#85 - Free At Last! / District Conference

Dear Family and Friends, April 18, 2011

     First, I'd like to add to the reports given by Sister Terry. Elder Ke. and Elder Om. are free. Ghanaian justice being what is it, the prosecution has appeal rights to a finding of not-guilty. What? But I doubt they'll try it. One friend very wisely pointed out that, while the original trial was widely publicized, the overturn will not be. Why? Because it doesn't make us look bad, and therefore is uninteresting. They called us on Friday night, and we talked. Elder Om. has been reassigned to the Sierra Leone, Freetown mission. He is currently requesting up to 10 months be added to his mission, so that he could spend 24 months proselyting, as he agreed to do. What a stud!

     We went to the temple this week. I was really needing it. President talks about using these opportunities as a chance to recharge. Having gone nearly 5 months without a temple trip, I realized exactly how low my batteries were when I first came in. What a relief, then, to be there! The session was packed, as other missionaries had pointed out theirs had been earlier in the week. Why? Well, interesting story. Things in the Ivory Coast have gotten worse. While the former president has been captured, his supporters are fighting worse than before. The mission home in Cote D'Ivoire has been completely ransacked, with all the computers and vans being taken. Missionary work has been suspended, and all native missionaries have been sent home (earlier, the non-natives had been reassigned). The border is completely closed, which is where the real beauty of this story comes in. The temple sessions have been packed because a group of Ivorians had come over before the border was closed to visit the temple. Even with the conflict, the Ivorian saints had been regulars at the temple. Now, they are stuck over here. I don't know anything about their living arrangements, but they are now spending all their time doing Temple work. What a blessing it must be, in a time of turmoil, to be constantly in the most peaceful place on earth. I know the work they are doing there will bless their homeland.

     The other really great experience was the District Conference. Now, I love conferences as much as the next guy, but sometimes, they just seem a little dull. Not this one. Part of it was that 6 of the 8 speakers were finishing their assignments, 2 on that day, soon. This would be the last Abomosu District conference for President and Sister Smith, Elder and Sister Terry, and Elder and Sister Ab. (in their function as full time missionaries). There was a wonderful spirit about the chapel. A LOT of work had been done to invite friends, and prominent members of the community. Every one had come prepared to listen divine instruction, and the Lord rewarded that. Elder and Sister Ab. shone as bright examples of the Ghanaian saints. They are people of faith, of understanding, working hard to share a beautiful thing with their people. Elder and Sister Terry, seasoned Africa missionaries, bore simple testimony of this work, and all the saints responded. The congregation was invited to raise their hands if the Terrys had visited them in the homes. Every hand was up. Amazing what good two people can do. Then it was President and Sister Smith. They have spent the last 5 years in Ghana. They know and love the people of Ghana more than you could imagine. President talked of his first Sacrament meeting in Ghana, surrounded by people who looked nothing like him who could not understand him. He said the Spirit of God whispered to him, "These are your brothers and sisters. Love them and serve them." He then talked about what he has learned in Ghana. The point that stuck out to me most was the great faith inherent in the people. Anyone will tell you, I love my country. But I began to realize, as President pointed out, the Lord is withdrawing His spirit from our land. As we continue to reject Him, and trample His laws, He allows us to go. Not so in Ghana. The people here love God. They seek after Him. Missionaries back home can go a few weeks without a serious lesson, or a new investigator. President pointed out, on his mission, he went 12 weeks with only a single lesson. Here, I can find 10 new investigators every week. The Spirit of God is being poured out on Africa, and this continent will find peace as it accepts the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. More temples will be built, conflicts will calm down, and Africa will be a mighty land in the near future. I intend to come back, many times if possible. Then he pointed out the great lesson I loved. It may sound offensive to those who were not there, but if you knew President Smith, and were in attendance, you would know it was not. He pointed out that the great hold-up in the Church in Africa is the people have not yet fully understood what sacrifice means. "Many of you think that living in Africa, in poverty, while others abroad enjoy luxury is your sacrifice. It is not." This is true for all of us. We tend to think it is enough, like the Dragon boy in the Voyage of the Dawntreader. The Lord knows our capacity, and requires 100% of it. It is not ours to dictate how much we must give of ourselves. This does not mean money or material things, or time, or talent. This encompasses our whole selves. We sacrifice to obtain better things. It will hurt, but we will grow to receive a fullness of all that God has and is only when we give up all that we are.

