I am not the same as I was

Well bueno gente, here goes nothing.

It has been an adventure, I just finished crying through my final interview with President Mcmullin, and it officially just became real. It has gone by so fast, and I am grateful to everyone for their love and support.   Without it I would not have made it this far.

Now looking back, I am so glad I came. President just asked me, ¨If you had stayed home, would you have been able to invite people to be baptized and to repent and obtain their salvation?  I was like....no.  I can`t imagine my life without my mission, it has been such a blessing.  I know that it is the work of the Lord. He is in charge and I know that He is aware of the needs of every single one of us.

I had a pretty cool experience this last week, I was able to go do divisions in my first area, Marambure, and I was able to see someone that I had taught WAY back when.  Maria Lopez wasn't baptized while I was there, but a little while after.  Anyway, I was talking with her and she told me that she wasn't the same that she had been when we had found her last.  When we began to speak with her she was having a hard time because her son was in jail.  That just destroyed her, and we were able to help her get out of it a little.  Now, a year later, we went back and she said, I am not the same person that I was when you found me.  I am better stronger, and firmer.  Those words were so powerful for me, and I loved hearing them

I love being in the mission, and I have been able to learn so much.  I love this gospel, I know that it is true, and that after a long period of apostasy it was restored to the earth by Joseph Smith. I know that the Savior is all powerful, and that if we follow Him, we will be received into His presence.  I love this work.  I love it, and I have been so privileged to be able to participate in it.  I am not the same, still quirky, still weird, still imperfect, but I have been able to feel the power of the Atonement in my life.

Thank you for your love, thank you for your support, and see you in 4:)

Love,
Hermana Farish

With Eyes Of Faith

As a mission, this week we have been studying the faith and how it is much more than something that we believe in but that we don't see.  We have been able to talk with a lot of missionaries, and it is such a privilege to hear the different things that they have been learning this past week about faith and how it has changed their perspective.

Here in the mission, we have the opportunity to exercise our faith in a unique way: finding people who will accept the baptismal covenant and the restored gospel.  We have to look at the people with the eyes of faith, as people who have eternal potential, and as people who the Lord loves very, very much.  After studying about the Atonement last week, and how he suffered for EVERYONE, because he loves everyone without exception, I have been able to see a change in my attitude towards the people, because sometimes you just want to not love them and punch a tree or something...haha, not really, but it is interesting sometimes. If we look at people how the Lord does, they will be able to feel our love and if they choose, they will want to always feel that.  Looking at them with eyes of faith makes a big difference.

Haha, my comp and I were talking about how using faith in the mission as compared to real life is kind of different.  But...to not be too trunky....we will just leave it at that;)

The scripture that we all ponderized this week was Alma 32:40:

40 And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life.

I really like it because it makes faith into an action word, and becomes something that we live every moment, not just in the bad ones.  I love this gospel, and really, from what I have been able to learn in the past yearish, faith is what sustains us and is a precious gift from God that we receive according to our desires and works (1 Nephi 2:16):

16 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which had been spoken by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers.

Nephi didn't rebel against his father like his brothers did because he had gained the necessary faith. He wanted it, and did what was needed to be able to get it. I have a lot of work to do in this area!!!

I do have to tell you the most awkward moment of my week.  I was so just like....what....?  We went to an investigator's house, but she wasn't there so we contacted the house in front and they let us in. The lady told me, "I've seen you walking in front of my house for a while now, you have lost a lot of weight!!  You were a little fat before, and now not so much!!!"  I was like...well, at least someone is noticing #onlyinlatinamerica.  I am going to miss these people.  And then she told us that she is lesbian...we were like...WHAT...yeah, Atonement much.

