6 months!!!!

Wow! 6 months down, can you all believe it??? I for sure can’t!!

So this week flew by! Wow I don’t even know what we did on what day or anything but I will try! So Monday we taught the niece of the bishop Carina and her husband Felipe and they are really nice, but they aren't married and have trouble going to church, so that’s going to be the hard thing with them!

Tuesday nothing really spectacular happened except that we are starting to really get the trust of the bishop and the other ward leaders because we went to his house that night and we taught him a lesson and he gave us like a big long list of people he wants us to visit so we are doing all we can to go and visit those people for him!

Wednesday I am not going to lie, I got a little upset in a lesson, I really hope it was the spirit, but I kind of scolded Irma Garcia...She was talking about all the blessings that they’ve had in their house because of Alicia’s baptism so I just like came out and was like you do know that she can bring blessings in for you, but she will never be able to replace your own saving ordinances and she just got really quiet but I hope she got the point! But on the high note, they got a pet hedgehog so that was fun to play with!!

Thursday I got to see a really cool side of my comp, he was made to talk with inactive members of the church, we went to this house and he was just like hey how are you doing and he invited himself in and stuff but then he was super friendly so they didn't get mad haha I could never be that assertive but it worked with these two women named Elouisa and Alejandra and we just taught about eternal families and they want them so they said they would come to church! So

Friday we did service for the first time for the hermana Guadalupe, and I guess it worked because she came to church too! She is an investigator who has been for like forever because she never goes to church, but she came! But she fed us tacos after and they were really sketchy like we were pulling out bones and stuff from them...so that afternoon I got really sick and we had to be in the house for the afternoon! But when we went back out because I didn’t feel awful anymore we had the random impression to go to the Relief Society President’s house and teach her about Christ and she said she had been praying for angels and that she couldn’t believed that we had just showed up, so that was a really cool experience!

 

Saturday we had a really cool experience where we were walking to the GasparLinos when a car randomly pulled up beside us and there was a woman crying and just said that she needed to talk about God, so we went to her house and we taught her, and besides the fact that she doesn't believe in religion just God, it was really good. Her name is Georgina, but she thinks she is going to get an answer to her prayer, so that is awesome, because that means that she will come to know it’s all true! Then in the afternoon, we did divisions for the first time, and I went with Daniel Chavez who is a returned missionary from the ward, and he is awesome, super funny!!! We taught a bunch of really awesome lessons and then we went to a noche misional in the night and it was super spiritual about the Book of Mormon!!

Yesterday was pretty awesome as well! We randomly decided to visit a house of a member last night where I had never been and we found out that living in their same complex were about 25 inactive members, so we got to know a ton of people and we gave out 4 different blessings in the space of an hour! Wow it was great! Well I hope you all are doing great, and just remember for every email so far, there will only be 3 more!! haha!

Elder Stout

Cambios!!!

Hola!!!

Well we had the cambios and my new comp is Elder Alvarado from Guatemala City! He has 9 months in the mission but I got assigned to be the senior comp which has been a huge change, but it is pretty cool!!!

So Monday was our last day together for Elder Hansen and me, and just like the 4 days before it, we spend it in the house! But we went to his dr appointment in the nighttime and it is right next to that really fancy mall, and since it was p day we got to go to DQ!!!!!!! It was so good because ice cream does not exist down here, so it was the first ice cream I have had in like 4 months!!

Tuesday was really hard to say goodbye to him but Elder Alvarado is awesome, the only way I can think to describe him is that he reminds me a ton of Ian Kahng haha so that is just kind of how he is! It is really different but we are getting along super well and I am learning a ton from him!

Wednesday I found out that my weakness is my comps strength-contacting! We contacted a ton of people the whole time that we were walking in the street! We set up a bunch of appointments with those people too! Wow!! So cool!! Also, I had this cool idea of setting a daily goal every day for our companionship so I have been doing that and we have been seeing a ton of success because of that!!

Thursday we saw our work pay off in a different way! Every single one of the appointments we put through contacting fell through but the Lord blessed us because every member we taught that day brought a friend and we had 7 new investigators! Wow! It was so cool!!! The family Martinez Salazar are relatives of Alquicira and have a lot of things going on in their lives that we can help with! The other family is super super nice! They are friends of Alicia, but they are super strong in their church, but super interested by Jose Smith so we will see how that goes!!

Friday, we had an appointment with an hermana that is teaching us how to make pastor meat!!! Yum!!!!!!! So I will be able to make it for yall when I get home!! In the night time we had a lesson that was pretty rough it was with an investigator and a menos activo family. The thing is that this investigator isn’t going to church because the family isn't so we kind of called them to repentance!

Saturday we had a super awesome lesson that just clicked with Marcelina! She is finally progressing again, and Elder Alvarado and I just taught really awesome together and followed the spirit muchisimo!!! It was so cool!! Hope all is well with you! Paz Fuera del DF

Elder Stout

Transfers!!!!

Hey everyone!

So I will officially be spending my fourth cambio in San Pedro Martir!! Elder Hansen is leaving tomorrow for another area, but I am staying, wow I didn't expect that at all!!! So this week was really boring because of the surgery that Elder Hansen had on his toe, but I will try to pick out the highlights.

Monday we were in the house sick all night so we didn't do anything haha.

Tuesday well we started off by going to the doctor for the checkup and actually we thought we were going to have the surgery but it was just a checkup which is annoying because the hospital is an hour away from our house! And lucky for us right as we got home they called us and told us that we had to come back because Elder Hansen had more forms to sign, so that wasted pretty much our entire day. Ummm Tuesday night, so I am just going to say that we ended up spending the night at the house of the San Pedro 2 elder’s house and that I can’t say anything more but that I am completely fine, and it just had something to do with the government!

Wednesday I got really worried in our lesson with Alicia because we just didn't have the spirit and she was supposed to have her baptism this week and we just left and were like, have we prepared her? We were just super worried.

But then Thursday we had a super awesome lesson with her, and we just felt the spirit so strong, and we walked out and just knew that she was ready and it was so cool!!! So Friday was the day they scheduled for the surgery and we started off by getting a call from President saying Elder Hansen pack your bags, Elder Stout pack for 3 days, after the surgery you are coming to stay at my house and then Elder Stout you are going back to San Pedro in cambios on Tuesday and Hansen you will be going to your new area. So we started to flip because we never thought that, we always thought I would be going, but it was kind of cool to find out our cambios a few days earlier!

So the President and his Wife came to all of Elder Hansen’s surgery and it was like 3 hours long!! They pulled out two huge pieces of nail that had been ingrown and it was so gross!! Haha not gonna lie, but after hearing the advice from the dr Presidente told us that we could actually just rest in our house, so that was awesome that we could just come hang and spend our last couple days together!

So Saturday was the baptism and sadly Elder Hansen couldn't go so we did inter cambios, but for the pics I wore his name tag so it was like he was there!!:) It was such a cool service! I got to do the ordinance, and I had to do it twice, because apparently she has a second last name that she never told me about! But I know it worked the second time because she was crying the second she got out of the water! In her testimony she talked about how she had dreamed about her baptism and how this was the exact same feeling that she never wanted to let go. She also said that in the dream she didn't know who it was who baptized her but that when it happened she knew it was me, so that was really cool to here! She is so awesome, and wants to serve a mission!!

Then yesterday we couldn't go to church so the Zone Leaders brought us the sacrament which was a huge blessing and we just spent all day watching the Doctrine and Covenants videos and reading haha kinda boring! I am really going to miss him though!!

Hope y'all had a good week!!

Elder Stout

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