I'm in my first area!

Oct 27, 2014

Taking it all in as she lands in Neuquen!

til we meet again

Hermana Lopez showing the greenie the new area of Centanario.

hola familia!!!


ahhh hello there! wow so I'm def not in Kansas anymore haha and by that i mean not in my little Provo MTC bubble. But WOW i am finally here and legit  real missionary! This is so cool.  I don´t even know where to begin but here wo go!

SO my new companion is Hermana  Lopez! She´s from Nicaragua and speaks zero English .  It´s awesome.  She only has 3 months left in the mish! So I'm her last comp cause we are together for 2 transfers....12 weeks.  Shes a stud and is patient with my lack of español haha. 

My area is called Centenario! In the zone Cinco Saltos! P ure greatness. About 30 minutes from Neuquen. The members here are great and so sweet to the missionaries! We have a lunch appointment every day with a member and the food is so good omg haha it´s a problem.  And they feed us dulce de leche ice cream after I am completely stuffed and obviously  I cant say no haha.  Since the water is nastyy here everyone drinks soda or juice! Which i am not used to but its goood!

So we have a baptismal date for Nohelia! on nov 29. Pray for Her!  We meet with her tonight and teaching importance of sabbath day!!

Yesterday was my first day of church with the ward! The bishop invited me up to the pulpit and I bore my testimony in front of everyone. my hna Lopez said i did good so that´s all that  matters, right?

So the lessons we teach are great! Only problem is...I  just wish I could say everything I want to say! ahhhh. but ya know what...every time my comp looks at me so I know it´s my turn to testify, I feel the spirit so strong and it reconfirms to me every time that this is what I'm supposed to be doing! The Lord knows me and wow do I  have all my trust in Him! Like Nephi says, my god hath been my support.  I am relying so much on heavenly father. when i get frustrated and down he knows just what I need and puts a tender mercy in my life...maybe not til the end of the day, or even the next day, but my prayers are constantly answered!

But all is well family! No need to worry about me, I am in the lords hand and he is watching over me. Wanna know how i know that? don't freak out mama but I almost got attacked my a pit bull hahaha.  We were walking to a investigators house and I was walking pretty close to this gate and a dog came running up by me.  I  didn't think anything of it cause there are dogs everywhere here, and it jumped with its head through the bars and went right for me.  He totally grabbed onto me like my waist and side and I have no idea how my arm didn't get bit off, but it didn´t. but i was fine and it only hurt for a little while.  haha that was my first day in Centenario and holy crap it scared me. but no need to worry!

oh and one more funny story....so last night after we taught a lesson, hna Lopez was trying to explain to me that the lady, Beatrice, that we taught had a problem with and was annoyed with a member in the ward.  The word for annoy is molestar...so i was like omg! I  though she meant that someone like raped her hahaha and me and my comp started cracking up. ahh the joys of living in South America! also, i walk around with my electronic translator on the streets and I probably look so white. but I am learning new words each day!

I love you so much my family. I get homesick at times, but it makes me realize how blessed I am to have a family like i do, and live in a place with doorbells and working toilets. I am so blessed and so humbled already by this experience! gracias por totos mi familia. thank you for your prayers and love and support. so glad i got to talk to you in the airport! love you all!

con amor,
hermana farrow

Don't Cry for me ARgentiNA!!!!!!!

October 22, 2014

We got a surprise email from Hermana Farrow just letting us know that she officially got to the mission home safely!

Here the brief email.....that of course brought tears to her parents eyes.