     Elder Onelu, the Area 70 from Ivory Coast, then spoke to us. I don't have much time to summarize it, but he spoke at length concerning the many traditions in Africa. He brought his family with him. They were a wonderful example of how a family should be. He encouraged the saints to lay the foundation of the Church in Ghana, and to establish righteous traditions in their families. It was just great to have an African concluding speaker. Sometimes I worry people get the idea this is a white-man's church. It is not. It is the Lord's church. It administers the Law of the Kingdom, the laws by which one may progress to eternal life.

     Many investigators were present, and we've been working to get members excited about missionary work. Two of our converts were asked to usher, and you should have seen how they beamed. The priesthood and auxiliary leaders would proudly bring our investigators to us. "See! Our brother is here." "Did you see my family here?" It was wonderful! The Queen Mothers of Abomosu and Asunafo were there, and the one from Asunafo asked to be baptized. (The Queen Mother is sort of a hard concept to explain. It is not the chief's wife, or even family. The Village Elders select a Queen Mother as a sort of judge and peace keeper in the town, and she selects the Chief. When he dies, she selects the next. When she dies, the Elders again pick a new Queen Mother) We're going to read of all the kings in the Book of Mormon with her. She's a wonderful lady.

     I love Africa. I love the African saints. I am deeply saddened, knowing that I must leave soon. I do not know when, but I will come back. I wish you all could meet these wonderful people, in this tiny village.

     Love,

Elder W. Farnbach

#84 Look and Act Like Wheat

Dear Family and Friends,                                             April 11, 2011

This week was another really good one. We've got plenty of families to work with, the Branch leaders are up and excited to work, I'm not sick, and we worked on a farm today.

 I'm really trying to think of this week, though... One thing that really stuck out to me was, most of our lessons were out of the Book of Mormon. I cannot stress enough how important it is to read the Book of Mormon. I will be personally asking everyone to read it when I come home, especially if they have not. It does contain God's word. It answers all the great questions we have. It satisfies our soul, and opens a line of communication between us and God, as we ponder that maybe, just maybe, He loves ALL of us, and not just one nation, one time. What really brought this up was, I had my FIRST lesson with a militant atheist this week. It's the kind of thing missionaries dread, but I've been preparing for it my whole life.

 "Religious people are delusional." (This man has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, he claimed, and he enough of  vocab to back that up.)

"Really? What do you believe in?"

"I'm a Darwinist."

"Oh. Modern Cell Theory states that all living cells come from other living cells. How does Darwinism answer that?

"Well, there are gaps in the Theory."

"And there hasn't been a single Macro-Evolutionary fossil record discovered. You still accept this theory?"

"Well..."

"I'm not challenging you. My point is, there is a certain element of 'you just believe it', even if  your understanding is imperfect. That is Faith. The evidence we have of our message     is not the same kind as you would look for in a lab, but it is there. Let me give you a Book of Mormon, and you go find out for yourself."

"Why not? I'd love to enrich my library."

"Well, it's more than that. I hope we've established that we are neither delusional nor ignorant. Nothing in the whole world stands as evidence that there is no God."

"I wish I had your optimism."

I really, truly felt like we helped him. The best part was, after he had spent some time putting down the man sitting next to him, our investigator, for believing in God, he left. Our investigator then immediately said "I feel so sorry for that man."

