Transfered....

Hey everyone hope y'all had a good Christmas! Christmas was so much but a little different not gonna lie.. Didn't really feel like Christmas but that's alright haha!

Found out on Christmas eve that I am getting transferred out of Port Arthur and it makes me a little sad because I have made so many good relationships here and I am really going to miss the friendships that I have made.   I won't find out till Tuesday to where I am going but I am excited to explore a little more of the mission.  I will let you guys know where I am going next week! :)

This week we really didn't have a whole lot of lessons or anything like that because everyone went down to Mexico for the holidays and they where all gone haha! We did do a lot of service which was really fun! We helped out with the salvation army which was really fun giving people their gifts and watching them walk away with big smiles on their face really made my day! We also found out that we made the front page of the Port Arthur Newspaper (click on link here) which was pretty cool! Interviewed Elder Rosenlund and that was really cool! 

Anyways I am having a great time out here and I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else! I have gained a better knowledge of the gospel and about myself! Missions really are life changing! Love you all and hope you have a good week and I will talk to y'all again in 2017!

Love, Elder Stringfellow 

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Me by our Christmas tree :)

Elder Slim Shady haha

Me and Elder Lesa with saying goodbye to some of the members

Breakfast Me and Elder Lesa made with our aprons on haha

Feliz Navidad :)

Hello everyone hope you all had a good week! This was an awesome week for everyone here in PA!

We had a baptism here this week and it was so awesome! I had the opportunity to baptize Sandra and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had here on mission.  Her and her daughter where so ready to make this giant step in their lives! Before the baptism was a little crazy not gonna lie.  

Me and Elder Lake went to the church around 1:00 pm to start getting things ready.  We did some things and we where going to go look at the font and we look in there it smelled like straight crap! We look on the floor and we saw all this slimy stuff and I am pretty sure it was sewage that came up from the drain.  It was so gross but we tried to make it look our best so we pretty much dumped an entire thing of comet cleanser in there and let it soak.  I had to clean up the slime crap and I thought i was going to throw up it was so nasty, but i think we made it look good so thats all that counts.  We got that all done and now its time for the good stuff to start.  

Its about 10 minutes till game time and I am a little nervous and I walk out of the dressing room and I see President Drake Standing there at the urinal and I was like ahhhhh crap, "everything has to be perfect."  He turned around looked at me and Elder Lake and said "I hope this is a good one and winked at us."  I was super nervous at this point, and din't want anything to go wrong within these next 10 minutes.  Well our branch president shows up at 6:20 pm and the baptism was supposed to start at 6:00 pm and I was like you have got to be kidding me... 

We started around 6:25 pm and got things going.  We had some talks given and then it was time for the service to start. First it was Melissa, [Sandra's daughter] and her primary teacher [was baptizing Melissa] and then it was me and Sandra's turn.  We get in the water and she tells that she is scared to go under and I was like well thats too late now! I say the prayer and then I had to pretty much slam her into the water so I could get her whole body under which I did.  I felt really bad but I really didn't want to screw up in front of president [Drake] and I really didn't want to do it again.  Anyways everything after that went really good and the spirit was with us.  It is a day that I will never forget! Very crazy, but very memorable day as well! 

Wish I had more to talk about but thats all that really happened this week! love you all and hope you all have a merry christmas:)

Love, Elder Stringfellow

Photos of the Week

Today's P-Day Activity - Whiffle Ball

Us cleaning the font 

Everyone that helped them get baptized  

Cool Christmas Decorations  

Me Sandra, Melissa, and elder lake before the service

Great things coming this week...

Hola family and friend! Hope all of you are doing well! Everything down here in Port Arthur is going awesome! We had an awesome week full of miracles!

I am super excited because we are going to have a baptism this Saturday with Sandra! We are going to have her and her daughter baptized together so that should be awesome! Her and her daughter are so ready to make this big step in their lives! The gospel will bless them in so many ways and there are so many blessings in store for them i can feel it! 

Anyways other than that this week was super slow.... We found some people but we where with the English elders most of the time.  They are cool elders but they are not the same as Spanish elders.  They are not as cool as us haha! 

