Hogs and Halloween

A kind member texted this picture on Halloween

The hogs we were with are our former ward mission leader, Brother George McKinney. He is a farmer. We helped him fix his pig trough and after were testing it out. Pigs are filthy creatures. 

Teaching and Raking leaves

Hey everyone,

It looks like the Halloweeny party was pretty cool. I really enjoyed looking at all of your costumes. Here in Centralia, they do trick-or-treating on Oct 30 because they do a special halloween parade on Halloween.

It also looks like Sandy Eggo was cool. I'm really happy Brycen got to go with you. I really like his black and green shirt. If you send me a tie for my birthday I would like a green one. Green and silver perhaps or just anything that's green and cool. I have too many blue ties. Also I will be needing a coat pretty soon.

So this week was transfers. I'm still here of course. So is my trainer of course. We got a couple new missionaries though. We've got another missionary from Riverton/Texas named Elder Hatch and a new sister missionary from Blackfoot Idaho named Sister Williams. They both will make some good contributions to our district. They cool.

This week was cool. We got two new promising investigators. One is named Beau. He's cool. We ran into him yesterday. He has a solid Christian background, but is pretty interested in our church since his best friend growing up was LDS. He was invited to his friend's wedding in Utah but never went to it. He knew he was married in the temple, and so the conversation just went from there. He really likes the picture of the Salt Lake temple on the invitation his friend gave to him and wants to show us. I really feel like the Lord has been preparing him quite some time.

We got another potential investigator in Okawville named Lucinda. When we knocked on her door, she just got off the phone with her daughter who's best friend got news of cancer. The daughter's best friend was like another daughter to her so she was pretty upset. We read some good verses from the book of mormon with her to shed some hope and now she would like to meet with us again sometime. The Book of Mormon works better than anything else. It's the most powerful tool in missionary work!

Brother Barfield is doing amazing. Sure, he is still struggling because of his wife, but he was already in 2 Nephi 9 when we met him on Friday! That's exactly what chapter I'm in right now. He came to church yesterday again and he told us he really wants to get the priesthood! We are so happy for him. The ward is treating him so well which is good.

We raked a lot of leaves and mowed a few lawns this week for some less actives--Hunter and Ryan. I think I might buy a rake because it would be a good service opportunity or a way to talk to someone about the gospel. I raked Ryan's whole lawn with half of a broken rake. My back was pretty sore the next couple of days from bending over.
  Hunter is a recent convert who hasn't been to church once this year.  Such a nice fella. We showed "The Gift of Grace" by Uchtdorf  to him. I studied that one a lot this week. I like it.

We met with John M. on Thursday. He is Korean american. He was going to drop us because his preacher doesn't like us meeting with him. Luckily, our ward mission leader Brother McKinney talked some sense into him to keep meeting with us. Something cool happened in that lesson. I had a thought to turn to Moroni 7 to address a concern John had. Turns out, Elder Lovik had the same thought to turn to the same scriptures we shared so it must have been the spirit. John is no longer going to drop us, in fact he said in his stuttering voice that he really felt the spirit and that he will actually pray to know if the book of mormon is true. We hope he does. He's not quite all there so we will see if he follows through. I pray he will.

Another cool thing that happened this week. We were visiting the Velasquez family who have been less active for a little while because of some family forgiveness issues/gossip. Halfway in the middle of our conversation the sisters walked in without knowing we were there. They kind of took over and sang a song which inspired Sister Velasquez to come back to church. The new sister missionary, Sister Williams, has an extremely amazing voice. For our district meeting with President and Sister Morgan this week, I will be accompanying the sisters in I am a Child of God. Anyways..Sister Velasquez and the family came yesterday and the whole sacrament program was centered around forgiveness which was exactly what the family needed to hear. Cool huh? After sacrament it looked like a lot of members talked with her and forgave each other.

Mike didn't make it to church this week. Good news for us though, he will be staying for at least 3 more months so he will most likely be baptized here! We are hoping for November 14. He still hasn't stood up to his parents yet like we've been encouraging him to do.

Jose came to church. He is very hard to meet with. His baptismal date is Dec 3 because of that. He has come to church consistently every other week because of work on Sunday for the past 3-4 months.

This week was pretty good. Saw some cool miracles happen. 

