Noch nicht fertig!

Hallo Leute,

After being coached by the elders and sisters in my Distrikt about what to write they helped me see to write exactly what I'm feeling. And honestly I don't know! I feel happy, sad, stressed, excited,

worried, relieved, confused....and more.... hahaha I'm grateful for the last 18 or so months.

The MTC Distrikt sisters

The MTC Distrikt

This week we have had a lot of goodbye appointments which are literally the worse I need to stop crying, not kidding you, I need to drink more water because of how dehydrated I am due to the tears😂

I know that I've done my best and I know that I wouldn't have done it without the Lord. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and each and everyone of His children. Im grateful to be able to experience that love He has for His children as I've talked and taught and been taught by them. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. And that he is my perfect best friend(in the words of our investigator, Fiona) He knows me, He has carried me and He has shown me a better way of being. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church established once again on the earth through a Prophet, Joseph Smith and that the fullness of the gospel is in it. I'm grateful for the testimony the Lord has blessed me with. I'm still learning and still becoming but I've come to see the person God wants me to become and I'm grateful for that.

I wish I could literally explain everything in this email but it'd get pretty long. But know that this experience has changed my life(cheesy I know) and I'm excited to keep spreading the gospel when I am home!

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

All my comps still out in the field

Sis Lekic

Fiona:)

I got to drive for a few days in Michelstadt!

Celina and us being trees

Bis ans Ende

Hallooooo Leute,

I love Christmas time! Last week we were able to be apart of so many fun Christmas traditions including the Weihnachtsmarkt in the church.

Weihnachtsmarkt

It was so cool!! We sang, and it ended up not being so bad because it was super loud (people chatting) and we were just supposed to be the background noise:) So yes we all stressed for no reason. A member gave me an elf hat to wear and it was apparently super funny and people on Sunday asked me where I put meine Mütze.

After singing with our elf hats

We had a few members bring their friends over to our stand and we got to pass a few Books of Mormon out and the elders are now meeting with one of the members coworkers!
We have been really stressing to our investigators the importance of the Holy Ghost and how through the Holy Ghost we receive answers to our questions and confirm gospel truths. It's been awesome to see how the light turns on in their heads as they remember the feelings and thoughts that have come into their minds as we have met with them.

In D&C 11:13 it says:

13 ​Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall ​​​enlighten​ your ​​​mind​, which shall fill your soul with ​​​joy​;

And that's what we are promised by the Lord, without the Spirit, we would have no idea about any of the gospel, or we just wouldn't understand it fully!

Kind of glad to only have to send one more weekly email hahah:) But sad that my mission is coming to the Ende. There really is nothing like it:)

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Sis Racca and I ended up meeting a woman married to a Serbian arm wrestler and so we got invited into their cafe and there were these huge dudes and one made us napkin roses haha

Our Charlie Brown tree Sister D brought home

 

Went to lunch at a members house from Ecuador....she only spoke Spanish to us...

IT SNOWEDDDDDD, but the next day it went away...Dana and us

Got a free hand knitted hat from a member

Weihnachtsmarkt in Michelstadt

Nichts..Nein...Doch...Was??

Hallo Leute:)

Sister Fernelius and I after running around a village for an hour:) we

legit ran from door to door...

Another week gone by and 1,000 more pieces of Lebkuchen eaten...Christmas time is the best time! Partially because of all the good Christmas treats and also because of the Christmas Spirit that's being spread around! We have a Christmas market in our church on Saturday so the wards been pretty busy preparing themselves for it and they've asked us to sing...I told a member I don't sing, I play sports, and she said "well Sister Farner now that you are on a mission, it's your time to get good at singing because you can't play sports all the time!" So stay tuned for how that is going to go..

