06/17/13-Week 19 in Indiana [Week 2 of Transfer 4] "Bird Pooh."

Helllo all.

First of all: HAPPY FATHERS DAY, DAD!!!!! I love you! Although I couldn't be there with the family yesterday, know that I love you and thought of you. But being away from home made me think of my Heavenly Father more and how it is also His Fathers Day. I love you!

Now, let me explain the title. You see, as missionaries they tell you to talk to EVERYONE. Literally. Sometimes it is really hard, because I feel awkward confronting people who are already doing something, but I have learned quite a few things. Heavenly Father always helps me. So! We were talking to these two ladies, Melinda and Christy who were outside talking. We walked up and starting talking to them a little bit. We asked them about their religious background and started to talk about the restoration. I had just finished telling Joesph Smith's Vision to them and then low and behold, I felt something wet hit my neck and my foot.... I got bombarded by bird pooh! I had a streak down my dress and a couple drops on my shoe. [bahahahha] They said "God works in mysterious ways..." and laughed. I asked them straight up if they thought that the bird poohing on me was a sign from God that it wasn't true. They just said "I don't know..." with a smirk on their face. But I just bore powerful testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the spirit just exploded. It was really cool! Even though they didn't become interested, I still have no doubt that Joseph Smith is a prophet. I mean, who knows...maybe one day in the future when more missionaries come knocking at their door they will say, "Hey, I talked to one of your missionaries before! And a bird poohed on her..." Then they will have a fun discussion about that with each other and end up getting baptized. I am going to keep my hopes high. haha.

Also! I have a mighty fine tan line on my feet from my shoes...and I am starting to get calluses on my knuckles from how many doors I have knocked on. I guess those are pretty good signs that I am working hard! It has been a crazy week! We have been driving all over the place and trying to talk to everyone that we see outside. We had 10 other lessons just with people outside on their porch or at their door step. There are lots of really cool people here in Huntington! They are all so nice and willing to talk. The hard part is getting them to have a specific return appointment with us so that they can become investigators. But, we have been increasing a lot of people's faith! We helped one girl, Jenna, believe that God was in her life. We got a new investigator, Amy, who is a mom of 3. We helped a girl named Mary pick up tree branches in her yard............That reminds me!!!! I had my first tornado experience this week!!!!!!!

STORY TIME. This past Wednesday night, there was bad weather headed towards Indiana. People had been telling us about it as we were out and about. And that night, we heard lots and lots of rain and thunder...then the lightening came. We looked outside and the sky was just lighting up every which direction! It was literally like fireworks. I can't even explain it. I have never seen anything like it in Utah. Then we were about to get in bed when we get a text on our phone that says "Tornado Warning! Take cover!" We look at each other, unsure of what to do....and then we hear the tornado sirens go off. We look at each other and start laughing....out of pure terror. We grab our blankets and pillows (and maybe I grabbed my stuffed animal...), the phone, water bottles, a flash light and hid in the closet underneath the stairs in the middle of our house/apartment. We stayed in there......and stayed there....and stayed there.....unsure of when it was safe to come out. Then we heard this loud train noise....I said "Is that a train!? That stupid train! It is going to get picked up by the tornado! And hit our house!!" We continued to stay in the closet and then the sirens went off (about 30 minutes later). We stayed in there for a while longer and finally texted the elders in our ward and asked them what we should do. They told us to kneel in companion prayer and then go to bed. We did...and we were safe! However, I found out the next day (talking with Mary) that the really loud train sound we heard....was the tornado going over-head.......It was supposed to touch down a couple streets down from ours, but ended up going farther. AAHHH!! I survived a tornado!!!! Thanks to Heavenly Father. It was a crazy experience. The next day there were tree branches everywhere and it was just crazy. There wasn't too much damage to anything, I don't think that anyone was hurt in Huntington, but it was something I will never forget. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ. haha.

We have been going around trying to help as many people as we can and talk with them. It has proven to be quite successful!

We had another experience this week...you see we found a new investigator, Kevin. He was outside on his porch when we were walking around, so we went up and talked to him. He seemed sooo prepared! He was listening to us. We told him pretty much the entire restoration, we talked to him about the plan of salvation...everything! He asked a lot of really good questions and seemed like he genuinely wanted to learn more about the gospel. He told us that we were "blowing his mind" when we were answering all of his questions.We got a follow-up appointment with him and gave him our cell phone number so that he could get a hold of us in case he had questions. We were really excited!  He seemed really interested. Then the next day we got a text.....it said...."are u guys single?" crap. Really???! Really? So we explained to him that as misisonaries we don't date...and we ended up giving him to the Elders. I guess that he wasn't as interested in the gospel as we thought he was. That was exciting....haha.

Anyways, I don't have any more time. The work is going good! Training is hard, but I am relying on Heavenly Father. It is great!! Thank you all!!

