Last Blog Post

Well this is the last email I will write as a missionary.... Its so crazy to think that 2 years has already come and gone. What a great experience its been though!!! 

I wish I had something amazing and profound to say but.... sorry to disappoint, I don't haha! I really have loved being a missionary for these past 2 years.  My mission has been the hardest thing I have ever done, but the most fulfilling and amazing thing I have ever done. My testimony of the gospel and of Jesus Christ have grown so much. I know that these things are all true! I am grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to help and serve other people and to watch them accept the gospel and change their lives.  And you know what the best part of it all is? It doesn't end! Missionary work is one of the most important things and we all have the duty to share the gospel! 

I am thankful for all the love and support that I have been given since I have been out here. I really do love you all and I am so grateful for your prayers and letters and everything! I can't wait to see you all on Friday.  Have a great week :) 

LOVE YOU

Elder Farnsworth

Second to Last

Hey everyone, hows it going? 

It's crazy to think that this is my 2nd to last email that I will send.  The time really does go fast, and it's all so bitter sweet. 

This week was a good week here in Selkirk though.  We were able to teach quite a few of our investigators and less actives so that was good. We got to go out to a members house in a place called fisher branch.  It's about an hour and a half away.  We spent 3 days out there helping on their farm and a bunch of their neighbors and things farms as well. It was a good experience to be able to go out and do some service and meet a bunch of people. we were able to teach some of them so that was great as well. It was kinda crazy, we stayed in this members house, but its a real old farm house and it doesn't really have running water, so we were using the old out house, and for a shower we had to use a bucket to fill the bath tub, then just bath in there.  Needless to say you don't get very clean. It was fun though.  Made me really grateful for all the amenities that we have. OH also I got my first tick this week.  Then I got a second and third hahaha.  It was tick city out there so that kinda wasn't fun but all in all it was a great time! 

Lately we have been reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and we have been highlighting where Jesus Christ speaks or whenever it talks about Christ or the gospel. We highlight when it talks about faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. This whole process has been amazing. It has helped me to see the Book of Mormon in a new light and really come to understand it even better. I challenge each of you to read the Book of Mormon but try something new with it, maybe read with a question, or a problem. Maybe go through and highlight all where it talks about Christ or the plan of salvation. I promise that it will help you to see it in a new light and strengthen the testimony that you have of the book. I love the Book of Mormon. I know that its true and I know it will bring us closer to God and Jesus Christ.  I can't even express how much I love that book and how important and amazing it truly is. ALWAYS read it... I promise it will strengthen your conversion and help you every single day.  We need to be praying, and reading our scriptures everyday, no excuses. If you are having problems or struggles in your life, if your doubting things -- read and pray, go to church and you will be amazed at how much better you will feel and how much help you will receive. 

I love you all!!!! I gotta say I am getting excited to see you all next week... just a little excited.... haha.

Love you all!!! 

Elder Farnsworth

In the News

Hey everyone, how was the week? Our week here in Selkirk was pretty good! It was super rainy this week so that kinda stunk but I guess it is better than snow eh? 

Things are good though.  We did a bit of service this week.  We also did some good old tracting and things like that to find some new people to teach.  Nothing too exciting yet, but miracles are coming! We did make the news paper so that was really exciting.  We are famous now haha, not really the members were all really happy but other than that no one has said much... it was great though, a good way to get the church out and noticed in the community. 

We had a great Sacrament Meeting this Sunday.  A lot of people got up and bore their testimonies and they were all so powerful and inspiring.  This branch here is amazing!  The spirit here is so strong and all the members are so unified.  I love serving here. It is  a great place :) That's about all for this week, nothing too crazy exciting.

I was reading a book this week and it was talking about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel and it really reminded me how amazing and true all of this is. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet.  I know the gospel is restored and we have modern day prophets and apostles that hold the priesthood. The Book of Mormon is true!  These truths are so important and each one of us needs to constantly remind and reaffirm these things for ourselves.  We can never loose sight of what is most important.  Life is crazy and busy but we always need to take time to think and ponder about the gospel and strengthen our testimonies. 

Love you all!  Have a great week!

Elder Farnsworth

Garage Sale

Hello everyone, 

This week we did a ton of service. One of the members here in our branch actually lost their son in a car accident like 3 years ago.  He was only 7 and his friend Gracie died like a year after him.  Anyways they hold this huge garage sale in honor of them and donate all of the money made to charities and things within the community. This garage sale is HUGE.  They have a huge hockey arena just filled with stuff, so we got to help with going through all the donations and sorting them and putting them on tables.  Then on Saturday we would help people out to their cars and things with all their boxes. What a job haha.  We did this for like 4 days and we were exhausted!!! It was such a great experience though. We were around tons of the church members and we got to see and talk to and get to know so many people within the community.  It was a great opportunity for us!!! 

