Serving others, you are Serving God

Hey Y'all,

I had a great week and love the spring time! I did however here some sad news while being on Facebook. I am sending love and prayers to the Marlor family and hope that they can pass through this hard time and remember the Atonement and know the amazing ability in the Plan of Salvation and know that they will see there father and husband again. He was a great man, fulfilled his callings, loved his family, and were great friends to my parents and whole family! He will be missed!

This week was great and thankfully really busy! Monday was crazy we were doing so much and i am so glad that we were still able to finish cleaning our apartment. On the way to Wal-mart though was awful. We got stuck in traffic, but it was all made better when we got stuck in between a car trying to come out of the store parking lot on the left of us and the cars in front gave her enough room. She lost it when a car on the right of us come around and parked in front of her and so she was perpendicular to us. she was not going to be able to go anywhere until the light changed and we were kind of annoyed. It got better when we saw her pull out her phone and took a selfie of the way she was in between cars. We both started laughing. We had had some good and crazy experiences this week where we just had to laugh.

On Tuesday, we had FUN Zone Conferences. We had training and lessons from 9-12 then we changed into our normal people clothes and got to play capture the flag, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, and volleyball. It was great and i got to see one of my MTC companions. It was great! It had rained a lot the day before and so the field was really muddy. We got pretty muddy and at the end some of us (Not me!) slid through it! It was a great day and lots of fun!!! Who knew that missionaries play sports and have fun!!!!

On Wednesday we had lunch with a less-active and she made us the best food ever. We had potatoes, yxperigous , and salmon. It was sooo good! We saw our investigator  and invited her to church and t have a church tour. Of course the day she wanted and could come was next Sunday which is stake conference and so we had to explain that it will not always be like it what it is for Stake Conference but that she is welcome. We have a church tour with her on Tuesday! We then did service for a member and painted the bathroom. So glad that mom has had me help with my the house projects.

On Thursday we had a crazy start we helped at the Bishops Storehouse and we got new carts and lots of volunteers. It normally takes us about four hours to get through everyone and then another 30 to clean up. We finished everything in 2 1/2 hours!!!! The Stake Relief Society president was screaming and so happy. We were all invited back in 2 weeks! :) We got back and Sister Behrmann got sick and so we got some phone calls made and set up appointments and started weekly planning. Tonight was the 3rd Thursday visit on the 4th Thursday. We saw two less-active families with sister Powers from the ward council. One family conversion story was amazing they at the time had just gotten to america from the Congo and didn't speak English the best and saw a commercial on the video The Lamb of God and called the number and two sister missionaries came and then they were baptized 6 months later. It was amazing and really annoying to see such a great powerful story for someone who didn't understand English at the time and then was able to still be converted by the spirit and is now less-active. Thankfully the younger grand daughters want to come to church and tried to convince her mom to go. After them we saw another family. Who had just text ed that morning. She never replied, but when we got their she just opened the door and let us in. We sat down and she told us that she knew we were coming. She had been not coming to church because of her schedule. she has been in grad school and is graduating on May 9! She said that she knew we would came because her schedule was starting o get slower and that God would show her what she needed to do next. She told us her testimony about knowing that God has a plan for all of us and he has shown her hers. She will be coming back to church after mothers day and ready to help her 7 year old daughter prepare for baptism. It was amazing night and we could feel the spirit so strongly in her home. Happy Birthday Cameren on Thursday!

We got to do service for an older sister and help in her yard on Friday and on Saturday we helped a pregant sister do some house cleaning for things she hasn't been able to reach and get to and her husband just had surgery and got home the night before. We were glad to help both.

I have loved doing service for the people in our ward and to see the stress and hard  time they are going through and to be there to help them and see them just relax a little. That is why it is so much fun we see the love we receive for them and see them able to improve. I was able to help a family return to church and help am family who has had a hard time with being 9 months pregnant and having a husband who just had surgery and trying to still take care of 2 young girls and a house. It is great to know that when we serve our brothers and sisters our love for them grows, and we are really and truly serving our Father in Heaven.

This is my letter this week and hope all is well for you and your families. Remember we are all family and we want to help others. Allow others to serve you and you to serve them. Happy Birthday to Brenden who turns 17 today! Love you all and hope to hear from you next week!!!!!

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Sister Tayler Farr

Hey Y'all,

What a week and it felt like it would never end. So much happening the next couple of weeks.

On Monday we saw a bed ridden sister on her birthday and she is so sweet! I still have my RMHCS mind set in me and love all the elderly. We had dinner with an amazing family and invited a Less- active sister to their house for Family Home Evening. I got to try Gritz for the first time and i have to say they taste funny but with some bacon bits, sausage, cheese, and butter it is pretty good. We talked about the plan Of Salvation and used Sister Behrmann plastic cute cut-outs (which i have been thinking about making). They kids were so sweet and really knew a lot. The Less active sister said that she was baptized because of our church principle of families being eternal. She loved it and said she would love to do this again. This ward is so great and really missionary minded. Again i say that i am spoiled serving in this ward which such great people.