Everyone down here is going crazy for the holiday! The streets are super packed and people are getting to the point where they are being mean, and I'm like come on man its Christmas haha! But Christmas is definitely bigger in Texas haha! 

Thats all I got this week.  Make sure to check out the videos for light the world! They are really cool and everyone should do it! 

Love, Elder Stringfellow 

Pics: Sorry I cant fix them and these are the only ones that I took...I promise I will have more this week! 

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Goofing Around

Emergency Preparedness Plan

Flooding...

Hey everyone hope you all had a good week! We had a very good week down here in Port Arthur!

So our number one investigator Sandra has a date for baptism! Her date is December 17th and we are hoping that we can do it on that date so that she can be baptized with her daughter! I am super excited about her and her daughter! Please pray so that we can  get this thing done haha! 

Other than that not a whole lot happened other than it has rained like 8 inches! It hasn't stopped for 3 days and on Saturday we rode our bikes through the flooded street right next to our apartment which was super fun!

The holidays down here are in full swing and everyone is going crazy! The stores are always full and people are still slamming the doors in our faces which is fine with me.  Salvation is personal haha! 

Thats all I got this week hope you all have a good week! And sorry I will try and send pictures next week! 

Love

Elder Stringfellow

Another Weekly Report

Hello everyone hope everyone had a good holiday week! We got work some work done this week but everyone was gone or didn't want to talk to us haha!

On Tuesday one of the Spanish Elders, Elder Bingham had a little medical problem.  He couldn't move the whole left side of his face so we had to drive him to the doctor like 30 miles away.  The doctor said he has palsy and that it should be fine here in a couple weeks.   

 

Wednesday we knocked pretty much all day and only like 3 people answered.   

 

Thursday was the fun day.  We went over to a members house and they fed us and there was so much food!! We helped them cook some of the food, and we got to help them fry the turkey also! It was so good but we had to leave and go to another house for dinner.  The second dinner was with a Mexican family and they tried to do a traditional American thanksgiving but it turn out so great haha! They made green beans but they just dumped them into a bowl and put a stick of butter on it! They where strange but still ate it! At the end of the dinner they walked out with a giant pot full of tamales haha! 

 

After our second dinner we drove by the Walmart here and it looked crazy!! Everyone one here is freaking out because some lady thought it was a good idea to bring her 10 month old baby to black Friday, and the baby ended up falling out of the mothers arms because they was getting pushed around.  Also in our mission boundaries some lady got stabbed because she wouldn't give up bath towels haha! People down here are going crazy right now! 

 

Anyways Friday was a pretty boring day, and Saturday we painted a house and put up Christmas lights for a member.  That pretty much took all day.  Sunday was a good day.  Had a good day at church and after we went and ate at a members house.  She made some Mexican meatloaf that was good.  After that we decided to go knocking and we found 3 women that wanted to talk to us.  We went in started talking and we started to talk about the Book of Mormon.  I gave it to the little girl named Emily and she opened it and started to read it right away!  I was talking with the other two ladies named Marisa and Cruz and they said that they would start reading it with her also! They want us to come back again and start reading with them and we asked if they wanted to come to church with us and Emily the little girl got super excited and yes i want to go so bad!! I pretty excited to work with them!

If any of you haven't had the opportunity to watch the new video the church came out with i would recommend it.  It has a great message on how we should light the world this Christmas season and that we should try to do what they savior did, and that is to serve others.  Like it says in the scriptures charity is the pure love of Christ.  So go check it out and see what you can do to serve others!

Anyways love y'all and hope you have a good week! 

Love, Elder Stringfellow 

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK 

Fried Turkey

Inside a Mexican Kitchen

Putting up the Christmas Lights

The Finished Product

Samurai Sam

Samurai

Some People are Crazy

Hey everyone hope you all had a good week! This was my first week with my new companion and he is pretty cool! His name is Elder Lake and he is from Oregon.  We get a long pretty well!

This week I was showing Elder Lake around our area.  We have a new investigator and her name is Sandra V.  Very weird name, but she is a cool lady.  We found her through her daughter who is an investigator for the English Sisters.  They are both really close and we want to try and get them baptized on the same day, because that would be super cool and a lot easier for all of us! 

