Y'alls book is true!

                                                   Happy Valentines Day!

Good morning!

What a cool week.  First before I forget, I just found out that 10 missionaries got their visas! But not me :( Sister Oviatt, who I practice Chinese with on the phone who's also in Georgia is now leaving, so now I'm all alone for practicing.  Elder Sessions who was in my district in the MTC is also leaving, so I'm the last one to get to the island from our district.  Dang.

                                                         Another temple day! 

But other than that, things here are great! We got to go to the temple on Wednesday, and that was just what I needed.  I seriously can't spend enough time in the temple.  I was in the same session as President Harding, and that was just cool.  He is definitely a man of God, and I love hearing what he has to say.  He truly speaks with power and authority.  He even chastised us but because he used the spirit, we were all so motivated to be better! Haha he always says "mighty; " hello, mighty missionaries! be on the same page as your mighty companion! Lessons with your mighty investigators! Your mighty ward members! Haha it's great.

                                   Gotta knock on every door!  (even the invisible ones)

We got to have a temple talk this week with Shira (: She was baptized a little over a year ago, and her missionary was one of Sister A's old companions so that's cool! I just realized as we were helping her prepare just how much I love the temple, and that I can't wait to help my future daughter prepare and go through the temple with her.  My biggest desire right now is to find someone to teach, baptize, and prepare for the temple so I can share my love of it with them.

                                          we did some hard core country tracking this week 

Oh my goodness we had THE COOLEST miracle this week!! It was Friday the 13th and we decided that we were NOT going to have ANY bad luck. We prayed so hard for a miracle that day. So we were tracting, and we wanted to make it quick because we only had a short amount of time.  We went on these two teeny streets, and we just so happened to knock on a long lost less active's door! She's not even on our ward list! She's also another less active's granddaughter and another less active's daughter! She was so excited to see us, and really wants to come back to church! Also, her fiance isn't a member and he wants to start taking the lessons! She kept going off on how she wants to get sealed in the temple some day.  Ahh, that was just so cool. We should have been praying for a specific miracle long ago! Specific prayers bring specific results.  

We've also been working with another less active for a while, and we were able to teach her the first lesson this week.  I really hope we'll be able to help her get back and active in the church again! Also, West came to church this week! It was a little random, but hey that's great! I really hope since he had his surgery, this might be the turning point where he really wants to commit, but we'll see.  Another investigator also came to church with his kids that he recently got custody of! This could be really good for him.  They're the family that we went to so we could skype on Christmas.  Haha the funny thing is, he's the nonmember.  But that's great! Maybe this will get his wife to come back, as well.  

Ah, Valentine's day this week.  We savored every last bite of the chocolates you sent, and it was wonderful.  Thank you. Sis Watts' family also sent me the cutest package with little homemade granola bars for Valentine's day! I'll have to be sure and thank them. 

                                          Package from the Watts family!  How Sweet!

Okay, one last thing.  We had a lesson with a couple last night, and it didn't go as planned but it ended up being really awesome! We were going to talk about the plan of salvation, but only got so far as to Adam and Eve.  The girl had some things happen that really skewed her perception of things, but we read 2 Nephi 2 with her, and it was really sweet to see her countenance change.  She just understood it. She still wanted to believe what she'd heard previously, but everything we said just made sense to her.  She said she had been praying to see if she should keep meeting with us, and if what we've told her is true, and she was asking her dad (he's a preacher of course) about everything.  Then she just said so simply, "I know that y'alls book is true" and held up the Book of Mormon.  "As we read it, I just feel so good.  It's just gotta be true, because the bible is true." AHH! That's something every missionary wants to hear!! That totally made my day.  We testified to her that it was, and the spirit was just so strong.  Oh, the sweet tender mercies (: 

 Haha Sister Achziger has been praying for me when I start my language study.  She's just used the little book that lays Chinese out for you, but she's gotten pretty good! It's quite flattering that she wants to learn Chinese with me, and it's just cute (:

I hope all is well back in Happy Valley.  I pray for you every day, and I know that the Lord is protecting yall.  Have a wonderful week (:

Love, Sister Facer

Stupid Satan...

                                                   How's that for companion unity???!!

Happy Valentine's day this week!

