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.