Week #12

Hey everyone,

So this week has been absolutely amazing and hard at the same time.  I have seen the Lord’s hand in my life so much this week.  The week started out bad because after we wrote home and returned to our house, we received a call from Victor saying that  he didn’t want to be baptized anymore because he talked to his family and he doesn’t want to commit to a church.  It was really hard to receive this call after watching how much he had progressed and changed his life and we were so excited for his baptism, but he said we could still go by to teach him so we held onto a little hope but at first it was hard because he cancelled the 2 of the appointments that we tried to make with him. On top of that two of our new investigators Marcela and Camilla called us and said that they didn’t want us to talk about the gospel with them, because it was too confusing for them with their previous beliefs.

This week we had zone conference and transfers which made this kind of a big week.  Zone conference was so good and I learned a ton about how I can be a better missionary.  I am so happy that me and my companion weren’t transferred and that we have six more weeks together. I am a little sad to be saying goodbye to Hermana Cantillo who lives with us and I am dreading saying goodbye to my companion and Hermana Parker as they will be heading home at the end of this transfer in 6 more weeks as well.

 So the beginning of the week was a little rough and we were definitely disappointed, but as the week went on it got better and better and we saw several miracles.  I know that sometimes God gives us some hard trials to face to build us up for greater things and that is exactly what he did this week. towards the end of the week we had a breakthrough with one of our menos activos Ana. We were finally able to help her understand why it is important to go to church and how we need her in the church. Now she has a goal to get back to church. However it is a little hard with her and is going to take some time because of her work she cant go to church on Sundays, so she goes to a different church that is much earlier in the morning. After working with for a lot of time she finally has the desire and is working to change her life so she can go to church. Please pray for her to be able to find a way that she can go to church on Sundays. 

The second thing that happened is when we were walking to a members house my companion thought that I said that we should take the long way, but I didnt say anything. We realized that this was a prompting and decided to take the long way.  At first nothing happened. The member wasn’t home and we headed to look for an old investigator and while we were trying to find this investigator we asked for help from a couple on the street who then proceeded to ask us if we would come visit them and ask us  if we wanted their number so we could confirm.  We didn’t even have to do anything.  I know that God is aware of everything we do.  That night we completely changed our plans and had no idea why until we found that couple.  The Lord led us to that couple who he had prepared for us to teach.  We haven’t taught them yet because we had to call and change the appointment, but we are going to teach them this week. I am so excited.  

We also got to teach Victor at the end of the week, after going by and calling so many times. He finally said yes and we brought his neighbor who is a member to teach him.  We talked about true conversion and all shared how we received our testimonies. The spirit was so strong and at the end. When I asked him to pray to know if it was true, he told me that he didn’t need to because he has already received an answer and he knows it is true. He doesn’t want to be baptized right now or go to church because it is to hard for him with his family, work, and his health, but he has a testimony and has a agreed to let us continue to teach him. I have faith that with time he will gain a desire.  Please pray for him especially that he can have the desire to be baptized and understand the importance of baptism and going to church.

The best part of the week was yesterday in Church.  It was probably the most amazing part of my whole mission for me.  We had two families come to church with us.  Jonathon and Belen with their children came and they absolutely loved it.  We had an amazing Sunday School class and they asked tons of questions. They seemed to be satisfied with the answers.  At the end of the class Jonathon raised his hand and asked if he could say something.  He talked about his experience with us as missionaries and how it has impacted his life. Then he began to share a basic testimony of how he knew that God had lead us into his life, because had it been any other night or if it had been the elders when we had found him he probably would have said no. Now he believes that our church is true. One of the ways he feels like is because we are the only people that his dogs don’t bark and get mad at when we enter the house.  It was so amazing to listen to this man, who had only listened to lessons twice, testify.  As a family they have a strong desire to know more about the church and we have started teaching a lot more then we plan in our lessons because they have a lot of questions and have a strong desire to learn more. They just are waiting to receive answers to the prayers that this is the direction that they need to go with their lives. It is so amazing to watch peoples lives change and their eyes begin to light up as the receive the truth, but it is even more amazing to watch families change and become so much closer as they together change their lives.

