September 29th... short and sweet!

Dear Mom,

I have not tried it nor am I planning too haha, I don't think that is natural in the slightest.(referring to the jalapeno pecan brittle I sent him! :) He already told us that this was the church he was going to get baptized in, he just hasn't settled on a baptism date. We actually don't eat with members that often. Tell the siblings that I love them and want them to make good decisions. We get to watch general conference as well.

LUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! Make sure when I Skype for Christmas she will be within hearing of my voice, I want to see how she reacts!

Hyrum, Marlee, Lindsay, and Molly all wrote me so thank you so much for that! One thing I didn't realize was so hard to teach was baby baptisms. It just won't click with these catholics that their baby does not need to be baptized because they don't have sin. Plus we were given a Catholic ten commandments and they completely took out Idle worship and replaced it with do not covet your neighbors house. I will have to write more later because I have no more time!

Elder Farley

Dear Mom and Dad,

First off, I am staying in Spearman. I received the package and appreciate all of the things you gave me. I am a little skeptical about the Jalapeno Pecan Brittle but the rest is awesome! D.... is straight up awesome! I can see him being baptized really soon! He is kicking the habit right now and only chews once a week at most. I have cooked lasagna, cookies, sphagetti, and german pancakes using the cookbook and I continue to make healthy meals for Elder Barona and I. Elder Barona is now hooked on Tennis so I would think that is a big success there! I love the mission, I see a few problems here and there and I face challenges but I am glad to be out here nonetheless. I normally just do the usual on P-day, shopping, writing, laundry, cleaning, tennis. Just a day to relax I guess. We have had zone conference and let me tell you, President Heap and I talk every week. I don't know I just trust him a lot and he trusts me to do things. Like earlier last week, there was this investigator who wanted to know something about the Book of Abraham. So I asked President Heap and he gave me permission to get on a computer on a Thursday and find out what I could. I did find the answer and President Heap texted me a few times to see how the thing was going. I really think he was meant to be my Mission President.

Hopefully Bryson will not make the same mistake I did and get a whopping "I don't even know how that is possible" (while me and Bryson are laughing of course) 2.1 on his GPA. Stay on top of him but not in the way you did me because that will not work. Find a more gentler approach, especially with Bryson. I had to figure it out on my own and obviously that ended up working out with me. Maybe Bryson is the same? Maybe not? But I know he is a little hard-headed at times and that is just him. At least Caden is having fun, Is he still blaming me when he gets hurt even though I am more than 600 miles away from him? haha! Tell Bryn and Brie that they are doing a good job and tell Brie that everytime she cries over nothing I either get Bible Bashed or Crash on my bike and hopefully that will work out.

Right now is harvest so that means that there is a ton of Corn everywhere, you got to love the Midwest right? Send me a picture of the Cow Elk when you get it. How big is Luna getting? Dustin Mizell e-mailed me and offered me a big job offer for after my mission where I own my own booking agency because he probably feels like he can trust me with it since I have this much dedication and he respects the fact that I chose to serve a mission so that is cool.

Elder Barona and I are now officially English and Spanish Teachers. We are now teaching English to Spanish members and Investigators and teaching Spanish to English members in order to improve our branch and improve Spearman in general. We will see how that goes. I also tried Octopus for the first time at a Mexican restaurant and in all honesty, It was really good. I don't know about you guys but there hasn't been a single weird food that I didn't find tasty. On my mission I have had Menudo (soup with cow intestine) Octopus, Calamari, Pakistani Food, and Elder Barona said he will hook me up with some Cuy (roasted guinea pig) by the end of the transfer.

I also found out that the Book of Mormon has been written side by side with the bible throughout all of history because the Book of Ether starts out with the Tower of Babel (which is in the beginning of Genesis around 3000 B.C) and even goes further than the Bible because the Bible ends in 100 A.D while the BOM ends in 421 A.D. We also taught our first Muslim named A.... He is from Pakistan and he is open to talk to us but brushed off the first vision because to Muslims Jesus is not the son of God and God has no physical body. He also taught me a phrase in Urdu "Ha da a a fes" which simply means God be with you or Have a nice day. We found R... again as well! And he is just as legit as he was before he left to Alabama so hopefully that works out!

Some Spanish investigators and Brother Swearingon, who is fluent in Spanish, told me that for being out 3 months, I am more fluent than anyone else with the same amount of time that they have ever met and none of them would have guessed that I only started speaking Spanish 3 months ago! That is a huge confidence builder! I am staying in Spearman by the way. I also got to translate during Sacrament meeting but the problem is that the people were speaking too fast! I got so confused that I started reading the Young Women Values that were on the wall beside me and then started reading Helaman 5:12 and explaining the verse. While I was saying the First Vision Elder Barona walked in and asked what the heck I was doing as he had headphones on to check my progress. So that is my life right now haha!

Anyways, Love you, Tell everyone to write or E-mail!

Love,

Elder Farley

This weeks letter!

Dear Mom,

I heard that the Texas BYU game was great! And the People are awesome! I haven't seen a single BBQ joint up here in Spearman (I am about 20-30 minutes from Oklahoma) But they sure do love their country gravy! We are actually thinking of doing that in our ward, we only have around 35 members in our branch so it is a little difficult. The work needs to progress and I see that as an opportunity. I got the package and I am intrigued by the Italian Ice flavors, and I need to write the Boys, Girls, Jesse Hancock, Sadie Thompson, and Hyrum! I will write you guys a letter as well but it is hard writing you when I already tell you everything! Maybe I will write it in Spanish?

