Training's, Police Man, Exchanges, Conference! (4/3/17)

Me and Elder and Sister Collins in Shkoder! 

Wow what a week this was!! (man before my mission I would always say that I will never be that kind of missionary that always starts off his weekly posts by saying "great week!" or "this week was hard but good" or other cliche stuff like that but here I am now. Sorry everyone.) 

Anyway, so at the beginning of the week we gave a training with our Mission President to all the Tirana missionaries for the "Prince of Peace" Initiative. It was so good!! Then we gave another one, our last one, in my old area Shkoder on Wednesday. It was crazy, on the way to Shkoder I got pulled over going 160 KPH in a 50 KPH zone and the cop came up to the window and said to me and my comp "You two are going to jail and you are losing your license." I was like freeeeeeeeeeeak. But then he went over and talked to his other cop buddy and he looked at my license and saw that I was American and came to our car and said "Just drive slow. You guys are good to go." and didn't even give me a ticket! It was really lucky. Haha, anyway, they trainings went great! = We have done the training like 9 times now to every district in the mission. Each one was so Spiritual it was so awesome!! I really loved it it has brought me so much peace. It is amazing how much God knows us all individual. He gave me this wonderful opportunity to teach all of the missionaries about peace because as I have done it I have gained so much of a better understanding of the true peace that comes from Christ and his resurrection. What a blessing that has been!! 

So then on Thursday we were given the assignment to go to my other old area, Fier and do an exchange there! So we went there and did an exchange with 2 missionaries from my MTC group, Elder Cox and Elder Ellsworth. It was a lot of fun to be with them! It was really hot in Fier though ha. But yeah it was good and it was nice to see some of my old friends/the members from Fier! Also while I was there Elder Cox poured a cup of water on my pants while I was lying on the couch and made it look like I peed my pants.... It was great.... Anyway. Then we had to race back to Tirana for an activity that we were going to do! All the missionaries in Tirana got together on a great big boulevard and did a choir together! It was so much fun. I wasn't apart of the choir though, I was going around and talking to people. It was a lot of fun! A lot of people seemed interested, it was actually pretty successful. Also my Mission President came and started contacting with me it was a lot of fun to be side by side and contact with him!

Saturday was a pretty good day. This guy got baptized in our ward! He has a really cool story actually, he is from Persia, and doesn't speak Albanian or English so they taught him all the lesson's over Google Translate it was crazy! He is a really cool guy though. He said he used to live in Iran and he saw like people being killed and stuff so he decided that he wanted to become Christian ha it was pretty cool! 

When a missionary pours water on your pants....

So then on Sunday we had church and at night we were able to watch conference live! It was so cool! We watched it in English with some of the English speakers of the ward. We were over at the senior couples house. There were a lot of people there so me and my companion and this other missionary had to lay on the floor and some members feet STUNK! It was hard to focus ha it was nasty! But anyway it was a great week! Oh yeah and also today was my MTC comp, Elder Samuel's birthday so we went bowling and to KFC for it it was good fun! I will attach some videos of me bowling with my celebrations :) 
Love you all!! 
Elder Farnworth

Road Trip! (3/27/17)

Scripture of the week is John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

I hope that you all know that i know that Christ truly is the Son of the Living God.  The He lives, He suffered for our sins, our troubles, our pains, everything we have been through he understands it perfectly.  I know that God loves us and knows us and cares for us.  The peace that i have found through my Savior, is so much more than any peace that the world offers.  I know that because of Christ salvation is possible.  We can be strengthened and be happy and become the people God wants us to be, all because of Him!  I love my Savior so much.  I am grateful for him, He truly is the Prince of Peace.  The Savior and Redeemer of the world!  Ok, sorry, I will get off my soapbox.  Love you all so much!!

Road Trip!!

This week was a crazy one but it was a good one! So at the beginning of the week we had some work to do and we kind of thought it would be a normal week you know? So we had like district meeting and just kind of normal stuff and yeah it was great. Then one day we were street contacting and we get a call saying that we need to go to every single district in the mission to deliver all of the stuff for the new Easter Initiative! It was crazy! So we spent the rest of the day getting together all of the stuff that we needed and planning the trip and stuff.

