Hello and some Pics!!

 I think I have caught up on all of the pictures that I needed to send for the past few weeks. So happy that we finally came to the Trail Center to email so we could send pictures! Sounds like the week was SO good and that you all did an awesome job hiking the Grand Canyon! We had a really good week too. The Lord is just blessing our area so much and I am so grateful that I get to be able to witness all of the miracles that have been happening. We had THE most eventful (and I mean literally event-full) weekend. It was a lot of fun, but it also just wiped me OUT.

We started on Saturday morning with my alarm clock going off at 340 so we could be out the door by 440 to serve food at a pancake breakfast in downtown Omaha. We were doing it for the Kiwanis club that Dr. Fischer and Elder Cleverly are in together, and Sister Harris, Sister Whittaker, Sister Kirby, and I were on the 5 am shift. It was POURING rain, so we were really grateful that there was a big tent covering us. There is a guy here named "The Pancake Man" and he travels and makes pancakes at events and fairs and things of the sort. His grill was about 10 feet long. It was crazy. As we poured all of the syrup into bottles- quite the difficult task, I'll tell you- we met one of his assistants. Pancake Man Steve. He is a young single adult that lives in Council Bluffs. WAIT. WHAT!? A YSA that lives in Council Bluffs?! Those are my favorite kind of people to talk to right now! Ha. He asked us all sorts of questions about being missionaries, and we gave him our phone number and invited him to the bonfire we are having tonight for Family Home Evening. We are praying that he will come, and I think he will because he has been texting and asking about it! What a miracle. See, blessings come for sacrificing sleep to serve, especially at 5 in the morning.

We were on shift right after the breakfast, so we went to the TC (and I was LOOPY already. Seriously. Slap happy....haha MMAT). We then left our shift early to go to Hung and Kevin's wedding. Remember our recent convert from May?! She was such a beautiful bride, and I can't wait to go to their sealing! They had asked us to serve the food at their reception, so we did that. Felt right at home. Then we went straight from there to the Relief Society Broadcast. Whew.

Sunday was not AS crazy, but still pretty dang busy. We served at the TC in the morning, and it was one of those weird mornings where we don't have a single tour come until 11 and then we got 5 tours at once. There are only 6 of us on shift, so it gets a little frantic when that happens. After our shift we went straight to church. It was fast and testimony meeting for us, and Chris got up to bear his testimony. Let me tell you, nothing makes you more happy (or nervous) than watching your brand new recent convert bear their testimony in church. BEST. I was laughing so hard though because he made us STAND UP. He got up and said "I want to thank my two sisters for getting me on the right path. Stand up sisters. I was like NO! haha he just said STAND UP." So then he talked about getting baptized and what it meant to him, and then he made "his four friends" stand up and talked about how much they have helped him. Ah he is so darling. Haha. He brought his girlfriend, and we are going to be teaching her on Tuesday! Miracle! Then, at night, there was a fireside put on by our church, the Remnant church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Community of Christ church. Sister Thomas brought her friend Pauline that we went to come home to kanesville with, and she really enjoyed it. In fact, afterwards, she asked us to come to her house on Tuesday. Such a huge MIRACLE! Sister Thomas was freaking out haha. I loved it.

Well, Sister Pulley is here. Do you remember the Pulley's- my ward mission leader and his wife from Benson? She came to pick us up so we can go to her house and make cupcakes! So much fun. I love that I have made such good friendships here and that I can keep these friendships for life.

Like Papa said, I know that sometimes it's hard to tell if I love my mission or if I even like being a missionary...so let me reiterate. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I love doing this work because it is the Lord's work, and as I do it, He is molding me into the woman that He needs me to be. I will never be able to be grateful enough for all that He has done for me.

I love you all! 

Have a great day!

Love, Sister Farnsworth

Allison and Sister Anderson

Allison with Chris!  Love that sign language!

With Sister Whittaker on their one year mark!

Allison with her companion Sister Harris 

Family!

HELLO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST MOM ON THE PLANET EARTH.