We helped the Warnckes decorate their apartment:)

We went to Heidelberg for a split with Sister Jensen and Sister Weiler. Sister Jensen and I had a real good time hahah we had just finished teaching their investigator and had left her apartment when we saw a guy walking by so we yelled to him and started talking and he's like cool come with me so we get to his apartment, he opens the door and there is like 20 guys from Gambia there and we are like.....okay we can't stay but we can come back later to share a message and so we got his contact info and a few of his friends were interested too. Hahah just a weird experience.

Heidelberg Sisters

But what was even cooler was that someone called our phone when we were back in the apartment and I answered and this guy said, hey we met at the train station and you asked me what made me happy and I have been studying about our spirits and us and was focusing on how I felt when you talked with me and I was overcome with peace and I just want to see who you are? {Side note: I remembered talking to him and then Sister Jensen yelling to me to catch the bus so we didn't finish our conversation and I just quickly handed him our card and ran away. So I suspect that was weird for him...but he ended up calling because of it!} Back to the story...I explained to him the Holy Ghost and the Godhead and he said that we should me the next day. But unfortunately he was really busy and I let him know I was going back to Darmstadt and so now we are Facebook friends and I hope that he can start meeting with the missionaries! It's super cool to see what a good attitude brings other people. It can be easy to turn into a robot when talking to people but as we really care about their lives and are genuinely interested, the Spirit can manifest to them the reality of our Message.

My mission just keeps getting better and better:)

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

(Email title courtesy of Sister Dixon learning German:))

Erntedankfest T. 2

Hallo Leute!

Kay's Thanksgiving feast

What a wonderful day today! We of course were blessed to have the Kays make us a Thanksgiving feast! We all shared one thing that we were thankful for excluding the typical things like family, food, etc. Our district is the best and ya glad to be serving with such great missionaries.

We hit the town Center on Saturday and were out talking to people by our street display for like 5 hours! It was seriously so fun!!!!! I mean it was a little cold but it was totally worth it and we got to

get a few cool appointments set up. I seriously love being able to just talk to so many people about the gospel. 

The Michelstadt sisters came up on Friday and we were able to get to all 7 people and the lessons all worked out. It was really cool to see how everything worked out! We are working with Fiona, a student from China, and last week we were able to do a Skype call with Sister Dixon's friend back home and he spoke with her in Chinese! I love being able to use technology to spread the good word:) 

The work is good, I'm really full,  I'm like falling asleep writing this. But of course I have to write what I'm grateful for! I'm grateful to be able to be out on a Mission and for all that entails (spreading the gospel, meeting awesome people, service, eating interesting food,  walking lots of miles, knocking on lots of doors, laughing, crying, studying, speaking German, traveling in bahns and

busses, and so much more) Im grateful for a lot of other things too of course but it will take a year to write that out:)

Hope you all had a wonderful day full of thanks!

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

Die Verpflichtung die die ganze Welt verändert hat!

Hallo Leute!

New District

It's getting more and more Christmasy in Darmstadt and it's so pretty! The Weihnachtsmarkt opens in 4 days so....that means there are huge Christmas trees alllll over the place!

We had a pretty awesome week, we've been working on building our relationships with members and one day we had a few hours to go and visit some less actives and on the way back we see a name on a

doorbell and it said "Landau"  ..two weeks earlier the elders found a family dooming named Landau and gave us them to go visit but the mom called and said she was sick and to call in a few weeks.

So we thought maybe this name was her and so we rang the doorbell of this random house and a 23 year old guy came out which startled us and we asked if he wanted to learn about Christ and he said of course and gave his number to us and told us to come next week when he wasn't on night shift for work. We were startled because we checked the address of the other woman and it was different!! We are going to convert the family probably haha!

Sorry I have no time this week but I wanted to share how I've learned a lot about how important members are in bringing the gospel to the world. We invited a family to send a scripture to a friend and then the members told their other member friends and soon enough people in Albania started doing it too! Side note: a member is from Albania here haha:) coolest ward ever!

