Gëzuar Krishtlindja! (12/19/16)

Man, another super busy week! It has just been getting crazier and crazier it is insane! So last Monday we had FHE with President which is always great. One of the senior couples talked about how in baseball the home plate is always 17 inches and if the pitcher can't throw over it they don't expand the home plate for him they expect him to become better. He compared it to the commandments of the Lord it was really a great lesson! I loved it. It is awesome to go there. 

Gëzuar Krishtlindja

Also we temporarily moved into a new apartment and it has this
super annoying chandelier thing that I hit my head on 

Then on Tuesday we had transfers! So all of the missionaries were in the mission  office and we were helping them get to their new areas.It was pretty crazy! Then that night we had dinner at Presidents house with all of the missionaries that were going home. It was cool hearing all of their wonderful testimonies about the experiences from their missions. So then they all stayed at our house that night and we had to wake up at 3 AM to take them to the airport!! 

It was a pretty sad moment but I was way too tired to feel any emotions haha. So then the next day we went to the airport again to pick up the new missionaries coming in, it was pretty exciting! It reminded me of my first day in the country. They all seemed pretty excited! So yeah we took them around and stuff then we had a dinner with them at Presidents house which was really great. They all seemed so tired from all of the traveling, which makes sense! Then the next day we went up to the spot where Albania was dedicated for missionary work by Dallin H. Oaks. It is such a cool place and awesome to read the dedicatory prayer for Albania. 

Happy boy haha!!

By Friday night things started calming down. we were able to get a few lessons in! We have a couple really cool people that we are teaching I am excited to see them progress more in the Gospel. Also Friday night we went to President's house to meet with this Less Active member. It such an amazing meeting! So this guy was a little bit distressed because he tried so hard to go on a mission but he couldn't get the money to. So he felt the church didn't care for him. So at the beginning of the lesson he was talking about his harsh feelings he had towards the Stake President and different members of the church. But throughout the lesson the Spirit totally took over and he had a totally different feeling by the end! We invited him to get active in the church and to try to go on a mission again and so he said he would fast and pray about it, so we told him we would fast with him. So from Saturday to Sunday we fasted with him and after church we met up with him and said a prayer to break our fast and at the end of the prayer we all just sat there and was feeling the Spirit so much! He then broke the silence and said "I think we all know what I need to do" So he is going to start coming to church again and prepare for a mission! It was such a great experience. I truly felt Christ's love for one of his lost sheep. It was such a powerful moment! God KNOWS us. He LOVES us. I promise you that! 

Have a great week! 

Elder Farni

Tour of my old areas (12/12/16)

In Prishtina! (with the lights) 

This week was pretty busy but really good!! At the beginning of the week we had to give a training to all of the Zone Leaders about Christmas and different things. It was pretty exciting expect I was really tired the entire training and my voice cracked super bad during it.. it was kind of awkward. But oh well. Anyway then we were able to go to my old area, Prishtina (Kosovo) to see one of the Zone Trainings! It was great to go there, Except for we were not there for very long and it was so cold! But yeah we just watched the zone training then ate lunch and then left. It was good to see all the missionaries of my old zone again they are all so great. And yeah then after the training we just drove back to Tirana!  

Really cool stop on the way back from Kosovo. 

I was freezing though as you can tell by my face. 

So when we got back our President calls us and asks if we would be willing to go to Shkoder (area I was trained in) to speak at a fireside in his place! It was really cool to go there. The fireside was cool although there weren't a lot of people that came but we spoke about "Why do I believe?" And yeah it went really good I think. Then the missionaries in Shkoder got up and spoke about "Light the World" and then they taught the restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel! The Spirit was so strong it was great! 

This guy came up and talked to me afterwards. It was a guy that is going to get baptized in a couple of weeks! It was cool, because he remembered me from when I was in Shkoder my trainee transfer! Turns out I met him on the street while street contacting a year ago and he saw missionaries again a year later and is meeting with them and is going to get baptized! It is pretty cool!

