Teaching and Learning

Re-enacting the Sermon on The Mount

Hi mother!

It's been a great week! I may not have the time to send a super great email this week since the zone leaders here are heckling us to hurry up. Email time is precious time for me.  i'll get as much in as I can. 

Good luck with the 21 day challenge. I am really excited to see how it goes. I've invited like over 30 families to do it on my mission. I don't know if any results have come of it yet since it hadn't ended before I left Springfield. 

I seriously love the Julie B. Beck talk. Our zone conference this week focused a lot on how we need to talk about eternal life more and not just baptism. What's the point of being baptized without eternal life? Not much of an incentive for people. Eternal life is cool. 

At zone conference I also played the piano, Armie's of Helaman. I was going to play "This is The Christ" but it was too difficult and I hadn't had enough time to practice. I just accompanied another Elder kind of last minute. I made up some of the chords and stuff.

This week was really good.

We actually had to drop Kathy though. She has an anti-mormon neighbor and we got the cops called on us because she accused us of going in there uninvitied, and told the cops that on the phone while lying to our faces. I got really flustered, but i learned from that for sure. So, we are no longer teaching Kathy because she doesn't want to cause any problems. Her neighbor is kind of her caretaker. It's a longer story. Remind me to tell you next week, because I'm being rushed again this week!

I learned a lot this week. Mostly how I have been really selfish and i have a lot to improve on. 

We did get our investigator named Isaiah to church though and he seemed to enjoy it. 

We also picked up Nicole who i mentioned last week. She is super open minded and is willing to read the book of mormon 

Sorry this week's email kind of stinks. I would write much much more if I could, but we are at the mercy of the zone leaders (no car and such). 

I love you!! I'm doing pretty good! Tell Ben and Jordan to write me about their missions and give me some advice or something. I could use it. i just kind of feel that I am not getting enough out of my mission as I would hope. I'm hanging in there though. 

Have an excellent week!

I'm really glad to see how awesome the family is doing.

P.s. I heard back fromt he Uhe's and they are trying to decide if they want to be sealed in the salt lake temple or the saint louis temple! excited for them!

First Week in Columbia MO and teaching Heber C Kimball's granddaughter

My first week here in Columbia has been pretty good. It has been a bit of adjustment to not having a car and riding bikes and walking, but I actually like the amount of excercise we get. On average we have been walking 8 or more miles per day which is good for my mind and body, plus we don't have to do car inspections for zone conference!

It has also been a little bit  rough adjusting to the bus schedule. Planning around that appears to be difficult, and quite a bit of time gets wasted waiting for the bus which makes me agitated. But I like the area and the ward members a lot. We have excellent ward misionaries and ward mission leader. They always makes sure that we have people to come to our appointments which is really nice because none of our other ward mission leaders ever did that. The ward council seems to be pretty on the ball with missionary work. We just need to find more people to teach.

One person we did find though was a lady named Kathy, who is the great-great (either that or great-great-great) granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball! She proved it to us with her geneology book she has. We found her just walking up the street last thursday, and she has a baptismal date for July 9th. Her father fell away from the church and grew up Methodist though she lived in salt lake city for 20 years. She has a smoking problem and has no teeth , but other than that she already believes the book of mormon is true and joseph smith to be a prophet before we even taught her! Really cool. We are meeting with her again today. 

I found an article called "A Great Work Was Done in That Land" that I am going to share with her after I read it. It talks all about Heber C. Kimball's mission to England with Orson Hyde and how thousands were converted. 

Columbia is pretty awesome! It is not even summer yet (not until end of June) and it is already super humid. Yesterday we played soccer and I had to lay down int he shade for a while because of heat exhaustion. Unfortunately the shade doesn't do a whole lot! 

The place is also a little bit more hilly which is pleasing to the eye, not so much for the legs! I am a little sore. I do enjoy going down hills though. That's one good thing about hills but of course there is opposition in life and so once you go down, on the way back you must go up. I look ridiculous wearing my glasses and this funny outfit on a bike as well. We do a lot of walking too. Elder Russon has a Fitbit and so it keeps track of how many steps we take/how many miles we go/calories we burn. We have been going 8-10 miles a day on foot.

This week I was reading a a cool talk called "The Challening and Testifying Missionary" by Alvin D. Dyer, who was an assistant to the council of the twelve clear back in 1961! 

I wish I could send you some quotes from it, 

so i will have to paraphrase, but he said a lot of great things that I think he is right about when it comes to missionary work.

The talk is all about teaching by the spirit and using the talent the lords has given us. He explains that the talent the Lord has given us is to challenge people to repent and be baptized and to testify of the truths of the gospel. He explains that missionaries "hide the talent which [the Lord] has given to them" and instead they just expect that teaching the gospel and indoctrinating people will bring people into the church. But people who become indoctrinated will more than likely fall away because they don't have a spiritual witness! He explains that the cause for there being less people baptized into the church, for one, has to do with missionaries not challenging people to baptism enough! When I heard that the new key indicator would be the amount of people being challenged to baptism I was really excited because it confirmed to me that what I had read days before was true! Elder Dyer says that there should not be a day go by that we don't invite somebody to baptism, and that if he were to be a young missionary again, he would invite every person he talked to. Now of course that is way easier said than done. It can be awkward inviting people to baptism that you just met on the street.

The other thing that I thought Elder Dyer brought up a good point is that missionaries DO NOT TESTIFY ENOUGH! They are good at just "teaching", just rehearsing the doctrines of the lessons, but when they just do that the spirit cannot testify to them. Also, as soon as we see those we teach feel the spirit, then is the time we need to invite them to be baptized, and they should be baptized very soon until they loose the feeling of that manifestation! I feel like what I need and what every missionary in this mission needs is to become the challenging and testifying missionary as Elder Dyer described. 