My scripture for this week: 

Mosiah 24: 14-15

"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And Now, it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his bretheren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."

If I were you I would read this verse along with Elder David A. Bednar's talk he gave last year, 'They Did Bear Their Burdens With Ease"

Love you all. The gospel is true.

Elder Soutas

Bro Barfield

Carlyle District doing the President Morgan pose
Elders Keller, Serage, Soutas, Lovik, Sisters Schow, and Oldroyd.

This week went by so so fast! The highlight of the week was this:

We've been teaching a 60 year old man who lost his wife 3 months ago. His named is Brother Barfield. On Tuesday, he invited himself to church for Sunday!! We were taken aback when he said he wanted to go. We didn't even have to ask! He hadn't set foot in the church for 20 years! He also hadn't gone much before then since he doesn't even have the aaronic priesthood! But he came Sunday, and the ward welcomed him back with open arms. It was really cool to see! He came in a slick looking silver suit as well. His face just lit up like a jack-o-lantern (he is missing a few teeth) while everyone was saying hi to him. He felt the spirit really strongly. There were a couple of really good talks by our bishop, Bishop Kretschmer (who is probably the most entertaining bishop out there), and one of the Sister Missionaries, Sister Schow, who is such a great missionary here but is leaving and becoming an STL in O'Fallon. The sisters get work done in Centralia and now we Elders need to step up our game since she is gone. But I was so glad that church was a great experience for Brother Barfield! We had a lesson on family history work/temples in Sunday school which was exactly what he needed to hear since the passing of his wife. He was pretty emotional the whole time, but it was really amazing to see how welcomed he was. Many people have stopped attending church because they don't feel welcomed.

Bro Barfield:

Well other than Brother Barfield, not a whole lot happened. We didn't meet with Jose this week, or one of the Mikes. But the other Mike didn't come to church which was disappointing. He could have been baptized next week if he came this week, but now it's looking like he isn't ready to be baptized here in Illinois. He still wants to be baptized, but it probably won't happen until he moves to Clarksville, Tennessee. Luckily there are 3 wards in Clarksville so he'll be taken care of.

Well I am all emailed out for today, but I will just close with my testimony.

My first 6 weeks in the field has been quite an experience so far! I have come to enjoy getting to know so many wonderful saints and future saints in the area. I have learned thus far that best way to get through hard things is to call down the powers of heaven through prayer, and to lose yourself in selfless service. Also, I am learning that it can be hard to be kind to certain people sometimes, but it is possible if you ask the Lord to help. I know that Heavenly Father is helping me and I'm sure that he answers prayers that are heartfelt. I'm still learning to become better at prayer, but I at least know that it helps. I know Jesus Christ went through a lot of pain but he did it out of supreme love. He loves us all unfathomably, and even when you are not sure if he is really there you've just got to believe he is or else things only get worse. He is the light of the world which can never be dimmed. He showed us the way to eternal life. The Book of Mormon is true. It completes the bible, and I have seen in people's lives how without the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel life is incomplete. And of course Joseph Smith is a prophet and helped bring about this great and marvelous work. He saw the Son standing on the right hand of The Father. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

My scripture for this week is:

3 Nephi 18:24
" Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do."

Love you all,

Elder Soutas

The Gospel shall roll forth

Good evening,

I don't usually send emails this late in the day. Normally, p-day should end at 6, but I guess in our mission as long as we get 3 proselyting hours in, then it's fine to do emails after 6, though it's not preferable. I would have sent an email much earlier but we got a call from Brother Lefferts to help him load/unload a bunch of junk he had been keeping in a storage unit. Brother Lefferts is a recent convert, vietnam veteran, and just a funny old guy. He's like another grandpa to me, though he could never replace Grandpa Allen or Grandpa Bob. He helps us out a ton by fellowshipping for our investigators. He also drives us around a lot so we can save miles. He usually will take us to our lessons with Mike in New Minden. Speaking of Mike, he is doing excellent. Mike is pretty much ready to be baptized, just needs to come to church more consistently. He could get baptized as early as October 24. We are going to talk to him about this week. He is moving to Tennessee at the beginning of next month so we will see what he wants to do. He came to church for the 2nd time this week. It was Stake Conference in O'Fallon which is a good hour away from here. Stake Conference (saturday and sunday) was really really good. Elder K. David Scott from the Seventy came to speak as well as our mission president and wife, President and Sister Morgan. I can't really remember a whole lot what they said at the moment. A lot of it had to do with hastening the work of salvation and having the missionaries and members work in unity. Elder Scott did a neat demonstration where he had a recently activated gentlemen come up to the pulpit and share his reactivation story. Then he had all of the people who influenced his coming back to church come to the pulpit as well. There were over like 15 people who played a key role. There were others as well. His demonstration just goes to show how important it is for members to help out as well, because missionaries can't do it by themselves. I think most members do a pretty good job at that, but in order for the work to hasten it would certainly help if people sought for more missionary opportunities. When I return from my mission, I can't wait to keep bringing people back to the fold. There is no greater joy than saving a soul. There really isn't. Don't believe me? Try it :) 

