Elder Farnworth is on his way to Albania! (12/29/15)

*Editor's Note:  Jacob was able to call us from the airport at 6 in the morning.  He was headed to Chicago.  He sounded good and was ready to begin his adventure to Albania.  He was tired and hadn't slept much that night in the MTC. His flight was delayed and we were able to talk for a few minutes while he waited in the SLC airport. He slept all the way to Chicago and then they barely made their connecting flight to Austria!  He was able to call us while sitting on the plane in Chicago and talk for a few minutes (not nearly long enough).  He had a 10 hour flight to Austria and then another flight from Austria to Albania.  We are eager to hear from him or his Mission President to let us know he made it safely there!  

It was such a happy Christmas...(12/26/15)

It has been such a great last week in the MTC!! I am ready to go to Albania! (hopefully).. If you don't already know I am leaving on Tuesday and I fly to Chicago, then Austria, then The Promise Land (Albania). Its going to be more than a day of traveling but I am super stoked. :)

Visiting Temple Square with my companion from England

I was able to go to temple square last week!  My companion is from England and they let the missionaries from foreign countries go to temple square.  We had a great time, it was nice to get out of Provo:)

These are all of my teachers, I'm going to miss them so much!

Last Sunday was great! So every Sunday we have to prepare a talk in Albanian, but we don't know who is going to get called on to speak. We literally find out seconds before, they say "we will now hear from: Elder so and so". So this last Sunday he said "We will now hear from Elder Farnworth" which was scary.. But I was pretty prepared! I got up and gave about a 10 minute talk in Albanian it was great! It made me so excited to go to Albania because I will be speaking to real Albanians my first Sunday there because it will be fast Sunday! ah, so excited! :)

This is our Christmas tree!

Our Christmas Card

Nothing else really happened the rest of the week, just usual. See you next week... PSYCH, Christmas was amazing :) For Christmas Eve we had some great devotionals, then we put on a Nativity scene as a district in our residence halls, it was a huge hit people from every floor came to see it. (For videos of it, contact Lisa Farnworth) Then on Christmas, we woke up early to open presents which was really nice. After that we heard from David A. Bednar and it was so amazing! He handed out 150 cell phones and had people text in questions and it was kind of like a Q&A and I learned so much from it. He is such an awesome man!!! I loved it the Spirit was so strong. Then they did a weird 2 man play of the Christmas Carol but I fell asleep for that. Then I called someone.. can't remember who. ;) then David Archuleta came and sang to us which was meh. The Sister missionaries all freaked out though. But he had Lexi Walker singing with him and she is amazing!! I think she has a famous video on YouTube of her singing Let It Go or something. But yeah then we watched a pioneer movie then just went to bed after that. It was such a happy Christmas!! One that I will remember for a long time :) 

Headed to Albania!

Well this is my last blog post from the MTC! Good Riddance! Can't wait to go to Albania on Tuesday :) Love you all!!

Elder Farnworth

My squad in a blizzard!

Elder Farnworth and Elder Samuel

I am going to Albania in 12 days! (12/17/15)

This week was great! It is crazy how fast this is going, but it is still not even real to me that I am going to Albania in 12 days! Ah! So excited :) On Sunday we heard from the BYU's men's chorus which was great, I really feel like I have grown to love Mormon Music sooo much. (I'm such a missionary I know. ;) But also really excited for Christmas in the MTC, I should be hearing from 2 Apostles I think so that is way rad :) 

Elder Samuel fell asleep so we had some fun with him :)

We study in style

The MTC has been going great! It is so challenging at times. The language is still so hard, there are some days where I just feel so drained from studying it so much. But then I feel so good about myself! One cool experience I had was on Monday. I just felt like I could not understand or speak Albania! Its normally hard to get back in the swing of speaking Albanian because we don't at all on Sunday, but for some reason this week was harder! So After Mondays class, my teacher left a note on the bored about how this is the Lords work, not ours, and we need to turn to him in all things with prayer. So I prayed for help in the language and stuff, and I just felt like I need to work harder. Which is weird because normally think "Wow I am working so hard!" which for me is true, because compared to before my mission I am working hard. But I am now a representative of Jesus Christ and if he were on the earth he would definitely be working harder than I am! So I set a lot of goals for myself and I did a lot of practicing with the language, even when I got back to the residence hall I studied and prepared and stuff. And I definitely felt the blessings from that work! We got a new "investigator" and everyone who taught her before was like "She is just on her phone the whole time and doesn't listen" So I was pretty nervous but when I went in me and elder samuel were just doing so great with the language and everything and answering all of her questions and the spirit was there and she didnt get on her phone once! It was so amazing. Hard work pays off!

