Mission President's Letter

Dear Family of Sister Farish:

We are so happy that your daughter has joined us here in the Paraguay Asuncion North mission.  We know that as she commits to work hard and be obedient to mission rules, and continues to study and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, she will have a great experience on her mission.  She will grow to love the people, she will be willing to pass through difficulties, and she will come to know and love her Savior in a more profound way than she has ever known.

Their first day here, we were able to give all the incoming missionaries some training on staying healthy, finances, mail, etc.  We were able to share some of the history of the Church here in Paraguay, go to the temple grounds, and participate in a baptism at the chapel nearby. 

Your daughter was interviewed and met her trainer, Sister Chempen, who was specially chosen for her.  She has been trained to help your daughter in all the skills she will need to be a good missionary.  We hope you will enjoy these pictures that we are attaching.

Thank you for raising such a fine young woman who is so willing to serve her Father in Heaven and be a blessing to the people here and to her fellow missionaries.  We truly pray for them every day and are committed to working diligently to help them in whatever they need to be happy and successful.

May the Lord bless you and your daughter for the sacrifices, the faith, and the love that you are extending to the people here.  Thank you for all of your support.

With much love,

President and Sister McMullin

Arriving at the airport in Asuncion

Erin with President and Sister McMullin and her trainer, Sis. Chempen

I can almost say that I am 1 18th of the way done...:)

Hola Everyone!

¿Como están? It has been a pretty sameish week here at the CCM. Even though I say that, it has gone by so fast, and the next time I talk to you I will be in Paraguay! How psycho is that? We have begun to hear some wild stories about the Northern deserts in Paraguay, like jaguars, Indian natives, and crocodile for dinner...I am sure that for the most part, they are made up, but hey, who knows?:)

I am excited to go to my mission, but there is definitely some nervousness, what with the language and new companions, new country, new food...but I know that the Lord will pick up the slack and made it possible. I am definitely ready to leave the CCM that is for sure!

I will be leaving around 4 to 5 Tuesday morning for Paraguay. The flight is only about 2 hours. I will have some time to email you on Monday, but we are not allowed to call home, probably because it would take some major therapy to refocus:)

Hermana Boehmer will be heading off to Salta, Argentina when these six weeks are over, and it will be hard to have a companion that I don´t click with as well, but oh well:) She is progressing in the language, and proselyting this week went better than before. We were in a new area that was a tiny bit more wealthy, so we weren't sure how we were going to be accepted, but it went really well.

We met our goal with 54 contacts in 4 hours, and we invited two people to be baptized. That was hard for us, because if we go up and talk to people for 5 mins, we are supposed to invite them to be baptized? We are still coming to terms with that. We know that we were able to meet our goal because we try hard to be exactly obedient, and because of that, we are blessed to be able to find those who are ready to accept the gospel.

We talked to a homeless guy on the corner for a few minutes, taught a mini-lesson and asked for his reference. He wrote "barbinto"(we think) and then in the address column, wrote "te amo". (I love you) yeah, we weren't really sure how to take that one, but whatever:)

We met a little old man who was so nice, and we had a really great conversation. We were going on about the plan of salvation when he asked a really good question. "if babies have no sin, why are some born with diseases and infirmities." We turned to Moroni 8 and tried to have him read the verse about how perfect little children are alive in Christ and are saved, but he would have none of it. it broke my heart to have him reject what we had to offer, and all we could do was say that God loves all his children, including him, and that whatever trials we have in this life will be compensated for beyond what we can imagine in the next life. We bore our testimonies and walked away, and I was seriously almost in tears. This gospel is everything that we have, and all the hope that we have in this life we owe to it.

Anyways, it has been a good week. Lots of learning experiences and adjustments. I love you and I hope you have a good week, be safe and obedient! Alma 57:21

Love,

Hermana Farish

Almost there!

¡HOLA!

Hello everyone, how was your week?:) My week here at the CCM has gone by SO fast.

To start off, we went to the temple last P-day, and I am finally starting to understand the language!  It is a good feeling.

It is so cold here! When it rains the wind cuts through you like a knife and the rain is like ice. So, like the smart, sane people that missionaries are, we decided to go play soccer out on the basketball courts in the rain...yeah, definitely not a good idea.  It was so fun though, and we got so wet. The CCM president´s wife was like...if you get sick, don´t come crying to me, because this is your own fault. we just shrugged and did it anyway.