So yeah after we got back from Shkoder we were pretty tired. A lot of driving this week but it was pretty good. On Sunday we had church and it was so great. We met this 13 year old kid who wants to get baptized before Christmas so we put him on the 24th to get baptized so hopefully that will happen! He is a pretty cool kid. Anyway that was my week! It was great to go to some of my old cities! 

Still loving it here!! :)  

Elder Farni 

Baptism! (12/5/16)

This week was quite the adventure!! I am loving it so  much though! So one thing that is really awesome about being here in Tirana is that on Monday nights we go over to Presidents house to discuss the needs of the mission and stuff, then we hold FHE with him and his wife and a few other senior missionary couples! It is really cool! President gave a really great spiritual thought on why we need the Book of Mormon. It was awesome! He is such a great guy! But yeah it is always great to be able to take part in those family home evenings. 

Tuesday was a pretty crazy as well. We had a ward activity at the church and we were doing some traditional dances and stuff. It was really fun! I have come a long way since my trainee transfer with my traditional dancing skills. I was told by someone that I am quote "A beautiful dancer" by an Albanian.. So that is something to put on the resume after the mission!!
On Wednesday we had to take all of the new missionaries to go to get registered to live in Albania but then there was a bunch of problems so we had to work all of that out then it ended up we not even being able to do it at the place we normally go to! So we have to figure out how to get it done in the new missionaries own individual areas. So that is pretty stressful! Then after that we gave a halfway training. It was pretty great! We talked about all of the trainers and trainees "Strengths and future strengths" it was great. It reminded me of my trainee transfer! It doesn't even feel that long ago but it was almost a year ago! Crazy!

Also this week we just got all of the stuff printed off for the Christmas initiative! It is such an awesome thing! I love the "Light the World" idea it is just amazing! 

Anyway another awesome thing about this week was that we had a baptism! It was this guy named Pellumb. He is a really cool guy he was so prepared to hear the Gospel! His baptism was really awesome as well. And yeah that was pretty much my week! 
Loves! 

Elder Farni 

Thanks Giving!! (11/28/16)

Man, this week was INSANE! It was definitely one of the more insane weeks of my mission. It was so busy! So we were doing a lot of planning for Thanksgiving and stuff. We had it at this really nice place for parties and stuff and it got catered by an American food place so we got all of that together. So the day before and the day of Thanksgiving was crazy because all of the missionaries were all in Tirana and they needed places to stay and stuff so we were trying to control all of that. 

All of us stuck in the elevator!

 Then on Thanksgiving we were just finishing up preparing for the dinner and stuff, and we start to head over to the place where we were going to have it about 30 minutes before it starts. So we try to fit about 10 Elders into an elevator and we start going down when all of a sudden the elevator stops working!! It totally stopped! We were stuck in between two floors in a crowded elevator with 10 Elders! It was crazy! So we were all just kind of chilling in there. Then finally we get the door open and end up crawling out of the door where there is about a 2 foot space! It was crazy. But we made it to Thanksgiving! We were only a few minutes late. 

Me and my comp on Thanksgiving! 

Thanksgiving dinner was great! We had an actually American meal! It was really good. We had turkey and mashed potatoes and everything it was really nice! Then after dinner all of the districts in the mission had to make a skit so we all watched each others skits. It was so funny! But I was nice and stuffed after Thanksgiving dinner it was so great!! Also it was a lot of fun to see all of my friends around the mission! 

Me after long days in the office 

So after Thanksgiving we are told we need to take a portable baptism font and a heater to this area in the south of Albania called Korca. It is about a 7 hour drive there and back. It took soooo long! So we take it there. It was a pretty fun drive but driving makes me so tired, We finally got back at night and I was pleased to see this awesome package waiting for me in my office from my homie Islam in Switzerland! It was so awesome he sent McDonalds in a package from Switzerland!! It was crazy. He knows my love for McDonalds :') haha but sadly once it got into Albania there were a lot of mix ups so it didn't get to me as fast as he intended so it wasn't the freshest McDonalds in the world.... It was still an amazing gift though! 

Haha Elder Farnworth in the mornings in his bathrobe....

