Last week in Tirana! (6/5/17)

Man, I can't believe that my time in Tirana has come to an end! It feels like I just got here yesterday, but I have been here for 7 months!! So I received transfer calls to really really pretty city called Pogradec. It is gorgeous! I am so excited to serve there. It is right next to this gorgeous lake I am really excited for it! It should be a really great time and really challenging, the city has only been open for a little bit and only has about 13 members so it will be fun to work in such a small branch!! 

Me, my old comp Elder Rogers, and President and Sister Weidmann! 

Anyway so at the beginning of this week we had mission conference. It was kind of like a good bye for our Presdient. It was really good!! There are a lot of missionaries that are going home at the same time as president so every single one of them bore their testimony then President bore his last. It was powerful! It was 12 really great missionaries giving us their last words and ever single one of them testified so powerfully of Jesus Christ! The Spirit was there so strongly it was amazing. Also, on another note, I got pretty artsy and put together a little picture that all the missionaries signed and presented to our President. It looks pretty good. I will attache a picture below :) It was pretty sad though I am going to miss having him! He is such a great guy it will be sad to see him go. 

My artsy project for the President and his wife

Presenting it to them

The rest of the week was pretty normal... We just had a few things to do here and there but for the most part we were able to find and meet people. So we met with that kid that I talked about last week that we played basketball with, his name is Jorgo. He is so dang cool! He is really really prepared and loves taking the lessons from us. He just kind of gets them all too which is so awesome. After one of our lessons with him we went to the park with him and played basketball with him and all of his friends it was a ton of fun!! A bunch of guys there were like "Guard the American! guard the American!" It was funny. I played pretty good but man am I rusty! It was fun though. Afterward a ton of people wanted to talk to us and stuff I was like oh this is a nice change.. normally you are avoiding me on the streets!! haha it was good fun.

Anyway this week was really good I did a lot of saying goodbye to people in the ward. I am going to miss serving in Tirana 4th ward so much! But I am excited for my next challenge in Pogradec!! 

Love you all, have a great week! 

Elder Farnworth

The old office gang!

I heard "Chokers" are coming back? 

I called on the girl who was taking this picture to read 

cuz I caught her in the act! 

Live tweet of me and my recent convert, Olsi, 

teaching 2nd hour for the last time! 

Gonna miss these people!!! 

Tender Mercies of the Lord (5/29/17)

#Sundayselfie

This week was really busy but really great!! Okay so at the beginning of the week we had District Meeting which was fun as always. We like talk about all of our investigators and all of the people that we are working with and stuff and write them up on the board. So after we wrote them all on the board I said "You know what I think we need to focus on as missionaries? Yeah its great to baptize people, but what if we married people!" So that led to us taking all of the names we wrote up on the board and matching them with each other, who would be a good match for each other you know? Anyway so that took up a lot of time but now it is so on! We are going to try to get our investigators to either date other investigators or members. We call it Tirana 4th Ward Tinder. It is going to be great. 

This picture was taken a few days before I broke those glasses...

 Good there they were my cheap ones! 

Anyway then the next day we had MLC, it was fun. It was our Mission Presidents last MLC so that was pretty sad! (It was also my last MLC but who cares you know) But my Mission President got up and was just talking about how he is not excited to go home and work a normal job for something that doesn't matter as much as this work does. man he is such a great guy! I am going to miss him so much it is going to be so hard to see him leave! 

Anyway so then the next couple days were a blur.. we were just so dang busy it seemed like we had one thing to do after another! I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Cox from my MTC group. He is one of the brits you know? He is such a cool guy, I cant believe I have known him for 19 months now! It feels like yesterday I was meeting him for the first time in the MTC. Time is so weird! But the exchange was fun we were able to go and help translate for some people at a orphanage so that was fun. It was great to be with him! Also while I was driving him back to his area, I got pulled over by this girl cop who had pulled over Elder Cox just a week before but let him off with a warning.. so she pulls me over and sees him and was like "I let you off with a warning last time and you speed again?" But I was like yoooo you gave HIM a warning last time.. not me. So like.. Then she kind of laughed and ended up letting us off with a warning *dab* Anyway it was cool.