I really like this verse in Dand C 65:2  "The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth." The work of salvation is hastening. The stone is rolling like a snowball and is growing and growing. Elder Scott said something pretty cool. He said that it's not too far distant that there will be a numerous amount of people joining the church because of the increasingly wicked world. They will have nowhere else to turn to, no other church to either. Eventually the decision to either join the church and follow the lord, or follow the devil will be pretty black and white. I thought that was interesting.

Anyways, Our other investigator, Jose, said yes to being baptized on December 3. Kind of a long time from now. But there is a language barrier between us so it takes us longer to teach him the lessons. Thank goodness we have Francisco help us translate everything. Bless his heart. He is the most humble, willing Mexican man I'll probably ever meet. He'll do anything for us. Jose is the best. He gave us homemade horchata afterwards. Muy sabroso (I think sabroso means tasty)! Aparently those 3 years of spanish didn't do a whole lot for me. 

Jose also came to stake conference on Sunday! He probably didn't understand much, but at least he came. He's actually been coming to church every other sunday for quite some time now. 

But anyways, after stake conference, as we backed out of the parking space, the axle (or something) to Fransisco's minivan came completely off! It was such a blessing that it did in the parking lot rather than while we were going highspeeds! The Lord was looking out for us, except poor Francisco still has his van in the church parking lot. He asked us this morning if we could drive him to O'fallon but we aren't allowed to because of mission rules. Unfortunately, he drove all the way there but we were unable to find anyone to go with him so he could bring his mini van back. Poor Fransisco.

It was a fairly fruitful week. We had another lesson with Brother Barfield, an inactive gentlemen of about 40+ years! We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and before we even got into the bulk of the lesson, he basically invited himself to come to church this coming sunday! It really is a miracle. He has a lot going for him right now. His wife died a few months ago so he is still grieving over that. He is pretty lonely, but is such a good-hearted individual. He loves his St. Louis Cardinals, that's for sure! A lot of people around here like the Cards except for a few who are Chicago Cubs fanatics like our Bishop, Bishop Kretschmer. He took us out to pizza the other day. We also went to his house for a halloween party where we played a fun game called "Would you eat your neighbor?" I don't have time to explain, but you should look it up. It would be fun to play for my annual halloween party. We also played a mummy game where the first person to wrap their teammate up into a mummy using toilet paper wins. We won. I was the mummy. We were tempted to take all of the toilet paper home because we are low on it. we didn't though because that's kind of weird.

How has your ponderizing all been going? Last week my scripture had to do with being humble. And so whenever I needed to humble myself that scripture would pop in my head. It works!

My scripture for this week is D&C 123:17:

" Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

Check out these links i found on lds.org I wish I had time to read it, but at least you all can.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/answers-to-personal-questions?cid=HP_WE_10-7-2015_dPTH_fGC_xLIDyL2-3_&lang=eng

Hi Family,

I certainly did get to watch conference. All 10 hours of it in our church building. It was really, really good. There are so many things I need to work on. The talk by Elder Lawrence about Pondering before praying and then listening was probably my favorite talk like yours was, Dad! I came to conference with a whole bunch of questions and pretty much all of them were touched on. I still need to restudy the talks though. I feel like every year I enjoy conference a lot but don't do anything about the talks they share. One of the things I am going to work on are my prayers because I'm not super good at hearing the voice of the Lord and recognizing that he is answering the prayers I give. I also want to be able to use personal experiences more when I teach, because I noticed that that is what the general authorities all do and it seems to get the message across easier. The only problem is I don't have a good memory at all, and I can't seem to remember any personal experiences that I have had. It's kind of a concern I have, because it's hard to say why you have a testimony when you don't remember any experiences to back up your testimony. Do you know what I'm sayin?

