Howdy!!!

Wow! So I have officially hit 5 months! Also this week I will hit the point where I only have 18 months left in my mission!!!! I am glad that you guys had such a good week and that you made it a good week for the missionaries as well, that’s awesome!!!!

So, this week was our big push for 40 lessons together because Elder Hansen has an appointment for his toe tomorrow and he might get surgery which would mean we would be in the house until changes next week!!! So pray for him! Also, wow I can’t believe that changes are next week!!! Wow this change flew by!

So Monday, we had a really spiritual lesson with the bishop’s mom, Consuelo about how she can feel the spirit better while reading the scriptures and I got a prompting to talk about the scripture journal that dad gave me before I left and challenge her to keep her own scripture journal! End of Monday 5 lessons!

Tuesday we had a zone training by our mission president and oh my gosh, that guy is going to be a 70 if not a 12, it was the most spiritual meeting that I have had in my entire life, it was incredible!! He just talked about how the commandments and all of that aren’t rules but they are a way of life that prepares us for how life will be in the celestial kingdom. Exactly how dad said to me once that it’s not breaking the commandment that will keep us out but the unwillingness to follow in order to become the person worthy and ready to live that life that will! Then he connected that to the mission and how it is here that we learn how to be the fathers, husbands, bishops that we will need to be afterwards!! It was so cool!! It outweighed any lesson we had that day by far! Also, Elder Hamilton (who is an assistant in our mission as of this change) came to our area on intercambios with the zone leaders! So it was awesome talking to him and about all of the things we remember from Seattle, he is super humble, and super awesome!!!! By the way, assistants have their p days on Friday so that’s why his dad heard about this first! But, at the end of Tuesday we had 10 lessons.

 

Wednesday we got asked to bless a house because a woman had been hearing a bunch of weird sounds, so I was kind of hoping to get a super cool story to tell you all about seeing a ghost or feeling a spirit but nope it was just a regular old prayer! But that afternoon we had a lesson with Alicia and she finally accepted a date for baptism so she will be getting baptized this Saturday which is so awesome!! After Wednesday we had 18 lessons!

Thursday I had intercambios with Elder Yerena from our district, he is almost done with his mission and was a leader earlier on, so he is an awesome missionary. We taught a story lesson to him from 3 Nephi 3 12-14 I think and I would like to challenge the family to read this especially after Elder Oaks talk and see how Laconeo is like mom and dad and how Giddiani is the devil and what things you can do to build fortifications and have the guards day and night!!! They started bawling and it was so cool!!! Haha we ended that day with 24 lessons! Friday I got the prompting to visit Maria de Jesus again who sadly we had to drop a couple weeks back because she wasn’t progressing, and nothing had changed which was really sad to see because she really wants this but just doesn’t want to do anything!!! We ended Friday with 31 lessons!!

So the day of truth was Saturday and sadly I went on intercambios with the zone leaders! But I learned so much from Elder Herrera, he is such an awesome missionary, we taught this family that had been inactive for 4 years and helped them set goals to go the Temple and get sealed for all eternity and wow I just learned so much from Elder Herrera!!!

Sunday in the morning he had like a goal setting session with me, and it was so cool to see how much he cared about me, and how much I can do to improve! It was really exciting!!! Then at church I saw Elder Hansen again and we got 10 lessons on Saturday to get 41!!! We did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have been consistently teaching the most lessons of any elders in our zone (the hermanas kill it here) but we finally hit the Lord’s and President’s goal for us which was so awesome!!!

Last night we received a call from the assistants that we all had to be in the Ermita Stake Ccenter today at 10 in the morning, and they wouldn’t tell us why so we were all really confused and worried. But then we got there and we watched Meet the Mormons which was an awesome surprise!!! It was a great week, I love and miss you all!!!

Elder Stout

Boring Week!

Hey all!!!!

It seems like not that much happened in either of our weeks because those were the shortest emails I have gotten from every single one of you just about I think! Haha but not that much happened here either!

Monday came and went, the highlight was playing volleyball like always but really nothing else noteworthy happened.

