One Last Letter......

Well Family, this is my last letter. I would like to quote John in 3 John 1:13-14.

``I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and  pen write unto thee:

 But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face   to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.´´

Thats it. Bye see you soon.

Elder Farnsworth

Then a little while later, this came:  

 Ok, ok that was a joke sorry haha i guess ill write one last letter. 

Look, i just wanted to write a few things that i have learned in my mission. This was a hard experience. There is no sugar coating it. It was hard. There were long days (especially the mornings), a lot of frustration, sadness, sickness, and sometimes (not that often) boredom. Ive had tough companions. Trust me, living with someone with another culture is hard. BUT. It was way way way worth it. I cant explain how much it is worth. PERO VALE LA PENA. Maybe not even looking at the most obviously side of it, which would be help other people come unto Christ. Even if we dont consider the people that we can help and the service we do, it is worth the pain. Why? Because of all the stuff I learned, and the stuff that I gained. That might seem selfish but remember, I am just considering why the mission is worth the pain for just the personal gain, not even the other results.

First and formost, Ive learned to be humble. None of these things have been mastered yet, im just starting the process. At the beginning of my mission was way humbled with a semi dangerous sector, a latin companion that didnt know english, who was also 8 years older than me and ex military. I became a little prideful with time but i am learning every day how to be humble and accept help and ask for advice. 

I have also learned how to trust and obey my leaders. Thanks to my father, i was able to learn that before the mission and understand it from what he told me in letters during the mission.

Ive learned that im just starting the learning process. Haha ive really understood the gospel in these 2 years, but there is so much more to understand and learn. The mission was just a great base to start this learning process.

Ive learned how to be sensitive to the needs of other people and try to understand them more and what they are going through to be able to help them.

Ive developed more love for all the people. I really had a problem with that and some people in my first transfer because the chileans joke a lot and come off pretty rude normally. But i learned first how to love them so much that i didnt even care what they said, then i learned that everything they say isnt with bad intentions!

Ive learned to laugh at myself. Haha well at my mistakes. Also, how to laugh when they insult me or reject me. Maybe not in that moment (just so they dont see me laughing) but it makes for some good laughs later.

Ive learned how to minister in stead of just visit or teach. Ive learned how to love them and follow the Spirit in all things, especially important life decisions.

Ive learned that Satan really does have power, BUT God had way more and will always win and we will too because we have bodies and the potential to become like God.

And I have learned that we are really in the last days. We need to prepare ourselves more. The heart of mankind (including members of the Church) is turning cold and love is lacking.

But I KNOW that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our King and that we have the power to have eternal families. I love you all and I love Chile and my mission but my time has come. 

SEE YOU TUESDAY, THE COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED

ELDER CURT FARNSWORTH

Doing service cleaning the church chairs with a fire hose. And finally i got my package this week..

Hey guys-

what happened, why is it tuesday again? oh my gosh its going so fast i dont even know whats happening. I wake up and then 30 minutes later i go to bed. 

So this week was pretty rainy. But with a trusty broken umbrella that i found in the house i stayed nice and dry. We found another house where a bunch of haitians live. Here the old houses are pretty big but they are really weird i dont know how to explain. They have like patios and different parts of the house. And people here remodel the houses to turn it into like a bunch of apartments. So foreigners just getting here always live in a small room and share the kitchen and bathrooms with a bunch of other people. So every time we go to these houses, there are generally like 2 new haitians that get interested and listen. The problem is finding them all again cause they work so much. But yesterday we met one that knows spanish super good and he got baptised in the domincan republic. Hes less active probably because of the move but he is super cool and he was translating everything for us! Im almost certain there are more foreigners in our ward than chileans but oh well. My companion is super funny like theres never a serious moment with him hahah. Its getting really weird, they just sent me the schedule for my last week here and i just had my interview to renew my temple recommend. I love you guys a ton and cant wait to see you soon! 

 

                                               Curt's companion having language study

Pic with Marlene Aro, a bolivian sister who is super cool but she moved this week. They have an awesome story that ill tell you later.

And i found Frodo Baggins door in the Shire.

What's Up?

Whats up family and amigos?

