June 28 - I am John F. Kennedy and people want my autograph

Hey all!!

So first of all I was thinking a lot about what I could title my email today and I finally got it. It doesn`t have much to do about the things that happened this week but I thought it was funny. So first of all, there is a crazy old guy in our area who is super famous because he honestly seems like a zombie. He had some drug addiction problems in his youth and completely fried his brain and now he just walks around mumbling and chasing people and yelling swear words at them. Haha, and well he likes to give people names, the name that he has chosen for me is John F. Kennedy, and everytime we see him he yells ``I will learn English to talk to you John F. Kennedy because in my past life I killed you!`` Haha he`s just a harmless old guy, but its funny! Then, this week Elder Crandall and I were just walking through the apartment buildings in our area, and all these little kids started yelling, "gueritos!" which is the equivalant f white boys and pretty much everyone yells us that here. But, when we passed by them they came running up to us and stopped us, and said "Can we please have your autograph, so we got to give them all our autograph and they ran away super excited. That was a cool moment of the mission.

 

So the coolest thing from last week was with the Paniagua family (yes their name means bread and water). The hermano is our ward mission leader and a recent convert of like a year and a half, and they went and got sealed int he temple this last week and then on Saturday evening, he got to baptize his grandson, Yamil! We have had a long battle there, because Hermano Paniagua`s daughter wants nothing to do with the church and has not wanted to give him permission to be baptized, but she finally gave it to him after much prayers on our part and the part of that family, what a miracle that shows how the Lord can truly soften hearts.

Next on the list, after a tough week last week with finding new investigators, we really got it moving again. Some of the tender mercies that we saw this week: 1 we are teaching Tomy`s niece and her husband right now and the third time that we went there, we asked them, do you have any questions for us? Cristian and Ema looked at each other, and then Cristian said, "What do we have to do to be baptized?" wow, thats a really cool question! 2 we are right now visiting a recovering drug addict named Johnathon and as we taught him the Gospel of Jeus Christ, even before we extended the invitation, he said, "I think I would like to be baptized in one month, how does that sound to you guys?" President has told us so many times, when the people that we teach truly understand the magnitude of the doctrine that we teach, they wont be able to wait, how true it is! Our message is true and is changing lives. 3 We recieved a reference where a sister chased us down on the street and told us, I am from another ward but I want you to teach my friend who lives here. We obviously consented with much enthusiasm! Her name is Sandra, and she was pretty hesistant the first time that we met her in her doorstep, but by the end of the first visit she was anxious to learn more of the restored gospel. I loved seeing how much the spirit worked on these people that we are teaching! He is the real teacher, not us! then number 4 isn`t with a newer investigator, but on Sunday our bishop called me out of the Gospel Principles class and he told me, Elder Stout you have to come and see this, so I went with him to his office and he showed me on his whiteboard that it was written "Valeria, 6 of August, 6 pm" and he told me that Valeria Ortiz Muñoz who we dropped a little bit ago because she seemed to have lost intest in the things came and talekd with him and set her own baptismal date. What a blessing this week was, the Lord is always behind us, it is just learning how to be patient!

 

I hope you all recognize His hand in your week as well,

Elder Stout

June 21 - To the Rescue

Hey all so this is going to be a little bit of a shorter email because I have been trying to get some more stuff organized for classes, and its pretty frustrating! Haha but its all good!

We had a great week this last week. But one of the things that we are really struggling with is finding the Lord´s elect. We have been blessed with the success of quite a few baptisms in this area, but the more we baptize it just seems like the less people that we have in our teaching pool. We are finding a lot of people, but they just aren´t the elect that we are looking for, they aren´t the people that the lord has been preparing, so that has been a little tough on us. We had to make th etough desicion this last week to stop visiting the hermana Dulce for a while because she just hasn´t been putting forth her part to come to church. I know the Lord has a lot o fpeople prpared for us, and that I just need to be more patient and they will come, so I am just going to keep on working hard in that!

Today we had a zone training in the morning, and Elder Crandall and I had the opportunity to share with everyone what I wrote last week about searching out those who have lost their way and helping them come back. We actually planned out three different zone trainings and we did not know at all what we were going to teach until we got up there. Then it came to us! We talked to everyone about how we are representatives of Jesus Christ and how he always goes after the lost sheep, he goes and rescues them. We challenged the zone to find even more less actives and help them to come back to the fold of our Savior. It turned out great, I am so happy for the Spirit that guides us as we teach.

