Howdy!

Hello there!!!

Sorry it took so long to get this to you! Monday's are my pday now. It's been a very crazy week, we had an hour and a half flight to Porto Alegre and then a 5 hour drive to Santa Maria. We finally got there and that was where I called from. I was just saying that everything was good and that I made it! Pres. and Sis. Ribeiro are awesome! They are both great. The first night here was ridiculous! We slept in a very dirty garage on some dirty beds! Haha, I was pretty freaked out! But we had training the next morning which was good and I got my companion, Elder Heleno! He is awesome and loves to work and is a really great guy! Doesn't speak much English, but we work it out. 

After training we took a 3 hour bus ride to my first area, São Gabriel!! It is really great here! We got here around 930 and the apartment was tiny and pretty dirty. There are two other missionaries living with us, Elders Dean and Teixeira. But it was good to be there and I slept great that night! Thursday, I went out with Elder Dean and he showed me a lot of stuff and he explained it all to me because he can speak English. We had lunch with an awesome member family, they live in a one room house which is basically just a concrete box. It was really small, but they were so nice and inviting and the love the church and the missionaries! It was an awesome experience.

Friday was insane. We got permission to move to a much bigger and better apartment so we did, and as you can imagine the move wasn't very organized! We took everything and threw it into a truck and headed out. It's been crazy and a real pain to move in though! And we didn't get to do a lot of actual missionary work this weekend because of it. Yesterday was great! Church was fun and a lot of people talked at me and I just smile and understand a little bit of what they are saying. We then walked around and made some contacts and we taught a couple of lessons which were very neat. It was good to actually do what I've been preparing to do for two months now! I told myself that I would never miss the MTC but I do. I especially miss having 3 square meals a day. We always get lunch though and lots of it too! The members feed us every day!

I will attach some pics from the MTC and I only have a couple from here, but I will try and send those. This computer is having issues so I will get as much as I can to you! We are blessed to have a couple missionary live close by. Elder and Sister Phillipelli! They are super nice. I wish that I could talk more and I forgot to bring the address of the mailbox here, so I will do that next time! I love you all tons and tons and I hope that every thing is well! I am going to keep going, it's harder here than it was in the MTC for sure, but I can do it. I love you all so much and wish that I could see you and talk to you in person!

Tons of love,

Elder Stringer

Well hello there!!

Dearest Family!

It is most excellent to hear from you this fine afternoon! I love reading emails! I do believe that my departure date is Jan 22!!! Two weeks from today! I am so excited to get out there and do some work! I don't know if you could tell from my last email, but I am running out of things to say. Basically I have done some studying and a little more of that and I sleep a little bit every now and again too! I really do enjoy it here though, I've made lots of great friends and I've learned so much! It is great to hear that you all had fun over the holidays! I wish you all luck getting back into the swing of things. I think that winter is going to come really quickly and then the crazy thing is i will only have one more summer here. Its insane to think about. We had mission conference on Sunday and it was amazing! It was very spiritually uplifting! We also have cycled through another pair of Brazilian roommates  one more pair left to go. I will miss these guys, they just left this morning. I can't even imagine weather under 70 degrees right now, much less single digits!! Typically the coolest that we can get our classroom here is 75 degrees and it feels so good! The language is really coming along! During mission conference, I could understand almost all of what the speaker was saying! But I'm pretty sure that the accent is very different and they say different words down in Santa Maria.

I'm glad to hear that the jazz and cougs are winning! Their aren't a lot of jazz fans down here, so whenever we talk basketball I always end up having to defend them and that's not always easy to do! I also appreciate the movie quotes! It's great to hear about everyone receiving their mission calls! That's so exciting! I'm pretty sure that Tyler goes into the field this week and Hunter to the MTC, with Xander following next week! Those lucky ducks are on the 6 week schedule now! There are so few Americans here now! We are still the youngest district and we are on week 7! We have gotten only about 30 from Provo and 2 from home since I got here! I think that we are supposed to get 5 or so tomorrow and they may be joining in with our district, if this is the case I'm bummed because I will have to give up the best seat in our classroom to make room for them. We got to go to the temple again today! It was awesome! I can't believe that I will only be able to go one more time. And I don't think that I will go at all in the field. I'm not exactly sure, but from what I hear, I will fly to Porto Allegre and then take a bus to Santa Maria. That might be a long day! I don't know if you could tell, but I was really tired when I wrote my last email. I just read it again and it's kinda all over the place!

I always love hearing about what's going on up there! You guys are the best and I wish you all luck with work, school, Pocatello (hehe) and life in general! I love you guys tons and tons! You are the greatest family in the entire world!

Love,

Elder Stringer

Feliz Ano Novo!

