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

Faith in the Face of Danger

Haha, so this week was crazy crazy.  We had 3 divisions Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, all in a place that is called Capiata.  It is about 2ish hours away from home, so we were there for 3 days straight.  We had some wonderful experiences, and I appreciate the opportunity to get to know some of the hermanas from the mission.  One fun/interesting experience that we had was in the last division, the sisters told us that they had a tarantula problem.  We were like...that's peachy, even more so because we sleep on the floor (haha, I saw Nate's pics...I feel your pain!!:)).  So, we had to decide how to accomplish this feat without breaking any rules...so we pushed the two beds together and all four of us slept on the two beds...I am not sure how exactly obedient that was, and afterwards, we were talking with my comp and we were like...what the heck???  Where was our faith?  If we had chosen to just sleep on the ground in spite of the tarantulas, that would have been better, because the Lord would have protected us...yeah, whoops.  Learning experience, that is for sure:)   So, if you are choosing between sleeping on the floor and being eaten by tarantulas or bending the rules, choose to sleep on the floor:)

A miracle that we saw this week was that we were contacting in our area again, and we contacted two ladies that were sitting outside their house.  At first they didn't seem to have a lot of interest, but we asked them a few questions and they let us in, we talked about the Book of Mormon and where it came from.  The mom, Karen, told us that she had recently separated from her husband, and that she was in search of peace.  Thankfully, in the intro of the B of M, it says that the Book of Mormon helps us to have peace, and learn how to hold onto it.  We have a lunch appointment with them on Saturday, so we will see what happens:)

Also, something cool was that President McMullin asked us to give a 40 minute training on how to plan in this months mission leadership council.  It was a privilege to talk and discuss with other missionaries how we can work more effectively.  We did that today and it was a party hardy. Something else that was just a ball of fun was giving my testimony in the MLC.  All of the people who are finishing are asked to do it, and I was like...this is not gonna be pretty, but it turned out great and I realized how much I really do love this place

Anyway, it was a good week, and I hope that you can all start the year off well and that you can love where you are at.  I love you!

Love,
Hermana Farish

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

As If For Years

Well flip. 

This week was one of those weeks that makes all of the other weeks walking in the sun worth it.  We had lots of fun little miracles, and we were able to see the Lord's hand in His work. 

Mostly, I want to focus on something that I read today that really just went to my very center.  I was reading an article in the Ensign about our journey through life and how a lot of the times, we are just waiting for things to change so that we can be happier.  We say, okay, I am only going to be in this ward for so long, so I am not going to accept a calling, or for me, I am only going to be in this area for so long, so...just work with the hope that I get transferred.

BBBAAAAADDDD!!!!!!

What the author said really made me think.  How different would our lives be if we lived and prayed and worked in every situation as if we were going to be there for years?  As if nothing was going to change and only we had to do the best we could with what we had in the moment?  I was like...oof.  Something that I really need to change is my perspective.  We are where we are because the Lord knows that we are going to be able to learn something from the experience. The missionaries come and go, but really our purpose is to improve SOMETHING in the area, whether it be the ward, baptisms, or individuals, and we need to do it with the idea that we are going to be there for always. I am not explaining myself really well, but basically we have to make the most of every moment that we have so that we can do all that the Lord would have us do.

I love you all so much, and I hope that you can always try to think in the eternal perspective, that everything you do can help or hinder your progress.

¡Les quiero! (I love you!)

Love,

Hermana Farish

The Frozen Miracle

Dear Family,

I don't have a lot of time, but this week was probably one of the most difficult of my mission thus far.  We worked so, so hard this week, searching for new investigators to teach, and we found some.  We fasted on Tuesday and on that day we had a couple of fun little miracles.  We went to talk to an investigator, didn't get in, and we started to walk away and were about halfway down the street when I realized that I didn't have my agenda, so we walked back, got it, and when we walked back down the same street, we heard someone blasting classical music.  We hadn't heard it the first time, so my companion just walked up and asked who it was and what it was and all that.  She said that I played the piano and the lady became all friendly and showed us her nice piano, and (here is the crazy part), I had my Frozen music in my backpack for the first time in my mission.  They had a granddaughter there who LOVED LOVED frozen, so we sat down and I played and she sang everything in spanish!  We were a hit:)  It was seriously a blessing, and when we began to talk to them, the guy had read half of the Book of Mormon like 10 years ago, but for some reason we don't know yet, he wasn't baptized.  When he started to talk to us about Brigham Young, we were like...WHAT???? How does he know about Brigham Young?  Anyway, so that was a fun little miracle.

On the downside, we are struggling hard core with our ward.  So, dad - what do you do when the new first counselor in your ward, who has been on the high council, has a drinking problem?  Then he tells us missionaries to our faces that it is our fault that the barrio (ward) is failing!  What can you do with that besides hope that Jesucristo venga pronto (comes soon)?  We were so bummed...all that we could do was say: no, we aren't working, that is definitely why this ward is failing...yea.  SORRY, this week really was hard.  I hope you have a better week and that all goes well.

But hey, this church is so perfect and there is an order that will always help to keep everything simple.  All that we have to do is follow that order!

Anyway, this week has really made me think about my own testimony, and how really, we have to pray, attend church, keep ALL of the commandments, and go to the temple in order to really develop our testimony and protect our home from the temptations of Satan.  He knows our weakness, but we have a Heavenly Father who loves us and knows us perfectly.  He will never give us anything that we can't handle (1 Corinthians 10:13).

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember how much your Heavenly Father loves you, and that He gave us commandments so that we would be protected.  I love you!

Love,
Hermana Farish