Week 1 Carlyle / Centralia

Hi everybody!

So I wrote like half of this email but then my time was up so it all got deleted. This will probably be shorter than usual sorry

The mission home experience was fun. It was really humid and hot when we arrived. I placed a book of mormon in the airport actually with an African-American lady named Charmaine who is from St. Louis. Then had a friendly conversation with a guy named Kevin from North Dakota. I beat Elder Fa'Alogo in ping pong. He will be playing for BYU volleyball when he gets home from his mission. President and Sister Morgan are cool. I still don't know a whole lot about them.  

So I'm serving in southern Illinois out in the boonies. There are cornfields everywhere, and not a whole lot of people, but it is really green and beautiful. There are bugs called cicadas that are super loud and annoying. They are gross and sound kind of like a cross between a rattlesnake and a cricket. You can here them everywhere you go.  

Anyways, we stay in the a member's basement in Carlyle. We have another member named Lehland who lives with us. He is the most hilarious person. He reminds me a lot of Donkey on Shrek. He just talks and talks and says whatever he wants. And he is really animated, makes a lot of funny faces, tells random stories. He also does this one thing where he moves his eyes left and right really fast back and forth. It's kind of hard to explain, but he just cracks me up. He has a gap between his teeth and has a wide smile. He also interrupts our studies a lot but I can't help but just laugh. He's my favorite.The poor guy has had kidney stones the last week and has been to the ER a couple of times. He made it to church but started barfing in the relief society waste basket so we had to get somebody to take him to the hospital while we were in coordiation meeting. He has 50 kidney stones to pass. I thought I had it bad with just 1. So we gave him a blessing the other night. Hopefully he gets well soon.  

My companion is named Elder Lovik from Port Angeles, Washington.  He has been training me up pretty good. I like him a lot. We don't have a lot in common but we get along pretty well.

We cover a lot of towns around here. We spend most of our time in Centralia which Sister Schow and Oldroyd cover as well. Sister Schow is from Riverton and a really good missionary. other towns we spend a lot of time in are Nashville, New Minden, Belrosa, Salem, and I'm sure there are others. 

We didn't get to teach a lot of lessons since I've been here, but we have done a fair share of tracting. I think tracting is fun. Most people aren't interested, but most are at least cordial about it. We met this old lady named Jean the other day. She has gone really deaf and is partially blind, but whenever we stop by she wants us to pray for her. She just talks and talks and talks but is just the sweetest old lady. She talks a lot about how she plays bridge and how she used to golf everyday. The first time we gave her a restoration pamphlet and when we walked by later she was still reading it. The next time we gave her a book of Mormon. She also said that since we prayed for her the first time, her hearing has improved. She can't really understand what we say though still, so we tried writing down questions like "Will you read the book of Mormon" and she was like "well of course, I love reading." We are not entirely sure if she is accountable enough and so we are not sure whether to give her the lessons. we probably will though. 

One of our investigators, Mike, who is 18 finally made it to church. He is Lutheran and really knows his stuff. He knows the bible super well and feels like the book of mormon has increased his understanding. He is really skeptical and got into some anti mormon stuff, but has since come to believe (well at least is 95% sure as he says) that the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet. He's been meeting with missionaries since May and finally made it to church for the first time this sunday. He prayed at the end of the lesson that his parents would let him go to church and they finally gave him permission. 

We had a lesson with this guy named John who has pretty bad ADHD. He has a hard time focusing. He's a southern baptist.

The other night we had dinner with a family from the Ward. They are extremely poor. We had sheppard's pie. Yum. It was actually by far the worst food my tongue has ever tasted. I reluctantly took a few bites of it and just couldn't do it. Dad, I remember you have said before that Grandpa Bob grew up eating something called smuggledung. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it tasted like. It was so bad. But I felt bad for the family since they are really poor.

I've had allergies or something since I got here. It might just be a cold, but I've had it the last 4 days. Also, until Saturday, my hearing was a little faint. Like it felt like my ears were full of water for a couple of days. I was saying "What?" all the time and couldn't hear what people were saying. But they have since popped. now I just need to get rid of this cold. It might be allergies though.  

What else has happened this week? I'm having a hard time remembering to be honest. But we mostly have just been trying to find some new people to teach. We've got a few people say they would allow us to come back so we will see what happens with them. 

The gospel is true. I believe my Savior Lives and that he is mindful of me. I believe that the book of Mormon is the word of God and "whoso should hold fast unto it..will never perish."

