06/23/14 - Week 71! {Week 6 of Transfer 12} "Faith Precedes Miracles"

Family!! Friends!! Everyone :)

First off, I am STAYING in HEBRON, KY :) For my last part of my mission! So my address remains the same:

Sister Emilee Farr

2260 Flicker Dr #195

Hebron, KY 41048

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I sure did. It was...super hard...we really had to pay the price for miracles to come. Lots of things fell through, and some people were just rude. We had one of our greatest investigators drop us and it was devastating, but wait until you hear the miracles that we were able to witness!! :D

We found a really amazingly prepared dad of 3 yesterday afternoon when we were out with our member. We were at our investigators house for an appointment, but he wasn't home. As we were knocking on his door, his neighbor came home and started bringing in groceries. We said "Hi" from the other door and offered to help, he thanked us but said no. After no response from our appointment, we went down the street to see if another investigator was home, and they weren't either. As we walked back up the road towards our car, we thought maybe we should knock on the guys door and talk to him. But we battled it. "It would be awkward.... We just saw him...he would think we were weird..." But we decided to follow the prompting and go knock on his door. We knocked and there was no response for a long time. But then he walked out and said, "I want to know what you girls are doing. I have seen you around here walking around for a while and I am interested in what you share. I knew you were going to knock on my door. And if you didn't, I was going to come outside and find you and ask you to talk to me." We were blown away! He went on to tell us his whole life story from when he was about 16 to now. He has been through so much in his life. But he has been so prepared for the message of the restoration. He is a father of 3 kids and we are stoked to go and teach all of them.

God has just been blessing us. We had an amazing investigator come to church yesterday. She is our neighbor and told us she wanted to learn more because of our examples and the members of the church she has met. She is soaking it all up. Yesterday at church she absolutely loved it. She commented in Relief Society and was reading the scriptures that people shared...she was just so involved. We are so excited for her. She is strong and has received a testimony of Joseph Smith already. She prayed about it and told us, "The Holy Spirit has revealed to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God." We can't even express our excitement! Patterns are changing here in Hebron. We have been working hard and we are so excited that we are finding some amazingly prepared people :)

We had another neat experience with our investigator that we have recently started helping. She is planning on moving to California and is getting her house ready to put up on the market. We met her knocking doors one day and offered to help her around the house if she needed it. She has been painting a lot, and we thought we could help. In the middle of us meeting her, her step-mom passed away and we lost some contact for awhile. After a couple of weeks of talking back and forth, we were able to go over there on Thursday and help her go through some of her things she was going to put out for a garage sale. She fed us a delicious lunch of Ziti and we had a good chat. Then after, we were walking down to her garage and she started to tell us that everyone was telling her that she shouldn't let us come back because we were going to "try to convert her". She then said "You aren't going to try to convert me, right??" Awkward pause....and right at that moment someone pulled up and she walked over to talk to them. phew...we avoided that awkward conversation. But now we knew not to push her too hard. After going through a bunch of things, we went inside to make some signs. While we were in there, I was just praying that Heavenly Father would lead the conversation. And He sure did! She started asking US questions. She said "So what is the difference between Mormons and say, the Catholics?" (<-since she is Catholic). PERFECT QUESTION!! And from there it lead to some really great discussions. We talked about Joseph Smith and about how she doesn't like the church she had gone to... It lead to her crying and talking about how hard it was for her to lose her step-mom and we were able to bear testimony of the Plan of Salvation. At the end of the conversation she ended up saying, "I will have to come try out your church some time. When is it?" How neat!!?? We didn't even have to push her. SHE asked all of the questions and we just answered. I felt more like a member missionary than a normal missionary. It comforted me to know that I will be able to share the gospel when I get home. You can all do it! Just pray for missionary opportunities, and they will come up. It was so neat. I can't even explain how wonderful it was. She felt the spirit and it is doing all of the converting. We are going back this week to help her paint, and I am excited to see what else we can share with her! :D

I just love this gospel. So many miracles come. Oh! I just remembered another one from this week. We had a 19 year old kid we are teaching who was going to come to a baptism on Friday. We stopped by earlier that day and asked if he was going to come. He said he might be with his cousin, but he would try. When the time came that night, we went over, and.....no one was home. We knocked a few times..but no response. We were really bummed. So we went to talk to his neighbor and invite her to come, and as we were talking with her, he walked out of the woodsy area behind his house and went inside (since there are woods pretty much everywhere here). We decided to head back over and invite him to come. When he answered he was all wet and he told us that he had just fallen down a hill....(<-uhhh. crazy). But we invited him to come and he said sure, he just needed to change. So we waited and then headed over to the baptism.....25 minutes late. I prayed that it would have been delayed by some miracle so that he could see it. And a miracle happened...when we walked in, they were just singing the opening song. We sat down right up front and it was amazing! He was intensely listening to everything. It really was a beautiful baptism. At the end we showed him around the church and then asked him how he felt. He said, "I felt different. I have never felt that way before.." So we asked him to explain it. He explained that he felt like he was there physically...and mentally. He had never felt that way before. Most places he felt like he was there physically, but not mentally. We told him "That is the spirit!!" It was so neat. We are excited for him too!

