Hey y'all

Sounds like FAther's day went pretty good (I mean well) <-that was for Ben.....Yesterday we ate  kraft mac and cheese for dinner since our dinner appointment had to cancel. And what the heck is cornbread salad? No offense, but that sounds nasty hahah. But I never tried it so I can't judge....

Dad, I'm sorry you hurt your ribs. When you said that all I could think is I haven't had a McRib in forever! (that was a Jim Gaffigan Joke). I guess I'll have to keep a lookout for Teressa's friend Lana. Probably won't though since they live out of my area. But guess what?!! I noticed while looking at one of the ward maps last week that the Gaskins who used to live next door to us at our old house live here! I haven't actually met them yet, but I looked on LDS tools and it says that Matt  is assistant ward clerk. Perhaps we should go stop by sometime, but they probably wouldn't even remember me. 

Mom,

I haven't really talked to President about my new mission call or anything. I'll try to talk to him at Zone conference tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes the next apostle. I'm really glad you are hanging out with Joe. Like you said, he really taught me to see the good in everybody and to always have a cheerful attitude about boring old life. So he's finally at the Bluegrass Festival? Good. Lucky you got to have jamba juice..I'm craving a smoothie right now. In my last area, Sister Andrews used to make us the best smoothies all the time!

So you went on a field trip through Eagle Mountain? Cedar Valley is pretty beautiful. Did you see any dust devils while you were out there? And do you know if they decided to move the prison there or not? that was a big issue while I was there. If they do put it there, the area will grow a whole lot. But there's so many hicks out there that want their land for rabbit hunting!

And  Did you mean Cedar Fort? because Cedar Hills is by Pleasant Grove--that's actually Elder Spiers prior area. I never actually got to go see that site where Johnson's Army passed through. We just played ping pong pretty much on p-days (that could be a tongue twister (: 

And you got DAD a HAMMOCK?!! No fair. Remember when I tried to make a hammock out of sleeping bags a few months ago? That failed. I can't wait to get back to the house so I can take a nap. That's one thing I miss: Sunday naps. And pretty much just naps everyday. Everyday after lunch we are all sooo tired and need a nap but we just can't. That's really cool that Jenessa got her young woman's medallion! What an achievement!! I never even got my Duty to God. Shame on me. 

Grandpa Allen and grandma Elaine,

Thank you for the picture you sent me of Grandpa's scarred-up head! That's a keeper. That's a pretty cool looking Scar, Grandpa! Have fun doing retirement stuff. Speaking of retirement, RM doesn't mean Retired Missionary. That goes for everyone! I'm sick of members who aren't missionary-minded. I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone in particular. just thought I'd throw that out there. I'm also venting frustration because there are so many people around here who just don't give a dang. 

On a more happy note....:)

This week went pretty good. I feel like I've grown a whole lot--spiritually that is.  I haven't grown an inch though since I've left unfortunately. Both of my companions are 6 foot 3 and 6 foot 4 so I am small compared to them....but the work here is good. This week we had a lot of cancellations though. Only taught 10 lessons. We are expected to teach at least 20 a week. A lot of missionaries teach over 30. It's nuts. 

This week we picked up a new investigator named Holden. His mom is anti-religion but she is allowing her son to make decisions herself. Something funny that Holden said is that he was worried that if he became a member that he would have to stop believing in ghosts. we then of course talked about the holy ghost and tied it into the restoration, committed him to baptism on July 27! We'll see how it turns out though since his family is not religious. 

Yesterday we got a door slammed in our face by a guy named Sam. We talked to him last week in his porch and he was super friendly and invited us back. But yesterday, he was a completely different person and was like "did you guys not get the message that I am baptist and not interested!!, ESPECIALLY ON MY DAY OFF! I appreciate what you guys do but its getting to the point of annoyance! "Then he slammed the door. We got our hopes up about him. 