Well, that was the rundown of the week, I hope that you all have a great one. With much love,

Elder Stout

June 14 - Enduring to the End

Hey all!!

Well I was super excited to see all of the aweseom photos from the last week, especially seeing that Sam is finally done with high school!!! WOOOOHOOOO Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tats so awesome bud!!

So this week the big event was Tomy´s baptism! I was so excited for her, it was such an incredible day! She has been waiting a long time and been ready for a long time ot be able to be baptized but it has just been moved around for various things, but finally this last Saturday it was her day! It was a very spiritual service. America who gave us the reference in the beginning gave an incredible talk where she just shared her feelings with Tomy. It was one of the most heartfelt talks that I have ever heard. After the baptismal ordinance the hermana Tomi shared her feelings with everyone and it was super spiritual, she just talked to us about how clean she felt and her emotions really took over, but the spirit was felt in the entire room.

This week we had some pretty cool oportunities to hear some trainings from President Mecham. He really focused in on two things. One was the importantce of strengthening the church area where we serve. He said we do this by baptizing converted people and by helping bring back the lost sheep that have fallen away from the path. Then, he talked about how to finish our missions!:) Haha in these next two changes President will lose what he calls the nucleus of the mission. He will lose 10 Zone Leaders and 2 Assistents. But, he said all that we have done in our entire missions means nothing now in a certain frame of mind. He said: If you play hard for 50 minutes in the Super Bowl and then decide to sit out the last 10 minutes you will be remembered forever as a failure and the same goes in the mission. He said that in our mission, missionaries DO NOT die! I have included as my scripture of the week as 2 Nephi 31:15-16 along with my promise that I will not be dying. I have spent 22 months preparing to be this missionary that I am now. As I now understand even so much better how to do the Lords work, He needs all I have, and he will get it these last 2 months. I am going to be leaving it all out here, and am going to finish with the sure confidence that there was nothing else I could have given in Mexico!!  

15 And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, thewords of my Beloved are true and faithful. He thatendureth to the end, the same shall be saved.

 16 And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following theexample of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.

The last cool thing of the week was Sunday. First of all, our bishop gave an incredible talk on Sunday about going to the rescue of the less actives in our ward. He talked about how every member of the church joined the church at some point because someone; members, family, bishops, or missionaries; prayed over them and then they became a member. Every person has a story behind them, and we need to go and save these people. It was super cool combined with what President had taught us and I am going to give an even greater effort to find and activate these people!

Well, thats all from CDMX! Have a great first week of Summer up there! I love you all!

Elder Stout

Jun 6 - The week of Paco

Hey everyone,

Well the first big news is that I will be staying here in Churubusco one more change with Elder Crandall, I am so excited. This will now be my 5th change here but it will be such a cool opportunity. Usually after 4 changes I have wanted to leave from an area but I am so pumped to be staying here, in this ward, in this area and in this zone! I will also be ´´killing´´ Elder Crandall because I will be his last comp so thatll be pretty fun!

So this week, pretty much everything had to do with Paco! So, Tomi didnt get baptized on Saturday because she left town for a family emergency but all is well and she will be baptized when she gets back! But, this Friday we got to accompany Paco and Mari and their family out to the Estado de Mexico so that they could get married. It was a really cool experience to see that after 5 years they made this desicion. Pretty much everything went wrong in the process but the only important thing is that after all was said and done, they got married, phew! We also got to experience Uber for the first time which is pretty cool! After the marriage we all celebrated with a super fancy pizza lunch from Lil Ceasers haha they are the best family ever, I love them so much and it was so much fun to spend the day with them!

Then Saturday was the big day! Paco asked me to baptize him which was a huge honor. It was really nice baptizing a man because I got to give him a big hug in the font when he came up, and it was amzing even though the water was ice cold. His wife Mari and his daughter Azul gave amazing talks. Azul got up there and just expressed her feeling on the Holy Ghost but nothing will stick with me as when she said ´´Today is a special day because my dad is getting baptized. Today our forever family starts.´´ She had the whole room in tears! After the baptism Elder Crandall and I gave them a picture of the temple and made the goal with them that we would all be back here together in one year for when they enter the temploe to be sealed. It was an incredible expereience that we all lived together, what a huge change that has come over this family. There truly is hope for everyone, Mary stopped coming to church for years because she felt like no one supported her because her family is inactive and her husband wasnt a member. 4 months after we talked to them for the first time in the street they are active, everyone in the family is members of the church and they are going to be sealed in the temple in one year!:) I love missionary work!

