Companions *December 2015

Hermanas: Morales, Stringham, Bishop, Porter

Hermana Stringham, Nicol, Hermana Morales

Week #74 *December 28, 2015

Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone,

It was so good talking to the whole family on Christmas and seeing just how much everyone has grown up. 

This week has been an amazing week as the Christmas spirit has just been so strong, although I must admit it is just not Christmas really when it is burning hot outside.   

Christmas was a blast. In the morning of Christmas eve we went Christmas caroling with the primary which was so special.  We felt prompted to go to several houses of members, who are passing for a hard time and they just loved hearing the primary kids sing. So that was just so special.

After that we had such a tender mercy because we had been invited over with a family in the ward, but when they found out how early we had to be home it didn’t work for them and so we were a little disappointed and worried as we weren’t going to have anywhere to go on Christmas and no one was going to want to receive us. But our sweet Bishop overheard us talking on the phone and immediately asked what happened and without hesitating told us to come over to his house.  We had a great time and it was so sweet of them to allow us over and she just how hard they worked to make it a special night for us even last minute.

On Christmas we spend the majority of the day at Marcelo and Jeanyras house, where we did skype. It was a lot of fun as we were able to just talk with them and get to know them better and play with their cute little kids.   It was a really special Christmas. One that I will never forget.

This week we also had a lesson with Jeanyra and Marcelo, which went awesome. We taught them about the plan of salvation and Marcelo had a ton of questions.  He asks a lot of really good questions and just has such a strong desire to know these things for himself.  He still doesn’t want to commit to baptism or marriage as he says that he wants to make sure that he gets his answer first, because if he gets baptized he doesn’t want to just go inactive.  Please pray for him as he keeps praying for his answer.

So I think  I told you about Jazmin last week. We were able to go back this week and teach their whole family. They have 2 kids. One who is 10 and the other 4 and they are so awesome. They both broke down as we taught about the restoration and shared a lot with us.  Erick her husband is awesome.  He has been less active for like 14 years, since he was really young. But recently feels like he needs to return to the church, but is just embarrassed, as he needs to change a lot of things. Jamin loved it and said that she really wants to learn more and feels so good and feels like this is what she needs in her life right now.  We invited her and her daughter Coni to baptism and they both accepted, but Jazmin didn’t want a date yet, but her daughter coni said yes and Jazmin said that she would support her in that. So we are really excited to work with them.

This Sunday  Macarena, one of the hermanas less actives came to church. I think I told you about her right.  Anyways we had worked with her so much and she never came, but she finally came this Sunday and so I was so excited.  It is so awesome being in the same ward still, as I see the fruits of our hard work paying off and I can still see all of these people I love.

Oh, also we had a huge miracle this week on Saturday. We had a day full of really really important appointments and every single one of them canceled which was frustrating, but we decided to just take a moment and pray because their had to be a reason why the appointments fell.  Well I kept getting the impression that we needed to contact and so even though it was blazing hot we went contacting and we got to the first house and it was obvious that they were home but no one came out and so we started to leave when we both felt like we needed to stay so we stayed and waited a long time and finally a 19 year old girl came out and immediately brought out two chairs and started chatting with us as they had company over inside.  Her name is Gabriela and she is from Venezuela.  We just chatted with her and she opened up so much to us and in the end asked us to come by another day because she felt something different, that felt good to her.  We are so excited she is so awesome.  She thanked us because she said it was the first time that she was able to talk to someone about Religion and her feelings without feeling attacked and she felt like we really cared for her.  She is so special and we are so stoked to start teaching her.

I hope you all have a great new years. We are so excited for this week as with Christmas coming to an end we will be able to work more. I cant wait to see what this week has to bring.

I love ya, all!

Hermana Stringham

*December 2015

Cynthia, Hermana Stringham, Hermana Bishop

Gospel Principles Class

Christmas Morning with Companions!

