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

Elder Farni (8/29/16)

Farni Tags! And I got my Macedonian tags! (also say Farni)

First of all I would like to officially announce that my "Elder Farni" name tags have officially arrived so if you could all refer to me as Elder Farni that would be great. (Shout out to Elder Befus) Hahaha. Finally after 10 months people will be able to read my name tag and actually pronounce what is written and not say something like "Farnwawiorwe" lol. 

This picture with Islam's family perfectly shows how tall I am compared to Albanians

But this week was actually really good. We met a lot of really cool and nice people as always. I got spoken to in German a TON this week though it was weird. I guess I look really German? I don't know. I need to start learning how to teach in German though I guess! There was this one day though, that I was just getting number after number on the street. 

It seemed like everyone wanted to stop and talk to me it was great! 

I was like super pumped and excited and stuff then someone came up to me and just shut down all of my excitement. He just like wanted to argue about everything and he was like telling me I was like bad at the language and that God is mad at me for being on a mission haha so I was just like well you are a downer! And just gave him a pass along card and turned away from him. Whenever there is good there always has to be bad I guess! I didn't let that get me down though. You kind of just learn to not let stuff like that get to you up here! 

Anyway then we were able to go to our friend Islams' house again in Klina! It was super cool. His 12 year old niece from Germany is visiting him and she is such a nice person. We convinced her that I was a professional singer in America and she believed me it was super funny. She got all starstruck and asked for a picture from me and stuff it was pretty funny. She later found out it wasn't true but still was funny. 

Also this week is Islam's last week in Kosovo! He is going to Switzerland to get his phD and I am going to miss him so much! It sucks that he is leaving but I am so happy for him! (shout out to you Islam) we also went bowling and went to the newly opened KFC with him today it was a lot of fun! 

Anyway everything is going great here in Prishtina! Loving the mission every day. Have a great week! 

Elder Farni

Fun Time bowling!! 

Joe Biden 8/22/16

New shades in the city

This week was pretty good. At the beginning of the week we walked down the boulevard and there were like a ton of American flags everywhere and like American stuff hanged all over. It was weird, but it made for really good contacting! People would stop and talk to us and be like "see how much we love America?" and I would be like "yeah that is great! Would you like to hear a message about Jesus?" And they would be like "get out of here" and walk away. Its great! But I found out that all of that American stuff was all set up because Joe Biden was coming to visit Kosovo for some reason? I don't really know why. But it was really cool he stayed at a hotel like a block away from our apartment so all the roads were blocked off and at times there were helicopters flying above our house and stuff! Pretty cool. Then when he made his public appearance we were able to see him! Pretty crazy. We also saw some secret service people that were from America and were members of the church! Pretty crazy. Small world!

Lemon Cake I made for district lunch! 

Other than that this week was pretty boring.. It is getting to the end of summer so people are getting busy and can't meet. We have been doing a lot of finding lately but we are meeting some pretty cool people from it! We are still hanging out with our homey Islam. He is still doing really well! He is about to move to Switzerland to get his PhD and it is going to be super sad when he leaves!! But we wont worry about that until it happens. :) But the work is going really good! Still loving every day of it out here. 

Love you all!! 

Elder Farnworth

                                                               Joe Biden Posters! 

                                                     Stuff they had to protect Joe Biden

Italian Sodas's 8/15/16

This week has been a lot bit quieter, actually a pretty hard week this week. All of the people in my district that I was really getting along with randomly got transferred! So I am kind of sad. That kid that was in court and stuff got transferred because they didn't want to risk the chance of them bringing up the trial again so they made him leave Kosovo, he was mad. His comp went with him which kind of made me sad. Then I was just really feeling exhausted all week and I had a headache every day. It was a pretty hard work but the baptism at the end made it all worth it!! 

This is for you mom :) I made Italian Soda's for my district

Things are going great here. The work is really good!  We have another baptism planned for the end of this month (a father and son) then another one on the 3rd of next month. The work here is good! When I got called as ZL the Mission President was telling me how he expects my area to be an example for the Zone, which like freaked the crap out of me ha because I just thought there would be no way. But now my area is leading the zone and we are the only ones that have had a baptism so far this transfer. The Lord really qualifies those he calls!! Such a blessing up here.

Love you all!

Elder Farnworth

Floods and Bazookas (8/8/16)

Remember how last week I said that there was a huge flood on Monday? Well there was another one! It was pretty insane. We walked outside of the internet cafe and there was like a ton of rain again and like more flooding I was like flip. So I was just planning on booking it to the church and getting drench, but right when I stepped outside there was this lightning strike literally right above the building across the street so I was like FLIP! And like ran back inside haha. Then I saw a taxi and I ran to it and just jumped in without even checking if anyone else was in it and he drove us to the church safely haha it was so crazy. 

North Zone and South Zone leaders represent!!!! 

Then we drove to Tirana on Tuesday for another meeting. It was pretty fun! We have been driving a ton this transfer it has been insane. But a lot of fun I really like driving. When we got in Tirana we hung out with the AP's then went to the meeting the next day which was really good! But then I drove back to Prishtina after and I was sooooooo tired. I like got in Prishtina and just wanted to die. I could barely keep my eyes open the whole night holy cow. So I went to bed pretty early that night but it was great!! 

My boy Islam getting ready for his mission! ;) 

Then we gave our Zone Training on Friday! We still are trying to figure out how to do all of this zone leader stuff so for the training we just like, watched a video adn then did some role plays and called it good!! Just kidding.. We actually gave a good training and stuff it was really good and inspiring. (We still did watch a film and did some role plays)

Damage done to the parliament 

So Friday night, I was in my bed and I heard a loud "boom" noise. So I go out to see if it was lightning and thunder but there wasn't a cloud in the sky.. So I just like went to bed but then the next day I found out that someone had shot the parliament in Prishtina with a bazooka!! I guess the government here is like giving some land to Montenegro and people are not happy about that, obviously. We also almost got caught in the middle of a protest! We had to run away back to the church to get out of it ha it was crazy. And there are a few protest planned this week that we are going to have to avoid. So yeah, just a pretty boring average week here in the life of a missionary in Kosovo :)

Love you all!! 

Elder Farnworth