Another crazy week in Shibuya!

So, WOW it's been another crazy week in Shibuya! 

Elder Li is so funny and an amazing chef.  He continues to be an amazing missionary and we've been working SO hard!!  We've seen so many miracles.  So far, our time together has been the most productive of both of our missions.  We're doing our best to do all we can and it's insane the miracles we've seen.  I wish you could just see them. I know miracles don't make faith, but...  given I already had faith, the miracles I've seen make that faith unshakable!!

The miracle I'd like to share this week has to do with doing your best to invite the spirit back into your life and being humble.  Back in the MTC I had a similar experience with Elder Clark when we had to settle our differences and make the companionship work.  I think that any companionship that wants to do the right thing will resolve and can work!  Elder Li and I had a little bit of difficulty teaching and carrying out other aspects of the work together (not to anyone's fault, we just didn't quite have the same vision.  His was really good; mine was good.) We had gone tracting with this agitation in the back of both of our minds.  We talked to several people, but nobody even stopped to say they weren't interested after seeing our name-tags.  It was really rough on both of us, so we stopped, stepped out of the streets and just talked it out.  It was a bit painful for both parties.  There wasn't a winner or a loser.  We just realigned our visions and talked out our differences.  At the end of it, Elder Li said, "Well, we still have 10 minutes!  Let's go find a Kinjin (golden person)."

Can you guess what happened when we went out?

We stepped out into the sea of hundreds of business men and sight-seers all busy to get through one of the most densely-populated areas of the world.   The first person we talked to not only stopped to listen to us, he got excited.  "I have interest!  Do you know Jensen??" he asked.  "Yeah, we go to church with him!"  "He's my really good friend!  But, oh no... I have to go to work in 5 minutes." "Can we meet another time?" "Yes!" And he gave us his phone number.

We only had a few minutes, but we met 3 more people all with a lot of potential interest.

I testify that this is God's work and it is SUCH a wonder!  When we do everything in our power to have the spirit with us, The Lord uses us to bring forth His purposes.  It is such an honor to be a missionary of God.  Another huge lesson I've learned lately is that it's not about me.  I'm not even the main character of my story.  It's these people that I'm meeting every day.  It's the people that are right in front of you that need your attention!!  Please keep praying for the people I talked about in my last email as well as for Eren.

I'm really growing to love missionary work.  The tireless hours of finding (we go hard.  That's all I need to say about that ;) the long bike-rides, the stressful night-time calls.  It's exhausting work, but the more tired we become, the less energy we have to worry about ourselves (:

I love you and miss you lots!  Say hi to the family!!

スタウトL老! ^o^

Elder Stout! :D

PS, I'm sorry I didn't respond to anyone else's emails, I don't have hardly any time today!!

"Life is Drama + Money" (the sign behind them).  That's my new life's motto.  What do you think? (;

We gave brother Naillon a blessing the other day per request, and in return they made us eat their entire kitchen basically.  I love this family so much.  I felt like I was at Rachel and Kyle's house again: All American food (I ate 4 hot dogs), two crazy little boys making a mess of everything and attacking us with plastic swords... I think he even sent you pictures! (:  It was awesome and so fun, but man... Elder Li and I were about to fall off of our bikes and die of overfilled stomaches the entire ride home. 

Tokyo Zone Conference

One of the missionaries in my MTC district just moved to Narita and
met my best friend Fuma Kun.