Also yesterday we had a discussion with Majeed . He is a devout muslim from Ghana. Super super nice guy. He won't get baptized though. His wife is LDS and white and his kids go. They also had a relative from Gahna staying with them from st George for a while It was a really interesting discussion. Muslims don't  t believe Jesus Christ to be the savior, just a great prophet. He mentioned about how there is a lot of scripture in the Koran about the virgin Mary and so we talked about how christ was the literal son of God since he was born from a virgin. He said though that God (Allah) can do anything though such as turn trees and rocks into people. He also said that Adam and Eve were created out of the dust and so was Christ too but that didn't mean he was  the son of God. It really didn't make much sense. Muslims also believe Mohammed to be the last prophet. Keep in mind that they believe in prophets from Adam until Abraham, but that's where things split off. You see, They think that the real sacrifice of Abraham was Ishmael and not Isaac. As you know, the descendants of Ishmael are primarily Muslims. Since Majeed said that Mohammed was the last prophet, we asked him why there are no more prophets for Islam. This was an inspired question since he said he had wondered a lot about that before. We tried to explain the importance of prophets but he shrugged it off by rationalizing that all that is necessary is the Koran ( kind of like Protestants today who think all they need is the bible) to pull you through troubled times. We also talked a little about blacks and the priesthood. He said he didn't like the answer that it was just Gods timing. Personally if I were black, I don't know if I'd like that either. Whenever we are faced with an objection we should always turn to the scriptures so I turned to 2 nephi 26:33 " For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile." But really he needs to understand that prophets receive revelation in behalf of the church. We also let him know of course that slavery could be part of the reason, but you have to be careful with that one because Prophets don't reveal things just to "catch up with the times" 

But enough about that. We just got our hopes up about him, too.  He's such a good guy. It was very interesting to see the similarities between Muslims and Mormons, and also how we are both stereotyped a lot. 

This week has been good overall though. My companions are awesome. 

Hope y'all have a good week. Sorry I say y'all a lot now. 

Love, elder soutas 

Dear Mother and Fatha,

That's really cool to what you learned from Elder
Evans. At first I thought you were talking about Jordan Evans and so I was confuzzled.
I've never thought of it that way so I will have to review that.

Well this last week has been a long one. I can't remember a whole lot since I got out of the habit of writing in my journal everyday. On Tuesday we went to Provo for the trainers meeting. Since I wasn't being a trainer I went with some other missionaries around BYU 

campus contacting. We passed out a lot of cards to people and talked for a while with this RM. He has fallen away from the church and says it's because of church history and stuff   After talking with him for a while he said he would think about talking to his wife to meet with missionaries again so that was kinda cool. I won't ever know what'll happen though since I'll never see him again.
My last day in Eagle Mountain we met with brother Tisdale. He went a whole week without chewing so now he is tobacco free! He and his wife can now start preparing for the temple.
I kind of miss that place but now I am serving in Leeha! (Lehi). Everyone that we are teaching right now is 9 years old basically, and people rarely answer their
door until after 5pm. We are serving in the western portion of Lehi and so unfortunately Blender Bottle is not in my area. But it is in my district so maybe I'll see Ben sometime unless he quit that job! I can't remember if he did.
We did get quite a few referrals this week that we will stop by soon.
We have 2 kids on date for Baptism.
I am in a trio..again! My follow-up trainer is Elder Spiers. He is a really good missionary. I like him a lot. He's from
 he South. Mississipp. Whenever people ask me where I'm from I tell them in my southern accent I'm from the south too....south Jordan!!!!
That's the thing that I don't like about being in a   new area though because I have to introduce to everyone where I'm from and they are like "WHAT? YOur not being serious! I've never heard of that before."And
 hen they have  to know WHY. It's annoying dag gum. 
My other companion elder brown  is from Texas. 
 He's funny. 
We had a few good experiences this week. My first day was kind of tough adjusting. I wasn't very
comfortable teaching people. I'm still kind of not but its getting better.  Elder Spiers is pushing me lot more than elder Fenton which is good. I'm still
kind of apprehensive.
I did however strike up a conversation about families
with a guy with a bushy brown beard from Idaho named  Sam. He said we could stop
by later in the week if we wanted to. On my first day we taught the mcBride family the restoration. They are part-member. I was kind of in a funk for most the lesson until It got to the part of the restoration
and it was my turn to speak. I got really emotionalfor some reason and the guy and his wife who is not a member did also. I felt really embarrassed because I was all weepy and could hardly even speak. But I guess    elder Spiers said it went really well. I don't know.
We had a really good dinner lesson this week as well  with a family.
We taught the doctrine of Christ (lesson 3)and related it to when Peter walks on the water.. It was cool. We showed the bible video. We like to do that a lot in this mission. We show "Because he lives" and "Because
of Him" a lot to people to try to get in their homes. Well right now we are playing a board game at the gamers Inn right now. It's actually kind of fun I guess.

