Sunday, December 31, 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


The MCM leader bought me peanut butter for Christmas!

The bird took my name tag off! 

The Ocean New Years Morning.
Bird Park last P-day...Christmas





Hey everybody!

Happy New Years and Happy Birthday!!!! In Korea everyone turns a year older on New Years, not their actual birthday. Birthdays are actually not even that big of a deal here, but woah is New Years a party. So heres for turning 21 before even turning 20!🎉🎉

I dont know how I keep ending up with like no email time, sorry family. But Christmas week has been a busy one. We spent our Christmas Pday at this huge bird park! Its seriously like a bird version of sea world. We spent like 6 hours there and were still not ready to go, plus met Santa and his pet parrot, whose going to be giving Rudolph a run for his money. This place had everything, snakes, (Elder Paul saw his first real life snake-ha New Zealanders) alligators, huge fish, sharks, penguins, dogs to play with, turtles, parrots, all the kinds of birds that look like parrots, ostriches, ducks and just everything inbetween. I mean when growing up you always thought you were going to go somewhere more exotic with lots of cool animals on your mission, but then you go to Korea, where the only free roaming animals are cats, bird parks is where its at.

We did soo much this week. Starting with I got to skype my family, obviously making this week the best ever. Since the wifi at our church was out we had to skype at a cafe, yes that was kindof lame. But hey, thanks to all the people in the cafe if helped me avoid tears. Ha thats one way to do it. 

This week our RC was in the hospital, so we spent a whole lot of time there. And the thing that shocked me was how hopping the hospitals here are. There are so many hospitals and literally theyre the place to be, so many people. In Korea they dont really have doctors offices, just hospitals, and everyone goes to the hospital for everything. You have a cold- go to the hospital. You have an excessively stuffy nose- go to the hospital. You stubbed your toe- go to the hospital. You get the point, aka there are so many people there! We decided if we just proscelyte in the hospital instead on the street, there will be more people and they cant ignore us as easy.👌

This morning we were able to get special permission to get up insanely early and take a bus with our investigator and the Elders and their investigators (our investigators are living together) and go to the beach to watch the new year sunrise. Its a huge thing to do here. Everyone does it! It was absolutely beautiful and so much fun. But ignore how warm it lopks in the pictures because it was actually freezing! Another fun different new years thing, here instead of a ball drop type thing, they do a big bell ring at midnight. We were talking about the ball drop in English class and tryingto explain it out loud made me realize...well its kindof weird. Haha.

We also got to do exchanges this week with our 방어진 sisters. (Bangojen i don't know, spelling is something like that!) I was able to go to 방어진 with Sister Coon and learn all kinds of great things from her. We got a last minute phone call from this well known kindof crazy member in the ward saying he wanted to take us and the Elders to sing to the branch president in the hospital because he got random nose surgery no one knew about. (Mmm maybe supposed to be a secret? Oops) So we went with them thinking it would be a short little thing, until we're driving...driving....driving. Finally we get there, get out and realize he took us to another area! (He's not a fan of rules😂) We sang super quick, get back in the car and he says "I buy you American Pizza!" Types Costco into his phone and off we went...going into another area of the zone. The whole time we were driving i was thinking, hmmm safe to say Im fired! We got to Costco, and ate so much pizza I was sick. (Dear family and friends, please dont ever make missionaries eat more food than they can/ ever want to!) Going to Costco was fun though, its literally like stepping into a mini pocket of America. Smells the exact same! Anyways great first exchange of the transfer...and possibly the last. ;) 

As for the rest of the week we spent meeting investigators and actually met a couple new investigators, all in their 20s and one of them seems super golden. Its been a week of more miracles in our cute little corner of 경주, thats for sure! Gotta love Christmas miracles.

Love and miss you all♡

Love


Sister Stout

Monday, December 25, 2017

Christmas 2017









Hey everybody!

MERRY CHRISTMAS🎄🎄

Today the Wi-Fi at the church went out so we ended up with no email time, so if I didnt email you back, sorry, next week! 

Christmas miracles just keep on going, this has been another fantastic week. If feels like they just always get better and better. 

Best thing ever this week. So Sister Oh wants to learn all kinds of American slang so we've been teaching her. Well Elder Lee made her a set of flash cards full of popular American slang (and not so) and boy has she been studying them. We were getting ready to leave the house and head an appointment and we kneel down, pray, get ready to leave and she says, "Lets blow this popsicle stand!" After i got control over laughing, I was like....hmmm.... probably dont say that in America! She also likes to write down all of the slang she hears me say, which lets just say isnt the best. The other night we sat down getting ready to go to bed, she pulls out her planner and says she has some English questions. Well, she had written down all the slang i had said that day and wanted to know what it all meant, the difference between oh crap and oh crud, when to use which... it makes you really think about what you say when you know someone is writing it all down!