I can't believe how much has happened in this past week.  We went on exchanges on Tuesday, and I got to spend the day with Sister Echols! The one person I knew when I got to this mission! We went to Junior High together, and we were in Senor Allred's Spanish class for a year or two together.  It was so fun to work with her! Who would have thought that 5 years later, we'd be standing on doorsteps serving the Lord together.  I definitely learned a lot from her though.  I set another goal to not let another day go by without inviting someone to baptism! I'm doing good on that so far. In her apartment there are two companionships, and the other comp is Sis Cheng from Taiwan and another sister from China! Since I met Sis Cheng in the temple, we've always been excited to see each other, and she sent some "Asian snack" home with Sister A for Chinese new year.

                                                                        Car selfie

                                                           Just playin' around...

                        Sisters Echols, Dutra, me, and Achziger at the end of our exchange               
                                             My Asian snack from Sister Cheng (:

We had a few heartbreakers this week. Geisha had to drop us because her husband didn't want us meeting anymore. Dang it! They'll totally get baptized one day though, when he's a little more humble.  We've been out of contact for at least a month with Brock and Shannon, and we went by their house last night, and Shannon said they’re not interested anymore.  But I've still got faith that we can find Brock and bring him back to the path! And Shannon, too eventually.  Why does this keep happening though?? Like my special needs friend would always say in seminary, "stupid satan!!"

On the other hand, however, Montavious came to church! He met the missionaries when Sis Watts was around, but he always worked on sundays so he couldn't progress. I guess he had this sunday off, and I'm so glad that he sacrificed his time to go to church! He was even rewarded with a linger longer lunch afterwards (: I hope that will help him progress towards baptism more though.  I need more people to be excited about! 

                                   Sis. Echols knows more Chinese than I do from Sis. Giles!
                                          I need to start teaching Sister Achiziger more!

 This week we met with a woman named Lameka, after tracting into her a good few weeks ago.  That was the most humbling experience.  She said she grew up in a religious home, but she hardly knew who Jesus Christ was and what he did.  So we were able to teach her the very basics of the life of the Savior and his Atonement.  It was hard to break it down that much since everyone we've been talking to knows at least the new testament really well, but it was really good practice because that's all I'm going to be teaching in Taiwan.  It was so cool to see her countenance change.  She even asked, "So the church y'all go to is Christ's church.. The only one with all the truth?" If only everyone would realize that!! I'm way excited to keep teaching her. 

We met the nicest  pastor, and I'm sure he'll be a bishop one day.  We just helped him start building a garage, and he started asking questions.  We'll see where it goes from there, but if nothing else, he has a really good impression of Mormons.

                                          Helping out Pastor George! What a daddy's girl (:

Haha we also met the most prideful pastor I've ever talked to while tracting the other day. He basically said that what we're doing is wrong, and one of us is going to have a restless night tonight and that will be a sign from God.  Then he specifically pointed to me and said, "it's going to be you, missy." Oh, that made me so mad.  All we could do was testify with the power of the spirit, and leave him with an invitation.  Honestly, I slept decent that night.  Not great, not terrible.  But I decided that Heavenly Father doesn't need to prove to me that what I'm doing is right. And I didn't need to prove it to the pastor either.  I know in my heart that I am called of God to preach the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and no one can tell me otherwise.  

I don't know how people come out on their missions without a testimony, especially to the south.  You seriously get torn apart here.  But rather than tearing down my testimony, experiences like that build me up so much, and it just strengthens it.  My dear friends at home, challenge your faith.  Share your testimony with others, and let them question you.  Using the power of the Holy Ghost to testify is such an amazing thing, and if it didn't touch that pastor's heart, it definitely touched mine.  I love the Savior so much, and I've had so many experiences this week that I was able to peek into what it felt like to be a true follower.  And what better way to know how He lived than to share his gospel.

Love, Sister Facer

Thankful for the Tender Mercies

Good morning! I'm so surprised every monday morning to see that it's been another week out in the mission field.  I bet it was nice that you and dad got to go to St George for the weekend, and made it a priority to attend the temple.  I've been craving another temple trip! That's interesting that President Hughes brought that up at stake conference. A recent convert we were just talking to last night was asking us about FLDS and all these break-offs of our religion that she saw on some website.  Please, if it's not on lds.org or another official church website, don't read it! It will start getting you confused (Heavenly Father is not a God of confusion) and then the things they say will start to make sense, and then you'll question your testimony of the truth.  It's all just poison! Don't even read it to prove it wrong, just stay away. 

