Hey Everyone,
Okay so first of to answer your questions my new companion is Hermana Makin. She is from Orem, Utah. She is 23 and worked as a 2nd grade teacher before her mission. She is really great and a lot of fun. We arrived to the mission at the same time and so it has been a lot of fun working together. I am still in the same house and same area as I was when I started the mission. Usually missionaries change a little more, but I guess there is something that I need to do in this area still and so I am happy to still be here. It has been fun because I have gotten to know the members very well. I don’t think I will be here though after this transfer, because 6 months in one are is really long.
I received our family Christmas card this past week and a couple others from family members and ward members. Thanks everyone who sent them I loved seeing them.
So after the last transfer we had to stop teaching a lot of people that we were working with and we were having a really hard time finding people to teach. It was a hard transfer being in the street a lot and having to stop teaching people, but I learned a lot and was really excited for my new companion to just work the sector really hard and to help this ward to grow and after a lot of work and prayer we are starting to see a lot of miracles.
We have been working with members a lot this week trying to strengthen the ward, and I have seen more than ever the huge difference that members have in the work. We really cannot do this work without members. It makes a huge difference when the members work together with us. We got a new Bishop the past week and he has been so great he is so excited to work with the missionaries especially as there has been a lot of changes on how we are working here in South America as we are focussing more on teaching the members along with less actives and investigators. The Bishop was so great as he took the time to sit down with us and talk about his plan to help the ward and to work more united with us.
Okay so we have found several new people to teach this week. I am really excited to see where that is going to go, especially after several weeks without many new people to teach. I want to share about a couple of them with you.
First we are working with a 16 year old boy that was assisting in a different ward with his friend. I think I might have mentioned him last week. We were able to teach him this week and the lesson went really well and the spirit was so strong especially as he gave the closing prayer. He told us that before he met his friend and starting going to church he didn’t even believe in God and now he is praying a and he went to our ward this week and all the youth took him in and he seemed really happy. His Mom and sister as well went to the lesson, as the were a little skeptical about him taking the lessons from the missionaries, but his mom said that she has seen a huge difference in him, especially in their relationship as he has started to go to church. So she is supporting him in taking the lessons. We are so excited to work with him.
Another cool experience we had the other day happened after a long day in the street without much success. We were going to go to a different area to see if we could find someone to teach, but my companion turned to me and said, “No, I feel like we need to stay here and contact this street.” So we contacted the whole street without almost anyone coming to the door until we reached the end of the street, and a women stopped and talked to us from a different religion. She talked to us for a very long time about her religion and then left in a hurry for a meeting. We were a little disappointed at first, as we didn’t even get to share much with her, but then as we went to a different area to contact, the first house that we stopped at this lady invited us in and started to talk about some experiences she had had with the exact same religion, that had caused a lot of problems in her family and left her wanting nothing the do with church’s. Because of the conversation we had with the lady that day, we were able to understand her situation better and it helped us to be able to help her. Although she didn’t let us teach her she said that she would read the pamphlet of the restoration and that we could come back in a week and talk about it then. It was such a blessing that we were able to talk to the lady earlier that day, as we were able to better understand this lady and I could tell that she could feel something especially as she let us in even though she said that she usually doesn’t like to talk to any of the religions.
Other than that we are helping one of the members do her mission papers, who has been working with us a lot and it has been a lot of fun. It has also made me very grateful for all the support I have from all of you now and before my mission, as I went through the same process. She is a convert and doesn’t really have anyone supporting her with this process.
I love you all so much and am so grateful for your support for me. I love being a missionary, especially for the changes that I have gotten to see in the peoples lives and in my own. I have learned so much, especially as I have been able to see a different perspective of the world.
I know this church is true and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to share my testimony with the people here in Chile!
Love,
Hermana Stringham
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