A pretty great week...

Hello everybody!

Elder Lippert and I had a pretty great week. I have a lot of random experiences to tell you, so bare (bear) with me.

1. We were headed home one night on a Marshrootka and I noticed that this one girl had an iPhone with the new iOS. So I told Elder Lippert, "Hey, look at that, it's the new iOS." And right as I said that, the girl turned around and said, "Yes, it is the new iOS." (In perfect English). We kind of got caught off-guard, but we talked to her the rest of the way home. She had lived in New York for 11 years working for some company. She asked us what we were doing here, and so we told her that we were volunteer missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ. She thought it was pretty cool what we were doing. We were packed like sardines in the Marshrootka, so we weren't able to get her contact information. I hate when that happens! So Elder Lippert and I promised each other that we would never let that happen again.

Elder Lippert and I traveling with the Kneibs to the high school

2. We had a guy randomly call us and tell us that he had talked to us before about doing personal English lessons, and we were like "Well, okay, we've actually never talked to you before, but yeah! We'll definitely do some personal English lessons." So we met up at the church towards the evening. We got to know him a little and he said that he played basketball with an embassy worker in Moscow who was a Mormon and this friend told him that we did English lessons for free. So he came to us to learn some English! Towards the end of the lesson, we showed him that Book of Mormon and he instantly said, "That book, is a very interesting book." He had actually read almost the entire Book of Mormon, so we asked him if he would like to study it with us and he said "Of course!" He even wants to bring some friends along. So we're planning on meeting up with him again this week.

Us at the high school taking a picture with the students in their "cultural room."

3. We made a goal to stop by some less-actives and it worked out better than we had thought it would. The first less active was a mother who had just had a baby girl, so we stopped by with one of the new Liahonas and we had no idea how everything was going to go when she opened the door. But right as she did, she said, "Come in and sit down!" Well great! So we went in, sat down, shared a message from the talk "His Grace is Sufficient", and asked her about how her husband is doing (he's a non-member). She told us that he's doing fine, and that she hopes he can be a member soon. The only problem he has is that he doesn't think he can quit smoking because where he works, everyone smokes. He has had most of the discussions from the missionaries, has nothing against the church, and she thinks that through her and her daughters' examples of going to church he can make good progress towards being baptized himself. The OTHER less active we dropped by actually didn't answer their door, so right as we got out of the elevator and the first floor, there she was! So she had us come in, meet her mother (who's a non-member) and towards the end of our lesson, her less-active son joined in. Great family! The son wants to do English lessons at their home, so hopefully we can start that up and start meeting with this family more often.

4. We had a another "closing ceremony" at a high school with the senior couple. It was at a village not far from Chisinau and right as we got there, there were about 300 students waiting for us. Pretty intimidating! We got to stand up front (again), as everyone gave their speeches, and after everything finished, a group of students took Elder Lippert and I around the school to see all the things that the church bought for the school. We told them what we're doing here and that if they were ever in Chisinau, they could come to our English classes. And guess what? One of them showed up! Pretty cool.

5. We were standing in front of a fountain in the park in center, and a couple walked up to us and asked us if we speak English in Romanian. They happened to be Baptists and they noticed our nametags and wanted to talk to us for a little bit. They were extremely nice, and told us thank you for sharing the gospel. They also mentioned how they have been working to get through the Book of Mormon because some people they met gave them one and invited them to read it. If there's one thing that unites Christians of different faiths, it's our faith in Jesus Christ and our knowledge that He is our Savior.

Well. I think that's it. Transfers came again, and I'll be in Chisinau for 6 more weeks. I'm still loving every minute of my mission and I love you all very much! Have a wonderful week.

-Elder Farnworth

The cultural clothing of Moldova