Planet der Affen

Hallo Leute,

What an interesting week full of scraping wall paper off apartment walls for 3 hours and having our last MLC with President Stoddard along with a split in the beautiful city of Bonn! I've just been blown away at how individual and unique every person is! I just love talking to people and figuring out their stories and helping them to find Joy in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The Stoddards❤️😿

The Distrikt

We had a lesson with Scurender on Saturday and he told us about how he was going to pick up his car on Sunday morning and we were like hey what about church??? And he said dang I totally forgot. We then had an awesome lesson about the Word of Wisdom and we asked to pray and ask God to help him keep it and he said he didn't know if he wanted to and so I asked him to pray for the desire and he said he'd think about it...he said the closing prayer in Italian and right after he ended he

told us he asked God for the desire and he also told us he would see us at church!! He said he'd call the people to move his appointment to Monday! He's just so willing to change and become better and every lesson we are in he makes the changes he needs to be aligned with God's will for him! He's awesome!

Scurender made us pizza!! So good!

Sorry this email is short, we went to a monkey park today:) but I have pictures to make up for it!

Me and my best friend

Me and Sister Case

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

Made banana boats in Bonn on my split with Sister Voigtlaender

Wie heißen Sie? Muffin. Chocolate Chip Muffin.

Hallo Leute!

Just another we going by real fast here in Duisburg. We had a few splits and a lot of appointments that fell out so we did some finding! Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, I could think of no better place than here for my birthday!

We were able to have an appointment with Scurender and set a baptismal date with him for the 22 of July! He is from India and started going to an evangelical church because he like the disco music they played. Then he started learning more about Christ and realized that Christ really did live and die for us! He's seriously the coolest!

Scurender

I went to Leverkusen later in the day for a split with Sister Losee and they bought me chocolate and had a Happy Birthday banner on the floor when I got to her apartment! I was well taken care of. Sister Perkins was a pal and made me a breakfast burrito and then we got waffles later! I have the best companion!

Back to other things. So we went finding a lot and our district leader gave us a paper and we made a "Finding Bingo" game to make finding even more fun. So there we're things like "talk to a woman pushing a stroller" and "talk to someone with no shoes on" and Sis Perkins and I are very competitive and thought that we would do all 25 finding approaches in a day. We got to 18! That is where we met the guy named Chocolate Chip Muffin. He happened to be barefoot, wearing a cowboy hat, had dreads, holding a beer, and riding a bike when we talked to him and those were all things on the bingo sheet. We've seen him before and got to talk about what he does because we him always

outside the mall blowing bubbles or twirling a baton. He told us that he's been on the streets earning money for the last 2 years and that he's trying to save up for a school in India. He was also honest and

told us he uses some of the money for beer but he said he used to be a guy that had a regular job and wore regular clothes but then one day got an impression from God that he needed to do what he actually wanted to be doing. So he quit his job and has been traveling to different places around the world in an attempt to make people smile and to build a school for kids in India.

Chocolate Chip Muffin man

It's really cool to see the different ways of life people have and what they want to achieve in their lives. We've never contacted him because we just didn't think there was a good reason too. But I think this bingo game helped us to get out of our comfort zone and talked to ALL people. We were even able to find a family later in the day that want us to stop by and teach them about God and I usually don't approach women with a stroller and many kids because I don't want to bother her haha sharing the gospel is not the most convenient in many circumstances but it doesn't have to be because what it brings cancels all the unconvenience!

So basically what I'm trying to say is that we can make people happy by sharing the gospel no matter what circumstance they are in. It's here to help us not to hinder us!

Have a great week and step out of your comfort zone!

Liebe Grüße

Sister Farner

P-day at Wolfsee with the Dortmund zone leaders and Essen sisters!

Getauft

Hallo Leute!

What a week!!

Pouyan was baptized on Saturday!! It was a tad stressful because we may have accidentally left some paperwork on the train...but it didn't matter because the baptism was great! Afterward he told me that he felt amazing and that everyone should be baptized:) I'll never forget seeing him come to church the next day with his white shirt and tie he had bought the night before. So proud of him and thankful for his testimony of the Church and of Christ. He told an investigator at church that he should be baptized hahah he's a little missionary already!

Church was great too because we had 5 people come that are interested in the church they are from Angola and Nigeria so we got to use the translation microphone and headsets. Man that is a hard job! But they said they loved church after...so the Spirit helped me out haha. One of them is named Malachi and he called me yesterday to say that he loves the church and loves going but feels like he's not a full member yet and wants to be baptized....???!!! I was so shocked on the phone I was like ookkayyy we can help! I'm always amazed at the people here! 

