Sacrifice is not giving something up, it is giving your best

Love the analogy about God and prayer, believe it or not I use the same analogy with obedience. I say "Me gusta pensar en Dios sentado en su trono esperando por nostros a guardar sus mandamientos y el tiene muchas regalos alrededor de Él y cuando guardamos los mandamientos recibimos los regalos que Dios quiere que tengamos"

 

Funny story about Elders. The Elders out here are way too funny. We have Elder S de Wyoming, Elder B de Italia, Elder C de California y Elder R de Mexico. Elder R is so funny.  The other day we were all together and he asked me how many scarves I had because apparently I am always wearing a different one. Not so. But all the Elders were teasing him and asking why he was paying so much attention to the "Hermana". But funnier yet, Elder B asked me for my Lego tag that I had on my suitcase and I was like sure go for it man. So he changed all the information to his own, EXCEPT for my phone number hahha. Way too funny, think he was embarassed when I saw it. Made me laugh though.

The most amazing thing happened on Saturday. I got this call from the Assistants the the President and they told me that L. AND S. WERE GETTING BAPTIZED IN MY LAST SECTOR!! WHATTT. I was way too excited. They told me I had permission to leave and attend the baptism. But The Elfa and I had this dope plan for Saturday to get people to the church. We had made little bags of candy and planned this lesson about giving our body and spirit the nutrition it needs to move forward. The only way to get that is from the church. I looked at the calendar and in my mind I thought, maybe none of these people will be here. The citas fall all the time. But I wasn't sure. SO we prayed to see if we could really spend all Saturday at a baptism and after the prayer, I read in Alma 53. I have no idea what it says in English so you will have to read your English scriptures, but anyway, basically I knew I needed to stay in my sector. I was dying.... I wanted to go so bad but yeah we stayed. And boy were we blessed. We had 9 lessons in one day. The average here is like 2. When I was working in Maipu I had an average of about 4 or 5 daily. But 9 is unheard of.

 

I remember a quote from a dear friend out here named Hermana S, the quote goes, "Sacrifice is not giving something up, it is giving your best" That is so true, if we are measuring our success by what we are giving up as a "sacrifice" that is not enough. If we think that wow we are so special because we gave up playing a sport on Sunday to go to church or gave up drinking coffee to obey the Word of Wisdom yeah that is not enough. If you did those things out of the idea that it was a sacrifice but aren't doing anyting while you are in church, if you aren't teaching others the things you have learned from keeping the Word of Wisdom you aren't giving your best. If I had thought, wow I am here in my sector when I could have been in the baptism "what a sacrifice" and I didn't get my head in the game, that wasn't a sacrifice. I gave up something and then worked my butt off with my comp to do the will of the Lord. That is what we all should be doing in these final days. Move on from what has happened in the past and get moving.

 

Love you all so much and think of you often!

Hermana Farner

Choosing to follow God

So here is something that I learned on Sunday. I was in divisiones with Hermana S., she is from Utah and just a gem. Love her to death. She got sick so we couldn't work so while she laid in bed we talked Gospel.

What is obedience?

Hermana V. once told me that people are obedient for 3 different reasons:

1)Because they know they should

2) Because they want blessings

3) Because they love God

 

I think that with each commandment each one of us can be using one of these reasons. Maybe we know that if we pay our tithing we will receive blessings, maybe we follow the Word of Wisdom because we know we should. But when we reach the ability to completely obey because we generally love our Father in Heaven, then we are living the law of Consecration.

But how do we get to that point? I certainly am nowhere near living all the commandments because I love God. Don't get me wrong, I do love God but not a lot the commandments just have clicked in my brain in that way yet. I obey because I know I should.

Until yesterday. I realized that at this point of my mission and in my life. I follow one commandment sí o sí because I love God. And that is reading the Book of Mormon. When I was younger I read the Book of Mormon every day from age 14 until now. I missed a couple days but no more that I can count on one hand. But I was reading because I knew I should and I knew I would get blessing and strength. I had a testimony because I did it. But I wasn't converted because I didn't do it out of love and a pure desire to follow God's will. I hadn't made a choice. I was reading in Helaman 14: 30-31 which says: 

30 And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.

 31 He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you

I don't know why this made me think of obedience, but when we choose to be obedient we are choosing to follow God. And if we can get to the point to choose to do the things of the Lord not because they are an obligation but rather because we just want to do God's will because we just love the guy so much, that's when we are the closest to him and our Savior. That is when we are the most Christlike, and that is when trials and tribulations are but a small moment and we have an unshakeable faith and an unbreakable attitude of hope.

I sincerely hope that one day in my life I will be wise enough to choose this path in my life. That I can be so above temptation that I choose to obey because I love.

 

Tell Corinne that I love her and that she should have come and said hi to me! She is awesome, I learned so much from her when she was my YW president. I am eternally grateful for her example and love. Like my second mom.