I love these small towns and branches. They all support one another and get involved with such great causes.  The best part too... we might even make the news paper haha! We got interviewed and got our pictures taken so that would be huge here if the missionaries made the paper.  Hopefully it happens! 

Other than that this week was just kind of normal we had an exchange on Tuesday so that was good.  Church on Sunday was great too.  This branch here has some of the greatest members.  I love serving here in Selkirk.  It is amazing how each area on your mission has an impact on you.  I am so grateful that I had this opportunity to serve and have all these great experiences.  What a blessing! 

Well I hope you all have a great week.

Love you all!!!

Elder Farnsworth

Short and Sweet

Hey everyone, 

I don't have too much time today so this will be short. This week was a good week though, we taught quite a few new people and we also were able to do a bunch of service this week which has been great. It is amazing to see how service can soften peoples hearts and really help them to open up.  We have mowed lawns, done gardens, pulled weeds, all kinds of different things! I think I may be a professional gardener by the time I get home! 

Other than that things are going great, the weather is good and the work is good.  What else can you ask for! I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve a mission. It is the best!  Lately I have been reading the conference Ensign and I love those talks. I know that the words are inspired. It truly is modern day scripture. I challenge all of you to read over the conference talks again, its amazing the things we can gain when we study the words of the living day prophets and apostles. 

I love you all. Ii hope you have a great week! 

Elder Farnsworth

Transferred to Selkirk

Hello,

This is an update for two weeks:

Two weeks ago I got a transfer call to move to Selkirk.  The call came in at 6:00 PM and I had to be on a Greyhound bus at 8:00 PM.  I had two hours to pack and say goodbye to everyone.  The bus ride from Flin Flon to Winnipeg was 12 hours long.  I did not get any sleep on the bus so by the time I got to Winnipeg I was so tired.  I got a new companion that I am training.  His name is Elder Moore.  He is also a visa waiter who is going to Macon, Georgia speaking Spanish.  We were sent to Selkirk and we are whitewashing.  When we got to the apartment that the other missionaries left six weeks earlier, it was in horrible condition.  Dirty dishes everywhere and the floor furnace and broken and there was water all over the wood floor.  So the floor had started coming up and was covered in mold.  Needless to say, we lived out of our car driving back and forth to Winnipeg for three days.  The apartment finally got somewhat cleaned up, but then my comp got sick and we could not leave the apartment for a couple of days.  It was a crazy week.

It was great talking to everyone on Mother’s day. 

Well week number two in Selkirk was much better than our first week.  So this week we worked really hard on trying to find and build an investigator/teaching pool. We have a ton of potentials and things but no one really solid yet.  We are praying and working hard so hopefully this week we find some good people to teach.  We did get a new apartment this week so that has been really nice, it’s like brand new inside.  It has a washer and dryer and all that good stuff and it’s even cheaper than the old one so that has been a big blessing! 

My comp isn’t sick anymore either so that is also a huge blessing.  Thank goodness for that.  We were able to get out and meet quite a few of the members as well so that has been good. the members here are so good, there’s a lot of younger people and families and they are all great people, I am excited to get to work with them a little more. 

On Saturday we were able to go to Winnipeg and we had a special zone conference where we heard from the Presiding Bishop, Gerald Causse and also from one of the 70s, Elder Spackman. Elder Renlund and his wife were here but they had to go to a different part of the mission so we didn’t get to hear from them.  It was such a good meeting. Bishop Causse talked a lot about the atonement and also how it is truly the center of everything.  He said each of us need to repent every single night.  We constantly need to be trying to get better and overcome our weaknesses. Elder Spackman spoke a lot about how difficult missions are but, we will receive wonderful blessings when we serve faithfully.  He also spoke about how we need to always have a prayer in our heart.  We always need to be praying and asking God for help.  If we pray and rely on him we are promised that he will answer our prayers and give us the things we need.   It was a great conference.  I love hearing from the leaders of the church.  What amazing people.  I know they are all called and chosen by God! 

Well I hope everyone has a great week, I love you all, thanks for all your support and prayers! 

Elder Farnsworth

Follow your Promptings

This week was great :) We were real blessed this week and saw quite a bit of success. We were able to find quite a few new investigators this week so that was great. We did some tracting and things like that and we also have a bunch of potentials so that is pretty exciting as well! 

I had the prompting early on in the week to go and see a former investigator named Donna. We had heard that she had just moved back in town and stuff. So we tracked her down and went to see her. It was great! We had a really good first lesson and then we went back two days later had another lesson and invited her to be baptized on June 1st.  She said yes! She is really excited for her date and we even got to teach her brother and her aunt as well, so now we have a family. It was such a great blessing. Its so important when we have a spiritual prompting to always follow it, it will pay off and we will see miracles! 

