wayyyy up north!!!

 hello hello hello! I hope everyone is doing so well and enjoying the christmas season! it was such an amazing week and I'm so excited to tell you all about it! 

HIGHLIGHTS:

• NEW COMPANIONS! my companions are amazing! I'm in a trio and training a new missionary! I'm with sister dolan and sister richins and I love them both so much. I am so grateful to be with them and already have learned so much from them! 
• ELMA! I'm in the Elma ward now! way up north! there are actually 9 missionaries who are in our ward and it's SO FUN! our ward covers 3 main towns and some other little towns along the way. we cover montesano, elma, and mcclearly! I love it so much up here! the members are seriously just amazing and they all are such amazing missionaries! we are mostly teaching kids right now but they are all really awesome! keep our friends in your prayers! i love elma! 
• PAL! we met the coolest guy named pal this week. we knocked on his door and started talking to him and he didn't really want to talk. we started showing him the Because of Him video and he said the boys had already shown it to him. we invited him to church but he didn't want to come really. we left and just kept knocking and after a little bit, this car pulls over to us and it's pal! he rolls down the window and all he says is "so when are you gonna be back in the area?" what!!! so awesome! we set up a time to come back this week so hopefully all goes well! 
• BREAKFAST! we had an amazing breakfast at the best family's home this weekend with 7 of the missionaries in our ward! it was so fun and so yummy! he used to be the ward mission leader so he just loves being in the loop of missionary work so they have us over quite a bit to correlate with us. 
• BISHOPS STOREHOUSE! every couple weeks we get to help out with bishops storehouse and it's such an amazing service opportunity! we take everything out of the truck, line it up in order, and pack up food for the orders we have! it's so fun and I love getting to help people! 
• WARD PARTY! we had our ward christmas party on Saturday! it was lowkey kind of lame but it was fun to see so many fun people! we just had treats and socialized but it was really fun to get to meet so many of the awesome members! 
• 5 MONTHS! I hit 5 months as a missionary this week! I know that really isn't that long but it's seriously flown by! I feel like just yesterday I was in the mtc really questioning what the heck I was doing haha. but I'm so thankful for the time I've had and so excited to see what's in store for the next 13 months! 
• PARADE! so funny story. the 3 of us almost died this week. we were just driving to our next location for the night and there were a bunch of people outside on the street. we were mega confused cause it was dark and cold and people just don't do that. well we turned the corner and drove head on into a parade! in the middle of a neighborhood! it was actually so funny! luckily we didn't die and we were able to pull over pretty quick so all worked out but we just had to sit and watch the rest of the parade haha. 

LOWLIGHTS:

• SO SAD GOODBYES! saying goodbye to all my whipple creek besties was SO SAD! I cried like a baby saying goodbye to the members and it was so hard! it was so unexpected for me to leave that it was just awful saying goodbye. but I am so thankful for them all and for the impact they made on me! I'm excited to go back one day and see them all again! 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

this morning I was reading "Christlike Poise" by Elder Mark A. Bragg from the April 2023 general conference and it was so good! everyone should go read it! but this really stuck out to me "By framing challenging times within an eternal plan, pressure becomes a privilege to love, serve, teach, and bless." anyone who knows me knows that I don't like change! change is so hard! and leaving whipple creek where I was so comfortable was really hard! but reading this I realized that change like this really just allows me to further love, serve, teach and bless. i invite you all to consider this in relation to your challenging times and recognize the opportunities those times give you! 

I'm so excited to see what elma holds! and I'm so thankful for you all! have the best week! Jesus loves you and so do I! 

-Sister Stringham