Incredible Week

This past week has been incredible! Our investigators are improving so well. We have some really solid people and I love them so much and they are just the best!

Mpho has continued to be amazing! He is one of the most powerful people I have ever met. He continues to just bear his testimony of how much he loves this gospel and how much he is changing. He is truly becoming converted. It is one of the coolest things to be apart of.

This past week I read an amazing talk from Elder Bednar on becoming Converted unto the Lord. In this talk he tells us about both Testimony and Conversion. A testimony is personal knowledge of spiritual truth obtained by revelation. It is the starting point of our conversion; it should not be our destination. In Luke 22:31-32 It is Christ talking to Peter and tells him that WHEN he is converted, he should strengthen his brethren. I think it's very interesting that Peter had walked with Christ and spent all this time with him and still had to be converted. Imagine now how much time and effort our own conversion will take. It is a lifelong process. True conversion brings a change in our beliefs, heart, and life to conform to the will of God. It's an offering of yourself. (omni 1:26) In Helman, Samuel the lamanite gives us the five basic elements of Conversion. Helamen 15:7-8. I pray that day by day we may do the things to become truly converted unto the Lord.

I love you so much!

Elder Farnes

Rainy Season

This past week has been great! We have been meeting with some amazing people. Kanesa is progressing along very well and Mpho is so powerful. He bore his testimony on Thursday about how he has changed and will continue to change to align his life with the will of God and to follow Jesus Christ! Hearing him say all that was probably one of the best moments on my mission so far. 

It is officially the rainy season now here. It is pouring, but we are enjoying it and having a blast in the rain. haha. The first day we got caught without umbrellas and rain jackets (sorry mom) but from then we have always been prepared. We found out yesterday that when it rains pretty much nobody comes to church. We almost had less than half of our already small church full. We were able to get a Ward Mission Leader yesterday which was great though. He is a sweet guy. His name is Brother Bongane and he served a mission in Durbin.

This past week in my study I loved a talk I read from Elder Bednar. It's called Ask In Faith. In it he tells us how we can make our prayers more meaningful. In James 1:6 it talks about how we need to ask in faith, nothing wavering. Asking in faith means not only to express, but to do. When Joseph Smith had the First Vision he asked "Which church should he join?" His question was not just what he needed to know, but also on what was to be done. Meaningful prayers requires both holy communication and consecrated work. "We need to press forward and persevere in the consecrated work of prayer after we say "Amen." by acting upon the things we have expressed to Heavenly Father." -Elder Bednar. I know that as we Ask in Faith our prayers WILL become more meaningful and we WILL come closer to our Father in Heaven.

I love you all!

Elder Farnes

Great Week

This past week has been great. Elder Deichman and I are continuing to
work as hard as we can. We are teaching some great people and they are
progressing well. Mpho is powerful and continuing to progress very
well and our families are starting to come along.

It seems like our branch is starting to get the missionary spirit. We
are supposed to get a ward mission leader and some ward missionaries
this week which will be great! And a lot of the members came up to us
asking how they can help and telling us when they can come out. We
will be having some people from the branch come with us to see our
families this week so I think that will help out a ton. It will
definitely help them to feel more comfortable and motivated to come to
church once they have a friend that goes!

This past week in my study I loved what it says in Romans 13:14. It
says to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." I love how it says we need to
put him on us. Just like we put on the armour of God found in
Ephesians we need to be daily putting on Jesus Christ. We need to
always act and behave in such a way that those who see us will see
that we are representatives of Him. Christ lives, and he is at the
head of this great work! I am so grateful for the ability I have to
grow closer and closer to him each day!

I love you so  much!

Elder Farnes

Pictures

New Companion

This past week has been a great one. I got my new companion who I am training. His name is Elder Deichman and he is from Elkridge, Utah. He is a way cool guy. We have been getting along great. We are completely relying on the Lord, being strictly obedient, and working our tails off. Whenever we get a chance, even if it's just 15 minutes, we hurry and go do some tracting/contacting. 

