Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Enduring with Laughter

This is my cute zone! We take pretty much the same picture every single week, but hey it includes our new missionaries!

Featuring a bunch of beauties in my zone!

Snowy companion bonding time
This is Sister Pearce, Sister Ames and I with the snowman we build on our temple walk on Sunday.

This is Sister Akagi, Sister Holyoak and I with our dolphin stickers on our MTC ID tags

This is a bunch of us with our new native Sisters. The thing we're doing with our fingers means I love you in Korea. It's what we all do to eachother all of the time.
Hello Hellooo my dear friends and family!!

This week has been another good one! I love the MTC. It's the greatest place ever, but sometimes also feels like I'm stuck in a little box. That's okay because it's a box of pure happiness!! There is a dear Elder in my zone who isn't a fan of people from Utah because he says that everyone he's ever met from Utah just wasn't that great. He says they weren't very exciting and he wasn't impressed. I've personally taken it upon myself to change his mind in the next 3 weeks. Before he leaves to Korea he is going to want to move to Utah! 

We've done some intense studying this week. I finally succeeded in memorizing the first vision in Korean!! I may have had to ground myself to the exercise bike during gym time to memorize it, but hey I got it and that's all that matters. We've been doing tons of grammar lessons this week and holy cow. Korean is kicking me in the butt!! I know I wouldn't have made it as far as I have without having Heavenly Father on my side. Not to mention my amazing teachers that are always so patient with us. They're like angels from above!

We got new missionaries in our zone this week!! Which means we are officially the intermediate district, that's super weird to me. I'm having a hard time believing it. There is one sister that is going to be here for 15 weeks, 9 to learn English and then 6 to learn French. I will never ever complain about being here for 9 weeks again. She is amazing!! My cute zone all have dolphins stickers on their MTC ID tags and we officially got ours this week. The stickers had gotten lost, but they were magically found so we are now officially part of our zone! Only took almost 4 weeks! I really can't even express how amazing my zone is. I couldn't have been more blessed. They are all so encouraging and loving. Not to mention they are the funniest people I've ever met. The other day my district and I were all sitting in the classroom during study time. We heard some weird sounds coming from the hallway. As we all looked up, some of our Elders passed our classroom, with one Elder in all of the other's arms sitting with his legs crossed and his arms in the air singing, "I will survive." When we made eye contact all he said was "Week 7." We all about died laughing! That has just become the norm for our zone. Everyone is crazy in the best way!!

Our teaching this week has been super great! We have been killing it. Every Monday night we have TRC, RMs from BYU come and we have to teach them a lesson based on their needs in Korean. I've been so proud of us. We were able to keep up with what was going on and answer the questions that were asked. It was the best thing ever!! We also taught one of our investigators a 45 minute lessons this week. It was insane because it felt like we were only in there for 15 minutes. The spirit was so strong and directing the lesson. I didn't know I even had the capacity to say that much in Korean. The gift of tongues is a powerful thing.

This week my testimony of Christ's love for each of us individually has grown like never before. We were able to listen to an MTC film called "One by One" by Elder Bednar. It was absolutely amazing. Heavenly Father truly does know us each individually and by name. He knows each of our trials and what we're going through. He wants nothing more than to help us and for us to turn to Him. He loves each of His children no matter their circumstances. The first thing he said to Joseph Smith was "Joseph." He knew Joseph's name, just like he knows each of ours. He is cheering us on and walking with us each step of the way. 
I send my love to you all. Thank you for all the prayers, I definitely feel them.
XOXO
Love, Sister Stout

Monday, February 20, 2017

Hello Hello Everyone!!




Here are the pictures you requested of my tag!

This is my cute district in our classroom on Valentines Day! We all got little heart stickers and wore them on our shirts all day so we could share the love with everyone.

 This is me and my companions on our temple walk in the pouring rain!

This is my district with the natives in the zone who left this morning. We were so sad to see them go. They're absolutely amazing and will do such great things in Korea!

This is us with the senior district we also left this morning! They've taken such good care of us and I only hope that we can share the love with our new missionaries coming on Wednesdsay!


This is my district with I think the orange rolls you sent! Everyone loved them!

