365 days in Chisinau!

Dear family and friends,

October 3rd, 2012

A dog that lives by our apartment. We made a home for it out of a laundry basket so it wouldn't freeze to death.

Some pictures that another elder took of me while doing service

 October 3rd, 2013. 365 days in the country of Moldova and the city of Chisinau. One year in the field!

This email is going to be kind of short due to us not having very much time today:

Monday: As we were sitting at internet cafe a man named Dan Kane (an American) walked up to us and said, "I don't mean to bother you, but I just want you to know that you Mormons walk the talk. I was here a few years back as a peace core volunteer and I did a project with your country directors (a senior couple) and never have I seen someone stick 100% to their word like they did." What a nice thing to say! He continued with wishing us with success and encouraging us to team up with the peace core and do some projects with them. 

Tuesday: Getting ready for zone conference by myself......

Wednesday: Zone conference ALL day. "Finding is a revelatory process." - President Hill. They've been really wanting us missionaries to find more and more. Jacod 5:7:

And^bblessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments.... behold ye shall have^djoy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard.

Thursday: Elder Westover left, and Elder Lippert is now my companion. He's a recent convert of only 3 years from the south of London, England. He's a great companion! Day 365 in the country. The Schwartz moved in next door to us, and so they had us help them move a fridge with their landlord and after we finished, Elder Schwartz told us that we're going to try and teach  the landlord and his wife. So this next week we're gonna work on that! Towards the evening, I looked at my watch and said, "Well, we still have 45 minutes until we can go home." So we walked to a random apartment block and the first two doors had people who listened to us, talked to us, and took a Book of Mormon. Prepared people are out there! We're going to stop by tonight to see if they've read anything and hopefully teach them about the Restoration.

Friday: Service at the kindergarten, my companion telling me his conversion story (which is really cool!) and sports night (hopefully I can get some pictures of that)

Saturday: We did a spiritual thought in English where we invited everyone to come to conference. "A living prophet is going to speak to us tonight." Does anyone realize the huge importance of that phrase? A man who talks with God is going to speak to us! And just before conference started, we handed out cards that invited people to conference. That was fun because we don't get to invite people to come listen to a prophet's voice very often. 

Sunday: Don't freak out, but there was an earthquake in the middle of the night. It wasn't too bad, but no one was hurt and no damage was done to the city. But I have now officially been in the middle of an earthquake! Conference was amazing, and Thomas S. Monson IS A PROPHET OF GOD. I know this, and I hope you all do too. 

I'll leave you with my favorite conference quote from Elder Dieter F. Utchdorf, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith."

Love you!

-Elder Farnworth