Opening Christmas Stockings Hermana Morales
and Hermana Diaz

Christmas - Zone

Hermana Morales, Hermana Bishop, Mission Nurse Hermana Sebring,
Hermana Stringham, Hermana Diaz

Christmas at the Bishops house

Christmas Service: Elder Barbosa and Elder Judd

Hermana Stringham, Rafaela, Hermana Bishop

Hermanas: Stringham, Bishop, Diaz, Morales

Christmas Dinner

Bishop Villarroel and Family

Christmas Caroling with the Primary

Week #73 *December 21, 2015

Hey Everyone,

I hope that you all have a great Christmas this week.  We are getting really excited as we have had a lot of members invite us over and we have a lot of plans so that is going to be fun.  The members are just so awesome here.  I still don’t really feel like it is Christmas though, as it is blazing hot here right now.  

So this week has been awesome.  I have just loved working in my new sector as we have a lot of great people we are working with some of which I had already met on split with Hermana Bishop and honestly it has just been a blast with Hermana Bishop. She is from Arizona and is just a lot of fun. We basically pass the whole day laughing and it has just made the work so fun.

What is awesome about being in the same ward is that I am still able to see the people that I was working with in my whole sector on Sundays.  Sonia is doing really good with the Hermanas. She came to church on Sunday again and she was just all smiles and the Hermanas set a baptism date with her for 10 of January, so I am just so excited for her and that I am going to get to be there even if I can’t keep teaching her.  This week we had a lesson with one of our investigators, Camila, she is just so awesome and knows that this gospel has the power to change her life. She is just scared because she will have to get married first and make a lot of changes.  The hermanas had been working with her for a long time and she had never came to church because they go out of town on the weekends but she finally came this Sunday. It was so awesome and we were so excited for her.

We are working with a Family that have been coming for a while, so I already new them.  The wife Jeanyra is less active and returning to the church and her husband Marcelo is investigating.  They have 2 little kids and they are just so awesome.  Seriously that are doing so great.  The just have one challenge which is that they aren’t married yet, but we are helping them with that.  Marcelo told us this week that he loves the church and he knows that he is going to get baptized but he just wants to make sure that he is sure first because it is a big decision. He had a job interview this week and the guy asked if he was mormon and he said yes. It was so funny to hear that.  He just is loving learning more about the gospel and has been studying a lot and watching a lot of church movies it is amazing the change that has happened in him, because I remember when I first got here the sisters had told me that they were teaching Jeanyra and having a hard time because the husband didn’t like them passing by, but now he loves it and is participating.  I am just so happy for them.

We are working with another family as well. The parents David and Ingrid have been investigating the church for a long time but aren’t married so they never could get baptized, but now they are a lot closer to their goal of getting married.  We had a great lesson with them and the elders the other day, as the elders came to give ingrid a blessing.  David told us that he actually had a dream that he was baptized and they both want that, but they first need to get married but for some legal matters have to wait about a month more so please pray for them.

Oh ya we had a awesome experience this week.  We decided to pass by a less active reference that wasn’t even in our plans nor was it the hour that we were told to go by, but we felt that we should so we went and we met the references wife Jazmin. She isn’t a member and so we asked if we could share a Christmas video with her and we entered and just started to talk with her and she was way nice and opened up a ton and started to cry.  She just kept saying that she didn’t know why she was crying but she just felt something and so we explained that it was the spirit that she was feeling.  She feels like she has distanced herself from God and she wants to draw closer to him and she recognized that He sent us. We have an appointment with her and her husband this week and we are just so excited because she is just so opened and prepared for this message.

This week we also had our ward Christmas activity which was a blast. We did a Chrismtas desert cook off and it turned out pretty great.

 Well that is pretty much it for this week I will see you all on Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Ward Christmas Party

Our peanut butter cookies

Week #72 *December 14, 2015

Cambios

Hey Everyone,

Well so I cannot believe that I am in my last change of the mission.  These transfers have been by far the craziest transfers of my whole mission.  So I will be changing over to Alameda C with Hermana Bishop.  That means that I will be in the exact same ward and the same house. I just have to change rooms and will be working in a different part of the ward.  I was just so shocked I honestly thought it was a joke at first.  I am so excited though because I don’t have to leave Alameda. I love this ward so much it is just awesome and I am still going to be able to see all the people that I am working with in church on Sundays.  Also Hermana Bishop is so awesome we are just so excited. I cant believe that we are going to be companions. We are already super close and she is just so awesome.  Also my companion will be companions now with Hermana Diaz. I am so excited I have been praying to be able to see her one last time before I go home and now I am going to live with her my last cambio.  I could not be more excited.  