I am curious about your thoughts on this, and I would highly recommend reading his talk. It's not on lds.org I don't think. I got it from Elder McMullan. I am not sure where he got it. 

Do you remember the time the missionaries did the 21 DAY PROMISE with us. Well, I would like to extend that same challenge to all of you are willing to do it. 

Create a list of nonmember and less active people. Hold a fast. 

Pray for them individually every morning and night individually and collectively.

By the end of the 21 days someone on your list will be willing to hear from the missionaries IF you do your part and reach out to these people and share your testimony with them. Sharing your testimony with them will be the key so they can feel the spirit. 

What do you all say? Will you do it. I have actually been doing this with several families in the past two areas I have been serving. 

I learned some good things I learned from a really good talk by Julie B. Beck about "Teaching the Doctrine of the Family." It talks all about the centralitiy of the Family to the plan of salvation. Really, that is the whole purpose of the plan, so that not just ourselves can be exalted but in families. I learned from that talk which I HIGHLY RECCOMEND that the rising generation and I'm sure even some of the older generation does not understand full the doctrine of the family. 

When the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph smith he repeated the scripture from Malachi multiple times because it was obviously really important. 

"I will reveal unto you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers....were it not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming."

The hebrew word in the verse for "turn" actually signifies "bind, or seal together." So the Book of Mormon does indeed teach eternal families (see 3 Nephi 25). In fact, each of the standard works has that verse in some fashion. 

Sister Beck explains that "the fathers" mentioned in the book are Adam, Noah, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." These are the fathers we are to turn to. The children is obviously us, and all who are the seed of abraham, because through him "all the nations of the earth would be blessed." In Abraham 1, it explains that Abraham needed to find a new place of residence and that there was greater happiness for him to "move out of the house." The greater happiness was not just moving out of the house and delaying marriage, but looking to start an ETERNAL family. It says in verse 2 that he "sought for the blessings of THE FATHERS, to be A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS. Who were Abraham's father's: Adam, Noah, Seth,etc. In other words, eternal families has been a thing SINCE THE BEGINNING. 

As we can see, Abraham understood his purpose in forming an eternal family. And of course he married Sarai. Eventually after many years this couple was blessed with a child named Isaac. Isaac eventually needed to look for a wife too and so they sent a servant to fetch Rebekah. Rebekah wasn't just any woman, she was a woman who understood the doctrine of eternal families.

"The story of Isaac and Rebekah is pivotal. Everything depended upon a man and a woman who understood their place in the plan and their responsibilities to form an eternaly family, to bear children, and to teach them."

She left everything she had and left immediately to be wed to Isaac. Later in Gen 2 we read of her understanding of families in verse 46 where she is troubled because of her 2 sons, 1 of them sold his birthright and  married OUTSIDE of the covenant (see Gen 26:34). Her hopes of an eternal family was now dependent on Jacob marrying INSIDE of the covenant. She says: I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife of the daugthers of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do to me

? Luckily Jacob married a "beautiful and well-favoured" woman (Gen 29:17). Not to mention he had Leah as a wife before Rachel because Laban tricked him. Jacob and Leah also had many kids together and also Bilhah and Zilpah-> before Rachel which is how we have some of the 12 tribes of israel of course. Rachel eventually bore Joseph! Yay Joseph! I am amazed at how incredibly patient she had to be before she could have her own. She also was envious which goes along well with this month's charity topic: envieth not. 

So having posterity was obviously really important. It also shows that plural marriage doesn't have to be all that hard to explain to people when they make fun of Mormons for practiving polygamy in the past. But most of all, I love these stories because it shows how in order for them to obtain the blessings of abraham which are to have eternal increase, they needed to marry inside the covenant. 

"In a lot of ways [The Rising Generation] is similar to Abraham. They are living in a land that is full of idolatry and wickedness, and they need to mentally take themselves out of that land into the land where the Lord can bless them to receive the covenants." They also need to understand what the whole purpose of life is: to raise an eternal family and to make and keep sacred covenants to qualify for eternal life. And thank Jesus Christ who makes all of this possible! I know that this doctrine of the family is true! I hope we all remember to emphasize the importance of this in all that we are doing. "The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children." (Read the Family Proclamation to the World)

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/03/teaching-the-doctrine-of-the-family?lang=eng : Teaching the Doctrine of the Family by Julie B. Beck

https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng : The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Rebekah at the well                                                        Adam and Eve 

Thanks for taking the time to read this last part, because it is really important.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Soutas

Hump Day and new transfer saying good bye

Elder Soutas and Elder Hayes with the Uhe's

He will miss them so much

Will this suitcase last 1 more year??

Not sure what the mask means?

Hello family!

Bro Burshears is a fine, mellow gentlemen who hopefully will be getting to the temple soon. He also drives a wicked Dodge Challenger that's won multiple car show contests. my moustache is crooked. of course.

 bro West deserves plenty of pats on the back. He helps people and us out a lot


Thank you for sending me all of the hump day stuff! I ate all of the jerky already. So did Elder Hayes. I don't blame him. It was really good stuff! I also went to Mcdonalds today and bought a smoothie like dad always used to do for us whenever we go there. I thought that was pretty clever with the whole mcdonalds. I'd say you are genius Mom, but I guess that you probably got that idea off pinterest. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 This week has been another good one! They always are. Had some pretty cool experiences.
 On Sunday Messan came to our ward this time! Before the meeting started he became reaquainted with someone in the ward that he knew from working at the hospital--Brother Maughan. Turns out they talked a lot while Bro Maughan worked in the surgery department. They both can talk to each other in French because he went on his mission to Belgium! Sounds like it is meant to be to have Messan in the ward. Hopefully he gets baptized.

