This week was great!!! (9/18/17)

Me and Olsi

We were so blessed with a lot of work. So just a couple of highlights from the week!! So I don't know if I told you about this.. but if I did I am sorry but I am going to again... So here in Pogradec there is a really really nice house that is on the 7th floor and has like a really nice view of the lake and stuff. Anyway so we used to live there but then the Sisters came to Pogradec and they didn't want to move into the house that the mission got for them so they stole our house from us.... now we live on the 1st floor in a pretty sketchy area.. but I can't complain because it is a pretty nice house still. ANYWAY, so when we were talking to our Mission President about moving out he kind of jokingly said "I promise you will be blessed because of your sacrifice" well.. that promise came true!! So we move into our house and we meet our neighbor, who's name is Drita, she is an angel!! She said she wanted to come see our church one day so she came by just to check it out. Then the other day we were walking home and she invites us in to teach her and her son and her grandson! We teach them an amazing lesson and they all accepted baptism dates! It was so awesome!! I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways right?

Me and Brisil

 Also another huge blessing for this week was our English Course. We have been passing out flyers and advertising a ton for our English Course.. and when we started it up a ton of people came it was awesome! But the miracle was on Friday.. we planned to have a picnic with the branch and just a few of our investigators and stuff... Just a small little picnic. So we start telling our English Course about it and invite everyone there to it.. we kind of just expected it to be a small picnic so we didn't really buy too much food but then 60 PEOPLE showed up!!! Most of the kids in our English Course showed up and brought their families!! It was amazing we were able to give them all a quick tour of our small church then we went and had a great picnic full of games and we had to buy more food to feed everyone! It was a huge success! It is crazy because this is by far the smallest branch I have ever served in but that was definitely the best turn out to any activity I have ever had my whole mission! Awesome!!

Our VOGUE magazine pose!

 Sunday was super fun because a couple friends from Tirana named Olsi and Brisi came! They are so so awesome.. it was so fun to have them at church!! They both spoke and were able to meet all the members and our investigators it was awesome!! I am really going to miss all of the great people and amazing friends I have met on my mission. I really do cherish the time I have been here so so much, I am so grateful for everyone here and at home that shows me so much love and support. 

I love you all!!!
Elder Farnworth

Olsi gets the Melchizedek Priesthood! (9/11/17)

Me and son when and bought a blender and made Oreo McFlurries 

Another week in the books! Each week is going by crazy fast. Time just flies here! It has been good though. So me and my companion, Elder Miller, have just been working like crazy!! We don't have that many people that we are currently teaching right now so we are just doing a lot of finding! We have been on the streets a lot, and since summer has ended there have not been a lot of people out! So we have just been walking a bunch trying to find people! It is great and especially great learning experience for my trainee. He is doing amazing and is already so great at the language and really confident which is great! I couldn't have asked for a better companion to finish my mission with!

So we have been teaching this couple for a while, named Virgjinia and Konstintin, they are so awesome. They have been coming to church for a while but haven't really been progressing a ton until lately! We have had some amazing lessons with them. They have really plunged themselves in the Gospel and are super excited to get baptized and to become members in this church! This week we really helped them see the big picture of not only getting baptized, but also being able to go to the temple and be sealed for time and eternity! They are really excited to work towards baptism then strive spiritually and financially to go to the temple! I am so grateful that I am here and have this opportunity to tell these people about all of these great things!! I love missionary work!

Typical Albanian Village!

So another thing that was really cool about this week was that we had Stake Conference on Sunday!! It was so awesome to get together with all of the members from Albania and Kosovo for the last time! It was so weird that I was saying goodbye to most of them. I loved it there because I was able to see all of the wonderful friends I have made over the past 2 years! I am going to miss them all so so much. 

Also another really awesome thing that happened this week was that my recent convert, Olsi, got the Melchizedek Priesthood! He asked me to give it to him, which was a really special experience for both of us! I am so grateful for him and for his great faith. He is such a great example for me!! I am really grateful for the opportunity that I have had to meet him and teach him and see him grow into the great man that he is now! I know that he is going to go on to do great things (including serving a mission) Love you Olsi!! 

I am grateful for this time that I have to serve in Pogradec, it is such a special city! The members here are awesome. The work here is going great! Only good things to say about these last weeks of my mission!

Love you all,

Elder Farnworth 

I have a son! (9/4/17)

Bye Elder Samuel

This week was great!! Bitter sweet.. but definitely more sweet! So on Tuesday we went to Tirana to take Elder Samuel home! He was just going around saying goodbye to members and doing a bunch of different stuff and stuff so I was just tagging along with him. Then the mission president let me come to his exit dinner with him! It was so much fun but it was really weird.. Then on Wednesday we took him to the airport and that was that! Him and Elder Cox are home.. super weird that I was like in the MTC with them now they are home. I will be shortly following them! It was really sad to see them both go I will miss them a ton. 

Okay so that was the bitter side of it, but here is the sweet side.. I am finally able to train! My first time my whole mission.. better late than never! So I got put with an Elder named Elder Miller! My second time serving with an "Elder Miller" haha. He is so cool! He is from Roy Utah. And me and him get along really well! We have a lot in common and stuff. I am so excited to be able to finish my mission serving with him! He calls me dad all the time haha I love it, he is so awesome.

Me and Elder Miller

So we didn't get back to Pogradec until Thursday night but it was cool cuz right when we got back we had a bunch of lessons with our friends.. We had one lesson with this couple and randomly in the middle of the lesson they were like, we really want to get baptized in this church as a couple!! I was like okay!! Ha it was so awesome and such a miracle because last time we invited her to be baptized she said no.. But now that we are teaching both of them I guess they feel a lot more open to it when they are learning together as a couple. It was awesome! I am excited to teach continue to teach them and hopefully they will be able to prepare for their baptism date! 

So I kind of feel bad for Elder Miller... His first couple days he has had to deal with a lot of crap with the members haha. We have had a few members get really offended and come in the church like screaming at the missionaries and stuff then another member came on Sunday getting mad at us for not giving him money.. Ha but maybe that is why is here! To be able to help these members get over stuff like this. He actually handled it really well! We went over to the 2 offended members on Sunday and he led the Spiritual though with them and they yelled a little bit but by the end of it they were okay again and they were really happy with the missionaries again! I was like good job son!! 

Also, one other crazy thing to mention.. so there is this place here that has way good pizza and crepes and they just randomly decided to hate on us because we are Christian!! They always like glare and stuff.. So today we tried to go and eat there and he like wouldn't let us! And I was like why not and he started talking crap on us and stuff.. It was dumb. So I was like fine! I don't even want your pizza or your crepes! (When really I was like dang it those crepes were good) But I am still so happy to be a disciple of Christ!! 

Things are going great!! Only 5 more weeks! Crazy! I am definitely going to work my hardest these next 5 weeks but I am excited to get home and see my fam especially my niece and all of my brothers new puppies!!!!!!!

Elder Farnworth