One year or one month? (7/17/17)

This was a year ago!!

This week it really just hit me how fast time really has been FLYING. Like for real I am just amazed at how fast time is going by. Also I am sorry in advanced because this email is probably going to be pretty short haha. But this week was great!! At the beginning of the week we were super busy just cranking out lesson after lesson with a lot of people I loved it so much! Things are going really great here!! We are working with a lot of really cool people. I think that I told you last week but we have one investigator that we are working with and he is on the Pogradec basketball team and we totally went with him and practiced with the team! It was super sick. And we worked into our morning schedule a way that we could get all of our studies done then go play with him and the team so that was super awesome! We were playing 4 on 4 games to 5 and me and my comp won 10 games in a row and the coach like got mad at all the team and stuff haha it was fun! I miss playing basketball so much. 

Now... ignore my hair it was windy hah!

So towards the end of the week I went to Ohrid to conduct a baptism interview! It was good it was my first interview I have ever done in Macedonian!!.. Just kidding it was in English ha I don't speak Macedonian at all! But she was really cool, she will be the first baptized members in Ohrid, Macedonia! She is making history it is crazy!! Super cool story I am really excited for her. It should be really cool. Then after the interview I just did an exchange in Macedonia which was really good! I love Ohrid it is so pretty and so clean.

Then at the end of the week we went from Macedonia back over the boarder to Albania for Zone Conference! I looked at the stamp I got on my passport which was July 15 2017 and I noticed that it was right next to a stamp that I got on July 15 2016!! Then I realized that the one from last year was when I was going to Macedonia for my first ever Zone Conference as a Zone Leader a year ago when I served in Prishtina! Man it was crazy to think about that I can't believe that that was a whole YEAR ago.. So insane! Time just flies on the mission. Me and Elder Miller got a picture together and I will put next to it a picture that him and I took a year ago on that day in Macedonia which was his trainee transfer. So crazy how fast time is going! 

Albanians know how to stack wood!

I was walking down Ohrid and this guy offered to cut out a paper of my profile and this is what I got! Pretty cool!! He did it with like scissors in like 2 minutes it was really impressive! 

Love you all!! 

Elder Farnworth

Earthquakes! (7/10/17)

Grand opening at the school the church helped with.

Okay so first off, there have been a ton of earthquakes here!! It has been pretty dang crazy! For the most part they are pretty small but there are some that have been pretty big that like almost knock me over and stuff it has been crazy! There was one that like turned off all the electricity in the city it has been pretty crazy. 

Anyway this week was good but pretty sucky in the beginning.. So we went to Macedonia for district meeting and it was so gorgeous as always. And we ate this thing called a "Falafle" which was sooooooooo yummy holy cow. I was in heaven eating it... But it didn't really last because right when I got home I got super sick! I am not really sure what I got sick with but I had like a stomach ache for like 3 days straight! I must have caught a bug or something so that was pretty crappy. I had to stay in a lot but I still tried to work through it! It was really annoying though ha I kept having to go to the bathroom. But we wont talk about that :) 

We were interviewed!

Anyway so then this week the church helped to fund this like school thing and it had its grand opening which was cool! We went there and they were like honoring us for it and stuff and there were camera's and stuff and we got interviewed it was pretty cool! I will add a picture of us with a camera being interviewed.
Also this week we worked a lot with Mira, our recent convert, on Family History! So we showed her how to fill out the little booklet with her family history and stuff then we planned to enter it into the system.. So when we met again she and her sister had both worked hard to fill out all of the stuff needed and they had some really amazing experiences!! She said that her and her sister both saw their mom in a dream after working on it and she was tearing up while she told me about it it was really cool!! It talks about that in my Patriarchal blessing that I will find a great interest in family history and stuff and I really have! I think that it was such a special moment for our recent convert Mira. She is looking forward to one day take the names to the temple to do her ordinances there! 

Other than that we have just been working hard! We are finding a lot of really cool people to find and teach it is pretty awesome. This transfer I have really grown in my testimony of prayer.. I really feel like I am side by side with the Lord in this work and that I need to talk with him often so that I know what he wants me to do and where he wants me to go. And it is amazing how many answers I have received to prayers here! 

I am so grateful for all the help that the Lord gives to me in the work. I love it here so much! 

Have a great week!! 

Elder Farnworth 

New Mission President! (7/3/17)

This week was pretty good! It was pretty slow at the beginning of the week but it really picked up during the weekend. Anyway this week we went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders which was fun! I was with this Elder that was in my MTC group so that was fun. It is just so weird to think how far away the MTC was... Like a year and a half ago like what?? So crazy how fast time is flying by. I love it out here!! But we did great we have been doing a lot of "table-ing" which is basically like setting up a table with a bunch of stuff then we have a big poster and then talk to people! It is actually pretty successful here so we have been doing it a lot. So it was a fun exchange! We pretty much just did that ha. The only not fun part about the exchange was that we were 4 Elder's sharing 1 shower ha so that was pretty crappy. But I guess cold showers are alright because it is getting hot here!! My area I think is like the coolest area in the mission though because it has like a really nice breeze from the lake so I am loving that! 