Anyways, the rest of the week was pretty quiet. We are just trying to finish up all of the stuff with the Christmas initiative! We have printed out 30,000 pass along cards, now we are trying to get the posters printed out and we are talking to the city to have them put the big "LIGHT THE WORLD" add on the big TV's in downtown Tirana! It would be pretty cool. Oh  yeah, also my Mission President made it back from Switzerland! His surgery went well, he is just beginning the healing process though! Still trying to take it slow so we are trying to help him as much as we can. But yeah things here are really busy but I am still finding joy in the work! I love the holiday season! They are starting to decorate around Tirana and I love it! Plus I have been listening to Christmas music since July to prepare for this season so I am pumped :) 

Love you! 

Elder Farni

Basketball! (11/21/16)

This week was great! It was a pretty long week, but great! So at the beginning of the week we had some long nights in the office because we had to translate the calendar for the church's new Christmas Initiative "Light the World" but it is going to be so cool! We are hoping to give every missionary and members little flip-booklets where they can like check off that they are doing everything. AND it says 3 times on the calendar to call your mom or someone from your family so mom... 😉(just kidding) 

*I found this post on FB, YAY Jacob!!
This was posted after Jacob wrote this email.

This week we were able to play basketball a lot this week! It is so nice! We wake up early in the mornings and go to the park and play with some other missionaries. It is a lot of fun! I am really really rusty though. It has been a year since I have played so it has been hard but it is still a lot of fun! Then during the week we played a game with the ward and I told everyone it was my first time ever playing. So at the beginning I was doing awful on purpose and stuff then when we were about to lose I started playing and me and my comp tore it up! He played basketball in High School so he is way good and it was just so much fun to play with him. 

The ward here is pretty nice as well.. none of them can really say my name yet which is normal here I guess. There is this one older lady in the ward who is so funny. She like loves the Gospel and loves the church and stuff. Whenever you talk to her you just have to say "amen" a lot because she always is like "Lamb of God amen!" haha it is great she is awesome. She is a little coo coo though.... ha. 

*Here's another pic from the Adriatic FB post.  Looks like a service day!

The work has been good for the most part. We have been really busy organizing a few things and preparing for the Thanksgiving get together. I am so excited for that by the way, we are going to be at a nice place with an authentic American Thanksgiving dinner!! It is going to be awesome. But it has been pretty crazy figuring it all out without our Mission President being here! But it has been alright. We have a new friend that we are teaching named Pellumb. He is a pretty cool kid! He really likes reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church so that is really awesome. 

But yeah that is pretty much it! The work is hard but it is great! Loving every minute of it! I love serving the Lord, it is such a huge blessing! Also, a cheesy invitation from a cheesy missionary. It is... to read the Book of Mormon! It is such a great book. Really, if you have time to read my silly blog then you have time to read the Book of Mormon. So get reading! Have a great week! 

Elder Farni 

Week one in Tirana! (11/14/16)

Flooding!!

Man this week has been crazy!! So busy! My first day in Tirana was probably the craziest day of my entire mission!! Okay so I will give you the brief rundown. So normally it takes about 1 1/2 hours to drive from Fier to Tirana. So we are driving then all of a sudden we are just in 100% stopped traffic! So we get out of our car and found out that the road is completely flooded! So I decide to try and drive through and it starts getting pretty deep and pretty sketchy. So I pulled off on top of a round-about just to be above the water. We ended up waiting there for about 45 minutes! We saw this other car try to go through the water and they  stalled out and their car got stuck and they had to climb out of their windows and abandoned there car! It was crazy. So after a long journey and driving through a lot of water we made it into Tirana. It took us 5 HOURS but we made it. But then right when I get in Tirana my new companion tells me we need to take the big mission van and drive back into the floods and rescue some other missionaries that were stuck! It was crazy! But we got them. They are all safe! Everything is good! The floods were insane though! I will try to get you pictures.

 So anyway once we settled down and got in Tirana and everything was good, we were in the parking at the mission office and someone backed into our car! So we had to wait for the police to come and figure all of that stuff out. It was pretty crazy. Then we went to dinner at the Mission Presidents house. It was really sweet! It was for all of the missionaries that are about to go home and they all bore their testimonies it was really powerful. So yeah that was just my first day!! Pretty crazy!

