July 27, 2015 - Lots of pictures of my friends

This is Naomi! I love her so much.

This is Jingle (: She's a recent convert and I LOVE HER SO MUCH... Cutest lady ever

"N" got baptized. She's the amazing lady I taught on exchanges with Sister parks. (: It was a beautiful baptism and I felt the spirit SOO strong. It was just what I needed to be reminded of my purpose as a missionary - to help people make sacred covenants with God that enable us to be with Him again. She is so beautiful. It's a silly picture but describes her lol.

"T" is getting baptized next week. Love her  Told her bling bling lol

Ward Activity!

District fun :)

What a week. 

Adjusting to new companions is so fun (: Sister Nansen is so funny becase she is Samoan but lived in Sydney most of her life so she is so AUSSIE. She's the whitest companion I've had and sometimes she think's I have more brown traits than she does (: 

We had Zone Conference and I got to see ALL MY FRIENDS from the river down so that was way fun! President Fife is an amazing teacher. I learned a lot about the Sacrament this week at Zone Conference. It's amazing how much we take for granted the sacrament, or at least I did. It was the last major event that happened before Christ suffered bled and died for all of mankind. 

I learned that as you reverently come to the sacrament hungry for help, you feel the atonement working in you and that ordinance becomes sacred and lasting. It's been something I've worked on my whole mission, trying to find more strength as I come to the sacrament with a more reverent and humble attitude and seeking the Lord's will. 

It is cold in the mornings and night so I'm always wearing my fuzzy socks. lol 

We excersize in the flat mostly because the cold is too unbearable. Probs not even that cold but it feels like it. I think the problem is that it's just as cold inside than outside....... #notevenrealwalls 

Australia is still gorgeous in the winter. WE have sunny days most days. and lots of amazing sunsets. It gets dark earlier now, so the cold can't be beat #bundleup 

This week we had a lot going on. Baptisms, Ward activities, service, teaching, exchanges and splits. It felt like a mad dash but we had a lot of fun. Again, it made me more thankful for the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that comes as we invite the spirit into our lives. 

So grateful for all of you. Sorry it's so short today, it's sometimes hard to compose my thoughts and focus, but I loved to see all your pictures and updates. I feel the spirit when I read your emails. Got a letter from Kylee this week as well (: 

Just so happy to hear all that's going on back home. 

I'm more and more thankful for the relationships I'm making here in Australia. The people are so unique and fun, and I've come to absolutely love it here. I have some amazing friends. I am so blessed to meet and love and serve here. <3 

Keep doing missionary work - the elders and sisters in your wards  NEED you (:

I love you all. SOOO much!!! <3 <3 

Thanks for all your support, it means EVERYTHING. 

<3 SIster Falter

July 20, 2015 - It's a Kangaroo!

We were driving in Byford when all of a sudden my foot taps the brakes instinctively. "just a deer" I thought "wait a second, deers don't hop like that ITS A KANGAROO" 

My Companion and I FROZE THEN SCREAMED YAYYYY. 

I only saw their backsides but it was enough... it was enough. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to my Gorgeous Sister Emmalee, who I love with all my heart

and my equally beautiful Sister Melissa Kay whom I adore. I miss you two 

Celebrate HEAPS. 

It was so sad to say goodbye to a companion and friend that meant so much to me and taught me SO MUCH about becoming like Christ. Sister Leakehe was such an amazing missionary and so many people were touched by her service. I know she's become who she is by striving to be like Christ more, so that's what I want to do as well. 

This week was amazing. We taught heaps and found heaps of people to teach. We saw lots of miracles and got organized for the transfer. 

Sister Nansen is a good cook so I've been fed well. (: It's cold every night and morning but I'm getting used to it a bit more. Fuzzy socks and hoodies when we're in the flat is the only way I survive. 

This week I taught quite a few lessons, but one stands out. 

We taught a couple who were both baptized years ago, after they had been married, but in recent years, this brother lost his faith and now both he and his wife no longer come along to church. He claims to be atheist, although he never fully denies what he felt or knew at the time of his conversion. We were teaching about faith and repentance, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ, something I have grown to love and appreciate so much. 

Often times, as missionaries, we are sent to teach people, but sometimes I think God, in His wisdom, sends people that we teach to us. That lesson was more for me, looking back, than for this man. It was amazing to share my personal witness of the Saviour Jesus Christ. Many times we share our testimonies to people who have similar feelings, and it allows for the spirit to testify to each of  us that WE KNOW it's true. But I didn't have that experience. His beliefs weren't there- which is usually when I draw back- but I felt so determined to make it known that I know that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world and the Son of God, so I did. A still, small voice in my head told me what to say, and I believed every word of it as I said it. Everyone felt it. 

I'd love to say he felt to his knees singing and praising God that instant, but he did not. Nor did it change his perspective of God, but it changed mine. I knew what I knew, and I left feeling so thankful for the spirit, and thankful for my own personal testimony. It is a gift!! 

Alma 37:44-46

For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land. And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise. O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever.

I'm so thankful for the members. I love them a lot. Elder and Sister Cammock serve as missionaries here and they are helping us teach one of Elder Cammocks lifelong friends. Their testimonies are so strong and I am thankful to have the opportunity to work with such beautiful people. 

I miss home. I miss my family and friends. Miss Washington state and Summer. 

But I love the work!! I loveee being a missionary. 

I LOVE being Sister Falter. 

Time is flying by way too fast. 

I love you all. I pray for you, all the time. 

Seriously I do. 

Be safe and make good choices. 

Sister Falter

July 13, 2015 - Transfer news.