This week was full of Christmas activities!! We had a Christmas party in Busan, where our district performed (and nailed) a dance to a remix of a Christmas snowman song. We may have less friends now because of it but it was totally worth it. We also finished caroling to all the members houses this week and planning our ward Christmas party. The ward Christmas party, thankfully, went good and we liced! We put together a skit of the differences between America's Christmas, Korea's and New Zealand's. (Because that's where Elder Paul is from) Then at the end tied it together to Christ and the reason for the season. And Santa made an appearance at the party too, aka autimatic huge success. 
Even cooler than Santa though, biggest miracle. The branch here is pretty small and our building is just the second floor of this office type building. Which means, everyone knows everyone and everyone knows if someone new comes. Well that night this man was walking by and was drawn to the church. He came in walked around a bit, then walked up to the Elders and said, I want to learn about your church, there something special here. The Elders are going to start teaching him next week and it was such a cool miracle to be able to see. Christmas time is such a cool time to be a missionary.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and remember the reason for the season. 

Sending love💕
Sister Stout

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Merry Christmas! December 18, 2017



All sharing obviously the best candy ever. This doesn't exist in Korea, Sister 
Oh tried it for the first time, we were all super excited. (Thanks Erin Foster:))

Sister Oh bought me this duck gummy because she knew I loved ducks. And I got this cute picture in the mail from Weston, from feeding the ducks. Good times.


Missing our train after MLCM, calls for a picture. Joys of getting lost.


Our Christmas Card!

Our Christmas proselyting activity in the downtown area of Pohang with our district!!

Our investigator 이미진


Hey everybody:)

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is staying warm. It is literally so cold. I never realized how cold it could be without snow. I definitely decided it should be against the law for it to be so cold and there not be lights or snow. If it's going to be cold, you may as well be able to build a snowman.

So much has happened this week! Woah. Christmas miracles are real.

First, a mini throw back to last week. So Saturday a sweet older couple in the ward took us, the Elders and the youth out to lunch after seminary. It was good, everything was fun. We were sitting in a little side room. In Korea they have rooms off to the side that close off and you sit on the floor with low tables. It's like having a private room. We were eating there and then the older couple had to leave early. They got up to leave, left, closed the sliding door and right as they closed the door both of the Elders go "Ahhhhhh" straightening their legs out under the table (the pain of sitting crossed legged is real!) And Sister Oh flings her arm out and tips over the pitcher of water! Everything turned into a wreck in 10 seconds. It was like flaws of the missionaries coming out the second the authority left. The Youth all looked at us, and it just turned into a 5 minute laughing session, like not the normal haha funny, but the hard to breath and you can't seem to stop. 

Well, Heavenly Father decided to whip us into shape this week, probably because of that. Or Satan is tripping us, maybe a mix of both. But that's been the joke all week. "Hmm well if we hadn't done that, maybe we wouldn't have missed our train...*as we stand there and watch it drive by us*" Haha. This past week Sister Oh and I have been running from appointment to appointment with our heads cut off. I don't know how, but we can't seem to catch a break or find time to hmm I don't know, eat dinner. Haha. But hey thats the best way to have it! 

So Christmas isn't really a thing in Korea. I mean it is, but it's not a holiday, there are no lights or trees and it's just kindof a normal day. Pretty much only church members really celebrate it. Anyways, so we decided we needed to get in the Christmas spirit! We have been making Christmas tree shaped banana bread, with a wrapped up Book of Mormon to give their friends and a Christmas card we made to all the members and then caroling to them. It has been so fun! Definitely getting us all into the Christmas Spirit. And our members are seriously gems. All of them had names and a plan of who they were going to share the Book of Mormon with. They amaze me.

As a District we deicded to share the Light the World challenge with, well the world. This week has been so awesome. We met with our District in Pohang and got permission to use a window in the downtown area. And there we're asking people to write the name of someone they love on a sticky note and are building a huge Christmas tree out of them. Then we talk to them about how they can show love this Christmas and all that fun stuff. The Pohang missionaries (they're cool.) wrote out 3000 Christmas invitation card to come to church that we're handing out like candy. We aren't done with it yet, but hopefully will be this next week. Holy cow. Doing it, I don't know if I've ever been colder in my life. Wind blows you to the core!! But it's been a super fun project.