Nada and us

Last district meeting

Loving life, loving the work:)

Sister Farner

Besser denn je:)

Hallo Leute!
Yet another pday....weirdddd...and ya this week was AWESOME! I feel like my mission just gets better and better and better and better!! 

Trainers

We went by a less active on Monday that we had tried to visit a few weeks back but the bus never came and he lives far out there so we have had to make sure we have the time to go out there. I was considering just leaving him be and having other missionaries go by him, but a few members told us we should go by and it was well worth it! We get there and talk with him about his life and his conversion to the church. He's from Croatia and had received a Book of Mormon there from two sisters who wrote in it that when he read in it he'd find the truth. He didn't like the fact that they "knew" he'd read it so for two years he carried it around with him and well he decided to finally open it and found the truth! He went on to be a branch president in Croatia and when he came to Germany he fell away because of his restaurant and complications in the ward. 

But he told us he had been hoping we'd come by because he was just married and wanted his wife to hear the gospel and so we will be teaching her and their kids next week!!! We're hoping that will get him back to church and that he will change his restaurant hours so that he can make it there:) 

We had a visit from Elder Sabin, in the Europe Area Presidency. He is a crack up and said so many things that were perfect to hear at this time in my mission. He said that we don't need to worry, we just need to do our best:) and that by trying we are succeeding! That was pretty reassuring, I think, for all of the missionaries. We all beat ourselves up to much about things when we should just let the worries go and work!

Heading to see Elder Sabin

Sister Dixon is also my best friend, we have tons of fun together and I tell her like everyday how happy I am that she's my last companion:)

D&C 64:33-34

Wherefore, be not ​​​weary​ in ​​​well-doing​, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of ​​​small things​ proceedeth that which is great.

​​​​​34 ​Behold, the Lord ​​​requireth​ the ​​​heart​ and a ​​​willing​ mind; and the willing and ​​​obedient​ shall ​​​eat​ the good of the land of Zion in these last days.

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

My friend Jack

Fall

Schließen Sie sich uns auf Facebook an!

Hallo Leute!

So as you saw I am now on Facebook! Our mission has the privilege of preaching the gospel through social media! A lot of missionaries feared it and for me it has just been super weird! But I'm loving

having the opportunity to stay in better contact with our investigators and reaching out to more people! We had the opportunity to Facebook video chat our investigator because he was out of town and we had so much Fun! It blows my mind how much missionary work has progressed during the times!

Distrikt in Frankfurt!

Sister Dixon and I are getting work done here and she is doing so great! She has been out for 5 weeks and is already talking to people by herself making german phone calls,etc. So proud of her. She is also the funniest person ever so we always fall asleep cracking up:)

We headed out to one of the Dorfs to do service for a woman that met with the sisters a year ago. She texted us out of the blue to see if we could come by and so we trekked all the way out there and washed her windows for her. After we finished she told us how grateful she was and that she had asked someone from another church to help out but they wouldn't and kept trying to just teach her stuff. She told us she can trust us now because she knows that we are also there to be her friend too:) it was a real testimony to me of the importance of showing Christlike love and even if we didn't get to teach the gospel we were able to be example of how the gospel has helped us.

The night before Halloween we went to a members house and she had this dinner set up that was Halloween themed and she served "brain" cauliflower, "werewolf hand" chicken,etc and it was so cute haha the members here are just the coolest!

Gravestone pudding from the Metzners

I'm grateful to be out here:)

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner 

TG and Familie Maichel

Das Leben

Hallo Leute,

The Mission

Lots of fun and crazy hints happening out here!

Starting next week we will be using Facebook in helping us with our proselyting efforts, so don't freak out when you see things change on my account. It will open a lot more doors and we will really see even more miracles and be able to stay in better contact with our members and investigators!