So when we go to the soup kitchen every Wednesday we talk to this one guy from Vietnam. His name is Hong Tran, and he is the craziest man I have ever met in my entire life.  He came to America in 1980 and all he does everyday is chill.  He lives in a garage and everything he has is from the dumpster.  One day at them soup kitchen he said that he wanted to hook us up with some fresh shrimp.  So we went to go meet him at the Queen Of Vietnam Temple, and outside they have a giant statue of the Virgin Mary.  Don't ask my why they have it because I don't know.  Anyways we find Hong and we are talking to him and he wanted us to drive him to Galveston which is outside the mission to go pick up the shrimp.  We told him no and he said fine lets just go back to my house.  We had a lesson prepared from him and we taught him a little bit but them he just went off on how some guy stole his phone and he was going to kill him!! He took off his shirt to show us is muscles and all the tattoos he has and he has some pretty crazy tattoos! We left his house and I laughed so hard!! We gave him our number and he gives us a call everyday.  We are much his best friends and his only friends jaja!!   

This week I have been leading out the area, and it has been easier than I thought.  I thought it was going to be super hard, but we are talking to people and my Spanish is getting better every day! I have realized that prayer is so powerful! I have said lots of prayers asking for help, and he has helped me in more ways that I could have ever thought! I know Heavenly Father loves me and that he wants to help me.  I just need to do my part, by doing the small and simple things.  

Thats all I got. Love y'all and hope you have a good week! 

Love, Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

 

Transfers...One Day Late

Hey everyone, sorry that I am a day late my companion got transferred to a different area, but i am still here in Port Arthur!  I got a new companion named Elder Lake! He is from Oregon and he is super cool.  We are going to be getting some work done while we are here that's for sure!

Anyways not a whole lot happened this past week.  We knocked a lot of doors with a little bit of success.  We did find some people that we are going to go talk to later this week, but I am not sure that they are super interested about learning more.  

On Thursday we got to go to the temple as a mission which was pretty cool.  Not everyone from the entire mission was there I finally got to meet some of the Spanish elders, which was pretty cool because I don't know any of them.  They made us find a member to give us a ride out there and we got a ride from brandon p.  He is super cool and we love to hang out with him and his dad.  

Sunday we went and said goodbye to members for Elder Barrett.  He was sad about the whole situation but I was pretty fine.  The members out here in Port Arthur are awesome and I love them so much.  They help us out in so many ways!

One thing that I have been trying to do this past week is try and talk Spanish as much as i can.  Its still not the best Spanish, but i know if i try to work as hard as i can the lord will be there to help me as long as I am trying my best.  Not only in Spanish but in every aspect of my life!

Love you guys and hope you have a good week!

Elder Stringfellow  

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Us with Brandon

Spanish Elders

District Superman Pics

Us with the Penas

Everything is bigger in Texas Jaja

Another week of the same....

Hey everyone! hope y'all had a good week! Everything here is pretty much the same! Trying to find people and doing service!

On Tuesday we where looking for the young adults in our branch because President Hernandez asked if we could help out with that, and we found some pretty interesting people not gonna lie! A lot of them don't even live in the house that it says they live in, and the people that live there now are pretty interesting not gonna lie! People thinking that we are Amish and that we churn our own butter.  Then the guy told us he was high and we where like oh thats nice, but we gotta go! We are going to talk with this guy again this week! Pretty excited for that haha!

Wednesday we where riding bikes looking for some people and we found some kid that is from the church of La Luz de la Mundo which means "light of the world."  He went off saying things that I can't even remember but I'll give the kid some credit, he did know his bible! After all that he told us he had to leave because they have church 3 times every day and he had to leave to get ready! I don't know why you would have church 3 times everyday but thats not my problem haha!

Thursday we did weekly planning and then we did more service! we helped a man from the English ward help him with his tree house.  He built the coolest tree house i have ever seen! I don't know how long it took him but man its pretty dang cool! Ill send some pics.

Friday was zone meeting some we went up there and got some really good  insight about how the members can help us better.  The members from our branch are really cool and help us out a lot! Most of them are really cool!  Then after the meeting we went to go talk to some referrals but they weren't there.   

Saturday we had more service! We helped a guy out in our branch named Victor V.  This guy is awesome and he makes some good food! We helped paint railings and cabinets that took all day but it was fun with Victor!