This is us all on Valentines days with some treats! 
PS I memorized this. WHAAAAT!?


This is Sister Newton. She was in my mission prep class and we got our calls at the same time! She is THE best!

Another successful week has passed. I am so in love with being a Missionary. It is the greatest thing ever, and also the hardest thing I've ever done. The days are starting to go so fast. The MTC is awesome, sometimes I feel like I'm trapped in a box, but other than that it is absolutely awesome. The spirit here is incredible. It's like living on Temple grounds and let's be real, How cool is that!? 

This week started out on an amazing note. Elder M. Russel Ballard came and spoke to us. If you thought the spirit was strong before, woooah when he walked in it was unreal. The devotional was broadcasted to all of the MTC's around the world. Plus I got to sing in the Choir, it was so amazing. We sang Lead, Kindly Light and it was beautiful, but I may also be biased because I was part of it. Either way, it was the most encouraging meeting EVER.

My cute companions and I have been working out little butts off to memorize the first vision and our missionary purpose in Korean. I am so proud to say our purpose is memorized and the first vision is almost done. Our Korean is coming along so well. It can be really discouraging, but when I look back at how far we've come it's amazing to see how Heavenly Father's hand has been there every step of the way. There is no way I could've gotten to where I am without His help. He truly is always there and ready to help us with any trial that comes our way. 

Our amazing senior district in our zone left us this morning and are all off to Korea! I was so sad to see them go, but so excited for them. They're going to do amazing things. And on the bright side, that means we get new missionaries in our zone this Wednesday. I'm SO excited! We only get new Korean bound missionaries every three weeks, so when it happens it is an exciting thing. I hope that I can be as loving and inviting to them as the other missionaries were to me when I first got here. 

Each week we get assigned a service project, and we accidentally showed up at the wrong place last week. We didn't know until we went back to our classroom the next day and say a sign on the chalk board that said, "Sisters. You didn't show up to your service. Please see us at the main office." We felt so bad! This week we made sure not to screw that up, and turns out, when you obey where you're supposed to be, you end up with way less nasty service projects. We got to pick out and hang the flags that are in the front of the MTC, we definitely made sure South Korea was up there. After we were in charge of vacuuming and cleaning all of the windows in the main building. Sister Akagi and I were put in charge of vacuuming all of the main hallways, aka there were missionaries passing us the whole time. The hallways we were assigned to vacuum were massive (talk about arm day;)) I decided I wanted to be the happiest vacuuming missionary in the history of ever. I said hello to every Elder and Sister that walked by and it was the greatest thing ever, I can honestly say I enjoyed vacuuming! I knew I had reached my goal when a group of Elders that passed said, "Why is she so happy? She's vacuuming." It made my whole day. Attitude is the key to everything!

We get to teach our investigators everyday. It's been an interesting week with our two new investigators. One of our investigators is a 14 year old punk, who doesn't want to be with his family forever... or at all, and all he loves is pizza, ice cream and cake. It's going....interesting. Each lesson is so hard to plan because it just goes off the wall, plus our Korean is extremely limited. We are doing our best and hopefully we'll get somewhere before our nine weeks is up! It definitely doesn't help that the word prostitute and missionary sound almost the exact same. When we introduced ourselves we accidentally said we were prostitutes for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Talk about embarrassing moments! He gave us the weirdest look. I had no idea what went wrong until after. At least we are making these mistakes now instead of later! 

Besides Sister Ames having a "fluke in her immune system" this week, it's been a great week! We ordered our all Korean name tags this week. INSANE. It blew my mind! This will be the first time in my life that I won't remember my name because it'll all be in Korean. We're supposed to get them two weeks before we head to Korea. I'm so excited! 
Thank you for all the love, support and prayers. I can definitely feel them. I love you all!!!
XOXO
Sister Stout

Monday, February 13, 2017

Week #1

This is me teaching one of our investigators..aka the chalk board.  We're getting pretty close.

This is my cute district on our temple walk on Sunday.  It's one of our favorite things during the week!









