The Last Step

Y bueno, this week flew by, every day is just flying by faster.

Just so ya know, we didn't have transfers!!!  I get to have one more change with Hermana Cordova.  I am so happy, we have so much to do and Salado is just the greatest.

We had a really productive week, the Lord has blessed us with so many prepared people, and we were able to find a family that went to church on Sunday!  We had contacted a house and left a card, and then we asked for referrals from a member and she gave us the name of the woman who lived in this house...we were like um yep that would be a sign. Her name is Doris, and her daughters went to the talent show that we had last week, and it was just awesome.  We were kind of bumming around Saturday night, it had rained all day (it was WONDERFUL) and everyone was cooped up inside, so we decided to go and try to get in and contact the referral.  We went and clapped and her daughters let us in, and we had a lesson with them and with her nieces.  The next morning, we had to take a bus to go get some less actives and investigators, drop them off in the church, and then run to go get this family.  It was nuts, because we were like running to their house and we saw this group of people pass by and it was Doris with her nephew, Eduardo, niece Vanessa, daughters Jessica and Johanna.  I just about died of a heart attack. They had a great experience and we are going to have a FHE with them this week.

Also, we are still working with the Hermana Martinez and her son, Alejandro.  He has a baptismal date for October 10th, pray for him and her, please please please.  We are trying hard to activate his family so that they can get to the temple.

We are working with another lady, Victoria, who really wasn't progressing.  We weren't sure what to teach her, and honestly, we were going to drop her, but we prayed during weekly planning and we both thought about the book My Family, that talks about family history.  We had a lesson with her and she was so excited, she is going to talk with her sister so that she can fill it out (her sister is going to be visiting her, so that is why she can't go to church.  Might as well do something productive).

Today we went to the temple with Ramona and Lucia (recent converts).  My companion and I bore our testimonies and I felt the spirit so strong.  I love the temple.  I wish we could go more often, but that is okay.  Something that I have realized is that everything we do in the church, everything that we study, learn, memorize, feel, whatever, everything points to the temple.  Everything we have to endure is worth it when we understand and make eternal covenants with our Heavenly Father.  I love that so much.  That is the difference between the LDS church and the thousands of others: we will be together for the eternities.  What a blessing.

I love you, and I hope that you all have a good week!

Hermana Farish

Talent Show

Well flip.

This week was nuts. But it was awesome.  To try to explain it I am just going to go day by day, starting with Wednesday (because it was halfway normal up to that point).

Wednesday-we had piano class and a rehearsal with the primary for the talent show, and it went pretty well.  We had assigned a recent convert to find a little sketch theater thing that they could do, and we had the help of Hermana Martinez (who is coming back to church...YAY!!!) with the decorations and the costumes.  We ended our little theater thing with the primary song "Mother I Love You".  It was so cute.  The crazy thing from this day was trying to coordinate everything between teaching appointments and class and all of that fun shtuff.

Thursday-was slightly normal as well, we started the day in a place in our area called Carmen Soler. It is an asentamiento, or in other words, government land lots, and it is the farthest away from us.  A sister who lives there is Hermana Piñanes. She was baptized about 14 years ago, and was sealed with her husband and children about 8 years ago.  Her husband stopped going to church after being sealed, and doesn't want anything to do with the gospel.  But Hermana Piñanes is awesome, she is handicapped and can't walk without the help of crutches and some braces on her legs.  She was inactive for several years, and we, being new, had no idea that she was a member (or that she existed, for that matter).  All of the sudden, one Sunday, she just showed up at church.  The amazing thing about that is that she can't get up into the bus by herself, and the majority of the time doesn't have the money to pay the bus, but she came.  We have been working with her ever since and basically all of the investigators that we have in Carmen Soler are her references, and she is always offering to make visits with us, even though she can't really walk all that well.  It is a huge testimony to me of every member a missionary, even if you can't even walk.  It doesn't matter.

Friday-Another rehearsal for the talent show, a ton of stuff to do.  We had an awesome lesson with Hermana Martinez and her son, Alejandro, who has a date for October 10th.  We have been trying really hard to find the way to help them feel the Spirit again, and we were talking and we showed a picture of Jesus Christ when He will come again.  She looked at the picture and began to cry, and told us that beause of that picture she had made the decision to be baptized.  She had had a dream with that picture, and she had in her arms her baby that had died.  When the missionaries showed her that picture, she knew that she needed to be baptized.  The spirit was so so strong and it was wonderful to see her start to feel that again.

