Because He Lives

This will have to be a short letter, sadly....it's actually not P-Day today because we're going to the temple on Wednesday, and we are booked full of appointments today, so I won't get a full hour of email.

 But I have such a testimony of things just working out. You guys, this whole week was a miracle. Every night this week we would look at all our appointments and plans and goals and people we need to see and just look at each other like, "There's no way this will work." Play around with the plans a bit, moves thigns around, and just, "There's just no way this is going to work." Say a prayer, go to bed, get up and mess with them a little bit more, "How are we going to do this?!" Say another prayer and go out to work.

 WIthout fail, everything fell right into place. It was perfection.

 I felt like I was blowing up a printing shop and God would make a dictionary from the explosion. Or I just pushed over a glass of milk and God made it a map of London. He's just so good at taking absolute chaos and turning it into some sort of order. Not by "fixing" the chaos, the chaos is what made it orderly. I dunno, I'm describing this poorly, but it was such a cool week. We taught so many lessons and helped so many people and no one got left behind. Somehow. That's impossible, but it happened. 

 Women's conference was awesome, and really touched one of the families we invited to watch it.

 WHO'S EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND?!?!?!?!?! Sooooooooo Exciteeeeeeeeeeed!!!! It's going to be so awesome!! The other day we were helping a veteran clean his house, and we invited him to watch at least one session of conference with us. He told us, "Man, you guys are really excited about this...I'm getting all excited, too. Can't wait to see what it's like to hear a modern prophet speak." Yeah, we're pretty excited. XD

 Sorry for the short letter, we have a lesson in 10 minutes. Found him tracting, btw, it still works sometimes. We knock a few doors if lessons fall through. A lot more success than I thought. 

 ALso, the new Easter video is up!! It's sooooo good!! I love the "He is Not Here"  with the "He is HERE" idea. He's not there, He's here!! He lives, He's real and He's here to help us, not condemn us!! That love is here, if we turn to Him and let HIm love us. So awesome.

 I love you guys so much!! <3

 -Sister Stratford

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A year ago today

I'm understanding a lot more Spanish than I was. If people talk slower, I can actually make out a lot of what they're saying. 

 Good thing Mexicans talk at the speed of light. *sigh* haha

 Anyway

 So remember a couple weeks ago, the area kinda died a little, and everyone dropped us, and we didn't really have anyone to teach anymore all of a sudden? It's waaaaay crazy again. we're soooo busy! Last night after a lesson I was looking at our planner to schedule another time with him, and as he was telling us when he was available, and I was looking at our plans, I freaked out and closed my eyes and said a little prayer, "Father, please make this week work out. Because I know I can't." 

 But, being busy is a blessing I do not want to go away! It feels a lot better than when we were struggling to fill our time productively. In fact, it feels amazing. It's hard, but it's an adventure, and adventures are fun and a little scary. 

 Ramon is still on FIRE!! He's seriously been giving up so much, he'd give up everything for the Gospel if God asked him to. Seriously. He goes to two wards now, btw. That's 6 hours of church. You guys. He reminds me so much of King Lamoni's dad in the Book of Mormon, a few weeks ago he was just kinda like, "Um, I'll...I'll give up to half of my Kingdom, but not much more...." and now he's all, "I would give up everything and anything to know God!!" 

 Nessa disappeared......her fellowship said she wants to find a different LDS church to go to. :p

 ....man, I don't even know how to explain this week.

 SO, I don't remember if I've talked about them, but we're teaching a group of teenagers now. It started with a 14-year-old, her mom wants her to go to church to learn good things and keep her out of trouble (but her mom isn't really willing to come herself and just drops her off, picks her up...it's so funny to me how people see something good and want it for their kids, but they don't want to do it themselves. Also, it makes it really hard to teach those kids. THey don't care, because their parents obviously don't care either). But she started brining her 12-year-old niece she's really close to, and then her best friend has started coming. RIght now she mainly just seems to enjoy the social aspect, but there's something interesting about the "I'm here and I want my friends and family here too" thought process. And her friend actually really seemed to enjoy church a lot, and she pays the most attention when we teach (we have to take their phones and put it in a basket, though. Man, teenagers. :p) 

Wanna know something crazy?