I also thought that the talk by Sister Marriot was good. It might as well have been Mom speaking because she always says "It will All Work Out." That seems to be our family motto as well. She had a cool southern drawl. I like southern drawls for some reason.

So here were basically all of the questions I took to conference, and now I will show you how they could have been answered possibly. I came up with a lot of these questions by reading my patriarchal blessing beforehand.

1. How can I go forward with great confidence and have great joy?

2. How is the Lord answering my prayers. How can I improve my testimony of prayer?

3. What do I need to change about myself?

4. What can I use to cope since I'm not able to play the piano as much anymore?

5. What do I need to do to be an unwavering defender of the faith?

6. How can I go about treasuring up the words of life continually so that I will know in the very moment what to say?

7. What exactly happens to those who die without law?

8. How can I have better self-worth?

9. How can I not get irritated so easily?

Now I will address how these things were answered. At this moment, I am still kind of trying to figure it out as I am emailing you. And also, if you have any ideas that you gathered from conference that answers my questions, please feel free to tell me your insights.

1. From Richard J. Maynes talk, it sounds to me that in order to have great joy you need to give up everything you possess like King Lamoni's father. In Vern P. Stanfill's address, he mentioned that the adversary tries to tell us that we have never felt the spirit's influence. When we do this, he says we need to remember our spiritual experiences. The only problem is that I can't really remember them because my memory sucks. He said that sometimes life is like a dark tunnel, and sometimes we must get help from others and rely on their light for a while until we see the light. Even so, I have the power to choose between belief or doubt. Belief brings in the light of Christ, and doubt dispels the light.

2. Though I'm not exactly sure how the Lord answers my prayers yet, Elder Lawrence I thought gave some great counsel on how I can be better at that. I felt like I should ask more questions when I pray, because answers won't come unless we have questions. He also said to ponder before you pray, which I am going to try. It's so true though, usually before you go talk to someone about something, you have to study it out in your mind first.

3. To know what I need to change about myself, I can ask "what lack I yet?" in my prayers. They holy ghost will give me customed counsel and I need to spend more times listening to what he wants me to do.

4. I still need to study more for this one.

5. They talked a lot about faith. from what I gathered, Randall K. Bennett spoke the most to me when he basically said that we need to keep trying after we fail and walking towards Heavenly Father like a baby learning to walk does. We only fail when we fail to keep moving forward.

6. This one was answered pretty clearly. Devin D Durrant said to Ponderize 1 scripture per week. I am going to do that. I'm excited for that challenge. Pondering is difficult though. He promised us purpose, protection, and power if we do it for the next 20 some odd years.

7. This one was mostly addressed by Mom in the letter she sent me, which I still need more time to think about so that it makes sense to me.

8. To have better self-worth, I just need to forget about myself and be more humble. President Uchtdorf once said: " humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less." Another thing that can help is to smile more as Elder Bradley D. Foster mentioned. Life is just too short to put on a frown all the time. Gary E. Stevenson said how we should focus on things we are good at rather than on the things we are weak at. President Uchtdorf said that the Grace of the Savior is sufficient to help us be much greater. He said that Moses wanted to give up and die, but we should acknowledge that it's okay to have weaknesses.

9. To not get so bugged, I can focus on people's strengths more than their weaknesses. The same things sort of apply here in number 8.

So there you go. That's what I gathered from conference. I am a firm believer that if we go to conference with questions, we can receive answers that we need. Imagine if we did this same things when we went to church every week?

This week went pretty good. Mike finally decided he wants to get baptized. He got his answer if the book of mormon is true in probably one of the most simplest ways I have ever heard. Unfortunately, who was unable to make it to conference this week. None of our investigators made it. But it was a good week. 

Dad, That's so crazy to hear that you were so close to me. I looked at the map you sent me, and it looks like I was closer than an hour, because I was just outside of East St. Louis in Fairview Heights and Collinsville. I was on an exchange so I was even closer to you than you realized!!

