It was very dark...

Hey!

(the subject has nothing to do with this email)

It is really good to hear from all of you! I am not sure why but this past week felt suuupeeer longgggggg. We had zone conference on Tuesday and had to go to Santa Maria on Thursday so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we were working really hard trying to catch up with our goals and what not. I think that this week will be calmer. I hope so at least. But I am still doing great! It is cool that Preston and John are graduating congrats! And that Kayc is going through the temple! Wish that I could be there! And I finally heard the news that Mason put up 17 in the big game!!!!!(a month after it happened). Way to go Mason! Keeping the Stringer Church ball tradition alive! So I am pretty sure that I will be transferred the day after Mothers Day, so if you have a letter to send you should send it within this week cuz it usually takes two weeks to get here. I love São Gabriel,  but I am ready to go! Ready to get out of my first area, everyone here still treats me like the little kid who can't do anything for himself. Haha, but it is all good, I really do love this place and these people! 

Elder Araújo is super cool! He joined the church when he was 18, and he has a super strong testimony. We are really working here, hopefully we will have some more success before we part ways. 

Haha! Mason had to mow! This is something that I will not miss! Take that! And that is cool that he is going to prom, you got to send me some pics. It is weird that the school year is practically over already! That is really exciting, but I might suffer knowing that you guys are having tons of fun in the summer and sleeping in and stuff. We might have to stop emailing for three months or so. I am so tired. I am glad that it is p day! 

Oh funny story! We were teaching a lesson and behind the person that we were teaching there was a dog and it picked up a little kitty in its mouth and started throwing it around! Haha, I was going to say something but it was so strange and I couldn't focus on the lesson! ( You have to imagine this one in your mind for it to be funny.) Also one of the missionaries here keeps plugging all of the toilets, we have three and I don't think there has been a time that all three were unplugged. Right now two of them are. (that's more like everyday life stuff for missionaries). 

Everyday, multiple times a day I am reminded that God exists and loves us, it really is amazing when you start paying attention. I was oblivious to this stuff before I came, but now that I am focused on it, it is really apparent. I know that you guys are the best and are the greatest examples for me! I love y'áll tons and I wish that I had more to write for you guys, but that is it for now! And I will find more out about moms day!

Love,

Elder Stringer  

Hello

To my fans and subjects throughout the world:

Monday April 15

Hello,

I have some exciting news this week. We had a baptism on Saturday. This one was very special, we found Thayna teaching her aunt and she told us that her husband was a member and she already knew about the church. We went to her house and taught her and her husband, Anderson. They are very special and we were able to reactivate Anderson and he baptized Thayna! They are expecting a child and I am happy to know that this kid can grow up in the church and maybe one day he/she will even serve a mission! What an awesome thing!

Also, our electricity got cut this Friday. We have been living without it since then. We have to use candles at night to do our planning and what not. On the "bright" side, our fridge was desperately needing to be defrosted, and now it is! Its pretty neat but I hope that we can figure out a way to get it back soon. It is real good that we have the couple missionaries here, they let us take hot showers at their house.

Elder Araújo is very cool. He has been a member for 3 years now, he has 9 months on the mission and he is very obedient. We are working hard here and hopefully we can have some success in the next 4 weeks. I think that after this transfer I will probably leave for another city. I don't know but that is just what I think. It is good to hear that y'all are doing well back at home! I am doing well here. It is hard and different without Elder Heleno here, I didn't think that I would miss him as much as I do, but it is all good.  I can do this.

I feel like I should write more but I don't really have much to write. I am doing well here, even when it is hard. It is amazing how time passes, it just passes. And it feels kind of slow in the moment, but when you look back on it it was fast. Just like that one time when Captain Jean Luc Picard stopped time and saved that one lady from the rocks. He really knew how to live in the moment! Anyway...  (I miss Captain Picard)

I love you guys a lot! I want you to know that I am working really hard! Our mission had 119 baptisms last month! It is a record for our mission! But 119 is a small number compared to a lot of other missions in Brazil. Haha, I was surprised to hear that we were one of the least baptizing missions in Brazil. Haha, but it is good! I am working hard and things will work out! I love you guys more than you know!

Until next week,

Love,

Elder Stringer

Hello!

Hey Kids!

