This has been a really humbling transfer...

Dear Erebody,

Louisiana landscape

Me with Devin (the name of the turtle)

That sounds like you had a really fun sunday, getting together and having a mission themed night. I definitely know how Alex feels. I remember opening my call and really not knowing what to think. Maybe "Louisiana...that's weird." Haha but once I got here and I have had these experience I know that this is where I need to be and I really wouldn't rather be anywhere else. I bet that same thing will happen to Alex. He is going to love his mission. You do see some sad stuff and you get a taste of the world that you haven't before, but being able to understand that really helps you be able to relate and empathize with the people. It is such a necessary and humbling experience that can't be imitated. Missions aren't easy, but they are so worth it. I love it so much and it just makes you happy. Does Alex have an email? 

This has been a really humbling transfer and I am learning a lot. It is interesting the difference between humility and self-criticism. I had maybe a skewed view of humility in thinking that it was feeling like I wasn't good, or wasn't good enough. That is not right haha. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to feel like poop, but what he does want us to understand is that through him we can have the power to overcome anything. Humility is knowing that through the Grace of Christ we can become perfect.We have the potential to be something greater.  In reality everyone is pretty amazing, we are sons and daughters of God who in the Pre-Mortal life fought for and defended God's plan and chose Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. That is really cool. When we are humble Heavenly Father helps us realize that. And that is something that I am still learning. It is cool to see though and I am excited to learn more.

We had a really cool miracle happen this week.  We went to meet with one of our investigators, R. and it turns out that his roommate D. was there as well. D. is a really good guy and it turns out that he has been R's father figure after R's mother passed away. D. is a couple years older than R. and when his mom dies R. didn't have much, so he took him in to help him stay on the right path. He was also telling us how much R. has changed We began to teach them the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was instantly there. About half way through the lesson D.s brother, M, a pretty religious guy, walked in and immediately joined in on the conversation. We taught about how God loves us and how he wants us to live with our families again. They told us that that is something that they want. Elder Allred was bold and invited them to baptism right there and they all accepted. Their baptismal date is in about 6 weeks. How cool is that? 

It has been a good week overall. We are getting the area up and running little by little and we are seeing some cool miracles. It is a slow and steady process, but it is coming a long. We had a really good lesson with a less-active family, the K's. Our branch president asked us to prepare a lesson on the Priesthood, because bro. K is preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. It went really well and it was fun to get to know them better. They are a funny couple and they are so unique, I love it haha. 

I better get going, but here is a little excerpt from my Presidents letter:

Today I just wanted to share something that came out of this last Ensign. There is an article about "Lasting Happiness" and it goes through the different qualities that happy people have and are striving to become. 

Happy People...

-are content with having their basic needs met. 

-are not ruled by the often mistaken idea that “more is better.” 

-are involved in something they believe is bigger than themselves. 

-use their personal strengths to bless the lives of others.

-foster close friendships and family relationships. 

-focus less on transient, pleasurable pursuits and more on enduring, meaningful ones. 

-strive to become more selfless. 

-(I am going to add this last one) they live and love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I think that if we strive to be like this that we really will be happy and that really is the purpose of this life.

I love yall,

Prayers and thoughts 4eva,

Elder Devin Soper

This has been an awesome week!

Dear Family,

This has been an awesome week! We have had a lot of meetings, but we were still able to get a lot done despite it all. I will talk about it soon.

Lizard Earring

Our district

Elder Allred, Shepherd of Sheep

Edward Crawfish Hands

My Dirty Shirt

First I have to say CONGRATULATIONS to Alex. That is so cool that he will be going to Peru, I know he is going to come to love those people, the food, the culture and the gospel. I am really excited for him. I was a little sad when I saw he would be leaving July 29, so we won't be able to see each other for about 3 and a half years, but that is okay because what better thing to be doing than serving the Lord. 

Dad, I know how you feel when it comes to trying to find a balance for everything in your life and it just feels like somethings get neglected. It is either everything gets a little neglected and a full effort isn't put in, or you focus on a few things and put the others on the back burner completely. I am still not sure how to deal with this haha It reminds of Elder Bednar's talk from this last conference about assessing our load. There are somethings that are necessary (and some of our hobbies can fit into that category  because they are gifts and talents from God) and then there are the superficial and hollow loads that don't help us with our traction. I guess the key is to find out what Heavenly Father wants us to do. Oh and that Bednar Challenge you do read through the whole Book of Mormon. 

