Dangit, Dengue

The subject line says it all: my companion, Hermana Fardos, has dengue.  WOOHOO!!!  For those who don't know, dengue is a mosquito transmitted disease, kind of like malaria, and it is nicknamed the bone breaking disease.  Doesn't that just give you warm fuzzies? She was admitted to the hospital on Thursday and is getting out today, so we had special changes, and I am with Hermana Borjas, a local missionary from the chaco. She is awesome, and speaks Nivacle, like German and Hebrew mixed together, it is pretty sweet. She will be heading home this next week, so I have no idea what is going to happen with transfers.  We will see what happens.  So, we have been in and out of the hospital all week, and on Saturday Hermana Borjas and I went back to Salado for the baptisms of the Arrua family, the other half.  It was awesome, and it was nice to see someone with whom we have been working for so long get to baptism.

So yeah, that was basically our week.  As far as the spiritual side goes, we are studying the Holy Ghost as a mission this week, and yesterday I was reading in 3rd Nephi 19, and I looked up a reference in 3 Nephi 9:15, which talks about how Jesus glorified the name of his Father.  The question that came to my mind is whether or not I am glorifying the name of Christ by my actions, words, thoughts, whatever.  Just a question to have in mind!!!  I love you all and I hope that you have a good week!!!

Love,
Hermana Farish

The baptism of the Arrua family

Stupid. Ostriches.

So, let me just sum up our week in one sentence:

We were attacked by ostriches.

Yep, have a good week!!

Love,
Hermana Farish


Haha, jk, but really.  There is a lady who has two ostriches, we went to follow up, and we sat down outside, and the member (who came out with us on our appointment for the FIRST TIME) was first attacked by the ostrich...apparently they don't like hats. Whoops. he's probably not going to come out again...dangit.  So, the whole entire lesson everyone was looking at the ostrich because they were nervous, but it didn't happen again because we beat them (the ostriches) up with an umbrella.  Eesh. We finally could feel something resembling the spirit, and we were like..YES, keep going, and then the ostrich went to the bathroom.  I swear like a gallon came out.  My comp and I just looked at each other and just started to laugh.  We were like...okay, I just give up.  It was one of the funniest things I have experienced in my long life.  Not very spiritually edifying, but hopefully you can laugh a little.:)

Someone told me the other day that here in the mission, we get as much experience as an 80 year old person.  I am not sure it is to that extent, but it definitely helps.  I am so glad that I was able to come to the mission.  I know that it was the right thing and it has helped me so much to become the person that the Lord needs me to be.  I have so much to learn but I know that He will help me.

I don't have a lot of time, but it was a good week, and the rest of the Arrua family is going to be baptized this weekend!! We are so excited!  I love you all and I hope that you have a good week!

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