Member Missionaries

Well this has been a pretty good week! The beginning of the week started out pretty slow, but the end of the week was great! On Thursday we got to go down to Saskatoon for a specialized training, our whole zone was there, and the other Saskatoon zone was there, President and Sister Thomas were there too.  We learned a lot about how to work with members, and how to teach better and all that good stuff! It was a great training. I learned so much from it! Then on Friday we were able to teach an investigator named James. We did a whole bunch of service for him last week, and this week he let us come teach him. We were able to set a baptismal date with him for October 11th. He has a lot of work to do before then . . . he has to get married!!! haha. He is super solid though and his girlfriend is a less active so it shouldn't too big of a deal! 

This weekend we also had stake conference. It was so good it was all about the temple, family history work, and doing missionary work! The talks were so good, they definitely inspired me! This week I realized how important the members are to missionary work! Before I came out on my mission I never knew or understood how important member missionary work is. Members are the key to missionary work. In our mission they took away tracting and now the most productive way for us to do missionary work is through the members. It is so important to remember that everyone of us is a missionary! So many people think that you are only a missionary when you were a name tag, That is not true! I was reading yesterday in 2 Nephi 26: 22-33. I love these verses, I love how it states that the gospel is for everyone, no one is denied and in verse 27 it says that we are commanded to persuade people to repent. It is our job to help everyone we know receive the gospel. I also love verse 30-31 if we truly have charity and love for others we will want them to receive the gospel! We all have a duty to help those around us receive the gospel. I know its hard and before my mission I was probably one of the worst member missionaries. Looking back I had so many opportunities to share my beliefs with those around me but I never did. I always thought it was too hard or too scary and I always thought that was a missionary's job to share the gospel. Now I realize that its all of our jobs to share the gospel and I realize now that its really not that hard. We just have to have a gospel conversation, or use Mormon words like family home evening or priesthood or church, anything that will spark peoples interest and then we can talk about the gospel! There are so many ways to share the gospel, if members are willing to work and share the gospel, the work will move forward at such a fast rate! 

I am so grateful for the gospel. I know that each of us has a sacred responsibility to share this Gospel with others. As you help to move the work along your lives will be so blessed, you will see so many miracles, and your testimony will grow! Remember its not just missionaries who share the gospel, its members too! I love this Church and I'm so grateful that I get to share this gospel with all of those around me! Thank you all for your support, I hope to hear from you all soon. Love you all! 

I challenge you all to go out and share the gospel with all of those around you, you will be blessed and so will they!

Love Elder Farnsworth

First Baptism!

This has been a really good week! Elder Brown and I had our first baptism this week!!!! Rhoneil and his son were both baptized on Saturday night, it was so amazing to see them both get baptized, the spirit was so strong there... I loved it!!! Rhoneil's family was so excited to have him baptized. His daughter got up and spoke at the baptism and said that she was waiting 7 years for this day. It was definitely a good day!!! The rest of this week was pretty good too. We didn't get to teach Elizabeth or Candace this week, but we did still get to teach a lot of the less active and recent converts. We had exchanges this week, so the three elders in Prince Albert came down to Melfort and spent some time with us. We had a lot of fun, we did service with them and taught a few lessons. It was nice to see other missionaries for awhile haha.  Me and Elder Brown are like exiled and sometimes we get bored of each other haha! There is not too much else to say about this week, it has been good, The baptism was so amazing, I can't really get over it! I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father allowed me to take part in it, what a blessing! Rhoneil is an amazing guy and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to teach him!!! 

Today for my birthday we aren't really doing anything exciting. Last night the Frocs made me a cake which was super nice of them. Then tomorrow we are going to get ice cream with a recent convert. Friday we are having a big fire at a members house for my birthday. The members here are so nice to celebrate with me!!! I love them all. I'm so thankful to be out here. It's so hard but its so worth it!!! Thanks for all your love and support. I hope you all have a great week!!! 

Go out and share the gospel!!! 

Love Elder Farnsworth

Rhoneil and his son's Baptism Day

Eli and Elder Brown canning pickles at a member's home.

Labor Day in Canada, Eh? Who knew?

It was good to hear from you! Sorry I am emailing a day late, but since it was Labor Day the library was closed, and then we were really busy yesterday and couldn’t even email at the church. I’m glad that you guys had a good week, it seems like everyone is keeping busy and just going on in life! Nothing too exciting happened this week, it was pretty normal. We had our typical lessons with our investigators and less active recent converts. Good news for this week was that Elizabeth did come to church!!!!! Hooray! she was crying all throughout sacrament so that was good too haha! Also this weekend is Rhoneils baptism.  He should be baptized with his son on Saturday, and his other son will be baptizing both of them so that should be really good!  

