Week #61 *September 28, 2015

Hey everyone,

Well so this week we had transfers and now I am in my new sector in Curicò, with my new companion Hermana Rodriguez and so far I am loving it here.  But at the same time I absolutely miss San Vicente.  It is very different here, as the ward is huge especially in comparison with San Vicente.  So far everyone has received me so well and they are just so loving here and I just love it.  Also our apartment is a huge step up from our last house, other than from being on the 5th floor  (what an adventure with 2 huge suitcases and no elevator...hahah).  Our sector is also pretty big so it looks like we are going to get a lot of exercise in, as it takes a while to get there. Also we have 5 flights of stairs to get to our apartment each afternoon and night, but it has been fun. 

So this week I saw the biggest tender mercy with the sisters here.  My first day here I noticed that my companion was struggling to walk, as the only shoes she had were a really worn out pair of boots (we are in spring and it is hot some days) and I was really worried about it, but that night we received a call from the relief society sisters who had also noticed.  The invited us over to their house and presented my companion with several new pairs of shoes and a new outfit.  It warmed my heart to see the kind hearts of these beautiful sisters that made such a huge difference for my companion.  Seriously the members here are so sweet.  I am just loving it.

I am just getting to know everyone here, so I want to share about two of our investigators for now.  We have two investigators with baptism dates.  The first Loreto is so awesome. She is a 21 year old single mom who is studying in Santiago and lives here on the weekends.  She is so awesome.  She has a baptism date for the 24th of October and she is so excited.  She honestly is so great and I am so excited to work with her.  The second one is Alejandra.  She has a baptism date for 29th of November.  She has been receiving missionaries for years and attending the church for quite a while.  Her daughter was baptized not too long ago and her husband who was an inactive member was just reactivated.  Right before I came she made the decision that she finally wants to be baptized, but she wanted to choose the date so it would be close to her husbands birthday. When I asked her why she made the decision to be baptized she told me that it was because she wants to have an eternal family, which just touched my heart. They are seriously just the sweetest family ever. I just love them so much and I am so excited for them in Alejandras decision to be baptized.

Well that is pretty much it for this week I am just so excited to work in this sector and get to know the rest of the people next week.  

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

This and That:

With cambios, I am working with different hermanas. There are just 2 in this zone whereas my last zone had 10, so that is different. 

Curico is way different the past ward is huge, but I am loving it here.  I so miss San Vicente though.

Marjorie wrote me the sweetest letter this week about how much she misses me and how she never wants to loose contact, which really touched my heart. I am going to miss her so much but I am excited to be here.

Funny story:  We have bikes now, but we aren’t using them.  So it has been a whole lot of walking.  Our area is huge, but my companion doesn’t know how to ride a bike.  She has tried and it just didn’t work so we’ll will be doing a lot of walking. This is her last transfer so were just going to walk and wait to use them next transfer

Pictures of San Vincente

People!

Divisions with Hermana Peralta from Peru!

 "Us with Hermana Rosa & Camila.
They have helped us so much in visiting investigators and members,
including in the pouring rain. They live about a half hour away and don't have a car.
Camila is preparing to go on a mission."

"We made Marjorie a journal.
We put her baptism photos in it and wrote her letters.
She loved it."

"Lunch with the Allendez familia.
 They are seriously the best. I am going to miss them!"

Completos

"Completos. I cant believe I like this now.

There are a lot of different types, but basically it is a hot dog with cut up tomato, avocado, & mayo.  They can put a whole lot more stuff like onion, relish and even bacon depending on the type."

​

18 September Food and Dancing

The celebration included Dancing "Cueca"  and lots of Food!

Of course the missionaries couldn't dance!

Week #60 *September 21, 2015

Hey everyone,

Well this week has gone by so crazy fast and I can’t believe that this transfer is coming to an end.  We received transfers this week and I will be going to Curico, to a big ward. So thats will be a really big change.  I am so sad to be leaving San Vicente and Hermana Diaz.  I have truly loved it here so much and I love working with Hermana Diaz, but I am also excited to see what new things are to come.