Tuesday was a little bit frustrating because this week we were really trying for those 40 lessons! We had a bunch lined up for the morning but then like all of them fell through! And the weather was awful it was super rainy and it just like sucked!!!! Super depressing day! The only bright spot was that Azucena had her son and daughter in law with her again so we got to teach them, but they are barely ever there so they aren’t progressing as much as we would like!

Wednesday we had one of the best days that we have had yet!! We just like taught a bunch of really powerful short lessons and we ended the day with 10 which was the most we have ever had and it was so cool! We taught the bishops mom in the morning and it was one of the cooler lessons we have had, we hadn’t planned to teach her but we just saw her in the street, and went in to teach her, and we both just knew we had to teach her about the scriptures, and it was just a really cool lesson where the spirit was super strong!

Thursday we had an awesome lesson with Alicia and Irma where Alicia told us that she was going to serve a mission! Haha we were like whoa slow down, maybe you should get baptized first! We are really hoping that we can baptize her next week, but Irma still can’t go to church because of work and she hasn’t found another option yet so that was frustrating!

Friday was a really interesting day because my comp has a super bad ingrown toenail so the Hermana Valadez told us we had to go to the hospital so we went there and it was super nice!!! In a super nice part of town!! And the couches were so comfortable, we kept making jokes about our passports because it was like we were back in the states! The hospital was in between a PF Changs and a Nike outlet store! Haha but my comp might have to have surgery on his foot in two weeks! So I will keep you updated on that! Then we had intercambios and Elder Segovia came over to our area, he is a really good elder, he knows sooo much about the scriptures! But sometimes he tries to teach things that are way over people’s heads! haha we had a really memorable lesson in the night with the family Alquicira Fuentes where we taught about the temple using Mosiah 2 where everyone faces their tents to the temple to hear the King Benjamin! And the spirit was so strong and they just talked about how it is their goal to go back there and it was so cool to hear that! Then they gave us cupcakes!!!!

Saturday morning was like Tuesday except instead of rain it was cold! So bad, it was below freezing for my first time here!! We just had a bunch of appointments fall through which kind of sucked! But after we changed back later that day Elder Hansen and I had two great lessons where Esperanza a new investigator told us all she wanted us to teach her was how to prepare for her baptism and she wanted to move it from 21 of March to the 1st! haha Then we taught Marcelina a lesson, and she told us she is close to knowing that our church is true! All in all, we ended with 37 lessons this week, we almost got our 40!

Yesterday I gave a talk on love in sacrament meeting and the new elder in our ward (elder Kleinman, Elder Veilma left in special changes) talked too, and he has 20 months in the mission but everyone asked me if he was new because his Spanish isn’t very good! I felt bad but they all said mine was good and that it was a good talk! I went way over time though it was almost 20 minutes!!!

It was a good week all in all!!!

I love you all!

Elder Stout

Before you look below...beware...really ugly ingrown toenail...if you want to see it, continue by scrolling...

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Happy Valentines Day!!!

Hey everyone!!!!!

Les quiero muchisimo!!!!!! That translates to I want you all a lot which is pretty weird in english but they use that interchangeably with les amo mucho down here so I figured I would try it! I am so glad that you all had great weeks with bdays and everything!!!!

So what happened this last week, I don’t even really know!!! It went by so fast, and there wasn’t much that was super interesting!!! Monday we just taught a low key lesson to Montserat a recent convert who I am pretty sure is crushing on Elder Hansen hardcore!

Tuesday we went all the way up to San Miguel Xicalco, like the edge of our area and we helped an hermana move, and it was awful because she was just moving down the street so we were all she had for help and her new house has a super steep front lawn that is really overgrown and it is just lawn so it was hard to get big heavy things up it! Elder Vielma was sick so instead of eating with an hermana we went over and cooked him up some hot dogs and just ate with them in their house! We had a lesson with a new investigator too who is the girlfriend of Jonaton who is a recent convert so it’s pretty cool to see him trying to help her out too!

Wednesday we had a menos activo 17 year old introduce us to his girlfriend also! Her name is Samantha and she has a ton of questions but is super excited to learn more about the church!