Monday I was in Hamm on a split with Sis Bernhisel and the next day we went to Herne to split back  and we stopped in Dortmund for 15 min waiting for our next train. Then we got to Herne and Sis Möller hopped on the train with me to go to Duisburg then we got off in Essen for 10 min to wait for our next train that took us to Duisburg. We had two power lessons with our investigators and members who were angels and stepped in to help us out. Then we got word that Sis Möller had to be back in Herne the next day by 9am because of a dentist appointment so then we left Duisburg that night, stayed with Sis Schulz and Sis Perkins for the night then went to a dentist appointment the next morning. Then tomorrow we are off to Münster!! Whoop! So basically what I'm trying to say is that I was all over the Ruhr Pott and it was a blast! Missions really keep you on your toes and throw surprises at you!

I was reading this week in Alma about the Anti-Nephi-Lehis and what a powerful conversion story.

"6And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them--yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away.

7 For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren."

After reading that I thought about what things I can give up to come closer to the Lord, what things I can bury/lay down that are keeping me from becoming my best self. Sometimes I think we are the people who hold up the sword in defense to keep away the blessings of God we hold onto our pride or our sins or anything else that takes us from learning the correct way to be. Sometimes we are afraid to change ourselves because it takes a lot of effort, a lot of time, etc and in reality when we give up those things we find greater peace and joy! Bury your weapons!!

Life is good the mission is the best:) I love serving the Lord. Shout out to my little brother for going in the MTC this week:) proud of you Elder Farner!!

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Dortmund

Sport P-day

Geschmack von Brasilien

Hallo Leute,
What a wonderful testimony building week!
So ja we met with Gabriel on Saturday, we met him at the Bahn stop a week prior and we didn't get his number because he has a Brazil number so we get there and he doesn't show up...we waited for 15 minutes and decided to walk to where he lives and we ended up meeting him on the way there! We were able to have a stellar lesson with him. Okay ignore that last sentence. Who says stellar!? Anyway the lesson went great and we actually were able to get through the whole restoration of the church and he shared his testimony of God and said that he knows God is there and that he feels the Spirit and the Spirit helps lead him away from harm, he then says "sorry that sounds really weird" I almost started laughing. We told him how we know that the Spirit is there to help guide us and that we can feel him too and he was like "really?!" He then shared a story about how he didn't get on an airplane because he felt this strong impulse not to so he had to buy a different ticket and wait for the next one. He said he sat there feeling so dumb that he didn't stay and then received a call from his mom and said that the plane he would of been on had crashed and everyone had died...! I got goosebumps from that. Oh my goodness! He told us He knows God is watching out for us and that when we follow the Spirit we will be saved from dangers that are ahead. We extended a baptismal date to him for 1 Juli and he accepted! Seriously the coolest person ever!

After that lesson we were talking to a man at a bus stop and I start to smell this weird scent that started getting stronger and stronger, smelled like vinegar and we all started coughing and stuff and had to run from the bus stop. We found that there was a guy spraying insecticide right behind the bus stop and he didn't bother to ask us to move haha weird,.

Sunday was awesome!!! The ward is super supportive of Pouyan's baptism on THIS Saturday! So excited! Fast and testimony meeting was awesome! There was a recently returned missionary who bore his testimony and it brought the Spirit so strong and every testimony after was building upon his and man I love Duisburg! Cyirus and Mojtaba gave the sacrament prayers in German not Persian and they did awesome! As I sat in Sunday school I realized there was 6 people from Iran, 4 Americans, and 2 Germans in our class and wow. They would've never gotten the chance to hear about our church in their home land and this time is really a monumental one for spreading the gospel to war torn countries. I'm just in awe of how ready these people are that came here searching for a better life and are able to have the freedom of religion!!

MTC group at mlc

President Stoddard and I

Sorry this email is a long one but this week was probs one of my favorites from my mission,
Monday was our last zone conference with President Stoddard and Sister Stoddard, they go back to America at the end of the month:( but we get the Boyers! Our meeting was bittersweet to say the least. Here are a few of the things the Stoddards said they learned on their mission:

Take it back to the Sacred Grove

Book of Mormon is key to conversion

Obedience is the first law of heaven and brings blessings

Spirit is essential to missionary work

Prayer works

Faith without works is dead, works without faith are dead

Missionaries are the lords ambassadors and are entitled to His help

Senior missionaries bring stability and power to the work

Missions are stressful, you can't get rid of stress,it's a matter of dealing with it constructively 

We can develop a close relationship with our savior as we devote our time to Him

Its all about love

Love. Conversion. Baptism.

all good things must come to an end so that more good things can happen

Amazing people! President Stoddard told me that when he was on his mission in Düsseldorf (that was before the Frankfurt mission came to be) there was only three church buildings: Essen, Dortmund(❤️) and Düsseldorf and now there is 10 or so more! How cool! I hope when I come back in 30 years there will be a huge change!!
I went on a split with Sister Shelley( she was in my MTC Distrikt) and it was just super awesome to be able to teach someone with her. We've come a long way! Still goofballs that's for sure:)