 I am getting transferred to Colombia, MO in the Highalnads area! It sounds like it will be a biking area. I am not sure if I will have to buy a bike yet or not. No one has told me anything yet, so we will see. I have bittersweet feelings about leaving. I am sad to leave a lot of great people like the Uhes of course, and the G.C.s, and a bunch of other great members. I am also excited to be senior companion with Elder Russon who was in my district here only 2 transfers ago! Wish me luck on being a senior comp. I've been pretty comfy being a juco, but it looks like i'll be getting out of my comfort zone a bit.

 This week we had a tough time getting lessons. A lot of rescheduling and cancellations. But we did meet with a guy named Kyle who is southern baptist. You can only imagine how that went. I may have been a little too sharp with him because he kept saying how there was no need for prophets :)
 he let us come back though and after I was done talking he didn't argue anymore.
 We also talked to a guy named Dre who has some very strange beliefs to say the least. He believes that we all become part of the universe or something after we die. I didn't really get it.
 We also had a good lesson with Kevin, who is a worker at our apartment complex that we see all the time. He is a really nice guy. He didn't come to church this week because he went fishing. But he promised on next week. He is one of those people who may end up being a "surprise baptism." You never know with people. Last night we also talked to some people that waved us down to come talk to them. We had a conversation on their porch for about an hour and we have two return appointments set. Brother wEst was with us. It was pretty cool.

 Sunday was kind of tough having to say goodbye to everyone. I was sad to have to say "see ya later" to the Uhes. That morning I studied a talk from last conference by Elder Renlund which says that "we can only love and serve Heavenly Father's children [effectively] when we see them through a parent's eyes, Heavenly Father's eyes." I felt maybe the way a parent may feel towards their children when they have to ship them off to college or missions. I started to weep uncontrollably after they left the church building. Such a baby. I'll put a good word in with President Morgan for the new mission president so I can attend their sealing next year at the temple before I leave. That would be great! Plus I may get to visit them when they come skiing at Deer Valley some day! That would be so sweet! I miss skiing.

 Well I better get going! Thank you for all of your prayers for me and the people we have been teaching! I've seen a lot of great things happen here in Springfield. I've learned so much and The Savior has helped me so much especially through all of my inadequacies! I have also come to LOVE to study the scriptures and trying to understand them

 Love you all!

 -Elder Soutas

You will be half way to Kansas City and we will be there in July when we move Jordan there!

I thought of that! Don't get too close to me so I don't get trunky! 

From Mom:

This letter made me cry thinking of leaving the Uhe family too.   Now I'm googling Columbia MO to find out what I can.

The Lord will be with you Elder Soutas. I can promise you that   You've had an amazing time in Springfield and I hope to back there with you someday.  ❤️❤️❤️😊

From Ty: LOVE YOU Got2go. 😘 

Peace from the Savior

Elder Soutas and Elder Hayes - Abraham Lincoln Museum in Sprinfield

Celebrating Elder Hayes' birthday

Sis Uhe sent me some pix :)  Greeting Springfield 2nd Ward

At church

Gospel Principles Class With Sister Magali G-C

The Uhe's are so fantastic! It was so awesome yesterday to do the sacrament with Rob and Roger. Rob blessed the sacrament for the first time like it was nothing. Then he got to administer the trays to his own son. That was really great to see. I am so proud of them. They way I feel is almost like I might when I have my own children. 

Besides the Uhes, we had a great couple of evenings with our investigator from Togo named Messan. He came to the G.C.s for dinner and Sister G.C. and her daughter came to his place the following morning. We thought he wasn't going to show up for dinner because he arrived 45 minutes late! We had to jet pretty quick after he got there. The next day Sister G.C. was kind of upset that we didn't wait to start eating until he showed up. Apparently in his culture, time is a lot more laid back, and after we left Messan expressed that he was upset about how we are always looking to go from one thing to the next. He doesn't like the business of the american culture because it seems like people don't show that they care as much when they are just looking to go from one thing to the next.

Anyways, we invited him to pray about a baptismal date for June 11. He said he would think about it. His wife and kids are in Togo and so he wants to be sure. He came to church yesterday in the first ward with President G.C. and it sounds like he enjoyed it.  We have our fingers crossed for him because he would be an amazing member!

We have a very diverse teaching pool right now which includes 8 black people, 2 Muslims, and Kevin. He's white.   I think it is great since there is no active black people in the 2nd ward right now and the ward could use some diversity.

We ran into a lady named Brittany at the bus stop on Tuesday. We taught her twice this week and invited her to baptism. She said yes, although she didn't make it to church this sunday like she said she would for whatever reason. 

We found an awesome black family of 4 yesterday which we hope to start teaching this week! Kenny, Lovely, Shonika, and the dad. 

Do I really even need to mention their skin color? If they were all white I wouldn't even think to do that. The names usually give it away anyways. 

The Washington family of 6 is doing pretty good. They watched the Resto DVD we gave them and thought it was kind of wierd though. They had a lot of questions, especially the oldest daughter Celena. They loved 3 Nephi 11 though. They are keeping commitments so far and are willing to read the book of mormon which is a miracle since at the start their mom was pretty adament about teaching them strictly from the bible and nothing else. The mom didn't sit in this time for whatever reason. We need to invite them to baptism though and teach them to pray other than saying the vain repititious Lord's prayer. We also need to convince them that it's okay to say amen. I mean, Jesus says it in the Lord's prayer. It's just kind of an unusual situation and we are not sure how to handle that yet. 