This week one of our investigators told us she wants to get baptized. She has a lot to work on to help her get there, but it has been so cool to watch her change and see the way the atonement is changing her. It has been a huge testimony builder, being able to grow with her and see how the atonement and Christ's love has no limits. 

Love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas
XOXO  Love, Sister Stout

Monday, December 11, 2017

December 11, 2017

A less active took us all to dinner. And Elder Lee's legs were hurting and so the lady brought him out a little stool to sit on so he didn't have to sit cross legged and it was SO funny. They brought him out baby chopsticks too. The struggle was real!

A failed picture we tried to take on the bus. (Just for you, it's blurry)

We had FHE at a members house and played the flour game. It was so fun, their kids loved it!


Hello Family!

Ah what a week. As always, too much to type and no time.

Transfer calls came. Sister Oh and I will be staying in Gyeongju and STLing. We are super excited we get to stay together another transfer. But plot twist, they broke up the fantastic four early and Elder Schimbeck got transfered out of Gyeongju. We were super sad, but he's going to go do great things other places! 

We have a less active we visit every week named Gulmira and she's from Khazakstan. We are helping her learn Korean and just help her live more comfortabely in Korea. She's absolutely adorable and has the cutest little girl. Their family is just so cute. So when we teach her we have to use a translater. Anywho, she's been needing a job. But because she can't speak Korean, it's hard, she doesn't have a car, so it has to be close, and she has to be home by 5 to take care of her little girl when she gets home from preschool. AKA their are so many restrictions. We've just been praying like crazy for us to be able to help her find a job, and the Elders have been trying to help her husband find one too. Because they don't know Korean, they can't really just call places, and reading the newspaper to find new jobs is hard, so we've been helping them after our appointments. When we met with Gulmira a couple weeks ago we promised her if she kept our commitments and came to church, that the Lord would provide and she would find a job. We've been praying like crazy for everything to work out. Last week the Elders found her husband, Slava, a job!! And this week we were able to find Gulmira a job that fits perfectly with all of her restrictions. It was such a cool testimony builder to us all that the Lord will always provide when we put Him first. I'm so thankful for this time I have to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. Serving a mission has been the best decision I've ever made and there is no where else I'd rather be. To any of my cute friends, if you're thinking about serving a mission or aren't sure, my advice to you is to do it. You won't regret it I promise.❤

Merry Christmas Season everyone!

Love,
Sister Stout

Monday, December 4, 2017

Hello Hello!


This picture looks all lame, but it was soo high up and we were sitting on the ledge of the rock. We obviously need to work on our angles.

Sister Oh is soo scared of heights, so she was freaking out that I was touching her up high.

This is the monk from the story! He took the one picture, and the other I took from above before he called us over to come talk to him.

And the last one was the best day every. Ignore my face, but we woke up that morning, got ready, and then Sister Oh was like, woah it happened. And I was like...what? "You look like a Korean." YES nailed it!! 


Hey everybody!!

I don't have a ton of time, but wanted to share the coolest miracle we saw this week. So on P-day we went hiking with the Elders. My sweet companion was a trooper, because she seriously hates hiking so much. She didn't say anything about it until we got there and started hiking, but she did great. So one miracle, she made it there and back alive! She was convinced she would die up there. The hike we went on was a Buddhist hike, so the whole way up there are different statues you can stop at, and it's super cool. Anyways so we made it to the top (again, that was one miracle) And there was a cool Buddhist statue that we missed, so we were trying to find it. Finally we saw it down below, but couldn't figure out how to get down to it. All of a sudden this monk appears at the statue and is yelling at us to come down and tells us how to get there. We all start running down to meet up with this monk.

(Random back story, Sister Oh and I have been studying Polygamy. Why? I don't know. She's been a member of the church for 6 years, so she doesn't know a lot of the history so I've been teaching her some. But one thing we were talking about last week, was she didn't know that Brigham Young and some other prophets excersized Polygamy. So we have been talking about that and researching it. Fun stuff. Except we kept thinking, this doesn't seem like what we should be spending out time on studying. I just shrugged it off and felt like it was important for her to know!)

