July 13 - Hey y'all!!!

Hey!

So this was an awesome week!

 

First of all the big news, Rafa passed his interview and got baptized this Saturday! He asked me to do it which was really cool! I don’t know if you guys have noticed but this is my first male convert! I don’t know why it has worked out that way, but it’s just how it has! So I finally broke the running joke of our zone leaders that every time that I saw them they would always say (of course like the only phrase in English they know) Flirt to Convert. Hahaha I guess that they didn’t realize that all my converts have been like 40 but, finally I won’t have that nickname in the mission! Haha but it was a cool baptismal service! Apart from the fact that there were like 10 people there and that everyone showed up an hour late, it was super cool!

So one of the pictures that I sent was a super cool fruit that I ate this week! It’s called a Nanche, and it is like a huge grape inside of this spiky shell! But super yummy!

I also had intercambios this week with Elder Walker! Haha he is a redneck from Idaho who loves country music, and football just like me! We get along super well! I like intercambios with him a ton, except for after about 20 mins we somehow end up speaking English again....oops! But, he is finishing his mission super strong, and I am learning a ton from him!

A cool miracle that we saw this week! We occasionally visit an hermana named Eva, and she has a son who is inactive and has been for years and wants nothing to do with us or the church. But this week we found him in the street and we started to talk to him, and he was like hey why don’t you guys pass by so I can ask you some questions, so we set up an appointment with him and headed on over. When we got there he introduced us to his nonmember wife, and we taught a super powerful lesson about families. The spirit was so strong! He told us, I still don’t understand a lot, but I want what you just taught us, and his wife accepted baptism! It was super cool!

I forgot my planner today that’s why I didn’t give a day by day run down, but I think I outlined the highlights, hope you all had a great week!

Elder Stout

July 6 - Happy July

Hey all!

I hope you had a great week! I am really sad that I wasn’t able to spend 4th of July with you all, it was kind of a letdown, Elder Walker and I both forgot that it was that day! But I made my comp sing the star spangled banner with me in the night time haha it was awesome, but I am pretty sure that he doesn’t like Americans but I am going to help him to love us! Don’t worry! Haha but this was a pretty chill week, not much happened, so I will give some highlights!

First of all we got to meet our new president, President Meacham! He is awesome! He is from a small town in Utah and he made doughnuts for his job. He served in Costa Rica....a really long time ago... He came home from his mission and met his wife and they got married even thought she was only 17! Haha and she knows even less Spanish than he does but she seems so nice! She just kept saying Les Amo Les Amo again and again while crying! He tried to do the whole training in Spanish even though he doesn’t really know it, and even though it was hard to understand we all felt the spirit so strong! I left with a renewed desire to divulge my time studying the scriptures and in fervent prayer, it was such a cool spiritual experience!

 

Then later on in the week, I actually got to spend some one on one time with President! I did a baptismal interview for Elder Walker and Elder Vasquez and I wasn’t sure if the Hermana was ready so I called President and he came and did the Special interview for her, so I got to spend some time talking to him, Elder Fillmore and Elder Hamilton (the assistants) which was fun. I also got to talk with President that night about one of our investigators who needs a special interview for serious sins committed in the past, and it is just so cool to see how much he already cares about us and our investigators!

Other highlight, for my first time here in Olivos, and Hermana gave us money to go out and eat instead of giving us food in her house, so we went to a Chinese restaurant that looked super sketchy but it was super good and no one got sick! I felt like we were eating at Yokos again! I included some pictures!

Then to explain one of the other pictures...I was on intercambios with Elder Vasquez and they had a baptism so we went to go and clean the font, and we got there and well there was something that was on the inside and it was just super-duper gross! Haha I had to include the picture, and guess where it came from? From the faucet! Don’t worry I only drink store bought water down here!!

Oh, also I almost forgot that cambios are tomorrow, but I don’t have to worry about anything because all 4 of us in the district are staying, and our zone leaders are staying too which is super awesome because they are awesome, and I have really grown to like them!

 

Well that was our week here in the DF, hope next week will be more interesting!