Unfortunately we had to drop Waleska even though she came to church with her dad this week and loved it as always. Her mom isn't too happy about us teaching her anymore. We had a great talk with Brother Nunez though (Waleska's Dad) while the power went out. I thought to share from Luke 19 about Zaccheaus which Mom sent to me once in a letter. It seemed to help. Bro Nunez says he doesn't come to church as much because since he moved from the Dominican Republic it just hasn't been the same. At church though, people were being friendly to him. Even Brother Mendenhall talked to him about going to Nauvoo with him which made me happy. Brother Nunez is such a great guy and I hope we can help him become active again like he was when he was a missionary in  the Dominican and lived there. 

I am so grateful for the peace that the savior gives each one of us. Living the gospel faithfully brings a lot of happiness, yet when when we start to doubt what we believe to be true then we are miserable. I really felt that this week, but whenever I pray, sooner or later I regain peace. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Happy Birthday Jordan! 

Love,

Elder Soutas

Mother's day call and charity

The district  Springfield Illinois

Hello people!

It was so fun hearing from you and kind of seeing you last night! The connection was pretty horrible but at least I got to "kind of see you guys." Being at the Uhe's house was really fun! I'm glad you all got to meet them "kind of." They are so amazing!

This week was really good. We found 10 new investigators! It sounds so much better than it actually is, but it's still great!

I apologize in advance for all of my typos. I am in a rush. 

We met a family of 6. I think they are a "family." Not sure if the "parents" are married but they all go by the same last name even though not all of the kids were born to the same father. There is R'Marion, R'Mahd, Rayne, Selina, Dee, and Jayson the parents. They are really cool. They consider themselves Israelites. They don't belong to any religion they "just follow the bible." You can only imagine what it is like teaching people who tell you from the get-go that they only teach from the Bible. It's kind of hard to introduce the Book of Mormon when they are so strict about it, but we somehow managed to ease our way into it and they each now have their own copy of the book of mormon and are pretty eager to read it. The mother, Dee, also has a lot of biblical knowledge, whether it's false or not, and she interrupted the discussion shouting out random bible verses. She also had a problem with the first vision because the bible says in john 5 that "no man at any time has seen god or heard his voice" or something like. I showed that her interpretation of that was false by showing her the mount transfiguration where they all "heard the voice of the father saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This family also recites the lord's prayer as they face the east, they don't say amen because there apprently is  false god in the bible named amen-ra. they don't eat pork, and they do the sabbath of saturdays. So a lot of obstacles to overcome but they are awesome. R'Marion who is 13 and really chill talked about the NBA and college basketball with me a little before we left. The family is really nice and strange. It was way cool to see how after we bore testimony about the savior and the book of mormon how the mood in the room changed and how all of a sudden they went from trying to prove us wrong with their bible knowledge to each of them wanting a copy of the book of mormon of their own. 

A lot more happened this week but I am just out of time to go into detail. Besides, Grandpa Bob says I "write the longest emails in the world!"

I've been working on developing christ like attributes. The best way to develop attributes is conscientiously and incidentally, not accidentally. Goals and stuff need to be made is what I mean. In preach my gospel there is a chapter about christlike attributes. So what do you think the most important christlike attribute would be?

I would have to say charity is. And if I don't develop any of the other attributes I might as well try to develop the most important one which pretty much encompasses everything else.  And so I have about a year left of my mission, and the greatest thing I would like to posess and help other people possess is charity. So I had an idea this morning that for each month I would focus on one aspect of charity starting next monday (because I won't be able to print some of these things off until next monday) 

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and enviethnot, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endurethforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

 48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are truefollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

Now let's break charity down into it's purest forms:

I have listed talks you can find on lds.org that go with each of the parts of the scripture. These are suggestions you could use as you choose to study charity with me:

MAY 2016: Suffereth Long and is Kind--"The Need for Greater Kindness" by Gordon B. Hinckley

JUNE: Envieth not--"Stripped of Envy" Ensign March 1999

JULY: is not puffed up and seeketh not her own--"Charity Vaunteth Not Itself, Is Not Puffed Up" Ensign March 1988

AUGUST: not easily provoked--"Slow to Anger" by Gordon B. Hinckley; "Instruments of the Lord's Peace" Ensign May 2006

SEPTEMBER: thinketh no evil--"Charity Thinketh No Evil" Ensign Aug 1988

OCTOBER: rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth--"My Soul Delighteth in the Things of the Lord" BYU Speeches; Charity Rejoiceth NOt in Iniquity, but Rejoiceth in the Truth" Engsign Oct 1988

NOVEMBER: beareth all things--"Behold Thy Mother" Jeffery R. Holland

DECEMBER: believeth all things, hopeth all things--"Believe All Things" Ensign July 2005; "The Infinite Power of Hope" by Deiter F. Uchtdorf

JANUARY: endureth all things--"He Will Place You Upon His Shoulders and Carry You Home"  by Deiter F. Uchtdorf

FEBRUARY: ye have not charity ye are nothing--"The Fourth Missionary" (ask me who the author is because I'm not sure off the top of my head)

MARCH: Charity is the Pure Love of Christ--"Charity: Perfect and Everlasting Love" by Gene R. Cook

APRIL: Pray with all the energy of heart for this love--"Pray Always" by David A. Bednar

MAY 2017 : We Shall be like him--"The Atonement: All for All" by Bruce C. Hafen

 I am inviting each of you to do this with me because honestly I need help developing charity and it can be like a team effort if we all do it together! What do you all think? Who would like to do it with me?! Who's in?