The second investigator that came was Jacqueline Ramos and her son Martin.  She absolutely loved church as well as there were amazing talks.  The theme of church seemed to be conversion and gaining a testimony for yourself.  It was an amazing moment as I looked over and she had pulled out her sunday school book and was flipping through the pictures and explaining to Martin about Jesus and different aspects of the gospel.  We later went to teach her that night and she was so excited as we taught her about the plan of salvation and then we started to talk about temples and she was really interested yet she says she doesnt think that she has recieved her answer yet, but our lessons have changed her life and she has faith that she will recieve an answer.  We are so excited for her as we watch her life change.  I think what changed things for her was bringing Martin to Church and seeing what the gospel could do for her little family.  

My heart was touched yesterday as I saw the eyes of these two families light up with desire to have the gospel in their lives.  I was so happy as I watched them enjoy the church and as the members were so great with them.  I know that the experiences would have been totally different if the members hadn’t all been so supportive and come by and talk to them.  Members are the key often times for investigators. All I could think about during church was these parents and the impact that the decisions they are making now on their children’s lives and the future posterity.  I am so excited to continue to watch them progress and hopefully one day be able to seem them go through the temple and be sealed together as families for all eternity.  As missionaries our goal isn’t to have a bunch of baptisms. It is to help people to come unto Christ and accept His gospel.  Baptism is part of that goal, but it is just the door to so much more.  A big part of that is the temple and persevering and enduring to the end.  I love being a missionary so much although there are a lot of times that are really hard and learning a new language is very frustrating at times, there is so much joy that comes from it.  It is moments like I had on Sunday and those little miracles throughout the week as we watch lives change and eyes light up that make every single difficult part of the mission worth it.

I love you so much sorry for writing a novel I just had a lot of great things to write about this week.

LOVE YA,

Hermana Stringham

Week #11

This week has been really good.

This week we have continued to teach Victor he
is continuing to progress so well and is so excited for his baptism date that he wants to have a party to celebrate after.  He said the other day when we talked to him that he was quitting smoking completely that day, but we haven’t been able to talk to him as he has been busy with work so we are
really hoping that he has kept it up and can continue to keep it up.

Jacqueline Ramos is doing pretty good she just gets overwhelmed with the lessons a lot because she says that it is hard because everything she is learning is so different from the things that she was always taught. Please pray for her.

We have been teaching an investigator named Sebastion and his partner Monica (They don’t really get married here, so partner is a stronger word then girlfriend. Some parents here never get married, it is a real problem and really hard because getting a divorce is really hard here and single women have a lot of benefits like free houses from the government so people usually don’t want to get married.)  Anyways we have been teaching him since I got here and he is progressing just really slowly. He has a lot of doubts and different believes, but he has come a
long way.

We are teaching another young couple named Jonathon and Belen.
They have to little girls and are doing really well.  Last time we taught them, Jonathon said that he has a lot of interest, now after listening to us. When he first met us he didn’t really have any, just his wife did so we are really excited to teach him.

We are also teach a mom and her daughter Mercel and Camilla.  They have so much faith and like learning about different religions.  They are so kind and we are really excited to start teaching them this week as well.

The weather right now is starting to get hot it is spring time here and it is already pretty hot in the daytime. I cant imagine how hot summer is going to be. It can still get pretty cold  some nights here, so it is hard to know whether or not to bring a jacket
each day. The people here are all very friendly. Economically there is quite a range but the majority live off off much less then we have back home, They do alright and are a lot better off then most other countries in South America.  Their homes are all really small.  They are usually very colorful and usually the houses here are like one house split in two. I can think of the word to describe it sorry.

My Spanish is coming. I can understand a lot, but it is just hard to talk because conjugating in the different tenses is hard and people sometimes have a
hard time understanding my “gringa” accent.

