(Hashtag)flabbergasted

Bueno...

Lots of you guys asked me how the transfers went...let me tell ya...flabbergasted would be the word I would use to describe the transfer.

I don't know why our zone leaders thought of this, but to give out the changes this time they had little objects that represented what would happen with the changes.  So...when I received a binky and a pink bar of soap, I was like...WHAT?? So, now I am training and doing a pinkwash, which is when hermanas open a new area or replace the elders.  What fun.

My new companion is Hermana Còrdova, from Peru.  She is 21 years old, and is a lot of fun.  She played libero on the Peruvian National Volleyball team, and is one year away from graduating in civil engineering (Joel!!!).  It is a little different training a 21 year old than a 30 year old, but hey, lots of fun.  Our new area is in Salado, in a city called Limpio about 35 minutes away from Luque and Palma Loma. Super far. It is way different, a lot of green and cleanliness, which is awesome.  The ward functions decently well, which is also an improvement, so we will have fun going around, getting lost, and talking with everyone we happen to see.

At first, I was really worried about how ON EARTH I was going to be able to do this, but I know that Heavenly Father (and President McMullin) know what I can do, and that even if I make several hundred mistakes, I am where I am supposed to be.  We are the first hermanas ever to enter...so we will see how everything turns out.  Pretty good thus far.  AND we found an old semiautomatic airsoft rifle with bbs and everything in our house. Someone had an interesting Pday:)

So, this week, we had goodbyes on Tuesday, which was rough.  I grew to love Palma Loma, even with all of the fights between members, gossip, and all of that fun stuff.  I learned a lot, and I should have known that when I said I wanted to leave the area (this was in December) I would stay there half my mission.  I would say that the biggest thing that I have learned was to be humble and to listen to the Spirit.  It was something really interesting to make mistakes and to keep trying to learn how to do the things right.  Hermana Francani stayed in Palma Loma as the senior companion.  She will do great:)

Apart from that, this week was just getting adjusted, cleaning up after the elders (it was DISGUSTING), and enjoying freezing to death.  Seriously, I told someone how much time I had in the mission and she told me, wow, you are almost done!  I was like...um...no.  I don't want to be almost done.  I am so happy here, I love being a missionary and sharing with others what we have to say.  I love this work, I love my Heavenly Father and am grateful to Him for trusting me enough to let me bumble my way through this adventure.  I hope you all have a good week, and that you can enjoy the rest of summer!

Love,
Hermana Farish

with WAFFLES and stuff

Dear Family,

We had a crazy crazy week.  BUT.  It was awesome, a lot less rain, which was definitely a blessing.

We have been struggling with investigators here in Palma Loma, mostly because our focus has been on strengthening the ward and helping them to function well.  ANYWAY, we have been so blessed this week, we put 2 baptismal dates, which to be honest, isn't a whole lot, we need to do better, but we are really excited with what we have.  The first one, Eduardo, was a contact from months ago. We had a lesson with him on Saturday, and we put his baptismal date after watching the talk by President Uchtdorf called, "How to obtain a testimony of light and truth."  It was so powerful, and the Spirit was so strong.  Eduardo's main concern is feeling the spirit, it is really hard for him to feel it and to be able to recognize what it is telling him.  When we listened to this talk, the Spirit was unmistakable, you couldn't miss it.  There are 4 things that this talk tells us to do in order to obtain our own testimony:

1) Search and study the scriptures
2) Meditate, think, ponder,
3) Pray sincerely with true intention
4) LIVE what we are learning.

We were able to bear a strong testimony to him that if he will do these things, Heavenly Father will give him his answer in a way that will be recognizable to him.  We are so excited to help him to progress, the Lord has blessed us so much.  And we had waffles for lunch, which just topped off the day as a success:)

ANNNNDDD......wait for it....the bishop's wife is ACTIVE!!!! yayayayayayayayayaya!!!  We are kind of really excited.

Other than that, we had an open...church on Saturday, where everyone could go and see what the Mormons really do.  I honestly think that the best thing was watching the members get together and work to make it happen.  They did it, and it looked so awesome:)

I hope that everything is going okay with work, school family, callings, and the other hundreds of things going on.  Hermana Betancourth wrote me and told me that she doesn't want to be home. When she got home she found out that her niece had been sexually assaulted and when her dad found out he almost died of a heart attack, and she didn't know anything until she got home.  Her mom died when she was ten, and...it made me sad.  She didn't want to leave, and more than ever she wants to be back here in Paraguay.  I miss her a lot, we went through a lot together.  It hurts to hear her talk like that.