This week I had the opportunity to do several splits which was awesome. I just love working with the sisters here and I am going to miss it as I am not going to be a coordinator anymore. But I am also just really excited to just be able to work 100 percent of the time in my sector and just work like crazy this last change.

So this week something weird happened with Yaritza and we haven’t been able to contact her.  She is acting really weird and so her baptism date fell.  Please pray for her, but we also had a miracle. We had an awesome lesson with Sonia and she is just loving everything about the gospel she says she just feels so good and has decided that from this Sunday and on she is going to change the day she goes and visits her husband in the cemetery to visit her husband so that she can go to church every Sunday.  I am just so excited for her she is just so happy. After she gave the last prayer she just jumped up and gave both me and my companion a big hug and thanked us for coming into her life.  She just has changed so much and seems so happy.

Yesterday we went over with the familia Escarate. I am going to miss working with, the but I am so glad I will get to see them still. They have grown to be just like family to me.  We helped them put up the Christmas tree and we were able to share with them. It was so great.

Well I am just about out of time so I got to go, but I love you all so much I will try and send pics next week.

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Week #71 *December 7, 2015

Hey Everyone,

This week has been just so awesome.  First off this week we had our Christmas devotional of the mission and it was awesome.  I had to give a talk about enjoying the spirit of Christmas as a missionary and honestly I was sooo nervous no matter how many times I have to speak in public I think I will always be nervous, but I think it turned out pretty great and it was a real blessing for me to remember last Christmas and the special spirit that comes around Christmas time.  I feel so blessed to be able to have one more Christmas in the mission, it is seriously so special to be able to be here during this time to be 100 percent dedicated to the Lords work and just enjoy this spirit and share it with others all days.  We got to play a bunch of sports together and it was just a nice day.

So we found a awesome new investigator this week. We were contacting on one side of the street and a blue house on the other side kept calling my attention, so we decided to go contact it and a 19 year old girl named Yaritza came out and immediately let us in.  We had an awesome lesson with her at first she told us that she wasn’t sure if she believed in God or no, but by the end of the lesson she was able to say that she did believe and we invited her to baptism and she accepted a baptismal date for 27th of December, immediately which was awesome.  I am so excited to keep working with her she has truly been prepared.

Also I don’t know if I told you about Sonia, but we are working with her and she is doing so good she says that she has just seen a huge difference in her life since we started teaching her.  She went to church with us yesterday and she just loved it she kept talking about how there was just a different spirit there and she wanted to meet all the members and introduce herself it was so awesome.  She is so sweet.  She lost her husband a several months ago and has been really struggling with that but the gospel has been helping we are just so excited to keep working with her this week.

We are also working with Yazna. I think I told you about her she is a young mom and she is so awesome. Her cousin is serving a mission in Florida.  We taught her this week and she was just so interested about the Restoration and she talked about how she has just felt so different since we started teaching her. The only hard this is that she lives with her boyfriend and they have plans to get married but they are like way out, so please pray for her to be able to receive her answers this week.

Alejandra was confirmed this Sunday and her whole family is doing so good.  The familia Escarate.  They are all just so happy and working towards going to the temple to be sealed in a year. I am just so happy for them.

Well that is about all I have time for this week but I love you all so much thank you for your prayers and support.

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

New Companion - Hermana Bishop December 2015

Week #70 *November 30, 2015

Hey Everyone,

So this week has just been so awesome.  Yesterday was Alejandra`s baptism and it was just such a special day.  She was just so happy. You could see the glow on her face.  Seeing their whole family was just so amazing as her daughter Nicol was baptized 6 months ago and her husband recently returned to the church as well.  Nicol came in a skirt for the first time, as she doesn’t like skirts but she knew it was important for her Mom. It just made me so happy to see them all so dressed up and to be able to see Jorge baptize his wife. As it was ward conference, the bishop gave a combined class about sacrificing to make it to the temple and in the moment I looked over at them and saw Jorge reach over and take his wife’s hand and they both just smiled at each other. It was a very special moment as the now are one step closer to making it to the temple in a year to be sealed together as a family. I am just so happy for them.  Nicol their daughter who is like my closest friend here, also gave the closing prayer. She is 23 but she is really shy so that was big for her and she just had tears of happiness the whole time on her face.  She was so excited to finally see her Mom be baptized.  After the baptism the Bishop came up to us and said that he had had a special experience.  He told us that outside of his mission he had never had an experience so strong in a baptism before.  He had felt a strong spirit that family members of Alejandra were present in that baptism cheering on excitement knowing that she had made that first step and now would be able to do the work for them to receive the same ordinances.  I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed me to be a part of this experience with the family Escarate. They have become like family to me these past few months and I am just so happy for them.