I have been keeping a good journal. I have been slacking off a little lately because some nights I don't have time to write, but I am working hard to be better because I want to be able to look back and remember everything.  Right now I am just studying in the book of Mormon in Spanish unless I have something I want to study better for a lesson that day.  I do want to study different Christlike
attributes leading up to christmas and think about how I can better apply them in my life.  The food here different sometimes there are a lot of things that we have from back home just slightly different.  They eat a lot of empanadas.  They eat a lot of beans, but there are a lot of different kinds. Also completos which are hot dogs with ketchup, mayo, avocado and sometimes a bunch of other stuff. They put a lot on it though, so I don’t really like it.  I don’t really know how to describe the food here very well, it usually isn’t that weird.  The one thing I have noticed is that things aren’t as sweet here.

With love,

Hermana Stringham

Week #10

Hey Everyone!

This week has been so great.  It was kind of like a three day weekend, with conference and then p-day, so it has been nice to have kind of a break and be spiritually built up and edified to prepare for the next week.

Our main investigators we are teaching right now are Victor, Jacqueline Ramos, Jacqueline Mesias, and Eugenia.

*Victor is still progressing really well.  He is so excited and working very hard to prepare for his baptismal date.  He has given up a lot already and every thing we teach him he is so ready and willing to embrace.  It is such a great example of obedience to me because he hardly even questions any of the things we teach, like the word of wisdom, because he knows this church is true and he wants to keep the commandments.  He is working on quitting smoking right now and has come a long way, but it is really hard. He has a lot of other health problems. He is on dialysis.  Please pray for him for his health and for him to be able to give up smoking.

*Jacqueline Ramos is so fun to teach because she is this young mom with a little boy name Martin, who is 5. He is so funny. He always entertains us.

*Jacquline Mesias has been out of town, and she is still struggling trying to find a job.

*Eugenia is pretty new. She came to conference with us and liked it.  I haven’t taught her much because I was on splits for our last appointment with her, but I am excited to teach her.

*This week we have a new investigator that stuck out a lot to me.  Her name is Belen. Right when we went to her house she immediately let us in and was so excited to hear from us, even though we have never talked to her. She has two kids and a strong belief in God, but is looking for something more in her life.  We are so excited to teach her.

I didnt get a chance to take many pictures this week. Sorry our zone activity of paintball was cancelled, so a member came to teach us self defence and some martial art thing that lasted for a long time. It was so much fun and then afterwords we went and got fried sushi which was so good.

Church here is pretty much the same as back home just in spanish.  There are a few differences one is that we don’t always have someone who can play the organ, so the hymns are sometimes not accompanied and everyone sings really low here.  Other than that ,it is pretty much the same.

We haven’t had the opportunity to participate in service projects here, yet but a lot of missionaries do.  We always look for service opportunities and try to help the people here, but they usually don’t let us when we offer. We have learned to just always do the dishes or sweep or find something to help in the home, because people will always say they are fine when you offer to help, but they never protest when we just start cleaning. It has been a great way to serve the people here and build better relationships with members and investigators.

We have a half hour to work out every morning but it is first thing in the morning, so some morning it is hard to get moving especially when it is really cold morning, but we always try to do something.

Our area is pretty big and we do walk almost everywhere.  It is like 30 or 40 minutes walking from the top to bottom. With how small and close houses are here, that is a lot of houses.  Our church is about 15 minutes walking from our house.  We do take taxis here to get to district meetings or at night if we are going to be late or if there aren’t a lot of people around and we don’t want to be in the streets late.

There are a lot of different culture things here, but is hard to think of one in specific. You can’t put toilet paper in the toilets. You have to put it in the garbage. That’s one thing that is kind of weird and gross here.  Also we cant leave our water heaters on and most people don’t, because they can’t afford to. So the water is always freezing here that you wash your hands with.  Everyone here is just really friendly. They kiss and hug just about everyone and it is kind of cool how kind and friendly the culture is.

Oh we had a cool experience earlier this week. When we were contacting in the streets we passed this guy and didn’t contact him, because we were about to contact this house. He came up to us and asked us what we were doing and we explained that we were missionaries.  He kept asking about our church and then we offered to share more with him and his family at a later time and he gladly excepted.  It was so cool to see how this man came to us when usually it is the other way around, and how the Lord had truly prepared him.