Well I will give a report on this week. It really has been awesome. Elder Allred and I are finding a good groove with the work now and we are seeing a lot of miracles happen everyday. For example on Wednesday we were up in Opelousas and decided to walk some to save a few miles. We walked to a couple houses but to no avail until we decided to go visit a media referral that we had received...but that didn't work out either, no one was home. But, we did see this family sitting on their porch and Elder Allred was prompted to go and talk to them, so we did! They are the P. family and we were able to share a little about what we believe. They invited us back and we were able to go over there with with Brother Freebairn on Saturday. We had an awesome discussion on the Restoration, the spirit was there and everyone could feel it. They agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon (or as they say "The Book of Norman") and said they wanted to come to church. Well they didn't come to church, but we have faith that they will! It was a testimony to me to see how easy it really is to share the Gospel. Sometimes you just have to hit the streets and walk a little bit, I promise that you will have opportunities to share the gospel. It is cool to see also how even though we weren't able to see that media referral, there was a family on a few doors down that was prepared to hear the gospel. Tender mercy. 

That same day we were able to go with Brother Freebairn and see a lot of cool miracles as we went out with the intent to help people. We were able to help E. switch out his fridge (his had been broken for weeks and all that was in there was a small portion of spoiled meat) We. also had the opportunity to go with him to Walmart and just supply him with what he needs. My testimony built so much in the love that God has for us and how much he cares not only for our spiritual needs, but our temporal needs as well. He loves us a lot. I also gained even more respect for Bro. Freebairn, he is very Christlike in his genuine concern for the well being and happiness of others. He is willing to go above and beyond and to totally forget himself in the service of the Lord. I hope I can be like that someday. We saw the C's a less-active family, and had a cool experience. We just went over to see how they were doing and they started  telling us how they had a change of heart and they wanted to start doing it the Lords way. And they told us they were going to come to church. 

Yesterday was awesome as well. The C's ended up coming to church and so did there Son, A. with his girlfriend K. It was so cool to have them all there. And then the part that will make your mouth water. The Nations invited all the missionaries and the Freebairns over for a Crawfish boil...it was so good. They bought three sacks of Crawfish, which is a lot, the boil them in a big pot with tons of seasonings, they pour them all over a table and then everyone just goes to town. I had to wear a T shirt over my white shirt and I am glad that I did because I got really messy haha. The food was awesome, but the company was even better. It was one of those ideal sudnay afternoons that you are able to spend with those that you love and relax. You just remind your self that everything is going to be alright. 

Well I will end with a little exerpt. 

I have been studying our purpose not only as missionaries but as sons and daughters of Heavenly Father. I remember watching an I'm a Mormon video about a physicist and he explains that they know they are coming to a correct and accurate answer when the solution starts to become more simple. Well I feel like the answer and solution is becoming more plain and precious to me, so maybe that means we are on the right track. In 1 Nephi 11, Nephi desires to see what his father saw in the vision of the Tree of Life. He believes his father, but he wants to understand for himself. That is something we all desire, to know for our self. The Spirit of the Lord begins to show him this amazing vision and there comes a point where he asks him a question, he says " Knowest thou the condescension of God?" Nephi then answers "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." Although we may not know some of the answers , somethings just don't make sense to us right now, we do have the most important knowledge that we can hold onto; We have a Heavenly Father who loves us. They begin to discuss the meaning of the tree of life and The Lord asks him another question, "Knowest thou the meaning of the dtree which thy father saw?" Nephi answers "Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things." The most desirable of all things, the thing that can fill every heart and give them purpose and meaning. The Lord's response to this is very profound and makes the reason for our missionary purpose (and our individual purposes) very clear "Yea, and the MOST joyous to the soul." That sounds pretty certain, the Love of God is the most joyous thing for our soul, it will bring us the most happiness and it is something that we can share and lead people to every day. That is a blessing. Our purpose is to help people feel th

e Love of God through faith, repentance, baptism, the holy ghost and enduring to the end.

Dang this letter is a little long haha. I hope you were able to get through it. I love you guys!

Lub,

Elder Brother Bear Soper

We had a fun Easter Weekend...

Good Afternoon Y'all!

