Fat Joke of the Century

Hola Familia,

Judging by everyone's emails, this week was kind of crazy for you guys!  I am so glad that everyone is doing fine and that Emily received her call! That is so awesome!

Now, I am pretty secure here in Paraguay with my physical appearance and all that, but today we had a zone activity with something that we weren't sure if we should be ashamed of,  or if we should just go with it, so we just went with it.  We had a BOUNCY HOUSE at a zone activity.  Eesh. We had a blast!  At one point, there were three North American sisters (all about my size) trying to climb to the top of the slide through the slide.  Well, we got up there and all of a sudden, the top part started to cave in.  We were like...haha, it is just because the other hermana is coming!  So we sat there at the top of this giant bouncy slide and all of the sudden, the top part started to collapse all of the way, and the slide TIPPED OVER...just because we were sitting at the top.  We totally fell off the side when it tipped over. we were embarrassed a little bit...but, at least there were three of us so we could all take a little bit of the blame:) But still, we tipped over a huge bouncy slide, who can say fat joke?

Another experience that made me giggle was on Thursday, when we went to lunch, turns out there was a huge party going on, and one of the moms who came brought her two twin boys, her ONLY children, with a nanny for each one.  I just giggled inside as the mom talked about how hard her life was, and I was thinking, "You think your life is hard?  You should see my Aunt Laurie.  She goes DEER HUNTING with twins and 3 other small children. So there:)"  Laurie, you are awesome!  As well as all of my aunts, my grandma, and my mom!  you are all such wonderful examples of dedicating your life to your family.  It makes such a difference!

I have been thinking a lot about the whole love and charity thing.  I was reading in Moroni 7, and it says that the true disciples of Christ are the ones who have the true charity.  So, you need to tell mom that she can't kill you, because she needs to have charity;) (I sent her a singing Valentine in front of A LOT of people), and also, it says in this verse how if we want charity, we need to ask for it, because for most, it doesn't come naturally.

In preach my gospel it talks about how the Atonement was done because of the love of Jesus Christ, not only for His Father but for us as well.  Everything that we do as servants of Christ is because of our love for Christ and our appreciation of what He did for us.  If we don't feel the need to do it, it is because we don't have charity.

As far as my contacting, I am still struggling.  I contact, but it isn't nearly enough. We have so much to do that a lot of the times I use the excuse we don't have time or we need to go.  But the other day I felt an impression to talk to a teen girl, and in talking to her we found a less active and an old investigator.  So, I need to contact more, and not "quench the Spirit", because that is what I have been doing.  Just relax and feel the Spirit and have my priorities straight.

As far as the work goes, we had zone conference on Tuesday, and we were there all day because we had interviews with President McMullin.  They went really well, and we had some interesting conversations.  The focus was on goals and on the desire to make goals, work to meet them, and all that.  We went to the AP and he sat us down and said, "When you begin to have relationships with someone who could be your future spouse, at what point in your relationship will you set goals?"  We were like....WHAT?  ELDER.  Number 1: We don't say or talk about the "M" word in the mission. Number 2:  Why on earth would we tell you? Yeah, that was slightly awkward at first.

Something that I really liked from this conference was that we talked about desire. They gave us a talk by Dallin H. Oaks, which talked about how our desires determine our priorities, our priorities determine our choices, and our choices determine our actions, which determine our salvation.  Really, if we want something badly enough, we will be able to accomplish it, with the help of the Lord, and lots and lots of work.  I love being a missionary, and even though sometimes it really just stinks, I know that nothing will happen that I will not be able to overcome, because we all have a loving Heavenly Father who knows us and our weaknesses perfectly.

Also, something that I just realized is that this week makes one year since I opened my call!  The time is going by so flipping fast.  Random question...is my plaque in the church?  How weird...19 years of my life i looked at all of the missionary plaques...weird.  Everyone is just growing up so incredibly fast and moving on and making choices.  Loca es.

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

Love,

Hermana Farish

As If For Years

Well flip. 

This week was one of those weeks that makes all of the other weeks walking in the sun worth it.  We had lots of fun little miracles, and we were able to see the Lord's hand in His work. 

Mostly, I want to focus on something that I read today that really just went to my very center.  I was reading an article in the Ensign about our journey through life and how a lot of the times, we are just waiting for things to change so that we can be happier.  We say, okay, I am only going to be in this ward for so long, so I am not going to accept a calling, or for me, I am only going to be in this area for so long, so...just work with the hope that I get transferred.

BBBAAAAADDDD!!!!!!