Well I gotta go. See yall later.

Elder Soutas

Elder Soutas, Elder Speirs, Elder Brown

A Week of Learning

Hey everybody!

I really felt like I've grown a lot this week. I feel a lot more confident in doing missionary work. On Wednesday though I got really discouraged and wanted to go home. Some days as a missionary it feels like there is no hope or light to look for. I came across a talk from last conference by Elder Whitney L. Clayton called "Choose to Believe."  It is really good when you feel like you can't endure any longer:

"There may be times when we cannot see any light on the horizon, and we may feel like giving up. If we are willing to believe, if we desire to believe, if we choose to believe, then the Savior’s teachings and example will show us the pathway forward."

Though I read this only yesterday I basically applied this principle the other day when I really wanted to quit. The rest of the week went a lot lot better when I chose to endure and have a good attitude. The joyful feeling I get after I share the gospel with others is definitely worth staying on a mission. I couldn't let myself give up because I knew how disappointed I, my family, and God would be. 

This week we picked up 2 new investigators named Bert and Ty. Those are both good names(especially the latter). 

We sort of experienced a miracle with Bert because we were an answer to his prayer. Bert's water shut off in his house and so he was in panic mode. He didn't know what else to do and so he decided to pray for help. He told us when we met with him later that immediately after he ended his prayer I called him on the phone which he felt was an answer to his prayer. . We went over later and gave him a case of water to use. He was humble and so he let us teach him the next day. We taught him the Plan of Salvation since his mother is dying and asked him to pray if the things we were teaching him were true. He said he would and we are meeting with him again this week. 

Yesterday we taught Ty at Bro. Cloud's house who is one of our ward mission leaders  we work with a lot. We had to convince him to come over with powdered jelly donuts. Ty  knows pretty much nothing about God and has never prayed before. He is very open-minded though and humble. I think we have a pretty good chance with him. We answered some of his questions he had about Prayer and the nature of God. He said he is cool with us meeting again soon. He is really cool kid and is from New York. 

We went to the Payson open house again with a less active family, the Cooks. We hope that the mom will want to get sealed to her new husband. At the open house though we ended up talking with some Indians (not the Native American kind) named Alok and Needi. They are nonmembers who are married and attend BYU. They got really excited about forever families when we took them in the sealing room. We referred them to the sisters in their area and so i think they will probably join the church. So that was pretty cool! 

Saturday we taught an evangjcal family.At least we tried to, but it turned into a good ol fashioned bible bash! Our initial intention in going there was to contact one of our referrals named Shay. shay wasnt there, but her mom and dad sat us down in their porch to talk while they were barbecuing. The wife discredited just about everything we said with a bunch of stuff like the Dead Sea Scrolls.  The first thing she brought up was grace of course. We tried explaining things like repentance but she said of course that repentance isn't necessary as long as you confessed Christ. She told us that she knew her religion is right because of all of the scientific proof and historicity. She talked a lot about Hebrew words, primary sources, and transliterations   I told here that my source of know,edge is God, but then she of course ripped on the Book of Mormon. Yeah I got really heated, and I felt pretty stupid after because the spirit wasn't there because of the tone of voice I used. It was so frustrating, but it was a testimony builder for me though it didn't do a lot of good for the family. Elder Fenton knew what we were getting into when they told us they were Evangelical. His  grandpa is evangelical and told him that if he were to go on a mission he'd end up in Hell!  It was a good learning experience. 

After meeting with them I was really frustrated. We decided to go teach the Cloud family the restoration and bear our testimonies. I felt a lot better after that, and the Clouds were really appreciative of us teaching them because the prior sisters who would come over to their house a lot never would share a message with them. 