Me playing basketball this morning.

Then the next day was more normal.. We have been organizing a few gifts to give our Mission President at Mission Conference so other than doing that we were just able to street contact and stuff. It was funny actually while I was in Tirana I got pulled over AGAIN, the day after I got pulled over by that girl.. But I talked my way out of the ticket again. *dab* I think that is my 15th and 16th time being pulled over on my mission but still have never gotten a ticket! 

Okay so now for a spiritual side, this week we had a HUGE miracle happen. Okay so a couple weeks ago we played basketball with these kids, and one of them was named Jorgo and he was a super cool kid. Me and him were getting along really really well. So anyway we leave basketball and I completely forget to get his number or give him a pass-along card or anything. (Crappy missionary, I know) Anyway so after I was like feeling super guilty and I prayed that somehow we would be able to meet him again. Keep in mind there are a million people that live in Tirana.. Anyway so a couple weeks pass by and we are walking to our usual contact spot but I realize I forgot my Book of Mormon in the car, so I go back to the car and grab it, then after I get it me and my comp both feel we should go somewhere else contacting, so we go the completely opposite direction and start walking for a while. After a while we turn the corner and BAM! There is Jorgo! He was like "Hey guys what is up!!" And was super excited to see us it was awesome. We were able to get his number and he is excited to start learning about our church and said he wants to come to church next Sunday! It was a huge blessing I was so grateful for it. Anyway I love my mission. I am going to be out here forever so don't ever think that I am going to come home soon sorry ;)  

Loves,

Elder Farnworth

Siesta Schedule! (5/22/17)

Okay so first off, this week was really cool because our President wanted me and my comp to try out the "Siesta Schedule!" It is pretty much where we stay outside at night and extra hour, and go to bed an extra hour (so stay outside til 10 or 10:30 and go to bed at 11:30) Then right after lunch we are to take a nap to make up for the hour of sleep that we lost. It was really cool! It was actually loads of fun to be outside like late at night.. Tirana gets pretty exciting late at night! There are a lot of drunk people and stuff it is pretty funny I guess. I don't know we will see if our President wants to keep going with this schedule or not. 

Random picture of us donating clothes to the Albanian version of the DI 

Anyway so it was just a usual week, we were able to start teaching this new guy named Deni, he is such a stud!! He is so funny and loves hanging out with us. He also loves the church and stuff it was a huge blessing that we found him! And we have a few other people that we are working with it is going great! I just love the work. My time in Tirana is probably coming to an end in June 7th. Which means my time working in the office and with President will be wrapping up as well! It is kind of bitter sweet. But I am really excited to get back out on the streets as a normal missionary especially because I have been in leadership for about 11 months so now I can just put myself fully back in the work and apply what I have learned this whole time :) 

So at the end of the week we played basketball and it was so much fun! A couple of us missionaries with some members just put a little team together and we were running the court it was so much fun! I love being able to play basketball. I mean, these last few months I have been really getting into soccer but coming back to basketball has made me realize that basketball is way better than soccer.. sorry Europe ;) But the basketball games were a lot of fun. Albanians are really passionate about sports but they are not really that good at basketball.. It is fun like they get competitive so it is an interesting game but like we just win every time it is fun.
Then the next day we played soccer with some of our other friends! It was really good. The weather in Tirana is just beautiful right now I love it so much! It is perfect weather for all of the sports so it was a ton of fun! Then we had a baptism which was good, then we drove out to this really pretty area right out side of Tirana, to have a Priesthood activity! It was loads of fun. We went to this really nice restaurant it was so much fun! There was like a wedding taking place in the back yard of the restaurant which was cool but it was really fancy! Anyway so we have like a super amazing lesson with all of the Priesthood (who are kind of all less active one way or another) And we really felt the Spirit and were all sharing out testimony and kind of recommitting one and another to start coming to church and stuff it was really great! I was pretty excited about church the next day!!.. Theeeeeeeeen none of them came hahaaha. Not even the active ones ha I was like dang it I thought the activity was good!! Haha but I guess thats just missionary work for you!! 

