long time no see

 Hello hello friends! This email will probably be pretty short because pday was Wednesday last week but I still have some fun things that happened! It is definitely officially winter here in Washington. I don't think it ever stops raining and it is so cold but the work never stops! I am getting used to being soaked all the time haha. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

• CHRISTMAS: Christmas was so fun! I love being a missionary on Christmas! It honestly didn't really feel like Christmas but it was still so fun! We woke up and opened our presents and talked to our families which was the BEST! I love my family! Then we went to the church and made gingerbread houses with the missionaries in our ward. And then we went to Sister Nielsen's house and made Lumpia! Lumpia is a Fillipino eggroll and it was so yummy! And so fun to make! We hung out at her house for a while and then we went to have dinner with the Koski family! They gave us some Dowdle puzzles which reminded me of Christmas at home so we came home and I did a puzzle for the rest of the night! It was such a good day! 
• TEMPLE: We got to go to the temple on Friday! Since we are so far north in our mission, we are allowed to go to the Seattle temple! It was so pretty! I had never been inside this temple so it was really exciting! We went with Sister Smith and she took us to Deseret Book and a yummy teriyaki place after which was so fun! The temple is my favorite place and I feel so blessed that we are allowed to go every other month in my mission!
• EXCHANGES: We went on exchanges on Thursday! I stayed here in Elma with Sister Vaka who is a brand new missionary and she's from Hawaii! I literally love her so much! She is on reassignment here and I hope she never gets her visa so she can stay here forever haha. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot from each other!
• DINNER WITH THE BOLAÑOS: Last night we had dinner with the Bolaños family! They barely speak English besides their granddaughter so it was fun to learn a little bit of Spanish. We also had papusas which were SO YUMMY! We had a lot of fun just chatting with them and learning Spanish! 
• AMELIA: Recently we started teaching a 10 year old girl named Amelia! Her dad and grandma are inactive members but she is SO interested in the gospel! We have been going over once or twice a week to teach her and she loves it! She is always begging for us to come again! Yesterday, she convinced her dad to bring her to church for the first time! And she loved it! We went to primary with her and she was raising her hand and participating so much! It made my heart so happy! 

LOWLIGHTS:

• SAD DAY: Yesterday was one of the hardest days I have had on my mission so far. One of our friends who was going to be put on date told us they don't want to come to church anymore and they don't want to meet with us anymore. It was really hard! She was doing so well and was so ready for this next step. The three of us were so sad and had a really hard time accepting it. We are still praying that her time will come and she will continue to have a desire to know Jesus Christ! 

Spiritual Thought:

This week I have been thinking a lot about faith. Faith is hard! Yesterday, it was really hard to continue acting in faith when things felt like they were crumbling. But after pushing through and acting in faith, we saw so many miracles! We had reached out to one of our friends who we haven't met with and hasn't come to church and we ended up meeting 30 minutes later for a church tour! God has a plan and we just have to trust that He knows what He is doing! I have been really trying to strengthen my faith and trust in God and it has definitely be a learning curve but it is so good! 

I love you all and your support means the world! You're all the best! Have an amazing week!

-Sister Stringham🩷