yo don't cry for me cause I am officially in Neuquén!!! Ahhh this is so crazy I love it so much. So we had our last flight of the day yesterday to Neuquén and I was out haha we were all so exhausted. But woke up right before we were about to land and dad I did just what you said and took it all in! So we walk off of the plane on one of those stair thingies and I got a sweet pic I'll try and send to ya Monday! That's my Pday btw. So we got to baggage claim and we see President and Hermana Lovell! They were behind this like clear wall thingy separating us so we were all just waving to them while we were waitin for our luggage! So we had to go through this lil xray thing and then I went up to them and gave her a huge hug and shook his hand and said how happy I am to officially meet my mission prez! And oh man they are so great!! SO we went to the mission home and they fed us dinner and a member from the ward brought empanadas over and ohhh my goodness they were so good. I had 5 hahaha and then the best ice cream after. I'm obsessed with dulce de leche already haha. So we had a lil meeting last night with everyone and then 3 hermanas and I went to a senior missionary couple's home to sleep there cause in the morning they were taking us to the immigration office to take care of fnigerprints and stuff. So we got there to the house and they were the sweetest little Argentine couple from Buenos Aires! I'm obsessed with Argenines too. The house was so cute and tiny. So they went to bed and we had to shower cause we were disgusting after 36 hours of traveling. It was SO hot in their house haha we were dying and we went down stairs and saw that the heater was on hahaha and we were all like holy crap but we couldn't turn it off cause obvi the couple wanted it on so we all just lived with it and took us forever to fall asleep and there were flies in all over but we finally did! So then this morning they took us to the office to get our paperwork for visas and all that done. Neuquén is so cool oh my gosh I love it. It's like super ghetto but  there's nice parts too. And we even gave a pass along card to this guy there and were trying to talk! Oh and I can't wait to come home with an Argentine accent cause it's definitely the best kind of Spanish. They speak so fast here haha but suprisingly I can kinda hold a conversation-ish...if they talk really slow. But ahhh I love it and definitely a culture shock but it's so great! No place I'd rather be. The Lovells are so sweet and this mission home is so beautiful! There's a courtyard in the middle of it. Sis Lovell is always taking pictures of us and is like our mama! Make sure to check the blog! And President is awesome. I had my first interview with him and he is just so full of wisdom and amazing. I just know I'm going to love it here! We get our trainers tomorrow night! Then take a bus if our area is far away or a taxi if close by! I'm so excited! This is so fun and can't wait to give you more details on Monday! Love you all!!

She arrived!!!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 

*part of this is from Sister Lovell....and from the momma. 

Our 9 New Missionaries from the USA have arrived!

We were full of excitement as we drove to the airport for the 3^rd time today!  We had made two trips earlier this morning for missionaries that were returning to their homes.  The anticipation was great as we looked forward to meeting these new missionaries.  We knew that it will be only a matter of time before we are just as attached to them as we are the ones that returned to their homes this morning!

 

We love to catch the first glimpse of them through the frosted glass!

There is Brookie!  Oh no, where is her 30 lb overweighted other suitcase.  Not fun having to pay $200 for the overage!  But what a cute smile she has!

They are tired but they are excited to be here!

Learning about the mission

Lovely Mission President and his wife

They all had empanadas !

It was amazing getting to talk to Brookie on her little trac phone we purchased for her at Walmart.  She was up beat and felt like it was amazing to be outside of the MTC and get to talk to other people.  She felt like everyone was staring at their name tags.  Proud to be wearing it, for sure.

It has been a long 2 days of travel....but the smile on her face and her eagerness to begin her mission is enough to get us through not having her with us.

We mailed off her sleeping bag.  It was an item on her list of things to bring to the mission.  We were told we could try and mail it or she could buy it in Argentina.  I decided to mail it....and I found out that it made it to the mission home.  The crazy part is that they are shocked and amazed it made it.   They have recently been advising parents to stop mailing because the packages are just not making it to their final destination.  We have to pay $70 in custom fees....but its OK with me.  At least I know she has a sleeping bag.

 

mi ultima semana omg-Hermana Farrow

me and my home girls! hermana goodfellow and parlogean are both going to neuquen with me.
we call that tree the tree of life cause it's so pretty smack in the middle of west campus!! btw we are the last districvt to be at west campus...everyione is going back to main campus! so no more west.....we are one lucky district!!!!

Cuadro is the best teacher around!

i love these hermanas with all my heart!!! so much fun we are hilarious together

Packing and getting ready to head to Argentina in less than two days!!!

Oct. 18, 2014


HOLLLLA!! wow so I am currently freaking out and so excited at the same time! I'm off to Argentina in less than 48 hours!!! woooohooo! I don't even know where to begin and my mid is everywhere and I still have to pack so much oh my goodness! But this has been such an awesome last week!

I just need to start off by saying how BLESSED i am. I could not be more grateful for these past 6 weeks! I have learned SO much. I didn't think it was possible to learn so much in such a short amount of time. I feel so blessed to be placed with the most AMAZING companions, district, zone, and teachers in the first month and a half of my mission. I am so in love with this work. I was thinking to myself this week just how perfect this gospel is!