There is so much neat potential here in Hebron. I am so excited to be able to stay here for the next little while. I love the ward, the area, and of course cute Sister Bowers. We are working hard and continue to expect miracles to come! Just have faith, and God will bless you :D

Love you all!!!

Sister Emilee Farr

P.s....I held a BABY RACOON!! Crazy..

06/16/14 - Week 70 {Week 5 of Transfer 12} "Mountains to Climb"

Hello wonderful people :D

This week has been a hard week. We have had lots of obstacles to overcome and work through, but we made it! It reminds me of the EFY song called "mountains to climb." It talks about giving you mountains to climb in your life because they just make you stronger. They are hard, but they make you better. We had lots of challenges. Obviously Satan didn't want us to do much this week, but we just tried to keep our hopes high and push through. And we almost reached every goal! We worked as hard as we could and put our trust in God. Just remember that even when there are mountains to climb in your life, you can move them with your faith. Just like it says in Jacob 4:6, as we search the words of Christ, our faith becomes unshaken and we can command in the name of Jesus and the elements of the earth obey us. We can move the mountains in our life and make it through!

Our miracle this week was with investigator Barbara! She has been learning about the church for about 4 months now, and she knows it is true. She has just been waiting and holding herself back because of her family. Her family is Quaker and her in-laws are very strong Catholic. She was really scared of what they would do when they found out she wanted to be a Mormon. They are very closed minded with things like that I guess. She has been able to overcome that though. We had her last lesson at a members home with someone she is pretty close with. That member was a convert from the Catholic church and so she is able to relate to her with family issues. She testified that God would provide. As we talked she just expressed that she knew the church was true and even if her family rejected it, she would still know it was true. Everything just made sense to her and she could understand why other people didn't see that too. {{{That is what I think all of the time!}}} So, we committed her to be baptized again, and she said..... YES!!  Not just a sure, or maybe later, or I will see, but Yes! :D We are so excited. She is an amazing lady and has done so much research! She would come to our lessons with questions that definitely tested your knowledge of the gospel..but with the Spirits help, we were able to explain them and confirm her testimony {{and our own}} of the truth. :) God is amazing. But we found out she lives right outside of our ward boundaries so we will have to pass her off to other sisters this week, but that doesn't matter. As long as she gets baptized, that is all I care about. We should be able to go to her baptism though. She is just wonderful :)

We also had Stake Conference this weekend and it was amazing! We had Elder Dunnigan come from the 70's and he talked so much about families. I just loved it. Since I have was about 8 years old {{when Dawn got married}} I have been so excited for when I could get married and have a family. And I have learned sooo much about being a good mother on my mission. He talked about how we need to focus on when we are home, be home . Leave your work at work. He also said something that I loved about doing the little things as a family. He said that reading the Book of Mormon and saying prayers with your family each day, protects families. Isn't that all we want? For our families to be protected from the world? Well, it is in doing the little things. He said, "If something is priority, we just make it happen." Whether that is reading the Book of Mormon, then you do it. No matter how late it is, how tired you are, what day it is, you do it. You make it happen. We all could make excuses, but we have to make it happen. I have learned a lot about "Making it happen" on the mission. It is called --The Accountability Ladder-- I will have to show it to all of you when I get home. Families are just so important. We need to put our BEST effort in to our family. Not the effort that is left over. I think about it even in my companionship. We need to put them first and put their happiness above our own in all things. I could go on and on about families and how to help them....so I won't bore you. But I just love families! And marriage! And together..ness...... .. ... ......anyways.

One thing that he quoted was from Elder Holland, and I love Elder Holland. He said:

"This is the Church of the happy endings"

And he also quoted another person....but I can't remember who. But they said:

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it is not okay, it is not the end."

It is so true. Not saying that the end of THIS life will be okay, but it testifies that there must be another life. We will all have the best blessings that we can have. The Lord will give them to us. I am so grateful for that knowledge. We have potential in us that is beyond what we can even imagine.

