brain fried🤯

 hello hello hello! what is up?! it was an AWESOME week and literally the busiest week of my life! i love being a missionary!

HIGHLIGHTS:

• NEW ASSIGNMENT ORIENTATION! I got the chance to go to new assignment orientation for the 3rd time on Tuesday! This time it was all the way in Ridgefield which is a two hour drive from Elma! So we drove for what felt like forever! It was the best though. I genuinely learned so much about my new responsibility and it was the most helpful thing ever. It was such a plus that I got to see so many of my friends there! Sister Potter and Sister Morgan and Sister Jacobson were all there and the best surprise ever, Sister Larsen was there too! Mission relationship are seriously the best and I feel so blessed to have the best mission friends ever! 
• MLC! I have my first MLC this week and it was amazing! So many fun friends and we talked about so many good things! It definitely feels like a lot of responsibility but I am so grateful for my companions and zone leaders who are so patient with me haha. 
• EXCHANGES! We went on exchanges this week and it was SO FUN! I got to stay here in Elma with Sister Kezos who is a brand new missionary and it was such a blast! She is so cute and such a good missionary already! She actually did drill team too so it was so fun to get to bond over that! While on exchanges we taught our friend Brad and he is so cool! He is so ready and so willing to change it is amazing! He knows this is what he needs and is super willing to make the changes in his life that he needs to.
• CHRISTMAS! It fully feels like Christmas out here in Washington, minus the snow. Honestly, I don't miss the snow at all though. Anyways, people are so festive here and love christmas. We have gotten so many goodies from members and it has been so fun! Also we have been doing all of our fun advent calendars and it is making me SO EXCITED! Also such a blessing that I haven't felt homesick at all so pray that it keeps staying that way haha. 

LOWLIGHTS:

• LITERALLY GONE! My brain was actually gone this week. With NAO and MLC right in a row, I was actually on brain overload. I was talking to a missionary after MLC and he was asking how I was doing and he said "yeah I glanced over at you a couple times and you could tell you were totally gone" so that is super embarrassing. I really tried to stay there but there was no way I could. But it was really good still!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

Yesterday we went to a members house and I was looking at her wall and there was a little sign that said "faith makes things possible, not easy". I loved this and it is so true! As a missionary, there are days that are just so extremely hard and it feels like nothing is working in your favor and even when you feel like you're exercising all your faith, it is still hard. But that is how it is supposed to be! Faith is not meant to just make things easy, it only makes things possible. I really think this applies to all aspects of life. There are things that are just really hard, but with faith, all things can be made possible!

I hope you all have the best week ever and have so much fun celebrating the Christmas season! Please write me! It means the world to hear from each of you! Love you all!

-Sister Stringham🩷