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!

(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

Ai Húepate (FLIP in Guarani)

Bueno...

We had a huge miracle this week.  Eduardo, after two months, will be getting baptized this Saturday! He came to church yesterday, and we had an amazing lesson with him afterwards.  He was so prepared, and it was a huge blessing from the Lord that we even found him.  Something else that was a blessing was Teli.  She is the ex-partner of Eduardo, and she was born into the church, but never really had a testimony.  She decided that she didn't want anything to do with the church when her dad, who was a returned missionary and active, committed suicide.  We began to talk with her and read the Book of Mormon, and she is now active.  It has been such a blessing to be able to work with her and Eduardo.  Teli told us yesterday that she has changed so much, as well as Eduardo.

This just adds to my testimony of the Book of Mormon, that it was inspired and that it is a precious gift from our Heavenly Father.  I know that He loves us because he gave us the Book of Mormon to help us change our lives and the lives of those who surround us.  We began reading it as a mission to help us learn to better use it to help the people we teach. As I read it, the phrase, "The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion," came true!! Elder Neil L. Anderson gave us a promise when he said:

"First, find scriptures in the Book of Mormon that you feel and know are absolutely true. Then share them."

If we have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, we can know for certain that all of the other points of doctrine iin the church are true.  It is absolutely essential.   I was thinking the other day...I have come to depend so much on the book of Mormon, and when I finished it, I was like...Now what??  Read it again, and again, and again.  It is something that will never grow old.

My biggest challenge this week was to not work with the "Its the last week of the transfer" mindset. It surprised me a lot how much I struggled with it.  But it all worked out, with Eduardo's baptism. I may not even be here, but igual no mas.  We find out our transfers tomorrow, but I have no idea what is going to happen.  President is kind of unpredictable. One thing that was hard as well was that a lot of people said that I would be the sister training leader, and I was like...um no...it was kind of like...it could happen but I would prefer that it didn't.  And I didn't get a call yesterday, so whew, we're in the open.

Speaking of time, can you believe that it has been 11 months?  It has gone by SO FAST...Marcus Alton (he's in the south mission) heads home this change...everyone is going  home!!  Have you seen Susan Hutchins?  She should be home by now...this is so nuts.

Anyhoo, I love being a missionary, and Eduardo's baptism makes all of the stuff we have to put up with worth it.  I was thinking the other day, I love Paraguay.  Its like my type of life now.  I am so used to it that I can't imagine it any other way.  I didn't ever think that driving, or asphalt roads as a normal thing, or being on time on a regular basis would scare me...whoops.

Apart from that, not much happened, lots of rain, lots of...no se what. We find out transfers tomorrow, so we will see what happens!!  I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Happy Birthday Family Diaz!

Head Lice and All That's Nice....NOT!

So...We had an interesting week, good, but interesting.

First off, on Wednesday, we had a mission-wide conference with Elder Gonzalez, a member of the area presidency.  It was an awesome experience, with a lot of emphasis on the Book of Mormon.  The only downer was that our phone was robbed while we were on the bus to Asunciòn, so we had to go to the police station on Friday to get a denunciation and all that.  Note: DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, make a joke about robbing something in a police station, even if it happens to be a pen.  Bad idea.

The only excuse that I have for doing something so stupid is that we had stayed up late the night before (gasp!!!) combing out lice, which we found when we got home from the conference.  We knew that some of the families that we visit had it, but we had always just hoped that being lice free was one of the perks of being a missionary, but, as it turns out, nope. So...our p-day is spent washing everything we have!  Yaaaaaayyyy!!!!

Second off, Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!  I am so grateful to my dad for always being awesome, being someone who is willing to cry with me and afterwards makes an awful joke, which is the best part:)  (Editor's note: the jokes are actually very funny...)

As far as investigators go, we are progressing a lot with Eduardo.  We read with him Alma 32, and he finally decided to believe and stop doubting everything.  His date is still going for July 11th, we are praying like crazy.