-Elder Soutas

I'm here in Carlyle/Centralia, Illinois. We cover more than just those two towns. There's a bunch of other small towns we cover like Nashville (Illinois). They call it the boonies out here but there's still quite a few nice areas. Yes, it is very very green. It's very beautiful. The weather is perfect right now. The hot humidity is gone until next summer which is nice. My companion is Elder Lovik. He is from Port Angeles, Washington. He is from like a native American tribe-Mcaw or something. He's a great trainer. We live in the basement of the McAdoos. A hilarious black guy who is a member named Lehland also lives in the basement with us. The poor guy has had kidney stones this last week. He was in the ER Thursday and Sunday. Poor guy. He makes me laugh a lot though. He reminds me of Donkey on Shrek because he just talks and talks. Well I'm glad to here from you

Ready for MO

Hi Mom,

I have a few minutes to write something short. Elder Oaks actually came and spoke to us on Tuesday. He talked a lot about Preach My gospel stuff and teaching by the spirit. I can't really remember what he said specificially. My memory doesn't work that way. It's terrible. I actually bought a calling card and so I will get to call tomorrow morning for like 30-45 minutes. I'm not really sure how long. There's 26 of us going to St. Louis tomorrow. I still need to pack, but it'll probably only take me an hour. 

It's good to hear about Kaitlyn. I should probably write to her and brycen more. You should have Kaitlyn write to me every week (or email). It could boost her testimony or something. It looks like we both share a common thread in how hymns make me feel the spirit. I feel the spirit the strongest that way. 

I would really like to hear from Brycen as well. They could both just do it on their iphones really quick since they spend so much time on that anyways. 

Well I heard about the BYU game. Sounds like we got really lucky. Of course that happens when I'm not watching it. Too bad Taysom is done. 

Well I guess I am ready to leave tomorrow to MO. I've learned a few things here in the MTC. i'm not sure exactly what but I took copious notes. I'm really tired right now. The MTC food is making me feel really queazy right now. I'll talk to y'all tomorrow. 

Love you!

Elder Soutas☺

MTC week 2

Dear Mom and Dad

Today is our Pday. We went to the temple this morning. It was a bloody experience. literally. It was a freak accident. So Mom, you know that little FAith stone you gave me? Yeah, so right before we entered the temple, I accidentally dropped it out of my hands and it shattered. I didn't think anything of it so I just put it in my pocket. But after we got past the front desk I reached my right hand into my pocket and felt a prick. I didn't realize I was bleeding until like 20 seconds later. Blood was just dripping from my finger all over the temple floor. Fortunately, there was a trauma surgeon that came to do a session and so he cleaned me up and super glued my finger. I probably could have had stiches but the glue has been working. We did end up doing an endowment session still. When we got back to our dorms, I cut my other finger. It wasn't as bad, and I'm still not sure how I even cut it. 

It's been pretty fun here at the MTC. We have taught a little bit. We are teaching a gang guy named Dreazo, a Lutheran named Josh, and another named Ashlee. My district has 8 of us. Half are going to Eugene, Oregon (Elder Hicks [who Jenessa knows from Bingham-he was on the football team], Elder Wright from Provo, Elder Martin fromn Salem who is a goofball. so hilarious!, Elder Webb from Lehi,  and half to St. Louis (Elder Clark, Elder Henrie from Pennsylvania, and Elder Zollinger from Kaysville. In my dorm are Elder Hancock from Highland who's good at basketball. A different Elder Webb from West Point, UT. A lot of people from the MTC are from Utah. 

Tonight we have a devotional. I'm not really sure if there will be a general authority tonight. there might be. Elder Clark and I have been asked to usher. Oh, but In the MTC though you get to listen to a recording of  a talk by Elder Bednar called the Character of Christ. It's only available in the MTC and you can't get it on LDS.org. It's all about how Christ put off the natural man and always focused outwardly rather than inwardly. It's a mindblowing talk. I felt really selfish after and it kind of made me discouraged I'm not going to lie. I did see Elder Green after that talk as everyone was trying to be christlike and helping put things away, I've seen him a couple of other times too like at meals. The food is nothing to complain about. I'm fasting today though. The last couple of days I've been struggling so I'm fasting. I'm not totally sure why I was so unhappy. But our Brand new teacher (sister Johnson) pulled me out of the class into another room because she could tell that I was having a hard time. I bawled like a baby in front of her and my companion and felt so stupid. They were both really kind though and shared some scriptures with me. It helped a little bit. 

Oh, on our sunday walk I ran into Elder Dallen Milne who is going to ecuador.!

I enjoy the classes quite a bit. I'm getting more comfortable teaching and I like the way they show us how to study for our investigators. They emphasize the Doctrine of Christ a lot. We are supposed to tie that in with like everything we teach. 

That's so crazy ben is engaged. I hope he is happy. 

Well my laundry is done and I need to get it out. Don't worry too much about me.  I'll talk to you next week. My flight leaves at around 7:30 on Tuesday!

Love you all.

"For the Natural Man is an enemy to God, and will be forever and ever unless he yieldeth unto the enticings of the holy ghost and put off the natural man, and becometh a saint; submissive, meek, humble...I can't remember the rest haha. 