So on Thursday we set off at 7 in the morning and we went to Vlore, then to Elbasan, then Pogradec, then we arrived in Ohrid (Macedonia) at 8:30 at night and slept there! I will go through each one: 

Vlore was really cool! My old companion, Elder Rogers is serving there! He seems to like it a lot but I think it is pretty hard work. It is right next to the sea so it is hot and humid there! It seems really nice though. But anyway we just got there and we gave our training about the Easter initiative and watched the new video and yeah, it was super awesome!

Elbasan was really really hot. That is the city that I started my mission in and I am glad I was never there during the summer because it gets so hot! We all call it "Hell-basan" because of how hot it is. Anyway the training there went well, we read John 14:27 and talked about how Christ's peace is different from the peace the world offers which is so true! And I am so grateful for that! 

Then we went to Pogradec, it is so beautiful there! When my family comes to pick me up I will definitely take them there. There is a really pretty lake and a cute little city it was great! But yeah the training went well there. The Spirit is always so strong as we train the missionaries! Also, Pogradec has only been open up to missionary work for not very long but it is doing so well! After the training we went to dinner with the senior couple there and met the first family baptized in Pogradec it was so amazing!! They had such an amazing, fresh, sweet spirit to them it was so great to see!!

Then we went to Ohrid and gave them their training and we were beat! A whole day of driving and training it was crazy but it was great!! All of the trainings went really well... But we were so tired at the end of the day! Ohrid had a pretty small apartment so me and my companion, Elder Miller had to crash on a little pull out bed on the couch it was great! 

So the next day was another early morning start, at 7 AM we drove across Macedonia from Ohrid to Skopje, then to Prishtina (Kosovo) then to Gjakova (Kosovo), then back to Tirana! I will tell you about each one again. 

Skopje was really good! It is kind of overwhelming driving across Macedonia because all the signs are in Cyrillic so like you are never really 100% sure that you are going the right way, you know? Anyway we found our way and even found our way to the church building without getting lost! It was a good training there. The district in Macedonia is so great it was awesome to be with all of them! 

Then it was off to Prishtina! My old home. It was good to be there. We got some Turkish Doners while we were there it was SO GOOD. The training there was awesome! All the missionaries there were taking notes and participating and we were all really in-tune with the spirit it was so great! 

Our final stop was in Gjakova! We were SO TIRED. We got to Gjakova around 5 PM. The training was alright.. I hope they enjoyed it because we were so tired we were trying to be energetic but I am sure we were just monotone and looked stoned haha. It was still get though! 

Then we drove home.. and got back at 9 PM!! It was crazy!! 2 days full of driving and giving trainings. We got home and me and my comp just crashed it was crazy but it really was so awesome because we were able to feel the spirit so much with all the missionaries it was such a great experience! I will attach some videos of me and Elder Millers trip :)
The rest of the week we just had such a hangover from all the driving.. we were so dang tired! Every day ha it was crazy. On Saturday we played football with a bunch of members it was fun. ANd yeah that was pretty much it! We have been working hard in our area when we have the time. We have been doing a bunch of street contacting which is always so great to do. Anway that is pretty much it for this week! Love you all!!

Elder Farnworth 

Transfers (3/20/17)

Scripture of the week! Omni 1:26 
"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea,come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved."

This week has been a good one! We had transfers so my time with Elder Rogers has come to an end :'( It has been such a great time with him I can't believe it is already over! Those 4 months just flew by man it is crazy. But my new companion's name is Elder Miller! He is a pretty cool guy I am pretty excited to work with him this transfer it is going to be loads of fun! 

Me, Elder Miller, and Elder Coka! 

(Albanian from Tirana that just started his mission)

Okay so at the beginning of the week we had transfers which is pretty crazy every time! Everyone just comes to the office and they are getting stuff and running around and it is crazy! Then on top of that we had to give a training to all of the District Leaders which was super good! Our President has really helped me to rely on the Spirit as I train and to really trust on the Spirit to guide my wards. So at the beginning of the training we were kind of talking about what the District Leaders need to do to best fulfill their calling and we ended up talking a lot about the importance of personal study. I was lead to read a quote from Preach My Gospel given by Boyd K Packer that says: “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.” And we talked about how if we want to become better leaders and better people it all starts in the morning, with our scripture study. If we want to become more like Christ we need to understand his doctrine and his word!