 March 23 2014, I had hands laid upon my head and I was set apart to be a missionary and preach the Gospel. A year ago today. It's caused me to think a lot about being a missionary and what has happened in the last year. What I've been doing, what I want to do in 7 months (I didn't start my mission until April 8, so I'm not at my year mark yet :p), who I was and who I'm becoming. You think you go on a mission to serve God and give back, even though you know it's  just a little bit and you'll never repay everything. But I've been so blessed that there isn't room to recieve it, He just keeps on pouring out. I can't imagine who I'd be, what life would've been like, if I hadn't served a mission. It's been a short amount of time, but it's made that big of a difference in me. 

 TEaching is the best part of missionary work. I loooove seeing the change happening behind people's eyes. I love helping people understand that there's still time for them, that God hasn't given up, that they can have hope and be forgiven and work to make things right in their life. There were a lot of people we ran into this week who just feel hopeless and just kinda resigned themselves to the fact that they screwed up too bad and they are what they are and they're going to stay that way until they die, but there's always hope, and it's the most satisfying thing to be there to tell them that. I'm learning, this is something I"ll be doing for the rest of my life. I just want to speak truth forever and correct all the little lies that are whispered in our ears. Truth is, God loves us, always has and always will, and even though we have weaknesses and make mistakes, we don't have to be miserable or hopeless because we have a Savior who loves us. We have a God who is eager and excited to heal us. 

 I don't have to wear a nametag to tell the truth to people, let them know what they're worth. I can do that forever.

 A while back, I found my first spiritual journal on my mission, and there were notes from like the third week on my mission. I was writing down who I wanted to be and what I wanted to accomplish and say I did at the end of the mission, and it hasn't really changed much, surprisingly. And it felt good, I felt like I've been working towards that goal the entire time and have made excellent progress since then. But I want to add something. I want to be a truth-speaker, and to help people see who they really are. Help them see themselves how God sees them. That's basically just what I've been doing for the past year or so, and I don't need to be a set-apart full-time missionary to do that. 

speaking of seeing you how God sees you

 I'm suuuuuuuuuper excited for GENERAL CONFERENCE

 IT'S COMING UP AGAIN

 I'M SO EXCITED YOU GUYS

 WOmen's conference is this Saturday. ALl the sisters in the mission are getting together to watch it. Is that crazy cool or what?!? It's going to be so great. I've been writing down questions I want answered (I've actually been doing that for every meeting, I got SO MUCH REVELATION at church yesterday, you guys, everyone should do that. It's so great.) and...man, I'm just super pumped up for it.

 General conference is the best and I"m grateful women get their session a week early, cuz I'm impatient, haha. 

 Love you all!! Thanks for the letters, prayers, and support!! You're the best! :)

 -Sister Stratford

 

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Pictures!

I don't remember what I already sent, so.....sorry if htese are duplicates!

Also, any flipped photos, you'll have to turn yourself....I have no way of doing it. Sorry. XD

 lego temple

LEGO PHOENIX TEMPLE

IT'S MADE OF LEGOS

IT LOOKS JUST LIKE THE PHOENIX TEMPLE

widnow painting with the Amary family

The Elders got in a crash

and they had a hulk fist (IDK why, we used it for "greenie power")

So naturally, these pictures were necassary.

The elders fail at buidlding gingerbread houses.

 It fell apart about 2.7 seconds after this picture.

Phoenix has some fun graffiti

celebrating George Washington's b-day

We assumed Cinderella would be his favorite Disney princess

the day after cutting all my hair off

PLAN OF SALVATION!!! YESSS!!! We lived with God before this life and accepted this plan! We have a purpose for being here!!

hermana prieto, me, and Ramon :)

our district! :)

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Then Suddenly, SPANISH SPEAKING!!