Elder Stout

June 29 - Almost July

Howdy all,

Well I can’t believe that you are going to be celebrating the 4th of July this week, how crazy is that?? Well the big news this is week is that today is officially the last day of President Valadez and his wife, as I am typing this President Meacham is probably arriving, wow, this is going to be so weird, I learned so much from President Valadez but I am super excited to get to know President Meacham too! So, with the change of mission president, our mission office is changing too, so if you would like to send me anything, do itat the following address:

Elder Scott Alexandre Stout

Misión México Ciudad de México Sur
Cerro de Jesús # 115
Colonia Campestre Churubusco
Delegación Coyoacán, México, D.F.
C.P. 04200

efo

Well this week was a long week again! Haha we walked a ton, not as much as a couple weeks ago, but it wasn’t nearly as successful as last week was for us! So Tuesday was a lot of walking but the one bright spot was a lesson that we had with Arturo Politron, an investigator, he is the husband of a menos active and he hasn’t been really progressing recently so that has been a little bit of a bummer for us, but randomly for this lesson I felt the need to teach about why we get baptized that it’s actually a commandment from God as well and that for every commandment God promises us a blessing, and then he accepted to be baptized which was pretty cool!

Wednesday we started trying to look for a lot more people to teach but we were out of luck because literally no one was home, I think it was some sort of holiday because there was also a ton of like tents in the street and a ton of people were having parties and stuff, but who knows? Haha but a rougher day.

Then Thursday we had a nice surprise when we went to the Rodriguez Inciso family’s house, because they introduced us to their aunt and cousin who are both interested in learning more about the church so we got to teach them too! They are awesome and we are looking forward to teaching them again!

Friday I got to have intercambios with the zone leaders, Elder Tapia from Veracruz came to my area and he worked with me! We had an awesome lesson with our investigator Ivette and we helped her realize that she has been feeling the spirit this whole time, and that its been answering her prayers but she just hasn’t realized it! Then in the nighttime we had a super contentious lesson with a less active family who were asking us why they couldn’t get tattoos and then just repent afterwards, it was an awful lesson to teach, the Spirit wasn’t there with us at all, and I just wanted to leave as soon as possible.

But, I had a cool experience that night with Elder Tapia, he just sat me down and was pretty blunt and said you do this this and this well, but you really need to work on this and this, and it was kind of a confidence blow to hear that from the zone leader, but right afterwards, he was like so to fix that we are going to practice right now, so I had like an hour of 1 on 1 seeing examples from one of the greatest teachers in the mission to help me get better, which was a pretty cool experience! Also, to see how the hand of the Lord worked in my life, that I was struggling with how to help this ward, how to love these members, and realyl missing my first area, and Elder Tapia trained me on how to truly be an asset to the ward, and how to change our attitude, and he doesnt know it but that was exactly what I needed to hear! That was cool! Haha then Saturday we had an awesome lesson with Mario Aladino who has been investigating the church forever but just recently accepted our baptismal invitation, we talked about the importance and the blessing of eternal familias and invited them to get married so he could start living the law of chastity before being baptized and he accepted! It was awesome to see how ready he is, and how much he has been prepared for this as well!

Yesterday was so boring! After church we had to go to the area of the zone leaders to report on our week, and usually it’s a 40 minute bus ride both ways, but there was a ton of traffic so it turned into 2 hours both ways and that was literally the only thing that we did yesterday.

Well, have a fun 4th! Love and miss you all!

Elder Stout

June 22 - 9 months???

Haha so my comp pointed out this week that he must have been born premature because I just barely hit the 9 month mark in my mission, he is such a goofball, he is hilarious!

But this week went really well!!! The big announcement is that Minerva the mom of the Dominguz family got baptized!! How cool!

So Monday was a pretty normal day except for at my district meeting the Zone Leaders came to evaluate me, so that was pretty nerve-wracking but I think I did a pretty good job, it’s getting easier and easier, and I am feeling more and more comfortable every week! Then afterwards we had a really cool Family Home Evening with a menos activo family about being the light of the world and being an example of the believers to the rest of the people, and I am really starting to develop my ability to teach kids!

Tuesday we did divisions for the first time with Elder Hilario, and I went with Nephi, he’s like 20 years old and super cool, and we taught some good lessons!

Wednesday we finally caught up with some of the recent converts from our area and got to teach them which is good because the majority of them are inactive and I don’t really blame them, but I will get to that on Sunday!

Thursday we had the fun opportunity to go to the offices again for like the 5000000 time because my comp needed his credit card, but then there were a ton of problems with it, so we were there for forever! It was awful, we lost almost a whole day of work!

Friday, I did intercambios for the first time with Elder Walker from Idaho! The dude is awesome!!! I loved working with him, and not going to lie, after 20 mins we were only speaking English, but our English is awful because we have both been with Latin comps for a while, but it was super fun, he’s ancient in the mission, he goes home in September so he had a lot of stories to tell, and he is just an awesome guy, he really knows how to work hard, and he is an example of the missionary that we should all be.

