apparently make me a new name tag that says ornery on it. She is the one who's ornery. 

We got new district members. Elder Williams from Blackfoot, ID, and a new missionary, Sister Anderson from Sandy, UT. Alta High School.

Also, we had a cool lesson with Chanh. He is so excited to pray! Christianity is new to him, but he asked us if he could pray before he goes to bed. Ee said YES! Also, today we found out that our zone leader's branch president speaks Vietnamese so we will see if we can work something out! Chanh is so cool. 24 years old. Very teachable, and child-like. He gave us a present from Vietnam- some kind of magnet doll thing. it was something special to him. he is excited to come to church! 

I feel like I have learned how to be pretty patient on my mission. I don't really get mad at people anymore. Also I've learned to not be so judgmental. I'm not going to lie, it has been pretty hard lately. A lot of days I have a hard time feeling the spirit but I just keep trying and trust that things will work out for the best. and the more I focus on other's problems than my own things go better. 

look forward to chatting on Christmas!

Love, 

Elder Soutas

Choose the Better Part

Hey everybody!

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season. It's been fun. 

This week we spent a couple hours making this plaque and Christmas light fixture which says #light the world 25 days 25 ways, visit mormon.org. I wish my camera had battery so I could take a picture of it. I am pretty proud of it.

Other than that this week, we drove 3 hours to Springfield early in the morning to go to an impromptu zone conference about planning. Apparently our mission struggles with effective planning so we spend 4 hours learning how to do that better. They want us to Think Outside of the tiny box that we are in without leaving the "trust box" or framework of rules that we are to live by. They really want us to increase our vision of finding people and try to be more creative.

Another way we tried to be more creative this week was to play music at the old folks home. they sure enjoyed it but it didn't turn into any people to teach. We will have to re evaluate that. 

This week we made some lee-way with Amparo. We brought Sister Large with us and her homemade cookies. They became instant friends. It was funny we couldn't go inside because there wasn't a man with us so we were left out in the cold while Amparo and Sister Large developed a friendship. Sister large also invited over our other investigator for lunch and a bible study as well as dinner! She is a fantastic member missionary. 

Our hope this week is to be creative by "calling members on a mission" since there has been increasing emphasis in our stake about sharing the gospel. I thought we would kind of mimic a full-time missionary call letter and give it to the members and also even give them a print out of the mission they are called to with a map of the Paris branch, key indicators like "awkward situations, pass along cards passed, church invites, etc... just make it fun for them. WE will see how it turns out. 

This week we also made some great progress with Dusty. She had us over for dinner and is a great cook by the way. She made home made chicken and noodles. We also were able to last night travel all the way to Champain with brother strait and sister strait to attend the annual stake musical fireside which was very very good. IT was kind of funny because one of the songs was an arrangement of "O Holy NIght' which Elder Kama and I performed just the day before at some one's baptism, except it was waaaay better. The reason being is that the stake pres. daughter who is my age has a voice that is unbelievable. Elder Kama and I thought it was funny because the stake president was at the baptism just the day before and heard our musical number knowing that the next day his daughter would perform it and would sound much better. Haha kind of hard to explain. I'm in a hurry typing this.

Also this week I learned in church that I need to be better at spending my time more wisely. In the sacrament a phrase in the hymn stood out "and choose the better part." Then in 3rd hour they read Mormon 9 28 which says to be wise in the days of your probation. So apparently I need to use my time more wisely, and choose better things over good things since I have A LOT of good ideas, but I need to be careful. It's one of those gift/curse type of things that I have. 

Well I better wrap up this email! 

I am so glad for this Christmas season to reflect on my personal relationship with Christ. It could honestly be a lot better, but I know that everything that is good in my life is because of him. My family, good people that are in my life, trials to be able to develop Christlike attributes, the book of Mormon. It is  all because of him. 

I love you all!

Keep enjoying the holidays and serving others!

Elder Soutas

p.s. I am staying in Paris another transfer! and getting an elder burgoyle

How can we serve?

Due to time, I will just send my letter I sent to my mission president with some things edited out due to confidentiality. 

"Dear President Bateman,

Lots of things to tell you.