Love, Sister Emilee Farr

06/10/13-Week 18 in Indiana [Week 1 of Transfer 4]

Hi friends!

I am doing great!!! So, lets just get the news out of the way :D

I am now serving as a trainer with Sister Katie Colton of Alpine, Utah in Huntington, Indiana! ( <-- a new sister area) and YES, on July 1st, I will be part of the Ohio Cincinnati Mission!! With President and Sister Porter as my new mission presidents! Crazy stuff. I just knew that I would be going to Ohio!

My address is:

337 William St

Huntington, Indiana 46750

But!! They are trying to get us an apartment in Aboyt, Indiana (idk how to spell it) because they want us to work more in the Fort Wayne area of our ward. Our ward is huge! Well, the boundaries are! To get to Fort Wayne from Huntington is about a 40 minute drive. But it is wonderful!

Aaaaand, no, I was not able to attend Wanda and Andrew's baptism :( I live about 2.5-3 hours away from the Indy 1st area now. But Sister Cordner emailed me and said that it was amazing! She said that Wanda "felt it." Meaning that she could feel her sins and mistakes washed away! She didn't send me pictures, but she said that next week she will. I am sooo happy for her!! Wanda was sad when I told her that I wasn't going to attend, but she told me that it was okay because now I could go and give other people His Word. She is just so amazing!

This week has been crazy! Sister Colton and I drove after the transfer meeting for about 2 hours to get to our cute little house/apartment! We called our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Kennedy, and he directed us right there! We pulled up to our address and we live in the down-stairs floor of a cute yellow house that has been made into an apartment (pictures to come next week..I forgot my camera card). It is cute and has its own style and antiquness about it. I love it! The ward stocked the cupboards full of food and got us all of the basic necessities for us! People donated all of the furniture and food just for us. We have had people stopping by periodically with bags of groceries and treats! They are just so wonderful here! I love the ward and the people here in Huntington! So we got there, and we had nothing....no maps, no area book, no investigators, not even a roster....so! And only 5 numbers on our phone. President and Sister Collins, Elder Munguia (an AP), our Ward Mission Leader, and the Elders for our ward. We have had quite a fun adventure getting everything together!

After getting settled in our apartment, Brother and Sister Kennedy took us out to dinner at Los Amigos and we got to know them a little bit. They are an adorable old couple who is willing to help us with everything! They have been working really hard to get stuff all put together for us. The next morning we met up with the Elders we are splitting the area with, Elder Price and Callister. We have put a boundary on our ward and we cover half of it including half of Huntington, half of Markle, Roanoke, and part of Fort Wayne. It is huge! But we will find our way...eventually. haha :)

We have been spending our time tracting, trying to visit members of the ward, finding maps of our area so we can put everyone on it ((((if you looked in a missionaries apartment, you would probably think that they were stokers by they way we have peoples names pinned onto a huge map)))), getting lost driving, laughing a lot, following the spirit..... you know, normal missionary stuff. It has been crazy because we didn't have anything besides a ward roster for 4 days! Now we have a couple Former Investigators that we are going to try and some Potential investigators that we will try to contact again, but we are really starting from scratch! It has been hard to train because I have no clue who anyone is! But, Sister Colton is an AMAZING missionary already :D I think that she came out pre-trained! She learns really quickly. Of course, when it comes to tracting, I do all of the talking, but she will eventually get the hang of it. We are going to baptize everyone here...we decided that a couple of days ago.

I want to tell you about an experience that we had on Saturday evening. We were trying to visit a couple of less active people and looking at the map on our GPS  to find a certain road to drive to, but we couldn't find it for the life of us! We kept seeing the same street (Division St) over and over. We knew we were supposed to be somewhere, but we couldn't figure it out! When we pushed the back button on the GPS, it randomly had a destination for us to follow. So..wondering if it was Heavenly Father trying to direct us, we tried to follow it. But it lead us into the middle of a Brethren College Campus (mind you..Brethren's pretty much hate us, we found that out day 2 here). To get to the real destination on the GPS, we would have had to get out of our car and walk to where it wanted us to. We couldn't decide if our hesitancy to get out was our own fear of Brethren people or it was the spirit. We said a prayer and still couldn't tell. We decided to get out of the car and start slowly walking away, and as we did, the spirit warned us to get back in. So...we did and ran as fast as we could. But we still didn't know where to go. We decided to try one of the less-actives that we were going to see, and sure enough, they lived on Division St (mentioned above). So we drove quickly over there. We went to the house of the Less-Active on that street, and no one was home. A little bit confused, we went and knocked on a few doors and went back to our car. As we sat there trying to find out the next place to go, I saw a few people walk past our car and I just felt like we needed to get out of our car and start walking...so we did. We walked and would knock on some doors as the spirit directed. We came to a specific door and were about to knock when we saw the No Soliciting sign. Our mission president has told us that we should not knock on those doors, so we left. I expected someone to be outside, but no one was. So we kept walking. We finally came to a street and decided to head back to our car from the way we came without any success. As we walked back, we saw a lady sitting outside weeding her flower pot. We approached her and started to talk with her about the gospel. We found out that she was a Quaker and acted dis-interested, but polite. I continued to talk with her and recited Joseph Smith's first vision to her and mentioned about the Book of Mormon. That really caught her attention. She started to ask questions about it more and more. We ended up leaving her with a card and our cell phone number. She said that a couple of things we said really interested her and that she wanted to do more research. We told her that we do this full time and offered to come back, but she wanted to do it on her own. We said a prayer with her, and left. The spirit was soooo strong! And guess what?? She was in the "No Soliciting" house! Heavenly Father made us keep walking, so that he could get her outside. Even if we only started a seed, I know that we were meant to talk to that women that day. It was a really strong spiritual experience!