Conference was definitely the highlight of the week. I watched all the sessions in English except for women’s session which I watched in Spanish. It was cool and I was able to understand a good amount.  I got the concept of everything, I just couldn’t understand the details, because they talk so fast and have different accents in conference. I can’t wait to read the talks when they come out.  It was weird though because the voice over is weird. It made me very grateful that conference is done in English. This is something I have always taken for granted. Here it is hard because a lot of people associate the church with the US and then when all the talks are originally in English and they can’t understand any of the songs because they are all in English its hard.  But it was so cool to have the musical number of those children in China and then the talks in different langauges.  We went in to watch both the talks in Spanish and everyone here was so excited to have a talk in there own language.  The translations are good, but not everything translates over very good so you don’t really get any of the jokes and the voices make it so you loose any emotion.  I am so excited for this amazing change that is going forth in the church as it is becoming more global. It was definitely different this time going to conference as instead of just listening for myself I was listening for things that I could use to help my investigators. It was so cool as there were many talks that seemed to answer exact things that my investigators are struggling with right now, and I cant wait to share them with them.  I espeicially like Elder Bednars talk, as he explained perfectly exactly what I wish I could explain to all of my investigators of why we do what we do.

I loved a few quotes that I want to share They are not word for word, as I couldn’t get the exact wording of all of them fast enough.

 I love the quote that Elder Holland shared about how what we do is only about a drop in the ocean, but without us the ocean would be a drop less.    This is exactly how I feel missionary work is we work very hard but sometimes it doesn’t seem like we are doing much and compared to the big picture we aren’t, but every soul is great in the eyes of God and what we are doing individually is very important because we are working with salvation. Even if we are just planting seeds, that is great because every soul is worth so much and we have to first start by planting seeds.   I also really liked the quote by Elder Chi Hong (the guy who spoke in cantonese) He said,  “äs we work hard to rescue souls, we too will be rescued in the processs.”   This is so true and I have seen this over and over again in my life and as I have worked hard to find and teach others to come unto Christ. I have found I have grown so much myself and my relationship with my Heavenly Father is so much stronger.  The final quote I want to share,  I can’t remember who it was from. He said something like: “the strength of the church is not dependent on how big it is.  The strength of our church is measure by the strength of its individuals.”  I loved this so much because it is so true.  I ready a statistic this week  in the Liahona as there was a sections on Chile in there this month. You should read them they are so true. Any ways it said that 1 in 30 Chileans are members of our church.  This statistic is so cool, but of those members, a large potion of them are inactive as retention is so bad here.  We all need to work hard as we work to become more like Christ especially as members, because as members of this church are representatives of Jesus Christ and people watch us.  We need to ask our selves if we are examples and representatives of something that would draw people unto Christ and want to know more about the church or if it is giving people the wrong ideas of our church. I know that as we work hard to become more like Christ in our actions we will in turn draw others unto Christ.

I love you all so much and I will talk to you next week.

Hermana Stringham

Tupahue 1 Zone

Week #9

Hey everyone,

This week has been really great our zone set a goal to have 15 baptisms for the 25th of October, meaning that each companionship would have one.  We are really close with several investigators and have one who wants to be baptized and is preparing for this date.  We are so excited and I know that we can reach this goal with the help of the Lord.  We are working hard to get our investigator Victor ready for this day, because there are a lot of people here who get baptized and then never go back to church. So our goal is not really to get a lot of baptisms, but to help people to get their own testimony and a strong relationship with the Lord, so they can grow strong in the gospel.  Because of this on the 25th, we had blue day where our whole zone wore blue and we had to contact every person and house with blue.  The houses are really colorful here so we did a lot of contacting that day.  We are having a red day on Wednesday as well.  This has been a fun thing to do, because it helps us to work hard to go more out of our way to contact everyone.

My Spanish is still not great, but I am finally starting to understand people here, where as before it was hard to distinguish single words out of the long strand of mumbled words people said.  I am so excited to be able to understand, and I know that I have had a lot of help from the Lord.  It is so cool because the Lord helps me to understand, whenever it is something important. And I can always speak when I need to in lessons, whereas I cant speak very much outside of lessons. The gift of tongues is definitely real. I have seen it first hand and it is amazing.