I think that is great counsel on usage of the cell phones after 9pm. I value that hour and a half before bed time especially so I can reflect on the day and how I need to repent. 
Member dinners have always been challenging on my mission. I know there's been times on my mission that I was really strict on them being only an hour and I would get really anxious if it was over that. I think I've been a little loose with that rule as of late so thank you for the chastening. 

This week has been good. We were able to have Dusty come to stake conference which she really enjoyed, as well as the christmas devotional. We had 3 of our vietnamese investigators come to the Randolph's house to watch the devotional with us as well. 

Dusty has a new baptismal date for Jan 1st. She wants me to baptize her. I am honored, but of course that will only happen if it is the lord's will that I stay here in Paris. It was great to see how she overcame her temptation to go and buy pot and alcohol, and instead she bought a 25 dollar entertainment center. She continues to thank us how us and the Bemises and the Straits have come into her life. 

A few of our other investigators have been challenging to meet with on a consistent basis, however we found 2 more really solid ones named Amparo and Pedro. They are hispanic moved from Texas recently. They have been fixing the roofing on their home, and they had no heat. But thankfully we had some members in Casey where they live install a heater. Then when we came by with Brother Bingham who just moved here from texas (coincidence I think not) on Sunday we helped them put the shingles and other trash into the dumpster before it came the next morning! They were so thankful, and afterwards we taught them the restoration and invited them to be baptized, and they said they would! She is a devoted catholic. She is so faithful though and wants her family to come closer to God because they are straying away. She felt the message of the restoration was true.Before we left, she wanted to hug us and we let her (not explicitly in the missionary handbook) and she said "mi casa es tu casa."  She has many grandkids and a few other relatives that live with her so we may be teaching a family here soon!

Also, something kind of crazy happened yesterday. So within the branch, there recently has been a nasty divorce and it has effected a lot of members of the branch. I won't mention any names. But this woman who got divorced is now dating and living together with a returned missionary who recently "went off the deep-end.". Well after he turned it off his car lights which we told him he left on he came and knocked on our door to thank us, and he also came asking us to help him repent. He is 24 years old and is from the same city as me (South Jordan Utah.) He says he wants to get back in the church and everything, but with the tender feelings in the branch because of the divorce we are still unsure about if it would be good to teach him or not.  Kind of a sticky situation. we will of course pray about it. But it is kind of one of those things where you think "the Lord knows his children." 

Went on exchanges this week with the zone leaders. They told us that as a mission we need to think more outside the box and so Elder Kama and I have been doing that the last week. We've come up with quite a few ideas, one of which has already been approved, and another may need approval as well. 
(1) With the emphasize of member missionary work from general conference and stake conference, we were thinking that we could be creative somehow and call members on a mission! Maybe do it for a day or two, or maybe even just an evening for mutual-- go out and "warn their neighbors" and share the gospel!
(2) Have a PMG class for members they can attend if they want where we can teach them how to be a good member missionary. 
(3) We are going to make a #light the world CD with music compositions of an lds artist (Sally Deford) which says it is okay to copy for non-commercial use. We may need to look more into that and make sure it is okay to distribute songs that we perform by other artists. IF that isn't allowed then we are capable of creating our own compositions. We thought this would be good if we were to give this along with the chrsistmas intitiative cards! We are even going to create a type of light the world theme song! We are really excited about this! If we can do this, what do we need to make sure we do so we don't overstep our bounds?
(4) Along with the light the world, we are planning on making a light fixture with the nativity scene with wording #light the world 25 ways over 25 days. Visit Mormon.org. We are wondering if this would be approved. We have thought of putting it in the church yard but that may not be allowed, plus our branch mission leader may not like it. The other place we have considered was in front of our landlord's place, however that may not be good because then people might get an idea of where we live and that's not good. The other place we've considered and already have permission to do is at our WML's house. He loves the idea. The question I have for you though is if it would put his house in jeopardy of being mistreated or if it would cause someone to commit a hate crime because it says mormon.org. What do you think? I will also ask the zone leaders to ask the APs but I thought I might as well describe to you in this email what we were hoping to do. Hopefully there is a way we can do it without there being potential mishaps. There is a park in town that allows anyone in the community to put up christmas lights but we heard that it might be too late to put more up.
(5) We've been broadening our horizons with service. WE are now switching off weeks between a compassionate clothing donation center, an animal shelter, food pantry (which might end due to DM being on wednesdays), we tried doing shop with a cop but it was too late. That is where you buy toys for families that can't afford them. We are also getting in touch with hospitals to see what kind of service we can do that is within our rules. Also, I just talked to the librarian here where we are doing emails and she gave us this website (fiaec.com) which stands for faith in action edgar county .com. We've talked to this organization before, but they are well-known in the community for service. We asked the librarian if there were any adults who have learning disabilities that we can help them read, and she directed us to look on this website. So would we be allowed to get permission to look this up?
(6) Also, i made this myths refutes/truths affirmed diagram with the questions of the soul based off of Elder Russel M. Nelson's talk. I'll send it to the office elders as an attachment. Would that be okay to distribute to people?
(7) Lastly, Elder Kama and I have been thinking how we can use our talents to build better trust with the members or to find people. So since I play piano and he sings well, we were thinking it might be a good idea to do free piano/singing lessons and pass out flyers. 