 

Well thats all from CDMX this week! Cant wait for another change in Churubusco!

Con amor,

Elder Stout

May 31 - I am NOT dying

Hey all,

So first of all, I am not dying, contrary to popular belief! I have been visiting a doctor this week, and I am going to survive! To make a long story short, sorry for including too much info in the last email that might have worried some people, I was just kind of freaked out too, but honestly I am happy and healthy! I just think my body is about done with Mexican food! But it can last three more months! I will keep you updated if there is anything else we find out, but if not! Dont worry about me!

This last week was occupied pretty much all by running around the city on different assignements and companin exchanges and things like that, so its really hard to remember it all! But I dont think we had one normal day to just work in the area!

One thing I do remember is we had the pportunity to do companion exchanges with the elders in Estrella who are on fire right now! They are awesome, two super funny guys, and some of the most motivated missionaries in the mission. They are honestrly the talk of the mission right now. I got to go work in Estrella with Elder Rivera and we had an awesome day, a long and hot day, but awesome!

Our investigators are going great! This week Tomi and Paco have their baptismal dates, so please pray that everything can go well with them. We are going to get to go with Paco when they get married which will be so exciting! Tomi has also been introducing us to all of her friends and we have found a bunch of good investigators from her, we are just hoping they can all come feel the spirit in her baptismal service this Saturday.

Speaking of that, Elder Crandall and I did a special zone training on Saturday, focusing on helping the zone to prepare our baptismal services better so that it is truly a memorabl spiritual experience for everyone who goes. It was a really cool training! Afterwards we had the idea to do an area attack, so we split everyone up in groups and we all went to one part of teh zone to just contact everyone that we can, and it was super successful! I got to be with Elder Jarrett adn it was inspirational to talk with him, he is going to be such a great leader someday, I really look up to him!

Well thats all from Churubusco, with the reminder that for changes next week will be a Monday Pday!! Love yall!!

Elder Stout

May 24 - My hen died and I need to bury her

Dad editorial comments...

Ok so before you read this and freak out, Ann was able to talk to Sister Mecham four about 90 minutes, and everything is fine. Alex is not sick, and he did not have the issues he outlines below. He went to a doctor who is a quack and not approved by the mission. The full body scan Alex refers to below was the doctor waving a couple of magnetic wands over him.  Just to be safe, Alex is going to see the normal mission doctor next week.

All of the missionaries in Mexico City are feeling worn out due to the conditions of the air. But, it is not something to worry about.

So, be sure to give Alex a hard time when he comes home about the quack of a doctor he chose to go and see!

Also, no photos this week. :(

--------------------------------------------------- 

Hey all! 

So first of all sorry if this is a short email, and sorry because I will probably not be sending one personal email today because we literally just got back to the area after I had a doctor’s visit! It was...fun! Well, to let everyone know, I have been having some health issues the last few weeks of just feeling pretty sick and always being super tired so we went and visited a doctor that was recommended by the mission and he did a full body scan of me. First of all, my lungs have been wrecked by the smog here, he says that they look like a light smoker’s lungs. Also, the diet here of eating so much fat is starting to take its toll, and he said that combined with the work here has had some bad consequences. He said that my whole body shows up as fatigued, he says that just everything is worn out and that he has never done a scan like that, he literally told me I have to slow down and not work as hard if I want to make it home in one piece! He said that because of that I have super deficiencies in some minerals and that is causing some major problems in my gall bladder and my pancreas which is what has been causing me to be sick. He also said, you are so exhausted at the end of the day that your body can’t fully rest itself. Well, now he has me on a special diet and I will be going in for tests and procedures so that I don’t need my gall bladder taken out or anything, so I will keep you updated!

My subject line is probably the funniest excuse I have ever received for why somebody couldn’t go to church. On Sunday morning we called Jorge Gomez, and he sounded pretty torn up as he told us that his pet hen had passed away and that he wouldn’t be attending church for her funeral service...

This week I had some very cool experiences following the Holy Ghost that just helped remind me that this is truly His work and not ours. On Saturday night we were teaching Paco (who is progressing great) and we had planned to teach him about the plan of salvation. As we started, I felt the need to ask to see the pamphlets that we had given them while we were teaching Azul, as I was looking at them, the prompting came to me ´´You need to teach the one that isn’t here´´ I was confused and then noticed that the Word of Wisdom pamphlet was not with the rest. So I completely changed the lesson up on Elder Crandall (I am sure he thought I had lost it) and started to teach the Word of Wisdom. To make a long story short, we found out partway through the lesson that he has a smoking problem and that he didn´t know it was something that he was going to have to drop, what a blessing that we were able to find that to help him. On a side note, PLEASE pray for Paco everyday so that he can break his addiction!