Mom, that's really cool that Dad repurposed to you in the temple. How sweet.

Jordan, I hope you get into medical school. If not, it "will all work out" like in the conference talk by Sister Marriott. Good to hear from you though. Tell Alex hi for me.

Jenessa, be careful around them boys. You are getting mighty prettier each time I see a picture of you. be careful. Love you my fellow Jew. That's cool you got to do that shalom stuff.

Brycen, expelliarmus! avadakadavra. I Love you so much. keep being a good boy.

Kaitlyn, how is dance goin? Stay away from them boys too. Get good grades and read and pray everyday or else. I'll let you finish that sentence. Love you.

who else am I missing? I already responded to Lindsey and Ben. Sorry I am in such a hurry this week. My companion is waiting on me. We are going lazer tagging.

Love you all. Have a great week! Go BYU

Elder Soutas

in the photos are Fransisco, Brother Bunton, and Brother Gleckler some of the members of the ward.

Hi Mom,

You are a genius. My mind is completely blown.
 I hardly understand
what you are talking about. I kind of get it. You kind of lost me there on the whole stone thing. So if I 
understand correctly, you are saying that Christ is the stone upon which we should build. The tower of
Babel was built out of bricks which don't last kind 
of like how ultimately the
kingdom of the devil will fall, and great will be the
fall of it! So I'm still trying to wrap my head around 
the whole Bethel thing. So Bethel was considered
one of the most sacred spots in
all of Israel (according to the bible
dictionary). Beth means House and El means God. 
House of God. The temple. The temple should be 
made out of stone, not brick because it will last.
 Families last forever.
The temple is built by the sons of God and there we 
become HIs sons and his daughters.
And so if I am understanding correctly, the temple is
compared to a tower made out of stone
 (made of Christ). We are also temples as Paul
says and we are meant to reach heaven.

I really like the whole tower
symbolism. If i am right, it sounds like
often in the scriptures it talks about
watchmen upon the towers. These
watchmen are the prophets. You mentioned King
Benjamin and Samuel, Shem but also one that comes to mind is Nephi upon his tower. I think
Jesus gives a parable about that too. These men are
high priests/prophets who are high so they can see 
the problems that will arise. It reminded me of a 
scripture that is repeated about 4 times in the book 
of  mormon by Abinadi, and Jesus quoting Isaiah: 
"Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice 
together shall they sing; for
they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring
 again Zion" 
(Mosiah 12: 22, Mosiah 15:29, 3 Nephi 18:20, 3 Nephi 20).
 When I read this verse I wonder what the phrase
 "they shall see eye to eye" means.
It sounds to me that
it's talking about the apostles, and when they
make decisions they have to be
working in unanimity. Maybe that's what
it means. What do you think?

Well,
all of this talk is very appropriate for general 
conference coming up this weekend. And I am 
curious to see who the 3 new apostles will be. 
I wouldn't be
surprised if one of them was my old mission
president, President McCune. I am
no prophet though. We taught a guy
the other day though on exchanges who
thought he was a prophet though
haha.

So a quick recap of this week:

It was ok. Unfortunately, none of our investigators
 made it to church.
We started teaching one investigator, Cheryl, who 
accepted to be baptized this Halloween.
She has had a rough life and has been abused
really bad lately. There's a lot of other things she is
 dealing with too. We've finally been able to teach her
now that her abusers are
either in jail or living elsewhere. We met up with her
on Thursday
outside of a motel where she is living. She is a really
god-fearing woman, and is just truly 
poor as to things of the world, as well as poor
in spirit.
We are having a hard time right now getting in with 
people.  Most people don't keep their appointments, and we rarely get members to come
help us out because we live 30 minutes away from
 most of the ward members. The
sisters live closer to all of the members and they 
have way more success than
anyone in the zone. Both the sisters and we
cover the same area, but they live
closer to the members so they have
an advantage. We also only get so many miles
to drive per month which
plays a huge factor. Working witht the members is
 the best way to find
people to teach. When I become senior companion, I am probably going to do things a bit differently. 
Elder Lovik is great though. We are both
trying and being obedient, but not a whole lot is 
happening at this very moment. Things will change 
though. I mean we do have someone
on date for baptism so that is good!