But anyways, I love you all so much and I am grateful for your good examples!!!  Have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Hermana Farish

Life Is Good

Life with an American comp is interesting, I speak a lot more English, that is for sure, but the member's attitude about the missionaries has changed a lot for the better and we are working like crazy to keep everything going okay.  Hermana Fardos will be heading home in March, one transfer after me, so she will kill me and then DIE:)

I am doing great, learning a lot, and just going and going.  One thing that was really hard for me this week was yesterday, we went to go get a less active family to bring them to church.  But when we entered in the house, there was a really gucky feeling, dark, and they said they wouldn't be going to church.  We left there and were talking about it.  The dad and the two teenage sons have problems with pornography and drinking.  They have an 8 year old sister there who is really kind of strange. When you go to say hi and to give her a kiss on each cheek, she doesn't want it, but she does want to be touched...I don't know how to explain it but we are pretty sure that she is being sexually abused. That feeling was so dark and yucky, it makes me so sad.  It just made me think more about the atonement and how it is all powerful, and even in cases like this, this little girl will be okay.  So many of these people are living in a nightmare, and have been for so long, and you just want to help them but...ahah I walked out of there thinking "I am too young for this!!!  What in the flipping world, I am so traumatized."  But seriously, that darkness was really bothering us, and then we went to church to take the sacrament.  It was there when the darkness left and the light of Christ came back.  We are planning an interview with the bishop so that he can take over, because that is WAY out of our league. Blech.

To answer your questions, I am good.  I know what I am doing at least half the time, which is huge, and I think that I am getting to the point where I am realizing what I have been able to do thanks to the Lord and His help.  The parents of one of my converts will be baptized this Saturday in Palma Loma, and Eduardo was just called as the ward secretary and now has the Melchizedek Priesthood. and his stepmom and sister are going to be baptized...life is good.  It is interesting to watch the chain of events.  Even if we aren't there to witness them, it is awesome to just hear about them and to know that you had a small part in making it happen:)

My goals for the next 3 months are to just keep going, to reach my potential as a missionary and as a servant of God.  Every six months I have made new goals and written myself a letter to start the new goals, and 3 months ago I wrote those goals and to finish strong with no regrets:)  I love the people of Paraguay and I want them to know it, and that their Heavenly Father also loves them, even more than they can imagine:)

One thing that I am really enjoying at this point of my mission is the new study guide of Preach My Gospel.  This last week we have been able to study the atonement as a mission and it has made such a difference in our teaching and our contacts.  We made a goal to talk about the atonement in every one of our contacts.  Yesterday, we were making visits and we passed a house of a really active member who hadn't gone to church yesterday, and we decided to see why.  We entered, and it turns out that last Wednesday a guy with a machete broke into her daughter's house and tried to kill them.  We were like "oh my heck", but then we talked about the atonement, and we used the scripture Alma 7:11-12 to kind of explain what we wanted to say.  This week of studying just the atonement has really helped me to understand it better, and how it can help us to keep going and keep enduring.  We also read a talk by Elder Bednar, called, "The Atonement and Our Journey Of Mortality".  Near the end it said something really awesome that I just loved.  Something that we can apply to our daily lives. Enjoy, and I highly suggest reading the rest of the talk.

"The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distresses that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, 'No one understands. No one knows'.  No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burden before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying upon only our own power."

When we feel like no one else understands what we are going through, when we feel like we are 100% alone, we have someone who had to go beneath everything and everyone so that He can lift us up again and give us that push that we need to start up. I love the Atonement, and I love the effects that it has on our lives and on the lives of everyone.  It is pretty shweet:)  I love you all and hope that you have a good week!!!

Love,
Hermana Farish

"In Summerrrrrr!!!!"

Y bueno, I am now dying of heat again, seriously, I had forgotten how it felt.  Today it is 100 degrees, and we are still in winter, sad day. AND our air conditioning just went out...great.

This week went by really fast, we contacted a lot and are doing well with our two Books of Mormon every day.  We were thinking on how we could find more quality people to accept the baptismal invitation, and we decided that we are going to knock at least 20 doors every day.  Here in Paraguay (all of South America), it is really easy to let yourself get caught in the trap of working only with inactives, that let you in the door but don't really have the intentions to return.  So, new goal, 20 doors every day at least, and from there we can work with recent converts and inactives.

Apart from that...we had an area-wide stake conference, with Elders Cook and Hales, and they spoke on the Sabbath day.  It was so interesting to me, how they said that by keeping the Sabbath day we become who we want to become.  And then, we went to a member's house for lunch afterwards and they went and bought everything to make us dinner.  We were like...we need to tell them that we are not going to eat if we are the cause of them breaking the Sabbath day.  Dangit.