I love you all! Hope you all have a good week. I know the Savior Lives and will always deliver us if we plead for his strength.

Have a great week!

Elder Soutas

I also forgot to mention we are now teaching a man from Togo named Messan, who the sisters were teaching. Sister G.C. who speaks fluent french came so he could communicate in his own native tongue. She talked the ENTIRE time. We love sis G.C. though.  He said an awesome prayer in French, and in the prayer he said "the words of Alma really inspired me, and please lead the missionaries to those looking for the truth" (because we read alma 32 with him in his french book of mormon). 

Ask Seek Knock

Good morning family!

Sounds like you all had a pretty hectic week with job changes, trips to New York and Chicago, to Jordan's graduation from BYU....I bet you are all ready to take it easy--at least until the baby comes!

Have they decided on a name yet? Actually don't tell me until it's born or it will spoil the surprise! 

I didn't get to hear about Brycen or Jenessa. What's up with them? And when is Jenessa going to Dominican Republic? because we are teaching a less active member from there. 

A lot of things happened this week

Audrey: So apparently she didn't have a good first experience at chuch. She thought it was too irreverant and that she couldn't feel the spirit because of the kids. She thinks they should be put in a daycare. We are still meeting her tomorrow, but her interest level to get baptized went down quite a bit. We weren't able to meet with her last week because she was sick she said. I don't think she was as sick as she made it sound. We are bringing brother Ayoroa tomorrow so hopefully we can resolve her concern. Irreverance is definitely a problem in the church, but there's not a lot you can do about noisy kids

Netty, Lechi, and Michael: : Met with them saturday. Michael who is 13 is very receptive to the spirit. He loves the first vision, and reminded his Dad after the first vision that they had a Restoration DVD that they watched 2 times together a while back when they livedi n Chicago! His father didn't remember that happening. Netty likes to overthink things a lot. Whenever we would share a restoration scripture like Ephesians 4:11-14 about apostles, he would try to redefine what an apostle is and stuff and just overcomplicate things. We didn't get to talk to the wife because she was sick with her baby or something. She seems more receptive than Netty though. Hopefully we will get to meet them again this week, because Netty is flying back home to Africa for like a month. That would be cool if he would let him teach them while he is gone, but we're not sure how he'd feel about that being the man of the house. 

Peggy Gr: Some weird things are happening with her. We started teaching her Tuesday and she has some form of autism. She can understand some things, but others she can't quite grasp like when we asked her 'from what we explained, why is the priesthood important?" We showed her a picture of Moses holding the tablets and so she answered "because Moses held the stone tablets so when Jesus wrote the commandments on them they wouldn't fall down." That was pretty funny. She also shows glimpses of promise like she remembered the date when the Angel Moroni came to Joseph Smith, and she actually reads what we tell her to. She came to stake conference yesterday. She said that she feels like she should come to our church instead of her other baptist church because she feels like commiting suicide at her other church but not at ours. Her mother recently passed away where there was some controversary about how she actually died. Then , like hours later she texted us that "we believe in a different Jesus," which we found out her sister told her. And now she is texting us that she wants us to come by tonight instead of tomorrow morning. It's all so confusing. Also, I've heard lots of missionaries say about particular people that they aren't accountable to teach. Sometimes we feel like she is, and other times we don't. We'll see how it goes. She LOVES JESUS though. She told us of an experience of how she and her dog had the last supper together! She blessed bread and fruit punch instead of water/wine. Keep in mind that she has autism. What is the church's policy on people being "accountable?" People who are born under the covenant who would be considered "unaccountable" are baptized so can't people who aren't as well? How accountable to they have to be I guesss is what I am asking. 

Waleska: we had a cool lesson with her. Though her mother is Catholic and her father is less active, she loves the primary songs of the church! She knows how to play "Book of mormon stories" and "follow the prophet." So we had an idea to have her play those two songs since they fit in the restoration lesson! next time when we teach her the plan of salvation, we asked her to learn "I lived in Heaven" and 'Did Jesus Really Live Again." She also reads a lot and wants to read 4 chapters of the book of mormon at age 8 (she will be 9 next month). The only problem is that her mother doesn't want her to be baptized until she is 18 and so we will see how long we end up teaching her. We are going to focus more on the dad being more active which were help her chances of being baptized earlier. Waleska really loves us and gave us hugs. She is a sweetheart and wants to be baptized. 

This week we also had a ZLT where I got to play a musical number with a Sister Day. It was a Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief and I had only 2 days to get it down! Though I didn't play it perfectly, I felt the spirit in my hands helping me or something. IT was cool. I also realized some things in my patriarchal blessing that had to do with that as well which I won't repeat of course. Those who have been able to read it may know what I am talking about. 

Also this week worth mentioning, we talked to a less active named Andrew. he is about 55 and hasn't been to church in a long long time. He is a returned missionary and went to BYU. We also found out that he is the nephew of Bonnie L. Oscarson. He didn't even know that she was a general authority. He talked to us about how he got really depressed on his mission and it got progressively worse after when his parents split up. His grandparents were the st.louis temple president and matron at some point. he ended up getting into anti mormon material and felt like the church handled some things the wrong way. he felt like the church tried hiding things from its members and the general public. I'm not sure about all of that. It's really weird though because he said that he likes the cultural aspect of the church and is considering maybe coming back. He tried explainig how hard it is form him to believe the book of mormon is true because he says there is no evidence supporting it. (not true). Elder hayes showed me a cool book called "The book of Mormon on Trial" by some author. IT's like in comic form and I looked through it a little bit because it examines the book of mormon like a court case and debunks all of the lies and theories. Some of you might like to read it. i don't have time to really. i wish I did.  Andrew needs to read his aunt's talk from general conference! i felt really bad for him. He is a really nice guy and I have hope for him. 