On Tuesday we had a crazy day our morning appointment canceled right as we drove up their driveway and found out that the wife wasn't home yet. We went home so the elders could use the car and got picked up from a member from Fayetteville who wanted to have lunch with us. (Sister Behrmann served there). We had Cook out and know i have really tasted the amazing hush puppies and i plan to make it for the rest of my life just need to find as recipe. Why does the unhealthy fried food have to taste so good?!!! After lunch we went over to a members new apartment and helped them unpack. One of them had moved from a bad place and a sister in the ward asked her to ,move in with her and they are complete opposites but they are so sweet and it looks like it will be a great fit. We had dinner with the family i think i talked about before who had 12 kids and tonight they had some grand kids for the day and they are so sweet. They have 34 almost 35 and they are such great grandparents. We talked about what they want to apply from conference.

On Wednesday we had district meeting and my goodness i was on fire. We were having discussions and i just had so much to share. Normally i am to shy or have the idea of my ideas aren't good enough because i have only been here for 4 months. We had accounting and when everyone asked for questions for who they were seeking revelation for i just had so many ideas and it felt amazing. I can see how much i am learning and really enjoying serving the Lord here in the Garner District. I can't say any good things about the role plays but at least we got what we needed today for our person we were seeking revelation for. After District meeting we drove the sisters home and i stayed with one of them and sister Behrmann stayed in our area. I am really loving exchanges. This time though we didn't have much to do. We had lots of cancellations and only got to do some service for a thrift store. I used this time to talk with my sister training leader and told her all that i have been doubting and just everything that has been making the last 3 months seem impossible. It was great to receive some advice from her and to know that i am doing what i am needed to do and that i am just allowing Satan to put in my head. Eventually i will get to the point that i can move him away and not feel so miserable most of the time.

On Thursday we exchanged back had lunch with a member and had Wendy's. We tried to stop by one of her visiting teaching people but again she wasn't home. Then we just went home and did weekly planning.

On Friday we had a very busy day and got picked up by the young women's president and went to visit a new family that moved in a month ago and who hasn't been to church for awhile. When we showed up they were outside gardening and so we just talked and walked around with them. It was a great visit. We came home and finished the last bit of weekly planning. we left and visited a sister who has had back problems and makes it hard for her to come to church. Today was a miracle i was able to listen enough and use her needs and find a scripture that could help her and we read in 3 Nephi about Christ visiting the Nephites after his Resurrection. We could feel that spirit so strong. We prayed with her. we saw a family that lives in our complex and the daughter has finally gotten home since she has send in a group home. We got to see her and visit and find out that she is leaving again on Wednesday to a new group home to stay for awhile. We are making her cards and writing letters today for her! :(.

On Sunday church was awesome. I love going to church and now i really can see the importance. The Sacrament is truly our saving grace from the past week. I was able to read from the prayers and read from the Book of Mormon. I have tried to focus more on the Savior during the sacrament. It has changed my way of thinking for the need of the Atonement. In Gospel Principles we talked about Christ life and it was great the spirit was definitely present and lots of testimonies shared. In Relief Society we talked about The First vision and it changed my idea of Joseph Smith. When we teach it. it is first because if they believe he was a prophet they can believe in the Book of Mormon. They can believe in Christ and the Plan of Salvation. It really all connects. Today we didn't have our missionary meeting ans so i convinced Sister Behrmann to let me go sing with the Choir. Amazingly they are singing a song by Sally Deford and it was great thinking about her and not to much homesickness! :) We had our visit with our new investigator who has been sick and see told us that she believes that their is a prophet today because God had them in the past and it makes since. She said that she woulds love to learn more about the priesthood. we were going to ask her about baptism but we both said later that it didn't feel right and that she was starting to fall asleep! We will next time and have it part of the lesson.

So this is my week! love you all and have a great week! Happy birthday to the best 14 year old ever. Cameren congrats on becoming a Teacher! Love you Buddy!

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Sister Tayler Farr

The Lord's Time Is The Best Time!

Hey Y'all,

This week has been another great and amazing week. Lots of up and downs and in betweens. Literally, I am so glad to be here and even though i am starting hate the humidity and really feel it. I enjoy North Carolina and love serving here.

Monday, We got all of our shopping and things we needed to get done for the week. We didn't get to see an investigator because her daughter was in the hospital. We are trying to see her this week though and commit her to baptism.

