Lima (San Gregorio) Peru – Week 16

Well another week has gone by and now it is only one week until Mother’s Day. I’m pretty sure that my mom is more excited to skype than I am! (; Do I skype her or a girl??? Haha jk If I skyped a girl and not her she would probably come here and kill me or something like that. Haha better not do that!
Well this was a good week! My comp and I had a lot of success finding new investigators! We gave two of them baptismal dates and they accepted! So that’s good! The month of June will be a really good month for this area. We are teaching a couple families that have the potential of being baptized that month. And 4 of the 5 families are married so that makes it easier! But we'll see how it goes! My comp has asked me so many times why we keep on finding new people, but not only people, families. I say it’s because of obedience. He and I have been working hard on obeying with exactness and I think that it has been paying off!

Well this morning we had some down time and I did a lot of thinking about things I’ve learned and how many blessings I truly have. One of those blessings is that my parents were such a great example to me as I was growing up. I didn’t give much thought to it then, but now I can see it all and it makes sense! I am so blessed!! I’m even more blessed to be able to know the knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! And now I have right now the amazing opportunity to share it with as many people as possible! The best part about this knowledge that I have is that I have a loving Heavenly Father who does everything for me, and has given me everything. It is my responsibility to share it with the people and that makes me so happy.

Well the pics are when I found a Dr Pepper, calling my parents today (to set up Mother’s Day Skype) and some pics with a missionary. Well have a great day and talk with you next week!!

Love,
Elder Farnsworth

I found Dr Pepper in Peru!

Calling Home to set up Mother's Day Skype

Missionary Friend

Lima (San Gregorio) Peru – Week 15

Buenas Tardes! Como están? Well all is good here! It’s finally starting to cool down! I’ve had to wear a sweater a couple times! I’m glad because I’m so sick of summer and the heat! Haha but I bet in a couple weeks more I'll want summer back!

Well this week was a good week! Not a ton happened, but we talked with a lot of good people! We weren’t able to see our people that have baptismal dates... So that worries me a little bit. We also dropped one of our investigators... This is sad because we became close with her and know that she has the desire to be baptized. But she recently, as of about a month, has a new boyfriend.... and ever since he came into her life she became more and more distant with us and always canceled our appointments with her. Well not cancel just wasn’t there... I never like dropping investigators. It’s one of the hardest things to do. I feel like we're just giving up on them, but in reality they gave up on us. I always feel like there is more to do when there is nothing to do. Sometimes you just have to let people make and learn from their decisions. It’s all a part of life.

I read a really great talk this past week from the Ensign. It is called WAR GOES ON, by Elder Lawrence. It talks about the different ways that Satan try’s to tempt us. Here is a part from it that I really liked!

It is important to know that there are limits to the power of evil. The Godhead sets those limits, and Satan is not allowed to cross them. For example, the scriptures assure us that “power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children” (D&C 29:47). Another significant limitation is that Satan does not know our thoughts unless we tell him. The Lord explained, “There is none else save God that knowest thy thoughts and the intents of thy heart” (D&C 6:16). Perhaps this is why the Lord has given us commandments such as “Do not murmur” (D&C 9:6) and “Thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor” (D&C 42:27). If you can learn to bridle your tongue (see James 1:26), you won’t end up giving too much information to the devil. When he hears murmuring, complaining, and criticizing, he takes careful notes. Your negative words expose your weaknesses to the enemy."

This is something that really called my attention! It’s something that we can all do better to protect us from the temptations of him. So we always need to be conscious of what we say. Here is the link for the rest of the talk: https://www.lds.org/liahona/2017/04/war-goes-on?lang=eng

Well that is all for the week! Have a great one! I love you all!

Elder Farnsworth

Lima (San Gregorio) Peru – Week 14

Hola! Que tal? Well this week flew by and I don't know where it went! It feels like it was Pday yesterday. The time seriously just flies by! Well ok where do I start.....? Well something really cool that normally doesn't happen happened! After not having a lot of new people these past couple weeks, this week was pretty good. But the best part is that they're 2 complete families! This is really hard to find! But they are super great! They have a lot of potential. Just need to work with them and they need to do their part and pray to know if these things are true. But they truly are amazing! Hmmm what more happened this week....? Really other than those families. Sooooo... Hmmm what to say...

Oh yeah! This week I went on splits with one of the assistants! His name is Elder Acuña. He is my grandpa in the mission. Because he is my trainers trainer. I went to his area. Wow let’s just say that it was a great day! I was able to learn a lot from him on how I can become a better missionary. There are always things that you can improve! I also had my first hot shower in more than 3 months! This was really nice! I also know what a great missionary should be because he is a great missionary. He really is just one of the nicest people that I've met. He’s always trying to help other people. He is what I would call a consecrated missionary. So those things that I learned I’m applying so that I can become a better missionary and see more miracles and tender mercies of the Lord.

