The Bread of Life

Hola momi.

I'm so proud of you for doing some missionary work! That makes me so happy to hear. I know that you will be blessed a lot for having the courage to "open your mouth" and share the gospel. It's always amazing to me when your mouth is "filled." Hopefully those families will accept the love that you and the savior freely give to them and come back into the fold of God.

Ha ha I can't believe you made 60 loaves of bread! Even if they were only the size of rolls. You always make everything so special and I'm sure dad really loved that you did that for his lesson. The symbolism between the sacrament and the burial of Chirst is obviously unmistakable. We should try to remember that when we walk into the chapel that it is supposed to symbolize Chirst's body lying on the alter there. That will help us be more reverent.

Yesterday I learned about repentance. So Elder Garrido and I were riding our bikes on kind of a back road and this guy comes out of a building and yells at us, "I thought we killed Joseph Smith for screwing all our wives!" and, " Jospeh and Brigham are just burning in Hell right now aren't they?" I wanted to say something of course but I didn't I just said, "Have a good day, sir."

I tried to just shake it off but I was pretty mad at the guy.

So I kept riding along and the very next person I talk to says, "Are you Catholic?" I said, "No." He said, "Well then you can get going then." Then I said, "Very Christian of you."

I felt really bad about saying that. I had just taken out my anger from the mean white guy on the Catholic guy. (I get that Catholic line several times a day ha ha)

So We kept going but I still felt so bad that I said that and let them get the best of me. So about an hour later after a lesson I told Elder Garrido, "I need to go apologize to that guy."

So we went and tried to find him. We couldn't. But if I ever see him I will say sorry. It taught me about one of the steps of repentance which is reconciliation. (Is that a word in english...I forget english all the time now...) Anyways that part is usually the hardest part, for me anyways, because you have to admit you were wrong to someone else. But it's important. And I feel a little better because I did at least try to find him even though I couldn't.

Oh and some bad news. Juan Molina dropped us. His cousin answered the door and said he doesn't want to talk to us again. We're trying to see Juan himself still but can't. I think he heard something untrue about the church. Because I always say hi to his seven year old son, Alexander, but last time I did Alexander wouldn't wave back and looked sad kinda like he'd been told not to. So that was pretty heart breaking to say the least...

But Dora and her family are still doing well. Even though her husband stiill has his troubles with drinking...we need to talk to him...

Nicholas and Christina are also doing well. They have lots of questions and doubts which is actually really good because it means they're serious and paying attention. We've answered all their doubts so far so they're still doing awesome.

Also Wilmer y Aura finally came to church again. They love the gospel but they're just kinda lazy.

Hector came again too.  He has a lot of heart trouble so I'm always glad to see him....of course all those three need to get divorced as always..

Well that's about it.   I can't believe we're already in the last week of the transfer. It's kinda sad because its probably my last one in Houston 1. Oh which reminds me if you want to send a package or letter don't send it to my apartment any more send it to the mission office.

Elder Soutas

4627 Austin Pkwy

Sugar Land, TX 77479

Ah! Sorry I accidently sent that one to early! ha ha.

But that was about it and the computer is kicking me off now!

I love you mom! I'm so proud of you and I'm trying to make you proud of me too! Everything is going well with me still of course because I love sharing the gospel with others! It is the only way to have true joy in this life, "for that which he shares, he keeps. But that which he selfishly keeps he looses." I'm pretty sure Jesus said that once. ha ha.

well I gotta go!

Love you mom!

Love,

Elder Jordan Soutas

On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 11:57 PM, <csoutas@aol.com> wrote:

Dear Jordan/Elder Soutas

Hola, Como Estas,

I hope you had a good week, especially that you had some good appointments.  How are your families doing?

This week I thought about your talk in sacrament last week. 

you said "anyone who really knows this gospel is true wouldn't let fear get in the way of them sharing it with others. They would have faith that the spirit would tell them what to say. They would just want to share their happiness with everyone!

