Departing Temple Trip

Departing Temple Trip Elder Thornton, Elder Bodda, Elder Farley & Elder Warnes

Hi Mom!

What a week it's been!  We had zone conference and departing temple trip all in the same week!  It was quite the experience being able to visit the temple and sit with the other 6 departing missionaries this transfer(3 being MTC buddies: Hansen, Peterson, Owens) and listening to the 1st councilor of the temple presidency speak to us.  President and Sister Cooke were also present for the meeting before the session.  He talked to us a lot about just beginning our missionary work and how serving a mission was like a warm up for the rest of our lives.  It was a really neat experience and then of course the whole day at the temple was so peaceful and uplifting.  Zone Conference went well.  It was mainly about becoming fully converted and being a purified missionary.

It has been fun being with Elder Warnes.  He is adjusting well to the mission and seems to be learning a lot.  This week we have been tracting quite a bit and he is beginning to speak up more and use different approaches when asking people if we can share our message.  "That's my boy!"

NYE with the Chinese speaking Elders

Okay, so I sort of already told Dad this but, we get to hear from President Eyring of the First Presidency on Saturday!  The Eyrings (current VC President) are leaving on the 17th and there will be new Visitor's Center President and wife, so I guess big bro Henry B. is coming to town to welcome them home! Idk! It's cool either way.

This week we will also be having the 2nd round of specialized training, which is for the 1st transfer trainees and their trainers.  That is where Elder Warnes will be getting his iPad.  That will be a nice change.  I'll then be able to better teach him to plan and teach with the iPad in our missionary work.

We have done a good amount of tracting this week and found a lot of potential investigators!  Hopefully they will we willing to listen to our message when we visit them again. We had a pretty sweet miracle this week where we stopped by a members house before checking on a potential that we tracked out two weeks prior.  The members let us in and we shared a New Years message with them.  As we were leaving we explained that we were going across the street to go visit their neighbor and see if they were willing to let us in.  He then explained that a couple weeks ago he had talked to his neighbor, who had many questions about the church, and gave him a Book of Mormon! So it must have been around the same time we stopped by.  Anyway, the brother said we could have the lessons at his house is his neighbor, M. would be interested or if he still had questions. So, we went over and knocked the door- M. answered but was busy and couldn't meet with us.  However, he was willing to make an appointment for this upcoming Wednesday and even agreed to meet at our members home!  Boom!  Awesome miracle!  Hopefully that will go well and we will have more investigators through member referrals.  We also have that bible study, which should be fun!  Sister Mayer was very excited on Sunday to hear we were coming back and even went over to bishop to explain how it all came to be.

Speaking of Sunday... It was Fast & Testimony Meeting so I was thinking about getting up, since it was my last one as a missionary(dang... mind blown!).  Time passed and a lot of people went, including Elder Warnes, but I didn't want to get up, just to get up.  The testimony meeting went great and there were about 3-4 shout outs to Elder Tavanā and a few to us as well.  I sat there thinking... "Well, if God really wanted me to get up and talk, He would have had me speak or something." Well, as we believe, God knows not only our actions but our thoughts too!  Brother Bond, one of the councilors to the Bishop, came down after sacrament to ask us both to give talks next Sunday!  Haha! Heavenly Father has a sense of humor for sure.

I am really happy to hear about the good week you had, being able to see the other Farley's and go to the ABQ temple!  It will be so great to go to the temple with you all again!  I hope you have a great week momma and enjoy this new year!  I can't believe it's 2015 already!  Time flies.  I miss you and love you.  Keep staying healthy, happy and safe!

Love your son,

Elder Sean Farley