Working with the youth, the future of the church

Desho?!  TIME IS FLYING!  This transfer particularly is going soooo fast.  The last 5 days have been like a rocket.  I mean weeks.  I literally just wrote days and meant to write weeks.  That was a bonafide... what do you call it, Freudian slip...?

Anyway, every week I've been in Japan has been accelerating and getting faster.  But so much continues to happen.  This week there were a few disappointments, but nothing beats the good!

So.  Fuji disappeared.

Dang it.

We've called and called and texted and texted and his phone seems very much dead.  He must've either gotten a new number or just hasn't been using it for a week, but he also got a new job on the day we last met him, so we know he's probably really busy.  But we're really bummed that he just disappeared.  Elder Morris and I were on splits yesterday and we prayed to be able to find him like 6 times and road all over.  We met a lot of really nice people out in the rain, but no sign of Fuji yet.  A little frustrated, especially because of how good he was doing.  Please pray for him.  You and dada, and anyone else who's reading this email!

Relationships with the youth have been getting soooo good!  Elder Goldsberry (a missionary in our zone,) gave an excellent training in a meeting on working with young ward members, and we've been applying it.  One thing in particular is just actually being their friends like we were back home with our quorums.  It's easy to fall into the trap of being a smily missionary who asks 「元気ですか？最近どうですか？部活楽しいですか？OK、じゃまたね〜。」("Hey, how are you?  How's life been?  Having fun at school?  I'm glad.  Ok, see you later!") We've just realized that that's your natural instinct, but it's so unnatural. We've been avoiding saying generic things, and have tried a little more joking, playing around, friendly shoving— suddenly the youth are actually starting to like us!!  We're gonna go get sushi this week with 3 of them!

Just for the record, working with the youth is becoming critical in Japan.  The church is struggling in a few areas here, and helping these young saints find joy in the kingdom of God has become a really big focus of our mission.  They are the future of the church.  Honestly, it's one of my favorite kinds of missionary work because it's literally just making cool new friends and having fun together so that they can see the good in the gospel and realize why they would want to serve missions themselves.

President Dorff's son Ren has become a particularly good friend of mine, I've started calling him my "Japanese brother." He's way funny and I could see us hanging out in high school!  The other two are Yu kun and Neito kun.  They're brothers and they’re SO funny!  I love them so much.  We have lots of fun together at events and church and stuff.  I always tease Neito: he's just 15 and we had a lesson on dating in Sunday school, so we made sure to give him a hard time ;) Another kid's name is Tomoru-- he loves Harry Potter and always wears the same Gryffindor tie to church.  He is SO funny.  Reminds me of Max Liechty.  Lastly but not leastly is Ryou kun.  He's way cool like Chris Stoddard.  Just the cool cat figure, but him and Ren seem to get on really well, so we're all buds.  Anyway, they are becoming like my own Quorum; it's been great!!

This pic is visiting Yu and Neito at their house with their
AMAZING mother and adorable lil' sister Rara Chan.

We had a matsuri indoors which was so fun!  Spent the whole time talking to TONS of members cuz this ward is huge, but I haven't taken many pictures recently.  Sorry, I need to repent and get better at that!  This week was a lot more just like, raw information than fun stories, I'm sorry about that.  I'll be better next week....

I'm jealous you got to hang out with Mark! I'm praying that he'll go to Idaho too!!!  That would seriously be the best EVER to have 'em so close.  Oh, that's so exciting that Carson's married now!! He's another hero of mine.  I know for a fact that I know his wife, I just forgot like, what classes we had together and such... oops. :P

I'm sorry to hear about Uncle John.  (Shauna’s Uncle John, who also served his mission in Japan, passed away last week.)  Is everyone doing ok?  I hope Grandma and Grandpa are doing well.  It's been raining lots here, maybe Japan is crying for them.

Can't wait to hear more from you and I'll be sure to write next week!  Love you all!!

Elder Stout :D

スタウト長老 ^o^

Three splits and a Zone Conference

 Wow.  This is the second school year I won't be a part of.  That just . . . after 13 years, it just doesn't feel right!  I can't believe Lucy Jo is in public school and I'm not!  I'm too old.  I will for sure send her a video.  It's a wonder to me how shy those girls are with strangers compared to how crazy they are with us!