Then, on Sunday night we were just walking in the street on the way to our final appointment when we passed a guy that was obviously a little tipsy. I usually never talk to people like that because it usually doesn’t end well for American missionaries in Mexico. But, the Spirit stopped me in my tracks and said ´´talk to him´´ so I obeyed. After presenting ourselves he asked us something along the lines of if we had been sent by God, we said yes. And he said something I will never forget, ´´I was just walking down this street thinking of all the problems I have caused in my life, pleading with God that he send me help to be able to overcome all these problems and start again, and then out of the nothing you stopped to talk to me, can you help me?´´ With tears in my eyes I told him that God loved him and had sent us to help him. We taught him how to pray and offered a kneeling prayer on the side of the road where Nicholas asked God for forgiveness and for strength to overcome. It was the first real prayer he had ever done. I am thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost, I would be nothing without him, I love being an instrument in God´s hands to answer prayers and work miracles. I love this work!

Until next week,

Elder Stout

May 18 - learning to dance in the rain

Hey all!!

Well, the rainy season has officially started here in Mexico City, and I love it! I walk around without a jacket or umbrella in torrential downpours because it just reminds me of Seattle, haha whenever anyone tells me that I am crazy I just tell them that it rains like this pretty much every day where I live. But, I am for sure going to appreciate the rain more when I am home!

First update, working in Espartaco has been a lot harder than we expected! I have never opened an area in my entire mission, and I have so much respect now for the elders that have done it. It’s even harder because well with the circumstances for why the other elders got taken out, they didn’t leave us with very good records or with many people to teach but we are doing our best! The other night we were there and we got totally lost! We had to spend the night in the other elders’ house and we weren’t sure how to get there so we asked the last hermana that we taught how to get there and she told us how to get back but the little colony was like a maze! We ended up running in a complete circle, but it was a fun experience!

Our area is going great! Paco, Dulce and Tomi are progressing really well but please have them in your prayers because they are all passing through some hard things right now that might cause them get baptized a little later than expected! Tomi is having a lot of opposition from her family! Paco needs to get married and Dulce is looking for a work, but all of the jobs and all her interviews are on Sundays :(.

But, we have two new people that we found last week that have us really excited! We have this hermano named Jorge Gomez, who is awesome! I have never seen anyone so ready to learn, he is always like taking notes during our lessons, it’s awesome! And this Sunday was his first time in church. Then yesterday we found the Santiago Sanchez family, and they are super awesome as well! It’s a family of 6, who years ago were investigating the church but the elders had changes and they never heard from them again. We had a super powerful first lesson with them yesterday, and we are hoping big things for them. Finding them was truly a blessing from the Lord!

Yesterday we had a really cool zone conference on really helping the investigators to understand the Sabbath Day. We started out just by calling up missionaries to practice with us as if we were their investigators without telling them anything. And every single one made it sound like going to church is just a requirement to get baptized. It’s true, but if we teach like that we aren’t preparing these people to keep renewing this sacred covenant for the rest of their lives, so we just did something really simple. After Elder Crandall and I gave an example of how it should be done and then we just had them practice for the rest of the conference until every missionary felt like they could do it well. I really loved it because before we have done practices but they haven’t been the focus, but we realized that they really should be the most important thing and that’s what we did! That might be my last zone conference as a ZL so it was really fun! The assistants and the sister training leaders put on some good activities too!

Another fun thing from last week is that after a lot of things going on in the mission and people that were needed in different areas, and I ended up being assigned with Elder Card, another ZL to go and clean out a house that we aren’t going to be using anymore. It was super fun; Elder Card is one of my best friends from the mission! Way back in San Pedro we were in the same district and it was fun to be able to spend time with him again! We got to run up and down three flights of stairs with fridges, beds and everything else in that house...in an absolute downpour! But it kind of sums up my whole mission, things are never going to go as we want them to go, but if we do our part, if we do the right thing, and more importantly if we are found in the service of our fellow beings and our God, even the rainiest day will be an exciting adventure, a learning experience, a day of laughter, and a memory forever!

I love the mission so much, I love serving people, and I love just knowing I am doing His work!

Elder Stout