Had a pretty great week. My favorite part of the week was helping out the Hunter family. They are an awesome family in the ward. Their dad is hilarious. His name is Cotton. We helped him lay down some wood floor in his new home office. We also trained their kids how to share the gospel. Our mission is encouraging us to do roleplays with members to give them an idea of how to share the gospel. I think it is a great idea. We did some roleplays yesterday that were hilarious. We had them pick the scenarios. The first one was me trying to teach Cotton while we were about to jump out of an airplane. The second one was me trying to rob a bank and their son Garrett was trying to share the restoration. That one was interesting haha. So they kind of took it to the extreme. Hopefully they learned something. We are encouraging them to share the gospel with their freinds that they are inviting to a BBQ at their house tomorrow for mutual.
Something funny about that happened too. So the Hunters' BBQ conflicted with a lesson already scheduled with our investigator Brandon. So we thought it would be funny to invite Brandon to the barbeque, and then we realized how funny that would be since he is baptist! His favorite movie is Baptists at Our Barbeque! I haven't seen it before, only heard about it. He always quotes it when we try to teach him. So now we have a baptist coming to our barbeque tomorrow. He thought it was pretty funny.
On Tuesday we did the cake lesson with Nalani and Jacob. It turned out surprisingly well. I spent half of p-day trying to come up with it all. I should probably do creative writing now. Nalani seemed to enjoy the whole thing. While it was baking in the oven we talked about the family proclamation. They both had some questions about mormons and gays. That was interesting. They are so awesome! I hope she wants to get baptized soon. She trusts us a lot now so this transfer I think we will "push" her a little more to get baptized. i need to talk to Jacob and see what he thinks. HE is so solid. I hope he gets called as our new ward mission leader. Brother Terry is moving to california.
Other than that, something worth sharing happened yesterday. We were getting home from church and we passed what looked like a family BBQ-ing something. I almost ignored the prompting, but I gathered the courage to go out of our way still in my suit. I thought since it looked like a nice family that we would give her a family proclamation. She was catholic, was friendly but not interested at all. She offered us a brat. It was good. who knows what difference it will make later down the road. Turned out she is divorced recently, so hopefully she will read the family proclamation. her name was Cary. Been out almost 23 months, but it still isnt' easy to put yourself out there. I"m glad I did it though.
I'm getting a new companion--Elder Schrader. Its crazy, Last week, I was emailing Joseph Kozolowski (my former roommate at BYU) and he told me to say Hi to Elder Schrader because that is his cousin. Now he is my companion. Pretty sure he is from Boise, ID.
So as you know I've been trying to memorize the Living Christ. I am more than half way done now. One of the phrases I studied more into this week was "He also ministered among his other sheep in Ancient America." I then read a lot of scriptures about sheep. I particularly like the one in alma ch. 5. and 1 Nephi 22:25:
"And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture.
...a shepherd hath called after you and is still calling after you,but ye will not hearken unto his voice!
38 Behold, I say unto you, that the good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ; and if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the good shepherd, to the name by which ye are called, behold, ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd.
I found it interesting that the Good Shepherd calls us in his own name. We know that sheep only listen to their true shepherd, and the shepherd also knows his sheep by name. The sheep recognize the shepherd's voice. This reminds me of a verse of "Dear to the Heart of A Shepherd." Such a great hymn by the way:
Green are the pastures inviting;
Sweet are the waters and still.
Lord, we will answer thee gladly,
"Yes, blessed Master, we will!
Make us thy true under-shepherds;
Give us a love that is deep.
Send us out into the desert,
Seeking thy wandering sheep.
Mosiah 5
There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.
I think what all of this might mean is that only those who have or who desire to truly make covenants, who truly strive to become like the savior will be able to recognize his voice when he calls. And he is always calling us and seeking after us if we will but open our ears and our hearts to the still small voice in which he calls. I know from my own experience that whenever I give heed to His voice when he calls usually it is to a place where my natural self doesn't want to go--"over mountains, over the waters...out in the desert--" away from the security of the fold, but seeking out his lost ones and bringing them back to green pastures has been such a blessing, and sometimes I can't help but rejoice.
Love you all. Have a good week,
Elder Soutas
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