This week has been a little difficult because we have had some hard days were we haven’t gotten into hardly any houses and everything that could possibly go wrong has. But it is amazing to see, because it is these times that we remind each other that we just have to work harder and as we do we have seen some real miracles with finding new people to teach and great lessons with our investigators.  Sometimes the Lord tests us in order to build us up for something great.  It has been the days that have been the hardest and that I have struggled the most that I have grown the most.  I know that the Lord allows us to have hard times in order to help us grow.

This week we taught Victor twice. The frist lesson he accepted a baptismal date of the 25th and the second he agreed to keep the word of wisdom. He drinks and smokes so this is a really hard thing for him and we were really nervous that he wouldn’t want to, but he says he knows that this church his true and he has faith that the Lord will help him.  Please pray for him as we continue to work with him and help him to quit smoking.

Jacqueline couldn’t come to church this week because she didn’t feel good and she cancelled our lesson. We are really praying hard that we will be able to teach her this week.

We are teaching a new Jacqueline as well.  We found her one day while contacting and taught her a short lesson.  She lost her job and her boyfriend left her the other day and she has called us almost everday since. Because she is really struggling and just wants to talk to someone.  She has a desire to learn more about the gospel and we are really excited to teach her.

We are teaching another person as well named Eugenia, who my companion was teaching before. She has been out of town while I have been here.  She seems to have a lot of interest and I think that here husband does as well, because he joined in a little bit although he didn’t stay there for the whole lesson.  I am excited to get to know her and teach her.

One more thing about Chile. We have huge lunches here and they always give us so much food that I don’t even know what to do with, but we have to just eat slowly and try to eat a good portion as not to offend them. If you don’t eat a lot then they think you don’t like it.  For example we had this lunch the other day where we first got a plate full of fries and mini empanadas.  It was really good, but by the end I was full, but the Hermana brought out two full pans of lasagna for the 6 missionaries there. We were only able to eat one and part of the pan to make it look like we liked it. But I have never been so full in my life and after that we still had dessert.  It is crazy how much food they try to give us here.

Now to answer your questions:

*P-days in the morning we clean first usually for an hour. But our house is really dirty from previous missionaries, so sometimes we spend a lot more time than that.

Then we have until 6 to do whatever: email home, get groceries, and sometimes we have activities with our zones.  Like today we played handball and next week we are going paintballing!  I cant wait.  At 6 we go back to work just like we would on a normal day.

*I got the package today but I haven’t received any letters.

*Yes I get called barbie a lot by everyone here.

*When we first meet people and teach them for the first time we basically just ask questions to get to know them and go from there.  We just follow the spirit and every lesson is different.

*I saw a little bit of womens conference at a members house, in Spanish. It was weird though because they just turn up the background music during the songs because they don’t have them in Spanish. It was weird, but we will get to see it in English! Saturday morning, along with the rest of conference in our stake center.  I am so excited because they always show it in English in one of the rooms for the missionaries. We are really looking forward to Saturday and Sunday to be able to hear from the prophets. I am so excited for something to finally be in English!

Well I love you all so much, talk to you next week!

Hermana Stringham 

Dresses they wear to dance
their national dance the "cueca".

Week #8

Hey everyone,

This has been such a fun but busy week.  It has been a little harder because it is a holiday week so a lot of people have been out of town or have family in town, so we didn't have very many appointments. It’s hard to contact when everyone is busy or not home, but it was fun because on the 18th we got to just go to ward party that lasted all day for 18 de septiembre, which is there Independence day.  It was really fun to spend time with the ward and play games and a lot of futboll(soccer), because they are so crazy competitive and way good at it here. We also watched people dance the “cueca”, their national dance. It was a lot of fun and nice to have a break from the normal schedule.

Okay, so my daily routine: I wake up every day at 7 and we have time to exercise until 7:30 and then time to get ready from 7:30 to  8. This  is a really short amount of time when you have four girls sharing a shower, so I have learned how to get ready fast.  After that we have study time until 12.  Personal study, companionship, language and then 12 samanas, which is just a bunch of videos and stuff we have to do for the first 12 weeks.  After the first 12 weeks, we leave at 11.  We then go to work contacting or if we have appointments. Then we have lunch from 1:30 to 3:30 which is always huge.  After that more contacting and appointments.  We return each night at 9:30 and plan for about an hour, then got to bed at 11.  Everyday is pretty much the same except for Pdays, District meetings wednesday mornings, and Sundays are slightly different with church. But for the most part, we just do a lot of contacting and teaching, which is fun.