This week was honestly the best way to end the cambio.  It was 18 September, which is independence day here.  San Vicente is the place to be for 18. They had a huge fair that lasted three days. They had all sorts of rides, games, food, and booths. It was crazy too see how much construction and work they put into it.  They went all out.  We could hear the music and everyone at the fair all night long for the past few days.

In our branch we had a party where we ate empanadas and bbq. Also we were able to borrow some of the traditional dance dresses, although of course we couldn’t dance.  The members played games and danced cueca, which is the traditional dance here. I will send a video.  It was so fun.  Although we weren’t able to work a lot for the past few days with the holiday since no one really wanted to listen to us, so we were able to visit a few members and eat even more amazing food.  I will send a bunch of pictures.

This week we also had zone conference.  It was really good. It was really focused in making goals and how we can use goal making to have more success in the mission and life.  There was a quote that I don’t remember who was by, that said something if we don’t make goals in the future we will look back and see that we didn’t meet our potential.  So my invitation this week is that you can take some time and make a specific goal in something you would like to improve in the gospel.

I had to give a 20 minute talk about goal making with Recent converts and I talked a lot about helping our converts make it to the temple which turned out alright.  Also I had to give another surprise talk in church this week, which I must say didn’t turn out too bad, considering.  I am so grateful for the Spirit, as I know I couldn’t have given either of my talks without it.  In the moment I didn’t really have anything prepared, so I quickly took out some scriptures I had read in the moment and just went with it and the Spirit did the rest.

This week even with all the stuff going on with 18, we were able to find a whole bunch of new people and I am so excited to hear how it goes with the hermanas.  I am so happy  to know that I will be leaving the sector with a lot of potential for my companion and the new hermana.

Well that is pretty much it for this week. 

Love ya all,

Herman Stringham

Earth Quake!!!

On September 16, there was a major earthquake north of Santiago Chile!

Tell us about the earthquake:

"I felt it. It was pretty strong and long, by far the strongest I have felt, but not strong enough to do any damage.  Just to scare a lot of people, as it was long and pretty strong. We were in the street for the first one and you could just see the power lines moving like crazy and it felt like we were on the boat in the lake on rough waters. Surprisingly, it didn't scare me and I felt really calm just some of the older people outside were freaking out. Then the second one we were in a house and you could see everything move. Since then there has been serveral small ones, but that is normal here. I'm just glad everyone is okay, but in the north a lot of people are struggling, as with the tsunami a lot of people lost everything and a few went missing. Please pray for them."

Traditional Chilean Dresses

Cueca Dresses

18 September *Chile Independance Day

Everywhere is Decorated with lights and flags for the Celebration.

Week #59 *September 14, 2015

Hey everyone,

Wow this week has just gone by so fast.  San Vicente is just full of flags and all sorts of decorations including lights and a whole fair that they are setting up for this coming week. It’s  18 de Septiembre, Chiles Independence.  I am so excited as it seems that San Vicente is the place to be.  I am excited for all the empanadas, bbq and other amazing traditional foods.  I will have to send pics!  The only bummer is that as it is a huge holiday here, it seems that no one wants to receive us until the next week, but we are excited to work hard and enjoy 18 which we will be celebrating with our branch here.

So as for this week it started out with a whole lot of working. Looking for new people to teach with very little success, but my companion and I were able to keep going with a lot of excitement. After a lot of prayer and a lot of hard work we were able to find a a new family and a other new investigator to teach so we are so excited.  

