First Week in Columbia MO and teaching Heber C Kimball's granddaughter

My first week here in Columbia has been pretty good. It has been a bit of adjustment to not having a car and riding bikes and walking, but I actually like the amount of excercise we get. On average we have been walking 8 or more miles per day which is good for my mind and body, plus we don't have to do car inspections for zone conference!

It has also been a little bit  rough adjusting to the bus schedule. Planning around that appears to be difficult, and quite a bit of time gets wasted waiting for the bus which makes me agitated. But I like the area and the ward members a lot. We have excellent ward misionaries and ward mission leader. They always makes sure that we have people to come to our appointments which is really nice because none of our other ward mission leaders ever did that. The ward council seems to be pretty on the ball with missionary work. We just need to find more people to teach.

One person we did find though was a lady named Kathy, who is the great-great (either that or great-great-great) granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball! She proved it to us with her geneology book she has. We found her just walking up the street last thursday, and she has a baptismal date for July 9th. Her father fell away from the church and grew up Methodist though she lived in salt lake city for 20 years. She has a smoking problem and has no teeth , but other than that she already believes the book of mormon is true and joseph smith to be a prophet before we even taught her! Really cool. We are meeting with her again today. 

I found an article called "A Great Work Was Done in That Land" that I am going to share with her after I read it. It talks all about Heber C. Kimball's mission to England with Orson Hyde and how thousands were converted. 

Columbia is pretty awesome! It is not even summer yet (not until end of June) and it is already super humid. Yesterday we played soccer and I had to lay down int he shade for a while because of heat exhaustion. Unfortunately the shade doesn't do a whole lot! 

The place is also a little bit more hilly which is pleasing to the eye, not so much for the legs! I am a little sore. I do enjoy going down hills though. That's one good thing about hills but of course there is opposition in life and so once you go down, on the way back you must go up. I look ridiculous wearing my glasses and this funny outfit on a bike as well. We do a lot of walking too. Elder Russon has a Fitbit and so it keeps track of how many steps we take/how many miles we go/calories we burn. We have been going 8-10 miles a day on foot.

This week I was reading a a cool talk called "The Challening and Testifying Missionary" by Alvin D. Dyer, who was an assistant to the council of the twelve clear back in 1961! 

I wish I could send you some quotes from it, 

so i will have to paraphrase, but he said a lot of great things that I think he is right about when it comes to missionary work.

The talk is all about teaching by the spirit and using the talent the lords has given us. He explains that the talent the Lord has given us is to challenge people to repent and be baptized and to testify of the truths of the gospel. He explains that missionaries "hide the talent which [the Lord] has given to them" and instead they just expect that teaching the gospel and indoctrinating people will bring people into the church. But people who become indoctrinated will more than likely fall away because they don't have a spiritual witness! He explains that the cause for there being less people baptized into the church, for one, has to do with missionaries not challenging people to baptism enough! When I heard that the new key indicator would be the amount of people being challenged to baptism I was really excited because it confirmed to me that what I had read days before was true! Elder Dyer says that there should not be a day go by that we don't invite somebody to baptism, and that if he were to be a young missionary again, he would invite every person he talked to. Now of course that is way easier said than done. It can be awkward inviting people to baptism that you just met on the street.

The other thing that I thought Elder Dyer brought up a good point is that missionaries DO NOT TESTIFY ENOUGH! They are good at just "teaching", just rehearsing the doctrines of the lessons, but when they just do that the spirit cannot testify to them. Also, as soon as we see those we teach feel the spirit, then is the time we need to invite them to be baptized, and they should be baptized very soon until they loose the feeling of that manifestation! I feel like what I need and what every missionary in this mission needs is to become the challenging and testifying missionary as Elder Dyer described. 

I am curious about your thoughts on this, and I would highly recommend reading his talk. It's not on lds.org I don't think. I got it from Elder McMullan. I am not sure where he got it. 

Do you remember the time the missionaries did the 21 DAY PROMISE with us. Well, I would like to extend that same challenge to all of you are willing to do it. 

Create a list of nonmember and less active people. Hold a fast. 

Pray for them individually every morning and night individually and collectively.

