I LOVE THE MTC!!

August 02, 2018

I LOVE THE MTC!!

Hello wonderful family and friends!!

I love the MTC!! So much has happened this week I don't even know where to begin! Saying goodbye to my family was SO hard! But as soon as I walked into the MTC and they gave me my name tag that has the names "Sister Stringham" and "Jesus Christ" I was filled with so much HAPPINESS! There is no where else I would rather be right now than a missionary in the Lord's hands! I've definitely had some ups and downs but I try to FOCUS ON THE UPS!!:) Everyone is so kind here and the spirit is so strong 24/7! It's amazing!! I've seen so many friends from home since i've been here and it's made everything so much easier!! Right when I got dropped off my host sister was the lovely Sister Chambers!! We were friends up at Utah State! It was so good to see a familiar face right when I got here!!

My companion is Sister Ray and I just love her!! She's from California but she went to BYU this past year studying dance! We get along so well and we are always laughing! We are also on the same level spiritually and know how to work hard! We have been assigned as the music coordinators for our branch, when they first asked us to do this I laughed a little bit because Sister Ray is very musically talented and I love to sing to but i'm not exactly talented at it lol! She plays the piano, guitar, violin and she's an amazing singer!! But we are having fun and she's teaching me a lot! We also joined the choir and I love it!! We sang at the Tuesday night devotional and the spirit was SO strong! This week the choir reached over 1000 missionaries for the first time! It was a super cool experience!

My district is FANTASTIC!! We have 8 elders and 4 sisters in our district! We have Elder Talbot (who went to Layton high!), Elder Bennet, Elder Dorney and Elder Josephson all going to Colorado, Colorado Springs! Then Elder Lowe, Elder Wilson, Elder Hansen and Elder Mclaren are going to Farmington, New Mexico! And Sister Crandall, Sister Georgeson, Sister Ray and I all going to Richmond Virginia! They are all so funny but they are also all spiritual giants and really know how to bring the spirit into the room! We share a room with Sister Crandall and Sister Georgeson! We have so much fun together!! Our teachers are Brother Watson and Sister Reynolds, I love them so much! They have helped me so much in this past week!

Here at the MTC we get opportunities to teach almost everyday! They bring in members and non-members but they don't tell us if they are members or not! Right now Sister Ray and I are teaching Makenzie and she is so cool!! She got in a really bad four wheeling accident a few years ago and was in a coma for almost a month. It's a miracle she's even alive! For our first lesson Sister Ray and I went in not very prepared. We were just going to get to know her and then teach her a lesson the next day. But as we were teaching her I really felt like we needed to teach her about Jesus Christ so I just started telling her about Christ's life and how much love He has for her individually. (Something funny I learned about myself is when I get excited about what i'm teaching I start to talk reallyyyy fast...While I was talking I looked over at sister Ray and she was gesturing me to slow down haha).Once I slowed down it went very well. Sister Ray thought of a personal example to share and then I pulled up the Mormon message "Because of Him". The spirit was so strong! I'm getting more comfortable teaching every day!

I've had so many testimony building experiences so far, the MTC is just the best haha!! I have already grown so much and I know this is EXACTLY where my Heavenly Father wants me to be right now. I have learned that this isn't MY mission but it's HIS mission and as I fully put my trust in Him he will lead me every step of the way. A set of Scriptures I have come to LOVE this week is Doctrine and Covenants 6:32-37! I highly recommend reading it! In my scriptures next to those verses I wrote "NO FEAR WITH GOD". I think that is so true! This week as I have learned more about Jesus Christ I have felt how much love He has for me and all of you! That love never changes! As we strive to just live His gospel to the best of our abilities He will always be there to LOVE and COMFORT us! I promise! This week I also had to opportunity to watch the talk by Elder Bednar called "Character of Christ" and wow that was humbling! I have so much room to grow and so much more to learn. I need to be more like Christ by striving to turn outward when the natural man would turn inward. I've been told about a million times this week that as I lose myself in the service of others I will ultimately find myself because i'm not looking for myself.

Thank you so much for all the love and support i've got the last week! Every day when my district leader comes in with the mail he says "Anddddd more mail for Sister Stringham!" haha thank you so much! Please email me and tell me how you're doing! I can read mail every day but I can only respond on my P-day!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

love, Sister Stringham❤