Another Awesome Week

HEI HEI and hello to everyone!!:)

 

   Well i am proud to say that the lord is blessing us here in the small town of Mo I Rana! even though the people walk with their heads down usually and can ignore us better than any person i have ever met in my life the lord is puttin his spirit into the people here! since the sun i starting to stay in the sky way longer people are now starting to look up just a little bit and we are starting to see those faces:) so news on the sun is that its so bright it burns my eyes sometimes just seeing it hahah:) but its been super foggy this week and its getting cold again! when we do see the sun we are just so suprised at how high it is in the sky again! we will go a week with out seeing it and then we will again see the progression of the sun way above the mountains! well enough about the weather i have some crazy experiances which i hope will raise everyones spirits and will just give you that smile on your face!!

 

   Well let me give you the first thing first! so in the past week and a half my companion and i have started to pray to find a family since i have heard about people doing it and then WHABAM family out of no where! so we though HEY why not us!! so we started to pray for a family and after two weeks of knocking and with repeated doors slammed in our face and even getting a little discouraged at times but we always had to remember that as we pray with all our hearts sometimes we just have to do a little waiting sometimes! just for a little test!:) well on monday we went knocking and we knocked all night! we had a lady do the window contact which is quite normal in norway and you step away from the door and look up and usually people will yell and ask what you want and then you usually get a window slammed in your face! incredible i know! but this lady said i dont have time come back another time! so we were knocking on thursday and i knew that we were going knocking that night and i had been thinking about that lady all day sayilng we need to just go see if we can come back, while elder johnson on the other hand had no desire to go back! we prayed and he said ok its the door with out the door bell i remember! he then said pssh what ever you get to knock the house! i pleaded with my father in heaven and said please dont let this fail we walked all this way please let this work.....and in a split second the lady opened the door and said Yes please come in! i turned back with a huge smile on my face and almost with a pridefull look said haha TOLD YOU!!:) as well as my jaw was on the floor! we went in and taught her and we pointed out the pattern of apostacy and she said well it would make sense to have another one then right? well slow down lady were getting there but yes we have one! living? yes! a real man she said? yes!! haha we are meeting again next thursday and i cant wait to go back! we went off on prayer for her to find out if god was there and i cant wait to see how its going!

 

  well we had been preparing our baptism in Mosjøen all this week and keeping kontact with our guy and he said he is ready! well we were supposed to visit him friday night and make sure everything is good and friday was a crazy day! we had distrikt meeting but we have to walk 40 minutes to get a computer for meeting and skype! then  we have to walk back and go reserve the pool for sunday and then run to the bus stasjon to get to a members house who invited us to dinner! second one in MO!!! then be there for 35 minutes and then go catch our bus to the center and then catch our bus to mosjøen! well we finished eating and we go to the bus stop and no bus has come yet and we are getting nervous so we call a taxi! we have 2 minutes to get to sentrum before our bus leaves and end up chasing the bus in the taxi for like 10k and our taxi was so nice he called to find where the bus was and a arranged for us to be picked up and then we were on our way to mosjøen! we got there and our investigator was busy and there is nothing to do in mosjøen so we waited at the train stasjon and he finally came and we met and he said he didnt want to get baptized tomorrow but elder johnson hahah he said NO you are getting baptized tomorrow and i came right in and just promised blessings and he said .....ok thats better! so he leaves and we find out we have no money!! i dont know how we havent spent any money all week besides today and we cant get train tickets! johnson was able to buy his somehow and then i am just praying my guts ouut to some how get money since i know i have money in my account but my card isnt working! after an hour of going to atm after atm johnson tries his and was able to get a little money out and i had a little cash and we were able to get home!

   next morning we have to catch the train to mosjøen and we have no money! johnson remember he had extra cash and payed for the both of us to get there! all morning while we were getting ready we were way scared since the guy who is suppose to be the other witness has not answered his phone! we had prayed and felt comforted that all will be well and to go to mosjøen so we go and get there and still no answer and we are trying to find where he lives and he lives in the boonies far away! so no option of going there! we now have NO money! not even for the way back! we are calling people and we call our branch president and his wife said ill talk and see if he will come down but dont count on anything! we keep calling and then he calls us back and said he was coming! thats a 2 hour drive! he drove down and made everyting possible! we had to have a car afterwards since i was baptizing him in a river and had to run into a car that was warm afterwards! i will say that it wasnt nearly as cold! but the weather was way colder! -10 outside but it was such a great baptism! what a day and since he drove he gave us a ride back!! wow the lord was on our side i can bear solid testimony on the lord and his blessings for us!

