Mom,

My p-day is whole day but I only have 30 minutes to write.

Glad to know you are doing fine. I have gotten all of your letters. I like getting your letters. Every likes letters, there is no too often. You can write everyday if you want.
You don't have to call me Sister Stout, I'm your daughter, mom, call me whatever you want :)
 
Yeah, I actually did dream about Dad. There was like a spider infestation, a lot of peopel died, but we lived through it. Then we were driving to some place through a desert and we were all in the car, three of us. Then we saw Jenny at the destination, a house. Then I woke up. I think I had the dream before. I don't know, it's interesting.
 
I was joking to my companion that you could cook something and ship it over. :) Don't though, it might get bad .The package was great, good job, Mom! I'm gonna try to see if the MTC delivers to COB for free, then I can ship you stuff too. Find out your address for COB, let me know. You can ship snacks to me :)

So happy you are staring piano lessons, swim, and read BOM (Book of Mormon) and PPP (Preparation Precedes Power). You are a good missioanry whether you go teach with them or not. I think you do enough just by going to church and meeting with peopel that way.

I can't send pictures to you because the computer is programmed differently here so it won't recognize the card. I'll just ship the card to you later and you can download the pictures. I did take some with my tag on.

So my MTC address is actually
Sister Ashling Stout
MTC Mailbox #163
CA-OAK 0613
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604

My P-day will be different in California, I don't know yet.
 
This week we did a lot of practice teaching people. I pretty much only taught about the Restoration in Preach My Gospel. It's hard to start, because you have to get to know people and know their needs. I'm so bad at remembering what peopel tell me, but it's okay, I'm getting better. We have peopel pretending to be investigators that we teach, they are good actors. I got lucky, our investigators are really easy.

So the highlight of the week was in a workshop, we watched a mormon message video from president Holland. It was about how the book of mormon must be true because Joseph Smith would be mad to give up his life, his brothers, friends', the saints' life for a fake book he made up. If you can, watch that, it's really good. I cried.

It's interesting this week. We've been told that as representatives of Jesus Christ, we can promise things to people and have them fulfilled by the Lord. It's a comfort to know that. It's interesting to see how the simple doctrines affect peopel so much. We had investigators tear up just because we testified that God loves them and wants the best for them.

We had a devotional on Sunday from the Provo temple president. He talked about many miracles he sees in the temple. He was so spiritual, I cried then too. He talked about a time when a family went to the tempel to be sealed and there was one more child than currently alive. The mother said that they ahd lost a child when they were little. It's so amazing to see that miracles happen in the temple everyday. It reminded me when we got sealed and when I got my endowment. It's great to see the spirit so strong when you are bearing your testimony.

I'd never get enough time to write, so I have to go.

Take care of yourself. exercise. be happy.

Loves a bunch,
Sister Stout/Ashling
p.s. write to me by dearelder

The picture of Sister Stout on Stake missionary board

Ashling's first P-Day: first email from Ashling

Momma!! Guess what, it's p-day. It's every Friday, so expect emails then. :)

Umm...I have 30 minutes, so I'm gonna go fast.

First of all, I forgot a lots of stuff (...the list ...) Okay, that's it for now. :)

Important change to my MTC stay. I'm actually staying 4 weeks, so I'm leaving June 16.

The best way to write me is actually dearelder.com, it should be free to the MTC. They print your emails so I get them the next day. Even though I can't write you back that day, I get you note fast and I can spend my 30 mintues writing you instead of reading your email, which is not here today...Mom.... :(

Well, MTC is actually quite great. The food is American mostly, but you know how I actually like American food, so it's all good. They have lots of things to choose from. I really like the orange passionfruit juice :) I think I'm fatter now, some of the shirts feel tight already. The dinner is really early so you have to eat a lot to not get hungry at night. But it's okay, we sneak out apples and bananas. Really, we are quite full all day. MTC has the randomist things happen. Yesterday we saw a group of newly arrived Samoans do a hakka dance. :) It's cool. Something really funny on the first day. Us new missionaries kept forgetting we are now Sisters/Elders. When we introduce ourselves, many people said their first name, then realized that they weren't supposed to. I did that when i just got of the car, but tried to not do it again. people are really friendly, we have an orange dot on our tag saying we are new, so a lot of peopel say welcome as we walk by.

Everyday except p-day has lots of meetings and classes. There are 4 sisters going to my mission in my class, one of them speak Mandarin, another speaks Cantonese. The one who speaks Mandarin, Sister Lao, is my companion. she is from Macao. We get along quite well. She is the nice, reserved kind of person, but fun still. She went to BYU-provo too. There is a sister here sent out from Beijing, Sister Li.

 What surprised me a lot these few days is how much they emphasize love in missionary work. You cannot approach people without getting them to trust you first, to like you. They have to see that you are sincere. Yesterday we had people and my purpose workshop. It teaches you about how to approach people and why we are here. That whole experience was great. It was really spiritual because you learn to know your investigators and love them before you teach, which is really different. Our first day we had three fake-pretend investigators so we can see how teaching should work. All of them started knowing about the investigators' backgrounds. What really stood out in that meeting is that everything was just plain until someone bore their testimony, then you could really feel there is something different. Anyway, I guess I knew I should know people's backgrounds before I teach them, and bear my testimony, but I just didn't expect it to make such a difference. It's great.

I'm doing pretty good. They planned my four weeks out already, so i know what I'm doing every single day. It's a busy schedule, and I have yet to get used to getting up at 630am, but it's all good. I'm content. I can feel myself growing spiritually, getting to know more and feel more everyday. Everything makes me appreciate what you do as a ward missionary, Mom. I guess everything came to you naturally, but I have to work at it :)

Okay, time is almost up. I love you, Mom. Take care of yourself. Write me. Say hi to grandparents. Be happy. Don't forget to ask for help when you need it, which you probably do because I can't explain soem of the things here.

Love ya!
Ashling, umm...I meant Sister Stout

First Day of Mission-- May 16, 2012

Ashling and Mom drive to MTC.

On the way, Ashling came to her Dad Gary and her granparents Stout to say goodbye.

Come to some of her friends of BYU to say good bye.

   Both mom and daughter do not want to eat anything. We ordered this one and bring half of them home.

Before driving into MTC, went to Prove Temple for last minute calm down....

Last picture before walking into MTC building

Dear friends and family,

Well, I'm going on a mission, and I'm leaving tomorrow. My mom will update this blog while I am gone.

Thanks to all of you who made me a better person, made me who I am.

I'm gonna need all of your support, so write me in the MTC at
Sister Ashling Stout
MTC Mailbox # 163
CA-OAK 0613
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

or after June 6 in Oakland at
Sister Ashling Stout
California Oakland/San Francisco Mission
4945 Lincoln Way
Oakland, CA 94602

Lord bless you, and I will see you later. :)