Living L I F E

 What is up friends! I hope home life is treating everyone so well! I love Washington and I love being a missionary! This week was awesome! 

HIGHLIGHTS: 

• ZONE CONFERENCE! This week was zone conference! It was 3 days long and was so amazing! We had Elder Jackson from the seventy touring our mission and he is so amazing! We had two days of zone conference on zoom which we were able to watch as a district/zone and one day in person! Meeting Elder Jackson and his wife was amazing, except they made fun of how me and 2 other sisters said Layton haha! He told us we're forgetting our Ts! He gave some amazing talks! My favorite was when he talked about our expanded missionary purpose and that it's about more than just our friends! It's also about our companions, our members, and our friends and family at home! I really loved this talk and I learned a lot from him this week! We also were able to have zone lunch after everyday and that was so much fun! I love my zone and I'm so grateful for them! 
• RAIN! We had our first rain storm this week! It was so wild! So much water haha! It was super fun though! We spent the night jumping in puddles and laughing so hard. I've learned on rainy days people either slam their doors or invite you inside and there's not really an in between. It was such an amazing night though! 
• JOSEPH! I know I talk about Joseph every week but he is just SO GOOD! He came to church this Sunday and we were so excited! He wasn't replying to our texts Sunday morning but when he showed up he said it was because he wanted to surprise us haha! He definitely did! Sunday night he had his baptismal interview! We are so excited! The elder who did his interview told us that no matter what happens the rest of the day he feels so fulfilled from Joseph's testimony! My heart was so so happy after this! Everyone pray Joseph can make it to church on Sunday! If he comes on Sunday he will be getting baptized the following Saturday which would be so amazing!! 
• PIZZA NIGHT! Last Monday night, Sister Larsen's mom ordered pizza to our apartment! Literally the sweetest thing ever! I was so hungry and it was so exciting to have so much yummy pizza! Me and Sister Bowen finished a pizza all by ourselves, it was so fun! 
• SERVICE! We got to do service for 2 people on Saturday! I love service! I feel so happy and so fulfilled when I do service! Anyone who knows me, knows I hate doing yard work, and one of the service opportunities we had was to help this lady with her yard. When I tell you the weeds and grass were at least a foot tall, I am not even exaggerating! It was the craziest yard ever! But seeing her smile and her relief after helping her made it all okay! We also helped someone move! It started raining in the middle and was honestly chaos but SO FUN! I loved it! 
• THE PEDERSONS! Okay these members are literally like my parents. He is our ward mission leader and they love missionary work so much! They are literally missionaries! They announce apps when they open them, just like we do, they approve texts before sending them, just like we do, and they keep their evenings open to help us whenever we need them! They are just so awesome! They brought us a bunch of food last night because they heard us saying we only had chicken nuggets haha. I'm just so grateful for them! They are AMAZING! 

LOWLIGHTS: 

• SAD NEWS! We got the saddest news yesterday! Our amazing friend Juan just moved out of our ward boundaries! He's literally only one street out and we are heartbroken! He is amazing and we are so sad we have to pass him off to the elders! Send prayers that he continues to progress in the other ward! 
• NIGHTS IN! We spent a couple nights in this week and it was really sad! I've learned to love being out of the house as much as possible and to be working for as long as I can, so spending a couple nights in the apartment was really hard for me! We made it fun by making cookies, coloring, and watching the Restoration movie, but I was so beyond excited to get out of the house the rest of the week! 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT! 

In zone conference this week, one thing Elder Jackson said is "our influence is eternal!" This is true for missionaries as well as any member of the church! The way you live your life and the way you interact with people could influence peoples' lives eternally. Paying attention to the small and simple things we do in life is so important! You never know what might influence someone else! Always be seeking to be more Christlike and to shine your light as bright as you can! 

Love you all so much and I love hearing from you!! Have an amazing week!! 

-Sister Stringham