Happy Birthday, Mom!

Well, my week has been pretty fantastic. So many blessings and so much . . . just . . . HAPPINESS!!!!! I can't even explain how happy I am right now. I am serving around so many amazing people who I love SO MUCH!! Sister Freeman is such a wonderful companion and friend. We serious never get tired of each other. We're starting our second transfer together and we still just talk all day everyday like we've never spoken before. Only it's better because we HAVE and we know each other so well!!

 

Nothing too much has changed for me with trasfers and everything. I just have a new zone leader, named Elder Taylor, who I served around in the Billingham Zone, and a new district leader, Elder Gee, who came out with me. It's all very exciting. Even though Freeman and I are really going to miss our last district leader, the extremely Scottish Elder Cumming. He was such an epic DL.

 

P-Day was way fun yesterday! Sister Freeman and I decided to make sweet pork (like the kind they have at Cafe Rio) and bring it to the chapel for the elders in the city to enjoy. It was absolutely DELICIOUS!! Then we watched Despicable Me and played chair football. Well, I didn't play chair football, I sat out and wrote postcards and cheered people on. And also getting scared to death by the football flying everywhere and getting smashed in the foot with the ball. And that is why I don't actually play. Because when I do, I just get injured. And now that E. Taylor is here the whole Sister Doubt thing has come back.   It was pretty epic. But, honestly, the best part of my day was when I got permission to ring Sister Smith. I miss her so much and she is doing so well. She is training her third greenie, who is Chinese speaking!! I love my mission mom SO MUCH, it's crazy!!

 

Missionary work is going fantastic! I love the people that I'm teaching SO MUCH!! And we're going to be having a baptism in two weeks, which will be fabulous!! 

Mom, have a SUPER HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  I LOVE YOU!

 

I love you all so much!!!

 

<3,

Sestra Stoutova

Me and Sister Freeman!

Just a little grossed out by the raw pork :)

I'm Extremely Blessed

Dear people back home,

I'M STAYING IN DON VALLEY WITH SISTER FREEMAN!!! For another transfer, at least. Which is fantastic.  Everything here is amazing. I can honestly say I have met some of the BEST people I have ever met in my entire life. Some people that I know I will be friends with for the rest of my life. 

I'm learning a bit of Slovak. I can say some things. Like, 'Why you no come to church?' (JUST like that too, haha), or 'We talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ' :)

This week was good and bad. I got really sick with the stomach flu AND a cold and it was just a sad sad thing. BUT we also had an EPIC baptism! Which NO fever could keep me from!! It was fantastic!!

Considering I was in the flat for so long, nothing much happened. But it was a good week.

I am the absolute happiest I have EVER been in my whole life. I am so blessed to be able to serve here with such wonderful people! I am grateful for the person the Lord is shaping me into. And I'm eternally grateful for my decision to serve a mission.

I'm so sorry this is short, but I don't have much time. . . but just know that I love you all very much!!

<3,

Sestra Stoutova

The littel girl who got baptized last week put Freeman and I's hair into pigtails!! :D

I love this family!

So exciting - such a happy family!

This is actually me this morning before I came to email! :D Haha.

The pics below are a couple of many taken by a church photographer. It's an exciting time in Ali's mission. The Slovakian people in her area are excepting the gospel in record numbers.  The church is documenting it because it is the largest mass conversion outside a peoples native country in the history of the church. She's extremely humbled to be a part of it all. To see more photos, click here... there are lots of duplicates but some are really neat to see.

Lots of Miracles

Ali didn't have time to email today but she answered a few of my questions...


I'm doing GREAT!!!! I just have to say that Sister Freeman and I are EXACTLY alike. We are pretty much the same person, but with different experiences. We both have the same kind of 'problems' and we are really learning so much from being with each other. I love her with all of my heart. :)  I hope we get to spend at least one more transfer together.


I asked her about the missionaries in her area and how she liked it there...


We have 7 missionaries in our ward. Us, the actual Sheffield 1 elders, and the zone leaders (who are in a threesome). Us and the ZL's share the Slovakian area. The goal is to have a ward by the end of the year, pretty much. We are baptizing most weekends.  


I am having SO MUCH FUN here though. I absolutely LOVE this area.  Oh my goodness, yes. This place is glorious. I love it with all of my heart!!! I hope I never leave!


Asked her how the teaching was going...


Yeah, we have a pretty decent teaching pool. There is a lady who looks really good to get baptized in two weeks! :)

I mentioned to her something about the baptisms they just had and this was her reply...