Also this week, we had a zone leadership training
meeting where
President and Sister Morgan came. I got to play 
"O How Lovely Was the Morning" (the first Paul 
Cardall song I ever learned and my favorite one 
probably)
as an intermediate musical number. That song is 
really special to me because my testimony of Joseph Smith is reaffirmed everytime I play it.  I kind
of messed up and the piano sucked which kind of
 made me mad, but it went okay.
 We got rebuked a little bit, but also got a lot of 
council of how to improve. For instance, 
Elder C. Scott Grow came to the mission last
week  and talked to all of the stake presidents who in turn passed it on to all of
the bishops, that ward council meetings need to be
changed. Ward Council should be all about people 
who need their next ordinance. It's not a place to 
bring your own agenda for Relief
Society or what not. It should be all about helping
PEOPLE. And now, the missionaries are supposed to 
be an integral part of ward council.
They are to stay the entire time and use our progress report to kind of guide the meeting. This way will 
hasten the work of salvationbecause
the best way to find and support investigators and 
less actives/part-member families is through the 
members. Just think, members are more likely to
 help out with investigators that they know
and care about. Using the ward council
the right way is critical to missionary work. Hopefully our ward is doing ward council the way they
should.

Okay, I have to ask you a question now and I
hope you will be able to respond because everyone 
else I've asked can't answer it.
So I was reading the other day in the book of mormon and came across a few verses. They all have to do with eternal life and who qualifies for it I guess.
I will do all caps for emphasis.

Mosiah 15:24---And these are those who have
part in the first resurrection; and these are they that have died before Christ came, IN THEIR IGNORANCE, not having salvation declared unto them. And thus
the Lord bringeth about the restoration of these; and they have a part in the first resurection, or HAVE 
ETERNAL LIFE, being redeemed from the lord.

-so
to me here, it sounds like those who died in their 
ignorance will have eternal
life. Eternal life is the highest glory in the celestial
kingdom, and they highest degree only correct? In 
other words, exaltation.  correct me if i am
wrong

Okay, another scripture

-Mosiah 3:11 "For behold, and also his blood
atoneth for the sins of
those wh ohave fallen by the transgtression of Adam,
WHO HAVE DIED NOT
KNOWING THE WILL OF GOD CONCERNING THEM, 
OR WHO HAVE IGNORANTLY SINNED."

So here, again, those who died in their sins ignorantly
are redeemed.
And redeemed in the sense that they have eternal life

Okay--another one

D&C 137:7-9- " All those who have died without a 
knowledge of this
gospel, who would have received it if they had been
 permitted to tarry,
shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of god; also all that shall die
henceforth without a WITHOUT A KNOWLEDGE of it, who would have receieved it
with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that
kingdom. For I the lord will judge all men according to their WORKS, according to the DESIRE of their
hearts.

Okay now here's where I get confused.

D&C 76:71-79

"And again,
we saw THE TERRESTRIAL WORLD, and behold and lo these are they who are of the
terrestrial.....behold, THESE ARE THEY WHO DIED
WITHOUT LAW. And also they who
are the spirits of men kept in prison
whom the Son visited, and preached the
gospel unto them, that they
might be judged according to men in the flesh; WHO
RECEIVED NOT THE
TESTIMONY OF JESUS IN THE FLESH BUT AFTERWARD RECEIVED IT.
These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men."

So do you see my dilemma here. The first few verses
i quoted say that those who die without law receive
 eternal life and celestial glory.
While this verse says that those who die without law are of the terrestrial glory.
So which is it? And how does temple work play a factor into this? Why
would we do ordinances such as sealings for people if they couldn't
obtain eternal life in the first place? Because those of
the terrestrial aren't sealed to their familes, correct? I seem to be missing something/ not understanding 
something here and it's bothering me. The reason
why it does, is because some people that I have/will
teach have loved ones who have passed on who 
didn't receive the gospel in this life. What do you tell a person who has had a spouse pass on
who wouldn't join the church, or who didn't
really have a fair chance because of their 
circumstances? Do they still have achance at eternal
life? Or what about those who never heard the 
gospel, are they heirs of terrestrial or celestial?
 
If you could help me understand this
please, it would be great.
Perhaps you could send it to me by letter so I could
get it sooner. If
not that is okay. But I have prayed to understand this but I haven't found an answer yet.

