The Wheels On The Bus...

Hem...this week was amazing.  I have never been so tired in all of my life.  We have been working so hard to open our mouths and make quality contacts.  We set a goal to give out 2 Books of Mormon every day, and so far it has made a difference.  We contacted a house on Friday, and we clapped and then looked at who was inside.  We saw a little old lady in a wheelchair.  She couldn't talk, but motioned us in.  We asked her her name and she (obviously) couldn't tell us, so we had to change up a bit and go with yes or no questions.  She accepted the Book of Mormon, and it was so interesting to share with her; not through words but through the Spirit.  This week we are going to follow up and see if she was able to read.

Another contacting miracle was on Thursday.  We were struggling with investigators, because there aren't many who are progressing, and we prayed to find a family.  I know that answers to prayers like that aren't really supposed to come so easily, but an appointment fell through so we decided to contact the entire street.  The third house that we contacted had the windows open, and the mom was ironing.  Normally, that is a pretty good excuse to say no, but she looked out at us and stopped what she was doing, came out, and accepted a Book of Mormon (we were so confused...:)).  We will be heading back tomorrow to see how it went.

Also...We had our first Family Home Evening Guazu (Guarani for "big") and we had 50 people come!!  That is like half of sacrament meeting.  Our plan is to do one every week, once in the elder's area and once our area.  The members did their part, and some of the people received 5 visits in one week!  It was such a miracle.  We were hoping that the attendance would go up, but it went down....dangit, but we are praying and working hard.  We are going to start English and piano classes this week, and we are hoping to find quality new investigators through them.

Today my companion had to go to immigration, so I was stuck in the offices all morning, and I was able to see my old companion, Hermana Francani!  She had just come out of an interview with the Mission president, who told her that her grandma had died.  She had been listening to the missionaries and was planning on being baptized.  Hermana Francani was so strong, she was crying but she bore such a powerful testimony of the plan of salvation, and said that it was another test and that Heavenly Father will help her through it.  It bore me up, I was so proud of her and her ability to press forward ,even with all of the trials that she has.  She came to the mission with her mom inactive, and just lots of things like that that have strengthened and refined her.  I love this gospel, I love how it refines us to be more like Christ.

I hope that you enjoyed the package.  It isn't a lot, and there wasn't any other color of ties.  I hope that red is okay.  As far as the weather goes, it is beautiful.  All of the trees have purple, pink, or yellow flowers.  I love this time of year.  Thankfully, my raincoat isn't too heavy so I can wear it most every day.

I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Farish

p.s. oh, and the subject line.  We were coming to the offices today and we had to ride in collectivos (city buses) for almost 2 hours.  standing up.  so fun.  and the greatest part is that our driver was like off-roading to go faster, so we almost tipped over like 5 times.  Life is good....Paraguay at its best:)

Noche de hogar guazu!!!

Small but tidy

Kitchen area

Empanadas!

The Hardest, Happiest Week of My Life

Hm.

This week was interesting, like a mental illness.

We had divisions this week, I stayed in Salado and Hermana Cordova went to Laurelty, an area in my other zone.  We had a good experience, we were almost ambushed...by a baby cat.  Seriously, you had to be there.  we were walking down from the mountain that is our area, and it was really dark and there was no one out in the street, and we were kind of nervous, so we started to walk a little faster and suddenly there was a noise behind us and we almost died. Dumb cat.

I just realized today haha, there are three zones in the city of Luque and I have been in every single one...thats awesome.  That is called the Luque hole...all of your mission in Luque.

We had a lot of success with inactives, we are trying to push hard so that the leaders and the other members do their visits, and it is working.  I honestly think that members, apart from the Spirit, are the most important part of missionary work.  Seriously.  If we can understand what we are doing and why we are really doing it, we can help so many people to come unto Christ and feel what we can feel.

