Happy Chinese New Year!

Heey! 

Happy Chinese New Year everybody! We kicked off the week going with our district to a Meerkat cafe. Confusion aside, not a place where you eat them, but you can buy drinks and sit and play with them. It's a magical thing, there are friendly Meerkats, Raccoons, those small Kangaroos that may as well be called Kangaroos because that's what everyone calls them anyways...obviously it was a great day. 

Anyways, Chinese New Year!! is huge here, way bigger than Christmas. (sad) Big holidays normally mean no one on the streets, which is true, but in my area it means there are a million foreigners. I've never seen more foreigners in Korea than I have this week! They always say the only scary thing about Korea are the foreigners, which after this week, I fully agree. Everyone was out of town for the most part this week, so we weren't able to meet with very many people, but we took that time to heart attack all of the members front doors. Along the way we met a lot of really cool people, just all around was a good time!

A cool miracle form this week! On Sunday we were sitting with one of our investigators, Sacrament ended, and there is this lady sitting in the back of the room that I've never seen before. We go up and start talking to her, turns out she started investigating the church like 10 years ago and used to come to church all the time. She had a baptismal service and right before it started, her husband called and said if she went through with it to not come home. She still loves the church and knows it's true. It's so amazing how much some people have to sacrifice for the church, when I feel like I've just always had it. I feel like that is a lesson I'm never going to stop learning.

Sending love!

xoxo

Love,

Sister Stout

Heey...still me

Exchanges!

Soo we had a meeting in a city like an hour away this week. Took a wrong bus, and were going to be late, so we ended up having to take a forever long taxi ride there. I should really learn directions.

 

And Baskin Robins 31 days!

Hello loves

So this week was cool, I hit my year mark which was insane! Celebrated with Baskin Robbins ice cream, aka it couldn't have gotten better. I seriously can't wrap my head around the fact it's been a year. I never thought time on a mission could go so fast. Other exciting news, at our STL meeting this week they announced that in a few weeks we are officially becoming a Facebook mission!  The Lord is definitely pushing His work forward and I'm pumped to be part of it!

This last week has been super funny. I forgot what it's like to walk the streets here with another American as white as me, especially someone like Sister Monson. Our lives are a joke. So there is this big road that goes through the city we cross everyday, but there's a part of it without a light. I don't really know how to explain it very well. Essentially it's a four lane road, it has a cross walk, but no light to tell us to cross, you just go for it. Whenever we would cross it before Sister Oh would just say, "I am a car." ....and just go for it, then I would follow her like a scared puppy who didn't want to get hit by a car. So this week Sister Monson and I walk up to this cross walk.....I look at her and say, "I'm scared of cars." And she's like, I got this. So she starts walking into the road and puts her hand up like the little kids do, and this car in the next lane just steps on the gas and Sister Monson jumps back into me! Apparently if you're not actually Korean it doesn't matter if you're a pedestrian. Ha darn all these Americans!

We had the coolest miracle this week. Exchange miracles are awesome, plus Sister 조희수 is just awesome. During exchanges they went English sticker boarding. We pretty much just stand there with a board and get people to stick stickers on it and it has English questions. We talk to people, advertise English class, all the good stuff. Anywho Saturday night after exchanges we were calling contacts of people they had met and this girl had watched the video about Christ on the pass along cars they gave her and loved it. She kept talking about how well made it was and this special feeling she felt when she watched it. Then she asked us how soon we could meet and we said...hmm Church in the morning at 10? The next morning there she came with her friend too! They stayed, loved it, and asked if they could come every week. It was such a cool miracle, I think it took Sister Monson and I a second to pick our jaws up off the floor. 

Just want to leave you all with something I've been thinking about this week. I got asked to give a talk on anger (Yes for real!) in District Meeting and it's gotten me thinking about how much everything we do is a decision we choose. There's a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley called Slow to Anger and if you have time, you should totally give it a read. Anyways, it talks a lot about how we may not always control our circumstances or other people's choices, but we can decide how we will react and how we will let it affect us. It all comes down to our choice and how we are going to let it affect us, whether that's for good or bad. I love this gospel that I get to share everyday and watching it touch peoples' lives. I love this beautiful place I get to serve, the people I get to serve, my family and I love Sister Oleson! (Haha)

Sending lots of love♡

Love,

Sister Stout