Thanksgiving and Service

We had a very nice thanksgiving dinner at Kathy and Matt's house.  Kathy is a gourmet cook and everything is always delicious.  This year she decided to try a "brined" turkey and it was very moist.

As tradition, the men and kids all went to a movie.  This year it was the movie "Frozen".  They seemed to really like it and put them in the Christmas Spirit.  

We didn't do our usual Salvation Army food deliveries this year since my parents went to see Tony and Suzy in City.   However, we still had some good service experiences this month.  Jenessa organized a food drive
in our ward to take food and money to a poor woman.  She did such a great job and collected a lot!  and was able to deliver it via the woman's bishop.

I also was in charge of decorating a tree for the South Jordan Youth Council.  Jenessa and all of the kids on council met to decorate 5 or 6 Christmas Trees to deliver to children who had cancer.   As it turns out
one of the trees was meant for Robyn's grand-daughter.   It was such an awesome experience to take it to her home.  The little girl was so excited to get her "pink" tree.  She was laughing that her daddy would have
to have a pink Christmas tree this year!!  It was humbling to spend the day delivering the trees to these children and their families.  We sang them all a few Christmas Carols.  It was a great experience.

 The youth council did such an awesome the decorations!

Delivering the trees:

This was special to me since it was Robyn's grand-daughter's house

Thanksgiving Blessings

Jenessa wrote about our Thanksgiving Day service and I loved hearing it in her own words:

For my project I wanted to do something special. I thought doing it on a holiday would make the project even more meaningful. What I decided to do was to deliver meals to the poor on Thanksgiving. My whole family ended up going, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. At around 11 o’clock on the morning of Thanksgiving my family headed to Salt Lake City. I was really excited for what we were about to be doing for others. I was hoping to learn something from this experience.

 The organization we were doing the service project through was Salvation Army. When we got there we had to wait in a long line, because many people were also lined up to serve others on this day. When it was our turn, we grabbed about 5 meals a person. We had to load up a plate of food. The food that we were going to serve to them was just about everything that made up a Thanksgiving meal. There was turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, rolls, and even a pumpkin pie. Everyone seemed to be really happy and ready to serve.

After getting all the meals we needed, we put them all in the trunk of our car, and drove all around the valley to deliver these meals to those who were less fortunate than ourselves. Some were up in Ogden, and some in Sandy. One family I went to did not speak a word of English. We got to their shabby looking apartment, and knocked on the door. A young girl, around 18 or 19 answered the door. Following  her up to the door were five little children, all with big, brown eyes. I felt sorry for all of them. It must have been difficult for the girl to have so many children. There was no husband in sight. We told her to have a good Thanksgiving, even though she didn’t understand us. Then, we set the meals on the small table and left.

Another house we delivered the meals to was in Draper. This was the smallest, dirtiest, saddest, run-down house I have ever been in. The woman had about six yapping dogs in her tiny yard, and the house looked like a shack. We went around to the side of the house were the door was. Outside of the house were old televisions, lamps, sofas, you name it. This woman was a hoarder. She wouldn’t throw anything away. When we got inside, the house smelled of smoke. The wood floors were rotting.  The woman had only two children that I knew of. One of them was a little autistic boy wearing superman footy pajamas. He was really cute and was very thankful to receive the meals.

Seeing these people and how they lived was an amazing experience for me. Doing this service on Thanksgiving made it even more special. These people taught me to be more thankful for what I have been given. I have been given so much. I know now that some people are carrying many burdens and have many hardships. We should try to do more to lift the burdens of the poor and needy by helping and serving them. Doing this service taught me so much. It made that Thanksgiving the best one I have ever had.

         

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Mom,

Let me first get the BYU Utah game out of the way so I don't have to talk about it ever again. That was stupid I can't believe we lost that way so I feel so bad for you guys and all BYU fans. Ugh I really want to throw up when I actually think about it. I guess I'm just glad I'm here instead of there.

Ok now on to things that are actually important....

I'm glad you had a good Thanksgiving. Sorry the Turkey wasn't done til a little later ha ha. But Hey I'm sure it still tasted really good. On Thanksgiving I had to eat three whole thanksgiving dinners. I should sound more grateful but it was pretty hard! I've never eaten that much food in my life! We ate with the Perez Family, and with Helda, and with Rene y Ahorra. They we actually all really good. But when I got home I thought I was going to die. Elder Garrido almost died too I think ha ha he acutally ate more than me and he's such a little guy! (Sorry we always give him crap for his height). We spent most the night and next day in the bathroom...sorry tmi but I'm just saying...The food was all actually really good though. Even though it was a little weird to eat rice on thanksgiving.