Anyways that is all I got this week! Love y'all and hope you have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Stringfellow

Halloween

Hi everyone hope y'all had a good week!  This week was pretty much the same as every week.  We did do quite a bit of service again!

Monday night we had a family home evening with some less actives in the ward and that went really good! They didn't come to church but it still went really good!  Tuesday we where biking all day trying to find some people and we found a couple that could be pretty good.  A man by the name of Gustavo.  He is from Nicaragua and he liked what we talked about.  We are going to talk to him again tomorrow.  Wednesday we did some service in the morning and then the English ward had a Halloween party and we went to that.  They had some pretty good chili there not gonna lie!  Then Thursday we had to help out some people with their yard because they where having a little league football party in their backyard on Saturday.  That took quite a bit of time.

We where going to have a lesson with Tony Delacruz but he has a really weird work schedule so it is really hard to meet with him.  We are going to keep trying with him every day.  Friday we helped some inactive cat lady move out of her house and it was the most disgusting house that I have ever been too! There was cat hair everywhere and it smelled like cat pee so bad!! Me and Elder Lesa were moving this couch and like 3 cats bolted out from under the couch and it scared the crap out of me!. We got that done and then we went and talked with some people. Saturday we knocked a couple houses and we got some people we are going to talk to This week!  Then Sunday we went to church ate with some members and I got to show off my billiards skills on Sunday night! We had a pool tournament and I won! 

Thats all I did this week! I love you all and hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow 

P.S. Sorry if my grammar stinks haha!

The Biggest Gas Station Ever

Hi everyone hope y'all had a good week! We had a very quite but good week, with lots of service again!

Tuesday we went on exchanges.  I got to go with Elder Tapusorus and we just went and visited some people in the English ward.  It was a pretty boring day for missionary work, but me and Tapusorus got along pretty well! Wednesday we went to The soup kitchen as usual, but then after we got called to move another person and that took the rest of the day.  I am staying in shape thats for sure.  Thursday was Zone Conference and that was pretty good.  We talked about how we can build our faith.  What I got out of it was that I just need to keep doing what I am doing right now.  Just the small simple things like reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, and living the commandments of god.  Really that is what I do every day but I know I can do better, and same with all y'all.  So if you wanna build your faith just do the small simple things....

Then on Friday we had another meeting, which took up a big chunk of our day, and then we talked with a member in our ward about preparing to enter the temple.  She is a really cool lady and her husband was a missionary and he is awesome.  They are the Ortiz family and they are probably my favorite family out here.  She can't say my name so they call me Elder Springfield haha!

Saturday was probably the most exciting day.  We had the opportunity to go to the temple with the whole branch pretty much and Hermana Ortiz! she was able to do baptisms for the first time and her husband got to baptize her and that was really cool to see!  After that we went and ate at Cici's pizza and that was pretty good! Then after that we went to the probably the biggest gas station in the world! its called Buc-ees and it is crazy! They have over 100 gas pumps and the store is a place where I could get my weekly shopping done.  It is probably the same size as Dicks Market in Bountiful and it is a cool place.  

Then Sunday we got to celebrate Elder Barrett's birthday!  Our branch had a surprise party for him, and then a family from the English ward had a dinner party for him that night.  They made him a shirt that is pretty funny! Ill send a pic.

Thats all I got this week! love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love, 

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK 

Buc-ees - Inside the Store

Buc-ees 100 gas pumps

Stevie, Paul, Brandon, Elder Barrett, and Elder Lesa. I told everyone to make a straight face and no one did it haha!

With Ruben Ortiz and his son Diego

Still in Port Arthur for Another Transfer

Hello everyone hope y'all had a good week!  We had transfers this past week and we got some new elders.  We got some new English and Spanish elders!  They are really cool, and lets just say we got some pretty big boys in our district... We have a Samoan as our district leader.  His name is Elder Tapusoa, but we call him Tapusoarus. No sure if that is how you spell it but you get the point haha! I don't have any pics but we will take some and I will send them later.

Anyways since we got new Spanish Elders they split our area.   It is a good thing they did that because that means we don't have to ride our bikes that much, but its also a bad thing because some of our solid investigators lived there and that means we don't get to teach them any more... I am kind of bummed but I still know there is someone out there for me!