One hard thing this week was that we lost our three progressing investigators until further notice. Seriously, it was kind of a shock.  We went to Jessica's house on Friday (Jessica is the one that came to church on her own TWICE), and the first thing that her mom told us is that she wants to return the Book of Mormon.  We were like...wait...what??  But they told us that the dad doesn't want anything to do with us or with the church.  So...we left that lesson kind of bummed.  Haha, we looked at each other and said, we need to find a private place to bawl our eyes out...but you would be so proud, we didn't even cry (all that much:))  We just started to contact and contact and contact, and I realized that talking to others about the gospel is what makes me happy.  It distracts me from all other problems or thoughts that I have.  Seriously, the best therapy ever.

One miracle that we saw was yesterday, we were trying to find new people to teach and we saw a woman get out of her car with her kids, we talked with her and turns out that she is the daughter of a member...I had seen her on Wednesday but had forgotten...whoops:)  Oh well, must be important. Anyways, we talked to this lady, and when we finished the conversation, I turned around and saw a young man sitting by himself on the soccer field.  I felt that we should talk with him, so we went, and, again, we had already contacted him!! ( I have problems...;))  However, this time, we were really close to his house, so we walked with him there and met his mom.  The miracle was that Junior's (the kid) aunt had just been diagnosed with cancer that Sunday, and the mom was in desperate need of a venting session.  We were able to talk with her and help her realize that whatever happens, she will be able to overcome it.  We shared 1 Corinthians 10:13 (my computer won't translate it...) but it basically says that Heavenly Father will not give us something that He knows we won't be able to handle.  Throughout my entire mission, this has been my comfort.  He knows us perfectly, and whatever happens, we will be okay:)  

I love this gospel, I know that our Savior lives, He loves us, and because of that love He suffered for every single one of us and has endless patience, thank goodness:) The mom accepted the baptismal invitation, and we hope that we can get to know the family Lopez more this week.  Keep them in your prayers!!

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

Love,
Hermana Farish

WHEW...

This week has been CRAZY.  With a capital C. R. A. Z. Y.

We had two baptisms this week, the Arrua Family (well, half) was baptized this Saturday!!!  We didn't know if they were going to be able to until Wednesday, when she told us that her husband had given her permission!!  Thank you for your prayers, and we have officially decided that we are going to fast every weekend, because it has brought us such miracles.

Another miracle that happened was yesterday.  Background: Last week we contacted a member referral, and she came to church!  On Tuesday, the member told us that she had fought with her and that she wasn't too interested anymore...we were kind of bummed.  A lot.  To make it even worse, this week we literally had NO TIME to contact Jessica (the referral) again, but we called to see if we could pass by Saturday night after the baptism, and she didn't answer, so we left a voice mail.  We weren't expecting too much, but hey, fasting is awesome. We had to go bring someone to church, and on the way, we found Jessica, walking to go to church.  We were like...I stand all amazed.  She now has a baptismal date for August 15th, and we hope that we can help her to continue to have a good experience at church and progress to baptism.

Something that I have learned this week...lots:)  But the main thing that I learned was that it doesn't hurt to have a little faith in the Lord.  Lots of times during my mission things have happened where I thought...wait.  I totally expected that NOT to happen.  I had faith that what I wanted to happen would come to pass.  But...unfortunately, it just doesn't happen that way.  Heavenly Father knows us perfectly, He knows how we have felt, what we are feeling, and what we are going to feel, and, according to that, will put us in situations that will help us to improve the most.  Lots of times when the people tell us their problems, or some trials that they have had, I think on what my mom told me..."Sometimes as a missionary we feel like we need a degree in psychology." which is totally true.  I have felt so inadequate sometimes.  Luckily, we have our Heavenly Father, who knows the other person perfectly, and will help us to say the right things through the Spirit.  One of the ways that we can know that we are a successful missionary is if we feel the Spirit testifying through us.  I am not perfect, but there are moments when my testimony is strengthened as I try to help others feel what Heavenly Father feels for them.

I love this work, and I love the people here in Paraguay.  I hope that you all have a good week, it looks like last week at the reunion was a party!  I love you!

Love,
Hermana Farish

The Arrua Family

Man Eating, Dinosaur Riding Blondes

So...yeah.  This week was pretty sweet.  We were able to see a lot of miracles and laugh a little.

First off, Thank you Jill and Family for the package!!  It was so fun to receive, and Ashlyn, you are so beautiful!  Thank you for sending me your announcement!