Elder Fenton got called to be the new ASL missionary for the mission. We visited a deaf family to learn some sign language. They have a way cool 18 year old son named Parker. I've picked up a little sign language this week since meeting him. It is really fun to do ASL, and I really want to learn more. Maybe I could be am ASL missionary, if not I would like to do some in college. Could be a cool career opportunity. Parker's father is not deaf but it is way cool because he can talk to us and do sign at the same time. For P-day today we took  Parker  with us to play basketball at the church. We taught him how to play the game 7 on the line and we also played 2 on 2. He and I beat Elder Fenton and this kid named Brandon pretty badly. Parker is pretty good at basketball and we called ourselves The Dream Team. It was his idea obviously because he had to show me the sign for Dream Team since he can't hear at all. 

We also took Parker with us to play soccer with the other Elders in our district to play soccer with a bunch of Hispanics. Yeah it was elders against them so we got creamed! I thought we'd be better with Elder Malster who is from England.

In other news, we had a baptism! How could I forget? Isaiah was baptized Saturday by his dad and was confirmed in Sacrament meeting. Elder Fenton and I taught The Restoration and it was really spiritual. It's awesome to see how happy not only Isaiah is now, but his parents too because when we first met them they weren't very sure about letting Isaiah be baptized. Isaiah's dad was also very nervous to do the confirmation in church but he did a pretty good job. 

So today I'll be going on exchanges for a day with Elder Wilcox, another new missionary. He's cool so it'll be awesome! 

Well I love you all! 

Godspeed, 

Elder Soutas 

Hello Family and Friends!

Week 2 in the mission here at Eagle Mountain, Utah (Provo Mission) was pretty good! I had a down day or 2 but other than that I've found a lot of joy serving the people here. For those of my friends who are hearing from me for the first time, I am serving for 3 months full-time here in the Provo mission before I get my second call elsewhere in the world!! I like it here. The people are very welcoming and such. We have had no baptisms yet, but we have a few investigators and a few possible investigators. One of our possible investigators is Karen, who is a vegetarian who owns an animal shelter. We can't mention anything about meat in front of her or we will lose our trust with her. He husband thinks we are sent by God to them, but we haven't taught them yet because she won't really let us...yet.  We met another investigor this week named Scott Jasmer who is an ex-Army guy. He really doesn't like the church at all but we had a good 20 min conversation on his doorstep. He believes that it wasn't fair that Jesus had to pay for his sins, but that he should have to pay for them instead. We told him that wasn't necessary. I think we're going to share with him D&C 19 and also about Saul (before he became Paul) that might help him out. We visit a lot with two other ex-navy/army guys as well! They are kind of hardened though from all of the experiences they've had in war. They've said they just don't think they can be forgiven for the people they have killed; they can though because it's not a sin to kill when you are fighting for freedom and liberty. They need to read the war chapters in Alma! One of the ex-navy guys is named Bert Smith. He kept flaking on us this week and telling us he was sick. He finally let us in for a few minutes pm Saturday, and we will be stopping by to teach him this week. His voice sounds like he's been a smoker his whole life, but nonetheless he is a very nice guy with a huge great dane dog!

The other navy guy is Richard Kruelisky. I don't even know where to start. He kind of scares the b-jeebers out of me because he is so nit picky and cynical. He will make fun of you and even punch you. The first day he made fun of my tie because I guess it was crooked. It certainly doesn't help that I'm serving a mission close to home either! He's just teasing though. He has PTSD and was abused growing up. That's why he is so hardened. He's also fun to talk to at the same time. It's weird. He's like my dog Kako--I hate him, but at the same time I love him! Richard looks like the guy on Hot Rod that Rod tries to save so he can beat him up!!!! No joke!!! He acts just like him. His wife is a stalwart member of the church though and keeps him grounded sort of. Yesterday I was putting up this awesome BYU flag for Richard's kids in his room and he was making fun of me the whole time because I was under a lot of pressure with him staring at me! He is also kind at times because he steamed my tie that had wrinkles on it. I hope Richard will let us teach him someday. He needs the gospel more than anything! Please pray for him, he needs all the prayers he can get!

Here in Utah, it's hard to work these sorts of people that think they've got it all figured out and know everything about Mormons. We have another investigator named Teagan who's kind of a punk kid, but we commited him to be baptized and go to church with us. His brother got baptized and says he kind of regrets it, but after we spoke to them about the afterlife he softened up a little. We're taking them to the Payson temple open house this week! We're also taking another family to the open house, Marcelo and his family, this week who just got ordained to the Aaronic preisthood this week!