Other than that this week has been great weather wise. It has been sunny and nice, almost all the ice on the lakes have melted and the people are out walking around like crazy! We have been walking a lot the past little while and have talked to quite a few people so that has been good :) We go on walks and things with some of our recent converts and have little lessons.  I am telling you Flin Flon is a beautiful place. There is so many trees and rocks and its like living in a mountain. There are lakes and paths everywhere,  it's great. 

I hope everyone back home is doing well. It is crazy to think that its already May.  Time goes by so fast. I hope everyone has a great week and a happy Mothers Day. Love you all! 

Elder Farnsworth

Catching Up

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I haven't been too good about writing things for the blog lately... it has been an interesting past couple of weeks! This week was definitely a rough one... yes it is true it’s not always easy and happy and fun to be a missionary haha but don’t worry even with the past couple of weeks I still love being able to serve and I wouldn’t change or trade any of it for anything else in the world. 

The past little while my companion has really been struggling. He was brand new and he had some depression and other issues that he was trying to deal with. He also didn’t really want to be on a mission and was forced to come out. He was such a good person, we got along great and we had a good time together but he was having a hard time. The past few weeks he had really been talking with the Mission President and he finally decided this week that he needed to go home. On Friday he caught the bus to Winnipeg and then he flew home today. I am really sad to see him go. He was great... my only mission son. I always really wanted to train and have that experience and it was sure interesting, but again I wouldn’t change it! I for sure learned a lot from that experience though, I learned how to listen and really pay attention to the spirit in trying to help another person. It is so important for us to listen to other people. It shows that we love them and care about them and it gives us the opportunity to really get to know a person. Always listen to people and help them to know that you care. 

I did get a new companion this week his name is Elder Whetman. He has been out for about 5 months. He is a little be different but hopefully we will have a good experience together.... it’s kind of funny cause I have been praying to be more charitable and patient and I have been asking for opportunities to develop those attributes and let’s just say with this new companion of mine I will have plenty of opportunity for that haha! I’m telling you be careful for what you pray for because God does answer prayers!!! 

Flin Flon is still a great place, I love it here. We are working with a couple of people and lately our less actives have actually really been progressing and doing well so that is good news! One of my favorite things on my mission so far is watching a less active family return to activity in the church, you can just see the difference it makes! 

Lately it has been really sunny and warm outside so that has been really nice too, we are able to go to bbqs and walk around. We are going to start doing some sports nights and different things so that will be great... I love the nice weather, it always makes missionary work 10 times better. We got to eat and try some duck and duck soup this week as well.... it was alright haha. They also made us fried bannock which is super good. The native peoples love their bannock! 

Funny story of the week, yesterday we walked with a bunch of kids to church. They were all little native kids and they all wanted to come to church so we walked all of them there. Of course their parents didn’t come so it was chaos haha. They are all members and their parents are less actives so they have been before but man it was nuts! It definitely prepared me to one day have kids and deal with them at church haha! We were all over the place with those kids trying to get them to sit down and be quiet... craziness and of course you can’t hold them or really do anything as a missionary so it was a challenge but we survived and they all had a good time so it was worth it! 

Other than that things have been going good. lately I have really began to realize that life and each of the situations that we are in are only what we make of them. They can be terrible awful and depressing or we can choose to be happy we can choose to see the good and realize the blessings we have been given. I can tell you that it’s so much better when we choose to be happy and see the good, it’s definitely hard but it’s so much better! 

I hope you all have a great week, I love and miss you all! 

Elder Farnsworth

Bye Bye my son.

Kids playground - construction site.

Loved Conference

Hey everyone, how’s it going this week? 

We had a pretty good week this week, nothing too new or exciting happening. Conference was great like always! I guess before I talk about conference I will tell you more about our week. So we just did normal missionary stuff this week. We tracted and taught some lessons all that good stuff.  We also got to go out this week and do some service. That was a lot of fun. We helped take out a bathroom and do some demolition.

We got transfer calls and I’m staying here with my comp so that is a good thing. We also got another apartment this week so the other elders moved out.  It’s so nice now to have so much space! I missed all the room haha I guess you know your spoiled when you don’t have to share. 

