Peru - Week One

Hola! This past week has been crazy, amazing, sad, exciting and many other things. I don't even know where to start.... Ok so we went to the airport and we had the opportunity to call home. But I couldn't get the stupid phones to work. I tried using my calling card, my debit card and nothing worked. I was running all over the airport to try to find a phone that worked. I was almost dripping in sweat. But then I said a prayer and I went to find my other missionaries to tell them that I was going to wait by our gate for the plane. One of the sister missionaries asked if I had talked with my family and I told her no. She had gotten the phone to work so she sacrificed her time to talk with her family to let me talk with mine. That was an answer to my prayer. Here is a great scripture about prayers. 3Nephi 27:29 – Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened. I love that. It’s so true. If it’s important to you, it’s important to the Lord. So then we arrived in Peru about 6am. It took us 2.5 hours to drive across the city to get to the mission home. When we got there we met our companions. My companion is Elder Salazar; he lives in Piura, Peru. And he knows a little English and I know a little Spanish. So we often talk using my dictionary. Haha so that’s pretty fun! But I love it! The drivers here are absolutely crazy. They are the worst drivers I've ever seen. They don’t yield to you, you yield to them. Haha, so I've almost been hit a couple times..... Oh and our apartment is interesting..... Haha, you'll know why from the pictures. Oh and I definitely think that I'll get fat here. The food is so good and they feed you so much! And you have to eat all of the food they give you, because it’s rude if you don't eat all of it. I've eaten somethings that I don't necessarily like, but I have to eat them. Green beans, bananas and a lot of tomatoes. But for the most part it is super good! Rice, potatoes, chicken, beans and that’s primarily what we eat! We have a lady make our lunch and breakfast. She is a very good cook! Oh and I finally got to try Inca Kola!! It’s amazing!!!!! But I'm not going to get fat because of three things.

1. We do a ton of walking
2. I exercise everyday by doing a lot of sit-ups, pushups and my comp and I ran for the first time today. Yeah I don't think he likes running.
3. Because I burn a lot of calories during my shower trying to stay warm.

Yes I have cold showers.... But I love it; at least I get to take a shower. But I wish I could take a picture of the facial expressions during it! Sorry I can't write more..... I've gotta go! I'll try to write more next week!!

Elder Tyler Farnsworth

Tyler with his companion Elder Salazar

Peru Lima East - Mission President

Dear Farnsworth Family,
Just a quick note to thank you for sharing Elder Farnsworth with us and the people of Lima. Sister Boswell and I are so excited to have him here with us. We wanted to share this picture with you from our first day. Elder Farnsworth is out working hard. You should have received a brief email from him Tuesday. He'll have lots of news next Monday, which is our preparation day. Once every three months we change preparation day to Tuesday so the missionaries can attend the temple. On that day, missionaries write home on Tuesday. Thanks again for the support and prayers you are offering on his behalf. They make a difference.

We send our best wishes to you all,

President and Sister Boswell

Peru Lima East Mission - Day One

Hey I'm just emailing you that I made it to Perù. It took us 2.5 hours to get from the airport to the mission office. And then we met our companions and had a few short classes. Now I am officially out in the field. We stopped by our house to drop my stuff off and now we are out. I couldn't find my camera cord so I can't send pictures........ But I'll find it in my bag and I'll send them to you next week! My comp is from Perù and he speaks only a little English. So it’s kinda hard to communicate with him. It was kinda sad to leave my friends from the CCM. But I’ll see them every once in a while. Well I don't have much more time... So I'll talk to you next week! You should be receiving an email from the president with a picture of us. He is one of the nicest guys I've ever met! Well I've gotta go, I love you and I'll give you a lot more info next week!

Mexico City CCM - Last Day

¡Hola! I'll give a quick update before I leave for Perú tonight. I'm all packed and ready to go! All I've gotta do is wait. Which is hard to do because I'm excited to get there! I'll have a lot to share in my next letter because a big change is coming to my life. But I'm super excited. Here are some pics from the last couple days. Sorry it’s not more! Next week will be a lot!! I love you all and hope you have a great week!! Love, Elder Farnsworth

Beatles???

Last day with Elder Jones from home.