Well on Tuesday Dad asked me to go on a couple of visits with him.  Usually he goes with his counselors, but they couldn't go.   Well you know me, I made a batch of cookies first and  we first went to see a new family that moved in the ward - The Wilkes.  She is a widow and has 5 kids they all live with her some of them are over 20 yrs - they don't seem to be too active and are giving her some troubles.   I really wasn't too nervous visiting her, because I felt like it's easy to take cookies to someone who has just moved in.

But then Dad wanted me to go and visit the Hawkins family.  They live next door to the Nobles.  I didn't feel comfortable going there because they have lived there for years and would wonder why I'm showing up with cookies on their doorstep.  I have had some contact with the Dad - he is interested in food storage and came to our food storage fair that we had last June.

So I wanted to stay in the car, i was really afraid to go to the door, but Dad talked me into it.

We were able to visit with him for about 15 minutes.  His wife is not a member and she would not come to the door, even though I had met her at that preparedness fair.  But he has a boy about 8 that was talking to us.  Again, he is not a member but he has started going to cub scouts.  There is also a daughter, from a previous marriage who has some interest in coming to young Women's.  She came to an ice skating activity a couple of weeks ago.  So we were able to talk about all of that.  His name is Glen and most likely hasn't been to church since he was a Priest.

But we had a good conversation and Dad even asked him if he would be willling to help (sort of a calling) with the computers at the Stake Center.

So - be proud of your mom - I feel like I did some missionary work and overcame my fear!

Wednesday - I spent getting things ready for the young women overnighter.  We are going to Camp Shawnee, which is a lodge a lot like Ben Lomond.  It will be this coming Friday, so I have a lot to do to get ready for it, since I'm in charge.  Our theme is Aspire Higher and we will be talking about preparing for the Temple.  I'll tell you about it next letter.

I watched the awesome BYU -San Diego State Game on TV.  It was a fun game to watch.   Dad and the boys were down at the M Center watching in person.

I took Tyler to his BBall game on Thursday, which they won and he had a good game. 

This morning I got up early to make 60 (yes 60!) loaves of bread for a lesson that Dad gave to the YM/YW today.  OK they were more like the size of rolls.  His lesson was on "The Bread of Life" and it was a great lesson.  I hope he told you about it. 

We need to ask for our Daily Bread each day and be willing to do our Father's will.  Bread gives us physical life each day.  The "Bread of Life" gives us spiritual life each day, and especially each Sabbath day when we take the Sacrament.

One of my favorite visual pictures is to see   2 pictures side by side.  One is of the Bread on the sacrament trays being covered by a white linen cloth.  The other picture is of The Savior (the Bread of Life) after he was cruicified lying in the seplecher and covered in a white linen cloth.

The symbolism is so powerful.

      

I know our Savior lives and that through His love and power and mercy and gift of Atonement and Resurrection we can live with Him and our Heavenly Father again.

After church, since I hadn't cooked enough today, we had everyone over for dinner for Ben and Miranda's Birthday.   It was nice to see everyone.

Matt and Kathy couldn't make it because Matt's mom is here to have heart surgery.  I hope everything goes well for her.

Well I guess I will get to bed now.

We are looking forward to your letter tomorrow.   So goodnight

love you forever, Mom

Jordan's 1st missionary letter

We finally received a letter from Jordan.  He left last Tuesday and for a waiting Mom that's a long time!

He's doing great, but that Mexican Mafia investigator worries me a little :(

So here it is:Date: October 11, 2010

Area: Houston 1 Northwest

Companion: Elder Bunch

Hola familia!

Wow i have so much to talk about I don't even know where to start! Well here I am in Texas! I'm in Houston 1 Northwest. So I'm a little northwest of downtown ha ha about ten minutes. So I'm in the GHETTO! But it's so awesome! I love every minute of it. I'm actually understanding most everything in spanish and can speak pretty well too. Oh and I baptized someone yesterday. Yup. Really. But I should be honest it wasn't my investigator it was the sisters' but it was still a really good experience!