Conference was so good! I loved the Saturday morning session, and a lot of the Sunday sessions were great too. Priesthood was really good.  I definitely enjoyed how much they talked about families and how important they are... inspired words!!! I really enjoyed Kevin R. Duncan’s talk on forgiveness. He talked a lot about how we need to forgive and when we do we will feel free. We don’t need to let hate or whatever run our lives. When we forgive we will feel better! I also liked Donald L. Hallstrom's talk about realizing who we are and that God loves us. One of the questions he asked was do we really know it... I loved that. We have to know for ourselves that God loves us and then, I feel, like a lot of other things start to fall into place with life. I also really enjoyed Bonnie L. Oscarson's talk, do believe it or not. Such good talks. And, of course, Elder Holland's talk. That one was powerful! I just love conference! 

Well I hope you all have a great week, love you! 

Elder Farnsworth

Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER!

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend. It’s really such a great time of year. The weather is changing, and of course it’s always great to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I hope everyone had a good weekend. 

This week was alright. We did a ton of traveling this week so that really wasn’t too fun but oh well I guess. We drove down to Brandon on Wednesday, then we had a training on Thursday. We drove to Dauphin and stayed the night then we drove back home on Friday.  I was so sick of being in a car driving by the end of it all! It took us 10 hours to get to Brandon. We stopped in Dauphin and ate at a members house and then we continued our drive and finally got there.  Then it took us 2 hours of driving on Thursday to get to Dauphin and then another 6 to get back to Flin Flon on Friday.  It was great to be in Dauphin for a while though.  I got to go see some of the members and that was fun!  

Our specialized training was great too. We learned a lot about faith and calling on the powers of heaven. It was a great training! We also got another car that me and my companion get to drive now, and guess what – it’s brand spanking new!!!! It’s a 2016 Nissan Rogue. Its real nice haha. You could say I was pretty excited to be driving a brand new car.  I may have a small car obsession, but this made all the driving worth it. 

For Easter we just went and had supper at a ladies house and did normal missionary stuff haha, nothing too exciting! I do want to just say though that I love Easter! I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. It is through him that we can live again and through him that we can do anything! It’s so vitally important for us to always remember that Jesus Christ is our strength. We need him always and in all things and never ever forget that!

I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week! 

Elder Farnsworth

New Car!

Happy Easter! 

Native Traditions

Hey everyone, how’s it going? This has been a great week for us here in Flin Flon.  This week we were able to have some great experiences and even see some amazing miracles!

This week we went with one of our recent converts and she took us to show us some of the native culture type stuff that they do. So we got to go with her and we met with one of the native elder and we had a really good discussion with her. She told us a bunch about the native beliefs and ways, and we in return were able to share with her a lot of our beliefs and practices. It was crazy how similar some of the beliefs were. We were also able to smudge with them. So what they do is they burn different herbs. So we had sage and lavender and some sweet grass and they light it on fire and then they blow it out and it smokes. Then you take the smoke and you like waft it towards you and it helps to get rid of negativity and just helps you to like purify yourself. It was really interesting! It was definitely a neat experience! 

On Tuesday another one of the recent converts hooped danced for us. That was kind of weird but it’s another one of the native traditions that they do.  Native traditions are seriously so interesting. Definitely a different culture! 

The best part of the week is that we had a baptism! We were teaching this man named Joseph Lambert and he decided to be baptized. It was a great day for him! I am so happy for him and his decision, it was great. He came up out of the water and he just started shouting hallelujah. He was so happy and you could tell it just shined on his face! Sunday he was confirmed and ordained to the Aaronic priesthood, it was a great weekend :) 

This week has really been great, I have felt so many of the prayers that are being said in our behalf and I know without a doubt that God is there and that he will help us. I have seen that and felt that this week. My companion is doing so much better, and the working is really moving along here in Flin Flon. I love my mission so much. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve!!! I am also so thankful for all the prayers that are said and all the support I receive! I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Farnsworth

Elder Farnsworth asked me to include this link this week.  It is the Easter initiative video.  https://www.mormon.org/easter

Joseph Lambert baptism

The Church in Flin Flon

 Elder Blommaert and Shiann a recent convert

 Elder Davies leaving on the Greyhound for his New York Mission

 Elders Morrill, Blommaert, Davies and Farnsworth - the original four

 Housing in Flin Flon

 Elder Miyashiro who Elder Farnsworth is training

Training

Hello everyone! How was everybody’s week this week?

Our week went ok this week. One of the best things about the week is how warm it got :). It was warm enough that the snow is melting... hooray haha! There is a lot of water and puddles, and there is dirt everywhere from the snow and the plows and everything but spring time is in the air!

I did get my new companion this week. He is from southern Alberta, his name is Elder Miyashiro. He is a visa waiter and will be going to the California Modesto mission once his visa comes in. Training is really a different experience. I really do like it but it’s not exactly what I expected. It’s crazy starting to teach someone from scratch how to be a missionary, but it’s been good and it has also been a good reminder to me on how I can be a better missionary so it’s great!  My comp is struggling a little bit with a few things and has been thinking about going home so please keep him in your prayers. He is questioning if this is really were he should be. It is for sure where he needs to be but just pray for him!!!! It will all work out! 