By the end of the 21 days someone on your list will be willing to hear from the missionaries IF you do your part and reach out to these people and share your testimony with them. Sharing your testimony with them will be the key so they can feel the spirit. 

What do you all say? Will you do it. I have actually been doing this with several families in the past two areas I have been serving. 

I learned some good things I learned from a really good talk by Julie B. Beck about "Teaching the Doctrine of the Family." It talks all about the centralitiy of the Family to the plan of salvation. Really, that is the whole purpose of the plan, so that not just ourselves can be exalted but in families. I learned from that talk which I HIGHLY RECCOMEND that the rising generation and I'm sure even some of the older generation does not understand full the doctrine of the family. 

When the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph smith he repeated the scripture from Malachi multiple times because it was obviously really important. 

"I will reveal unto you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers....were it not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming."

The hebrew word in the verse for "turn" actually signifies "bind, or seal together." So the Book of Mormon does indeed teach eternal families (see 3 Nephi 25). In fact, each of the standard works has that verse in some fashion. 

Sister Beck explains that "the fathers" mentioned in the book are Adam, Noah, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." These are the fathers we are to turn to. The children is obviously us, and all who are the seed of abraham, because through him "all the nations of the earth would be blessed." In Abraham 1, it explains that Abraham needed to find a new place of residence and that there was greater happiness for him to "move out of the house." The greater happiness was not just moving out of the house and delaying marriage, but looking to start an ETERNAL family. It says in verse 2 that he "sought for the blessings of THE FATHERS, to be A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS. Who were Abraham's father's: Adam, Noah, Seth,etc. In other words, eternal families has been a thing SINCE THE BEGINNING. 

As we can see, Abraham understood his purpose in forming an eternal family. And of course he married Sarai. Eventually after many years this couple was blessed with a child named Isaac. Isaac eventually needed to look for a wife too and so they sent a servant to fetch Rebekah. Rebekah wasn't just any woman, she was a woman who understood the doctrine of eternal families.

"The story of Isaac and Rebekah is pivotal. Everything depended upon a man and a woman who understood their place in the plan and their responsibilities to form an eternaly family, to bear children, and to teach them."

She left everything she had and left immediately to be wed to Isaac. Later in Gen 2 we read of her understanding of families in verse 46 where she is troubled because of her 2 sons, 1 of them sold his birthright and  married OUTSIDE of the covenant (see Gen 26:34). Her hopes of an eternal family was now dependent on Jacob marrying INSIDE of the covenant. She says: I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daugthers of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do to me

? Luckily Jacob married a "beautiful and well-favoured" woman (Gen 29:17). Not to mention he had Leah as a wife before Rachel because Laban tricked him. Jacob and Leah also had many kids together and also Bilhah and Zilpah-> before Rachel which is how we have some of the 12 tribes of israel of course. Rachel eventually bore Joseph! Yay Joseph! I am amazed at how incredibly patient she had to be before she could have her own. She also was envious which goes along well with this month's charity topic: envieth not. 

So having posterity was obviously really important. It also shows that plural marriage doesn't have to be all that hard to explain to people when they make fun of Mormons for practiving polygamy in the past. But most of all, I love these stories because it shows how in order for them to obtain the blessings of abraham which are to have eternal increase, they needed to marry inside the covenant. 

"In a lot of ways [The Rising Generation] is similar to Abraham. They are living in a land that is full of idolatry and wickedness, and they need to mentally take themselves out of that land into the land where the Lord can bless them to receive the covenants." They also need to understand what the whole purpose of life is: to raise an eternal family and to make and keep sacred covenants to qualify for eternal life. And thank Jesus Christ who makes all of this possible! I know that this doctrine of the family is true! I hope we all remember to emphasize the importance of this in all that we are doing. "The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children." (Read the Family Proclamation to the World)

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/03/teaching-the-doctrine-of-the-family?lang=eng : Teaching the Doctrine of the Family by Julie B. Beck

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng : The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Rebekah at the well                                                        Adam and Eve 

Thanks for taking the time to read this last part, because it is really important.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Soutas

Hump Day and new transfer saying good bye

Elder Soutas and Elder Hayes with the Uhe's

He will miss them so much

Will this suitcase last 1 more year??

Not sure what the mask means?

Hello family!

