Things are going well here in St.Louis. I went to a baptism for our District leader and his companion for a woman named Shakirra. She is super awesome. They found her like 2 weeks ago. Super fast! She is so solid. We went because I was asked to sing I Feel My Savior's Love. It was such a spiritual experience to be there. There was a very strong spirit and it was amazing! Marta is getting baptized, hopefully on the 23rd or something close to that. There is a memorial service that was scheduled for the same day as Marta's baptism, so we decided not to do her baptism at the Frontenac building. But her family lives a few hours away. So, we are trying to figure out how we can get her baptized and allow her to go to the Family thing they are having that they booked a place for so it is at a particular time. THings are just crazy. It is just Satan trying to throw us a curve ball. Everything will work out though. This is the last week of the transfer. WE have been working crazy hard. My companion hasn't been feeling very well this week. I saw Sister Rapp on Sunday. She poked her head in the little window of our Sunday school room right as class was starting and David, the recent convert we meet with and I just bolted out of the room. I was so excited to see her. She was there for a confirmation in the Singles Branch. It was so great to see her. Life is crazy as ever. Less actives are still difficult to get in contact with, investigators are still difficult to find, but I am convinced that we will see blessings in other ways for our diligence in tracting and reaching out to others.

The scripture I ponderized this week was Hebrews 11:6 But without Faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

(I actually memorized this!- I know crazy- i am still working on the HTBT points- I still have most of The Best Two Years memorized though, in case you were wondering). Well this transfer has just gone way too fast! I am done with 12 week! We are excited to continue to work hard and reach our goal for our Vision to Baptize challenge. Have you ever read Vision to Baptize? It is great, I would highly recommend it. I am so incredibly thrilled for Colin and Keira to get baptized! send me lots and lots of pictures.

Something that was really cool about being at Shakirra's baptism was that I saw the baptism from the missionaries point of view. We were in the bathroom with her before she got baptized and she looking down with her elbows on the countertop and she just told us that she knew this is what God wanted her to do.

My favorite conference talk was the talk by Elder James B. Martino. I have been thinking a lot about my personal prayers to my Father in Heaven. This talked answered some of the questions that I had written down for this conference. Elder Andersen's talk from Priesthood session is super great. After Priesthood Session our district leader called us and told us all about it and how great it was so I listened to it today and his testimony and faith in Jesus Christ and the prophet Joseph Smith was great. I am pretty sure that everyone in the chapel was super worried about President Monson and we were all just praying that he would make it through the conference. Things are going well. I am learning a lot and am so grateful to be a missionary. It is cooling down quite a bit here. I will. The family is actually a family from Sister Shontell's first area. Her first area is right next to our area and so we met them for lunch one day and they are super nice. I will definitely thank them. I am happy! Things are going well. A new IKEA opened near here so we might go there, but I am not sure. We will be finding lots of people to teach this week and we will teach Irene, but not Marta because she is out of town. It is almost her baptism and we are so excited. We went to the President's house for Pancakes and Prophets on Sunday (Yeah, how cute is that name, Sister Morgan is the cutest person ever!) and he is so excited for the Frontenac Ward to get a new member! It's gonna be great!

September 28, 2015

So we met with Marta this week and committed her to be baptized!!! Yeah! But she is leaving again this week and she will be back the week of her baptism, so it will be a funky schedule but we will be able to teach her all that she needs to know. She is super spiritual and has shared with us about her deep desire to go to the temple because she went to an open house once and felt the spirit very strongly. This week has been great. We had exchanges with the STL's so I went to Fenton for a couple of days. We visited a lot of less actives and invited them to the Women's Broadcast and a few of them came! I am so excited for general conference! So, we helped David, one of our recent converts dig up his mother in laws ashes on Saturday. and he made me carry them across the street because we reburied them in another relatives yard because the lady's husband got remarried and they wanted to move the ashes. So, David had us did them up and then dig a whole for the ashes to be put in.

This recent convert has taught me a lot. He is really close to the spirit but he is kinda crazy. He wants to rule the world, basically and he has plans to do it, too. He gives all of his missionaries nicknames. I am jynx. Well, he really wants to get his patriarchal blessing, so we were talking to him about them the other day and he looks at me and he is like God is telling me something, (because he gets promptings really easily it is the coolest thing) You are very special, I haven't figured out why yet but I was supposed to help you learn about being a leader. So her was asking me about my blessing and I was thinking about it and I realized that I don't have it. I will need to have a copy sent to me because I have been thinking about it a lot since then and I can't recall anything monumental. I have been thinking about my calling as a missionary with regards to my blessing though. It talks about me having confidence in preaching the gospel. 