Anyway the work is still great. I love it so much here really. Albania is the best country in the world!! I hope that you have the best week ever :) 

Elder Farnworth 

Mexican Crepes in Albania (5/15/17)

So this week was pretty good. It was a pretty quiet week I guess not really much that went on. So at the beginning of the week there was a new senior couple that came in.. They were really nice! They kind of seemed overwhelmed about coming into Albania but they were really cool. Ok so kind of a side note, as a missionary in Albania you kind of get accustom to strange things. So, there are these delicious "Mexican" flavored Crepes that they sell right below our house.. So I was talking about that with our mission president and the new senior couple steps in and says "A Mexican Crepe in Albania?! That sounds wrong." Ha so needless to say I was HAPPY to show them where the place was and to enjoy a crepe with them. I think it got their approval haha. They are SO GOOD. 

Shout out to my comp's girlfriend for getting me an Easter egg :) 

The rest of the week was kind of just boring. We were doing a lot of street contacting which was good. It is getting SO hot though! It is starting to get like California weather here hot and humid ha it is nice though. We have been trying to work hard here but the area is kind of slow right now. We have a few friends we are working with though which is good. I spent a really long time writing a bunch of life's questions and how the Book of Mormon can answer them and stuff and I filled up the front 2 blank pages of a Book of Mormon, and I was all excited to use it then I go up to this guy and invite him to read one of the scriptures that answers a question and he looks at it and says "You are wasting your time here, go back to America." And I was like.... great.... hahaha but it was actually pretty successful a lot of people thought that it was really cool! 

During the meet we met this member who is like really old but really funny hahaha and he was telling us how the Stake tried to give him a calling and he was like "Why would I take a calling? I am anti-communist and pro-America!" HAhahahaha I was dying so much ha he is such a funny guy he always talks about politics to us and we are just like "you know we can't talk about politics as missionaries right?" But he just likes talking to us haha. 

This kid is a stud!

We also had an activity this week where we were doing Albanian traditional line dancing it was loads of fun! I am getting SO GOOD at Albanian dancing like I can hit all of the steps. I am excited to get home and teach you all of it ;) 

So at the end of the week we looked at our numbers and they were... not so hot to say the least so we were like well lets just hope for a miracle on Sunday! And we definitely got one. Church was so great! We had this investigator come and bring his mom and she loved it and invited us to come to their house this week to teach their family! We also had some other random people come that we met while street contacting and we were able to invite them to meet with us so that was a really cool blessing of the Lord! 

Oh yeah and also I Skyped some people on Sunday night it was pretty good I guess. ;) 

Love you so much family you are the best!!!! 
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MUM! 

Elder Farnworth 

Cleaning, trainings, more cleaning..(5/8/17)

This week was pretty busy but really good! This is going to be a short email though because I am lazy haha sorry everyone. SO at the beginning of the week we gave a training for all of the missionaries that are in there trainee transfer. It was a really good training! We assigned all of the trainings to read some scriptures and then compare to their work and to answer the question "What does it mean to rely on the Lord?" It was a really good training! I love giving trainings it is always such a great Spirit. 

The after product!! 