I think I'm ready.  YES!  I'm ready for Peru!

Mexico City CCM - Week 5

¡Hola! This was a really slow week! So not a lot to talk about.. Nothing really exciting happened. We learned more Spanish and learned how to teach. We're all just focused on leaving for Perú on Monday! We leave Mexico City at midnight and land in Perú at 6 am... And I can´t sleep on planes so it’s going to be a very long day! But it’ll be worth it! I am super proud of myself! Over the course on my time here in Mexico City I have gained 15 pounds! And I finally broke 150lbs for the first time in my life! But I'm not fat! I've gone to the gym everyday and lifted weights for about 20 min and then played soccer for the next 40 min. I have tried to gain weight for years and it finally happened! But I'm probably just going to lose it all in Perú because I'll be walking so much! Oh the other thing that I'm proud about is I happy to say that I am fluent in Spanglish! I can understand most Latinos if they speak slow enough. But when they speak fast the only thing I can understand is the first and last words of the sentence. Everything else just slurs together. It’s amazing though how much I've learned in such a short amount of time! I had my first complete Spanish conversation with my teacher. The hardest part about Spanish is the conjugations for all for the verbs. Especially irregular ones. They make life really difficult! It’s just all pure memorization. But other than that it’s pretty easy. On Tuesday night we had a devotional by D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. It was really good! He said a quote that I really liked by David O. McKay, "It’s better to be trusted than to be loved." That's so true and especially in the mission field. Being trusted by your mission president is what I hope to gain someday! Because if he can trust me then I know that I am doing something right. The topic of his talk was Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts. It was really good! I actually stayed awake during that one. Because some of the speakers that we have is like listening to spa music that just puts you to sleep..... Ha-ha maybe I shouldn´t have shared that.... But for the most part I stay awake during the devotionals. It’s hard because they're really comfy seats and the lights are dimmed..... Oh and last night we had the fiesta of a lifetime in our house last night. We went to the store and bought a bunch of stuff. In the picture attached. We celebrated making it through the CCM. So that was a lot of fun! We also had sewing lessons from a Hermana in our district. But I didn't need it because I have a great mom who already taught me! So that happened this week. Sorry it’s a little dry and boring.... Next week I'll have a lot to share because of getting to Perú and my first week in the mission field! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Talk to you soon! Love, Elder Farnsworth

Sewing lesson from a sweet Hermana.

Soccer Injury

Private Stash

District Fiesta to celebrate almost being done at the MTC

District "Tag" photo

Mexico City CCM - Week 4

¡Hola! Buenos Diaz! It’s crazy that today is already September 1st! One more week down at the CCM! Only 1.5 more weeks until Perú!!! I'm super excited to get there! Even though my Spanglish isn't very good yet. When I talk most people will have a confused look on their face and think "who is this crazy, tall, white American and what language is he speaking." I can't wait until the day that I can speak fluently!! It will be a great day! But it’s going to take a lot more hard work to get there. I've been praying that I get a native trainer when I get to Perú! One that doesn´t speak English. Because I've heard that you always learn the language the best and the quickest that way. And so it’s either I learn the language and we talk or I stumble over my words and can't really talk with him! So I'm basically forced to learn. Not a lot of interesting things happened this week... It was just another week in the CCM. There was one thing that was amazing though. In the Tuesday night devotional, the choir sang the EFY Medley (As Sisters in Zion and Bring the World His Truth). There were probably 300 of us singing in the choir, so it was really powerful. It brought a bunch of people to tears. Except for me, I never cry. (; And we sang it in Spanish so that made it even more cool! What else happened this week........ Oh Yeah!!!! Another fellow Idahoan came this week! I was super excited! Hunter and I had a couple classes together this past year at Timberline. He's the only person that I knew before I came here. And he brought a package from back home! I loved the package! I asked my mom to send some pics of family and friends! But most importantly pics of Annie and Selena (my dog and my car). I think I've looked at those pics the most! So I have lots of love for my Family right now. I want to congratulate my brother for running his first high school cross country race! He beat my very first time! So that's good! Other than the things that I've said nothing interesting has happened this week.... I'm going to try to share my testimony in Spanish. It won’t be perfect, but what I'm trying to say is true. Estoy comparto mí testimonio en Español. Yo sé que Jesucristo es mí Salvador, El morrir poe me y por ustedes. A traves de Jesucristo nosotros podemos vivir con sus familias y Dios otra vez por eternidad. Dios ama todas personas: blanco, negro, latinos, americanos y mí canadian compañero. Yosé que José Smith resterado la verdad Iglesia di Jesucristo. Y El translado El Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios y es verdadero. A traves de Su Expacion nosotros podemos limpiar de nuestro picados con arrepentimento. Yo sé que mediante oracion nosotros podemos hablar con DIos. Dios simpre eschuchar a nuestro oraciones. Thomas S. Monson es la profets de Dios en este dia. El es la guía por este iglesia. Si nosotros seguir los mandamientos de Dios, nosotros reciban muchas bendieciones. Yo sé todos cosas es verdad. En el Nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!!
Elder Tyler Farnsworth

