Liebe Grüße

Hallo Leute!

Merry Christmas still:) in Deutschland we celebrate the 24,25, and 26th!! 

I got to skype yesterday with 9 of my favorite people:) 

Not all could fit on my iPad screen but it was awesome! It was also weird because it felt like I had seen them the day before but it's been 6 months! Time goes....I've thought about that a lot this week. One day we traveled all over the area, following up with referrals and talking to less actives and it had to be 7 kilometers of walking alone. But I loved every step of it. Missions are really a different and special experience and I don't want to leave it! I have around a year left and I'm saying that now...I'm bracing myself for my last transfer.hahah Anyways onto happier things. 

This week we got two new investigators! Ones from England and he's so nice! He served in 4 wars for Great Britain and has gone through a lot.  And the other is a hardcore born and raised German woman that is very old and very sweet! I love getting to meet new people here. Everyone is so unique and have their own struggles and experiences that have shaped them. Which at times can be hard to understand what they go through. Which makes me happy that we have the Holy Ghost with us that prompts us with what these people need. It is truly a remarkable gift. But the best thing we can share with those who are struggling is the hope we have through Christ. What He has done for us, what he does for us and what He can do for us if we let Him. Everyone needs Him, doesn't matter if you are German, Irish, American, African, it doesn't matter. He knows you! He wants to help you! But we are all stubborn people and proud and quick to forget. Thank goodness we can always repent, we can always come back. There are 2nd chances and 3rd and 4th and so on. My mission has opened my eyes to that. That before I came out I really didn't understand the Atonement and who Christ is for me personally. I'm still working on figuring that out, but it is more clear.

As it is a new year next time I email, I want to invite you all to make a goal to get to know your Savior personally this next year and hopefully it will carry on into eternity. But make that goal, maybe it's to read in the Scriptures more, or do service projects once a week or to forgive. Make a goal that draws you to Him. He is the source of Happiness of pure Joy! 

Thank you for all your support and letters and packages! My mom sent me gingerbread house making stuff and ah! It was so fun!

My companions mom sent a shirt...that ended up being a children's medium hahaha but it was really nice!

My friend Nicole also sent me a hat and treats! It was a fun Christmas!!

We got to go to members houses and eat and sing and ah! I love it so much here! People are so loving:) Love this time of year! 

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Hallo Leute!

LISAS BAPTISM WAS YESTERDAY!!! Ahhhh!!! CHRISTMAS IS NEXT SUNDAY! Ahhhh!!! 

Okay I'm done freaking out, not really. Haha like I've said in basically all of my other letters home, this week went by soooo fast. I don't know where to start because so many cool things happened!

Okay ummm cool story! So we have been working on putting all the records into our iPads and we found a few people we wanted to go by on and we made an appointment with one of them. We get to her house, no answer. We then decide to go to the other man’s home and he answered the door and wanted us to come in, but we couldn't because no one else was there. But he was super excited to see us and he told us he had just looked at our card this morning...he hasn't had missionaries over in a year and a half...and he still had the card and looked at the card that same day we stopped by! We have a lesson with him this Wednesday and I'm so excited! Heavenly Father knows who is ready and has it all timed out perfectly, we just need to recognize the spiritual promptings he gives us! 

That was awesome we also had the Weihnachts feiern for our ward on Saturday! Ah I love the members so much! It was actually not too different from the ones in America, there was the nativity reenactment by the kids and santa came after. I think the biggest change was it was all in German! Haha and there really wasn't that much food. We ate after the program but it was just Brötchen with cheese or meat on top. Very German. Basically like eating a sandwich without the top piece of bread hahaha. We stayed after to clean up and set up for Lisa's baptism the next day!

