RULE #3 DON'T BE STUPID.---my personal favorite.

Hermana Roper! She is leaving me in 2 weeks wahh! 

Hermana Kaeding makes my whole day! I love and miss her. 

HOLA.

I got the bday package and nutella... thank you thank you!

Grandma Lucy I loved your note. Thank you! 

This last week we constructed a house! It was quite the challenge. We did it with bamboo sticks and leafy plants. Quite a sturdy house...not. I always want to do service projects but all the Elders and members always think oh the Hermanas can't do anything (whaahh). So we are usually not invited to these kind of things. But por fin I got to do a big service project with my district! It was just a little hot and my nose burnt pretty bad. We left at 6:30 am and came back at 2:30 pm. We had nothing to eat but little boloques (popsicles). While we were outside trying to build this thing I heard next door one of my favorite songs that says "Oh Oh your half way there, oh oh your livin on a prayer!" Or something like that. I can't even remember who sings that song, but it's a good one. Then I remembered that yeah I am half way there. I have completed NINE MONTHS!!! so loco! I can't believe how fast time goes. 

We had to burn the house before we built it...I didn't take any more pics of the house sorry. 

Random thought. Everyone here waters their front lawn. The front lawn consists of sand. But every morning they water it! Even sweep it. It's pretty hilarious. 

On Saturday Elder Evans and his wife came. Wow it was such an amazing day. The moment they arrived in the car with President and Hermana Rowley, they saw us all lined up ready to take a picture with our WHOLE mission. The four (Evans, and Rowley's) got out of there car and were blown away to see the whole mission together. Sister Evans just cried, and in that moment the spirit FILLED my chest. I felt on cloud 9. In moments like this I feel oh so grateful to be a missionary. I just felt the power of God. I know he is real and loves me. This is where I need to be. 

Elder Evans started his talk by saying "Well Piura. It's a different world." He described it as "Old School" "Hot Desert" "Not very pretty" "Amazing people" "Lots of moto taxis." I think that somes up this place pretty well. But these things about Piura that aren't so pretty make it pretty to me because there is nothing else in my life like it! He taught me sooo much and even moved me to tears. He told us how it is so important that are converts repent. Lots of the time we go from FAITH to BAPTISM and we forget the REPENTANCE in between. We are not authorized to baptism people who truly haven't repented and won't keep their baptismal covenant. Then he gave us three rules that I loved. 

RULE #1 STAY WITH YOUR COMPANION. So that you can always SEE and HEAR her. 

RULE #2 OBSERVE THE RULES WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX. 

RULE #3 DON'T BE STUPID.---my personal favorite. 

If we would keep these three rules he said that 99.9% of his job would be taken care of. 

Mi HIJA! Hermana Valencia, she lives and is healthy. 

Then he urged us to ask references from EVERY single person! Which is something I lack. So that day I asked every person on the street that I talked to and in every lesson we had for referrals.  And guess what we only got one! HAhaha, but I won't stop. This is my new goal. 

Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach.  I left the conference feeling so happy to be a missionary. We talked with 20 people that day and found 7 people in the streets! 

None of our investigadores came to church------YUp. 

This is the hardest but best time of my life! I love you all. 

xoxo Hermana Stringham