Patience and long-suffering

Luckily I learned with my first companion in the mission that the audience always changes. I am learning and have learned a lot in the first week about my weaknesses and how important it is to be calm. haha :) I cant tell if I am going insane or if I am finally losing my insanity and craziness that I have had my entire life and becoming more calm. We will see what the time brings. :)

 

Presidente Barreiros told me that he got a really strong impression that I should be with Hermana K because I would be the one that would help her have a successful mission. I really pray that I will be able to show her the right way to do the mission. We will see what happens.

 

Learning a lot about the different types of patience that are found in our lives. Some people are patient with themselves but not with God nor with other people. Some people are patient with God and His blessings and not with others or themselves. I believe I am patient with myself (yes mother I have made it my strength ;) Thanks to the Atonement it is one of my greatest attributes) And patient with God and his timing, now I just have to learn how to be patient with others. I have improved a ton but it is now up to the deeper meaning of patience and why the word patience and long suffering are together. We can be patience by guarding how we are feeling and living through it, but in order to be long suffering we have to like it. That is my next challenge. I have been studying Alma 7:23-24 to help me get there. Pray for me!

 

Love you lots!

Hermana Farner 

 

PS  Thanks for the package Mom and Dad

The Lord knows each one of us so well

Things that are happening here. WE HAD CHANGES! And just like all of the lovely hermanas that I have been with, little Hermana M. was called as an Hermana Leader :) And I got called to TRAIN! I am so excited! I have been praying and working for this opportunity my entire mission. After working hard to retrain the ones that were trained wrong, I have learned the importance of training the right way. A little greenie is a sponge that sucks up whatever the trainer does, so I have to do it right.

It is a great parallel to life, if we have children and don't teach by example, why on earth would our children grow up to be great people? They wouldn't. There are very few people that forge their own path and I sure hope I get a good little gringa to help forge her own path because I want my hija to be better than I am.

I feel very humbled to know that God has answered my prayers and is giving me a chance to do something that I have always wanted to do. I pray that He gives me the patience, the love, and the understanding that is needed to help this new little hermana wherever she is. I know I can't do it alone.

Love how the Lord knows each one of us so well.

 

Love,

Hermana Farner

We have a Church of Order

Hey I am almost halfway done with the mission! No need to miss me! I am almost home!

Time in El Monte is going fast. It is amazing all the things that I thought I knew and I really didn't. I am beginning to understand there exists a grand chasm between knowing something and understanding something. I think that I am beginning to actually understand the Gospel now. Crazy right? After 19 years of being the church I am beginning to get what is going on. So depressing that I wasted so much time.

 

Something I learned about the creation today. It is actually only organized. We have a church of order, we are beings of science and well, order. We need to be organized in everything. If we are, we find purpose, peace, and understand who we are. Also we already are in the image of God, now we just have to make our spirits like the Spirit of God. That is the grand challenge of life.

 

Love you all! Sorry I am a lame emailer!

 

Love,

Hermana Farner

No Greater Work to Do

B. took the Sacrament!!!!! And to make it just as amazing, her oldest son M (who has a very similar story to Nairne) blessed that very sacrament so that she could take it. It was the first time that he blessed the sacrament (he is 26 a recently got pulled off the street by my dear friend Elder B. 6 months ago) M. has always come to church in some kind of sporty Puma sweat suit and this week he came in a perfectly trimmed suit with a beautiful tie all shaved up and handsome. I was so amazed. We have gotten really close to their family along with others here in the great town of El Monte. I feel like I have lived here all my life.

 

My little milagro el Mar. got baptized yesterday. It was a beautiful service that was filled with all sorts of emotions. He is 16 so we needed a signature from his mom who was late to the baptism so we were a little stressed but it all turned out good in the end. But he was  miracle. He came to church on his own and we met him there; went to his house, taught him all 5 lessons in 3 weeks and got baptized:  never seen someone so prepared in my life.

 

We have had some great times the Hermana M. and I this cambio. It is coming to an end super fast..... Can't even explain how crazy it is how fast the mission goes. I have learned a lot about love and patience in this cambio. Would I say I am loving and patient? No. Not at all. But I am definitely on the way. I am getting there step by step and really feeling a difference. My only fear is coming home and just going back to how I was. I really do not want to do that at all. I have never felt so tired, in pain, and yet completely content with my life. I think that is something that you can only feel while out here in the mission field...and it is not easy. But I know without a shadow of a doubt that there is no greater work to do in this life or the life to share the Gospel so that we can help everyone to receive that gift of eternal life with God one day.