Thursday we had an awesome lesson with Irma and Alicia and we had talked a little bit about word of wisdom before but we actually taught the lesson that night and Alicia said, "Yeah, one time, my brother offered my coffee a couple days ago and I had to tell him no, we don’t drink coffee in my religion" Haha I guess we missed her baptism:) but it was super awesome to hear her say that!!!

Friday we had intercambios and I was with Elder Card from Orem Utah who only has one more change than me in the mission, and he is awesome!! We had a killer day, we taught people all day long, and at night we celebrated his 6 months with tacos al pastor y pan de canela y azucar!! Yum!! We had great unity in our lessons, and the spirit was so strong when we were together, I can’t wait to work with him again!!

Saturday we got to go help Monica move some more in the morning and it wasn’t any better haha I feel bad for her though, things are just really tough for her! Highlight of the day was lunch with the fam Alquicira Fuentes! They gave us BBQ babyback ribs!!!!!! What???? They were so good! Then they gave us their famous dessert of half of a cantaloupe with ice cream and cookies! It was a good end to a good week!!!

Love you all and miss you!!!

Elder Stout

Bday Week!!!

So Happy Birthday to Jacob today!!!! Happy Number 11!!!! And Happy Birthday to Sam on Wednesday! Haha you are like in the age in between two milestones, so hang in there!!!

So maybe I should’ve changed this last change just to mix things up because I am really just settling in here and it doesn't feel like that much has happened but I will try to think of things!

So Monday, the thing that was really weird was that a ton of people just randomly started talking to us, some were like anti-Mormons, some just wanted to speak English with us, but some like legit wanted to talk to us about our message, and so that was pretty cool! It was an awesome blessing from the Lord!

Tuesday we had a zone conference and it was awesome, I am starting to realize how powerful of a man our mission president is because he pretty much was talking about all of the things that we weren't doing but made us feel like we wanted to do better not like we had been doing bad, it was awesome! We had a big talk on health and cleanliness too! Haha you’d probably be surprised but we have like one of the cleanest houses here because Elder Hansen on his first day talked about how we can’t have the spirit if the house isn't clean so I have just followed him on that! Then that night we had a super cool lesson with Irma and Alicia where we were just super on the same page like one of us would turn to a scripture and then the other one would say it, it was so cool, and we really helped them a ton, and they want to get baptized!!!! So that was so cool!!!

So Wednesday we had a first lesson with some friends of Javier Gaspar Lino and it was just a really weird lesson, I don’t know how else to explain it, Elder Hansen and I weren't really feeling the spirit super strong and like they didn't focus at all and it was just really hard but we are going to have another lesson with them this week so I hope that goes better! 

Then on Thursday, the big highlight was that we went to a hamburger place for lunch, and it was probably really disgusting but since we hadn't eaten burgers forever, it was actually really good!! And it looked like super hipster and Seattle-y! So that was cool!!! Speaking of Seattle, thanks for the updated on the super bowl and I am so sad about that! Bleh but they will win next year or at least when I back home I promise! It was really hard because Thursday in the night, Alquicira Fiuentes invited us to watch the game, and it was so hard to tell them that I couldn't!

 

On Friday I did Blue Friday!!! Haha I wore all blue to support my team! Everyone here knows that I love the Hawks! I sent you some pictures! That night we went to Cruz Alquicira and the dad is about to hit his one year mark in the church and they are preparing to go to the temple to get sealed so that was awesome to hear and then they gave us like the best tortas ever!!! Tortas are Mexican sandwiches that are like beans, meat, guacamole, and tomatoes on really good bread and they were just amazing! Haha a lot about food this week I don’t know why!

On Saturday we had an awesome noche misional in the home of Irma and Alicia and We started off just by randomly being like “hey are there any neighbors you want to invite?” And they did! It was so cool! So we got to know some good people! We just like played games and stuff and talked about góspel principales! Then we went up for a lesson with Marcelina and she talked to us about how she feels peace when she is with us and loves going to church but she wants to keep going to the Catholic church and so we were just like wait why?? If you feel all of this and she was like I don’t know! So we challenged her to pray and we will hope that she recognizes her answer this time!

