Monday, September 28, 2015

Companions




Sister Stratford

Sister Eggleston and I were playing a card game and got in a little
scuffle over one of the cards. We tried to settle it by who got the
bigger piece, but it was torn so evenly that it was a draw.

I think it's a very accurate representation of our relationship :p

Funny pics


Wuss. There's a medusa in mine.



Learned how to curl my hair with a headband. But it looks ridiculous in the morning.


Sister StratfordWhat's that, Woody? There's a snake in your boot?

Moar pics
















Sister Stratford

Pictures!
















Sister Stratford

GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!!! I love you and miss you and eleven days!!

Just got back from Elder Scott's funeral. Just read one of his talks today, actually. I'm going to miss his talks in General Conference. 

 The women's conference was SO GOOOOOOD!!!!! Oh man, I think that's been the best one. If you didn't get a chance to see it, check it out here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2015/10?cid=HP_SA_9-26-2015_dPTH_fGC_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng it was all about loving life and finding ways to be happy, no matter what! I got so much revelation that I wrote down. So good. 

 It's made me really excited for General Conference this weekend!!!!!! I am BEYOND stoked for this! When it happens this Saturday and Sunday you can check it out at the same link. I'm really grateful for modern prophets and apostles who can talk to us through broadcast don't have to travel all over by boat and chariot like Peter. :p MODERN DAY PETER AND PAUL I get SO a excited about these things!!! I've been writing down questions and thinking about a lot of things.....kinda nice that my last weekend before I go home I get to have all this outpouring of revelation. Also, temple trip this week!!

 It's great because I have no idea what I'm doing with my life. 

 Birthday was awesome! :D thanks for all the birthday wishes, and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to email everyone last week. I'll try to get to everyone again this week. 

 The night of my birthday, we went out to work and started following our plans. But we felt a strong impression we were going the wrong way. It is the hardest thing to describe, but it was a really cool experience. We were guided together as a companionship to know where exactly we had to go and who to talk to. We were led to two separate homes in two co platelet different parts of our area. We haven't been able to see what has happened because of those contacts, but the Spirit was so strong, telling us that we did all that God wanted us to do that night. I don't have to see, when God says it I know it's true. I may never see either of them again, and that's okay. God gave me a birthday present! :D

We still haven't been able to work much this week. We're both sick still, which is kinda frustrating, because we both would much rather sprint to the end and spend our last week as missionaries. But we're doing our best. 

Peter came to church yesterday!!!!!! He ducked out right after Sacrament meeting, but hey, he came!! 

 I had an awesome insight this morning in studies. So I was reading a talk by Elder Scott about accessing the Atonement and the role of the Savior in our lives. (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/personal-strength-through-the-atonement-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng) I've been asking God how to better access His power to get me through and to overcome my fears, so stumbling on this talk—which references Alma 53, the chapter I read today—was a miracle. God taught me individually that what Christ did is there for us all the time. No matter what. He doesn't wait for us to notice that it's there, or for us to beg for it. It's just there. All we have to do is see it. Then we know how it works and what it does. Then we work as a team with God, and we work things out together. It was a comfort to k ow it was already there. 

 Man....after so many emails for eighteen months. It doesn't feel real. 

 I look forward to seeing you guys you guys at the end of next week. I love you all and I'm so grateful for such good friends and family who have loved me and supported me all this time. You are all awesome! Thank you so much!

Sister Stratford

Monday, September 21, 2015

What even happened

I dunno about you
But I'm feeling twenty-two

This Saturday, sister Eggleston and I are celebrating our 18th
missionary birthday. We will be officially 18 months old and it will
just be a matter of MTC time before were home. Weird. It's fun to be
doing this together, though. Especially since we were twins born to
the same mom (trainer).

Okay this this week was kind of a blur, and it was a little crazy, so
bear with me as I try to explain it al in less than 15 minutes :p

Okay so first off we were like sick all week. Is this something that
happens to missionaries just before they go him? Why? .....can it,
like, not? :p sister Eggleston had a horrible migraine on Tuesday,
then something happened to my stomach on Wednesday, then in Thursday
sister Eggleston had what I had on Wednesday, so when we did weekly
planning on Friday we were kinda discouraged because nothing happened
at all this week. On Friday we did a massive, understaffed service
project basically all day and didn't get any lessons again. And we
were like, "shoot, I don't even remember this week happening because
we were stinking SICK all week," and then our bodies hurt really bad
because service project.

