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

 

I Made It!

This has been a super crazy week! I finally left the MTC thank goodness haha! I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to be there and to learn.  It has really helped me out.  I started off my day yesterday at 2:30 am in the morning!  I got about an hour of sleep because, everyone one in the zone was leaving so I had to say good bye to them.  I made a lot of really good friends there, and I will remember every single one of them for the rest of my life.  

So when I got here, I had a bunch of meetings with the mission presidency and stuff, and then I got my companion.  His name is Elder Barrett and he is from Alpine, UT (Lone Peak HS).  He is a really good guy and he is really good at Spanish.  We listen to the Spanish radio in the car and listen to the commercials to see if I can understand what they are saying.  Not gonna lie its pretty helpful.  I haven't talked with any investigators yet, but we where going to go to a members house yesterday but they weren't home.  Elder Barrett said the people are really cool and I am really excited to meet them!  

President Drake said one of the first things we had to do was talk to someone and invite them to be baptized.  Well I talked to some lady that said her family was a part of the church and she didn't want to do anything with our church!  But we talked about how her family was involved with the floods in Baton Rouge and I said we will pray for you and your family.  She said "Thats really nice of you but you can't convert me!" And I said maybe not but I will try!  And she said try you will and walked off.  So thats how my day has been going so far haha!  

So Ya I am here in Port Arthur with my companion Elder Barrett, and we are doing great!  I love you all and will talk to you next week!  Be expecting an email on Monday.  That is my P-Day!

Love 

Elder Stringfellow 

Photos of the Week

The District on the Sunday before they left for Houston

The Kitchen

The Bedroom

The Study

Travel Plans...

Elder Sam Stringfellow informed us tonight that he received his Travel Plans and he will leave the MTC on Monday, August 22nd for Houston TX, He is so excited to get out into the field.  We too are excited for him as well.

I scored a goal...

This was a good week as you can tell by my subject haha! We played soccer as a zone and I am in a big zone, so its kind of hard to score a goal haha! It bounced off the goalies chest because I kicked it so hard haha!  Other than that things here are going good!  I am so ready to get out of here and go out into the field, but I know that its going to be a little bit of a change!  I got by flight plans and I need to be at the travel office at 4:20 in the morning and my flight leaves at 8:55!  They said I can call as many times as I want while I am in the airport! I am excited to talk to most of you and I cant wait to heat how you all are doing :)

The Spanish is starting to come along real well.  I can communicate with my teacher usually so I am pretty excited about that.  My lessons are going good with my investigators so I am pretty excited about that!  Even though they are not real investigators they can understand what I am saying!

The one thing we talked a lot about this week was enduring to the end.  Me and Elder Thomas taught a Priesthood lesson on enduring to the end and it went really well.  We actually made some one from our branch presidency cry and you could tell that he felt the spirit!  I wasn't teaching the lesson the spirit was, and that's what I have been trying to do with my investigators, and it works if you pray for help.  I have prayed a lot this week, and I know by inviting the spirit when you pray he will come and help you with what ever you need.  It's so simple and I totally ignored it when I was back home and I totally regret it.  The power of prayer is real.  

I love you all! I hope you all have a good week this week!

Love

Elder Stringfellow 

Photo of the Week

Getting Bored, sleeping, or in deep prayerful study!

Eating Rat....

Hello everyone! I had a very awesome week this week!  Class is going good, just learning Spanish and preaching to fake investigators haha!  My investigators that's why I say that.  I had a very eventful week.  First off I was sitting with my zone eating in the lunch, and Elder Peterson decided to eat an entire apple! We where all laughing super hard and then he decided to eat an entire banana including the peel.  We where all laughing super hard and then some worker came over and said he doesn't appreciate our eating habits and kicked us out of the lunch room.  It was quite a surprise and we all thought it was super funny.  Then we got Dry ice because someones mom sent him otter pops with a big giant dry ice block.  So we put it in the toilet and it was really cool to watch haha.

We had a very good devotional.  Matthew Holland spoke to us on the importance of the prophet Joseph Smith.  He told us that having a testimony of the prophet with strengthen the testimony of others.  I thought I had it hard, but I heard stories I have never heard before and it was pretty crazy.  I know that he was and still is a prophet of God.  There was no way that he could've translated the book of Mormon without God's power.  I am grateful for all that he did for us.  

So as I have said before the food here sucks.  I do not like it one bit.  It does not make me feel normal.  There is a Scripture in the Old Testament Jeremiah 4:19 that explains perfectly how I feel.  I have pictures to prove that I am not eating beef.  They say its beef, but it is not.  What they gave me looks like a rat.  It was so gross.

Anyways that's all I got this week. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Stringfellow

Photos of the Week 

Elder Sam Stringfellow was able to visit with his brother, recently returned from the Madagascar Mission, Elder Ryan Stringfellow for 30 minutes on August 9th, 2016

Rat Meat...MTC Style

The Squad in the MTC (Photo Cred - TJ Benard)

Elder Zesiger and Elder Stringfellow

Elder Mo Manu and Elder Sam Stringfellow (both Bountiful HS Football Tight Ends)

Week Three...

Hello everyone! This was a very good but hard week.  It was hard because we learned so much Spanish, and its kind of overwhelming, but I am starting to get the hang of it.  We have this new teacher named Hermano Franco.  He knows 4 languages, and is a spiritual giant.  He is super intimidating, but a very good teacher.  We still have Hermano Cook and he is my favorite teacher. 
Hermano Franco is one of my investigators, and he is very hard.  It was one of those lessons where he threw the nastiest curve ball of all time but.  But, his lessons really help me and Elder Thomas.

It was a little crazy in our zone this week because a lot of elders and Hermanas left this week and about 3 new districts came in.  Everyone is flipping out because this week a 25 year old sister came in and its a little weird, not gonna lie!! Anyways I found out that Elder Sabir is in the same building and on the same floor as me so I get to see him all the time.  He seems to be doing really good.  

This Wednesday I get to be a host so tell Tj and all the other elders that are coming in to look for me and I will try and pick them up! :)  I would love to be able to do that. 

For some reason this week I read my Patriarchal Blessing a lot and in my blessing it says if i obey great things will happen for me.  That is the one thing I have been trying to do this week is obeying the rules the best i can.  Not gonna lie, trying to obey all these rules is hard but if I try my best Heavenly Father will help me with whatever I need help with.  He has already helped me so much since my I have been here, and I couldn't be more grateful.  I love him and I know that he loves me :)

That's all i got this week! I love you guys and I hope that you have fun picking up Ryan :)

Love
Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

RollTribe "Squad" Elders Carlson, Stringfellow, Peterson, McCann, Tooley, Parry, Allsop

RollTribe Squad Elders w/ Sister Madi Welling (BHS)

Elder Stringfellow and his companion Elder Thomas

Elder and Sister Leishman (MP5 Ward) & Elder Stringfellow

Hosting Elder Connor Lloyd (Chicago West)

Hosting Elder TJ Benard (Washington DC South)