Elder Miller, Emiljo, Olsi, Me 

So the next day was pretty good as well, the new missionaries flew in! So we had to take them out to work for like their first day in the country. It was pretty fun! I called our recent convert, Olsi, and asked him to come and act like and investigator that has a bunch of questions and stuff so me and the new kid went and taught him it was really fun!! 

The rest of the week was pretty boring. We did a bunch of finding which was great! We spent hours and hours on the street street contacting so that was really fun as always ha. This transfer is going to be pretty fun I think with Elder Miller but we are really going to be working hard too! The other day it really hit me how fast my mission is going ha I don't have that much time left I gotta make ever second count!! 

A quilt we made for our recent convert, Olsi! 

Loves! Elder Farnworth 

Blessing on blessings (3/13/17)

These girl in our ward's sister brought us American food!!! 

This half week has been so awesome!! I know I just wrote a blog email like a few days ago but a lot has actually happened since then actually! It has been a great week. So last Thursday we had a meeting with our mission president where we discussed where each missionary will go for the next transfer. The meeting ended up taking 6 hours! It was crazy. I really like being with our president though he is such a spiritual man. At the beginning he was kind of just sharing with us some spiritual thought and stuff and that man is so great! He is so knowledgeable of the scriptures and everything it is so great to work with him he has taught me so much! 

So on Saturday we went over to this members house to have dinner. Her family is all Catholic and she is the only Mormon and a few missionaries have tried to come and teach them before but it wasn't that successful. So we went over and shared a spiritual thought about families and how important the family is and the mom loved it so much! The Spirit was so strong in the lesson it was awesome! And then on Sunday she came to church which was her first time in such a long time it was so awesome!! She told us that after the lesson that we had she could just feel the love of Christ in her house so much and that their family all prayed together and it felt so good for them it was awesome! I was like it was the spirit yo! She asked us if we could come to her house again to give her a blessing so we are going to do that this week it was so awesome! 

Also this week we were able to meet with these 3 really cool girls that had a ton of questions for us. They were really Muslim but were really respectful and open to what we had to say, it was awesome! There was one that I was talking to where the message of the Restoration just kind of clicked with her and she said that it just made so much sense it her. Then she got the Book of Mormon and asked me a bunch of questions about it and every time I would read something from the book I could just tell she felt the power of the words it was awesome! She really loved it. Then there was another girl that was asking us a lot of questions about life and what we believe after this life. When we taught her the plan of salvation she kind of just started crying but she didn't know why she was crying I was like I probably have an explanation why you are.. Anyway I guess it is kind of hard to explain the lesson just over email but it was a really powerful lesson. The Spirit was so strong. Then they ended up coming to church the next day as well and seemed to really like it! It was really cool. 

Also our recent convert, Olsi, got called to teach Sunday School! He was really excited about his lesson and prepared a bunch of scriptures and stuff for it it was so awesome. He invited his sister who wasn't a member to come to church and see him teach the lesson. He did such a good job with the lesson I was really really impressed!! It was so awesome. Then after church we had a lesson with him and his sister and she got really emotional during it and was like "I am so grateful for the change I have seen in my brother.. I thank God every day that he met you" And at that moment the Spirit really testified to me the blessing that the atonement really is in peoples lives and how important the work that I am doing truly is. I felt so good during that lesson. His sister is now working towards baptism so pray for her!! 

Last picture with the district 

This week was really awesome we truly have been so blessed throughout it. The sad part of it is that might time serving with Elder Rogers has come to an end! He is going to be transferred to Vlore and I will get a new companion called Elder Miller. It will be sad to see him go I have gotten really close with him but I am excited to serve with Elder Miller now! He is great.
I feel really blessed to be a missionary right now. I don't know who said it but someone said that missionaries are like the people at the front of the battle line.. so they are the ones that are equipped with the most weapons and the most protection. He compared it to the Spirit and how because we are missionaries we are equipped with the Spirit more abundantly and with tender mercies of the Lord. I have definitely seen that that is true. Week after week I am able to see the blessings that come from God. I love being a missionary!! 

