I am doing pretty well, considering I sweat off like half my body weight every single day. Apparently it hasn't been this hot at this time of year in 55 years, and I am just lucky enough to be here right now. whoopwhoop!
And also, may I just say a gigantic thank you to Kat and Jeff for the package! It was the greatest thing ever! I loved the letters, and especially the shorts and the starbursts! I have worn the shorts every day...yeah, I am so excited! I then saw that they were from Pizza Factory, and I almost started to bawl because I have this vision in my head of warm, perfect pizza and breadsticks, with salad and pink lemonade with sprite...yeah, I had to stop that before I sent myself into deep depression. Anyways, thank you so much, it made my week.
Also mom, I haven't received your package yet! Que en el mundo!:( Oh well, something to look forward to, I guess. I received your letter, and also Bobbie, I received your BOOK! It was the greatest.
We had cambios (transfers) on Wednesday. I saw Tyson Boyer and Aaron Fielding...THAT was really, really, really weird.
This week went really well. We are trying to discern the true desires of our investigators, because we have a lot of people who are just nice and who want to talk about the word of God, but not so many people who really have a desire to seek the truth and follow the example of Jesus Christ and persevere to the end as a member of His true church. It is so hard to stop visiting people, because you don't want to give up on them, but you don't want to waste time if they don't have a true desire to act on their faith.
That being said, we had a couple of little miracles this week. TO start off, we were contacting in a newish part of our area, and we contacted this lady, who, turns out, had been investigating the church 17 years before! Say what! She had pictures with the elders and everything! And then she proceeded to tell us that she is never home at this hour, but that day, she was:) We then proceeded to teach the Restoration of the Gospel, and it was the best we have ever done it. Hermana Chempèn tells me that if, when I am teaching, I learn something new, it is because I was teaching by the Spirit. How cool is that!? And I learned so much in this lesson. We are going to visit her again this next week, and we are praying that it turns out!
The other miracle was yesterday. We contacted a house that we had contacted my first day in Paraguay. During the lesson my first day, it was terrible. TERRIBLE. I cannot even express to you how terrible it was. And halfway through that first lesson, the mom started to freak out because her husband was home and she hadn't made him his terere...yeah, so we left really fast. But yesterday, we contacted the husband, and he was totally open to us teaching him. He called his daughter out, and we began to teach. His daughter, Synthia, is 20 years old and is very smart. She had so many good questions, and, for the first time in my mission, when we challenged her to read Moroni 10 in the Book of Mormon and pray about it, I really felt like she was going to keep her promise to read, ponder, and pray about our message. It was interesting to see the difference between my teaching that first day and where I am at now. Flip. And there is still so much to learn!
The other miraculous part of this is that she is a cousin of Shirley. Shirley is 12 years old, and is one of the best people that I have ever known. She reads the Book of Mormon by herself and has memorized two or three hymns. She is so amazing, but she cannot ride the bus and attend church by herself, and her mom will not go to church. So, if we can get Synthia to attend church, she can bring Shirley and Shirley can be baptized. it is the little things, AHHH!:) We were so happy, we couldn't stop smiling.
We are working with the ward, one step at a time. We had ward council on Wednesday for the first time since I have been here, and only 4 people besides us showed up. HAYA. oh well, it actually happened, that is good.
It is interesting to see how the families function here. Rarely are both parents in the home, usually it is a struggling single mother with 5 or 6 kids from different fathers. so so so crazy. We are teaching a girl that has two kids and is living with the father of her youngest, and he is one of the creepiest people I have ever seen, which is saying something, because there are a lot of creepy people here. What i don't understand is why she is still with him...some people. enserio.
We had our double ward activity on Saturday, and it went really well. We had lots of little stands with different games, and I thought of the Andrus Reunion, because we had the nylons game going, stack the cups, the vaseline and the cotton balls, and three legged races. it was a lot of fun and we had a good turnout.
Right after that ended we had the clase de piano, and it went really well. During the week I had made worksheets and guided notetaking paper things, and that helped a lot. An entire family came that was just baptized last week, and the mom said that she learned more during this one class than she had learned from a course at the university. That kind of boosted my self esteem.
Anyways, something that I have learned this week is that when we have faith in Jesus Christ and in the ennobling power of His Atonement, we can do our best and be satisfied with the results. Everyone has their agency, but with the Help of Jesus Christ, we can do our part to help them make the right choice. The Book of Mormon is full of examples of this, I especially love in Mosiah, with King Benjamin and Abinadi. it is the greatest!
