Week #37 *April 13, 2015

Hey Everyone,

So this week has been really good.  I have a new companion Hermana Sousa From Brazil.  She is so sweet and I absolutely love working with her it has been a lot of fun  She is from Fortaleza Brazil. She did surfing competitions before her mission and her mom is a scuba Diving tour guide and her dad competes motor cross. How cool is that. I am pretty sure I am going to have to go there after my mission, so she can teach me to surf and we can go scuba diving.  She has about 5 months in the mission ,so she speaks well in Spanish, which is good because I definitely don’t speak Portugese and that would be really hard.

We are really doing well just working hard to make this sector better, and find new people to teach and help those that we are teaching.  

Nicol-  One of our investigators who we were starting to work with the rest of the family was grounded this week.  She has been attending the church for a long time with a member, but when we went by the other night her father informed us that as her grades aren’t good and he feels like the church and its activities are a distraction. She is not allowed to go to church or any of its activities until he likes where her grades are. She was really upset when we went over and we tried to talk to her dad about it, but he didn’t budge, but he says he appreciates our help but she wont be going to church anymore.  Please pray for her. This was a real set back and it happens a lot with parents and later they don’t want anything to do with the church, because it is not worth the fight with their parents. We are really worried about her.

Maria Olga.  We invited her to be baptized this week and she said no and is really struggling to understand why it is important to be baptized in  the church, when she was already baptized in the Catholic Church.  She still wants to learn about the church and keeps saying that she is going to go, but keeps going out of town so it has been a little hard with her.  Please pray for her as well.

One of our less actives Patricia went to church this week who has never been during my time here. We were so excited for her she shared her testimony and it was so sweet.  Her daughter has downs syndrome and leukemia and recently is doing better and her cancer is basically in remission. But she doesn’t want anything to do with the church or really anyone and so it has been really hard for Patricia as she cant really leave her at home alone for a lot of time and so she doesn’t go to church very much. But she wants to return and we are trying to help her and work with her daughter.  

Camila -  She is a less active that we are starting to work with. She was baptized only about 2 years ago and is almost 16. We are trying to help her to return and to do her personal progress, but she is pregnant and she is really embarrassed to return because of what the others will say, but she really wants to return and put her life back in order so that she can raise her child in the church.  She is really struggling, but she is a very strong girl and said that she is going to go to church with us,  because we said that we would walk together and she could stick with us because she feels really uncomfortable, but we are really excited for her decision to return and I am really excited to work on personal progress with her!

Karla-  we are starting to work with a new investigator who is about to turn 18. She has been attending the church for a couple of years and was almost baptized with her mom, but something happened and her mom was offended and so she now goes every Sunday alone and wants us to begin teaching the lessons again so that when she turns 18 she can be baptized. We are so excited for her as she has been waiting so long and she is also planing on going on a mission.

We are continuing to find new families and work with a lot of others that we were working with before.  Sorry I don’t have a lot of time to tell you about them all but please pray for them.

Temple Attendance in this area:

The temple is about 3 hours and the goal in our ward about 4 times in the year. But, it is expensive and so not all go. 

Sorry I don’t have much more time,  but we are starting to focus more on temples now. We only report numbers of attendance at church.  Baptisms, confirmations, baptism dates that we have put, and less actives and recent converts that went to the temple.  We are really excited to start working with this new focus. Before, when I started the mission, we counted how many lessons, new people, contacts and many other things. But I think that this new focus is really going to help us.  I truly love being a missionary, for all the changes that we get to see in the lives of the people and the blessing and miracles  we see each day.  I will try and share more. Sorry time is really short and I don’t get to some things.

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for everything that you all do for me!

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Pictures

Service Project!

Me & my Companion and Natalia

Me and my Companion with the Hacke Family

Week #36 *April 6, 2015

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all were able to watch conference.  It was a really good one.  I loved it!

I was able to watch all of conference in English, except for Women’s Conference and the two talks in Spanish we changed to Spanish.  I love watching conference in the original language because there are always things that just don’t translate the same or sometimes don’t get translated at all.  We watched conference in the stake center in a room upstairs with a bunch of missionaries and a couple of members that can speak English.  Conference is so amazing especially as a missionary it is a whole different perspective listening with all the people we are teaching in mind.