Proselyting was so awesome on Saturday. it always takes a couple of contacts to get into the groove, but once we got there, it was good. We didn´t reach our goal of 50 contacts, but we got 40 and that is more than last week, so we were happy. We were knocking on doors when we met a guy that we had contacted last week but hadn't received his reference.  He invited us in, brought in his son and his wife, and we proceeded to teach our first real lesson on the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Oh my goodness, it was amazing to watch the light on these peopleés faces when we told them that families can be together forever. However, when we knelt to pray afterwards, we asked David (the father) to say it. we told him how and bowed our heads, waiting...well, apparently we forgot to tell him it needed to be out loud, so about 10 seconds later, Hermana Boehmer and I looked at each other and were like...What....? But he said his personal prayer and looked happy, so we think it was a success. Just something to remember!:)  One interesting experience that we had was with our last contact of the day, who said, while pointing to the area that we had been walking around all day, that because we are young, American, and pretty, it was dangerous and we needed to leave...yeah, that was a confidence booster. But as we walked away from that, I had a feeling that we were being protected. Heavenly Father was definitely keeping us safe, I know that to be true. There were people we needed to reach in that area, and Heavenly Father made it possible for us to do so. We will have a new area next week, so we will see how that works.

We watched an MTC devotional by Jeffrey R. Holland on Sunday, affectionately nicknamed "the grow up devotional".  He really gets into your face, to the point that by the end, we all felt like failures and lower than dirt. However, he said that we need to give a heroic effort always, to the point that we need to be carried home. Whether or not that is an exaggeration, I hope to be like that and to give my all to the Lord and his work.

We had a little blonde bombshell dropped on us on Tuesday. Hermana Greene, from Mesa, AZ was supposed to go to her mission on Tuesday in Argentina, but her Mission president wasn´t home, so we got her until this next tuesday. She was only at the provo MTC for two weeks because her spanish is so good, so when she came, Hma. Boehmer and I were like...crappy. But she is way nice, and it has been interested to work as a trio. Hard, but it is teaching me how to adjust. It has also taught me that the fact that Hermana Boehmer is my companion was a tender mercy.

Mom, Guess what they still have here in Argentina? SHEPHERDS PIE. I was like, ¿En serio?  Oh, and the misison president's wife made no bake cookies, that was a happy day. And we had a party Monday night before the other North American sisters left. Party meaning we passed around a Symphony bar and cried a little.  Pathetic, right?

I am loving it here, and time is going by so incredibly fast. I love the Book of Mormon, and I love this gospel. Predicad Mi Evangelio is my new best friend, and I hope that those who are preparing to go on missions, as well as those who want more missionary opportunities, will read and study it.  It builds your testimony and allows you to study the gospel in a basic, simple and very powerful way. Alma 7:11-14.

I love you, and am grateful for your support!

Love,

Hermana Farish

All of the North American sisters!

Proselyte in Buenos Aires

¡Hola everyone!

Mom, Lindsay, and Aunt Kat and family,  THANK YOU for your letters!  I got them on Thursday, right after I finished emailing, so I wasn´t able to email you back and tell you.  I am pretty sure that I have read them at least a dozen times in this past week.  I sent replies that should be sent out tomorrow morning in the pouch, so we will see!  thankyouthankyouthankyou!

This last week just flew by!  Lots of classes, lessons, more classes.  Not very many exciting things happened, but the one cool thing was that we went proselyting on Saturday.  

We all rode a bus to our area.  My companion and I were the first ones to get off, kind of like the tributes in the hunger games.  they just dropped us off on the curb, said be back to the same place by five, and don´t be stupid.  I was really nervous, because I still don´t understand most of what the natives say when they talk at normal speed.  That being said, it was a really good experience.  Our first contact was an old lady who couldn´t even understand what we were saying:)  Naturally, we didn´t even figure this out until about halfway through the conversation, but she was cute and nice. Our second contact was actually a member.  We got a referral from her for her sister, who was meeting with the elders but because she lives alone had to stop meeting with them,,,,?  that is what I got out of it, but who knows.  Siesta was a KILLER.  We finally just gave up and had our lunch break, because no one will answer the door because they are either asleep or like "what kind of psychos are knocking on doors during siesta?"

I really loved it, and even though I couldn´t understand very well, i know that Heavenly Father helped us to be a conduit for his spirit as we taught His children.

This new group of Latinos is definitely different than the last ones.  They don´t really have a need to talk with us, so we don´t talk to them nearly as much as we did the last group.  They leave this next Tuesday for their missions, and so does the other group of Norte Americanos, so Hermana Boehmer and I will be the only sisters in the CCM for 2 days.  Weird right? And then we will get a MASSIVE group of 65 North Americans.  it will definitely be a different experience for them, because there will be no latinos to talk to and interact with.  None of them (the latinos) are from Paraguay, mostly Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Chile.  One girl was talking to me the other day, and i had no idea what she was saying!  Turns out it was Portuguese, which sounds really...odd.