Tuesday, was sadly a very bad day for us. We had no motivation and lots of cancels. We both were exhausted and didn't know what to do. We spent most of the day in the apartment trying to decide what to do. Everything we planned to do feel through. We kind of just crashed and burned. We instead created goals for the transfer and things we wanted to be focusing on. It gave us some motivation and things to work towards, but it was just a bad day. We did get a call from a sister in the ward who needed some guidance in the right direction. She is having some health issues and is in school full time and working. We gave her some scriptures and told her to keep praying and that we will be praying for her. That call made me feel so much better.

We made sure to work harder on Wednesday. I finally got to have a day to ride my bike. I love the basket on my bike which makes it nice not having to carry my bag! (Thanks mom). I was a little prideful when it came to Sister Behrmann having a hard time riding and i was so ready to take the next hill. It was amazing. We visited a potential investigator who said she was fine where she was at said that her neighbor may be interested. (more about that later). We visited a less active member. She finally opened to us and told us what she has been worried about. Her husband has been creating contention and wants to go back to being an authist and shutting God out completely. She has a strong testimony and knows the church and loves being a member. She stopped coming to not create problems at home. She says its not fixing anything. We told her about General Conference and told her that it was all about families and invited her to watch or read the talks that were based on the family. She asked for guidance from Heavenly Father and wants to know what to do next. We said that she just needs to keep being an example to him and to her kids and keep going to church. We saw her AND her husband on Sunday at church.

Friday was the biggest day and the most amazing experiences. We planned to contact the neighbor of our investigator who dropped us. We didn't feel like we should go out so early and finish studies and set up appointments and have lunch and then go out and contact her. I am so glad we did because when we got their the neighbor wasn't home but as we were about to leave a lady at the bottom of the stairs looked so tired and so exhausted, really she looked terrible. She had a basket and was sitting down at the bottom of the stairs and she was such so sad. We asked her if we could help her and she was so surprised. She let us help her and invited us into her house (she is the referrals neighbor). We stood in the door way and sat down and talked. She sat in her chair for awhile and told us that she had been raped and just now getting home from the hospital. I was shocked! All i could think of was! "Lady we just met you and your telling us this. We are complete strangers." We had a visit and talked about Christ and told her that with everything that she is going through Christ can help her and all she has to do is have faith and pray. She was so glad to hear that and wants us to come back again. She is Catholic and loves the Savior. She even told us that she has read the Book of Mormon. She just never prayed to know if it was true. She said it was just a great book of scripture. That is true but it can mean so much more!!!! We have a appointment to see her this Thursday!

I am again running out of time! I wanted to that the time things happen and how things happened for us was in the Lord's time. We never would have met the her on Thursday if we hadn't decided to change our plans and go see the referral earlier. The Lord knew she needed us their and at that time. My faith in the Spirit has grown from this week and cant't wait to see what this week will bring. I am so excited to visit her again and teach her about the Book of Mormon and continue helping her. This journey in serving a mission is hard, but i am so grateful for the experiences that i am having. They overpower the bad and doubtful days! I am learning so much and seeing new things. I am being impatient with myself but i know that the Lord is on my side and all i have to do is try! Have a great week!

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Sister Tayler Farr

Diligence and perseverance

Hey Y'all,

First off I forgot my planner today so my letter is probably going to be all over the place! This week however has been a great week and full of many miracles, motivation, discouragement, and really lots of emotion both good, and bad.

We had a great Zone training on Wednesday, but our Zone leaders were crazy and had it outside to do a Revival! I don't understand why we had to go outside at 9am in the bidder cold. But i guess they wanted the real effect! We had a great meeting though besides the cold. It has become my new favorite of times! The spirit was so strong and had a very motivation twist to it! I have prayed the days leading up to it! To be ready to receive revelation and other ideas to help myself in aligning my will with the Lord's better! I can honestly and truthfully say that the entire meeting was an answer to that prayer. All of the opening messages followed very well. Each missionary stating that they felt the spirit guiding them to share this with all of us. Each message was on the Holy Ghost and the great need of impact for it in teaching. The downer to it was the Zone leaders taught about contacting. Not just contacting when it came to referrals and things. It was contacting with talking with everyone!!! I seriously have the hardest time with this and really hate doing it. It was nice to see other missionaries say that they struggle with it too! It does sound bad that i felt that way. Toward the end we all were having different missionaries bare testimony and closed with when we go around the room and say what we are going to apply from conference and instead. The Zone leaders made swords and Thor hammers out of cardboard and gave one of either of them and had us all write something on them that we wanted to stop doing and give up to the Lord to better focus on doing the Lord's will! It was so powerful. After we all wrote something each district leader put them in a hole and buried them. It felt like what the 2,000 stripling warriors must of felt when they buried their weapons and refuges to fight. (I think that's the story?!) I gave up being less selfish! In the idea of not saying anything or being shy and not doing the will of the Lord. I want to get out of my Selfish way of saying that i will probably say something stupid and so i became to shy to say anything and even in a  lesson.