I forgot to bring my notes, but I have a couple parts that I loved that I want to share with you.   I absolutely loved the talk by Wilfor W. Anderson when he talked compared the gospel to a dance and how we need to learn to hear the music.  We learn the steps with our brains, but we hear the music with our hearts.   This is the difference between true conversion.  We truly need to learn to hear the music of the gospel to become more fully converted by doing the little things like praying, studying the scriptures everyday, but we must also do it with sincerity, not just passing through the steps, but really studying and trying to hear the music and learning to not only live the gospel but truly embrace and enjoy it.

I absolutely loved the talk, I don’t remember who it was, but He said that the church is a grand Hospital. We are all spiritual sick in one way or another.  We are all here in the church because we are trying.  We need to remember that in the way that we treat others around us. A lot of the less actives we are working with here have been really hurt and offended by other people and it makes it hard for them to return, but as the begin to understand that we are all growing they are able to forgive and return and keep trying.  I also loved how he defined a saint as a sinner who keeps trying.

Next I loved the talk that was in spanish by Elder Zebellos. He is from Chile and recently just gave an amazing conference to all the missionaries in my mission here last month.  He is an amazing speaker. He talked about our responsibilities as members and did a great job.  In the mission one of the biggest things I have learned is the huge responsibility I have as a member as a part of the missionary work.  We as members have the responsibility to not only work and grow our personal testimonies, but the help other to be aware of them. There are a lot of people struggling that we could help if we would just take the time to know those around us and those in our wards by serving them.

I also loved the talk about the puzzle pieces. We aren’t going to be able to know right now where all the pieces fit together but we must focus in on the most important, on the whole big picture and the Lord will put the rest of the pieces in place little by little.  We need to trust in Him, knowing that He has a plan and He knows what is best for us.

I felt like the conference talked a lot about the family and the plan of salvation.  That is really what this life is all about.  Sometimes we get distracted in all of the other things going on, but when we really focus on our purpose and remember our part in the plan we will find ourselves making better decisions and finding even greater happiness in our lives.  

I have just about a hundred other things I loved but I cant share it all, so I invite you if there was a part that you didn’t see to go back and watch. All of the talks were absolutely amazing and very inspired.  I challenge you as well with Russell M. Nelson to asks yourselves now. “Because of what I have heard this conference, what am I going to change.”  There have been so many great things said. Now comes the hard part applying it in our lives!

Okay so this week has been really good.  This last transfer has flow by so fast and we just recieved transfers again.  I am going to be staying here in Talca, but I am going to receive a new companion tomorrow named hermana Sousa. I am so excited because I have met her and she is awesome.  She is from Brazil so we will be able to speak 3 languages between the 2 of us.  I will tell you more about her next week!

My Book of Mormon challenge has been going really good I have loved reading it in Spanish and in the perspective of a missionary.  This time it seems like every chapter is talking about missionary work as there are so many great examples of missionaries to learn from. It has been a lot of reading, but such a huge blessing in my life and I am more than half way through now!

Okay as for people we are teaching, we have been able to find a lot of new people to teach.  One family who’s dad is a member but less active who we found when we were painting the fence of another members house. The mom came up to us and talked with us for a while, then invited us to come and teach them we are really excited about that.  Also another less active and her husband who was investigating the church. They found us at conference and said that they had taken the missionaries before but recently moved and want us to pass by.  Also we had a family night with a family in the ward and the mom of a young women who has been attending alone came and we talked about the Plan of Salvation.  She loved it and had so many questions. We are so excited to start teaching this families. The Lord has really blessed us.  We have continually worked with a lot of less actives and others, but I am just about running out of time for this week so I will have to share it all with you next week.  I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all of your love and support for me.

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Week #35 *April 6, 2015

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all were able to watch conference.  It was a really good one.  I loved it!