 

Love always 

Hermana Farner

Talagante El Monte 3 HERE I COME

We had changes again. I got moved to a new sector with a new companion and we are in the middle of nowhere. I was converted into a city girl. I miss the noise and the people. But this sector needs a lot of help, and that my friends is why they sent the maquina Hermana Farner to lift it up.,, haha just kidding, I am scared out of my mind.

My comp is named Hermana Mi. and is from Idaho. She has about 8 meses in the mission. So basically.... we don't speak much. Spanish will be the challenge in this change I am almost 100 percent sure. We have already made lots of goals to help us with that because, yeah, I am scared out of my mind.

 

I was crying so hard when they told me that I had changes. Luisa and Santiago are getting baptized on Saturday, we had found all sorts of people and everything was working perfectly. We had 139 lessons in our exchange. All sorts of new investigators and all sorts of good stuff was starting to roll forward and then boom they took both of us out and put my companion in as Sister Training Leader (like the boss she is) and sent me to Comp menor otra vez in a dead sector. What more does God want?

Well, I will tell you. I was reading in 1 Nephi 16 and if you remember this is where Nephi totally breaks his bow. And everyone is really mad at him and they are all are saying "Who is this rookie and who left him alone with the good bow?" But Nephi doesn't let anything phase him and he goes for it and makes a new one. And then he does something that really touched my heart today. He goes and asks his Dad, where should I go to get food. In Spanish ¿A dónde debo ir para obtener alimento?

 

It's like me, God knows where I need to be to get that spiritual nutrition that I need. I just need to trust in Him and the plans He has for me. I need to help others to come unto Christ, that is why I am here. If I am here in this sector it is because it needs something that I have. I can guarantee you that I don't have "it" yet but God is going to put all sorts of stuff in my path so that I can develop "it" and become who He wants me to be.

All I have to do now is be obedient, smile, and work my tush off just like my mom and dad taught me. And all of my coaches in every sport I have ever played (thanks Coach Bullock). Mas adelante in that scripture it says that we need to be faithful and diligent.

 

Talagante El Monte 3 HERE I COME

 

Love,

Hermana Farner

No substitute for the Spirit

This week we learned quite a bit the little Hermana M. and I. We have several miracles in the work with our investigators. We are working and waiting to see how it all works out with them. But patience that lovely heavenly virtue that we all need but hate to develop was much needed.

I am going to write an experience that I shall never forget that happened this week. There is this lady named C. she is about 32 years old and is less active in the church. She has two daughters 7 and 3 named G. and I. respectively. She is married to a non member named G. and he is a 7th day Adventist.

We starting sharing the Gospel with them and G. lived in California for most of his life so he talks a lot of English and is professor of sorts of English as well so we talk a lot in English. He has a lot of doubts, questions, accusations but we are all close pals and he is really cool.

We were teaching him on Saturday and it got a little heated, to the point where my comp told him that she would see him on judgement day and then he would know that she was right and he was wrong. I had studied earlier that day in Preach my Gospel and in there Brigham Young tells his story of his conversion, this is what he said:If all the talent, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world had been sent to me with the Book of Mormon, and had declared, in the most exalted of earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like the smoke which arises only to vanish away. But when I saw a man without eloquence, or talents for public speaking, who could only say, “I know, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord,” the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my understanding, and light, glory, and immortality were before me. I was encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true.⁵⁹ As I was sitting and listening to them raise their voices at one another, this quote came and hit me right in the head. I really felt that we were not helping this family at all if we taught in that way. I touched my comp on the leg and waited for them to finish their conversation and I bore my testimony and we left.

 

Afterward we had a nice discussion between my comp and me about how we should teach lessons. I learned a powerful lesson about the spirit that night and it is something I will never forget for as long as I live. God is always preparing people to accept the Gospel, and there is no amount of knowledge, tact, grace, or talent that can subsitute for the Spirit. (ps. the quote is better in Spanish)

 

Tell Jean congrats and that there is no better lady to have in Young Women's than she. She is the youngest of us all!

 

Love you all!

Hermana Farner

Never Give Up

What did I learn this week?  Never give up. When you are tired, when your body hurts, when you can't eat anymore rice and chicken, when it's hot and cold and hot and cold again during the day, when the investigators don't capture the idea of the sacerdocio being restored, just don't give up. I have never been so angry, happy, sad, in good humor, and depressed in any time of my life than in the mission. Seriously, I am dying out here but loving it..... the weirdest sensation.

I recently completed 5 months in the mission, let me tell you I remember like it was yesterday when I arrived. I am sitting next to the Elder that picked me up from the airport, he goes home in 2 changes with my zone leaders. My first companion leaves in 4 changes, la M. in Enero. The mission is soooooooooooooooooo fast. I can't even explain how fast it is. It seems like every other week we are showing up to a reunion de cambios and everyone is being moved, can't even explain it. Mind is blowwwnnn all the time.

