February 25th 2013

OH HEY!!!

First of all… NATALI JENSEN!!!!!!!!! I mean Sister Natali Jensen, HOLY COW!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!! Australia will be so beautiful and speaking mandarin??? Wowzers!! Good luck cuz!! You will have to keep me posted on how the prep work is going, I am so proud of you!! You’re mission will change your life so much and it will help you realize everything in life that is truly important!! Ahhh, I’m so excited for you!!!!

Anyway, to get some of the not so important things out of the way first… Some of the weird foods I have eaten this week that I would have normally never eaten are; Cooked carrots, still not my favorite but I can tolerate them now. And FISH!!! I know it’s not that crazy, but for me it is. I really just pray a lot that my taste buds will change, at least temporarily… and they do, so that is really helpful and awesome. Very kind of God to help me out a little, he’s a good guy!!

Funny story, last night for dinner we went to the Roods (she is in the relief society presidency) so before we went to dinner we were out tracting and I told my companion I was mentally preparing myself for pot roast, with cooked carrots and potatoes because that’s what relief society presidencies make for Sunday dinner. She kind of just laughed and said yeah maybe and I said, no really… my mom is relief society president and that is her favorite thing to make on Sundays!! Haha so, long story short we got there and I was right. Pot roast, potatoes, and carrots. I ate it, didn’t love it, but I ate it. Sister Rood is a talker, we were there for two and a half hours and my companion and I probably said like five words other than the two minutes of talk time I was allowed when I shared a scripture. It was crazy, and we hinted so many times that we needed to leave but she just kept going!!!! Ahh, we finally got to the porch and she talked for another twenty minutes so I started shivering in hopes that she would get the point and eventually she did and all was well, but it was a long night.

My Big God is real moment for this week was Thursday. We had interviews with the President and Sister Weaver (which went well) and we had about 20 minutes of free time before but we have no miles left and we were already by the church so we could drive around to see anyone. We decided we would just knock the trailer park next the church while we waited and the third trailer we knocked on, we met Karen. Karen is friends with a recent convert that lives in the same trailer park and she said she was going to start giving her friend a ride to church and would probably attend with her. She has read parts of the Book of Mormon already and feels good about it, we are going back this week to begin teaching her, she is an awesome lady, she retired from working at a tire shop for 25 years, and loves NASCAR!! Hahah so we talked a little bit about Danica Patrick and I told her that I admire the way she advertizes herself because she never sells herself as a sex object, she advertizes herself for exactly what she is, a professional female driver. It was really cool! Overall this week was really good, I learn more and more everyday of how much my Heavenly Father loves me and it just makes me want to work that much harder so that I can please Him!! I love this work, I love the Book of Mormon, and I love my Savior and my Father in Heaven!!!

Thank you all for the support you have shown me! I love you all!

Love always, Sister Falkner :]

February 19th 2013

Dearest Familia and Amigos!!

This week had been a good one, the mission life is good!! For Valentine’s Day I helped this sweet sweet member out. She called us the night before and asked if we could come provide some service in the morning so we gladly accepted and when we got there she fed us lunch and was talking to us for a bit and then she explained that her husband “went to the doctor” somewhere in the east coast two weeks ago and said he is not coming back, she had just finished filing for a divorce when she called us the night before. She asked us if we could help her by getting all of his stuff out of the house, it was a very bitter sweet moment, I could tell she was hurt, they had been married for 20 years for goodness sake, but she was so strong and she handled it so well, she has a full trust in God that everything will work out for the better. Her husband had a motor home in the driveway and she wanted all of his stuff in there so that if he came back she wouldn't have to help him and he wouldn't have to come into her home, he could just take his motor home and leave, so that’s exactly what we did. We moved it all out! Kind of a crazy way to spend Valentine’s Day, but it was good!

I went on an exchange and served in Silverdale because my companion got to go to the temple one last time before she goes home, so that was a crazy experience. The area I went to was really wealthy compared to the one I am in now and we had a hard time finding people to teach for the day and anyone that we could have taught was sick, that’s basically how my whole week has been. Lots of people are sick… But it was good, I served with Sister Thomas, she was in my district in the MTC and she is awesome! We went out and did what we could and when we came back and had no more people we could visit we thought the others sisters would be back from the temple trip so we headed back to meet up with them only to find they were still an hour or so out, on the way there we saw Northridge 4X4 and because we had a little time to kill before my companion got back I asked Sister Thomas if we could make a pit stop. I walked in and talked to the guys in there for a bit and they asked why the heck I was in Washington, so I explained to them that I teach people about Jesus and they asked if I was one of those people that go around knocking doors all the time. Hahah I explained that we do that and we talked for a bit about it. I then told them I worked at Teraflex and he looked at my name tag and said “Falkner? You didn’t JUST work at Teraflex…” haha his face was pretty funny so they gave me a little tour and then we quickly left. It was a weird experience being back into that environment, but it was really nice at the same time.