Yep and the dad is getting baptized this saturday!! We are just SO excited!!  AND another thing about the baptism on Friday. . . normally you can't take pictures of people while they are in the water, but the First Presidency wanted pictures . . . so yeah. They are going to see each of our family in the water and of us as a group!! :D  

I'm in Missionary Heaven

I absolutely LOVE this area!!!! This place is missionary HEAVEN!!! We see so many miracles all of the time. We have this absolutely AMAZING family that are getting baptized on Saturday! Kvete, Daca, Martina, Nikolas, and Andrea!!! They are so excited to get baptized, and we are as well!! The AP's came down this past week and one of them interviewed some of them for baptism and he especially LOVEEEEESSS our family!!!

Some of the missionaries in our area got interviewed by the church this past week, as well. For history purposes. And maybe for an Ensign or Liahona article or something, I'm not sure. Anyway, I wasn't one of them, but Sister Freeman did. Along with Elder McKay (who has been in this area for a year) and Elder Juran (who is from the Czech Republic). So that was pretty fun. The lady who was doing to interviews was saying how nothing like this has happened ANYWHERE before. Where people from a different country have a massive conversion and when they are in their own country they don't really listen. . . I'm serious when I say that SO many miricles are happening here!

I love this gospel with all of my heart! I love how abundently the Spirit is with me and how I have this opportunity now to be an instument in the Lord's hands! To do and say the things that He would do and say if He were here!

I LOVE YOU ALL AS, WELL!!! With ALLLLLL of my heart!

<3,

Sestra Ali Stoutova 

Sister Freeman and I!! She is so amazing!! I love her SO MUCH!!

Opening presents :D

MORE PRESENTS!!!

Me on my birthday! :D 

This is Sister Freeman and I with our family and the AP's (or two of them anyway . . . )! :)

Happy Birthday to Me :)

HI!!!

 

It's my birthday!!! (which is really weird. . . but good at the same time!)

 

I got my box with the cake and the presents and I'm wearing one of the shirts with a cardigan right now! Thank you so much! And the journal was gorgeous!!

 

Yesterday was P-day, and it was a Bank Holiday because of Easter, so that is why I am emailing today. :) Anyway, it was zone P-Day and we all were at the chapel playing chair football, which I am not very good at, and then we watched Puss in Boots and ate pizza. After that we just sat around and talked. But the other sisters in our zone got me and an elder that had his birday a couple of days ago some lemon and chocolate bread. It was very nice! It's also nice to actually live in the CITY so I can have a FULL P-Day without having to travel. It is INCREDIBLE!! I love this area so much!!!

 

This past week was pretty good. Sister Freeman was sick for a couple of days and then I was sick for one day, so we had flat time. Which is pretty much torture for a missionary. But we endured and we are both doing much better now!!

 

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. We didn't do much, except, you know, WORK. Haha, which is what we do all the time, so I never really know what to say anymore about it. :/ But work is so amazing, obviously! The people in this area are so wonderful! We are working with this family of six who are scheduled to be baptized on the 21st! And they are looking fantastic! You can just see the spirit working on them! I love being a missionary with all of my heart!

 

I love you alllllllll!!!

 

<3,

Sestra Ali Stoutova

I LOVE Families

Hellllooooooo! England is doing very well, this last week was BEAUTIFUL!!!! Very warm and sunny and APPEARENTLY there wasn't a SINGLE cloud over ALLLLL of England? Craziness, right? Not a single solitary cloud. Anyway, my skin was very thankful, because I got a slight tan. The lack of sun here makes my skin very hard to look at, because it's pretty much TOTALLY fluorescent. But now the clouds are back again in full force. :) Not a ray of sunshine ANYWHERE. I love this place so much!

 

I seriously am having a ton of fun here. It's crazy hard, but . . . man, I can't even describe the amazing feeling that there is here. The people are so nice and they ALWAYS give us soooo much food. At every appointment that we go to, they give us food and drinks and you HAVE to eat or drink whatever they give you, or else they are not pleased. But they are really kind, obviously there are the crazies, but there are crazies EVERYWHERE you go.

 

Anyway, nothing too fun has happened yet. We were able to get 20 investogators to church, which was epic. And we found some really great families that we are now teaching. Which is always amazing. I LOVE families. I love getting to share with them that they can be together for time and all eternity. :) All of this is such an amazing experience. I have never been so happy in my whole life. Don't get me wrong, it is seriously SO hard. But I am learning that the hardest things in life are the most fun. :) And the most fulfilling. And generally just the best in all ways.

 

My love for you all is just sooooooo abundant!!!

 

<3,

Sestra Stoutova

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