We get down to this monk and start talking to him, and he realized who we are and says, hey I've been to your church! And we were like..what? "I've been to your church in Salt Lake!" .....what? He was in Utah over 10 years ago and went to General Conference in Salt Lake and toured Temple Square, but had never talked with the missionaries before, and he had tons of questions about our church and beliefs. It was SO cool. So we sat up on a ledge up in the mountain, over looking the valley, next to this huge Buddha, teaching him about our church and answering all his questions. (It was so beautiful, like out of a movie.) One of his major questions being about Polygamy, and it was all stuff I wouldn't know if we hadn't been studying the history of it. He invited us to come to his house that following Friday, so we were able to meet with him again. It was such a huge testimony builder to me of how the Lord always puts people we need to meet in our path and everything is his plan. Everything is always his plan!!

Now, forwarding to that Friday, we went with the Elders to his house. He lived like up in middle of nowhere. So we went and were able to talk with him, and finish answering some of his questions. And he wanted to tell us about our future. I didn't know that Monks did this, but apparently they read your palm and depending on your birthday, will tell you about your future. Mistake. So he did me first, and for some reason he liked picking on me because he just kept coming back to me and adding to my future, except I don't know if he had anything good to say about my future! To sum it all up, he said I'm going to have a hard time keeping a boyfriend, won't get married before I'm 30, and if I do it'll end badly. When I finally get married my first born child will have a lot of health issues and my husband will work far away from home and I'll only see him on the weekends. That I have a weak heart, and I get my energy from the sun, so in order to keep my heart healthy I need to live somewhere warm. That I am always happy and my heart has no room for anger. That I shouldn't study nursing, it doesn't fit me, that I need to study counseling, because he says he thinks I like to talk a lot and have a strong mind. He kept saying, "You had a boyfriend and you never listening to anything he said did you? Because you are strong minded and like to do what you want. " And I was like whhhat??? It was really embarrassing and also really funny. I also learned, I never want to be a monk because it would be so lonely and their bathrooms are like little outhouses in the woods. (If you ever visit a monk's house, don't ask them to use their bathroom.) The Church is true!

I love you all!
Love,
Sister Stout  

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving!

On P-day we went to an escape room for Sister Oh's birthday (which was Wednesdsay) It was super fun! We did a crime scene one, so we were like hand cuffed to the wall, trying to figure out the riddle before the person came back....we got killed. We couldn't figure it out.

Sister Oh's birthday!!

We went to lunch with our Young Women for Sister Oh's birthday!

This is our recent converts dog, okay its so cute. I love this dog, it's so small, but has so much energy! And it may or may not be in my suit case later.

Last one!! We had a Musical fireside this week and so after we all went to lunch at this place called Mom's Touch. Mom's Touch is pretty much American styled burgers, with a Korean twist on them, but it does the trick!




Hello Everyone!!

So much to say and so little time!! This week was Sister Oh's birthday, so we kept the party going all week. It was soo much fun. So for her birthday I got up in the night and decorated the house, we did a bunch of fun stuff. I made her Blonde Brownies and she loved them. Except after she said, that was so good, but I could never eat that for a meal. And I was like...what? Why would you eat that for a meal? And she said, isn't that a meal in America? .........no. Your mom doesn't just make a pan of brownies and you eat them for dinner? ......no. She was shocked! So we had a talk about cultural differences and stereotypes and it was hilarious. She also said she always thought American's slept with shoes on...I have no idea where that came from. And that we only eat bread, pizza and hamburgers. It was great, because then after she asked, What is the stereotype for Asians in America?? And I was like, Let me tell you about Yellowstone. Good talk, good talk.

Another bonus to this week, randomly Monday night all of our hot water, heater, and stove stopped working. We called the mission home and the APs were like...hmmm...we'll work on it. Showering was like doing the Polar Plunge, and I was already sick. We did all of our studies at the church to use their heater because its been so cold. After 2 days, we called the APs again and essentially said we were dying over here. They checked somethings, and turns out they forgot to pay our bill. It got paid and all warmness was restored in our house! It was a Thanksgiving Miracle!

So every week we help out at a Food Shelter by our house. We help dish up people who come in, and it's hopping! It's the place for all the poor little Grandma and Grandpas to come. Kind of an interesting culture thing. In Korea there isn't any program set up for the Elderly. At all. It's so sad. So to pay for themselves they walk around with this huge carts picking up cardboard, that they then sell to these junk yards for money. And most of them make little gardens in the mountains that they sell stuff along the street at the outdoor market. It breaks my heart because Korea is such a developed country, but then there are all these little hunched over 80+ year old Grandmas pulling a cart down the road full of cardboard. I don't think I'll ever understand.