Here is something that I like from the Ensign this month that we can learn from. It’s an excerpt from the talk of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
The Rabbi and the Soap Maker
There is an old Jewish tale about a soap maker who did not believe in God. One day as he was walking with a rabbi, he said, “There is something I cannot understand. We have had religion for thousands of years. But everywhere you look there is evil, corruption, dishonesty, injustice, pain, hunger, and violence. It appears that religion has not improved the world at all. So I ask you, what good is it?”

The rabbi did not answer for a time but continued walking with the soap maker. Eventually they approached a playground where children, covered in dust, were playing in the dirt.

“There is something I don’t understand,” the rabbi said. “Look at those children. We have had soap for thousands of years, and yet those children are filthy. What good is soap?”

The soap maker replied, “But rabbi, it isn’t fair to blame soap for these dirty children. Soap has to be used before it can accomplish its purpose.”

The rabbi smiled and said, “Exactly.” "

So what can we learn from this? We need to truly apply the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives to make a difference. Because it'll always be there just like the soap, but it depends on us if we truly use it for the good that it has. So I challenge all of you to truly apply the gospel in your lives to make a difference not only in your life, but also in the lives of others! And here is the rest of the talk for you to read!
https://www.lds.org/liahona/2017/04/the-just-shall-live-by-faith?cid=HP_MO_17-4-2017_dPFD_fLHNA_xLIDyL1-A_&lang=eng

Well that’s my letter for the week! I love you all and have a great week!
Elder Farnsworth

Lima (San Gregorio) Peru – Week 13

Hola! Wow this first week of the transfer flew by! But at the same time it was really slow! Haha kind of weird! But I learned a lot this week. Well not a lot, but a very good lesson!

Well this was the first week of my 3rd transfer here in San Gregorio. Like I said I learned a good lesson for the future. So 2 weeks ago we had a lot of baptisms, and during this transfer my companion and I focused a lot of our time and energy on those people and let’s just say we put off a little bit of contacting and finding new investigators...... So now we don’t have a lot... We still have investigators to teach and stuff. But you can't teach the same investigators all day every day. This week we had a lot of blanks in our daily calendar, so we did a lot of contacting. Which I’m not going to lie..... I really don’t like it... It’s not that I have fear of it; it’s just that fact that 99% of contacts go absolutely nowhere. Yes I know that we need to be contacting for that 1% because we can potentially help them change their lives. So this is something that I need to improve as a missionary. The balance of teaching and finding new investigators at the same time!

We do have people that we're working with which is great! Because they're super great! They both came to church yesterday and their minds about the church are changing for the good! A while back they weren’t so sure about all of the teachings. But, because we've had a few good people from the ward helping us they are accepting the teachings more. Also General Conference helped them too with their testimony. Especially the talk from President Monson about the Book of Mormon! Well we'll see how they come along! I have a cool story to tell. Last night my companion and I were just walking to different investigators to try and have a lesson because like I said we didn't have a lot scheduled. I was tired after a long week and a little disappointed and it was getting to the time where we could go to dinner and then finish for the week. I said a little prayer in my mind that we could encounter at least someone to talk with. We were walking and I saw a house with a light on and I was like, hmmm I’m going to knock on the door because there is somebody there. Not really thinking about my prayer that I had said, a guy of about 30 years came to the door and we presented ourselves. I asked if we could come in for 10 min to share a lesson about Jesus Christ, and he thought and contemplated it. Eventually he let us in and we didn't even say anything and he was like yeah I was baptized like 18 years ago but I haven't attended for like 15 years. He was wondering if someone from the church had sent us and we told him no that it wasn´t that. He said with us there it brought back a lot of good memories and feelings from when he attended the church. His wife isn't a member so we made an appointment to go back and visit with them. I don’t know if it will lead anywhere, but it was an answer to my prayer.

Well that is my week! I hope you all have a great week! My pics are from Pday today with that flag we made as a district and a pic from inside my new house, the first rainbow that I have seen in Peru and a pic of us pulling a huge wardrobe up 3 stories with rope that was similar to shoe string!

Elder Farnsworth

District Flag

New Apartment

Rainbow

Moving a dresser with a Shoestring

Lima (San Gregorio) Peru – Week 12

Wow what a week! Lots of great things happened here! It was one of the best weeks of my mission so far!

Well I'll start with the Vasquez family! After lots of time and hard work, they were married on Saturday morning! The sad thing is that I wasn’t able to attend...... I had another meeting I had to attend. But, we were able to stop by after and take a picture with them! They were so happy that day and so was I! This day was nowhere close to as awesome as Sunday when they were baptized! What and amazing experience! They were baptized and then later confirmed! Let’s just say that the Spirit was super strong during their confirmation and then even stronger after during the sacrament. I feel like on Sunday I really understood the significance of the sacrament and how we can apply it to our lives because I was thinking a lot about baptism and a bunch of other things. Haha I don’t exactly know how to describe it. Feelings are something that you can’t really describe. But it just strengthend my testimony of the atoning sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. Especially during this time of year with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, it is something really important that we need to understand and apply in our lives.