On Sunday, we received a call during lunch from one of the relief society counselors who said that the president wasn't going to be able to make it to the training of the visiting teachers, and there wasn't anyone to help, so we went and helped with the training of the visiting teachers, which was a party and a half:)

This week was the first week that I really felt cold...I kind of laughed because I received a letter from a friend in Canada, and she said that they were dying of heat with 30 degrees, and here I am dying of cold at 50:)  I usually study with a sweat shirt and go out with lots of layers, because during the day it is pretty warm but at night we are dying.  The humidity is RIDICULOUS.  I still love my companion. I feel like this week was the first week when we were teaching as equal partners.  Before, I had always led out and had always looked for the scripture to share or whatever, but this week she is holding her own, and is doing really well.  As far as the area goes, I hope the president gives me one more transfer, but now that I say that I think I am going to go this transfer.  Dangit.  I honestly don't know what is going to happen.  We think that we are going to finish training and then president will take out both of us and put in elders.  Dunno.  And honestly, I don't think I have done that much here...I think president sent me here for a clase de humildad (humility class).  I think the biggest changes that have happened here in this area have been in me:)

Something that makes me really happy is when the members come and tell us that they gave a Book of Mormon to someone or that they talked to someone about the church.  I think it is so awesome because if they are talking with people about the church, it is because they have a strong enough testimony.  Woohoo!

Anyway, that is basically all for this week.  I hope everyone is doing all right!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Service and Member Missionaries

Hola, mi familia.

Wheww.  I think the whole entire world is having crazy weather.  Here it has rained about every 2 days, and when I say rain, it is like literally 2 or 3 feet of water EVERYWHERE.  I wouldn't really mind it, but all of the people throw their trash in the water and just let it flow away...yuck.

I want to say thanks to the Robinson family for the Christmas in March!  That was such a fun surprise!  I hope everything is going well for your family!

We did a lot of service this week, and funny enough, that had a huge effect, more than contacting or teaching.  We had the opportunity to help an inactive family clean their house after the rain.  They live in a little one room shack up against a wall, with a cement base, 3 walls from plywood and the cement wall as the other wall.  They live right next to a little stream, and when it rains, even for like ten minutes, the river water raises up to 10 feet.  Friday night at about 11 a huge storm started, and all we could think about was this family.  We went to their house the next day to clean up and it had been so bad that a neighbor came to take their daughters out of the house through a hole in the wall so that if the house collapsed, it would only take the parents.  It was so sad, and we were there for a couple of hours cleaning out their house.  They were SOOO much more receptive to us afterwards, and we had a really good, Spirit packed lesson afterwards.  I don't remember who said this, but I think it is awesome. "I would much rather see a sermon than hear one."  It is SO true, and interestingly enough, as missionaries and especially Americans, people watch you REALLY closely.  So, the moral of the story is that even if you think people aren't paying attention, you need to have the integrity to do the right thing,  because you never know who you could influence.

Anyways, on Sunday we had a really good day.  It was testimony meeting, and even though there weren't any investigators, there were a couple of inactives that came for the first time in years.  

This week we received transfers....AAAANNNNDNNNDDDDD....nada.  We are still here, Hermana Betancourth and I, and we decided to make it the best change that Palma Loma has ever had.  We were kind of like...UGGG...another 6 weeks here...everything the exact same...but then we decided to change our attitudes and work.  We made several goals for the next 5 weeks, and we hope to be able to build on the progress that we and the ward have made over the last 12 weeks.

This week on Sunday, we had such a wonderful experience.  And what was even better was that it wasn't even from our work.  It was from the members and their visits.  We really tried hard to work with members this last week, and have lessons with members, and it WORKED!!  Shocker.  The inactive mom of a recent convert came, and had a great experience.  Another miracle was that a young man came, Miguel Ayala.  He was offended by the bishop about...2 years back, and has refused to meet with the missionaries.  But almost every week for the past year, a recent convert has stopped by his house EVERY Sunday to invite him to church.  And finally, he came.  Not only did he come, but he gave a wonderful testimony that spoke volumes about true friends and how even when we feel that someone really has NO potential, and they just outright reject us, we have to press forward, and trust that the Lord knows who is prepared to receive us as members.  NOT missionaries, MEMBERS.  We now have a lot more members who are willing to work, thanks to the immediate results of their efforts.

One of the biggest things that I am learning in my mission is this process of "refinement".  It is a life long process (dangit) and something that has to happen little by little.  This process of refinement has really taught me to be humble, and again, like you said, come what may, be it criticism, health problems, whatever, we have to be humble and learn to submit our will to the Father, because luckily for us, He knows our weaknesses perfectly.  There is a quote from a talk called, "The Fourth Missionary", that says, "God can make us into masterpieces.  We will make of ourselves only a smudge.  We can make of ourselves an ordinary man; He will make of us a GOD." I read that and was like.....wow.  We have to be humble enough to put ourselves into the hands of the Lord, and then let Him make us into something rather extraordinary.

I love being able to share the gospel, and I am so grateful for the opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to learn, make mistakes, and grow like I never have in my life.

This week is more or less 7 months...how crazy...the time is going by SOOO fast!

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

Love,

Hermana Farish

Cutting grass with machetes

My Zone

Valentine's Day Pizza