We found 2 families this week, and we hope that they can also accept what we have.  One family is totally Evangelical, and they attend the greatest of all of the great and abominable churches, the Center of Family Worship.  What fun.   But the mom, Gloria, knows a ton, and it is so nice to talk with her and have the opportunity to bear my testimony of the things we have and we know to be true.  There isn't anything better:)

Other than that, we are still going, still working, and loving the cooler weather.  The Pope is coming here the beginning of July, so we will see how that goes.  Everyone here is freaking out, all of the roads are being fixed, the trash is being picked up, and everything looks 100% better.  We are always saying that he should come every year so that everything is always fixed and ready.  I was thinking, what would the world do if they had advance notice of the Second Coming?  What would we do if we knew the day and time that the Savior was going to come?  How would we prepare?  Would anyone even care? What are we doing now to prepare ourselves for His presence?  Alma 5 talks a ton about preparing ourselves for the Second Coming and the judgement. We use it to teach inactives.  It is a little strong, but it goes right to the heart.

   16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

   17 Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?

   18 Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God?

   19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?

   21 I say unto you, ye will know at that day that ye cannot be saved; for there can no man be saved except his garments are washed white; yea, his garments must be purified until they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of him of whom it has been spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins.

   22 And now I ask of you, my brethren, how will any of you feel, if ye shall stand before the bar of God, having your garments stained with blood and all manner of filthiness? Behold, what will these things testify against you?

I hope that we all can ask ourselves these questions, so that we can be prepared now, with pure spirits.  I know that we will feel and do so much better if we can start now. 

Tyson Boyer will be coming home this next change in August.  I am not sure what day exactly, but I will let you know when I know.  I think I may send a package home with him:)  It isn't really all that weird to have him as my zone leader, there are so many people from St. George that it is normal now. Aaron Fielding is doing pretty good as far as I know, and he will be heading home here in a few months.

This is the last week of this transfer, so...we will know next Tuesday what is going to happen with our lives, with the actual transfers on Wednesday.  I honestly don't know what is going to happen. An Elder told me the other day, "You are going to train again and stay in Palma Loma for 2 more transfers!!!"  I was like...????  I am pretty sure president wouldn't do that to me, but we will see what happens.

I love you and hope that you all have a good week! Sorry this was so long!

Love,

Hermana Farish

The Elder on the telephone pole is Elder Boyer, throwing a styrofoam lightsaber to try and knock the keys out of the tree...an Elder threw them up there..no idea what he was thinking:)  What would we do without the Elders?

Sisters that have served in Erin's current area, Palma Loma

That Awkward (Food) Moment

Dear Family,

Well, I would tell you what we did all week, but it doesn't matter because it rained. Flip...but I'm not bitter:)

Haha, no, it was a good week, with lots of stuff going on.

The zone conference was really good, we learned a lot about having faith in contacting and how we can better meet our goals.

One thing that really hit me was on Sunday in Sunday School.  We were reading in Mathew 25 about the parable of the ten virgins.  We talked about the different ways that we can fill our lamps and obtain more oil so that it lasts until Christ comes.  One thing that I thought was about the mission, and how in 1 and a half years or 2 we get a ton of oil, but we have to work hard so that we can maintain the oil that we gain.  It is the same with our lives, and the things that we do.  For example, we get oil if we read our scriptures once, but it isn't going to do any good unless we read them again and raise the level of our oil.  If we do what we need to do on a regular basis, we are going to be as prepared as we possibly can for the second coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I love being here, and I am grateful for this experience that will help me to become the servant that the Lord expects me to be.

Dad and mom, yesterday we taught the Law of Chastity, and the investigator didn't want to accept that living together wasn't the right way to start off a marriage.  I told them about you and mom, and how, thanks to the fact that you are keeping your covenants and that you kept yourselves clean before marriage, you are married still, and you will have your eternal family.  I was able to bear a strong testimony of marriage and of keeping yourself pure.  It was awesome, and thank you for your strong example of love and commitment to each other.  I want to be like you guys someday and have the relationship that you have.

I am now VERY grateful for the winter clothes I brought.  It says that it is only like 50 degrees, but with the rain and the humidity it feels a lot colder.

Our week went fine...it is so frustrating to work all week, have investigators lined up to come, but then it rains and floods to the point that the people can't leave their homes, and there are only 23 people in church.  Eesh. 

 

Interviews went really well, President McMullin has so much patience.  We had an interview as a companionship first, and he took one look at me and said, "Hermana Farish, Palma Loma has sure stretched you good."  I was like...um...yep. that's one way to say it.  Afterwards we were split up and I had to go first.  We talked about lots of things, it went really well, and I think he was relieved that we had a good companionship and that we don't have any problems.  Something that made me feel good was something that my companion told me after her interview.  She said that President told her that she had a really good companion, who was humble and worked hard.  For me, that was just awesome. Long story short, (I will write you and tell you the whole dumb story) something happened here in Palma Loma that helped me to realize that being prideful was definitely one of my weaknesses, and that I needed to work on that, so to have him tell my companion that was nice to hear.