This week was just great. We are going to have a great week this week too! It is the last week of the transfer, and we are going to do amazing things through the Lord. I will most likely be staying here, but I don't know. So if you need to send anything, do it this week! Because next Monday I could be in a different place. I sure hope I stay here with Sister Bowers for my last transfer. I love her to pieces. We have lots of fun together! :)

Thank you all for what you do for me. I LOVE YOU!!!

Love,

Sister Emilee Farr

06/09/14 - Week 69 {Week 4 of Transfer 12} "Broken AC :D"

Hey there!

As you can tell from my headline...our Air Conditioning broke this week.....it has been hot.....and humid.....and we live on the top floor.......

But it will be alright! Hopefully they come and fix it this week :) We have just been keeping our windows open all of the time, especially in the morning and at night. It has been working okay. And we aren't in our apartment too much either during the day, which makes it better. But we had an interesting night last night. We were trying to fall asleep, but neither of us could. At around 11pm a car drove in with the music blasting. But not just any music...soul music. (mind you our windows are wide open to cool down our apartment). We laid there for a while and then it sounded like someone was dying outside. There was wailing and crying happening. We didn't know what was going on....so I eventually sat up and looked out the window. There was this lady outside standing next to her car and she had her hand up in the air. She was looking up and she was saying something. She was crying and...I don't even know. We were tempted to go outside on our little balcony thing and ask her if she was alright, but it was pretty late. After standing there for a few minutes she eventually walked towards the apartment. She lives on the floor beneath us.....but she never came upstairs. It was quite confusing. We decided to lay back down and say a prayer. We didn't find anyone at the bottom of the stairs this morning when we went out to exercise...so we are assuming everything is okay. We have had quite the interesting experiences :) haha.

We had a really neat experience on Saturday though! We have a neighbor that moved in the day I got here. She was carrying all of these things up and down the 3 flights of stairs and we offered to help. She quickly accepted our help and we carried a few loads up for her. She left us a note on our door a few days later thanking us for our generosity. We left her a sticky-note and didn't really think much more of it. But on Saturday we were coming in for our lunch break and she was outside with her husband working on their car, we struck up a conversation and she started talking about this video on Facebook about an LDS girl who inspired people with her hugs. As she kept talking she said that she didn't know much about our church, but because of how sweet we were helping her move in and this video, she was interested in learning more. She told us how much it really meant to her that we would help her move her things in. She said that there must be something right with our church if the people who go to it really live a Christ-like life. She pretty much asked us if we could come over to her house and share with her more about our church. I never realized how much our simple acts of service really go a long way. We simply offered to help her take some things upstairs and it made such an impact on her. Whenever we do something simple and nice for someone, it really does leave an imprint on them. We have to live what we believe! We cannot just be hearers of the word, but doers. We have to live what we teach. Not just talk the talk, but walk the walk. Just like President Monson talked about this last general conference, we need to love our neighbors and help those around us. That is going to make the biggest difference in spreading the gospel in these last days. More and more people around here are starting to believe that we don't need to go to a church. We just need to believe in God and everything else will turn out alright. It reminds me of the scripture in 2 Nephi 28:7-8 where it says:

"7 Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.

8 And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God -- he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a  pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God."

That is false doctrine! You cannot just do whatever you want and believe that God doesn't care. There is an order to His Kingdom. There are commandments that we must keep. We do not just have to say we believe in Christ to be saved, we have to become people who would want to live with Christ again. The commandments are not here to restrict us, they are there to help us to become the people who would want to live with our Heavenly Father again. We have to use our faith to change us. Our Mission President has been focusing so much on the Doctrine of Christ and how it can change us. The doctrine of Christ is Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. How has it changed you? This is the process that each of us go through every week and every day. We are always having to have faith in our Savior and that should motivate us to change and make covenants with our Heavenly Father. That brings us the Spirit into our lives and then we start the process all over again. It should be changing us every week. We should be different people, better people, every day. Of course we will never be perfect here. Trust me, I am a total perfectionist, but I have come to accept that truth. All we can do and all we have to do is try. Create a vision for yourself. Then set goals to reach that vision. Then make plans to reach those goals. And create a way to be accountable to reaching that vision. That is something that we do individually, then for our areas, then for the people we have stewardship over, then for our zone, then for our vision. Try it out! :D It can help you change.

I don't have much more time. But this week has been great! We have seen so many miracles. We found 16 new investigators this past week! Again, we broke my past record of 12 new in a week. We are just increasing our vision and relying on the grace of Jesus Christ. As we do that, miracles happen! We just have to trust in Him and let him lead our lives. We can become and do things that we never thought were possible, because of Him. I love sharing the message of the

restored gospel. It is the greatest thing that I could be doing at this time. My mission has changed me. I am so much different, in a good way, than I was before. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me this privilege of serving Him.