 

Love you so much!

 

Love,

Hermana Farner

I am living a Miracle

Things that happened this week. What didn´t? First off my comp and I got the award of companionship of the mission! What! It was super exciting! But also we put a target on our heads from the other missionaries...... It´ll get a little awkward soon.

 

I learned this week that I don't just want to see miracles but live them. I feel like all this time I have spent in EL Monte I have been living a miracle. I definitely had a ton of revelation and felt the change in my heart and seen it in others. All of these little things have led up to me believing that I am living a miracle. Makes me want to stay out here and not go home because what miracles will I be searching for back home? None. So that will be lame. I have to enjoy every promise that is given as a missionary and put in my part so God will bless me with the part He says. Just start thinking smart and doing things of your own will and God will bless you. President told me that God told Adam and Eve to take care of the garden so what did they do? Came up with other stuff right? That's what we can do! Just  be creative and step outside the box.

 

Also there is this lady named B. in my branch who could never take the sacrament because she lived with her boyfriend but on Sunday (after a ton of time) she told me she finally left him so that she could take the sacrament. God hit me with another humble stick of his power. I cried so much.

 

Love you all so much!

Hermana Farner

Use Your Talents

This week we worked really really hard and met some great people; difficult to believe that there are so many people ready for the Gospel and ready to return to the Gospel that it just blows my mind. We really noticed that there is no way that we can do this work alone and that is when we really understood the importance of the members in missionary work. It is so much easier to sit in the house and only think about yourself and only think about your family. But when you realize that actually there are so many people more that are your brothers and sisters it is a lot easier to go and get things done en la obra del Señor. 

 

I made myself a promise. When I come home in a year the first thing I am going to do before I unpack my suitcases or see my friends, is to bake some cookies, and go meet our neighbors. Invite them to dinner with the missionaries and let them get to know the Gospel in a non confrontational way. Then I am going to the temple and going to do some missionary work for the dead. I  have received a ton of revelation about doing all we can in this life. 

 

There is a General conference talk called '4 minutes' in the Ensign. If you really think about it, SHOOT. Our life is so short. Are we wasting it with pastimes and hobbies? Are we really using our talents to help others come unto Christ?

 

Mental Tenacity says, "Having a talent serves as nothing if you don't use it." USE YOUR TALENTS. but not just for your own benefit. Use them for the bettering of others. If you haven't, repent and do it better.

 

Thank you for the wonderful letters that I received! I LOVE GETTING LETTERS! And you are all so kind to send me them.

Love you all and hope all is well at home!

 

Love,

Hermana Farner

Barefoot in the Chapel

This week was crazy. We had changes and me and the Mitty are together for one more. The week started out really slow after having all kinds of miracles the week before. Man was I impatient. But there is something I definitely learned right there, God always blesses you in his own time. We got blessed on Sunday. We had a baptism on Saturday! J. our bestie got baptized finally. He is the strongest convert I have ever met. But funny story, we were filling the baptismal font and thought it took 4 hours, but we went and checked on it after 2 hours and the whole entire chapel was filled with water. The elders some members and one of our investigators Ma.n swept all the water out onto the street. I was barefoot in the chapel and the water was up to my ankles. Wasn't the finest moment of my life. But regardless Juan got baptized and it was so great. Then the next day all sorts of people came to church that we hadn't seen in forever. God always completes His promises. I got a big palo about being patient this week. I have a lot of changing to do.

 

Life is good in Chile. Cold. I am sick. But with the amount of medicine I am taking it should end soon :) Obedience with exactness brings baptisms. That is the theme for this exchange. Time is flying... Dont know what to do!

 

Anyway one last thing. The Book of Mormon. Always had a testimony of it, but me and the Mitty were talking about it the other day and I remembered someone told me that if I didn't see the tearstains on the plates when I read the book of Mormon I wasn't reading it right. And it finally happened the other day. I am finally reading it right. I can see every tear that was shed by Mormon and Moroni as they wrote and gathered the books together as everyone is dying around them. I finally get it.

 

Love always,

Hermana Farner