Second off,

We were nearing the end of our day, and all of our plans had fallen through, so we went to the main road and decided to contact everyone we saw until the end of the day...and...we got to the road and it was empty.  Not a soul, until we saw that there was a security guard in his little box thing, writing Jesús te ama (Jesus loves you) on the windows.  So we were like...okay, sign.  So we went to talk to him, and after we figured out how to get his attention, he came out and began to talk to us.  We talked to him about the Book of Mormon, and when we offered it to him, he declined by describing to us a dream that he had supposedly had.  In this dream, he had seen  2 girls, one with brown skin and the other a blonde, and that they were enticing all of the men to go to them and then they proceeded to eat them. And then rode off on their dinosaurs.  I kid you not, that is what he said.  While trying not to burst out laughing, we were like...if you don't want it, just say no, we won't bite.  We thought it was pretty funny:)

On the more spiritual side, we had a wonderful week.  Eduardo, an investigator from Palma Loma, was baptized on Saturday, and I was able to call and talk to him a little.  He has progressed so much and just goes to show how the gospel can change our lives for the better, it doesn't matter what we have done.

We have 3 people with baptismal dates for this weekend, but we aren't sure if any of them are going to make it, because Satan is working hard on them.  We have the Arrua Family.  The elders worked a lot with them, but could never get them to commit to a date, because the husband doesn't want his wife to get baptized.  We were able to put a date, and we fasted with them on Friday so that they would be able to reach this goal.  Yesterday, Ramona (the wife) still wasn't sure, so she talked with the bishop, who told her to wait until she had the approval from her husband. We were kind of ticked, but then we realized that it would be better that way.  We think. Keep them in your prayers!!

Other than that, we are just working hard, finding new people.  When we fasted on Friday, we tried hard to find new people that would accept the baptismal invitation.  We found 2!  Juana lives behind our house, and we had talked before with her mother-in-law, but we had never tried to talk with her. When we prayed before leaving to start proselyting, it came into my head that we should go and talk with her.  We went and were able to have a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  The other miracle was Joana.  We had contacted her house before, but she was way busy with her kids, so we finally followed up and had a lesson on repentance.  She had her first baby when she was 17, and since then has been involved with drugs.  She is awesome and is ready to start over.  Our last miracle was Jessica.  She was a referral from a member and we contacted her mom on Wednesday, and then we went back on Friday.  She told us that she would come to church, and she did!  She came because she has a friend who is member, and a wonderful example of how members should be.  There are lots of people who don't want to talk with us because of bad examples, but if they have had a good example, there isn't anything better:)

The time has gone by SO FAST.  Seriously, it seems like yesterday that I was crying my eyes out in the airport before leaving.  And now, everyone is asking me "are you ready to go??", and I am like...no.  Not even a little  bit.  Normally we don't receive our travel plans until our last transfer, so I think that is when I will be receiving them.

Anyway, on a more trunky note,  EVERYONE asks us if we have boyfriends.  It is RIDICULOUS. It makes me think that the main topic of conversation with the elders was their girlfriends, because the first thing they ask is if we left someone.  Eesh.

I hope that you all have a good week, thank you for all of your support, and now that Josh is in the field (okay, weird,) keep him in your prayers!!  I love you!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Rolls Dude!

Dear Everyone,

This week went so well until I opened up my email and realized that Josh will be leaving this week...what in the weird!! I know that he will be an amazing missionary and will be able to help so many people.

We had an awesome week this week, lots and lots of rain, but it was fine.  We had zone conference on Thursday, and it was a little different than usual.  President McMullin spoke about the dangers of pornography, and how, in a world where it is shown everywhere, we can protect our minds, spirits, testimonies, and companions.

He told us to close our eyes and make a video.  We were like...what?  But he had us think of the day when we will be sealed in the temple.  He said, you need to plan every single detail, from the paint on the walls of the sealing room, to the chandelier.  He told us that if we can make this our goal, if we can have this video playing constantly in our minds, we will not have a problem with the pornography, because we know what awaits us in the temple, on the day that we are sealed to someone for the eternities.  We will be able to look away and not have that temptation, not even go near that line.  It was a powerful reminder of what we can accomplish, and what needs to happen in order to get there.  I am so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge that we have.  It is so...so...dunno, so precious a gift.

