ever had expired orange juice?

 Hello hello hello! I am super happy and doing so well up here in Washington! I hope everyone is doing good! 

HIGHLIGHTS:

• TRANSFERS: This week was transfers and my new companion is Sister White! We are having an absolute blast and we are just best friends already! Fun fact, we were actually in the MTC together! She's an amazing missionary and we have seen SO many miracles together! Our zone is also so fun! We have such awesome missionaries and I'm just super blessed! 
• TEMPLE: We got to take Ray to the temple this week to do baptisms for the first time! It was incredible! He was able to be baptized and confirmed for his dad and grandfather and also got to do 15 other confirmations for a lady that had extra names. He LOVED the temple! 
• MIRACLES: We have seen a ton of miracles recently! I wanted to share just one major one with yall. We decided to go stop by a part-member family in our app. The mom has been a member her whole life but hasn't gone to church since she was a teenager. She has 2 daughters living at home who aren't members. She was super hesitant when she first opened the door and didn't really want us there, but through conversation she found out that we still do youth activities and girls camp and she let us right in! It was the grossest house I've ever seen but they were so extremely kind! They shared with us a lot of hard things they've been through. They are honestly pretty sad and their life is really hard. We were able to share with them the Because of Him video and they LOVED it! They said we could come back and they want to come to young womens this week! Big big miracles! 
• ASL MIRACLES: We have had so many opportunities to use ASL this week. Sister White also knows ASL so it's been really cool! We have met 4 deaf people this week and even though they weren't super interested, they all said we could come over to practice our signing! I'm so happy to finally get to put it to use! 

LOWLIGHTS:

• EXPIRED ORANGE JUICE: Okay now this was terrible. This was at the part member family's home that I mentioned earlier. They asked if we wanted water when we came in so we were like yeah that'd be great. One of the daughters comes back and says "I couldn't find water, but here's some juice!" Now normally juice is like kinda clear and like a nice pretty color. Not this one. This was brown and looked like a dirty lake. I was SCARED. We both took a few sips and immediately were so sick. It was definitely expired orange juice and who knows how long it had been there for. I tried to drink as much as I could because I felt bad but that was the worst idea ever and I was dying the rest of the night. I learned my lesson that I don't have to eat/drink something if it looks bad haha. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

With President Nelson passing I have been thinking a lot about everything I have learned from him as our prophet. He has had so many amazing talks but one specifically stands out to me. That talk is "Think Celestial." This talk can completely change your life if you allow it to. Being able to shift your focus to an eternal perspective makes life so much more joyful! I have definitely experienced this on my mission. Missions are hard! They test your testimony and spiritual strength unlike anything I've ever experienced before. But as I've shifted my focus to a celestial perspective, I'm able to find joy even in the hardest days. I know that this is possible for each one of you as well! 

I love you all and I can feel your prayers and support always! Have an amazing week! 

-Sister Stringham