 

My blessing has come up for a while now, so I am going to order a copy to be sent to me. Anyway, it was kinda an unusual experience. I know though that I need to develop more faith. It has been an interesting week. I have been thinking about being a consecrated missionary.

 

So, now I can say that I have dug up a dead person... kinda.

September 21, 2015

This week has been great. We are doing well here in Frontenac. We met with our investigator Irene a couple of times and Marta comes back this week so things are looking good. Elder C. Scott Grow was the visiting authority and it was a pretty intense experience. He talked a lot about obedience. Apparently, this mission has a history of not being very obedient. Anyway, he talked a lot about using Preach My Gospel and about how to study in order to prepare for teaching opportunities. It was cool, but everyone was pretty humbled, I think. It kinda bothered me at first, but now I see where he was coming from and what we can do to be more productive. I truly believe that my companion and I are working hard. This week, I am studying about being a consecrated missionary. I have been thinking a lot about that these last couple of days. I am excited to become better. I am developing a better relationship with a lot of the less actives. It really has been a great week. We have visited a lot of people and got some tracting in. I am excited for this week. Our investigator Marta, who is really close to baptism, who went to Poland for about two months.... yeah, well she comes back this week and we are sooooooo excited! I got to see my momma, too, which is always great. I love it! She sang a beautiful solo. She is amazing. 

I hope Athena does well on the Stanford meet. Thanks for the pictures. So, I brought my camera this time, but I didn't bring a cord to connect to the computer. I will send you some pictures soon. Plus, we don't really have any good pictures because the only thing I have really done that is exciting on P-days is go to the zoo and it rained. On a brighter note, we found the food pantry on Saturday and were able to do some service! It has been a wonderful week. I love you all and pray for you! Thank you for your example to me, dad! I am excited to be a consecrated missionary!

September 14, 2015

So, this week was pretty crazy. My new companion is Sister Shontelle and she has been out for about a year. The transfer went well, after many tears, all from my dear momma Sister Rapp, because of course, we all know that Sister Favero doesn't cry (thanks mom). But, I missed her for the first couple of days because I didn't really know at all what I was doing or where I was going. Sister Rapp went to Fenton, Missouri, so she is actually pretty close, but she is in a different zone I think. Luckily, we had a district meeting, so I could kinda pull myself together. That is so exciting that you got another foster baby, how cute! Isaac is a sweet name. I will send you some pictures soon, I promise. I just need to remember to bring my camera to the library. The other day, we were trying to find the food pantry and we didn't have a GPS, so we kinda got lost and ended up at this gas station that was pretty sketchy, but it's ok. We got out alive and we almost saw the arch too. Sister Shontelle told our district leader that she has the funniest companion, so basically only Sister Rapp, Elder Jimenez, and Sister Shontelle know how funny it is to be companions with Sister Favero. Hopefully, I will get my name tag soon. It has been kinda difficult, but I know that I can do hard things. I am giving a training tomorrow on recognizing and relying on the spirit, it is going to be great! This week is going to be wonderful! We have mission conference this week and I am soooooooo excited!
Things are going well in the area. We are teaching a lady from China, Irene, who was a referral from a ward member who comes to the lessons with us. We are teaching Neil and his family. Neil is Indian, his girlfriend is Christian, one daughter who is 15 professes to be an atheist, and one daughter is ten. I have taught one lesson with them this week. We are meeting with a lot of less active and part member families and recent converts. Our relief society president always gives us a big list of people to see each week from Relief Society, so that is what we spend most of the time doing. We actually got to talk to a lady who is less active who said she wanted to start going back to church but hasn't yet. We talked with her last night about going back to the temple for about an hour. She really appreciated us coming by. And of course, we still see Jennifer each week to help her with her house. She is wonderful. She got her cabinets put in so that is exciting. One step closer, she still needs appliances, maybe she will be done with her house before I leave. She has been remodeling for almost 9 months now and each set of missionaries in the Frontenac ward have gone to help her, but now of them have gotten to see the finished product, but I think that Sister Shontelle and I will be the lucky missionaries who see it to the end. That is exciting, she has become a wonderful friend. I love meeting with the ward members and I am learning so much about how I want my home to be after I get married here on my mission. It is such a cool experience. This week has been great! I hope you all are doing well! We can do hard things!

