Week #24

Hey Everyone,

Okay so this week has just flown by but it has been a great week. We were not able to work in my sector very much this week and at the start of the week it was a little rough as we were basically in the streets all day, but the last day in the sector I was able to see some miracles.

First of all I received a whole bunch of referrals,  one of which is named Javier who is 16 years old and has been attending church with a friend where my new companion is coming from.  I am so excited to teach him as he wants to start going to his own ward and receive the missionaries.  We haven’t been able to teach him yet, but as I have gotten to talk to him on the phone. He is really excited to receive the missionaries and we are so excited to start teaching him.

The second thing that happened is we were able to find one of the people that we had found before Christmas, but with the holidays and all we could never find her again.  We were able to watch the restoration with her and the spirit was so strong and she had a lot of interest, but then she accidentally hit the remote right before the part of the first vision (something always happens at this part of the lesson) and we couldn’t get it to fast forward to this part.  She is evangelical (evangelist) I am not sure how that is in English, but there is a lot of that here in Chile and she assists a church 3 times a week and so initially I didn’t really think that she would be that interested. But she told us that she has had the same question as Joseph Smith, because she always worries for her children and if she is really going down the right path and the things she believes are really true.  We left her with our testimonies and she said that she was going to finish the video and then pray after we left.  I felt the spirit so strong and I am so excited to teach her this week. Her name is Claudia.

One of the other blessing is that we were able to go with one of the young men who used to live in our sector and wanted to take us to teach his old friends and neighbors. We weren’t able to teach anyone, but we were able to receive some great references and we are so exited to head back to them in the week.  I know that this is really how missionary work should be together with the members.  I have been able to feel the Lords love for me a lot this week and see his hand in my life as has blessed me with so many miracles.

My new companion comes tomorrow her name is Hermana Makin and she arrived to the mission the same day as me.  She is another gringa from Utah!.  I was so surprised to have another gringa companion, but she is awesome and I am so excited to work with her. I can’t wait to see what this week has to bring.  I loved something that the President said this week that really helped me.  He said that time is never lost when missionaries are stuck in the street all day, if they have the spirit with them.  I know that is true.  Sometimes we forget that there are a lot of people watching us as missionaries and members back home.  We need to remember to always have the Spirit to be with us and to smile because other will see and feel it!

Answers to our questions:

*How is your Spanish going:

Spanish is going good. I feel comfortable in Spanish right now and I even struggle with English sometimes now, or really both sometimes. There are always things that I can do better with the language, but at least I feel comfortable and I  don’t have any problems communicating. It has been a really blessing The gift of tongues is definitely real, because I know that I couldn’t do this on my own.

How is Victor doing:

With Victor, he didn’t go to church and I have been praying and I feel like we need to stop teaching him for a while and give him a chance to act for himself.  It is hard but in the end he has to make the decision. Maybe it wont be with us right now, but with other missionaries in the future after he moves, but I am still praying about it and maybe I will pass by with my new companion.

How do transfers work?  It seems like you have had some odd changes.

Transfers are every 6 weeks. What happened is that with Hermana Butler, she went home mid transfer because all those that were going to go home the transfer just after Christmas had the option to go home a couple weeks early to be home for Christmas. That’s why it has been weird.  Also transfers are every 6 weeks, but we don’t always change. I was with Hermana Nokes for 2 transfers.  I am still in the same area, which is really surprising, as people usually change more. I guess this is were I need to be.

It has been so interesting to see, because this transfer was a little harder, as my two companions were struggling and fighting a little. I felt like I was in the middle playing counselor, but I know that is where I needed to be and I learned so much from this time.  Now as this transfer is ended we have been able to start to receive referencias and find people.  I have learned that there are some moments like this transfer in the mission that aren’t always for the investigators sometimes they are to help your companion or a member. Now as I am about to receive my new companion, who is awesome. I am so excited I have been able to see the Lord preparing the area with referrals. Now we have a new bishop, as our old one was in the stake presidency as well, and a new teacher for the class of our investigators because they old one was way intimidating.  I know that they Lord has a plan for this area and I cant wait to see what it is.

I love you so much.  I love you all and cant wait to talk to ya next week!

Hermana Stringham

"I did something crazy and cut my hair short!"

"I love it because it was getting so long and it was so hot.
 It looks longer in this picture.  I love it short.  It is just below my collar bones."

oh ya and I did something crazy and cut my hair short.

Christmas in Chile

12 Days of Christmas Nativity
The only Christmas Decoration in our Home!

Christmas Eve with Bianca, her family and the Elders.

Treats from Home!

New Companions

Me and my Companions in Central!

Week #23

Everyone,

This week has been a little slower with working in two sectors and it being New years everyone is really busy, and so we had a lot of time in the street, but as well we had a lot of fun.

Victors baptism date fell, as he had a run in the a member and got really offended so right now he doesn’t want to have anything to do with the church.  He still wants to receive us and still is open to baptism, but he says he doesn’t feel comfortable going to a church with that member there. We had to explain to him as missionaries we can’t really do a whole lot about how people act, We just share our lessons and and we explained why it was important to go to church.  He calmed down a lot and said that he was going to church this Sunday, but then he didn’t show up. So I am not sure what we are going to do. It scares me that this is his second baptismal date that is going to fall, and I don’t want him to get baptized for me. I want to make sure that he has a true conversion.  Because of that I have decided with a lot of prayer, that we have to stop teaching him for a little bit and wait to see if he will choose to go to church this week or call us, because  if he has a testimony and a true desire to receive this gospel he will call us.  It has been really hard, but I feel it is for the best.  Please pray for him.