And then crazy stuff started to happen. Saturday was our real day of miracles.

So our mission started trying this thing where w're required to tract
(go door to door) for an hour a day. It's been kinda rough because
there are a lot of unfriendly people in this part....were in the
middle of nowhere, which is where people go to be left alone. :p I
miss Phoenix, where everyone talked with strangers. Haha. Anyway, so
on Saturday we go out to tract, and because I'm Sister Stratford and
you k ow me, even with a perfectly functioning GPS I get lost on our
way to the street we decided to tract. But we're driving down, and
there's a house with the garage open, and I'm like, "meh, that's
usually a sign that someone's home. Let's just go knock on it. What's
the worst that can happen?" Random house in a random street.
We meet Pat. She's not interested at all. But she let us in when we
told her about family history and all the free resources the Church
has for all that. She's a very proud New Yorker Irish!! Hahaha. She's
fun, I like her. Anyway, she's an older lady, she sets us down and
tells us about family and gives us marriage advice and mommy advice
and all that fun stuff. Whenever we try to gear it towards the Gospel.
She just has zero interest, but it was fun to talk. And at the end,
when she's going to see us off, she starts to get out of her chair and
then her hip pops out of place.

.....yeah.

So we grab her phone (didn't know where it was, but we went right to
it), said a prayer with her, and stayed with her until the ambulance
came. What's crazy is the phone was high up, she couldn't have reached
it if even if she had been able to pull herself to the ground and
crawl. She couldn't have stood. She lives alone, so no one would've
found her.

Random door on a random street, and it was right where the Lord
needed us to be. That was crazy.

At night we've taken to walking around, because Maricopa is a
commuters town (there is NOTHING HERE but houses and a Walmart! :p so
everyone drives hours to work) and dropping in on people just isn't as
productive, because everyone is either sleeping or grumpy that you
woke them up. :p so we walk around and talk to people who are already
out (people sit outside at night a lot at this time of year in AZ) and
it's a much more effective use of time.

We didn't have a street picked out to visit, so we just kinda drove
around and tried to feel where God wanted us. Turned left when He
said, turned right when He said. We were led right to a really cool
family. They just had gotten home, literally drove up right in front
of us. They spoke Spanish, so they're going to be taught by the
Spanish Sisters, but they're super cool. They're going to meet with
the Hermanas at the church and read scriptures with them. How cool is
that?!

It's been a CRAZY week.

Update on Peter.....he's pulled back again. :c but that's okay.
People are allowed to progress at whatever pace they want. It's sad
though, cuz we haven't gotten to see him at all since our last really
cool lesson. Oh well.

Long email! Haha. Thanks for being awesome! I love and miss you all!
18 days left of my 18 months!

Sister Stratford

Monday, September 14, 2015

Trunky packet!

Yep, it's that time.....we both got our packets with our travel
itinerary and travel checklist and all that junk. It affected both of
us more than we expected. :p were not trunky, but it's suddenly real
now, that we're going home in a little less than four weeks.

Shoot. Man. What the heck.

It'll be nice to be home and whatever, and I miss everyone, but the
mission life is the good life. And it's never going to come back. I'll
never get to do this again. And that's hitting now, that I can't just
be a missionary forever....man, the sons of Mosiah in the BoM served
for 19years, how do I get that ticket? :p

Whatever, life moves on. the next chapter can't be too bad~

SO. Peter is going to get BAPTIZED! We had an AMAZING powerful lessons
with him! Our ward mission leader came out with us that night, and
while we were praying before knocking on the door, sister Eggleston
and I got the strong impression to challenge him to be baptized. But
our wml warned us against it, because last time the missionaries
tried, it chased off Peter and he disappeared for months at a time.
But in the lesson, the Spirit was so strong, and it kept coming, and
kept pressing. I didn't feel it too strongly, but I was being led in
teaching. Our wml and I did most of the talking....sister Eggleston
was quiet the whole time because the Spirit was just hounding her
mercilessly. "Do it! Do it!" And we all felt it was right. Eventually
she finally opened her mouth and in tears, she extended the most
powerful, beautiful, elegant baptismal challenge I have ever heard my
entire mission. Not just saying that, it's true. It was so beautiful.
We all wish we could remember what was said. I sat down to write in my
journal about it and I couldn't remember how she did it. But it was
amazing.