 My companion is really great we get along amazingly well and she helps me alot.  We have a lot of fun together.  Her Spanish is amazing and she actually has a really good accent, which most of the gringos don’t, so she helps me a lot with my spanish and saying things correct.  The language is still pretty hard.  I am definitely getting better every day, but understanding is the hardest thing for me because they talk so fast and it all sounds like one long string of sounds. But I am starting to understand and a lot of people have told me this week that my Spanish is a lot better and my pronunciation is good, but I cant really tell.

Our casa is really cute.  I like it because it is really colorful.  All the houses and walls here are very bright and colorful I love it.  I will send pictures when I get time to take one and when I have time to send it.

I got your pictures and video.  I just can't hear the sound so I am going to try again next week because I Think it is just the computer I am on this week, but we will see.

Okay, so I definitely stand out a lot here with my hair.  We get a lot of people staring at us and whistling. I hardly notice anymore but it is funny because people here are always obsessed with my hair.  Also there are a lot of North American things here.  A lot of there clothes have english words. They know and use a lot of random english words, and they listen to a lot of music in English.

I had my first experience with someone hating the church last week.  We have some, but this one was more extreme because it was in the middle of a lesson. We were teaching someone in a little shop and we had a lady come up and bring up all this random stuff about the church and how we don’t let anyone in our temples stuff like that and how she hates mormons. But it was weird because we were able to talk to her and she actually didn’t say it in a really rude voice or anything because the people here are a lot nicer than at home. But it was really distracting from our lesson and really bad because it led away a perspective investigator.  We haven’t been able to teach her yet since.  

Church in Rancagua is pretty much the same as it is at home except for in spanish.  Except for we have this gospel doctrine teacher who goes into really profound things and sometimes teaches things that aren’t really doctrine. Which is hard because it is confusing for investigators, but other than that it is normal.  I really love church here, though. Sunday are the best, because even if you cant understand what they are saying you can at least always feel the spirit.  

Investigators

Our only real progressing investigator, keeping commitments, is Jacqueline.

Jacqueline- She is this young single Mom that we love teaching.  She always has this huge smile when we come and throughout our whole lesson and she has a real desire to learn.  We have had some really good lessons with her and she came to church with us on Sunday. But she was really overwhelmed with sunday school and she cant meet with us this week so we are a little worried about her. But I know she has a testimony and knows what we are teaching is true, so I really think she will progress.

Victor- He was progressing but then he didn’t show up to church this week and we weren’t able to get a hold of him yet. He is this sweet old man that I have only got to teach once.  We invited him to be baptized and he says he has to pray and think about it first so we are really hoping he will progress, but I don’t know because we weren’t able to teach him this week because he was out of town and he said he would come to church but didn’t answer the door when a member went by for him.

Monica and Sabastion-  This is a cute couple who has two little kids.  Monica is a less active, but her husband Sabstion is really interested, but moves really slowly.  They aren’t progressing right now, because they don’t come to church.  I guess they came once, but they always say that they will only come if its a nice day out.  I think they will progress and he is interested but they don’t want to get married. Because they say they fight to much, and so thats what is really holding him back.  A lot of people are like that here because they don’t have the money to get married and a divorce is way hard to get and very expensive here. They’re always worried about getting married.  I really like working with this family.  I think they will progress as well. They just take a lot of time and we have to take a lot of time teaching them, because he has a lot of questions.  It is cool though because I can see that he has a desire.

Jorge and Jacqueline- I got to teach them for the first time last night and they are seriously so sweet.  I loved teaching them and they love having the missionaries over, but he has already read the Book of mormon and a lot of the pamphlets and says that he knows they are true, but he doesn’t want to go to just one church. He likes visiting lots of different churches, so thats a little hard. But it was really cool, because he has such a strong testimony and faith. He just doesn’t believe that there is only one true church. So we are going to continue to teach them, and I can’t wait to see where that goes.