It’s so weird, I feel like I haven’t seen you all in forever, and I feel like you have no clue what is going on in my life haha! It’s so hard to summarize everything that happens in a week into one little email. I go through so many different thoughts, emotions, experiences in one week that a week can feel like a year haha! The time is going by really fast though. I honestly can’t believe it. I am more than half way through my training. I can’t believe that its almost my birthday too.... WEIRD!

Oh I should update you on the senior couple. They are actually really good people. They do talk WAY too much but they are really good to us, they are like our grandparents! Elder Brown and I love them, but at the same time get annoyed with them. This week has been challenging with my companion, he gets on my nerves sometimes, but we do get along really well and I do love him haha! I have just been tired this week! I better just get used to it. Sorry this email has been so whinny, I really am having a great time and I’m loving it out here. I promise I’m not "struggling" haha I’m doing good!!!!! There’s no place I would rather be right now, I love it here!!!!

Love Elder Farnsworth

Challenges Make Us Stronger

Well this has been a pretty hard/crazy week.... the best way to explain the week to you is to give you a day by day review soooo.....

Monday:  Elder Brown and I had to move apartments so the senior couple could have ours, it has an elevator and Elder Atwood has arthritis in his knees so he can't go up stairs. Anyways we moved most of our stuff and that was fine, but when we moved the couch in the "new" apartment we found the carpet was soaking wet and the shower had been leaking. So there was mold on the floor, and the place stunk so bad! They fixed the leak, and then they cleaned the mold so that was good. But because it stunk so bad Elder Brown and I decided to stay in our old apartment and sleep on the floor, so that was fun haha!

Tuesday:  Was decent, we were sore from the floor, but nothing too traumatic happened haha.  We did sleep on the floor again Tuesday night though. We also taught Tim on Tuesday... Weird! I have never seen so many bibles in my whole life, I think I said 2 words because he was talking so much about all of these bibles. I don't think we will meet with him anymore, he told us he just wanted us to come over so he wasn't lonely. He said that there is nothing to learn from us. He is reading the Book of Mormon, so we will see what happens I guess!

Wednesday: We woke up and were sore again, but we finished moving the rest of our stuff to the old apartment, it was pouring rain and lots of stuff got wet but we did get everything moved. When we moved all of our stuff into the "new" apartment they were replacing the balcony door, so rain got in our apartment too which was great. Then we drove to Saskatoon to drop the other 2 missionaries off. Then we came back and a member called us and there is major drama going on in the branch. Then when we got back to the apartment we spent a good 3 hours cleaning because it was so disgusting. There was a piece of meat under the sink that was sitting there for like 3 months!!!! It was nasty!!!!! Anyway we finally went to bed at like 12 because we were cleaning.

Thursday: We woke up and noticed our fridge wasn't working.... so all of our food went bad. Then Thursday night the branch drama continued and then we got a call from one of our investigators saying she was going to kill herself so we went over there and talked with her and worked everything out. That was a pretty scary situation but she is OK now!

Friday:  The branch drama continues... but we did teach Elizabeth and Rhoneil and both of their lessons went so good! It was exactly what we needed! I think next time we visit Elizabeth we will ask her to be baptized so that will be good! The senior couple also got here Friday. they are really nice, their names are Brother and Sister Atwood, they are from McGrath Alberta and will be serving here for 6 months. Were excited to have them!

Saturday: Nothing too exciting happened Saturday. We taught a recent convert, went fishing, and taught a less active. Fishing was horrible we didn't catch anything haha!

Sunday: Was good, but the branch drama did get worse haha! We went to the Frocs for dinner and had a really good time with them, it was much needed haha!

This has definitely been a hard week, but after we thought about, we realized that it was all Satan. Things are going so well, we are teaching so many new people and we have 2 baptismal dates, and Satan is mad. I think that's why this week is so hard, he is tempting us and making things hard but he will never win!!! I don't think I have ever prayed and pondered as much as I did this week. I'm so thankful for each challenge we had because I grew so much and learned so much from it!

Well that's all for this week, I hope everyone has a good week, keep praying!!! Love you all!

Love Elder Farnsworth

Transfer Time

We had another good week this week. The beginning of the week was super busy and we taught a whole bunch of lessons which was great, but the end of the week was pretty slow.  We taught Elizabeth and Rhoneil this week, both of their lessons went really really well and they are both progressing. We didn’t get a chance to teach Tim this week, which is kind of dumb but oh well. We did get new info on Tim, apparently he is a crazy person, the missionaries taught him before, and I guess the branch all know who he is too. They said has been to jail, and I guess he used to worship the devil. Who knows how true all of that is, but the good thing about the gospel is that it can help you change!!! So hopefully the gospel will change Tim!

We did do a little service this week, and we met a new lady named Eileen. We helped her weed her garden, and she was super nice. We are supposed to go back to help her some more on Tuesday, and hopefully we will be able to teach her!