What the author said really made me think.  How different would our lives be if we lived and prayed and worked in every situation as if we were going to be there for years?  As if nothing was going to change and only we had to do the best we could with what we had in the moment?  I was like...oof.  Something that I really need to change is my perspective.  We are where we are because the Lord knows that we are going to be able to learn something from the experience. The missionaries come and go, but really our purpose is to improve SOMETHING in the area, whether it be the ward, baptisms, or individuals, and we need to do it with the idea that we are going to be there for always. I am not explaining myself really well, but basically we have to make the most of every moment that we have so that we can do all that the Lord would have us do.

I love you all so much, and I hope that you can always try to think in the eternal perspective, that everything you do can help or hinder your progress.

¡Les quiero! (I love you!)

Love,

Hermana Farish

Miracle of Miracles

Dear Family,

We have had a good week here in Paraguay.  Really, it is so awesome to see the Lord's hand in these things.

First off, Hilda.  Hilda is 67 years old, and has diabetes. Something is really, really wrong with her foot, and it is hard to walk.  The sisters who were here before found here, and Hilda always used her foot as an excuse to not go to church.  But now, she is so ready to be baptized.  Last week on Sunday, we were walking to bring people to church, and we had the feeling that we needed to go to get a less active (the bishop's wife), so we went, were rejected, and when we were walking back to go to church, we found Hilda walking with her grandson to go to church with us.  We wouldn't have found her if we hadn't gone to find the less active, so even when you have impressions, and you don't know why, you need to follow them , becaue who knows, just like Elder Hughes said.

On Monday Hilda told us that she had woken up on Sunday morning with so much pain in her foot, and wasn't feeling well.  She said that she prayed to the Lord that she would be healed so that she could walk to church.  She told us that the pain just left.  WWHHHAAATTTTT???  We were so incredibly happy.  The second miracle with her was this Sunday.  We tried to call her, and she didn't answer, and we didn't have time to walk and find her, so we went to church really depressed.  But at 9 am, she walked right on up with her grandson!  She told us that she woke up a little late and began to walk, even with the pain in her foot.  Then her grandson found a 2 thousand guarani bill so that they were able to take a bus and not walk so much.  This really showed me that we have to act on our faith, which sometimes is really hard, but when we do, our loving Heavenly Father will help us to bear our burdens and will bless us beyond what we can imagine.

We had a wonderful gift this Sunday.  The Sisters Linda Burton (President de RS) and Neill Marriot (2nd counselor YW) came to Paraguay!  We got a colectivo for the ward and we all went to the chapel next to the temple to listen to them. We were like 4 rows away from these wonderful women.  It was such a wonderful experience.  They really are called to bring relief to those who need it, and I want to be as loving and as humble as they are when I grow up. 

They truly have charity for every single person.

Seriously.  It was so amazing.  From Hna. Marriot, she told us 5 things that we need to do to keep our spirits from diminishing and protect ourselves from temptation:

1-Pray always:when we don't have the Spirit in our hearts, STOP what you are doing AND PRAY.
2-Read and STUDY the scriptures.  Pray for inspiration and revelation.
3-Take the Sacrament every Sunday.  When we don't take the sacrament, we lose power from God.
4-SERVE others with the love of Christ. Mosiah 2:17
5-Go to the temple often.

From Hna. Burton, she asked the question, "What kind of woman am I?  Am I prepared to meet Jesus Christ beyond the veil?"  That was SO deep.  It was like...oh flip.

The heat wasn't all that bad this week.  It is getting easier, but wow, I am getting some really, really, really weird tan lines.  LIke BAD.  We have air conditioning in the room where we sleep, and it is such a downer when we go outside the room the next morning and the heat just melts all of the protective ice that you built up during the night.  My companion is fine, we have a pretty good relationship now, and I am really trying hard to develop charity.  The conference of the Relief society last night really showed me what an incredibly powerful tool it can be in the power of conversion.

Oddly enough, my favorite thing to eat here is a salad made up of salt, cucumbers, lime, and tomatoes.  It is SO good and fresh and healthy.  There is this thing called milanesa that is like fried chicken but it is slices of beef.  It is so, so good with rice and this salad.  Something that I thought would never happen is that something really good with rice is mayonnaise, with corn and peas.  COLD.  Weird, but true.  Almost everything is better with mayo.

Anyways, that conference was such a wonderful blessing, it was like the pep talk of the century.  And I have 6 months in the mission..que en el mundo.  Time is going by WAY too fast.

I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful week!  Stay happy and know that you have a Heavenly Father and an older brother who are at your side at all times!

