Week #37 Back to the Streets!

Hallo, so after a trip to the hospital, a week in bed, and a call from the mission medical advisor in Frankfurt, I am back of the streets of Lüneburg preachin' and teachin' and savin' the souls of men!

I spent a couple days in bed, got worse and went to the hospital.  It was not a fun experience and the Germans doctors were very grumpy, BUT!  I learned some new German terms and that was stellar!  And we found no pneumonia which is also stellar! 

I spent the rest of the week in bed, still was not any better, and so I was called by the missionary doctor.  He asked lots of good questions, gave me some good suggestions, told me to load up on the pain meds and hit the streets this week and see how it goes!  We want to get me functioning again as soon as possible so that I can stay out here serving the Lord.  I am super optimistic about the this week, and although it scares me to be out working, I know that I am not alone because THE LORD IS WITH ME.  I know it.

So, pray for me as I am out this week!  I did it yesterday and felt so fully and so truly the hands of the Lord, strengthening me and helping me to do everything I need to.  I am sick and tired, but I am SO HAPPY and I have faith in my Father and that He is taking care of me and that He will give me the strength I need. 

I got a beautiful Priesthood blessing this week from my district leader and I testify, with all my heart and as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Priesthood is a real power.  It is the power of God and it can and bless and heal here on earth.  I have no fear for the future because I know that God is with me and that He is strengthening me. 

I love my God!!  And I love my mission!!!

I love my mission!!!!  I am so grateful for it!!  This week we had interviews with President, who is probably my favorite person on the planet.  Favorite line from this past interview:

"Sister Stringham, you are my strong little sister.  You are just good, like a cat by a warm fireplace.  We will get you healthy again."

#germancompliments

I love my mission and my mission president!!  And I love my leaders!!  This week we also went on tausch and so I got to spend a day with Sister Jardine.  It was such a tender mercy and exactly what I needed.  The Lord knows me so well and has sent angels to me out here in the field to help me and build my faith.  And that is what SIster Jardine is, an angel sent to help me.  I am so grateful for Sister Jardine and all that she does for me, and for my companion Sister Knecht!

I am so grateful to be a missionary.  I love my mission with all my heart, and I love being a missionary.  I know that this work is true, and that it is truly the work of God.  I know that God knows each one of us and loves us so dearly.  I know that He is with me.  I love Him so dearly and I love this work.  I love my mission.  And I love all of you!  I am thinking of you and praying for you!!  Keep smiling and staying faithful, even in tough times because that is what life is all about, and it is our faith that makes us whole and happy!  I am so happy!  

Love you all!!

Love, Sister Stringham

Week # 36 Miracles and Bedrest

Hallo Lovelies!!

So, this week was wonderful!  And lots of things happend!

First of all, we had great success at our district finding activity.  THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PRAYERS!!  We felt them for sure, and we found people to teach and we are so grateful!  I love this work and I love the missionaries I serve with.  They are such powerful examples and I always learn so much!  I GOT TO SPEND THE DAY WITH MY DARLING SISTER JARDINE, just like old times.  It was lovely, and we were frueing ourselves the whole day :)  She is SUCH a rockstar missionary and I am the luckiest girl in all the land to be trained by her, and then to again be in her district here in Hamburg.  I learn so much from her and am always just so inspired and uplifted!  Heavenly Father knows each of us so well, and He puts us with people, not in places.  We are so grateful to be here together.  I was actually really sick the day of district finding, so after teaching the thema in district meeting and learning SO much from out district and zone leaders, and having lunch with the district, Sister Jardine and I went back to the apartment and I spent the rest of the day in bed.  We talked and prayed and it was perfect.  She taught me so much, as per usual, and it was just what I needed.  So grateful to have her here.

Which leads me to the next news:  I am sick.

Sicky sick sick.

But!  Alles wird gut!!

So this week I got the stomach flu which lasted for a few days, but brought back all of the pnuemonia symptoms.  It was a little frustrating at first because I saw SO many miracles with my health before my mission.  It was only the direct intervention of God which got me out here, and it was frustrating to be sick halfway through. And it scared me!  The idea of having to go home and leave this place and the people I love.  Having to leave the vineyard!  I was scared and angry and then!  I realized!  That is a lack of faith.  In the scriptures it teaches us that fear is the opposite of faith and something that the perfect love of Christ casteth out.  It says that fear is spoken of as something unworthy of a child of God.  Fear is unworthy of us.  We have a Father who loves and cares for us, and if we will but trust and follow Him, we will inherit ALL that He has.  Once I remembered that and who I really was, the fear was gone.  Heavenly Father has a plan for me and will take care of me and will help me to do all that I need to do.  I am so grateful for the time that I have already had here, and I am working hard on getting healthy so that I will have nine more months! I am so grateful for Sister Knecht who has taken SUCH good care of me here!!  I am so grateful for all that I have already learned and all that I have become.  I know that this time and sacrifice has been worth it just for that.  I am so grateful for all of the support and prayers in my behalf.  