Then the second day we drove all of the missionaries to the airport and sent them off. It was kind of sad to see them all go. But then we waiting there for a new missionary to come in! Elder Davis! A fellow Beetdigger! Him and I just talked about high school and Draper Mom's a lot it was so great.

So after all that madness everything kind of chilled out and we had a kind of normal week. 

Choir Practice! Sorry I look like a punk!

On Sunday we went to church, and this is the first ward I have ever served in my whole mission! It was so nice there were a ton of people!! (well only like 60, which is a lot for me) But it was great to just have a ward run itself and I didn't have to be worried about much. All the members here are so great though! It is awesome to serve in a place that the church has been established for a really long time. 

Overall this week was crazy and stressful but I am still loving it!! My new comp is great. We play basketball in the mornings it is so nice! I haven't been able to play basketball a lot my mission so that has really be nice. Anyways, Elder Farni is happy! Have a great week! 

Elder Farni 

I will be leaving Fier and moving to Tirana! (11/7/16)

This week was really good! Sorry because this is going to be kind of a short email. 

But at the beginning of the week my homie Islam came and visited me again! But this time he was able to stay longer so it was great! It was so much fun to be with him. He was just following us around all day. It was like he was a missionary with us! Ha he is such a baller. I love that guy! 

We had a Halloween party and it was a lot of fun! We made this big sheet with like a place to put your face cut out and we drew pictures of skeleton bodies underneath it. It was really great!! I was able to show off the crafty side of me :) But it was a lot of fun at the party! And it was awesome to have Islam there. But it was really sad to say goodbye to him again as he had to go back to Switzerland! 

So during the weekend we were able to go to a new area in the mission called Korca. It is soooo gorgeous! And the drive down there was amazing too! I was so amazed! So pretty. And the people there are so prepared to hear the Gospel! Everyone just wanted to meet us and we had like some amazing lessons. We met these two guys named Simoni and Kleanti, and they were so funny! We had like a really great lesson with them then just hung out with them and played Settlers of Catan with them and it was so much fun. It was awesome to play Settlers while only speaking Albanian haha. 

They are so funny though! They will both be getting baptized in a couple weeks. It was really awesome to meet them! 

So at the end of the week we got transfer calls! I will be leaving Fier! I am going to be moving to Tirana, where I will be Assistant to the President! I am pretty excited to move to Tirana because I kind of like the feel of the big city! Pretty excited but also kind of nervous! 

 

Love Elder Farni! 

PS: The picture with me and the girl with the kids is to show how much taller I am compared to ALbanians haha! 

1 year mark! (10-31-16)

Albanian Kneaders! 

Helloooo everyone!! This week was really great. It was kind of a long week but it was alright!! So on Tuesday I went on an exchange with this Elder that is from Russia. He is a pretty cool guy and has a pretty cool conversion story. But then this senior couple called us and asked us if we wanted to go to lunch so we go to like this pretty nice place but it totally reminded me of Kneaders in Draper!! I walked in and I was like no way. Then I was thinking man, the only thing this place is missing is a table full of Draper-moms. Then, almost right when I thought that I turned the corner and there it was! A table full of Albanian version-Draper moms! It was the best thing of my life oh my gosh! It was the best thing of my life! I felt right at home :') 

The Egg/Sugar desert! 

Then later on in we week we went to a city called Vlore for an exchange. It was a really fun time! The missionaries I was with are such cool guys. We obviously played Settlers of Catan at night haha it is always such a great time. But Vlore is a really pretty city! We went to this village really far away and it was so so pretty! There was this really pretty bridge that we went over on the way there. I got a picture but it was at night so you can't really see it. 

Later on in the meet we didn't really do much.. we were playing football on Saturday night with some of the members and I randomly noticed a huge scratch on my arm! I was like wo what the heck! I still have no idea where it is from ha. I am probably just going to tell everyone that I got attacked by a bear or something.

Wouldn't you want to hear about the Gospel from us? 