So the Perez family accepted Tithing and word of wisdom and stuff so they're good to go on this Sunday! I'm so excited for them! It's been so fun to see how happy they always are now. You can see a difference in their eyes by the way they shine. it's really cool!

Sorry i'm trying to think about what to say but i'm so distracted by the BYU game...

Oh you asked about packages. OK well what is supposed to happen is that we get mail from the mission office every friday. But the mission office is run by senior missionaries, who as nice and great as they are, are also somewhat inept. So sometimes we go two weeks without mail. But still send a package because I haven't really got one from anyone since I got to Houston except the greenie one you sent. ha ha

I only have four minutes left to write.

Sorry this email has been short and not funny at all...

oh no three minutes left..

Oh yeah ok so we bought Pirate Ross a shirt for his birthday. We haven't found him yet though so I'll let you know what he thinks about it next week.

OK i really need to go now.

I love you so much mom! Tell the rest of the family I love them too!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Soutas

Grandpa Bob is the best chef

Kathy had gorgeous centerpieces

The Kids Table is always the most fun

We are still getting tons of snow and its still really cold.  Today it has snowed nonstop again   --everything is cold and snowy and it makes me just want to stay indoors.  I really need to get a little Christmas Shopping done.      

I was  wondering how long does it take you to get a package from the mission home?  If I send it and the mission home receives it within say 5 to 7 days - how long after that would it take for you to get it?  Is there a certain day of the week that the zone leaders would pick it up and then how long would that take to get to you.  I'm just trying to find the best way to get some Christmas goodies to you so that they are still somewhat fresh!

We are especially praying for you this week and for the Perez Family.  It will be so awesome for them to be baptized.  What a wonderful experience that will be!

I believe you said they will be baptized on Sunday the 5th.  Will you get a lot of members from the ward to come and support them?  Do you have the baptisms at the Stake Center like we do here?

Kaitlyn's birthday is  on Saturday the 4th.  She has her little creative mind going a million miles an hour and she's doing all the planning for her party so I'll let you know how that goes on Saturday.

It was fun to hear about your new companion, Elder Garrido.  I know that it will help you tons to have him always speaking spanish  you will learn so much faster, so don't feel discouraged :)

I'm sorry about the Menudo--that sounds so disgusting - I don't know how you were able to eat it.  Dad says he ate something similar in Korea   I'm just so glad it's not me, I couldn't do it!

This weekend went by fast the day after thanksgiving we went to a couple of Tyler's bball games and he also had one on Saturday.   Dad and I went to the Temple on Saturday to do some initiatories. 

 Today Dad spoke in Sacrament Meeting about tithing.

He gave an overview of how the early Saints received the Law, during a very difficult time for them economically, yet they still obeyed and kept it.

It's hard to believe that there are so many MEMBERS that don't pay tithing because they say they can't afford to - when really they can't afford Not To

He also said that Missionaries - like you - are teaching investigators and before they can be baptized they must commit to pay tithing.  He asked in his talk, to consider if they would qualify even to be baptized - since they can't seem to live the law now!    Dad just told me he attached his talk for you - I thought he did a great job on it

Of course Saturday was the crazy BYU football game.  I screamed at the end - it was so frustrating!!

Tomorrow (today when you read this)  Grandma is coming to stay at our house so that Grandpa can go to work this week.  She is improving each day and is doing great from her surgery.  

Well its almost 11:30 pm so I better get to bed.   Our prayers are with you and Elder Garrido and the Perez familia.  We are also praying for you to find more investigators.  I'm so thankful for you and the wonderful missionary you are.  Work hard, pray hard and be happy.

Love you   Mom

Dear Jordan/Elder Soutas

¡Buenos Días! ¿Como te ha ido el día? Por aquí todo bien.  I hope you had a good day on Thanksgiving.  

Our thanksgiving was similar to most years.    I spent the morning getting rolls ready to make then we went up to Kathy's & Matts.  The men and kids went to see the movie "Megamind" while we got the rest of the meal ready.  I don't know much about the movie - the kids said it was OK but nothing too great I guess.  The only problem of the day is that grandpa didn't get the turkey into the oven early enough so we didn't have dinner until about 6:30 pm

but it was still a nice day.