Here we are another week more feeling like only 2 days have passed. But what can we do. So my birthday was pretty cool, my comp made me a chocolate cake and we brought that to our lunch on Sunday the day before cause the family that always gives us lunch on sundays is super cool and they always make us asado (barbaque). So i feasted. Then they told us to come back on my birthday for a little bit to give me something. We went last night and they gave us completos (chilean hot dogs with tomato and avocado) and some more cake. We wasted a little bit of time there not going to lie but just like an hour..oops sorry. Im trying to use my time the best i can haah dont have that much more! We have been struggling a little after lunch cause there arent people we know to teach. So we have been doing a lot of contacts and looking for names of people on lists. We have a lot of people to teach in the nights and i keep practicing creole but its hard to pronoun haha. At least i can say basic stuff and gospel words that they dont normally understand in spanish. This sector is legit and i know i was sent here for just 6 weeks to finish for a reason. I hope i can just leave it all ready for my companion and the next elder to baptize a ton! haha and hopefully get a last baptism or two. if not, well thats okay too. Im happy with my mission, its been fun and ive learned a ton. And im also happy to come home. Theres a time for everything! Love you all

Elder Farnsworth

 

 

                    me being stupid in an alleyway that had a house number but no door haha

 

Juanito and completos. Hes a sick member that always goes to lessons with us and he hopefully will go on a mission soon.

WHATS UP FAMILY.

Ya mom thats true what you say, stuff always happens for a reason. I always know when an investigator is going to fall through on us because the member we call (in every experience ive had) cant go. Haha like the member cancels on us and i just know, well, Gods got something in store for us so lets see!! Wow i wish i could just remember that every time cause if we look on the negative side we get depressed or down on ourselves and the spirit quietly flies away haha. This week was pretty cool. I was so stoked that we were going to have 8 investigators in church because they all committed with us. 1 showed up. But, we have priesthood here first, he went to priesthood then dipped out cause hes kind old and got tired so thats ok. But the rest...bleh. Oh well haha next week right? I just want to see this ward change for the better in these next 4 weeks, hopefully some baptisms obviously. Elder Chire is really good at teaching and President Videla actually told me that hes staying to take my place as district leader next change. Wow so like always theres a lot to tell but i dont really know what..We found an awesome family from Bolivia yesterday when we were with our homie Cristian (young man recently reactivated) and she let us in and we taught her and her little girls. The kids just came right up and listened before we could even invite the whole family. Her husband works until late but we will meet him soon hopefully. It was so nice to teach them after contacting and being lost the whole morning and afternoon. We watched Meet the Mormons in the chapel with investigators and members like 30 people all together. And we had a mission conference with Elder Walter Gonzalez (area president) and me and my companion played the roles of investigators/less actives and he and his wife were missionaries haha it was cool, we did it in front of the mission. Well half. But we learned a lot and we applied the stuff he taught in the first lesson after the conference in the night. 

Love you guys lots thanks for all the letters for my birthday haha last week of being a teen i guess! 

Elder Farnsworth

 

 

 

 

 

We went to go play soccer and football a little today in a sweet field with another zone and had a mini asado that me and the zone leader prepared cause i dont really like soccer..haha

What up fam bam here we are another week! wow there are a lot of stories but i really just dont know what to tell you haha. its been pretty crazy. stressful, but fun at the same time. there are very few members here. but theres actually quite a few cool guys that go with us all the time so we had a lot of lessons with member. My companion is freaking out cause we didnt have a lot of lessons according to him and we had a good amount according to me haha the differences between our last sectors. Mine was one of the slowest hard sectors and his was Los Andes, relatively far from Santiago where everyone lets you in. But its all good, i do know that we can have a lot more lessons but we have to find some people first. There are a ton of haitians and peruvians in our sector. Well this whole part of santiago.

On sunday we got to church and 6 haitians were sitting in the church. We talked to them and they just showed up alone, but they are from the sisters sector..and here they start with priesthood and have sacrament meeting at the end. then two of our investigators showed up too. I taught gospel principles about baptisms and one of the haitians asked when he could get baptised haha! Then there was two confirmations in the sacrament meeting of two people that got baptised last week. One was a haitian sister from our sector. The bishop confirmed the first guy and then pointed to me to confirm Marie (the haitian). She is the ONLY HAITIAN ive met with 4 names and i couldnt pronounce like any of them but i did it hahah. Then we blessed the sacrament. haha doing it all! but its fun, keeps you on your toes.

well thats about it, ill tell you more stories in 5 weeks haha and my companion records a message every night so i will forward those to you and dad and sid can translate haha. Love you guys! 

Elder Farnsworth

Elder Chire es loko

And the Zona Colina upside down

Hello and Happy New Area!

What up fam bam here i am in Independence Missouri.