Saitama Zone Conference

This week was just as crazy as the last!  We had three splits and a Zone Conference.  Fire with Elder Tamura!

We ate sukemen ramen.  He's such a good missionary.  He was baptized about 3 years ago and has such a strong desire to share the gospel with everyone he meets.  We had a lot of fun and learned lots from each other! :) 

Then Elder Hugo and I got to go on splits, and at our basketball activity a member brought his oboe so THAT was super awesome!!!  I love the oboe, but Elder Hugo can actually play it, it was awesome!  Anyway, I learned how to play a C Major scale (I'll send a video later ;) It was great.

BROTHER Fuji is doing SO good!  While he hasn't been baptized yet, he likes it when we call him brother.  So, here's the miracle story.  On splits with Elder Tamura, we had a lesson with Fuji kyoudai (that's "brother" in Japanese, johnbytheway,) and we taught him about baptism.  Several weeks ago he was a bit frightened by baptism and said, "I don't want to join the church, so I can't meet anymore!" So Elder Frazier and his last companion asked to meet with him and said that even if he doesn't want to be baptized we still want to meet with him, so it was ok.  But after talking about all of the blessings that come with this ordinance in our lesson this week, we asked a very broad and scary question: "So, how are you feeling about baptism?"

After a few, seemingly long, seconds, he said, "受けたいと思います！" or, in English, "I want to be baptized."

We talked about how setting a date always helps us keep a goal to work toward and shows our faith to God, proving we are willing to work if he helps us.  In response, Fuji said the Japanese equivalent of this: "Well... I might be a bit busy then... I guess if we do it in the evening........... how does tomorrow work?"

The spirit was so strong and our hearts are full!!  Of course we explained that we'll need to talk to the bishop and finish all of the foundational lessons of the gospel so he understands everything about being baptized.  However, he is so kinjin (golden person... like, ready.) What it came down to was us befriending him and caring more about him and his needs than anything else.  He felt our love and realized that we want the best for him and as he's been taking the small steps, he's realized that this is the life he wants to live.

I just want to say here, to everyone reading this email that is not a full time missionary, you can do the most effective kind of dendo (missionary work,) as just a normal person. Just love your friends and sincerely care about them.  When they feel that, their hearts will be softened, they'll let in the spirit, and they will feel God's love for them!  Share the gospel with your example :)

So, that was amazing.  It was huge!!  In other news, I went on splits with the assistants to the mission president!  The assistant with whom I spent the day was Elder Munro!  You prolly don't remember him, but he was my zone leader in the MTC and had a big impact on me there.  I was struggling with whether or not to switch to fast track and go to Japan early but he really helped me out by pulling me aside to talk.  The split was super special, but I'm out of time so I'll write about it next week if you remind me :)

Mama, dada, I love you so much!!  Ok, Sorry, we just had a less active family surprise show up at the church with a friend who wanted to hear about the gospel, so I just took a 2 1/2 hour break between this paragraph and the last.  Needless to say, we don't have time to finish emails today.  But before we know it we'll be able to meet up any day of the week, so today's email time was a worthwhile sacrifice I think. :) Sorry though...

(More pics next week!!  Gotta dash!  Love you!!!!)

スタウト長老 ^o^

Elder Stout! :D

MLC in Shibuya

元気よ！Week 2 was way good and way crazy! :D We had lots of meetings and prep and such, and the Lord consecrated our time with some AWESOME miracles.

Elder Frazier is so organized, considerate, way smart, and is always smiling!  He's an awesome companion to have, I'm so lucky.  Living with Elder Morris is hilarious!  We're brothers, but we've long-since overcome any clashing in our relationship, so it's just like living with a best friend.  On stressful nights, I just tell jokes and stories with him and all four of us have a good laugh and wind down well.  Elder Hugo is the sweetest district leader ever, always asking us how he can serve us.  OH!  And today is Elder Morris's birthday, so naturally we hung out and Elder Hugo served us by holding up the fan (JAPAN IS SO HOT AND HUMID.)

MAN!  I literally cannot picture in my mind that Josh is a return missionary.   (And I don't use the word "literally" lightly.) We're still supposed to be kids runnin' around in his sandbox!!  But I'm sure he was a great missionary.  That story was really powerful, thanks for sharing!  

