Sanjo!

My travel suitcase, a journal, and a rice farmer hat

Dear Family!

It's me, your favorite child. ;) I LOVE JAPAN!!!!  SANJO IS AWESOME!!!!  It's like, the stereotypical Japan I always dreamed of.  Also, it is exactly what you described Hokkaido to be like.  On the topic, guess what??  Elder Okano is from Sapporo! :D So that's one cool way that we are connected.

Endless Rice Paddies!  Endless!

REAL MOUNTAINS!!!

As I write this email, Elder Okano and I are at a way good Tonkatsu place right next to the church which is one of the attachments to a shopping strip.  It's way weird!  I always feel like I'm going in to get a haircut and then suddenly I'm in a church.  But it's very comfortable and well kept :)

The Church!

Our ward is the BEST.  Er, when I say ward I mean shibu.  I mean branch.  Our branch president's name is Nakagawa Kaichou (kaichou means President,) and he's the nicest most patient man I've ever met.  Also his family is adorable, especially his oldest son Yuusuke (you-s-kay) who is 14.  He's dendo fire and loves to help the missionaries.

I've only met one of our investigators, his name is Toshiki!  His family is half members, half not.  He's really sweet at heart, but he's a little wild (like initiating sumo wrestling matches in the chapel,) and it's gonna take a bit of changing before he's ready to become a member of the ward.  Other than him, we have a few that I'm going to meet before long! :)

I absolutely love my companion, Elder Okano.  He's hysterically funny.  Partially his sense of humor and partially because of his English.  We just get along way well.  I was afraid to be in a 2-man apartment, but the fact that it's him is such a relief.  

The Many Faces of Elder Okano!

Despite going to an area that causes many missionaries lots of stress, I've felt more at ease and up beat than I have for several transfers.  I sincerely love this place! :) I think its my sense of adventure.

The train ride here was interesting.  Dang it, I'm running out of time.  The apartment I came into was absolutely filthy (do you know Howl's Moving Castle?  It's like that house.  Or kinda like the bath tub in Spirited Away.  Because those houses are Japanese.  And filthy ;) We've taken time out of lunch and dinner, and almost all of P-Day today improving things.  It's becoming really pleasant to live there, I love it! :) But we accidentally spent so much time cleaning up that I didn't save enough time to email.  I'm sorry!!! I'll email more next week!  But for now, I'll just say I had to go to the hombu to get a new residence card, so I was 2 days late getting to Sanjo.  I spent a day with the 3 nihonjin (Japanese) office missionaries who are hilarious, and it was so fun but really tiring!  Then I came here.

Spending time with the office elders!

Bike helmets for new missionaries!

I'm doing great, the week's been interesting.  We had to plan and execute an entire Halloween party the day I got here, so that's pretty much all we've done other than a kubarikai at the eki and talking to people on the street and getting dinner with the bishop.  It's been an amazing adventure so far!

Characters for a puppet show we did.

It was really really sad to leave Fujii and Matsuda and Hiroki.  And Urawa ward... especially my friend Neito kun, one of the young men.  I hope to see them all again.  I really came to love that place a lot and the people even more so.

I love you so much, thank you for your amazing letters every week! :) Shout out to dad, I'm grateful for your letters too, I'll send you a long one next week!  And same to Megan, your email made my day, I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond!!

Love you and miss you!!  Talk to you next week :)

    Elder Stout :D

          🇺🇸  •  🇯🇵

スタウト長老 ^o^

I'm going to Niigata!!!

Today was transfer calls!  Everything's gonna change like it does each 6 weeks.

 We got the call from President Nagano and he said, "Elder Frazier, you're transferring to Maibashi!  You'll be with Elder Gibson, and we're tacking a new missionary onto you, so you'll be a threesome training companionship!" We all got way excited and cheered for Elder Frazier!!  He's gonna do amazing.  I'm gonna miss him, but now that it's coming to an end, I'm just so grateful for all of the things I learned from him.

At this point during the call I was already thinking of new ideas for the Saitama Zone!  "Who's my companion gonna be?  Who are the new missionaries coming in?  When will we meet all of our investigators this week...?" And then President asked for me.