Ahahahaha

 Chiste

 No se crea

 I'm still an English missionary. (And I'm still in South Phoenix, in the same wards. I''ve officially served half my mission in this zone!) 

 Pero, mi companera es una Nativa. Y las otras missionaras en la casa hablan Espanol. y Dominga es dia de el Espanol. Pues, yo necissito apprendo Espanol. Rapido. (yup, nailed it)

 So I'm the only person living in our apartment who doesn't speak Spanish. Hermana Prieto is completely fluent in English, she's from Utah, but she's a native-speaking Spanish missionary. This is the first time she's served in English work, and it's a bit of a culture shock for her. I didn't realize how different Spanish work and English work is. Anyway, I'm apparently going to learn Spanish this transfer, because everyone in the apartment speaks Spanish to each other. 

 I feel like one of those Mexican children who listens and understands Spanish, but only ever responds in English because they can't speak Spanish. :p

 So my new companion is sister Prieto. Prieto in Spanish means dark-skinned. So  many Spanish people we talk to call her "hermana prieto" and call me "hermana guera." Hahaha. logic.

 ANYWHO. 

 The transition has been LOCO. I really really really miss Sister Morris. But I looooove Sister Prieto, she's tooons of fun!! And it's going to be a transfer of miracles!! We both feel it. It's actually funny, we were in the MTC together. We were temporary companions our first night in Arizona.

 it's been a party

 Sooo, I don't think I talked about this guy....name of Ramon. His dad is an LDS Bishop. He hasn't really been that solid of an investigator. He loooved the Book of Mormon and knew it was true--he was halfway through Alma when we first met him, now he's in Helaman, so he's jsut cruising right on through--but he really wasn't super committed, he still had one foot in the one life and one foot in this new Christian life. Then we couldn't contact him for a full week, and we were like, "yeah, we should probably drop him. Someday he'll be ready, but this is not that day." 

 Turns out we coulodn't contact him because he was in the hospital. And when he got out, he was like, "I'M READY TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!" Quit all his addictions cold turkey ("I lit up the cigarette and just realized how sick of it I was...I just got super angry and threw it all in the trash, and I haven't even been tempted since"), cleared up his weekend so that he could come to two sessions of Church (English and Spanish, see which one he likes best) and is just so stinking excited to be baptized in April!!

 Sometimes it's a slow process, when they come around. Other times it's like a switch just suddenly turned on. It's the coolest thing to watch. 

 Nessa Wants to be baptized again. She keeps switching back and forth. She reeeaaalllyyyyy didn't like that we postponed it, haha. But y'know, you're making a covenant with God...if you're not ready, then we're not going through with it. :p It's a funny problem to have, an investigator who would be baptized tomorrow if she could and we're the ones telling her she needs to slow down. Haha. 

 So the family who answered the door, the daughter of hte woman we were trying to delilver the Bible to?  So we knocked on the door last week, and she answered the door and said, "So my husband and I talked about it, and we decided we wanted to join your church. We're going to clear up our work schedules so that we're free on Sunday now." So, yeah, that happened. We literally haven't taught them anything except for the idea of eternal families, but I guess they really liked what they read in the pamphlets we gave them. :p The hard thing is finding them home, but they're a suuuuper prepared family. It's so fun!!!

 I'm also being reminded how awesome this area is. I'm exhausted, I feel like I'm being run ragged by all the work here. But with my new companion, she'd always exclaim, "Hermana!! Everyone I've met has been so amazing!!" After being with teh same companion for a long time in the same area working with a lot of the same people, it's nice to be reminded of all the amazing stuff happening in the city.

 Also, it's kinda like having a greenie, because this is her first time in Englilsh work, and she is just sooooooooo enthusiastic about EVERYTHING NEW AND EXCITING! hahaha. It's way fun. 