The only big thing that happened yesterday was that after fast Sunday a family gave us KFC! Haha they definitely broke the Sabbath day to buy it but oh my gosh it was soooo good! Mashed potatoes chicken!!! Yum!!!!! But instead of biscuits, you guessed it tortillas!!! Hahaha well, I hope you had a great week, I love and miss you all!!

Elder Stout

Happy Birthday Mom

Hey everyone!!

I hope you all had great weeks!!! I really Don't have a lot to report to this week but I will try to fill you guys all in!!! Also, today is moms bday!!! So I hope you are all super nice to her for me, and that you can feel how much I love you mom!!!!!!!

So as I said this week was pretty slow, haha we have had a pretty exciting couple of weeks before this one so it was kind of nice to slow down for a little bit! So we focused on two things that our mission president told us to do! First of all he wants us teaching 40 lessons a week and everyone in our area teaches like 15 to 20 so we really stressed that and we got up to 30 this week are are hoping for 40 Second is he wants us visiting the recent converts a lot a lot a lot so of those 30 14 were with recent converts so that was pretty awesome!

So Monday literally nothing happened! No one was home after p day! Tuesday we spent a lot of time walking around in the morning but then we had some really good lessons with the Gasparlinos about reading the scriptures ans they all set different goals for how much they want to read and so far they are keeping them!!!

Then we taught an incredible lesson to Irma and Alicia that we had planned to be about the plan of salvation but then it turned into the Sabbath day and it turns out that Irma has work on Sunday but is going to ask her boss to change it so that she can come to church! So those were both awesome!

Then Wednesday we taught the most lessons of any day this week but one person didn't show up in the afternoon so we walked around for an hour and I don't know why but it just felt super long!! But we had a rougher day, we didn't get across all of the things in the lessons that we wanted to! Especially with Marcelina because she invited her sister and her sister just dominated the whole lesson!

Thursday we had intercambios again and I was over with Elder yerena in the other ward, he used to be a DL and he is an awesome guy! He put a lot of trust in me while we were over there and it felt awesome, also they have a great rep with the members over there which other missionaries in their ward haven't had in the past so I am really happy for him! So one of the pictures is of a goat haha and it is like a week old and we were talking to the owner about it and we all loved it and we were like wheres its mom, and then he directed us to the bones that we had on our plate haha so that was quite the experience!! Also the lightning McQueen shampoo...haha we had a bet that if I stayed (because I thought I wouldn't) that I had to buy and use it, so at least I have had no tears this week!!!

 

Friday was another really uneventful day except that with Azucena she had her daughter in law there with her and so we got to start teaching her too and she is really interested! 

Then Saturday, the same thing happened!! Her son was there this time and we started teaching him too!! Really cool blessings for doing what President wants!!

Also on Saturday morning we helped Javier’s neighbor sort pencil sharpeners for her job haha and now she wants to listen to us, so that was kind of cool too!! We need to recognize things like this more in our lives!!!! But yesterday was kind of hard because no one was able to come to church and it was just really depressing but then Elder Hansen and I had like a pump up planning sesh and were going to make this week so good!!!! Well that's really it, I love and miss you all!!

Elder Stout

Seahawks!!!!

Hey all,

I was so glad to hear that the Seahawks are going to the Superbowl again!!! Woohoo!!! I am sooo excited!! I really wish i could have watched that game with all of you! It sounded so absolutely crazy!!!! But hey the is the first of only 2 Superbowls that I will miss! I did the math there will only be 23 more weeks of football that I will miss phew I can do this! I hope Max had a great bday, it sounded like you all had a great time with everything!!!

So this last week was a little less eventful! First of all we met everyday with Ana and Andrea to prepare them for their baptism so that took up a lot of our time! But on Tuesday in the night time we went to a menos activo guys house, Roberto Fernandez, and it turns out his wife's bday was Monday, and Elder Hansen's was Sunday so we ate cake with them which was super cool and nice of them!!! 

Then Tuesday we had a second lesson with Marcelina and we found out that her 20 year old son passed away just a few months ago so that is super hard for her! So we taught a really powerful lesson on the plan of salvation and we were almost in tears because we could just feel the spirit of the message so strongly! Wow, I really hope that we get to help her to do the things she needs to do to see her son again some day. 

