Keep Aiming!

January 14, 2019

Keep Aiming!

Hey Hey Hey!!

Wow what a week! This week had lots of ups and downs! But I've definitely learned a lot and i'm super grateful for Sister Benson who keeps me laughing 24/7!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

This week we had an All District Council in downtown Richmond! It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from the different trainings we had. Sister Benson was asked to give a quick little motivational thought at the end! She shared a quote that ended up being the whole theme of our week! The quote says "An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. When life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means it's going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and KEEP AIMING"! I absolutely love that quote and it really is so true! Sometimes life can throw things at you and at times it can be hard to keep going! But I've learned that as you just have faith, laugh everyday and look for the good that there really is so much to be grateful for! Life was never meant to be easy but it's so worth it! This week really was amazing and we saw a lot of miracles! However, we also saw a lot of opposition. Long story short, we ran into a trash can in downtown Richmond and our side view mirror got destroyed lol! I spent the rest of the day holding my arm out the window to keep the mirror in place. We spent the next day going to all the different body shops trying to get the cheapest estimate! We also saw two mice in our kitchen. That was fun...hopefully they will die soon lol! Sister Benson's quote to sum up the week is "This isn't a Disney movie. Mice are pests, I don't have magical hair, and the Villain is the Devil himself"

MIRACLE

Yesterday church got cancelled because of the 1 inch of snow...Virginia doesn't know what to do with snow haha! So we were out contacting people all morning and afternoon when we would normally be at church. We were trying some less active members and we went to knock on what we thought was a lady named Desirea's house. The lady that answered the door said that a Desirea has never lived there but we were welcome to come in and talk with her! This lady's name was Lisa. Wow we needed to meet Lisa yesterday! She told us her whole story, how many kids she has, where she's from and what she does. Then she started telling us about her youngest son. He was 24 years old and in the summer he committed suicide. As she was telling us her story both Sister Benson and I were in tears. This lady was so strong and has such a strong testimony that God lives and that she will make it through this trial. We ended up staying there for about an hour just listening, comforting and praying with her. Lisa needed us yesterday and i'm so grateful that we were able to meet her.

DONNA

I talked a little bit about Donna in my weekly last week, she is just amazing! She is so excited to get back to church and she's especially ready to get back to the temple!! We had a lesson with her this week and it was so good! We were planning on just helping her with family search and gospel library. But it ended up being a discussion about repentance and the Atonement. This was such an incredible lesson. As we were talking about ways we have felt the love of the Savior as we have repented and changed, the spirit was so strong!

THELMA

Thelma is the greatest!! She is a 90 year old lady who is less active so we decided to go visit her this week! She let us right in and we talked for about an hour. She is so passionate about the gospel and the joy that it has brought to her and her family! Her husband passed away about 6 years ago, as she was talking about him I just couldn't help but smile. She has so much love and is one of the sweetest little lady's I've ever met! She's hilarious too! My favorite comment from her was "I check the obituaries everyday to make sure i'm not dead" haha! She's adorable! She sent us home with a big box of homemade cookies and some apples to be healthy haha!

FOLLOW THE SPIRIT

This week we have had multiple moments where our plans completely fell through and we really had no idea what to do next. As we sat in the car trying to figure out what to do or where to go we said a prayer and almost instantly we knew what we needed to do. The Spirit is there to help us and guide us, it's our job to learn how to listen and follow the promptings that it gives us. This week we were able to meet so many incredible people just by following the promptings of the spirit!

I love ya'll so much! Thanks for all the love and support! I really am so grateful for all of you and love ya'll a bunch!!!

❤Sister Stringham❤