The day of the baptism! Ah! Lisa is so adorable! She's like half the size of me. The guy who baptized her was a missionary here back in 2012 and was companions with my MTC teacher in Dortmund! Wild. His wife also served here too! Also my grandma (my trainer’s trainer), Sister Van Vleet came for a bit! So ya a lot of old missionaries there! Lisa bore her testimony in sacrament meeting and wow. She's like 5 years younger than me but I feel like she's the example! But ya she's the best:)

I hope you all enjoy this Christmas! It truly is a special time to be with family and to reflect on the birth of Christ and what that event means to yourself and to all those around you. I'm grateful to be serving during this time and representing Christ. Helping others gain a relationship with Him has truly been a blessing and in turn I've been able to strengthen my relationship with Him in ways I wouldn't been able to if I wasn't here. I know that Christ is the Son of God, I know that He was born of Mary in a humble setting and is the light of the World. His birth changed everything. It fulfilled prophecies and gave hope! 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Walk of "Wunders"

Hallo Leute!

This week we had transfers and.....IM STILL IN DORTMUND! Ya!!! Can't believe I'm in my 4th transfer:0 Two of the Elders got transferred in my Distrikt so now I'm the missionary that has been in Dortmund the longest... weird. 

1st off thanks to my beautiful family for the Thanksgiving notes, I got all of them on the same day! Mailbox has never been that full!

This week we were invited by the Münster sisters to share our testimonies of Christ at least 4 times during the day and it honestly helped me so much to refocus on my purpose. It's easy to get in a habit of asking people the same questions and stuff but forgetting to bear testimony of it. One particular day was awesome, I like to call what happened a “Walk of Wunders”, or miracles in englisch. We decided to go a certain way to our bus stop, a 20 minute walk, and on the way were able to meet two people and share the video with them and share testimony. The first guy, Sebastian was really interested.  He has a child he takes care of so he said the kid was his first priority, but took the Plan of Salvation pamphlet gladly and we talked to him for 15 minutes on the street. The next woman, Rosamarie, super Christian, accepted a Book of Mormon from us and said that we are all children of God. Both instances I was able to share my testimony of Christ and how He knows us personally and how His perfect example helps us know how we can better serve others. I prayed the night before to be able to have the courage to share my testimony of Him and I was able to have it be answered! God really does hear us and knows our heart’s true intent!

I've realized even more now how much faith plays a factor in everything, when I go out and think maybe someone will listen, I tend to not find a person that does. But when I tell God that I want to find 3 people to share the Weihnachts video with and go out with that intent then it more often than not happens. It truly depends on the effort you want to make and the faith you have that God will help you accomplish your goals. 

I’m truly blessed to be able to serve the Lord and spread the Joy. I was reading a talk from October 2013 conference called "Called of Him to Declare His Word" and he says "My young fellow servants, doors and hearts open daily to the gospel message--a message that brings hope and peace and joy to the children of God throughout the world. If you are humble and obedient and hearken to the voice of the Spirit, you will find great happiness in your service as a missionary. What a wonderful season it is to be a missionary--a time when the Lord is hastening His work" and how very true that is!! I've seen so many people receive this happiness in my short time out here and next Sunday I will be able to see one of the most ready young women be baptized, she's been taught for 3 years now and just got the permission of her parents to be baptized!! I'm so excited for her and for the blessings she will receive! 

Have a wonderful week and remember that faith is the start to making great things happen!

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Komisch

Hallo Leute,

Heading into the last week of transfers and hitting my 5 month mark tomorrow! Yikes! This week my comp and I decided to only speak Deutsch the whole week. Ya we did it! Our exceptions were during lunch breaks and such but other then that, the whole week! Let's just say on Sonntag my brain was fried hahah. But I'm super happy we did it because people always tell me that the best way to learn a language is to...Speak it! That what I did and I definitely feel a lot more comfortable speaking Deutsch now. It's just weird to me to think I can communicate with other people in this language and they can understand me and I can understand them..komisch.

