MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was so fun to see you earlier today!! :D This Skype call was so much easier because we already had the drill down, I felt like, but it was still a so special! :) I love talking to you so much! I'm sorry we didn't get much one-on-one time... I don't know how much we can really get on a 40 minute call though :P Come to think of it, both mine and Elder Stout's calls were basically just a huge family reunion ;) Of course, I really like that format, it was so much fun! :D

I've loved doing #lighttheworld!! It's so inspired and so inspiring. And it's so easy to do. It's the perfect holiday event. I'm so sad it's finally over, and feel way bad that I only actually participated in about half of the days. On the topic, I think we'll go and post our last ones today ;) But it has been so great. I'm so happy that you've been doing it and you saw that blessing!!

That is so good to hear that Wendy's doing well, I've been so worried about her!! I'm sure the whole family has been, but really, thank you so much for sharing. We've all been seeing Christmas miracles!

This week mission school was awesome!!

President Nakagawa's kids all came and so did Mark, and it was so great! We learned lots of English and worked on lots of homework. That family is my favorite. They're going to be my lifelong friends for sure, especially President Nakagawa.

Two days later we went on over to Mark's house and were able to meet his mother and sister and new little brother! Before they got there though, we practiced our song for the Christmas party. He made what would have been a somewhat average performance into a really powerful little musical number. He's so talented. He inspires me so much, I gotta learn guitar like him!

On Saturday we had a Christmas miracle like I told you about on the Skype call!!

Bu san had us over at his house! We taught the entire Plan of Salvation using Japanese, English, a little dictionary, and a lot of pictures. He's learning both the english and Japanese church terminology, so please pray for him. The lesson was fantastic, and after explaining baptism, and telling him that in temple he can perform a baptism for his deceased father, he got the biggest smile and his face and said, "Yes, I want to be baptized!" We've all decided together on February 25th, so we're working for that special day.

Christmas Eve was also great because we went to KFC and got selfies with Japan's image of an American Christmas. Though the sun was way bright.

Also, #First-sleep-over-with-my-cousin-on-christmas-eve-just-like-we-always-dreamed

Also, remember when I told you a few months ago about meeting a sister in Urawa who knew Grandma and Grandpa Stout really well and began to cry as we spoke? Well, her name is Sister Hayakawa. Randomly during study a few days ago we got a knock at the door. We opened it to see a delivery man struggling not to drop a hefty box balanced on his knee! It was addressed to a "Jyon Sutauto Choro."

It was like Christmas. I don't know how much money she spent on us, but we don't need to go shopping this week, and Christmas was a huge ordeal with all of the treats she packed in there. Sister Hayakawa is the best, and I'm so grateful for the work of you, Mama, and Grandpa, and everyone else here in Japan. These people will never forget how you touched their hearts.

Well, I'd better wrap up around there. This Christmas was wonderful and magical. I can't wait for this New Years. President Nagano has ordered that we all go to shrines on P-Day to see the way that Japanese people celebrate this special occasion! We're so excited!!!

I love you so much Mama, and I love the rest of you too!! Write to you again soon :)

Love,

    Elder Stout :D

          🇺🇸  •  🇯🇵

スタウト長老 ^o^

Merry Christmas from Sanjo!

Merry Christmas!! I can't believe we're finally to this week of the year again! Can you even believe it? I love Christmas time. It's, as Mark said in an email once, one of the most bitter-sweet times to dendo. It's the best time to represent the savior, and the hardest time to be away from those you love. I guess I'm pretty lucky that I only had to spend 1 Christmas away from family......

Having my cousin has made it pretty dang easy to work hard every day. Granted it makes it easy to get distracted, so we're always striving for improvement ;) I'm so grateful that we get to spend such a special time together! Last year in Narita was life changing for me, and this Christmas season has been more special than I ever could have asked for.

Speaking of Christmas! I wanted to send you a Christmas present and so I bought a bunch of Japanese treats and two simple cards (that are really fancy, but simple.) and that's about it... last years present might have been a little more heartfelt, what with the letters to everyone, but I already sent it basically before I really had time to think.  I'm gonna be a masterful gift-giver like Mark one day, but I hope you can easily work with this years present! It might not arrive until a few days after Christmas, that was my bad... I'm sorry!!

Toshiki! He's doing great. As of right now, there are no official plans for the wedding, we're still working on it with everyone. However, we taught him about the law of Chastity and committed him to live it, and he said "yes!" Following that, we gave him two options on a board and handed him the marker. He circled this option. :D (President Nagano laughed when I told him we took a picture of it later )

His girlfriend Yui Chan has been coming to all of our activities lately like the stake Christmas music night and to our family-night-movie-party where we watched the Joseph Smith film. They've been really humbled lately, and her heart is really being softened. Please pray for both of them, but suffice it to say that Toshiki is on a roll coming to church each week!!

Asako is also doing amazing. Every lesson with her is super spiritual (it certainly helps that we have a member of the branch presidency join each lesson!). 

Mark!!!!!! He hasn't answered his phone this week and we're really sad about it. I'll let you know what's up next week. I do know that he's been crazy busy with school and stuff and maybe just needs a break. We're praying really hard that we'll see him again soon.

Do you wanna hear the best story of the week!?! :D Elder Stout and I went out to knock doors last week and we saw a guy outside of his apartment building. His name was Shing Bu. 

We started talking to him and sure enough, he really wanted to learn. He's from Myanmar, and his Japanese is still pretty new, but his eyes lit up when we said who we were and he asked us to come back. Yesterday we did, and we had one of the most spiritual first lessons I've ever had within his home. Not only that, but half of it was drawn on paper to help us understand each other. It was so cool!! 

We also found out that he already has a bible in his own language!!Bu san is so passionate about the gospel and already knows the blessings that come from it (first time I've ever born testimony and somebody's given me a blank stare saying, "Yeah. I know it makes me happy."  He's so awesome. He just really wants to learn with us. So, our next step is to find a Book of Mormon for him in Myanmar!!! :D

Um... That's so exciting to hear about Josh Whitmar!!! I can't believe it. He's always been like an older brother to me, but at the same time I've also always felt like we're the same age. He makes me feel old. That talk is one of my favorite talks of all time. I really really love it. I think every member of the church should be required to read it and study it multiple times in their lives. It completely changed mine. (Elder Stout's good friend, Josh Whitmer gave his homecoming talk yesterday and shared some great insights about President Ezra Taft Benson's talk on pride. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng )

Fun story for the day: we woke up after splits with the Niigata Elders in Grandpa's favorite city, and walked outside to find that it went from absolutely no snow to half a foot over night!! Walking 30 minutes to the eki was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. When we took the train across snowy tundra and cities back to sanjo, it was snowy here too, but after a couple of hours it all melted. We had a rain storm last night, and there's no trace of it. Everyone is so confused at why there's no snow! We should've been covered a month ago. I think the Lord needs Elder Stout and I to use our bikes just a little bit longer! Go dendo!!!

I love you so much!! Can't wait to see you in a week from today!!!!! :D :D :D :D

    Elder Stout :D

          🇺🇸  •  🇯🇵

スタウト長老 ^o^

Toshiki is doing FANTASTIC!

Toshiki is doing FANTASTIC!

So, we were really concerned about him earlier this week and this were looking fairly grim. I think I've explained that he's in a really tough spot... erm, I don't think there's much I can reasonably say in a group email. But suffice it to say that being baptized on his scheduled date was seemingly less and less likely as the days approached. Until today, we met with him and talked about the Law of Chastity and the joy we can experience through it, and particularly how we can all build good, strong homes for our families if we are married and especially sealed in the temple. Well, we need to talk to our branch president about doing it for free at the church, but it is very likely that we will be seeing a wedding at the branch in the next few weeks with Toshiki and Yui!! :D

He's always so bubbly and funny and he was doing great at church this week. We're feeling very blessed!

Signs of Christmas? Oh yeah. Saturday was the coldest day of my mission. It rained and snowed pretty bad, and Elder T. Stout and I had happened to be tracting all the way up the side of a mountain in Kamo (we're implementing his sales techniques he learned over the summer and hoping to find more people to talk too by housing!) and the bike-ride home was bitter cold against wind and snow. Not to mention, the sprinklers which melt the snow that are rigged up to all of the roads in Sanjo came on and hosed down our pants. We were so cold we had to buy nikuman (these super good meat filled dumplings that convenience stores all sell here,) and melon pan (a huge fluffy role that tastes like melon, or cantaloupe. Really popular, and surprisingly good,) to warm up... BUT THE SNOW STILL DIDN'T STICK! It looks like October outside, but it snows almost daily. We've heard this is un-normal, and in the next day or two we'll be in pretty bad shape I'm sure ;) Elder Stout and I are really looking forward to it!! We love snow!!

Asako is doing really well too. We've prayed a lot and thought a lot about our investigators, and her case more than any of the others has been something of a mystery. But we've talked with lots of old missionaries, prayed a lot, and finally just had an extremely open conversation with her and brother and sister Kumagai saying in essence, "we sincerely want nothing other than for you to be happy. What do YOU want in order to be happy?" And going from there. She really really opened up about her true feelings about the church and where he concerns are about baptism (the funny thing is, we never once brought baptism up in the last few days. She always brings it up herself. She thinks about it all the time.) I'm convinced she's received her answer and just needs to find the courage within herself to act on it despite cultural and friend opposition. And so we're trying to help empower her now, and the ward is FANTASTIC doing lessons with us and always supporting her! She's also great at supporting the ward more or less already a member; she's playing the piano for the priesthood quorum's performance at the Christmas party on the 23rd (look forward to our musical number which we will send you a video of. It is fabulous. ;) This Friday we're watching the Joseph Smith moving in Japanese (the hour long one,) with her and all of our other investigators. I've seen this movie have a really powerful impact on people understanding how human and yet good the prophet was, and I think it's exactly what she needs based on recent conversations. More to come next week!

I can't wait to skype, too!!! :D Either? Too? I forget how English works. Japanese has one word for (either/neither/too/as well) and that word is "mo." Nice. Japanese. So easy.

Anyway, Christmas is gonna be so fun!! :) Because for missionaries Christmas is more or less the same as every other day, we thought it might be more fun for us to Skype on our p-day, that Monday the 26th, but it'll still be your Sunday the 25th. How would that sound? 9 o'clockish works good for us. Our 10 o'clock AM is your 6 o'clock PM...? Or 7 o'clock. I think 7. Could you fact check me? ;) But I'm super stoked!! Elder Stout and I will make appearances in both our skype call and the Tim and Lanae skype call, so that'll be super fun too. :) This go round there's a for sure rule of 40 minutes on the call. So we can't go over 40 minutes! Any special way you want to do it? Like 2 minutes with each sibling and 5 minutes with the grils, 5 minutes with you and dad and then 20 minutes all together? :) (everyone can and should join each section, but I'll just have a more personal conversation during those?) I dunno. Whatever works!

So, Mark. I love Mark. He is my bestest bro. 

We went out to get tonkatsu at our favorite shop "tonkatsu sanjo", and it was super good! He told us all about how he ended up in Japan and about his childhood. It was really heart-wrenching, and we got so much closer. He's such a good kid. He invited us to a charity concert he played in which we weren't able to attend. We asked him to record it so that we could watch it later. His mom actually recorded it with his phone, and at the same time messaged us a few times. Long story short, our hearts melted as she said, "Thank you for always being kind and supporting my son. I look forward to meeting you soon."

We can't wait to meet his fam this week!

Zone meeting was great!

I feel like so much has happened this week... Um... I don't really remember what to talk about though... the work has been good. We've been working hard! I've never felt so close with a ward or group of people, and I've also never felt like the ward respects my opinion or treats me like an adult until now. When we sit in branch council meetings, they sincerely ask my opinion on things, and even though my Japanese speaking isn't quite as great as it will be one day, we can communicate ANY important idea now, and I feel like I've changed so much there. Are you ready to try and speak just a little Japanese on the call again, Mama? ;) I'm excited to hear uncle Tim now too!! I've heard that he sounds Japanese, and I'm finally to the point where I can hear Chinese/Mongolian/Philippine/Mexican/American/Australian accents in Japanese! But legend has it that Tim doesn't have an accent! O.o

Oh, by the way! THOSE PICTURES!!! I got so excited and shared the story with so many people in the ward as well as with several people during lessons. I think it's really strengthened some people's faith. Wow. What a special tender mercy we got to see!! :D I'll keep a sharp look out for more photos of Grandpa!

