WOW what a week!!

September 11, 2018

WOW what a week!!

Hello Hello!!

What a week it has been!! I think I've felt just about every emotion possible but I've definitely learned a lot this week!! :)

SATAN IS REAL MY FRIENDS...

Okay story time...so last Monday night we were tracting in our new area for the first time. It was about 8:30 at night and pitch black outside. Everything was going really well and we were having an awesome conversation walking from door to door. The spirit was SO strong as we were discussing patriarchal blessings, miracles in our lives and ways we have strengthened our testimony. Then we walk up to this door and something didn't feel quite right but we knocked on it anyway. A lady opens the door but it was so dark we couldn't see her face. She was so short that I thought she was a child so I asked if her parents were home. She didn't answer our question and just said "who are you?". I told her that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and we are sharing a message about Him today. She told us she was Muslim so she believes in Christ but doesn't believe the same things we do. We said that was okay and asked if we could just leave her with a card. She said that was okay so we pulled out our card that has a picture of Christ on it. When I gave her the card and she saw the picture of Christ her hands started shaking uncontrollably...she told me to take it back and said she couldn't take it. I took it out of her hands and we started to walk away. By this point Sister Cunningham and I both had huge pits in our stomach and knew this wasn't right, the spirit was gone. As we started walking down the steps this lady started to follow us saying "but wait..." She asked what exactly we believe about Christ and so I told her. After this she told us that she doesn't believe that and started telling us what she believes. I didn't understand what she was trying to tell us and neither did Sister Cunningham. We just told her we had more appointments we had to get to and we needed to leave. Her sisters came out of the house and told this Lady it was time to come in. She asked if we wanted to go inside too. Sister Cunningham quickly said "We need to leave sorry" and we started to walk down the driveway. As we walked away she said "but wait...do you do this everyday? at night?" We said yes and kept walking backwards...she was following us. By this point we both knew we needed to get away as fast as we can. It was like a cloud of darkness was over us and it felt very satanic. She kept saying "but wait....but wait" and staring at us. Finally we just said we really need to go have a good night and started walking down the driveway. She was following us walking really quickly down the driveway and she asked where we were going. I just yelled "We are going home!". She started to chase us so we ran up hill to our car faster than I have ever ran in my whole life! I don't know how far she followed us but we got away and drove home as fast as we could. We met up with the Elders and told them about what happened. They gave us blessings of comfort and assured us that it would be okay. After they gave us blessings and we were driving away Elder Koster told us that he feels prompted that we need to go home and dedicate our apartment. So we did that. After this President Smith called us. He had us tell him what happened and he told us that we should probably go sleep at the Sister Training Leaders apartment that night. So at 10:30 we drove to the STLs and had a little sleepover. Sister Ray and Sister Isacson were on exchanges that night so we had 6 of us in a room! It was quite the party! But it was a freaky night. I've never felt such a dark presence in my life. The Spirit was yelling at us to get out of that situation and i'm so glad we got out of there. As missionaries we always have the Spirit with us and this experience was a confirmation that we truly do always have His constant companionship.

RETURN AND REPORT

This week we had Return and Report and it was SO fun!! This is a meeting with all the new missionaries and their companions. We went out to Richmond for the day and did street contacting in downtown Richmond! We get different companions for the day so I was with Hermana Figuera! She was so much fun! We talked to lots of different people on the streets, gave out a ton of cards and 4 Books of Mormon! After we street contact for a few hours we had a gourmet lunch of PB&Js and had a few more training's. We talked a lot about having the faith to find people. It was such a fun day and I loved seeing all the missionaries I came out with!!

SIDNEY

We had a awesome lesson with Sidney this week!! He always has so many great questions and he is progressing so quickly. This week we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Priesthood. This was the first lesson that I have just relaxed and truly listened. In past lessons I've been so stuck in my head. I worry about what i'm going to say next and what the order of the lesson is and how i'm going to answer his questions. But this lesson was different. I just relaxed, truly listened to what he was saying and let the spirit speak through me. And wow it worked so well!! I said things that I didn't even know that I knew and I thought of experiences to share that I haven't thought about in a long time. The spirit was SO strong during this lesson and I could tell Sidney was really feeling it too! When we got in the car Sister Cunningham just looked at me and said "wow...i'm so proud of you! That was awesome!!" I really needed that confidence boost!!

STAKE CONFERENCE

This week was Stake Conference and it was so so good!! We had a stake missionary meeting on Saturday morning, the adult session Saturday night and the Sunday meeting! It was a lot of meetings but I learned so much!! Elder Sinclair from the seventy was there and he is such a powerful man! In the stake missionary meeting our stake president talked about this vision that he has had of 1000s of people ready for baptism in Stafford. We talked about how we can make this become a reality and how we can include members in our missionary efforts. In the adult session the main message I got was to Stop Judging and Start Loving! We talked about ministering and how important it is to truly love everyone. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes but we are all Children of a Loving Heavenly Father and we need to treat everyone how we would like to be treated. In the Sunday session I learned SO much! The main message I got from this meeting is that the Atonement doesn't fix things, it makes them better! We all stumble, we all sin and we all make mistakes but that's what the Atonement is for. The Savior walks with the sinners, he walks with the weak, he walks with those who have challenges, he walks with every single one of us and desperately wants us to turn to Him for help and comfort. It was a great weekend full of the Spirit!

ALL MISSION CONFERENCE

We had an all mission conference yesterday with Elder and Sister Haney. It was so so good!! I have pages and pages of notes and learned so much about how I can become a more successful missionary. The main message of the conference was how to be more effective and finding "scattered Israel". He showed us the statistics of our mission and discussed how we knock on A LOT of doors, teach a good amount of people but don't baptize as much as we have the potential to do. We discussed the importance of members, less actives and recent converts in finding those who are ready to accept this gospel. Scattered Israel hangs around gathered Israel. I'm so excited to start working harder than we have in the last couple weeks! Missionary work is awesome!!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

"Do not expect to become perfect at once. If you do, you will be disappointed, Be BETTER TODAY than you were yesterday and be better tomorrow than you are today" -Lorenzo Snow. Something I've had to learn this week is that it's okay to be a beginner and not know everything. Being a missionary is the best but it's also hard and there is a lot to learn. It's overwhelming to try and figure out a whole new lifestyle, be away from those you love and step out of your comfort zone everyday. This week as I was talking to Sister Cunningham she just told me to enjoy being a beginner. I have so much more to learn and i'm not expected to be a perfect missionary after a month. This was so comforting to know that as long as I try to be better each day then i'm doing okay!!

I love you all so much! I hope you have the best week!! Keep smiling❤

Love,

Sister Stringham :)