Monday, September 28, 2015

Changes!!

HELLOOOO!!!

Well, Changes came!... and Wahooooo!!. Hna Ashby and I STAYYYYY!! :) We are so very, very happy for that! :) She is a gem and we are so excited for the next 6 weeks the Lord has given us together!!  But, changes still brought a few surprises... I will now have 2 companions. I will continue with Hermana Ashby, but I will also begin to work with Hna Moreno as Hermana Training Leaders.  Hna Moreno and I will be working with the other Hermanas in the mission half the week – and for the other half, I will stay here and work with Hna Ashby! :)  I am ready to work hard and be added upon so that we can reach all of our goals and see the blessings.

I know that I will get to learn so much from all of the Hermanas we have out here and I am so very excited!  It will be incredibly special to get to know all of them and see them all in action!  These ladies are truly marvelous!!

Changes also brought some new people to Pedro Juan Caballero.... remember my good friends from Mariano?!  Well, Elder Carpio (from El Salvador) and Elder Caicedo (from Colombia) BOTH came out here to Pedro Juan!!  What are the odds?!  I love it!!  They joke that now we are only missing the rest of the Mariano Crew and then things would be perfect!  Haha!  It’s going to be a great 6 weeks here, full of hard work, good laughs, and helping people come unto Christ!  And I know we’ll make good memories too! 


Of all the new investigators we have, I would like to take a minute to tell you about C M!  She was a lady we contacted about a month ago. We felt inspired to go back last week and visit her... so we did!

C didn’t have that much faith in God, she wasn’t even sure if He existed.  And if He did, she was very angry and frustrated with Him, because she had passed through some very hard experiences in her life and felt like maybe God had abandoned her.  She would find herself asking, ‘God? Where were you in my suffering? Why did you leave me?’

We began to talk with her about the way to develop faith, and how we can recognize the Spirit and WHO God really is and His son Jesus Christ... It was such a beautiful lesson -- the Spirit was definitely the guide.  At the end, C said that she wants to try.  She wants to have faith in our Heavenly Father and that she is ready to feel happy again. She gave the closing prayer, humbly asking to know and humbly asking to be softened and illuminated that she might feel the Lords presence and that she might feel of her worth in the Lords eyes.  When she finished it was quiet, and so peaceful.  I asked her how she felt right then and she said she felt at peace and that it has been a very long time since she has felt that way. :) She is excited to go forward in faith and try something new and we are so very excited for her progress! :)

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING UPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!  I am so excited and I can’t wait to find out who the new apostles will be and have the opportunity to sustain them! :)

Well I’ve got to go catch a bus...  But I love you guys so much!  Please take care and go make someone smile!! :) 

XOXO
Hermana Fardos


Monday, September 21, 2015

Tomorrow is Changes "Fingers Crossed That We Stay"!!

FAMILYYYYY! Hello, Hello, Hello!!!

Time is short today but there is so much to share about this week... So, I’ll just try to list it out and see how much I can tell you!!

We had a Mormon Helping Hands project where we painted, cleaned, and mopped from 8 AM until 4 PM. 

We had divisions with the Hermana Leaders

We had 2 church open houses (one in our branch and the other in the first branch)

We found some amazing families

CHANGS ARE TOMORROW!!

We had a fantastic lesson with Perla Villalba (She is a great member! Love her to death)

The sun is coming out and WOW it is all ready getting hot, say hello to those beautiful tan lines!!

I am so excited to start off this next change. Tomorrow we will know the changes and traslados, *fingers crossed that we stay!!* Haha!!  I would love to stay with Hna Ashby in Pedro Juan for one more change!! Something I love though, is the excitement everyone has at the start of each change. Our district is SUPER excited and we are all ready to set goals and make plans to achieve them.


I really like how in the mission, President McMullin has been sure to take time to share with us ways and ideas to help us, not just to set mission goals.... but set LIFE GOALS and be able to reach them too.  I have been able to apply his suggestions in my mission and have definitely been able to see blessings.

Something that comes across my mind as changes are knocking at our door -- is just how amazing missionary work is, o sea, just how amazing the Lords work is.  Missionaries come and go, but the message remains the same -- The invitation to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. These are the requirements to return and enter into the Lord’s presence. The fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and will not change. Our Father in Heaven will not rest, nor will His missionaries rest until His message has sounded in every nation to every person therein.  

I am so grateful to have had the chance to accept that oh-so-special invitation of Christ, to come unto Him.  And I know that it has and continues to change and bless my life.  I know that such blessings and many more are available to anyone who will accept the invitation o come unto Him. It’s my prayer that we will, every day, make that conscious choice to follow Christ and serve Him in whatever capacity we can -- and look for ways to choose to serve him even TODAY!! :) Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve... because as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!! :)

I love you all and I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you all even more!!  Be good and go make someone smile!!  I look forward to hearing from you guys next week!

XoXOxOx

Hermana Fardos

Monday, September 14, 2015

Setting Out To Teach, But Learning In Stead!!

FAMILY!!!

