The Last Step

Y bueno, this week flew by, every day is just flying by faster.

Just so ya know, we didn't have transfers!!!  I get to have one more change with Hermana Cordova.  I am so happy, we have so much to do and Salado is just the greatest.

We had a really productive week, the Lord has blessed us with so many prepared people, and we were able to find a family that went to church on Sunday!  We had contacted a house and left a card, and then we asked for referrals from a member and she gave us the name of the woman who lived in this house...we were like um yep that would be a sign. Her name is Doris, and her daughters went to the talent show that we had last week, and it was just awesome.  We were kind of bumming around Saturday night, it had rained all day (it was WONDERFUL) and everyone was cooped up inside, so we decided to go and try to get in and contact the referral.  We went and clapped and her daughters let us in, and we had a lesson with them and with her nieces.  The next morning, we had to take a bus to go get some less actives and investigators, drop them off in the church, and then run to go get this family.  It was nuts, because we were like running to their house and we saw this group of people pass by and it was Doris with her nephew, Eduardo, niece Vanessa, daughters Jessica and Johanna.  I just about died of a heart attack. They had a great experience and we are going to have a FHE with them this week.

Also, we are still working with the Hermana Martinez and her son, Alejandro.  He has a baptismal date for October 10th, pray for him and her, please please please.  We are trying hard to activate his family so that they can get to the temple.

We are working with another lady, Victoria, who really wasn't progressing.  We weren't sure what to teach her, and honestly, we were going to drop her, but we prayed during weekly planning and we both thought about the book My Family, that talks about family history.  We had a lesson with her and she was so excited, she is going to talk with her sister so that she can fill it out (her sister is going to be visiting her, so that is why she can't go to church.  Might as well do something productive).

Today we went to the temple with Ramona and Lucia (recent converts).  My companion and I bore our testimonies and I felt the spirit so strong.  I love the temple.  I wish we could go more often, but that is okay.  Something that I have realized is that everything we do in the church, everything that we study, learn, memorize, feel, whatever, everything points to the temple.  Everything we have to endure is worth it when we understand and make eternal covenants with our Heavenly Father.  I love that so much.  That is the difference between the LDS church and the thousands of others: we will be together for the eternities.  What a blessing.

I love you, and I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Farish

Talent Show

Well flip.

This week was nuts. But it was awesome.  To try to explain it I am just going to go day by day, starting with Wednesday (because it was halfway normal up to that point).

Wednesday-we had piano class and a rehearsal with the primary for the talent show, and it went pretty well.  We had assigned a recent convert to find a little sketch theater thing that they could do, and we had the help of Hermana Martinez (who is coming back to church...YAY!!!) with the decorations and the costumes.  We ended our little theater thing with the primary song "Mother I Love You".  It was so cute.  The crazy thing from this day was trying to coordinate everything between teaching appointments and class and all of that fun shtuff.

Thursday-was slightly normal as well, we started the day in a place in our area called Carmen Soler. It is an asentamiento, or in other words, government land lots, and it is the farthest away from us.  A sister who lives there is Hermana Piñanes. She was baptized about 14 years ago, and was sealed with her husband and children about 8 years ago.  Her husband stopped going to church after being sealed, and doesn't want anything to do with the gospel.  But Hermana Piñanes is awesome, she is handicapped and can't walk without the help of crutches and some braces on her legs.  She was inactive for several years, and we, being new, had no idea that she was a member (or that she existed, for that matter).  All of the sudden, one Sunday, she just showed up at church.  The amazing thing about that is that she can't get up into the bus by herself, and the majority of the time doesn't have the money to pay the bus, but she came.  We have been working with her ever since and basically all of the investigators that we have in Carmen Soler are her references, and she is always offering to make visits with us, even though she can't really walk all that well.  It is a huge testimony to me of every member a missionary, even if you can't even walk.  It doesn't matter.

Friday-Another rehearsal for the talent show, a ton of stuff to do.  We had an awesome lesson with Hermana Martinez and her son, Alejandro, who has a date for October 10th.  We have been trying really hard to find the way to help them feel the Spirit again, and we were talking and we showed a picture of Jesus Christ when He will come again.  She looked at the picture and began to cry, and told us that beause of that picture she had made the decision to be baptized.  She had had a dream with that picture, and she had in her arms her baby that had died.  When the missionaries showed her that picture, she knew that she needed to be baptized.  The spirit was so so strong and it was wonderful to see her start to feel that again.

Saturday-loco talent show.  Everything went well, there were a lot of people who came, and we died in bed afterwards we were so tired.  Haha, we did a skit that I had seen when I was at Snow in a talent show of the YSA, where someone is preparing themselves for the day, but there is another person behind them who puts their arms in front, so the arms of the other person are putting on the makeup of the person in front...so the makeup turns out really good looking.  Ya, hard to explain, but it turned out funny.

Sunday-em...this was kind of a disappointment, because there were several people who we are bringing back to church who came, but then out of the blue some other active families decided to travel and whatever, so the attendance went down...we were like WWWWWHHHHHYYYYYY???

Sorry this is so long, but all in all, it was a good week.  I love being a missionary here in Paraguay!!

Hermana Farish

The Most Unexpected Testimony I Have Ever Heard!

This week was so so so so so so so so crazy.  The time is flying by, and I don't like it.  It seems like there isn't enough time to do everything that we need to.

