My Mission Has and Continues to Completely Change My Life

I'm so happy to hear that you and the family are genki! :D Yeah, we weren't able to dendo for 3 days (because of the New Year's Celebration), but then we got right back out on Wednesday by going to district meeting and then having splits with the Niigata Elders! It was way fun!

We did splits twice this week. The second one was from Thursday night to Friday night. I was with Elder Manapori. Our split was super eye opening. We had a ping pong party with Toshiki's little brothers Ren and Aki. It went so well. Aki likes to have fun and can be a little crazy sometimes. I always try to nicely calm him down, but nothing I do seems to work. And then I saw Elder Manapori sit him down, grab his shoulder, and say, "Are you a good boy, or a bad boy?" "Good boy! Good boy!!" Then the Elder just laughed and messed up his hair. He calmed down completely and we still had tons of fun. By the end, Aki was SO SAD that he was leaving and sat through our whole message. I was so proud of him. It made me laugh and wonder if that's kind of like how grandpa Austin would take care of the uncles when they got crazy as boys ;)

The next morning we met with Toshiki and Yui!

It was unreal. We asked Yui, "Do you want to be baptized with Toshiki?" and that launched us into a 45 minute lesson with her about baptism, temples, eternal families, the plan of salvation, the restoration... it was awesome!!! She wants to hear all of the lessons!! Well, I say "lessons". . .

Me: Would you like to hear all of the missionary lessons? They're the fundamentals of the church teachings. If you hear all of them, you'll know exactly what Toshiki is a part of and if you want to be a part of it too.

Yui: Muri (absoultely not.) Lessons are boring.

Me: HUH!? What we're doing right now is consider a "lesson"!

Yui: Oh... yeah, I like this a lot. Let's keep talking, it's really interesting and I want to learn.

Me: ...So, you want to do lessons? Cuz this is a lesson.

Yui: No, lessons are boring. But let's do this.

Hahahaha, so, she's taking the lessons, but not as "lessons." ;)

My mission has and continues to completely change my life. I'm so grateful for every aspect of it. For the people I meet, for the challenges I face, and for the time to study and apply what I learn and focus so much on my Savior. I'm so blessed. I frequently pray for the capacity to be able to bless people even if just half as much as they bless me.

We had a skype lesson with Toshiki, too!

On Saturday we talked with Asako, and it might have been the biggest lesson we've ever had. We mentioned that once she's a member, we want her to "doseki" and help us teach others by joining the lessons. She responded by saying, "I want to be baptized before you leave."

YEEEEEEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Elder Stout and I gave each other a hundred fist pumps. We haven't decided on a date yet, but it's for sure within the next 6 months, hopefully within the next 2 months. Transfer calls are next week though, and Elder Stout and I are super worried about what's going to happen. If somebody transfers, it'll probably be me, but I can't leave now, because things are going amazing!!!

Toshiki is getting so close, and he just got a job, so he and Yui will be getting married soon, we taught Bu san this week and gave him a new Book of Mormon and explained it, and it was amazingly spiritual, and Masaki san is doing great while meeting with us and Brother Kumagai.  Mark and I are brothers, and Brother Tosaka has gotten really sick and is in the hospital and we're worried about him, and Sister Ito met missionaries for the first time in years and we've become really good friends, and Sister Hoshino and we have been meeting with her husband and it's been amazing, and I've come to love the Nakagawa's, Brother Yoshida, Brother Tsuchida, the Kumagai's...

I don't want to leave Sanjo. I could spend the rest of my mission here, easily.

I love you so much! :D I'd better sign off for now. Sorry this letter was WAY disorganized. I'll talk to you again next week :) Take care, love you!!

Sincerely, 

    Elder Stout :D

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スタウト長老 ^o^