I love you all! Keep on being strong and doing the little things every day. This church is so true sometimes I can't even handle it!! :) I hope you all have a wonderful week full of miracles :D

I send my love,

Sister Emilee Farr

06/02/14 - Week 68! {Week 3 of Transfer 12} "Cold Water"

Hi family!!

The area down here in Kentucky is great! I am loving the people and the ward! It has been a weird adjustment from the people of Indiana. It seems that people here are more..high class? I don't know how to explain it. I guess they are more like Utah people. They actually get ready for the day! Not that Indiana people didn't...but they just didn't' care as much I guess. Not in a bad way...just different. haha. But I am getting used to it. We have been having tons of miracles! Last week we found 12 new investigators, which is record for me on my mission! It was a lot of work, but it was great! We talked with everyone that we could, and the Lord blessed us.

Thank you for all of your prayers for Camill and Alyssa! They were baptized on Friday night :D :D  It was crazy to get it all worked out, but we did it! The Lord definitely blessed us. We didn't get the time confirmed until the night before. So we were trying to let everyone know. But it all worked out and we got the kinks fixed. When we went and filled up the font..we accidently filled it up with freezing cold water...like river water cold! So I had to hold up my skirt and wade into the water to pull the plug out. It was so cold!! But we drained it half way and then filled it up with hot water, so it was perfect. No one was freezing ;) After their baptism we were talking with them as we walked back to the room and they talked about how they didn't want to sit down because they just felt like they were floating :D They said they had never been that happy in their life. I am so excited for them!

We are working with their dad and he wants to get baptized too!! Actually we had a really neat experience with him the day after their baptism. We were putting hearts and sticky notes on their door...and they opened it on us <<AWKWARD.>> But after wards we were walking around the apartment complex and the dad called us over and talked with us for a few minutes. He just thanked us for all that we had done for their family. He said he has felt the spirit so much more in their home. His daughters seems so much happier. He said that the Lord really has blessed them as they have involved him more in their lives. It was so sweet! But what is even more amazing is that we taught them about Fasting the day before their baptism (Thursday). Then on Friday their dad was texting us asking questions about fasting and if you drank water or not. We thought maybe it was the girls texting us on his phone. But when he talked with us on Saturday he told us that he had thought about fasting and how we said it was a way to get extra strength from God and so he tried it! He said he said a prayer and then decided not to eat or drink. He said that as he drove to work he started to get really hungry, but he said a prayer and 5 minutes later the hunger went away. He fasted until about 2pm. Then later that day they got approved for a loan for a house and miracles just started to come!! HOW AMAZING IS THAT?? He had never heard of fasting....and the next day he decides to try it. He has SO much faith!! He is going to be baptized :D The mom hasn't been too interested. She has been supportive for the girls, but not interested herself. But she came to the baptism too and seemed really intent on everything that was said! She had to have felt the spirit :D So we will see how that softens her up :D Their family is just so sweet.

We have some more people we are working with, but the challenge with most of the people down here has been getting them to come to church! They are a little bit stubborn and have excuses every time. But we are going to focus on that a lot this upcoming week. I feel like the girl on the district when she says "Just come to church!!!" Our mission has a goal this month for every companionship to baptize a family! and for that to happen, they have to come to church EVERY week for the next 3 weeks. So we are going to pray hard and do our very best.

We met a neat Muslim girl this week! There are lots of them here actually. And you would be surprised at how similar their beliefs are to ours! They believe in prophets, and more scriptures. Just not quite the same. There are some major differences... like Jesus Christ being the Savior, not just a prophet. AS I have talked with them, I think that they are just confused by the Christians worlds concept for trinity -  three in one. But she seemed really interested! The way she talked with us and looked at us really struck me. It was neat. I felt really comfortable talking to her and you could tell that she really wanted to know what we were doing and what we believed. So we are going back! How neat !! :D I am excited.

We have seen many little miracles throughout the week. Whether it was someone talking with us, being able to reach our goals, having awkward missionary moments....(we have lots of those), or having God give us revelation for someone we are teaching that changes their progression. That is all that matters. I am so grateful for all the Lord has done for us here. We are seeing this area explode with new investigators left and right. Now we just have to do our best to take care of those people He has given us.

I love you all!! You all do so much for me :) I can't thank you enough! :D Have a wonderful week!!!

Love,

Sister Emilee Farr

05/27/14 - Week 67! {Week 2 of Transfer 12} "Miracles!!!!"