Sunday we had a baptism, it was a 9 year old boy that we found and began to teach but because he went to church with his grandma rather than his mom, he had to be baptized in his grandmother's ward which is in the elder's area, so it kind counts? We went to the baptism and it was awesome, I can’t wait to help more people experience the atonement first hand and draw closer to God.

This P-day we went to Crescent Lake, it is a GORGEOUS lake, it is completely surrounded by mountains, it’s the deepest lake in the western United States, and they actually don’t know how deep it is because it’s so deep. We went on a hike around the lake and found some old railroad tunnels that we hiked through, those were really cool!! Then we headed back down the trail but still had some time left so we drove to the other side of the lake and hiked up to the Sol Duc Falls, they were so beautiful. I will attach some pictures! My companion and I have this thing that every time we experience a miracle or anything that is just indescribably awesome happens we just say “God Is Real” while we were hiking and seeing all these beautiful places I just kept thinking to myself… God is real… there is no way he is not real! I encourage all of you to look for moments in your everyday life that prove to you that God is real, because I know without a doubt that he is and that he is there for me and loves me and cares for me, sometimes we don’t have these massive miracles happening in our lives and we think that he has abandon us, but I promise you that he hasn't. You won’t find what you are not looking for. Look for "God is real" moments and feel free to write me about them because I would love to hear them! Just like a testimony grows when it is shared, it helps others to grow, so share those experiences with others and help them know of the reality of God! That’s all for today folks, I love you all so much! :]

Much Love, Sister Falkner :]

 

Happy Valentine's Day from Sister Falkner

The bookstore from Twilight

 

Hike near Crescent Lake

 

MTC and the First Pictures in the Field

Sister Falkner and Sister Esplin

"Scarf Saturday" with Sister Stucki, Sister Casey, Sister Esplin, Sister Falkner, Sister Hall, and Sister Thomas

Sister Hall's drawing of Alie

 

Sister Falkner's drawing of "Russell", her jeep back home

 

 

Studying in the classroom

 



 

Sister Casey, Sister Stucki, Sister Thomas, Sister Hall, Sister Esplin, Sister Falkner, and her teacher running in the background

 

Alie with Elder Kaufusi, he joined the district when he had to stay longer after knee surgery

 

In field orientation 

 

 

Alie with Sister Casey, she is from Hawaii



The district and branch presidency.  Pinigers, Ozwalds, and Ellis's

Elders Mosbrucker, Rose, and Tibbitts

Elder Rose and Sister Falkner

 

Alie, Elder Lopez, and Sister Stucki



 

Sister Falkner's self portraits

 

Working on laundry in the MTC

 

 



Elder Stewart and Sister Falkner

 

Sister Falkner and Elder Mosbrucker

 

Elder Johnston and Sister Falkner

 



 

Elder Johnston and Sister Falkner, with a photo bomb by Sister Stucki and Elder Stewart 

 

Sister Stucki and Sister Falkner

 

Companions

 

Sisters in district

 

Alie and Elder Kaufusi

 

District and Brother Hanks (a teacher)





 

Alie and Brother Hanks

Our district

Bus ride to the airport

 

Street with a familiar name in Silverdale, WA

 

Port Angeles, the land in the background is Canada

 

February 11th, 2013

Hello Everybody!!!

Things here in the WA-TAC are good. For you twilight fans, yes I am in Port Angeles. I drive past the book store and the restaurant that they went to in the first movie all the time. It’s funny because the hotel signs here say welcome twilight fans. Hahah it’s just a book store and a restaurant.. But some people are funny I guess.

This week was good, on P-day (last Monday) we went to the Bunkers in Port Townsen, they are these huge cement rooms and like secret tunnels right on the coast and they were used by the coast guard in WW2, so they are pretty creepy but it was fun, we played a big game of capture the flag with our zone and it was a good time, it looks just like call of duty or something. I will send pictures later.

The rest of my week has been pretty average, just lots of knocking doors and what not. I taught myself how to French braid my hair this week, that was kind of fun. We found a potential investigator family, which is always exciting. Hopefully things progress there. On Thursday this week we went to an investigator's home, Tawnya and Gunner. They are a funny old couple and Tawnya is VERY opinionated and she doesn't really seem to like me because well… so am I. Haha we kind of knocked noggins for a bit so that was rough, but I’m sure it will only get better :] I just hope we baptize her before my companion leaves because I don’t think she would continue progressing without Sis. Holman, she loves my companion. My companion is leaving in 3 weeks, so it has been kind of rough. We are on totally different ends of the mission and its weird, and she talks about home a lot!!!! I don’t blame her, but it gets me thinking about home more than I probably should be so I continually pray to be focused and dedicated to the mission but I do miss all of you and I love you dearly! Thank you for the support! :]

Yesterday we drove down here to Tacoma for a fireside. It is a fireside that just the missionaries put on and we sing and bear testimony. It was really cool because we had so much power in the songs with having so many missionaries singing. I don’t even really like singing and choir like stuff, but it was really cool and the spirit was so strong! We spend the night here in Tacoma and this morning I had to go to the mission office and take a defensive driving course so that I could get permission to drive the mission car, it’s a good thing we had planned to have me take that class while we were down here because on the way here my companion got pulled over and she got her blue card (permission to drive) taken away this morning. So I have to drive the rest of the transfer!! Pray I don’t have the urge to speed ;] then we would be in big trouble. The best part about all of this is, I don’t have to back her every time we leave somewhere now!! Haha every time I backed her out of a parking spot I could just see dad laughing at me. So no more of that for me this transfer! :] YAY!

Well I love you all, feel free to send me mail! :] its really good to hear from all of you.

Monday, February 4th, 2013 - Contention Begins on the Plane

Hello Family and Friends!!!

So I have made it to my first p-day in the field!! yay!!

I saw Natali in the MTC, she served me my food on Sunday! It was really good to see her!

Tuesday morning we left the MTC at 5am and headed to the Airport, there I got to talk to mom for a bit, that was really nice!! On the plane we had a little bit of contention. One of the sisters in my district, Sis. Hall was teaching the girl next to her and they were having a really great conversation concerning religion until the guy in front of her turned around and started whining because he felt offended. Then people started standing up for her saying she had the freedom of speech and could talk about religion if she wanted to and it became this big boiled argument until the pilot came back (we hadn't even taken off yet) and said that the guy could either deal with it or switch seats, but he refused to switch seats and kept complaining, so someone gave him a pair of headphones and he simmered down and fell asleep. It was pretty crazy though for my first real world experience after being hidden under the MTC bubble for three weeks.

I am serving in the Port Angeles area, it is in the top part of WA, I can see Canada!!! It's really cool! If I look to the north, I see the ocean and Canada and if I look to the south, I see the mountains!! :] It is really beautiful here!! My area is kind of Ghetto though, knocking doors can be a little bit sketchy. Regardless, we knock doors for at least two hours a day! It's honestly my favorite part of the day though, it's kind of cool to see how people reject our message or to lie to us, or try to argue with us. But the best is when they reject what we have to say but by the time we leave the doorstep we have taught the first lesson and they are committed to reading the Book Of Mormon, its the best feeling!!

To any of you that know me even a little bit, you know I am a ridiculously picky eater!! haha You would all be impressed at the foods I have been eating. We had dinner at an investigators house, her name is Tu and her husband is Mika, they are VERY by the earth kind of people and of all the things to have for dinner she made a vegetable casserole.... hahah but I ate it, I didn't like it but I ate it. She fed us dessert first and I told her I was pretty picky and that she should let me try it before she told me what was in it. It was a crust with bananas and whipped cream (so i thought) so I tried it, and it was kinda strange but tasty enough to eat, and then she told me the crust was made of beats and pecans, and the whipped topping was made of coconut milk!! Ahhh, so weird! it was alright though.

I have had a really good week here, we teach about 3-5 lessons a day and go knocking. My companion is Sis. Holman, we have our differences but she is really cool and has helped me a lot! One of the guys we are teaching is all ready for baptism, but it will take a while because he is trying to find a place for his girlfriend to live because he has to kick her out before he can be baptized. It was so cool to teach him the Law of Chastity though because he is so committed to it, when we were talking about his girlfriend moving out he said "Yeah, that's not a problem I will get her out, I won't let her rob me of this opportunity." IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!

Everyone here has CATS!! AHH, it is the worst, I am so allergic to them and the only thing I had to take for it was a PM pill, so I took it because I was reacting pretty badly, and well... it was a long day, I was sooo tired!! But I will pick something up today!

That's all for this week folks.

I love you all!!

Love, Sister Falkner! :]