June 24th 2013

Good Morning! :]

This week was pretty great with the missionary broadcast and what not! Pretty crazy that they will be giving us all that technology, I'm excited to see how it is going to work out!

We also had mission tour this week. Elder Pieper from the 70 came and taught us how we can be better and well, he just helped bring a little bit more spirit into the mission, so that was great and really helpful! I loved it! Turns out his daughter went to high school with me and we graduated the same year too! Hah, the funny things you find out later on in life! I'm not really sure who she is, but ill check the yearbook when I get home!

The members in this ward are really great, they are starting to help with missionary efforts already and I can tell that the broadcast will do a lot of good in this ward!

So a little bit about the people I am teaching, because hopefully I will stick around long enough to keep you guys updated on people without confusing you.

Mike Murray has been investigating the church for 8 months, he was introduced to the church by the example of a group of 3^rd graders in his sons class, he saw that they were outstanding kids and he continued helping out at school activities, when his son got into 6^th grade he finally asked one of these “outstanding kids” what church he belonged to and well, now he is learning about it! Mike is making a lot of progress lately and he attended his first baptism last night, so I know he is thinking about it more seriously now! Yay! He has read the Book of Mormon and is currently working on Doctrine and Covenants. He is a way cool single dad that almost went pro in football, he is HUGE!!! I told him we don't know who is going to baptize him because no one in the ward is taller than him! But it will all work out!

Laurie Bennet is a nice older lady that LOVES God. She just drinks up everything we say and is currently wrapping her head around the Book of Mormon. She is in 2 Nephi and loves it, she loves meeting with us and she is currently quitting smoking! She is funny though because she has a crazy schedule full of volunteer work so she is being taught by us (3^rd ward) goes to 2^nd ward church, and lives in 6^th ward boundaries. Thank goodness the church is true everywhere!

Ashley is an 18 yr old girl that lives with her parents and as long as she lives there she cannot be baptized :( she is solid though and wants it so bad! She attended seminary and goes to church when her parents allow, we meet with her all the time and she is so awesome! She wants to go to the temple so badly! I really hope she will be baptized soon, but we know this one could take a while. We introduced her to personal progress on Saturday and my companion and I are going to do it again with her to help her continue progression!

Jacob is on date for July 6^th, he is 10 years old and is the daughter of Sarah Chamberlin ( the less active we got to church last week) she is awesome! And she wants both of her kids to be baptized and we haven't met with the daughter (Bella) yet but Jacob wants to be baptized. She is really hoping that his learning about the church will pull him away from his video games because he used to live with his dad and during that time he got addicted to “not 10 yr old boy video games” hah so yeah, he is great!

Those are the ones that we meet with most and are progressing most, so there ya go! I love you all!!

Help the missionaries, not just by feeding them, but by going to teach with them and giving them people to teach! You will be richly blessed for it!

Love, Sister Falkner!

June 17th 2013

Hello everyone!!! :]

Happy belated Fathers Day to all of those Dads that read this!

I had a pretty good Fathers Day. I was thinking a lot of people were probably having a steak and potato dinner and then we went to our dinner appointment, and WaBam!!! steak and potatoes! :] Mmmm it was so yummy!!! and then we got cheesecake for dessert! Super yummy! This ward feeds us soooo much!!! my companion and I are gaining weight by the day! So we decided that for every letter we got via snail mail, we will run a mile! So if you love me and want me to stay skinny?! Snail Mail!!! ;] we had dinner at the Griffith's, they are an awesome family! Both return missionaries and so generous!! Sis Griffith's makes homemade bread every week for the sacrament! How cool is that? And she gave us 4 loaves! It is so yummy!!! we are enjoying it! She also made us T-shirts! That was super cool! This ward just loves and treats the missionaries well! Its really great! We are working really hard at getting to know them better so that we can build up trust and begin teaching their friends! I hope it works! So far, so good!

So, we have the big missionary broadcast this Sunday! Its going to be a historical moment, I know it! My predictions are as follows! :]

1.      CHINA opened up to missionaries ( Jason, they are coming for you!!!!! ;] )

2.      Sisters can extend to 2 years.

3.      And members will be on a higher obligation to help the missionaries. Maybe more missionary related callings?

Who knows! But those are my thoughts and I am sooo excited to hear what President Monson has to say!!! :]

Something super cool that happened this week... We got a less active to church. Yay.... haha.. less active work is not my favorite because that is the job of the members, butttt this one paid of! And I knew it would, so I was willing to do that! We visited Sara Chamberlin before church, we had tried to meet up with her like 10 times and she was never home but we finally caught her at home and we talked for a while, she said she couldn't go to the temple because she had an issue with tithing, and then she just starting crying and saying how much she wants her kids to be taught and baptized, they are 8 and 10! she said Sundays are her only day to clean and that was why she hadnt been to church in a while so we told her we would do all her dishes and clean her kitchen while she got ready for church! She followed us to church and it was so great! I felt like it was just meant for her! She was so happy and felt so good! Then we went to relief society and the lesson was on tithing!!!! what??? I was kind of nervous at first but the lesson was REALLY good and a lot of the sisters bore testimony of the blessings of tithing, at the end of the lesson she leaned over to us and said “where can I find the tithing slips?” it was so awesome, the ward now has a lot more respect for us because we actually got someone to church and now we can start teaching her children! It was just great!

That's all for now! Love you tons!!!! :]

Love Sister Falkner!!

June 10th 2013

Hello Everyone!

This week has been an interesting one! On Wednesday we went over to an investigator’s house for lunch and a lesson. We were all eating lunch out on her back patio and we went in to get dessert and I had TONS of little tiny baby spiders crawling all over me!!! AHHHH it was so GROSS!!! So my companion is picking all of these nasties off of me and then we went back out to eat our strawberries and I saw this huge web of thousands of little spiders on my chair right about where my shoulder was! Ehhh, so my wonderful companion sister Farnsworth said that she liked to eat her dessert standing up, haha Robin (the investigator) looked at us like we were crazy, but it saved me from getting 1286 more spiders all over me. I was super itchy all day, so that was no fun! But... gotta roll with the punches. My baby, Sister Stevens was freaking out she absolutely hates spiders! So that made it kind of entertaining! :]

Speaking of Sister Stevens, she is gone, she got transferred to Tacoma! So it is just Sister Farnsworth and I, as of Thursday. We are having a blast though! We had zone conference this week, those are always pretty awesome! And then we drove Sister Stevens to Tacoma and met with President Weaver and discussed our responsibilities as an STL, we will basically be going on lots of exchanges! An awesome perk to having this assignment is that next week we are having our mission tour and Paul B. Pieper from the 70 is coming, he has asked us to read the talk “Seek Learning by Faith” by David A. Bednar and find ways we can apply it to our missionary work and help our investigators learn by faith. When he comes to the mission he will be talking with the ZL's DL's and STL's about how we applied it and then he will take what we say, and combine it with his own thoughts and talk to the whole mission about it! So we get to meet with him before and it will be awesome!

The 3 things I am pulling from that talk that will make me a better missionary are

1.    Don’t attract attention to myself (focus on teaching people the gospel, not telling them how cool Sister Falkner is in the normal, not missionary world)

2.    Be a fiber optic cable (Thin strands of glass are used to create the fiber-optic cables through which light signals are transmitted over long distances. Just as the glass in these cables must be pure to conduct the light efficiently and effectively, so we should become and remain worthy conduits through whom the Spirit of the Lord can operate.)

3.    Teach them how to fish! (Help them become spiritually self-reliant, so that they can progress in the gospel all the time, not just when we go to teach them.)

This area has been a little bit more difficult because it is a pretty wealthy area compared to what I have been in before and finding people to teach by way of knocking doors is not very effective… but we are working hard and trying to build up a lot of trust with the ward so that we can get referrals from them!! :]

That which is to give light must endure burning! :]

So that is pretty much my week! I will attach some pictures from last week and this week because I can on this computer! Yay! :]

Love you all!! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Falkner

Pictures 

1 Us after shopping!! 

2 Us going to Zone conference

3 funny street sign.... hah

 



June 3rd 2013

Hello everyone

This week has been awesome!!! I am in Silverdale 3^rd ward and I love it here!!! I love my companions, I am in a trio with Sister Farnsworth, and our baby (trainee) Sister Stevens. We work hard, and we have fun! I really love it! We are kept so busy that I haven't even really had time to unpack yet but it's all good because we are doing the Lords work and we keep it pretty clean anyways. It's just sitting in suitcases still. Haha

This ward is so great, we have a lady that makes us lunches every Sunday, Sister Dodge, she puts them in the fridge for us. Also we had a lady supply us with blankets and towels because we didn't have any, and then our ward mission leader and bishop are just super helpful and give us lots of part member families! It is so helpful! :] when we got here we had one investigator and now we have six! I hope they all stay solid! They are awesome though, so I am not worried. The one we had before was Ashley, she is 18 and basically a member minus the water, her parents will not allow her to be baptized because they have read some anti, so that could be a long time coming but she will get there one day! The rest are super awesome. One was a referral from a ward member, she is reading the Book Of Mormon and is already in 2 Nephi so she is doing great and then we are also teaching someone who has a son on a mission, so that is way awesome too!! Lots of good things happening here in Silverdale.

This is a town!! There is an Old Navy across the street from our apartment, if you know me.. you know how dangerous that is. And there is a mall right down the street. So hopefully I don't spend too much money! But it's nice to be in a normal town! Haha

I love my companions, they make me laugh so much! I am really just so happy and I am so grateful for all the support I have, I love you guys! Thank you for everything!

Have an awesome week! I love you!

Love, Sister Falkner