This week we where pretty much helping the new Spanish elders figure out there area so we showed them around a little bit and showed them where things where.  There is a new elder here and that means that I am no longer the greenie haha! But yeah we where with them pretty much the entire week so we really do anything until Saturday when me and Elder Barrett rode our bikes all day.  We mapped it out and we rode about 35 miles.  My legs where burning pretty bad Sunday when we where teaching gospel principles.  

This week we are going to go after it and try and find some new people to teach.  Thankfully we still have Jazel in our area, and her and her sister are getting pretty close to baptism.  just need to keep working with them.  

Thats all I got this week. Love y'all and hope you have a good week! 

Love, 

Elder Stringfellow

Transfer 1 Down.....Still in Port Arthur, TX

Man I can't believe it is the end of my first transfer! Time really does fly by while you are out here! This week was very good because of General Conference!  I really liked how it talked a lot about Joy!  We are all down here to experience joy, and in my opinion the only way we can experience that constant joy in our lives is through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!  One of those ways we can experience joy is by following the example of Jesus Christ.  As I have been out here every day trying to follow his example I have never been more happy in my entire life.  So if there is anything that I ask of you this week is to try and follow the example of Jesus Christ in your life.  I already know most of you try to do that but it really does bring joy.

So on Monday after we got done writing we decided to go to the beach.  It was not the beaches of California that's for sure, but we still had a good time.  

  

Tuesday through Thursday was pretty much the same.  We knocked on some doors and we talked with our investigators.  Our main focus right now is on a family from Cuba.  One of the daughters in that family was recently baptized.  We have taught them twice and it has gone really good.  The only problem is that Cubans talk in a really low voice and they talk super fast and I can't even understand them.  But I do know that they know that this church is true and we just need to teach them a couple more times, and answer some questions.  There names are, Ana, Eiva, and Amarury Ruiloba.  They are super cool and I have a good feeling about them.  We are still working with Jazel, Roberto, and Linda.  Just need to patient

Friday is where it got a little bit crazy.  Some elders in our area asked us if we could help them with a baptism.  We thought we where going to put up chairs and clean up a little bit but we where not going to do any of that.  They told us that morning that the man that was going to be baptized could not walk and had some disease and that we needed to carry him into the pool so that he could be baptized.  We where excited to see how this was going to go.  That baptism was at 6:00 and we had a dinner appointment at 5:00.  Our plan was to eat for about 30 minutes and then leave.  We we're on track to leave at that time but then we ran out of tortillas.  So they decided to go to the store and get more.  They lived about 2 miles away but the lady took forever.  So we hurry and ate more tacos and we got there like 10 minutes late.  We got their and we where able to help lift him into the pool.  We had to do it at a pool because it took about 8 elders to lift him in and hold him up.  Even though it wasn't my own baptism it was by far the most spiritual experience I have had on my mission.   After we got to stand in the circle and help confirm him a member of the church.  It was honestly the coolest thing ever.  

That is all I got this week! I love you all and hope you all have an awesome week!​

 

Love, 

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

The Baptism...One of the Coolest Experiences So Far

The District

At the Beach...on the Gulf of Mexico

Their Future Album Cover

Week 5 from Port Arthur, TX

Hello everyone! hope you all had a good week! This was a very good and very busy week this week!

First off on Monday me and Elder Barrett had to go to the hospital to give a Hermana in our branch a blessing.  We had to do this because she wanted to come to the fiesta that we had last Saturday! The only problem is, is that she has a bad heart and has not been taking her pills like she should.  So she decided to down a red bull and and a 5 hour energy all in the same hour.  That led to her having something weird happen to her body that made her pretty much shut down.  This all happened on Saturday night and we didn't find out till Monday.  She is doing better and is out of the hospital doing fine! 

So we have been teaching this girl named Jazel.  Her mom and her dad are recent converts, and they are giving her the option on whether or not she wants to be baptized.   Its a slow process because every time we go over there and try to teach we help their family with homework because the parents don't know any English.  We are close to getting a baptismal date with her.  Just need to be more patient.   