I just love being a missionary! It is really hard and exhausting, but worth it! I am doing great and loving everything! Thank you all for all that you do!!!

Love you!!

Sister Emilee Farr

06/03/13-Week 17 in Indiana! [Last Week of Transfer 3]

Hello all!

First things first! I got the transfer call last night! AND........I am leaving. I don't know where I am going yet, but I do know that I am going to be opening a new area. (I will be 1 of 5 doing that) AND I will be training a new baby missionary. I.am.so.scared. I have only been out 4 months? How in the world can I teach a baby missionary how to be a missionary! I am still a baby missionary! And let alone, I will have no idea where I am or who the people are. I guess I will be on a new adventure. Sometimes Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. He thinks He is funny...but He is not. ;) I am just kidding. I know that I am going wherever I need to be. He has a plan for me and although I may not know what it is, as long as he does, I know that I will be okay. I will be praying 24/7. I know that being a trainer is not a compliment to me as a missionary, but it is just where the Lord needs me and who He needs me with. I will let all of you know where I am located next Monday! In the time being, if you send any letters or packages, send them to the Mission office (1980 E 116th St STE 200 Carmel, IN 46032) <- and yes, I have that memorized :D haha. 

Let see...this week has gone by very slowly! I can't remember half of it! I think I was so scared about transfer calls that the time slowed waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down. But there is some sad news about the transfer, I might miss Wanda and Andrew's baptism :( If I am transferred more than 1 hour away from Indy 1st, then I can't go. But if I am within an hours drive, I can go to it. I really hope I don't miss it! I would be so sad! But I would ask Sister Cordner to send me pictures of them of course! Sister Cordner is staying in the area and training a new missionary too! I will miss her dearly! But I know that we will still be best buds. 

I had a really cool experience this week tracting. We were knocking on doors in a nicer neighborhood, and at one door, a black man came to the door. He came out side and was very nice and open. He asked us quite a few questions and we answered the best that we could. We taught him about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and he thought it was all very interesting. After a while of talking, he told us that he had heard that in the past, black people could not hold leadership positions in our church. At first, I related it to how Christ only taught the gospel to the Jews until later, when Peter had the vision and was told that the Gentiles could now hear the gospel. I tried to relate that to how the priesthood was, but he did not really accept it. He said that he thought that God loved all of his children and wouldn't care what their skin color was. After talking for a little bit more, I was just praying to Heavenly Father to help me know how to help this man understand and be touched. As I sat there I felt the spirit start teaching me about it. I then opened my mouth, and the spirit spoke through me and explained the priesthood and blacks in a very different way than I had ever heard it put. I really can't remember much about what I said, but I know I mentioned about the political side and spiritual responsibility. It was an amazing experience. I felt as if I was receiving revelation as we stood on his door step and the spirit was speaking through my lips. I did not think that on my mission I would use the gift of tongues very much, but I know that I did at that moment.

Also, the weather here is CRAZY! We were doing planning this past Thursday, and within 20 minutes, the weather went from blue skies, to hailing, to pouring rain, to blue skies again! Uhh....is that normal? I don't think so. You start to learn to stop listening to the weather man..because he is never right. You can tell the weather by looking outside just as well as they can predict it. hahah. Gotta love Indiana :D

Other than that, I honestly can't remember what happened last week! Oh! I went on exchanges with Sister Bunnell in North Vernon and we had an amazing day! We taught 5 other lessons and found 2 new investigators! We went tracting quite a bit, but had a lot of fun doing it! She has only been out 3 months, and she is amazing. I love all of the sisters here, they are all so wonderful. 

Sister Cordner and I bought cookie dough and vanilla ice cream to make a cookie-zookie today for our last big harrah! It will be delicious! I will think of you all when I eat it :) 

Here is a funny picture of us from yesterday. And a picture of my district.  

 I love you all! I am off to...somewhere. I am excited for this new adventure, but also very scared. I will need all of the prayers that I can get! I know that with God all things are possible! 

Thank you for everything that you all do! I love you all so much!!

Sister Emilee Brooke Farr