This is for you mom: Our "christmas tree" :)

Ou Christmas advent calendar collections

Also we there is a girl come into the MTC this last week named Cajupi, She is from Albania going to the Adriatic South! So it is cool. But since she is already fluent in Albanian she doesn't have class with us but it is cool to talk to her and stuff. She seems way nice. I am just so excited to leave this prison and go to Albania!!!!!! 

ps- I know the MTC isn't prison. :) In prison they let you watch TV... 

Love you all!!

Elder Farnworth

I just got a haircut so my hair isnt that crazy and long anymore.. 

The Lord is helping me learn Albanian (12/10/15)

You know you've been here a long time when some random person says to you "You're still here?" Ha. This week was great though, it was probably the fastest week of the whole MTC, so I cant really remember everything about it. But it was a good one! I am super happy here and I love the Spirit that I constantly feel here. My teachers tell me I need to stop acting like I am in prison haha, so I guess that can just be one of my goals for next week! ;)

Abby sent me some festive socks in a package :)

My lessons went good, all of my "investigators" got "baptized" so I don't know what we are going to do now.. probably just get new ones. But I had a really cool experience in one of my lessons: So before we go into a lesson me and my comp say a prayer, so I was saying a prayer and I normally say like "please bless that we can have the gift of tongues" but I totally forgot to ask for it in this prayer. So when we get into the lesson, our investigator starts asking questions that she has about the Book of Mormon, and my mind was just completely blank I could not speak Albanian. So I realized that it was because I didn't ask for the gift of tongues!! It was like Wallus and Grammet, "CRACKERS GRAMMET! WE FORGOT THE CRACKERS" Lol so while my comp was talking, I quickly said a prayer and asked for it, then right after I felt like I was back in the swing of things and was talking really well. It was a nice little tender mercy and a good realization of how much I need to rely on God's help for me to learn this language. If you think about it, God speaks perfect Albanian. He knows more Albanian than my teachers or any of the books I have about Albanian. So why wouldn't I look for him to help me learn it? I really have Him to thank for the progress I have been making. 

Last picture of my old zone! 

So yeah, that was one of my spiritual experiences of the week :) Thanks for the support and love :) Love you all!! Have a fantastic week!

Also I really like this quote: "The biggest enemy of 'perfection' is 'pretty good.' "

-Elder Farnuërth

I'm so excited to go to Albania, I'm dying here! (12/3/15)

This week was really really good! My goal for the week was to just work as hard as I can, at the end of the day I just feel warn out which is such a good feeling I love it. So hopefully I can keep that up. Sometimes it is hard because I will sometimes wake up and just be like "I hate everything!" So days like those it is hard to be motivated to work hard and stuff. But I am trying to keep a positive attitude:) 

Also, its crazy because after Monday we will be the oldest district in my zone so that is just nuts! I feel like I just got here haha. But we got new zone leaders and district and we decided we are going to start a revolution and overthrow them so, I will keep you posted on that!

On a more spiritual note, yesterday I had the most amazing experience ever. So every Wednesday we Skype with real Albanian members, and my comp had practice for this MTC Christmas choir thing so he couldn't come, so I had to teach ALONE. Which like, no one does. I was the first to do it and it was so scary! Then they like gave me like the meanest girl to teach, we have taught her before and all she does is correct your grammar and tell you that you suck at speaking Albanian and stuff. So I just said a prayer and hoped for the best. And right when she answered I just felt so much peace, and such a clear mind and I totally knew what to say. I asked her what the Gospel of Jesus Christ means to her, and she gave me such an amazing answer. She told me that she was only a convert of 2 years, and that she can tell such a huge difference from her life now than what her life used to be. But she told me that it was hard because she loves her family so much but no one in her family is LDS so at first they didn't like her going to church and stuff so that is hard. And she told me how she has to work 10 hours a day and how she has 3 callings in her branch and it is super stressful. 

So I shared with her some personal experiences, and how I didn't always have the strongest testimony and how much better it is to be close with the Lord. I also told her how my family has been blessed, even though I am on a mission they have had blessings from it. And that I know as she serves the Lord and has faith that she and her family will be blessed, even though they aren't members. And I told her how happy God is with her for her faithfulness and willingness to serve and the spirit was so strong. Then I was about to end it but I got an impression to read to her Helaman 5:12, so I did. And I was scared because last time I tried to read a scripture with her she just laughed at me because I didn't have that good of Albanian and it kind of ruined the spirit. But this time, I was reading it and she didn't laugh, or say anything to correct my Albanian or anything, and when I was done reading and I looked up she had tears in her eyes and she just said thank you so much I needed this you are such a good missionary. The Spirit was so strong I was holding back tears. It was amazing!!! I am so excited to go to Albania, I am dying here. 

Anyway I love you all, Hope you have a fantastic week!! 

-Elder Farnworth

The Christmas lights are so amazing!!

Got this cute Pez dispenser in a package from Abby, love it!

An Elder fell asleep during class so I had to have some fun with him.

This guy tried to draw us...spot on right?