Lima (San Luis) Peru – Week 2

Hola! This has been a real crazy busy week! But it was a real fun crazy busy week, and I was able to learn a lot from others and also help others learn. Well let’s start with last Tuesday.

Lunes: After Internet we went to the house for a sec and then we left and had a Family Home Evening with a less active family and then we did some contacting. When we got back to the house I called my district doing follow up on all of the converts from the last year to see how they're progressing and then put the final touches on my district meeting training.

Martes: We had another district meeting and I taught them about the importance of being obedient always and also about how to have success as a missionary. We read a bunch of scriptures to support the teachings. I think it worked to help them throughout the week find new investigators. Our day after that looked like it was going to be a really good day, but then every single one of our appointments fell through........... Haha welcome to San Luis. So then we just ended up contacting all day. We found a cool new investigator from Venezuela and he has lots of potential. Then we contacted some more and to finish the day we had a meeting with our ward mission leader to talk about our investigators.

Miercoles: We walked to the area (which is pretty far) because we ran out of bus money... and surprise surprise all of our appointments fell through again! We ended up contacting again all day. We found a new investigator this day as well. He was very interesting because he tried to use our own words against us to try and prove us wrong. But, haha, he ended up making a fool of himself when he realized that we made a really good point and we were right. We made an appointment with him for another day. Then in the night was when I took the Wednesday indicators. So I called all of the district and asked them how many new investigators they had up to this point of the week and how many they have with baptismal date. Also the work plans that they had for the week and if they had any needs in their areas.

Jueves: Was just another day of the week. I think we ended up having just one appointment this day and we contacted more. We have set appointments every day, but when we call to confirm them they either cancel on us or they say yeah we'll be there. When we get there 1 of 2 things happens. 1 they're not there or 2 they say oh no I was just kidding or no I'm busy...... and that happens every day. When we contact they open the door see us and most of the time say " oh no joven, todavía,,,, todavía joven...." and then they shut the door. Haha and 90% of the contacts are like that. The people hearts here are very hard and closed.

Viernes: We got up real early and played soccer............ Haha I never want to go, but my companion likes to go and play. Then I went and did splits for the first time as a District Leader. It was a great experience to be able to go and work with another elder in his area. I really like doing splits. It is a great opportunity to find the needs of my district and to also help all of the missionaries in the work. 

Sábado: I finished up the splits and returned back to my area. Then we did more contacting and had a few visits this day. Not a real exciting day. Domingo: We went to church and ward counsel and then we ate lunch with one of our investigators. He's been an investigator for 8 years and this next month he'll finally get married and baptized. He has a bigger testimony than a lot of members of the church. Then we had another appointment with some young teenagers and that finished up the day. When we got back to the house I took indicators again, but this phone call lasts longer than the one in Wednesday. There is a lot more follow up needed and then I went to bed happy knowing the next day was Pday.

Today we went and had a BBQ in the park and this park had LLAMAS. I finally saw my first Peruvian llama. It was real fun. The other picture is with my Pensionista and her family.

Have a great week all of you and I love you all! Thanks for the support!

Elder Farnsworth

Peruvian Llama

Pensionista and Family

San Luis Area

Lima (San Luis) Peru – Week 1

Buenas Tardes a todos. This has been a great week here in my new area. Lots of new challenges and excitements. I gave my first training as a district leader and took the weekly indicators. There is still a lot that I need to learn in order to become the best that I can.

My new comp is Elder Villagra and he is from Chile. Haha in Spanish his name sounds like Viagra the drug that men take. So all the time people ask him that and it’s kinda funny - lol - but at least they can pronounce his name. Nobody here can say Farnsworth. Literally nobody........ He's pretty cool, but he's really quiet. So I always have to talk to him or else we won’t talk at all. With time he'll get better. I hope.

This has been a very good and interesting week. My new area, companion and district are great. Now that I have one week here in the area I know the needs of my area and the district. My area that I have is very different than any of my other areas. It is a lot harder to contact and find news here. The people are very cold and not as receptive as some of my other areas. But that just means that we have to change the way that we do things. It’s sad how cold and untrustful the people are here. We knock on the door and they open and close it immediately. Or if we get the opportunity to talk with them they're always "busy" doing nothing. We literally see them get up from watching TV and say that they're doing homework or cooking. In reality they're doing nothing, so we'll have to find a new way to do the work.

I had my training on how to be a District Leader. Let’s just say that there is always something to be done. My free time that I had in the nights isn't my free time anymore. Almost every night I am calling people, filling out papers about the investigators or converts and preparing a training. But I’m very excited and thankful for the opportunity. The pictures are with my old pension and a family from my old area.

Well, have a great week and I love you all.

Elder Farnsworth

Lima (Manchay) Peru – Week 12

Well this week finished up and so did the transfer. Tomorrow I will be leaving for my new area and I'm really excited! I'll be going to an area called San Luis and I'll be a district leader there. So it'll be a very busy transfer with splits, phone calls and meetings. I´m very thankful for the opportunity that the Lord has given me.

