Mom's last chemo

I took Subway lunch to mom today for her last Chemo treatment

We have all been praying for Grandma Elaine since August

Hope she is now Cancer free!!

Accepted

Ben was accepted to BYU   Of course we are so excited for him !!!!!

Young Women Overnighter

My Young Women winter camp turned out great!  We had a lot of fun up at Camp Shawnee, near Eden, Utah.


Our Theme was Aspire Higher   ----Preparing for the temple

     but I used 'Aspire' instead of Inspire

We had cafe rio salads for dinner and then a nice program from the Bishopric about Temple Worthiness
We had a hot chocolate bar for dessert
Saturday morning we had pancakes and bacon,  mini classes and went sledding.  Lots of Fun

We sealed Temple Cans - The girls wrote letters to their future husbands, picked out names for future children, picked beautiful wedding colors and included letters for all of the leaders.  The girls can open them when they are engaged or ready to go to the temple

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

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn wanted to have a kitty party.  We made kitty headbands and collars.
The kids played cat, cat, dog and name that cat.  They also had to follow a big
mixed up yarn to find a mouse at the end.
I made her a cute kitty cake - just like Jenessa had for one of her birthday parties.

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.

Giving Thanks

Dear Mom,

Wow I can't believe it snowed that much! I sure do miss the snow. It's still 55 degress here. The Holidays just won't be the same without snow!

So it's all good news about the Perez Family. They accepted the word of wisdom. We're teaching tithing this week and they'll definately be baptized on the fifth I'm not even worried about it!

Well I got a new companion! His name is Elder Garrido. He's awesome I love him! He's from Salt Lake City. Actually from Rose Park like where dad lived when he was little. His parents are from Guatemala so he's very good at spanish. He kind of makes me feel stupid because he's so much better than me but i'm grateful because I know he'll help me get so much better! It's kind of funny becase he's really short so I went from way tall Elder Bunch to way short Elder Garrido.  He actually had to go home becasue he tore his ACL and MCL but he was out for 14 months before that. But now he's back and finishing up the last ten months of his mission. Sometimes I kind of feel like the senior companion because I inheirited the area and he has kind of forgotten a lot of stuff because he was out for five months. But we're still doing really good. We've found some new people to teach that we're really excited about. We'll talk with them this week so I'll let you know how it goes. It's pretty cool though when the spirit whispers, "Go talk to them" and then you go over and they've already talked to the missionaries before but they moved so lost contact and they invite you over. That actually happened to me a couple times this week.

Wow I was sad to hear about Grandma. I hope she is doing ok! I feel bad that I never had any idea.i'm glad to hear that it seems like she'll be ok. I'll be sure to write her and pray for her.
I'm so excited to hear Tyler made the basketball team! You're right I think he definately owes me and ben all the credit for making him tough ha ha.

Well I'm going to miss you guys a lot on Thanksgiving. It's going to be tough to be away for sure. I think we'll go over to the Perez family's. and then over to Helda's too. It'll be fun but not the same...I hope you all have fun though.  I'm so grateful for you mom and all you do! I'm grateful for dad and all the time he takes to be bishop and provide! I'm grateful for our whole family! I'm grateful for Ashlee! I'm grateful for my companion and for my investigators and for the members here. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord. I'm so grateful for our Heavenly Father and for answered prayers and that he sent his son Jesus Christ. I'm eternally grateful to Jesus for allowing me to live again and have eternal life through his atonement. i'm grateful for the guidance of the spirit and for the Book of Mormon and for the prophet! and lots more stuff but I don't have time to write it all down.

Oh ok one funny story. So on Saturday we went over to the Familia Favela. They are amazing and she made us homemade Gorditas...oh they are soooo good. Then we went over to the Familia Perez. They always make us eat even if we've already eaten. And Josefa (oh yeah she went to church too) is a good cook so usually I'm ok with it. But this time we had Menudo...for those of you who don't know what Menudo is it's Cow Stomach Soup. It's so disgusting. It smells literally like sewer water and has a texture you would not believe...so gross. I had to pray to be able to eat it. Literally i prayed to be able to eat it. I couldn't offend them when they were so close to baptism ha ha. Oh my it was so disgusting I cant' even put it into words!

