Respected and Protected

Hi everyone!

I'm glad everyone is enjoying their summer thought you are all separated in various places. 

This week was a little crazy. We had a mini missionary living with us and doing everything with us for 5 days. His name is Seth and he is not that mini of a missionary. He is really mature though for his age at 16, and he had an enjoyable experiencing. He wrote each of us a personalized letter thanking us and inspriing him to want to go on a mission. I am glad that we were able to show him the ropes. 

On Saturday as i was riding our backup bike which is a red beach cruiser, I almost died!

As I was peddling fastly uphill towards the church with Seth, all of a sudden my left foot slipped of the already busted pedal and I swerved into the road (I was in the bikelane). Right as I did a car passed by just a foot or two from ramming into me. Who knows what would have happend to me, but I am thankful to God that I was protected. I like to think he must have had his angels shielding me or something. That could've been really bad. Sorry you had to read this last paragraph mom. I'm okay luckily.

Also on Saturday we had a ward show and tell thing. None of our investigators or anyone we invited came which was a bummer, but there was a less active 12 year old who came. It was really cool. One father and son did a presentation on how to eat an oreo properly. It was really hysterical. The kid was sitting at a table  wearing a tuxedo with a glass of milk, coaching the audience on how to properly eat it. It was very very funny. The proper way to eat it is with a fork by the way. I learn something new everyday.

The bishop sho is an opthomologist showed an up-close video of him doing surgery on someone's eye! It was really cool but made me cringe and dig my fingernails into my skin. I'm not so sure I want to be an opthamologist anymore. We shall see. 

Also this week, we met with an awesome family! Dave, Hejin, and Andrew! Hejin is from Korea! I told them that Dad served there and she thought that was cool. 

 She is a faithful Catholic too. Many of her ancestors died from not denouncing Christ! The husband is obviously not from Korea and he is super open-minded though he grew up Lutheran. He likes to learn about other religions and doesn't know much about Mormons so he is interested. This is a member referral from the Parkinson family who lives next door and so I feel like there is a much better chance at them getting baptized and staying faithful to the church. Their son, Andrew is a genius too! He is 13 and has already taken the SAT and is in the top 5 percentile for his age. He plays a wicked violin too. He was super shy to play but then he busted out some concerto and played it flawlessly! Hopefully they will be coming to the BBQ tonight at the parkinsons. 

This week I also studied a little bit about the parable of the good samaritan. Apparently there are a lot of forgotten symbols from this parable and many just view it as a nice story about helping someone who is in trouble. But there is much, much more to it than that! 

I now quote from Luke 10:25-37

25 ¶And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

 27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

 28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

 29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

tip: whenever reading a parable of Christ, it always will address questions that have arisen. The two we are to look for are:

1: What do we do to inherit eternal life?

2. Who is my neighbor?

Here, Jesus points out to the lawyer to what it says in the law. He reads to him in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:17-19, which is the first great commandment, with the second great commandment like unto it.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart...Thou shalt not bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thous shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord

 30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man (adam literally means "mankind") went down from Jerusalem (the holy temple-city: the temple is also known as God's house where he dwells) to Jericho (Jericho is the lowest city in the earth at around 825 ft below sea level, and fell (mankind fell) among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded (spiritually speaking he was wounded from sin --see Jacob 2:8) him, and departed, leaving him half dead (after the fall Adam or "mankind" died spiritually since they were separated from God's presence. They were also able to die physically now. However, though we may all die we can avoid the "second death". Salvation from the Second Death. The scriptures sometimes speak of salvation from the second death. The second death is the final spiritual death—being cut off from righteousness and denied a place in any kingdom of glory (see Alma 12:32; D&C 88:24). This second death will not come until the Final Judgment, and it will come to only a few (seeD&C 76:31-37). Almost every person who has ever lived on the earth is assured salvation from the second death (see D&C 76:40-45).

 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest (The law of Moses, or it could be keeping the commandments--keeping god's laws) that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the otherside. (the law can't save "mankind"

 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, cameand looked on him, and passed by on the other side. (The levite represents the Prophets. The Prophet's can't save mankind either).l

 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came wherehe was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, (The Samaritan is Christ--he was despised and rejected of men like the Samaritans were at that time. In Brycen's Harry Potter Terms, they were like filthy mud-bloods.)

 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil (oil is ofttimes represented by the holy ghost) and wine (the blood of Christ), and set him on his own beast (The body of Christ---Think of the sacrament), and brought him to an inn (The church), and took care of him.

 35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out twopence, and gave them to the host (the head of the Church which would be Thomas S. Monson, and said unto him, Take care of  him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again (The second coming), I will repay thee.

 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

 37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him (The Samaritan was. Only Christ could save mankind. Christ is also our neighbor who we are to serve and as we serve our fellow men (mankind) we are serving our God (Jesus Christ, The Good Samaritan, or in other words in an aswer to the lawyer's original question--our Neighbor. . Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

So this is a way cool parable. I know there are a lot of hidden treasures we can learn from the scriptures, especially Christ's parables. This parable encapsulates the whole Plan of Salvation and tells us what we must do to inherit eternal life. 

Well it looks like I've got to go. Love you! Have a great week! Be a good Samaritan and Serve Your neighbors and in doing so you will be serving the Exemplary Neighbor, our Savior Jesus Christ

Elder Soutas

Surviving the heat

 Elder Soutas at the Caves

fyi; some of what I've written may seem our of context because i sent some of it to my mission president and then copied and pasted it to save time: 

P-day was fun last monday. We went to devil's ice box and explored the cave there. It was cool, literally. it felt really good to get out of this crazy humid place. I've never sweat so much but it really doesn't bother me for some reason. It's weird. It's supposed to get worse though. I am still so shocked that Jenessa is coming to Independence. There's a few people in the ward who are from there. I wonder if the new jerusalem is to be built pretty soon. That would be convenient since at least half of the family won't have to travel as far! 

We taught a man named Alan this week who ridiculed us for saying that we believed we could become like god. He and Elder Russon got into a good bash. I tried to stay out of it.

We still have Tom on date for his birthday which is July 15th. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get much contact with him this week (we had a little) and were unable to meet with him because he is working 2 jobs right now and working from 10am-12pm. This week he should be only working one job from now on. We hope this week we will get to meet with him because he said he was set on being baptized and really likes the church. I'm glad that the whole God winks thing helped you guys out and you felt it inspiring. i honestly couldn't think of what to write home and that's all I could think of so I'm glad it meant something to you all. 

We met with Isaiah at a member's home for dinner and shared a good message, but perhaps we should have geared it more towards baptism. Elder Russon said that before I got here they were inviting and inviting him to baptism, but he kept saying he wasn't sure yet because he isn't sure if he loves God or not. He has come to church a couple of times but only for 1 hour and says he is always needed at home for something else since it's the only time he gets to be with his mom becasue she works a lot. We can't seem to get that darn kid to mutual. He and Elder Russon were texting back and forth this weekend and Isaiah says he doesn't want to come to church anymore so we will see what happens with him. He has gained a lot though from meeting with us because initially he was not in a good state of mind. if we could somehow help him see how much he has progressed. 

. We met with Jason twice this week.  We've been trying to get him to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon but he hasn't done it yet because he feels like that is not his position to do that. He believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet and he thinks that is enough and that he doesn't need to pray about it or the book of mormon. Jason did come to church though this week with his 7 year old son which is the first time he has come since being taught clear back in march!
So he showed a little progression kind of. We definitely need to invited him to be baptized and if he won't commit I'm not sure if we should keep teaching him or not. 


We had quite a few other lessons with people this week but were unable to set up a specific return appointment to count them as investigators, but there is some good potential. We taught a nonmember at a dinner appointment, but didn't get a return appointment with her. She will be YSA. We found an RLDS guy who is nice, a man who was super friendly to us and had a good discussion about what it takes to be saved. He said we could come by anytime, a super nice muslim guy named Yousef. We also have had a few member referrals, two of which have great friendships to people in the ward (Hejin and Dave) and the Mannion family. We have just been unable to set anything up although the Mannions want to feed us. So we have great potentials so we will see.  

Meeting with Less Actives is especially hard in this area I've found. We do have great support from the ward and we try to visit them with the members. It also didn't help this week that I lost my wallet (I always lose things) so we couldn't use the bus ever. I don't know where it is because the only time I ever take it out is when I get on the bus or buy something. The bus system says they don't have it though so hopefully it turns up soon. someone stole one of our bikes just outside of our apartment where we left it--which Elder Russon informs me doesn't belong to the mission and was already there. He said that they never locked up the bikes in the past. and was surprised that someone took it. So I don't know whose it is and if I'm supposed to pay for it or not. Yep, I am aware now that the WHB says to always lock your bikes; it honestly never occurred to me to lock it up when we park it by our back window of the apartment, but now I know better and plan to lock it always. For now I will b e sporting a red beach cruiser 🚲. The kickstand on it is broke and so yesterday I had to tie it with a shoelace to another part of the bike to keep it from dragging in thie asphault. 

Our two member presents were Isaiah and two new investigators we met with yesterday named Adam and Nick. We ran into them the first day I got here and were finally able to touch base with them. Their roommate is a returned missionary from Bowling Green, MO and is kind of less active though. They have learned lots of things about the church from him though. Adam does believe in God, but Nick is skeptical, but he seems to enjoy talking about the possibility of there being a God. He has a had a lot of tragedy in his family. I see good things happening with these two guys though. The only thing that could be a hinderence is that they are video game addicts.

I read a cool talk by Elder Uchtdorf called "Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth". In it, he compares light and truth to our knowledge of the expanse of the universe. just a 100 years ago people thought there was no life beyond our galaxy and people thought you were crazy. Also if you were to tell people who lived 1000 years  of inventions we use today they would think you were coo coo for cocoa puffs. But that doesn't mean that it's not true. "But of course, these people would be completely mistaken. They might be well-meaning and sincere. They might feel absolutely positive of their opinion. But they simply would not be able to see clearly because they had not yet received the more complete light of truth."They just had a limited perspective. Today of course we know there are innumerable stars and galaxies because we have the tools and means to have this knowledge like Hubbel telescope. Likewise, we have the restored gospel and prophets, apostles, and personal revlatiion, and the book of mormon so that we can use these tools that god has given us to broaden our perspective of light and truth. 

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2014/11/saturday-morning-session/receiving-a-testimony-of-light-and-truth?lang=eng

watch this awesome video. I wish I could watch it but Idon't have headphones.

TALK TO EVERYONE. You are a Good Samaritan who in the parable is a represenation of Christ, and YOU as a missionary are a representative of Christ, therefore you should never let an opportunity pass by to talk to people who are spiritually wounded and kept fromt he truth, and need spirtually healing!

Sorry that last part was sent to someone else and I copied an pasted it but it can apply to everyone. 

I hope you all have a great week! Sorry if my email was lame. I'm just not used to not getting as much time to email as I usually do. Because I don't just email. I like to read things on lds.org and stuff.

Love you!

Elder Soutas

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom and Happy Father's day DAd! I do have somethign for both of you but it is to share, and I haven't sent it yet because I have no money or a wallet so it will come late. 

 Elders Sagers and Spackman

Elder Soutas, Lazaro, and Solis

 The stair to the top

Top of the Cave