We were able to do quite a bit of teaching this week. We split the area and so we have some new people to work with and we lost some of the old people we were working with to the other Elders. We are no longer teaching Regan but she is doing good still. We set a baptismal date with a man named Joseph. He will be baptized this Saturday!!!!  It’s going to be great. We will also need some prayers for that to make sure everything goes smoothly. I am so excited for him though he is great! We also had a branch activity on Friday night which was great! It was a dominos night. We had Dominos pizza and of course played dominos. It was fun and there was a great turn out, I think half the people there were investigators or recent converts so that was a huge success! 

This Sunday I gave a talk in church and the topic I picked was facing the future with faith and hope. Just a few thoughts.... sometimes the future is scary and looks dark and dreary. Sometimes life just isn’t fun and it’s a little miserable. You look at the world and see all the horrible things going on and it can be depressing, but in reality it does not need to be. If we have faith in Jesus Christ, if we obey the commandments and we do what we are supposed to do, the future is bright! We have hope in eternal life. We have hope for good things in the future for blessings and for miracles. When we are sad and getting down because the way life is sometimes we need to remember that it will all work out. There’s a quote by President Hinckley that I really love. "If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God.  The Lord will not forsake us." It’s true, he will never forsake us!!!! I would invite you all to read Neil f Marriott’s talk called yielding our hearts to God. That is a good one :)

Well I love you all. Thanks for all your love and support. Have a great week!!!! 

Elder Farnsworth

Finally Training

BIG NEWS...... I will finally be having a SON!!!!!! I got a phone call on Friday and I was told that I will be training a new missionary. I am so excited!!! I have wanted to train for the longest time and now I finally get the chance to. It’s going to be such a good experience. My trainee will come in on Thursday. It’s the middle of the transfer which is kind of crazy but now my comp is going to be in a tripan with the other two Flin Flon missionaries and it will be me and my trainee in the other Flin Flon area. It’s going to be an adventure, since I have only been here 3 weeks I am still learning the area myself and now I will have a brand new elder. It’s going to be great!!! I am excited.... to say the least haha! 

This week has been a good week for us teaching wise. We were able to find a new investigator, and we taught a few other people, some of who we have been trying to work with for a while. So that was a huge blessing. The lessons all went pretty good, they all understood what we taught and they agreed to the commitments so that is always a good thing. We hopefully have a baptism coming up on March 19th which will be really good!!! We are praying and hoping that it will all work out and come together. 

This week we went to a native girls birthday party and it was quite crazy haha. Their parties are much different. It was fun though.  They give the kids what’s called birthday bumps. They grab their hands and feet and they put them in the air and then they bump their butts on the ground haha. It looks painful but it was pretty funny. We also walked a ton this week. Flin Flon is a really hilly area and my word my legs were so sore. I guess it’s good though, I will be all in shape for when I come home. 

The weather has been ok. We were walking on Saturday and it was a really nice day. Everything was melting. We were walking on the side of the road and totally got splashed by this car that drove through a puddle. That stunk but it was pretty funny. Now today it’s snowing and cold again. We are supposed to get like 7 inches so that’s bad news. 

Lately I have been thinking a lot about gratitude and how we always need to be grateful for the things we are given, especially the experiences and the relationships that we are blessed with. God gives us so much. I think a lot of the time when we think of being grateful its more for material possessions but there is so much  more that we are given. One of my favorite gratitude quotes is, “What if the things you thanked God for today were the only things you were given tomorrow.” Something to think about... always be grateful!!!! 

Love you all. I hope you have a great week! 

Elder Farnsworth

Elder Morrell

Beautiful Flin Flon

Margaret

Snow snow snow

Prayers Needed

Hello this week, how is everyone?

This week was a great week for us, we were able to meet with a lot of our investigators and things are really moving forward here in good ole Flin Flon. It’s such an interesting place. I have thought about it the past few days and it’s so humbling to be here and to see the way life is for some people, it makes me so thankful for the way I was raised and for the things that I have. It’s crazy here the way people treat and raise their children, they are all pretty high or drunk and they just don’t pay much attention to them. We will go to houses and there will just be little kids hanging out with no real adults home or sometimes they will be home but their just sleeping or doing whatever not even taking care of the kids. It’s sad, but its sure eye opening. 

I do love it here though. We get to talk with the little kids and give them CTR rings and things and it is for sure planting seeds within their minds.  One day they will remember us and talk to missionaries when they are older. Its great too cause when we teach those families, you can really see them change and watch how the gospel makes them into a better person. The gospel really does change lives, it’s amazing to watch! 