Friday we have in-field orientation all day and it got us SO PUMPED for the field!! I had so much fun in every activity and I love getting to know someone and then relating a gospel principle to their life, then sharing my testimony with them! New favoriteClass hobby! good thing, cause that's my life for the next 17 months!!! Then yesterday we had our last "Clase con Cuadra" aka last class with my favorite teacher. at the end he bore his testimony to us about his love for us and we all just died. Hermano Cuadra made my whole MTC experience worth it. He taught me so much and opened my eyes to seeing the atonement in a completely different and amazing way. He has taught me so much and I can't explain the love I have for him. I can't believe how fast i could grow to love someone. After class, we brought him to a room and he played his viola for us. Then we sang "come unto christ" a cheesy efy song to him. Then after, he offered a prayer. It was all in spanish and he talks super super fast. He blessed every single one of us in the zone! and i wasn't super emotional at the beginning, but as soon as he blessed an elder in my district who is struggling super bad with Spanish that he would have the gift of tongues and no problem with the language, we all lost it. The spirit was incredible! like we were all bawling like little babies on our knees in the middle of a little room. He blessed me to always show my smile to others, the never be afraid to open my mouth, and to be able to easily teach the principles of the gospel. I love this man so much and he has changed everything for me! He has had so many trials in his life, and even has cancer in his leg, yet had the strongest testimony i have ever heard. I want to be him when i grow up. Sure gunna miss that guy.

Life is so good! Remember that we have an Older brother and a loving heavenly father on his side! through them we can accomplish anything! I am so grateful for that knowledge i have! I am so so nervous for my first area and spanish and my companion and just everything. Pero esta bien por que yo tengo fe en mi salvador y redentor! All is well and I am striving to replace my fear with faith! This church is true ladies and gentlemen! Come unto Christ and turn to Him in all things, trust me :) Thank you mi familia for everything! Thank you for giving me this opportunity to serve. These past 6 weeks have been incredible and I can't wait for more to come! Be happy and know you are in my daily prayers! I'll be calling y'all on monday in the airport yipeeee!! then I have a 4 and 11 hour flights after that! can't wait! I'm coming for ya Argentina!

PS shout out to aunt kelee! got your necklace and absolutely love it! miss you! oh and you and jaime are the cutest in NYC!

con mucho amor,
Hermana Brooke Farrow
peace out america

Our travel plans came!!!!

Our district on General Conference Sunday

Got our travel plans!!!!!!  So exciting.

We love to see and be int he temple!

October 11, 2014

HOLLLLA!! como esta mi familia?! Hope y'all had a great week! I sure did.

So rewind to last weekend! Gen Conf was so awesome we all said it felt like Christmas to us missionaries! #ldsgenconf lol. Nothing like being spiritually drained! So many inspiring talks I loved it. Did y'all notice how Sunday like every single talk was about following the prophet and heeding to his words, even when somethings he tells us are not the easiest to follow?? So all of us were like holy crap President Monson is gunna make a crazy announcement like lowering the mission age to 16 or something haha. He didn't quite do that. I loved what he actually spoke about. Our prophet so simply spoke on the importance of coming unto Christ. That is our purpose as missionaries is to "Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo". We must turn to Christ and become better disciples of Him. He said "to help guide us, we have the words of God". That has stuck with me this week y mi tiempo de estudiar personal es muy precioso a mi. No better way to follow Christ than by feasting upon his teachings, am I right? so yeah, loved every minute of #ldsgenconf.

So as you know, this was our 5th week at the CCM!! and we are the "old" ones on campus. and sometimes things just get a lil outa hand when our district full of our 4 talkative hermanas and 7 18 year old elders hahaha just hard to focus at times cause we've been together for for 5 weeks 12 hours a day in the classroom haha. SOOOO our amazing teacher, Hermano Cuadra, could tell that were were having a hard time focusing, so he sat us down in our desks and gave us a much needed chastisement about working our hardest these last 2 weeks. He told us the neatest story his dad told him before he left for his mission to chile. I'm gunna tell the short version of it real quick! So tbt to when I was in Heaven. I had this best friend who I did everything with. We had the grand council and were so excited to come down to earth. So one day we went to submit our "papers" to come to earth! My friend and I prepared to gain a body and I finally got my "call" to come down to earth! I was so excited and almost ready to leave, I went to say goodbye to my best friend but I couldn't find him anywhere. It was getting closer to my time to come down (my earthly mama was in labor and having some serious contractions hehe). I was so heartbroken that I couldn't find my friend to say goodbye. I went to the departure gate and Heavenly Father was standing there waiting for me. He gave me a big hug and asked if there was any last thing he could do for me. I told Him I wish I could have found my friend to say goodbye. He told me that my friend had already come down to earth! He would be born into a family without the gospel, but I would be blessed to be raised in the gospel. God said that it is my duty to go to earth, find my friend, and bring him back home.

So that story def hit home for me. So grateful my teacher shared that because it completely changed my outlook on this next year and a half. I can't waste my time because this is the Lord's time, and I need to find that friend that I promised I would bring home! Hermana Albach and I decided to buckle down and make the best out of these last two weeks! We set some awesome goals that are helping us to focus and work harrrrd. We have seen blessing after blessing just in this past week from our hard work, and I have no doubt the Lord has His hand in it.

