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

Happy Memorial Day!

Hey! 

So I don’t have a ton of time today, I am sorry! But, I will write you a little bit about the pictures!

So the picture of all of us in the district is the random stuff we found doing our P day cleaning today in the house of the other elders haha. We had to clean super well because they are going to white wash the other area! Which means of 4 elders in our ward/district I will be the only one who is even acquainted with the area. Yippee!!

Haha I also did intercambios with Elder Lovo this week, and a crazy old guy gave him a briefcase.

I got super super sick this week bleh!  I have an intestinal infection, but with a bunch of meds I feel better now! But it was good because the day that I was stuck in the house it rained A TON our street turned into a river, so in between trips to the bathroom I made a little paper boat and we dropped it out the window haha.

Then we had a cool stake activity Saturday where we went on splits with a Priest from the stake and here is my comp, Hermano Lopez. He was awesome! But it was so funny he wanted to teach the whole lesson by himself and he finished in like 5 mins and the family was like what? But I learned that my area isn’t as ugly as I thought because we were working more for the center of the city and wow, there was a lot of ugly things going on!

So have a great week, I will write more next week I promise, I love you all!!

Elder Stout

8 months!!!!

Hey all!!

Wow I can’t believe that I completed 8 months yesterday, wow this is really, really flying by! That is already a third of the way through!

Wow so what happened this week? Well Monday came and went, and was just P-day nothing too exciting over here.

Tuesday we had an interesting lesson with the Hermana Dominguez who started off by telling us that she didn’t want to take the lessons anymore, so that was really hard to hear, but after talking with her for a super long time we helped her overcome her doubts, and she is going to stick with it, how exciting!

Wednesday we taught a really hard lesson to the family about a commandment that is going to be really hard to them to follow, and at the time they took it super well and said that they were going to pray about it and that they were going to do all they could to live it, but then on Sunday they didn’t come to church, so who knows if it really went as well as we though it did.

On Thursday I had intercambios with Elder Bernal and he’s awesome. He loves working, is always focused on the work, and he has 22 months so I learn a ton from him in the intercambios with him!

On Friday we had an interesting experience where we got a call in the morning from the zone leaders asking me if I was coming to the training, and I was like what training? Apparently they sent me a text message that I didn’t get because there is absolutely no service in our area!! So I had to hop in a taxi (still in intercambios) and we raced to the stake center across the mission to hit up the second session of the leadership training, but how cool, in this session were all the bros from San Pedro!! So that was pretty cool, we learned a lot about how to motivate people so we will see how that goes, wish me luck!!!!!

Saturday we spent almost the whole day walking around looking for old references that we have received to almost no luck! We didn’t find one of the 10 people that we were looking for that day which was a bummer!

Yesterday nothing too exciting happened because we needed to go to the area of the Zone Leaders to report with them so that takes out like 3 hours of every Sunday! But it was a great week!! I love and miss y’all!!

Elder Stout

Happy Mothers' Day

Hey y’all!

So I am going to keep it a little bit shorter today since I talked with my family just two days again, so that I can write some more personal emails today!

The big thing that happened this week was we had our zone conference with Elder Alan Walker of the 70. His name is Alan Walker, he is super white, but he is from Argentina, haha what? It was pretty weird! He is in the 4th quorum of the 70 and is our area 70. He talked a lot about how the most important thing that we can do is to line ourselves and our companions up with the Godhead so that the three of us can work together, it was super cool. He talked about how at all times we need to focus on being full purpose missionaries. That we can’t like focus one week on finding people, one week on teaching, one on baptizing, and one on bringing people back, that every week we need to be doing every one of these things, that was pretty cool! I don’t know, I know that he’s a 70 and everything but I kind of felt like it was just a normal training from our Mission President (that’s saying much more about the quality of our mission president rather than the lack thereof of our 70). But it was still super duper cool!

 

I had intercambios this week with Elder Lovo, he is awesome! Umm we actually didn’t work that much this week because my comp was sick with a stomach infection for two days then we had the conference, and then last of all we called the fam, which was absolutely awesome, I am so glad I got to talk to them and can’t believe how the time flew from Christmas, wow!!

Yesterday was kind of a letdown, I am sure it was because of all of the people who were celebrating with their moms, but we only had like 60 or 70 people in the chapel, and not one investigator came, yikes. But on a high note, because of that my comp talked and I got to bless the sacrament because no one was here so that was interesting!

Well I hope you all had a great week!!

Elder Stout