Road Trip! (3/27/17)

Scripture of the week is John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

I hope that you all know that i know that Christ truly is the Son of the Living God.  The He lives, He suffered for our sins, our troubles, our pains, everything we have been through he understands it perfectly.  I know that God loves us and knows us and cares for us.  The peace that i have found through my Savior, is so much more than any peace that the world offers.  I know that because of Christ salvation is possible.  We can be strengthened and be happy and become the people God wants us to be, all because of Him!  I love my Savior so much.  I am grateful for him, He truly is the Prince of Peace.  The Savior and Redeemer of the world!  Ok, sorry, I will get off my soapbox.  Love you all so much!!

Road Trip!!

This week was a crazy one but it was a good one! So at the beginning of the week we had some work to do and we kind of thought it would be a normal week you know? So we had like district meeting and just kind of normal stuff and yeah it was great. Then one day we were street contacting and we get a call saying that we need to go to every single district in the mission to deliver all of the stuff for the new Easter Initiative! It was crazy! So we spent the rest of the day getting together all of the stuff that we needed and planning the trip and stuff.

So on Thursday we set off at 7 in the morning and we went to Vlore, then to Elbasan, then Pogradec, then we arrived in Ohrid (Macedonia) at 8:30 at night and slept there! I will go through each one: 

Vlore was really cool! My old companion, Elder Rogers is serving there! He seems to like it a lot but I think it is pretty hard work. It is right next to the sea so it is hot and humid there! It seems really nice though. But anyway we just got there and we gave our training about the Easter initiative and watched the new video and yeah, it was super awesome!

Elbasan was really really hot. That is the city that I started my mission in and I am glad I was never there during the summer because it gets so hot! We all call it "Hell-basan" because of how hot it is. Anyway the training there went well, we read John 14:27 and talked about how Christ's peace is different from the peace the world offers which is so true! And I am so grateful for that! 

Then we went to Pogradec, it is so beautiful there! When my family comes to pick me up I will definitely take them there. There is a really pretty lake and a cute little city it was great! But yeah the training went well there. The Spirit is always so strong as we train the missionaries! Also, Pogradec has only been open up to missionary work for not very long but it is doing so well! After the training we went to dinner with the senior couple there and met the first family baptized in Pogradec it was so amazing!! They had such an amazing, fresh, sweet spirit to them it was so great to see!!

Then we went to Ohrid and gave them their training and we were beat! A whole day of driving and training it was crazy but it was great!! All of the trainings went really well... But we were so tired at the end of the day! Ohrid had a pretty small apartment so me and my companion, Elder Miller had to crash on a little pull out bed on the couch it was great! 

So the next day was another early morning start, at 7 AM we drove across Macedonia from Ohrid to Skopje, then to Prishtina (Kosovo) then to Gjakova (Kosovo), then back to Tirana! I will tell you about each one again. 

Skopje was really good! It is kind of overwhelming driving across Macedonia because all the signs are in Cyrillic so like you are never really 100% sure that you are going the right way, you know? Anyway we found our way and even found our way to the church building without getting lost! It was a good training there. The district in Macedonia is so great it was awesome to be with all of them! 

Then it was off to Prishtina! My old home. It was good to be there. We got some Turkish Doners while we were there it was SO GOOD. The training there was awesome! All the missionaries there were taking notes and participating and we were all really in-tune with the spirit it was so great! 

Our final stop was in Gjakova! We were SO TIRED. We got to Gjakova around 5 PM. The training was alright.. I hope they enjoyed it because we were so tired we were trying to be energetic but I am sure we were just monotone and looked stoned haha. It was still get though! 

Then we drove home.. and got back at 9 PM!! It was crazy!! 2 days full of driving and giving trainings. We got home and me and my comp just crashed it was crazy but it really was so awesome because we were able to feel the spirit so much with all the missionaries it was such a great experience! I will attach some videos of me and Elder Millers trip :)
The rest of the week we just had such a hangover from all the driving.. we were so dang tired! Every day ha it was crazy. On Saturday we played football with a bunch of members it was fun. ANd yeah that was pretty much it! We have been working hard in our area when we have the time. We have been doing a bunch of street contacting which is always so great to do. Anway that is pretty much it for this week! Love you all!!

Elder Farnworth