22 June 2014 Mission Letter "Foot in the Door"
It has been awhile since I have written. My laptop broke and the hard drive was
gone. It took awhile for us to get a new
one ordered and all our information transferred over.
We've had some sweet experiences. We have more new missionaries. This group is amazing. All of these young men and one young sister
seem to have real strong testimonies and I can see them working hard and being
outstanding missionaries. We only had
one Sister returning home. She was the
only member of her family and in her town.
She has a family from her ward that has been her strength and
encouragement the whole time. She is
black and the African community in Des Moines and in Iowa City have loved her
dearly. What impressed me is her
cheerful attitude and her enthusiasm.
At Stake Conference we had a visiting general authority,
Elder Michael Reall from the Seventy. He
gave the best talks. At one point in one
of his talks, he paused, then said if felt impressed that there was someone in
the audience to needed to hear something.
Then he proceeded to tell the whole audience that there was not one
person in this audience who couldn't qualify for the Celestial Kingdom if they
continue on the road of repentance.....something we should all be doing every
day. Then he said that there was a
person he could see in the audience who refused to look at him through that
whole part of his talk and he repeated just for him/her that same message. What a sweet feeling there was there.
Our Mission President spoke at two meetings and spoke of
his love for the missionaries and this work.
He shared an experience of a Sister Missionary who had heard Elder
Holland, an apostle, really give
encouragement to the missionaries. He
admonished them to be bold and to "stick their foot in the
door". He was speaking
figuratively. This sweet Sister took it
to heart and in her tracting door to door she found herself at a door of some
people who did not want to hear her message.
They started to close the door in her face and she literally put her
foot in the door. That did not make the
homeowners happy and they threatened to call the police. She told them to go ahead. When the police arrived she told them who
they were and what they were doing. She
also said that if they hauled her off to prison that she would be in good
company because they also stoned the prophets and put them in prison. Well, the cop was kind and told them he was
not going to haul them off the prison, but not to do that anymore. When our Mission President heard of the
incident, he was a little taken back. So
you can imagine that at the next Zone Conference they taught the missionaries
how to be bold but, not overbearing and to not to infringe on other's
freedoms. I had met this Sister before
she was released and she is such a sweetheart, but I could see her doing
that.....she could be dramatic!
This past week I submitted baptism records of a mother
and son who are from Iraq. They were
raised as Muslims, but really didn't practice much in their country. Before the missionaries can teach a Muslim,
the Muslim investigator need to be interviewed by the Mission President. This is mainly for their (the Muslim's) protection. I only know that they gave us their legal
names to put on the baptism form and then they gave us their "preferred
names", the names by which they will be known in the church. Often people will just shortened their name
as their preferred name, but these Iraqi's gave us totally different names --
American names. The Elders said that
there are more in the family which are being taught! The gospel
of Jesus Christ is for every nation and tongue!
We attend the Gospel Essentials class in Sunday
School. I am so impressed with the new
converts. They tell us how much the
gospel has changed their lives and that life makes sense to them now. Remember the convert, the man who was in so
much pain he wanted to die? He is a joy
to have in the class. Today he told us
he loves being there and learns so much because can ask any question he
likes. The Bishop wanted to meet with
him during the class and he asked if the Bishop could interview him at a
different time because he didn't want to miss the class. We have a convert who we only see from time
to time because he is a truck driver and is on the road driving interstate so
much. He comes in his truck clothes, talks like a truck driver and he makes me
smile. We have a young couple who love
the church so much and get quite emotional about the joy it brings them and how
much it has changed their lives. They
have a young daughter in YW and they see her making so many good
decisions....something they feel they did not do when her age.
Well next month at the end of July and the beginning of
August we have 24 missionaries going home and 27 (so far) arriving. I really don't know how we are going to get
them all here and get them all home.
There is a of work involved. We
are at the beginning of the releases of a lot of the big waves of missionaries
after the age change. So for the next
several transfers we will be so busy. We
will be losing so many of the outstanding leaders.
Well, we love our missions. It feels good to be serving. It seems that when we are happy the feelings
are so joyful it is hard to contain.
But, just as surely as we have ups we also have downs. Satan doesn't want us to be successful and he
finds our weaknesses and tries to discourages us. Luckily, we have prayer and scriptures to
keep us balanced and focused on the important things.
Some Sister Missionaries visited us in the office. When they left we found this on the inside of
our restroom door......hearts and fun riddles!
We needed to make a trip to Boone, Iowa to check out an
apartment that was a concern for some Sister Missionaries. Boone is the city that Mamie Eisenhower, late
and former First Lady of the United States was born. She was the wife of President Dwight
Eisenhower. I remember him as President
and as a General in the Army. I liked
him. The house was quaint and
fascinating. She was born the same year
as my Grandma Merrell and so many things in the house reminded me of my
grandma. The missionaries do a service
project just before the Historical Site opens for the season. They do cleaning and yard work for them.
Can't close without a comment on the weather. It has been beautiful! There has been enough rain that the corn and
soy farms are really growing well! It
looks beautiful on our occasional drives!
But, there are still some pretty exciting thunderstorms from time to
time. The last one that was kind of
severe we heard the tornado sirens go off. .
So I got my flashlight, robe and good sturdy shoes by the side of the
bed and waited. I looked out the window and not a leaf on the
tree was even moving. I got out the Ipad
and looked at my app for severe weather.
I guess there was wind somewhere that was between 70-80 mph and it was
headed here so they turned on the sirens. After about 5 minutes
all heck broke loose. Buckets of rain,
howling wind and lots of thunder and lightning.
It was pretty impressive! It
lasted off and on for a few hours and then was gone. Next morning there was blue skies and sunshine,
but we saw trees that had fallen on roofs, branches all over, flooded roads and
lots of roads closed! Apparently there
were some tornado touchdowns and this storm left quite a bit of
devastation. But no missionaries were
affected! Feeling blessed. It has been very warm even with the
storms...high 80's and occasional 90's. I felt very warm and sticky at church
today. The home and office have air
conditioning and I am so grateful for that!
Hope you all are having a great summer! We love you all soooooo very much!
Elder and Sister Stringham