Yesterday had to be one of the most interesting days of my mission, we went to find a member in a hospital and ended up getting sent around to three different ones with no luck but on the way we met a guy who saw the Book of Mormon and told us his family are Members and that he'd meet next week with us:) Then we had a few appointments fall through and we decided to go to an apartment complex because we found a piece of paper that said an address and a name so we took it as a sign to go there and we did and are now going back on Sunday to meet with the family! So many tiny miracles! We also returned to Luisenplatz and ran into an investigator that we hadn't been able to get in contact with for a few weeks and he said he could meet later. So we met and set better expectations and he realized that just going to church wasn't enough, that he needed to experience the full deal! Glad he came to that realization:)

Later that night, after two appointments fell through, our other investigator said he could meet and we had one of the coolest lessons EVER! He told us that the church has brought this spirit into his heart that he has been missing his whole life and that when he leaves he is sad and wants to come back so he can have that spirit again with him. He told us he know that the devil tries to tempt him and tell him to not read or pray and he asked how he could overcome that and where else he could go besides the church to feel this feeling. We explained to him about baptism and how the Holy Ghost can be with him always when he is baptized, he was relieved:) I'm so excited for him and to see how the church will help him in his hard times and how it will lift his spirit!

The Warncke family

Other than that, this week went by fast, we did a lot of service projects with cool members and I'm so grateful to be able to serve in this incredible City. We had one member in a lesson and our investigator asked why we should believe in God because people are happy without God. She then told him that it was like chocolate. Without tasting chocolate you can still enjoy life. But once you've tasted chocolate you experience an even greater joy. She compared that to God and how without Him we can sometimes live life great but with Him and to know Him, life is so much better. And I agree fully with that. Life is so much better when we live the Gospel and obey God's commandments:)

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

US

Ihr seid die Wunder dieser Kirche

Hallo Leute,

Life's good in 70 degree Darmstadt. The weather is seriously sooo nice, even warmer than summer was...weird but no complaints here!

Top of the castle

We had the opportunity to hear from Elder M Russell Ballard, an Apostle of the Lord, on Monday, and it was awesome!!!! All 200 something missionaries were able to shake his hand and then for 45

minutes hear his counsel to us about what a mission really is and how we can improve our areas of work. One thing that stood out to me at the end of his counsel was when he said "You are the miracles of this church" and he testified to us of that and that what we do every day is a result of us being a miracle of our Heavenly Father.

Mormon 9:19 "And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles"

We went and helped a lot of members out this week with various things and applied Elder Ballard's counsel and started teaching them the lessons we teach our investigators and it has been sooo much fun! Haha we were at the Familie Kramesch's house and they both are converts, so they reverted back to their convert selves and we taught them about the Book of Mormon, it was really cool to see how they helped us explain the doctrine better and how willing they were to give us a family to go by on and teach about the Book of Mormon(we didn't even ask!) After the meal appointment it was dark and we were waiting for a bus in the middle of nowhere and there was a couple with a small couch

standing near by. We called a few people for our appointments the next day and then realized the elders gave us a person to meet with that only had an email address. His name is Armando. Anyway I went and talked to this couple and the man said he had talked to missionaries before and that he had an appointment on Friday with them. I happened to just ask if it at 4pm and he said ya.....and then

I asked what his name was and he said "Armando". What the heck?! We had just talked about him and now we happened to come across him in the tiniest city that he and us have never been to before. We were able to get to know him and his friend a lot better and we confirmed the appointment with him. It was just really cool that we were able to get to know him a little better and make a friendship before we got to meet!

Anyway there were really cool appointments with investigators and I traded a trinket for a bible so life is good here:)

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

MTC group at mission tour:)

Next EFY album cover

Castle

Darauf kannst du Gift nehmen

Hallo Leute,

Another week gone by and a lot of cool things happening here in Darmstadt!

We met a woman on a bus a week ago and we got to meet with her this week! Her name is Christina and she told us some stuff about her past that was really hard to hear and she told us for a long time she didn't believe in God. But as she gained the courage to break of ties with the hard relationship she realized that God held off His help so that she could learn to stick up for herself. That was a really cool lesson to be in and to see how she saw the bigger picture and realized what God wanted to teach her!

