Music and Missionary Work! (7/31/17)

Things are going great here in Pogradec I love it so much!! I really am loving the work so much here. So at the beginning of the week we taught English course and we had some new people show up! So at the end we shared a message about the Book of Mormon and invited them to stay and read it with us if they wanted and 3 people ended up staying and reading a few chapters with us, then all 3 of them took a Book of Mormon and 1 of them wanted to stay and hear more about our message so we taught her a lesson.. It was so awesome! The work here is just amazing there are a lot of prepared people ready to hear the Gospel. 

So we are working with this older couple who are so awesome!! Their names are the Miqela's.. They are like my Albanian parents! I always call her mum and him dad and they call me and Elder Samuel their twins haha it is super fun. I love teaching them! Anyway so this week we went over to their house and had a really special lesson with them. We taught them about the Word or Wisdom which is normally one of the hardest for Albanians to accept.. But we really came prepared!! So our new mission president, President Anderson, has really suggested and invited us to use music more in our lessons.. So at the start of the lesson we listened to a MoTab song and then had a prayer and from there on the Spirit was just so strong in that lesson! It was so awesome! He accepted the Word of Wisdom lesson so well and really seemed to love it!! It was such a nice Spirit that we had during the lesson. I am so very grateful for the special Spirit that music brings into my life! I have seen a lot of different times finding a lot of peace in hard times because of music!

Our creations!!

Also this week we did a really cool activity with the Young Men of the group.. It was awesome! The senior couple here showed us this idea of spray painting a bunch of random colors and stuff on a paper then putting like a circle around it then spray painting black all around the circle and stuff to make it look like a planet and space and stuff. It was dope! I made some really cool ones I will attach some pictures of my creations.. It was awesome!

Sunday was really special.. So one of the people from English course came to church! It was amazing, at one point she was like tearing up and stuff and at the end she said "I have never felt the presence of the Spirit more in my life ever! Every second of the meeting pointed me towards Christ, I loved it" It was soooooo awesome. It made me so happy!! Also.. The Miqela's came!! It was awesome. Also this week I went to Relief Society for the first time to help translate which was my first time ever going there. But anyway our friend Mrs. Miqela was there and she started talking about how hard her life has been ever since she lost her 1st husband and stuff and she was crying pretty hard.. But she gave a wonderful testimony about how she has felt God helping her in her life every step of the way.. Even though at times she would yell up to the heavens and say "Why have you left me God?" She explained how she would later look back at those experiences and see how God never left her. He was always there for her. But then at the end of it she started crying really hard when she said "Now it is easy to see God in my life because he personally sent me 2 of his best missionaries.".. Right when she said that a wave of the Spirit just came over me. I was just so glad at that moment that I was a missionary and I was able to meet these two wonderful people!! I love this work so much! I definitely have the best job in the world here! Love you so much! 

Elder Farnworth 

The first shall be the last (7/24/17)

Me and Natasha, the first baptism in Ohrid! 

Okay so first off, I didn't really mention last week but we got transfer calls and I am serving with my MTC comp, Elder Samuel!! So crazy! So he is going home on August 30th to be able to start school and I am going home on the 11th of October so he only has 6 weeks less than me.. But I am going to be his last companion! Crazy!! We got together last Tuesday then just came back and have just been having so much fun together! It is going to be a great next 6 weeks but it is going to be so sad to have to say goodbye to him when he goes home! Pretty crazy how it is all coming to an end.. 

Another pictures from the baptism!

Me and Elder Samuel! Back together!! 