"Elder Stout?  Yes, we're moving you too actually." "Huh?!" "Yes, you are actually going to Sanjo.  In Niigata." "NO WAY!!" I literally yelled it out! "...yes.  And your new companion is going to be Elder Okano!  He's a Japanese elder.  You'll be district leader.  You'll have a wonderful time there.  Thank you for your hard work, do you have any questions?"

IT WAS SO UNEXPECTED BUT I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!  Grandpa, I'm going to Niigata!!!!!!!!  Did you ever serve in Sanjo?  Because that's where I'm headed! :D :D :D

I thought I would be here for another 3 months or so, and I was looking forward to it.  I love this ward and have gotten closer to the people here faster than any other ward, but it's been my dream to go to Niigata since I arrived in Japan, and I cannot wait to take the bus aaaaaaaall the way to my dream prefecture.  Mama, I'm gonna have a White Christmas again, maybe almost as white as the ones you saw on your mission ;) Elder Frazier's shown me LOTS of pics from when he was there, and it's gonna be cold! I can't wait. :)

Elder Bednar's conference was amazing!!!  We did not get to shake his hand because he had a meeting with the prime minister, so there wasn't much time, but as soon as I saw him walk into the room and everyone stood I felt like I knew him already.  Over the course of my mission I've really gotten to know him from watching and reading tons of talks and things.  Having him here felt almost like reuniting with a friend, but also really sacred because he's an apostle.  I learned more from him than I have time to write, but the biggest thing I want to share is that he talked about and demonstrated by his natural actions how to truly teach.  "Teaching is not talking.  It's listening." He would ask us questions followed by, "I don't want to hear what you think I do.  Don't give me some generic answer, just tell me, what did you actually learn from that verse?" Or similar things, and as missionaries began to open up and ask more questions and give more comments, he simply taught us from where we were.  It wasn't a long speech, and we didn't sense him moving through a checklist of things he had to teach.  Rather, in 3 hours he asked us questions and answered our questions.  That was the entire thing!  It was such a powerful example of how missionaries should teach.  

He actually condemned the method of "guess what's in my head" where we ask questions looking for specific answers.  "You will never feel the spirit as you ask purely informational questions so that people will tell you things you already know.  They will never feel the spirit either!  I know you've done it, I've done it, we all have.  It's a well-intentioned but mislead teaching method." I definitely need to get better at that one!

I received lots of specific revelation for myself.  It was one of the most uplifting experiences of my life.  He was using the Gift of Discernment to see our needs, it was incredible.  However, the entire meeting was filled with so much love. He never set out to make a fool of anyone or make anyone feel bad.  In fact, he made us laugh so much!  

He's a really funny man.  One more quote he gave us before Sister Bednar whacked him on the back: "It's been another hour.  Ok everyone, stand up again!  Alright, here's another doctrine for you: the spirit can only receive as much revelation as the rear-end can endure." 

We stepped off of the train at the mission home's train station and walked up the stairs to the exit.  Then there was Elder Burnham.  It had been a full year, but both of our mouths just dropped and we walked straight into each other and hugged.  It was a moment I've waited my whole mission for.  We got to talk just briefly and it was so exciting.  Our exchange went something like this, "I love you man!" "I love you too, man!" "It's been so long!  Wait... you can speak Japanese!!!"  "YEAH!  YOU can speak Japanese!" "Woooooaaah!!!" "WooooooOOAH!!"

Haha, we took quick pictures after the conference and then more or less left after saying, "I can't wait to see you again in a yearish!  We have TONS to talk about!" I'm so grateful for the friends that I have.  I feel like the Lord gave me the best possible life He had available.

On Sunday this week we made it to just Sacrament meeting, but you'll never guess who we met!!!  MY BELOVED DORYO KOSHIN KITAGAKI!!!!!!!!!!!  We hugged and chatted in Japanese, and it was the weirdest thing ever that I understood almost everything he said.  Like, that moment when at the bike-shop I overheard a song that I listened to with the Stouts a hundred times, and I understood it this time.  That was weird.  Anyway, it was so fun to see him!  It makes me happy when people are happy to see me.  It makes me feel like I wasn't too hard of a companion to have ;)

Aw man, there are so many stories, but I'm way out of time, I'm sorry, I wrote way too much this week!  Fujii is doing awesome, he's coming to church and we actually went to get Indian Curry with him, and actually this week the owner of that restaurant met us at the church and said he wants to join (his name is Biraj,) and he introduced us to his wife who's also interested, on splits with Elder Ulrich we found some new investigators who the new Elders will meet, and basically miracles are happening in Urawa!! :) Elder Frazier was sick indoors for the last 3 days, so we haven't had as much time to meet people as we'd hope, especially because tomorrow's our last day to see anyone :( But things really are going so well.  I'm sorry, I have a much better account of the dendo in my journal, we'll have to read it when I get back.  I'll write more about the work next week.

