Denis accepted a baptismal date for the 4th of January!

Dear family and friends,

We have our zone conference today (on our P-day) so I'm in Chisinau right now getting my email time in (after a 4 hour train ride) so I apologize if it ends up being a shorter email than usual.

Blurry picture of us in the train we took two hours ago

WELL. It has finally snowed (not as much as it has there) and so Elder Westover and I bought a small Christmas tree and lights for our apartment. I just love this time of the year! Especially as a missionary because almost everybody is thinking about Christ is some way or another. A recent convert gave us a 25 Days of Christmas book with all sorts of Christmas stories,  Even though it gets dark at 4, and we rarely see the sun, we get to go around and tell people about how Christ is the only source of true happiness and light and we can all partake of it. Almost everybody has a belief in Christ here in Balti, but they just show it in different ways than we do.

Our Christmas setup

Our investigator, Denis, accepted a baptismal date for the 4th of January! It was actually a pretty funny experience because my companion extended the invitation and he simply answered, "Yeah." But for some reason, I didn't think that he really understood what we were asking him to do. So I repeated the commitment and he said, "Yes. I understood what he said and I'll be baptized." We all looked at each other and said, "Well great!" We invited him to church, he came, really enjoyed it, and the members really welcomed him in. Preparing someone for baptism is a great experience. The last time I was able to do this was actually with Elder Westover with Anya. This branch NEEDS a young priesthood holder, and he has been prepared.

There's a member who has been having some trouble believing that she will be able to see her two sons, and husband after she dies, so it was the perfect opportunity to show her the wooden Plan of Salvation visual aid that I have. It was probably the best Plan of Salvation lesson I've had on my mission. Testimony adds so much power to what we teach and when we told her that we knew that her two sons and husband are in the Spiritual World right now, she looked down to the ground and took a moment to take it in and she seemed to realize that they really are still alive and closer than she thinks. We WILL see all of our loved ones again.

I wanted to end by sharing a scripture with you that really stuck out to me this week. It can apply to all of us: Jacob 5:21-23:

21And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard. 

22And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit. 

23And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: Look hither; behold I have planted another branch of the tree also; and thou knowest that this spot of ground was poorer than the first. But, behold the tree...

Thanks for all the pictures, and have fun with all that snow! Love you!

-Elder Farnworth 

P.S. Transfers came...... Elder Monroe is training the Native from Rustov, Russia and I'm...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... still with Elder Westover! We were the only companionship that didn't change, and we're excited to spend another 6 weeks together.

Smokestack. There are TONS of them