This week we had our leadership meeting so I was able to see President and Hermana Warne. It is so nice having them back in the mission.  We had the most amazing meeting that left me so excited to get back to work.  One thing I like that President said is that there is a power that comes with inviting. As missionaries we will always have success if we just invite, no matter the response.  That really stuck out to me and made me want to go out and invite everyone to follow Christ as it is true. There is just such a special spirit that comes when we invite the people to do things. Oh and after Hermana Warne made thanksgiving dinner which was sooo good.

We had another investigator Yazna come to church this Sunday with her boyfriend and son.  Her cousin is from our ward and is serving a mission and so she decided she wanted to hear more about what her cousin is sharing.  She is a young mom and it has been so fun working with her.

We have also been working a lot with endowed members who don’t have a current reccomend, as our bishop has passed us some names and with inactive youth who are coming upon the mission age and that has been a huge success and we are excited to keep working with the bishop on that. It has been amazing working more with the members focusing on the temple. It is just so important to always have a current temple reccomend.  One of the families we are working with that, from the list of youth close to mission age, all came to chruch this week and we were so excited.  Their kids love going and always pull out their scriptures right when we get their it is so sweet. Their youngest ran up to the bench we were sitting at during church with a huge smile on his face informing us that his whole family came to church.  So we are excited to work with them more as well.

For time I just wanted to share one more experience.  We are working with a new Investigator Sonia whose husband has recently passed away.  It has ben so amazing working with her.  She told us that she has felt such a strong difference in her life as we have been teaching her and she truly feels that what we are teaching is true and has a huge desire to follow it.  She just has made the most amazing comments of spiritual experiences she has had.  It is clear that the Lord is preparing her for this message and I have no doubt that Her husband on the other side is pushing a lot for her to be able to receive the gospel at this time.  We are so excited to work more with her.

I love you all and I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving.  I just feel so blessed to be able to be a missionary during this time to be able to share this glorious message with people everyday.

I love you all,

Hermana Stringham

November - Photos

Alejandra Baptism *November 29, 2015

Week #69 *November 23, 2015

Hi Everyone,

Hey so this week has been awesome.  We just got back from our zone activity, that I planned with the other sisters.  It was a huge success we did a Thanksgiving complete with a turkey and everything.  Everyone pitched in and it was awesome. I will send pics.

So I forgot to tell you but a few weeks ago President Warne invited us to read the Book of Mormon again before the end of January, so I have been very busy reading each day as I want to finish it all before I finish the mission(wow that is so crazy).  It has been a huge blessings and even though I am reading really fast. It has been a fun perspective and as always I have picked out different things that I didn't notice last time.

So this week we had an awesome conference with President and Hermana Wilhelm right before they left.  They talked a lot about the power and authority that we have as missionaries and how when we are inviting people to do things it is really Jesus Christ who is extending the invitation. That has really stuck with me through out the week and I have been able to express that to some of our investigators.  I know that this is truly His work and everything with invite the people to do really comes from Him.  That has given me a new outlook this week.  They also talked about how fast the mission goes and how important it is to make every moment count and that is just what I am trying to do with these last few months.