Crazy Miracle this week! After our having no warm water issue, we were kindof just done. One particular night, all of our appointments canceled on us. Safe to say, it was a lame night. Right now our mission is doing a Book of Mormon reading challenge, in order to finish it by Christmas. After reading that morning we had talked about how everything happens for a reason and how the Lord lays our path. Except now here we were, cold, no appointments, and walking home down this dirt road in the dark. Super bummed, but this lady walks out of her house, we say hello and start talking to her. Turns out the missionaries used to come to her house a few years ago and she asked us to come back and visit with her. We were so excited, and now she's a new investigator. It was another testimony builder to me that everything is the Lord's plan, and if we just trust Him, everything will always work out the way it should. 

Sending Love!
Love,
Sister Stout

Monday, November 20, 2017

Earhquakes, miracles, oh and more Earthquakes

Last P-day!!



Emergency alerts we got on our phone for all the Earthquakes

And Sister Oh and I have been craving Banana bread so I attempted making some!

 I asked Sister Oh what we should do to pose, and she said, hmm okay you be the bell and I'll be the stick... She's super funny!




Hey everybody!!

This week, um yeah. SO much happened.

The week started off with going to a super famous Buddhist Temple for P-day. It was the biggest one I've ever been to. Buddhism is such a confusing, but interesting religion. 

We also had exchanges! I went back to Pohang for exchanges...that was weird. It was like going back to my old house, but none of my stuff was there. It felt like my companion was cheating on me! Anyways, there was this girl that I had met on the bus and we texted her everyday for almost the whole transfer, because she couldn't meet because she was busy with work, but we got super close with her. Well then she randomly dropped off the face of the Earth, we were so sad, then I transferred. Well, she called them a couple weeks ago to set up an appointment, anyways, so during exchanges I got to meet her! That was awesome, a huge blessing! 
That night we went door knocking, which was actually the first time I've gone my whole mission! It's not something we do much of here! Everyone has locks on their buildings and it's just more effective on the streets, except when it's so cold outside, there is no one to be seen! We go to the first door, on the fifteenth floor, knock. Silence. We could hear them coming to the door. So we waited. Waited. Ah yes here they come, well turns out they didn't actually hear the knock, they were just leaving the house. So what do you do when you open your front door and there is just these two girls standing there? Yes, this like 25 year old man and his mom scream and jump back like we were ghosts! Well, I didn't expect them to scream, so they scared me, so I jumped back and screamed! And my companion was awkwardly tucked around the corner so no one could see her... I had no words and neither did they! So we both just sat there staring at each other for a minute horrified! Then my companion peaks around the corner and gives them a nice spill, as their faces remain the exact same, horrified looking at me, and off we went. Seriously, the most scary experience of my life, also the first and last time I ever want to knock doors again.

And...oh yes Earthquakes. This week has been insane. So we had District Meeting in Pohang, right as our bus pulls out of the bus terminal, we get an alert on our phones saying that a 5.5 earthquake just hit Pohang. Thanks to the shocks of the bus, we didn't feel anything. Our poor Pohang missionaries sure took a scare though. One of the Sisters took a brick to the head and the other the shoulder, Heavenly Father sure was taking care of them, because they're fine! And since then we've had 7 earthquakes this week! We were looking it up at church with the members and it turns out that my area is sitting in middle of a mine of fault lines that are all suddenly deciding to be active! Korea like never has earthquakes. Our MCM leader talked to us about earthquake safety at church because there is supposed to be the biggest earthquake Korea has had in hundreds and hundreds of years coming this month. ....Korea is so not built for Earthquakes. 

Now, the funny earthquake story. So after District Meeting we were able to meet with a new investigator at her house. So when we got there, woah. It was like being blasted to the past! Her house is a super old Korean house, like the floor and walls were made out of dirt and there were parts you had to duck under wooden beams. Super crazy. I've never seen a house like that before! We were able to teach her, learn about her, the lesson went awesome, and I was saying the closing prayer. Half way through the closing prayer the whole house starts shaking!! Round two of the earthquake!! She's all of a sudden screaming GET OUT OF THE HOUSE SISTERS!!! Long story short, I never got to finish my prayer and that was the weirdest end of an appointment ever. And amidst of all the crazy we found a bunch of new investigators and have been seeing all kinds of miracles!! 

I love you all!! 
XOXO
Love,
Sister Stout

Monday, November 13, 2017

Happy 빼빼로 Day!!

So my companion LOVES shopping. So we went last p-day, she bought this pretty dress, and I got the coolest sweatshirt ever. 

Translating to teach one of our less actives who speaks Russian.