With the new family with found the Contreras family. It was a very special experience as the lesson honestly just started out bad.  They had a two year old child that was being a little difficult and I could tell that they were having a had time focusing and not really listening, but we just kept trying to keep teaching and asking questions. But it just wasn’t going well, so at one point I just felt like we had to take a different route.  I wasn’t sure how, so I finally followed the prompting I felt and we basically just started over trying to get to know them and help them truly see how our message could bless their family and it worked. They started paying attention and they gained interest quickly.  I was able to truly see the importance of following the spirit, even when it doesn’t make sence.  We were truly about to reach their hearts and find what they needed. They began to speak a lot and the lesson turned out very well.  I am excited to see what more happens with them.

We were also able to find another investigator named Ximena, who is an old investigator from the hermanas before us.  She is so awesome and really opened up to us about all the hard things that are passing with her family and children, but she has such an amazing perspective on the life and faith that it will all work out.  We are so excited to start working with her.

I am so grateful that we were able to find these new people to teach as we had been working and praying so hard.  The Lord tested us all week but as we kept at it and didn’t loose our faith. It all paid of in the last minute.  A lot of the most amazing miracles happen in the last minute we just have to continue with faith in the Lord that our prayers will be answered and that He knows better than we do!

I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary and be here in San Vicente. I love this branch so much!

Thank you for all you do.  I will have a whole bunch of stories and pictures from 18 next week!

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Zone Pictures San Fernando *September 10, 2015

Andrea's Baptism

Week #58 *September 7, 2015

Andrea's Baptism

Hey everyone,

Well this week has been pretty good.  It honestly was a harder week as the majority of our appointments fell and we spent the majority of the week outside contacting, but amazingly we are still doing great. We just have a new wave of energy and we are really excited to get working really hard this week and we have a lot of great plans and appointments with people we met this week. 

This week I got to go to a little branch called Chepica in another zone, Santa Cruz.  It was awesome.  The hermanas are doing such a great job there.  It is a little branch of about 15 people the hermanas are the relief society president, young womens, and primary president and the elders have just about all the other callings other than  president of the rama, as luckily there is a member there who is the president.  It was a cool experience to see all the work the hermanas are doing there and we had a day full of miracles with less actives and new investigators.  I loved getting to go to another sector and seeing the hard work they are doing there.  We also got to ride bikes. Which I surprisingly liked. It was a lot faster and a lot of fun. They have hot pink beach cruzers with ´pink helmets. It is seriously the cutest thing ever.  The hermana is going to send me a pick she took with me on the bike and I will send one next week.  I got to work with Hermana Morales who is so great she is a missionary who is 30 years old and she is just amazing.  I was honestly a little intimidated being there as her coordinator. I thought how in the world am I going to give advice to a 30 year old, but She is awesome and the Lord helped me a lot as I was able to help them and give some advice on how they could help their sector and Hermana Morales is so awesome as she listened to everything I said and was so humble and willing to truly listen and apply the advice I gave her.  It was amazing to see just how much love she has for the people and desires to serve the Lord. It doesn’t even seem to affect her to much that she has to work with a lot of missionaries a lot younger than her.

This Saturday was Andreas baptism, which was also awesome. After so many missionaries working so long teaching her she finally made the decision to be baptized when the elders invited her. So we got to be there.  It is amazing to see just how important this work is and how every single one of the missionaries who had taught her and thought they had failed, as she still didn’t want to be baptized, truly played a part in her conversion.  Sometimes we  don’t  get to see the success of our work as missionaries, but I know that every contact we do and every person we teach we are helping to prepare them and being instruments in the Lords hands, as He knows when the timing is just right.

This week we also had a less active come to church after a very long time, who had basically told us he was never going to return. He came just to sacrament meeting but it was a big step for him and we are so excited to keep working with him and his wife as they are a cute little family. They were sealed in the temple but inactivate after some really hard things passed with some members in the branch. It was another testimony for me that everything we do in this work has an affect, as many missionaries had worked with them. At first I really wasn’t sure that they would return, but it just goes to show that we should never judge who is ready. Everyone has the same potential and the Lord knows their hearts and guides us in His work.

Well that is pretty much it for this week. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all your love and support until next week!,

Love,

Hermana Stringham