Well, the big news in the Loess Hills ward is that we got a new Bishopric yesterday! We will miss Bishop Bendorf and his awesome counselors, but we are really excited for Bishop Johnson and all that is ahead of us. Singles ward bishoprics are an interesting thing because they are with the people in the ward way more than a reguar bishopric...church, weekly FHE, activities almost every weekend, and the list goes on and on. So, needless to say, people get pretty attached. We are really praying for our new Bishop and are excited to see what ideas he has for the ward. I'm sure that he will have ideas that will be answers to the prayers we have been saying for months now about how to help the ward grow, how to help unify it, and how to serve those members that are struggling. I love this little ward.

 

Chris is doing so well. He is such a spaz, and it makes me laugh so hard every time we are around him because he gets so hyper! He never ceases to surprise me, though. Yesterday at church, he handed me his nook, and he had downloaded the gospel library and had the lesson for Sunday School open already. Best feeling ever. Plus he said he wants to go to the temple soon! Too bad it is closed for cleaning for 2 weeks. Hopefully that means we will get to clean it, at least!

 

Hung, our recent convert from May, is getting married this week! She is SO CUTE. Sister Thomas in our ward threw a bridal shower for her at the church on Saturday and some girls from the ward came. It was really neat because her mom and sisters came, and they are really against her being a part of the church, but they were willing to come to the church and are even coming to the wedding on Saturday when they told her they wouldn't come if it was at the church. We are so happy for her. She really wants some church "books" to read to help her get to know the gospel better. I'm not sure what would be most helpful really. Maybe even one of those kids Book of Mormon readers that help you get to know the stories better? Any ideas?

 

Council Bluffs ALWAYS cracks me up. The most interesting people you could ever imagine live here. We found a new investigator last night that is getting married in two years(?) and the reason they are waiting for so long is to plan their neon themed wedding really well. Normal.

 

We aren't serving at the Kanesville tabernacle anymore, which is a bummer, but it slows down in the fall and winter and the hours change to 10-5 instead of 930-7 with two shifts. I'm grateful, because I don't know how to sit still anymore, but I will really miss the Tabernacle. Good thing I live up the street from it. The quilt show has been going really well, but it ends next week! Where has September gone?! We heard yesterday about the project we will be doing on Halloween night (do you remember the 12 days of Christmas thing I sent you last year? This year will be way cute.) and it was announced that Gingerbread starts November 23rd. YES.

Our Trail Center Training this week was about the training that Elder Robbins gave to all of the Zone Leaders (and Sister Training Leaders)  in the mission. He said that because we have 100% agency, we have to take 100% accountability for every situation that we are in. For instance, I can't say (as a missionary) "Oh, shoot, I woke up at 6:35. My alarm must not have gone off." Even if my alarm didn't go off, it was my responsibilty to do as I promised the Lord and be obedient by waking up by 6:30. So, to be more accountable, maybe I turn my alarm up louder. Maybe I set two alarms. Maybe I have my companion set her alarm clock too. You get the idea. Too often, we blame, we procrastinate, we lie, we rationalize etc. He made a list of those actions and then called that list the "Loser List". The Savior never went to that list, so we shouldn't either. So it has been my goal to be completely accountable for everything that happens in a day. It has helped me as I account to the Lord every night and has helped me to see what I can improve on, and how I can become His servant. I love being a missionary!

 

Well, that's all I've got! From Council-tucky, Iowa, I LOVE YOU. Have a great week!

Sister Farnsworth

Great Week!

This week was incredible. Seriously, I look back and just want to pinch myself. When we weekly planned for this week, we counted how many total hours we were going to have in our area (not at the Trail Center, planning, at church, in meetings etc.) and it came up to about 10 hours, including the time that we were hoping to spend at Chris' baptism. So about 8 hours to teach. EIGHT HOURS. For a whole week. That is no time at all. I was a little nervous just because we want to be working hard and seeing a lot of success, but we just trusted that the Lord would magnify our time because He always does when we are where He needs us to be. So, we set to work, and saw amazing miracles. Seriously, it was so great. I still am not really sure about how we got everything done that we got done. Our investigators are doing really well! Freddy is reading the Book of Mormon so much and it is so fun to see the excitement in his eyes about it. LOVE that kid.