We went over to a members house to start our Distrikt finding activity, which was to share the Christ Video with people around the area. Sis C und ich went with Brüder Nabrotzky to share it with his neighbors. We showed it 4 times! Super cool and missionary work is best done with members and missionaries working together! Remember that! The first person we went to had a dog that was super loud, when we started the video, she was still barking, I said a prayer over and over in my heart that she would quiet down. And she did! The video really brings the spirit.

This past week was a little rough, we had 7 appointments fall out in two days and I was pretty hard on myself about it. It's easy to get discouraged out here and to think that you aren't making a difference; that is what Satan tells you. And I battled that a little this week. But it helped me realize that what I'm supposed to do here is simply put my faith in God and trust that He has it all planned out. As long as I keep working hard and exercise my faith in Him, nothing else matters. I want to bring these people to the truth and let them know the pure Joy they can feel through Christ. But I need to be patient with God's timing. I'm constantly being reminded of that and humbled over and over. I didn't know how stubborn I was until I got out here and I didn't know how much I needed to rely on the Savior until I got out here too. He truly is the reason I keep going every day. I'm so very thankful that I have this opportunity to share with others what Christ is for me and to help them build their own relationship with Him. It is only through Him that we can have Joy and that we can return to our Heavenly Father. I know it. 

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Gebet

Hallo Leute,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I ate a big sandwich for me meal..haha.

This week was full of miracles! We had a split, so I was with Sister Alves and it was crazy!! But awesome! We prayed a lot and saw a lot of miracles. It's pretty amazing that when we pray with real intent about something good and believe that it will happen, it will if God sees it as good too!

Every prayer we said on Monday and Tuesday was answered. We found a new investigator on Monday and had a lesson on Tuesday night with him. We waited for 30 min at the bahn station and prayed that'd he'd be on the next bahn, he was. The lesson went long and so we didn't split back with the other sisters and Sister Alves needed to be back in Hamm for a meeting at 9, so we prayed to be able to get a ride with the elders, 5 min after that prayer we got a call that said we could be taken in the Elder’s car to Hamm. A lot of other little prayers like that through the day helped a lot. When you are in the service of the Lord, God will guide you and help you do everything you can to accomplish what he has set for you.

Another cool experience had to do with the new Christmas video on Mormon.org, everyone go watch it!!! It's cinematic perfection (Christ is in it). We were so excited for it and so

we went Park contacting to show the video and I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to let us show the video to at least one person. So, I, of course, thought for sure we would share it to someone there. Nope. We had a lesson after that and I was losing hope of showing it. But we went dooring after our lesson and it was darker out and I see this building that was lit up and I told Sister Carpenter that we had to go door it. We did and ended up showing the video 4 times and getting 2 lessons set up for this week! It truly is a wonderful video and everyone we have showed it to say how beautiful it is and how important it is to serve others. It also is a great way to bear testimony of the Savior and how we can follow Him through serving others. No one can really argue that serving others is wrong.

This pic is of the lit up building and us.

I’m seriously so grateful to be out here. Time is going by so fast! No! Truly nothing is better than serving a mission!

On a side note, my district always matches...this picture was due to everyone wearing navy blue

Have a wonderful week and remember that God is just one prayer away:)

Liebe Grüße

Thanks so much to my amazing mom for sending a much needed package..the hi chews are almost gone..

die Welt ein Licht

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I actually forgot that it is Thanksgiving this week since we don't celebrate it here in Germany so thanks mom for the reminder:)

This Tuesday we had our mission tour and Elder Alder from the Area 70 came and talked to us. We practiced introducing our new pass along cards, die Welt ein Licht, and I practiced introducing it to Elder Adler...no pressure. He was actually really helpful and helped me realize that I need to be more personal when I share me testimony to people on the street and invite them to take the lessons. Very humbling experience but also I'm at the point where I can speak okay German, but now it's time to make it more meaningful!

People

We stopped by a member this week and she gave us pumpkin pie! We got to talk to her about how she met her husband. Really cute story, her mom told her she should go to the temple with her ward but she didn't want to, her mom insisted, and so she went to the  temple and met a guy there who became her husband! So cute! I love the members here and am so grateful I get to serve in Dortmund. This place is my home! 