On a less spiritual note, on Wednesday we ate with Hilda, a recent convert.  She is so awesome, and I love her to death.  The soup broth tasted fine, but I was a little iffy on what the meat was (you would think I would know by now).  Anyways, I was just eating, enjoying life, when Hilda told us that we were eating mondongo, which is cow organs.  I kind of just stopped eating and prayed, and then just kept going.  Thank goodness for water.

I love you and hope that you have a good week!
Hermana Farish

We Reached Our Goal!!!

Dear Everyone,

This week went by SO fast. It quite literally flew.  But we were able to see a lot of miracles.

Miracle number one: We finally met our attendance goal, 80 people!  We had lots of less actives and a couple of investigators as well.

Miracle number two: We have been working for a LOOONNNGGG time with an inactive family, Flia Florentin.  They have two daughters that are recent converts, and to be honest, I have no idea how they were baptized, because it has been a struggle trying to get them all to go to church.  But this last Sunday, we didn't call them, we didn't go to bring them, and what do you know, Nayeli, (14 years old) came by herself.  That doesn't sound like much, but to have her come by herself and walk all of the way was definitely a miracle.

Miracle number three: Eduardo and Teli.  We have been working with Eduardo for a while, and he comes to church, but he won't agree to a baptismal date.  On Saturday we had a lesson on the eternal nature of the family, and we kind of stressed it a lot.  We asked Eduardo if he had received an answer to his prayer and he said that he had, and that he needed to wait and research a little bit more.  We left the lesson kind of bummed.  We had a lesson with a recent convert in another part of our area, but we were so bummed that we just sat down for a few minutes and just talked through our feelings, what we could have done better, and how we can improve our teaching skills.  On Sunday, we had another lesson, and it went so much better.  We really felt the Spirit, and he came to church again with Teli, so that was great.

I am sitting here in an internet cafe, and the lady next to me has this tiny baby that keeps choking and she is just looking at her facebook....ahhhh kill me now...we have some elders that are here too and they are like...WHAT DO WE DO??? This baby is dying and the mom is looking at her freaking facebook...flip, some people's children.

Something that I realized this week is that time is passing REALLY fast.  Like I am freaking out. Tomorrow, we have interviews with the president and I am kind of nervous...but he is nice and I am sure that everything will go fine.  It is so crazy...I was thinking...if this is my last change in Palma Loma then I only have like 3 weeks left and the weeks are going by so flipping fast.  I honestly wish I had a clone so that we could do divisions and get more stuff done, because there is so much that we have to do.

Other than that, we were just crazy busy.  Palma Loma is getting so much better, the visiting teachers are awesome, and now that we have elders the priesthood can get going as well.  I love you all so much and I hope that you have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Selfie in front of the temple

This is my life!

with WAFFLES and stuff

Dear Family,

We had a crazy crazy week.  BUT.  It was awesome, a lot less rain, which was definitely a blessing.

We have been struggling with investigators here in Palma Loma, mostly because our focus has been on strengthening the ward and helping them to function well.  ANYWAY, we have been so blessed this week, we put 2 baptismal dates, which to be honest, isn't a whole lot, we need to do better, but we are really excited with what we have.  The first one, Eduardo, was a contact from months ago. We had a lesson with him on Saturday, and we put his baptismal date after watching the talk by President Uchtdorf called, "How to obtain a testimony of light and truth."  It was so powerful, and the Spirit was so strong.  Eduardo's main concern is feeling the spirit, it is really hard for him to feel it and to be able to recognize what it is telling him.  When we listened to this talk, the Spirit was unmistakable, you couldn't miss it.  There are 4 things that this talk tells us to do in order to obtain our own testimony:

1) Search and study the scriptures
2) Meditate, think, ponder,
3) Pray sincerely with true intention
4) LIVE what we are learning.

We were able to bear a strong testimony to him that if he will do these things, Heavenly Father will give him his answer in a way that will be recognizable to him.  We are so excited to help him to progress, the Lord has blessed us so much.  And we had waffles for lunch, which just topped off the day as a success:)

ANNNNDDD......wait for it....the bishop's wife is ACTIVE!!!! yayayayayayayayayaya!!!  We are kind of really excited.

