Called To Serve

Every member a missionary.  Every where I go, I like to think of it as a "transfer" in life's mission. I love finding reasons to talk about the Gospel with people who haven't heard of the joy that it brings!  So far, everywhere I have gone, whether that be vacation or moving, I have been blessed to find at least one person to share my testimony with. The best thing about our transfer to Galveston, is that I finally have a companion (and I must say he is pretty darn awesome!) We knew that when we chose Galveston as our home for the next four years, that it would be something special if we made it so.

Sean goes out to teach with the missionaries about twice a week and on Sunday's we take investigators to church for the missionaries.  I have also been able to go with Sean and the missionaries to meet with investigators at their homes and it is so fun to finally be able to feel like a "real" missionary :)  I LOVE watching Sean teach because he gets so passionate about the Gospel, especially when he talks about the Restoration and Joseph Smith.  

One night we decided to go through all of Sean's old mission stuff just for fun....

Sean served in the Santiago, Chile North Mission; Spanish speaking

Elder Stout

An island that Sean served on...and the dog that followed him everywhere. The dog's name is Roac.

Sean's mom kept all of Sean's emails in this binder. I LOVE reading his emails because it makes me feel like I knew him while he was serving his mission.

 Some of my favorite quotes from Sean:

"9 people attended church (2 of them were us.)

EVERY email for two years started with, "Hello family. How are you all doing?"

EVERY email for two years ended with, "I LOVE YOU!"

"We've been praying to see the miracles, and I have truly seen the hand of the Lord in this."

 There are TONS more wonderful quotes, but I am too lazy to upload them all :)

My new job has also presented a lot of missionary opportunity.  I am the only member who works in my unit.  I was a little nervous when all of the nurses that I work with found out that I was a member of the church. However, when they did find out, one of the nurses said, "Really? You are Mormon? I guess some stereotypes aren't true because you're not that weird."  I am choosing to take that as a compliment. Sometimes it is a real challenge...It is quite the contrast from hospitals in Utah.  Everyone is baffled at the fact that I don't drink coffee and even more baffled that I can be happy while not doing so. Sometimes it is spiritually overwhelming, but it's times like that that I realize that maybe I was "sent" to work in this unit at this hospital for a reason.  Even if I am not there long, and even if I never get a chance to share my testimony through words, I can share my testimony through actions every single day. 

While Sean and I do not wear name tags that set us a part as full-time missionaries, we still can be, in a way, full-time missionaries. We can't wait till the day when we receive a calling to serve, with name tags, as missionaries.  Until then, we can continue to fulfill our callings as full-time member missionaries here in Galveston! 

The Woman I Love

Hello blogging world. Unlike all the other posts that you've read up 'til now, this is Sean writing. I'm not very versed in blogging, nor is it very likely that you'll read many more posts written by me. I did, however, decide to write this one because I have a very important thing to talk and brag about: my beautiful wife, Carlee. As some of you may know, she has been working for about two weeks now as an RN in the operating room at Shriners Burns Hospital for Children here in Galveston. I'm not really sure that you know how big of a deal that is considering she had just barely graduated from nursing school upon receiving this job offer. This is a very specialized field and most if not all of the other nurses that work there have years and years of nursing experience. It is also, in my opinion, a very difficult field to work in. It would just break my heart to see the lives of these people drastically changed by fires and other such things and it would be so hard for me to see their pain and suffering. It would also, I assume, be hard for me to be in the operating room (I guess I'll find out in a couple of years). I'm sure it's hard for Carlee too, but she doesn't show it. She amazes me every day. Not only does she have to see these surgeries, which is in itself a hard thing, but she also deals with the OR drama as she gets trained and learns her way around the various operating rooms. Even after long, stressful days, she comes home with a big smile on her face. I'm not sure how she does it, but it truly amazes me. She's making a huge difference in the lives of her patients and also is being a HUGE financial blessing to our new, little family as I start medical school. They say that your spouse should inspire you to be better, and that's exactly what she does. How I got so lucky to have her as my wife, I'll never know. I love her with all of my heart, and find myself loving her more and more every day.

Oh, and she's the most beautiful woman in the world!

Independence...In More Ways Than One.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks here in the Stout residence! Unfortunately, due to the excitement, I neglected taking as many pictures as I would have liked.  In the words of John Mayer, "I want to see the world through both of my eyes, no more 3X5's."  That's not an exact quote, but you get the idea.

First. I PASSED THE NCLEX! After three wretched years of this test hanging over my head, I finally was able to take the nursing boards test and I finally get to put some letters behind my name...Carlee RN, BSN. I made Sean look to see if I passed, I was way too nervous.  When my test ended at 75 questions my heart was beating right out of my body, and it didn't stop until I saw Sean smiling at me as he looked at my results. Three days later, I had my first day of work at Shriner Children's Burn Hospital, which deserves a post all to itself at a later date.

We left straight from the NCLEX to Fort Worth. Sean said  I had to go to Buc-ee's at least once in my life, so obviously we had a little detour on the way :)

The day we found out we passed the NCLEX, we went to our usual celebratory eating facility...Red Robin! This is a direct quote from Sean: "Wow... my hair looks so 80's in this picture." 

We also got dessert....unfortunately we only got to enjoy it for about two minutes, because after that we realized we had eaten the entire thing.  

Finally a big girl :)

Second. We spent an amazing weekend in Fort Worth! It turned out to be a little family reunion since the entire family was there, not a person missing! 

Jumping at Jenny's. Sean will always be a kid at heart :)

Everyone always posts pictures in Texas of how hot it is in their car, I just wanted to fit in. 

I wanted to color. I made Sean color with me so I didn't feel stupid. I guess I'm a kid at heart too. 

I left for a minute or two and came back to find this on my coloring book. I married the BEST man in the world!

On Jenny's and Kempton's boat. I loved spending the weekend with these guys!

These two have a little crush on each other. 

At the Fort Worth fireworks!

I finally have nieces and nephews! I seriously love them all! I am so blessed to have married into such a great family!

Dallas watching the fireworks...

Payton watching the fireworks....

This is not flattering...But I was SOO tired on the way home and Sean though it was funny...

Texas is an interesting place. 

 Third. We got home Sunday night and I started work Monday morning. Luckily, the OR takes a break on holidays, so I got paid to play!

There are two things I would like to point out in this picture. One, that giant pickle. Wow. Two, the fact that I asked Sean to grow a goatee and he did it. He hated it, I thought it was kind of nice. Haha.

We went to La Estación for breakfast on the Fourth. No better way to celebrate the birth of America by eating Mexican food, right? 

Their giant burritos... 

We finally decided to get an antenna for the TV. Unfortunately, the  only channels we get are in Spanish or Chinese. And in order for those to work, Sean had to hold the antenna like this. 

After some time, we finally found another spot that worked well for the antenna.

We finished celebrating America by going to a "ward party." It wasn't really a ward party, but a lot of people from the ward were there. It was lots of fun! We met some new friends, watched the Galveston parade (which was at night; kinda weird) and finished it off by watching the fireworks light up the sky. I LOVE fireworks to the point where I nearly get emotional! In fact, I love fireworks nearly as much, if not equal to the amount I love Christmas lights, which is a big deal. Anyway, it was a fun few days filled with lots of memories!