We met a man named John on the street this week and he came to church! We had to go find him though because he got lost and we were drenched when we came back. I translated for him! He can only speak Urdu and English so I translated for two hours. That my friends, is super hard but super cool! 

Pday
CHRISTMAS MARKET IS OPEN AND LITERALLY IS THE BEST THING OF MY LIFE NO JOKE! So cool and we spent 3 hours wandering around it hence why my email is short. I love the Christmas Spirit and so does Deutschland. They finished their big Weihnachtsbaum and I'm pretty sure it's the biggest in the world! We didn't want to leave!

But I guess none of you back home are quite yet at the Christmas phase because Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet, but ah! So excited!

I’m grateful for this Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm thankful that I can share it with the people here in Germany. I'm thankful for my family and the knowledge that I will live with them for eternity. I'm thankful for all of my wonderful friends who have supported me so much and dealt with me through everything. I'm thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who hears and answers my prayers in the way He knows best, the way that helps me learn and grow. I'm thankful for the German language and that I get to learn and speak it (2 months ago I would've said otherwise..). I'm thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and for the ultimate sacrifice He made for me and for everyone. Every day I reflect on how much love He has for me and I'm truly grateful I can be cleansed from my sins. 

I hope you all have time to reflect on all the things you have been blessed with this week and beyond this week. We are truly lucky to be on the beautiful earth!

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Ps rain storm hit and I got drenched..

Sister Carpenter

Hallo Leute,

What a week! New companion and new adventures!

Companion

Sister Carpenter is from Texas(yes, I got another southerner) and has been out one more transfer than me. She likes drawing, cosplay, singing, musicals, Zelda,etc. so pretty different from me haha but it's a blast! She came to Dortmund ready to do missionary work and our first lesson together was the day she got here. And it went super well! We're already working well together to bring others to happiness!

 

People

We got two new investigators this week!

Cesar is from Syria and he came to the lesson with his friend and we originally planned on only his friend coming. But he came and was interested and his friend ended up not being:( But he's awesome! He kept emphasizing that religion comes from the heart not just the mind and how true that is. Too many people focus on the logistics instead of what they feel about something. For instance a lot of people don't believe Jesus is the Son of God because how could Mary just have a baby. They forget that they can pray to God to know if in fact Christ is His only begotten Son and get an answer through the Spirit. 

Nasim, funny thing about him was that I couldn't remember who he was because Sister Thurgood had set up the appointment. So when Sister C and I met him at the church we went in blind. He was super nice and pretty young, yet had the desire to learn about the gospel. We were reading Moroni 10:3-5 in the Book of Mormon and he kept on reading through to 7 and we had to stop him and said he could read more later hahaha. 

I'm so grateful that I can be here and serve my Heavenly Father and bring His children to the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's not easy, but it is always worth it to open my mouth and share with others what has given me so much joy. There is nothing more rewarding than being in the service of God. Seeing someone pray for the first time to their Father in Heaven or seeing something start to make sense to someone is worth every step I've taken and every rejection I have received.

I'm so thankful for the Gospel, I'm so thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and for the strength I receive from Him day to day. I'm thankful for my family and that I will live with them for eternity. I promise you that when you share the Gospel with others you will feel so much happier, even if they don't accept it, because you have made the effort to serve Someone who has given you everything you have!

I love you all and I love Deutschland!

Sister Farner

Ich kann nicht glauben dass ich für vier Monate auf mein mission bin

Hallo Leute,

First off, I'M DONE BEING TRAINED! Whoop whoop! And that also means we had transfers this week and I'm staying in Dortmund:) Sister Thurgood is off to Michelstadt, a Dorf outside Frankfurt. So we are calling her a Dorf girl. My new companion, Sister Carpenter comes tomorrow! Only thing I know about her is that she is one transfer ahead of me! So excited to meet her!
We decided this week to eat healthy. Which meant laying off the chocolate and the bread and eating salad. Let's just say we would have done better with this if we didn't have such great members and investigators that gave us hot chocolate, cookies, cake, etc.
But I did manage to eat a nice salad sandwich thing for dinner...my comp didn't seem so thrilled about the idea.