The food is still good...we had a form of pizza yesterday...it was actually really good, with grilled tomatoes and ham...not costco pizza, but hey, take what we can get, I guess.

The little distribution center here takes american dollars and gives back pesos, so I have about 50 pesos, which is like $6 just to take proselyting with me.  I found that I forgot basketball shorts...which just stinks.  so..physical activity is a joy in my jeans.  it is so hot and humid here, and it is only winter!

Hermana Boehmer is doing great!  Her Spanish is slowly progressing, but she can definitely bring the spirit into a lesson, which is just great because it is the spirit that converts people, definitely not the missionaries.

My Spanish is slowly getting better...just the more I speak it, the more phrases I know and can understand.  I am starting to lose my English...my grammar is all over the place, and popular gospel words like la Expiación (the atonement) and el evangelio (the gospel) have become Spanish.  I know that the only reason I have been able to survive this far (not even that far!) is because of Christ and His Atonement.

I think that will be all for now...but I hope that everyone has a wonderful week, know that you are in my prayers (which are like 100x longer now).  I love you!

Love, 

Hermana Farish

Wow!  Lovely Ladies!

What is so funny?

Whew...two weeks already!

Hello everyone!

I can hardly believe that i have been here for two weeks already...things are going well, and i cannot believe the progress i have been able to make, thanks mostly to the Spirit.

Hermana Boehmer and I have begun to teach our IPs completely in Spanish. it was a big step and even though we were worried, we did awesome and the Spirit was able to testify to our "investigator". All of the latins who came with us to the ccm left on Tuesday...it was hard to see them go, but I know that they will be AWESOME missionaries.

We got two new latina sisters from Peru last night, and one of them is in our room. she speaks NO English, so we have to try and communicate with a lot of gestures and Spanish.  It forces us to speak Spanish, which is what we need. We get 8 more today who are from all over south america, and that will be so fun! it is hard though, because they leave two weeks before we do, so before we leave we will have seen 3 groups of awesome latinos. The group we get today is completely latino, no North Americans, so THAT will be fun:)

On Tuesday, Hermana Boehmer and I thought it would be a brilliant idea to scoot all the bunkbeds together, make a fort, and invite the other North American sisters over for a sleepover, since we were all alone. We had a pretty awesome time, but then during grammar instruction the next morning, the cleaning lady came in and said..."what happened to your room?"  We didn't know the word for fort in Spanish, so our teacher, while laughing her head off, told her what happened...it was pretty funny.

This last Sunday we had a music fireside thing, and at the very end, everyone at the ccm (like 60 people) sang the "As Sisters In Zion/Army of Helaman" medley.  It was so cool as we were able to sing about being in the army of Helaman (in Spanish) next to people from all over the world. it was so powerful and it gave me hope for what we will be able to accomplish as an army of God.

The temple on Thursday was an interesting experience, to say the very least.  It was a party to try and tell the cute little Argentine ladies what size we needed and which clothes we needed. I got a dress that was ten times to small, and when I walked out of my stall thing, the little old lady took one look and went and got me one that fit perfectly...yeah, just had to roll my eyes because it fit my companion perfectly...not that I am bitter or anything:)

We get to go proselyting on Saturday in Buenos Aires and surrounding areas!  This is for real! Hermana Boehmer and I are really nervous, but I know that if we can put our trust in the Lord, he will help us to be able to reach those who are ready, just like you said dad!

As I have adjusted to missionary life, I have come to realize a couple of things: 1, the Spirit is essential if you want to make any progress with anyone in this life (including yourself) 2, the gospel of Jesus Christ is real, it is tangible (the Book of Mormon), and it can help those who have no hope to be able to have hope in Christ, which will never fail.

Also, King Benjamin is such a stud. If you have a chance, go read Jarom/Omni, Words of Mormon, and the first few chapters of Mosiah. There are so many wonderful things in there, and every time I read I feel like I can can pull stuff out for our investigators.

I love and miss you guys so much! When we were showing our family pictures to each other, the little Peruvian hermana said that our family picture and the picture of my smoking hot brothers were "hermosa" or beautiful. So see Josh and Jacob, your influence has now spread into Peru. Congrats.

Emma, good luck with your headgear and braces and expander!  You are so awesome to take it like you have! I love you all, and have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Farish

Our Fort!  The five North American Missionaries

The 11 sister missionaries at the CCM

Let it rain!

Me and Hermana Boehmer

My District

Pday...FINALLY!

Hola mi familia!

That subject line sounds kind of bad, but in all seriousness, this has probably been the longest week of my life.  There are so many things that have changed and that need to be adjusted to.  There are also so many things that I want to tell you, so I will try my best to sum it all up.  

