Another change

We had transfers. I have another change with Hermana M. and El Monte. We are gonna rock this place. Have a baptism on Saturday. J.is super dope. Never seen someone so humbled by the Atonement and the Gospel. He is legit. This is the promised land of Chile. Seriously SO MANY PEOPLE READY FOR THE GOSPEL!  Hermana M. and I received companerismo de la semana last week and this week. I think our Zone Leader is biased but hey I won't complain. I'm working my butt off.

 

Learning a lot but can't put it into words. I know I am here for a lot of different reason and as my testimony grows so does my humility. I can see so clearly how God lays up the day to teach me, investigadores, menos activos, mi compañera, and inactivos something completely different. And at the end of the day, WOW. Can´t even explain it. Its like I am getting hit with a stick of humility and all I can do is sit there and let the tears of gratitude come and wonder why God has blessed someone so insignificant like me with so many miracles.

I would like to challenge you all to do the same.

 

I get why you have that "ta dah" list mom. It really works. Listen to God and your local leaders and you will be blessed.

 

Miss and love you all!

Hermana Farner

"Success is Not a Matter of Luck"

I think I hit the biggest change of my life in the mission this past weekend, but let me start from the beginning,

Last week I hit rock bottom, never been so desanimado and sad in my life; waking up was hard, thinking was hard, all I wanted to do was cry.

And then the rain came. It rained and rained and rained and rained and nobody let us in, and I was singing and singing and singing with all my heart just so I wouldn't cry and so my comp wouldn't just give up. It was rough.

I can bet everyone has felt like this before. When you are falling and you can feel every sharp jab of cold air in your face and your arms, you see the bottom and there is no way to look up because you are falling down. BUT, when you finally hit rock bottom, you can roll over and look up. And above whatever pit you are in, whatever situation of sadness that you are feeling, God is always there with His arm stretched out ready to pull you up and out. But here is where it will always lie in your power. You choose whether or not to roll over. You choose whether or not to open your eyes, and you choose whether or not to make the effort to grab His hand. It all starts in your head.

 

Elder M. Russell Ballard wrote a small talk for missionaries that our President of the Mission gave us this past week. It is called Mental Tenacity. I felt like Joseph Smith reading James 1:5 when I read this talk, nothing has hit my soul more strongly or changed my life so dramatically. There are tons of good parts of this talk, in fact I am memorizing it, but the part I like the best is "Success is not a matter of luck. It is something produced and obtained every day until converting yourself". And I decided to apply it.

 

Sunday morning we got ready to leave and bring people to church and it was raining and raining hard. There was nothing that we could do about it. And we called our people and they all said no.  Easy to say that there luck wasn´t ours right? But no. I decided I wasn't going to live like that any longer so I went for it. I called them all again, told them what was up in the most direct way possible, went by their houses in the pouring rain and in the end, only one person walked to church with us. BUT it doesn't end there either. Easy to let your mind say, oh well we tried, nothing is going our way. NO. Have the faith. After church started the Familia C, menos activos showed up. La J tambien, and Then our baptismal date Ju showed up too. And I am a witness that it all starts in your head. If you let a little bit of doubt enter, that is where your success ends. I will see miracles, I will move on and I will choose to roll over, open my eyes, look up, STAND UP, and reach out. And God will do the rest.

"Think of baptisms and you will baptize"

 

Be a creator of circumstances, not a creature of circumstances.

 

Love,

Hermana Farner

God is always there

El Monte has so much potential and so much that is good but the adversary is working hard on Hermana M. and me. We cry a lot.  The people don´t understand us, and the men are quite forward and makes it impossible to contact families.

 

But, I will have you know that I have never felt the Spirit guide me so strongly in these weeks of pain and anguish than in my entire life. I have felt pushed to doors that have opened for us to hear the message of God. I have shared scriptures with people that the still small voice told me I should do to see these people start to cry and tell me that I was inspired to share because that is what they needed to hear. I have felt the power of God fill me as I testify of God´s love for His children and I have seen people nod and smile as that knowledge touches their hearts.

 

What do I learn from this? God is always there. He is always beside us, holding our hand, putting his arm aroud our stooped shoulders when we feel like we can´t move on. He will never give you something you can´t handle. He will never leave you to fight alone. If any of you are going through a hard time in your life, remember where you stand. And find joy in the fact that you are the master of your fate and the captain of your soul.

 

As Theodor Roosevelt once said, "Its not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, who strive valiantly, who errs; who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Love,

Hermana Farner 

Thrust in the sickle and move forward

What to say? Well let's see. This week was a rough one as I have told  my family. There are so many things that are thrown in the mix of life that sometimes confusion rules and it's hard to remember that there is order and order is of God and if we are confused that right there is the devil trying to bring us to his side. Never let that HAPPEN! But how can we avoid that?

 

What I like to think about is the life of Alma the Younger. Most of the time when we think of him we end the story after his miraculous vision when his sins were forgiven him. But I think we miss the most important part of his life. What happens afterward. What does he do when he gets forgiven?  He goes and gets to work preaching the Gospel. He throws in his sickle and starts harvesting for the Lord. All those that have been forgiven of their sins should have a natural desire to give the same gift to those around them. But his life doesn't end there either. When he is the chief judge and high priest (double duty), he basically receives a palo from God that says he isn't fulfilling his purpose as high priest because the church in Zarahelma is basically apostasizing. So what does he do? Chooses something better. Quits the chief judge thing and starts working full time thrusting in his sickle and moving forward. And through his example, helps his three sons as well changes their lives. In the end of his life, he totally fulfilled his purpose and leaves the city and gets taken up to God.

 

What am I trying to say with this? Basically anyone who is on the road to eternal life and takes time to look back isn't fit for the kingdom of God. When we are forgiven, we are forgiven. It's that easy. Anyone who tells you differently is the devil and all he needs is a heisman. Hate that guy.

 

Anyway. Not much else has happened here in good ol El Monte. We had some funny experiences. Ran into a house that had a whole bunch of baby doll heads on sticks outside the house.... haha that was fun. Starting Semana 4. Time is flying. Saddddllyyy...

 

Love you and miss you all. Been thinking about my great young women leaders Corinne, Sister Mann, Liz Hardy, Sister Gudmundson, Sister Quist and all those that taught me to do good in this world and be a lady. Thanks so much!

Hermana Farner

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