Well, something pretty insane happened this week. This week, my companion and I have been doing well, we have been meeting with to recently baptized members and both of them are progressing so much. One of them just recently got the Aaronic Priesthood. Also, one family we have dinner with consistently told us this past week that they really want to be sealed in the temple and was asking us how to do that. The mom is soooo amazing. She was telling us how she was shopping the other day and she didn't buy a tank top because she knew she wouldn't be able to wear it when she was endowed. Now they are super excited to go to the temple soon. We are going to talk to the bishop about it this week. So the insane thing that happened

 

On Saturday night, we got transfer calls. Both Sister Rapp and I were sure that nothing was going to happen to us because she was training me and like she said, "President doesn't mess with training", well he did. We get a call that night and I pick up the phone and see that it is from President Morgan so I hand the phone to Sister Rapp. She answers it and puts it on speaker. He says, "Now Sister Rapp, why would the President call to give you transfer doctrine?" She had no idea, I had no idea. Then he was like, "Sister Rapp, I am calling you to be a Sister Training Leader with or without your permission." We both just looked at each other for a long time. She accepted and then the President was like, what do you think about this Sister Favero, can I take your mom from you? (ok that may not have been exactly what he said) and I was like uh, ok President. It was super strange.

Anyway, so since then we have been trying to figure out our lives because she leaves tomorrow. She has been super worried and I don't know what to think. she was supposed to be with me for another 6 weeks. Sister Rapp said that President Morgan must trust me to be able to take care of Frontenac and trust me enough to take my trainer away from me. It will be super crazy and interesting. I still am not sure what to think, but I know it will be ok. Sister Rapp has been freaking out about it much more than I have. I have thought a lot about it though. I know that it is part of God's plan for Sister Rapp and for me and that everything will work out. It is just way unexpected and crazy. So, this transfer will be super exciting and new and different and probably quite challenging, but it will be good. Sister Rapp would always tell me that she didn't feel like she was training me, but I know that I needed her so much to prepare me for this. These past 6 weeks have been amazing and I have learned so much from Sister Rapp. I just hope I will do as well as she has done in the area when she is gone. It is going to be a new experience, that is for sure!

 

I hope you have a wonderful week. You all are in my prayers! I hope you have a wonderful week. Sorry I didn't tell you the library was closed on Monday! I love you all sooooo much!

 

Sister Favero

This week has been kinda difficult because Sister Rapp hasn't been feeling very well so I have trapped in the apartment for a couple of days, but it is ok. I got the care package mom sent yesterday. I have the best mom in the world! I can't believe she found my monkey from when I had surgery. That was pretty special. My companion and I have a new investigator we will pick up today! I am sooooo excited! It has been a wonderful week though. We have been working hard and visiting lots of less actives. It can be kinda difficult because we have to report numbers to our District Leader and every time I feel like Elder Johnson in the best two years... Elder Calhoun and Elder Rogers 0 baptisms, 0 confirmed, 0 with a baptismal date, 1 contacted, 0 received. We have been working really hard to talk with everyone though. This week, Sister Rapp's trainer came to stay with us. Because we are in Frontenac, we are the closest to the mission home, so a lot of people come here to die (end their mission). It was hard for Sister Rapp because she was killing off her mom (sending her home). She had a really rough day that day. We are really working on staying positive.
Last night was crazy though. Sister Rapp was telling me about when she served in Marceleen and there were people who were possessed by spirits and just crazy stuff happening. Then we got out of our car and the stinking elders(the zone leaders of course) snuck up on us and I screamed bloody murder. It was terrifying. So I went up and was telling him off. It was so scary. But, other than the Zone leaders, Sister Rapp and I are doing well.

I have been reading Isaiah and I love it! It is just like reading a bunch of hymns with a lot of symbolism everywhere. It is super cool! We sing hymns a lot too! This week is going to be amazing, though! We are going to work so hard and find more people to teach. Our one investigator who is really close to baptism will come home from Poland in like a month, so that is a bit frustrating, but we will find others. We have done just about everything to find people to teach. We tracted this week (with a VERY trunky missionary) a lot. We have talked to a lot of people. We can do better though, and we will do better. I got an email from Cassidy and Danielle this week and they are both doing well! Danielle is in Japan now! I love being a missionary and thrusting in the sickle with my might.

 

Thank you for your love and support, you all are in my prayers!

 