Other than that for new years we had to enter the house at 7 so we had time to just hang out and organize a lot of things which was fun.  I am sorry I don’t have much to share for this week, but I am really excited to see what this next week has to bring as I will find out who my new companion will be Saturday. We have a lot of people that we are going to visit and teach this week that couldn’t receive us until after the holidays. I am just excited to get to work and work really hard this week!  Please pray for us to be able to find new people to teach that are prepared for our message.

I love you all and am grateful for all that you do.

Hermana Stringham

Week #22

Hey everyone,

This week has been a little bit slower with it being Christmas and working in two sectors, but it was fun to celebrate Christmas here in Chile and just have some fun and it was expecially fun to be able to talk to everyone.  All the grandkids are getting so big and everyone looked so great.  As for my Christmas here I went to the house of our Relief Society President and we had a dinner and then after we had a family night and talked about the different symbols of Christmas it was really fun.  Here in Chile Santa comes at exactly midnight which is something different and so everyone opens their presents at midnight and then after the go to bed.  So Christmas day is more just a day to be with the family.  It seems like Christmas isn't quite as big here as it is back at home either and I have heard that New Years is actually a bigger holliday here.

Victor  is still doing really great we are going to visit him today and change his baptism for the next weekend since we couldnt teach him this past week and we still have a few things to teach before his baptism. But, he is still doing great and not smoking.  He is just struggling to read and retain the things that he reads in the Book of Mormon, so we want to help him with that this week.

We are teaching a new family.  Her name is Lorena. She has two little girls and lives with her husband Alejando.  Her best friend is the Bishop's wife and so we did a family night with them the other week and then we starting teaching Lorena.  She has a lot of interest and has started to read the Book of Mormon, so we are really excited to see were that will go.

We also found another new lady her name is Monica and she is a little bit older. She worked for the church before and has a lot of interest. She lives with her grandsons and is basically at home all day with them. She wants to learn more about the church because she loved all that she saw when she was working for the church several years ago.  She accepted a baptism date for 17th of January. Immediately!  But she still needs to gain a testimony and so we are excited to see where that is going to go.

Other than that we are just working with a few other people trying to get them to progress, but this week we didn't have many appointments with Christmas and all, but I am so excited for the New Year although we won't get to celebrate it as we have to be in the house at 7 that night, but I am grateful for the opportunity to set some new goals.  I loved something that President Warne said in his letter this week.  He said that it doesnt matter how much time you have, as much as it does what you do with your time.  I think that we could all use are time a little better and I expecially have been thinking about this as a missionary as the mission goes by so fast, I want to focus more on the work and use every moment that I have.  

 I hope you all have a great new year and I love you all so much!

Hermana Stringham

Week #21

Hey everyone,

This week I sent home Hermana Butler.  Our time together went by so fast, but I learned so much from her.  Right now I am in a trio with Hermana Aycho from Peru who has about 4 weeks in the mission and is still being trained and with Hermana Dana who is from Argentina who will be going home at the end of January. It has been a little bit hard working in both sectors, but I have enjoyed working with them for the past two days and it is really only for 3 more weeks and then I should have a new companion.

Victor is doing pretty good. His baptism is in 2 weeks, on the 2nd of January, so we are really excited.  He still isn't smoking, which is amazing as he was smoking a lot before. He basically decided to stop the day he commited to a baptismal date and has been staying strong ever since.  The only thing that is really hard with him is his health is still really bad and he is undergoing dialysis and as part of that his memory has gone way down hill, so he has a hard time understanding some things and remembering what he is reading in the scriptures and what we are teaching.  The other thing is he is in the process of a divorce with his wife and is going to move soon after his baptism and so we are really working hard to help him have a firm testimony in the gospel before he leaves.  Please pray for him.

This week I finally found Jacquelin in her house and she let us enter for a little bit, but she told us that she isn't reading or praying and that all of this is a personal decision that she has to make, but it is very hard for her and she is happy with her life as it is right now.  It broke my heart to leave that house after working my whole time here with her, but I know that we did all that we could to help her and maybe she just isnt ready right now, but I pray that one day in the future she will be ready and will receive the missionaries.  We have had to stop teaching several of our investigators, but the others weren't as hard, but it is definitely one of the hardest things we have to do as missionaries.  Please pray for her as well even though we are not teaching her right now.

We taught Belen this week and shared the parable of the 10 virgins and talked about the importance of not putting off the things that are really important.  It was a great lesson and at the end she said that she was going to go to church this week no matter what and she was going to talk to Jonathon more about marriage, but then they weren't at the church on Sunday and so I am not sure what is going to happen with them.  Please pray for them.  They have testimonies and they want badly to be able to go to the temple with their family.  They are just struggling, with other things going on in their lives, to make time to do the things they need to do to reach these goals. 

Other than that we have been teaching a few other people that arent really progressing right now or that we have only been able to teach once, but I am excited to see what is going to happen with them.

This Sunday we had a Christmas devotional with just music, which was really cool we all sang and there were a lot of solos.  It is amazing the power that music has to bring people together and to bring the spirit.

Well I can't wait to see you all for Christmas.  I love you all so much and am So very grateful for all of your support!

Hermana Stringham