And after thinking about what she said for a long, long time, he
nodded and said, "okay. Let's do that." And he started asking
questions about how one prepares to be baptized and what all happens
and OH MY GOSH he's getting baptized!! He's going to shoot for before
Thanksgiving....sister Eggleston and I are really really hopeful to
baptize him the 6th or 7th. He can't do Saturday's, all of our lessons
have been on weekdays, so it'll have to be a Wednesday or Tuesday
battle ...he's totally ready to be baptized this Saturday if he
wanted. Like, he's been reading and doing his own studying, we can
really do it whenever he's ready.

The Montas fell through. Dang it. Oh well. :p

I've loved reading Alma...it's been super inspiring, and I just love
Alma so much. Alma 36 is my favorite chapter in all scripture, so
reading that this week was really fun.

I love you all so much!! :) thanks for the letters and the prayers. I
miss you all!



Sister Stratford

Monday, September 7, 2015

Alma 32

It's cooled down to the 90s! :p we've also been getting nice rain and
pretty sunsets. Life is good in Copa.

The work continues to be a little slow. Brother Montas obviously
doesn't want missionaries involved, unfortunately. He just wants to
come to church on his own, without any help, and quietly get his sons
baptized. So we're going to back off a little for now. He wants it, I
think, he just doesn't understand our role as missionaries. I think he
sees us as people who solve religion down his throat, or that were
just for people struggling spiritually and he feels just fine.
However, by a miracle, his brother who lives across the street, who is
also less active and also has a wife who isn't a member who flip flops
back and forth, has suddenly decided he wants to meet with us More and
his family needs God. He straight up said, "I want you guys to come
and share sermons, can you do that?" :p I guess all our prayers went
to the other Brother Monta, haha.

Peter is impossible to get a hold of! But he's still doing really
good. He and his wife are still reading the BoM every day and they ask
God as a couple of this is right for them! We still have hope!

This area has so much potential. I can really feel it. We have one
month left, I really believe we could get a baptism. It's easy to get
discouraged because the work is slow and there's a ton of less active
work, but I think it could be done. I remember as a greenie all the
miracles that happened, the people that simply fell out of the sky. I
didn't remember them as well until I was with Sister Eggleston again.
I've been watching the area slowly come back to life, and I can see
someone being baptized this month.

We had a super super spiritual lesson with Danny last night. Danny is
17, his parents are both active converts. His parents brought their
kids to church until they were 14, and then let them decide for
themselves if they were going to come. All of them stopped going at 14
and they've all left the church. Danny hasn't been to church in three
years, and his mom decided she wanted him to have the same experience
she had—she invited the missionaries over to go through the lessons.

We've been meeting with him for a while, but it's been tough. Partly
because every time I've been there I've had a different companion,
with transfers and emergency transfers and then exchanges. And the new
missionary focuses in getting to know him. Also partly because they're
a really talkative family, and the dad sometimes got super contentious
with his son, and we could see him just close off. The Spirit would
not be there, and without the Spirit, we can't teach and he can't
learn.

So we started going over the Plan of Salvation last night. His dad
wasn't there, and we were using pictures we drew....we drew him in the
plan of Salvation, with his spirit and his body. :p but we didn't even
get past explaining pre mortal life before he just felt the Spirit
soooo strong. And he was so open, and he could recognize God talking
to him. God told him it was true, that there was a plan and life isn't
pointless. I don't know if he believed God, but he felt Him tell him.

Missionary work is the BEST.

Running out of time, but I love you all! <3 I miss you! Read Alma 32
today....loooove that chapter. If you're not there, you should skip
ahead and read it today. It's ine of my favorites. Also, alma 36. So
excited to read that this week!

See you in 63-32 days! :p I don't do take math. Miss you all!

Sister Stratford