This week I've been studying up on the Holy Ghost. Elder Bednar is an expert on that topic. 

First I read about "What is the Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion" and then Receiving, Recognizing, and Responding to the Holy Ghost." 

Some great quotes:

"The holy ghost is soft and subdued like the pitch of a tuning fork.The holy ghost is constant, steady, and sure. It is not brash like the crashing of brass cymbals. These delicate, refined spiritual communications are not seen with our eyes or heard with our ears. And even though it is described as a voice, it is a voice that one feels more than one hears...it whispers...it carresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all...You and I MUST TUNE THE STRINGS OF OUR SOULS TO THE STANDARD OF THE HOLY GHOST." David A. Bednar

"I have learned that strong, impressive spiritual experiences do not come to us very frequently. And when they do they are generally for our own edification, instruction or correction..I have come to believe that it is not wise to continually talk of unusual spiritual experiences. They are to be guarded with care and shared only when the spirit itself prompts us to use them to the blessing of others."--BOYD K PACKER

"There are many who question the strength of their own testimony and spiritual capacity. If you have similar thoughts or doubts, please know that you are normal and everything is okay...People who have pround spiritual experiences do not talk about them, except in the rarest of circumstances......you simple, faithful obedience and dedication are the surest indicators of your spiritual capacity. Just keep moving forward with faith in the savior, and you will be fine." DAVID A BEDNAR

"Now brothers and sisters, there are many deceptive and counterfeit tones that imitate the true sound and standard of the tuning fork. For example, I wonder if we sometimes too easily mistake personal sentiment and spiritual sensationalsim for the promptings of the holy ghost. If we are not careful and discernign, we may mistakenly follow a false sound that will lead us astray."

"For nothing is greater injury to the children of men than to be under the influecne of a false spirit when they think they have the spirit of God." -JOSEPH SMITH

3 principles to guide us to RECEIVE, RECOGNIZE, and RESPOND to the holy ghost. The 3 Rs:

1. We must desire the companionship of the holy ghost

      this should be what we most desire when we pray.

   (read 3 Nephi 19:9)

2. We must invite the companionship of the holy ghost.

    we do this by:

Making and KEEPING covenants

 SINCERE prayer

 SINCERE scripture study, 

SINCERE worship at home and church

VIRTUOUS thoughts actions, language, dress, etc.

I have heard many people say that it's okay to just follow the spirit of the law and ignore the letter of the law . I think there is a misinterpretation of what living the spirit of the law is. (this is me speaking)

"Please do not believe the falsehood that somehow you and I can 'live the spirit of the law, even when we are in violation of its letter.' The small things really do matter when it comes to personal worthiness and inviting the holy ghost into our lives...even matter that are considered relatively small deviations will seriously affect your capacity to be led by the spirit." -M. RUSSEL BALLARD

To me, folowing the spirit of the law means that you also keep the letter of the law. You strive to be exactly obedient but you realize why you are doing so. You can't follow just one or the other. 

The spirit of the law is the 'why' of the gospel. For example "why do we keep the law of chastity?" The letter of the law is the 'what' of the gospel. For example "What is faith?" Elder Quentin L. Cook said about understanding 'The Spirit' of God's commandments. "Doctrine usually answers the question 'why?' principles usually answer the question 'what.' Whenever we emphasize how to do something, we risk looking beyond the mark. At the very least, we fall into the trap Paul described to the Corinthians (2 Cor 3) 'for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life

3. we must heed simple promptings quickly

"We are prompted everyday...to do simple and ordinary things. To the degree that we heed these simple promptings, then our capacity to recognize and respond to the holy ghost is increased...We are either progressing or regressing in our ability to recognize and respond to the holy ghost. There is no neutral ground or standing still......We cannot realistically expect to recognize 'big' promptings if we consistently fail to heed 'small' promptings. The lord's pattern is to teach us 'line upon lin, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little (2 ne 28;30). Thus, revelation from our heavenly father comes most frequently in small increments, and like all knowledge, is granted according to our preparation. Misguided attempts to get spiritually supercharged throgh unusually long prayers, lengthy and unwise fasting, and intensiveshort-term temple attendnace certainly are no substitute for gradual, consistent, and conscientious attention to the promptings of the holy ghost."

"The church of Jesus Chris is the 'only ture and living church upon the face of the whole earth. it is the holy ghost and its attendant spiritual gifts that make this church living. And may each of us bgecome a living member of this church by living in such a way that the holy ghost can be our constant companion."

As I studied this, I realized the meaning of the scripture in Matt 7:7 

Ask, and ye shall, receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you

This scripture goes hand in hand with the 3 principles Elder Bednar shared. 

1. Desiring to revceive the holy ghost. How? Through Prayer (ASK)

2. living in such a way to invite the holy ghost to be in our lives (SEEK)

3/ We must quickly obey promptings (KNOCK)

ASK   SEEK   KNOCK

I know that asking, seeking, and knocking are the keys to cultivating the gift of the holy ghost. I have seen that as we do our best to follow the promptings the holy ghost and to show God that we treasure them above many other things, that our love for Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost will increase. 

Have a great week! Thanks for enduring through this long letter!