ELISHA IS BAPTIZED!!!!!!

So I wasnt there, but I am so very very happy and proud of this little boy.  He is one of the wisest I have ever taught, and he is 9!  His family is amazing and I am so happy and grateful that he has come into the fold of God and has received the Holy Ghost.  He will be a strength and a beacon to his family now and in generations to come.  SO HAPPY!!!

Elisha's Baptism - Bruder Marzahn, Elisha,my companion, Sister Chevalier, and Gladys (Elisha's mommy)

Birgül's Birthday - Two of Bigül's husband's friends (Josef and something else???), Birgül (with her little girl Marya on her lap), me, Sister Chevalier, and Sara (Josef's wife) It's super funny that just during the picture they make straight faces because the rest of the time they were beaming from ear to ear...

Last week Monday we went to Oranienburg in the northern tip of Berlin and went to a Concentration Camp Memorial (Sachsenhäuser Gendenkstätte) there. I am a sensitive soul and it was rough. It was so sad! So many people were killed for no reason. It made me think a lot too, about how blessed I am and how my knowledge of the Savior really makes a difference. My favorite line from Preach My Gospel is 'Everything that is unfair about life will be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ.' I know with my whole heart that is true! All of our losses will be made up. Christ came to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and to set at liberty them that are bruised (see Luke 4:18). If that happens in this life or the next - it will happen! 

Sachsenhäuser Gendenkstätte

I love and miss and pray for you all every day.  I love this work and I love my mission.  I love my God and my Savior.  I know that this is their work, and I am so grateful and humbled to be a part of it.  I am so grateful to be here!  I love my mission!!  And I will keep loving it and smiling in rain or shine or bedrest!

Love, Sister Stringham

I think this is my favorite sermon from the Savior. I love my Savior and I know Him and am so grateful for that:

https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/the-good-shepherd-and-other-sheep-i-have?lang=eng

Week #35 Sunshine!!

I love Lüneburg and I LOVE Lauenburg.

So I am in the country.  In the German Countryside.

I love it.  It is so beautiful.  There are sheep and big houses and grumpy old Germans and thatched roofs and rolling hills and green everywhere.

  AND!  The sun came out this week!  IT IS SUNNY AND BEAUTIFUL!!!!  It felt like spring in America and left me missing watermelon and country music.  But!  It is INDESCRIBABLY beautiful here in northern Germany and I know that I will miss this place forever and ever when I go back home.

It was such a blessing to see the sun this week.  And to feel warm.  This Arizona girl was quite happy.  And another miracle!!!!

WE TAUGHT A REAL LIVE LESSON THIS WEEK!!!  AHHH it was the most wonderful thing on the planet.  We finally taught a real lesson in a real house to a real investigator with real interest.  First time that has happened in this area in months, and it was a REAL miracle.  I am so grateful and humbled to be a part of this work.  I am so grateful for this gospel and I am so grateful to be a missionary!  We taught a woman named Monika.  She is a mommy of 4 kids, 2 of which are handicapped.  She has a strong spirit and really has a gift of recognizing spiritual things.  Years ago she had a dark feeling come into her heart as she visited a church, and she swore that she would never go to church again.  But we met with her and talked to her and she said she just felt good the whole time we were talking and especially as we prayed together, and she said she would come to church with us on Sunday.  It is a MIRACLE.  Our God always has been and always will be a God of miracles.  I know it and I am so grateful for it!

And speaking of miracles, this Wednesday we will have all 8 missionaries in our district and our 2 zone leaders from Hamburg here in Lüneburg for a couple hours to work with us and find people to teach and to see miracles.  Our ward here will be praying for us and we will be praying and any other prayers in our behalf on that day would be much appreciated :)

I love my ward in Lauenburg.  They are so wonderful and loving and everytime I see them I am just filled with JOY!  Yesterday, we went out to Familie Glück's farm for dinner.  We saw all their sheep and chickens and bunnies and cats and dogs, and there were animals and rolling hills and Germans and the sun was shining and I was just so happy.  I love it here, even when the work is hard, I KNOW I am where I am supposed to be and I KNOW that I am loved by my father and I KNOW that I am doing the work of the Lord with the Lord.  I am so grateful to be here.  I love you all and am ALWAYS praying for you!  Keep smiling and living the gospel.  I am so proud of you all! 