Hi Everyone!

I hope that you all had a great memorial day! We sure had a great one! Our mission switched our Preparation Day from Monday to Tuesday so that we would be able to talk to all of the people who would be outside and home for memorial day. It was a day of miracles! Here in our area we were on exchanges with Sister Webb and Sister Jenkins (the Sisters in the Zone serving in Lawrenceburg, Indiana). And we found 7 new investigators between us both!!! In just ONE day!! God is so amazing. And the neat thing is that our mission had a goal to break our record and find 100 new investigators in one day as a mission. And guess how many we found????? God's grace was with us! And his power blessed us!! We found: 234 children of God who want to learn more about His gospel! We blew 100 our of the water! How amazing. :D :D We had a mission conference call last night and we were all so so excited for the incredible work that was done. It was hard work for sure. We had to sacrifice and push ourselves. We talked with everyone outside...no matter how awkward it was. (<--and trust me, it is usually awkward...haha). We are just so excited for everything that is happening here! God's work is definitely hastening and He is the head of our Church. This is His work. There is NO way that we could have been able to reach that goal if it wasn't for Him. We prayed all day for Him to put people in our path that we could teach. We prayed for His hand in our work. We looked at our goals all day and held ourselves accountable to reaching those goals. It was so amazing. :D :D We truly can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us (Phil 4:13).

Our last week was amazing too! We have just seen the work here in Kentucky explode! We found 7 new investigators and taught 14 lessons with members present (which is tied with my highest on my mission). We worked so hard! It is starting to get really hot down here...and humid. It gets you all sticky. I know that it is probably nothing compared to other places....like the Philippines...but it is hot to me! haha. We had a fun day last Saturday though! We went to the house of the new family we are teaching and helped the mom weed her yard and mow the lawn. Right as we started though...we broke the lawn mower. The cord snapped that you use to start it...so the neighbors had to go on an adventure to find something to fix it. But they fixed it just as we finished weeding the yard. Now, mowing the lawn here is an exciting experience! They don't have bags for the grass that gets cut off, so it just flies out all over. But since the grass was so long, they had to lift up one of the flaps on the side to let the grass get out...which angled the cut grass clippings right at us. I attached a picture of me mowing...please excuse my facial expression. It was hot...and you would be doing it too if you had grass flying into your face!! just sayin. haha :D It was lots of fun though! It sure helped her a lot. She has three little kids and the youngest is just a year old. She can't set him down and walk into the other room without him starting to cry. It was just great :) Then she came to church on Sunday! It was a bit overwhelming for her with all of her kids, but the members were sooo so sweet. The member in front of us handed back books and crayons and toys for the kids. When her little boy was getting fussy, a sweet sister walked all the way around the chapel with a bag of pretzels for him and her kids to munch on. It was the sweetest thing. I just wanted to cry :) They have been so supportive for their family. She said it was a little bit different than they are used to, but that they were going to try it again next week and stay for the Primary classes! :D yay!

We have a baptism this Friday!! Of two teenage girls, Camill and Alyssa! They are 14 and 13. They are so excited. Every time that we talk about it they just light up. They want it so much! For a while Alyssa was not sure if she was ready, but we invited people in the congregation to pray for her and since then she said that she has just had such a peaceful feeling about it and she wants to get baptized. We are still praying for their parents hearts to be softened. They are such a cute and wonderful family and it will help them so much! Hopefully by them coming to the baptism, the spirit can touch their hearts and spark something inside of them. Keep them in your prayers this week! Satan is going to work hard on them! And he has already started. But God is so much more powerful than Satan. We just get to choose who we listen to.

Oh!!! AND Ashley did get baptized up in Fort Wayne :D :D Sister Parker said it was wonderful. The Shumards (members in the ward), bought her a quad with her named embossed on it :) She even paid her tithing for the first time on Sunday after her baptism :) I love her so very much!! :D

Something random...We had Zone Conference this past week and they have car inspections each time. And guess what?? Sister Bowers and I got the clean car award!! Horray!! That means that we get 50 extra miles :D It was quite exciting! I don't think I have ever won before, so we were pretty happy! And then we both got "Celestial Planners" when the assistants went through them :D And we got candy! haha. Like we need more candy...but it is okay! We have been going over to Sister Johnson's in the morning and doing Cross Fit <--it is a crazy fitness workout thing that kills you. But is lots of fun! You should try it :)