We are teaching a lot of others. They are mostly all just first lessons, less actives, and recent converts.  I will tell you about more of them but I don’t have much more time this week.

Ask me any questions you have it is much easier to answer questions, because so much happens in one week and forget.

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Week #7 - CHILE

Hey Everyone,

So this week has been crazy so much has happened and  I have so much to tell you I hope I can fit it all in here.  

So my trip here was really good.  Me and another Hermana were able to have a really good conversation with someone at the Mexico airport.  I had been praying the whole week, before I left the CCM, that I the Lord would prepare someone for me to share the gospel with at the airport and that is exactly what happened.  Me and another missionary decided to go talk to this guy working on his computer.  He was so nice and we were really excited because he spoke english.  We talked to him about the plan of salvation and a lot about the Book of Mormon.  He had a lot of questions because he believes in God and has a lot of his own beliefs, but is looking because he doesn’t really have a religion he fits into.  Anyways we taught him and answered some questions he had and he really liked our message.  He wanted our emails so we could answer more, but we couldn’t give them to him, California. He was excited and we also gave him a card with a church website that he can talk to missionaries at.  I was able to pass the reference onto my mission President, which was really exciting.  It was such a cool experience, because you could see that the Lord had truly prepared this man and he was so ready to hear our message.

I was so excited to hear everyones voices when I called. It was so fun to hear from you.  The airplane we went on was huge and really nice. I was able to sleep most of the night.  I didn’t have anyone next to me, which was nice because I had the whole row to myself.  When I got to Chile, we went to a church in Rancagua because our group was too big for the mission home.

Our first day we went out contacting with a member here named Veronica, who wants to be a missionary. She comes with us a lot and we really like having her in our lessons, because she is able to add a third testimony and she is so nice.  We had lessons planned for that day as well but the all fell through, except one we had with a less active that was just a quick lesson.  I was able to share my testimony, but not much more because the language is really hard here, but I have come along way since the first day.

This week has been good we have been able to do a lot of contacting because we don’t really have any strong progressing investigators right now and the majority of our lessons fall through here.  Its really different here because everyone is so friendly and almost all of them will agree to scheduling a lesson, except for the ones that are really strong Catholics and don’t want to hear about any other religion.  The hard thing is that they don’t follow through very well and won’t be home when we go to talk to them. My companion says that this really isn’t all that normal to be stood up that much.  For example,  Sunday we had 6 people agree to come to church with us and not one of them showed up or were home when we went by.  It is kind of frustrating, but my companion always says that the Lord allows us to struggle the most right before he blesses us.  I know that this is true and that the all of hard work will pay off and we will be able to see the fruits of our labors soon.  Right now we are just really trying to find new investigators who are ready and will progress. We have some but only one of them is really progressing, because the other ones are not following through very well with their commitments and are moving really slowly.  I love the people here though, they are all so kind and loving.  Everyone here is just so friendly and kindhearted.  

My trainer is Hermana Nokes. She is from Riverton, Utah.  It is so nice having a gringa companion, because I am able to understand her. A lot of the other hermanas have been telling me stories about their trainers who are latina, and how it was really hard because they can’t really communicate.  She is so nice and I love working with her.  We get a long so well its amazing.  I definitely can see that companions are inspired, because she is the perfect companion for me to have at this time.

I have had to teach a few lessons this week but it is still really hard, because I cannot understand the peoples Spanish here, but I can always feel the spirit. It is amazing because sometimes I feel that God loves the people we are teaching and it is the most amazing feeling.

Please pray for our investigators! I can give you a few of the names, but it is hard to remember because the names our often really hard to pronounce.  Also pray for us that we will be able to find some new investigators, that are ready to hear our message, because we are working really hard and really want to find someone who is ready to hear our message.

President Warne and his wife are so kind I really liked talking to them. They are so sweet. We talked a lot about back home, since they knew that I was coming for their stake they were excited for me to come.