Love, love, love,

Hermana Farish

The Frozen Miracle

Dear Family,

I don't have a lot of time, but this week was probably one of the most difficult of my mission thus far.  We worked so, so hard this week, searching for new investigators to teach, and we found some.  We fasted on Tuesday and on that day we had a couple of fun little miracles.  We went to talk to an investigator, didn't get in, and we started to walk away and were about halfway down the street when I realized that I didn't have my agenda, so we walked back, got it, and when we walked back down the same street, we heard someone blasting classical music.  We hadn't heard it the first time, so my companion just walked up and asked who it was and what it was and all that.  She said that I played the piano and the lady became all friendly and showed us her nice piano, and (here is the crazy part), I had my Frozen music in my backpack for the first time in my mission.  They had a granddaughter there who LOVED LOVED frozen, so we sat down and I played and she sang everything in spanish!  We were a hit:)  It was seriously a blessing, and when we began to talk to them, the guy had read half of the Book of Mormon like 10 years ago, but for some reason we don't know yet, he wasn't baptized.  When he started to talk to us about Brigham Young, we were like...WHAT???? How does he know about Brigham Young?  Anyway, so that was a fun little miracle.

On the downside, we are struggling hard core with our ward.  So, dad - what do you do when the new first counselor in your ward, who has been on the high council, has a drinking problem?  Then he tells us missionaries to our faces that it is our fault that the barrio (ward) is failing!  What can you do with that besides hope that Jesucristo venga pronto (comes soon)?  We were so bummed...all that we could do was say: no, we aren't working, that is definitely why this ward is failing...yea.  SORRY, this week really was hard.  I hope you have a better week and that all goes well.

But hey, this church is so perfect and there is an order that will always help to keep everything simple.  All that we have to do is follow that order!

Anyway, this week has really made me think about my own testimony, and how really, we have to pray, attend church, keep ALL of the commandments, and go to the temple in order to really develop our testimony and protect our home from the temptations of Satan.  He knows our weakness, but we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and knows us perfectly.  He will never give us anything that we can't handle (1 Corinthians 10:13).

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you, and that He gave us commandments so that we would be protected.  I love you!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Bajar la cana con amor

Hola mi familia!

How is everything?  Everyone still doing okay?  This week was really, really, really eye opening.

First off, to explain the subject line...bajar la caña is basically to chasten...literally translated it is lower the rod/stick, but when you baja la caña you are scolding someone.  This happened twice this week, both with lessons that will always stick with me.

I read a talk from the 2013 priesthood general conference that is called "Is it I, Lord?"  by President Uchtdorf.  It talks about how when we receive counsel or advice, we can't look at others and say, oh good, that sister or brother needs to hear this, or needs to change this.  Nope.  We need to look at ourselves first, and ask the question, Is it I, Lord? What can I do to change and become better?  What can I do to better serve Thee?

We had a zone conference on Saturday, and it was slightly depressing, but awesome.  I had read this talk, and then we had our conference.  Our mission is still trying to adjust to some major changes that took place at the beginning of the year, and as such we aren't doing as well with baptisms.  We only have 19 thus far in January, which is really really low for our area in the world. To put it in perspective, our goal is 72. Presidente McMullin was really worried, and he bajò la caña.  But with love.  I am so lucky to have him as a mission president, he knows how to bring the Spirit so that it can testify to our hearts.  The whole entire time, he spoke about our desires, and if really we have the desire to work and give our all to the Lord.  The question, "Is it I, Lord" was in my head the whole time.  What can I do to help and be better?

I decided that I am going to tell all of you what I am going to do to change and be better, so that you can ask me next week and check up on my progress:)

I am going to contact like crazy.  Talk to EVERYONE, not just the people who conveniently meander in my path. It has always been a struggle for me, and we have slacked off.  So, I am going to work to have the courage to open my mouth even more.

Anyways, today we had a zone activity, that involved water balloons and sports.  I wanted to stop running in the heat and playing rugby with water balloons and pull a Jacob and start a water fight, but that wouldn't have turned out well...so...yeah.

We had changes this week, but I stayed here in Palma Loma!  Another cambio here to work and find people to help:)

I hope you all have a good week and are obedient!

Love,

Hermana Farish

The Zone

Sisters..."In the Zone"

The Small Things

Dear Everyone,

How was this week?  This week went really well for us here in Paraguay; hot, but good.  We have officially started summer, which means no rain and temps around 46 to 50 degrees Celsius,  114 to 120 Fahrenheit.  Bueno.  The good thing is that my ankles are going to be beautifully tanned:)

There was another holiday this week, called the day of the kings, the kings being the three wise men.  What happens here is that the kids put their empty shoes outside the night before, and during the night, the 3 wise men come with their camels and bring all sorts of gifts and fun things.  I had a wonderful day of the kings, thanks to Jill and family, I was able to open your package the morning of, it was the best:)  And thank you Addy for your note:)

Also, we went to Burger King today, and it was the classiest restaurant that I have been to here in Paraguay.  Kind of weird.  But the fries and hamburger were to die for, so that was nice.