Sorry for so many requests. I don't mean to surpass the zone leaders and APs. I am mostly just really excited about implementing these ideas into our proselyting and wanted to tell you about them and get your opinion. 

 
Thanks for your pateince with me and Elder Kama and taking the time to glance at this long email."

Sincerely, 
Elder Soutas

Light

HEy everyone!

I am doing much better today! Now Elder Kama is having a few struggles so we are working through some of that. Not really sure what to do yet. I know how he feels though so I am just being patient since he was patient with me. All is well.

We had some good news happen this week! Dusty wants to get baptized on Christmas day! The other night, the day after we ate thanksgiving at the Bemis's house, we encouraged Sister Bemis to invite Dusty to baptism in our next lesson. We told her how to do it so she wouldn't feel pushed. Well the next day, we found out that Sister Bemis called Dusty on the phone and invited her to baptism! We were really surprised. That doesn't happen but she wants me to baptize her. She is so appreciative that we and the Bemises came into her life. She too has been struggling with depression. She is such a good person. 

This week we have been prepping for the LIght the World Christmas Initiative. We made our own pamphlets to give to people at church. So far it has had a good impact. We gave a card to the ladies at the compassionate clothing donation place that we helped sort clothes at this morning.

I am really grateful for this opportunity to serve like Christ did for 25 straight days. I think it will be the most meaningful christmas of my life. I really like the whole concept of light and darkness. i've experienced quite a bit of darkness lately. It's been a combination of lots of things--stress, higher expectations, new responsibilites, the cold weather, this kind of depressing town, etc. but I can attest that no matter how dark I feel inside there is always days of light around the corner. I'm doing good right now. I plan on staying this way. I also am trying on not being a perfectionist. One thing that can cause discouragement is "all or nothing" thinking. You make one mistake and all is lost. It feels like you have to just start over again. But I've come to learn that if I make a mistake I just have to move on and not dwell on it so much. I mean, it is so easy to make a mistake as a missionary! We have hundreds of rules. It is impossible to keep them all perfectly. I really like what I studied this week by J. Devn Cornish :
 If you will really try and will not rationalize or rebel—repenting often and pleading for grace—you positively are going to be “good enough.”

I really like that because when living the gospel it may seem like sometimes there is this certain point we have to reach before we can ever be happy. I've learned though that I will never be happy with that mentality because I will continually fall short. So I just have to try my best. I am reminded of a great quote by Brad Wilcox:

"When a young pianist hits a wrong note, we don’t say he is not worthy to keep practicing. We don’t expect him to be flawless. We just expect him to keep trying. Perfection may be his ultimate goal, but for now we can be content with progress in the right direction. Why is this perspective so easy to see in the context of learning piano but so hard to see in the context of learning heaven?

Too many are giving up on the Church because they are tired of constantly feeling like they are falling short. They have tried in the past, but they continually feel like they are just not good enough. They don’t understand grace

There should never be just two options: perfection or giving up. When learning the piano, are the only options performing at Carnegie Hall or quitting? No. Growth and development take time. Learning takes time. When we understand grace, we understand that God is long-suffering, that change is a process, and that repentance is a pattern in our lives. When we understand grace, we understand that the blessings of Christ’s Atonement are continuous and His strength is perfect in our weakness"

I know God loves me and that he has provided me an unlimited amount of chances to repent. The gospel is true.