I just feel like so much is happening and happening so quickly! August is coming so fast. Too fast. But also slowly...mixed emotions. But I am just so grateful for my mission. It truly has changed me. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has allowed me this opportunity for me to serve him. I know that the things that I have learned and will still learn here will change my future family for the better. My children, husband, and everyone around me will have such a better mother, wife, and friend to be with them. I know that I was meant to be on my mission at this time. God works in mysterious ways. I never thought I would and sometimes I still can't believe I am on a mission. It is the hardest thing I have ever done before by far. But it is also the most rewarding thing I have ever been a part of. I love this work

. The ups and the downs. I am grateful for our trials and for the bumps in the road, because that is when we grow the most. Every day when we are struggling to reach our goals and we turn to the Lord in prayer, he delivers us. This is His work. No one else could do it besides Him. Thank you for all of your support and prayers!! I love you all so very much!! :D

All my love,

Sister Emilee Farr

05/19/14 - Week 66! {Week 1 of Transfer 12} "Transfers"

Hi!

So I am pretty excited to tell you all where I have been transferred. Any guesses?? No, not Ohio............. No, not Indiana........ Where could I be??? Well................. just Hebron................ KENTUCKY!! :D :D :D :D I am quite excited if you couldn't tell. I am only about an hour away from Kevin and Mari over in Louisville. Crazy right??? I thought for sure that I was going to be going to Indiana, I didn't think that I would ever serve in Ohio (even though I am in the Ohio Cincinnati mission), and I guess I was wrong. I am not in Indiana. But I am right about not serving in Ohio. I am just down here in Kentucky :) :) My address is:

Sister Emilee Farr

2260 Flicker Rd #195

Hebron, Kentucky 41048

My new companion is Sister Jasmyn Bowers. She is absolutely adorable!! She is from Wendell, Idaho and the 4th of 6 children. She has been out for 9 months and has been called to be a new Sister Training Leader! So I am supposed to show her the ropes of what we do....even though I don't know what I am doing half of the time anyways. So we are just working together! haha. She has been down here in Hebron, KY for the past 6 months so everyone pretty much knows her and they love her to pieces! She is always asking how we can serve people and she says the sweetest prayers. She prays so specifically for their needs and concerns. It just makes me so happy every time. So know that we are praying for each of you!

We had some amazing things happen this week. We found 8 new people to teach! There is a family that we found and they are excited to learn more. It is a mom and dad with three little kids. They weren't satisfied with their old church because they didn't feel that the people served or really lived what they taught. We told them about how much the church does to serve other people. That is really all that we are about. And they really liked it. We told them about how it is a restored church and briefly talked about the restoration with them. Towards the end the Dad turned to the Mom and said "I like what I am hearing, do you?" It was so amazing! They are such good parents and want the best for their children. I am so excited to teach them more and help them have an eternal family! Our mission has a goal that each area will baptize a family in June and we are praying for their family to be that family. They are just so sweet.

We also had a neat lesson with another investigator yesterday. He didn't come to church :( so we stopped by and shared a message with him. We read some in the Book of Mormon with him and before we started we told him to think of a question that he could ask God. As we sat there he just said that everything was going well and he didn't have anything to complain about. But as he kept talking, he brought up a concern with how him and his wife don't go to church because her family is strong Catholic and if they go anywhere else she is scared she will create a family fight and disappoint her family. So I said, "Well, why don't you take that concern to God. Ask him what you and your wife can do so that you can go to church together and talk to her family about it." And he did. So we opened up to where he is reading which is Alma 31. And we started at the beginning. We read the introduction and this is what it said:

Alma heads a mission to reclaim the apostate Zoramites - The Zoramites deny Christ, believe in a false concept of election, and worship with set prayers - The missionaries are filled with the Holy Spirit - Their afflictions are swallowed up in the joy of Christ.

Right after reading that Sister Bowers and I looked up at each other and we just smiled. Doesn't that sound like the exact chapter that would help him?? I mean..not to be bad about the Catholics, but they do more of the election style and have set prayers....anyways. It was just cool. As we read we applied what we were reading exactly to him. When we got to verse 5, it was the answer to his prayer. It says:

And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just - yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people, than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them - therefore, Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

Oh my goodness. God is so good! The answer for him was the word of God. To read the word of God together. We talked about it and he said that they don't read the scriptures together very much. And we invited him to read the Book of Mormon every day with his wife. He said "yeah, I think I want to try that." God is so amazing. There is no way that we could have answered that. It is no coincidence that he was on that chapter in the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. I know it is true! And we have to read from it every day. If I miss a day, I notice the difference. Even though I am not doing anything bad, I notice a difference. My spirit is sad. Everything is just off. But when I read, I feel so much more peace and joy in my life. I am still on track to finish the Book of Mormon by the time I come home. And I just love it :)

