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