Wait on The Lord

Hello everyone!

This week was good and hard! AS they all seem to be that way. 

I just want to thank Ben and Lindsey for sending me that package!

A scripture that was sent along with it in Psalms 27:14 has proven to be prophetic. It states;

 "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."

Well i fasted yesterday because my desire to share the gospel isn't where it needs to be, and that scripture fits right along because my heart (desire) needs strengthening. I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing that but I suppose I will just wait upon the Lord for direction.

I'm getting another new companion tomorrow, an Elder Kama.

This week we did find 4 new investigators! which ended a long drought of not finding any the entire transfer. I learned quite of bit about endurance to the end. Since we were patient and faithful the Lord blessed us with 4 very promising investigators. The first is Brother Oakley. He is 29 and lives in Marshall. We found him after trying a former investigator who wasn't home. We saw him underneath his car working on it, and we decided we'd approach him. We squatted to get to his level, shared a little about the Restoration and set up a return appointment the next day where we taught him a full Restoration. He is very sincere and teachable. His buddy happens to have been a member of the branch at one point. 

The next person we found was named Brian. We ran into him a few weeks ago. He has had a rough life being in and out of prison, but he also is very teachable and wants to change his life around. He has given us quite a few other referrals as well, not to mention he brought his sister Lisa to our last appointment and so we are teaching her now, too! Also, yesterday we were finally able to talk to a Vietnamese woman who has become acquainted with a member in the branch, Sister Black. She is very friendly and good-hearted. We shared a brief restoration message on her doorstep and got a return appointment as well. So it has been a really good week.

Michelle came to church and is looking very promising for her baptism on Oct 23. She has great family support (The Larges are her neices and nephews). She spends a lot of time with them so she feels the spirit a lot. Her husband started smoking again however she is still going strong.

Brent's new baptism date is Oct 14. He is progressing well and he hopefully will be ready for his baptism. We are being extra cautious though. He's been taught almost all of the principles.

It was pretty cool we got to have President Bednar (the apostle's son) come speak to our little branch yesterday. He said a lot of great things like the more we bring in to general conference, the more we will take out. I will prepare myself with thoughful questions and such. The last few conferences I know my questions were answered. He also advised that when we take notes, we should not only take notes on the things that are said, but mostly of the things that are NOT said, meaning the promptings of the spirit which will help us act on the things being shared in conference. He also said to pay close attention to the invitations the Bretheren extend rather than just looking for good quotes. I hope to do that. I believe that acting on their counsel will surely increase my desire. So already it appears I have received instruction from the spirit on what to do to increase desire. I will continue to wait upon the Lord.

Something that Jenessa sent in her letter also struck me:

"Your greatest convert ought to be you, but you can't do that if that's what you are trying to do."

   

   This seems to go against all logic, but it must be true as the Lord said "he that loseth his life shall find it." You would think that focusing on all of your problems and trying to fix them would do you good, but apparently that isn't the way to go about it. Ha I guess I have a hard time wrapping my head around this concept. The way I look at it is I can go clean people's dirty houses, but doing that isn't going to clean my own dirty house. 

Well I have got to get going. I am sure that the Lord hears and answers our prayers and strengthens us bit by bit more than we notice. The trick is noticing it. When I notice it, my faith and love for him is strengthened. 

I Love you all

Elder Soutas

Soul knowledge and Elder Wilford W Anderson of the Seventy

Hola familia!

This week was pretty sweet! We had Elder Wilford W. Anderson of the 70 come to our mission: Here is the summary of what he talked about. 

MISSION CONFERENCE

This past week has been wonderful. Our mission was blessed to have had Elder and Sister Andersen visit with us and teach us so many important things. I want you to know that Elder and Sister Andersen expressed to us how impressed they were with you. They appreciated your reverence. They appreciated your wonderful questions. They appreciated the way in which you looked and the spirit that you shared. Thank you. You are all truly amazing - the best of the best. 