Still haven't found many new people, but Fuji San is progressing SO well!  His testimony is beginning to form and he's understanding everything we teach so well.  He really really opened up this last week as we simply asked about him and focused on who he is and becoming actual friends.  Ward members have been amazing and so supportive, especially two of my new good friends brother Kawai and brother Inoe.  Anyway, as we've showed genuine interest in Fuji San, he's begun to pray daily, to come to church, to come to FHE, and we even went bowling together today! :D

And he smiled in the picture!  It's goofy of me, but he never smiled two weeks ago, and so this picture just makes me happy.

As a zone, we all counseled about goals for the transfer and got in a big circle and prayed, and didn't finish until we unanimously agreed on what we feel the Lord wants us to accomplish, and it was such a powerful experience.  Our zone is a family.  I've never felt so much unity in my mission, and I wish I could talk about every Elder on here, but I don't have that much time!  It's been amazing to meet with these people and see the crazy interesting miracles (such as one companionship fellowshipping 50 football players and becoming a part-time assistant coach on their team with permission from our mission president.  Another companionship taught a deaf man who's been investigating the church for decades.  And Elder Frazier and I have become good friends with a young man in our ward who before inviting us to lunch this week didn't like talking to missionaries at all.)

It's faith.  It's just faith.  Everyone has been exercising faith and the lord is blessing this area and these missionaries profoundly.

The hardcore version of our "ice cream party because everyone role-played in the zone and is getting way good at teaching" party.

The happy version.  We sent this one ;)

  

I love seeing pictures of the family :D I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!  I'm so grateful for our family. I can never say that enough.

Yes, we've been preparing for the Sapporo Temple dedication for months, all of the members are getting so excited and talk about it frequently! :) Lots of people have pictures of it as their wallpaper (well, mostly missionaries.) I'm so excited! :)

Oh!  Another thing that completely made my week.  We had Mission Leadership Counsel (MLC) at Shibuya, and so I got to return home a week after leaving.  It just felt right.  That city, particularly that area, will always hold a special place in my heart.  But not only that.  I was priveleged to meet so many of my best friends and mission heroes whom I look up to— I saw Elder Li, Elder Snyder, Elder Clark, and my MTC sisters, Sister Riggs and Sister Chinain!

It was such a highlight, I can't describe how happy I was to be there, nor how blessed I was to be untied with so many people I love in one joyous meeting :D Elder Li and I just talked and laughed and reminisced every free moment we had before, at lunch, and after.  I love that man!  Elder Clark and I had SO much to talk about, but not nearly enough time, so we kept it short.  The sisters are Sister Training Leaders in my home-town Chiba (where Narita is) and are of course doing mad work.  Man... I love being a missionary.

LOVE YOU!!! :)

スタウト長老 ^o^

        🇯🇵  •  🇺🇸

  Elder Stout! :D

Tonkatsu might be my favorite food in Japan... But maybe it's sushi!

First week in Urawa

GRETA KAAAAAY!!!!  She's so cute!!!!!  I can't wait to meet that little friend!!!  Elder Frazier and I were so excited when we read the letters and I found out about my new niece!  I'm glad she's healthy and everyone is well! :) Oh man, I love my nieces and nephew!!

*Ehhrm*

愛するお母様へ、

元気なの！？いつも通りで母ちゃんの人生が楽し過ぎそうだね！先の週が良かったです。私は浦和に来るのが嬉しくてちょっとドキドキしたのですけれど！でも本当にこの新しい浦和と言うワードは最高です。

It's been amazing.  This is easily leading up to be my favorite transfer yet.  Elder Frazier is on fire with dendou spirit, and although we're constantly busy planning and setting up zone activities, whenever we have the chance to go finding he gets super excited and basically pushes me out the door.  I want to be just like him in his love for going out and doing "classic missionary work."

We met a new friend and went to 7/11 together to add each 

other on Facebook!  And I'm wearing your tie you sent :)

Elder Frazier is a super smily, super nice, and very outward focused elder.  He's always cleaning the apartment, or complimenting you, or making ridiculous impressions, or just... Focusing on others!  He's such an amazing example.  I have so much to learn from him!!  And being companions with him is even more fun than I thought it would be after living with him for 3 transfers in the Shibuya house and already getting to know him so well.