On Sunday we went to the Branch Presidents house for dinner and it was really great! Except for at the end, they were like "Okay we are going to get eggs and sugar for desert" and me and my comp just kind of look at each other and are like uh... So the Branch President gets an egg, pokes a hole in the top and just drinks it like it was nothing!! I was like what the heck! Then they cracked a few eggs into a bowl and whisked it up for a while then poured sugar in it and that was the desert! It was nasty! My comp like loved it and I thought that it was really gross haha. They were all laughing at my reaction to eating it haha. But yeah this week was great! And now Islam is back is Fier to hang out with me! I am so excited for him to be with me! Anyway, Happy Halloween!! 

Some people tell me this guy looks like me in 40 years 

Elder Farni 

Surprise Visit! (10-24-16)

This is the first guy I ever taught in my mission!
He is now baptized in Elbasan! Super cool guy

This week was really great!! So we did a lot of exchanges! The first one was in Elbasan (my first area) and it was so awesome! I was there for a day. It was crazy to be there again I felt like I was in my first transfer again except I could actually talk to people and stuff. It was pretty awesome actually, I was able to meet the first person that I ever taught on my mission! A guy named Besnik. It was crazy to meet him! He is now baptized. We had a really good conversation with him! He is such a cool guy. I thought that it was cool that he remembered me even though when I met with him last it was my first month in the country and I

A surprise visit!

was just a scared little greeny that couldn't speak Albanian! Haha it was awesome.

Then the next day I was able to go on an exchange in Tirana!! It was so awesome! I loved being in Tirana, it is so alive and there are so many people to talk to! And I was able to be with Elder Guymon who is so sweet! Me and him went on an exchange my first transfer, and now we went on an exchange during his last transfer! It was so much fun. He is such a cool guy. And it was just really really great to be in Tirana. It is such a cool place! 

So later in the week I got a call from this girl from England to go and meet her in a mall. So I was like uh okay and we drive to the mall. So then I get to the mall and I notice someone is filming me with their phone and I was like uh what is going on. So then I sit down and talk to the girl and she was kind of just asking random questions and stuff. Me and my companion both thought that she was like trying to secretly interview us or something. Then out of no where pops out Islam! It was crazy! I was like what the heck?! I thought he was in Switzerland! It was such a great surprise!! It really was so awesome to see him! We hung out with him and went to play football with him, and he came to church with us on Sunday! It was great. Sadly it was only for like 2 days but it was still great to see him and to be with him again even though it wasn't for long! 

Elder Farni 

We are moving into a new house!! 10/17/16)

Exchange in Berat with Elder Miller! 

This week was really good! I was feeling a lot better, but then at the beginning of the week I ate something wrong and got a little food poisoning so that kind of sucked. Fier is just kicking my butt! But I really like it so I am fine! It was funny though, so we a senior couple come to do apartment inspections, and saw how much problems and stuff that my house had so now we are going to move into a new house!! So that is pretty exciting I guess :) 

Such a pretty view!

So this week we had to go to a city called Vlore to do a baptism interview, and it was a lot of fun! We were able to spend some time street contacting with the missionaries there. It was really cool to be with them! It was kind of crazy to see some of the new missionaries. It made me realize how long I have been out! it feels like I was just one of those new missionaries last week which but I am almost a year done! Crazy. 

Also this week I was able to do an exchange in this really pretty city called Berat. It was so great! The exchange was so fun. I was there to do a baptism interview with these two guys that will be getting baptized this Saturday! We are all pretty excited about that! But the exchange was a lot of fun. The members in Berat are so awesome!! There is this kid preparing to serve a mission in England and he was so funny! Such a cool guy. 

The rest of the week was pretty quiet. We went out to visit this member in the smallest village I have ever been to! It was tiny!! And his house was pretty crazy. I almost hit my head on the ceiling of it and I almost fell like 10 times while making the hike to the top of the mountain where his house is! It was definitely an adventure but it was so much fun! He was a really nice guy. But yeah that was pretty much it! 

I am loving Fier so much even though it is hard! Still such great work! 

Love, Elder Farni 

Uh..are you sure you have the right number? (10/10/16)

Me and my new comp Elder Ingram
with Fier in the background!