I was able to watch all of conference in English, except for Women’s Conference and the two talks in Spanish we changed to Spanish.  I love watching conference in the original language because there are always things that just don’t translate the same or sometimes don’t get translated at all.  We watched conference in the stake center in a room upstairs with a bunch of missionaries and a couple of members that can speak English.  Conference is so amazing especially as a missionary it is a whole different perspective listening with all the people we are teaching in mind.

I forgot to bring my notes, but I have a couple parts that I loved that I want to share with you.   I absolutely loved the talk by Wilfor W. Anderson when he talked compared the gospel to a dance and how we need to learn to hear the music.  We learn the steps with our brains, but we hear the music with our hearts.   This is the difference between true conversion.  We truly need to learn to hear the music of the gospel to become more fully converted by doing the little things like praying, studying the scriptures everyday, but we must also do it with sincerity, not just passing through the steps, but really studying and trying to hear the music and learning to not only live the gospel but truly embrace and enjoy it.

I absolutely loved the talk, I don’t remember who it was, but He said that the church is a grand Hospital. We are all spiritual sick in one way or another.  We are all here in the church because we are trying.  We need to remember that in the way that we treat others around us. A lot of the less actives we are working with here have been really hurt and offended by other people and it makes it hard for them to return, but as the begin to understand that we are all growing they are able to forgive and return and keep trying.  I also loved how he defined a saint as a sinner who keeps trying.

Next I loved the talk that was in spanish by Elder Zebellos. He is from Chile and recently just gave an amazing conference to all the missionaries in my mission here last month.  He is an amazing speaker. He talked about our responsibilities as members and did a great job.  In the mission one of the biggest things I have learned is the huge responsibility I have as a member as a part of the missionary work.  We as members have the responsibility to not only work and grow our personal testimonies, but the help other to be aware of them. There are a lot of people struggling that we could help if we would just take the time to know those around us and those in our wards by serving them.

I also loved the talk about the puzzle pieces. We aren’t going to be able to know right now where all the pieces fit together but we must focus in on the most important, on the whole big picture and the Lord will put the rest of the pieces in place little by little.  We need to trust in Him, knowing that He has a plan and He knows what is best for us.

I felt like the conference talked a lot about the family and the plan of salvation.  That is really what this life is all about.  Sometimes we get distracted in all of the other things going on, but when we really focus on our purpose and remember our part in the plan we will find ourselves making better decisions and finding even greater happiness in our lives.  

I have just about a hundred other things I loved but I cant share it all, so I invite you if there was a part that you didn’t see to go back and watch. All of the talks were absolutely amazing and very inspired.  I challenge you as well with Russell M. Nelson to asks yourselves now. “Because of what I have heard this conference, what am I going to change.”  There have been so many great things said. Now comes the hard part applying it in our lives!

Okay so this week has been really good.  This last transfer has flow by so fast and we just recieved transfers again.  I am going to be staying here in Talca, but I am going to receive a new companion tomorrow named hermana Sousa. I am so excited because I have met her and she is awesome.  She is from Brazil so we will be able to speak 3 languages between the 2 of us.  I will tell you more about her next week!

My Book of Mormon challenge has been going really good I have loved reading it in Spanish and in the perspective of a missionary.  This time it seems like every chapter is talking about missionary work as there are so many great examples of missionaries to learn from. It has been a lot of reading, but such a huge blessing in my life and I am more than half way through now!

Okay as for people we are teaching, we have been able to find a lot of new people to teach.  One family who’s dad is a member but less active who we found when we were painting the fence of another members house. The mom came up to us and talked with us for a while, then invited us to come and teach them we are really excited about that.  Also another less active and her husband who was investigating the church. They found us at conference and said that they had taken the missionaries before but recently moved and want us to pass by.  Also we had a family night with a family in the ward and the mom of a young women who has been attending alone came and we talked about the Plan of Salvation.  She loved it and had so many questions. We are so excited to start teaching this families. The Lord has really blessed us.  We have continually worked with a lot of less actives and others, but I am just about running out of time for this week so I will have to share it all with you next week.  I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all of your love and support for me.

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Hermana Arrellano and I

Herman Arrellano is from Mexico.

She always makes me laugh.