We did get our transfer calls this week.... (drum roll) haha. Me and Elder Brown will be staying in Melfort, but Elder Norfleet and Elder Miranda got transferred. I will be sad to see them go! Elder Miranda is going to Saskatoon and Elder Norfleet is going to Bodet Minnesota, so he has quite the travel ahead of him. To replace them we will be getting a senior couple, which we are super excited about, apparently the senior couple is mostly for fellowshipping and finding people, and we get to do all the teaching which will be great cause I need the practice!!! The only down side is that we do have to move apartments, which is horrible, cause our apartment is the nice one and now we are definitely downgrading!!! So we started today and wow what an adventure hahaha I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard, we had to move a couch with a hide a bed and the bed kept popping out and making it super difficult to move, but it was really funny!!!

Well I hope everyone at home is doing good, I can’t believe that its already time for school to start, it’s crazy that all of my friends are now leaving for college, and everyone else is leaving the MTC haha!!!! I just want everyone to know, that this Church is true, God loves each of us and cares so much about us. He will answer our prayers! I love the gospel, and I love the work!!! Love you all and thanks for all your love and support. I would love to hear from you all!!!!

Love Elder Farnsworth

Temple

Well hello everyone! How's everyone doing? Things here in Melfort are going really good! For some reason we got really really busy this week with teaching appointments. We taught the Filipino family twice this week, then we taught all of our less active and recent converts, and then we even got a new investigator this week!!!! 

So funny story of the week... we went to the Filipino's house to teach a lesson, and every time we go there, they always end up feeding us. The first time they fed us spaghetti which was actually pretty good. but on Friday we went and taught them then they fed us something called menudo. I ate it and thought it was delicious but I didn't really know what it was. I thought that the meat that was in it was hamburger... well anyways the meat wasn't hamburger. Apparently menudo is cow stomach and intestine! I was a little bit grossed out, and now I'm afraid to even eat at the Filipinos! haha!

This week we also had zone conference, so we had to drive 2 hours down to Saskatoon. It was a really good meeting, after zone conference the zone leaders came and did exchanges with our district and that went really well too, I learned a lot!

On Saturday we got to go to the temple! It was so good to go to the temple. I love the temple so much! It was so peaceful and you could feel the spirit so strong! We went to the Regina temple which is about 3 hours away so we got to ride a huge charter bus all the way down and back with the branch. Also on Saturday a miracle happened!!! All week long last week Elder Brown and I had been praying for a new investigator, and we set a date of August 10th. We prayed all week and we kept trying to find someone, we street contacted a whole bunch and every time we saw no one. But we kept trying, and we kept having faith that we would find someone. Then on Saturday evening we pulled up to the church to go and facebook and all of a sudden there was a guy there. We talked with him, taught him the restoration, and made a return appointment with him. We found our new investigator, on August 9th!!! and the best part was he even came to church on Sunday!!! It was amazing Heavenly Father answered our prayers!!!! I know Heavenly Father will answer our prayers. I'm so grateful for my loving Heavenly Father who does answer prayers!!! I love this gospel!!!! Thank you all for your love and support. I would love to hear from you all! 

Love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Love Elder Farnsworth

x

Charity

What a week! This week has been pretty crazy! We did a ton of service this week. The beginning of last week Elder Brown and I set a goal and prayed to work on charity. We started to pray for opportunities to serve. WOW were our prayers answered! This week we moved 4 people 4 days in a row, we hauled out a basement full of concrete, we hoed a garden, and we painted a Ramada in the park! I was kind of thinking to myself that moving the 4 people was like a good way to celebrate the anniversary of us moving haha! Needless to say we definitely got the opportunity to practice charity.

Charity is such a hard thing to develop! It’s hard to always love and help people, but it’s even harder to have a good attitude while doing it! But I know that as we strive to have charity we can bless so many lives!!!

We were able to teach a few people this week too. We taught a couple of our less active and recent converts which was good, but sadly we didn’t get to teach any of our investigators. That’s ok though because this week we will teach ALL them! Today we had an appointment with a guy named Rhoneil. He is from the Philippines and his family just got to Canada. His whole family is active and they all come to church, and he has already said he wants to be baptized. Our lesson went really well and we committed him to be baptized on August 30th!!!!! Now we just have to continue to teach him and prepare him. Hopefully we will be able to teach Elizabeth this week too. She was out of town last week but should be home this week.

On Saturday my district had exchanges and I switched companions for 24 hours. I was with elder Norfleet... he’s kind of weird but I like him! We were able to get a teaching appointment and taught a couple. This couple has a really rough life. The woman has been sick for 9 years and they are both a little crazy... The guy told us how much he likes smoking weed and how God created it to make people laugh and be happy.... haha.  I guess we will have to teach him the word of wisdom next! 

Well thank you all for your love and support, I have the greatest friends and family!!!! I love you all!!!!! 

Love Elder Farnsworth