I have survived a week with a Russian companion

Hello everyone!

Elder Monroe (or should I say Brother Monroe) is now back in America, and I have survived a week with a Russian companion. But in all seriousness I have been loving every minute of serving with Elder Streletskii. It's already easier to speak Russian, we get along really well, and we have been working really hard to improve our area.

Last picture with Elder Monroe

 Elder Streletskii and I!

He's been taking me around to all the people that him and Elder Monroe met, and one of them was an 84 year old communist man who has some serious health problems. He let us into his front room, and there we had a lesson with him. He believes there's a God, but wouldn't take a Book of Mormon because he thought that someone else needs it more than he does. We asked him if we could come by once a week and read from the Book of Mormon, and he said that would be fine. So I think with that all we can do is work our way up to the point where he will take a Book of Mormon and read it on his own. 

One of our investigators right now is a 38 year old woman with the mind of a 12 year old. She was taught by Elder Monroe when he first started his mission. She's very sincere, willing to learn, and has a desire to be baptized. Her name is Raisa and I loved the lesson that we had with her about the Plan of Salvation this past week. We planned during companion study to use pictures and that wooden Plan of Salvation thing that you sent me Dad, and it worked like a charm. When we finished, she pointed to the Celestial Kingdom and said, "I want to live there." This showed me that she understood the purpose of the Plan of Happiness. How I taught primary is how we teach Raisa because she's a very precious soul of our Loving Father in Heaven and He expects us to teach her so she can understand. We tried going by a second time but she wasn't home. Instead her Mom told us that we should come back in the summer when she has lots of strawberries, apples, grapes, and other fruits for us to eat. Okay..... We will definitely do that. Tonight she should be home, and we hope to set a baptismal date with her.

We also got to go out to a village to a less-active family (who are actually great members that are unable to come to church every week due to little money) and it was enjoyable. They fed us lots of food, and we talked about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy. This is the second time I have seen the mother, and the first time I had seen the son. We see her daughter often for Sports Night since they study in Balti during the week, then go home for the weekend. They all understand the importance of keeping the commandments of God and have strong testimonies. It was a good thing we went out to check up on them, and I wish we could go out to the villages more often!

Eating some Moldovan food with that family out in a village called Edineț

That's not everything that happened this week, but once again, I have 2 minutes left on my computer time. I hope you enjoyed the email. Have a good week.

Love you!

-Elder Farnworth

P.S. I'll try and get pictures on later in the day.

Funny experience of the week: we were knocking and this lady opens her door, walks to her kitchen, and Elder Streletskii turns to me and says, "Shoot! We've accidental knocked on this ladies door TWICE before!" I couldn't help but laugh at the situation as we walked in and sat down. Him and Elder Monroe were at this lady's house two Saturdays ago and he totally forgot that we were in her apartment building! Her name is Galina and she knows a lot about the Church and really likes it. We had a lesson about the organization of Christ's Church and how it was restored through Joseph Smith. She really loved not letting us talk, but we scheduled a lesson for next Wednesday. She's got great potential! 

Some more pictures of our adventures.

The bus stop close to Edinet.

My first time in a legit Russian car.

Our view from the back seat of the car.