Now came the miracle!!! We got home and went to go contact a referral and couldn't find the apartment and instead just went to a random apartment in the complex and asked them. We didn't share anything with them and instead just went to the actual apartment of the referral. They weren't home! We started to walk back to the car but instead went back to the other apartment to thank them and actually that time shared a message with her about Easter and our beliefs. It was amazing we made a return appointment. Sadly though when we came back she wasn't home!! The same day after we met her we came home and got a call from one of our current investigators and was able to set up an appointment too! We even got to set up a time to see the other sister who families against her being an investigator. Sadly to find out that her daughter was in the hospital and may not be able to see her anymore!

This week had been great with many miracles, but some let down's. I have seen my motivation and my perspective change and can see my service change as i am focusing on the Lord's will and not mine!!!! I can see the time that i am homesick and i receive letters, packages and uplifting cards from home. They are never just cause but because God really is their for me and all those i am teaching! He really does do the preparing and the work we are just the action in his work! I can see the work and see what it is doing to someone as new as me! I know that this time is already going so fast and that I may be home before I know it, but day to day I see the Lord's hand. I see the reason why I keep dreading the time to write in my journal of all that i am experiencing. I can look back during the times that i am struggling and remember all the good that i have been doing!!!

General Conference was a great and so glad that i prepared myself and a question! I learned lots and my mind was opened to learning new things. I have a couple of things that i want to work on and apply, but one thing i know is that this Missionary work is moving forward with our without us. The messages are becoming more and ,more stronger and more to helping us through hard times. We learn about things that are harmful to us in this point and time. I loved all of the talks on the family and the talks from the prophet and his counselors. I especially loved Elder Holland and seeing that even in the time that's we may not be able to move forward God and the Savior are their to pick us up! What a great chance we had to have General Conference on Easter and here the testimonies of the General Authorities that the Savior does live and that "He Is Risen." Their is nothing more amazing than to have leaders of the church testify so strongly that we can feel the spirit with us!

In talking about Conference. I saw Braden Eads! He looked so good and he made me cry because he was crying ! I have a couple of people here in North Carolina asking for his number!!!! " He's in the choir he must have a good voice!" We even had President Uchtdorf make a joke and when someone may have apposed a vote he did it so appropriately. The leaders are so amazing and i know they are true believers of God and our Savior!

This was my week and i hope you all have a great week! I can't believe that I am done with the 12 week program and it's like being a real missionary kicking into high gear and really starting to work! I am happy to say that i am NOT transferring and am staying in Garner with Sister Behrmann. I just hope by the time someone gets transferred  she doesn't want to kill me!!! lol! Well have a great week and i hope your Easter was amazing! I missed seeing Cantata but i know you all did well! Love y'all!

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Sister Tayler Farr

Time is Precious!

Hey Y'all,

I have finally gotten to the last week of my training! It has been going by so fast! I am so excited to really be a full missionary and now see if I can do it on my own!

This past week has been really great! On Monday we had tried to get a less active sister to a members home for dinner and then she canceled last minute. We however had a great dinner with them and helped prepare them for conference.

On Tuesday we helped out a sister work on her mother-in laws house next door to finish it before they move in. They still have a way to go though. We helped pull off wallpaper in the bathrooms. We found out that the edges of our name tags work well scrapping off the wallpaper. Not the best idea but it did the job.

On Wednesday we had great district meeting and talked about teaching people not lessons. We role played teaching and trying to find put different concerns someone might have towards baptism. The ones who was the investigator would have to a concern and the missionaries would have to figure out the concern with asking questions. It was hard but i realized how important it is to ask good inspiring questions! I need to focus on listening before i think about what to say next. I don't do it but i can see how much harder it is for me to know that the spirit is telling me what to say, After district meeting we came back and had lunch and then did some studies and went out to try to find some Investigators. Luckily we did find a 13 year old girl who was really excited to learn more. She was the only one we found to be home. We set up an appointment for Saturday.

On Thursday we had our normal studies then went with a member from the ward to see a less active family we saw last week. The sister who brought us is actually her visiting teacher. After our visit we came home and had visit with a sister that lives in our same apartment complex. She has been having a hard time. Her daughter has been in a group home for a little outbreak she had about a week ago. We talked about Faith and trusting God.

On Saturday we had a crazy morning we went to go see the 13 year old girl and she didn't want us to teach her and we knew her family talked her out of it. Saying that our church was a "man made church."

It was sad but the day was much better when we went to the women's conference. I loved all of it. Lots of talking about families and how we need to comfort and mourn with all of our members and brothers and sisters. I absolutely loved President Eyring's.

Sorry again i lost time! I hope you all have a great week! I hope you enjoy conference and really focus on Easter and what it means! If you haven't seen the new "Because He Lives" video i suggest that you should #Becausehelives! Have a great week Y'all!

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Sister Tayler Farr