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