It was amazing to the reminders of what we are, who we are and what we stand for. (11/10/14)

Dear Mother and All,

This week has been a great week! It included probably one of the greatest days of my mission! The weather is really crazy, we got snow on Thursday and it seem to be Christmas. Not really just really starting to feel like it! I love living in Stockholm more than anything else. I don't understand why anyone lives anywhere else. This is the dang place to be. I love where I live. In Hornstull, when we tell people that they are always surprised and jealous of how close we are to the city, I am sure if they saw the size of our apartment they would very quickly loose their jealousy. Needless to say, we are just nice and cozy at home. I will take some pictures next time we are on them, they are like NYC subways but like a million times cleaner. Okay... gross story. We were on the train and I was kinda not thinking just relaxing, looking out the window and watching everyone at the different stations we were going past. When we pulled up to a station I see this women that doesn't seem to be doing anything weird at all. Then she just leaned up against this wall and pulls her pants down! AHHH... She was going to the bathroom. I like yelled on the train, it was terrible. But I guess that is what happens when Sweden doesn't have free bathrooms. The worst thing about the entire situation is that is not my first experience with this. It 2014 but I guess not everyone has gotten the memo. #ew

On Saturday, we had a glorious day. I will start from the beginning. We started off with a baptism here in Hägersten, the other Elders had two people that were doing that! It was great and just an awesome service, the greatest part for me was that Sofia came from Linköping came! The Linköping branch is in Stockholm to have a temple day, so she was able to come from the Temple Guest House for that. Then it gets better, we went back to the Temple with her and we did baptisms for the dead with her and the members from the Linköping branch, it was so great to see them and catch up with all of them.  It reminded me how many people I have served with, that is a small branch and seeing them all just reminded me how great they all are. Then after baptisms were over, the other Elders came and we did a session in the Temple. Amazing. Seriously, incredible. It was amazing to have the reminders of what we are, who we are what we stand for! I loved it so much, it made me really excited to be home and be able to go all the time. I loved it.

After the temple we met back up with Sofia and we went into Stockholm to get some food. She wanted to take us out somewhere nice (she is a saint)  so we went into Gamla Stan (Old Town) which is like the NICE part of town and we went to a 5 star restaurant, I honestly couldn't believe it. The meal was heavenly... I got Reindeer. I am so sorry Rudolph, but his brother was very yummy. I loved it. We had a great time and it was seriously like the nicest trip ever, but the greatest nice didn't even stop there!

We then went to Stockholm Central to meet with our most promising investigator. We took him to the YSA center and taught him there. The center is like a cool building in the middle of Stockholm where youth can go and they have activities and stuff. We talked with him a lot about baptism and how important that step was for him to take! We ended with him decided that he wanted to take that step! It was so excited! We are going to be getting a firm date this week but we are really excited! 

Well I am not feeling like writing a ton this week, so I am going to cut it short and just let you all know that I love Sweden, just in case you didn't know. This place has a spirit to it, and I believe with my whole heart, that even though, not everyone wants to listen all the time, the moral standards are remarkable low, and people are pooping in the streets... The Lord is here and he is blessing the lives of people here. I love to be a SMALL part of that. What a gift? I am going to be singing in church pretty soon, so get yourselves ready for that. Oh man... How great is this church? I love it. 

OH BIG SHOUT OUT TO MY WARD. HOLY BEST PACKAGE EVER! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. THANK YOU A TON. 

Don't worry about me, I am still skinny and loving it. haha

Your Swede, 

Äldste Farnworth

#sabbathdayselfies generally make any day brighter. (11/3/14)

Dear All, 

Well this week has been a really fast one! Time is just becoming to fast to handle. It is a really good thing though, because when time goes fast that generally means that good things are happening! And they are! 

Thanks to the iPhone Editing.. I am slowly becoming a H&M model... 

On Tuesday we met with this man from Iraq. He was the nicest man ever, really humble and just very plainly wanted to know about our church. The lesson went great! Probably the best lesson I have had in a really long time! It was really neat. Something that was cool about him, is when we asked him to be baptized he really wanted to be sure that we was making the right choice. So we showed him that in Moroni 10: 3-5 it tells us exactly how he could know for himself. He seemed really pumped and so happy! Teaching with a new missionary is so different then being with companions older then you (which has been more than half my mission) but I like it a lot. It is really cool to see what Elder Nielsen can say really well. He can't talk about deep doctrine, he can't explain entire lessons, but he studies what he found to be most important, his personal testimony. I wish you could all hear him testify about the sprint. He spirit is so strong as he relies on it completely to carry him through! It really is a neat experience. Teaching is going great!

"Hey! Would you like to learn about the Mormons!?"

Halloween. Not very big here, to bad. But the stake had their first "Trunk or Treat" yes... The tradition of "the Utah Mormons" have made it all the way here to Sweden. Probably the funniest thing is explaining what a trunk or treat is to the ward members: "...then we all go outside and the kids go around and ask for candy from people trunks!" Haha they were pretty confused but the part went really well actually! Halloween isn't even a holiday here so it was really funny to see what people did. Walking through Stockholm that night was a really interesting experience for sure. No complains. The tradition that they do have here is SO cool. The day after our Halloween, with no relation to our holiday in Sweden it is tradition to light and place candles on the grave stones of your loved ones. So after the party a bunch of missionaries all went to a graveyard and it was seriously so cool. I have some pictures for that!

My Halloween Costume! #systerwilhite

We were already in Stockholm to help a member with service.. And we though we would treat ourselves to come good food for dinner! 

Well a little update on the weather... The sun is currently going down at about 3:45pm. And it is raining season. So basically, cold, dark, coldness, and more darkness. I am living the dream. I actually don't mind the dark at all. The only bummer is that it becomes a little creepy to stop people in the dark and ask them about the gospel. We haven't had to many positive moments with that... Haha but other than that all it really great with the weather! I have a bunch of warm clothes and I can't complain!

#sabbathdayselfies generally make any day brighter.

We have met with a lot of Africans this week. Sometimes I think I am living in Ghana. It is awesome, let me tell you. Africa has it right, spiritually and physically! I love African food! Last night for Sunday dinner we went to this member that we call Mama Phyllis and we had a dish called Fufu [foo-foo] it was so good. There is a twist though, you eat with your hands! So basically fufu is just a dough type stuff that is hard to describe but you have that and then they cover it in soup that usually has fish, chicken, lamb, or beef. Then you grab some fufu with your hands dip it in the sauce and throw it in your mouth, but you DON'T chew the fufu you just swallow it whole. It is really unlike anything else but it was really good!

Remember... Don't chew it. 

So as always I have a blast with the other elders here. Last week for P day we went to this arena and we took a glass ball tour to the top! It is really hard to explain exactly what we did so I will just send pictures... But it was a great time. I really like these guys.

So we got into this....

... And we went up there!

Life is good. No worries about Elder Farnworth. I am continuing to miss Gälve a ton, my companion is funny. When I talk about someone he doesn't know he asks: "Does this person live in Utah or Gävle?" I guess I refer to both of them as home to much! Hehe!

Prayer is real. I know this, Sofia mother got really sick and it was a hard thing so I asked the members of our zone to pray for her and she really is making a ton of progress. Such an amazing thing.

We met with the Record Preservation couple and they gave a really cool tour!

They take pictures of the old Swedish book for FamilySearch! My new dream mission!

So continue to pray and have faith. I love you all, and miss you! Have a great week! I know I will!

Äldste Farnworth