Other than that, we had an open...church on Saturday, where everyone could go and see what the Mormons really do.  I honestly think that the best thing was watching the members get together and work to make it happen.  They did it, and it looked so awesome:)

I hope that everything is going okay with work, school family, callings, and the other hundreds of things going on.  Hermana Betancourth wrote me and told me that she doesn't want to be home. When she got home she found out that her niece had been sexually assaulted and when her dad found out he almost died of a heart attack, and she didn't know anything until she got home.  Her mom died when she was ten, and...it made me sad.  She didn't want to leave, and more than ever she wants to be back here in Paraguay.  I miss her a lot, we went through a lot together.  It hurts to hear her talk like that.

On Sunday, we received a call during lunch from one of the relief society counselors who said that the president wasn't going to be able to make it to the training of the visiting teachers, and there wasn't anyone to help, so we went and helped with the training of the visiting teachers, which was a party and a half:)

This week was the first week that I really felt cold...I kind of laughed because I received a letter from a friend in Canada, and she said that they were dying of heat with 30 degrees, and here I am dying of cold at 50:)  I usually study with a sweat shirt and go out with lots of layers, because during the day it is pretty warm but at night we are dying.  The humidity is RIDICULOUS.  I still love my companion. I feel like this week was the first week when we were teaching as equal partners.  Before, I had always led out and had always looked for the scripture to share or whatever, but this week she is holding her own, and is doing really well.  As far as the area goes, I hope the president gives me one more transfer, but now that I say that I think I am going to go this transfer.  Dangit.  I honestly don't know what is going to happen.  We think that we are going to finish training and then president will take out both of us and put in elders.  Dunno.  And honestly, I don't think I have done that much here...I think president sent me here for a clase de humildad (humility class).  I think the biggest changes that have happened here in this area have been in me:)

Something that makes me really happy is when the members come and tell us that they gave a Book of Mormon to someone or that they talked to someone about the church.  I think it is so awesome because if they are talking with people about the church, it is because they have a strong enough testimony.  Woohoo!

Anyway, that is basically all for this week.  I hope everyone is doing all right!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Would you just look at that light:)

Dear Everyone,

This week just flew by!!! It seems like every week just goes by faster and faster.

We had transfers this week, and I stayed in Palma Loma to finish training, going on 7 1/2 months here:) Who knew, Right?:)  Name that movie!!!:)

We had a crazy change in Palma Loma, we had a whitewash, which means that they took out the other sisters in the other half and put in elders.  At first, we were a little bummed, but I think that this is what Palma Loma needs.  They are pretty chill, Elder Ramirez from the Dominican Republic and Elder Jewkes from West Jordan.

We had a couple of rather large miracles this week.  We have been working for about 2 months with a family where the mom, Teli, is inactive and her partner, Eduardo, isn't a member.  Teli grew up in an active home, was sealed with her family and everything, but her parents separated and afterwards her dad committed suicide.  After that, she didn't really want anything to do with the church, and on
Sunday, (drum roll please!!!) she and Eduardo walked up to church, hand in hand with their 4 year old son.  I was like...AAAHHHHH!!! You need to get sealed!  Of course, my opinion doesn't really hold a lot of ground, but..igual no màs, it would be awesome:)  We are working with Eduardo so that he can read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of the doctrine as found there.

Another miracle is that we looked up another member's referral, and found the Diaz Family.  We had a couple of amazing lessons with them, but they weren't able to come to church because of the rain:(

I was actually thinking this week, I am so old.  There are so many new missionaries, and after being here in Palma Loma for 7 months, I am very used to being the person who knows what needs to happen, or where the people live, or all that.  I thought the other day...how crazy is that.  Seriously, the time is FLYING, and Hermana Betancourth finished her mission last week, and my trainer goes home this transfer.  SANTA VACA.  Seriously, I am like freaking out.  When Hermana Betancourth
came early in the morning she was going to leave, she stopped by to tell me goodbye and it was SO HARD.  I learned to love her so much and I miss her a lot.

I am loving the mission, it is my life.  It is my comfort zone, and it is so freaking hard.  But I figure that if it is hard, Heavenly Father thinks that I am strong enough to get through it and learn something
important.  I love talking with people, and having a new missionary as a companion has showed me how far I have come, and how Heavenly Father helped me to overcome all of my many fears.  I love these people, even if they are drunk, on drugs, lo que sea, les amo.

