Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, and rejoice ye inhabitants thereof, for the Lord is God, and beside him there is no Savior. Great is his wisdom, marvelous are his ways, and the extent of his doings none can find out. His purposes fail not, neither are there any who can stay his hand. From eternity to eternity he is the same, and his years neverfail. For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end. Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.

Doctrine & Covenants 76:1-6

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Sister Doubt

I'm not gonna lie. . . the last couple of weeks have been pretty difficult. We haven't been able to find very many people to teach and we are doing hours upon hours upon hours of finding. So there really isn't anything fantastic to talk about . . . .
 
We saw some beautiful sights last p-day. We went to a town called Peterlee with some of the Elders in our zone and did some 'caving', which I'm pretty sure is something they made up. But Peterlee has these incredible cliffs by the sea where there are caves you can walk around in, when the tide is low. So that was lots of fun! 
 
The Elders have given me the name Sister Doubt, because I doubt everything that everyone says. Such as, my DL and his companion are 'escavating dinosaur bones' in their flat. To which I say, YEAH RIGHT! I don't believe it for a minute. They showed me pictures of it, but it looks fake to me. And then when we were in Peterlee and they were saying how a ship that was off the coast was a pirate ship and I said, 'I seriously doubt that'. That's when they gave me the name Sister Doubt. :)
 
Sister Terry has begun calling me Sister Stout Bird when we go knocking because the knock is as quiet as a bird. But I feel like I'm banging the door down. My hand HURTS after I knock, because I'm knocking that loudly. But appearently it's not good enough. :)
 
We are having our mission Christmas party tomorrow, so no p-day today. I'll tell you all about next week.
 
Merry Christmas Everyone!  Love you all!!
 
Sister Ali Stout

Monday 12 December 2011

Exhausted but HAPPY!

Last week FLEW by! We spent a TON of hours finding... 32 hours. Normally we only get about 19ish, so A LOT of walking and A LOT of being EXHAUSTED. But it's all a part of the work. I'm figuring out how to be an effective missionary slowly but surely.
Last P-Day we went to Durham cathedral! It was magnificent! Unfortunately, my camera got left in the zone leaders car so I had to get pictures taken on Sister Terry's camera. I'm also going to get some pictures that shouldn't have gotten taken from INSIDE the cathedral from an Elder who was taking some. So that'll be good.
Last night we went to a part members (June and Eric's) home and helped them decorate their tree, it was SO much fun!! We are going to be spending Christmas at their house as well. Yesterday they got us cards and christmas crackers, and they said that they are going to be getting us Christmas boxes as well! :D
Not much else to say, honestly. I'm having a blast on my mission and I love every minute of it! :D
Love,
Sister Ali Stout

Monday 5 December 2011

Tis the Season

Today is my four month mark! :D Haha . . . . so this week has been good. I was a bit sick for a bit of it and my feet are killing me. . . . but that's my own fault for being too lazy to buy new, comfy shoes. :)
 
But the thing about living in England in the winter is that it is MAJORLY COLD. The beginning of the week felt really bad, but as the week has gone on, the temperature has gotten lower, but I've been able to handle it better. So I'm acclimating, which is very good.
 
Ummmmmm, I can honestly say that this was the most blurred week of my life!  I'm having a hard time remembering what happened yesterday, let alone what happened earlier in the week.
 
OH! RIGHT! Haha, I remember what we did yesterday! We took two of our investigators to a Christmas fireside in Hartlepool. So it was a two hour bus ride one way. LONGEST THING EVER! But the fireside was wonderful! Our investigators liked it. And they kept asking me to show them pictures of my house so we did that on the way. Haha, he said that our house was 'mint'.
 
We had zone meeting on Wednesday, as well. We all had to make lists of things that we were grateful for and we gave them to the zone leaders and they went through them all to find common things that everyone was grateful for. They said that pretty much everyone had the same things EXCEPT for ONE person. Which just happened to be me. They read off most of my list (which had cute baby animals, old people's stories, yarn, and that moment when you are SO TIRED, but because you are just THAT TIRED you are extremely hyper, so you can't fall asleep, but it doesn't matter because you are having THAT MUCH FUN. . . . yes, I am turning into THAT kind of person). But it was super fun!

OH, RIGHT CHRISTMAS! For our flat, a member gave us a FIVE FOOT FIBREOPTIC TREE! It is SO incredibly EPIC. Sister Terry and I love it! We have also hung up some tinsel and we bought advent calenders, which are AMAZING!  So yes, mum, to answer your question, we did decorate for Christmas! :D

And to answer your other questions, NO, there are ZERO English people in my zone. Weird, I know!  Also, I don't feel like I have an accent at all, but I can DEFINITELY hear the American accent now. It is SO STRANGE. So harsh sounding. . . :)

Anyway, I don't have much time today, so I must dash.
 
<3,
Sister Stout