This week we had to go to Rancagua to get my companions visa and it turned out to be just about the longest craziest, but most miraculous day ever.  First off a few weeks ago my mission manual with my Chilean Id went missing and that day I had got a hold of the last place were I thought it could be and the member told me it wasn’t there and so naturally I started to worry a little, as I need that especially where I will be coming home in a few months... well there comes the first miracle. We met up with a bunch of missionaries when a Hermana came up to me to tell me that she had found my mission manual in her house.  (I have never been there and their apartment is 2 hours away from ours).  So that was a huge miracle that I was praying for.  Next we had to go to the chilean FBI to be able to receive some papers for my companions carnet and after waiting for a long while they informed us that they would not be able to attend us until Monday.  After having walked for a half hour to get there and traveling 2 hours in bus and paying for the ticket you can imagine that we were a little more than frustrated, but my companion with her awesome negotiating skills some how convinced them into receiving us today even though no one else could so that was another miracle......Then we had to go to another place to get fingerprinting and pics taken for my companions ID..well it just so happens that they next day passport prices where going to double so the place was soo full that even though they had given us a number they asked us to come back the next day. We decided to stay anyways and we were blessed again as others decided to leave and we were able to stay in line even though it took several hours.  From there we had to go to the mission office to take some papers and we got a bit lost as none of us had never been in that part of Rancagua, but we found a awesome guy from China who had a GPS in his phone and kindly agreed to take us there and we were able to give a church tour and all.

  Lets  just say that we were relived when we got to the bus station to head home, but we ran into even more problems as it was a weekend there wasn’t any busses for another 2 hours so we were stuck waiting and had so we decided to get a bite to eat and talk to some people to take advantage of the time as we hadn’t really eaten much all day.  Well this is where the worst thing happens, our bus came late but sadly we were contacting a girl so when we noticed that the bus came we quickly finished the contact but not quick enough as the bus came in and left immediately and we missed our bus. At this point we started to fill real dumb and to panic we went to talk to the bus company who informed us that there wouldn’t be anymore busses that night and we had lost our money on that bus.  I was about to give up and call the mission office and stay in Rancagua that night but my companion did not want to give up yet so she went to a completely different bus company and explained our situation where we found the biggest tender mercy.  The kind man felt bad for us and told us that he was going to try and help us.  He talked to a friend and told us that they were going to let us go on their bus that would pass through Curico but we would have to go standing up and even better he wasn’t going to charge us.  It was a huge tender mercy they dropped us off on their way more south on the freeway and we walked until we found a taxi that took us to the house and in the end it all worked out.  I just felt so blessed our little trip that was supposed to have us home in the afternoon turned into an all day adventure.  We left at 7 in the morning and got back at 9. We saw so many miracles and honestly felt a little dumb for missing our bus, but Heavenly Father protected us and we just cant stop laughing at everything that happened.

So Alejandra and her family are doing so good.  She had her interview this week and it went so well.  We weren’t able to go as we were stuck in Rancagua that day but the other Sisters went to support her and so it all worked out. She called us right after and we went by to visit her when she got home we are just so excited for her.

This week we met a new investigator named Belen. She is a reference from the Elders and she came to English class and instantly accepted our invite to go to church and came the next day so that was awesome we were really excited to teach her.

We have been working with a return missionary Coti, who came home early from her mission. She has been struggling a lot and has gone through a ton of difficult things, but she is returning to church and it has been so amazing to see the power of the atonement.

It has been so amazing working in this ward with my companion it is an awesome ward and my companion is so great I am just loving it hear.

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

From President Warne *November 13, 2015

We got an email from President Warne.  He and Sister Warne are  home in South Jordan, since President Warne had to have surgery.  He contacted us and asked if we would come see him before he returns and told us he would take Danielle a small package.  We went and met him on Tuesday night.  It was fun to meet Danielle’s mission president and hear him praise her for being such a wonderful missionary.  This is what he said in his email:

“Brother and Sister Stringham-first, let me tell you what a blessing hermana Stringham is in our mission.  She is an amazing missionary and we are so grateful to have her as a part of this great work in Rancagua.  You would be rightfully proud of her were you to see her serving.”

Week #68 *November 16, 2015

Hey Everyone,

This week has been pretty good.  I honeslty was a little sad to not be home with everyone with Grandmas funeral this past week but it has been so amazing how the spirit has just been so powerful this week in comforting me and confirming that this is were I need to be right now.  My prayers go out to everyone back home

First I want to share some of the things from 2 weeks ago as last week I wasn’t able to get to writing a lot.  As I think I said two weeks ago was a really crazy week. I don’t remember what I already shared so sorry if I repeat myself I felt like there was just so much going on and a lot of stress.  I am not going to go into details but it is amazing how the Lord truly knows our limits better than we do as He has really pushed me lately. We had zone conference right on top of everything and I was given a big part to do and well it just happens that I got really sick right before and in the moment that I had to give my part I had completely lost my voice and I just was not feeling so good and so I had to completely change my part that I had worked so hard on becuase I just wasn’t going to be able to do it with out a voice. So I basically had the missionaries read the scriptures and quotes I was going to use and I they helped out a lot.  