Well my last week in Manchay was really good. We had some great lessons and we taught a couple great new investigators. We taught an 18 year old girl that asked us questions that made our heads spin... She is really smart when it comes to the bible and had some really difficult questions. We´d be explaining somethings and then she´d ask, “Where does it say that in the Bible?” So we had to teach the entire lesson out of the scriptures. Everything we said we had to back it up with scriptures, but it was really great. Lessons are so much better when the people interact more and ask questions without us having to ask.

A sad thing that happened was that we were going to have a baptism this last week, but it fell through... In the last 2 weeks we haven´t been able to get a hold of her. So hopefully after I leave the missionaries will be able to find her and help her get baptized. Wow I can’t believe that my time here in Manchay has already come to an end. It has gone by so fast. I feel like it was yesterday that I got here, but really it was 3 months ago. It is crazy how fast the time goes by. My comp and I also did a lot of contacting this past week because we had 2 days where every single one of our appointments fell through.... Contacting when it’s cold and windy and when you´re sick with a cold is absolutely amazing. Haha so we had some fun with that. When you´re contacting all day you start to get a little bored so you've gotta make it a little fun by playing games. Like having to say a weird word or stuff like that. It makes the time go by a little faster. If you don´t contact you won’t find any new investigators. So it is absolutely necessary to do it always.

Well it has been a great week and it’s going to be a great new week. I'm really excited for my new area and calling. Here are some pics from my birthday and from the barber shop where we always got our hair cut. Well, have a great week and pray for me in my new area and my new calling because I'm going to need it.

THANKS AND I LOVE YOU ALL.

Elder Farnsworth

Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Elder Farnsworth

Barbershop

Lima (Manchay) Peru – Week 11

Hola! How's everyone doing? Because everything here is great! It’s been a great week here in the mission! I completed 1 year in the mission, we had a baptism and today is my birthday! I don't think that it can get much better than that. Well it did! Today we went to a sweet car museum and I got an awesome letter from a convert! I can't believe that I have been in the mission for over a year now..... It is absolutely crazy how fast the time has gone by! But I wouldn't trade the experiences, memories and spiritual moments for anything! It has been an amazing first year, and I hoping on an even better second one!

Well our investigator got baptized! So we were very happy about that! It was absolutely amazing to be there! He shared a very powerful testimony about the things that he had learned. I think that he will probably go on the mission one day. Because he'd be an amazing missionary! I didn't baptize him, but I was able to confirm him on Sunday! Which was amazing! It was fast Sunday so it made it that much better! It was a very spiritual Sunday here in Manchay. Kind of sad that none of you came to the baptism... because I invited all of you! But that’s ok! Haha in the pic that I attached he doesn't show that he was happy, but he was very happy in the moment!

Other than the baptism that we had it was a little bit of a harder week. A lot of our appointments fell through because we didn't have someone to accompany us to them..... But we still visited a lot of great people that are progressing! We had some investigators that came to church on Sunday that we hadn't seen for a while so we were able to make an appointment to go and visit them. The thing that is really hard about Manchay is that only women are here during the day and we can't visit them when they're home alone unless we have someone accompany us. Because we never have one we can't visit them. At night when their husbands are at home they say no because the men typically don't want to receive us in their houses. So that’s a little bit about Manchay.
Oh and I received an amazing letter from a convert this week and I'd like to share some of it with you!
Elder Farnsworth Hi, I'm Cristofer of Vitarte - San Gregario, in case you do not remember, you could not go to my baptism because you switched to Manchay few days earlier. Well Farnsworth I want to say I'm glad I met you, and I am active in church, participating in activities, blessing the sacrament and may receive a calling later. Just the yesterday I completed two months in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I feel good to know and belong to the true church. I also want to tell you that my mother is going to church (who isn't a member) and I'm thinking a lot about the mission, I would have liked to have accompanied you one night. I was told that on August 7 is your birthday, and decided to say hello and write a few days before. I hope you have a good time. I know it will not be with your family, but you had a good time taking the gospel to many people and bring them to the church and that they can baptize, as you did it to me. Thank you very much for being in my life Elder Farnsworth. I thank God for that. For getting in my way for good. I hope to meet again one day and so we can talk about different things as FRIENDS !!
I LOVE YOU!!
YOUR FRIEND CRISTOFER
So that is the best thing that you can receive from a convert!

For my one year mark my mom sent me a camel to say that I finally got over the hump of my mission! Haha I laughed when I saw it. It was a great present! And also a letter about the relations between a missionary and a camel! It was great!

We went to an old car museum that was really cool! They have some really old cars. It was a little expensive on a missionary budget, but it was so worth it! Well thanks for all of the birthday wishes and I hope you all have an awesome week!

LOVE, Elder Farnsworth

Baptism

Hump Day - August 2

Happy Birthday

Mission Friends

Cool Jeep

SWEET Mustang