Then we just street contacted a lot this week. We met with this dude who is hilarious!! He is like 57 years old and is just so funny. I refer to him as the "Albanian Han Solo" he is such a gangster! He like knows very little English and always looks angry and whenever you say something he like stares at you and is like "What?!" It is so funny. He always like sits at pubs and just drinks vodka all the time so it will be a working progress. But he has potential! At first he was kind of just like no no no no God and all this stuff but like the next lesson he opened up and was like "I only drink a lot because I am sad that I have to live far from my kids" And stuff then I testified that God still loves him even more than he loves his kids it was really cool. I love missionary work.  So at the end of the week we got the assignment to clean the office. MAN it was a pretty big task. It was so messy! I am talking about the storage room of the office ha there was so much crap there. It ended up taking us about 9 hours straight to get it all clean! It looks really good now though! It was pretty fun cleaning it but a lot of hard work and we were definitely not dressed in the proper outfits because we got our white shirts really dirty but it was great!
Then on Sunday we had one of our investigators that is really cool and we have been working with for a really long time but hasn't been to church, he came to church! It was cool... Kind of. He walks in and he yells "FARNY, MILLER WHATS UP!" In the middle of some lady giving her testimony then he like sees all the other missionaries around the room and he like yells their names and was like raising his hand to them and stuff it was so funny ha. Then he was like "Tonight, I am going to drink alcohol and do drugs, you guys in?" (side note- we have taught him the word of wisdom, he was just messing with us.. he is such a punk) It was funny then he like took the sacrament and was like "Alright I am out, love you Jesus!" then leaves haha. I love some of the experiences that I have here so much haha. 

Anyway love you all have a great week!! 

Elder Farnworth 

I made it to Bitola!! (5/1/17)

This week was really really great week! Really busy but really great! So the beginning of the week was kind of normal. Just some meetings and some contacting it was fun. CRAZY STORY (but before I tell you, don't worry, Albania is a really safe place.) Okay so we were contacting and I was talking to this dude and the street, meanwhile this like homeless man walks up to me and points to my watch then he holds up this weird things with wires and stuff and lights a lighter underneath it and my heart dropped. I thought it was a bomb! So I started like backing up really fast and yelling but then he just walked away and it was nothing. Then the person I was with was like "Don't worry, we don't have any terrorists in Albania, just crazy people." I was so scared! My life flashed before my eyes! (I lived a pretty good life, in case you were wondering) 

Also here are some random pictures of my shoes..
they are holding up like champs!

Final stretch 5 months left! 

Then we got the assignment to go to a city in Albania called Pogradec, to take some church photo's to their new church building down there. Then from Pogradec we went to do an exchange in a city in Macedonia called Ohrid! It was SO pretty there. There is like this lake there and it is gorgeous! I have been there a couple times before but the other times it has been snowy and dark there so this was the first time I have seen it during the spring and man was it pretty! But yeah it was fun to do an exchange there. I obviously don't speak any Macedonian at all but I was still trying to street contact and stuff it was so much fun! The missionaries there wrote down some phrases for me to say to people so I was just some weird American trying to speak Macedonian to people it was funny. 

But it was just really gorgeous there in Ohrid! There are a lot of tourists that go there because it is referred to by some as the "Jerusalem of Europe" because of how many church's there are and I guess the Apostle Paul went there once or something like that. But it was really cool! Oh yeah and I helped out with a lesson there and this guy totally lived in America for a super long time and said that he was pretty positive that he has seen missionaries before when we lived in Chicago.. So I asked him when he lived in Chicago and he said from 1978-1990 and I was like dude I bet he saw my dad as a missionary in Chicago... Just saying. But anyway Ohrid was just awesome... I highly recommend going there. I mean, it was marked as that 5'th best city in the world to visit on https://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel/cities... ;) 

Ohrid, Macedonia! Excited to take you all here family!!! 

This is Bitola

So then the second day we were in Macedonia we drove to this city called Bitola! It is this city at the bottom of Macedonia that is like 5 minutes away from Athens Greece. There aren't any missionaries serving there right now but we are looking to sending some missionaries there soon! So we will see! It was pretty cool though because we were able to work there for a few hours, making us some of the first missionaries to ever do missionary work there. It was pretty cool. Anyway that was pretty much my week. We always played soccer on Saturday it was loads of fun but at one point I got knocked over and landed on my tailbone super hard it hurt way bad!! Ha but we are good. I am loving it here so much! Thank you all for your love and support! 