We do have a few people we are working with that I would love you all to pray for. Regan is the first one. She has a baptismal date for the 11th of March and just recently started having family problems. Noella, she has been taught for a long time and is Regan sisters. She suffers from a lot of addictions, but we really want to help her so please pray for her. Also Sandra and Shianne, they are sisters. Sandra is investigating and will be baptized in August once she is off parole, and Shianne is her sister who is a recent convert. But they need extra prayers right now!   Thanks for praying for them, I know it will help! 

I love you all and I hope you all have a great week. Don’t forget to count your blessings!!!!

Love you! 

Elder Farnsworth

One of the cute natives showing off her CTR ring!

(I am laughing at a couple of things -- first of all it is 45 degrees below in Flin Flon and this cute little girl is in shorts -- I clearly am a wimp in my coat at 50 degrees.  Eli also pointed out the finger with which she is showing us her ring.  We both laughed!)

Arrived in Flin Flon

Hello from the great white north :)

I finally made it to Flin Flon.  It’s such a good place, its completely different than any of my other areas.  It’s almost a culture shock but its great!  It’s so crazy the way the people live up here.  There are tons of drugs and alcohol up here.  There’s lots of natives too.  The people are all really nice though and super receptive.  They all want to change their lives and do better in one way or another.  It’s amazing how much we teach and how much work is going on here.  I love it!  Just in the 4 days that I have been here we have taught a ton of lessons and we have been able to set a few dates for baptism as well.  

It’s going to be a great area.  It’s kind of crazy, there are 4 missionaries here and we all live together in a little two bedroom apartment.  We share our car, our food, and even the people were teaching.  Talk about sharing.  It’s been good though, I really like all of the missionaries so far and we all get along really well!  The three of them are all pretty new.  My comp has been out just over 7 months, the other one is at 6 months, and then the other is at 2 months so they are all really new but good missionaries. 

On Thursday we drove forever to get here.  I drove from Fort Frances to Winnipeg which is 4 hours than 20 minutes later got in the car and drove to Flin Flon for like 8 hours.  It was a long day haha! 

The church here is really good though.  There’s a lot of good members and quite a few little kids as well.  I love the change.  I loved Fort Frances, but it was time for a change.  Other than that I don’t have too much else to say.  I hope you all have a great week.

Love you all! 

Elder Farnsworth

Fort Frances District

 Elder Morrill

 More Elder Morrill

 People of Fort Frances

President Tovey from Fort Frances

 Sister Pigeon from Fort Frances

Transferring to Flin Flon

Well hello everyone, how was your week? 

This week was really good for us, we had our ZTM this week which went really well. We had training on how to work with members, and how to get people to church. We are also implementing this new thing in our mission for member missionary home teaching. It’s going to be a really good program. I am excited for it to take off! Other than that, ZTM went great. It was so good to have our whole zone together and to be able to learn from one another. I really do love zone meetings. You can learn so much!

The big news of this week is that I am getting transferred..... Flin Flon here I come! I will be getting moved to Flin Flon Manitoba. It's WAY up north. Like 9 hours north of Winnipeg. It’s the second farthest north you can get in our mission. I am so excited, I have been there once before on an exchange and it was a fun place. It is way different than other places in the mission and it’s going to be pretty darn cold, but it’s going to be so fun! There will be me and my comp and also two other elders up there so it will be an adventure. It’s like native town up there so I will have lots of stories to tell! My comps name is Elder Morrill and he is actually from Riverton, Utah. I don’t know him but I think he is a year younger than I am so it should be great!

I will be sad to leave Fort Frances but I am seriously so excited to go to Flin Flon. It’s going to be the best! I won’t be a zone leader anymore either so that will be kind of nice to not have as much responsibility and to really just focus on the work and the people these next 4 and a half months!!!

Well  I hope you all have a great week. Love you all!!! 

Love Elder Farnsworth

Caught Speeding Again!

Hey everyone! How was your week? 

This week was great, it started off pretty interesting but it has been good week! I am exhausted this week, We had two exchanges and we did a big ole event at the church. Plus our regular stuff in our area. It is amazing how a person can be so tired and what not but how when you pray for strength and energy - God will give it to you! 