Elder Soutas

the Divine Gift of Gratitude

So I am basically just going to copy and paste  emails from now on that I send to my mission president if they're not too confidential.

"This someone called the cops on us for knocking on doors too late thinking we were soliciting. A cop searched for us and talked to us. He was really chill, but he got down our information and told us we needed a permit from the county to go door to door. 

It took us a couple of days to get the whole city permit thing figured out. First we went to the county jail and they said that we did indeed need a permit. Then we went to the police department as they directed to and they said that we didn't even need to have a permit and so I guess everything is fine now. We are not sure why one of their officers told us that we needed a permit and his own department said we didn't. 

At first we weren't really sure what to think, but now we think maybe there is a divine involvement or some explanation for all of this because a week earlier we had been contemplating ways to do service in the community and one of the was called "Shop with a Cop." And so as a consequence we found out all of the information and signed up for this service activity (which is where we shop for Christmas gifts for other people). So maybe the Lord wants us to do that. Who knows for sure. 

We did some other service this week too for the animal shelter. We each walked one dog and my dog was a hairless, scaredy dog that was like 5 pounds! It wouldn't even walk because it was cold and terrified of Elder Kama's big dog. I had to practically force the dog to walk. It had no problem walking back to the shelter though since Elder Kama was behind us.

This week was good. a lot of good things happened that I hope to remember. Being a district leader of course carries some more responsibility but I enjoy it. I like making assignments and asking God for inspiration. Our first district meeting went really great and the spirit was really strong. the zone leaders even said that I nailed it! Of course it was nothing I really did. The district seems to be doing really well. The Mattoon Sisters had a baptism this weekend! I had a chance to interview their candidate, and it lasted an entire hour because he was about 72 years old and had a lot of stories he probably could've kept to himself. A lot of people in Illinois have no filter on their minds. I hope I made the right decision to pass him. He had a hard time remember some of the doctrines but I decided that was a result of him being old. It seemed to me that he had truly repented of all my sins. 

And Effingham is working really hard. Elder Durrant is no longer here but we got Elder Merril and he seems like a pretty good missionary. He was companions with "my dad" Elder Lovik (the one who trained me). Elder Lovik will be going home after this transfer. 

 As for me and Elder Kama, we aren't doing too bad ourselves. There was a few setbacks with a couple of our investigators this week, particularly with Brent being basically forced to postpone his baptism again! Other than that there were some really cool things like our recent convert Mashell being healed from a blessing in the emergency room. The zone leaders gave her the blessing. She bore her testimony about it on Sunday saying that as soon as they left she began to feel better! Also our investigator Julie who is getting married to a member-- Brother Fulk-- came to church. They are having a civil wedding at the church on Dec 10. No baptismal date yet. We had dinner and a lesson at the Rigdons, a great family in the area who is related to a lot of people. 

Which comes to another problem which is trypical of branches. It was kind of good that Brent didn't have his baptism yesterday because there was a lady in the branch who is related to a lot of people in the branch who got up to "bear her testimony" and told the branch that we were the worst people ever. So yes, God knows what he is doing. Glad Brent didn't get baptized under those circumstances. I hope Julie wasn't too perturbed.

Our goals for this week as a companionship are to be more encouraging to each other and to be more grateful in any circumstance. We've been listening to a lot of talks on Gratitude that we made on a CD. My favorite one is by Thomas S. Monson: "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." Gratitude is one of my fave topics right.

He says and I quote: "it is my prayer that in addition to all else for which we are grateful, we may ever reflect our gratitude for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His glorious gospel provides answers to life’s greatest questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do our spirits go when we die? That gospel brings to those who live in darkness the light of divine truth.

He taught us how to pray. He taught us how to live. He taught us how to die. His life is a legacy of love. The sick He healed; the downtrodden He lifted; the sinner He saved.

Ultimately, He stood alone. Some Apostles doubted; one betrayed Him. The Roman soldiers pierced His side. The angry mob took His life. There yet rings from Golgotha’s hill His compassionate words: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Who was this “man of sorrows, … acquainted with grief”? “Who is this King of glory,” this Lord of lords? He is our Master. He is our Savior. He is the Son of God. He is the Author of Our Salvation. He beckons, “Follow me.” He instructs, “Go, and do thou likewise.” He pleads, “Keep my commandments.”

Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude."
I felt so much gratitude for the Atonement when I listened to this talk and in our district meeting. It was kind of amazing. As I listened to it I became aware of my ingratitude which resulted in me having more gratitude. So I think it is true when we recognize our ingratitude we simultaneously are filled with more gratitude. Correct me if I'm wrong. But this was a really special experience for me that I feel like I should share.

In your email you asked what my advice would be to missionaries. It would be this:

LIVE YOUR MISSIONARY LIFE IN SUCH A WAY TO REFLECT YOUR GRATITUDE FOR THE LORD AND FOR HIS TENDER MERCIES UPON YOU AND THOSE WHO YOU SERVE. DONT LET FEAR GET IN THE WAY.

I honestly can't think of a better advice to give someone since I know that the times my mission have been most rewarding are when I am the most grateful. My biggest fear is forgetting the Lord and his blessings to me and failing to recognize his holy hand in my life. And having this fear has led to other fears such as hesitation to share the gospel because when I'm not grateful why would I want to share something that I feel isn't making me happy (at that moment)? To overcome that fear I have had to constantly remind myself of how God has blessed me and how he is blessing me even when it doesn't seem like he is. I want to be like Moroni whose "heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people. I love him so much and wish I would feel this way more often. There is no greater feeling than that of gratitude. I will try to do better at this.

THANK YOU President Bateman! I am so grateful for all that you do to watch over this mission.

With gratitude,

Elder Soutas"

well I'm getting kicked off. I wish I could write more. 

District Leader

Hello,

This week was pretty great. My birthday was the best of course! Thank you everyone for the new shoes, new tie, byu apparel, etc. and birthday wishes!

On my birthday I actually got pied in the face with a pecan pie! How's that for a birthday gift? It was actually because I wanted to so it would be something to remember. Elder Durrant and Dollahite had to get pied too since they lost some kind of challenge. If you're going to get pied in the face don't get pecan because that one hurts a little! INstead get something softer like a banana cream or key lime. 

After I got pied by one of the sister missionaries I picekd up the pie that fell on the ground and ate some of it. Then as they were taking pictures I took the rest of my pie and pied elder durrant in the face as you can see in the photo I sent you. 

Also on my birthday I ate every single one of my cosmic brownies! I didn't use the candles though. Sorry Mom. I should have. 

On thursday we spent some time in Casey, the small town with really BIG objects. The griggs took us to a buffet called Richard's Farm. It was pretty good. IT was an italian buffet so not what you'd expect. After we took a big picture in front of the worl'ds largest pitchfork. I also have attached a big minion. 

More spiritually speaking, we've made some good progress with Brent. He drove himself an hour to Regional conference and he said that he felt comfortable there (which is a big deal for him since he has social anxieties). He also said he felt the spirit and we made sure we got him outfitted for his baptism. So as for right now he should be getting baptized unless someting happenes again. 

A couple days ago we decided that we would take pictures of nature to help Brent keep his mind focused on good things. We thought of that because how he mentions how he likes to get away sometimes and look at nature to keep his mind in a good place. After this email I've gotta go pick up the 1 hour prints of the photos we took from wal mart.

We made some pretty good progress with C.K. I could feel a fire inside of me as we read the book of mormon to him and bore testimony. He is starting to almost believe. not quite though. He asked us if we ever considered that Satan appeared to Joseph smith to give us the book of mormon. By the end of the lesson he knew that was an unreasonable assumption. He likes us. Plus he should know better since he said his father is a satanist. 

Elder Kama and I have been having some fun in the car. He is a really good singer by the way. He sounds like Adell when he sings in the shower in the morning. 

Tryihng to remember all that happened this week is hard. 

Oh yeah, at the regional conference Sunday, Elder Durrant got called out on live television broadcast to 150 stakes by his Uncle--Elder Devin. G. Durrant. When he said that we got really excited and said "That's our district leader!" 

I'm gonna miss Elder Durrant. He's leaving to columbia zone. I am actually replacing him as district leader! Yikes. I'm sure I'll do fine If I just try my best. 