Anyways, that's just a question that has
bothered me lately.

Sorry this is a really long letter. But the week has
 gone good.
Yesterday I had a tough day and wanted to give up. But the Lord always
seems to pull me through if I just pray to him. It's 
seriously the most despairing feeling though that I 
get every once and a while.
Right now I feel great though. So don't you worry.

Well I love you (all of you) and I know the
gospel is true because of
the fullness of his blessings that he pours out upon
me. I do have a
hard time understanding how he answers my prayers though. I couldn't
exactly tell you how he answers my prayers exactly. I need to work harder on my prayers. Like people say how they pray and they receive an
answer and know what to do. For me though, 
I kind of just make a decision out of who knows what
Does that make any sense? Maybe you
could enlighten with me
some wisdom on that because i have a hard time
with that??


The gospel is true. as Lehland (the black guy who 
lives in the basement) always says.

Love,

Elder Soutas


P.S. I can't believe BYU lost that bad. It
ruined my day when someone in the ward texted me the half-time score
haha.
P.S.S. Tell people to send me letters. :)








My response:




Dear Ty-

Hope this helps - a good outline of the degrees of glory - my personal thoughts are in RED




1. The Telestial glory is for those who do not receive the gospel of Jesus Christ or the testimony of Jesus or the prophets of God, and who live sinful lives (see D&C 76:81–88, 98–103).







Requirements for the Telestial Kingdom

 • they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus (v. 82)

 • they who deny not the Holy Spirit (v. 83)

 • they who say they are some of one, and some of another—some of Christ and some of John, and some of Moses—but received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant (vv. 99-101)

 • they who are liars and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie (v. 103; Rev. 22:15 adds murderers)

(See D&C 76:99-101)










2. The Terrestrial glory is for the honorable people of the earth who are deceived and for those who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ (see D&C 76:71–79).







Requirements for the Terrestrial Kingdom

 • Died without the law (v. 72)

 • Visited by the Son in the Spirit World, received not the Gospel in the flesh but did in the Spirit World (v. 73-4) “they felt it by the Spirit” (See D&C 137) - they felt it was true

 • Honorable men of the earth (v. 75)

 • They receive His glory, but not the fullness of His Glory (v. 76)

to me this verse (76) is key - Christ visited with them in the spirit world but they chose not the ordinances (fullness of Glory to me means Temple and all the ordinances necessary for the celestial kingdom)
Only question - why would they still refuse after gaining a testimony?- My opinion - agency is still in play here-not valiant-
I guess it’s kind of like people on earth today who still consider themselves mormon, know it’s true yet still never go to the temple (I know a lot of people like that) 
The more I study-and I study A LOT :) the more I see how the temple is the key and symbol of the atonement of Christ and you need to be built on that rock = temple :) !!!!!!!
therefore:


 • Not valiant in the testimony of Jesus (v. 79)

Melvin J. Ballard said: “Now those who died without law, meaning the pagan nations, for lack of faithfulness, for lack of devotion in the former life, are obtaining all that they are entitled to. I don't mean to say that all of them will be barred from entrance into the highest glory. Any one of them who repents and complies with the conditions might also obtain celestial glory, but the great bulk of them will only obtain terrestrial glory.” ("The Three Degrees of Glory," by Melvin J. Ballard) 

lazy, indifferent - didn’t want to Do it every day of their lives…prayer, scriptures, FHE, temple attendance….renewing covenants  Not enduring to the end  Unfortunately we all know a lot of people who do this.  Hopefully we can teach them why it is so important.




3. The Celestial glory is reserved for those who obey the commandments and receive the ordinances, overcome all things by faith in Jesus Christ, and become pure in heart (see D&C 76:50–70). 




by the way pure in heart = again a temple image :)  Psalms 23 - Who shall ascend to the Hill (Mountain) of The Lord,or who shall stand in his Holy place?  He that hath clean hands and a pure heart

I really comes down to the temple!!