Anyway so this week was just pretty normal.. Missionary work and boring stuff you know. One really cool thing is that we are meeting with this really really smart guy named Edlir, he is like a genius! He knows the bible like the back of his hand and he just gets it so much.. So our lessons with him have all been so deep and stuff and he seems like he really likes it! And this week we had a really powerful lesson with him about the Plan of Salvation. Me and Elder Samuel were like about to walk into the lesson and we were just like "We ain't the smartest kids ever but we are going to teach like how it says in Mark 1:22 "And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes." So that is what we did and we really tried to show how the most powerful teacher is the Holy Ghost.. So we gave an amazing Plan of Salvation lesson and he seemed like he really loved it! He told us he is going to go out of town this week and he promised us he will read the whole Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true or not so we will be praying for him so much! It was so awesome because up until that lesson it was always just kind of "who knows more about Jesus" lessons but in the lesson we really had the Spirit and he felt what he needed to do then committed to doing it! It was awesome. We will see what will happen with him! 

Okay so later on in the week we took a trip to Ohrid, Macedonia for a baptism! It was really special because she was the FIRST person in the whole city to be baptized! It was so cool!! Now she is the only member there. It was so cool to be able to witness it!! It was inside the really pretty lake so that was just really cool to see!! I was happy to be apart of history there :)

Some great pictures of Pogradec :) 

So on Sunday it was kind of ups and downs... the down was that we only had 3 members come to church in Pogradec which was a bummer. It is kind of hard in the summer because all of the members are working so the don't really have a lot of time to come to church.. But the good part about Sunday was that we filled the church building up with investigators!! It was so cool! So many of our investigators came to church and it was just so great!! One of our friends, named Selami, he showed up early to church dressed up in his white shirt and tie, it was so sick!! Normally people here don't really like wearing white shirts and ties so it was huge that he was wearing his!! He is so great we are excited to work with him. His wife is currently making me and Elder Samuel pink sock ties so we are really looking forward to that ;) Love you all have a great week!! 

One year or one month? (7/17/17)

This was a year ago!!

This week it really just hit me how fast time really has been FLYING. Like for real I am just amazed at how fast time is going by. Also I am sorry in advanced because this email is probably going to be pretty short haha. But this week was great!! At the beginning of the week we were super busy just cranking out lesson after lesson with a lot of people I loved it so much! Things are going really great here!! We are working with a lot of really cool people. I think that I told you last week but we have one investigator that we are working with and he is on the Pogradec basketball team and we totally went with him and practiced with the team! It was super sick. And we worked into our morning schedule a way that we could get all of our studies done then go play with him and the team so that was super awesome! We were playing 4 on 4 games to 5 and me and my comp won 10 games in a row and the coach like got mad at all the team and stuff haha it was fun! I miss playing basketball so much. 

Now... ignore my hair it was windy hah!

So towards the end of the week I went to Ohrid to conduct a baptism interview! It was good it was my first interview I have ever done in Macedonian!!.. Just kidding it was in English ha I don't speak Macedonian at all! But she was really cool, she will be the first baptized members in Ohrid, Macedonia! She is making history it is crazy!! Super cool story I am really excited for her. It should be really cool. Then after the interview I just did an exchange in Macedonia which was really good! I love Ohrid it is so pretty and so clean.

Then at the end of the week we went from Macedonia back over the boarder to Albania for Zone Conference! I looked at the stamp I got on my passport which was July 15 2017 and I noticed that it was right next to a stamp that I got on July 15 2016!! Then I realized that the one from last year was when I was going to Macedonia for my first ever Zone Conference as a Zone Leader a year ago when I served in Prishtina! Man it was crazy to think about that I can't believe that that was a whole YEAR ago.. So insane! Time just flies on the mission. Me and Elder Miller got a picture together and I will put next to it a picture that him and I took a year ago on that day in Macedonia which was his trainee transfer. So crazy how fast time is going! 

Albanians know how to stack wood!

I was walking down Ohrid and this guy offered to cut out a paper of my profile and this is what I got! Pretty cool!! He did it with like scissors in like 2 minutes it was really impressive! 

Love you all!! 

Elder Farnworth

Earthquakes! (7/10/17)

Grand opening at the school the church helped with.