I have been praying for you guys to be able to open up the new location and have it run smoothly, who of the original workers since I have been there are left? I got the suitcase so that is good. With V the only problem is that his family is not letting him go to church and they don't want to sit down with us, so it is hard to progress with him. M and her family are doing good. They still are a little catholic but I think the blessing with her sister opened them up more. They just have a hard time understanding that their baptism is not with authority. D and J are awesome, they are cutting down more and more and D fasted! He got a job after that and his kidney stones passed. He always wants to come to church and is a contributing person in lessons, he just had an asthma attack this Sunday so he couldn't attend but he called us and told us to come over right after church so he could still have a lesson. He is a really funny guy and understands the doctrine and principles. Like when he was talking about his blessings he said that he didn't believe that everything would happen to him if he didn't do anything, He said " I doubt that Jesus Christ is going to come down to Earth, unleash the second coming and the rest of the plan of Salvation, just so he can fix my pickup truck..." So I am glad he understands his part in receiving blessings!

Elder Barona and I also noticed something! We are living in the War Chapters of the Book of Mormon right now!

We are in a war for righteousness against evil. We rely on God and as long as we are obedient, the Lord will help us in all that we do. We have been blessed to bring his purpose to all men. The odds seem against us, but that doesn't mean we will give up. We have strong leaders and they are guided by God to help us in this great mission.

Apparently there is also something here called Lamanitis, where missionaries get nervous or tense up when talking to beautiful Hispanic girls. I noticed it first-hand with Elder Barona talking to this 20 year old girl named Lupita. Granted she was pretty cute, but I didn't know that was a problem haha. I also saw this dog at an investigators house that no-joke could have been a werewolf. I kept my distance from it when talking to the person haha. We also did this service project at the food bank and that was fun, moving watermelons and bread. We also had this great moment happen to us where we prayed specifically to find a middle-aged man who was carrying something heavy that was going to accept our message. First person we met was a 40 year old man carrying a Jackhammer. He accepted our message and became an investigator.

Our branch does something awesome on Fast Sunday called Break the Fast, where the branch cooks food and eats together after church! Got to eat a lot. There is also this girl named C who utterly impresses me! She is active although the rest of her family is addicted to drugs. She sees Sister P as her mother in the branch and is very nice. So instead of her own mother taking her to Mother Daughter night, Sister P took her. This lady named E also told us that whenever we come over, her blood pressure would rise and she would become enthusiastic when we read. We told her that this was the Holy Ghost. So hopefully everyone is progressing! I also ran into a guy an hour ago who came up to me while I was alone in the store grabbing an Onion for Sour Cream Lasagna from the Missionary Meals cookbook (thank you by the way) And he invited us to dinner because he lives with a Mormon family who just barely moved in! It was awesome

Anyways, I love you guys and at least tell everyone I have previously mentioned to at least E-Mail me! Love you guys so much! Wish me luck!

Elder Farley

Dear Mother, 

I know you hate being called that but I feel as if it respects you more. Things are going great in Texas. A lot of miracles! 1st miracle was during exchanges with Elder Heaps, I forgot to mention we needed gas so we noticed out of the city that we were on the E for empty and needed gas. We ended up making the 60 mile trip on the E! God obviously wanted us proselyting instead of stuck on the side of the road! We got a few more baptism commitments so hopefully that turns into something. The ...... family is slowly moving, they listen to us but still don't see baptism as necessary for them. Another lesson got disrupted by Walker Texas Ranger... And this other man we taught said he had extreme respect for mormons because of a man in his troop of soldiers in Vietnam was Mormon and he said he was one of the best soldiers in his troop. However he was very learned and thus did not accept our message on flaws that he viewed himself. We also met a member randomly because I decided to go to the bathroom in a gas station. He is from Dallas and talked to us. Very non-coincedental in my opinion.

Lessons are going well. J and D are progressing slowly, and this other man named A... finally let us talk to him because he asked us to send missionaries to his dying sister in Amarillo and was very grateful for it. So now he is listening with his wife and daughter to our lessons. I also found a scripture in Micah Chapter 3 that only talks about how bad paid ministry is as a sin. Strange how the men who claim to know the bible "miss" that scripture. I also met a man who had a really great backstory about how God helped him get a really high paying job when he was homeless so he was humbled. I also realized that I miss hunting as Dove and Deer season is commencing and our male investigators want to talk about that a lot. I also see pronghorns nearly everyday! Big Pronghorns! How was Labor Day? How is School? How is the Restaurant? We also got a baptism commitment within 10 minutes of meeting someone! so Super Legit!

Feel free to tell me everything!

President Heaps made it ok to visit the Temple once every transfer! He wants us to bring recent converts to the temple as often as that! The work is hastening!

Love,

Elder Farley

Elder Farley and Elder Barnett on splits

The beautiful mountains...

Elder Farley and Elder Heaps on splits

A Jim Shockey quote - for missionaries... (not sure what the list behind it is?)