  

  The lord is here! i want to ask all of you How are you using the lord? are you applying him to your life! Like i have said before Bind the lord! DC 82:10 is one of my favorite scriptures! if we bind him and plead with him will he show us how to achieve our goal and will make it possible! i know that is true and that is just what has happened here in the last week! prayer is one thing that i have a very strong testimony of! IT WORKS!! i have read alot out of the general conference edition lately and a simple phrase in Stand in holy places is a quote by P. Thomas S. Monson-Since that time of long ago, I have had countless prayers answered. Not a day has gone by that I have not communicated with my Father in Heaven through prayer. It is a relationship I cherish—one I would literally be lost without. If you do not now have such a relationship with your Father in Heaven, I urge you to work toward that goal. As you do so, you will be entitled to His inspiration and guidance in your life! find your relationship with god! i LOVE prayer! i hope you all can find your relationshiop with god and strengthen it! remeber, its always better to look up!- Elder Carl B. Cook oct 2011! have a great week everyone! look forward to all your emails next week!!:)

Awsome week

HELLO FROM ELDSTE FARNSWORTH:)

  what more can i say then its been a great week and i dont really know what to say but i hope the spirit guides me as i write this letter and be able to cover all the awesome events that have happened in this past week! well just like any other week its been busy and been full and its been empty but mostly at the full part! having a baptism, meeting with investigators, flying to trondheim for zone konference and then planing on another baptizm and going to visit him before the baptizm, preparing lessons for sunday! so its been crazy but its been a seriously awesome week:) well i want you to all know that the spirit of the lord is in norway and we are seeing the lords hand in our work!! all the knocking pays off with a nice person that will talk with you and maybe wont except it but will give you courage to go the rest of the night, or on the other hand finding the one person after hours of knocking! I love being here and its incredible to see everything that is going on!!:)

   well first things first! THE BAPTISM!! so let me just first start of by saying a lot of worry went into this baptism since we had to find a ride to get to where our investigator wanted to be baptized! Our driver hadnt been able to drive out of his drive way for about 1 week and so we were deeply finding other ways to figure out rides and how we could get to Aldersund! well i hope you all looked up Alersund and were jealous of the beauty;)! so as we prayed from sunday to tuesday i will tell you my companion was going nuts for those two days but little did he know that i had gotten the answer when we first prayed that all was going to go fine and nothing was to worry about! i told him many times and he would just say....Ya...but what if....haha O ye of little faith!;) well we were able to get ahold of him that morning of tuesday and he said he was able to drive!! so we picked our investigator up after school (for those that have forgotten he is 17 with a real testimony:)) and we were on our way as it was snowing outside allday so far and its 1 1/2 hours and by the time we got there it wasnt snowing but we took forever deciding on the place to baptise him and i had ran down to a couple different lakes to se if we could break ice to do it and most of them were way to thick but we found a place where we first had decided and we said "yup this is the place" and we proceeded into the river of ice chunks floating around us! for those that have baptized before know you cant wear shoes in the water so bare feet and jagged rocks go great together:) its ok though since we had to walk in snow already to go down and you couldnt tell the difference from water and snow and just got in anyway:) he didnt have his glasses on so he almost fell in....but i caught him and we moved on and i asked him many times to tell me his middle name but he was in such shock he couldnt hear me so after standing in there for 45 seconds he finally said his middle name and i said the words and i threw him under that water and ended up hitting his head on the ice behind us and broke the ice right in half (head prind and everything:)) we ran out of that water so fast and to show that you dont feel anything my feet had actually frozen to the rocks on the bottom!! i also had cuts all on my feet and ankles to prove that haha!! we got in the car and warmed up as fast as possible and drove home! I have him the Holy Ghost and we went back to our pad and celebrated with some pizza and watching a movie and a lesson we prepared!!:) it was a great spiritual day!!:) plus to end off the night we had the best northern lights i have seen yet! Green and Purple! it was so incredible and pictures dont really give it justice!!