Korean English

 Visiting with our recent convert and less active this week. So they all share the same living room then their rooms are connected to the living room. Our investigator lives there too, so pretty much it feels like we're there all of the time. Good thing they like us!


HAHAHA so. We were walking up the steps to the church this week with the Young Women and they were like, oooh why are all the flowers dead. Ohh sad. Then we said, oh maybe we should water them. Then...they looked at us and said, the Sister missionaries are supposed to water them....awkward. My companion forgot they asked them to before. And now they're like all half gone. 

A little boy in our ward was baptized this week!






Hey everyone!

Okay the amount of miracles we saw in 경주 this week has been unreal. I wish I had time to type them all up, but I'll just share a few!

Random fun thing that happened this week. So we are doing a Christmas Eve program and our Youth have to do a Cha Cha dance routine and we got asked to teach the Youth in our Branch how to Cha Cha. It was one of those things that I was like, wow, who knew taking Social Dance in High School was preparing me for my mission! Because if I didn't already know we would've been in trouble! Tender mercies all around.

So since we have three foreigners in our area this transfer we've been focusing a lot on our English class and getting more people to come. So in order to do that we've been going through all of our contacts and just texting everyone. Then we asked people who don't have interest to respond no, it's kindof funny hearing our phone buzz no all day, it's like "no" "no" "no" "heck no" "no" We get a good laugh out of it, but  we have 4 new investigator appointments set up for next week that we're hoping work out!! I mean they already gave us their address, so they're pretty must stuck. ;)

English class rolls around and we had 8 new people come, we were so excited. So we're sitting and in walks in three monks, like decked out in their robes with their heads shaved. They came and sat down at the basic language table, which is what I teach. So I'm started to teach them English and the one Monk says, will you please teach my friends about your God? They need it. And I was like...Yes Sir! This Monk is like well known among missionaries in this area. He has a full testimony of our church, he loves it, he believes in everything. Teaching his friends felt like I was teaching with a member. He was testifying about the truth of the Book of Mormon, adding his testimony, it was so intense. The only thing holding him back is, well he's a monk and I'm not sure how switching from being a monk goes, but it was soo cool. It was cool to see the way the Lord had touched his life and how much courage he had to share it with his friends. If a monk can share the gospel with his other monk friends, EVERYONE CAN!!!! Member missionary work is so needed!!

I love and miss you all!!
XOXO
Sister Stout

Monday, November 6, 2017

9 Months!

So the first picture on the other thing was a puppy pet shop! They're everywhere, but we were walking by and realized the one in the bottom right corner was a pig!!! It was so funny we all had to stop and stare! 







Hello hello everybody!!

경주 is so awesome. The members here are seriously adorable. They all have so many kids, well for Korea and so the branch is crawling with little kids! They make me want to adopt an Asian baby, seriously they're too cute.

My companion is awesome!! Her name is Sister 오서현. She's an angel sent from above! We're having so much fun and things are going great! 

Cool things this week. We're learning Korean sign language, or at least are trying! There is a less active from Vietnam that is deaf and we wanted to be able to share a message with her. So we thought, yes our new smart phones have saved the day!!! So we made her a cute message card to take to the hospital for her (she just had a baby) ....and we get there. She looks at it and is shaking her head and stuff...we were so confused. My sweet hard working companion had accidentally wrote the whole card in Thai instead of Vietnamese! We were dying laughing when we realized what had happened! But later this week we went with a member who knows sign language, and lets just say it went a lot smoother, and she's going to teach us some more sign language this week! 

The smart phones were awesome, and then they stopped working! Halloween night our phone just stopped. Nothing would come in, and nothing would come out. We spent forever at the phone store, where they couldn't do anything until the next day. So our only option was to go Baskin Robbins and buy ice cream for Halloween, obviously. After we got ice cream, our district leader told us to ask someone to borrow their phone to text that we were home, but we are the only girls on our floor, so we decided to just ask someone on the street. After we got a nice lady to let us use here phone, we were walking home and I explained to my companion how every scary movie goes. I don't think we've ever ran home faster after that! The next day after trying and trying and trying, our phone started working!! 

Coolest part of this week though was Sunday! There is a Recent Convert named Slova, his wife is our investigator. They're from....umm I don't actually remember, Russia? Anyways, during Sacrament I was translating for Slova, Korean to English, and then he translated for his wife, from English to Russian. It was so cool. I had the chills like the whole time!

I love you all, stay warm and have a good week!!
XOXO

Love,
Sister Stout