Jesus Christ's True Gang

 Hi! How is everyone? I love hearing from you! Please send me pictures from your lives!

GOOD:

- I acquired a new nickname this week. The sisters in my district brought up the fact that every time they hear my name they think of "stringbean" and then because I am the greenie in the district the nickname evolved into "GreenBeanie." So feel free to call me Stringham, Stringjamom, Stringcheese, Stringqueso, Spoonie, Greenbeanie or whatever your heart desires.

- I set off the apartment fire alarm at 7:30AM this week. Needless to say, our neighbors are so glad they get to live next to missionaries haha. I promise it was not my fault. I started cooking eggs over a burner I don't normally use and not 15 seconds into the endeavor smoke starts lifting from under the pan quite rapidly. I quickly relocated to another burner and opened our front door, but I was not quick enough. Our neighbors got a good wake up call if they weren't already up.

- Here are a bunch of random memorable moments/things... everyone here calls Utah "La Fabrica" or like the factory of missionaries, we had dinner with the Hyatts who remind me SO much of gramham and gpajohn! They gave us the largest grapefruits I have ever seen, reminded me of the "¿Qué es eso?" moment in the CCM (@ E. Steen). A man told us all churches are like gangs so we asked if he wanted to join Jesus Christ's true gang (yeah probably shouldn't have done that one), ate Tortas for dinner with the Espinoza Family and I tried the salsa that was "not super hot" and then they all laughed at my red face and teary eyes, IT WAS HOT, but they promised the spice would help me learn Español muy rápido! The weather is sitting at a solid 80-90 degrees every day with a normal UV index of 9, so I have a nice watch tan line.

BETTER:

- Unfortunately, now is not the time for Nelida. We put in the effort this week and visited her home, took her and her son cookies (we do be bakers) and sent her a list of our favorite Book of Mormon passages for her to read. However, she kept pushing back lesson appointments and telling us she was too busy to read the Book of Mormon and pray. We love her but know she needs some time, so for this reason we felt inspired to give her some space and revisit her in June and see if this is really something she is interested in.

- I got to go on exchanges this week with the ZLs! And even better I got to go to their area and experience missionary life in a new way, I loved it. I spent the day with Elder Gibby who is from Saratoga Springs and about as tall as Elder Steen (throwback to the CCM, miss that). Some highlights of the day include a spontaneous service project helping some people move furniture into a moving van, getting to be in a Spanish area and seeing that I know more than I give myself credit for, and extending baptismal dates to all three members of the Casarez family and having them accept!! We are SO excited for them. I was so glad to get to be a part of this special lesson. I learned a lot from Elder Gibby and really regained a focus and motivation of why I am out here.

- The Vaughan family is doing so well! They came to church AGAIN and we were able to visit them for a lesson on Thursday. Alison and Michael both expressed a desire to be baptized and become members of the church like their mom and sister! They would be on date but we have one obstacle first. Sister Vaughan's husband is a Baptist and in talking with him for permission to baptize his children he said that his wife and him needed to talk first. We are praying that his heart may be softened and we can help get Michael and Alison to baptism to receive all those wonderful blessings. Baptism opens so many doors and allows us to begin our covenant path back to our Heavenly Father and we want that for them!

BEST:

This week things started to get difficult at times. I started having moments where I felt tired, inadequate and uncomfortable with the fact that this is my life for the next two years. Throughout the week, when I felt this way, lyrics to a song called "Even If" by MercyMe flashed through my head. They say...

"I know you're able, and I know you can"

What I have come to believe is that this is a form of Heavenly Father speaking to me. He brought this message of "I know you can do this" to my head over and over and over again.

I know Heavenly Father asks us to do difficult things because He has to prepare us for great things ahead. He is our biggest cheerleader and will help us along the way. When life gets hard remember that Heavenly Father knows you are able to keep going and He knows you can do whatever He has placed in your path.

We are stronger than we think and more capable than we know, especially when we lean on Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We ARE able and we CAN!

"Work Hard, Keep the Commandments, Have a Positive Attitude and Show Gratitude."

- Elder Greenbeanie