Hard is Good!!!

October 01, 2018

Hard is Good!!!

Hello Hello Hello!!!

How is it going?? I hope ya'll had an excellent week!! It's been another good week in beautiful Virginia!! Not going to lie this week has been a little rough. But that's missionary work right?? It's supposed to be hard! I'm thankful for the hard days because it just makes me stronger. Sister Cunningham got sick this week so we spent a lot of time resting and trying to get her back to 100%. It's a miracle I haven't got sick considering we are together 24/7 haha. I've been drinking air-borne like crazy!! Being a missionary has made me so much more grateful for prayer, scriptures, priesthood blessings and amazing members in the ward i'm serving in. The Lord is truly always looking out for us and I've seen His hand in my life so much this week!!

KLARKE AND SAMANTHA

This week we had a crazy miracle with Klarke and Samantha. A couple nights ago we were eating at a members house and talking to them about the people we are teaching. We were telling them about Klarke and Samantha because they have 3 little girls and so does the famliy we were eating with. As we got talking more about them the 10 year old girl said "Their daughter is my BFF at school!!". How crazy is that?! She got so excited and said she would talk to her at school the next day. Their family is planning on inviting Klarke and Samantha and their family over for dinner!! We are so so excited!! We were planning on seeing Klarke and Samantha at church yesterday. We were saving them seats and they never showed up...:( We texted them after church and we got a pretty shocking text back. They said the night before some major family problems come up and that's why they weren't there. They were not in a good place mentally and didn't even want us to come over for our Sunday night lesson with them. We were pretty sad about it. But we told Klarke about General Conference and he said he will try his best to come watch the Sunday morning session. I really hope things work out with them.

ANGELIQUE

So Angelique was supposed to get baptized yesterday...that didn't happen! As soon as we put her on date everything in her life seemed to fall apart. She just had one thing after another and Satan was really working on her. She ended up having to get surgery on Saturday and we haven't been able to go see her in a few days. We are hoping that tonight we will get to go over and put her back on date. She would be such a strong member of the church and would change so many lives. I think that's why Satan has been working on her so much. He knows how amazing she is and he doesn't want her to make that step of baptism. At this point we are just praying for her a lot and doing our best to encourage her and help her feel confident in herself and her decision to get baptized.

BEN

Ben is so excited for his baptism!!! We met with him last night to plan out all the details. We reserved the church and he is telling all his friends and family about it!! It will be on October 20th!! We can't wait!! Yesterday as we were talking with him he said "You've cracked the toughest shell" referring to himself and how long it has taken him to get baptized. He's been taught for years by so many different sets of missionaries and we are the ones that helped him finally make this step. This is a big deal for him and his family!! AHHHHHH I'M SO HAPPY FOR HIM!!

THE PLAYERS!!

The Players are my favorite people!!! They are members in our ward and they are the best!! We had dinner over there this week and it was so much fun!! They have 4 kids and they remind me so much of my siblings!! Their names are: Lincoln, Carter, Jackson and Kennedy. They are always dancing around, doing silly things and laughing! After we ate dinner we had a little dance party in their front room! They were showing us little dances they liked to do and they were teaching us how to do them. They were trying a certain dance move and they were telling us how hard it was. I tried it and they were like "whatttttt that was perfect!! How did you do that?!!" Haha I guess all my years of dancing paid off! I feel so at home at their house and it's so nice to hang out and be myself around them!! We went back over there this morning to wash our car and we are going back again tonight for FHE! They are the BEST!!!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

This week was the start of a new transfer which means lots and lots of goal setting!! This transfer one of my goals is to focus on developing charity for others and myself!! President Thomas S. Monson said "Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others". Charity is something that I think everyone can work on. In the scriptures is says that Charity is the Pure love of Christ. Shouldn't we all be striving to have the kind of love? I've seen even in the last week as I have truly been studying charity and striving to see others as their Heavenly Father does I have had more love for myself. Everyone has something good about them and everyone has different talents. I challenge all of you to really look for the good in people this week!!

Well That's about it for this week!! I'm so grateful for all the amazing miracles I see every single day!! This is the hardest thing I've ever done but wow it's SO worth it!! There is no where else I would rather be!! Oh and if anyone is bored this week and wants to send me a letter here is my address haha:

100 Wild Oak Lane #203 Stafford, VA, 22554

I LOVE mail and I will even write you back! Haha have a great week and remember "There is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone" LOVE YOU ALL!!

❤Sister Stringham