There were several teachings from Elder & Sister Andersen that I feel are important to be reminded of:

1. There are several ways to gain knowledge: Head knowledge (things we learn from reading, studying, observing, touching, facts, logic). Heart knowledge (things we feel, desires). Soul knowledge (things we learn from doing something - acting). I wrote down that soul knowledge has to do with becoming. The Lord taught that if you want to "know" my doctrine - you have to live it. If we don't act - we don't become.

2. Covenants are at the heart of our theology. D&C 128:9,11. I love the way in which Elder Andersen taught us that we don't serve because of our callings - we serve because of our covenants. I encourage each of us to remember the covenants we've already made: to remember Christ, be willing to take upon us his name, to always remember him, to be obedient, sacrifice, law of the gospel, chastity, consecration. We have each made these covenants before we came on our missions. When we honor the covenants we've made the Lord will honor us. He will strengthen us through challenging times (Ether 12:27). 

3. D&C 121:41-46. The power of God flows to those who take on the wonderful characteristics of Christ (patience, long suffering, temperance, meekness, love unfeigned). Power and influence in God's economy does not flow from those who exercise dominion or authority over others - rather it flows to those who strive to have Christlike attributes. Very important lesson.

4. Setting goals and planning. Elder Andersen said that planning is spiritual creation - see Moses 2. We need to live our plans out in our mind. I am convinced that if we will set goals as companionships - and then make plans to reach those goals (spiritual creation) - the Lord will bless us with insights, and will put people in our path such that his purposes will be accomplished. We must be willing to be persistent. 

5. Faith and Hope are 2 sides of the same coin. If you feel like you lack hope - go build your faith in the Savior. As our faith grows in the Savior - our hope will grow. Elder Andersen referred to the definition of faith in the Bible dictionary. "Faith is kindled by hearing the testimony of those who have faith (Rom. 10:14-17). Miracles do not produce faith, but strong faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ; in other words, faith comes by righteousness, although miracles often confirm one's faith. 

6. Sister Andersen said the following in stake conference: We need to center ourselves. One of the purposes of the Sabbath day is to center ourselves by partaking the Sacrament. Make the center of the Sacrament the Savior. We need to center ourselves each day in the scriptures. When we center ourselves in the things of God we find great peace and calm - even when other things around us may be in turmoil.

It was very inspiring! The thing I liked most was the discourse he gave on head, heart, and soul knowledge. He actually had me come up in front of everybody to help him illustrate to them what he was trying to get across. He had me try to explain to a sister missionary the difference between the black keys and the white keys on the piano. (I played prelude music for the conference and all they hymns so that's why I was chosen to go up). It was hard to explain it to her. I said "you really don't know the difference?
Well, the black keys are black, and the white keys are white....She still didn't get it so I said that the white keys are less thinner than the black keys." She still didn't get it. Clearly Elder Anderson was trying to demonstrate how when we teach we can't just teach with head knowledge (facts, logic) we need to bear testimony so they can experience heart knowledge (feelings of the spirit) and then we need to invtie them to act so they can experience SOUL knowledge. REally great lesson he taught. 

It really got me thinking on how I can better acquire soul knowledge because I have a lot of head knowledge that's for sure. Applying the gospel is so so hard. But I really liked what he said. I've been trying this week to be a lot more consecrated missionary and bearing my testimony more often.

I had a random idea yesterday morinng that we should skip dinner. Elder clark didn't want to because he was feeling a little sick and so we were about to go in for dinner. Then our WML called asking to go out with us. it was a good thing we did because we wouldn't have run into Eugenio. He is from Honduras and I tried my best to speak spanglish with him. He understood enough and we got a hold of Elder Barney the spanish mi ssionary. He is going to come to church on Sunday and his friend is Mormon back in HOndruas! So that was pretty cool! The timing of the Lord's tender mercies is pretty cool.

Well I best be get going

Love you all! Hope you are all not too sad that Jenessa is gone She will be a remarkable missionary as most sister m issionaries are. It's always hard to leave family, but I just think of Elder Parley P. Pratt who heeded the call to serve ANOTHER mission after being on a mission to Chile for 25 years! He basically said that why should I complain to leave family when I have an enternity to spend with them. (You should look up the quote which is found in A Consecrated Missionary because it is really good.)