Well my first week was a definite success! I am loving the MTC thanks to my cute district. They're amazing!! Sister Ames, Sister Pearce, Sister Akagi, and Sister Holyoak are life savers. We all ordered matching Busan Korea shirts, don't worry pictures to come! And how could I forget my zone!! It has been like inheriting so many older brothers and sisters. Everyone watches out for each other and we have so much fun. Every night all of the Sisters gather in one room and we sing a hymn and say a prayer in Korean. I look forward to it every night. We had some sad and happy things happen this week. Sister Oleson is too awesome to be in our district anymore, she tested out of our Korean class and is now on the fast track to Korea! Super pumped for her and super sad for us. The plus side to this is I got to keep her adorable companion!!! Sister Akagi is now my other companion, along with Sister Holyoak. They are seriously the greatest, I absolutely love them.

This week started out with Chick-Fil-A catering for the MTC! Who knew? We were all so pumped. Good food makes life better. Our district accepted a pretty intimidating challenge this week, memorizing all of the basic core Korean words in 15 days, that's about 30 words a day and 8 phrases. We have been giving it our best and have learned so much. I even said the opening prayer in Korean in our District Leadership Training Meeting, I was pretty proud of myself!  It's amazing how much you can learn with the Lord on your side. Korean is coming so much faster than I ever thought possible.

Our investigator lessons have been going great! We are getting another investigator these week, double duty! At first it was super intimidating, now I kind of love it. I'm growing so much love for learning Korean. When I first got my call, Korean definitely wasn't a language I cared to learn. Now I have so much love for it and it's such a beautiful language. I can't wait to continue to learn Korean. 

This week we listened to Elder Holland's talk called, "The Ministering of Angels" from Oct. 2008. It was so inspiring. Everyone go listen to it! I promise you'll love it. 
Thank you all for being angels in my life, I love you all!
Love, Sister Stout

Hey Mom! Sorry it took me so long to reply! We just barely got on the computers. Congrats on your new calling! That's awesome! And thank you for the Dear Elder. I LOVED IT!! I'm the mail girl aka I'm the girl who grabs the mail and hands it to everyone else... I know sad. And I loved my package and letter. All of my district thanks you. You were my second Dear Elder, I got one from Barbara my third day here. It was so sweet. I also got the nicest letter in the mail from her with money. Give her a hug for me. Funny story about chick fil a, they actually catered the MTC a few days after you sent that email! It was like you sent it yourself! I joined Choir and absolutely love it. IT's fun to be able to sing in English instead of Korean.

 I saw all of the girls who were in my mission prep class and it made me so happy!!! They''re awesome, I also saw Ari from the bakery, but he left on Wednesdsay to good old Idaho Falls. 

It was really funny, last week Sister Oleson was helping me upload my pictures from my camera and I forgot to delete all of the pictures of my kittens.. there were at least 50 pictures of like 20 different cats. SHE ABOUT DIED LAUGHING! That brought up an interesting conversation! I just told her I love cats and their my best friends.. then I told her the truth. But it was so funny. I'm sad about the puppies! I want to see pictures! 

Nan's donuts were the best! She's officially the best MTC aunt in my district. Everyone thanks her and sends their love. And I love the picture she sent. Also, I invited you to see the pictures I have on my drive so you can see more pictures. But I don't know how to do it so you have access to the ones the other Sisters sent me too, so sorry! 
I'll send pictures soon!! I am waiting for the sisters to help me load mine on.. I'm technically challenged. My pictures might be seperate from my group email so just add them on!
I love you and hope you have a good week! 
Love, Sister Stout

Monday, February 6, 2017

FIRST WEEEEEEEEEK

 Another cute picture of my adorable District!!! 

My cute district throwing our cool poses.


And next is my whole zone!! They're all amazing!

This picture is my adorable district.  I LOVE THEM.

Next is my cute district all ready for bed. (Maybe or maybe not put on the blog haha)

This is Sister Holyoak and I after surviving our first whole day.

The second is the part of my zone that is headed to Busan. We are the MTC Busan missionaries

This is me and my companion, Sister Holyoak.

Hello Everyone!!