Sike. Im in a place called Independencia (both the ward and zone is called that). Its close to the mission office and downtown Santiago. I have never been really close to here. And here´s the best part, im whitewashing! Haha my companion is Elder Chire. He is from Guaras Peru (my 4th peruvian companion). I think Tyler was here in independencia but i dont know if it was this sector. Ive been to the church here before for zone conference. Its one of the biggest chapels in santiago i think but it sounds like our ward only has 50 people. Elder Paredes my old companion has been here for the last 6 months and he knew somehow that i was coming here (maybe because our little friend Elder Simmons is AP) and he told people that i was coming. So yesterday we just showed up and contacted whoever we could. We didnt have anything to do cause we didnt have time to really look at the area book. But lucky a member called us and helped a little and we found a kid in the street thats a member and always went with the missionaries. God helped us a lot haha. And the sisters that are in the ward called us and asked us to give 2 blessings to 2 different sick babies (their investigators daughters) and we went with them to the first one with our ward mission leader and to the second one with a guy that went on his mission like 9 months ago but had to come back a little while ago for his leg. But hes leaving soon again. So we were able to meet a few people. Well i dont know what else to really say haha he we are for the last change with my boy Chire who´s going to kill me. The ironic part is that the biggest cementary in santiago is in our ward.

Love yall 

Elder Farnsworth

Sorry dont have a camera cord to charge it...ill buy one today hopefully

Hola familia once again!

So im not going to write a letter because we are going to Skype.

Nah just kidding ill still write a little bit. This week was legit. Well i mean im used to having weeks with all sorts of different results so they are all good in some way or the other but this week we had some more new investigators and talked with more haitians and yesterday we had 4 lessons with investigators when the whole last week we had like 10 so not bad to start this last week of transfers. We went to find someones house (we contacted her in her work and she explained where her house was) and we talked with her daughter. Then we went to another tentative appointment. On the way, a guy stopped us on the bikes and we went over and he said he had seen us looking for the other house and hes been looking for us for like a week. He shared with the missionaries like a year ago and i had actually contacted him in my first week here but he was too busy with work then. He said he wanted to start listening and going to church again! He says he never felt ready to get baptised but we will see. And we had a lesson with this Methodist guy or something and he tries to pull the same stuff on us about Joseph smith not being in the bible and the book of mormon being fake without even reading or understanding. I normally get mad and tell them all the logical stuff but this time we both stayed calm and explained and it took a few times explaining but we just bore testimony and he decided he is going to read when Christ comes to the americas. So that was a better experience. We never know what will happen but give them the chance! And there was this other lady we contacted that seemed really good and ready and she said we should come back in the night. We finally made it back yesterday (we had spoken with her other times but she was alone again or something else) and she looked nervous and her husband came out and told us to go away and never come back. Im really used to getting rejected but that one hit me hard for some reason. I really believe she wanted to learn and is prepared but he isnt letting her. That just made me so sad but a few minutes but you got to keep your head up and find someone else. Feel bad for her though..

Love you guys see you on sunday for skype Happy mothers day mom!!! 

Elder Farnsworth

 

 

We did a random not planned object lesson with Lehi`s vision (see picture haha). And my comp just playing guitar and me being an idiot what else

The mission president there is still that big tall guy? what mission are we even a part of haha. Here everyone knows what the mission is called because they have EFY and activities and stuff with all the youth in the whole mission sometimes (They cant choose their EFY weeks or anything). And here in the District, everyone knows President Videla because he technically has the keys for the District. wow my comp is from like North Ogden area! they wont be in the same stake obviously but they will be close. We have transfers in 2 weeks. Probably getting changed, if not elder halter is. its not really normal to be 3 changes let alone 4 changes together but we will see!

Today we got to go to Santiago and Elder Halter bought a guitar! Hes a pro haha and we were walking and i say ``we havent seen anyone i know, i always see someone i know in downtown!`` and 4 seconds later i see the ward mission leader from my first ward! haha we talk and then we keep walking to go get lunch and someone pushes me from behind and its MARCELO PINILLA my old companion haha but he finished the mission awhile ago and now hes in santiago trying to find work! So i invited him to eat lunch with us and we go to the peruvian restaurant that we always went to with elder paredes and sure enough, elder paredes shows up with his companion haha! Fun day.

This week, it rained but not as much. We continued contacting a ton of people. We have met some really nice people that hopefully with be investigators this week. And we have met, as always, some really rude people haha but its just funny now. I cant believe ive been here for so long. Ive been doing this like my whole life now! nah haha but the end is coming fast and fast and i have bitter sweet feelings. Theres so much stuff i miss and stuff im excited to do but i know im going to be leaving behind something that i wont be able to continue in the same way afterwards. Its really hard sometimes but theres things that i cant explain and things im only going to experience in the mission. I love the gospel so much i cant imagine a life without it and i just wish everyone would accept it but we know that not everyone will. Love you all see you in skype soon! 

Elder Farnsworth

                                               Look closely....there's a missionary by his bike

Feliz cumpleaños papá te amo mucho aun en tu vejez jaja celebra tu día y tambien tu vitoria del año de trabajo!

The english classes keep going, but this week there were only 5 people because it rained a ton and Chile kind of shuts down when i rains. And ya elder Pinilla went home a long time ago. Elder Williams is about to go home and the rest of my companions are in the mission. Wow Zach left right before me right? They give us the travel plans too but i think it is in the last transfer. 