The next day I was on intercambios with Elder Neyra in his area and it was really funny because we are from the same generation so we were both still in our training and it was like weird because we are both new! Also I may or may not have gotten hit by a car while I was with him haha oops *(the yellow ones dont stop here either) Hahaha but we taught some really good lessons on the Book of Mormon, and I really saw the spirit help me because I had no idea what wed be teaching! 

Then Friday we had the interviews with Ana and Andrea for their baptism and they went awesome! Then afterwards we had a lesson with them and challenged them to take the sacrament every week for the rest of their life, and they just had a great time! 

Saturday morning was kind of awful, we have a huge area, and we haven't been up to the top of the mountain in like 3 weeks so we went up there and literally just walked around for 3 hours because everyone wasn't home haha but we had some good bonding time. I love Elder Hansen! Then we had like the most awesome baptism in the entire world! I gave the talk on baptism and then our ward mission leader Ramiro took forever to change but while we were waiting for him all of the people could just feel the spirit so strongly! 

All of our investigators that were there, especially Alicia and Irma said they just felt hermosa which I don't know what the translation is but its awesome!! Then Andrea came up to us and said I feel something right here and pointed to her heart, wow so cool! Yesterday all that really happened was the relieving news that we will not be transferring this cambio! Wow, so excited we are both staying! We have been having so much success here and loving it, and wow so cool! I am so blessed to be in a great area with a great comp for another change!

Love you all,

Elder Stout

Happy Birthday Max!

Well first of all you better all be super nice to my Little cuate Max this week for his bday!!!! I wish I could spend it with yall!!!!

So we had an incredible week this week, we are seeing the hand of the savior in literally every step of the work, it is so awesome! Tuesday we had like one of our best days yet, so in the afternoon all of our appointments fell through and so we were like well what do we do now, but then we got the prompting to visit a reference that we had received a while ago that lives close and she is pretty interested her name is Irma, but her daughter Alicia is so interested, like she is so ready for the gospel it is so awesome!!! Then we went to the GasparLino house and we taught the parents for the first time which was awesome because after this coming Saturday every kid will be a member, but I testified of having eternal families and how that is the reason I am on my mission and how I know that was restored by Joseph Smith and the spirit just exploded in the room! All of the kids were crying, I am really hoping we can get them all to be an eternal family together! Wednesday was another awesome day where we taught Ana and Andre GasparLino but then in the night we had an appointment with a menos activo named Roberto and he just like opened up to us and told us how 3 years ago he cam home from his mission early for disobedience and how he regrets that more tan anything and how he knows that he needs to change and then his wife made us an incredible lasagna so that was really really cool!!! then Thursday we had some more incredible lessons! With Armando (bishops son, menos activo) he was talking about how hard life is for him and Elder Hansen shared the scripture from the Bible about how Jesus almost didn't want to go through with all the suffering and then I shared the scripture to Joseph Smith from Liberty jail and Armando just broke down and told us that this was exactly what he needed and that every time he sees us he gets the strength to avoid temptation and all the bad in the world so that was pretty cool! Friday we had splits and I was with Elder Gamboa who is from Veracruz and it was my first time being in charge because he came to my area, and we taught every single person from the GasparLinos haha we spent all day there, and then we helped them clean up there house and cook which was super fun! Then Saturday morning Elder >Gamboa and I got to teach a  new investigator named Marcelina and she had a son who died so we talked about the plan of salvation and she says she knows that its true and wants to be baptized! So cool!!! Then Saturday night, we had like a family home evening in the GasparLino house and it was all taught by the Ward missionaries, and it was awesome we didn't have to do everything, and like every investigator we had was there, it was so cool!! Then yesterday was my comps birthday but he didn't want anyone to know so we didn't get like any special food or anything but we had a really weird experience last night where all the power from our entire town went out for like an hour, and it was just like super sketchy because it was dark everywhere, but we followed promptings and were all safe!!

I love you all, have a great week!!

Elder Stout!