I was nervous at first to talk to people but now I love it (unless their white, white people are jerks) Because you can go up to any hispanic and go "Hola Hermano como esta!" "Hello Brother how are you?" and they're always nice and willing to talk but unfortunately also always catholic. ha. But we have actually had a lot of appointments. We had 30 sit down lessons since I got here. and we had six investigators in church this week. hopefully we can get them all baptized this transfer. I just love riding around the ghetto around all these dumpy apartments and hearing they're mexican music and talking to people. That might sound like I was being sarcastic but I'm not! I really love doing this so much. Why didn't anyone tell me serving a mission was this fun? Well I'm telling you all now that serving is so much fun!

Too be honest the food has been a disappointment so far...Hopefully I get some good food soon. I'm not trying to be ungrateful but everyone just was telling me how I was going to get fat but I barely eat and I ride a bike and sweat all day so I don't know how that's going to happen...But I would still like some good food.

So just to prove how ghetto this place is...last night I set up an appointment with a guy who used to be in the Mexican Mafia. He just got out of jail and actually seems pretty nice. If you don't know what the Mexican Mafia is it's one of the worst gangs in the country, that guy used to be one bad dude. But i'm so excited for the appointment, hopefully he has some stories.

Oh ok duh! My companion's name is Elder Bunch. He's from California and he's awesome. He's an amazing teacher. He's so entertaining to watch teach and so convincing that sometimes I forget that I'm there to teach and not watching myself. It's pretty amazing becasue he's only be out since June and he's already a trainer. Oh and he's like six foot seven I think ha ha.

Ok and one thing I'm really learning is to have faith. We have like seven baptisms pending on whether or not the people recieve an answer about the book of mormon. So I just have to have faith that they will.

It's pretty crazy though. One thing our mission does is that we always ask on the first lesson if the people will be baptized. and everyone we asked said they would which is pretty cool. I was nervous to ask the first couple people but they've all said yes when i've asked. But like I said they said they would only if they receive a witness. But I have faith they will and so hopefully we have lots of baptisms!

Ha ha oh and one funny thing during the baptism, ok well two funny things. First, I totally forgot to bring another white shirt to change into. so i had a wet white shirt on the rest of the day. Dumb. and the other thing that was so funny is that Gelacio's (the guy getting baptized) family was all there. and the bishop, Bishop Rojas (aka: the Man) told him that he needed the baptism of fire next, so like receiving the Holy Ghost. And his little nephews were freaking out! Ha ha they took it literally like he was going to be put into a fire. I tried to explain to them it was only a figure of speech but they were like five so I don't know if it helped.

And that's really one thing I love her, are the kids. There's always a ton of little kids outside playing and i like going up to them and playing soccer with them for a second. The little kids always wave to us when we pass by. It's really fun.

Yeah so other than having the Fword said to me a few times, and having a couple gangsters tell me to come over to them (so they could beat me up) it's been the coolest thing ever! If it weren't for Ashlee and Mommy I'm not sure I'd ever come home to be honest. Ha ha. Oh and if you want to Google Earth where I live I live at 2121 Pech #95 Houston, TX and while you're at it send me a letter to that address :) Packages have to be sent to the mission office.

So the funniest situation I can think of is a couple named Rene and Ahorra. They are both way nice and way interested in the gosple. However there's one problem. They're both married to someone else in Paraguay and have two kids each there and have two kids together here. So in order to get baptized they have to get divorced and married here. I never thought I'd have to tell someone that they have to get divorced...Hopefully that works out...

I'm glad Brycen went to a BYu game! I'm glad they finally won!

It's good to hear Ben went to Homecoming, he sounds like he's having lots of fun this school year.

What are the rest of you up to? What's new?

I hope I put everything in here that I wanted...I think I did.

Ok well I have to email President Saylin (who is awesome) before I have to go shopping. I'm having lots of fun! I'm trying to do my best. Remeber that the "Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he hath commanded them."

I love you! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Elder Soutas