Yesterday we had a great lesson with an inactive family, the dad is a returned missionary but they still haven't been sealed.  I was thinking that he stopped doing the small things like praying and reading the scriptures and that is when he fell.  I was thinking as well that the mission has made me somewhat of a cynic...haha, I don't trust ANYONE apart from Heavenly Father, Pres. McMullin, and a few others.  Even if they have a plaque, it doesn't guarantee a thing.

About the food thing, I was just thinking about that this week as well.  I was thinking about the Sunday dinners, the hours peeling potatoes and laughing and making rolls will always be a highlight of my life.  I loved it:)  That being said, how many more people would we be able to visit if dinner was more simple?  How could we include more people in our Sabbath day activities?  If we have a big dinner, who could we invite to share it with us so that they have a good experience?  I think (my personal opinion, totally 100% biased) that as a missionary, we eat as fast as possible so that we can visit more people.  That being said, maybe continuing big meals is a good thing, but how could we help others to share in the spirit and the love that we feel for each other as we prepare and share over dinner on the Sabbath Day?  Many people watch tv or are on facebook becaue they don't have anything better to do.  Just some thoughts.

I was talking to mom about Josh, and that I am so incredibly glad that I am not in training.  Those first few months were kind of hard.  But, to answer your question, I have been able to change so much, and I love that I am not the same person.

How has my relationship with the Savior changed in the past year???

Well, to answer your question, before my mission, I knew that the church was true, and that it was taking me in a good direction, but I had never really knelt down and asked God if He was there, I always just knew, but after reading Preach My Gospel, it says that we need to ask every so often to confirm the answer that we have received. So, I knelt down and asked, and from the experience that I had, I know that he lives, I know that He loves me more than I can even imagine, and I know that I am nothing without Him and His atonement.  Later, in April during the General Conference, during the talk of Elder Bednar, I had the thought that I will never deny what I have felt and what I know.  I have received my own personal witness, and it is like drugs, I decide beforehand that I am never going to take them, and I have decided now that, no matter what happens, I will not deny what I have felt, the miracles that I have seen, the covenants that I have made, and what I know to be true. I love Him, and sometimes I am frustrated because my weaknesses are in the way, but I know that through Him, I can do whatever He needs me to do.  It all just depends on what I do and if I do it with all of my heart.

But hey, life is good, a little hot, but that's okay, the worst thing that happens is that I lose a little weight;)  I love you all and hope that you have a good day!

Hermana Farish

Too Much Study!

Tender Mercies of the Lord

This week has been full of lots of experiences, some good, some not so good, but from all of them I have been able to learn a lot about my purpose as a missionary and how I can listen to, recognize, and follow the guidance of the Spirit.

To start off, we found 2 atheists this week, which is really weird, because the majority of the people in Paraguay claim to be Catholic.  In my personal opinion, there is no such thing as a real atheist, because as we began to talk to them, we found one that believes in Satan, which is ridiculous because if Satan exists, so does God, and the other one was an inactive that was born in the church, but after her father commited suicide, she stopped believing in a loving God, which is reasonable, and we had a wonderful discussion about the tender mercies of the Lord, and how, every day, there is something, however small, that the Lord has given us.  Her husband isn't a member, and we look forward to working with him in the future.

We focused a lot more on following up on investigators and street contacts this week, and it paid off. We found Juana, a lady who lives in the chuchiest (fanciest) house that I have ever set foot in here in Paraguay.  I was totally out of my element:)  We talked about how faith is so important and how, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can become worthy to be in His presence again and be an eternal family.  Hermana Francani did the baptismal invitation,  I was so proud of her:)

Another miracle was that we found Paula again.  She was the lady who asked what she needed to do to be baptized, and set her own baptismal date, and then we never found her again.  We passed by late last night and found her:)  We shared a quick message on hope through the atonement. We will have a lesson with a recent convert who was a drunk before she was baptized on Wednesday, so that she knows that there is still hope for her son, who is trying to get rid of his drug addiction.

We were also able to meet with a family that was going to be baptized almost two years ago, but because of something that happened with the bishop and some other members, they decided not to, and since I arrived here in Palma Loma, we have been trying to meet with them, and finally they let us in on Friday.

