"Surrounded by love" -Mr. Easley

August 19, 2019

"Surrounded by love" -Mr. Easley

Hello wonderful friends and family!!

Another AMAZING week in Newtown!! God is so good and i'm so happy!! Missionary work is simply the best! :)

SIGN LANGUAGE

We had a super cool experience this week with a man who is deaf. Sister Thomas and I both took ASL in High School. We were able to have a 45 minute conversation with this man all in Sign Language! It was so much fun. We got to know so much about him and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon. It was a testimony builder to me that the Lord places us in people's lives for a reason. There are so many reasons why Sister Thomas and I are serving here at this specific time! God just knows! ;)

EXCHANGES

This week we had exchanges with the Princess Ann Sisters. I was with Sister Hauver. She is such a cutie! She served in the Aquia ward last transfer so we had lots to talk about! ;) We had such a fun day and saw so many miracles!! We had lessons all day long and together we were working on asking inspired questions to the people we are teaching. My favorite moment of the day was when we were in a lesson with a part member family. The husband isn't a member and we have been teaching him for a few weeks. We taught a lesson about temples and eternal families. The Spirit was so strong the whole lesson! At the end of the lesson we asked him if he could see himself ever making it to the temple. He said yes and expressed how he knows that's something that him and his wife really need! It was such a powerful lesson!

"HAM SISTERS" REUNITED

A fun little surprise this week was that Sister Cunningham and her family came back to Virginia to visit. They came over to Virginia Beach and took Sister Thomas and I to lunch! It was so fun to see her and her parents! It's crazy to think that it's been a whole year since we were serving together! We had fun talking about all the fun memories we have together!

PRAYER OF FAITH

Last week Sister Thomas and I gave a training in District Council about praying with Faith. It was one of the coolest trainings ever! As we were preparing this training we felt like we needed to do a kneeling district prayer. We knelt in a circle and each person said part of the prayer as we went around the circle. It was such a powerful moment! Once we were done with the prayer a few Elders had tears in their eyes. I've never felt the Spirit so strong in a District Council meeting! It was so cool!!!

MR.EASLEY CAME TO CHURCH

Okay!!! This Sunday a miracle happened!!! So, Mr. Easley is the husband of a member in our ward. He's not a member and has been very against the church for a long time. He wouldn't ever let missionaries go over and would never read from the Book of Mormon. Sister Thomas and I went over for the first time and his heart was very hard. But he invited us back! We have been able to develop such a strong relationship with Mr. Easley. It's been incredible to see him change SO much in just a short period of time. I've never seen someone's heart change so drastically. AND he came to church yesterday!!!!! It was such a miracle!! He came the whole time and he enjoyed it! My favorite thing was seeing the smile on Sister Easleys face as she got to sit next to her husband in Sacrament Meeting!! Mr. Easley said that he felt "surrounded by love" while he was at church! We even got him a future missionary name tag that he wore all day with us! I love him so much!!! Along with Mr. Easley we were able to help 4 other people we are teaching come to church yesterday!! I'm so grateful for the people God has allowed us to help here in Newtown!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

I read a talk this week called: "Know Thyself, Control Thyself, Give Thyself" by. Paul H. Dunn. I loved this talk! It explained the importance of truly knowing who you are, knowing that you are a child of God. The importance of controlling yourself and not giving into temptation. And then Giving yourself to the Lord, allowing Him to make you into the person He wants you to become.

"What Christ desires from each of us is surrender, complete and total—a voluntary gift of trust, faith, and love. C. S. Lewis captured the spirit of this surrender. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. … Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’” -Robert L. Backman

I love y'all so much!! Thanks for all the Love and support!! Have the best week ever and keep smiling!! :)

❤Sister Stringham❤