De la historia familiar, si, estamos trabajando mucho con ella.  Casi cada domingo llevamos a los miembros, menos activos, conversos recientes, quien sea, porque si ellos hacen su historia familiar, se
van a ir al templo, y todos necesitan esta experiencia. Nuestro presidente de misiòn nos dijo que usàramos los folletos de mi familia en los contactos.  Me gusta mucho eso porque es diferente, y las personas no lo esperan:)  (In essence this paragraph says that they use family history to work with the members to help them make it to the temple, and also use the familysearch booklet "My Family" in their contacting.)

Saturday night, we had cleaned the church and our lessons fell through, so naturally, it started to rain and it was the biggest lightning storm that I have ever seen.  We had one hour left and we were trying to follow up on some contacts that we had made.  We were kind of bummed, and we were the only people on the streets, so, to cheer ourselves up, we just started to sing a hymn that talks about light (I don't remember which one) and when we got to the part where it talked about how we always have light in our lives, there was a rather huge lightning strike, and I said, "would you just look at that light"  My companion looked at me like I was nuts, and then we just started to laugh and we were able to go to another lesson with an investigator who ended up giving us food, which was just great.

Anyway, the point is, sometimes we are in a time of darkness and storms.  There are things that happen that are scary and we feel like we are alone and that there isn't anyone who pays us attention or who we feel like understands us.  However, there are always blessings.  Sometimes they come in a form that we don't expect, but they are ALWAYS there.  I was reading in 1 Nephi the other day, in chapter 18, and it is when Nephi is tied up on the ship for so many days, and nothing that he or his family does can change the hearts of his brothers.  I love Nephi`s reaction to this trial.  he says:

14 And on the fourth day, which we had been driven back, the tempest began to be exceedingly sore.
15 And it came to pass that we were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. And after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days, my brethren began to see that the
judgments of God were upon them, and that they must perish save that they should repent of their iniquities; wherefore, they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists, and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof.
16 Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.

He was hurting, the ship and everyone on it was about to drown, and even with all of that, Nephi never let that interfere with his relationship with Heavenly Father.  Afterwards, Laman and Lemuel
finally realize that they need to change something so that they don't die.  In verse 20 it says,

20 And there was nothing save it were the power of God, which threatened them with destruction, could soften their hearts; wherefore, when they saw that they were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea they repented of the thing which they had done, insomuch that they loosed me.
21 And it came to pass after they had loosed me, behold, I took the compass, and it did work whither I desired it. And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did
cease, and the storm did cease, and THERE WAS A GREAT CALM.

I know we have storms, we have trials, things we can't control, like Nephi.  But if we can look for the blessings, and praise our Lord all the day long, he will bless us and give us the strength to endure until we have that great calm.  I love this gospel, I love the Book of Mormon, and I love sharing it with people so that they too can have that calm in their lives. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that you can always look to your Lord and praise him for all of the blessings that He has given you.  I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Diporri tiempo!!! (There's no time!!!!) (Guaranish)

Hello Everyone,

I don't have too much time this week but this week was amazing, with lots of miracles and hard times, but that's just part of life I think:)

We had divisions this week with the hermana training leaders, and it was AWESOME!!! I went with Hermana Taboada from Peru to her area, and Hermana Francani stayed in Palma Loma.  It was weird to leave her but I learned a lot...we got soaked!!!

Sorry, no time, but I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!!

Love,
Hermana Farish

Righteousness IN YOUR FACE!!

Dear Everyone,

This week was cold, wet, and wonderful.  I so enjoyed talking to my family.  I have been so blessed, and I loved being able to hear your voices and see your faces:)  Sorry for the hardcore spanglish.  We joke around that we have to switch the memory chip for one hour to be able to speak straight English for 50 minutes:)

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!! I have been so blessed with wonderful examples of mothers in my life, with my mom, my grandmas, my aunts, neighbors, everyone.  I am so grateful for your wonderful example of being steadfast in the faith and raising families strong in the gospel.  It is something that will influence me for-e-ver.

This week we have the opportunity to go to the temple in Asunciòn!!! I am so excited, it will be like a spiritual battery recharge.

Mom, I loved talking to you, it made my day, seriously.  I loved just listening to you and seeing your face:) I hope everything is going okay, and that you are doing fine with the billions of things that call your attention every day.

