December 24th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Sounds like you are having a great time with Grandma and Grandpa! Glad to hear you are playing a lot of card games.

So, my new companion is Sister Frame. She is from Ephraim, UT (where Snow College is). She has been in Bulgaria for 4 months. She is a lot of fun and we are getting along just great! She is tall and blonde, so we stick out a lot!

There are 14 Sisters in Bulgaria. However, there are only 4 sisters in my zone. So the picture you get is only of my zone. There is a total of 3 zones in the mission.

So this week we met with Vili again. It was amazing. During the lesson she told us three times that she knows that her decision to be baptized is right. She has so much faith! She does not have any family around, so tonight we are having a lesson with her and baking goodies. On Christmas we will go caroling and deliver goodies to people. Then she will have Christmas dinner with us and the Elders and one of their investigators.

We had a lesson with Kiril again this week. He is doing well. Sometimes I just don't know what is holding him back. We are working on getting a lesson with a member present. We talked to him about the word of wisdom. It went well. However, he didn't come to church. Hopefully he will next week!

We had a lesson with Martin and Evgeni. They are really great. They have a break from school until February so we won't see them until then. Martin's home city has missionaries serving there. So I asked Martin if we could give the Elders there his number and he said Yes! Hopefully everything will go well with that. They said they would continue to keep praying and reading the scriptures.

A funny experience that happened this week... We were at the church and all of a sudden two men came in trying to sell us calendars. We explained that as missionaries we can't purchase things. Then they started asking us about the Book of Mormon. I told them that if they had time we could sit and discuss it. They agreed and we sat down. Then, a member named Yuli walked in and we asked him if he wanted to join. It was great, out of nowhere we had a member present lesson!

Everything is going well right now. I miss my old companion Sister Meyers a lot! It seems weird that she was just here, but now she is gone. I have been so blessed with so many great companions! (shout out to Caralee Child) With each one I have learned new things. I also have been blessed with great friends who have great standards. Last but not least, I have been blessed with an incredible family. I know that I am the person I am today because of all the amazing people in my life. It will be weird being on the other side of the world for Christmas, but I am glad I get to be serving others and being with those in need.

I love you all very much. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!! I can't wait to skype home!! So I need to skype at 5:30 pm my time.... which I believe will be 7:30 am your time! Sorry if that's early...but it's when I need to do it. PLEASE be ready and have everything good to go! Well, See you Christmas morning!!!!

Love,
Sister Farnsworth

December 17th 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear you are doing well! I am glad that you enjoy teaching your primary class! I am sure you are a great teacher for them! I would really like to see the new design you came up with for your new zoology shirt! I would love to get one.

As for me, things are going well. I am in Sofia right now with Sister Meyers for her last day/night in Bulgaria. It does not seem real that she will be leaving tomorrow. She has been such a great example for me. It is crazy how fast time goes by...these past few months have gone by too fast.I found out that I will be staying in Blagoevgrad and I will be getting a new companion! her name is Sister Frame. I will tell you more about her next week because I haven't met her yet.

This week was great. Really busy, but great. We had a great lesson with Vili and she has been coming to church and this Sunday she told us she wanted to be baptized!! It was incredible. The night before we had a Christmas party for the branch. It went very well. We acted out the nativity. We had lots of food and played games afterwards. Vili was there and she has become a big part of the branch. All the members love her! She is amazing.

I am really happy. It is hard to describe this kind of happiness... but I am so happy to be a missionary right now. There are so many people who need to know about the gospel!

As far as skyping goes... I will probably try and do it around 830-9 am for you guys. So just be ready! I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week! I will talk and see you soon!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

p.s. sorry the letter is a bit shorter... I don't have much time to write today. We have lots of things to do before Sister Meyers leaves.

Love you.

December 11th 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

I am so happy to hear that you had a great birthday!! I thought about you extra on that day! Sounds as though you have been having lots of fun lately with all your friends. That's exciting that it is almost time for Christmas break! Soon Grandma and Grandpa will be there!

I don't know where to start... this week was good. We weren't able to meet with Vili this week because she has been doing finals at school and has no time. However, Sunday morning we got a call from her saying she would see us at church! We got to church and guess who was already there 20 mins early?? Yup, Vili. The elders let her in the church and she was greeting all the members as they came in! This has never happened before. Ever. We've only met with her once, but she has come to church 3 times! Also, the university she attends has a break until February! We found out that she will be here for the whole break! We are so excited because we can meet with her a lot soon!