This week like i said, it rained a ton. Its kind of getting cold. Some days have been cold and now its warm. its the worst. The springs and autumns here have extreme temperture swings, not just general cool weather..But it was still pretty fun. a river that goes through Santiago over filled but im not anywhere close to there so...we just have a few streets in Batuco that are filled with water. There isnt a lot of drains here. We decided to leave the bike a few of these days to talk and contact more people and almost got to 100 contacts in the week but the last night it was raining a lot and nobody was in the street or coming to the door so we called an investigator and went over there. It was pretty fun the whole week. I do get a lot more tired walking now that im used to the bike but its all good haha! And today we just cleaned the house..boring but theres not much to do here. Now our little cave is nice and clean. 

Sorry, cant really remember anything else specific but we have been relistening to the conference talks and there are so many good messages and i am especially grateful for this conference probably more than any other year, really understandng the messages and listening to them a lot. 

Love you all. see you in 2 months haha

Elder Farnsworth

 

 

Oh ya, the Sister missionaries in the branch had some baptisms and the guy that was going to baptism them couldnt come so they called us right before church to see if we could do it. So that was fun. Selfie with mah boy halter

Yes mom i got the package. Yes mom i ate all of it within the first 4 days. Sorry. There just arent jelly beans and jerky here (well they arent the same). Wow so this week was cool. The main highlights were Zone Conference and starting English class!

So Thursday we got up and luckily a member took us on the way to work to Quilicura (to my old church building!) where we had the Conference. It was a good day and we learned a lot. I got to see Elder Simmons who is the Asistent to President now! and Elder Paredes and some other people. And since we have it every other change, all the people who are leaving and this change and the next one (me) give their last testimony. I was the very last person..haha it was awesome though. Then trying to come back we kind of got lost finding where to take the bus and i saw 3 people i know from Quilicura! 

On Saturday we had English Class. They have a Facebook page for batuco citizens and Nayareth (a convert) helped us by putting the announcement up. There were 25 people in the class! it was legit ive never had a class that big. only like 10 people max. But hopefully this is the key to get confidence here in this little town haha now a lot of people have been in the church and know what it looks like at least. 

Last night we went to this other town to do a baptismal interview for 2 investigators of the sister missionaries. The only problem was it was night and we were told the dad was going to take us home in stead of going in bus 40 to 60 minutes. But the dad only took us to the highway where we waited for a bus at like 10 oclock hahahaahaha it was an adventure we got home without a problem. Tired but todo bien. 

Love you guys, love this church like always and i know it is true. There is no doubt no way that its wrong and i hope all of you can know that too. 

Elder Farnsworth

 

 

Pday with the Zl and Elder Terry from my group and Elder Mackay

Photo with Maxi who is going on the mission sometime this year but he broke his wrist this week ...ha

Happy Conference Weekend?

Oh thats not a normal holiday? haa I felt like it was. We left the house on Sunday morning and i saw the Feria (fair, farmers market type thing that they have certain days every week) and i thought, wow they even have Feria on this weekend. Just for a split second until i realized all those people had no idea a Prophet of God was about to speak to the world! Here the sessions were at 1 and 5 and the priesthood one at 9 oclock at night so we did watch all of them. The problem is that here in Batuco we just watched in our building with the members instead of going to the District Center which is farther away. And in our building, we dont have Satelite like the stake centers so we had to watch it over internet and it kept cutting out and pausing but still! Saturday morning we helped President Christensen (branch pres) push his car from the mecanic that was around the corner of his house haha and then we got everything set up with the projector. And sunday morning we also helped cutting onions with him and his wife for the lunch that they made for the branch between session. It was funny because elder halter had never cut onions before and was saying it was the hardest thing he had done on his mission! We were all crying from cutting like 15 onions haha. 

I cant believe it was my last conference in the mission but it was awesome. There were some cool talks about temples and things we dont normally here like that talk dedicated to the refugees. In the priesthood session we were laughing pretty good cause we saw the guy doing the opening prayer pull a note card out of his suit as he starting praying. Poor guy was probably nervous! 

Well Batuco is interesting as ever. We keep teaching this hatian guy who is pretty cool and the other investigators. One investigator is so close, he just needs a stable job to go to church and take the final steps and he can get baptised hopefully with his 2 oldest kids. Cant believe that im almost finishing but he we go. I give my last testimony in zone conference on thursday because next transfer there isnt zone conference. Love you all and i know this church is true and the only one with living prophets and apostles.

Elder Farnsworth

Happy Easter to all..and to all a good night?