Elder Bennett and I

Izak

We had a fun Easter Weekend. On Saturday we were able to help the Freebairns with their son, Izaks, 4th birthday party. They invited a bunch of the members of the branch, friends and family (who many were not members.) They BBQ'd a ton of chicken, they made tradition carne asada with fresh pico de gallo and to top it all off they had delicious Tres Leches....it was so good.... I ate a lot...I mean a lot.... haha but it was so fun to be there. They rented this big bounce house (we didn't play on it) and they got Izak a  Spongebob pinata. There were so many AFV worthy moments with that pinata. One girl was swinging so hard and then sister freebairn was clapping and telling her good job and then all of the sudden she started walking towards her (she was blindfolded) and just swung right at her head. She barely missed haha it was crazy. She must have thought that she was telling her to come that way. Funny. I love that family so much and they have made such a huge impact on my life. I will tell you one more funny thing later in the letter. But then yesterday Sister Prescott, the sweetest, funniest older lady I have ever met, invited us over for Easter dinner. Her family was there and they made ham, rice dressing and crawfish fettuccine. It was a lot of fun. So all in all we had an awesome weekend. 

It sounds like you guys had an awesome easter too. I am excited to see what there new house looks like. Haha that Jello sounds so strange, but in a strange way I would have liked to try it... Maybe secretly we do want to be like Andrew Zimmerman. People down here would think that was so strange to have Jello, carrots, celery and olives in the same thing. It sounds like a green smoothie gone terribly wrong... That is cool about that image that Brother Tenney had everyone imagine. That really would have been a sacred and special experience to be a part of. What amazing knowledge it is to know that the Savior lives. They have that new Easter video called  "Because of Him" and it is awesome. It is short and powerful. It brings the message that Because of Him, Because of Christ we have everything that we do today. We are blessed spiritually and temporally because of what he did. It truly is because of him that we are able to be happy. What a blessing that is. 

I have been feeling pretty stressed out and anxious lately. There is just a lot of stuff going on and it is like I am spinning 10 plates, but in the end I don't even know how to really spin 10 plates haha. Yesterday was pretty tough and I was just feeling frustrated, but today hearing that just makes me realize that hard things will continue to happen in our lives and if we can take the experience with appreciation, gratitude and humor we will be much happier. I want to be kind, gentle and happy. Thanks so much for sending me that, it was what I needed. 

Alright I will tell you about the other funny thing with the Freebairns. So their son Izak is exactly the same way I was when I was his age. It is crazy because everytime that I see him, I see myself. He is always tearing off his pants or his shirt and running around the house or the neighborhood pretending to be a power ranger. He loves power rangers and for his birthday he got a zord and we were both equally enthralled with it haha. He loves to "fight" and beat people up and just has a lot of energy. Sounds familiar huh? I told them about the time I broke the window and we were all laughing pretty hard. We came back a couple hours after the party and just helped them clean up and Izak was still full of energy and I was telling them how much I was like him and then they gave me the best compliment I feel I have received. They told me that if Izak was then able to grow up like me they would be proud parents. I respect them so much and hearing that from them was just the best feeling. I love that family so much. 

Well I better get going. Here is a little excerpt.

This last general conference the two greatest commandments were brought up multiple times. Before anything we must love God, our Heavenly Father and our neighbor as our self. I was curious to understand more about how must love our self and how that is connected to our purpose. I came across a talk by Harold B. Lee called "Understanding who we are brings self respect." It is an awesome talk and he focuses on the plain and precious truths of the gospel that help us understand who we really are. It reminds me some of what the mission was focusing on about a year ago and that was not necessarily who we we are, but who we were in the pre-existence. Harold B. Lee quotes the scripture from Abraham 3: 22-23 which says:

2 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

We are those noble and great ones. When we understand that we are Heavenly Fathers children who are divine heirs to heavenly power we will receive "righteous self-respect that might be defined as "belief in one's own worth, worth to God and worth to Man." We have been foreordained to do this work and we have made this choices in this life to lead us to where we are right now and that is within the full time service of our Lord and Savior. We are literally one in a million. President Lee says," Who are you? You are all the sons and daughters of God." He then says later "What a difference it would make if we really sensed our divine relationship to God, our Heavenly Father, our relationship to Jesus Christ, our Savior and our elder brother and our relationship to each other." What a blessing it would be in our life if we could all be as close to our Father in Heaven and our Savior as we are to our own family. I can promise too that if we gain that relationship with them, we will grow closer to each other and be filled with love for everyone around us. We first love God because when we do it is a natural response to love others as our self because we begin to see them through His eyes. What a blessing that is. I like the quote that he uses from George Bernard Shaw which says "If we all realized that we were children of one father, we would stop shouting at each other as much as we do." If we keep the first two great commandments, we will just be a lot happier. 

I guess that wasn't too little... I love you guys so much and appreciate the many prayers that you send to me daily. HAPPY EASTER! looking forward to talking to you soon too.

Prayers and thoughts always,

Elder Soper