Something interesting about all of these little miracles was that they all took place after a REALLY long day, and most of the time during the day is the hardest time.  I have really seen this week that when we work hard throughout the day, and when we have enough faith, Heavenly Father will give us blessings.  We talked with all of these people when we could have done something else that maybe wasn't as wise of a use of time, but we have seen the tender mercies of the Lord, like it says in 1 Nefi 20, that the Lord will shed His tender mercies on all of the people who have the faith sufficient to put in Him.

I know that the Lord loves us, and I know that He wants us to be able to achieve our full, divine potential.  I know that it is hard, and sometimes, it can be the last thing we want to do, but it is in these moments when we have to exercise our faith in Him and His ability to perform miracles.  I love you all so much, and hope you have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

My "Hija", Hermana Francani

Death By Flood

This week was interesting.  We had a lot of things that kind of messed up our normal proselyting time, but whatever.

Hermana Francani experienced her first torrential storm in Paraguay, and she did great.  One thing that I have never experienced was when we were eating lunch with a menos (less) activo, and it began to rain even harder.  This member happens to live next to a river, which is just great, because as we were eating, I felt something on my foot and turns out the water was rising in the house.  The family didn't even do anything because apparently it always  happens and there isn't anything they can do, so they just wait and hope that the water doesn't rise too high.  Brings a whole new meaning to a house flood. We left REALLY fast, because the water was rising and it was already to our knees. Turns out there was like 3 feet of water in this member's house by the time the water stopped rising.

Training is really fun, and I have honestly felt the enabling power of the Atonement in my life. Thank you for your prayers and for all of the support that I have received in the last 8 months.  My favorite moment of the week is when we can take the sacrament.  Literally, it is another baptism, another opportunity to clean our spirits and start over.

One miracle that took place this week was with a recent convert, Antonia.  She has one year as a member, and to be honest, with Hermana Betancourth we were struggling hard core with her. Sometimes she went to church, sometimes not, and most of the time, she lied to us a lot, making up a lot of excuses.  BUT.  We had a lesson with her yesterday, and we planned on picking up reading where she left off in the Book of Mormon, and turns out, she was reading in 2nd Nephi 31, which is a wonderful chapter where Nefi talks about sincere repentance and baptism.  We read verse 13, which says:

13 Por tanto, amados hermanos míos, sé que si seguís al Hijo con íntegro propósito de corazón, sin acción hipócrita y sin engaño ante Dios, sino con verdadera intención, arrepintiéndoos de vuestros pecados, testificando al Padre que estáis dispuestos a tomar sobre vosotros el nombre de Cristo por medio del bautismo, sí, siguiendo a vuestro Señor y Salvador y descendiendo al agua, según su palabra, he aquí, entonces recibiréis el Espíritu Santo; sí, entonces viene el bautismo de fuego y del Espíritu Santo; y entonces podéis hablar con lengua de ángeles y prorrumpir en alabanzas al Santo de Israel.

After we read this, she just began to cry, and looked at us and apologized for always lying and not going to church.  She really felt it (FINALLY) and we were able to talk about some of her doubts and help her realize that everything was going to be okay and that she could start over.  The atonement is wonderful, FYI.

And yes, I am happy.  I am happy when we work hard and I fall into bed thinking it is the most heavenly thing in the world.  Interesting how that works, right?  At first, I was so incredibly stressed, but...I took the sacrament and all is well now.  For the first time in my life, I can literally feel the strength of the Lord in me.  I can feel that when I am working, He is giving me the strength to know what to say, how to respond to the doubts and preguntas (questions).  Especially con mi hija (with my greenie). (hardcore spanglish, not even going to try).  Enserio, when I talk with her and she has a problem or a question or doesn't understand something, I can feel the spirit with me, helping me to know what to say so that she can feel better.  I have never relied on the Spirit so much in my life.  I have to say, it is a wonderful feeling.

Anyway, everything is really good, and I am loving the learning, making mistakes, and learning from them.  I love you all so much and I hope that everything is going well at home!

Love,
Hermana Farish


Ummm...awkward, I just realized the scripture was in Spanish, Here it is in English!  SORRY!!

13 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.

Whew!