This week was pretty good! It went by really fast which was nice I guess. I was getting over my sickness all week so I was really tired every day! I feel like I was kind of just out of it all week. But I am feeling much better now! So that is good! 

At the beginning of the week we got a referral from a member in another city! It was kind of weird. Being in Kosovo for 6 months I didn't really get referrals from members or from anyone really. So when the member called me and said he had someone he wanted us to teach I was like "Uh.. are you sure you have the right number?" (Just kidding didn't really say that) but the guy was this really cool old man named Bilbil! He is a really nice guy. We had a really awesome lesson where we talked about the life of Jesus Christ. The lesson went really well and was definitely led by the Spirit! And at the end of the lesson he said what every missionaries wants to hear; "Well how can I follow Jesus Christ?" It was so amazing. He accepted the baptism date and was able to come to watch conference with the branch too so that was really great! I am excited to see how it goes with him. 

Football!

Another really great thing about this week was zone training. We had it in Elbasan (my first area) it was really weird and awesome to be back there! I felt like I was a trainee transfer all over again! But the zone training went really good! The Spirit was really song. There are a lot of awesome missionaries in my zone! So it was really fun to be with all of them. 

Also, we watched conference this week!! We weren't able to last week because we had to wait for it to be translated. But it was really good! I really liked it. I especially love when Bednar said "we do not know our master if we don't serve him" I love that! It is so true. I just love conference so much! I know that Thomas S Monson is a living day prophet and it is so awesome! I have definitely grown to appreciate the fact that we have a living day prophet a lot more than I did before the mission! The Gospel is just so awesome and it all makes so much sense! I love it! 

Don't worry everyone! I found H&M!!!!!!! 

Anyway, we were also able to go to a city called "Lushnje" to play football with some other missionaries. It was a lot of fun! It is always great to get together with missionaries and have fun ha. But yeah I am feeling a lot better! Not sick at all anymore so looking forward to the upcoming week! Also! Big shoutout to my man Islam! It was his birthday last week! He is still in Switzerland killing it with his PhD. 

Elder Farni

Week 1 in FIER (10/3/16)

This week was pretty hard actually. My first day in Fier I started feeling a sickness coming on then the next morning I was totally sick! It sucked! so I have been sick all week. And it didn't help that our water wasn't coming on for the first 3 days that I was in Fier. It was hard. But Fier is so awesome! I really do feel like I am in a new mission though. It is pretty crazy how different it is from Kosovo! Kosovo was pretty clean for the most part but Fier is pretty dirty. My shoes and clothes get really dirty by the end of the day. But it is great I love it. 

The members here are really nice people. They all were so friendly it was so very awesome! The Branch President here is such a great man. His name is President Gjika and he has such a sweet family. He only has one arm but he is such a baller! I rides his bike and goes on long runs all the time. His family had us over for lunch after church on Sunday. It was really good! They fed us traditional food which was SO good. I haven't had good traditional Albanian food for a while so it was really good to be able to have that! I was so stuffed afterwards. 

The coolest part of the week was this thing that happened with our investigator name Klodi. He lives far out in a village and he told us to come meet him. When we got out to his village we didn't know where his house was so we tried to call him and his phone was off! It was really creepy in the village but I was totally down for the adventure so we decided to look for his house! And after much searching and walking down sketchy paths we found it! It was so awesome we were able to meet him and his kids it was so great!  And we had such an awesome lesson here. Definitely was a HUGE hand of the Lord in our work this week. 

I am excited to work in Fier! It is definitely a lot different from Prishtina but I still think it will be great. 

Elder Farni

*Jacob left his camera in a taxi so no pictures til his new camera gets there!!

Transfers! (9/26/16)

This week was pretty great! Okay so first of all there were these sisters in Gjakova, Kosovo that got arrested! I guess this lady called the cops on them after they tracted into her house so the cops came and accused them of not having "registered to live in the city" or something so they got in trouble with the cops ha it was crazy! So anyway, we were told that we needed to get registered to live in our city or whatever, so we go to the police station and ask them and they give us a bunch of blank stares. They really had no idea what we were asking for so they tell us to go to another office who tells us to go to another office who tells us to go back to the police station. So then the police station made a bunch of calls then they were like okay you need to go to this place! So we go there and they had no idea what we were talking about so this guy told us to take a number and there was a huge line and it was literally just to get our question answered! So we figured it was just a lost cause. I figured if they arrested we will probably be in jail for a shorter time than we would trying to figure out how the crap to get registered with the city!! 