-Elder Soutas

MTC Week 1

Hi i don't have much time, but just wanted to let you know I'm alive and well. The MTC is pretty cool. So far we haven't been tested too hard, but come tomorrow we start teaching real investigators. My companion is Elder Clarke from the Ogden area. He's very obedient, very well prepared missionary so I have zero concerns about him. Also my MTC teachers are Sister Wrubell who is the daughter of the Voice of the Cougars, Greg Wrubell. Kind of cool! She's really enthusiastic about it all so it helps me. Same with my other teacher Brother Rasmussen, who happened to play basketball for Bingham and Coach Dubach and ended up quitting. So it's a nice little tender mercy the lord gave me how I can relate to both my teachers. They're both wonderful. 

Well I gotta go eat some MTC food now. Bye Bye now. I love you all. hopefully you are all coping because I have no homesickness whatsoever. There are a lot of really pretty sister missionaries here though so that is a hard time to focus sometimes haha. It's all good don't need to worry. The MTC is cool.

Ty's talk outline

Speak Christlike attributes, a couple of which are patience, diligence and humility. 

Let me suggest that by developing these three attributes we become fully converted unto the Lord and we will never fall away. 

PMG says that “Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. it is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing.”

SHARE FEELINGS OF PROVO MISSION CALL EXPERIENCE:

things don’t always play out the way you want them to, but…..

SUFFERING To KNOW JESUS CHRIST

I can’t help but talk of the Sons of Mosiah and their examples of patience, Humility, and diligence through their afflictions. 

Ammon, Aaron, Omner, Himni

Alma 17:11” Go forth among the Lamanites thy brethern, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long suffering and afflictions 

A Hard mission for them 

“people delighted in bloodshed and the grossest iniquity” Hatred toward them

Their Afflictions:

“suffered every privation” They were deprived essentially

-cast out, 

spit upon, stoned, cast into prison

AT WHAT POINT WOULD YOU SAY “IVE HAD ENOUGH!”

They essentially wanted to Go Home and be done

But Again… the Lord counseled

Alma 26:27: “Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.”

kind of interesting 2X.. learn a lesson of Long suffering!!! 

Of patience, Neal A. Maxwell said as quoted in this month’s Ensign, “Patience is a willingness to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance.”  

We don’t just sit there and wait. Surely God wants us to do something. 

How do we show patience?

might i suggest EXCERCISING DILLIGENCE AND HUMILITY!

Alma 21:23—-And he did exhort them daily , with all diligence, and they gave heed unto his word, and they were zealous for keeping the commandments of God” 

not to mention, they searched the scriptures diligently and gave themselves to much fasting and prayer

What were the results of diligence?

as we know1000s .

King Lamoni, his Father, The king and all of his household. The Anti-Nephi, Lehies- buried weapons of rebellion

“Those that were converted never did fall away”ALMA 23:7

Ammon said:

“Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle and did reap with your might, yea all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! …..

“And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted… and when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place…they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his.” ALMA 26:5-7

WOULD ANY OF THIS HAPPENED WITHOUT THE LORD?

of course not. 

Let’s go to Alma 26 where Ammon is “Boasting” haha

“I do not boast in my own strength ], nor in my own wisdom…I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things…blessed be the name of God who has been mindful of this people….blessed be the name of my God who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land. Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people…Now this is my joy and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever.” Alma 26:12, 36-37

Notice how Ammon recognizes that God has been aware.

“No matter how many arms chop off, raise people to their feet from comas (like the sons of mosiah did), the credit and glory should always be given to the Lord”

Remembrance is the greatest sign of humility. Heavenly Father wants us to remember Him and His son Jesus Christ. It is our solemn responsibility to confess the Lord’s hand in all things and be mindful of Him from day to day.”

  The Lord “sends rain on the just and the unjust” to keep them in remembrance of him.

“… except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit themwith death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.” Helaman 12:3

Testimony of jesus christ and what i just said. 

Last Letter from Orem Mission

That's cool you all have found out so much about St. Louis. I haven't heard anything about St. Louis since my mission call. It looks like an awesome mission. I'm pretty happy I get to go there. You ARE a word nerd. That's not even an english word. You should try putting that in google translate and see what comes up. 

sounds like you are all just having a jolly good summer without me. I'll be there wednesday though and I am really excited to relax a little. I should probably stick to the schedule the best that I can though or at least wake up on time and do studies. 

So I just was able to read the emails you sent last week. I wonder what president nielsen meant by that? huh. 

well this last week has been pretty good. I don't really remember what happened  but we were pretty busy teaching 26 lessons which was our high. not that the number matters but just so you get an idea. we got a lot of referrals this week. That's what happens when you ask everybody you see if they know anyone we could teach. One of our investigators, Zack. is getting baptized this Saturday at 1 pm so I will probably drive down to see it since I told them I would. I honestly can't think of anything significant that happened this week. It was good though. Miracles happen everyday when you listen to the promptings of the holy ghost. 