Dear Everyone, 

Not gonna lie, when we found out we didn't have changes, we were kind of bummed, especially with the whole situation with the ward, but we have seen so many miracles this week.  I made a goal with myself to do something for my companion every day of this change.  And it has made SUCH a difference.  I began to make her bed, or make her breakfast when she didn't have time to make something, or little things like that, and it is so amazing to see the difference in our relationship.  We are good friends now, and it is so much easier to bring the spirit into our lessons when we testify and support each other.

On the subject of Jacob 5 and the pure love of Christ, I was also reading there this week, and I was thinking about our ward.  There have been so many disasters, so many people hurt or offended, that the people who have been here for a while don't really feel the spirit or see the true reason behind the gospel.  The youth are amazing, and we have some awesome converts and some less actives with some great potential.  I was reading in Jacob 5 and it was talking about how the main, old natural part of the tree died and the only things growing from the still living roots were young, tender branches (youth).  In order to save the tree, the master of the vineyard grafted in wild branches (converts and less actives), that eventually gave the same fruit as the natural branches gave at first.  So...we have to find people to baptize and reactivate.  No pressure.  

We had a lesson with a member couple yesterday, and it was on charity.  We asked him, "brother, how would you describe charity, the true love of Jesus Christ?"  And he said...tithing.  TITHING!  We were like...um, yeah, so you just failed that little exam, like big time.  This same member has been like persecuting a less active..ready for this story?

So, about 4 years ago, there was a member lady who spoke to this brother about tithing, and apparently he began to talk about her tithing problems the next day in SACRAMENT MEETING:  so, naturally, her daughter threw her shoe at him in the middle of sacrament meeting.  What would you do?  Anyway, for the last 4 years, they have been bothering this sister, like not allowing people to serve her, to the point that they told the missionaries that they couldn't visit her.  So, we went to visit her.  When we went, we clapped, she came, and asked us, "Do you know how to sing?"  We said...yes? and she said "do you know the hymn Come, Come Ye Saints?" and we said...yes? So she let us in.  We started to ask her questions, and she told us, "You aren't here to ask questions, just to sing."  So we said a prayer and began to sing Come, Come Ye Saints.  About halfway through the song, she just started to cry.  We finished, said a prayer, and left.

We went back this week and just got blown away.  Me not so much, but my companion was ripped apart.  We went back and clapped, and then she came out and just started to rip into us.  Not even us, almost everything she said was aimed at my companion.  She called her an idiot AT LEAST 10 times, and began to tell the both of us that we were just little girls here and that the only reason we came was because we didn't have anything to do at home, and really no one was going to listen to us and just a bunch of CRAP.  My companion began to cry...and that NEVER happens.  We were like...okay...?  We are pretty sure that she is just trying to put on a tough face to the world, as if to say that she doesn't need anyone else, including God.  Flip.  We were kind of a little traumatized, but we are going to go back and just love the heck out of her...can you say that?  We just hope that we have the spirit and that somehow it can touch her heart.

This week got me thinking.  Really, what have I done here?  I feel like just another person, trying to do good in a world where they want the bad because they don't know any better.  A sister finished her mission about 3 weeks ago, and when we finish we have to answer some questions, one of which is what have I left to Paraguay?  And I thought...hmm.  I don't even know.  I feel like I haven't done ANYTHING.  I am working, walking in the sun, sweating to death, and all for what?  There are still so many people who need what we have, and every time someone gets close to being baptized, Satan begins to attack like crazy from all fronts.  Not gonna lie, I was kind of depressed.  But then I found a quote from Mother Teresa that says, "My work is a work of love, not statistics." I was like...WHOAH.  We are working with lives here, almas (souls) y su salvaciòn (and their salvation).  It doesn't matter what we do if we do it with love and the desire to touch the hearts of other people, and help them change their lives.

This week was rather psycho.  We only had one normal day of work, and lots of other activities.  We had a Zion's Rescue on Saturday in another ward, so we spent the morning over there.  A Zion's rescue is when all of the missionaries and youth from the stake come to one ward and we do splits with the youth and go to the less actives in the ward.  I was able to be with two awesome young women, and it was fun to help them make contacts with people.  It kind of reminded me of when I was training and was scared to death of contacting...it helped me to see a little bit of progress:)  We were able to find 2 less actives and had an amazing lesson with one of them.  It was such a good experience to help these young women learn how to give their testimonies and help to bring the spirit into the lesson.