Ready for the best part of my week? K so on Miercoles we had another lesson with Benjamin, who is our toughest investigator. We know he has had something in his past that makes him believe God doesn't know his personally and doesn't hear his prayers. (keep in mind benjamin is really hermano cuadra) SO we were so prepared for this lesson. We went in there and decided to be BOLD and asked what exactly has happened in his life to make him think these things. He kept getting around the question without fully answering, but we were persistent and he finally opened up. He old us that his wife and kids were killed in a car accident. As soon as he said this the spirit filled the room and I felt it so strong in my chest. This is real life stuff too cause Hermano Cuadra has actually had tons of tragedy in his life, including his son passing away when he was a baby. So anyways, at the end of the lesson I had a prompting to share something with him. By this point in the lesson, he was telling us that he had no more time to talk today and that he doesn't like to talk to others about this subject. But this prompting did not go away, so I asked if i could share an experience with him. So in my broken spanish, I explained to him that I have an older sister who passed away when she was a few days old. I explained that this was a very difficult time in my parents' lives. I then testified that because of Christ and through this gospel I know I can see my sister Karlie again. I said, and Benjamin, I know that you will also be able to see your wife and kids again. I have felt the spirit in lessons before, but I have never felt anything like that. I was crying as I testified of this and so was he. Even though these are "fake" lessons, the spirit is so real. He thanked me for sharing that and I was so glad I followed that prompting. Ahhh I just love this gospel! It's so true.


OKay so we got a new investigator this week!! Maria is 18 years old and from Venezuela! Our first lesson did not go so well with her...she just rolled her eyes every time we got kinda deep into the gospel. She also started off the lesson asking about polygamy, why we cant drink coffee, and why we can't do things on sunday. Keep in mind that we have to answer all these in spanish :-) hahaha. After our lesson, the head lady in charge of the investigators wanted to talk to us and told us Maria is a real non member! :0 and she has friends giving her antimormon things to read and all that. So the lady just said the best thing we can do for maria is to find a was to love her. So that's just what I did! I was like crap, I can't mess us cause this is real stuff!! We spent the next lessons getting to know her better, and telling her about our lives and that we are normal people and had normal lives before our missions. I showed her pics of my cute fam and she loved em. We got her to open up to us and she told us her dreams in life and desires and what not! Yesterday was our last lesson with her cause we change investigators every week :( but it went to well! we didn't need to convert her, but we explained that she is a daughter of God and that he loves her so much. We all got emotional haha that's just how us girls are but it was so amazing! I testified of the happiness that is brought to me from knowing I have a perfect Savior who knows me perfectly. The lesson was perfect and she gave us the biggest hugs after! We gave her our emails too! Who knows what will happen to her, but we know we did our job with planting that first seed!

OKKKKAY so yesterday we got our travel plans!!!!! My visa went through and I'm off to Argentina on Monday Oct 20!! that's 9 days omg. Everyone in my district's visas went through too! miracle. We leave SLC monday morning at 11 am, and fly to atlanta. Then a 5 hour layover there...then we take a red eye to Buenos Aires!! ahhhhhhh I am so stoked! Best feeling ever yesterday getting our trav plans!!! You know how people say "I hated the MTC" well ya know what I absolutely love it! Seriously it's such a blast. But don't get me wrong I'm so dang excited to start this journey in Neuquen!!! wooohooooo. Next week is my last week in 'merica omg I'm freaking out!!! so happy :)

shout out to the pliler's for the package! totally made my day and those rice crispy treats we sooo good. closest thing to a home cooked meal in a while!

and shout out to garrett cause I got to see him a few times this week! Such a stud and all the hermanas in my district are in love with him hahaha woops I don't think I'm allowed to say that.


Well I love you all family!! Had an awesome experience in the temple this morning doing initiatories and it reminded me of how grateful I am to have an eternal family! thanks for all your love and support. have fun at homecoming this week bails! be good brin brin and keep on golfing! I love my parents so much! Thanks for the email this morning dad hahaha you're the best and one of a kind. I love my bro Blakey! thanks for your example bro I am trying to follow in your footsteps every day! but hey email me every once in a while, would ya? And brittany I love your sister dear!! thanks for the cute pics of my fave babes! They are both getting so big! love you all so much!!

Until next week familia!

con mucho amor,
hermana brookie farrow

Semana cuatro in the MTC!