No mom i didnt get the package but its all good, the Chileans all gave us chocolate eggs. Here they dont paint eggs or hide plastic ones, they make tiny chocolate eggs haha. So that family is just a family from the branch that is really cool and the dad works in the north so we took a picture cause we didnt know if i was goingto be there after. But i stayed with elder Halter ! im gonna be with him until may 8th then we will see. I also got my leather scripture cases for my english scriptures (the scriptures i dont have haaha) but they are really cool. And the other pic is with some members eating some bomb ice cream. Maybe like the last one cause the weather is changing. Its getting colder and we are in the coldest part of our whole mission. Gets like below 7 degrees celcuis i have not idea how much that is but cold. for me at least haha. and on bike should be fun. But that is only in like July so im okay. Right now its like night temperature but during the day i gets hot still and the night cold so its weird. not like arizona..Elder brady finished the misson and his parents came and got him and i met his parents cause they came to church in Batuco (he was in a couple branches in this district). 

We taught a hatian yesterday for the first time in a while so that was cool haha. Batuco is weird...it has a lot of foreigners and a lot of people that have lived here their whole life..The family we are teaching went to church and they liked it a lot! Well it was the second time they went but still. We had a lesson with them last night at they recognized the peace that the book of mormon brings! poco a poco like we say haha step by step. Its hard here not gonna lie but we just got to keep looking. We spend hours some time in the street talking with whoever we can when there is nobody that will let us in. There arent even that many less actives that let us in and listen. But thats how the mission goes sometime! 

Love yall

Elder Farnsworth

 

                                                                the scripture covers

How are there so many changes with people..marriages and missions and moving. Every single week...hhaha but here in Batuco there arent Changes! Not for a week at least. Let me explain. The MTC was made 3 weeks now in stead of 2 for the spanish speakers. So, we dont get new missionaries here for another week and President Videla just left everything the same until the new missionaries gets here. The only problem is with the missionaries that went home. So some missionaries are just going to be in a random sector for a week haha but nothing changed with Elder Halter and I until maybe this next week. Ill let yall know next tuesday! 

Shout out to the Pleasant 2nd Young Men! You are the best, seriously. Surprise Box, love you guys, cant wait to see all of you soon! 

These past weeks we have done more service than my whole mission combined haha it has been so fun. Painting, sawing logs, smashing cans, fixing cement pillars, fixing wooden fences, mixing cement manually, etc. Its been a great experience. 

We really are focusing on just find new investigators. We have a few people to visit that are really good but we dont have like anyone to visit in the afternoon. like all of them are in the night after dinner. I mean thats typical but its more extreme in this sector. We have been sharing the pass along cards of Hallelujah with everyone! Its a great video, go watch it and share it on social media! Ive been reading Jesus the Christ about the ´´Semana Santa´´ or Holy Week and everything Christ did in the last week of His mortal life. Its incredible. I love studying His life and learning more every day. 

Love all of you 

Elder Farnsworth

 

                                                       Random selfie with my boy Haltercito

 

Well another week another letter.

Yes this is transfer week. Should be interesting, i may find out what my final sector will be. Or i may stay in Batuco City. But its whatever. Haha 2 more changes left. This next one will be 7 weeks long because of the MTC change. So this week we had a conference in Lampa (a close town) but it was a transmission with all of Chile and some general authorities spake including President Nelson, in spanish! Haha in our building, there wasnt the sateliete so it was through internet and it kept failing...but oh well. We were hoping than an investigator would be able to get baptised this month but he needs to attend church more times before he can and its probably okay because he should read some more and prepare himself a little more. But in Abril he definitely should get baptised. And we do keep visiting that family and we had a really good lesson with just the father last night and he has a few doubts but wants to know and believes in most of the stuff.

We had a ton of service this week. We were smashing some cans with a little hammer mallet thing to help someone that sells the cans, and then that same day we helped someone mix 3 bags of cement (they dont have cement trucks here and sometimes they have little machines but they didnt and we did it ourselves with shovels), and then we met an inactive lady in the night and she had a broken cement and brick pillar (a truck ran into it) and we put it back in place. Later this week we  went about and stuccoed it without having prior experience hahaha hopefully its all good. And we are going back to fix the other part and repair the wooden fence. Service is legit its so fun and we can  help some people that cant do it themselves. We also painted with Nayareth and her family in their house that they are going to sell. 

Its been a fun time here in Batuco. There have been a lot of good times and some hard times like the whole mission. I hope this Branch and district grow to become a stake and ward and that more people here can get baptised. We went to Colina (another town close) and did divisions with the young men from the whole stake and their leaders and visited people and made contacts for the whole morning. It was a pretty fun activity! Love this work and the mission and this country. Love all of you guys too and hope that you can do your part in your own wards and missions! 