One awesome thing (okay, 3 awesome things) that happened this week was that we were able to teach Paula again, the lady with which we spoke last week about the Atonement.  We finished talking about the plan of salvation, and how the things that we do in this life (like baptism, for example *cough, cough*) have a huge impact on our eternal progression.  When we finished, she asked us, really quietly, "When would I be able to be baptized?"  We were like...um...this has NEVER happened before...someone is asking to be baptized!  We were on cloud nine for the rest of the day!  

2nd awesome thing-our ward has been struggling with the whole unity thing for a long time, and this week, we had an amazing attendance at the ward family night, we almost had the whole congregation there, with less actives and investigators.  We had lots of games, soccer, ping pong, Zumba...it was pretty great.  And what was even better was that it wasn't because of us.  Some of the members had called or texted some less actives and lots of members to come, and it worked, and now people are starting to build relationships with the other members, something that hasn't happened for a really long time.

3rd awesome thing-we had 5 investigators in church! Hilda Ojeda and Zaida Rodriguez will be baptized this weekend!  Hilda is 67 years old, and has an awful open wound on her leg from diabetes, and she came to church, and in gospel principles, she totally bore her testimony, and for us as missionaries, we were so happy that she has begun to develop her own faith in the prophets and the Book of Mormon.  We are teaching her to read by the Book of Mormon, and really, we can see the Lord's hand in her progress!  Zaida is 13 years old, and we are a little skeptical with baptizing younger people, but she came to church by herself, and has really shown that she has a testimony and wants to progress.

My trainer was just called to be one of the sister training leaders of the mission...how cool is that?  I was really blessed to have her as a trainer, especially as I hear of all of the horror stories from other people.

Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you, last week when we went to visit a new investigator and we started to talk about the Atonement, and this lady was so incredibly stressed about her son and his drug addictions.  She told us that she had basically lost hope.  And I felt prompted to share with her the story of the Atonement.  That thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, her son can repent and move on.  It was SO powerful, and she just started to cry.  The Spirit was there, and in this moment I was so grateful for my own personal testimony of the Atonement that allowed me to relate to this woman.  It would have been so easy to simply judge her, but to have a testimony that fit her needs was a wonderful feeling.  This was an amazing revelation for me...just that sometimes, when we have trials, they are just things that we need to overcome so that we become stronger and less judgmental, and become more like the Savior. 

Anyway, it was an amazing week, and we will have two baptisms on Saturday, just the blessings of God arriving so fast that we just don't have room:)

I have been thinking a lot about how the mission has changed me.  This is my goal, that I can permit God to change me so that when I return, I will be a faithful and useful servant to Him in all aspects of his kingdom.  I hope that I will be changed, and that I will be someone that has charity for everyone.  I found a quote from Elder Nelson, and basically he says that the decision to serve a mission and the understanding that we obtain will determine our spiritual and eternal destiny, as well as the eternal destinies of our posterity for generations.  I hope that this experience will be like that: something that will change me so that I will be what God needs me to be.  I have a LLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG way to go.  Dangit.

Also, I wanted to tell everyone thank you for the mountain of letters that I received last week, I had letters that were sent before Christmas...I don't even know how that worked, but it gave me a "heart attack!!":)

I love you so much, and I hope all is well at home.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Be happy and be grateful in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES!!! 

Lovelovelovelovelovelovelove,

Hermana Farish:)  

oh my heck i love you!:)

Ward Activity

My "Heart Attack!"

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

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

Hello again!

Hola mi familia, còmo està?

I am doing pretty well, considering I sweat off like half my body weight every single day. Apparently it hasn't been this hot at this time of year in 55 years, and I am just lucky enough to be here right now. whoopwhoop!

And also, may I just say a gigantic thank you to Kat and Jeff for the package! It was the greatest thing ever! I loved the letters, and especially the shorts and the starbursts! I have worn the shorts every day...yeah, I am so excited! I then saw that they were from Pizza Factory, and I almost started to bawl because I have this vision in my head of warm, perfect pizza and breadsticks, with salad and pink lemonade with sprite...yeah, I had to stop that before I sent myself into deep depression. Anyways, thank you so much, it made my week.

