Loving Every Second!

Another great week here in South Africa. I am loving every second of it! Time is just flying by. Our teaching pool here in Birch Acres is finally to where we want it to be. Almost everyone we are teaching now is a powerful person or family that the spirit is always felt strongly with when we visit them. I'm so grateful that the Lord has prepared these people and has led us to them. It is only through him that this work is possible. Seeing people change through him and wanting to become better is amazing. This church and this gospel can truly have the biggest impact on everyone's life! It can change ANYONE!

Yesterday we were able to have the baptism of Millicent. It was such a cool experience. The branch was very supportive again and the spirit was so strong. I have never seen Millicent so happy! She wouldn't stop smiling and you could tell she was taking in every moment of it! I'm so grateful she has made the first step to returning to live with her Father in Heaven.

This past week in my study I was able to read an incredible talk by Elder Oaks called "The Challenge to Become" In his talk he emphasized how in life it is not enough to have a testimony of the church or to be convinced that it is true. We MUST be fully converted! Being converted doesn't come easy, it is a process, and every day we can and should be doing something whereby our conversion is growing stronger and stronger. To testify is to know and declare, while, to be converted requires us to do and become! We need to always strengthen our conversion. It also made me think about this with my investigators. It is not enough for them to just have a testimony. If they just have a testimony they will get baptized and then fall away in the next few months. They NEED to be converted for them to stay in the church. It is my prayer that my investigators will become truly converted so that one day if I were to return in 20 years I would find them strong and active in the church. There are a couple of scriptures that we can use to test how far we really our converted. The first is Mosiah 5:2 - we can test our conversion by if we desire to sin no more and if we look at sin with abhorrence. Also, 1 Corinthians 2:16 - If we are seeing things in life as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would, if we are becoming more like them. We need to make sure that we are in the world, but not of the world. The standard for us as members of this church puts us out of the world. There is no time for our standards to be low.

I'm so grateful to be apart of this marvelous work. The work of Salvation! I love you all so much!

Elder Farnes