[8] Inspired by a church member,[5] Trout served as a missionary in Japan for the Disciples from 1921 to 1940,[9][10] spending the first two years learning Japanese.

She took a leave in 1940 and due to increased nationalism was unable to return to Japan, losing her belongings, including an extensive print collection.

She was one of the church leaders who visited Japanese Internment camps during World War II to conduct "mass meetings, seminars, open forums, ministers' conferences, [and] Bible study sessions,"[12][13] serving the Emergency Million Movement as Associate Director.

[9][14] The Disciples of Christ was outspoken in its opposition to the internment of Japanese Americans and as Conner writes, "[It] took a leading role in a well-coordinated, national public and private effort to move Japanese Americans out of internment camps and resettle them in towns and cities across the nation’s heartland."

Trout, as a Disciples missionary, aided in this effort by touring rural Indiana communities to determine the availability of employment for, and sentiments towards, the internees.

[16] In January 1946, she became the executive secretary of the department of missionary education; in that role she oversaw a large field staff and worked with 5,000 organizations throughout the United States.

[9][5] She returned to missionary work in Japan 1961 and retired in 1963, intending to continue her efforts as a translator and a speaker and living in Indianapolis in the winter and Owen Sound in the summer.