Monday, January 25, 2016

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.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

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

Monday, January 11, 2016

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
 

Monday, January 4, 2016

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