She has learned a lot of English from gringa companions

 and so she is always unexpectantly saying funny phrases

in English, out of the blue.

Yes, I still like catching lizards!

Yes, I still like catching lizards.
 This little guy didn't hold still for a pic.
We found him in the house this morning!

Week #35 * March 30, 2015

Hey Everyone,

So this week has been a great week.  We have just been really busy working and loving missionary life. As this transfer is coming to an end.  This last transfer has just flown by it has been crazy.

This week we had an Ward activity and it was our turn to plan it and we had been planing it for a long time and inviting everyone and we had many people tell us that they were going to go.  When it came time for the ward activity hardly anyone showed up and everyone was a little discourage especially our mission leader, as he had a huge goal and planned so many things.  The young women’s was having their new beginnings at the same time and so we decided to first go to their activity and then do just part of ours with the people that couldn’t go because they had to go to the Young Women’s.  The activity was amazing and the spirit was so strong and I realized why everything had fallen through with our activity.  The people who did show up were a couple investigators and less actives with young girls.  I know that the reason it turned out the way it did was because they needed to be there in that activity so that they could see the young women program.  The spirit was so strong and it made me think back to young women’s.  I am so grateful for the young women’s program, as it has has such a huge impact on my life and prepared me better than any other thing I have done to be a missionary. At the end it ended up being a beautiful night, although it did not nearly as many as we had hoped. It turned out how it needed to be.  Sometimes we can’t see why things happen the way they do, but in the end the Lord always has a plan and He knows best.  In Spanish there is a phrase that we see as missionaries that it is not porque but Para que.  It doesnt really work as well in English but it means; it is not why but for what.  When things don’t happen the way we would like them too we normally find ourself asking why. But if we put our trust in the Lord and look for the for “what”.  We will find that there is always a reason for the things that happen there is always something to be learned.

This week we have continued working with a lot of less actives.  It has been a huge testimony builder for me to work with them.  Many of them have had things happen to them inside or outside of the church that cause them to leave, but now they want to return. After sitting and talking with one sister for a good amount of time, I finally understood why it was so hard for her to return to the church. She shared with me several stories of things that happened with other members and her daughter that made me want to cry. But it touched my heart as this Mom and daughter told me that even with all that had happened, that they wanted to return because they know that the church is true and it is were they need to be.  A lot of the less actives we are working with are making huge sacrifices to return and having to forgive somethings that are really hard to forget, but it is because they know that it is all worth it and the Lord is on their side. I know that this church is true.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect, but as the people we are near from perfect.  It is amazing to see the changes that this people are making as the accept Christ again in their lives again.

Maria Olga didn’t go to church this week and we aren’t sure why. Please pray for her and also another investigator name Jaqueline that we are working with who attended the church for a year and then quit going after having marriage problems. We have been working with her as she wants to start to investigate the church again, but she also didn’t go to church and we haven’t been able to talk to her yet either.  Other than that we have just been working with a lot of people that we are starting to teach or trying to help them to progress a little more and as always looking for new people to teach. 

My last companion that is still in my old sector wrote me and told me that Javier blessed the Sacrament. I am so excited for him it sounds like he is doing so good, but she also told me that he is beginning to have a lot of chest pain again and they aren’t sure what is wrong so please pray for him!

This past weekend we went to watch the women’s conference. It was so good and I loved the focus it had on the families.  Today the family is being attacked a lot it is our responsibility to defend it.  I am so grateful for my family I know that the purpose of this life is to prepare and work hard to live with God and our families for all eternity, but it is not something that we can do alone we have to work for it together.  I know that the families can be together forever.  As missionary we focus a lot on families as we want to help people gain this goal together.

I am so excited for conference this weekend I hope you all enjoy it and remember to go with a question in mind it is a powerful time to receive the answers to the questions that we have!

I love you all so much,

Hermana Stringham

Another Question & Answer:

Are you getting sunburned?

No. All the people here think so, but thats because they aren't used to white people who look red in the heat. It is actually cooling down. It was a lot hotter before, then Tuesday it was really cold and rained a lot.  Now it is hot again.

Home Sweet Talca!

The day we moved in.  