Love you all! be good

Elder Soutas

Fishers of Men

Hey Everyone,

I don't really feel like writing a very long email today so sorry.

Things in Paris aren't going too bad. Randy and Mishell quit smoking this week for 7 days straight. They didn't go through all of the steps we asked them too because the cinnamon mouthwash was too strong for them, but they still managed to get through it. Cross my fingers they won't relapse.  

On Friday there were tornadoes all around us. I thought I sent a picture from The Bemis's ipad but I guess it didn't go through. There were quite a few tornadoes that hit some surrounding towns in our area. Not too bad of damage. I believe there was one hit in Casey and another in Chrismon. I'm surprised you guys weren't freaked out about it at all. It's funny, nobody was worried about the tornadoes around here at all. I was hoping I'd actually get to see one. I think it was a miracle or something that there were tornadoes everywhere except for the county we were in--Edgar county. Brother Bemis showed us on his ipad the weather radar (or whatever you call it) and there was green and red all around us but a white space for Paris where we are. Lord must've been protecting us or something. Pretty cool. Could you look up some of the photos of the tornado and send it to my email so I can save it?
(added by Chris)

Brent is doing  pretty good this week. He didn't come to church though so we will have to push his baptism date back. We taught him the Law of Chastity at the Bemises with "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes." It's actually a really effective way to teach even 23 year old redheads with pony tails. I don't have time to explain all of the details of it, but just think about how it relates to the law of chastity and you'll probably figure it out. 

Speaking of chastity, I think it is a great thing. There are so many broken families everywhere and people divorcing. We tried helping a family with their problems (well I thought we should mostly mind our business, but Elder Clark didn't), but one of the guys we tried helping got delivered his divorce papers during our visit at his house. He kept his emotions in check pretty good. Maybe it was a good thing we were there then???

Well that is pretty much all that has happened this week, except for this morning Brother Eslinger took us fishing pretty early (woke up at 4:30) and I caught 2 blue gill and a small mouth bass. I learned a thing or two. It was nice to take a break from fishing for people and fish for fish. The last 4 weeks we haven't caught a single personfish. But we do have a couple of people like Mishell and Brent who are still thinking about going for the bait!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-05-010-fishers-of-men?lang=eng

 I learned a few things while fishing today. You've got to get up early in the morning before dusk and you'll get lots of fish usually, but soon after that all of a sudden they just stop biting. Of course it depends on the season and the weather you are fishing as well. In lower air pressure fish are out longer because they can't tell if they are hungry or not and so they keep on biting. In higher pressure they don't bite as much like today was. Also fish are usually easier to catch when they can't see you as well so it's better to cast into the shade. You should also not make much noise or you will scare them away. To set the hook in the fish's mouth, you need to pull back not too late or too soon or he will get away with your worm. Also you need to have faith (act on belief) that you will catch a fish or you have no chance of catching anything or the fish will catch you depending on how big it is. So how does all of this relate to being a fisher of men (aka missionary work) ? I'm not exc

Missionary work is hard. Some days I just don't want to do it, but it's good for the most part. Like fishing, sometimes we grow impatient when we aren't catching any fish (like the last 4 transfers about), but we must not doubt and keep our lines in the water as long as possible. The longer our lines are in the water, the greater chance we will have of catching a fish. It also matters what kind of bait you use. Some fish don't like certain baits and so you can't fall in love with a single bait. People are the same way too. Certain things will catch others' attention that for others it won't. As missionaries we should try all of the tools the Lord has given us and use our intellect to think of ideas to find people. Plus, life gets BORING when you do the same thing over and over again! I'm not exactly sure how the whole low/high pressure correlates. Maybe that has to do with people's agency and the type of environment you are in. You may not be having any "luck" because people are just not prepared or have not interest. It's not necessarily your fault. That I have a hard time with, because it is easy to think that if you are catching something you must be doing something right, and if you are not you must be doing something wrong. That, I have a really hard time with. Like right now, I hope I am doing my best, but at the same time I am not really sure. But anyways, I really like how fishing can relate to missionary work a lot and I will try to reflect more on that this week. 