I also heard an interesting analogy from a family we were eating dinner with. He said that sometimes it's really hard for some people who have grown up in the church to know if the holy ghost is speaking to them. He compared us to how as members we are like fish in water because we have been submerged with the gospel and the holy ghost since birth and we don't know of any other way. And so we take for granted the constant feeling of the holy ghost especially until we are like a fish out of water. For instance, some people don't appreciate the sacrament as much until they are unworthy and asked not to take it for a while. Now this doesn't mean that you have to go doing super bad stuff and then repent later, but it is just an example.  For converts it can be easier for them to feel the holy ghost because they were that fish out of water for most of their lives, but when they finally jump in it is refreshing to them and is easily recognizable. Tell me if I'm wrong, but that was interesting.

Like to be honest, I can't tell you a specific point in time where I knew the book of mormon or the church to be true. I've probably known it since being a sunbeam. But of course you still need to ask if the book of mormon is true, but everytime I ask I basically feel like the Lord is saying that I already know it is true for a long time. Also, I have a hard time recognizing answers to prayers. Like I couldn't tell you a specific time where the lord answered my prayers really because I have a super bad memory, but I know he does answer them somehow. I could get better at that. 

How did you come to know the book of mormon is true Dadda? Or I guess anyone who is reading this is welcome to share.Just wondering if you would like to share. 

Hey dad, I can't wait to see you very soon and use your hammock as well!

See  you wednesday at transfer meeting. I think you are supposed to pick me up at the transfer meeting which is at 612 west 100 south Lindon, UT. Come probably at like 10:30 I think. I'm not totes sure though. 

I love you dad😆

Love you mom

love you grandma lynne, grandpa bob, grandma elaine, grandpa allen

love you feil family

love you Laurie and Joe

Love you bennihannuh, jenessa, brycen, jordan, alex, kaitlyn,

On Sun, Jul 26, 2015 at 7:33 PM, Chris Soutas <crsoutas@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Ty (Elder Soutas),

I wasn't sure whether to write you a letter or not since I'm not sure if your p-day is tomorrow on account of the fact that you are coming home on Wednesday.

So, I'll just write you a quick one...

First, do you happen to know when we are supposed to pick you up on Wednesday?  I'm sure the mission president will call us if you don't know yet.

Ever since you received the mission call to St. Louis, people have "come out of the woodwork" so to speak to talk about St. Louis.  Either someone has family there, or is from there, or just visited there, or the city just comes up in conversation.  Funny how that happens. By the way, this phenomenon is called Baader-Meinhof.

I guess you can let that be the word of the day. I guess I am still a word nerd. I have actually been looking for that word for a long time and Jordan found it a few weeks ago.

We had a fun weekend. On Friday, for Pioneer Day, Jordan and Alex, Ben, Mom, Brycen, and I went up to Brighton to grill some hamburgers and to do a little fishing over at Silver Lake. Alex caught one on her first cast. Jordan caught one too but it was very tiny so I didn't count it. Ha ha! Jenessa was up at the Jager's cabin so she didn't come with us and Katie went to Park city with the Green's.

When we got back, we all went over to Lindsey Lockhart's house for fireworks and to meet her parents for the first time.

She has a really cute family and her parents really seem to like Ben. Today was  Amanda Lockhart's talk in church, so Ben has spent the day with Lindsey's family. It would appear that things are getting rather serious for these two.

On Saturday, we went up to Smith-Morehouse Reservoir which is by the Jager's cabin. I caught a couple fish and we grilled some hotdogs and hamburgers. The kids went canoeing and attempted fishing as well. Later we went back to the cabin for more hamburgers. We didn't stay too long but we did get to ride the ATVs a little bit.

Dallin Thomas spoke in church today. Afterwards, we went to his house for treats. I think he leaves on his mission on 17 August. He is going to the Madrid Spain mission.

Braden Powell and Tiani Orr Enter the MTC this Wednesday. Braden is going to Farmington New Mexico mission and Tiani is going to the Baltimore Maryland mission.

Well, that is about all I have. I am looking forward to seeing you this week!

Love,

DAD

Dear Elder Soutas you are hereby called to labor

Hey Elder! 

Your mission president just called and said that we will be seeing you tonight at 8 o'clock to open your new call!

I'm sure that you have already been contacted and I know that you cannot answer my email, but I thought I'd let you know how excited we are to see you seven hours from now. Yay!!

Also, I am sure that wherever you are asked to continue serving that you will be AWESOME!

Love you,

Mom and DAD