So I will start off and tell you about Monday. So we had to go to Warroad to meet the assistants half way because we were exchanging with them. We were on our way, but Elder Coleman and I were running late, so I thought I would be fine and I would just go a little faster and we would get there in time. Well we were going pretty good and then of course wouldn't you know it a cop just comes out of no where. So I got pulled over. I was going 30 over and so he gave me a ticket. The worst part was he came up to the car and I was searching for the registration and insurance and of course...there is no insurance card in the car. Then he tells me that our registration is expired too. You all would be so proud of me, I didn't even get worried or anything, I just kept my cool and we had a good talk with the officer. He talked to the mission office peeps and it all worked out. I did get three tickets though -- one for speeding, one for no insurance card, and one for expired registration, so that stunk! But the good news is that two of them were not my fault so that was ok. The worst news of all is we were late...like 40 minutes late haha! 

Exchanges were good though. I went to Winnipeg with Elder Joncas and we had a good time. We taught quite a few people and got quite a bit of work done there so that was great! It is really weird being in a city compared to a little town. There were people everywhere to talk to and a lot of them had never even seen missionaries before. It was kind of fun to be in the big city for a day. 

On Wednesday night to Thursday night we had exchanges with the I-Falls elders. That was a good exchange as well. I was with Elder Ferbey in the Falls and we had a great time and did some good work there as well. I think the worst part of exchanges is not sleeping in your own bed. It tires you out haha! 

This weekend was great. We had our Meet the Mormons night were we watched the video and things at the church. Sadly we had a terrible turn out. There were 8 members there and only two nonmembers,  but I think that everyone really enjoyed the show and the nonmembers said that it was really good and informative so at least it wasn't all for nothing. 

Sunday was great! Sean and Tiffany came to church and they had their kids. Sean bore his testimony again and the two kids even bore their testimonies. It was so good to see and hear them! We were also able to teach quite a bit on Sunday and had some success so that was great! 

Well I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Farnsworth

Visit to Atikokan

Hey everyone, how was your week?

This week was pretty good. On Saturday we were able to go out to Atikokan and we spent the night there with some members and then we got to speak in their Sacrament Meeting. It was probably the highlight of my week. Atikokan has quite a history behind it. They haven't had missionaries there for a really long time and the past little while we have been able to go more and more. We are hoping to start going there once a week and get some missionary work started there. We stayed with members named the Fisks down there. They are both in their 80's but they are such good people!!! We stayed in their basement and it was like a little bed and breakfast. It was a fun time! Sacrament Meeting was great, there were 12 of us there and we had a good time talking and getting to know everyone. It was such a good experience. It's so humbling to see such a small group of members that are old and work hard but they still keep the Church strong and going. 

We also got to teach Sean and Tiffany this week, we had a great discussion with them and hopefully this week we can get them to make the commitment to get married. Pray for us and them haha. It will be a hard one but I know that it will all work out! 

Well that's about all for this week. Sorry its short, but I hope you all have a great week. Love you all! 

Elder Farnsworth

A little B&B action!

Baptismal Dates!

This week was great... much better than last week! 

On Monday we were able to stop by and visit a guy named Bryan. He let us in and we were able to teach him the first discussion, it went really good! He had some great concerns and questions and we were able to really have the spirit there. We are supposed to meet with him tonight so hopefully we can have another good lesson with him. On Wednesday we had a big missionary broadcast meeting for all the missionaries in the world. It was a great meeting! It was all about the fundamentals of preach my gospel and how we need to be implementing and using those concepts more as missionaries. We heard from Elder Andersen, Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar and a few other general authorities. It was great! One thing I really liked that Elder Bednar said was that we are the Holy Ghost's instrument. We are God's tool. He is not our tool. The Holy Ghost is not our tool. We need to be worthy so that it can use us to help others. This work is not about us, we are here to only be the instrument and assist God in his work! It was great to have our whole zone together as well. We were able to have a great discussion after the broadcast as a zone and it was very insightful! 

This week we were also able to set 3 new baptismal dates!!!! What a miracle! We met with Sean and Tiffany and had a great lesson with them. We invited them to be baptized on February the 20th and they both said yes!!! It will be a difficult road for them. They need to get married and they have a few word of wisdom problems, but we know that they can do it! If you could all pray for them that would be great!!! We are still expecting a miracle with those two... it will be a challenge for them but it will bless them so much! We also got to teach one of our investigators name Matt, and we set a date with him as well for February the 20th. That will be a big day!!! It was a great week though. I am so thankful for these people and for the opportunity to teach them. It is such a great experience challenging someone to be baptized and helping them understand why its such a necessary thing. 