Have a great week! 

Elder Farnworth 

I am happy here in Albania! (4/24/17)

I was trying to take a selfie with Tirana in the background 

but some dude got in the way 

This week was probably one of the most busiest weeks of my entire mission. I know I say that a lot but I just feel like I am getting busier and busier each week! It is really great though I am still loving it so much! Okay so at the beginning of the week we were street contacting but it just didn't really feel like that is what we should be doing.. So I asked my comp what else we could do.. so we both start throwing out idea's and I say a prayer in my head asking what we should do, then it just kind of leads to us decided to go visit this members family that we have visited a couple times before. The member just moved to Switzerland so we wanted to go see how the family was doing.. So we go over there and the entire family is there, which is the first time! (normally when we go over we just end up teaching the member and her mom) But this time her brother and her dad were there and participated in the little FHE we put on! It was such a blessing! At the end of the night we knew that that is where we needed to be that night and we were grateful we listened to the Spirit which took us there. And later we talked to the member that lives in Switzerland and she said it was an answer to her prayers as well it was such a neat experience. 

So then after that this week was just week... A lot of administrative work I guess but it was still good. So we had transfers so we had to drive people places and carry luggage around and arrange people to be taken to there new area it is always fun.. Also the Sister from my MTC group, Sister Willey, finished her mission last week so we had an exit dinner with her and then that night at 3 AM we took her to the airport! It was SO WEIRD seeing her leave. It put into perspective how much longer I have... But I am not thinking about that :) 

Then we had Zone Conference in Tirana which was good fun. It is always great to have a bunch of missionaries gather together ha as well I loving giving trainings so that is always a great time!! Then that night we had another dinner for a new missionary from Tirana that is starting his mission! It was a lot of fun.

The Wreck!!

Later in the week we drove to Kosovo to give a Zone Conference there as well! When we got there we went to this place that sells Himalayan food that is SO GOOD. Back when I lived in Kosovo I used to go there all the time. So like, when I went back all the workers there remembered me haha. So like, I guess at the end of my mission I will be able to say a bunch of random food joints around Albania and Kosovo know who I am so like I had a successful mission right? Right. Anyway, it was way good in Kosovo! The Zone Conference there was really great! Okay crazy story time.. So on the way back from Kosovo we were driving on this highway and there was this huge semi truck full of dirt driving the opposite way, and it like ran into the barrier between the road and flipped over onto the side of the road that we were on! It was crazy! It happened like 30 meters ahead of us it was craaaaazy. We ended up sitting in are car for like 45 minutes because the dirt fell out of the truck and was covering the entire road it was crazy! You never really know what you are going to see next in this mission. 

He was a stud!

Anyway at the end of the week we were able to work in our area a lot which was really good. We also played Basketball, Volleyball and Football (soccer) with the branch which was fun! We met like the most famous freestyle soccer player in Albania he is sick! If you care at all you can look up his YouTube videos his name is Fabion Duro he was incredible. And on a side note, I would say my football skills are getting pretty good as well ;) But yeah, then we did some street contacting and stuff! It is amazing to see how much the Lord blesses us when we actually have time to do normal missionary work. I am convinced that even though I am in this area I still have the same chance or opportunities to meet and teach people as other missionaries do in normal areas. It is so cool! We met a really cool couple on Saturday and they both said that they really wanted to search to know if our message is true or not. They really seem humbled and down to earth and really prepared for the Gospel! 

Not much to say about church this week... I really like church here though. It is nice to be in like a functioning ward ha. My last areas I would pretty much like run the show every week ha but now I can kind of just sit back and enjoy it it is great. 

Anyway I am happy here in Albania it is going so great!! 

Love you all! 

Elder Farnworth