Photos - October 2015

Once to celebrate Hermana's Rodriguez's
Cumple-mes of 18 months

Huasos

Hermana Coordinators *October 29, 2015

Photos * Curico - Room mates

Photos * Curico - Zone

Photos * Curico - District

Week #65 *October 26, 2015

Hey Everyone,

Wow this week has been just amazing. This past Saturday we had Loretos baptism and it was just such an amazing day.  We had some minor difficulties with last minute problems of people who wouldn’t be able to come and she called us so worried that she wouldn’t be able to be baptized, but we assured it would all be fine and it worked out great.  Right after she was baptized you could just see how happy she was.  We went to meet her as she came out of the fount she just had such a glow to her and wanted to hug everyone around her.  She asked if she could hug us and we of course agreed even though she was soaking wet and she just told us that she just felt so good.  Her 6 year old daughter Valentina came in and expressed her desire to be baptized, just like her mom in two more years when she turns 8.  It was so sweet to see the example that Loreto is making for her daughter and just how much this step will change not only her life but the  life of her daughter.

This week we also had stake conference which was so amazing.  Loreto was so excited as well and she took notes through the conference and talked after about just how amazing the talks were. It just amazes me how strong of a desire she has to learn more about the gospel.  Isn’t that what true conversion does to us, makes us want to learn more and progress more in the gospel.  I hope that each of us can also find that desire in our own lives.  One thing I really liked from the conference that I think a area seventy said (sorry I cant remember his name), but he talked about the importance after any kind of church conference to take a moment and think about what we learned, what we felt, and what we are going to change.  He said even more important than what the speaker is saying is how we feel.  The spirit teaches us exactly what we need.  I invite you all after your next church meeting to take a minute to write down something really little of what you learned, what you felt, and what you are going to do with what you learned.  It is a great way that we can take full advantage of the things we are learning in the church.

This week I also went on divisions with Hermana Bishop.  She is such an awesome missionary and we had a great time. They have bikes and so it was a lot of fun and so much more efficient.  I cannot wait to get our bikes that we should be getting in about a week or 2.  We had some great lessons one with a new investigator, who is really just looking for the gospel she has such a strong desire to change and I was just amazed by here and just how prepared she was to receive us.

This week I saw such a tender mercy that strengthened my testimony of the power of praying for others.  Loreto had always talked to me about one of her good friends who introduced her to the church and I had the amazing opportunity to meet him at the baptism. Little did I know that he was the son of a sweet sister from one of my old wards.  I had never met him before, but I always remember her talking about him and how he was inactive, but that she would always pray for him specifically that he would find a good girl that would bring him back to the gospel.  My heart is so full of joy for this sister as Saturday I saw her prayer come true.  As he is now returning to the church and I feel that a big part of that is thanks to his friend Loreto, who he had introduced the church too. It was so awesome. It is such a small world.  I would have never thought that her son was the same friend that Loreto was always talking about.

Alejandra and her family are still doing really good.  They come to every church event and are just so great.  Keep praying for Alejandra she is doing so much better but I think there are still a few little things in her way before her baptism.

Thank you for all you do,

Hermana Stringham

Week #64 *October 19, 2015

Hey everyone,

Sorry. This is going to be another short letter, as I am running out of time again.  This week has been just awesome. We have been working a lot with Loreto, to prepare her for her baptism this Saturday She is doing just so good.  She is so excited and there is just a light in her eyes.  We finished all of the lessons this week and she had her interview. Please pray for her and her family. She wants them to be there so bad and they are still thinking about it.

Alejandra is also doing good. Her whole family is reading every day.  I am so happy as she wasn’t reading at all before.  She is still struggling with a few things preparing for her baptism, but we are trying to work with her daughter Nicol who is a convert, to know what to teach her so she can help us with the lessons and prepare to maybe go on her own mission someday.

This week we had another miracle lesson, as we got to teach the family of a missionary who is serving in Mexico.  The whole family participated,  even the father who didn’t want anything to do with the church before.  They were so open and asked us to come back this week.  I am so happy for their daughter and want for them so badly to be able to receive this gospel as well so they can be sealed in the temple when there daughter gets back.

We are working with a few other people, but I have just run our of time so I will have to write more next week.  

Please pray for Marjorie this week she wrote me today telling me that he now understands why I told her that she had to stay strong and that she would pass for hard times, as she has distanced herself a little from the church.  It is just so hard to be a convert.  I don’t know what is going on but she could really use your prayers.

I Love you!

Hermana Stringham

Home Sweet Curico

View from our 5th Floor Apartment!
There are no elevators,
just lots of stairs to climb
when we come home!

Week #63 *October 12, 2015

Hey Everyone,

Well I don’t have a lot of time this week, so I am going to apologize ahead of time.  This week has been pretty great we have just been working real hard to find some new people to teach.  This ward is seriously so awesome. they have just been so supportive and this week we have received so many references, that we are so excited to contact this week.