Oct. 5, 2014

FAMILIA! wow this week has flown by it is so crazy. Like I am leaving the mtc in two weeks what!? This week was a great one indeed! one for the books! Don't even know where to begin. This time next week I'll be tellin y'all about my travel plans cause we get them next week yeeee we are all freaking out! I don't think I will have any problems with my visa mama, but man oh man I just wanna get out to Argentina! .

So tbt to last Sunday. It was fast Sunday for us...so that meant fasting for a full 24 hours! As many know, the farrow's do not do well without getting fed, so I was like, crap. We're not even good at fasting just for one meal on sundays haha. But I decided that I could do this. SO i started my fast with a prayer Saturday night and asked for strength and to receive answers to questions that i have had. I asked to have His spirit with me and feelings of peace and comfort. Sunday came and not even kidding I didn't even think about food..at least for a while haha. Every Sunday we have to prepare a sacrament meeting talk in espanol and then in sacrament meeting, our branch pres announces who will be speaking. So i wrote mine on enduring to the end and I was kinda bummed that it was testimony meeting cause my talk was pretty good and I was ready to give it haha. During sacrament, I just had these overwhelming feeling of the spirit with so many good thoughts. I felt so prompted to bear my testimony and I did and don't even know what came outa my mouth. Relief Society was so good too and I felt the spirit so strongly in every one of my meetings and during my personal studies. It was just amazing to me to see that when we sacrifice and put our selfish thoughts aside, we are so blessed. The Lord hears and answers our prayers. Like Elder Holland said today in the afternoon session, we should fast when we can. I have a new and improved love and testimony of the Law of the Fast and am grateful for that experience I had.

Our lesson this week all went really well! One of our investigators is Benjamin and he is the most stubborn person I know haha. He believes God has favorites and I can just tell there is something that is holding him back from wanting to accept the fact that God knows him personally. In one of our lessons this week, I just had the thought "ahh why can't he just understand and accept what we're telling him?" I was so annoyed haha but then I had this thought that I need to have patience and love for him. If there's one thing that I've learned on my mission so far is that patience is key and to have faith in the Lord's timing! We must put our selfish feelings aside and put our investigators, or friends/family/others in need in front of ourselves. That is what this mission is all about. I have prayed for love towards my investigators and companions and I have seen an evident difference and I set my personal needs aside!

We got a new investigator this week named Maribel and wow do I love this lady! She is from Mexico City and she reminds me soo much of grandma Moon! even her smell! I have loved teaching and getting to know her and I loved talking to her about my grandma and grandpa moon's story! We had our third lesson with her yesterday and twas amazing. Her spirit and love for Christ was so strong. We showed her the video "Gracias a el" or "because of him" and that gets me every time. Everyone go watch it, but watch it in Spanish cause that's what we do! Anyways, after we showed her this, she was in tears and bore her testimony to us. Instead of me teaching and testifying to her, she is the one who taught me. She spoke so dang fast and I could only understand like half of her espanol, but I have never felt the spirit like that before. I had such an overwhelming love for Maribel and it made me SO excited and pumped that this is what I'm going to be doing for the next 17 months!!

Wasn't conference so amazing today? I loved it. I went in with a few questions I had written down this week and I cannot believe how every one of them was answered! I love the way the Lord works. I'll share just a few things I liked from today's sessions. Chi Hong Wong (haha) spoke in his Cantonese language and I love his talk! He said "When we assist Christ in His mission of saving souls, we too will be saved in the process". Es la verdad! I have already seen my testimony strengthened each day as I testify in my broken Spanish of the divinity of my Savior and His work. I also loooved Pres Uchtdorf's talk. "God wants to answer our questions and we need to learn to listen to His voice" Oh and that German guy Jorg Klebinat's talk was on point! So good! And of course Elder Holland's talk was amazing like usual!

I truly am beyond blessed to have this opportunity to be a servant of God. I absolutely love being here and feel so at peace. There is no doubt in my mind that this is where I am meant to be and have already seen it bless my life in so many ways. I am so happy :) I love this gospel and have gained such a love for Jesus Christ through these past 4 weeks. He is so real! El es nuesto Salvador y Redentor! Dios es nuestro Pardre Celestial. Yo se que Jose Smith fue el profeta de la restauracion. Y por que Joes Smith fue el profeta, el libro de mormon es la palabra de dios y el la verdad. Yo estoy muy agradecido por este oppurtunidad a servir mi mission! Me encanta este evangelio y yo se que es la verded con todo mi corazon!

I love you all! I miss my family and am so grateful for each on of you. I pray for my each one of you by name every night and think about you always! Shout out to debs for being the best mama in the world and for the cutest package! my comps loved it too! and thank ya nicholas for the package and all that candy hehe :)

Con amor, Hermana Farrow