 

So, Wednesday, Chris was supposed to have his baptismal interview right after District Meeting because our district leader lives in Bellevue, Nebraska, and it was convenient that he was already over there. Well, Chris doesn't show up. His phone is off (which is typical, it always dies ha), no one answers at his house, nothing. AH. I was so sad because I knew how prepared he was to be baptized, and then here he was, just not showing up. I think I was sad the whole rest of the day. He finally texted us at around 930 that night to say that he got called into work and that his phone had died so he couldn't tell us. We set up a time the next day that Elder Call could meet up with him and have his interview.

 

Soooo now the day is Thursday. Sorry if the play-by-play is boring, but it was the most up and down part of my week. Whew. Chris shows up to his interview mad at one of his friends for some reason or another. I was terrified sending him into his interiview like that, just because....well, baptismal interviews are always a little nervewracking as it is. His friend that he was mad at was with him, and has a really hard family situation, so we went and grabbed her some food while he was in the interview. By the time we got back and got her food, they came out of the interview. It was like Chris was a different person. He was absolutely beaming. He came around the corner and said "Tell her, Elder Call! Tell her!" I laughed so hard because of how excited he was. Man, I love that kid.

Friday, we got to go the temple, which was such a great experience like it always was. Who hasn't been to the temple lately? You need to go. ASAP. Being there just reminded me over and over again that we have a loving Heavenly Father, and that His love is perfect. We never need to worry as long as we are doing what He asks of us.

 

Come Saturday morning, we still don't have anyone to baptize Chris. Originally, he had been planning on having Elder Wallace baptize him because he was one of the missionaries that worked with his mom and sister, and he loved him. But Elder Wallace went home last transfer, so that didn't work. So we ended up having Elder Call, who did his interview, come up and baptize him. He was really happy about that! It was kind of fun for Elder Call and I because we came out together, so we celebrated our year mark by having him baptize one of my investigators! Funny how that worked out! The baptism was so neat. The Spirit was so incredibly strong there, and I was so grateful that I got to be a part of all of this.

 

 

Last night was the last concert. Talk about mixed emotions. I am so happy that they are over because so much work goes into each and every one, but at the same time, I wanted to cry at the end of it last night. Especially because last night's concert was so crazy. Just about everything that could go wrong beforehand did go wrong. It was so obvious that Satan knew that this could be a really spiritual night and that he didn't want that to happen. So we just kept moving forward, despite the setbacks, and everything ran smoothly! The Spirit was so strong, and again, I was so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me to be a part of this.

 

We are really excited for this upcoming week because we have a lot of time in our area! We are going to work SUPER hard and I know that we will see miracles. Thank you for being so supportive- I love being a missionary SO MUCH.....not sure if you've heard me say that enough times ;)

 

Love you all!

Sister Farnsworth

                                       Happy Missionaries!  Sis Farns, Sis Harris and the

                                              recently returned home Sis Jasper!!

Transfers!??

I am still a little in shock from transfers. My cute Sister Jones got transferred out of the area and is opening a new area for full proselyting sisters and is training a new misisonary named Sister Mccauley. She is darling! Sister Harris got transferred in which was a SHOCK for both of us because we have both trained every transfer that we weren't being trained. She has been out 9 months and is from Littleton, Colorado, and we still just keep looking at each other like IS THIS REAL!? We are such good friends, and we have seen incredible miracles already. She is an incredible missionary and has so much faith. She is already loving the area and the ward, and is even having me teach her some sign language to help her teach Chris. I LOVE HER.

 

This week really was a week of miracles. We are teaching way more than we have in the singles ward since I've been here, and the ward is doing so well! I am so amazed with how much the Lord has really blessed this area. It may seem like a small thing, but we taught 7 lessons with members present last week....we barely have more than that many members that are active in our ward haha! It was incredible. We also got a ward mission leader after not having one for the whole 4 months I have been serving here. He is a RM that served here, in Loess Hills right before I got transferred in and he went home, and then he moved back here to go to school. It will be great because he knows the area well.

 

Chris is doing SO WELL. I love him so much I can hardly stand it. He will probably get baptized this Saturday afternoon, still trying to figure out the day/time because of conflicting work schedules. I think that word....LOVE...sums up my mission pretty dang well. I love the people, I love being a missionary, I love winter quarters, I love teaching. Man I love teaching. I love seeing the hand of God in every part of my day. I love praying around 17 times before noon (I laughed really hard at Hermana Arntsen's count of how many times she prayed. Awesome). I just love my mission. I LOVE NEBRASKA AND IOWA.

We are also teaching a lot of other amazing people. John, Matthew, Chelsea, and Freddy, are all progressing so well. Next week I will tell you all about Freddy because he is awesome. He is 18 and a basketball player and reminds me SO much of Terren Houk (from BYU). They could be twins both in how they look and act. It's freaky.

 

This week will be an incredible one. We are going to the temple Friday (YESSSSSSSS), hopefully have a baptism Saturday, and have the last concert of the summer on Sunday. And yes, it really still feels like summer here. It is soooo hot and humid.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL.

 

Will you study chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel with me this week? We are studying it 15 minutes a day in the mission. I can promise you that if you do, your testimony of the Book of Mormon will grow, and you will come closer to your Savior because of it.

 

Love you!

Sister Farnsworth

 

Allison and her new companion Sister Harris

HI!!

First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the best birthday ever. Daddy told me that he was sure that this would be one of the best birthdays in my life, and it was. I woke up after a good night's rest...best birthday present of all time....and my cute best friends surprised me by taking me out to Harold's for breakfast (Harold's is a diner just down the street from the TC that we all love). Then, we went to serve at the TC, and I took THE most incredible woman on tour. I just loved her from the first instant of the tour. AH. I learned so much from her. So much faith. Then, I sat back in first chair (right in front of the door) and we had a pizza delivery that Mom had ordered. SO sweet. And the elders who just happened to be there when it came were grateful too haha. THEN, Sister Ellsworth walked in with homemade oreos that Mom asked her to make for me. Does this day not sound like the best?

I got so many sweet notes and cards and a package from the girls, and then Elder Scott, the vehicle coordinator, called and told me that I get to keep the sweet truck that I have been driving for another week. SO cool, especially because I was only supposed to have it for 2 days. Best. Surprise. Ever. It's really funny because I am the only sister in the mission authorized to drive a truck.

So....in other news. My week wasn't just all about my birthday, I promise. We had some GREAT things happen this week. Elder Robbins from the Quorum of the Seventy came and we had our Zone Conference with him on Thursday. I can't even begin to tell you how much I learned from him. I think the number one thing that I have been reflecting on, though, is what he taught us about planning. He was one of the founders of Franklin day planners....not sure if he is THE founder, because he didn't talk about that, but still. Good person to learn about planning from. SO anyways. Sorry, I'm getting off on tangents today. He was talking to us about how God is a planner. He planned the world, then created it. He made the Plan of Salvation which is the plan for us to return to live with Him. So when we plan effectively, we are becoming more like God. He wanted us to have 3 steps when we plan. Ready to learn them?

The first is the one that we think of the most often: our goal. For example, a goal could be to lose weight. In order to accomplish that goal, we have to have the second step, which is a plan. So, we need to work out, eat healthy, drink water etc. But the MOST important step by far is to have a vision. The vision is the "WHY." So, in this case, to be healthy, to feel good about yourself, to develop the Christlike attribute of self-mastery etc.

So, this week, will you all use this to make a goal for yourselves? As you pray to know what Heavenly Father would have you work on, I can promise you that you will have a clear understanding of what it is that He would have you do. I love my Father in Heaven. I am so grateful that He has allowed me to learn from Him on a daily basis. I know that He loves His children, and I am so grateful to be able to serve Him.

LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Farnsworth

Happy Birthday Sister Farnsworth!!