  well not only having a baptism we had to go the next day and spend the whole day in Mosjøen and talk with our other investigator who was so excited for his baptism and we shared with him a home teaching messege since he has been taught everyting and has read all of the book of mormon and DC and Pearl of Great Price manytimes and just loves the gospel so its hard to share something that he doesnt know but the lesson we prepared went so well and it was just what he needed to hear! he was so ready for baptizm! he ended up getting sick on friday night and that he wanted to do it next week but assured us he wanted to do it next week no matter what but he could hardly even breath on the phone so we understood! so this coming saturday is when its going to happen! he has been trying to be baptized for years but just hasnt been able to! He is so excited! so i will be baptizing in another river this saturday......

  As this week proceeds after we were at his house and getting home late since there is only one train back from his house and waking up at kl4.00 and getting ready and going to Trondheim and getting an awesome pump from the missionpresident as always and going contacting in a place that people actually stop is great! we got 5 teaches in 2 hours plus 2 numbers 3 books given out so it was great and we felt so humbled as we could hardly put words together i am not use to having so many people! all the places i have been are the same people on the street everyday and you basically are known by everyone! we had a great time there and saw how different our areas were! all i can say is we were very humbled!! we slept in a tiny pad there with two other elders and then caught our flight the next day and took us 3 hours to get home! usually only 45 minutes but bad weather delayed us horribly! its been snowing all week and snow is just building up! to give you a little example to get to a house we went through waist deep snow to get to this house!! took 20 minutes to get to the house!!

  we are so blessed here in Mo I Rana and we are going to have 2 other baptizms on either saturday or sunday depending on which day is cheaper to rent out the pool!! i am so Greatful for all the challenges of a mission and i wont lie they are so tough sometimes and many times it seems like trials are never ending! as most stories go its that last house that you find someone and its true! it takes the effort or the courage to go to the end! i love being out here and its so much fun to see peoples lifes change! our investigator who got baptized on the 14th is considering a mission and he was ordained yesterday as a priest!! hes a real stud!! i love this work and i know that god lives and Through the Atonement can we all be saved! i know The Church of Jeses Christ of Latter Day Saints is Gods restored church on this earth today and i am so greatful for all that our savior has done with his infinite atoning sacrifice! i hope you all have a great week!!:):)

Snow Snow and More Snow

HELLO EVERYONE!!:)

 

  What a great week it has been in Norway! This week has been quite an off and on busy week! from having a full day of contacting and knocking doors all night, to having full days of no time to breath and hardly time to even eat and not even taking a full hour to eat since its just been busy! To a degree there is alot to tell and at the same time not to much to tell haha! Everyday is a new day in missionary work! its weird to look at the time through out the day and wonder where the time really has gone! you look at the clock at lunch then at dinner and then realize that its already time to go to bed and then by the time you know it, its time to wake up already! for those of you that served missions did you ever feel like you fall asleep, have no dreams, and then wake up and yet you feel like you just barely closed your eyes? Of course you have its life as a missionary:) but yet you are usually for the most part well rested! its incredible how that works!

  So this week has not been that cold and actually has been about -5 to 3C so its been snowing alot off and on and then when it gets above 0 just starts pooring rain and then freezes so just lots of ice everywhere! i cant even tell you how man times i fell this week walking on ice and as much as it hurts to have bruises all over your arms you tend to get up and just bust up laughing....since your companion just told you to be carfull an then He just slipped too:) Weather is so interesting! so i ended my no sun at 35 days! my Companion ended at 95! sunday was a day of triumph as we looked out the church building which faces west so we saw the shadows of buildings and we ran outside and just started giving thanks for the warm sun on our faces!:) its hard to appreciate the sun when you always have it! when you dont have it you really start to miss it and just the meer sight of seeing it makes you shout for joy! Especially Elder Johnson! Well it wasnt a big deal to run out of the church at that time, i mean we only spent an hour preparing a lesson for ourselfs anyway! no i have the experiance of not having anyone in church! it was quite interesting! Elder Johnson and i got BIG peices of bread;)...and ate til we were full....no im kidding....partially:)