Okay, well, Mother Nature has been a little bi-polar this week!  It got so COLD - out of nowhere!!  Last week it got up over 100 and this week it got down to 50... easy! It was so cold and wet and super rainy.  Like cold to the bone status... but, have no fear because moms hand warmers are here! Yes, we blew through those guys!  They were a little tender mercy! Haha!  Between the hand warmers and the Holy Spirit – we stayed warm enough!! :) The sun came back out today though... and I know summer and those hot 120 degree days are just around the corner... WAHOOO!! :P


(Invites to the Church Open House from this week)


Hna Ashby and I made the goal to talk to every house and every person in our area.  So we organized a way to go about it and we went to work with our goal in mind, and I really believe that we are seeing fruits of that labor!!  One morning in particular, we went out and hit the pavement and NOBODY was receiving us -- we would talk, look for ways to serve, and invite them to church or to learn more and we just got rejected. yeah, like seriously R-E-J-E-C-T-E-D.  But, we still had half an hour before lunch, so we kept working that street and the very last house we knocked was a young 17 year old girl named Cintia.  Before we even had a chance to say Hi she invited us right in!! :) And as we began to talk with her, sure enough, like 4 years ago the missionaries visited her and she loved the lessons!!  She was attending church, she had even gone to many baptisms and has many member friends.  She wanted to continue learning, but when the Elders were transferred out, somehow the new ones missed her and no one ever went back to find her.  So we get to follow up there!! :D

One day this week, when it was just POURING down rain, we visited Hna Fernandez, she was a less active member 4 months ago... but now she burns with a firery testimony even when her family situation is NOT ideal. This was one of those visits where we set out to teach, but learned so much!!  Her house is humble, so very humble... her sons are destroyed by drugs and bad influences, she slaves away everyday looking for ways to make enough money to keep up the medical treatment her little granddaughter who is in Asuncion fighting cancer... nevertheless.... she walks forward with a perfect faith in Christ, and such a strong love for Him.  When we went to visit her, the rain was coming down hard, and it was just pouring in through her roof -- our chairs sat in pools of water and a constant drizzle of rain was falling everywhere and getting us all wet.  I just don’t even have words to describe HOW very humble her circumstances are. We felt impressed that day to talk about the Holy Ghost, his purpose and how we can better recognize his influence in our day-to-day lives... and as we taught the Spirit became so very strong and  Hna Fernandez began recounting experiences she has had, both big and small, where she felt the influence of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit came into that room so quickly - the next thing you know, that cold wet house, puddle soaked chairs, dripping wet clothes... all of that just went away. It didn’t matter that her circumstances were humble, in regards to temporal things... because she knew that she had an abundance of spiritual blessings and that was enough.  She does not complain.  I don’t even know how to express with words all that she taught me in that 30 minute visit.  But I know we learned a lot about the importance of gratitude, real blessings, and recognizing the Lords hand in all things as we visited Hna Fernandez.  She’s such a gift.

I know, with all certainty, that the Holy Ghost is such a blessing and that his companionship is all we could ever want for.  He is a gift from the Father to comfort, teach and testify to all of the His children, o sea, to us!! :) I know that as we are baptized into the Lords church we receive his constant companionship and that as we continue living worthy of his companionship, we can feel more and more of that special influence in our lives.  I know that the Spirit touches all of us in special, personal ways. :) It’s my prayer that we may always try and recognize those prompting for what they really are, in the moment they come.  :) 

I love you all so much and my time is just about up... so, I have to wrap up.  But I hope that this week is the best week and I hope that you all have many opportunities to make someone smile!! :) 
XOXOXOXOX

Hermana Fardos


Monday, September 7, 2015

LIVE: From Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay




Hey you guys, it’s me again! 

Since I wont get the chance to say it on your actual birthday day... I’ll just start today by singing... ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU; HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU; HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR TJ AND GRANDPA AND ANY ONE ELSE WITH A BIRTHDAYYYYYYYY!!... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!’ :) Happy birthday you guys! I love you both so very much!

This week flew by!!  Seriously, faster than any other week has ever flown by!!  In just 2 weeks there will be changes in the mission AGAIN!  We are very hopeful that we will have another 6 weeks together... this is such a happy companionship!

This week we went to go and visit a girl named Sunilda, she was baptized almost a year ago and she is awesome! She would come out and do visits with us all the time. But for the last few weeks, the adversary has been working really hard to distract and discourage her. Making it seem harder to do those things she needs to do, especially the commandment of keeping the Sabbath Day holy and getting to church.  And in this fight she’s battling with the adversary, she had a dream that hit her really hard and I just wanted to share it with you guys...  :)


She said that she was dreaming that she lived at her old house out on this big ranch in the middle of no where (it’s the place she grew up).  In her dream, it was a Sunday and she was sleeping... She dreamt that I had come with my companion to knock on her door and bring her to church with us.  She said that she hadn’t heard us and just continued sleeping.  In her dream my companion and I had opened the door and entered into her house only to find her on the couch sleeping... "Not doing anything productive” she said.  Then she continued "I wasn’t reading my scriptures, I wasn’t getting ready for church, I wasn’t at church, I wasn’t praying... I wasn’t dong anything I was supposed to be doing and I felt like that was a sign to me that I need to get to church, that I need to continue preparing for the second coming because you never know the hour, or the moment, that Jesus Christ will come knocking at your door and when your time for preparation has ended."

She expressed such an increased desire, more than she ever had before, to keep the commandments and prepare herself!! :) “for behold this life is the time for man to prepare to meet God”!! :) Alma 34:30-34. 2 Nephi 9:21-24.

Sometimes as a missionary, you set out planning to teach, and instead, you learn.  It really made me ask myself "if the Lord were to come right now... would I be prepared?" "Am I in a place where I am progressing?" 

I just think it’s one of those things we should all think about and check ourselves to make sure that we aren’t forgetting to use this time to prepare for the next life, to follow such very special and important commandments: to exercise our faith, repent, read the scriptures, pray, and go to church! :)

Those things really do help us prepare and progress.  They are commandments for a reason, they give us wings and lighten our loads and illuminate our path so we can progress and not regress! :)

I promise that the Lord loves every one of you so very much and I love you all so very much!  Keep up the good work!! :)  Besos for everyone!! :)

Hermana Fardos