It's definitely been suuuuuuper busy, but I've never been more connected with my purpose of inviting others to Christ, and that alone has made me a lot peppier than usual!  Every minute of every day we're either in a meeting, planning for a meeting, calling and answering calls, teaching lessons, or if we're lucky, finding on the streets!  We make calls at night to the zone too, and honestly, I love it.  I've gotten to know so many strong missionaries and as we've councils with them we've come to learn so much from them and have gotten to become good friends.  It hasn't even been a week, but I could spend the next hour writing about my new friends!!

Elder Frazier and I send pictures with emails to the zone so 

that people actually read them (pictures are to missionaries as 

lights are to flies) and so they're pretty goofy but... Oh well!)

The ward is perfect.  No exaggerations.  The chapel is seriously filled every Sunday, and I got more smiles/handshakes/"nice to meet you Elders!" than I thought a person could in one Sunday.  Not only that, they are all so dendou fire and want to help us and meet with us and they're just the nicest ward!  I feel like I'm back in Highland 13th, it's THAT good. :)

President Dorff is legendary here.  (President Dorff is the stake president in John's new area.  He served as a missionary in the same district with John's mom years ago in Sapporo.  He sent her a message when he found out John was transferring to his stake.  He happened to be visiting Utah and offered to take a package to John.)  Every church member knows his name because he works insane hard to magnify his calling and hasten the work.  President Nagano and him are in constant contact, and so are we, so I'd heard his names several times before his son approached me at church with a massive envelope and a big hug.  I LOVE Ren and his mom and dad.  The Dorff's are so neat, I can't wait to get to know them better.  And mama/everyone, thanks for the package! :D It made my entire month.  Just ask Elder Morris, he saw me with my new stuffed cat/Buddha Board (which everyone wants to use,) and said, "Elder Stout, you just look so happy.  It's like your birthday again!"

The apartment is also more than I could've asked for.  It's almost spotless and everyone keeps it that way, it's cozy—but it's definitely comfortably big—there are 2 other Elders in it and I love both of them (Elder Hugo, whom I went on several splits with in Narita.  Selfless, always improving, and just a way kind, good Elder.  And Elder MORRIS!  My district leader from Shibuya who is one of the funniest people I've ever met.  He's already my brother after our 3 transfers together/the MTC, so it felt like coming home.) 

I GOT THE PACKAGE!  AND AN AWESOME APARTMENT!  

IM SO HAPPY!!

As far as our investigators, that's probably where this area is weakest right now.  Which is ironic considering we're missionaries here to teach people ;) But in all honesty, Elder Frazier and his last companion Elder DiCastri worked extremely hard, so I know it's just the way things were meant to play out.  We've been able to set up 2 appointments.  One with a Fuji San and one with an Alam San.  Please pray for both of them to meet with us and to understand our lessons and apply them to their lives.

Fuji San!  He's very tall and very nice!  Haven't really talked with 

him much yet, basically just met and talked briefly on faith :)

We've seen countless miracles occur as we've gone finding.  Though we've only found one new investigator, I can see The Lord preparing us to find more soon.  For example: we've been focusing on simple 1 minute street contacting messages as a mission, and so we have 10 different topics we focus on.  Well, when we were out focusing on The Restoration specifically, it just so happened that the first 4 people we talked to had solid Christian backgrounds and understood all aspects of the restoration after minimum explaining....... THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN IN JAPAN!!

On top of that, we had an appointment reschedule 3 times in one day within the span of 2 hours, and because of us rushing to get there on time, realizing we have lots of time to street, and then rushing again, we met two families who were interested/one man who had taken the lessons before, and a Jehova's Witness missionary who we left a good impression on and parted friends with! :) I'd heard it said that God consecrates your time when you're busy, but now I can testify to it!

I love you Mama!!  I love you Papa!!  And I love you family!  Reading emails and letters from everyone does my heart good.  I love all of you so much more as time goes by.  I don't know how I got to be so blessed.  Well, I guess I owe a lot of it to you and Dad! :)

スタウト長老 ^o^

        🇯🇵  •  🇺🇸

  Elder Stout! :D