  So Great news for everyone! since being in a place that missionaries usually go to end there mission and not having much success or not much to do here, we as obediant missionaries went through the area book and we have now gone through all our formers all 85 of them since 2005! we had no success at all after going through 78 and then the last 7 of them we got return appointments!!! so it takes patience:) so it pays off going through the area book:)

  I am so happy to tell you that our investigator who was baptized last week is getting the priesthood today and is going to be a witness at the baptism tomorrow since he couldnt make it to church yesterday:) he is was excited! he gets to witness his best friends baptizm! he wont go in the water or else he would baptize him haha:) so i get the great honor in going to a very beautiful place called Aldersund, Norway! i encourage you to look it up! its gorgeous! they both are so excited and it fills my companion and I with joy to see how much happier people become after their own baptism! feb 14th a valentines day actually worth remembering:)

  We have done lots of contacting in the past week and lots of knocking on doors with little to no success, but thats ok:) we are so blessed anyway! to get as random as it gets our investigator who wants to be baptized called us this past week and we made a baptismal interview super fast so we had to have the elders in Bodø come down on a second notice take a three hour train ride and come down for a partial day sleep over and go to his house in the day time which almost got canceled but we ended up scheduling it earlier in the day so that we could make it down to his house in Mosjøen which is another hour south and you take a train which we were lucky to make!! then after interviewing him he said he wanted to wait until next wednesday! so thursdays are planning but we were busy all day so we had to do planning after we interviewed him since there are only 3 trains that go through there all day! 1030 330 920! so we sat in the train station from 630-920 planning and trying to get things planned for this week which is super busy with zone konferance and also 2 baptizms! its going to be a crazy week but i know the lord will be with us to help us get to all our appointments!!:)

  I love you all so much and thanks for all our support! i love being out here in Norway and not just because its an incredible place but its where i am suppose to be and i love serving here! norway is full of people waiting to here the gospel! in a conference not to long ago with all the europian missions our mission president was told that the lords light is over Norway and that there is going to be alot of amazing things that are going to start happening!!:) I can promise you that that promise is true and its only becoming more true as the days pass on! i love missionary work and i love serving the lord! i am so thankfull for everyday i have to be on a mission and it truly does go by so fast i can hardly even believe it sometimes! the lord blesses us in mysterious ways that is just to hard to comprehend sometimes! i know this is Christ`s Restored Church! i know that we have a living prophet today which is so incredible with all his apostels and his other workers! i know the Atonement is the bridging gap for us here in earth and has made it possible for us to come back to live with our heavenly father! i love this gospel with all my hearte and thats why i am here! To serve our lord and savior and show him my own willingness to serve! i hope you all have a great week and cant wait to here from you all!!:):)

           -ELDSTE FARNSWORTH

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY:)

 

  What a great and very intense week it has been! there is so much to talk about and i really dont even know where to start! So even though the weather here has just been way cold as the sea breeze comes in and just having wind with water freeze your face we push forward anyway with the long days of contacting!:) Mo I Rana is a small city and even smaller than my last area! its more of a industri place but yet only a couple industries are even here! We contact the same people everyday hoping they will eventually start to come the their senses one of these days haha!:) Or the best is when the old ladies grab your arm and tell you to go back to home to mommy which is always funny and actually keeps your sense of humor high or sometimes they will go for the cheek pinch which i Do not like!:)

 

 As far as this week goes we MOVED IN TO OUR NYDELIG APPARTMENT!! Not that its crazy big but its very nice and it has been modernized with nice lights and a modern kitchen thats quite big actually so we have been making a lot of very delicious food lately with our investigators( waffles, pizza, soups)! its also very warm and i am so greatful for a warm place to study and not peeing in a bottle to later empty it out downstairs since the bathroom upstairs didnt work in our last appartment haha! now we have a great bathroom with a real shower!! well we managed to but together our bunkbed with no tools...dont ask how...haha and it works just fine...until the night came and the planks that support the bed on the top and elder johnson just about killed me and good thing i was already up and i rolled out of bed real fast and he came down to the bottom bunk! so we called our neighbor in the morning and borrowed a drill to tighten down the bed planks for the mattresses!:) its been fine eversince!:)