Love you so much!! Can't wait to hear from you next week, I love your emails and pictures and uplifting thoughts, and I'm mostly excited to talk to you on Skype! :D

Yours truly,

    Elder Stout :D

          🇺🇸  •  🇯🇵

スタウト長老 ^o^

Sanjo is taking off!

I have no idea how it goes so fast. I feel like I was just barely writing you!! Life is going too fast, I want it to slow down. However, this last week was amazing. I've loved experiencing it!

So, I LOVE the church's new campaign! #LighttheWorld. It's BRILLIANT! (Pun totally intended.) It's simple and small and compliant with what every kid and young adult on this planet does all day every day, and it's easy and it's super helpful! Elder T. Stout and I have been working at posting a new one every day just to try to get the word out there. I think you should try to share what you're doing every once in a while if you get the chance :) Just in case some of your Facebook friends are unaware of it.

I loved it, on Tuesday we showed the videos to Mark and he just looked dumbfounded and then asked, "Wow! How do I do it??" He is so gold. That really was the epitome of how we should all show our faith to the Lord. Not just with holiday campaigns, but with all commandments and teaching from the Lord. If we read every scripture and ask, "How do I do it??" Then the gospel will have the best impact it can on our lives.

HEY! I met with Maeda san again.  These were at his house in a big binder of pictures from the ward when he was a boy. Wow, missionaries have had an impact here in Japan. He never served as a missionary, but this was when he went to Niigata for a branch conference. In the second picture, is that Grandpa on the second row far right? If it is, that is the coolest thing ever, that I found this picture!!! Please let me know.  (Note from Elder Stout's Mom:  That is John's Grandpa Austin as a young missionary in the second picture.  But it gets even cooler.  I'm pretty sure that the elder on the back row, third from the left (next to the young man in uniform) in the first picture, is Elder John Austin, Grandpa Austin's brother who also served in Japan!) 

 This week has been, in a nutshell, very good. We had a really really good lesson with Toshiki, and he's doing pretty well. He's hoping to reach his baptism date for December 25th, but he reeeeally needs prayers. Please please please pray for him. He is in an extremely difficult set of circumstances that maybe one day I'll tell you about in person, but for now, it's probably best left out of the email. However, we have 2 member-present lessons set up with him, and so we're looking forward to those! I think we'll be able to unite as a ward and help him conquer all of his weaknesses.

We've been teaching one of the sister's old investigators (there haven't been sisters in this area for about a year) named Asako. She is so awesome and full of faith, and I think she also has a lot of potential to be baptized if she makes the decision to change her life! Our lessons are always fun with her because she's so nice and the ward already treats her like she's an old time member.

Mark is doing well, although he wasn't able to come to church yesterday and we haven't been able to get ahold of him. But we will tomorrow for sure. And, he invited us to go to his upcoming concert for charity which I am SO stoked for!! It's gonna be way fun! I'll send pictures next week for sure :) Well, we're sending president Nagano an email first, but I'm sure it'll be ok; he just plays acoustic guitar. And man. Mark has a WAY good voice!

Sanjo is taking off. We're meeting with almost every single ward member to do practice lessons, and on top of that we're working really close with the ward. I'm feeling pretty good about my Japanese, and mama, I need you to promise me that you'll never let me stop studying for 30-60 minutes a day for the rest of my life, cuz I only want to get more confident from here on! :) We're having so much fun every day and are really seeing the Lord's hand in this work. I love bearing testimony and feeling the spirit work in me. It's the best feeling ever. Nothing strengthens your faith more than sharing it with others.

Today was transfers, but we're staying together another 6 weeks (whew!) Looking forward to the best transfer ever with my best friend and companion!

BFF Selfie! :D BCF! BBF! KFC!

Here is me being the center of attention and Elder Stout 

really wanting his name-tag to be visible... Hahaha!

Aw, I loved hearing about Grandma's party! :) I hope the video was ok, we really would've liked to do it at a cooler location, but it was right at the end of email time...

The gingerbread house party!! That is one of the best times of the year. I'm glad you all had fun :)

Love,

    Elder Stout :D

          🇺🇸  •  🇯🇵

スタウト長老 ^o^