pulled over by border patrol

 HEY FRIENDS!!!

GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING AND SO WAS THIS WEEK! The Lord blessed our efforts and 7 of our friends were able to watch General Conference! 🥳

GOOD:

- Elder Steen had a little mishap at a taqueria this week. He thought the menu said if he ordered tacos with just avocado it would only be $1.00... but turns out the avocados are just an extra $1.00. After telling the waitress that he didn't want any meat on his tacos ONLY avocado she looked at him a little funny but said "okay" and walked away. Poor guy had to pay more for his avocados and tortillas then I did for my complete tacos. Very funny.

- Yup, border patrol pulled me over this week. I guess I had forgotten to turn on my lights and they were concerned. The officer was very nice to us but this was very embarrassing for me. You know you're in Texas when it's the border patrol that pulls you over, not just the normal police.

- The Hulet's took us back to Nana's this week to give our new companions the Weslaco Welcome and Ruby made her famous sopes. I am eating well. Enough said.

BETTER:

- Last week Elder Oli and I street contacted a guy named Nathan who is a big fisherman! He always goes out to South Padre to fish and he told us all about it. We of course told him a little about the restoration, living prophets and General Conference. He seemed interested but then we couldn't get in contact with him all week. We sent him a link and prayed he would watch it. When we stopped by on Sunday evening to see him... HE SAID HE WATCHED CONFERENCE! He then went on to tell us how he is interested in learning about baptism and getting closer to Jesus Christ. We told him that is literally what we do!!! Anyways, just a little tender mercy from this week.

- You guys, I think I was sent to the 956 to meet Danii and her kids. We taught them this week and it was the most incredible lesson of my whole mission. The kids who are 11, 12 and 14 were SO engaged and asked how they could become missionaries too. I let little Axel wear my tag during the end of the lesson and he was so thrilled about it. They all came to Conference on Sunday and then stayed to watch a Baptism we were having at the church. During the service the kids asked Danii "how can I get Baptized?" It was so exciting to see the whole family together feeling the spirit of Conference and a Baptismal service. Funny thing is they all call me "Spence" and I just don't have the heart to tell them to call me Elder Stringham instead. They are super lit but we do have to officially pass them off next week but we can still be involved in the teaching with the Sisters!

- We have another awesome friend named Leslie and if you have been keeping up with my emails you may have heard about her family, they are very cool. They had plans to come to the chapel and watch Conference with us but Maricruz, the mom of the family, woke up super sick on Sunday. Gratefully, General Conference is streamed on a broadcast so they could still watch at home! When we talked with Leslie about what she thought she said "everything just made sense, it was very nice to watch." How cool?! Heavenly Father has been preparing them.

BEST:

General Conference had MANY amazing messages and if you did not get the chance to watch it, I invite you to go back and listen to the talks. (you won't regret it!)

One theme I noticed throughout the conference was that we all need to learn more about the character of Christ. Some speakers spoke on how when we love Christ, we learn more about Him and then become more like Him. Other speakers spoke on the importance of studying the accounts of Christ's life found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and 3 Nephi. I know that NOW is the time for us to develop our personal relationships with Jesus Christ. I am excited to heed the counsel of our leaders and read of Christ, study His attributes and try to emulate Him.

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." 

Do something this week that will bring you closer to Christ than you have ever been before. Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance. 🙂

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

- Elder Stringham