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