Saturday-loco talent show.  Everything went well, there were a lot of people who came, and we died in bed afterwards we were so tired.  Haha, we did a skit that I had seen when I was at Snow in a talent show of the YSA, where someone is preparing themselves for the day, but there is another person behind them who puts their arms in front, so the arms of the other person are putting on the makeup of the person in front...so the makeup turns out really good looking.  Ya, hard to explain, but it turned out funny.

Sunday-em...this was kind of a disappointment, because there were several people who we are bringing back to church who came, but then out of the blue some other active families decided to travel and whatever, so the attendance went down...we were like WWWWWHHHHHYYYYYY???

Sorry this is so long, but all in all, it was a good week.  I love being a missionary here in Paraguay!!

Hermana Farish

The Most Unexpected Testimony I Have Ever Heard!

This week was so so so so so so so so crazy.  The time is flying by, and I don't like it.  It seems like there isn't enough time to do everything that we need to.

This Wednesday we went to the church to have piano class and there was no electricity.  We were like oh flip.  There were a ton of people there so we put the chalkboard outside and my companion and an elder had flashlights, so we had piano a la flashlight.  It was the greatest class we have ever had:)

Thursday we were stuck with nothing to do at like 8:30 at night, and it was so flipping cold that no one was outside, so we began to knock doors and we were walking past this one house and a man ran out yelling "hermanas, hermanas"!!!  And we were like...yep, drunk man, running away now.  We walked away really fast and he didn't come out of his gate.  Afterwards we felt bad so we went back and clapped and he came out and began to talk to us, 100% drunk and probably high as well, and began to talk about Joseph Smith and the plates and all of that stuff.  He told us that Joseph was a good man, I know that he did good things and a bunch of weird testimony things all bunched together. We will go back with a member to see what his real intentions are.

Another miracle was on Friday, we were walking to contact a new area and we walked past the house of an old contact, Jessica.  We had left a brochure of the Plan of Salvation with her and had tried to return several times, but she was never there or couldn't talk with us.  We felt the "hunch" (Elder Hughes:)) and so we clapped, and she came out and we had an amazing lesson about the necessity of infant baptisms.  She accepted the baptism invitation and we will see her again tomorrow.

Saturday we were feeling a little low, super tired, and we felt like we were lacking in finding quality nuevos (apart from Jessica).  The phone rang and we looked, and lo and behold it was President McMullin.  There are three reasons for which president will call you: 1-special changes, 2-interviews, 3-referrals.  So we had a 66% chance of coming out of it alive.  But as it turns out, President had a referral for us, Javier.  We called him and he committed over the phone to go to church:)  We will be meeting with him afterwards on Sunday.

I GOT YOUR PACKAGE!!!!  AND I LOVED IT SSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! Seriously, it just made my month.  I loved the cute notes and the pictures and the pillow case and everything about everything was just perfect.  Also, I got a letter from Brynn, could you tell her thank you for me? Cute girl.

Transfers are next week, and I honestly have no idea what is going to happen.  I would be perfectly happy staying with Hermana Cordova another transfer, but I am pretty sure one of us is going to go, I am not sure who.  Everyone is telling me that I am going to be a sister training leader, but I am pretty 100% positive that isn't going to happen.  I dunno, vamos a ver que pasa (we will see what happens). I am trying to have the attitude of "I am here to serve the Lord and what he wants will be what happens" kind of thing.  President was very complimentary in our last interview, and today (totally made me laugh) I greeted Hermana McMullin (President's wife) and she told me, "you look so good!" I laughed and thought, "I will just have to keep gaining weight" :)

And...apart from that, it was a good week.  Haha, I am reading the Book of Mormon and I was in the Isaiah chapters of 2nd Nephi.  About halfway through, I realized that I wasn't learning or understanding anything, even less because it is in Spanish.  So I started again with Isaiah, our relationship is a bit better, and I am going slower and marking all of the times that it refers to the Lord, and other events in the Plan of Salvation.  I realized that if I really, really want to learn something, all I have to do is be diligent and take my time, especially if it happens to be Isaiah in a foreign language:)

Sorry this was so long, but I hope that you all have a good week and that you enjoy the coming fall!!! I love you!