This last week we were able to put the whole Mohlapo family on date. We had a powerful lesson with them. The dad was so excited about it all. He said they will "definitely" be ready in November. And before we could even bring up that we wanted to see them twice a week he brought it up! It was powerful. We also tracted into a sweet guy named Mpho. He is pumped about everything, progressing very well, and loved church on Sunday. 

Conference was also amazing this past week. What a great opportunity and blessing we have to be able to hear from our Prophet and his Apostles. To receive inspired instruction and to be able to have the truthfulness of our church confirmed to us. Now what we have to do is apply the teachings into our lifes. To take what we have learned and to become greater disciples of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Some of my favorite talks were from President Uchtdorf. He talked about how the people of the church don't require anything from us, but the Lord requires us to consecrate all. And he invited all to "Come, Join With Us." In the Priesthood session he gave another great talk, this time talking about how we need to "Rise Up." He said we do not make ourselves champions by being perfect, we do it by making mistakes and rising up from them. By learning and becoming better from them. He also said how we need to make the Lord's goals our goals! Priorities were also stressed with Elder Oaks talk. We need to make sure our ultimate and highest priorities need to be God's.

I love you so much!

Elder Farnes

Training!

This past week has been great! We are teaching a lot of amazing people who are really starting to progress. It is amazing to see the Lord's hand in this work. We are teaching about 5 father led families which has been really good; we are trying to see each of our progressing investigators a couple of times a week.

On Saturday night I received a call from President Omer! I will be staying here in Birch Acres and I will be TRAINING!! I am so excited. I have a training meeting that I will be going to later today and tomorrow I will go and pick up my new comp. I can't wait. We are going to hit the ground running and completely rely on the Lord. 

Yesterday we had the first ever branch conference here in Birch Acres. It was a great day for the Branch. We learned that the branch has only had two baptisms this whole past year. The theme was on missionary work and I hope it got the members excited to do everything they can so that we can start the process to turn this branch into a ward. 

The scripture I really liked that I used with the Makwela family is in Phillipians 3:13-14. It talks about how we need to sacrifice all and press forward towards Christ. We need to leave behind things of the world or things holding us back from completely following our Lord and straightway follow him. In our lives we need to have the faith to leave behinds things that may be good for the things that are great! 

I love you all so much! 

Elder Farnes

Ups and Downs

This past week has had its up and downs. It was a hard week. We got bounced more than usual. I still am loving everything though, we need to go through the rough times in order to fully appreciate the great times. It wasn't always easy for Christ, so why should it be for us. We were teaching Zanela who was supposed be getting baptised this next week and learned that she is not legally married. I guess that is a big problem here in South Africa. Gladys was still going to get baptised, but the day we were supposed to have her interview she called and said we couldn't come because her brother who is Zanela's husband was getting way mad about them getting baptised and things weren't well at their house. Saturday night as we were checking on all of our investigators for church on Sunday we passed Zanela's and saw her in the corner store. We went and asked how she was doing and she just started crying saying how much she wanted to come to church, but she can't because of her husband. She then went on to tell us some other things that are going on in her life that are horrible. I felt so sad for her and wish that there was more I could do to help her.

We were also able to see our father led families and they are doing great. They are all progressing and moving along well. Moses and his wife came to church yesterday and loved it. We will be seeing them again tonight.

We were also able to have lunch with and teach an Area Seventy yesterday. He is such a great guy. We went to a members house for lunch and he was sitting inside already with his family. I thought maybe we were getting introduced to a new family to teach, but after a few minutes I realized who he was. haha.

In our district meeting this last week we talked about Consecration. And how we need to consecrate or sacrifice ourselves to the Lord. We need to be willing to give all of ourselves to him. And in reality it's not really "ours" to give him. All that we can truly give him is our Desires, Hearts, Thoughts, and our Eyes. The scripture in Mosiah 2:21 really tells us how even if we do everything we possibly can it can never be enough to repay for the Christ has done for us. Every morning we need to consecrate ourselves to the Lord.

I love you!

Elder Farnes