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
No comments:
Post a Comment