Elder Farnsworth

Parable of the Fisherman

Wena wena familia,

Sorry i may have turned into a chilean flite (gangster) in these 20 months but what can we do. So ya Nayareth got confirmed and all good there. This week was cool like it always is haha. Maybe only got 2 more weeks here in Batuco but we dont know yet. 

So i dont know what new to tell you so im going to send a rough draft of the original Parable of the Fisherman (Author elder farnsworth) hahahaah. I was just thinking one morning and made up a comparison of the mission (or life) and fishing. So one fisherman goes out with the ambition to catch the whole lake but doesnt prepare himself. He goes with an old rod and the wrong kind of line and a reel that doesnt work with hooks made for the biggest fish in the world. He gets impatient when he doesnt catch anything so he changes to the other side of the lake thinking that there he will catch more. He isnt patient and only tries one kind of bait. The sun gets to him and he wanted to change to the shade. when he gets there, it starts to rain and wants sun but there isnt any more sun. He ends up going home and cant be happy with his day, even if he maybe caught a few fish. BUT, another fisherman goes out prepared. He fixes his rod and reel, studies what type of hook, line, weights, and bait to use for a specific fish. He knows its not going to be easy, but he is ready to suffer with patience. He might changed spots on the lake but only after giving all he has. He tries multiple baits and even changes his hook. He catches the same amount as the other fisherman but knows he did his best and that he cant force the fish to bite. 

We can decide to prepared ourselves and change our attitudes. If not, we are going to end up frustrated and give up and not even recognize our results. But like Nephi and his family lived after the manner of happiness (2 Nephi 5), even though the lamanites were angry under the same circumstances, our decisions and attitude can change everything. 

Sorry if you dont like fishing but it made a lot of sense to me haha love you all be patient in your lives or missions or trial. Be happy!

Elder Farnsworth

A Baptism!

MOM! im not writing early today haha. We went to Santiago and went to the Downtown basically to this really cool fair thing that sells a bunch of typical souviners from Chile and i wasnt planning on buying a lot but i did haha but i got some RECUERDOS and somes gifts for all of you! Got to go back to spend more money haha you only serve a mission once! But it was really fun but tiring and we are just getting back to write and then pday ends basically. Sounds like a great week, so glad you are liking being relief society. Well at least surviving it! The key i figure is just follow the handbook and the spirit! Wow katie and sid are the worst for going to mexico haha.

This week was legit. We had to do a ton of stuff like a Area wide conference with Elder Bednar (we watched the live transmision). Was that this week....i cant remember im so lost haha. And we went to do my visa thing so that was fun .....not. but oh well. And we had the baptism! it was legit. She got another week to prepare and she had such good questions. She understands so much. Someone told her that she had to look forward to wearing white again in the future in her sealing and she said uhh no im going on a mission first haha! Her mom and sister and friend went to the baptism. Shes inviting everyone and more friends are going to go to her confirmation the next week. (Here, people get baptised on Sunday after church normally so they get confirmed the next week). We met a new guy from Ecuador. He saw us going into our house in the night and called us out. He was a eternal investigator (his own words) in ecuador and he moved here to santiago 2 months ago and got baptised. He got to Batuco this week! He has already gone with us to a lesson! Pretty cool. I might get changed out of Batuco in 3 weeks but at least it is starting to progress a little more for the missionaries that come. Love you all and my Savior. Id be lost without Him.

Elder Farnsworth

Uhh technical probs with photos sorry elder halter is sending some so ask his mom!!

What up fam bam!!

SO news for the Week....Batuco fat failed us. We get to church on sunday at 845 (church starts at 10) to fill the font up them close the church then go get an investigator. We get there and there isnt WATER! You cant have a baptism without water!! But we called some people (branch pres etc) and we left it in their hands and when to get our investigator. He wasnt there..we went back and Pres Christensen just says sorry elders. No water, no baptism. And actually for safety reasons they only did sacrament meeting! haha So we told Nayareth but she was chill, we got it this week! Actually the original date but she was so prepared we moved the date up lol. But the week was legit still. We did a lot of service and a lot of things that werent normal lessons and everything but still necesarry and cool. Wow i dont even know what to write about haha sorry ive been in the mish for so long now and i dont even know how to write letters. I have to go do paperwork and stuff this week for my visa...we have a broadcast with elder bednar this week too. tomorrow actually.. sorry guys im the worst for this letter but i love yall and the mission and im with bitter sweet feelings about only having 4 months. i wanna see all of you but its just gonna be a bummer when i cant be a full time missionary with the authority to preach the gospel and promise blessings. Keep doing your part whether a missionary, bishop, home teacher, member, or someone trying to find what you need to do in life and God will help all of us. 

Elder Farnsworth

Random pic with the moon

A Great Week!