Okay so first off, there have been a ton of earthquakes here!! It has been pretty dang crazy! For the most part they are pretty small but there are some that have been pretty big that like almost knock me over and stuff it has been crazy! There was one that like turned off all the electricity in the city it has been pretty crazy. 

Anyway this week was good but pretty sucky in the beginning.. So we went to Macedonia for district meeting and it was so gorgeous as always. And we ate this thing called a "Falafle" which was sooooooooo yummy holy cow. I was in heaven eating it... But it didn't really last because right when I got home I got super sick! I am not really sure what I got sick with but I had like a stomach ache for like 3 days straight! I must have caught a bug or something so that was pretty crappy. I had to stay in a lot but I still tried to work through it! It was really annoying though ha I kept having to go to the bathroom. But we wont talk about that :) 

We were interviewed!

Anyway so then this week the church helped to fund this like school thing and it had its grand opening which was cool! We went there and they were like honoring us for it and stuff and there were camera's and stuff and we got interviewed it was pretty cool! I will add a picture of us with a camera being interviewed.
Also this week we worked a lot with Mira, our recent convert, on Family History! So we showed her how to fill out the little booklet with her family history and stuff then we planned to enter it into the system.. So when we met again she and her sister had both worked hard to fill out all of the stuff needed and they had some really amazing experiences!! She said that her and her sister both saw their mom in a dream after working on it and she was tearing up while she told me about it it was really cool!! It talks about that in my Patriarchal blessing that I will find a great interest in family history and stuff and I really have! I think that it was such a special moment for our recent convert Mira. She is looking forward to one day take the names to the temple to do her ordinances there! 

Other than that we have just been working hard! We are finding a lot of really cool people to find and teach it is pretty awesome. This transfer I have really grown in my testimony of prayer.. I really feel like I am side by side with the Lord in this work and that I need to talk with him often so that I know what he wants me to do and where he wants me to go. And it is amazing how many answers I have received to prayers here! 

I am so grateful for all the help that the Lord gives to me in the work. I love it here so much! 

Have a great week!! 

Elder Farnworth 

New Mission President! (7/3/17)

This week was pretty good! It was pretty slow at the beginning of the week but it really picked up during the weekend. Anyway this week we went on exchanges with our Zone Leaders which was fun! I was with this Elder that was in my MTC group so that was fun. It is just so weird to think how far away the MTC was... Like a year and a half ago like what?? So crazy how fast time is flying by. I love it out here!! But we did great we have been doing a lot of "table-ing" which is basically like setting up a table with a bunch of stuff then we have a big poster and then talk to people! It is actually pretty successful here so we have been doing it a lot. So it was a fun exchange! We pretty much just did that ha. The only not fun part about the exchange was that we were 4 Elder's sharing 1 shower ha so that was pretty crappy. But I guess cold showers are alright because it is getting hot here!! My area I think is like the coolest area in the mission though because it has like a really nice breeze from the lake so I am loving that! 

Me and President and Sister Anderson! 

So our new Mission President got here this week!! He arrived on Wednesday I think. Right off the bat he went on a mission tour with the AP's to meet all of the missionaries. He came to Pogradec this last weekend as his first area to visit and first place to go to church at! It was cool he got here in Pogradec Saturday and we had a little get to know you meeting and stuff then we played volleyball with investigators, members, and President and Sister Anderson! It was so much fun he is such a cool guy. We also were able to find 3 new investigators from playing volleyball and 2 of them came to church the next day and accepted dates to get baptized! So that was pretty cool. But yeah it was really cool to be able to spend time with the new President. 

So on Sunday it was pretty special.. It was my first fast and testimony meeting in Pogradec and because the new mission President was there a bunch of members came... It was the most people I have seen at church here! (18) It was really cool! A really powerful meeting the members gave really great testimonies and stuff. It was really cool! Then President Anderson got up and at first I was translating for him then he was like "Thank you Elder, you can sit down" then he just starts giving his testimony in Albanian!! It was so cool and so spiritual! 