We also went to Macedonia this week! The drive there was so awful. There was a lot of traffic so we were on the road for so long. Then my companion realized that he didn't have his passport so we had to turn around and drive all the way back!! Man it was hard haha. Then when we finally got to the Macedonian border they stopped us and told us that we didn't have the proper paper work. I was like dude what the heck! I have been in Macedonia like 5 times with this paperwork what do you mean it isn't right? So we ended up having to spend 50 Euro to get what we needed. It was so stupid! But once we were in Macedonia it was really good. We did some street contacting and stuff, I always feel so hopeless when I talk to people but I got a few phrases down! We also played soccer in Macedonia it was really fun. 

So at the end of the week we got transfer calls! I am getting transferred back to Albania! A city called Fier. I am pretty excited to be down there. It is going to be a very big difference from Prishtina! It will be an adventure that is for sure. 

Elder Farnworth 

We did contacting with an American football (9/19/16)

This week was really good! We were really busy this week which was really good. The Sisters in my area got emergency transferred so we had to take over teaching a few of their people but also we had to take over their beginners-English course. It was a lot of fun haha. We were teaching them like head shoulders knees and toes and stuff. And I was just cracking a bunch of jokes and stuff it was a lot of fun. The best part was at the end though, I said "after every English course we like to give a Spiritual thought, so if you don't want to stay to listen to it it is okay." then like everyone just got up and left and I was like... dang it.... hahaha it was so awkward and funny. 

Live shot of Elder Farni Football contacting 

Also another fun part about this week is that we did a lot of contacting with an American football!! It was awesome, we just stood out on the boulevard and just played pass with it and a lot of people stopped us because they have never seen an American football so they were all like "wo cool its a rugby ball!" and I was like uh no. But it was actually pretty successful! We were able to talk to a lot of people and we actually ended up sitting down and getting a drink with this family! We were able to tell them about the Book of Mormon and invited them to English course and stuff it was pretty cool. 

Lunch with the AP's! 

Then during the weekend the AP's came up to Prishtina to do an exchange with us! It was a lot of fun. I got to spend the day from an Elder from Utah named Elder Rogers. He is really cool! Me and him really got along and just laughed a lot. He is such a cool guy! It was a really fun exchange. I was also able to contact a little with Elder Guyman which was fun because we were together a lot my first transfer too! Me and him get a long a lot too. He is about to go home though so that is sad. 

Elder Rogers and I reppin our "Kanye2020" shirts 

while cooking s'mores on the stove 

Overall it was a really good week! We get transfer calls this week so that is kind of exciting! I will let you know what I will be doing next week :) 

Have a great week!!!

Elder Farni

Driving 4 dayz (9/12/16)

I wrote my Instagram username all over this "W"

We had a super busy week this week. We were outside of our area so much! SO much driving. We drove to Tirana on Tuesday night, and the drive was nuts!! It was the foggiest I have ever driven in. I like could barely see like 2 feet in front of me it was insane. I had to drive so slow! Luckily there weren't a lot of other cars on the road so that was good. Then we were in Tirana all day Wednesday because we were going to drive the new Elder that is serving in Macedonia to Macedonia on Thursday. But being in Tirana was pretty great! We had a meeting with the Mission President and the other Zone Leaders, it was really good! Also while I was in Tirana I was able to be with my MTC friend Elder Cox. We just did some street contacting but were mostly catching up and stuff. We like all of the same music and have very similar personalities so we really get along. 

Then when we finally got back to Kosovo we had a Zone Training and it went so well! We talked about the love of the Savior and how we can't share that love if we don't love the people that we teach. It is so true!! Everything the Savior does during his earthly ministry is done with so much love for God and us, so we all need to demonstrate that same love in our lives! The world would be such a rad place if everyone would try to love and serve each other as the Savior did. 