Anyway we had some great lessons this week. And we took a ton of pictures because of transfers so be ready to see the amazing people I get to work with in Deutschland.
Schwester Röder, adorable woman with the strongest testimony ever. We went by her and shared a message on finding personal peace and she slept right through it. Her way of finding personal peace.:)

We teach twins, Lisa and Celine, and they are the most mature teenagers I have ever met. They are super smart and treat everyone like their best friend. Lisa is getting baptized next month and we've been going over the lessons again and we talked about Christ and our relationships with him. Lisa shared her favorite scripture, 2 Nephi 25:29 29 "And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out" as she was sharing it she teared up. True testimony to me that it doesn't matter what age you are, if you're 82 or 10 you can know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. So grateful I get to see people build their relationships with Christ firsthand. Truly no greater thing to see. (In the photo they have the remains of their Halloween costumes on hahaha)

Another great investigator we have is Freddy. We've been teaching him since Sister T got to Dortmund and the progress he has made in coming closer to Christ is amazing. He's been able to share the Gospel with others and has become one of my best friends. We were able to teach him about baptism and Priesthood authority this week and the importance of both. We had the members pray for a date to extend to him for baptism and we extended it to him and he said no. I asked if he wanted more joy in his life and he says no because it would be too much. Haha. He's great and I know he will make that step soon because he is ready to receive the blessings and joy that come from following Christ and being a part of this gospel.

Here we are at the Dröges home. Nicest people and most helpful people you'd ever meet!

So this was just a glimpse at some of the amazing people I have the opportunity of getting to teach and to learn from. There is no greater service or work I could be doing than to bring people closer to Christ and to God. I'm grateful to have been brought up in this Church and to have this knowledge so that I can share it with others around me. There is no place I'd rather be. Deutschland is amazing and I'm blessed to be here for 18 months.

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Herbst

Hallo Leute!

Heading into my last week of being trained! Wow time goes fast..Deutschland gets even better everyday and the people get even more amazing! Happy Halloween also! 

Thanks mom for the Halloween package:) We had fun with the vampire teeth!

People

We were going to teach a man in Witten who ended up not being home so we went by another person who said she was busy and as we were walking back to the bus stop. We see a door that is covered with Halloween decorations and sister T said let's knock on that door! So we did and a woman answers and said "oh come on in!" We were a little surprised since most people tell us kein Interesse and close the door. But she let us in and asked us what makes us different from other churches. We spent the next hour talking to her a out the Book of Mormon, the Priesthood(power of God given to man) and about other Gospel topics. She was super cool and even though at the end she said she didn't want religion because she could believe stuff on her own, we gave her a Book of Mormon. A lot of people say they don't need church or religion. But we do! Our purpose is to learn and grow and one of the greatest commandments is to love others. So by going to church you exercise your belief and show your love to others by helping them build their faith too. Talking to her in Deutsch the whole time gave me a headache after but the words just flowed when I talked. So grateful for the gift of tongues!

Miracle

We were able to go to Münster on Wednesday to help out because one of the Sisters is sick and it was a miracle that we could even go considering how busy our weeks are. Just so happened that Wednesday was free. Münster is so beautiful!!!! It's known for all the bikes that are there and let me tell you, there were probably as many bikes as there were people there. All along the street were bikes and outside the Bahnhof had to be at least 1,000. Crazy!