Sister Favero

We have had a pretty amazing week! We have been working on visiting all of the less actives in the ward because we talked with the relief society president and she gave us a great big list. She is an amazing person. She is from Switzerland. Everyone in the ward is sooooo nice. It was so crazy yesterday meeting Favero's. So many people have come up to me and asked me if I am related to the Faveros in Ogden. Do you know a Roberto Favero? Was he one of the 14 children. I think that is what we came up with. We had a really great discussion with a lady who we are helping organize her house. She is less active and has been having some issues. She has tons of stuff that she hasn't had time to go through. She is really nice, though and we have add lunch with her a couple of times. Her name is Jennifer. She is going to have a garage sale in a couple of weeks so we will be helping her with that. We work at a food pantry on Saturdays and the lady there is always so nice to Sister Rapp and I. Sister Rapp is still the best companion in the world! We were going to meet the jewish lady I told you about earlier. We went over to her home yesterday, but she wasn't there. Then, later that evening we were talking to the Relief Society President at her home and Beth, the jewish lady, gave us a call and invited us to her son's birthday party! He is turning three. We met a lady in the ward who speaks Spanish and teaches it at school. She is less active and very sweet. She made us horchata when we went to visit her. Visiting less actives has been the priority lately. It has been a very successful week though. Also, I have been learning a lot about the Priesthood and I figured out how we are to inherit the Kingdom of God through the Priesthood. Because we receive our endowments, we are to inherit the Kingdom of God by becoming Priests and Priestesses, just like how Christ is a Priest! It blew my mind! 

This week, I have been singing Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy and Ye Elders of Israel. I will probably have them memorized in a couple of weeks. And I started reading Isaiah. I decided I really should know a little more about his teachings and prophesies since Nephi writes about them so much. This week I will also be learning a bit about Revelation because one of our recent converts who is really smart wants us to teach about Revelation. Luckily, Sister Rapp knows a lot about that! I am so glad to hear the kids are doing well. J is going to do well in Middle School. I know Victor and Athena are going to have so much fun this year and Juliet too. Also, this week my companion was prompted to visit a lady in our ward who is less active and she opened the door and she was in tears! She had just found out that morning that her mom had past away. Right after we arrived the Relief Society President came.It was amazing! We have had some special experiences this week. My companion has been having really really bad headaches this week too unfortunately, so the Elders in our area gave her a blessing. This week, we have talked a lot about the power of the Priesthood. It is truly an amazing gift from God. I have learned so much while on my mission about the Priesthood. My companion and I talked about how when we get married our first priority is that he was the Melchizedek Priesthood. Thank you for your example to me dad. I love you! Things are going great here! I am just loving life! It is difficult at times, but I love it so much!

One more thing... In relief society yesterday we had a lesson on eternal families and I am so blessed to have the most amazing eternal family. I love you all. I have learned so much about how everyone will be sealed in Heaven and how our relations with our families will be in the Kingdom of Heaven. It just is a testament to me that God has a perfect plan. I am going to be learning more about family history work soon! It is amazing to teach people about these ordinances that seal families together!

Have a wonderful week. Good luck to everyone at school. I love you all soooooo much!

Love you all!!!!

Sister Favero

We are having a wonderful P-day so far. This week has been great. We have found a couple more gators because Sat. was finding day! We did a lot of tracting! We were going to stop on Saturday, but then I was like, "we should try this last door" and guess who we found... our newest investigator. She is Jewish and we gave her a Book of Mormon. There are a ton of less actives in our ward who we are going to visit this week. We have three investigators now. We found someone on an old tracting sheet and checked her out and have an appointment with her this week. WE have one investigator from Poland who is really close to being baptized but will be out of town for the next three weeks. That doesn't bum me out, it makes me grateful for what I have. Thank you for sharing the story about the boy whose dad was sitting next to him through the night. I really liked it. I hope everyone is excited for school. How did Victor and Athena do at BYU over summer? I hope Athena enjoyed it. I know this week is going to be AMAZING! I love you all so much! 

 

Love,

Sister Favero

First week in St. Louis

Monday, August 3, 2015

My companion is Amazing! This area is difficult though because people are rich and aren't really looking for anything in their lives, ya know. I feel like a sponge, I have learned so much! I am really working on recognizing the spirit. I have been studyihng about the Doctrine of Christ. The mission president is great. His wife is sooo sweet. They are very organized and know what they are doing. I hope everyone does well in school! Mission life is the best. We stayed the first night in the mission home and it was wonderful we have a delicious breakfast and then went to the transfer meeting where I met my mom! She was so sweet and gave me a present with scarves and cards and things in it. I have been able to help people and really focus on why we are here. I can't wait to get people to the temple! I have realized that helping people Come unto Christ is going to be such a rewarding experience as I forget myself and work hard. I couldn't have asked for a better companion. She is amazing! I am learning so much. We need more people to teach though! My favorite thing was probably the baptism we attended. It was for a 8 year old boy. Four generations of his family was there. It was really spiritual but it was right after we had had a pretty draining lesson about the plan of salvation with one of our investigators. I love you and am so excited to be an exactly obedient missionary for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Tell everyone I love them, especially mom! Mom is the most amazing person I could ask to have in my life. I love you dad, you have taught me so well and I am prepared to preach the gospel.

I really do miss you and mom so much, but I can't imagine any place I would rather be! I love this gospel and I can't wait to teach people about eternal families like ours!

Love

Sister Favero