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!