07/15/13-Week 23 in Indiana [Week 6 of Transfer 4]

Hi there.

It has been a wonderful week here in Huntington, Indiana! It started out with a grand opening of a zone training!!! It was an amazing zone training. Our Zone Leaders trained us on how to have more joy in the work. And to be honest...I have been struggling with that. It is hard to be a missionary! It is hard to feel successful when you aren't seeing many fruits from your labor, but they talked about how we can find more joy. When we walk down the street, we want people to notice how happy we are! We don't want to be fake happy, but genuinely happy. They mentioned something... being happy can just be for a short time, but JOY is eternal happiness. They talked about the difference between changing your personality and changing your habits. Everyone has a personality, they were born with it. Since we were babies we have had our personality. But we have created habits that have been interwoven with our personality. I don't have to change my quiet personality..I just have to change my habit of never talking. It has been a real eye opener for me. Whenever people would say "just be yourself!" I would say "You don't understand! Being myself and being a missionary.....are complete opposites! I can't be a missionary and be myself." But I have learned more of how I can be myself and be a missionary. I am working to change my habits. I am trying to change the habits that pull me away from Christ, and making them more like the Savior.

Something funny about Indiana....don't try to use hairspray to hold back your fly-aways..the hairspray is just flimsy. It doesn't get stiff like it does in Utah. It does...really nothing. haha. Also, some other funny news. Sister Colton and I have been living without AC for the past 5 weeks!!! We thought that we had the window air conditioner on "cold" and it has not been working. It has been just blowing around hot air. So we have been dying in the humidity! But this week when it got to the point where we didn't know we could stand it any longer, we went to the temperature knob and....vuwala....it turned! And it made the air cold....so we have been living in a few days of bliss :) Air Conditioning is such a wonderful blessing!

Lets see...Sister Kewish and Saranna have been doing well! I don't know if I have told all of you about them before. Sister Kewish and Saranna have been investigating the church for a little over a year. They have had a year filled with challenges beyond what I can even imagine. The trials they face would have tore me to the ground. But they are coming out strong! We have been teaching them every single day. Lifting their spirits. We have been able to see the light come back into their eyes! The spirit is once again in their home. It brings Sister Kewish to tears when she talks about how much she is grateful for the gospel in her life. It has changed her. She has been trying to overcome smoking for the past couple of months and has been having a rough time. We challenged her to now only smoke outside. And it has been helping! They are both progressing wonderfully! They understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about Baptism and what it means and how important it is. And they are just so ready and excited to be baptized. It will be a moment in their life that they will never forget! Their ultimate goal is to go to the temple and be sealed as a family. Sister Kewish's husband died a few years ago, and she wants to seal her and Saranna to him. That is the ultimate goal! Bringing families together for eternity! The work of Salvation is wonderful.

Yesterday, Sister Colton and I were able to witness some wonderful miracles.  Saranna had been sick for quite a while. She wasn't able to hold down any food nor liquid. Sister Kewish was getting worried and asked us to pray for her. We went over after church and asked if they wanted us to ask the Elders in our ward (Elder Price and Callister) to come over to give her a blessing, and she said yes. We called the Elders (and another member of the congregation) to come over and give her a blessing. As they did so, I felt the power of the Priesthood flood into the room. The spirit was so strong! Although she did not immediately stand up and act completely fine, she was able to eat some food and slowly heal. I know that the power of the priesthood is real. It is the power of God on the earth today. It is here for our benefit. We should never be afraid or hesitant to ask for a blessing. God will never reject us from obtaining the blessings of the priesthood if we merely ask. I just love this gospel!

My body has recently started to fight back against the stress level of missionary work! I have been having some problems with my ankles. As I mentioned last week, our mission president asked us to run for 30 minutes every day. Before, when Sister Colton and I were running just a mile every other day, I started to have some bruises appear on my ankles. My ankle bone hurt and shot pains up my calves. Unsure what it was, I prayed for strength and kept running. This past week, it has really started to act up. It started to swell. I evetually called Sister Porter and asked her what to do. She told me to wear a brace and take tylenol for the swelling for a couple of weeks. Then yesterday, I asked for a blessing. The Elders gave me a blessing and promised me that as I was obedient to the rules of the mission, that my ankles would heal themselves. They promised me that Heavenly Father was aware of my problems. He knew what I was facing and he would help me. I have not been full on running for a couple of days, but I have been walking as fast as I can. I know that as I continue to do my best, Heavenly Father will bless me. That is the miracle about obedience. When you are obedient, no matter how impossible it seems, the Lord will always bless you! Sometimes the rules we are given seem pointless and ridiculous, but there is always a reason behind it. Our Heavenly Father never asks us to do something without promising us a blessing. He will always provide. I think of it like this: If Jesus Christ leads you to a cliff and asks you to jump off, he will either catch you at the bottom, or teach you how to fly. We just have to take that first step, and jump! He will do the rest. He will catch us. He will teach us how to soar above our greatest expectations.

Do you remember Mary? The one we helped pick things up in her yard after the tornado?? Well, this week she became an investigator!! She has been reading the Book of Mormon and had a lot of questions! She was really confused about when the Book of Mormon started. We went over there last night and talked to her about what it was. She had questions all about the Plan of Salvation. She asked questions about the Restoration. like "How do you know which church is true?" "Where did God come from?" "Where did we come from?" "Why does the Bible only talk about the people in Jerusalem?" Question after Question...she has been prepared to receive the gospel! Even if she doesn't get baptized in the next month or so, she has been slowly prepared for quite some time!

---My computer died...and I lost half of my email. I had lots of juicy info..but I don't have time to re-type it all :( Soo.....---

Basically, Elizabeth said yes to baptism if she came to know it was true!! Horray! I found out some cool news from Sister Cordner this week!! The Elders in the Indy 1st ward looked up Eddie (HQ referral I taught in the library who was doing a project on the LDS faith and had questions about Tithing and Fast offerings and stuff. I had asked him if I could share my testimony at the end and he said "sure." then he told me that my body language told him that I really believed what I said) and they talked with him. He said that he is doing another project on the Book of Mormon so he has more questions, but he said that he remembered my testimony and that it really shook him up, in a good way! Cool huh! It made me feel good :) At least I did something right! The spirit is so key. I know that it wasn't me that softened his heart. It was purely the spirit. All I did was testify of truths, and his spirit was touched. It was a cool experience for me, and it is cool that it left an impact on him.
:)

Also, the package that I got this week was WONDERFUL!!! Thank you dearly :) We ate the cookies right up and may have gained 20 pounds.... it's okay though. But.....Sister Colton and I would love to get some.......letters. We excitedly run to check the mail each day and have been finding lots of cob webs...not very many letters...

I love you all!!! :) I am sorry that I don't have very much time. 

Here is another picture of my fast growing hair! 

 

And of the corn here...it is so tall!

I send you my love,

Sister Farr