Well everything is going well for me. Pray for me taht I'll be able to improve at Spanish though. Ha ha I'm kinda depressed about how far behind I am with Elder Garrido I kinda get left out of lessons now because I can't keep up. But I know I'll get better.

I'm having so much fun with Elder Garrido though! He and I are already great friends and time flies so much faster when you have a good companion!

Well that's about it. Oh and I found out that Pirate Ross's really name is Rosondo Garcia so I was pretty happy about that.

Well I better get going. I love you so much mom! Tell the family I love them too! I'm so grateful this Thanksgiving time but I'll definately miss you!

Pray for me and I'll do the same!

 

!Que le vaya bien!

 

Con Amor,

Elder Soutas

On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 12:39 AM, wrote:

Dear Jordan/Elder Soutas

 

Happy Thanksgiving Week!  I'm so thankful for you and that you are serving a mission.

 

Today we woke up to 12" of snow.  It was beautiful but there was a ton of it.  All of the Priesthood Boys got out and shoveled everyone in the neighborhood's driveways so that they could make it to church.   There were a lot of trees that fell down and so they were all blocking the road in the neighborhood on South pointe Drive, so they had to get them all cleared out so that the cars could get through - kind of a crazy morning.    It actually snowed more here than in the mountains.  Only 8" at Brighton.   I was still enjoying some nice warm fall days but I guess it's going to be pretty cold this week --30 degrees

 

How are things with the Perez family this week?  We are still praying for them every day.  Was Josefa able to come to church?  Have you been teaching them any more discussions?

We will also pray that you can find some new investigators.

 

So who is your new companion?  Tell us a little bit about him...

 

This week Grandma Elaine had surgery   She didn't want to worry you about it before hand so we decided to wait until everything was over with a positive result - and it is!  The surgery went really well.  She was actually diagnosed with cancer of the uterus, but the surgeon was able to get everything removed and so it went really well.  Grandma's been sick having some chemotherapy and she will still have to have a little bit more, but the outlook is very good for her ---so pray for her but don't let it worry you -  How blessed we are to have the miracle of modern medicine.  Definitely something I'm thankful for this year!

 

Anyway, because of that I spent a lot of the week at the hospital with her...I can relate to a lot of what she is going through with her surgery because it was a similar experience with my surgery recovery.   By the way I feel completely better from my kidney surgery and I don't have any problems at all.  I am so thankful Heavenly Father has blessed us to get through these trials and has helped us and comforted us completely.  The downside this week is that Grandma probably won't feel up

to travelling for thanksgiving.  We are going to go to Kathy's for dinner so I will probably just have to bring a plate of food to her.

What do you think you will be doing?  Will you be able to go to a member's home?  I hope you will get to have a little bit of turkey :)

 

Well good news for Tyler - He made the SOJO Basketball team!!   I'm happy for him     As a parent it's hard to have one child have a success that the other's didn't -like you and Ben --You both should have made it too!  He was blessed to have you and Ben teach him so young and that definitely was an advantage  so he owes you a lot of credit for his success. 

 

Jake left for the MTC this week.  I'm sure it was a difficult week for Ashlee and her family.  As soon as they get that first letter this week they will feel a lot better!   I'm sure Ashlee will tell you all about it.

 

I also was in charge of helping the youth at the cannery for mutual on Wednesday.  We got a lot of canning done for members of the ward and delivered it to them.

 

I'll let Dad tell you all the sports news in his letter

 

We will be thinking of you a lot this week and of course praying for you.  As a missionary, you are making the most of Thanksgiving - By GIVING your life to serving our Heavenly Father and teaching the gospel.  

 I am so thankful for our family-for each of you children.   I am so thankful for Dad - He is the best and a wonderful husband and father.  I am so thankful for the restored gospel, for a living prophet to guide us, for the scriptures to teach us.  I'm so thankful for the Holy Ghost to guide us.  I'm so thankful for our loving Father who sent his son, our Savior to provide us a way to return back to him through Christs' atoning sacrifice.  I am so thankful for temples and that our family will be able to be together forever.  I am truly the most blessed mom in the world!

 

I love you with all of my heart     Be happy and have a great week

 

love  Mom