How is it going? I am doing very well here! Conference was so sweet! I got to watch it in English, we watched it in the chapel here. There were so many good messages. I really liked both of Pres. Uchtdorf's, he is always good! Pres. Eyring gave a good one too in priesthood session that talked about member missionary work (too bad we only had 6 members there)! Its all cool though, oh and also, I am proud (and a little ashamed) to say that this was the first conference that I was awake for every minute! It was weird with the time change though, priesthood didn't start until 9 and we didn't get home until like 11:30. I am really sad now that conference is over and I have to wait 6 more months for the next one.

Elder Heleno left on Saturday morning, it is weird without him. But it is all good I am happy that I am not being trained anymore! We still don't know the transfer info though, sometime today someone is going to tell us. I think that I will stay here though. Oh, they just told me, my new comps name is Elder Araùjo. I will meet him tomorrow.

The whole missionties thing is complicated. Sometimes I get letters fast, other times they take a long time to get here. I did get my blessing though, thanks! Sounds like Mason and Mom's trip was awesome, that is good to hear. I am a little jealous.

I had a pretty wicked cold last week! It was rough,but I am doing good now. The meds that mom sent me with helped, so that's real good, Thanks mom!

Things are going real well here though! It was cold for a little while but the past week has been really hot, the weather is kinda crazy. I can't really think of much else to write, it is crazy that school is almost over and summer is going to start really soon. And Kayc is getting married in like 5 weeks or something! That is very cool! I am having a very hard time thinking of stuff to write right now, I don't know why. But things here are normal, we just keep working! I am grateful for the Prophet and Apostles that we have today, I have no doubt that they are men inspired and chosen by God and that they really do communicate with Him!

I Love you guys tons and tons!

Love,

Elder Stringer

Hey!!

Hey Guys!

How is it going?! I hope that all is well! We had a good busy week. Our baptisms all worked out! The service went really well. Also, since Easter was this week we had some festivities. We ate a whole lot of fish on Holy Friday. For the Catholics, it is a sin to eat red meat. And all the members eat fish too. It was a nice change from the rice and beans. I don't know why, but my mind just blanked.

One of our baptisms, Fatima, was really special. she had been receiving missionaries for years and never even been in the church. She told us that it was our testimonies that made her want to go. I know that the Lord prepared her for us and I have no doubts that she will stay strong in the church!  Another one of our baptisms was Claudio, a gypsy. I baptized him. I think that it is pretty cool that I can say that I baptized a gypsy! 

This is my last week with Elder Heleno. He is great and very excited to go home! haha. He has been counting the days since day 50 I think! But he works really hard and I am really glad that he was my first companion. I had (real) churrasco for the first time a couple of weeks ago!!! It was really good! I am excited to get a little rest today! Last night there was a mosquito flying around my head and buzzing in my ear. I kept slapping myself in the face! Needless to say, i didn't sleep too great. I am jealous that you guys have spring break right now. I think that I could use a week off right about now! HAHA. I guess that i will have to wait a little while for that.

Well, it was cool that we had our baptisms, but now we have to find some more people to teach. This part kind of blows. We have a descent teaching pool right now but we need to build it up a little. I am trying to think of other things to write, but honestly I can't remember much it all blurs. 

I love you guys so much!!!!! I hope that you have an incredible spring break! (Except KC who already had one), but I hope that KC has an incredible week too! Hee hee. Congrats to Mason! Love you guys tons! Have a good one!

Love,

Elder Stringer

Excluding the possibility that a female olympian from Yugoslavia was on our roof last night, what else do we have?

Hello,

How are you? I hope that things are very well over there. Things are very well here. If all goes according to plan, we will have 3 baptisms this Saturday. Hopefully, I will send some good pics next Monday! Its good to hear from all of you! I love your emails, even when they talk about having fun without me and March Madness. Dads email about all the crazy stuff that's happening in the tourney practically killed me. But its all good. I guess...

Anyway, lets see... I don't really know what to say. A lot of stuff happens here, but I can't remember any of it. Anything beyond 3 days ago blends into the last 4 months. I know that families are essential to my exaltation, but after that I am in no hurry to get married. Which is good cuz I can go rafting with Ash and John!

Elder Heleno is getting ready to go home, he leaves the week after conference. He's pretty excited, he likes to tell everybody how many days he has left. Haha, he's funny, I will miss him. I don't know if you can tell from the pic but I'm getting fat. I should start exercising  And also I found the great and spacious building! It was in the middle of no where and was really weird because I've never seen it before but its huge! Anyway so I thought that that was interesting. 

