Monday, October 30, 2017

October 30, 2017

We went to the ocean to see the Hand Statue with our investigator this week!





One of these that is probably confusing, we did a district proscelyting activity and did  foreigner games,  It was awesome!







Hey everyone!!

I don't have much time, so I'll keep it short, but this week was awesome! We were so busy wrapping things up and preparing for the talent show on Saturday, that went great! 

I got transferred....sort of, I got transferred to the other area in my district, Gyeongju. We literally took a taxi here because it was cheaper to travel by taxi than pay to send all of my stuff and buy our bus ticket. My new companion is the cutest Korean Sister ever! 

I'm super excited to see all of the miracles that are going to come this transfer. 

I love and miss you all!
XOXO
Love,
Sister Stout

October 23, 2017

Hey friends and family!

This week was awesome!! But let's be real, any week in Pohang with Sister Oleson is the best! 

So every year our Branch does a talent show and the missionaries do something random and fun. I guess it's supposed to be like the huge highlight of the night and we have big shoes to fill this year! So we decided to do synchronized swimming, oh my gosh. It is so much harder than it looks in the videos! I can already feel all the bruises that are awaiting in the near future!

We got to go to Uljin this week and it was the best day ever. I probably say that a lot, but really, this was. They took us up into the mountains and we had a picnic. The weather here is similar to Utah, so right now all of the leaves are starting to change colors, and it was so refreshing! Like stepping back into Utah for a little bit. 

And one miracle this week. We were teaching primary on Sunday and got a call from a random number. We called back after church and it was this man. He asked if we could give him a Book of Mormon and that he would be at the church in 5 minutes. When we met him, we got to talk to him for a little bit and he told us how his friend had served a mission in Japan 30 years ago, and had offered him a Book of Mormon. He was attending another church at the time and told his friend he had no interest. Now, 30 years later, he decided he wanted to take his friend up on his invitation because he needed something more in his life. It was such a testimony builder to me that we don't always know the impact of things that we are doing now, sometimes we won't know for 10 years, 30 years or maybe not even until the next life. But every leap of faith we take in sharing the gospel with our friends will always have an impact, whether we know it or not! There really isn't a more powerful way to do missionary work than member missionary work! The Lord needs you!!

Love you all!!
Love,
Sister Stout

Monday, October 16, 2017

October 16, 2017






Hey everybody!!

This week was super awesome, and here it is super summed up!

We went and visited a former investigator this week, that turned out to be a Buddhist Monk and she lives at a Buddhist temple. That was interesting. She was so adorable and I guess just loves to learn about other religions. So we had lunch with her, and taught her a lesson about our church as a whole. It felt weird being inside of the Buddhist temple, but I mean, she asked us to right? She still had her Book of Mormon from the missionaries before on her book shelf and said how much she has loved what she read. Then as we were there talking other Buddhists came in and she shared part of it with them, that was awesome. She practically introduced the Book of Mormon to them for us! 

A member in our ward owns a Body Test Center and invited us over to do that, that was cool, except doing the pacer test was definitely not something I ever planned on doing again. I learned that I am not very strong and have no flexibility. Apparently you you can get in the negatives on flexibility...oops. She was like, "Okay go!" And I was like, "What? I already am!"
The next day she took us to dinner and then after we walked around the lights along the beach, and she held our hands the whole time. Koreans love holding hands, it's something fun in their culture. I think she was also just worried about losing us, but you know. 

So a few weeks ago this man came into the church and said he wanted to give our ward free meat for lunch after church because his mom is one of the old ladies that has this fruit stand across the street. We always say hi to them and will help them move boxes of fruit if they need it, and he said to say thank you he wanted to give us all this meat. 
Well randomly yesterday in middle of Sacrament meeting he walks up to the door with two huge bags of meat! Our Mission President was there visiting too, it was so funny. Hey at least thats probably a first for him! 

This week I was thinking a lot about the power of the Atonement. A few weeks ago at our Sports Day we did an activity with the Atonement. Each Zone had to pick two people to be their Savior. They then had to do 10 push ups for each person in the zone as they stood in front of them. I just can't get past how amazing that is. How Christ loves us each so much that He was willing to die for us. Not only that, but as He was paying for all of our sins He thought about each of us individually. He knew who we are, our weaknesses, our strengths, our hard ships that would lie ahead, He knew everything. Most of all He knew He wanted to be able to lift us and help us through it all. How thankful I am for Him, for this gospel and that I get to share it everyday.

