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

Monday 26 March 2012

Sestra Stoutova!!!

So, I am now in Don Valley!! Our area here is pretty weird. We live near the Sheffield City center, but we have to travel to towns surrounding Sheffield. In Brid there were NO missionaries anywhere close to where I was, but considering I am now serving in a legit city, we have about five other sets of missionaries within 20 minutes of us! We are also the only Sister missionaries in our mission that serve in a major city, so it's pretty exciting!

The area is epic. We found 14 new investigators this week! Sister Freeman is absolutely amazing! We are having so much fun together! 
My name here is now Sestra Stoutova!!! Haha, I love it so much!
Also, we are serving in a unit inside of a ward. So we are the Don Valley unit (and we actually have church at the Don Valley stadium) and we are in the Sheffield 1 ward. It's all very new and exciting. :) And this unit is the largest group of Slovakians in the world (even more than Slovakia itself!), so that is also very exciting.
DEEANN, YOU GOT BAPPPTTTIIIZZZZED (or Krst, in Slovak :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is so epically excitinggggg!!!! I am seriously so happy about this, Miss Deeann, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!! I can't wait to go home and give you a big hug!!!
But yeah. I would tell you more about the people that we are teaching, but I can't remember any of their names. Their names are all said WAY funny, but then are just common names like Lucy or something. But then there is the EXTREMELY common man's name of Frantishek, which reminds me of Shrek. . . but anyway.
Being here is such an amazing blessing! I honestly love getting to serve with the Slovakian speaking people. I never thought I would do this, but I know that the Lord has called me here. But I probably won't be a Slovak speaker my whole mission, just while I'm in this area. Considering it's the only sisters area that is Slovakian speaking. :)
I love you all!!!!
Sestra Stoutova


Tuesday 20 March 2012

I'm Learning a New Language! What?!!

This has been a VERY interesting week. Haha, so last Monday, it was zone p-day, which I think I mentioned. So before we started playing capture the flag, we were just climbing boulders and stuff. I was already on this boulder and this HUGE bee just FLEW towards my face. It was the fattest bee I have EVER seen. Well, some of you will know that I am TERRIFIED of bees and I forgot I was on a boulder and that the boulder went higher behind me, so I tried to run away, but instead I just slammed my face into the boulder. Very unfortunate. So, obviously, my head KILLED when I first did it, but then it seemed to get better. Haha, it didn't. I was just OUT of it the next couple of days and on Wednesday, we had our district meeting and the zone leaders were there and I was SUPER out of it. I didn't know why I was saying some of the stuff I was saying and I was just generally out of it! The zone leaders took me to the hospital and they told me that I had a minor head injury. . . oooopppssss. :) So I had to have 48 hours of rest, which for a missionary, is TORTURE. Then to make it worse, I got a weird English flu/cold thing and I had to be in for ANOTHER three days. FIVE days of being inside the flat. Horrible. But I'm all better now!!
Now onto transfers. Sister Brown was called to be a trainer!!! So that means I'm leaving Brid!!
And I'm going toooooooooooooo
DON VALLEY!!!! And my new companion is Sister Freeman!!!!
Don Valley is especially interesting because it is a non-english speaking area. It is an area where a lot of Slovakian people live, so that is the language I will be learning! I'm not even allowed to teach english speakers!!! :O  Pray for me, please!!  I only slept 2 hours last night because I'm a little nervous about learning a new language, but I know through my faith and my and your prayers, I can do this!  Oh, my goodness!!!
Annnnnyyyyywaaaayyy!
I am going to upload some pictures, so this is the end! I love you all!!!
<3,
Sister Ali Stout!!!

This book is older then AMERICA!!!! 1758!!!!

Zone Leader Council!!!


The YORK ZONE!!!!

This is Nanci the day of her baptism. She didn't want ANY pictures taken, but we were able to wriggle this one out of her. She's not in her whites though, so that was kind of sad. But her baptism was SO powerful!!

Me with a creepy fake man. :D

So, while we had 5 days of being indoors, Sister Brown and I played some Scrabble!! She put down Nintendo. . . and then I added the 'es'. haha, she was FUMING!!!

Then, out of sheer boredom, Brown and I bought one 15" pizza and got one free!!! SO MUCH PIZZA.

My supurb drawing skills!!!

Monday 12 March 2012

WE HAD A BAPTISM!

Well, hellooooooooo
 
My life here in England is going grand! I love being a missionary here in Brid!!! One particular reason being . . . WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!! :D Her name is Nanci and she is AMAZING!! We love her so much and despite having EXTREME fears of water, she was baptized by FULL immersion! Haha THE GOSPEL IS SOOOO TRUE!!!!
 
This whole week went by SO fast! We were in Durham on Monday, then on Tuesday we got invited to Zone Leader Council, and then we had Zone Development Meeting on Wednesday . . . . and then the rest of the week was just a blur!
 
Today was pretty fun though, we visited these rocks that were in the movie The Princess Bride. They're called Brimham Rocks, and we played capture the flag, and my team DOMINATED!! Haha, so much fun!
 
Since we had to drive FOREVER both ways to have a zone P-day, I don't have a ton of time to write. . . but know that I love you all and I am learning SO much about . . . well EVERYTHING!!
 
<3,
Sister Ali Stout

Monday 5 March 2012

7 Months Out!

Helllooooooo my home land people!!!!
 
I am in Sister Brown's first area, Durham, right now! It is beautiful!! I have now met people who speak Geordie!! :O :D It is really great . . . and funny! And really hard to understand. Haha. A member of the ward here was giving me a hard time and was speaking as fast as he could! :)
 
Anyway, everything else has been good though. We have an investigator named Nanci who is getting baptized this Friday!!!! Which is sooooo exciting! She is 17 and has had a very difficult life. But everything is going better now.
Sister Brown and I get along really really well!! We love each other so much!
 
This past week we went to mission tour, which is kind of like a zone confrence, but there is a General Authority there. . . a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy was there and we all got seriously rebuked. Not in a bad way, but in a really motivating way. He even called up Sister Brown and I to talk about one of our investigators! Hahaha, it was way fun!!!
 
I don't have much time today, we are on a strict schedule!! :) But I love you all!!! :D
 
LOVE,
 
Sister Ali Stout