One awesome thing that happened this week was that a bishop was called in our ward!  Because of some problems with his spouse, the previous bishop was suspended for nine months, and another man was called as the president of the ward.  Well, we finally have only one man that has the keys to the ward, and it was so wonderful.  We had a ton of people in church, like 80, and I hope that we can use this jump start to begin functioning again, and start to help the people to remain faithful.

We had a meeting with the stake president, the mission president, and the leaders of our ward on Friday to begin a system that resembles visiting teaching and home teaching, we hope that the people can begin to work and help others to gain a testimony.

Something funny/gross this week was that I ate horse.  Eew.  I had no idea what it was, it was one of those things when you pray like a fanatic to Heavenly father to help you to live.  I didn't find out it was horse until after I had finished it, good thing too, because I wouldn't have been able to finish it!

Something that I learned this week was that without the process of repentance, we would be sunk.  Repentance is such a precious gift of God, and we show our gratitude to Him when we use the Atonement to cleanse our spirits. In Doctrine and Covenants 58 it talks about this, how when we truly repent of our sins, He "remembers them no more." What a relief.

Anyhoo, it was a good week, I love being here, and I love how our Heavenly Father has unlimited patience and helps us to change and improve every day.  I love you and I hope you have a good week!  Be obedient!

Love,

Hermana Farish

Lessons Learned

Hola mi familia...

First off, kudos to Jill and family for the package! I haven't opened it yet, but I will first thing when I get home! It was such a fun surprise!

I don't have very much time, but this week was rather...difficult. You know those weeks when you work so so so so hard and then you fast, and you have faith because you worked hard and want to see the fruits of your labors? And then Sunday comes along and drops a bomb on you...the lowest attendance in 13 years. Sigh. We were really depressed on Sunday, but after church we worked and worked again, and we had an amazing lesson with the wife of our bishop, who is inactive and didn't want to meet with us, but we had an awesome lesson on the importance of temple covenants and how when we keep our covenants, we can help our children in this life and the next.

This week, I learned three different lessons. They really hit me hard and will stick with me forever.

Lesson 1 - People have their agency. Dumb. We can work as hard as we can and have the Spirit in lessons, but the people still have their freedom of choice. Agency is such an important part of the plan of our Heavenly Father, but sometimes it just stinks. Blast.

Lesson 2 - We are happy when we know that we have done our best. There is nothing better than the feeling of working, working, working, and even when you can't see the immediate blessings, you know they are there because you know that, even though you aren't perfect, our Heavenly Father is there to make up the difference with His perfect grace and mercy.

Lesson 3 - Do NOT, under ANY circumstances eat week-old cow tongue. It will make you sicker than a dog. We ate at a member’s house on Thursday, and I had tried the cow tongue the last week, and she had it again, and I was like...well, might as well, because never again am I going to be able to do it. What I didn't realize was that it was the same cow tongue from last week. It was bad. So, when this situation comes up in your life, have the strength to say NO. :)

Sometimes, it is hard to get up and leave the air-conditioned room, but I think I am getting better at being positive. My patriarchal blessing helped me a lot too. It says that a lot of things that I will do here on the earth are the same things over and over again, but that I need to do the best I can every day in order to accomplish that which the Lord has for me. So, that is my goal. Work hard every day, because The Lord has blessings and because I love Him and am grateful to Him for all that I have.

Mom and Dad, every day I thank my Heavenly Father for you and your examples of...awesomeness. Seriously. I don't know what I did to deserve you. I look at all of the people who don't fulfill their callings, who don't go to the temple, who don't pay their tithing, and their lives are so sad and hard. But I have your examples to lean on, and to remember that when I do these things, I will be okay. You are so amazing. Even when I don't want to work, even when I am so tired I just want to sleep next to the drunk man on the sidewalk, I can pray to Heavenly Father and He will give me the strength that I need to work. When we are obedient as servants of the Lord, we have power. Power and authority.

Mom, I think that is a great idea for new beginnings (to ask returned missionaries to write their testimonies, then have the YW read them). Really, we are working with a lot of girls here on their personal progress. Personal progress has helped me to develop a love for the scriptures and how we can apply them in our lives. Really, Personal Progress has helped me to develop my testimony. When we do our personal progress, we are showing our Heavenly Father that we want to learn how to be better moms, daughters, and servants of God. Personal Progress isn't about the leaders, or the ribbons or the medallion; it is about the girls and how they can better develop the values in the theme, and really how they can better their relationship with God. Personal Progress helped me to realize that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and we can show Him that we love Him when we do our Personal Progress. Also, service in the presidencies helped me to gain a love for the other girls, and to recognize the blessings that come from unselfish service.

We are excited to start another week, and work hard so that we can be useful servants of the Lord. I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

Love,

Hermana Farish