Current District with a look out of Prishtina

Also this week we met these two guys that are both rappers! It was interesting teaching them but they are pretty nice. We taught them the Restoration then we showed them the "Jamesthemormon" song about the Restoration. It was pretty funny. (if you haven't heard that song you should look it up) They thought it was pretty cool though! Pretty funny way to teach the Restoration though, haha. 

On Sunday we had Stake Conference which is so cool! We took a 3 hour bus ride from Kosovo to Durres, Albania. It was really great. I love stake conference here! It is so amazing to see all my old friends from my old areas! They all saw my "Farni" name tags and were like "finally I can say your last name!!" But it really is cool to see all of the members from Albania come together in one building!! The Spirit was so strong there. The car ride back was pretty awful though!! A lot of twists and turns and it felt like the bus driver was trying to make it the craziest ride ever.

Overall things are going really good!! Transfers are coming in a couple weeks. I will most likely be leaving Kosovo and go back to Albania. I am pretty excited for that I guess but also going to be sad leaving Kosovo. Bitter sweet I guess. But I am very happy to be out on the Lords errand!

Love Elder Farni

Protests, protests, and more protests (9/5/16)

This week was pretty crazy, which I guess means it was just an average week. The Government has been talking about giving some land to Montenegro and people are NOT happy about it at all. It is pretty interesting. But there was a protest every day last week about it. It was funny because we were on the boulevard walking with one of our investigators and like a peaceful protest came walking down, and we are suppose to stay away from protests, so me and my comp just awkwardly like started walking away from it. Our investigator was like uh what are you doing. It was a funny awkward missionary moment :) But on Friday there was actually a pretty big protest! We were instructed to stay inside like all day because it was going to be pretty intense I guess. But there were just a bunch of people gathering around the parliament not doing anything. The SWAT team was there with their riot shields but nothing happened. I was actually kind of disappointed. I was just on the sidelines of it all yelling "throw something!" (Just kidding Mom)

Also another cool thing about this week; there was is this guy that works for EULEX that lives in Kosovo, and he always comes and hangs out at the church. He isn't really interested in the church but he likes being with us and stuff so we just hang out with him sometimes! He is pretty cool. He tells us all the "Insider info" about Kosovo. It is INSANE!! The whole government is ran by the Mafia and there are so many controlled crimes that go on and there is nothing that EULEX can do to help them. It is insane. So for all you that think that the American government is corrupt just do some research on the Kosovo government and you will think that America is just fine!! Haha sorry didn't mean to get all political or anything. #Kanye2020

Saying goodbye to Islam :( 

Also this week our really good Friend Islam moved to Switzerland :( We were able to hang out with him a ton before he left and he even came to a zone conference and talked! It was amazing. But it was so hard to say goodbye to him. We went to the Prishtina Airport with him and it was just really really sad! I hate saying goodbye to people. But I know that he is going to be doing great things in his life. Love that guy so much!! 

Gonna miss this guy!!!

On the more Spiritual side of it we were able to go to Bondsteel (the American Base) this week and teach a lesson there. We had such a great lesson! There is this new member from the states that just got deployed and he is so cool! He reminds me of Bishop Gardner, just a happy, nice guy! Love him. But we had such a great lesson about repentance! The Spirit was so strong. I was just like receiving revelation for myself about repentance as I was teaching it. A story came to my head about when I was younger, I used to always be nervous to invite my family to my basketball games because I never thought I was good enough and I was embarrassed. And when I told my dad that he was so sad! Because he loves and WANTS to support me no matter what! And it is the same with God. Sometimes we don't invite him in our lives because we don't think we are good enough or we are embarrassed but this is no excuse for us to not invite God into our lives. He WANTS to help us and support us. That is why he sent his Son to Atone for our sins! Let us all use that amazing blessing and invite God into our lives!! 

Man, I am such a missionary.. Go me! ;) 

Elder Farnworth

The District

Oh also I got my dead skin eaten off by fish

Why Sister's live longer than Elders