Bro Burshears is a fine, mellow gentlemen who hopefully will be getting to the temple soon. He also drives a wicked Dodge Challenger that's won multiple car show contests. my moustache is crooked. of course.

 bro West deserves plenty of pats on the back. He helps people and us out a lot


Thank you for sending me all of the hump day stuff! I ate all of the jerky already. So did Elder Hayes. I don't blame him. It was really good stuff! I also went to Mcdonalds today and bought a smoothie like dad always used to do for us whenever we go there. I thought that was pretty clever with the whole mcdonalds. I'd say you are genius Mom, but I guess that you probably got that idea off pinterest. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 This week has been another good one! They always are. Had some pretty cool experiences.
 On Sunday Messan came to our ward this time! Before the meeting started he became reaquainted with someone in the ward that he knew from working at the hospital--Brother Maughan. Turns out they talked a lot while Bro Maughan worked in the surgery department. They both can talk to each other in French because he went on his mission to Belgium! Sounds like it is meant to be to have Messan in the ward. Hopefully he gets baptized.

 I am getting transferred to Colombia, MO in the Highalnads area! It sounds like it will be a biking area. I am not sure if I will have to buy a bike yet or not. No one has told me anything yet, so we will see. I have bittersweet feelings about leaving. I am sad to leave a lot of great people like the Uhes of course, and the G.C.s, and a bunch of other great members. I am also excited to be senior companion with Elder Russon who was in my district here only 2 transfers ago! Wish me luck on being a senior comp. I've been pretty comfy being a juco, but it looks like i'll be getting out of my comfort zone a bit.

 This week we had a tough time getting lessons. A lot of rescheduling and cancellations. But we did meet with a guy named Kyle who is southern baptist. You can only imagine how that went. I may have been a little too sharp with him because he kept saying how there was no need for prophets :)
 he let us come back though and after I was done talking he didn't argue anymore.
 We also talked to a guy named Dre who has some very strange beliefs to say the least. He believes that we all become part of the universe or something after we die. I didn't really get it.
 We also had a good lesson with Kevin, who is a worker at our apartment complex that we see all the time. He is a really nice guy. He didn't come to church this week because he went fishing. But he promised on next week. He is one of those people who may end up being a "surprise baptism." You never know with people. Last night we also talked to some people that waved us down to come talk to them. We had a conversation on their porch for about an hour and we have two return appointments set. Brother wEst was with us. It was pretty cool.

 Sunday was kind of tough having to say goodbye to everyone. I was sad to have to say "see ya later" to the Uhes. That morning I studied a talk from last conference by Elder Renlund which says that "we can only love and serve Heavenly Father's children [effectively] when we see them through a parent's eyes, Heavenly Father's eyes." I felt maybe the way a parent may feel towards their children when they have to ship them off to college or missions. I started to weep uncontrollably after they left the church building. Such a baby. I'll put a good word in with President Morgan for the new mission president so I can attend their sealing next year at the temple before I leave. That would be great! Plus I may get to visit them when they come skiing at Deer Valley some day! That would be so sweet! I miss skiing.

 Well I better get going! Thank you for all of your prayers for me and the people we have been teaching! I've seen a lot of great things happen here in Springfield. I've learned so much and The Savior has helped me so much especially through all of my inadequacies! I have also come to LOVE to study the scriptures and trying to understand them

 Love you all!

 -Elder Soutas

You will be half way to Kansas City and we will be there in July when we move Jordan there!

I thought of that! Don't get too close to me so I don't get trunky! 

From Mom:

This letter made me cry thinking of leaving the Uhe family too.   Now I'm googling Columbia MO to find out what I can.

The Lord will be with you Elder Soutas. I can promise you that   You've had an amazing time in Springfield and I hope to back there with you someday.  ❤️❤️❤️😊

From Ty: LOVE YOU Got2go. 😘 

Peace from the Savior

Elder Soutas and Elder Hayes - Abraham Lincoln Museum in Sprinfield

Celebrating Elder Hayes' birthday

Sis Uhe sent me some pix :)  Greeting Springfield 2nd Ward

At church

Gospel Principles Class With Sister Magali G-C

The Uhe's are so fantastic! It was so awesome yesterday to do the sacrament with Rob and Roger. Rob blessed the sacrament for the first time like it was nothing. Then he got to administer the trays to his own son. That was really great to see. I am so proud of them. They way I feel is almost like I might when I have my own children. 