Later on Sunday night it started snowing! We had to travel to Sofia and barely caught a bus in time, but we made it. Sofia is so much colder than where I am (Blagoevgrad). We got there and there was tons of snow on the ground!

Zone conference was great! Every time I leave I realize how much I want to be a better person. We talked a lot about "real growth" in the church. We talked about how vital it is that we have as many lessons with our investigators with members. We have new goals that we are going to work towards and I am excited about that. It is great seeing improvement in the mission.
We took pictures after the conference and did a fun "white elephant" gift exchange. It was pretty fun.

This morning we woke up and it started snowing so much! It just barely stopped. I am trying my best to stay warm!

Next week I will be in Sofia again because I will be dropping off my companion, Sister Meyers. I cannot believe she will be gone in a week. I have loved serving with her.

Also, when would be a good time to skype for you on Christmas?? We get to choose when to skype. Is there any way we could skype at the same time as Tim? Let me know when you think would be best!

I hope you have a great week! I love all of you so much!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

December 3rd 2012

Hey Mom and Dad,

Glad to hear things are going well. I think that is great that you both try to go to the temple as much as you can! You are both great examples!

To answer a few questions... The girl we are teaching is named Vili. She is 20 years old and attends Southwest University. We teach her in Bulgarian. However, this week she was not able to meet at all. We were getting a bit worried and then she called us on Saturday apologizing for not being able to meet and wanted to know if we still had church on Sunday. We told her that we did and she promised she would come for the whole time!

We also met with our other investigator Kiril who is a 40 year old man. We taught him about the plan of salvation. When we started talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ we read the scriptures Alma 7: 11-13 (which describes all that Jesus suffered for us). After we read those scriptures it was silent. The spirit was strong and no one said anything for about 30 seconds. He finally said that in all the churches he has ever gone to, they never talk about Jesus Christ so much. He went on to say how amazing the knowledge we have of our savior. We committed him to come to church and he said he would try.

Sunday morning rolls around and both Vili and Kiril come to church! We were so happy and all the members started to get to know them. We started the fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was so strong. A few members bore their testimonies and you could feel how sincere everything was. I looked to my side (I was sitting next to Vili) and I saw her fidgeting with her Book of Mormon as if she was nervous about something. Then before I knew it she stood up and bore her testimony. She went on to say how it was only her second time at church but she felt a change in her life. She testified about the Book of Mormon and how she knew it could not be a lie. She talked about her mother's death and how she knew she would see her again.

I don't know how quite to describe the feeling in the room. I was so happy I about cried. After she sat down a few more members went and testified about their baptism in the church and how they knew everything was true. It was so powerful. I think that it was the best testimony meeting I have ever attended.

Also, this week we were able to do service!! We were contacting down a street and saw this woman racking leaves all by herself. She was surrounded with ton of leaves everywhere. Sister Meyers and I looked at each other and we both knew we wanted to help. We asked her if we could and she said no at first but then we just told her that we would love to do it and started helping. We racked all the leaves into piles and then put them in bags to throw away. The woman kept looking at us as though she was confused that we would want to help. After about an hour and a half we finished and she insisted on giving us some juice(She was the owner of a small cafe in the park where we racked leaves). We told her thank you for letting us help. Then she kept saying, "No, thank you!! I am so thankful for what you did for me."

It felt so amazing to be able to serve someone! The next day we went out contacting and we asked a woman if we could share something with her. She told us that she was in a hurry and didn't have time. Then she looked at us again and said, "wait! you are the two girls who helped the woman rack leaves yesterday! I saw you." So, she gave us her number and told us to call her later so we could talk more. We couldn't believe it.

I know that serving others is one of the most important things we can do. Also that our actions are very important. You never know who is watching. I know that if we serve others and strive to be true representatives of Christ, we can never go wrong. Someone will see our example and know that we truly love our Heavenly Father.

I had a great week. I am so happy that it is December and the day when we celebrate our Savior's birth is near. I am so grateful for so many things. I love my Heavenly Father. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love my family. I love that I have time right now in my life to bring hope to others.

I hope you all have a great week. I love all of you so much. I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Farnsworth

p.s. Next Monday I will be in Sofia for Zone Conference. So I will write on Tuesday!