Saturday, September 22, 2012

September 20, 2012


Mom-
 
I guess I shouldn't just address this letter to you since it will be read by so many other people, but I will just write these letters like they are going to you and Dad and go from there. I read your emails, and was a little bit overwhelmed with all the questions because I want to make sure that I answer all of them, but we only have 30 minutes to write and right now I am down 3 minutes already! I think that emailing stresses me out more than anything we have done so far this week! Can you believe that it has been a week already!? We keep hearing the saying that the days go by like weeks and the weeks go by like days, and that is so incredibly true. I feel like every day is SO jam packed, but I feel like yesterday was Saturday and it is Thursday already. If I didn't have a schedule every day, I would be so lost as to what day of the week it is.
 
Well, I wrote about Sister Whittaker, but didn't tell you much about her, which I got in trouble for in my letters, so I will write more about her and her wonderful self. She is 23 and from American Fork, so it is fun to talk about a lot of the things and people we know from around here. Will you go look her up on Facebook so we can see what friends we have in common? We already found out the other day that her sister served with my friend Jason Kitchen. Someone get his address for me because we want to write him. Small world. Anyways, her name is Jordyn Whittaker. She is HILARIOUS and we have so much fun together. She taught piano for 8 years, just finished her LPN before coming on a mission, and has worked at American Fork in Labor and Delivery for the past 4 years. The most exciting news of all about Sister Whitt is that she is serving in the NEBRASKA OMAHA MISSION. Did everyone just get excited?? Ok good. Because I am very, very excited. Every night we are completely crazy together because we have been so good at being quiet and studious during class and study and we have to let out the crazy. There are some sisters that live on our floor of our residence hall that, no lie, EVERY time they pass us we are doing something really weird, like our toothbrush dance. We have become friends with them now because they are always cracking up laughing at us. Now, every time they see us they call us loco. Those hermanas are a lot of fun. Surprisingly enough, we are not the only sisters in our district! We have 6 elders, and 4 sisters including the two of us. Sister Bullock is from Idaho Falls, serving in the Washington DC North Mission (temple visitors center) and Sister Jarrett is from Winnemucca, Nevada, serving in the San Diego Mission (Mormon Battallion). We also have another roommate that is a solo sister (meaning she doesn't have a companion, meaning that is terrible) who is going to Romania and who has been in the MTC a month already. We are learning lots of Romanian. And you all thought I wouldn't learn a language on my mission. When we take her to her classroom, her Elders always ask us what we do all day because we don't have a lanugage to learn. We say study. They ask us what we have to study for that long. And then they are SHOCKED when we say that we study the gospel all day. It is really funny to see. We had another roommate for the first 4 days we were here, but Syster Chesley left for Sweeden on Monday. Had to make room for our new Sweedish sister! I haven't seen Syster Blomquist yet, which I was really bummed about because I was hoping to write home about seeing her so Penny and Larry could know she's doing well. Oh well. Este che este. That's "it is what it is" in Romanian. That is not how it is spelled.
 
I have seen so many people I know since I have been here, and all my sisters think that I am like the most popular person in the world, but I have just been really lucky. I keep a list in the back of my notebook so I can remember who it is that I have seen to tell you. Our friend Sean from our ward last year works in the bookstore here, and my roommate Jessica from freshman year works custodial. I already told you I saw Matt within like 5 seconds of being here. Cara Duchene from my sophomore year is here, and so are some girls from my English classes that I have been good friends. Then I ran into Cameron Keysor, one of the baseball players! He apparently went and found Mason Marshall (one of the baseball players that I worked with a lot) and told him that I was here because Mason came and hunted me down. I'm pretty sure he left yesterday for the Philipines but he sounded so great! I also so Manu, one of the football players. I saw Will Jones before our fireside the other night, and Brendon Warner, who I was really excited to see because I didnt even know he was coming back out! SO great. I have also seen my friend Jarom who is a teacher here, and my freshman mentor from BYU who is also a teacher. OH and don't forget Elder Mann! He is doing great and his Spanish sounds really good! So proud of all of these Elders and Sisters.
 
That is one of the hardest things for me here at the MTC- saying Elders and Sisters instead of you guys or girl or dude haha. We are really trying hard to be good at it. I thought it would be a lot harder to be obedient, and I'm sure as I am here longer, it will be, but right now it is not bad at all. Sister Whitt and I have just decided we are going for complete obedience and know that we will be blessed for it. There is saying that is thrown around a lot here at the MTC, and that is "Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles.'' We are going for miracles here, so exact obedience it is. The only thing that I have really struggled with at all since I have been at the MTC is feeling like I am inadequate or that I am not doing enough. I know that I am working as hard as I can, though, so I need to just keep pressing forward and working hard.
 
We have had so many INCREDIBLE experiences so far, and I only have 8 minutes left to tell you about them, so I will go fast. Relief Society was taught by Sheri Dew on Sunday. Yeah. Sheri DEW. Is that a joke?! It was amazing and I just wanted to cry because I was so grateful that I get to have these experiences because I am on a mission. She taught beautifully, as she always does. Her message was about the women of the church and the idea that Mormon women are oppressed. When asked by a reporter about it, she said I can speak from the pulpit, which in other churches, I would have to be ordained to do. Does that seem like I'm oppressed? And then she went on to list about 20 things that show that we are not an oppressed people. I loved it. It was a powerful message, and she ended by asking- ''Do you think that the Lord would send women He did not have complete confidence in during these scary and chaotic times?'' So incredible. We then had a fireside from the director of Proselyting for the church who taught about the power of the Book of Mormon. He used the example of the Church's response to the play titled the Book of Mormon. We have I'm a Mormon ads EVERYWHERE- including every page of the playbill for the play. I love this gospel. So so so cool. Tuesday night's devotional was from Elder Koelliker of the 70 and I loved his message about the work of spreading the gospel.
 
I hate that I have no more time to write! It is so hard to do because I have so much I want to tell you. Let me just end by saying that I know that I am supposed to be here. That I am so blessed to be called by a prophet of God to bring others to come unto Jesus Christ. I love this gospel and I love the incredible lessons that I have learned from the Spirit this past week. I have never experienced the Spirit in the way I have in the past 7 days because it is constant and so strong. Please write me Dear Elders rather than emails- It makes my day to get letters!
 
I love you so incredibly much. I miss you!!
 
Sister Farnsworth

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