New companion=new energy for missionary work

Dear Family and Friends, 

New companion = new energy for missionary work, and recommiting ourselves to fulfilling our purpose as missionaries. Every day we have to be commited to what we were called to do, and that doesn't just go for us missionaries, it goes for anyone who made the covenant to be baptized!

Okay, I'll share with you what I call our "Sunday Miracle". So yesterday (Sunday), Our Branch President had me conduct sacrament meeting again, and of course it was Fast Sunday. So, as I was sitting at the piano playing the sacrament hymn, I got the prompting that I needed to bear my testimony because that's what we need to do as the branch presidency every Fast Sunday. And as we all know perfectly well, we usually like to brush off those promptings because we're usually too nervous (or there's some other reason) to go up and share our testimony. As soon as I started telling everyone that they now had the opportunity to share their testimonies, these words just came out of my mouth: "I would like to start by bearing my own testimony, and sharing something that I read in the Book of Mormon this morning." At this point there was no turning back! I continued by telling them about Helaman 3:27-29: 

27 Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name.
28 Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.
29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlastinggulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—

In verse 27 it talks about prayer, in verse 28 it talks about going to church (well, that's how I understood it), and in verse 29 it talks about reading the scriptures. The point of my testimony was to share how through following these simple steps we can gain a testimony of our own. I was/am grateful for the opportunity that I had to share my testimony with the members, but this wasn't our "Sunday Miracle". That happened later in the day. First I just wanted to share with you how great our church meetings were. Anyway, Denis passed the sacrament for the first time, he did it perfectly, and he didn't even look nervous! After church we had a meeting with the Branch President and the Relief Society President and they asked us if there were any copies of the Book of Mormon they could give to people. I have no idea how they didn't know this, but we let them know that there were, and the Branch President's response was great, "Ok, good. Because I have some people that I want to give the Book of Mormon to." This branch amazes me more and more every week. Okay, now we'll get to the "Sunday Miracle". Around 6 pm we got a call from Denis asking if we could meet him in center. So we went to center and found him sitting on a bench. We sat down with him and he talked with us for a little bit. Then comes a person on rollerblades we know to tell us hi. She was with a friend who had the exact same name as her. We had met her before, but only briefly. I had a Book of Mormon laying down next to me on the bench, and this girl pointed to it and asked if she could take a look at it. "Можно" (my favorite word in the Russian language) we said, and handed it to her. We took this opportunity to explain what it was and then told her that it was a gift from us. She looked really surprised, but took it and thanked us. She continued rollerblading, and then after 10 minutes she came back, sat on the bench with us and asked, "Okay, so you guys are missionaries/believers. I have dreams that happen very often. They scare me sometimes. Is this a gift from God?" Honestly, we didn't have an answer for her right then, but we got her number, and went right to our apartment to find the answer in the sciprtures. We found the answer pretty quickly in Alma and Moroni, then sent her a text saying that we had an answer for her and that we'd like to meet to talk more about it. Ten minutes later we got a text from her saying that she would like to. Great! And the cool thing was was that Denis helped us out and we're hoping he can be there on the lesson with us tonight. There ya have it, our "Sunday Miracle"!

Park contacting has been pretty interesting. We walked past this one lady three times before we realized that we needed to talk to her. She let us sit down and we taught her about the restoration. She took a Book of Mormon and we got her number. She said she had heard about the Book of Mormon before but had never been able to get a hold of one. We tried calling her two or three times on Saturday to invite her to church, but her phone was off. These things happen sometimes. We hope she answers her phone today.

Oh! We also met a couple on the bus. The man was from New Jersey and his wife was actually from Balti. They met on the internet in 2002, and then got married pretty quickly in Moscow. They were really nice and we had a pleasant conversation with them before we had to part ways.

Well. There are some other things I wanted to write down, but I don't have enough time. Just know that I'm doing well and I'm still loving every day of my mission.

Love you!

-Elder Farnworth

Quote of the week: "Man may deceive his fellow-men, deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave; but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind." - Oliver Cowdery