This week we had our pre interview with Loreto, for her baptism that is coming up in a few weeks it went so good.  She just has a huge glow in her eyes and is so happy.  Honestly in our lessons I feel like she teaches us.  She is attending institute in Santiago and learning so much.  She has such a strong desire to learn and is truly putting in a huge effort to learn as much as she can about the gospel.  She shared her testimony about the gospel with us and how she just feels so strongly that what we are teaching her is true.  Her testimony truly touched me.  It makes me wonder if we are as anxiously engaged in studying and learning more about the gospel as some new investigators are.  We are so blessed to have this gospel in our lives.  I have watched as new converts just dive in the gospel wanting to learn all that they have felt they have missed for a life time.  We have the gospel in our lives right now.  Do we fully appreciate the blessings of the scriptures and teachings of the gospel.  We as members are some of few in comparison with all of Gods children.  I invite you to cherish your personal study this week and ponder on just how blessed we are to have that in our lives.  Remember to take some time daily to study even if it is just 5 minutes it is sooo important.

Alejandra and the famila escarate are also doing pretty good they came to the other hermanas baptism on Sunday and just seem so happy.  There daughter Nicol, who is a convert we are working with, went to do visits with the hermans and they said that her testimony was awesome and she is just so happy to see her Mom finally wanting to be baptized as well.  I just love this family. They are truly so amazing and a living testimony that we should never give up on anyone as Alejandra has been investigating the church for years and finally has decided to be baptized.  Please pray for her as she has been struggling still with a few things.

This week I was able to do divisions with Hermana Porter. She only has a couple months in the mission. It was a lot of fun.  She is so great and reminds me a lot of myself when I started the mission.  Learning the language was sooooo hard and looking back I just feel so blessed and amazed at how far I have come. I have no idea at what point I went from not understanding anything, to understanding just about everything.  The gift of tongues is truly real because there is no way that I could have done this alone.

Well sorry but I got to go.  I love you all so much!

Love,

Hermana Stringham

Yum! *October 8, 2015

Week #62 *October 5, 2015

Conferencia General

Wow! So this week has just been so packed full of the spirit, and I have learned so much as we had our leadership meeting this week and General Conference. It just cant get better than that.

Well so first of this week in our leadership meeting. They talked all about the temple and focusing in the temple.  We are just so blessed to have a temple so close to home and we should be going often.  After over a year without being able to go to the temple, I miss it there so much, but I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to help others to make it there.  We talked in our conference about how the real goal is to get the people here to the temple and to endure to the end, not only baptism. They also talked about always being temple worthy and having a current temple recommend.  I invite all of you to make a goal to go more often to the temple.  Before my mission I made a goal to go every week and looking back now it was one of the most vital parts of preparing me for the mission.  It gave me the spiritual strength I needed and more than that some of my most cherished and sacred memories are from those special mornings I spent in the temple.  Set a goal to go more often and consistently. You won’t regret it.

This week we had a special lesson with Loreto about temples. A sister came with us to the lesson and shared a very special experience she had doing the work for one of her ancestors.  Loreto is so excited to be baptized so that she can go to the temple.  She is just so amazing she has been reading so much and studying. She has such a strong desire to learn and to make it to the temple.  She has a little girl who is 6 years old and she is just so cute.  She lives with her parents on the weekend who are members of another church and aren’t very supportive of her decision to be baptized.  I am just so amazed by her strong desire to be baptized, not just for herself but for her ancestors.  Seriously she is just so awesome and the spirit was so strong in that lesson as she shared her desire to go to the temple.

Our other baptism date with Alejandra is also going pretty well.  Her family is just so happy, as her husband is a member who just returned to the church and his daughter Nicol is a recent convert. They are seriously the cutest family. They seem like a normal active family.  Every just keeps telling me that it is a miracle that Alerjandra is getting baptized, as she has been going to church for a very long time but never made it to the baptism point.  I just see her beaming now as she has made that choice.  She has been struggling with a few concepts that are harder for her to follow, but she has such a strong desire to be baptized.  Please pray for her so she can overcome her challenges in the gospel.

Okay, so I don’t have a whole lot of time left, but I just wanted to talk a bit about conference as it was just so amazing.  Every conference just seems to get better but I guess it is just because as my mission president says, we are more prepared to listen each time.  Conference in the mission has just been one of the most amazing things as the perspective as a missionary is just so different. I love it! I fell like I just soak it all in so much.  Each conference I try to go with a couple questions and this conference I did the same, and the Lord gave me an answer to every one of my questions.  At the end of conference I was able to look over my notes again and makes some goals, I would invite you to do so as well if you have not already done so.  I just want to share one of my goals with you.  I feel like this conference gave a lot of ideas of how we can strive to be better people.  Taking from several of the talks I want to set a new goal to take some time each Sunday to self reflect and as in pray as Larry R. Lawerence suggested, “What lack I yet?” and from that choose a scripture that will help me to better in that area. To Ponderize as Devin G. Durrant taught.

 Well I am just about running out of time and there is so much that I want to share but I will just have to share a thought from my favorite talk which was by Elder Uchtdorf, in his talk about happiness as He said God didn’t design us top be sad.  He created us to have joy.  I know that our Heavenly father loves us He sent us to the earth to grow and to be happy.  We may pass for hard times but we must learn to make the best of each moment and learn to enjoy the ride.

Well I got to go, but I invited those who weren’t able to see all the sessions to go do so as soon as possible as they were amazing

Love ya 

Hermana Stringham

Hike in the Hill of Curico *October 5, 2015

New Companion: Hermana Rodriguez