And also, may I just say a gigantic thank you to Kat and Jeff for the package! It was the greatest thing ever! I loved the letters, and especially the shorts and the starbursts! I have worn the shorts every day...yeah, I am so excited! I then saw that they were from Pizza Factory, and I almost started to bawl because I have this vision in my head of warm, perfect pizza and breadsticks, with salad and pink lemonade with sprite...yeah, I had to stop that before I sent myself into deep depression. Anyways, thank you so much, it made my week.
Also mom, I haven't received your package yet! Que en el mundo!:( Oh well, something to look forward to, I guess. I received your letter, and also Bobbie, I received your BOOK! It was the greatest.
We had cambios (transfers) on Wednesday. I saw Tyson Boyer and Aaron Fielding...THAT was really, really, really weird.
This week went really well. We are trying to discern the true desires of our investigators, because we have a lot of people who are just nice and who want to talk about the word of God, but not so many people who really have a desire to seek the truth and follow the example of Jesus Christ and persevere to the end as a member of His true church. It is so hard to stop visiting people, because you don't want to give up on them, but you don't want to waste time if they don't have a true desire to act on their faith.
That being said, we had a couple of little miracles this week. TO start off, we were contacting in a newish part of our area, and we contacted this lady, who, turns out, had been investigating the church 17 years before! Say what! She had pictures with the elders and everything! And then she proceeded to tell us that she is never home at this hour, but that day, she was:) We then proceeded to teach the Restoration of the Gospel, and it was the best we have ever done it. Hermana Chempèn tells me that if, when I am teaching, I learn something new, it is because I was teaching by the Spirit. How cool is that!? And I learned so much in this lesson. We are going to visit her again this next week, and we are praying that it turns out!
The other miracle was yesterday. We contacted a house that we had contacted my first day in Paraguay. During the lesson my first day, it was terrible. TERRIBLE. I cannot even express to you how terrible it was. And halfway through that first lesson, the mom started to freak out because her husband was home and she hadn't made him his terere...yeah, so we left really fast. But yesterday, we contacted the husband, and he was totally open to us teaching him. He called his daughter out, and we began to teach. His daughter, Synthia, is 20 years old and is very smart. She had so many good questions, and, for the first time in my mission, when we challenged her to read Moroni 10 in the Book of Mormon and pray about it, I really felt like she was going to keep her promise to read, ponder, and pray about our message. It was interesting to see the difference between my teaching that first day and where I am at now. Flip. And there is still so much to learn!
The other miraculous part of this is that she is a cousin of Shirley. Shirley is 12 years old, and is one of the best people that I have ever known. She reads the Book of Mormon by herself and has memorized two or three hymns. She is so amazing, but she cannot ride the bus and attend church by herself, and her mom will not go to church. So, if we can get Synthia to attend church, she can bring Shirley and Shirley can be baptized. it is the little things, AHHH!:) We were so happy, we couldn't stop smiling.
We are working with the ward, one step at a time. We had ward council on Wednesday for the first time since I have been here, and only 4 people besides us showed up. HAYA. oh well, it actually happened, that is good.
It is interesting to see how the families function here. Rarely are both parents in the home, usually it is a struggling single mother with 5 or 6 kids from different fathers. so so so crazy. We are teaching a girl that has two kids and is living with the father of her youngest, and he is one of the creepiest people I have ever seen, which is saying something, because there are a lot of creepy people here. What i don't understand is why she is still with him...some people. enserio.
We had our double ward activity on Saturday, and it went really well. We had lots of little stands with different games, and I thought of the Andrus Reunion, because we had the nylons game going, stack the cups, the vaseline and the cotton balls, and three legged races. it was a lot of fun and we had a good turnout.
Right after that ended we had the clase de piano, and it went really well. During the week I had made worksheets and guided notetaking paper things, and that helped a lot. An entire family came that was just baptized last week, and the mom said that she learned more during this one class than she had learned from a course at the university. That kind of boosted my self esteem.
Anyways, something that I have learned this week is that when we have faith in Jesus Christ and in the ennobling power of His Atonement, we can do our best and be satisfied with the results. Everyone has their agency, but with the Help of Jesus Christ, we can do our part to help them make the right choice. The Book of Mormon is full of examples of this, I especially love in Mosiah, with King Benjamin and Abinadi. it is the greatest!
I love you all, and I hope that you have a good week! Be safe and be obedient!
Love,
Hermana Farish
Hermana Farish
| Erin teaching piano to members & non-members |
| Erin's Zone |
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