 So i told elder halter to send pictures but i failed and dont have any this week..too much hard work haha nah! But for real the week was super legit. We had all sorts of lessons with investigators and members helping us. thats the best, its so much easier. The members can explain better than us for whatever reason, because they live normal lives i guess. We are gonna have a baptism this week finally and we should have more to come in march hopefully. We gotta pick Batuco up and became a stake here in Colina! No i didnt see Samuel but that would be awesome. this week in church we had a family of investigators come for the first time they are so legit. The husband told us last night he asked about the church and what he should do and had a dream and feels like he should get baptised. And he was the one that told us that he didnt like going to any church or anything, just listening to the Word in his house. But now he went, loved it, his wife loves it, and his kids wanted to go back to primary. They are so legit, i cant wait for them to get sealed eventually haha. Thinking in the future.

We had some dumb lesson with this Christian guys that was trying to prove us wrong and all sorts of stuff. Before in my mission i got so heated and argued and tried to prove them wrong. Now i can stay calm and just testify and control the situation. There is no point in arguing, the Spirit leaves and nobody wins so we just have to leave. We are helping a guy get over some problems he is having with his family and he legit wants to get baptised and start over. I love this, we can just start over and be free of sin. Thats why i love baptism. Love all you guys!! Share the gospel with everyone, its free!! 

Elder Farnsworth

Hello family.

Mom, im not using crutches your dream you had is not true dont worry haha my companion makes me run in the morning and sometimes i want to use crutches after because im so tired haha. And for your talk, read the howard w. hunter lesson 3 from the book they use in the 3rd hour this year! we just read it and also D and C 122 or 136 is pretty cool. hope i got all that info right...Dont know why pday got changed to tuesday, mom we dont go to the temple anymore that only lasted for one transfer. We had transfers pass but we both stayed. two Hermanas in my district changed. This week was legit. We have like 3 new families and we have started teaching more with members. One girl (that showed up alone to church last week) already is stoked for her baptism and wants her mom to get baptised too and she invited her friend to the lesson. And another family said they would go to church (when we first met them they said they dont want to go to any church) after we talked about the Sabbath day but this week they couldnt. We are having meetings with our leaders and working well with the branch i think. I was sick of batuco 2 weeks ago and this last week i was hoping not to leave. so luckily im still here at least for 6 more weeks! Please work with the misionaries and give them referrals and let them teach in your houses or go with them. Its so important if we want to have success. Love you all and im glad everything is going well there!! 

Elder Farnsworth

The district and a pic with elder halter while chilling with the zone leaders for p day.

What up fam bam, So this week was pretty chill. Batuco is tough not gonna lie, and we have the whole town when 4 missionaries used to be here but its better because there arent that many people to visit. We had problems with our investigators, one left us, another is working way too much, another is out of town, one we left because she doesnt really understand why we are going and she doesnt really want to learn and so on. But we tried to talk with as many people as possible to invite them to the activity that we had on Saturday. We watched meet the mormons. We ended up contacting 100 people in the week when the goal is 70! so that was something at least haha. I have a strong testimony of the blessings received for being diligent. Contacts dont really get investigators..but i know the Lord blesses us when we do them haha. Thats what happened in my last second with 2 baptisms. But we worked so hard, long days, luckily a teenager from the branch was willing to go along with us and he talked with literally everyone he saw haha hes gonna be a boss missionary some day. We were stoked for the activity thinking at least 1 investigator had to show up. Not 1 was there...but quite a few members and it was still really good! But, heres the good part. On sunday, we go to pick a inactive member up that wanted to go for the first time in many many years and he wasnt there. We get to the church and we are talking with the members and we sit down. The meeting starts, and a girl walks in and sits close to us (we dont have pews, just plastic chairs and she sat in the same row). I shook her hand and asked her name. I asked if she was a member and she said it was the first time she had gone to our church but she had a friend that taught her a few years back. She wanted to go to church a little while back so she called this friend that used to teach her years ago. He is now unfortunately inactive and she decided to go alone. We are going to teach her this week with a member! It was so sweet! and another referral we received from a member told us 2 weeks ago that she was gonna call us when we could go (which normally means they arent that interested) but this morning she called and asked us to go over on thursday!! She already has a Book of Mormon and is reading it!! Batuco turned cool this week haha this next change is gonna be legit. Its all about working with the members seriously. we cant do it alone. I love the work and my Savior and all of you!

Elder Farnsworth

 

Mi hijo elder haltercito

Hey family after 2 weeks haha.

