I can feel the difference

This week was so much fun! We of course had all sorts of miracles like always. We had a big ole district activity in this place called Isla de Maipo where it is just a big ole camping ground. I got to run around and fly kites, watch the members dance the cueca which is the traditional dance here in Chile. It is really weird but you get used to it after watching it for like 3 hours. Then we ate a big ole asado (can't tell you how much meat I have eaten in the past 2 weeks) and we did tug of war.

 

The most amazing thing happened yesterday. We were in a lesson with this family of 5 and last week I told the 19 year old daughter who works and studies during the week and gets home at 12:30 at night that she needed to read her book of Mormon every single day in the week. She told me that she didn't know how she could do it. So I told her that all she needed to do was to read her Book of Mormon aunque fuera one verse every night and she would see a change.

 

We got to her house yesterday and she ran up to me yelling "Hermana! Hermana! Yo lo hice! Leí mi libro cada día! Y sabe que, puedo sentir la diferencia." Translation: Sister! Sister! I did it! I read my book every day! And you know what, I can feel the difference." In that moment I felt soooooooo good. I could see a change in her too. That family will be baptized in the near future. I am sure of it. Just some great things that are happening with the sector. I have been in El Monte for almost 6 months now, and I really don't want to leave to be honest with you. It is something that I have been thinking about a lot. I could live in EL Monte. But that is something to be thought about in another half a year.

 

Love,

Hermana Farner

We Tarry on...

 

 

Anyway, what happened this week? Nothing really to report. I have been counseled to always write uplifting things back home so here it goes,

THE POWER OF MUSIC. It is amazing how powerful a song can be. I have been singing a lot lately. I sing all sorts of music. Remix hymns, change lyrics of old songs to make them church appropriate. You know good stuff.

I had the best time in what we call the 18 of September or the day of independence of Chile. Ate so much food I got really sick. I had a black tongue for a day based on a bad reaction to food, not from anything black I ate. It was really trippy. I felt like I was in some kind of pirate movie. But we Tarry on, am I right. 

Love,

Hermana Farner

To Know

 I believe that the mission has relaxed me more than I can explain. I realize now that I am not perfect and that also I cannot control everyone nor everything. With that said I have relaxed a lot and learned to just love God and know that He is in control and as long as I stay obedient, He will bless me.

I think that is something that Hermana K. has taught me.

 

It is amazing when you come out of a test, it is like you understand everything. I love that. I have been tested and tried and still continue to be every single day of the mission, but there is nothing more satisfying than leaving a trial and UNDERSTANDING why you had to go through it. I get it now. And I just can´t even imagine what is going to happen after the mission, because in a way the mission is one big trial and challenge. So who knows what I will leave with!

 

 I am so grateful for the Atonement in my life. I feel myself slowly learning more and more and more about it. But I know that the adversary wants to make sure that I don't take the steps to really get to know my Savior. Something I love about the Spanish language is the verb "to know" has two different words: to know something, as in a fact, it is "saber" and to know personally or really well is "conocer". In President Boyd K. Packer´s talk at the end he says, Yo conozco mi Salvador. I want to be able to say that. That I know Him personally like my best friend. I still think I can say that I know He lives and that He loves me. But I want to learn more and say more than that. It is time.

Write it in your Heart

All I know is that the time really does fly.

 

I want to talk a little about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how the only way that we can change is through becoming more like Christ, and to be like Christ we need to know Him and His life and His love, and we do that through DILIGENT study of the scriptures. You would be surprised how many times the word diligent or diligence comes up in the Book of Mormon. It is probably the second law of heaven. The first OBEDIENCE. The second DILIGENCE. If we are obedient, we receive great blessings, but we have to always be obedient or rather, diligent in what we do. As we become diligent we because closer to the Savior.

 

Read the Book of Mormon and write it in your heart. That is the goal for this cambio for me. To read the Book of Mormon and write it in my heart to help people see how it changes lives. Because it has changed mine. It baffles me at times how weak I am, how imperfect, how lazy, how just plain ridiculously impatient and well WEAK. But that is why I am here. To be strong. To become what God wants  me to become. But it has to do so much with consistency, something that I see to still be lacking in this life. But I am recognizing which means that I have the opportunity to fix it and get better.

 

Love you all so much! Thank you for your letters and your support. LOVE IT

Hermana Farner

I am never leaving

Ending a change and starting a new one soon! The comp is getting a lot better. Feeling better and we are starting to work more.

The rain is still coming down... But we should be leaving it soon I hope.

 

Oh the great things of the mission. Another group of my pals went home. So weird to think that we are all here working together in our own world and then all of a sudden they leave and never come back. Crazy. But hey one day it will happen to all of us. Except me. I am never leaving. mwhahahahha :)

Everyone is doing good down here, learning that maybe the Lord is still trying to teach me the same lesson that I still can't seem to grasp.  But that is life right? Oh the patience that He has with us.

 

Love you lots,

 

Hermana Farner