Me and President and Sister Anderson! 

So our new Mission President got here this week!! He arrived on Wednesday I think. Right off the bat he went on a mission tour with the AP's to meet all of the missionaries. He came to Pogradec this last weekend as his first area to visit and first place to go to church at! It was cool he got here in Pogradec Saturday and we had a little get to know you meeting and stuff then we played volleyball with investigators, members, and President and Sister Anderson! It was so much fun he is such a cool guy. We also were able to find 3 new investigators from playing volleyball and 2 of them came to church the next day and accepted dates to get baptized! So that was pretty cool. But yeah it was really cool to be able to spend time with the new President. 

So on Sunday it was pretty special.. It was my first fast and testimony meeting in Pogradec and because the new mission President was there a bunch of members came... It was the most people I have seen at church here! (18) It was really cool! A really powerful meeting the members gave really great testimonies and stuff. It was really cool! Then President Anderson got up and at first I was translating for him then he was like "Thank you Elder, you can sit down" then he just starts giving his testimony in Albanian!! It was so cool and so spiritual! 

Me and my old comp, Elder Miller! 

So during 2nd hour of church I get this call from this random guy and he was like "Hey we are at the church, come outside and welcome us in" So I go outside and there was this older really sweet couple out there and the lady is like "do you remember me?" I was like uuuuuh no.. Ha so we were kind of just talking and we went to Sunday school and stuff then I remembered who it was! So like 3 weeks ago I saw that girl walking with a bunch of bags and I offered to help her and just walked for like a hundred feet with her bags and then gave her a pass along card and I totally forgot about it ha but she came to church last Sunday! It was cool! Blessings of service.. And they both want to learn more about the church so that is great!! Blessings on blessings

So we are working with this new kid named Enea.. we actually found him last P-day while we were playing basketball on the beach he came and started playing with us.. He is so sick! We had a lesson with him on Saturday then he came to church Sunday then we had a great lesson after church with him. He is an amazing kid! He is like 16 and like bigger than me and almost as tall as me (which is not very normal) but he is great. He was saying how he just feels something special when we meet and he felt it really strong at church and he was like saying he knows he needs to get baptized and follow Christ. At one point I read Alma 7:11-13 with him and testified of Christ and stuff then he was like "See right now I feel it! That is the feeling I love!" Then he kept the Book of Mormon open to that page and he was just like "I normally hate reading but I am so excited to read this book." It was just such a cool lesson! But the cool thing is is he plays for Pogradec basketball team and he invited us to come and practice with him and the team so we did that this morning! It was way fun we like did scrimmages and stuff it was my first time playing in an indoor basketball court for a year and a half. It was super dope. 

Anyway I love the work so much it is going so great! Have a great week!! 

Elder Farny

This place is gorgeous! (6/26/17)

Pretty hike

This week was great!!! The work has been tiring and we have been working really hard but it is going really great I love it here so much!! So it is warming up a lot here so people are starting to get out and go to the beach and there are a lot of tourists here. It is pretty cool to see all of the tourists and stuff it is cool. But I love working here!! There are such great members and you just meet the coolest people here in Podradec.

So we met this lady with the coolest story ever... so her and her husband tried to go to Germany with fake passports and stuff but they ended up getting caught in Berlin or something so she got split up from her husband and was alone in Berlin with her 1 year old baby and she couldn't speak nor understand anyone! she said it was terrifying but that she prayed like crazy and just asked God to help her to find a way back home.. then she found an Albanian! someone who spoke Albanian and was able to translate for her so she found her way back home and ended up getting home safely. she said that while she was traveling home she felt that God was telling her that she needed to leave her husband and raise the kid on her own (because her husband was a heavy alcoholic and not a very good guy) but she felt that God was going to help her to be protected and stuff and to help her. so she got a divorce with her husband and then she met me and my companion a few months after all that happened! she said right when she met us she knew that we were sent from God and that the church is exactly what she needed!! so we have only been able to meet with her once so far but it was a great lesson I was just so grateful to be assured that the Lord really does prepare people and help us so much in this work!

I love this lake!

The rest of the week was good. On Saturday we played beach volleyball which was so much fun!! fun fact about me and Albania ha I am a lot taller than the average Albanian... so i was the tallest one and it was so fun... everyone on my team was like rotating around me and made me stay in the front line and didn't let me move ha but it was a lot of fun! i loved being on the little lake beach here it is so pretty.

People live in this small villages with beautiful gardens! 

Sunday was pretty slow here.. it was the day of elections which everyone apparently uses that as an excuse to not do anything include coming to church! Ha, we had a whopping 10 people in church including 4 missionaries it was really weird but the Spirit is always there. It is cool, even though sometimes we have more people at Young Mens or like ward book of Mormon reading... the spirit is always the strongest at church no matter how little of people there are i love it so much! 

Also at the end of this week we went on a really cool hike, I will attach some pictures from it! This place is gorgeous :) 

Love,

Elder Farny