Besides the Uhes, we had a great couple of evenings with our investigator from Togo named Messan. He came to the G.C.s for dinner and Sister G.C. and her daughter came to his place the following morning. We thought he wasn't going to show up for dinner because he arrived 45 minutes late! We had to jet pretty quick after he got there. The next day Sister G.C. was kind of upset that we didn't wait to start eating until he showed up. Apparently in his culture, time is a lot more laid back, and after we left Messan expressed that he was upset about how we are always looking to go from one thing to the next. He doesn't like the business of the american culture because it seems like people don't show that they care as much when they are just looking to go from one thing to the next.

Anyways, we invited him to pray about a baptismal date for June 11. He said he would think about it. His wife and kids are in Togo and so he wants to be sure. He came to church yesterday in the first ward with President G.C. and it sounds like he enjoyed it.  We have our fingers crossed for him because he would be an amazing member!

We have a very diverse teaching pool right now which includes 8 black people, 2 Muslims, and Kevin. He's white.   I think it is great since there is no active black people in the 2nd ward right now and the ward could use some diversity.

We ran into a lady named Brittany at the bus stop on Tuesday. We taught her twice this week and invited her to baptism. She said yes, although she didn't make it to church this sunday like she said she would for whatever reason. 

We found an awesome black family of 4 yesterday which we hope to start teaching this week! Kenny, Lovely, Shonika, and the dad. 

Do I really even need to mention their skin color? If they were all white I wouldn't even think to do that. The names usually give it away anyways. 

The Washington family of 6 is doing pretty good. They watched the Resto DVD we gave them and thought it was kind of wierd though. They had a lot of questions, especially the oldest daughter Celena. They loved 3 Nephi 11 though. They are keeping commitments so far and are willing to read the book of mormon which is a miracle since at the start their mom was pretty adament about teaching them strictly from the bible and nothing else. The mom didn't sit in this time for whatever reason. We need to invite them to baptism though and teach them to pray other than saying the vain repititious Lord's prayer. We also need to convince them that it's okay to say amen. I mean, Jesus says it in the Lord's prayer. It's just kind of an unusual situation and we are not sure how to handle that yet. 

Unfortunately we had to drop Waleska even though she came to church with her dad this week and loved it as always. Her mom isn't too happy about us teaching her anymore. We had a great talk with Brother Nunez though (Waleska's Dad) while the power went out. I thought to share from Luke 19 about Zaccheaus which Mom sent to me once in a letter. It seemed to help. Bro Nunez says he doesn't come to church as much because since he moved from the Dominican Republic it just hasn't been the same. At church though, people were being friendly to him. Even Brother Mendenhall talked to him about going to Nauvoo with him which made me happy. Brother Nunez is such a great guy and I hope we can help him become active again like he was when he was a missionary in  the Dominican and lived there. 

I am so grateful for the peace that the savior gives each one of us. Living the gospel faithfully brings a lot of happiness, yet when when we start to doubt what we believe to be true then we are miserable. I really felt that this week, but whenever I pray, sooner or later I regain peace. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Happy Birthday Jordan! 

Love,

Elder Soutas

Mother's day call and charity

The district  Springfield Illinois

Hello people!

It was so fun hearing from you and kind of seeing you last night! The connection was pretty horrible but at least I got to "kind of see you guys." Being at the Uhe's house was really fun! I'm glad you all got to meet them "kind of." They are so amazing!

This week was really good. We found 10 new investigators! It sounds so much better than it actually is, but it's still great!

I apologize in advance for all of my typos. I am in a rush. 