Elder Farnworth

Mission Conference (3/8/17)

The Adriatic South Mission

Mission Conference! My mission is so small it is crazy. That is my Mission President and Elder Moreira in front. 

This week was really good! It was pretty busy but it was still really great. So at the beginning of the week got the assignment to go to Kosovo to meet with all the missionaries there and have a devotional then do an exchange with them. It was really great! We were in my old area, Prishtina, for the devotional. It went really really good! The devotional was so Spiritual! We discussed about some of the people that the missionaries were working with there and how we could help them progress to baptism. It was great! The meeting went pretty long though, I ended up not eating any food until like 3 PM. I was really fine with it though. Normally before my mission and at the beginning of my mission I would kind of be stubborn about food and always need to eat every meal and get grumpy if I don't. But now I really can just go and sometimes I will forget and realized I haven't eaten all day. I will definitely have to try to be better and remember to eat! Ha but anyway so after that I went to a place in Kosovo called Gjakova, to do an exchange with the missionaries there. It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of work done on the exchange. We met with two guys that they have been working with, and had such great lessons with them! The Spirit was so strong there. It was awesome! 

We made American Cheeseburgers while we were in Gjakova. 

They were amazing..

Not really much explaining this one. 

Missionaries are weird haha, sorry. 

So when we got back from Kosovo we were filled with stuff to do. We had a bunch of meetings in and devotionals because one of the old Mission Presidents came to visit, as well as Elder Moreira from the area 70 came to visit! It was great to hear both of them talk. The old Mission President was telling some great stories about some of the older members here in Albania and their conversion stories. It was amazing to hear about all of it! Some of the members went through so much before they joined the church it was crazy. Then we had a few meetings where we heard from Elder Moreira which included Stake Conference and Mission Conference. Stake Conference is always such a great treat! I love seeing all of the Albanian members come together they have such a great spirit! And I love seeing all of my friends from my old area's that was always a treat! 
Mission conference was pretty great too. Elder Moreira is such a goof but at the same time he knows so much about the Gospel and is really spiritual! The conference was so great it was awesome. Then the next day we had a Mission Leadership Conference with Elder Moreira and that was really great as well! It was pretty crazy. It was just meeting after meeting after meeting this weekend but they were all so spiritually uplifting it was great! At the end of it I was just so pumped about the Gospel and for missionary work I loved it. Also, I forgot to mention that before all the meetings I bought a new suit and some new shoes... I was looking fresh. I mean, I believe that you have to look your best to be able to feel the spirit more ;) But yeah that was pretty much my week! It was a really great one. Also today we went on a really cool hike to this monument place up in the mountains it was a lot of fun. I will send pictures! Love you all!! 

It was such a great baptism..(2/27/17)

Emiljo's Baptism!!

This was such a great week! It is crazy though the weeks are just getting faster and faster it is nuts!! Anyways, so on Tuesday we had district meeting which was good.. Then we did a lot of street contacting which I really love doing.. It is weird. At the beginning of my mission I didn't like street contacting at all but now I love it! Especially here when we don't have that much time to do it.. whenever we find the time to do it I try to make the most of it because I love it so much! Especially here in Albania you see a lot of crazy things on the street. Like seriously, the people watching here is so funny! I love Albanians.
So we had lunch as a zone one day this week, and something super embarrassing happened to me. So as I was getting up I knocked over my glass and it shattered on the top and made like a super loud noise and everyone looked.. So I tried to grab it really fast and I sliced my thumb and it started bleeding everywhere so I didn't want to make it a big deal so I just grabbed a paper towel and just put it in my pocket so no one would see how much I was bleeding haha.. It was really dumb of me, but I am okay!! 

