Virginia is for Lovers!!❤

September 03, 2018

Virginia is for Lovers!!❤

Hello wonderful friends and family!

It's been another great week in Virginia but wow it's been HOT!!! I don't think I've ever sweat so much in my life! Virginia hot is way different than Utah hot!! Humidity adds like 20 degrees! Haha But on the bright side tons of people offer to give us water!!

DISTRICT MEETING

This week we had district meeting and it was so good! We had a member of the Stake Presidency come talk to us! He is the coolest guy! We mostly talked about the importance of working with members. He challenged us to visit with 30 members before the transfer is over (not including dinner appointments). I have loved doing this the last few days! It's amazing the difference members make in missionary work!

EXCHANGES WITH THE STLS!!!!!!!

We had exchanges this week with the Sister Training leaders (Sister Gerber and Sister Gimmison) IT WAS SO FUN!!! We slept over at their apartment one night and it was such a party! Before bed we had a sock wrestling competition! It was so fun haha! All you do is wrestle each other to try to get the other persons sock off! Sister Cunningham and I are going to keep practicing so next time we have exchanges we will be super good!! After our sock wrestling competition we put all 4 mattresses in the front room and had a big sleepover! Apparently Sister Gimmison and I had a full on conversation while we were asleep....haha the sleep talking continues! For exchanges I was with Sister Gerber and she's the best!! She was Sister Cunninghams trainer and she is hilarious! I didn't stop laughing all day! But she is also so smart and helped me with so many things while I spent the day with her! While we were out visiting some members we saw a girl playing basketball in the street so we went to talk to her! We played basketball with her for a few minutes then talked to her about religion and the Book of Mormon. She had been looking for a sign from God and she said we were a sign for her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she just hugged it and looked up to the sky saying "Thank you". It was awesome!! Sister Gerber and I met a ton of cool people while we were on exchanges and she helped me a lot with my door approaches. ;)

MIRACLES

We see little miracles every day!! It's so cool!! One night this week we had like 30 minutes left of the day so we decided to knock on a few doors. We were going to start at the top of the street but there was nowhere to park because of the weeds everywhere! So we parked at the bottom of the street. We started knocking and for about 20 minutes no body was answering. We were just about to leave but we decided to knock on one last door. We knocked on this door and a super nice guy named Jeff answered the door. He invites us to sit down outside and he got us some water. His wife Laura came out a few minutes later and we had a really good conversation! We talked about what we do on missions and they were in awe that we just leave everything for 18 months. They told us about their lives and they are really having a hard time right now. They are fixing up their whole house because of some family struggles that are going on. We asked if there was anything we could do to help. Laura looked at us and said "Actually yes I could really use help. Would you really be willing to help us?" We told her we would love to help. Then Laura said "wow I feel like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders just from talking to you two". We went back the next day and helped them for about an hour. They invites us to come back sometime this week. We were definitely supposed to meet them!

BREAKFAST AT BROTHER ROLLERS

Every Saturday morning we make breakfast at Brother Rollers with the Elders in our area! It's so much FUN! We made blueberry pancakes, hash browns, eggs and bacon. I was in charge of cooking the bacon haha! I had never done this before but Brother Roller said I made it better than any other missionary has! I was pretty impressed with myself. After breakfast we helped him clean out his shed and garage for a few hours. It was a great day!!

TEACHING

This week we taught Klarke and Samantha again! They are SO COOL!!! We were supposed to eat dinner with them last night but sadly they had to cancel because Klarkes best friend passed away and he's really struggling. We encouraged him to continue reading the scriptures and praying. We have an appointment with them later this week. They are really progressing! I'm so excited for them!! We also started teaching a man named Ben. His wife is a member so he comes to church every once in a while. We ate dinner with them this week and taught the Plan of Salvation. In the past he's always talked about baptism in terms of "if" it happens. But this week he's saying "when" I get baptized. We are so excited for him!! We are also teaching a young boy named Kristopher. He's about 15 years old and his parents are both new converts. He's been taught by the missionaries in the past but never had a strong desire to join the church! Sister Cunningham and I decided we needed to teach in a way that keeps him engaged. So we decided the way to a man's heart is through food right? Haha! We started making treats while we teach him and he is remembering so much more and keeping all of his commitments! This week we made Oreo truffles with him and he loved them and really listened to what we were teaching!

SEMINARY

We have had the opportunity this week to visit all the seminary age kids in our ward. We have a couple videos and a PowerPoint to show them. It's been so fun to meet with all these kids and help them get excited about seminary. It's made me think a lot about my time in seminary! I'm so grateful for the things I was able to learn in seminary! It's definitely helped me with being a missionary!!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

President Thomas S. Monson gave the following words of comfort: “Should there be anyone who feels he is too weak to change the onward and downward course of his life, or should there be those who fail to resolve to do better because of that greatest of fears, the fear of failure, there is no more comforting assurance to be had than the words of the Lord: ‘My grace,’ said He, ‘is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them’” I love this!! This week I've been trying to be humble and have faith. None of us are perfect and we all have weaknesses. But the great thing about weaknesses is that they can make us stronger! I've seen this in my life as I ask the Lord for help he's been able to make weak things strong!!

I love you all! Have a great week!! And just FYI next week my P-day will be Tuesday because we have all mission conference on Monday!!

Love,

Sister Stringham