Saturday was the big baptism which is the start of my complaints about my ward. I know we should love the areas where we serve, and I promise that I do, I am just a little upset with the ward right now. No one came to the baptism. Literally no one! It was just her, one member of the bishopric and the three talks that we had assigned, she loved that those people had come which was awesome, but all of us missionaries were pretty upset to see the support of the members like this.

Then yesterday was the most boring day of church that I have seen, I don’t know what it was, but I honestly just felt bad for the investigators that came because it wasn’t very spiritually edifying. Any advice from people who have served in hard wards where missionary work isn’t a priority by any means? Thanks.

Then last night we had an awesome lesson with an investigator named Mario, he has been investigating for a year, but has never wanted it bad enough to get married to his girlfriend, but after last night, for the first time he set the goal to get married so he can get baptized, so it was a super spiritual lesson with him!

Well hope y’all had a great week! Love and miss you!

Elder Stout

June 15 - Walking

Hey! 

I hope you all had a good week, my week is summed up by the subject line. I feel like all we did was walk all week long, it was a super long and hard week bleh! 

Monday there was nothing really to report!

Tuesday we had a zone conference, and they absolutely ripped us a new one! So there is a rule that says that we can’t visit people of the opposite sex unless there is a man home as well and I guess like a year ago to help his zone have better numbers a zone leader said that if we left the door open to the street it was okay, but since he was a zone leader a ton of people started doing it, and well it became the norm of the mission, but well this week, President just talked to us about how that is not the rule and how we need to be better and more obedient. And it is hard, our ward has like no priesthood, and we live in a poor area so all the men are working all day long, so that is the main reason that we were walking all week because we got to a house and it was hermana is there a man here? No. Oh, well we can’t enter. Not even with the door open like always? No actually hermana from now on we can’t do that anymore. Bleh and all the hermanas got super mad about that! Yikes! SO that sums up Tuesday haha, and well pretty much the week!

Wednesday we had a cool experience where we ate with the hermana that cuts our hair and we entered her barbershop and there was a man just sitting there so we assumed he was waiting to get a haircut so we just started talking to him and we found out that his mom had just passed away and that he was really upset with what their preacher had said about where she is and so he came to talk with the hermana about her beliefs. So we jumped on the opportunity to tell him where his mom is and that she is waiting for him to accept the gospel so they can be together again through the Plan of Salvation. It was an awesome lesson! He accepted baptism and everything, his name is Ramiro, and I know the Lord was blessing us for our obedience to the rules of the mission.

The name of Thursday would be walking! We walked around the whole afternoon bleh! I am not kidding!

You guessed it Friday was exactly the same, we taught a couple quick lessons in the morning before eating but then the whole afternoon it was just walking and walking and more walking.

Then Saturday......more walking hahaha it was awful, it felt like one of the longer weeks of my mission, we were barely teaching at all the last couple days, and all I want to do as a missionary is teach! But it was really tough! Friday and Saturday we started counting and we visited 42 houses of people that couldn’t recieve us, yikes! Haha but we used that as motivation to examine the old investigators and the records of less actives that we have to look for more people that can recieve us, so we are hoping for a much better week this week!

Well my legs hurt, but besides that all is well here in Olivos!

Elder Stout

June 8 - Thanks!

Hey everyone! 

So first of all a huge thank you for the package! That was such an awesome surprise! I have already eaten like all of the cookies....haha but I rationalized that they were probably going to be the first thing to go bad, right?.. hahaha but I absolutely loved it! I loved the notes, I absolutely loved the guy from Max I literally died laughing, and Max you can ask my comp, I yelled “For Narnia” when I read the thing hahahahaha that was so funny! But I love everything you sent me! My comp loves American sweets so that’s awesome, and the books are super duper cool, thanks dad!! I can’t express how cool it was to get something from you guys! I love and miss you guys!

Well this week, the highlight of Monday was our district meeting, it was super cool, I taught about how we can be a part of the ward better, how we can really make a difference in the ward council and work with these people that have been called to be leaders of the ward, and we had a great discussion, and we all left super excited to go out and work, which is an awesome feeling to have after giving a district meeting.

Then Tuesday, we had one of the worst lessons that I have had in my entire mission, I feel so bad that for my comp it happened in his first week haha that would be awful! It was a reference from some members, and the hermana is named the Señora Chona and we went and she literally talked for an hour and a half without letting us have one word so we literally started with a prayer she talked for an hour and a half and then we prayed again. It was so boring and awful! Bleh I was so frustrated and angry when we left, because I have found that I have really come to love teaching and helping people come unto Christ, like I just want to be teaching more than any other thing, I just enjoy teaching, helping people and feeling the guidance of the spirit!