 Well, that's probably it for me....you guys are the best!! Thank you for your letters and your prayers!! I love you all!! <3 I love serving as a missionary and watching the Atonement of Christ change so many lives!! It's seriously the best thing in the world. <3

 I love you all!!

 -Sister Stratford

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TO THE YOUNG WOMEN OF HILLSIDE

THIS WEEK I'M NOT FORGETTING TO THANK YOU

 Thank you thank you thank you for the amazing little package of Valentines cards you sent me!! It was the best thing in the world to get them, and it meant a lot to me!! I miss church with you guys so much, and I can't wait to come back and hear all the amazing things you want to do with your life and all the cool stuff you're doing in High school and mutual right now!! You guys are the best, Full of sweet spirit and kind words. <3 I know some of you better than others, but I hope to get to know you guys more when I get back!!

 Love you all, and thank you sooooo much!!

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Suddenly, internet!!

So a looooooot of the rules concerning like Facebook and online proselyting and email are changing! Everything's upside down!! :p It's wierd for us since this mission was kinda the beta mission, so instead of just learning new things like everyone else, we're relearning everything!! Haha. It's way nice, though. I didn't know what I was doing, I don't think anyone did. So it's nice to know things now.

 One rule update, we're off facebook for a while until we've finished the 6-12 week online training. 

 Another rule update, we can now check our email any day of the week!!! THough we still have to wait until MOnday to reply.

 Some more news, Transfers are on Thursday. They're still trying to get together a nice smooth transfer week schedule, so it's different again this week. So today actually isn't pday, Thursday transfers day is. We just get an hour to write emails and an hour to write letters (I don't want just an hour to write my letters!!! :C *weeps dramatically on a marble staircase* Sorry if my letters to you take another week, or aren't as long as I'd like :C)

 Oh, also, I guess they're trying to do transfer calls tuesday night, so I still don't know. But it might also be Wednesday night. :p I've been in South Phoenix since July 2nd, how good are my odds at staying? Haha.

 I don't want to leave, though. Even though our teaching pool got decimated. :p It's starting to grow again, lots of really neat people and potential. Nessa is reconsidering and may have stopped her not wanting to be baptized thing that was going on. Also, we just found a suuuuuper cool family!! So we recieved a request for one of the free Bibles we hand out, and we've been trying to get this Bible to them for FOREVER. Someone else kpt ansering the door. She really seemed distant and kinda standoffish, so we didn't really feel comfortable trying to teach her (dumb!!!! :p talk to EVERYONE, some people are super prepared to receive God in their lives and just don't know how to show it!!). But one time when we were walking away, she opened the door again and called after us, "So, wait, what church are you guys from? What are you here for? What do you teach?" 

 Oh my gosh, she was just so prepared. She talked about how confused she was by all the CHristian religion, how they all teach such different doctrine, and not all of them can be right, there has to be a true church somewhere. She also talked about how disturbed she was, whatever pastor she asks tells her that her children won't be her children anymore in heaven. She was very sad that her connection with her children wouldn't continue, that they'd just be in heaven and they'd be like, "Oh hey, remember that one time you gave birth to me and raised me and prepared me for my whole life and taught me how to follow God? Yeah, that was cool. That one time. THrow back Thursday." That just didn't feel right to her, but so many of the churches she went to taught that, and she wanted to know our thoughts about it.

 It was the best thing in the world to testify that families are eternal, and that her kids will always be her kids in heaven forever. It was Seriously amazing. She called us later that day and said, "So I talked to my husband....the next time you come to try to deliver that Bible to my mom, can we all sit in and listen to what you have to say?" 

