Farmington Week Sixteen

Hello, friends!!

This week was a roller-coaster. During the ride, I had the privilege of serving and learning from a lot of God's children. He blessed me to be able to see them a little bit of the way He sees them. There were 3 individuals specifically that this happened with:

1. Sister Ricks. I got to go on exchanges with Sister Ricks on Wednesday and as part of our exchange we spent a good amount of time talking about how she's doing personally and what goals she wanted to set to improve. She told me about some of the challenges she's facing right now and I just felt the deepest outpouring of love for her! I had only really known her for a few hours, but felt so strongly of her Heavenly Father's love for her and I wanted to do whatever I could to help her. It was amazing that as I felt this love for her and prayed fervently in my heart to know what to say, I was given the words that she needed to hear. I was able to be a little instrument in His hands to help her remember her worth and potential. I know I had His help because I honestly didn't know how to help her by myself. The words I shared were not my own!

2. Divonna. I've talked about Divonna a few times in my emails before (she's the one that recently went to the temple to do baptisms for the first time and threw me a surprise birthday party back in August) and let me tell you. I LOVE that woman!! Her family has been going through a really difficult time recently, and she has been the pillar of strength for them. She's only 24, but she is an amazing example to me of a valiant woman. The other night we were having dinner with her when she got a phone call with some heart-breaking bad news. I think all 3 of us were in shock for a minute, it just seemed so unreal. The bad news Divonna got that night was something she has been trying so hard to prevent for the past few years and she broke down in tears, telling us about all she's been going through to try and keep this thing from happening. In that moment, I felt completely helpless. I had no idea what I could say or do to bring her any comfort. But the thought that just kept coming to my mind that she needed to hear was that Heavenly Father was not upset with her in the slightest. He let me see that He knew she had done the very best she possibly could. I was trying to figure out a way to express that to her, but for some reason I just couldn't do it. Then Sister Darlington started to talk and expressed everything that needed to be said perfectly, just the way Divonna needed it. That was a powerful, humbling moment. It was a good reminder that sometimes we need help to help other people. I know that the Holy Spirit was communicating the same things to both of us, but Sister Darlington knew how to relay that message. Heavenly Father allowed both of us to feel how He feels toward Divonna and, although my heart hurts about the whole thing that happened, I know that He loves her so much and will not let her go through the coming days alone. Please pray for her!

3. Sister Patea. On Saturday we had a Mini MTC (Missionary Training Center) for the graduating seniors who were thinking about serving missions. Basically all of us missionaries in and around Farmington went to the church to be paired up with one of the seniors for the day. We had companion study, activities, and workshops. It was such a fun day! But the best part was being with Sister Patea, the prospective missionary I was paired up with. She was actually just in town from Washington for the weekend visiting her cousin, and she somehow got roped into coming to the Mini MTC that morning. She had absolutely no idea what she was getting herself into! Haha! But she was a champion. She has had a really hard life and her family back in Washington is currently working on coming back to church after years of not attending. So she's missed out on a lot of gospel learning, but she has a powerful spirit about her. Just being around her it was so clear to me that God has big plans for her. I was able to teach her a few things, but not nearly as much as she taught me! In the afternoon, we had rotations where we were practicing teaching the Restoration of the gospel to members of the church that were pretending to be nonmembers who hadn't heard the message before. I learned so much from teaching with Sister Patea. She bore such sincere and powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and was incredible at relating to the people we were teaching. There was so much about the way she taught that I want to take and apply to my teaching in the future. Throughout the day I could tell that Sister Patea was being stretched out of her comfort zone, but she was an absolute trooper and just rolled with whatever came. At the end of the day together she shared more with me about some of the trials she's going through and how much the experiences she was able to have that day are going to help her in the future. My heart was so full of love for her. Heavenly Father impressed on me that she is going to do amazing things. That silly little mini MTC might have been a turning point in her life. I was just blessed to be a part of it! And I'm not planning on losing touch with her any time soon!


So there's some of my lessons learned from my 16th week in Farmington. I know that this coming week is going to be full of its own difficulties, but so many learning opportunities! Heavenly Father is so good to us. I love Him and am so grateful to get to serve Him!

From Farmington with love,
Sister Bohman



P.S. The General Conference messages are already in the gospel library app!! Go start rereading them!!!! :D