Also mom, I haven't received your package yet! Que en el mundo!:( Oh well, something to look forward to, I guess. I received your letter, and also Bobbie, I received your BOOK! It was the greatest.

We had cambios (transfers) on Wednesday. I saw Tyson Boyer and Aaron Fielding...THAT was really, really, really weird.

This week went really well. We are trying to discern the true desires of our investigators, because we have a lot of people who are just nice and who want to talk about the word of God, but not so many people who really have a desire to seek the truth and follow the example of Jesus Christ and persevere to the end as a member of His true church. It is so hard to stop visiting people, because you don't want to give up on them, but you don't want to waste time if they don't have a true desire to act on their faith.

That being said, we had a couple of little miracles this week. TO start off, we were contacting in a newish part of our area, and we contacted this lady, who, turns out, had been investigating the church 17 years before! Say what! She had pictures with the elders and everything! And then she proceeded to tell us that she is never home at this hour, but that day, she was:) We then proceeded to teach the Restoration of the Gospel, and it was the best we have ever done it. Hermana Chempèn tells me that if, when I am teaching, I learn something new, it is because I was teaching by the Spirit. How cool is that!? And I learned so much in this lesson. We are going to visit her again this next week, and we are praying that it turns out!

The other miracle was yesterday. We contacted a house that we had contacted my first day in Paraguay. During the lesson my first day, it was terrible. TERRIBLE. I cannot even express to you how terrible it was. And halfway through that first lesson, the mom started to freak out because her husband was home and she hadn't made him his terere...yeah, so we left really fast. But yesterday, we contacted the husband, and he was totally open to us teaching him. He called his daughter out, and we began to teach. His daughter, Synthia, is 20 years old and is very smart. She had so many good questions, and, for the first time in my mission, when we challenged her to read Moroni 10 in the Book of Mormon and pray about it, I really felt like she was going to keep her promise to read, ponder, and pray about our message. It was interesting to see the difference between my teaching that first day and where I am at now. Flip. And there is still so much to learn!

The other miraculous part of this is that she is a cousin of Shirley. Shirley is 12 years old, and is one of the best people that I have ever known. She reads the Book of Mormon by herself and has memorized two or three hymns. She is so amazing, but she cannot ride the bus and attend church by herself, and her mom will not go to church. So, if we can get Synthia to attend church, she can bring Shirley and Shirley can be baptized. it is the little things, AHHH!:) We were so happy, we couldn't stop smiling.

We are working with the ward, one step at a time. We had ward council on Wednesday for the first time since I have been here, and only 4 people besides us showed up. HAYA. oh well, it actually happened, that is good.

It is interesting to see how the families function here. Rarely are both parents in the home, usually it is a struggling single mother with 5 or 6 kids from different fathers. so so so crazy. We are teaching a girl that has two kids and is living with the father of her youngest, and he is one of the creepiest people I have ever seen, which is saying something, because there are a lot of creepy people here. What i don't understand is why she is still with him...some people. enserio.

We had our double ward activity on Saturday, and it went really well. We had lots of little stands with different games, and I thought of the Andrus Reunion, because we had the nylons game going, stack the cups, the vaseline and the cotton balls, and three legged races. it was a lot of fun and we had a good turnout.

Right after that ended we had the clase de piano, and it went really well. During the week I had made worksheets and guided notetaking paper things, and that helped a lot. An entire family came that was just baptized last week, and the mom said that she learned more during this one class than she had learned from a course at the university. That kind of boosted my self esteem.

Anyways, something that I have learned this week is that when we have faith in Jesus Christ and in the ennobling power of His Atonement, we can do our best and be satisfied with the results. Everyone has their agency, but with the Help of Jesus Christ, we can do our part to help them make the right choice. The Book of Mormon is full of examples of this, I especially love in Mosiah, with King Benjamin and Abinadi. it is the greatest!

I love you all, and I hope that you have a good week! Be safe and be obedient!

Love,

Hermana Farish

Erin teaching piano to members & non-members

Erin's Zone