We had many miracles happen this week. Small and large. I am trying to be better at focusing on the positive. It is so hard not to get discouraged sometimes as a  missionary. People don't keep their commitments...they don't read...they don't come to church...they aren't interested....you labor over people for so long and then they just won't choose it. It definitely has been hard. But I always remind myself that I am planting seeds. I may even be digging the dirt so that the seed can be planted later. I may have to do the hard work, but later on I don't know what will happen. The Lord has blessed me so much on my mission. I have had many fruits from my labor. I have no room to complain. Just the fact that I get to be an instrument in His hands is enough. I just have to love the people no matter what. Love my companion no matter what. And above all love the Lord. This is all about Him and about others. Sister Porter always tells us to "look for what is right" in our ward where we are serving, our companionship (or for you maybe your marriage or family), in our area, in everything. At first, I will be honest I was a grumpy bum about it, but now I am really realizing that I need to focus on the positive. If I am always complaining to everyone, then I am just going to drain them and they won't want to be around me. I used to be a complainer, let's b

e honest. But I have been working really hard to change my attitude. I still have days every once in a while when I am down, but I work as hard as I can to be happy. And trust me, it takes hard work! But I know that I need to be better. Our mission president talks again and again about the "Language of Faith" vs the "Language of doubt." If you look in the first book of Nephi you find it allllllll over the place! Where Nephi is positive and has faith vs Laman and Lemuel just complain and see the bad in every situation. I am doing all that I can to change myself.

I love the Lord. I love our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that it is only through him that we can change. Just like it says in Ether 12:27, our weaknesses can become strengths through the grace of Jesus Christ. And I have seen that so much on my mission. I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!!! :D

Love,

Sister Farr

Here is a picture of me and my new companion :)

And then one of me, sister parker, and Ashley. (who I think got baptized!! I haven't heard word yet from Sister Parker).

And then me, sister parker, and the day family!! :D

05/12/14 - Week 65! {Week 6 of Transfer 11} "Family!!"

Hi Everyone! 

It was so amazing to be able to see all of you yesterday in skype. I miss you all! You look so amazing and so happy. I absolutely loved it!! Sister Parker had the idea to call her family at the same time so that they could hear each other better..that is a good idea! I thought that maybe we could try that next time......then I remembered that there wouldn't be a next time....I would be home. haha. Oh well! That's okay :) but I loved to see you and glad to hear that you are all doing great. I think I was a little too stunned to see you all to be able to really say anything. All I could say was "Hi" and "I love you!" I didn't even know what to do! I really am going to be an awkward person when I get home! haha I am going to be in a daze for the first few days. I don't know what to talk about when it isn't about the gospel!! How do you have conversations about random things?? I still have no idea........I hope one day I will learn ;)

Anyways, I got news about transfers! I will be.........................................................LEAVING!! Crazy right?? I didn't see that coming. Neither of us did. Sister Parker and I were completely shocked when we found out. We don't want to leave. We honestly cried. At the end our companionship study when we closed with a prayer we just cried. I will miss her so much. We have grown a lot together and we have changed. I won't be the same! She has helped me to grow and become a different person. I love her to pieces. We have made lots of funny videos that we will have to show you all when I return home. I don't know where I am going to be transferred to yet, I will find out tomorrow morning in transfer meeting. I will let you know as soon as I can! Which will be next week..haha. But that is okay! I am so sad to leave the people here in Fort Wayne. I love them with all of my heart. There are so many prepared and amazing people here. I am sad that I will be missing Ashley's baptism on Saturday :( but I know that she will have an amazing day full of the spirit. I love this ward and this area and the zone that I served in. I have really grown a lot here. 

A cool miracle that happened this week: We have been helping a part member family with reading the Book of Mormon this past week. We told them that whenever they are having a bad day or get in an arugment that they should pick it up and start reading. Well, yesterday we got a message from the mom (who is a member) and she explained that the daugher and father had gotten into an agurment and were pretty angry. They left the room and then a few minutes later the daughter came back, picked up the Book of Mormon and started reading it. Then the Dad came in and found the Book of Mormon on CD and put it in and had it start playing. WHAT??!! How amazing is that!!  The spirit there totally changed. I am just so proud of them and all that they are doing. They are truly changing. When I was on exchanges this past week, Sister Parker and Montrose had a crazy lesson there. The adversary was working hard! There was fighting going on outside while they were trying to teach the daughter. You could feel the tension in the air and she was starting to get frustrated. Then all at once it was like something hit her. She said that she felt like lots of spirits just went inside of her and she felt so peaceful. She wasn't mad anymore. It was incredible!! You can't truly understand how much of a miracle that is until you really know them. They have been through so much. It is heart breaking to see it. But the daugher is now on date for the 14th of June to get baptized :) I am sooooo so sooo happy for them!! I love the way that the gospel can change someone. It is miraculous! 