This morning before studies I was reading the Teachings of the Presidents book for this year. It is the Howard W. Hunter book. I was reading the first chapter and I really want to share some of the insights that I was able to gain. He talks a lot about how we need to have faith, and how faith can help us get through the struggles in our lives and help us get rid of our worries and fears. He talks about how we need to emphasize the blessings in our lives. We have to look at the good and at the progress we made, and we have to minimize the disappointments and the worries that we have. It is normal to worry and be fearful, but we can't let those things control us. We have to look forward into the future with faith with optimism and hope. If we were to look at all the things that could go wrong and dwell on that, we would never get anywhere! President Hunter talks about how we have to embrace life joyfully. When we go through trials and tribulations, when our patience is being tested, we need to keep a good attitude and just have faith in the Lord. He has a plan for us and he will make sure that we succeed. We have to go through tests and trials and hard things because they help us to grow. 

There is a quote that I really love. "God has the power, but its our test." God could deliver us and help us but we have to go through the test so that we can learn and progress. President Hunter also says, that when our lives our centered on Jesus Christ, when our faith is in Him and we are living the way that we should, nothing can go permanently wrong. We just have to keep trying, keep enduring. 

That is my challenge to you all this week, keep enduring. But not in a bad way, keep a good attitude, be joyous, be happy, have faith, be optimistic, don't worry, God knows what he is doing and he is shaping you into exactly who you need to be. 

I love you all. I am thankful for each of you and for all your support. Have a great week!!! 

-D&C 123:17

-D&C 6: 34-37

-D&C 90:24

Love Elder Farnsworth 

 Selfie in the snow!

 Posing so we could see the ice.

Walking across the frozen lake.

Cold and Slow this Week

Hello,

The weather up here has been FREEZING! you go outside for like 5 minutes and holly molly your just frozen haha. I do have to say I have learned to tolerate it much better this year than last year. I feel like my body can just get used to the cold and it just deals with it. My feet and fingers especially have become climatized haha. They are just always cold but after so long you are just used to it! It's kinda funny too cause our apartment has tile floors and those things are COLD haha, but at least its a place to live and it does keep us warm for the most part! 

Well I don't really know what else to say this week. It has really been a boring week for us as well. We tried really hard this week. We tracted in the cold and walked around quite a bit, but nothing really happened. We did try and teach a bunch of lessons this week but most of them fell through, it was just one of those weeks. I hope that things will pick up this week. We only had 9 at sacrament meeting this past Sunday and I think a lot of it all has to do with the cold and stuff. All you can do is just keep on trying. You have to experience the bad to experience the good. I think that is something I have gained from my mission, you always have to keep a positive attitude. When you are negative and discouraged, you have to think of ways to improve and make the situation better. We are in that process now! We are going to start working towards another big activity here. It is  going to be a Meet the Mormons open house. We will be giving church tours and watching the movie Meet the Mormons. I  think it will be a great activity!!! 

Hope every one has a greet week.

Love Elder Farnsworth

Transfers and New Comp

Hello everyone! 

This week was quite a week. We had transfers and lots of changes. I said good bye to Elder Ringger on Thursday and got my new comp on Thursday as well. I will miss Elder Ringger. He is a great person. I learned a lot from him. He was the most non-judgmental person I think I have met. He always was so nice to people and never had anything bad to say. I definitely needed to learn from him haha! My new comp is pretty good. His name is Elder Coleman. He is from Calgary Alberta. So a Canadian. He is my first Canadian companion. So far so good! 

So Sean and Tiffany came to church again this week! Its so so hard to meet with them during the week but they always show up to church so that is a great blessing. I am requesting all of your prayers for this family. They are amazing and we need to meet with them so we can set a date with them and help them progress toward baptism. I know that it will help their family so much! 

On Sunday I gave a talk in church about faith. I learned that faith isn't just belief and action, it's trusting God and Jesus Christ. It is having confidence in them and knowing that they will always fulfill their promises. We can and should always have faith in Jesus Christ. He has a plan for us. His ways are higher than ours. We must remember that and always trust that no matter what happens that its for a specific reason. We are meant to learn from our challenges and our trials. I would recommend reading the talk "But If Not" by Dennis Simmons. It is a great talk! 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love Elder Farnsworth

The District

The Ontario Zone

 

Transfer Calls

So we did get transfer calls, today actually. I will be staying here in Fort Frances and getting a new companion. His name is Elder Coleman. I have talked with him before and he seems like a good guy so it should be a great transfer. I'm looking forward to it! 

I still cant believe that its 2016 already. Blows my mind. I thought that this year would never come haha but now its here. Lots of things will be changing this year and lots happening! To celebrate new years we didn't do much. We drove to Winnipeg for MLC. It was a great MLC on New Year's Day but then we had to drive back which kinda stunk, but it was a great day! 

At church Sean and his family came again! Hooray! The best part was Sean even bore his testimony! That made me so happy. We didn't get to teach them this week so no baptismal date yet but I think it will happen this week so that will be great! 

Well that's all for this week.  We don't have as much time today.  Happy New Year everyone.  

Love, 

Elder Farnsworth