Well I've gotta go. I just want to bear my testimony that i know this church is true and I love my mom and dad and my brothers and sisters too.

just kidding for reals though....I've been trying to improve my prayers and try having more gratitude. I read an awesome talk by Elder Bednar called "Pray Always." I encourage you all to read that because he basically just lays out how to be an amazing prayer-er (not sure if I spelled that right). One thing i like that he says is that the channel to revelation will be widened as we express more gratitude and ask for less blessings. I am going to try doing better at that. As we took pictures for Brent of nature this week I felt gratitude for the small and simple things. LIke President Uchtdorf said last conference: "
We are surrounded by such an astonishing wealth of light and truth that I wonder if we truly appreciate what we have." 

That is my biggest fear--ingratitude. That is what my goal has been this week is trying to express for thanks for blessings when I feel like I have received them. I encourage you all to do the same and find joy in things that matter most. Said President MOnson quoting some poet: “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collecteda lot of empty yesterdays.”1

I find it pretty easy to "postpone our joys" for some later time. But I know that finding joy in the present is really important.

Have a good week! 

Elder Soutas

SaveSave

Happy Birthday Elder Soutas

 Elder Soutas' 21st Birthday! *******************************************************************

The last couple of days quite a bit has happened.
For one, we had Brent's baptism scheduled and all ready to go yesterday---or so we thought. So it turns out that the baptismal clothing that Brent originally said DID fit turned out to not actually fit him when he tried it on. So we scrambled along with our ward mission leader and branch president to find some clothing that could work but to no avail. We had to reschedule the baptism to 2 weeks from now. I felt a little sad that it turned out this way, but oddly, i felt it might have been necessary and answer to prayer. Though Brent passed his interview of worthiness for baptism, I still felt for some reason that the timing wasn't quite right. So I think the Lord may have intervened. Elder Kama was a little upset at himself becasue he felt like he ignored a prompting to tell Brent to try the baptismal clothing on. I told him that there is a reason for this all and not to get too upset at himself. 

in other news, our investigator Julia currently has a baptismal date set for 27 of November! She has great support from her family members as we had a great dinner and lesson with her and her fiance at The Rigdon's home. The main obstacle for them right now is they need to separate. What is good is that they moved their wedding date to Dec 10, but now that they know the baptism is nov 27 that will allow them opportunity to make the choice to live the law of chastity even before their marriage which I think would be best of course before their baptism. Julia is a very choice investigator though and time will tell. 
on exchanges, Elder Durrant and I offered to clean up someone who got TPd on their tree. IT was really fun! probably one of the best service things I've done on my mission. I'll send a pic of elder durrant. he hasn't sent the one of me yet. we had to use long stikcs to get the ones high in the branches. Service is the best medicine. 
Our goals for this week:

we really want to focus on the fundamentals in the 12 week book. It is so easy to get away from those. I personally think every missionary should use the 12 week book for their studies. 3 months is not enough to master those principles and teaching techniques. I think it would improve our mission a lot if we all did that. 

we also really are hoping to gain better trust with the members. The baptism haveing to be rescheduled sure didn't help with that, but we want to try to have more member visits and invite them to participate in the work of salvation. To do this, we are thinking of sharing the 3-5 min resto with them and having them study and teach it to us in a follow up visit. Also we have thought of calling certain family members "on a mission." There is an awesome story that I read from an ensign article of how a small branch was built into a huge ward because they had "proselyting families." Certain families would go out and find other families to invite to activities and love them into the church. All of this is easier said than done, but we will give it a shot!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! I am so grateful for eternal families.

Sorry my email is kind of lame this week. 

Elder Soutas

p.s. ill send the baptismal photos once i get them. 

Mashell's Baptism

This week has been great. We've been really blessed in the past week. We found another investigator almost by accident it seemed. It was divine intervention though. We accidentally missed our exit to Paris traveling back from Casey, and so we ended up on a road we had never been on before, however we recognized the name of it since we intended to go there a few weeks previous. There lived a less active member and his non member fiancé--Brian and Julia. We taught them the restoration and she is thinking about getting sealed to him for time and all eternity. We also have great fellowship from the ward because the Benders who we rent from know her well as well as other families in the branch. 

Mashell's baptism was on Sunday! It was a wonderful event. The program, though last notice, turned out exceptional as the Large's young daughters did beautiful talks and musical numbers that really brought the spirit of the Lord. It even had Randy--Mashell's husband--choked up in tears. He also made the comment that to his memory the Holy Ghost reminded him how his mother wished he would marry a Mormon girl. Well that wish came true on Sunday as Mashell was baptized. 