I don't have much time. We have spent a lot of the day packing and we had a zone talent show! It was lots of fun, but took up a lot of time. I will definitely have to email more next week. I love you all and hope that you truly have an amazing week! Keep looking for the miracles and focus on the Lord. He will carry you through everything!! I LOVE YOU!!!!! :D

Love, 

Sister Emilee Farr

05/05/14 - Week 64! {Week 5 of Transfer 11} "Opposition"

Hi Family!

I don't have much time today...but guess what next week is?? Transfers!! On the 13th, so just be aware that I could be moving around. And guess what else??? MOTHERS DAY!!! :D :D What does that mean?? I get to talk to you all!! And guess what?? I CAN USE SKYPE!!! :D :D :D :D  I just don't know how to use it though...haha. I only have 40 minutes, so we can call or do skype. But if there are technical difficulties..I only have 40 minutes. So I don't know what you all want to do...I don't know if I set up an account on Skype too or how you even know that you are both on..I just have no clue. But..we could skype! haha :) So that is some cool news :)

Missions are discouraging sometimes...okay a lot of the time. But when you meet that one person that accepts it and acts on it, it makes all of the rejection worth it. I am trying to learn to focus on the positive more. This past week we had a really hard day. No one was home....all morning and afternoon. No one wanted to talk to us, no one was interested, no one was outside, people were just rude and grumpy. I didn't know what was wrong. I thought for a while that I was doing something wrong so Heavenly Father was punishing us. But then I remembered the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11 where it says that there is opposition in all things. So I thought..."okay, there better be a miracle coming then!" I have realized that the harder the day is, the greater the day or miracle is that is coming. That night we had a lesson with some girls who were the daughters of a less-active who were learning. They had a friend over and it was a powerful lesson. A year ago her brother committed suicide and she was scared that he went to hell. She talked about how hard her family life was and how people at school bullied her and told her that she would end up like her brother. She just sobbed as she talked to us. It was heart breaking to hear her story. But the joy that filled my heart as I realized what we had to share with her was amazing. We told her how her brother was not in hell. But that God had a plan for him and that he was learning the same things that she was learning. The Spirit there was so strong. We told her that she would gain more peace in this gospel than anywhere else. She came to church yesterday too. It was amazing. That was the miracle that we had waited for all day long. The Lord is so merciful.

We have a girl that is scheduled to get baptized on the 17th of May and we are so excited! We have been teaching her for a month now. She has consistently come to church and has been reading the Book of Mormon. We were worried that things would have changed this week when she broke up with her member boyfriend..but yesterday we were texting her and said that we were excited for her baptism and she said, "Me too, I think I am ready for it." We were so excited! She is so sweet. We have had dinner with her in the Bishop's home and other lessons in members' homes. She is really excited about all of it. And we are excited for her! She feels like she has so much more direction in this gospel. 

We watched this mormon message with some investigators the other day and I just love it! So I thought I would share the link with you all:

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001

You really should watch it. It makes me so happy and helps me to understand how our Father in Heaven sees us. He is our Father and he does love us. I am so grateful for Him and all He has done for me. 

I spoke at a funeral today for a sweet lady named Mary Woods who was a less-active here. She was a cute old lady that we visited for a couple of months. She reminded me a lot of Grandma Farr :) but it was a neat experience. On Monday night last week Sister Parker and I went to visit her. She has been in a nursing home for a while and stopped dialysis recently so she has been going down hill. We went there and she looked very worn out. They said she had been asleep pretty much all day. We could tell that she was going to leave us soon. Sister Parker and I talked to her and we sang her "God be with you till we meet again." The spirit filled the room and there was such a sweet feeling. We knew that she was there and she knew that we were with her. We knew she was going to leave us soon, but we felt at peace about it. We then said a prayer with her before we left and wished that she would have a peaceful departing. It was a very bitter sweet moment. She died that next morning at 5am. I loved her so dearly. She was so funny and dear to us. But I know that she is much happier now where she is. I love the hope this gospel brings! There is so much happiness in the plan God has for us. I feel it more now on my mission than ever before.

I love you all! I hope we can get it all figured out for next Sunday. I may just have to call you unless someone can figure out how to do the skype thing and send me a letter explaining..haha. I am technically challenged. I love you though! Have a WONDERFUL week :)

Love,
Sister Farr