So this week was kind slow..but good. We had zone conference and now its going to be every other transfer so next zone conference i have to give my last testimony....wow i dont want that to come. Then we had the world wide broadcast. It was sweet, it wasnt much new stuff but they explained the stuff so well that it helped me understand at least. They talked about how we can help the peolpe repent and really be converted to Christ and the role of the Holy Ghost. It is basically what we study in the Training book so we had gone over all of it reciently! Then we had some hard days. We had really high goals for contacts and finding people but we kind of failed. We went to a part pretty far from the town (like farm houses) and tried to contact but there was hardly anyone there. We did talk with some cool people though in the week. And one investigator that we were excited to start working with went on vacations and wont come back for like more than a month (typical thing to do during summer here)...

They asked to me speak (they called at like 9 before church that starts at 10) and the sister before me finish with 35 minutes left in the meeting so i thought i had to talk as much time as possible. i spoke for like 20 ish minutes or a little more and they finished the meeting. Later they told me that the counselor was preparing something to say but they thought it was going to be short (the first lady talked for like 8 minutes haha) but i just kept talking so he didnt need to talk ahhaah. i was just busting random stuff out about the atonement. Not that hard to talk about that! We had lunch with the branch president and he kept joking and teasing me that he was going to watch the cardinals game and i wasnt haha. We taught a lesson and at the end the investigator gave us a referral of his friend that just had a stomach operation so thats pretty chill i guess. Haha the 2 branchs here that meet together (Batuco and Valle Grande) and going to be seperated soon and we are going to be left with like 40 members or less in Batuco but its all good! We will just work hard to grow! Love you guys, its awesome being here in the mission. all of you preparing, prepare more. and if you arent sure, pray about it and get a strong testimony then just do it. Love this church and my Savior.

Elder Farnsworth

MY MISSION GOT EXTENDED...A WEEK !!

haha so thats some news but all good, one more week i have to be called Elder Farnsworth and have the authority to preach the gospel in CHILITO LINDO, 

This week was pretty legit. We started it off with a fat exchange with my dude Elder Clarin! You guys remember him? from safford? you met him in the airport. Hes my zone leader and that was legit. We had a ton of lessons and he teaches so well. After that we had district class on wednesday like always and a pretty slow day back with Elder Halter. Hah..right when we have a good day elder halter isnt there to enjoy it. But sometimes its good to suffer in the sun a little, you learn patience. We need to find more people but we have some pretty cool people we are sharing with. We had like 6 investigators commited to go to church and none came...but thats how it goes sometimes! We found one that we were teaching sunday afternoon after a whole week without seeing him (he was in santiago with a friend) and had a great lesson and he choose his own baptismal date because he actually wants to get baptised. 

With Elder Clarine we taught this older lady and we got like 3 minutes into the Restauration when we figured out she had memory problems...haha we kind of gave up because she couldnt understand anything and then she told us 4 times that she likes to drink a cup of tea every morning with exactly 3 wafer cookies. haha it was sad but kinda funny not gonna lie. A recient convert who is 14 wanted to go visit people with us so we went to a lesson with another kid but he wasnt there. Normally, a younger kid doesnt help much in lessons so i was hesistant to go to an adult with him, but i decided it would be cool for him so we went and the convert ended up helping us a ton with scriptures he learned in seminary!! Haha i forgot that Joseph Smith was also 14 when he had a vision that changed the world. So that was legit. Wow i dont know what else but it just seems like a fun week! Love you all and hope you are helping and praying for the missionaries in your own ward.

Elder Farnsworth

We made pizza shout out to mom for teaching me and using my legit star wars socks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

So my comp is Elder Halter hes from Clinton Utah (Ogden area). Hes legit! He likes to run and lift weights and he was working before his mission. He just turned 20 and graduated in 2014 with me! Hes super excited to work and learn everything and its gonna be a great change. I only have 1 pic with him haha but i think the office sent you guys a pic?? 

So this week was really hard because of new years and my companion got here tuesday night and we had to go to santiago for a meeting. There were problems but it was a good week and my companion was able to have his first lessons and invite a few people to baptism and learn a lot. He gets stressed because he wants to know everything but thats good, we just have to control the stress. We had a long day (while fasting) and we contacted someone and then we went around the corner to write the info down and check the next plan. Someone came up and said they met with the missionaries before and they want to listen to us again and start going to church and change his life. It was really cool and it was fun to see how excite my comp was because it was the first time he has seen something like that. Then on sunday, we were on the stand waiting to share our testimonies and a family came it. The branch counselor asked me quietly if they were our investigators and i said no. Turns out they are a part member family that wants to come to church now and there are like 4 people that arent baptised!! We have been praying every day and minute haha to have a baptism this change and I believe we will. Pray works, fasting works better and the spirit really guides us! I love the mission and Batuco and Elder Halter haha. Love you guys!

Elder Farnsworth

 

Random pic that elder williams got off before the APs yelled at us for taking a picture haha long story!