So our area is really fun it is in Rancagua, so I am in the north part of our mission really close to the mission home.  The people here are really nice and we have a pretty big ward here, which is 97 people.  I guess some wards are only like 15 people. The houses are really small, but they are really cute and colorful.  Every House has a gate all the way around it. It is kind of cool because instead of knocking doors, you yell at the fence a word that (I dont remember how to spell) but it sounds like aloe and it just means hello. It is only used when entering a home or answering the phone.  I am not very good at saying though because, it is hard to say it right and loud enough that they can hear it inside.  I love it though its really cool.  I also really love how everyone hugs everyone here and kisses each other on the cheek. It’s fun. I wish we did that back home, it is hard though because even the men do it and you have to be careful because they will often go in for a hug or a kiss,  and you have to quickly stop them as politely as you can and explain why you can’t.  I actually had an old man hug me the other day, because I didn’t catch onto what he was doing in time and my companion just sat there laughing.  It was funny, but they all tell me here to just wait for my first kiss from one of the men here, because it happens to everyone because it is hard to stop them fast enough.

The weather isn’t too bad here it is starting it to spring right now so it is still pretty cold.  Some days I can just wear a cardigan, but by the time night hits, I always need my winter coat because it is freezing.  It is really cold in our casa, because we only have space heaters but we can’t leave them on for very long or at night.  We have heating pads on our beds and we have tons of blankets, so I am never cold once I get in my bed I am always warm. The mornings our really cold but we do get nice hot showers, so that helps and once we get our room heated up its not bad.  Our water heater stopped working this morning so we might be taking some pretty cold showers until that gets fixed. I guess it will just wake us up, so we wont be so tired during our study time.

P-days we study, clean, come print of our emails so we can read them and then have more time later to come back and email so we don’t have to spend to much time reading our emails.  We go to the store and then we email home and email our mission president.  That’s all we are really doing today, because our p-day only lasts until 3:30 today because we lost three hours of working on the 11th. Because September 11th here is a day were some dictator killed a lot of Chileans. I guess there is sometimes rioting against the government and it is not safe for us to be out, so we had to be back in our house by 6:30. We don’t get much of p-day today, but it was fun. I got to know the other hermans in our house better and we tomar  which is what they call dinner here. It is basically just bread because they don’t really eat dinner.  They just eat a ton for lunch. The bread here is amazing, I like it.  The direct translation is take 11 don’t ask me why its called that I have no idea.

The language is so hard here. I really couldn’t understand hardly any of it at first, but I am starting to.  They have different words for a lot of things and they speak in a lot of “sayings” so is hard to understand.  Also they don’t say their  “S” and cut out a lot of letters or add different things to the end of words, so its confusing. Also they have a weird accent that sounds like a lisp and they speak really fast here. They add “ita" a lot to the end of words which just means small. It doesn’t make a lot of sense when they use, it but its funny. They add po to the end of every sentence, which is just like an exclamation point.  I definitely feel like it is a different language than I learned in the MTC, it sounds like Spanish with an Italian accent.  I like it and am starting to pick it up more and I know with time that I will get it.  

A few more things about Chile:  There are stray dogs everywhere, and I have learned to hate dogs because they can be mean.  We actually got cornered in the street last night by one. We had a mean dog follow us and we got to a dead end. We had to find some rocks, and it left us along us soon as we started to threaten to throw them.  I guess some hermanas have gotten bitten, but usually as long as you just ignore them you are fine and there are always rocks around so if you pick one up they will get scared and leave. Independance day is coming up here, so we are had a ward party the other night and are having another one this week. It is really fun because we get to bring our investigators, which is a great opportunity for us. We got to watch people dance the quaika I have no Idea how to spell it but its the national dance here and it is really fun to watch. It is so cute when the little kids do it.  The food here is amazing especially the bread and dessert.  I am going to get so fat here, because they feed you so much and everyone just keeps telling me it is inevitable.

Well I am out of time but I love you all I will finish writing next week love ya!

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham

Finally in Chile!

Hey everyone,

I made it to Chile. It is absolutely beautiful here.  My companion is North American, so I at least can understand someone.  Her name is Hermana Nokes she is awesome! My p-day is Monday!

I love you all and can’t wait to share all of my adventures with you! We are in Rancagua, in a ward called Recreo(recess)!

Love ya,

Hermana Stringham