We also had the baptism of Hodary on Saturday! This was also was really amazing! It doesn't matter who it is, when someone makes the decision to follow the example and be baptized it is something amazing! Especially when they are as young as she is. The world is really bad these days and young people don’t normally participate much in religion. But, she made the decision on her own to be baptized and she's the type of person that'll stay active in the church! Hopefully, she will make the decision to serve a mission!

Haha and something that I found really funny was when we went to visit the Vasquez family in the night. She told me that she was very impressed about my feet. And I was like what? And she said well when I saw your feet at the baptism they were so white and clean. And I was like well I take great pride in my clean white feet! Haha I had no idea that white clean feet were such a cool thing! But after this we talked with them more and now their goal is to be sealed in the temple in one year! I'll be able to go because I'll still be in the mission! I’m so happy and excited for them!

Like I said earlier, this coming Sunday is Easter. The church put out a video for Easter that I watched and I think is super great. I want all of you to watch it! Here is the link:
https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_SU_9-4-2017_dMIS_fMORG_xLIDyL1-A_
I hope you all enjoy it! Well have a great week! Oh and I have one more transfer in my area with the same comp! Well this is the first time that I'll have the same comp for 2 transfers! Haha we'll see how it goes!

Hasta Luego!
Elder Farnsworth

Passion Fruit

Service Project

Vasquez Wedding

Vasquez Baptism

Hodary Baptism

Lima (San Gregorio) Peru – Week 11

Heyyy everyone! What an amazing opportunity we just had over the weekend! I hope that many of you had the opportunity to listen to General Conference. It was absolutely amazing! As my mission president said “we were all spiritually recharged for the next 6 months."

Well I have some really good news about the Vasquez family! After having so many problems with their wedding papers, they're going to get married and baptized! I’m seriously really excited for them! From the first day we met them when they didn’t want anything to do with us to being baptized and having the goal to be sealed in the temple. It has seriously been such an honor to have the opportunity to know them and teach them and to be able to see them progress every time we visited them. Well, I'll be sure to send a lot of pics next Monday!

We will also have the baptism of Hodary on Saturday! So this weekend will be a great weekend!

Back to conference! One of my favorite talks were all of them! Haha I can’t choose between them! Because I took things out of all of them to apply to my life! One I really liked was one by and old mission president of the Spokane WA mission. And that we need to love people like Jesus loves them. And also from President Monson that we need to have charity! Because if we don’t have charity to the people we are nothing! And also all the talks about the Holy Ghost! Wow there are so many things that I can just go on about! Next week after I review my notes I'll tell you more about this!

Well this is all for the week!

The pictures that are below
 • one with the missionaries that are living in my house
 • Then there are some with a monkey.
 • one of a sweet sunset that I saw!

Well have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Tyler Farnsworth

Apartment Elders

My monkey friend

Sweet Sunset

Lima (San Gregorio) Peru – Week 10

Hey everyone! How’s everyone doing?? It’s all good here! It’s finally starting to cool down after being so hot! The nights are getting cooler too so it’s not as hot when I sleep. It was a good week and it was a bad week... What do you want to hear first??? Ok, I'll start with the bad. Well... The Vasquez family didn't get baptized.... Or married.... Because they had some problems with their wedding papers. But, I think it'll all be ready for the 8th of April! So that’s what we're planning on. It was kind of disappointing that it didn’t happen this weekend. But it’s good that it’s still going to happen. They're all ready! Just need to wait for the day! We went with them to the temple Thursday night and it was amazing! For one, the temple is really pretty at night and they loved it. They want to be sealed there one year after their baptisms so that they can be sealed for time and all eternity. So that’s great! 

Hayde came to church for the second week in a row and she's getting excited for her baptism on the 8th of April! It took us a long time to convince her to come to church. Like we're talking weeks.... But when she finally came and she loved it! So I think that she'll be all ready for the 8th!

We had a person come to church for the first time yesterday. Her name is Baledia and she is 17 years old. She really liked church and so I think that we'll probably give her a baptism date this week!

Well the good news is that General Conference is this weekend! We have the amazing opportunity to hear from the prophet and apostles! And to learn a ton! I’m super-duper excited for this! I hope all of you are too! And the other good news is that I got a package from my loving mother! It was filled with straight candy and a tie. Let’s just say I had a massive sugar rush. And the tie is super awesome! Well that’s all I’ve got this week! Have a good one! BYE!

Elder Farnsworth

Lima Peru Temple

Favorite new tie.