Her dress was like 10x too short for me so that's why I'm squatting haha

Sister Shelley and I tried to make soup..basically water carrots and potatoes..fail

Lastly, Tuesday. We were sitting in Bahnhof eating lunch and I saw this guy wandering around with his suitcases and felt the need to talk to him. He ended up sitting right behind us and I told Sis Perkins we needed to talk to him. But I was like hmmm how? Silly I know, I talk to hundreds of people each day but I drew a blank. Then I told her hey I'm just going to read really loud from the Book of Mormon and maybe he will say something she laughed and said okay so I read a few verses and I was like okay he obviously didn't hear so we went to talk about something else and he came up to us with his bible on hand and asked if we were having bible study!! What?? I said no and then had the opportunity to explain the Book of Mormon to him! He was going back to Africa for a month but we are going to teach him when he gets back! Whaaat?!! The day gets even better. We decided to carry the Book of Mormon around in our hand and we get on a bus and this guy leans over and asks me if I was giving out the Book of Mormon out for free and then I was again able to explain the Book of Mormon and I got his number and we will be teaching him next week! I love the Book of Mormon!! Seriously the best thing ever! I love reading it and being able to share it with other people. I've been reading about the sons of Mosiah, who are missionaries in the Book of Mormon way back before Christ was on the earth and I read in Alma 17 :11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

12 And it came to pass that the hearts of the sons of Mosiah, and also those who were with them, took courage to go forth unto the Lamanites to declare unto them the word of God.

I love those scriptures because patience is so important!! When we are patient in our hardships and trials we are able to see that one day we will be blessed for it. I've seen that on my mission. At the start it was extremely hard and now it's not easy but it's easier and I'm loving it even more and am seeing the blessing of my endurance. I love the Church, I love this work and I'm grateful I have the chance to proclaim the truth everyday!

Liebe Grüße 

Sister Farner

Sis Schulz and I

Sister Kleiners mom sent me a package of sweets:)

34 Grad in dem Schatten

Hallo Leute,

We had transfer calls this week and.....Sister Perkins and I are staying together for her last transfer in Duisburg!!! YAYAY! We both were worried we'd get transferred but nope we are still together!

Whoop!

Our friend Puff

We didn't have a split this week which was really weird because we were actually together for more than a week. We didn't know what to do hahah it was just super weird but we start splits again next week so no problem haha.

Yesterday was super cool! Someone found the contents of my wallet and sent it to the police department so I went to get my drivers license and my identity card and well I get there and have the cards in my hand and tell the woman that I had already ordered a new one which meant I couldn't take the others back until she cancelled what I had ordered.

We will see if that went through today or tomorrow..now on to the better news, we were waiting at the train station and these two guys moved over so that we could sit down and then one of them asked us a German question and we told them we were from Amerika and that we didn't know either and then we started talking about why we're here and then asked if they had time later that day and they said ja!(2 of our appointments fell through) So we met them later and it was awesome! They had so many good questions about religion and they are from Syria so they lost their hope in God because of the wars and we were able to explain to them about how if those people really believed in God then they wouldn't be fighting. I ended up teaching part of the restoration, the doctrine of Christ and the plan of salvation to one. I don't recommend doing that but he was eating it up. Really cool how it all worked out and he said there is a 75% chance he will come to church so ja!!

There were probably other things that happened this week but like you all know, I have the worst memory, it was 34 degrees Celsius one day which is 93 degrees Fahrenheit so that was fun.. We met with Pouyan and he's on track to being baptized in a week!

Pouyan

We met with Maya and she told us that her house is our house:)  

Maya! She got her hair and makeup done in like 2 minutes after I told

her I wanted a pic haha

I talked to a guy from China about Ping Pong tournaments. Naja I love People haha

I've also thought a lot about Setting goals daily and how everyday that I've done it this week brings new challenges but also helped me not go through the motions. I read a talk from the 1980 General Conference talk called "Decide to Decide" and this quote stood out "it is possible for a man to get on a train that goes 60 miles per hour and say to himself, ‘I am going 60 miles per hour.’ But it is not

true. Unless he is moving ahead on his own power, he is standing still" Which I think is what happens to us as missionaries, we say oh we are on a mission so that means we are doing what we are supposed to. But we aren't really missionaries until we make those goals to help people to Christ and then act upon them! I'm the most happy when I'm working hard and losing myself in the work!

With Zone Leaders( Elder Ault and Elder Mejia)

Have a great week and don't waste time away on tedious things, put the phones away and talk to each other:)

MLC round 3

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Farner

The Best burgers here #duisburger