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I said I'd have a short letter, but I changed my mind I guess. Hope you all have a good week. Go get 'em! Go be a fisher of men and not a lazy potato 🍪

Elder Soutas

Last week was pretty good. Our investigator Brent decided to move his Bap date from oct 30 to Sep 24 which is really good. He is getting pretty close to being prepared. We were really impressed that he came to church after his friend did something to him that really hurt his feelings. He is kind of a shy guy and likes to sit in the back of our tiny chapel. He really enjoyed church and stayed for 2 hours this time which is the most he ever has. 

We also did a stop smoking program with the Randy and Michelle, a part member family. Randy so far still hasn't smoked a cigarette since last Saturday!  Michelle hasn't either, yet she had to go to the hospital tuesday because she had trouble breathing. Hopefully she doesn't blame us for it. 

We were promtped to make a recent convert, Christina, an orange dreamcicle flavored cake and gave it to her because she has been challenged a lot lately by her baptist friends. Her 5 year old son was really disruptive during our lesson with her--he wouldn't stop pretending to chop of our arms with his toy chainsaw. But Christina came to church the next day and even bore her testimony. 

Our other recent converts, Gary and Terry, bore their testimony. Gary was the first to go up even though he told us before how nervous he was. Terry got up there and did a great job. She thought she didn't because she got nervous and didn't know what to say, but I was still impressed that they tried to do it at least. They are eating everything up right now. Doing very well.

This other recent convert--Sis Timmerman and Korbin, texted us tuesday saying they don't want to be part of the church anymore. They wouldn't tell us why or let us come over. So pray for them please. We have been teaching the granddaughter Alexis, but it doesn't look like we will be anymore even though she wants to. 

On Tuesday we had a really great district meeting. I really like the way we do our meetings. IT's like a revelatory council and we all receive assignments and make personal goals. I gave a training on using the scriptures to teach. A lot of missionaries don't use the scriptures enough and talk too much, but I challenged everyone to memorize 2-3 scriptures per missionary lesson and teach as many principles as you can using the scriptures. 

After that, Elder Durrant and I went on exchanges in Paris. It is a good thing we are not companions because we might not  be able to focus as much as we need to. We spoke to each other in and Indian accent the entire time while making lots of puns. It wasn't the most dignified way to act and felt like we could have focused a little better. It was fun though and we still got some things done though and even found the monument for Zion's camp. I will have to send it to you next week or maybe today. A lady also tried to run us over with her car when we tried knockin on her door a little late at night. We sure didn't look like intruders dressed in white so I don't know what was going through her mind. We quickly got back in our car and aplogized for knocking on the wrong door. 

Yesterday was the temple. I learned that part of the covenant we make is to avoid all loud laughter and light-mindedness, a reminder for me of how I should have acted on exchanges with Elder Durrant. In the celestial room it felt good. The temple president encouraged us to forget all of our problems while in the temple and to concentrate on who we are going through the temple for.  I was trying to think as muh as I can about the person I was standing in behalf of, but nothing really happened. But after, an answer to one of the questions I had came to me while in the shower this morning. My question was this, how can we feel of God's love more in our life? --the answer came from the words I listened to while excercising by Neal A Maxwell: 

We can partake of His love by applyingJesus’ glorious Atonement in order to become more like Him. By likening precious scriptures to ourselves we will hasten that precious process! 

I am happy to know that God does love me by answering my prayer. I have learned that if we are to receive answers for ourselves, we must lose ourselves and think of others, and in God's own timing the answers that we need for our own progression will come, either quickly or at some later time. On the ride down to the temple which is about a 3 and a half hour drive from Paris, I was looking through my prayer notebook (I try writing some of my prayers) and I noticed how basically all of the prayers I have had have been answered in some way or another, usually not all at once but as "packets of help along the way" as Richard G Scott puts it," like the increase of light on the horizon from dawn--almost imperceptible but discernible. 

I hope you all have a good week! Keep being a light to others

Elder Soutas