Love, Sister Stringham

SO PROUD OF YOU ALL AND CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THE TEMPLE AGAIN SOMEDAY!!!

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-dedicates-142nd-temple?cid=HPTU030414536&im=true

Week #34 - HALFWAY HOME

I am halfway through my mission. 

I.am.halfway.through.my.mission.

In 9 months from TODAY, I get on a plane and head back to America, to see all of your shining smiling faces, and leave all the people I love here behind.

So bittersweet.  And I am freaking out.  HALFWAY HOME!!

Its great though!  I love my mission and I love this work, and I know that it is preparing me for the rest of my life.  I have changed so much, and I am so much better than I was before, and so much closer to my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ.  I am so grateful for every single day that I have here.  I am so grateful for all that I am learning and all that I am feeling and all that I am becoming. 

And I am so grateful for everyone I am meeting here!!  I love Germans and the people I work with here.  I LOVE THE WARD IN LAUENBURG!

Golly, I love this ward!!  They are so full of love and happiness!  They are so wonderful and I am so grateful to be here and so grateful that I am working to bring more people into their family!  Yesterday, at church, it was just so happy and the love of Christ was truly there and the Spirit was so strong and I just know with all my heart that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ.  I know that this is where our Father in Heaven wants all of His children.  I know this is where true and lasting joy comes.  I love this gospel and I love the Church of Jesus Christ!

After church, Sister Knecht and I, Familie Arndt, and Famile Warnke all went over to Familie Bonecelli's house for dinner.  Schwester Bonecelli is SO COOL.  I cant even describe.   She is not a member of the church (she is working on a smoking addiction before her baptism), but she comes every Sunday and teaches a dancing class and an Italian class and just LOVES the missionaries and the ward and the gospel.  She is SO cool!!  I love her so much!  We went over to her house for dinner where she prepared a HUGE, 5 course, Italian meal for all of us.  It was so "lecker" (delicious), and I just cant describe in words the joy that I felt.  It wasnt even anything in particular, but I was just bursting with joy.

This is why I love my mission.  This is why I love this work.  God lets us feel just the tiniest bit of His love for His children; see just the tiniest bit of their potential; feel just the tiniest bit of His joy.  I love this gospel and I love my God and I love my mission!  I am so happy and so grateful!

I love you all so much, and miss you, and pray for you, and cant wait to see you in LESS THAN 9 MONTHS!  Stay faithful and smiling!  And pray for us here in Lüneburg!!

Love, Sister Stringham

Week #33 - Lovely Lüneburg

Hallo from Hamburg!

I am so so SO happy!!  I love Lüneburg!  I love my mission!  I love being a missionary!!  I love this work and I know that God is with us every single day!  I am so grateful to be here!

So Lüneburg!!  IT IS BEAUTIFUL HERE!!!!

Lüneburg is one of the only cities in this country not bombed in the war, so all of the buildings are ancient and SO beautiful!  I am surrounded by so much history!  It is a little city, right by the Elbe River.  The people walk slowly and talk to you on the street, which is different.  And!  They are all religious!  Woah!! They have five churchs right here in the city, and everyone loves Jesus which is so different and so wonderful!!  I am so happy!  

We don't actually have a ward here in Lüneburg (not yet at least) so we travel by train for an hour to Lauenburg to go to the ward there.  This week we had stake conference in Hamburg, so I haven't met very many people from my ward yet, but everyone I have met has been SO friendly and sweet and I am so excited and grateful to be here!!

And Stake Conference was AMAZING!!  The Hamburg stake is a little small (which means it is very much like a family) and there was a broadcast from Salt Lake to all the stakes in Germany and other German speaking areas.  It was so wonderful and the Spirit was so strong and I learned so much.  And!!  Ahhh!  Best thing ever!!!!  Elder Bednar spoke to us IN GERMAN!  It was so neat!  Everything else was translated, but when he got up to speak, he just said that he was so grateful for the opportunity to speak to the people he loved so dearly, and that he could use his mission language again after 41 years, and he gave his whole talk in German!!  It was so cool, and you could just see and hear his love for his mission and for the people here.  That is how I want to be 40 years from now!  And he did a great job!  I could actually understand everything that was said because he talked a little slower and had a bit of an american accent.  It was great and I was SOO impressed by him and the way he could do that 40 years later.  Such an amazing experience!  I am so so grateful for my mission!  I love my mission!  I love Germany and I love the people here! 

My new companion, Sister Knecht

And I love this new city!  The work has been dead here in Lüneburg for a while, but this week we decided to throw away the past and work towards the future.  We decided to have faith, not fear, to put our trust in God and His work, and go forward, and you know what?  We saw SO many miracles this week!  We found so many people and truly felt the Lord with us.  This is HIS work.  I know it!  And I know that when we put our trust in Him, that He helps us to see miracles.  I know that through faith, everything is possible!  I am so grateful to be  a missionary, and to be learning that for myself.  I am so grateful to be here helping others develop faith, and to be strengthening my own.  I love this church, I love my God, I love my mission!!