 

  Thursday i took my first train to a place called Mosjøen well actually two busses to there and then we road a train back! we had an investigator call last week and tell us that he moved out from his girl friends and was quiting snus and told us he is ready to be baptized! so we said SAWEET and we got there as fast as possible! he has already read mormons bok, D&C(multiple times) and pearl of great price! we went through the questions for baptism and he passed all of them and now just finding a date when he will be intown! the ways the lord blesses us as we do our best to do everything we can to be obedient! it is truly incredible and mysterious how the lord works sometimes! So as for another investigator who we have been working with, decided that he wanted to get baptized on sunday the 5th so yesterday and decided that on monday! We were very shocked at this response but we did everything to make it work and i sometimes just wasnt sure with how everything was going and oh boy how the lord blessed us as we fasted and prayed and this past sunday (yesterday) it all worked out! ill attatch some pictures so you can see where he was  baptized....lets just say it was -15 out yesterday and he knew of a spot where he wanted it so we drove there and jumped into a FREEZING COLD FJORD! Not me anyway but my comp and it was hilarious watching them! its was incredibly spiritual even though it was the fastest baptism i have ever seen in my life haha! wonder why right?:) but the most amazing part was when we conferred the HOLY GHOST and it was like i could feel the spirit through my hands on his head just enter into his body! i have never felt anything like it! it was truly spiritual! we spent all the rest of the day with him and made great food and watched some videos with him! When we gave him his brand new mormons bok he freaked out and was jumping with joy and told us how much he had been wanting one! he is such a great kid! Our next baptism is for the 14th and he is so excited for it and after he watched the baptizm it only made him have a stronger desire! His testimony is getting stronger and stronger everyday!!well looks like i will be freezing next week in the Fjord! not to mention we just got a foot of snow today! I LOVE THE SNOW IN NORWAY its just like utah! i have heard some say utah is still better for skiing, maybe one day i will find out:)

 

 well to tell you an incredibly awkward moment...try district meeting over webcam in a library with lots of people and then doing a practical....yea it was quite the experiance and the looks we got was quite funny! good thing everyone here knows us right?:)

 

 so i also got to see very good northern lights this week which are always beautiful and everynight as we are out we probably look like retards as we are looking straight up in the sky spinning in circles and asking where the lights are!:) when ever you see them its just one of those reminders to me that god truly does miracles and they are one of them! So also one Incredible thing this week is we had a full house in church today almost all the 15 seats in the church were taken up! we had 10 ppl in church and my companion and I! 12 thats a new record! plus to investigators! so it was a great turn out and actually the mission president was there since we havent really had a branch president so he came down to decide on one:) it made the lesson go alot smoother i just say that:)

 

   Wow its really been a week that as i look back i really see how blessed we have been! after the long hours we put in contacting and knocking with out a single teach does pay off trust me it really does! even though you just want to throw down the book of mormon and go home its at the time that the lord will test your patience most! trust me i see it everyday but when you have a good attitude about being out it makes a world of difference! i can see the lords hand in our work as we push on with faith that he will bless us but first we have to test our faith as in ether and in alma! excersize the faith! let the seed grow and if it grows you know its a good seed! i love being a missionary and it truly is one of the most blessed times of my life i am sure of that! i know this church is true and that we have the whole true church which christ restored to the earth and know that we have restored again to the earth! i love the book of mormon and it truly can give you answers when you really try to find an answer! put all your heart into finding out what is the next step in your life and the lord will give you the answer when you truly look for it! remember it takes a trial of your faith before the lord will do his part! we have to meet him 1/2 way before he will take the other 1/2! i love this church and i love and miss you all! hope all goes well with you all!!!:)

 

 eldste Farnsworth