STAYING, but getting a Samoan sister, Sister Nansen, who has already served here before. Back to a normal companionship.. That'll be so good for me and I'm SOOO excited to be a sister training leader again!! The members are going to FLIP when they see sister Nansen again. She was here for 3 months just before I came into the ward. 

I felt at peace with the news. Excited to stay with the ward - I feel at home here. (:

Service at the Lee's

Me and Sister Leakehe

This week we saw the Lord's hand in the work. We had no idea how we could find new investigators, but we had faith and acted in obedience and the miracles happened. They all came from following promptings of the spirit and acting on impressions we received in the moment. It was wonderful to see! 

My anxiety has been better this week. Some days were really bad, I think because I was anxious about transfer news. But now I am so ready and excited to do the Lords work here in Armadale ward. I think I have unfinished business to attend to here, and I am so excited, and even more excited to be a sister training leader. I've been praying for the sisters already. I am grateful for the extra support of a third companion last transfer because I was forced to work out personal matters and couldn't focus on the other companionships of sisters as much as I wanted to, so I am blessed to have the opportunity to repent and do much better, and I already feel like I've received revelation for how to spiritually lift the sisters and motivate them.
I feel like this is a fresh start for me to turn out and utilize the tools and strengthened testimony of repentance this next transfer. We spent most of our days tracting and visiting members this week, so next week we will hopefully teach more investigators and help them progress. I love the people we found already and we are SO EXCITED for them.

We had a man at the ward activity and church who hasn't been in 3 years, we had a less active family (one of them inactive) come along as well to the ward activity and church, and the inactive youth is bringing her boyfriend to church next week, and her mum expressed desire to work towards going to the temple for the first time and doing baptisms! We met with another less active family and the woman expressed her concerns to us this week about feeling judged and condemned for being less active and stated she would ONLY be there when she felt ready, and she rocked up to church this Sunday and the ward fellowshipped her! And we had another less active we've been working with come with her son and stay for all 3 hours. 

The Sabbath day was a miracle and I got to watch MEET THE MORMONS on Saturday. I missed the first 3 stories but it was better than nothing. We had more people there than ever expected. 

This week I took the advise of my much wiser and more mature YOUNGER cousin, who is in Alabama, and I made plans with Heavenly Father in prayer. I set prayerful goals. And it helped my week. There were stressful times and really fun / goofy times, but I focused on Loving Christ More, and I felt lifted. 

 "My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever. And may the grace of God the Father, whose throne is high in the heavens, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of his power, until all things shall become subject unto him, be, and abide with you forever. Amen"

I love you.

July 6, 2015 - Raise your hand if...

...you didn't think I would have time for the family email again this week.

YOU LOSE!

HEY <33 

We've adopted a new "mission father", and we already LOVE President and Sister Fife. Poor things haven't slept since they got here (it's a miracle, because I remember how long that flight was). 

Honestly, they are awesome. It's a definite change, and they are very different from the Lindsay's, but they are loved and respected and supported among all the missionaries and we already feel the power of his prayers and leadership in our efforts. 

We had the chance to learn from him on Wednesday, when he introduced himself and trained us on doctrine. He's been a teacher for just about 30 years and I learned so much. At the missionary leadership training on Friday, we felt his concern and testimony burning as he gave us counsel and more training. And on Saturday, I had a personal interview with him, where he continued to teach and testify of Christ. We had so many opportunities this week to recognize faults and repent and re commit ourselves, and have seen the miracles already! 

This week was a miracle. Three of the people we've been working with, we decided to stop visiting. We LOVE them (I can't even describe how much I love them), but we recognized the true nature of their concerns, and there was nothing we could do to help them without their own personal desire, so we acted in faith and let them go. Out of the blue, we received a call from a member who's friend lives close to us. Her friend has been in need of some spiritual guidance so we set up an appointment to meet with her. When we met her for the first time, she welcomed us into her gorgeous home and gave us some slippers for our feet. She opened up to us and shared her desire to feel God's presence in her life. In her own words, despite going to church every week, she felt spiritually dry. We shared our testimonies of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. We helped her recognize that God's influence in our lives comes in the form of the Holy Ghost, that it touches our hearts and minds and guides us through our life. At the beginning of the exchange, she looked so upset and tight, but by the end she was so excited and happy and energetic. She felt the spirit so strong, and so did we, so we invited her to follow Christ's example and be baptized, and she could not stop saying YES YES YES. I know that's the way she can feel God's influence in her life, by qualifying to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by being baptized. 

She could not stop thanking us, and calling us "beautiful angels" HAHAHA. (: She's a Filipino lady, and she's honestly a beautiful angel herself but I'm glad she already loves us. 

At the beginning of the week, we went on exchanges with the Murdock sisters (Sister Parks and Sister Allen-- both of them are American). I went with Sister Parks in Murdoch. We had an awesome exchange. I've worked with sister Parks in the past, and have heard her powerful testimony so seeing her in action was a gift. She taught me about following the spirit, and being convincing in lessons by simply testifying with power and authority. The lesson we taught was one of the best I've ever experienced, and I am so thankful for the Spirit's still small voice. The spirit, through us, resolved all her concerns, and she is prepared and excited to be baptized at the end of this month. What a beautiful experience for her, and for us!

I'm so grateful for the week I have had, for the miracles I've seen.
I love Armadale ward, and the members are getting excited about the work!!! We are having a ward activity on Friday and we're watching Meet The Mormons. (: CAN'T WAIT. All the members are bringing their friends. I love this ward and NEVER WANT TO LEAVE. (which means I'm probably getting transferred lol)

Heavenly Father is so good to us!! 

I love you all. Remember to let HIS light so shine THROUGH YOU. 

REMINDER: Email your favourite sister/daughter back. lol. <3

xxxooo Sister Falter