Me and my old comp, Elder Miller! 

So during 2nd hour of church I get this call from this random guy and he was like "Hey we are at the church, come outside and welcome us in" So I go outside and there was this older really sweet couple out there and the lady is like "do you remember me?" I was like uuuuuh no.. Ha so we were kind of just talking and we went to Sunday school and stuff then I remembered who it was! So like 3 weeks ago I saw that girl walking with a bunch of bags and I offered to help her and just walked for like a hundred feet with her bags and then gave her a pass along card and I totally forgot about it ha but she came to church last Sunday! It was cool! Blessings of service.. And they both want to learn more about the church so that is great!! Blessings on blessings

So we are working with this new kid named Enea.. we actually found him last P-day while we were playing basketball on the beach he came and started playing with us.. He is so sick! We had a lesson with him on Saturday then he came to church Sunday then we had a great lesson after church with him. He is an amazing kid! He is like 16 and like bigger than me and almost as tall as me (which is not very normal) but he is great. He was saying how he just feels something special when we meet and he felt it really strong at church and he was like saying he knows he needs to get baptized and follow Christ. At one point I read Alma 7:11-13 with him and testified of Christ and stuff then he was like "See right now I feel it! That is the feeling I love!" Then he kept the Book of Mormon open to that page and he was just like "I normally hate reading but I am so excited to read this book." It was just such a cool lesson! But the cool thing is is he plays for Pogradec basketball team and he invited us to come and practice with him and the team so we did that this morning! It was way fun we like did scrimmages and stuff it was my first time playing in an indoor basketball court for a year and a half. It was super dope. 

Anyway I love the work so much it is going so great! Have a great week!! 

Elder Farny

This place is gorgeous! (6/26/17)

Pretty hike

This week was great!!! The work has been tiring and we have been working really hard but it is going really great I love it here so much!! So it is warming up a lot here so people are starting to get out and go to the beach and there are a lot of tourists here. It is pretty cool to see all of the tourists and stuff it is cool. But I love working here!! There are such great members and you just meet the coolest people here in Podradec.

So we met this lady with the coolest story ever... so her and her husband tried to go to Germany with fake passports and stuff but they ended up getting caught in Berlin or something so she got split up from her husband and was alone in Berlin with her 1 year old baby and she couldn't speak nor understand anyone! she said it was terrifying but that she prayed like crazy and just asked God to help her to find a way back home.. then she found an Albanian! someone who spoke Albanian and was able to translate for her so she found her way back home and ended up getting home safely. she said that while she was traveling home she felt that God was telling her that she needed to leave her husband and raise the kid on her own (because her husband was a heavy alcoholic and not a very good guy) but she felt that God was going to help her to be protected and stuff and to help her. so she got a divorce with her husband and then she met me and my companion a few months after all that happened! she said right when she met us she knew that we were sent from God and that the church is exactly what she needed!! so we have only been able to meet with her once so far but it was a great lesson I was just so grateful to be assured that the Lord really does prepare people and help us so much in this work!

I love this lake!

The rest of the week was good. On Saturday we played beach volleyball which was so much fun!! fun fact about me and Albania ha I am a lot taller than the average Albanian... so i was the tallest one and it was so fun... everyone on my team was like rotating around me and made me stay in the front line and didn't let me move ha but it was a lot of fun! i loved being on the little lake beach here it is so pretty.

People live in this small villages with beautiful gardens! 

Sunday was pretty slow here.. it was the day of elections which everyone apparently uses that as an excuse to not do anything include coming to church! Ha, we had a whopping 10 people in church including 4 missionaries it was really weird but the Spirit is always there. It is cool, even though sometimes we have more people at Young Mens or like ward book of Mormon reading... the spirit is always the strongest at church no matter how little of people there are i love it so much! 

Also at the end of this week we went on a really cool hike, I will attach some pictures from it! This place is gorgeous :) 

Love,

Elder Farny

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