I'm still alive! More than still alive I'm doing fantastic. I love the MTC so much! I've been pretty homesick, but everyday gets easier. I got assigned my companion. Her name is Sister Holyoak and I absolutely love her. She's adorable and we get along so well. My district is a blast, it is full of 6 Sisters and we all stay in the same room. It is always a party. The only problem is the first few days we were all new, and none of us knew where we were going, or how to get there. We're getting a hang of it now. I'm so proud of my Sisters.

The second day here I got called to be the Sister District Training Leader. At first, I was so confused why Heavenly Father would add more to my plate when I already felt so stressed out. I've figured it out as I've started serving. I have a lot easier time dealing with stress and trials when I am serving others. As I've been focusing on the other Sisters and their needs, it has helped me forget myself and how I'm feeling. I have grown such a love for every Sister in my district. We have become the closest of friends. My district is six sisters and we all stay in the same room, obviously everything we do is a party! 

Korean is coming! I'm so amazed at how far I've come in the short amount of time I've been here. Sister Holyoak and I taught our first lesson in Korean on Friday, and then our second on Saturday to our "investigator." The first lessons was rough, but by the second we were able to get across what we planned, but we definitely still have so much work ahead of us. It was such a testimony builder to me to see how the spirit was still there working, even though our Korean was rough. The spirit was still there so strongly. 

Sunday was SO AMAZING. I have never been to such a strong testimony meeting. EVER. Every missionary in our zone shared their testimony and with every testimony shared it felt like they were speaking directly to me. I was on edge the whole time. Our opening Hymn was Because I have Been Given Much MY HYMN... except we sang it in Korean. That's okay I still knew the tune and Sister Holyoak and I just hummed sounds together. 

I have felt the Spirit so strong since I've been here and my testimony has grown so much. I absolutely love it here and can't wait to continue my journey on my mission. I've definitely seen the beginning of the trials I will face, but it is so worth it. I love you all sooo much!!!

Love, Sister Stout

Mom!
It's so good to hear from you!!!
My mailbox number is 11. My technical address is on a letter that is headed your way soon, it should be there the next few days. What is your email address that you want me to send emails to too? The Korean is coming a lot better than I thought it would. My companion, Sister Holyoak, and I have already taught 2 lessons in Korean! So I can read my emails anytime during the week and can get dear elders and mail, but can only respond on Mondays. Since I'm the Sister District Training Leader one of my jobs is to get the mail. AKA deliver all of the Dear Elders to all the other Sisters in my district. Yup. LAAAME. You guys should work on that, hahaha just kidding. 
I will send my big email with pictures soon, I just have to figure out how to load them onto the computer.
I love the MTC so much. My district is all Sisters and we have gotten so close. We all bunk together in one room. They're adorable. It was kindof confusing the first couple days because we all got here the same day and are all headed to Busan, which is awesome, but none of us knew what we were doing. The Sisters that have been here longer are so good about helping us all out and making sure we're doing okay. I'm doing so good I'm Just really really homesick! I miss you guys so much! I found the letters you wrote me, I only read the one and tucked the rest away for later so I didn't cry anymore! I know once I get over being homesick I'll do a lot better. Sunday was awesome!! We got to walk around the temple and took tons of pictures. I'll give you all the details in a bigger group email. I LOVE THE SWEDISH FISH YOU SENT! My whole district thanks you. Tell the boys to quit being such slackers and email me. I want to here from them! They can email me anytime about anything! Even at school when they're on their school email, I told their school it's okay. It sounds like you guys are having a fun week! I love and miss you so much! I'll send some pictures soon! I may not have all of them because Sister Oleson has a lot of them and I can't find her to send them to me! I'll send them soon! Love you so much!
Love, Sister Stout

Friday, February 3, 2017

February 1---Drop off day




Hello Hello I'm still alive! 
I was supposed to email you the day I got here but the Sister couldn't find us to tell us, so I'm alive just a few days late emailing you. I got my companion Sister Holyoak and she's awesome. I love my district. I got called to be the Sister District Training Leader last night. Korean is....coming. Sister Holyoak and I teach our first investigator tonight which will be interesting. My P day is Monday so you'll hear from me more then!
I love and miss you all!
Love, Sister Stout