D&C 88:73 "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time."

D&C 88:73 "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time."

The Lord is definitely hastening His work here in Balti! This past Saturday (and Sunday) a new member was added to the family of Christ (aka The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) Our friend/brother, Anton, was baptized and confirmed. What a great day it was for all of us, and especially for him! A lot of people came to support and welcome him, and his parents were even able to watch from Moscow through Skype. I really cannot begin to describe how great this branch is and how loving, caring, and kind the members are to everyone. I think that because of this (and the scripture that I mentioned above), the work is going so well for us here. 

Anton and me

Anton, me, and Elder Streletski

As for the rest of our week, on Monday we spent most of the day helping a lady (who was having an extremely difficult time in her life) find a place to live, and the entire time we had no idea that her son was trying to contact her. After 3 hours, he was finally able to get our phone number and call us. He came and picked his mother up, we continued our P-day, ate lunch, then found out later that her son bought her an apartment! So, we helped her move the stuff she owned to her new home. She told us that she will come to church every day for the rest of her life because she now knows that God is aware of her needs and loves her. And she stuck to her word. She attended Anton's baptism and came to church the next day! The other Elders have also started to teach her about the restoration. It's the little things that can make all the difference!

I can't remember which day it was, but as I was doing personal study one day, a question popped into my mind, "How tightly are we holding on to Christ's outstretched hand?" I immediately related it to faith, and how if we have weak faith, our hand is like a limp fish in the palm of Christ's hand that will slip out easily; and, if we have strong faith, we are holding on for dear life and trusting that He will never let go. Because if one of us is to let go, it's never going to be Him. 

As far as Baba Tamara goes, every time we called her this week she just happened to be at the main play theater in the center of the city. She gave us a tour, had us meet the director of the theater, and even had us watch the last 2 minutes of a play in Moldovan. Her granddaughter was there too, so she had us meet her and talk to her about doing half English, half spiritual lessons. It didn't go as well as we would have liked it to, but we'll see where this goes in the coming weeks.

We had a "surprise" lesson with Nastia this week about Christlike attributes, and how we are supposed to develop them the best we can throughout our lives. She has actually been wanting to learn more about the New Testament lately, so it was good that we got to talk about all the characteristics of Christ. She's still doing amazing as the primary teacher and is helping us a lot with our missionary work!

Daylight savings = I got to conduct Sacrament Meeting for the first time in my life because our branch president forgot to change his clocks. It went great though! I bet you can imagine me saying, "Our opening hymn will be Be Still My Soul on page 60, and then we will have an opening prayer by Sister Nastia" then me walking from the stand to the piano to play. I don't know why, but it made me smile.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us this week and we're excited to see what happens! Love you all and enjoy General Conference!

-Elder Farnworth

Everyone thinks it's hilarious that I worked at a cemetery