Well when I finally thought I was done and we got back to the house I was about to call the mission nurse when the assistants called us to inform us that they were on there way and that they Hermana Wilhelm, the temporary mission Presidents wife, was going to come to work with us for the afternoon. Well I decided that I couldn’t tell her no as I mean she had come all the way from Rancagua, so we decided to leave anyways and again the Lord blessed me and made me realize that I could do more than I though I could.  We had an awesome time with Hermana Wilhelm and she taught us so much.  She is such a sweetheart and right after she took us straight to the pharmacy to buy me something I could take and sent us to the house to rest.  She called a bunch of times that week as well to ask me if I was taking the medicine she bought and see how I was doing.  She was so sweet.  Also from that awesome experience we had an amazing contact with the Hermana Wilhelm who has a baptism date.

Betty is our new investigator who accepted a baptism date for December 6 she is so awesome.  We gave her a Book of Mormon with our testimonies and she got so excited as she says no one ever does stuff like that for her.  She also thanked God in her prayer for sending us right in the moment when she was feeling lonely and needed us most.  She has a huge desire to learn more but she hasn’t gone to church yet, so please pray for her so we can get her to go with us this Sunday.

Alejanrda is also still doing amazing I just see her like a whole new women she is reading everyday and is just so excited for her baptism.  Her husband is going to baptize her.  It is so amazing to watch this family grow as the are working towards their goal to be sealed in the temple in one year.  Her husband Jorge was recently reactivated and her daughter Nicol was baptized about 4 months ago. It is such a joy working with them.

This week we also had an awesome lesson with one of our less actives Camlia.  She goes to church every week but she told us that she doesn’t have a testimony and so we have been working a lot with her but it has been really hard.  Well this week she was a completely different person she is starting to grow a testimony and even expressed her desire to go to the temple.  I was trying to figure out what had changed when she told me that she had started reading the Book of Mormon every night, as we have been trying to get her to do. The Book of Mormon is so powerful and really can change people.  It has made such a huge difference in Camlias life.

We had two awesome family nights last night.  One with Macarena, a less active and her husband Christian who isn’t a member.  We were able to talk about how the gospel blesses families and Macarena expressed her strong desire to return to the church and be able to one day be sealed in the temple with her family.  Christian was amazingly open to everything and agreed to go to church this Sunday.  We are so excited for them.

We are working with a lot of other less actives and also have had some amazing contacts.  I wish I could tell you about each and everyone, but time just doesn’t permit, but I am just loving being in Alameda here in Curico. The members are so awesome and we have just had an amazing past two weeks with my new companion Hermana Morales.  I just love this work so much and I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who has allowed me to be a part of the amazing changes in the lives of these people.

I love you all so much!

Hermana Stringham

Letter to Grandpa *November 9, 2015

Grandpa Stringham,

I just want to tell you how grateful I am to you and Grandma for all the support over the past years, and especially during this time as I am on my mission.  I am sad that I cant be there with you during this hard time, but I just want you to know that I love you so much and I am praying for you.  I know that I am where I am supposed to be right now as there are many who don’t have the knowledge of this gospel that need me right now.  I also know that Grandma is now working alongside me in the spirit world to share the gospel with those who did not get the chance to receive it in this life  I have been praying for Grandma all week long and as well all of my mission, as I know that this last year has been really hard for her and for you as well, but you were right there by her side the whole time.  This week has been really special as I have prayed for Grandma I have felt an overwhelming peace come over me that everything was going to be alright.  The Lord has reconfirmed to me the truthfulness of this gospel and of the plan of salvation.  I am happy to know that Grandma was able to go peacefully.  I am so grateful for you and grandma in your righteous decisions of marrying in the temple and keeping temple covenants and teaching us to do so as well so that we will one day be able to return all together as one big eternal family.  I know that our family can be together forever, thanks to this temple covenants and I anxiously await the day when we will all reunite together as a family with our Heavenly Father.

I love you so much Grandpa and my prayers are going out to you!

Love ya,

Danielle