1st Döner box

It's been really fun working with Sister Dixon, she has such a positive attitude and has such great goals! We're really seeing a big change here and we had the opportunity to have a street display on

Monday with the other missionaries and were able to set up 8 appointments! It's great to see how hard work pays off. The missionaries in our district are such great example to us and it's been fun to be able to work along side them!

Sorry I just have no idea what else to write hahah!

Have a great week!

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

Los gehts!

Hallo Leute!

Well this week was awesome! We had transfers and President called bright and early Saturday morning to tell me I'm training a new missionary for my last two transfers. I was so excited to hear that even when he told me I was heading into the home stretch..haha

I went down on Tuesday with Elder McClellan who is also training and we picked up Sister Dixon and Elder Doyle and brought them back on Wednesday to Darmstadt! Sister Dixon is from Idaho, is a solid foot shorter than me and is the coolest! We're already having a good time and get work done.

We met with our investigator, TG, and we explained to him about the church and asked him if he would be willing to join it when he knew it was true. He then told us that when he watched General Conference and hear the words of the leaders of the church he understood them and knew that they were true and that's why he was willing to meet with us!

General Conference was also amazing; here's a quote from Elder Hollands talk "In any case, I am grateful to know that in spite of my imperfections, at least God is perfect—that at least He is, for example, able to love His enemies, because too often, due to the “natural man”and woman in

us, you and I are sometimes that enemy. How grateful I am that at least God can bless those who despitefully use Him because, without wanting or intending to do so, we all despitefully use Him sometimes. I am grateful that God is merciful and a peacemaker because I need mercy and the world needs peace. Of course, all we say of the Father’s virtues we also say of His Only Begotten Son, who lived and died unto the same perfection"

I"m grateful for the words of modern day prophets and to know that despite all of my imperfection God loves me and is rooting for me and is by me every step of the way. I love this work and I love the people here and ja life is good!

Have a great week!

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

Last district pic

Bye sis Lekic

Trainers and trainee

The lineage

---

Ich kann ein Lied davon singen:)

Hallo Leute!

After getting lost in a forest for a few hours, I finally found the time to write some things down from last week:)

On Saturday we headed to Michelstadt to help out with a intercultural fest that they were having and we were in charge of the family search stand. Michelstadt is the cutest little German village ever!

We got signed up to sing on the stage in front of a bunch of people and the acts before us were belly dancing. So it was a bit terrifying to go up there and to sing hymns after loud blaring music. Us 6 missionaries and a member got up there and I was like....uh...but as we sang I felt at peace and after the three songs, the DJ said someone asked what Church we were from and he gave me the microphone and I said "Wir sind von der Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage!"not

ashamed! The more I'm out of here the more I feel at peace with the path I am on. It's definitely not easy facing rejecting everyday, but the message is a good one and I know it in my heart! There are so many awesome things that come to pass through hard work and a positive attitude!

A scripture comes to mind, Alma 26:12:

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we

have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever"

Sunday was again another awesome day! We had four people in church, a few from Palestine and a few from Syria! One of our investigators(Abraham) brought his friend, Basharand we got to teach

him yesterday about the Restoration! He texted us last night to thank us for the lesson and told us he has a lot of respect for our church:) Really nice guy and is ready to learn about the Gospel!

We've had lots of cool experiences with handing cards out and people calling, one man we talked to in a Bahn told us that we were awesome people and that he could feel the good energy coming from us(Holy Ghost) we didn't get a number but we invited him to church and he said he would come. Normally people don't come or call, but he texted us on Saturday! It was so cool! We are going to be meeting with him in a few days now! It's so important to not give up the hope:)

This weekend is General Conference weekend!!!! So exciting! We are blessed to have a living Prophet today and to hear his words!

Have a great week!

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

Apfel küchle

 

Germany Sky:)