On Wednesay after ZTM I got kind of discouraged for some reason. I didn't want to be on the mission at all and was being a poophead. But in the car we played a fun game where you mention a movie, and then you have to try to think of a movie that starts with what the last movie ended with. Elder Fenton (my trainer), told be that he felt prompted to play that game so I would be happy. It worked! By small and simple things are great things brought to pass! 

We also have been working with a newly activated family, the Waltons. Trevor --the Dad-is an awesome guy and has taught me to be a master at ping pong. I freaking love Ping pong! I hope I get called to Korea like my dad when i get my next mission call so I can keep playing ping pong. The Walton's fed us an amazing steak garganzola dinner on Friday--seriously the best meal I have ever had!! (sorry Mom). It's basically a tenderloin marinade with alfredo sauce and fettucine noodles! I'm craving a bite of that right now, and actually the Walton's just barely gave us another steak to cook and I am about to eat some in a few minutes!! We got fed steak twice last week and ribs twice! I haven't gained a pound though because I do 50 pushups everymorning and I do situps. 

It was really rainy last week, but the thunder was way cool while we were at the Payson open house with the Stacey Family. Mark Stacey is about 50 years old and he has really bad anxiety. Until recently, he hadn't been out of a single room for over a year. He also has recovered from cancer recently! They are going to be sealed hopefully soon, but they need to get sundays off and start going to church. 

I am adjusting pretty well to the mission. Most days I want to just go back to bed because i feel like a zombie! elder s likes to sleep with his fan on full blast and so I don't get any sleep! But he leaves in a couple of days and so we won't be in a trio anymore! My faith keeps me out of bed though. 

Well sorry for the long letter. I get carried away sometimes!

Love,

Elder Soutas

Many to teach

Hola Familia y amigos,

By now I am pretty sick of writing emails. It's been a pretty good week here in Eagle Mountain. The area is finally starting to boom! On monday and tuesday we wasted a bunch of time because Elder Smith was saying his final good-byes to everyone! it was really emotional.

We had zone conference this week, as well as district meeting. we picked up a few investigators and a bunch of referrals. I'm not going to go too much into detail this week. 

So yesterday I got stricken with the flu! 

I'm just going to copy and paste Sent from my iPad

S-nonmember. His kids go to young womens and stuff but they have a lot of questions about the church. We taught them a lot of principles of the gospel, ad we are going to be meeting with them every week to talk religion sort of informally. 

T--we were going to take him and his brother G and their mom to the temple open house this week but G got a tooth infection

G 

Brother J--He's inactive. Very nice guy. We helped him lay some sod in his front yard and after he showed us his awesome knife collection. He let us barrow some overalls to cover our church clothes as we layed the sod. He just moved from Emery county. They gave us a cake and a thank you card for helping them. 

T--We are trying to get him and his sister to take family names to the temple. We went over there on friday to show them how to do family history

C

I -We have a baptism scheduled for him this Saturday. They are very timid/shy people and are worried about doing the confirmation in front of everyone since it is a convert baptism. I is 10 years old. 

M--New member. Probably my favorite person we talk to. He and his wife are from Brazil. We tried to take them to the temple open house this week but he is training to be a chef at Squatters in Park City (we've been there!) I hope he doesn't have to work sundays. we need him to get ordained to the melchezidek preisthood. beautiful family. 

D--teaching the 9 year old son who has severe ADHD. taught him the restoration and book of mormon lesson. 

Bt --   He wants to come golfing with us on P-day too since it's only 8 bucks at Talon's Cove! 

M and I--I is in denial about repenting for living with Mbefore they were married. Gave them a blessing since she has bad health. 

B--they are going to the temple end of June. Teaching them the temple lessons. 

The C--are taking them to the temple open house tomorrow! Are inactive

The F--recently moved from Riverton. 2 daughters are being baptized in Riverton and so we will teach them the new member lessons. Their step dad is inactive as well as their mom. Their dad back in riverton is very activce though. 

K--we are making progress  We help at her farm a lot. We'll teach them soon I'm sure.

T-inactive family. We are teaching them this wednesday! 

M -. Likes to grow chili peppers in his yard. 

T -  17 year old nonmember. He canceled on us yesterday though. 

R-didn't meet with them this week. He scares me. 

I am getting an ipad this week and so ill send the photos from last week then. 

Elder Soutas