Then on Friday we where riding our bikes and this guy comes and wants to talk to us.  So he started to us saying he wants to change his life but he can't.  So we said a prayer with him and was saying amen throughout the whole prayer.  Then things got really interesting! His friend pulled up on his bike and started going off on the weirdest things.  They thought that the grand canyon was created when Satan fell.  They thought that weed was the plant of god.  That they have learned so much when they smoke weed, but every other drug on the earth is bad for you.  Then they think that Bruce Banner aka the hulk was the spirit and that though him they can become like the hulk one day. 

Me and Elder Barrett where just sitting there like what the heck is going on .  The guys name was OG and the other was like some weird name.  When they walked off we just started to laugh and laugh! It was one of the funniest/craziest things I have ever heard! 

Then on Saturday we taught Roberto and Linda.  It went very good.  We went over the baptismal interview questions with them and the only one they really had trouble with was about the prophet.  They didn't know if we was real, so we showed them a video and they came to conclusion that he is. So we gave them a date for baptism.  We gave them October 23!  We did it so late in the month because we still got some work to do but they are very close!! 

Thats really all I got this week! I love you all and hope you have a good week!!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

Cool Sunset

 

Week 4 from Port Arthur, TX

Hello Everyone!  Hope you all had a good week! This week was very busy but it was very fun!

On Tuesday we went contacting for a little bit but then we had to go across the mission to make it to a missionary conference.  We had to pick up some other elders on the way and we talked on the car ride there.  We stayed with some elders.  One was Elder Tukuafu and the other was Elder Lunt.  I know Elder Tukuafu from football.  He played football for East, and Elder Lunt is the cousin of Takoda Lunt.  They are both cool and we talked till like 12:30.  

Anyways the next day we had a lot of meetings and it was really hard to stay awake but it was very good.  We talked about how we should fear no man.  So this week I have been trying to go up to people with no fear and tell them what I know to be true!  It worked out very well.  Me and Elder Barrett where knocking on doors and some lady came out with her bible and started to bash with us.  Me and elder already had some fire in us.  We ended up totally defending our faith with the lady.  She ended up saying that she respects us and walked back into her house.  I felt very cool after that haha! 

This Saturday was a very fun day! We had a Fiesta, and let me tell ya, these people know how to throw a party!  The food was very good, but we where a little scared because they wanted us to sing a song in Spanish.  So we got a Spanish CD from someone and we went into the car and stared practicing.  We went in all confident and they said we are not singing anymore... I was a little bummed but if i ever need to sing a Spanish song in the future i have one :)   

Anyways that's all i got this week! I hope you all have a good week!

 

Love,

Elder Stringfellow 

(I asked Elder Stringfellow how he and his companion are doing and this is his response - "He is good! All we do is speak Spanish and eat grapes haha! I have probably eaten like 7 bags of grapes by myself this week! We put them in the freezer and they are very good frozen lol! I eat eggs everyday with my valentinas sauce and it is very good.  I get the extra hot and it is very good and you should go get it and try it .  You can probably find it at smiths or something but it is very good.")

 

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK    

At the Fiesta

Cool Sunset

A HS Football Stadium

 

Week 3 in Port Arthur, TX

Hello everyone! hope you all had a good week!  Things down here are pretty much the same! a lot of bike riding, contacting people and talking to a bunch of Catholics! They are some really nice people, but they believe in some really weird stuff!   It is still really hot and there are no signs of it cooling off down here anytime soon haha!

Like I said we did a lot of contacting and not a whole lot of luck but we did have some pretty good lessons with some people!  We talked with Roberto again and we got his wife to listen in on the lesson and said she wanted to become a member but she doesn't think she can because she is always to tired and is working all the time.  We are really close but we still have some explaining to do!  

We had zone conference this past Friday and that went really good! Me and Elder Barrett are the only Spanish elders in the zone.  There are Hermana's but they are in a different area.  I don't  know any of the Spanish people yet, but i get to see them on Wednesday and i am pretty excited about that! 