We met a family of 6. I think they are a "family." Not sure if the "parents" are married but they all go by the same last name even though not all of the kids were born to the same father. There is R'Marion, R'Mahd, Rayne, Selina, Dee, and Jayson the parents. They are really cool. They consider themselves Israelites. They don't belong to any religion they "just follow the bible." You can only imagine what it is like teaching people who tell you from the get-go that they only teach from the Bible. It's kind of hard to introduce the Book of Mormon when they are so strict about it, but we somehow managed to ease our way into it and they each now have their own copy of the book of mormon and are pretty eager to read it. The mother, Dee, also has a lot of biblical knowledge, whether it's false or not, and she interrupted the discussion shouting out random bible verses. She also had a problem with the first vision because the bible says in john 5 that "no man at any time has seen god or heard his voice" or something like. I showed that her interpretation of that was false by showing her the mount transfiguration where they all "heard the voice of the father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This family also recites the lord's prayer as they face the east, they don't say amen because there apprently is  false god in the bible named amen-ra. they don't eat pork, and they do the sabbath of saturdays. So a lot of obstacles to overcome but they are awesome. R'Marion who is 13 and really chill talked about the NBA and college basketball with me a little before we left. The family is really nice and strange. It was way cool to see how after we bore testimony about the savior and the book of mormon how the mood in the room changed and how all of a sudden they went from trying to prove us wrong with their bible knowledge to each of them wanting a copy of the book of mormon of their own. 

A lot more happened this week but I am just out of time to go into detail. Besides, Grandpa Bob says I "write the longest emails in the world!"

I've been working on developing christ like attributes. The best way to develop attributes is conscientiously and incidentally, not accidentally. Goals and stuff need to be made is what I mean. In preach my gospel there is a chapter about christlike attributes. So what do you think the most important christlike attribute would be?

I would have to say charity is. And if I don't develop any of the other attributes I might as well try to develop the most important one which pretty much encompasses everything else.  And so I have about a year left of my mission, and the greatest thing I would like to posess and help other people possess is charity. So I had an idea this morning that for each month I would focus on one aspect of charity starting next monday (because I won't be able to print some of these things off until next monday) 

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and enviethnot, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endurethforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are truefollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

Now let's break charity down into it's purest forms:

I have listed talks you can find on lds.org that go with each of the parts of the scripture. These are suggestions you could use as you choose to study charity with me:

MAY 2016: Suffereth Long and is Kind--"The Need for Greater Kindness" by Gordon B. Hinckley

JUNE: Envieth not--"Stripped of Envy" Ensign March 1999

JULY: is not puffed up and seeketh not her own--"Charity Vaunteth Not Itself, Is Not Puffed Up" Ensign March 1988

AUGUST: not easily provoked--"Slow to Anger" by Gordon B. Hinckley; "Instruments of the Lord's Peace" Ensign May 2006

SEPTEMBER: thinketh no evil--"Charity Thinketh No Evil" Ensign Aug 1988

OCTOBER: rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth--"My Soul Delighteth in the Things of the Lord" BYU Speeches; Charity Rejoiceth NOt in Iniquity, but Rejoiceth in the Truth" Engsign Oct 1988

NOVEMBER: beareth all things--"Behold Thy Mother" Jeffery R. Holland

DECEMBER: believeth all things, hopeth all things--"Believe All Things" Ensign July 2005; "The Infinite Power of Hope" by Deiter F. Uchtdorf

JANUARY: endureth all things--"He Will Place You Upon His Shoulders and Carry You Home"  by Deiter F. Uchtdorf

FEBRUARY: ye have not charity ye are nothing--"The Fourth Missionary" (ask me who the author is because I'm not sure off the top of my head)

MARCH: Charity is the Pure Love of Christ--"Charity: Perfect and Everlasting Love" by Gene R. Cook

APRIL: Pray with all the energy of heart for this love--"Pray Always" by David A. Bednar

MAY 2017 : We Shall be like him--"The Atonement: All for All" by Bruce C. Hafen

 I am inviting each of you to do this with me because honestly I need help developing charity and it can be like a team effort if we all do it together! What do you all think? Who would like to do it with me?! Who's in?

I love you all! Hope you all have a good week. I know the Savior Lives and will always deliver us if we plead for his strength.

Have a great week!

Elder Soutas

I also forgot to mention we are now teaching a man from Togo named Messan, who the sisters were teaching. Sister G.C. who speaks fluent french came so he could communicate in his own native tongue. She talked the ENTIRE time. We love sis G.C. though.  He said an awesome prayer in French, and in the prayer he said "the words of Alma really inspired me, and please lead the missionaries to those looking for the truth" (because we read alma 32 with him in his french book of mormon).