Week #15

Hey everyone,

This week has been another great week we had the amazing opportunity to have a conference with the whole mission and to listen to Elder Christensen of the Seventy. It was so fun to be able to see all those that I came from the CCM with, and to see the whole mission together as this almost never happens.  The talks were so good and I learned so much that I am trying to apply.  I loved a though of Hermana Christensen.  She talked about the sacrifice of a mission and how it is when we are sacrificing and struggling that we gain the most.  Looking back on my past 15 weeks on the mission, I feel like I have changed and grown so much, but it has also been one of the hardest things I have ever done.  I am so happy to be a missionary because although it is really hard sometimes.  The reward that comes from the hard work is oh so sweet.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of my mission has for me.  I have come a long way, but I also know that I still have a long way to go and I am going to continue to grow. I am here in Chile to bring others unto Christ and to help them, but in turn I strengthen my own testimony.  

Okay so we are continuing to teach a lot of the same people and the are all doing pretty well they are just progressing really slowly.  Please pray for them. They need your prayers. I want to share just a few experiences that we had that were really cool with some of our investigators this week.

Jacquline  Okay so this week we had a kind of a break through with her because she has been coming to church, reading, praying and doing so well, but every time we bring up the word baptism she freaks out.  So we brought a member with us and although we had planned on teaching something completely different, we started talking about baptism and why its important. The member was able to share her testimony and experience with her baptism a year ago.  Her face completely changed and she agreed to pray about.  We are so excited for this breakthrough and I know that it wouldn’t have happened without the member there with us.  Members make a huge difference in our lessons.

Adriana  Okay so we had a bit of a miracle yesterday.  We got out of lesson with a less active that was a little disappointing, and to top it off our next two appointments called and canceled.  So we were left with very little to do for the rest of the night.  We weren’t sure what to do, but decided to continue with some of our back up plans.  We went to the house of a less active who we have passed by for many times but is never home and we have never even met her.  This time however, she was home and she let us in.  She is a return missionary who fell away from the church a long time ago, as none of her family are members.  The missionaries were teaching her a while ago and her kids were going to be baptized but then decided not to.  As we talked to her she told us about how she has desires to return to the church but has had some problems with some of the members.  We were to visit with her and the spirit was really strong.  We talked to her about how this gospel is perfect, but sometimes its members are not and were able to talk a little bit about the blessings she was loosing by not going to church and I feel like something really changed and she agreed to talk to her husband (who isn’t a member) about her desire to return.  I am so grateful for this opportunity we had to speak with her. I know it would not have happened if we had gone to the other appointments.

Other than that, everyone else is doing pretty good.  Please continue to pray for them and especially for Ana, one of our less actives.  She returned to the church about a week ago, but this week told us that there are some things she doesn’t like and she wants to return to the catholic church.  We are working hard to help her to gain her own personal testimony right now.

Okay today was so much fun because since we had P-day on a Tuesday we were able to go to Safari.  Safari is a zoo here that is closed on Mondays. We got to see so many cool animals and the coolest part was that we got to go on a tour of the lions in these cars that the lions climb on top of and you get to touch them and see them literally inches from your face. It was so much fun I have lots of cool pics to send.

Love ya all,

Hermana Stringham