Thats all i really have for this week!  I get an i pad on Wednesday so if there is anything you want to send me through out the week the would be awesome!  Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

They found out I hate Ketchup

The river where they go do some planning

More of the river

Elder Cool

Eggs that Elder Stringfellow Makes everyday

Biggest cloud he has ever seen

Week 3 in Port Arthur, TX

Hello everyone! hope you all had a good week!  Things down here are pretty much the same! a lot of bike riding, contacting people and talking to a bunch of Catholics! They are some really nice people, but they believe in some really weird stuff!   It is still really hot and there are no signs of it cooling off down here anytime soon haha!

Like I said we did a lot of contacting and not a whole lot of luck but we did have some pretty good lessons with some people!  We talked with Roberto again and we got his wife to listen in on the lesson and said she wanted to become a member but she doesn't think she can because she is always to tired and is working all the time.  We are really close but we still have some explaining to do!  

We had zone conference this past Friday and that went really good! Me and Elder Barrett are the only Spanish elders in the zone.  There are Hermana's but they are in a different area.  I don't  know any of the Spanish people yet, but i get to see them on Wednesday and i am pretty excited about that! 

Thats all i really have for this week!  I get an i pad on Wednesday so if there is anything you want to send me through out the week the would be awesome!  Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

They found out I hate Ketchup

The river where they go do some planning

More of the river

Elder Cool

Eggs that Elder Stringfellow

Biggest cloud he has ever seen

 

Week 2 in Port Arthur, TX

Hey everyone! Hope everything back home is going good! Everything down here is going great! The only problem is that this week was really hot, so that made bike riding really fun haha!  We did a lot of contacting this week and it went really good.  The people here are really nice and they listen to us, but they usually say they are not interested.  I got to take the lead in a couple lessons this week in Spanish.  They went ok, we are going to go back and talk to them this week and see how they feel!

My Spanish is getting better!  I am starting to pick up some things when they talk, but they still talk super fast haha!  We talked to this man named Elloy who is from Cuba, and he is the fastest talker I have ever met.  It is hard for my companion to understand him haha!  He really likes to talk to us. We will be talking to him some more this week!

Our lesson with Roberto went OK! He really loves his family, so we taught him how families can live together forever!  He liked that, so we invited him to come to church, but his family didn't want to go so he didn't come.  We are working with him and he is a really cool guy, and seems really interested, we just need to work with him.

The one thing that has tested me this week is patience.  Like my mom always says patience is a virtue.  I have been thinking about that a lot because the English speaking elders in our area are having a lot of success, and we are trying to get new investigators but it is hard here because there is not a whole lot of Spanish speaking people here.  I just need to be patient and wait for that one person that needs to here our message.  The lord will make sure they are ready, I just need to have faith!

That is all I got this week! I will try and send pictures! love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

Week 1 in Port Arthur, TX

This as been a very good but long week!  I love it here and the people here are awesome! The only problem is that I have no idea what they are saying haha!  I have been studying hard trying to get the language down.  Elder Barrett is helping me out a lot with my Spanish and he is awesome! I just need to keep pressing forward with faith that god will help me with my challenges!

Well let me just say that we are in the ghetto jahaha!  We drove buy the store and there where a bunch cop cars and there was someone being taken out on a stretcher with a blanket over him so I thought that couldn't be good!  On tuesday nights we play basketball with a gang pretty much!  They are all of different cultures and races and the play straight up street ball haha!  We do play in the church and they do respect us and the church.  They don't swear or anything like that but we almost saw a couple fights haha!

This week has been full of a lot of bike riding! We do have a car but we only use it for like an hour each day.  On Saturday we rode at least 10 miles! It wasn't as hot because it was raining the entire time haha!  We also had a lesson on Saturday with a man named Robert.  The guy is so nice and he as a really nice family.  We taught him for about 1 hour and at the end of our lesson he started to show some emotion but he didn't say anything to us after the lesson other than we are meeting with him again on Saturday so we will see how that goes!  

We have a couple people that could be pretty interesting.  We will go visit with them this week and see how they are doing!  

I have had some good food so far, but I have lost weight because we ride our bikes so much and I sweat so much haha!  I can't wear any gray or tan pants because they will change color haha! 

That is all I really got this week! I love you all and hope you all have a good week!

Love 

Elder Stringfellow 

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

T.H.E Mission Group - August 22

Sister Drake, Elder Stringfellow, President Drake

Elder Stringfellow and his Comp Elder Barrett