This week I had my Birthday, it was a great Birthday! (6/19/17)

This week was really good!! We were really working really hard and we were able to see our labors pay off!! So at the beginning of the week we met this father and son that are two really funny people.. The father is pretty old but really respectful and his son is literally a 50 year old living in an 11 year old's body he is hilarious. They were really nice and I could tell that the dad really cared a lot about his son and that he wanted what he thinks is best for him. We really centered our message on families and showed how the Book of Mormon can be a guide for families and can bless our families. I just love talking to people about families! 

We were able to find a lot of people this week to teach it was really great!! We met some really cool people. Pogradec is like a party at night it is a really small city that is right on the edge of the city right next to a big lake.. and every night they have like super loud music playing so you can hear it like all over the city and it is just really alive and a lot of people to talk to! It is awesome plus we like contact right on the coast of the beautiful lake.. it reminds me of a small town in California with really small beaches it is so pretty!!

Jacob turns 20 on June 16th!!  Happy Birthday Elder Farnworth:)

Also this week I had my birthday! It was a great birthday.. It is always pretty special to celebrate a birthday on the mission! It is really really unique experience. So for my birthday lunch we ate this fish call the Koran... it is a rare fish that is only found in Lake Ohrid (the lake next to Pogradec) And it is found in some other random lake in Russia or something. It was a really yummy fish though! Pretty dang expensive though.. Then on my birthday we had a few really great lessons including one where I was able to testify to a guy who had lost his father that he would be able to see his father again some day. He was amazing at that but I made him the promised and he believed it. I was able to see a lot of hope in his eyes and it was a very great Birthday present that I was blessed to have! 

A month late, but a pic of skyping with Jacob on Mother's Day!!

So at the end of the week we went to Tirana for this celebration of 25 years of missionary work in Tirana! It was really great. Some of the first missionaries that ever served in Albania came to it, it was really cool to meet them!! It was also cool to be back in Tirana for a day and to see all of my old friends and some of the members. I miss it there!!
Church is always an adventure here. It is pretty much the missionaries running the show it was so exciting! I love this area and I am so happy to be serving here. The members are awesome and the work is just going so great. I love it here! Anyway I hope that you all have the best week ever. 

Love you all!! 

Elder Farny

Pogradec! (6/12/17)

This is the view from our apartment!

Man this week was great! It was my first week in my new area, Pogradec, and it was just great!! Okay so I will start off with transfer day.. So all of the missionaries come to Tirana and we kind of just chill and stuff then go off with our new companions and new areas! But it was pretty sad because it was pretty sad because it was probably the last time I was going to see a lot of missionaries! Including my old companion, Elder Rogers... He goes home at the end of June so that might be it! Then me, my MTC companion and another friend from the MTC, ELder Cox, realized that it might be our last time seeing each other too because they finish their mission on August 30th. It is weird how it all comes to an end!! (For others, not for me yet ;) 

I love this city!

Okay, something pretty crazy happened on the way to Pogradec! So I was driving, in a little car, and we were driving right behind a big bus and going up this mountain with a bunch of twister roads. Right at a corner of the road a car pops out going straight for the bus that is like 10 feet in front of me and WHAM! The car smashes the bus head on! Then it bounced off the bus and slid right towards us!.. So I had to slam on my breaks and I slid out of its way and some how slid right in between the bus and the car without being touched. It was a really close call though! My heart was pumping afterwards, but we were definitely protect from above!! But it definitely made me drive a lot more carefully.

So after that crazy experience we arrived in Pogradec! It is so pretty, I am really excited to be living here! It is such a huge blessing. So right when we got here we just got right to work! The night we got here we met this really cool guy and were able to go get a drink with him and share a message about the Book of Mormon he seems pretty interested. But like everyone we talk to is just so nice! Missionaries have only been in this country for like 7 months so people still don't really know us! It is really cool. But because it has been such a short time that means there are not that much members here! There are a totally of 13! It is pretty crazy.. But I have a feeling I am going to get really close to all of them, they all seem so awesome! 

Baptism in our pool.

So during the week a member helped me teach English course, which was really a lot of fun! In my last area we didn't teach English course so it was good to be able to get back in and teach it again!! After every course we share a spiritual thought with the class and I wrote a big list in a front page of a Book of Mormon that is titled "How the Book of Mormon answers questions to life?" Then I have a really long list of great questions that get answered by the Book of Mormon.. So I had someone in my class pick a question and then I turned to the scripture and answered it.. It was really great! But after I did that I had 6 people from English course ask me for a copy of the Book of Mormon it was really great hand of the Lord! Then after English Course the senior missionary here asked me to teach a self reliance class with him.. I was like uh... I have never even looked into self reliance at all! But there I was.. in front of 6 Albanians, teaching self reliance! And the senior missionary had to leave so I was on my own! So I just did what I did best and winged it. It went pretty good I think! I don't know I guess but we will just say that it went good ;) 

I saw something pretty weird in a claw machine 

for little kids here... (cigarette box)

So at the end of the week we had a baptism! It was this girl that the old missionaries here were teaching. She is so cool! I was able to baptize her and we did it in a swimming pool at a hotel ha it was unique but so so cool! It was a really great experience :) 

So Sundays were pretty crazy.. I conducted church, and blessed the sacrament, and translated for the senior missionaries, and then I taught Sunday School. It was pretty excited!! I felt like I was just running around haha but the branch here is just so cool! I love them so much I am so excited to work here! 

Anyway I love you all have a great week!! 

Elder Farnworth

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