Me, Olsi, Emiljo, and Elder Rogers

Then the next day we did service for this guy in our word.. We helped clean up his yard and stuff. It was really fun! The weather is really warming up so it was like a beautiful day. But it was awesome because a few of our friends came to help with the service as well! Also, on the way back from the service there was this puppy in the middle of the road that was so cute!!! So we took about 30 minutes to stop and get it out of the road then went and bought it food and some water and stuff. It was definitely an effective use of our time. 

Service

Then later on this week we were teaching our friend Emiljo. We were kind of reviewing all of the lessons before his baptism. So we brought up a few of the commandments and there was one that he was kind of confused on the first time we taught it so we went over it again. He didn't fully understand until after we explained it to him and he was kind of surprised and said that it was going to be hard to live by. So we kind of discussing why it was important to live the commandments and stuff like that and you could tell he was kind of concerned about it. But then he stopped, and we were all silent for a second and he said "I probably won't be able to do it on my own. But I am not on my own. I know that I will be able to do it with Christ's help." And right when he said those words I felt the Spirit so strong in my heart and I know he did too. His faith is such a great example to me I am so grateful for it! 

A DOG I FOUND ON THE STREET TODAY

So later on in the week he was baptized and it was such a great baptism! He invited a few of his friends it was awesome. Then afterwards we went and bought crepes with him and some of the members then we went and had an activity at a senior couples house it was a ton of fun! 

So yeah that was pretty much it!! Really great week! Sunday was awesome too. Emiljo got the Gift of the Holy Ghost and it was really great! As well our other friend Olsi is getting called to be Sunday School teacher so we are really excited for that. The work here in Tirana is going great! 

Thank you all for your love and support! 

Elder Farni 

I thought I was going to explode! (2/20/17)

This is a member. We call him "Gjyshi" which means Grandma. 

This week was pretty good! So on Tuesday we had District Meeting which is always fun. We have one of the largest districts in the mission and they are all so fun to be around ha. Then on Wednesday this new Sister flew in. She will be serving in Macedonia which is pretty exciting! So we helped her get all settled and stuff then we put her to work. It is always kind of weird when Macedonian missionaries come in because we try to have them work but like, they don't speak Albanian so they kind of just walk around with other missionaries and yeah. But anyways that day I thought I was going to explode. We had breakfast, then at like 2 we had lunch at KFC then at like 3:30 a member took us to eat and bought a bunch of food then we had dinner at Presidents house with the new missionary at like 6. All of the food was so good so I ate that day I just got home and thought I was going to explode! I really love the food here so much though. 

Frisbee Crew!!

Anyway then the next day we had a bunch of work to do in the morning to prepare for a training for the new Macedonian Sister and for all of the other trainees. So we gave the training and it went super well! At the beginning President had them read John 14 which is like the last supper and Jesus talking about the Spirit and stuff and yeah. So we talked about working in unity as a companionship and stuff then we did role plays and President started his training and was talking about all the role plays and stuff then like it all looped back around the the Holy Ghost and how important that is in our work and how it is the senior companion always. It is just so cool to work with President because in his training's he just 100% follows the Spirit and it all just goes so well and they are always so uplifting and Spiritual and stuff they are so cool! He is such a great man. 

This guy in Tirana made this sculpture and 

now is sending it to Thomas S Monson!

So after the training me and my companion had to pack up and go to a city called Lushnje to do an exchange! The exchange was pretty good. Lushnje is a really really small city.. it was kind of like my old area, Fier, but like ever smaller. We would go street contacting and stuff and just see the same old people over and over again ha it was crazy. It made me realize how grateful I am to serve in a big city like Tirana. When I got back to Tirana I was excited to go street contacting and find people because there are a huge variety of people it is awesome! I really love Tirana. 

Shqiponja!

So then on Saturday we went to the park to play football with some investigators and members... So many people showed up!!! It was awesome but also it was way too many people to play a game of soccer so we just had half of them play soccer and the other half played Frisbee. I was on the frisbee side. I love playing frisbee so much man it is so fun! 

Then on Sunday church was really good. We have a very small ward choir and we performed.. The choir director is this really old senior missionary lady and she scares me really bad haha. She is really sweet until it comes to choir then she will yell at you.

.. its scary. 

Anyway it was a great week! Bye!! 

Elder Farnworth