I love you all.
XOXO
Love,
Sister Stout

Monday, October 9, 2017

Happy 추석!!!

Gyeongju!








Hey family and friends!

This week, it was like a week of just straight party. This week was 추석, aka Korean Thanksgiving! Everyone goes with their family to pay respect to their ancestors graves. And considering there are so many people living here, I really don't understand where they all go. Everyone like vanishes. The streets are bare, which kinda kills missionary work! 

Wednesday, the actual day of 추석, our whole zone got together in Gyeongju and went and saw artifacts and learned a little bit about some history of Korea. In Gyeongju there are tons and tons of these hills that are a King's burial. Under all of these hills are like all his stuff and his live army he buried with him to protect him. That was fun to take time to learn about! We did a race with it, we had take a picture with a family, a couple, a high school student, middle schooler and elementary. It was so fun! Plus I seriously just love everyone in my zone, these people are the greatest. Then that night one of our youth was home alone because she didn't want to go to her Grandma's so we took her out for dinner. Except like nothing is open, at all. And we ended up getting these octopus dish, ew. It was so hot. My stomach was so upset the rest of the night and next day! Never again.

Friday was our Mission Sport Day! Rain was an issue. Last minute it got changed to another city where there was a little bit less of a chance of rain, but hey the rain still came! Good thing it's all about the people not what we were doing! Our Zone of Sisters all got matching Grandma pants with our companion, so we killed nailed the fashion side of it all. 

Then what could be better than topping it off with Conference? Conference was SO GOOD. The whole thing was like a fire. After Conference on Sunday every year our ward packs up and goes camping! The whole being a missionary put a damper on it, but we got to go up for Sunday. It was like an hour away, but being up in the mountains there was like throwing it back to the ones back home, except more trees and greener. They rented a little cabin up in middle of the mountains and it was so peaceful and fun. We played games, went on a little hike, it really couldn't have been better!!

Conference had me thinking how thankful I am for having this gospel. Like in Elder Nelson's talk, What would life be like without it?? I'm so thankful for the Prophet and Apostles to lead and guide us and that I never have to wonder what it would be like without them.
I love and miss you all!
XOXO
Love,
Sister Stout

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

October 2, 2017

Sister Oleson has been sick, shh don't tell her she's denying it, and so we were wearing these around the house. They're like a fashion statement here, everyone wears them. People have patterned ones and all kinds of stuff!


.The rice I didn't finish. It's said in Korea that all of the rice you don't finish during this life, you'll have to eat in the next. Oops.



Hello Hello!

This week was so busy. I've appreciated all of the Conference spoils, we don't get to watch it until next weekend. And then after our ward goes on a camping trip together, unfortunately our permission to go got stepped on, but hey we get to go for the day! 

We went on exchanges this week, which somehow turned into a trip to Costco with some members that took us to lunch. Okay, Costco in Korea is exactly like Costco in America. It was like stepping into America for a little bit, even the smell was the same and they have all the same foods, plus some random Korean ones. I mean you probably can't buy Kimchi in bulk in America. Speaking of Kimchi, a beautiful thing happened this transfer. I make myself eat some kimchi every time we are with a member and it's there, I don't hate it, it's just, there. I kept thinking, hey maybe one day I'll actually enjoy eating this. Well I think that day came! We were at an appointment and I had my mandatory piece, and wait a second, I actually like it. The Gift of Tongues is so not just  a language thing!!! Anyways, the exchange was awesome. They have a big basketball court outside, so after English Class we were out playing with the Elders and some of the Youth and the sky was so pretty! It reminded me of playing so much lightening at home, it was the best!

On other news we got to meet with all of our investigators this week and saw some super cool miracles! Our investigator from Vietnam's mother in law had been a problem. She hated any and all churches, but she told us this week that now her mother in law is okay with it. It's such a huge blessing that things changed, because that's part of why the missionaries before had to stop meeting with her!
 After meeting with Angela this week, she told us she wanted to come with us to church, but she never replied to our text Saturday night so we were worried she wasn't coming. Then 5 minutes before church started she walked in! It was so cool!! However, she brought 3 dozen donuts with her for the branch...on fast Sunday. She's so cute. We were able to do a lesson with her during the second our of church with a member of the Stake Presidency, who is seriously the best. She is just eating up all of the love from the Branch! 

I love you all! I love the Gospel and seeing how it changes peoples lives. It truly is amazing. 
Have the best week!
XOXO
Love,
Sister Stout