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