9 MONTHS!

3 months till my year mark...? Holy cow! 9 months out in the field and I STILL feel like a new missionary, but guess what!? We're finally getting another Russian elder this week, so that means... transfers! My new companion is Elder Garlick, and Elder Monroe is training the new elder (Elder Hammer). I'm really excited for him! Elder Monroe is a hard-worker, and they'll do great together. Elder Groberg and I were not excited about the news though... In 3 days, the zebra companionship will be no more, and I'll be back with a Russian elder until he goes home in July. It will be strange to have someone by my side who speaks the language better than I do. I'm going to miss Elder Groberg and his goofiness though! We got along really well, and I learned a ton on how to be a good district leader and a better missionary. At least we'll still be in the same city! Oh yeah, I'm also going to be in Chisinau till at least July. That's a LONG time in one city, but I'm loving every minute of it!

A lot of our week was spent putting together a poster for "street-boarding" (I'm pretty sure I've explained this in earlier emails), but the poster we had before was way too cluttered and messy, so we simplified it a ton and put the question How can I find happiness?" at the top. After 2 days of working on it, we finished it and took it for a test run... Let's just say it didn't go as well as we wanted it to.... Elder Groberg got yelled at by a crazy drunk guy, and I tried my best not to argue with a bunch of Atheists. All we could do when we finished was laugh at ourselves and carry the poster back to the church. And to put the cherry on top, our poster's stand broke on the way back... Oh the joys of missionary work! I love it though. There's nothing else I'd rather be doing than this. 

 We went to go visit the "village-guy" again this week, and the senior couple went with us. This man is definitely ready to receive the gospel. His intentions might be a little towards the wrong direction, but I could feel his desire to change his life according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Elder Groberg gave him a light baptismal commitment, and he said yes without hesitation! Us missionaries have been told a million times that the people who are ready to hear the restored gospel live in the villages... the sad thing is is that we don't proselyte in the villages. I just hope that someday we will be able to! The people are so humble and kind. Speaking of very kind people, the sisters and their investigator walked into the church one day while Elder Groberg and I were working on the poster, and their investigator insisted that we eat the food that she made for us. Eventually, we gave in, and guess what I ate for the first time in my life....? ...Liver... It actually wasn't too bad! I probably won't ever try it again, but it's all about the story right?

 To end the week, we were able to see two of our English students come to church. I was so happy to see them, and they stayed the all 3 hours! I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did since it was fast and testimony meeting. The Spirit was so strong and the testimonies of the members were powerful and uplifting. Elder Jiles also gave his last testimony in Chisinau ever because he's finishing the last three months of his mission in Balti. I'm gonna miss him!

If anyone hasn't seen the new "I'm a Mormon" videos yet, PLEASE go watch them! The stories of these people are so great, and they're all from the UK/Ireland. So you get to listen to a whole lot of cool accents. Well. I think that's all for this week. Lots of great things happened and I hope a lot of great things happen for all of you too! I love you all.

-Elder Farnworth

P.S. Guess what we made for dinner after we fasted on Sunday Dad? CURRY! Reminded me of all the times only you and I ate it because Lindsay, Heidi, and Matt didn't like it. Anyway, just thought you would like to know!