I don't know if the quote at the top is correct, but I tried my hardest. I love you guys a ton and I am sorry that I didn't write very much. But I know that this gospel changes lives. I have seen it. And if nothing else, it is a good thing. I know that it is true. It works. It is amazing, the greatest blessing. I am super grateful to be here. I am glad that I get to wake up at 6:30 every morning. I am happy that I am here. I love you all a lot and I know that these 2 years will change my life. I have realized the importance of the mission. It will mold me into who I can become, who Heavenly Father wants me to become. 

Love you guys!

Braden

Hello!

Hey Kids! 

So there are a couple of changes in the email rules, my email time has been changed from 1 hour to 40 mins and I can now email anyone, family, friends, acquaintances so if anyone wants to talk to me you can give them my email now! Pretty cool huh? This last week was a good one, we got some good work done and had some fun too!

We bought a pizza for Elder Helenos bday on Monday  it was 50 cm across! It was really good too. We went to two weddings, one was of Natanael, who we baptized last month and the other was of Rodrigo and Isabel a very special family who were baptized this week! We helped the couple missionaries teach them a little so we went to the wedding too. They had like a whole cake left over so every time we go over there we get some cake which is delicious!

Something very cool happened this week! There is a woman here whose sister and brother are members, we started teaching her at the beginning of February and we were super excited because she was the perfect candidate for baptism. But she was traveling for the last month and a half and we kinda forgot about her and figured that when she got back she wouldn't be as excited. Turns out to be the exact opposite! She called on Friday and told us that she wanted us to visit and she had already made plans to go to church with a friend of hers! When we taught on Friday she accepted baptism and said that she really wanted it! Its super awesome and exciting, if all goes according to plan she will be baptized on the 30th, the weekend before Elder Heleno goes home. It is an awesome blessing from the Lord!

Other cool things that happened this week:

I answered 2 telephone calls this week and did it in Portuguese and I didn't just answer them, I talked the whole time! It was pretty awesome, one of them was like 3 and a half minutes! Hahah!

Congrats to Ashli for running and not dying, I think that it's safe to suppose that I didn't get an email from you because you still can't feel your legs!

Congrats to Kayc, the big 2 2 this week, very exciting! I will bring home a cool present for you!

Good luck at region Mason! I expect a quadruple double! points, steals, assists, and blocks!

And I guess that its kind of cool that John is graduating. And Preston. (at least I think that Preston is, but I'm not sure).

Also it is starting to cool down! It gets nice and fresco here at night and in the morning, and I am not in a constant sweat anymore! Haha, things are much more enjoyable like this! Its hard to write about an entire week because there is a lot that goes on here, but I try and give you the highlights at least! I love you guys a lot, sorry that I didn't write more! Love you!

Love, 

Elder Stringer

Phil...Phil Conners!!??

Hello!

So we had a zone conference yesterday and I didn't find out about it until half way through last week, so P day is today! So something funny happened last week! I received a bunch of letters that were mailed to the Mission Home so unfortunately I was once again reminded of all of the fun things that you all did without me! It was weird reading all of the letters that you sent back in January and I also got some Christmas letters too. Things are rolling here! I don't know what to say, honestly this week went by pretty dern quickly. I will explain the branches here in São Gabriel:

Ramo São Gabriel is our branch and the people are all really awesome! Our average attendance is 70-90. Here in Brasil there are a lot of baptisms, but frequently the people don't stay strong in the church, I think that the membership here is around 200 or so. So if all of our plans fall through we can always pull out our list of members and try to teach an inactive member. It is really sad that this happens and I am not exactly sure why it happens so frequently here, but we focus a lot on retention and how we can keep converts in the church. The members here are awesome! They are one of the best branches in the mission from what everyone says and I believe it, we have a lot of lessons with members because they are all willing to come with us! 

Ramo Bom Fim is a little different because their area is very far from the church, they have a bus come around every Sunday to pick people up. I think that the attendance is 60-70. But still great things are happening there!

Right now we have 3 couples that we are trying to get married before baptism. Nobody here is married! Literally its crazy, I think that no one wants to pay the money. 

Its crazy that Kayc already has her dress! Its really coming up fast! I am bummed that I wont be there, but i'm glad that I am here.

The weather here is starting to improve! Its getting much cooler and if I use my fan at night I sometimes need my blanket! I think that I will make french toast today! 

I attached a photo of me and Vitoria. We were having family night and it was real fun! The Portuguese is coming, I can understand a majority of what people say and at times I can converse with others! Haha!

I love you guys a lot and hope and pray that all is well over there!!

Lots of love,

Elder Stringer