Requirements of the Celestial Kingdom: =(Doctrine of Christ)

 • Receive the testimony of Jesus (v. 51)

 • Believe on His name (we might say faith) (v. 51)

 • Baptized (v. 51)

 • Keep the commandments (v. 52)

 • Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost (v. 52)

 • Overcome by faith (v. 53)-endure to end (I believe is to partake of ordinances weekly-sacrament and temple)

 • Sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise (v. 53) (a temple ordinance)

The doctrine in D&C 137 in light of the Celestial Kingdom:







In these verses the principles upon which the doctrine of salvation for the dead rests are announced for the first time in this dispensation. They are:




 • first, that the doctrine applies only to those who “died without a knowledge” of the gospel;

 • second, that God must read the hearts of those concerned and affirm that had the gospel come to them in mortality they would have accepted it;  see D&C 137:7-9

 • and third, that God must judge that not only would they have accepted the gospel but that they would have done so “with all their hearts,” meaning that they would have endured valiantly and faithfully to the end.

Week 2 - Centralia/Carlyle

Hey fans!

Not too shabby of a week. We didn't get in with very many people but we still at least tried. 

It started off great. After emails last monday we met Ken, who is having lots of troubles. He's about 38 and has a Chicago accent. He's kind of gangsta. He hates life right now and wants to leave Centralia. We gave him a book of Mormon and talked outside the library for like an hour. He was hopeless before we talked to him but after he had some hope. Unfortuantely when we met him Friday he told us that he got really buzzed and then passed out in the middle of the street. Also his parents, will kick him out of the house if he continues to read the book of mormon and continue meeting with us. We were saddened to hear all of us but then talked for like 30 min again especially about the word of wisdom. He is not sure if he is willing to learn from us anymore. He said he was coming to church yesterday but never showed up.

On tuesday we got another investigator named Pat. She is MIke's Grandma and has heard lots from Mike and is now very curious. Mike didn't come to church this week :( Mike will be moving in a couple of weeks so we probably won't be able to baptize him. If he comes this week though we may be able to if he is ready of course.

On Wednesday we drove many miles to Okawville to talk to an old single guy named Bro. Barfield whose wife passed away. He is less active right now but after talking with him he might come back to church soon. hopefully.

We visit a 90 year old every thursday and give her the sacrament after church. Her name is Sister Slininger. She lives in a nursing home. soon I am planning on playing the piano for all of the old timers there. I'll have to find some music that won't put them to sleep for good.

On Thursday we had a mission conference where Elder C Scott Grow of the 70 came. He spoke about a lot of things. We have a lot of things we could improve at.

On Friday morning, I had the privilege to give a priesthood blessing to one of the Sisters' investigators named Lori. She is very poor and has injured feet as well as her brother just died. It was a good experience. One of the better blessings I've given.

On Saturday we went to a hog roast hosted by the ward. A hog was roasted over a fire and the members had a pickup football game. We are not allowed to play sports with people besides missionaries. It stinks. We are allowed to go on hayrides though. That's what we did after, and when we left the relief society president gave us a 5 gallon bag of chocolate milk which is now in our fridge.

Yesterday at church we were asked last minute to teach the 13 year old sunday school class. We taught about why we have commandments. It was a really good lesson expect for Lucas who would interrupt saying things impertinent to the lesson. Also the Atwater family had me accompany them while they sang Teach Me To Walk in the Light.

From this week's experiences I have learned to stay positive. Not everything went super well like we had hoped this week, but we still have hope. I also have a lot more confidence it seems like..for the most part. 

I've been reading in 1st nephi 20-22

10 " And I would, my brethren, that ye should know that all the kindreds of the earth cannot be blessed unless he shall make bare his arm in the eyes of the nations.

 11 Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, in bringing about his covenants and his gospel unto those who are of the house of Israel.

 12 Wherefore, he will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel."

I've seen this week how the gospel brings light to people's life. I also see people who don't have the light. For instance, this one old lady on her porch told us how bad she felt for us because we believed that God had a body of flesh and bones. She was pleading with us to think about what we were doing and to stop. She said she would pray for us which I highly doubt. 

I know the Savior Lives. The fullness of the gospel has been restored and is the only true gospel that can make us perfect and bring us the fulness of light to our lives. The Book of Mormon is true. The more I read it, the more I love it, and also the more questions I have! Joseph Smith is who he said he was. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever and he communicates to us by revelation to his prophets "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ"

Love you all!

Elder Soutas

Centralia

Cornfields

Chocolate milk