We had apartment inspections last week, and this week we were informed that we need to move because we've been having some recurring problems with the maintenance and such.  So we got to do some apartment shopping!  That was fun (: we haven't found a place for sure yet, but we're getting closer.  There's only so many apartment complexes in Barnesville, and half of them are under the same management, haha.

                              Look what I found in our trunk! If you can't bring the girl to the game, 

                                                     the game will come to the girl (:

Some updates on a few people: We met with Geisha this week.. Not sure if I've written about her, but she has 3 little girls and they're just the cutest family.  Probably most comparable to the Carthon's. Anyway, we still haven't met her husband because he's a truck driver and is always gone, but he thinks the Book of Mormon isn't true and all this stuff.  By the way, his dad is a preacher. AHH, why is everyone's dad a preacher?? But I still definitely have faith because Shira's dad is a preacher, and she turned out quite swell. I just want to meet Geisha's husband and then we'll move forward from there. 

West called us up the other day.  Turns out he had surgery again, and I guess he just wanted to see us.  I'm not sure what his status is, but he wants to start over in the lessons because his faith just isn't there anymore.  Maybe this will be good to really get a solid foundation.  I'm glad he called, I missed him!

We taught Keegen (Jenny's son, Tia's brother) again this week! He's 9 and is really quite smart.  Haha so he wanted another lego lesson, but then he got minecraft (a lego video game) for Christmas, so he made this huge church with a baptismal font and everything! I can't wait for him to be baptized (: We just taught him about prayer and Jesus Christ.  Gotta start with the basics!

We had a great stake conference this weekend! Always a good time.  We got permission to go to the adult session, but we only got there for the last talk, which was about ward councils and how to build up the ward.  I'll write later about why we were late (: the sunday session was really good though.  The stake presidency was changed, so Elder Soares from the presidency of the 70 was there.  He basically gave a recap of President Monson's talk from this past general conference, but he talked so much about studying the scriptures that he didn't have time to talk about the other two points haha. He told a story of how he and his family went on vacation, and because they had recently studied about keeping the sabbath day holy, they needed to go to church on sunday.  They did, and they met this guy who was later able to take them to the hospital to help with a miscarriage.  Moral of the story: Study the scriptures diligently, act on what you read, and keep the sabbath day holy! It was cool that I was able to relate because of my testimony of not playing soccer on sundays.  I hope that story comes in handy one of these days..

The Deals, the family's whose house I skyped at for Christmas, called us sunday morning.   Of course, the one time they decide to go to church, it's stake conference! Hahah oh goodness.  Hopefully they'll make it next week.

                                               Look at Seth go! and Shira's poor car :( 

Okay, so why we were late to stake conference on saturday.  We were actually in a car wreck.  No worries, everyone was fine, we were all just a little flustered.  It totally wasn't our fault, we were just driving down the interstate (Shira was driving), and someone decided to pull out of a gas station without looking. We were probably going to plummet to our death and roll off the side of the road into the trees (all the roads here have huge ditches on either side.. don't ask me why) but I'm guessing it was an angel that steered our car back on the road because Shira said that the steering wheel wouldn't turn once we were hit. What a miracle though. It flattened the tire, and neither door on the passenger side open, but luckily that's all the damage that was done.  I found myself very grateful after everything that happened.  I'm grateful that everyone was okay, and that the car was still drivable.  I'm grateful for Seth, who works at a car place right across the street, and who stayed late that night and was able to change our tire.  I'm grateful for the gas station worker, who already knew the guy and where he lives, because it was a hit and run.  I'm grateful for Bishop Allred and Brother Governo who came to the rescue even when we didn't totally need them, but they still came. I'm grateful that Shira's kids weren't in the car at the time.  I'm grateful that we were still able to listen to 30 minutes of the adult session.  I'm grateful that our phone was charged and working so I could call 911 for the first time. 

Even when I could have been mad that the witnesses all said the driver got out, checked to see if his car was okay, then drove away, and that a woman came back and claimed that it was her driving, I'm not. There's just no reason to be mad when I know that Heavenly Father's hand was there with us the whole time. I'm thankful to be a missionary and so close to my Savior.  I'm thankful for the restored gospel, and the peace and happiness it's brought me.  I'm thankful for the few people who opened their doors to us this week, and actually wanted to learn more about the gospel.  I'm learning every day to enjoy the tender mercies from the Lord.

Love, Sister Facer