First off, the flight to Argentina was so looonnnggg. They have these little flight tracker things on the seats on the plane, and so we were able to wake up every five minutes and see that we had gone another ten miles...ugh. And the food was even better than usual, because some workers at the airport were on strike, so....yeah.  For the first time in my life, I did not eat the brownie, mostly because i was afraid for my life.

I ended up being the only sister on the flight, there was supposed to be another one, but for some reason her mission was postponed to the beginning of September.  The elders were really nice, and it was just nice to get here and get a female companion.

My companion is Hermana Boehmer, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  We hit it right off, and I love her to death!  She says things in a really funny way, like bags are "baigs" and tags are "taigs", and same thing with flags, rags, and every word with that sound in it.  We have a good time.  The first night we were here, apparently I fell asleep while praying for 20 minutes.  She kept trying to wake me up, and finally, she shook me a little and said, "wake up Hermana Farish!"  Well, I woke up, and apparently looked at her with this look of "sheer terror".  and then i calmly proceeded to put my glasses away and climb into bed.  She told me all this LAST NIGHT!  I was like....that's awkward, because I don´t remember any of this.

Hermana Boehmer has been a member since birth, and she is very athletic, having played basketball for Lethbridge College for the past year.  I try to keep up with her, and when we play basketball with the elders for actividad fisica, I just have to roll my eyes and make a fool out of myself.  Happiness is when the elders are worse than you are:)

There are a grand total of 5 North American sister missionaries here, and Hermana Boehmer and I are the only ones in our room.  We have 4 other roommates, two from Colombia and 2 from Brazil. They are so fun, but they will be leaving in two weeks since they don´t need to learn the language.  We have been DROWNED in Spanish, so if you happen to see some random ys or pors or cons, that is why.

I love it here, and I know that this is where I am supposed to be.  To be honest, after I left you guys in St. George, I didn´t cry once.  I was just excited to get here and start learning.

The people here are SSSOOOO amazing.  I love the workers and how patient they are with our AWFUL Spanish.  The food is way good, we have beef something at least once a day.  I ate a legit chicken wing,,,it was like 6 inches long.  I just tried not to think about it;)  and guess what else I tried?  BLOOD SAUSAGE!  It was the sickest thing....so slimy and salty and ....bleh...I gag just thinking about it.  I wasn't going to try it, but then I thought of you and decided that I needed to for dad, and that if I died, I am in the ccm so I would go to the celestial kingdom!  

I love my clothes, but it was definitely an adjustment to get used to the humidity.  You like walk outside for 5 minutes and you are drowning in sweat.  Here we have physical activity every day, and we are like in a prison, with high fences.  I did find the treats in my suitcase, and I have been sharing the bit-o-honeys, but the kisses....those are special:)

Like I said, the humidity is a killer, and for the first couple of days it was so hot!  But now, there has been a cold wind, and so it has cooled down a little.  We go outside everyday, so we just deal with it.

We are literally across a parking lot from the temple.  It is so beautiful, and we are going to be able to go every pday, so we get to go today!  I am so excited!

The elders...hmm...I just have to keep telling myself that they are still dumb 18 year-olds.  We have been struggling with some of them in our district.  They don´t really shut up ever, and they talk about the greatest things, like did you know that Jesus rode in a chariot to church?  And other amazing, spiritual things like that.  Btw, mom, teach your boys how to make a bed.  We had a "training" the other day on how to make our beds, and I was surprised when half of the elders didn't know what a mattress cover was.  We just rolled our eyes and moved on.

DAD!!!!!  Our Argentine gerente (manager) said "who is we paleface?" the other day!  I was so excited!  I actually about started to bawl, to be perfectly honest.  The same thing happened when the ccm president´s wife hugged me (she can hug all the hermanas).  Instead of shaking our hands, she hugs us, which I love:)  since there are only about 60 missionaries here, it is so personal and everyone knew each other's names by Sunday.  We have already started to teach Virginia (who just happens to be our teacher) and we picked up another less active last night, Julia.  Even though I know these are just our teachers, I have grown to love them, and it puts pressure on us to have our lesson just right.

I was really struggling on Sunday, and then I went to the testimony meeting.  The spirit was so strong, and even though the elders are dumb, they have such a crazy awesome spirit about them, and it lifted my spirits.  

Well, if I want to get pictures to you I need to go, but I love you and thank you for the letters!  Make good choices and know that Heavenly Father is there with you every step of the way!

Love,

Hermana Farish

My First Email Home

Thursday morning we had an email from Erin letting us know that she had arrived and was fine.

dear family,

i made it!  my pday is on thursday and dont send packages here, send them to the mission home address.  i am so happy to be here and dad this place is beautiful.  i love you all and will send another one on thursday!

love,

Hermana Farish