 

I recently finished the Book of Mormon in English and am now leaving all my English books in my suitcase and going full blown Spanish, I have never wanted something more in my whole life, to speak and understand like a native. I just want to be latin and speak in Spanish. Everyone can understand me, but I don't like that. The perfectionist inside of me is coming out. I just want to talk like I have lived Chile for 6 years and that is where the heavenly gift of patience comes out. Oh, that lovely gift. Patience.

What is patience you may ask? Well, it is when we know that everything will turn out for the better, and we trust in God enough to let it happen according to His plan.

What the heck does that even mean? I am obviously the most impatient person in this planet because I physically feel pain when things aren't happening how they are supposed with these investigators. SO I always fall back on the scripture in D&C 130:20-21. Things willl ALWAYS work out. Patience and hope... all you need to get through this life. Oh and good dose of humility. Still working on all three, and the bags under my eyes are good proof of that.

 

I know I have a whole giant genie bottle of potential, I feel like I am staring at it and my hands just won't move to rub it and let the magic out, and I think Heavenly Father is saying to me "You can do it, just think, trust, and act, you can do it" And yet I still don't lift my hands to rub the bottle. I don't want to go home because I feel like I still haven't learned what I need to in the mission. Oh es tan frustrante. pero yo tengo como 13 meses a buscar que Dios me quiere que encuentre. Nada que ver.

 

Love 

Hermana Farner

The importance of being humble

What happened this week? Nothing much! There are a lot of fires, a lot of earthquakes but really far away. Not affecting us but it is super sad.

 

Well the change is going by super rapidly. Don't want the Elders to leave they are like my fam! Same with the companion.

 

Learned a lot about the Lord's plan this week. I feel like I am just spitting my soul everyday in Chile and leaving it all on the streets of my sector until I come home empty. But things don't work out the way that I want them to or the way that I think they should. But here is the deal. God has His plans, His own timing and we just got to keep moving so that when He presents us with the one person that we are meant to teach that we will be ready.

It's like if you are on a jog and have to cross the street and the little man is red, you need to jog in place so that when the light turns green, you will be able to run without difficulty.

 

Totally offered service to dig gravel the other day and the guy actually let me! I went digging just like Dad taught me and he goes, No way! You actually know what you are doing! haha!  Dad taught me well. It felt good to actually get some manual labor out of the system. That is the only thing that I wish I could do more of on the misión, cut wood and shovel dirt. I miss those a lot. I miss gardening in general. None of the people will let us help them! So frustrating!

 That is something that I have learned out here, the importance of being humble and letting others serve you. Sometimes we feel like if we accept help it is showing weakness, but even if we might be able to do it all on our own super fine, simply letting someone else serve you gives the other person the ability to receive blessings and self satisfaction;  something that they couldn't receive if you continually deny them. Feels good to serve, so we should be humble and let others serve us.

 

La Hermana M. is super great. We have a lot of fun together. She is super great and is super tired all the time too because I make her work a lot more than she has ever worked (that's what she told me at least) She is very satisfied with our numbers because it is much different than her last sector, but ya,.... I'm not. We can do a lot better than we have been. Not satisfied. God is teaching me something again. haha :)

 

Love

Hermana Farner

Pixie Dust

Let's see. What happened this week? Nothing really. Numbers were low. I am a Little upset.

 

I learned something great from GC that I want to share- it is about our 4 minutes to live.

I loved that talk. Really made me think about the big perspective. If we are doing the best we can, we are doing what the Savior wants of us. If we are sharing the Gospel. We are doing what the Savior wants of us. Be obedient and love others. Consecrate yourself. Do what God wants you to do. With a Little bit of faith, trust and pixie dust.  What is pixie dust you may ask? Well I like to think of it as a Little sparkle of positivity, a glimmer of hope, and a soul filled with love. When we have faith and we trust our Lord, we need to do it with some joy, and a smile. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.

 

I loved Elder Uchtdorf´s talk about just being grateful. Live your life like that and your already halfway to heaven. And last of all Get a Load :) Elder Bednar said that is the only way to keep traction, bear your burden yoked to the Savior. And LOVE IT :)

We played basketball today with our Zone, me and Elder R. were killin it. Man I miss basketball so much. I really don't miss the US at all or my life at home, the only thing that I do miss is basketball. I think I will go to small university so I can play ball on a team because I don't know if I can live without it. That was so weird.

 

Funny Story: Hermana M. and I run every other morning and one morning she and I both fell. But she fell like in slow motion and tore up the bod, but I fell and did like a sick James Bond roll without a scratch it was hilarious.

 

Love you all!

Hermana Farner