Mashell explained that as she went under the water it felt like her heart jumped out of her chest, and when she came up out of the water she saw gold light, which I suggested to her may have been a glimpse of heaven. It was a beautiful Sabbath for a baptism! 

In other news, Brent has a great shot at being baptized Sunday. At this point he is worthy and has overcome some temptations. We have his interview tomorrow with Elder Durrant and we are being extra careful that we don't baptize him too early. We are having him pray about whether or not he should get baptized this Sunday. He's kind of a shy guy and so my only concern is of his fellowship and how he has social anxieties. We feel like he is definitely worthy, but we want him to make this decision completely himself. 

We had a good district meeting yesterday. Our goals for this week are to

(1) Teach shorter more powerful lessons since they are WAY too long sometimes.

(2) Have more fun but not lose the spirit of obedience

     It was inspired that Elder Durrant and I weren't called to be full time companions together because we have WaY too much FUN on exchanges! I told him that I gave him permission to marry my sister. I was half kidding but not really. I can see us being good friends someday after the mission. 

(3) Make sure we have an effective comp inventory

As for me, my personal goal this week is:

(1) Judge righteously

I like what President Brigham Young said

"Who has the greatest reason to be thankful to his God—the man that has no strong passion or evil appetite to overcome, or the one that tries day by day to overcome, and yet is overtaken in a fault? The power of his strength, faith, and judgment is overcome, and he is found in fault through his evil propensities, though he is striving, day after day, and night after night, to overcome. Who has reason to be the most thankful? The being that has comparatively no strong passion to overcome ought constantly to walk in the vale of humility, rather than boast of his righteousness over his brother. We are under obligation, through the filial feeling and ties of humanity, to more or less fellowship those who do evil. We must endure this until the Lord shall see fit to separate the wheat from the chaff—until the righteous are gathered out, and the wicked are bound in bundles prepared for the burning [see D&C 86]—until the sheep are separated from the goats [see Matthew 25:31–34]. Those who have not strong passions to contend with, day by day, and year by year, should walk in the vale of humiliation; and if brethren and sisters are overtaken in fault, your hearts should be filled with kindness—with brotherly, angelic feeling—to overlook their faults as far as possible" 

(2) start reprogramming my negative thinking patterns

(3) Express more gratitude in my prayers for blessigns received. 

Brigham Young  a very wise man, also said:

"We have reason to rejoice exceedingly that faith is in the world, that the Lord reigns, and does his pleasure among the inhabitants of the earth. Do you ask if I rejoice because the Devil has the advantage over the inhabitants of the earth, and has afflicted mankind? I most assuredly answer in the affirmative; I rejoice in this as much as in anything else. I rejoice because I am afflicted. I rejoice because I am poor. I rejoice because I am cast down. Why? Because I shall be lifted up again. I rejoice that I am poor because I shall be made rich; that I am afflicted, because I shall be comforted, and prepared to enjoy the felicity of perfect happiness, for it is impossible to properly appreciate happiness except by enduring the opposite...."

...

"What is our duty? It is our duty to improve upon every blessing the Lord gives to us.

Just been reading some of the teachings of the presidents manuals, I think are some of the most neglected words of wisdom ever. I am going to download them onto my microsd card so I can listen to them in the car while driving. Same with Joseph Smith. 

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week! I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God. I learned this week how impeachable his character truly was, and only God good turn an unlearned farm boy to a man as astute and upright as he was. I wish I had the time to learn more of the kind of person he was. I am grateful for my trials which I have had which I am starting to learn are given to me for a wise purpose, of which I am still unclear on. I love what Elder Schmutz said in conference:                       

  "When we view the difficult experiences of life through the lens of faith in Christ, we are able to see that there can be godly purpose in our suffering"Though we may all at times "see through a glass darkly" as Paul said it, only our faith in Jesus Christ will allow us to see things clearly, things as they really are. I testify of God's redeeming love which can encircle all of us if we will try to view the world, others, ourselves, and our suffering as he sees it.Again, Hope you have a wonderful week!Elder Soutasp.s how is jenessa doing? I never heard from her last week.