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