Week #34 * March 23, 2015

Hey everyone!

So this week has been another really good week.  I hope I can get it all in.  First my companion Hermana Makin wrote me and told me that our old sector is doing really good and that Lorena went to church and is progressing really good.  I am so excited about that.

Answers to questions

My new companion is Hermana Squires. She is really good. She has about 5 months in the mission.  She is from Standsberry Utah.  I have enjoyed working with her.   We live with two other missionaries.  Hermana Bishop, that has 3 months in the mission and is from a small town close to Logan. She is really funny and a lot of fun.  Hermana Arellano that is from Mexico and has almost a year in the mission.  She is a lot of fun and lived in the last house and was with some of the people I lived with, so it has been fun sharing memories with her.

Our sector is a big square.  It takes about 15 minutes to walk from the beginning to end in both directions.  We don’t have bikes!!! That is really exciting for me.  The people are not to different from those back home. A few differences is that the work schedules are really weird. Some people work all nightand others all day. It just is random and a lot of them work in other cities really far away. Some in the North of Chile.  We usually walk, but sometimes we take taxis or the bus if we are late.  Oh the other thing is that when the kids grow up here they seem to live with there parents forever. They don’t normally go live outside of the house when they are in college.  The people are just really nice. I love the people here!

The book of Mormon challenge is going really good.  I am a little behind as we haven’t had as much time to read this week with the conference and service projects we had, but I am catching up real fast. I will try and send some more pics I haven’t had time to take any this week but I am going to work on it.

One thing I love about this sector is that we get a lot more service opportunities. In my past sector we didn’t get to do a lot, but here we have been helping the members a lot with things like cleaning houses of members who are pregnant or passing through difficulties.  We went this week with the primary and  cleaned up a park and painted all of the slides and stuff. It was a lot of fun painting with the little kids here. They were so cute and felt so proud after seeing all of their hard work.  The other Hermanas went with a group of elders to help construct a house for a women who basically had nothing, so that was really cool.

This week we had a huge conference with the mission. It was really good.  Hermana Warne talked about Christ and how we need to think about him more in our lives and get to know him more through serving others. President Warne talked a lot about how in order to have a real conversion we need to be helping our investigators to have spiritual experiences outside of there lessons.  Hermana Zabello was a really good speaker. She talked about how we need to see people for who they can become as Christ does, instead of focusing on where they are at.  Elder Zabellos talked a lot about the huge opportunity we have to learn another language, as we are all either learning Spanish or English. And how maintaining the language of our mission will bring a lot of opportunities in the future.  It was a really interesting talk.  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to learn Spanish. I want to keep it up after my mission so that I can always use it, and so I can always remain in contact with the people I have met in Chile. Learning another language has made scripture study more interesting as well, as some words don’t have exact translations and so the scriptures and sometimes take on different meanings in Spanish.

This week a scripture I really loved is in Mosiah 5:13.   In order to really be able to love someone we need to serve them. Also I was studying in Jacob 5 earlier in the week. I have studied this chapter a lot in my mission and absolutely love it.  I love how it continually says that the Master of the vineyard went and worked with the servant. As members of the church we have the responsibility and grand opportunity to work with the Lord in His vineyard to bring others unto Christ and help those who have strayed away to return.

Okay so just a few of the people we are working with.  This week we had a appointment with Maria Ulga and we went with another member Hermana Silvana. We talked about eh Plan of Salvacion and the member who went with us had a lot of knowledge about the bible and was able to help her a lot with it.  Maria Ulga was really interested especially in finding scriptures in the Bible that talked about the Plan of Salvation.  She is really excited still but says she wants to take things slow.

We are working with a new less active named Hermana Alba who just returned from vacations after 2 months.  She says she wants to return to church and went this Sunday and to all the other church activities we had she is doing really well.  

We have a lot of other less actives that didn’t go to church this week, but are doing really good and really trying to work things out with work and family to return to the church. It really has been amazing working with them and seeing the repentance process first hand and how much they have been willing to give up to return to church!

Sorry I will try and share more about the people next week, but I am running out of time so that is about it for this week I love you all!

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham