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