Hermana Farish

Happiness is a sugar overdose!

Hermana Cordova, Hermana Farish, Hermana Francani

Too Many Blessings

We had an awesome week here in Salado...

First off, Wednesday was great because we contacted ALL DAY and literally no one let us in, which was weird because normally the Paraguayans are pretty nice, but not on Wednesdays apparently. So...it was just peachy.  We were thinking, how crazy would it be if someone just came up and said "I would like to be baptized, please".  Later that night we had piano class, and halfway through an inactive sister came in who hasn't stepped in the church for like 15 years because a member stole the title to her land...long story...but she entered with her son and afterwards came up and asked to talk with us.  Her son apparently had asked her to be baptized, and we have begun to understand that you need to be careful with what you say, because someone is always listening....:)

Thursday we had interviews with President McMullin.  We were inside of the church for 7 hours straight, such fun.

This week went really well, and I just felt good.  We have been contacting a ton and we are working. Sometimes it is hard though because the members are the ones who are tempting us to not be obedient.  They have been so accustomed to the elders who haven't been obedient and we have to go in and get home on time and not watch movies and not spend the whole day in one home...it is something that frustrates me, because Paraguay is different than the US..shocker.  We are always moving and shaking and working and playing and DOING SOMETHING: here it is like...sit down for 5 hours and drink terere...and to a certain point we have to take a chill pill and slow it down, but we also have to do our job and be obedient.  There are so many times when my Paraguayan side is taking it out on my US roots, and it is hard.  But I know how it should be, and that a lot of times church policies and rules and programs just don't work here in Paraguay.  They are so ....lazy.  Haha, I still have a lot to learn about patience.  But other than that, I am doing well...until I read that you guys had gone to the cabin and it was 52 degrees...waaaa....it is like 100 here...dangit.  But oh well, I am going to come home a mexican blonde because I will be so so so so tan with some freaking awesome lines...super attractive.

Friday was interesting, we started to contact and we contacted a house with a guy that is 100 percent anti-Mormon.  He came out and began to bash the US and Joseph Smith and the plates and that the Mormon church didn't come from Christ and how you would have to be stupid to join and all of that fun stuff, and it was just interesting to me to see that the majority of the people don't know what they are talking about, and that every once in a while, we need to kneel down and ask again to verify and strengthen our own testimonies, so that when we have to give them, we are ready and prepared.

Another little milagro (miracle) was that we had 10 investigators in church yesterday.  We began to count and we just kept finding more and more...I don't know what happened this week to change so much but the work in in Salado is being hastened, and we are so excited to keep going.

I hope that you all have a good week!  Be happy and obedient!

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!

Faith

So, this week was pretty great.  We have made a goal to give out two Books of Mormon every day, and we have been able to see miracles from that.

Something that I would like to focus on is a talk that a friend (Sister Jones!!) sent last week, by Elder Bednar.  He talks about a scripture found in D y C 19:18, which says:

18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink

He talks about an experience of a young couple where the husband had just been diagnosed with bone cancer after 3 weeks of marriage.  Elder Bednar asked them if they had the faith to not be healed.  I was like...say what?  Do I have the faith to submit myself to the will of the Lord like they did and like Jesus did?  Because of His love for us he did not shrink, He did what he came to do.  I started to read the Book of Mormon again with this theme. looking to find the examples of people who didn't shrink, and see why they were able to do what the Lord expected of them.  The first example that I found was in 1 Nephi, where the Lord tells him to kill Laban:

10 And it came to pass that I was constrained by the Spirit that I should kill Laban; but I said in my heart: Never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him.

And...Nephi, knowing and being led by the spirit, didn't shrink.  Haha, now my whole life is finding people who don't shrink.  My ancestors, my present family, and so many others who are firm examples of not shrinking.  I am so grateful for the Atonement, and for all of the strength that is given to us so that we don't shrink. I love you all and hope that you have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Farish

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!