Dear Family,

 

 

Happy New Year! It sounds like you all had a good one! We did too, the people here love to party! The city set an alarm for us at midnight, it was insane! Fireworks were shooting off everywhere! The whole sky was lit up! I didn't sleep much. We also got to watch a New Years Eve movie, The Emma Smith Story. It was pretty good and really nice to take a break from studying just to watch for a while. We also got to watch part of a talk that Elder Holland gave to some mission presidents. It was amazing to say the least! 

We got to go to the temple for the first time in 2 weeks today! It was great! I still am not sure, but I think that I am leaving a week early, which would mean that I would only have 2 more p days here!! As much as I love the MTC, I am ready to leave. I hope that Mason had fun in Hawaii. I can't believe that I was there a year ago! It doesn't feel like it was that long ago! Things are going well here though. I am so excited to watch the Hobbit and Les Mis when I get back! I think that there will be lots of movies that I will need to catch up on! 

New Year's Eve was the first time that we got churrasco here! It was also the first non breakfast meal that i didn't have beans and rice. I missed them actually! I really miss not going to Lava, I haven't been over Christmas for a couple of years so when I get back it's going to be awesome! I'm really tired basically most of the time here, I try to stay awake but it doesn't always work out. I wrote you all letters through missionties so I can't really think of what else I want to say. Oh yeah, I have been working on structuring sentences in Portuguese and as much as I love the gospel, I'm getting kind of tired structuring gospel sentences. I was wondering if you could send me some of your personal favorite movie quotes (like president Bill Pullman's famous speech) or something that I could structure. I know that it's kind of weird, but I think that it would spice things up a little bit. I love you guys so much and I even worry about you! You don't have to worry about me though, I'm doing fine. Before we know it, I will be in Santa Maria! And after that KC will be married! And then it will be Christmas again! And I think that some other important stuff will happen in between those events, but I can't really think right now. You guys are the most bestest and I miss you lots and I love you more and I am excited for the day when I can tell you about all the cool stuff that I am doing once I get in the mission field. Don't get me wrong, I like the MTC too.

 

I am very excited for 2013 and it is going to be a year that I will definitely never forget! 

 

I love you all soooooo much!!!! You seriously are the best!!! Seriously.

 

Love,

 

Elder Stringer

Feliz Natal

Merry Merry Christmas to All!

 

I miss you all so much! But I am not sad that I am here! Last night for dinner we had what was probably the saddest attempt at tacos that I had ever seen! But I enjoyed them, it is definitely a Christmas Eve dinner that I will never forget! Last night all of the Elders in my district wrapped up our pjs in paper towels and opened them! It was hilarious! And I got lots of pictures, don't worry! Thanks for getting all of those letters and presents! They are awesome!

 

Even though this has been the hardest Christmas that I have ever had, it has been very special! Now more than ever I have a testimony of Christ. I am so grateful that God loved us enough to send his Son. And Christ gave us the best gift, His life. I have come to learn for myself, that Christ knows us personally and He suffered for us personally. When He was suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane  for a brief moment He thought of me. He experienced the pain of having to say goodbye to the people that I love most knowing that I wouldn't see them for two years. He suffered through the incredibly difficult first couple of weeks here in the MTC. All of my pain, all of my sorrow and all of my trials. He knows. He loves me, and I love Him.

 

I have been blessed with the most wonderful family in the world! God loves me so much that He sent me to you! And the least that I can do to show my gratitude and appreciation is to come here and feed His sheep. I will try my best, I want to live up to your expectations and I want to live up to the expectations that the Lord has for me. You mean the world to me! I know that here in Brazil, I will find a family that loves eachother as much as I love you and I want them to know that they can be together forever. Just like us.

 

I love you so much!

 

Elder Stringer

Bom Dia!!!

Hello hello hello!!

I can't believe it is already P-day! This week flew by! Which is a very good thing, here in the MTC the days are long but the weeks are short. The coolest thing happened during sacrament meeting on Sunday! The Sao Paulo soccer team was playing Chelsea in Japan and it was this huge game. You can always tell when there is a big game because people start setting off fireworks at about 6 in the morning! So we were sitting in sacrament when all of sudden the whole city started cheering and screaming! We were inside and I still couldn't here the speaker it was so loud, and then the fireworks started going off! SO Many!! The window that I was sitting next to was shaking! I felt like i was in the middle of a battle with all of the screaming and fireworks, it was insane! People were all out on their balconies waving flags and making noise! It was so cool! I love how excited Brazilians get about soccer (futebol)!

I got my haircut the other day. The haircuts are free so the quality isn't super good, but the barber is a really nice funny old guy. He wasn't real big on keeping his equipment sanitized. He would scratch his face with his comb while he was cutting my hair! But he loves to sing hymns really loud and operatic like, so he kind of reminded me of grandpa! Also tell Mason and John that Thurl Bailey's cousin is one of the security guards here! HAHA!

The weather has been overcast for like the past 4 days and it is wonderful! It rained all day Saturday too! Things keep pluggin along here!

Last night we were in class and I was getting tired I started dozing off. Our instructor speaks to us in Portuguese which I can usually basically get the gist of what she is saying. But I was dozing off and not paying much attention, thinking about how I wish I could speak Portuguese better when all of a sudden I could understand the instructor perfectly! It was a miracle until I realized that she just started speaking English mid sentence. It was a long day. Fun stuff though, our district has started taking time out of the day, usually an hour or two where we speak only Portuguese and it is amazing that we can actually still communicate and converse with each other. The Lord is really pouring out his blessings! Of course I know that once I get into the field it will seem like an entirely different language!

When is/was the family Christmas party? How'd it go? Did you go to the skating rink? I can't hardly even comprehend cold weather right now! Snow is the most foreign thing to me right now. But Christmas will be awesome! Elder Allen and I are in an Elder's choir and we are going to sing some songs for the Christmas program that they have planned here! I will also be able to send an email on Christmas  I sent a letter but I don't think it will reach you until closer to January probably.

Our roommates have completed their 3 weeks and are out of here. I am surprised at how much I miss them! We could hardly understand each other but it was sad to see them go, we loved to hang out at night and stuff! About 80 missionaries left this week! It is crazy we are now down to about 120, and there aren't many coming in this week and none will come in next week. It's pretty nice though because I don't have to wait for a shower in the morning!

I miss you all so much and am so happy when i get to hear from you! I think that I will share a brief testimony in Portuguese:

Eu sei que familias podem eterna! Eu sei que Jesus Cristo vive, e Ele nos ama muito! Eu sei que trabalhar missionario e muito importante e eu amo estando um missionario! Deus é nosso Pai Celestial e Ele quer nos a estamos feliz!

Love you guys so much!

Elder Stringer

Well Hello There

It is so great to hear from y'all! Things get better everyday here! I am getting used to the schedule and even the food a little bit. This week has been considerably hotter than last week was! I am basically constantly sweating! The AC is very inconsistent and works only about 30% of the time! It is inconsistent but you can always count on the AC for one thing: It keeps the Sabbath Day Holy. The AC never works on Sunday! Which is the day that we have to wear our suits to all meetings! I love hearing from everyone, I'm bummed that I can only talk to you on Tuesdays but once I get out into the field, I can mail letters to mission ties any day I want! Speaking of which, the cookies at Mr. Cheney's are like a little bit of Heaven! It sounds like you all have a fun holiday season ahead of you! Lots of family stuff! Good luck! I can honestly say that I have never been as excited to open Christmas presents as I am this year!

Lately we've been seeing lots of bugs around here, but they are all dead. And huge! Mostly roaches! It reminds me of Men in Black! The food does grow on you, except that I am losing weight! Haha, I eat enough though I never go hungry! I will never again talk bad about the portions that mom served back at home! My small stomach is a blessing! I am not losing much weight.  I will probably only be 10 lbs lighter once I am done here. It also helps that in order to get to our room we have to traverse 90 steps on what I like to call "the great staircase" in my best Gollum voice! Elder Austin Allen and I are getting along really well. We have quite a bit in common, my only problems with him are: he's never seen Signs and he doesn't like Duck Dynasty! Ridiculous huh?

 We were very blessed and able to watch Elder Holland's last conference talk about the First Great Commandment! It was so great and inspiring! I would really love it if you could send me a paper copy of the talk so that I can read it all the time! The Lord is so wonderful! It's really amazing to have the opportunity to live with the Spirit all the time. We especially received lots of help when on Friday we had to teach a lesson without any notes! It was amazing how much Portuguese I could remember, we actually had a good lesson! Even though we are so blessed in learning the language, it is easy to get frustrated because I feel like I have learned so much and wish that I could give some lessons in English because I think that they would be pretty good! All in good time though, I will continue to work hard and strive to keep the spirit with me! Once we reach week 8 we get to go proselyting! And try to place some copies of the Book of Mormon! I am so excited, I'm not sure if I can make it that long!

I can't believe that the Hobbit comes out this week! Gaaaghggh!!! It eats me up inside! Oh well, it's still going to be awesome once I get back! I love hearing from you! Everyday I realize that I am more and more blessed to have the family that I do! You guys are the best thing ever! You are my air when I couldn't breathe, you are my eyes when I can't see, you are my strength when I am weak, you saw the best there was in me! Haha, I constantly have the most random songs running through my head! I was wondering if you could send lyrics to One Day More from Les Mis because I can't get it out of my head and I only know 2 lines!

I think that for some reason my Brazilian roommates think that my Vitamin C is some sort of muscle building supplement! They are obsessed with it! They point at their muscles and ask me questions like when I take them and how often! It's so funny!

I gotta go but I love you so much,

Elder Stringer

1st District