This Wednesday we went to the church to have piano class and there was no electricity.  We were like oh flip.  There were a ton of people there so we put the chalkboard outside and my companion and an elder had flashlights, so we had piano a la flashlight.  It was the greatest class we have ever had:)

Thursday we were stuck with nothing to do at like 8:30 at night, and it was so flipping cold that no one was outside, so we began to knock doors and we were walking past this one house and a man ran out yelling "hermanas, hermanas"!!!  And we were like...yep, drunk man, running away now.  We walked away really fast and he didn't come out of his gate.  Afterwards we felt bad so we went back and clapped and he came out and began to talk to us, 100% drunk and probably high as well, and began to talk about Joseph Smith and the plates and all of that stuff.  He told us that Joseph was a good man, I know that he did good things and a bunch of weird testimony things all bunched together. We will go back with a member to see what his real intentions are.

Another miracle was on Friday, we were walking to contact a new area and we walked past the house of an old contact, Jessica.  We had left a brochure of the Plan of Salvation with her and had tried to return several times, but she was never there or couldn't talk with us.  We felt the "hunch" (Elder Hughes:)) and so we clapped, and she came out and we had an amazing lesson about the necessity of infant baptisms.  She accepted the baptism invitation and we will see her again tomorrow.

Saturday we were feeling a little low, super tired, and we felt like we were lacking in finding quality nuevos (apart from Jessica).  The phone rang and we looked, and lo and behold it was President McMullin.  There are three reasons for which president will call you: 1-special changes, 2-interviews, 3-referrals.  So we had a 66% chance of coming out of it alive.  But as it turns out, President had a referral for us, Javier.  We called him and he committed over the phone to go to church:)  We will be meeting with him afterwards on Sunday.

I GOT YOUR PACKAGE!!!!  AND I LOVED IT SSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! Seriously, it just made my month.  I loved the cute notes and the pictures and the pillow case and everything about everything was just perfect.  Also, I got a letter from Brynn, could you tell her thank you for me? Cute girl.

Transfers are next week, and I honestly have no idea what is going to happen.  I would be perfectly happy staying with Hermana Cordova another transfer, but I am pretty sure one of us is going to go, I am not sure who.  Everyone is telling me that I am going to be a sister training leader, but I am pretty 100% positive that isn't going to happen.  I dunno, vamos a ver que pasa (we will see what happens). I am trying to have the attitude of "I am here to serve the Lord and what he wants will be what happens" kind of thing.  President was very complimentary in our last interview, and today (totally made me laugh) I greeted Hermana McMullin (President's wife) and she told me, "you look so good!" I laughed and thought, "I will just have to keep gaining weight" :)

And...apart from that, it was a good week.  Haha, I am reading the Book of Mormon and I was in the Isaiah chapters of 2nd Nephi.  About halfway through, I realized that I wasn't learning or understanding anything, even less because it is in Spanish.  So I started again with Isaiah, our relationship is a bit better, and I am going slower and marking all of the times that it refers to the Lord, and other events in the Plan of Salvation.  I realized that if I really, really want to learn something, all I have to do is be diligent and take my time, especially if it happens to be Isaiah in a foreign language:)

Sorry this was so long, but I hope that you all have a good week and that you enjoy the coming fall!!! I love you!

Hermana Farish

Happiness is a sugar overdose!

Hermana Cordova, Hermana Farish, Hermana Francani

Too Many Blessings

We had an awesome week here in Salado...

First off, Wednesday was great because we contacted ALL DAY and literally no one let us in, which was weird because normally the Paraguayans are pretty nice, but not on Wednesdays apparently. So...it was just peachy.  We were thinking, how crazy would it be if someone just came up and said "I would like to be baptized, please".  Later that night we had piano class, and halfway through an inactive sister came in who hasn't stepped in the church for like 15 years because a member stole the title to her land...long story...but she entered with her son and afterwards came up and asked to talk with us.  Her son apparently had asked her to be baptized, and we have begun to understand that you need to be careful with what you say, because someone is always listening....:)

Thursday we had interviews with President McMullin.  We were inside of the church for 7 hours straight, such fun.

This week went really well, and I just felt good.  We have been contacting a ton and we are working. Sometimes it is hard though because the members are the ones who are tempting us to not be obedient.  They have been so accustomed to the elders who haven't been obedient and we have to go in and get home on time and not watch movies and not spend the whole day in one home...it is something that frustrates me, because Paraguay is different than the US..shocker.  We are always moving and shaking and working and playing and DOING SOMETHING: here it is like...sit down for 5 hours and drink terere...and to a certain point we have to take a chill pill and slow it down, but we also have to do our job and be obedient.  There are so many times when my Paraguayan side is taking it out on my US roots, and it is hard.  But I know how it should be, and that a lot of times church policies and rules and programs just don't work here in Paraguay.  They are so ....lazy.  Haha, I still have a lot to learn about patience.  But other than that, I am doing well...until I read that you guys had gone to the cabin and it was 52 degrees...waaaa....it is like 100 here...dangit.  But oh well, I am going to come home a mexican blonde because I will be so so so so tan with some freaking awesome lines...super attractive.

Friday was interesting, we started to contact and we contacted a house with a guy that is 100 percent anti-Mormon.  He came out and began to bash the US and Joseph Smith and the plates and that the Mormon church didn't come from Christ and how you would have to be stupid to join and all of that fun stuff, and it was just interesting to me to see that the majority of the people don't know what they are talking about, and that every once in a while, we need to kneel down and ask again to verify and strengthen our own testimonies, so that when we have to give them, we are ready and prepared.

Another little milagro (miracle) was that we had 10 investigators in church yesterday.  We began to count and we just kept finding more and more...I don't know what happened this week to change so much but the work in in Salado is being hastened, and we are so excited to keep going.

I hope that you all have a good week!  Be happy and obedient!

Love,
Hermana Farish