Wednesday we had a lesson with the family Dominguez again and it is starting to get frustrating with them because when we teach them they are like super excited but I guess when Sunday morning rolls around they must lose that excitement because they just never can quite make it to church, bleh that’s the worst! The people here all have a super Catholic background, and well the majority of the Catholics here call themselves believers, which means they don’t go to church, so trying to get people to come to church is hard, because it’s just not a part of their culture here!

Thursday we found a new investigator which was really cool! He is named Edwin and he has like 14 or 15 years! Wow that is not how we say that in English, but oh well! Haha and his mom is less active, but he is super excited and wants to learn more about Christ! Then that night we got a scary call that I had an interview with President; that is almost never a good thing.

So, I started freaking out until we got there Friday morning and he called me into his office, and it was my interview for my temple recommend that I lost, haha phew, that was a huge relief! But, I got to see Elder Lovo, Elder Almeida, and Elder Hansen there too! Elder Hansen and Elder Lovo are comps now, what a small world!

Then Saturday we had a really weird lesson with a lady who we contacted. She called us Friday night and was like you need to meet me in front of your church in the morning, so we were like ummmm okay. Then we went and she wanted us to like go and cast a devil or an evil spirit or something from her friend, but her friend wasn’t home, so I guess we will never see what was on the other side of that door haha, but then afterward we just talked with her, and it was a weird talk because it was just answering her REALLY weird questions about the church, but she told us she will give us a ton of people to teach that need God, so at least that came of it!

Then yesterday, like no one came to church because it was the elections! So not much to report, well I hope you all had a great week!

Elder Stout

June 1, 2015 - Mi Hijo!!!!!

Hey all!!!

Well the big news today is that I have my first hijo in the mission!! That’s the other thing that we call greenies down here! Haha he is awesome! His name is Elder Hilario he is from Northern Argentina. He is 21 years old and has served as a ward mission leader for the last couple of years so he doesn’t need a bunch of training, but it has been so fun to be with him and I have already learned a ton! I am so humbled for the trust that the Lord has given me to trust me with this special experience.

So Monday we did a lot of saying goodbye to families from the ward, we ate like 3 different times in our P day which was good, but I need to go on a diet I think haha, that night after our district meeting we went to the setting apart for one of the hermanas in the ward Melissa Enciso who is from one of our favorite families in the ward, she left for the Querretero? Mission on Tuesday!

Tuesday we spent most of the day with cambios and I got rushed into a training and I thought I had done something wrong because there was only one other Elder there and the assistants said President will be here in just a second, so I was pretty scared. Then he walked in and he is like congratulations you will be training our two newest missionaries, I was still scared, just in a different way! Haha but President gave a great training on the importance we have and the things we need to do to help the new missionaries, and why the Lord has trusted us with this. After a super long training I met up with Elder Hilario and we were off to Olivos again. We got here to meet the two new elders that whitewashed my district, Elder Walker (Idaho) and Elder Vasquez(Ecuador) Elder Vasquez is actually the papa of Elder Lovo who just left! They are awesome guys!

Wednesday came and went haha it was an interesting day teaching about 90% of the lessons because my comp is new but I am still thankful that he knows Spanish so that I am not teaching 100% of the lessons.

Thursday was a really hard day, literally no one was home we walked around for like 6 hours straight without finding one person to teach, in the rain, bleh, I feel bad for my comp, he is going to think we have days like that all the time!

Friday, we put a goal to contact more people in the street, and we saw a lot of success with it, in the evening we both felt prompted to contact a few families and for the first time in my life I saw consecutive families accept a contact!!

Saturday we had an awesome day that was spent teaching lessons the whole time! Woohoo!! I love doing that, haha! One of the cooler lessons was with the family Chaparro who kind of vanished from our radar for a little bit, but they told us they feel closer and closer to the church and they think they are going to make a decision soon!

Then Sunday, Gus Chaparro game to church for the first time, I was so excited!! He is so awesome, he just gives me the biggest hug every time he sees me and thanks me a ton, I can’t wait until he decides to get baptized! I also gave a talk where I kind of scolded the ward a little bit by talking about how the missionaries are here to support the efforts of the ward, but that we are going to leave after just a little bit, so it cant be all us. I challenged them to really think of these people as their converts, their investigators and their members and take charge. I think it was what they needed to hear, so I think its alright that I was a little hard!!

Well, I hope all is well

Elder Stout