This Came in the mail and sat on our counter all afternoon.
Yes, there were repeated attempts to hold it to the light to see if there was a clue inside....Finally all of the family was assembled around 6:30 for the opening....
Ben received his mission call today.
And then he opened it!
Hey
Jordan,
Good
News!
So I finally
got my call. I’m going to the Portugal Lisbon Mission! I leave July 11 which is
a lot later than I was hoping to leave but I guess it’s fine. I’ll still be in
the MTC when you are back at BYU so there’s a chance I get to see you before I
leave. Sorry I haven’t written for a while. I’ve been waiting to write to you
once my call came and it took a lot longer to come than I thought. I seriously
spent a month just trying to get a hold of the Stake President for an interview.
It’s actually kind of a funny story. Dad told me I needed to call Bro. Oniki so
I did, but He told me I didn’t to call Bro. Jeppson. Dad got me his phone number
a couple days later and when I called him he said that there were two Bro.
Jeppsons , he was the wrong one, and I needed to call the other one. Dad found
me his number the next week and when I called him he said he just moved out of
the ward and I needed to call Bro. Vukich. He didn’t answer his phone for the
next week and when he finally answered he said he wasn’t sure when the Stake
President could meet with me and told me he would call me back. Well it took him
another week to call back, even when I kept calling him anyway. I kept joking
around that Satan didn’t want me to go on a mission. Well, obviously I did
finally get an interview and everything and it all worked out
fine.
I was
definitely surprised when I got my call to Portugal, but I’m way excited. The
weather is great there and its really beautiful. Hopefully the food will be good
too. I’ve kind of started to try and learn Portuguese just on the internet. It
reminds me of Spanish but with a French or Italian accent haha. It’s definitely
a weird thought that I’ll be leaving everything behind for two years. It’ll be
hard to go but I know it’s right.
Love
you,
Ben
Hola Jordan/Elder
Soutas
So... Elder
Benjamin Michael Soutas has been called to serve as a missionary of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been assigned
to labor in
the Portugal Lisbon Mission!! Wow we were all shocked to say the least. We
never ever considered Portugal. He will be speaking Portuguese so a
little
different from
Spanish, I thought for sure it would be Spanish. He does not leave until July
11th!!!! AAAHGH you will only miss each other by less than a month. He was
hoping to leave by May,
but of course
this must be where and when the Lord has called him to serve,
We are excited
for him and we know he will learn a lot and grow a lot. Ben has always gotten
by with less effort-- for grades, sports etc and still always done well. We
feel this mission will really make him stretch and grow. He will have to eat
foods he probably would rather not (you know how picky he has been), and
struggle to learn a language and to learn to
communicate with all of those he meets. It actually sounds like from reading
about the mission, that many of the members there are converts from Africa
(which has Portuguese colonies) and from Brazil. so far the only one we know
who has served there is Bob Stubbs, but I'm sure we will hear of a few more
now.
The Portuguese
people themselves are highly (95%) Roman Catholic (and as you have found with
your experiences) are more difficult to accept the gospel. Please write to
him and give him all of your wonderful advice so that he will keep a positive
attitude and desire to work hard.
Since he will
be in the MTC while you return home, Dad actually wrote to President Neilson and
asked what the possibility would be of you being able to see each other before
he leaves. We expected him to say no way! Instead he replied, "That sounds
like a Alma the younger/Son's of Mosiah experience!! So perhaps, if
we can get permission from the MTC president, you may have that
opportunity
Jordan, you
have been the most wonderful example to your brothers and sisters and actually
to everyone who knows you, of an awesome, obedient missionary and we are so
thankful for this. We know
that Ben is
willing to go and follow your example because he has seen you serving. So thank
you. Over the weekend, Dad, Tyler and Brycen went to Ben Lomond for the Young
Men Overnighter. The
topic for
their program was on serving a mission. The showed pictures of you (that I gave
them) and the other current missionaries from the ward. so you are an example
to everyone coming up to serve the Lord. Dad also used your rice and rocks
lesson so thanks for giving him that idea :)
The night that
Ben received his call he went back to BYU but I woke up in the middle of the
night and couldn't fall back asleep - I hate it when that happens. So as I'm
sitting on the couch in my room, I notice through half-closed eyes, that there
is a light out in the front yard. I peek through the blinds and there is a
police car out in the front. So now I'm wide-awake again! The next thing I
know the door bell rings...I remember yelling.." NO NO! " I was so afraid he was
coming to tell me that Ben had not made it back to BYU and something had
happened to him. So I go down the stairs and I can see him outside the door and
I'm thinking Please don't give me bad news...I open the door and he says,
"Ma'am, sorry to wake you but your garage door is up" So thankfully I went and
shut it and that was my completely sleepless night. Dad basically slept through
the whole thing. He says he remembers scamper barking and that was it :)
I loved
hearing about your miracle weekend and how your were able to meet all of your
goals by being obedient and trusting in the Lord's Power. You know you were an
example of the quote-since obedience is not an irritant to you, you were endowed
with power. As you have said before so eloquently, Our God is a God of
miracles! How are things progressing with Esmerelda and with Victor and Melba
this week? I have been praying for them all week.
So as far as
your BYU registration goes, it looks like your priority date is April 2nd. Do I
need to ask Ashlee to hold some of your classes, if possible? I don't really
know how that all works, since its way different than how we did it back in our
day :) (registered by touch tone phone - what technology that was) Ashlee
can probably register some time around March 27th or 28th. Of course I have no
idea how many points she has. I still have that schedule and it looks like
PDBio StDev and Chem were the classes you really needed to get into so we will
do our best on all of that. I guess we have another week to figure that all
out.
I hope you
have another great week ahead. Our prayers are with you and Elder Watts. We
know our Father in Heaven will bless you as you follow the example of His Son
each and every day.
I love you
forever, Mom
Dear Mom,
I'm so excited to hear about Ben's mission call. That's a way cool mission
I bet. Wow so exciting I never even considered Portugal. Too bad he won't know
spanish. Who am i going to talk to when I get home? But it's close. we'll
actually be able to speak to each other because they are extremely close. I can
actually understand portugese. IT's just all frenchy. I think it's kinda for
whimps. just kidding Benny! I'm excited to see him at the MTC.
So this week was really good again! We're just working really hard to reach
our goals and we reached almost all of them this week. We have ten people with a
baptismal date this week. Esmeralda is doing great! She came to church again
this week. Her daughter was really sick this week, she had an ear infection
and the flu and we gave her a blessing on friday and on saturday she was totally
better! she's going to get baptized hopefully pretty soon. We just need her to
get married to her husband/boyfriend. the problem is that he is always out of
town. But he's coming home this weekened so maybe we can work something out. The
good news is that they were actually planning on getting married already.
Emilio is doing good too. We actually talked to his mom and she wants to
feed us dinner every thursday night. She said that she can't believe we are out
here for two years without our mothers haha. sHe is really nice just super
strong willed and refuses to let emilio get baptized this soon. I can understand
where she is coming ffrom but if she only knew that Emilio was making the best
decision of his whole life I think she'd be a little different.
So yeah that was pretty much the week. I rained all week too. My shoes are
still wet. I'm very proud of my shoes though. I've only worn one pair my entire
mission and they're holding up pretty well. Well I 'm getting kicked off teh
computer now so I need to go! I love you!
love,
elder soutas
We are so happy to have 2 missionary sons!
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