"Faith and obey, there is no other way"

February 25, 2019

"Faith and obey, there is no other way"

Hello friends and family!

This week has been really good here in Chickahominy! The Lord is so involved in the work and has shown us countless miracles this week! I've had so many moments where I've sat back and thought to myself, wow the gospel is amazing! I've seen it change so many lives and i'm so thankful that i'm able to share this joy every single day! Oh and I hit 7 months today so that's crazy! Time is going WAY too fast!!!

FAITH AND OBEY

This week we met the cutest 94 year old man, Brother Edmonds! He is a less active in our ward so we went to go visit him with a laurel in our ward! It was one of the most spiritual lessons i've ever had! When we first got there he shared his conversion story with us and that was so powerful! He has such a strong testimony, he just hasn't been to church in years because of his heath. Then he asked us to sing "I know that my Redeemer lives". This has always been my favorite song and the spirit filled to room as we sang it! He then asked us to all go around the room and share our testimonies, then we had a discussion about faith and the importance of relying on Jesus Christ! I learned so much from this nice man as we talked and shared our testimonies! Something he taught us that really stuck with me is "Faith and obey, there is no other way". What a good life motto!

THE MIRACLE OF THE NAMETAG

So about two weeks ago we were out on our morning walk and I lost my nametag. I hadn't been able to find it and didn't think much about it. This week we were out on a walk again and I forgot to put a nametag on. As we were walking a nice man came up to us and asked me where my nametag was. I told him that I just forgot it at the apartment. He asked me what my name was and when I told him he got excited and said he has been looking for me! I was really confused haha....He told us to follow him to his car and he pulled out my nametag! He had been holding onto it for 2 weeks and he's been looking for me since then! I told him thank you and we went on our way. But I couldn't stop thinking about this man all day long. I told Sister Georgeson that we had to go on a walk again the next day and I was going to bring a Book of Mormon and pray really hard that we found him again! The next morning it was raining but I was determined to find this man again! So we went out with a Book of Mormon and prayed really hard we would find him! And we did!! We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and share our testimony of it! I don't know if anything will come from it, but it was a really cool experience!

8:50 MIRACLE

We have a goal to hand out a Book of Mormon everyday and we have been praying really hard to reach this goal every single day! We have been doing pretty good but we had one day this week that we were super busy with appointments and hadn't given one out yet. As were driving home at about 8:50 that night I felt bad that we hadn't handed out a Book of Mormon that day. As we were driving we passed a house and I felt really strongly that we needed to go knock on that door. So I flipped the car around and we knocked on this door. We were able to meet a really nice man named Kevin. He was pretty interested in what we had to say and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon. He said we can go back and teach him more about it this week! That was just a testimony builder to me that when you prayerfully set goals and do all you can to reach them that the Lord will help you!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

This week i've been thinking a lot about the power of prayer! I love what it says in the bible dictionary about Prayer: "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." I think this description can really help each of us recognize the importance of prayer. I have really been trying to work on my prayers the last few weeks and I have seen that as I pray with more faith and trust that my Heavenly Father is hearing me that I have seen so many answers to my prayers. Heavenly Father loves you and He wants to hear from you!

I love ya'll so much! I hope you have the best week!

❤Sister Stringham❤