ELDER SOUTAS

Elder Hayes and many contacts this week

Hey everybody

This week was pretty awesome! I got a new companion named Elder Hayes. He is 3/4 Mexican and Puertorican and he speaks fluent Spanish. On his very first day in the area we contacted a media referral we received last Saturday,and it was perfect because she speaks spanish.. But we set a return appointment for the next day, brought Brother Ayoroa with us who is from Bolivia, and invited her (Audrey) to be baptized! The lesson was really good. She started to tear up a little bit after we invited her. Her brother lives in Champaigne, IL and is getting baptized soon, and much of the family is already baptized. Audrey is a very kind woman. After we taught her the first lesson, she was so kind and said that she prepared some food for us. She made an amazing tasting blackbean burger or something. It tastes like it is made of meat but it has none! It was so good. 

The timing of us meeting Audrey was so amazing. She explained to us that she has been wanting to understand why her family is all of sudden becoming Mormon. She sees they are happy and so she decided to google 'Mormons'. It led her to a webiste (probably Mormon.org) and then she got to reading, was interested, and so she referred herself, requesting for a book of mormon AND missionary visits. She was startled as she received a phone call a few minutes later from church headquarters confirming her request. A few hours later we called her and set up the appointment. She was very grateful how fast God answered her prayer. 

People who are sincerely looking for the truth will find that God will send the missionaries to come to their door, sometimes rather quickly. A few days later Elder Clark and I went to her house to mow her lawn

Audrey came to the first hour of church on Sunday which was great. We had her meet another sister in the ward who speaks spanish. The talks were good too which was relieving. It looks like some good things will be happening with her. Really exciting to see!

Also this week, Elder Hayes and I found out that near our aparment is a melting pot of foreigners! I wish we would have discovered that sooner haha. But we met ANOTHER person from Nigeria (like Dipo and Nimota who we still can't set something up with because of their busy schedules). His name is Netty. As I was talking to a man from The CONGO, (yeah what the heck! What are all these africans doing here??) Netty came from across the street in his red and green traditional clothing to talk to us. As I talked to the man from CONGO whose name is Foreman, Elder Hayes talked to Netty. We set return appointments for both of them! We will hopefully be seeing Foreman on thursday night. But we met with Netty Saturday night! We brought a couple with us that served a mission together in South Africa. As he let us in his home we were pleasantly surprised to see that he had a wife and two kids! Lechi (the wife) and Michael who is 14 and a toddler named Manuel. These people are super cool. The best way I can describe them is a "pure and delightsome people." They are beautiful. They are so friendly and eager to know the Word of God. They are also really educated. Netty is going to school to be an engineer, and Lechi is going back to school to be an optometrist because although she had her own practice in NIgeria, the U.S. doesn't recognize her credentials here for some reason. Michael appears to be reserved but is full of quiet dignity. The baby, Manuel, has the coolest little afro. 

We taught them about the book of Mormon, as we talked about the stick of Judah and stick of Ephraim (Ezekiel) Lechi started to become very interested. We said a kneeling prayer at the end. it was really cool experience. We are going back next week and they offered to feed us!

Last night we met another family from Africa! Florence and Monique, from Togo. They speak french, but pretty good english as well. We talked to them for a while about the Book of Mormon and they were really interested too. Florence was very interested as she asked if she could have her own copy after we gave just one to Monique. Florence is a younger woman in her 20s probably. We also told them we could get them a book of mormon in french, and we also downloaded the gospel library app on their phones so they could listen/read it in french.

We have a return appointment with them next sunday. We will probably bring the Girard-Carrier's with us since they are fluent in French! It is so cool to see how God has brought these people to this area. Of all areas, why Springfield?? is what I keep saying. One reason could be because we have members of the ward who can speak their language and/connect with these people. 

So this week I learned that learning the gospel in your own tongue is pretty important. Also once again that we are in certain places at certain times for a reason. "The tender mercies of the lord do not appear randomly or merely coincidence. It is often the Lord's timing of His tender mercies which help us to both discern and acknowledge them."

First we have Elder Hayes come here who speaks Spanish so he can connect well with Audrey. Then we had Bro and Sister Robison come with us to see Netty's family because they spent time in Africa--about that, I wouldn't have thought to bring them if it weren't for Brother Howard reminding us that they went there. Finally, the G.C.'s will be able to probably help out with Florence and Monique. 

So we got 5 new investigators this week! (I forgot to mention Troy, but I don't have time). Hopefully we can keep this ball rolling! 

Love you all

That seriously some way cool stuff you shared this week! i never realized that we are related to the first wife of Brigham Young. I always assuimed it was his 90th wife or something :) That Blue Angel story is soooo coool. i told my companion. When you get the picture of the painting, send me a picture of it! That's way cool that grandma's maternal line rescued her paternal line. And I like how family history helps us become at one with our ancestors and with the savior. Really cool stuff, Mom!

i also think that is asesome how you realized how much you have improved as a teacher and funny how people are all asking you to teach them! Hebrew is so awesome! Yeah I think I should probably pray for the gift of teaching because teaching people to their needs is hard.

Dear Elder Soutas

How did your transfer week go?  How are things with Elder Hayes?  I've been praying

all week that you will have a good companionship.    Will you be able to teach Filip using

Spanish?  

I had a very busy weekend.  I held a baby shower for Alex yesterday we invited about 30 people and served lunch.  She received some nice presents for the new baby.   We are getting excited to welcome this little one.   I secretly hope she has the baby a little early   Then you could maybe see her when you Skype for Mother's day, but if not we would certainly send a lot of pictures.   Her due date is a month from today exactly!!