I hope that this Skype experience was better than the last one.  It is SO HARD to press that little red button to end the connection, but I was happy to get going again. I was so nervous to talk to you guys, I don't even know why.  Weird.

My companion was able to talk to her family.  Her parents are members and she is an only child.  Her mom had been inactive for 6 years before she came to the mission, and her first Monday in the field, she received a picture of her mom with her dad in front of the chapel. She was so happy:)

Anyway mom, I hope you have a wonderful week and that you remember that I love you and will always be grateful for everything that you have always done for me:)  You are the perfect mother, and even though you don't think so, I know that Heavenly Father loves me because He sent me to you:)

Elder Ballard said,

"Today, more than ever, we need faithful, dedicated sister-saints who … have hearts that are fixed, who trust in the Lord, and who … are willing to save souls and build the kingdom of God.”

I know that you are like that, faithful, dedicated to the Lord, and willing to work to save souls and build the kingdom of God.  I have watched you all of my life and I hope you know that your influence will be with me for eternity, and I am so grateful to you and your never-ending patience:)

Last night after talking on Skype, we left to begin working and a FHE fell through, so we went to see how everyone was after the huge storm the night before, and we felt prompted to contact a reference from a member.  We had already gone twice and nothing, but we decided to go again and see what happened.  We went and we were able to meet Lidia and Lisandro.  They have been married for 30  years, and we had a wonderful lesson with them, talking about eternal marriage and the importance of the authority of God on the earth.  Lisandro said, "it would be ideal." I know that it is the ideal, that we will not be able to get anything better here in this life.  We have been so blessed with the knowledge of the Atonement and the restoration of the gospel.  This knowledge is priceless, and for me, there is nothing more that I would rather have.  We can overcome anything with the knowledge that we have.  This couple accepted the baptismal invitation, and we are so excited to go back and talk more with them.

Other than that...not much really happened.  I freeze to death at 70 degrees, and I am so excited to keep working and recognize the Lord's hand in my life.  I love you all so much, and invite you to think of someone you know who could use the gospel.  We don't know who is prepared and who isn't, so we need to give everyone a chance.  Think and pray about this person or family, and give the reference to the missionaries so that this family can have the comfort and the security that comes from the knowledge that we have.  In D&C, it talks a lot about the importance of opening our mouths.  In D&C 24:12 it says:

12 And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men.

In D&C 60:2-3:

2 But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man. Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them.
3 And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful unto me, it shall be taken away, even that which they have.

There are lots of promises here, and even though we may have fear of man, I can tell you that we just have to do it.  Just do it.  And you will see the blessings that come from opening your mouth and sharing the priceless knowledge that you have.  I love you and hope you have a good week!

With love,
Hermana Farish

Portuguese Shoulder Massage

This week was interesting...like a mental illness.

We started out the week really well, working like crazies. Wednesday we had divisions with the other sisters in the ward.  One has been sick for about a week, so I went with her companion to work in her area for a few hours to alleviate the cabin fever a little bit.

I am doing fine.  This week was really hard, mostly because I just felt like crap.  It is one of those things that I felt crappy enough to justify staying in, but I wasn't dead either.  SO, we went out and worked. and we kind of saw the fruits, but the entire mission is struggling with baptisms, and we are just under a lot of pressure to get baptisms going again.  I am still trying to figure out the right way to do it, and it changes with ever person we talk to.  Dangit.

Thursday, we both woke up with fevers, and we had to go in to Asunciòn to Migrations so that my companion didn't get deported;) We got back in time to go to lunch with the cow tongue lady, and we realized that the meat she gave us was a little old...my companion threw up when we got home to study, and we still are having problems with nausea.  I am seeing a pattern here..???  I guess we just have to pray harder the next time we go:)

Friday...nothing too crazy, we are working a lot more with the members, that was one of our goals.  I read something today from a speech from President Utchdorf when he spoke at the University of Southern California, and he said that lots of times, people are our enemies when we don't completely understand them.  I was like...oops.  My attitude hasn't been all that great with these members, and I would always justify it with the appointments that always seem to fall through, or the fact that Ward Council is like WWIII.  But, that isn't okay.  Charity is so important, and I have a LOOONNNG way to go.  In Moroni 7:48, it says that all those who are true disciples of Christ must have charity...que pucha.

One miracle that happened this week is that we found Paula again!  For those who don't know, we contacted her daughter, Liz, in March and had a couple of wonderful lessons with her and her mom, Paula.  Paula set her own baptismal date, and we were so happy....and then we couldn't find her again, and a couple of other things happened that kind of gave us the vibes of rejection...but last week we passed by her house and the door was open, so we were like...okay, one more time.  So we clapped, she let us in, and on Saturday we set a new date, and she is beginning to read the Book of Mormon, and I am hoping that everything is as it seems and that she has real desires to turn her life around.

Now, to describe the subject line, a member gave us a reference for a lady named Blanca, which was awesome, apart from the fact that she neglected to tell us that Blanca lives with a very large, very drunk black Portuguese man. So...we went to contact the reference, and the guy motioned us to come in...with my last companion we had always tried to avoid him because he was always drunk or on drugs.  Anyway, we walked into his yard, and he began to speak to us in Portuguese...we were like...HUH?  ?¿Voces fala portugès? (do you speak portugese?? in Portuguese)  Anyway, he led us to Blanca, and it made me sad. She is like 50 years old, and is a drunk.   I think she had a stroke or something, because she had some physical defects.  This guy takes care of her, and makes sure that she is okay.  We weren't really sure what to do, and the guy was still speaking in Portuguese, so we asked if we could say a prayer.  We said the prayer and we all stood up, and all of the sudden, the guy told me to take off my backpack.  I was like...wwwhhhaaattt?  He asked me again, and then put his arm around my shoulders and told me that he had been a soccer coach in Brazil and wanted to give me a massage.  Yeah um. no.  Red light.  My companion took hers off and was going to hit him with it, but thankfully it didn't get to that point:)  So...just picture that in your head.

We also had stake conference, but since it rained really hard there weren't a lot of people there.  There was literally three or four feet of water in some places in our area, so our bishop didn't even end up going, because his house was completely flooded.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well, I love you all, and have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

9 Months in the Mission!

Me and Hermana Francani (Right)

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.

I Received My "Baby"

Sorry about last week everyone!  We only had half of the normal time so I wasn't able to respond to anyone.  We ran to the hospital in Asuncion to see a recent convert. Sorry about that!

So....my mission has taken a rather large turn for the...crazy weird.  We had transfers this Tuesday, and I was told that I was going to train.  Aaaannnndddd....I almost died of a heart attack.  But I am good now.  I received my "baby" on Wednesday, Hermana Francani from Bahia Blanca, Argentina. She is AWESOME.  She is thirty years old, and one year away from graduating from law school...needless to say, I was really, really intimidated.  But she is so amazing, and it has been so interesting to me to look at her, and see where I came from.  She came from a ward that has had a lot of the same problems as Palma Loma, and thus we see that President McMullin is inspired.

We were able to have another lesson with a family that we found last week, Daniel, his sister, and his three sons.  They are SUCH good people, and we hope that we can help them to progress and to recognize the importance of the gospel in their lives and the eternal perspective that it gives to them.

I was reading in Alma 1 this morning, and it was talking about all of the tribulations that happened with the people of Alma y Limhi, and then later with all of the persecutions in Zarahemla.  One verse really hit me, and I love the promises that it gives to the faithful who patiently wait out and endure well their afflictions:

      25 Now this was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith; nevertheless, they were                 steadfast and immovable in keeping the commandments of God, and they bore with patience the         persecution which was heaped upon them.

They had patience, and they understood that even though they received trials, their Heavenly Father still loved them and was with them every step of the way.  They PUT THEIR CONFIDENCE IN HIM.  Mosiah 29 and Mosiah 7:33 also talk a lot about that.  With this whole training thing, and it is the first time as senior companion, I was really overwhelmed.  But when I just put it in the Lord's hands, He helped me to have confidence, and to remember all that I have seen, learned, and experienced, so that I can help this sister learn how to stand on her own two feet as a missionary.  I love that feeling.

UM...not really much else happened, apart from...wait for it....THE BISHOP'S WIFE CAME TO CHURCH!!! WOOOO!!!!  But really, we were so happy to see her finally come to church and take the sacrament for the first time in who knows how long.

Yah, life is great, I hope that everyone back home is doing fine.  From reading your letters, it sounds like everyone is so incredibly busy.  I hope you can always find time for the Lord and for the things that should be the most important:)  I love you!

Love,
Hermana Farish

My "Baby", Hermana Francani