Also they have a Catholic Church building that has cages up in the spire where they used to put people who didn't go to church. Pretty cool, probably not for the person that got put there. I taught the Restoration with Sister A and recited the first vision to this man named Bernard and it was a really cool moment because he wasn't distracted and listened intently as I recounted what Joseph Smith experienced. The rest of the time he would talk about his investments or other books, but in that moment I could tell he was feeling the Spirit. Really nice guy and offered to play a guitar in church on Sunday. Totally wish I was still in Münster for that! But Sister T and I headed back later that night. 

Word of the week: Herbst 

This is the word for Fall or Autumn. There are so many leaves covering the streets here and it's so beautiful! We played soccer today for p-day and it was amazing! I love Herbst! We live in such a beautiful world that a lot of times we take for granted. I invite you all to go outside and look around at the beauty!

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Freude

Hallo Leute! 

Diese Woche war ein bisschen komisch weil ich erinnern mich nicht Genau was hat passiert. Aber ich werde versuchen.

People

We taught in Spanish to a new convert! By teaching I mean using a lot of scriptures and google translate but lucky for us we have the gift of tongues which comes through Holy Ghost! This is absolutely vital in any lesson we teach because we don't know exactly what the person we are teaching is going through. Through the Holy Ghost we are prompted to share what will help them the most and gain an understanding of where they are at. The gift of tongues allows you to understand what they are saying and them to understand what we are saying. Something I am grateful for because I'm not perfect at speaking German or understanding German but through this gift I am able to understand what is needed and say what is needed. May not be perfect, but it's enough to help the other person understand the concept. Our Spanish lesson was a witness of that especially. We are going back this week too! Pretty weird transition but I'm praying a lot for help to remember my Spanish days at least a little bit.

We stopped by four member families this week also and each one strengthened my faith in the importance of working with members to bring others to the Truth. Two of the families we taught had pictures of ancestors on their walls and it was amazing to hear German history and what these people have overcome. Truly amazing getting to experience Germany from a non American history class in high school point of view. 

Food

I had fufu, I think that's how you spell it, it's an African dish that one of the Elder's investigators made for the young single adult night. We were able to be there also because our investigator made some Syrian food too! Both were so good. The fufu though made us cry because of how hot it was hahah; Sister Thurgood gave me her whole plate food because she can't do spicy. So here I am with this mound of food, straight up crying and my nose is running. Luckily the other people were experiencing the same around me but wow. 

Pday

We went hiking, more like exploring today and it was super fun and we found a huge abandoned building with graffiti so naturally we needed a picture. Deutschland is seriously so beautiful! Especially with all the rain we are getting now. Makes me so happy (and everyone else mad)! 

Zone training

We had our zone training on Tuesday which is all the missionaries in the Dortmund stake. Our focus is on the Atonement this month so all of the lessons were about it. What really stood out to me was a video we watch that is called "Missionary work and the Atonement". It had part of a talk by Elder Holland in it and he spoke about how missions are supposed to be hard because when Christ was on the earth He didn't have it easy either when he shared His Gospel. As missionaries we are now sharing the same Gospel, Jesus Christ taught on the earth and we will have to suffer because He suffered too. It's not always easy but it is worth it. There are times of discouragement and sadness but it is worth it. There are times when you miss home but it is worth it. It is worth every minute being here because I will never be able to repay Christ for what He has done for me, but I can take 18 months of my life and dedicate it to Him. Dedicate it and use it to help others see what Joy really is and help them turn their lives in the right direction. 

Word of the week: Freude

This word means Joy! I was reading a talk by Elder Richard G Scott from the April 1996 General Conference and he said "You are here on earth for a divine purpose. It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure. You are here to be tried, to prove yourself so that you can receive the additional blessings God has for you. The tempering effect of patience is required. Some blessings will be delivered here in this life; others will come beyond the veil" and he goes on to say that we can find joy in any trial. Just look at the trees or the sky or chocolate and think about all Heavenly Father has done for you, not what He hasn't. There is always a reason for things and there is no point of wallowing in self pity when you can find the more joyful things in life like serving others! I'd like to ask you all to do that this week, find joy even at the most difficult times, especially the most difficult times!

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner