June 9th 2014

Hello my close friends!

So, this week I had some incredible opportunities! On Tuesday night we got a text from President Weaver saying that all former Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders are invited to Mission Leadership Council! So, on Thursday, Sister Wilkinson spent the day with Sister Diener, from Olympia and I got to go up to Tacoma to be in the meeting! It was really special, it was President and Sister Weavers last MLC, so they wanted everyone there! In the training President said "2 Nephi chapter 2 is still in the Book of Mormon, this means that there is still a need for 'opposition in all things'"

I really liked that thought because even though we have been having a great time in Rochester and we have been so blessed, we still have hard days! Just like the next missionary! This morning during comp study we were reading a talk by President Packer and he says this...

"Life is full of problems

It's full of if's and but's

And the man that's grinning all the time

Must be completely nuts."

It brought be a lot of comfort because I know that it’s okay to have hard days, I know that it is always for our benefit and it is part of OUR plan of Happiness :] so yeah, super great meeting!!

We have been continuing to teach Brigida and her family, we talked with them about baptism this week and she wants her children to be baptized in our church because it is her husband’s favorite church!

We also had transfer calls this week, Sister Wilkinson and I are staying together for another transfer, so it will be good! We will just keep pushing along!

The greatest part of my week!!! drum roll.....

I GOT TO GO BACK TO SEQUIM!!!! Ahhh, it felt so good to be back! Faye was baptized on Saturday and since Sister Stokes and I found her and started teaching her, I got to go back for the baptism! It was so special and it was so good to see Sister Stokes again! And Faye and the Sequim ward! I just love all of them so much! My new Ward Mission Leader, Brother King and his wife offered to drive us down! It was so sweet!!!

That's all for this week! Actually we found a cool guy named DJ that wants to be baptized! But I’ll tell you about him next week!

Love you tons!!!!

Love, Sister Falkner!

1. I made us breakfast the way my Daddy used to make me pancakes! :]

2. We made a goal to take a picture everyday this week because we have been awful about it, so this was on Friday!

3. Sister Stokes and I with Faye!

Short and Sweet!

June 16th 2014

Hello my friends and family!

This week was a good week, it was kind of slow but that was just because I got sick... im still kind of sick, but it was the worst on Tuesday and Wednesday so that slowed us down a little, but we are still pushing along and I should be better soon!

So, last week I told you I would tell you about DJ. He is going to be marrying a girl in the church and wants to be baptized before they get married! We met with him this week and taught him about the restoration of the gospel and he liked it, we can’t meet with him for 2 weeks due to his busy schedule but we have an appointment and he still wants to learn and be baptized! So hopefully that works out well!

We also met with a great guy this week! His name is Russ! We tracted into Russ last week and taught him a bit about the Book of Mormon and he was interested in learning more! So we went back this week and taught the restoration, it went so well and he really enjoyed meeting with us! Russ is such a great guy! He is very sincere and kind! We took our ward mission leader and his wife who happen to live down the street from Russ! When we got there he was really relieved that we brought someone because he said he was concerned about us coming and just us being there! He said he was just planning to visit with us on the porch but then it started pouring rain so we was racking his brain on how he could meet with us and not feel weird about it at the same time! It was just really neat to see that he cared about things like that! We won’t be meeting with him this week because he has his sons for the week, but we will meet with him again next week! Sorry, I’m keeping it short this week!

I love you!

Love, Sister Falkner!

1. this is a picture of a drive we took this week, we were checking up on a less active! This is something you only see driving up the mountains in Utah, but its a normal drive here in Rochester! I love how beautiful it is here in the summers!!!

538 Jeeps...Yeah, Heavenly Father Loves Me!

June 23rd 2014

Hello to my loved ones!

So, to explain my subject line... while Sister Wilkinson and I were tractingone day we saw a train go by and the train was packed full of pretty brand new jeeps!! I watched in awe, knowing that God gives me little worldly blessings sometimes because He just wants me to know that He is aware of me and loves me! BUT!!! As if that wasn't enough... Yesterday as we were driving home from church there was traffic ahead and this confused us because there is NEVER traffic in Rochester, it’s a one stop light town... as we continued to drive I saw 3 jeeps in a row and I pointed them out to sister Wilkinson and she was on the other side of the car so she could see that there were many more to come! As we kept driving down HWY 12 they just kept going. We pulled over and decided to go and talk with some people seeing as there are never that many people in Rochester at one time! so we did and we got to talk with a few people and found out there was a funeral for a young boy (17yrs old) that loved jeeps so his parents asked on FB for any jeep drivers in the area to line the road as they drove in the casket for the funeral! It was really neat to see all the jeeps and that they would support something like that! And it was a blessing to me to have a little piece of home right there with me! There were 138 jeeps from all over Washington that showed up! Looks like Dennis was a week late! He could have been there too! ;]

ANYWAYS! On a less worldly note...

I went on an exchange this week, it was fun, I got to go to Elma with Sister Johnston and we had a good time! I got a bit sunburned so I guess I match the rest of the family this week since they all went to bear lake and got some sun also!

We have met with a lot of our investigators this week and they are all doing really good! Brigida and her family are doing to great! They all came to church this week and are preparing to be baptized this week, we will actually ask them to push it back a week because their fellowship will be out of town, but they are excited none the less! :]

Last night we had the last missionary fireside! It was in Olympia and we got to go, it was really fun and so special for all that were involved! The Weavers go home this week so it was a tender night for us and them!

I think I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but we have been trying really hard as a mission to have members at our lessons and we have had the goal of having 500 lessons with a member present for at least 6 months now and the closest we got to reaching that goal was 497. We really emphasized it this week and were determined to get it for the Weavers last full week in the mission and last night they had us all get on a conference call to tell us that we had 696 lessons with a member present this week! It was such an incredible thing to be able to see the mission work hard for the goal and to pretty much blow it out of the water! It was so great!!!! President Blatterlands on Thursday and he will be the new mission president from then on! I am excited to see what the mission has in store! I love you all!

Love, Sister Falkner!

1. Exchange day! Sisters Stucki, Wilkinson, Me, and Johnston.

2. All the beautiful jeeps!! :] some more beautiful than others!

A Week of Goodbyes

June 30th 2014

Hello, and happy almost July! Man, it’s kind of rough when there are 5 Mondays in a month because you run out of money and miles! We have to drive like 25 miles round trip to get to the library and we are only supposed to drive about 40 miles a day, so it puts a cramp in our miles! Anyways, that was just the topic of our conversation on the way here!

This week was slower than last, but it was good!

We had a specialized training on Wednesday with the Weavers to say goodbye to them, it was really neat and we basically just had a testimony meeting! Their last day was on Thursday, so it was kind of sad saying goodbye to them, but I will see them soon enough! On the other end of the stick, President and Sister Blatter landed on Thursday and he is officially our new mission president! We had a conference call with him last night and I can just tell he is going to be so good for this mission! We are having another specialized training this week, basically just too officially meet them! So that will be fun!

This week we have been over to Brigida, Eva, Joan, and Maria's home everyday to teach them and prepare them for their baptism! On Friday when we went over there it was our last day with Maria there. She flew back to Pohnpei on Saturday to live there. She liked it here, but it’s just not home to her, so she is back home! We didn't get to talk to Maria a lot because of the language barrier, but she faithfully sat in on all of our lessons and she even said the closing prayer a few times in her language! It was really neat to "get to know her a little bit" with few words! But I love her and her few words! we said goodbye on Friday and she gave us each a hug and then she just held tightly to our hands and looked at us with tears in her eyes and was able to extract the few words she does know In English and she said "Thank you, I love you" it was such a tender moment and I know that she will talk to missionaries again one day, and that she will actually be able to talk with them in her language! She has felt the spirit of the gospel, now she just needs to hear it!

Other than that, we had to push back Brigida, Joan and Eva's baptism because Brigida is so set on fully living the word of wisdom that she wants to live it for 10 days before her baptism instead of just the required 5. So she and her family will be baptizedon July 12th. What a wonderful birthday weekend it will be :]

Yesterday at church we had a little miracle! We got a voicemail in the middle of church and it was a guy names tom, he said he was on his way to church and bringing his kids. He said he met with the elders a while ago and has been meaning to come back to church for a long time and that was the day he did it! So he showed up and took his kids to primary and nursery and we talked with him, he said he was baptized at 8 but was ex communicated. He wants to come back and have us meet with his girlfriend also, and he really just wants his kids to be brought up correctly and with good standards! So that was awesome! We will meet with them this week! :] 

I love you all!

Love, Sister Falkner!

1. I have this theory and I had to get a picture to prove it. My theory is that Washington is just a whole bunch of Christmas tree farms gone wrong, there are Christmas tree farms EVERYWHERE!!! and not all of the tree's are purchased, so they just let them keep growing and this is what you get, see the different layers of trees? yupp..

2. Just a lovely photo..

Can I have one of those books?- Monday, March 17th 2014

Hello everyone! Happy St Patrick’s Day!!! :]

This week was wonderful for so many reasons! The sun is shining and on Wednesday we got to go out and do our nightly tracting without a coat for the first time this season!! Yay!!! :]

So, this week we had a lesson with a lovely lady named Julie. I believe I told you a little bit about Julie previously, she was drunk when we knocked on her door and she thought we were 7th Day Adventists and we had to break the news to here that we were not.. Anywho, Mormon or not, she wanted us to come back because she is "searching" so this week we went back and we took Sister Lorenzen. (She is always just a fabulous fellowship) The lesson went so well, we taught her all about the Restoration, the Priesthood and the Book of Mormon. I was explaining to her the importance and greatness of the Book of Mormon and she cut me off, looked at me and said "Can I have one of those books? I want to read that!!" Oh how my heart smiled! I love the Book of Mormon so much and it makes me so happy when people want it!! Julie asked questions about the Word of Wisdom and we told her that we teach 4 lessons and that was part of the 4th one, so that if she would continue to meet with us we could talk about it later, and she just lit up and said "Okay, when do we go on to level 2?" We are meeting with Julie again this Wednesday and we will be 'going on to level 2' I am really excited to be meeting with her again!

We had some funny experiences while tracting this week too, we wenton Friday night with Amy, a 16 yr. old from the ward, she is just really great and the greatest thing happened, and the weirdest! I’ll tell the greatest first! We met this guy R.C. he was out in front of an apt complex that we parked near so we started talking with him and telling him about the Book of Mormon and my goodness, it happened again!! "Can I have one of those books, I want to read that" People, the Book of Mormon is God's word! We are so lucky to have it!!!! :]

Now for the weirdest thing.... we met this guy, I don’t even know his name... but we knocked on his door and he said he wasn’t interested so we left, but as we were leaving he asked if we knew Brandon Flowers, and if we knew if he was really a member or not, we said we didn’t know anyone by that name and left. THEN!!!! We are a block away, still knocking and he followed us!!! He asked if he could take our picture to show to his friend Brandon that is the lead singer in the band the Killers. I said "that’s kind of creepy" hoping he would come to the realization of his request and back off... but he didn't and Sister Stokes, Bless her heart said "sure" so he took our picture and may or may not have posted it to this Brandon Flowers Facebook page... then he continued to follow us so we had to speed walk to a new tracting place!

Okay, I know... this is getting long... but one more thing!!!

This week we had stake conference! It was amazing!! We had Elder Baxter of the 70 come and speak to us. He is from Scotland and it was very funny! The Saturday session was great, he talked a lot about knowing the difference between the Lord telling us that we have a higher potential to reach and Satan telling us that we aren’t good enough, I thought it was really helpful to a lot of people, me included! The Sunday session was really interesting! Rebecca came and got a ride with Sister Clark. Sister Stokes and I were in the Choir so we sat up front but we could see Rebecca in the back with Sister Clark and her eyes were glued to Elder Baxter, and she was crying! Unfortunately she had to leave early to take care of her son but we will meet with her soon and see what she felt. (Other than the Spirit) An ironic thing that happened during the Sunday session, Elder Baxter left a blank in the program to ask people to come up and bear their testimony and it just so happened that one of the people he picked out of the congregation was a young man that was visiting our church for the first time! Ahhh, that would be scary! But he came up and spoke about his beliefs and it was really interesting!

Sorry, this is so long! I love you!

Oh and we had transfer calls this week, Sister Stokes and I are staying together in Sequim! Yay!

Love, Sister Falkner!

Sequim, a retirement town: February 10th 2014

February 10th 2014 Good morning everyone! This week is pretty good, I really like it here in Sequim. It’s definitely an old person kind of a town, but I like it! Most people come here to retire! I'd say minus the little kiddos (which there are like 7) the average age of the ward is 70.. hah but I like it, they are all so sweet and generally home all day so they are able to help us out a lot!! My new companion is Sister Stokes, she is great! She has been out for about 10 months and is 25, so it’s nice! I really like being transferred, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but I really enjoy it! Before i came on my mission i was pretty terrible at saying goodbye but I’ve gotten pretty good at it recently! One of my favorite things about the church is that no matter where you go, or who is there, the teachings are the same and it always feels like home! I love that so much, it makes being transferred so much easier to handle! This week we found a new investigator, her name is Debbie! She is so sweet! We knocked into her, taught her a little lesson and set up and appointment for the next day, the next day we went back and taught her the restoration and she took it really well! She wants to come to church with us sometime. Hopefully that means soon!!! :] she even made us lemon bars for our visit! It’s like she knew that was a way to my heart!! Mmmm! well, all is well here, I hope all is well for each of you! I love you dearly! Oh and by the way, I gave the wrong zip code last week so my address is really 435 W Cedar St. #4 Sequim WA 98382 feel free to write me ;]
All my love,
Sister Falkner!

Photo 1. Sister Stokes and I

Happy Valentines Day this week! My favorite scripture about love is this... John 3 :16
For God so loVed the world that he
                    gAve His
                 OnLy
           BegottEn
                 SoN
                     That whosoever believeth
                     In Him should
                     Not Perish, but have
                     Everlasting Life

Monday, December 23rd 2013: Do as He would do. Love as He would love.

This week was great!
We are teaching this young man Freddy, he is awesome! He has been reading the Book Of Mormon very steadily and enjoying it, we met with him this week and taught the plan of salvation, he enjoyed it and at the end of the conversation we got on the topic of jeeps and cars, and he has a Nissan Skyline that he takes to the SEMA show is Vegas, it was really cool to be able to make a connection with him and I feel like he thinks we are a little bit more on the normal side now, rather than just strange girls that wear skirts everywhere and can’t be anywhere alone with a boy! hahah we had a hard time meeting with him at first because he is a single male, but we meet at his friends house who is a member, and it works out really well!! :]
We also began teaching this young man David this week, he is really cool and is unsure where it has come from but has said he is getting a random curiosity for the Book of Mormon, so that was cool. Our lesson went really well and we brought Hannah with us, Hannah has been a member for about a month now so it was really cool to see her bear her testimony to him! They are both progressing really well! We have been out caroling every night this week and people LOVE it!!!! They are so much nicer to us at the doorstep than usual and it really gives them a chance to feel the true meaning of Christmas! So I have really loved that, even though I now have a cold and I raspy voice, it is for a good cause!! We moved 3 people this week; I can’t imagine the stress of moving a week before Christmas but hey, to each their own! It felt good to do some physical service!
On a total side note, this week we had to drive to the collision repair center because my comp got in a little accident with the ditch on the side of the road before I got here, so I told her we need to get it taken care of, anyways, as we were leaving the collision repair center there was a jeep dealership across the way and I saw the new Grand Cherokee, I am SO disappointed in jeep.... they went from having the most beautiful SUV on the market to the most horrendous looking THING!! Ehhh! And they are putting gold grill slots in the JK's now? That was gross! Man! Anyways!! Sorry, random tangent!
I didn't get much time to tell you about last week so I will briefly update you, last week we had the Mission Christmas Party! It was a blast and very spiritual too! We had been reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and we read the last chapter together that day, it was really neat! The first picture is President Weaver and I at the Christmas party!
I invite all of you to add a little Christ to your Christmas this year and at least read these scriptures on the appropriate day; I’ll even make it easy for you and put them on here!
Today, Monday Dec. 23rd Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
(Notice the comma between Wonderful and Counselor and that all the other names have an adjective before them, but this is not saying He is a wonderful Counselor, He is Wonderful, and a Counselor!)
Tuesday Dec. 24th Christmas Eve 3 Nephi 1:13
Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfill all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.
Wednesday Dec. 25th Christmas Day!!! :] Luke 2:10-11
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Sorry this is so long, but I love you all!!!
HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Love, Sister Falkner

And the last picture is our cute Christmas tree and presents!!! :]