Captain Moroni statue Grandpa and Grandma Mann gave Tyler when he turned 12.

Elder Farnsworth and Elder Jones

Two friends from Boise pointing to where they will be serving.

Mexico City CCM - Week 3

Mexico City CCM – Week 3 ¡Hola! !Buenos Tardes! One more week down. It was just like any other week. Learned a lot, tried not to fall asleep in classes. This past week we´ve been working on memorizing scriptures and the first vision. It’s hard memorizing things as it is, but in a different language it’s even harder. But you you feel accomplished when you do. I had the best day ever last Friday. The day started off slow. But after lunch is when it became awesome. We stopped by the post office on the way back to class. And I got a package. My entire life was made; in the package was a case of Dr. Peppers!!!! Thanks Mom! I'll love you forever because of that! But then there was a problem of getting it cold, because ice is a scarcity down here. And there’s no access to a fridge. But I met a guy that works in the kitchen and now he is my hook up for ice. Then after all of the classes were over when we were heading back to the house. It was pouring rain and I didn't have my umbrella that day. So I ran the half mile to my house. It was kind of fun getting soaked wearing a shirt and tie. But it was fun because that'll be a memory for a while. I still remember when my mom and I were in DC and we got poured on and it looked like we went swimming in our clothes. My comp and I taught the best lesson ever this past week. A lot of our devotionals and lessons were on Faith. Here is my favorite scripture about Faith. Alma 32:21 "And now as I said concerning faith - faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." I love that! I think that is one of the best things that I'll be able to teach people. Give them hope and help them. Faith is one of the most important aspects of religion. Without faith there is nothing. We are all so blessed that we have faith, but I feel even more blessed that I get the opportunity to help people find Faith. Another thing that I did this week was teach a real member who volunteered to let us teach her. I think that it went pretty well! Besides the fact that I only understood about 20% of what she said.... And she talked really fast and slurred all of her words together. I also had a hard time getting out what I wanted to say. But it’s not me that needs to do the talking, it’s the spirit. I felt it and I'm pretty sure that she did too. So that good! Another cool experience I had was after one of our devotionals. We were supposed to talk about what was said. But because it was in Spanish and our translator spoke really bad Spanglish. So we had no idea what was said. So we talked about family conversion stories. I talked about Grandma Glo. If it wasn't for her joining the church and be a great example to me, I probably wouldn’t be here. Thanks Glo, I love you! And last night we had the most rain I've ever seen! No joke there was about 3 inches of standing water on roads flowing onto the sidewalks. We were eating dinner when the majority of the rain came down, so we sat at the window watching everyone run to dinner. One person legit fell and rolled through a puddle. I laughed really hard.... I felt kind of bad but we talked to the person and he laughed about it too so I didn't feel as bad. I got my hair cut today...... I was sitting there and I see big clumps of my hair falling off and my eyes got huge... They normally ask if you want a 2, 3 or 4 on your sides. She didn't ask and I'm pretty sure it’s like a 2. There is a picture attached with my reaction of the haircut. I also got to take my first nap today! I loved it! (I have a picture attached of it.) Well I hope that you all have a great week! Crazy that I only have 2.5 more weeks here! I'm looking forward to hearing from you next week!
Love, Elder Tyler Farnsworth