Today was another crazy day for me.  First of all I had Ward Council and then BYC.  Then I was asked to speak and give a brief family history story in sacrament meeting.    I will tell you what I said in a minute.  Next I had to teach the Laurel class lesson.  It was on the restoration.  I think it went well.

Maybe you have seen the demonstration I did.  First you take 12 plastic cups and you write the word apostle on each

Then I had them look up scriptures that talk about what was in Christ's Church when he was on the earth.  so that the pyramid represents Christ Church.  Then you pull out a cup or 2 on the bottom representing the apostles being taken from the earth and eventually it falls.   

Then you rebuild it showing pictures from our church history of how every single thing in our church matches the original.  It is the only church on the earth that has apostles, prophets, baptism bt immersion, laying on of hands, bishops, called Saints, church called in Christ' name, the gift of the Holy Ghost, temple  etc.....

We also watched the awesome video about Wilford Woodruffs search for the true church that matched the ancient church found in the Bible.  I thought it was a good lesson filled with the spirit. 

Here is a copy of my talk:

I do have a deep love for family history.  But I have not always 

my mom did all of the geneaology.   I didn’t have to worry about it, 

The truth is when she would get out all of her big journals and start telling stories we would  only half listen and just nod our heads.  

However, a few years ago I just decided to see if there was anything I could do.     I asked my mom a little bit more about these ancestor stories.

  These were the stories she had repeated to us so many times before which we had just vaguely listened to.  Now I repeat these stories and my kids vaguely nod their heads

   

But what I have learned most is that these people have a story and it is part of my story and now I love it :) I'm here today because of these ancestors

I’ve love reading my Great Great Grandmother - Caroline Frances Angell’s journal.  Of how she came across the plains with her sister, MaryAnn.  MaryAnn was Brigham Young’s first wife.    Her Brother was Truman Angell  - architect of the SL Temple.  Our family likes this story because Chris’ grandfather was the resident architect of the Washington DC Temple.   we tell our kids we are a temple building family :)    

Now that was on my mom’s maternal line.    

On her paternal line —-My Mom’s great  great grandfather were William and Eliza Binder who had been in the Martin Handcart Company.     

It has amazed me how stories of my ancestors begin to interconnect.   They cannot just be co-incidences when you are dealing with saving families.

Just this week I found a written thank you to my grandfather William Binder for  carrying their ancestor- Albert Jones —across the freezing water.   This was special to me.  I then continued reading about the rescue party that President Brigham young had sent for the handcart companies:  

I quote:

“the express riders found the company in several inches of snow. Mary Ferguson Scott of the Hodgett wagon company, which was camped near the Martin company, “sprang to her feet and screamed at the top of her voice, ‘I see them coming! I see them coming! Surely they are angels from heaven.’

it then reads:

In fact, as a result of how he looked coming through the snow, express rider Joseph A. (A for Angell, his mother’s maiden name) Young became known to the company as the “blue angel.” 

I stopped reading as I realized that Joseph Angell Young had to be my great great uncle.

Albert Jones described the scene: “The white mule [Joseph Angell Young  was riding] was lost sight of on the white background of snow, and Joseph A. with his big blue soldier’s overcoat, its large cape  rising and falling with the motion of the mule, gave the appearance of a big blue winged angel flying to our rescue. The scene that presented itself on his arrival I shall never forget; women and men surrounded him, weeping and crying aloud; on their knees, holding to the skirts of his coat, as though afraid he would escape from their grasp and fly away.” 35

close quote

I realized that when, Pres Brigham Young in Oct conference that year called men  from the pulpit to go and rescue those stranded… one of these rescuers was his son    Joseph Angell Young.  He was my gg uncle

Incidently I discovered there is a painting made  of Joseph Angell Young’s rescue  called “The Blue Angel”     which I now intend to get a copy of.  It now has great meaning to me.

When i read this account last  Sunday I was amazed……  This meant that my mom’s maternal ancestor line  The Angells

physically rescued my mom’s paternal line. The Binders

I felt the Lord’s hand is in the details of this rescue. 

I wish I had time to tell the 2nd half of this story of how I found the name of an ancestor    It’s a story of   a search  about lockets, and bears, outlaws and  Angell’s.  

 I believe that even if your mom or Aunt Matilda has done all of your family history work then If you do nothing more than learn your family stories-some really crazy stories -It is through these stories that you will get to know your ancestors and you will fall in love with them.  You will feel the link - our SAvior’s binding covenant that links you to them.  The spirit of Elijah is real.  It is strong.   Our Savior’s AT-ONE-MENT - the Covenant of Atonement - binds our families together for all eternity.  

Of this I testify.

So the only other thing I can remember that happened this week, was another tender mercy for me.  

Somehow some of the ladies I take the Greek New Testment class with, found out that I know and am teaching beginning Hebrew.  There are about 5 more ladies now who have asked me to teach them.

I will be teaching them for the summer and it's basically a summer institute class although at this point I have not been certified by BYU, however maybe I will even eventually be able to do that.

Cool huh!  The funny thing is I have never considered myself to be a good teacher.  Before I was called to be YW president I used to pray for the gift of teaching.  That I could become a better teacher.  It's hard for me.  I don't explain things well.  I don't always remember what I want to say.  But after praying for this gift, I have certainly seen and been given opportunities to improve.  The Lord answered my prayer.  Im still not an amazing teacher or anything, but it's kind of crazy how people are asking me to teach them and the best part and to me the tender mercy  - of all the things I would desire to teach it would be Hebrew, "the manner of the Jews - customs etc....and now that's what I'm going to get to do.  

I love my Heavenly Father so much!

I love you too!  I hope you have a wonderful week.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not unto thy own understanding and he will direct thy paths.

Momma