This week we found a lady named Jessica, we did follow up on a street contact, and we were able to talk with her for a few minutes.  She is a single mom with a 3 year old girl who has severe brain damage due to a leak in the bag that the baby was in while she was in the tummy(sorry, I don't remember what it is called in English).  She is amazing and we are planning on helping her out a lot.

I am surprised how much I thought of home this week.  Everyone asks me how much time I have, and when I say 11 months, they are like..AHHHH you are almost done, are you so excited and blahblahblah, and I have tried so incredibly hard to not think about it.  Today my plaque fell off in the bus and I was freaking out.  I felt so...off without it. I am trying so hard not to be trunky, because I know that I will regret it afterwards.

The popes visit was ridiculous.  There are reruns still playing on most of the channels of all of the miracles he did...and how is it that he can heal people?  I have been trying to think it through but I can't figure it out.  There is the scripture that talks about how all of the people who said to Jesus that they had done miracles in his name but he didn't know them...no se.

I am doing fine, loving life, working hard.  Sometimes I feel so inadequate that I let my faith down a little, but I am working on that.  In Palma Loma I learned patience and humility, and I am here to learn about faith.  It is so interesting how there is something specific to learn in every area.  I cannot even express my love for these people.  I love helping them, I love feeling the spirit with them, and I love them so much.  I love being a missionary, and even though it is the hardest thing that I have ever done.  It is so worth it, so incredibly worth it.  Thank you for giving me this opportunity to come here and learn how to be a good servant of our Lord.

Also, Eduardo, from Palma Loma will be baptized this week!!  Junior also will be baptized this week!!!  Also, Vicente, was a reference from a member, has a date for the 1st of August, we will see how that goes!!

I love being here, I love the cool weather, and I hope that you all have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

My "Homemade" Rolls

It Is Raining Here!

Anyways, this week was CRAZY.  We were able to get a lot of new people, and we got to know the members and got some amazing references.  In this area we have lunch and sometime dinner every day, and we are dying from so much food. The best death ever:)

Emmm...We met an inactive named Lorena.  Her family is super active, they have a son in the mission, but she got married and stopped coming.  Her husband had been baptized, but he also stopped coming.  We had an amazing lesson this week, and they came to sacrament meeting!  We were kind of bummed because they hadn't come earlier, so we were sitting in sacrament meeting kind of depressed when we saw their little daughter run up front, and we turned around and they had come!!

We also had a progressing investigator.  We found him through a member family, we just went to their house and he just happened to be there.  Junior is 17 years old, and is fulfilling every single compromiso that we give him.  He has been coming to church for almost 3 months now, he is like gold.  And..he doesn't live in our area.  But hey, its all good, he is so strong and I know that the elders will do a good job with him.

Last night, we were stuck outside at about 8:30, and all of our plans had fallen through.  Our options were: walk home slowly or go follow up on contacts.  We decided to stop by a house we had contacted last weekend, a lady named Antonia.  We had set an appointment with her for Saturday, but she didn't answer when we went, So we decided to try again and we found her and had an amazing lesson.  When we contacted her last week, we left a card with the question, "will I be able to see my loved ones again?" and when she read the question, she started to cry, and we were able to testify to her of the plan of salvation, and when we went back last night, she told us that it would be okay to pass by again and talk with her and her husband. MIRACLE.  I was so proud of Hermana Cordova, she was able to testify to Antonia and the spirit was SO strong.  I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Something funny this week was that we found a lady named Snow White, who just happens to have 7 little grandchildren.  We are still laughing about that one. We clapped and she let us in, and we were like, AHHH FAMILY but it turns out that they were baptized a while ago..that has happened about 3 times now.  There are la lot of inactives but thats okay, gives us a lot to do.

Other than that, we have had a good week, Junior gets baptized next weekend, and we are working to find more.  I love this experience, and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me come.  I love you all and hope that you have a good week!

Hermana Farish

My new greenie, Hermana Cordova

P-Day Fun!

Can you shave a balloon?

(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