 Families are the best <3 

Oh!! Fun story!! So exchanges!! I got to go back into Laveen for a day!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh it was so fun!! THis whole time I've stayed in my area during exchanges, just cuz...I don't want to get distracted....but I got to go this time, and it was so much fun!! Got to see Merry and all of her kids again (Cari suddenly got tall, what, it's been like four months what the heck)! They seem to be doing well. :D And I got to see Tammy and Tallie again!!! They're doing well, too. Tammy's pretty much on fire now, and so is her mom. It was good to give Tallie a little pep talk, haha. THe scriptures are not boring!! Especially not the book of Alma!! :p

  ...I think that's it for me....sorry they've gotten shorter. :p But I love serving as a missionary, and I love Arizona and the people here, and I love serving the Savior and doing HIs work out in the mission field.

 People who are latter in their mission keep saying, "Man, I never thought this day would come," meaning hitting 15 months ore leaving at the end of the transfer. ANd I"m like, "Yeah, that day's never actually going to come for me, cuz I"m not going home, I'm actually staying here forever." yup. Some more news. >.> hahaha. Let me think that way.

 But I do miss you all!! Thank you for your prayers and support, I love you so much!! <3

 -Sister Stratford

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Clouds, Rain, and Wind

Suuuuper cold weather here. Y'know, for Arizona. Lots of wind and rain and clouds. Wind feels real good with short hair. :3

 It was a bit of a rough week for us. No one answered their doors, the members who usually come out with us couldn't, most of the people we were teaching either dropped us or fell off the face of the planet, we didn't get a single headquarters referral this week (we usually get like 2 a day). The whole time I've been in this area, it's been overwhelmingly busy, and now we're really struggling to fill our time meaningfully. It's a little discouraging, you don't really feel like a missionary when you're not talking with people. You feel like you don't have a purpose. And it was so sudden, it was like the shock you get when you jump into cold water.

 It was cool, though, after a long Saturday, with only an hour or so left of the day, we said a very earnest, heartfelt prayer that we'd be led to someone who needed us that night. There are thousands of souls in our huge area, surely there could be at least one we could help. Not having much to work with, we decided to look at a list we have of people who haven't been to church in a while. A name really jumped out at us, so we went to see her. When we drove up, there was a man just about to leave. He saw who we were and lit up, he was so excited to meet with us. Apparently he was this sister's husband, but she had just moved out in a very messy divorce. He had many medical problems and all sorts of financial hardships, his kids were leaving him too, just everything had been going wrong in his life. In fact, just minutes before we pulled up, his power had gone out because he just couldn't afford it. We were able to offer him a listening ear and we shared a lot of hope and encouragement.

 "I haven't been in church in a long time," he said, "and I probably still won't for a while. I just need to deal with some things my way, first. But you guys were definitely an answer to a prayer. It's funny how God sends people right at the moment you need them."

 It never ceases to amaze me how God answers prayers. Both our prayers. HOw cool is that?

 Some good news, even though it's been a super slow teaching week, the service opportunities suddenly exploded. We tried to go see a recent convert who hadn't been to church in a while, and a neighbor told us he had fallen and hurt himself and was in a home. We couldn't get the address to visit him. :C But, here in Phoenix, if your lwan gets too overgrown you get fined, and he probably didn't need that in his life right now. And his lawn was BAD. So after a couple of hours wrestling with weeds the size of bushes, we were able to get his yards looking good. We also met a man who was basically rebuilding his house, he bought it for just a little too cheap, haha. We didn't get to help out this week, because of the rain, but he's looking forward to having help this next week. And suddenly, everyone is moving.

 So in a place where almost no one will let you help out, being able to actually do some physical service has been a huge miracle and a lot of fun. But I really miss teaching people. That's my favorite.

 In other news, we're starting all over with the online teaching and implementing technology in missionary work. They keep going back and forth, if we're actually going to be able to be on Facebook after the 4th or not....so I dunno. We actually have no clue what's happening. But there's going to be a massive training happening this Wednesday, so we'll see what happens. :)

 Thanks for all your prayers and support!! As slow as it's been, I still love being here and I still love missionarying. It's the best!! God truly is a God of miracles, and He works in mysterious ways. :) I love you all!! God bless!

 -Sister Stratford

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