Hiroki Kun

Splits with Elder Barrett

Splits with Elder Goldsberry

I miss you dearly.  I know I'm where I'm meant to be.  I know that the Lord loves us and knows exactly where we are, who we are, where we're going and who we're becoming and he'll guide us every step if we let him.  Love you so much!!

    Elder Stout :D

          🇺🇸  •  🇯🇵

スタウト長老 ^o^

Miracle with Iida Kyodai

We're going to see Elder Bednar tomorrow, and we're all very excited!  He's coming to our mission. I should've mentioned this a month ago, but he's coming to our mission and we'll be able to meet him in person.  This is amazing for 3 reasons:

1) It's an apostle visiting our mission, so we're about to receive some very specific, powerful, and helpful revelation that will boost our faith and productivity, and I'm so excited for that!

2) Elder Bednar in particular has really become one of my favorite apostles in this last year.  He gave two of the most well-known-among-missionaries talks in the MTC which really helped me at a hard time, I've watched and rewatched the face-to-face he did with the youth, and he is frequently quoted by our leaders when we talk about the work.  (Such things as "Faith is a principle of action followed by power.  We act, and then we receive.") So, the fact that he's coming to my mission after I've felt like I've built a personal relationship with him out here is really a tender mercy.

3) We're combining with Tokyo South.  That's right.  I'm going to see.... ELDER JACOB BURNHAM TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, time got away from us today, so I have to go in just a few minutes.  Dang it, this week was amazing, I wish I could write about all of it, but here's one really important miracle I need to share with you.  I say miracle not because it was a fun or special event or merely because it was particularly special moment, but because it was a miracle that God directly caused to happen in my life, and I saw it with my own eyes.

In the MTC, one of my favorite teachers and greatest missionary heroes of all time, Ren Hansen, acted as an elderly man named Iida whom he had had the privilege of teaching as a missionary.  Elder Clark and I taught him for weeks and weeks, and felt as if we had gone through the experience of helping this man come to know God, to overcome his addictions, to change his life, to come to church, and to follow Jesus Christ into the waters of baptism.  It was such a special experience that I shared with some amazing friends.

I knew that this same brother Iida lived not only in our mission, but near our mission home and in our mission President's ward, but the odds of me ever getting to meet him were very slim with so many areas in the mission, and I never dreamed that I'd see him with my beloved companion from the MTC.

However, last Wednesday I had the opportunity to work with Elder Clark for one more 24 hours, and I cannot say enough good about him nor our experiences that day.  We got to meet Daichi, and go to lunch with another sweet member in the ward, and it had been an amazing day.  But that night, as we talked together, we knew that there was someone we needed to meet.  We actually had to rearrange a schedule, ask some Elders who we were splitting with the next day to wait for us an extra evening, and the assistants were kind enough to let us stay at their apartment one more evening so that we could make the curfew.

Elder Clark and I sprinted as hard as we could, got a little lost (just like old times ;) and finally, we found ourselves out of an apartment building, inside of which we could hear the robotic breathing of the machine Brother Hansen had described to us in stories about his good friend.

We knocked, and when the door opened I was felt like I was dreaming.  There was brother Iida.  He invited us in and we sat down.  We only had time to stay about 10 minutes, but we talked fondly of brother Hansen, the MTC, how he's doing, and hugged as we talked about his difficulties with breathing and even sitting.  I felt such a strong bond with this fragile man.  The spirit was more powerful than I've ever felt it.  I can't describe it, but it was a pivotal moment of my life that I will never forget.

We made our way home with less than a minute to go, sprinting as hard as we could, but I'd never felt so much peace and joy before after a long day, especially after skipping dinner :)

Love you, gotta dash, 3 minutes to get home!!

I love you so much thanks for all you do :) see you next week!

Elder Stout :D

          🇺🇸  •  🇯🇵

  スタウト長老 ^o^