And I love you all!!  Thank you for all of the support and the prayers.  I am praying for you too! Shoutouts:

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE MARRIAGE SHELBEY #bestfriendmarried #awkwardsinglesister #sohappyforthenewcouple

My dear Lappara family, you an inspiration for all of us!  We are praying and fasting for you here in Germany.  I love you all so dearly, and will keep sending prayers your way!

Saying good-bye to family

I love you all.  Keep trusting in God and shining your light!!

Love, Sister Stringham

Week #32 - A New Adventure

After almost 8 months here in Spandau, the call came on Staurday and it is finally time for me to leave this city and the people I have loved so dearly, and start out on a new adventure! 

This little Bilbo is headed to Lüneburg, a small city just outside of Hamburg to preach and teach, and I leave this Tuesday!  The apartment is just about packed, and after last minute goodbyes tonight, I will be all set to leave.

I am so sad to leave this city where I have spent everyday of the last 8 months loving and working for the people, but I will go where the Lord wants me to go, and I am so grateful and SO EXCITED to start a new adventure, a new mission with the people of Lüneburg!

No matter how far away I go, even all the way across the mission, my heart will always be in Spandau with the families I love!!  Yesterday at church was so sad but so beautiful as I said goodbye to all the people that I have grown so close to!  I love the Spandau Ward, and between the tears and the hugs, I got some great pictures!

Familie Dessin - Love these ladies!!

Familie Wunderbar (Silva)

Familie Stanculovi - Definitely came on my mission for this beautiful family!!!

 Familie Lindenau by the river on a lovely sunday stroll!

District in Spandau before transfers 

I have loved my time in Spandau but I look forward to new adventures, there and back again.   

Love, Sister Dal

Week #31 - The Sun Again?

Heellloo dear ones!!

We have seen the sun again!!  It is warm, the snow is melting, I'm back to just 2 layers of tights instead of 3 or 4, and this Arizona girl is feeling warm and happy!!  We have had yet another fab week here in Spandau too!!  And transfer calls are this Saturday, so this could be my last week here!  Bishop gave me a talk for the end of March and is quite set on me staying though haha, so we will see!!

So this past week...

We went and visited Sabine, a convert of about 2 years in our ward, who has been SUPER sick.  We felt like we should go by again and see if there was anything we could do to help her that day, and we were an answer to her prayers and she had us walk her dogs!  I love serving and I love dogs, so we were more than happy to help!!

We had Zone Training Meeting and learned SO much!  I love the missionaries I serve with here in Berlin!!  They are incredible!!  They are strong and faithful and such powerful teachers, and I felt the Spirit of the Lord testifying yet again that this is His work and I am just so grateful to be a part of it!!  I love my mission and I love my calling.  I am a testifier of my Lord, a saver of souls, and I disciple of Christ.  I have been called and I am the Savior's hands in this part of His vineyard.  I am so grateful I get to be a part of this work!  Even when the week is hard, when we face disappointments, when we are mocked or yelled at or whatever it may be, even when Satan tries to discourage us, I KNOW in whom I have trusted and I KNOW that this is the work of God.  It is an honor to serve a mission.  We are those that the Savior has to bring His children back, and He wants His kids back.  I am so grateful I get to be part of this work, and that God can work through me to perform miracles.  I am so imperfect and have so much to learn, but I know that it doesn't matter what we are, that God can take us and make us into something so much greater to accomplish His will.  I am so grateful to be a desciple of Jesus Christ, and so grateful to be doing His work!!

We also walked through a park yesterday and talked to everyone we saw and you know what?  So many people were nice and were willing to hear us out!  It was such a miracle!! 

 And the sun was shining and the ice was melting (probably warming the hearts of the Germans) and it was just so beautiful and happy. 

 Even here in East Berlin, where less than 26% of people believe in God, there can be miracles and hearts can change, because this is HIS work and HIS glory and HIS gospel. 

I am so grateful to be here and to be His servant in Berlin.  I love my mission!!

I love you all and I am praying for you!!  Keep shining and sharing your light!

Love, Sister Dally

In other news,
I am more than a little obsessed with these videos.  Check them out!

http://www.lds.org/bible-videos?lang=eng

I love my Savior!!

Okay, here I am as Sista Stringham!

Schwester Antwi in our ward is from Ghana and taught us how to tie our hair african style!  Surprisingly comfortable and now a common style in our apartment!