The other lesson we really like what with a man named Isaac. He is 25, and he's been confused about religion his whole life. He knows a lot of the things he is doing are not right, but he doesn't know what he SHOULD be doing. As we explain the Priesthood and Gospel dispensations, he had a really hard time accepting the notion of "One True Church." And you know what? All the metaphors, examples, arguments I had didn't do anything. We then just simply had to ask him to pray to ask God himself. And that is true of all of us. Enos shows us that, even with the Prophet living in his house, more was required - divine communication. We are invited to ask for ourselves, and we must, because nothing else will stand the trials of this life.

I had another cool lesson today, too. While on the farm, I was "weeding" - attacking everything with a machete. Unfortunately, some of the crops were with the weeds, and they looked similar. Sound familiar? But I realized this. If you are wheat, you better look and act like wheat. And you had better not be surrounded by a bunch of tares, because those harvesting angels might not notice you. This is, of course, way too simple, but it just occurred to me how important that what we are on the inside matches what we do on the outside. I've never accepted this notion of saved merely by Grace. The things Jesus asks us to do are WAY too much work to have Him say, "But really, all you have to do is say you believe in me." "Take up your cross." "Deny yourself" "A broken heart and contrite spirit". This is work, and it is the greatest work we can ever do.

We continued our hot streak. We've had a baptism (at least one) every week for the past 5 weeks. This week looks good. Next week looks good. We just have to find someone for the 30th...

Thursday, we will go to the temple. Supposedly, that will be the trial day, but I'm not hopeful. It's been 3 times since "the last time". But, if it happens and the missionaries are released, maybe we'll be the first to see Elder Ke and Elder Om..

Love you all. I know God wants me in Africa right now. I will do all I can to serve faithfully, because I know this Church is true. There is a God. He loves us, and does everything for us. I know Jesus Christ is the Savior. He marked the path to happiness. Please, just follow it.

Love,

Elder W. Farnbach

#83 The Dreaded "M" Word

Dear Family and Friends,                                      April 4, 2011

I spent half of this week, lying on my back, absolutely hating
everything. I was joking with Elder Do. that malaria has some
unknown side effects that I will make millions documenting, including
the shortening of one's fuse.
It started Sunday night when my fever shot up to around 103 and stayed
there. Monday, I had a terrible fever, but was chipper the whole day.
Not sure why, but I was the smiliest I've been in a while. Then,
Tuesday morning... oh my gosh. I tried to go out and proselyte. Not
going to happen. When I called Sis. Smith, she told me to just bite the
bullet and take the malaria meds. I had resisted once before, out of
pride (and I was RIGHT, by the way), and so she was pretty adamant.
Tuesday, I spent asleep. Wednesday, I spent asleep. Thursday, I was
about 88%... just well enough to have to take a nasty, rickety Tro-Tro
to the mission home.

Zone Leader's Council was informative. One thing we do there is set
our goals for the upcoming month. President pointed out that, even
though we had about 200 more people with a Baptismal Date (people who
have heard our message, and agreed to be baptized), our Mission's
overall goal was LOWER. Why? Because last month, we experienced some
challenges, and NO missionary wants to miss his goals twice. So, even
though this month looks WAY better than last month, everyone just sees
his last failure, and acts accordingly. I think we do this all the
time, with too much focus on the path, and not enough hope in the
future. Because sometimes, the future is a terrifying thing. I'm
sitting down with a list of majors on Mondays now because I'm
supposed to have a future. But the whole point of what we teach is
that if you do what is right, the future works out for itself. "Take
no thought of tomorrow... sufficient to the day is the evil thereof",
right?

The only real full day of preachin' and teachin' and workin' as
missionaries do was Saturday, and that was in a rougher area. Just a
word of advice to all the wards back home. Maybe, after you have a
really good relationship with your missionaries, ask them how the
mission honestly perceives your unit. If I was a bishop, or an elders'
quorum president, or even just a member, I'd love to have the
missionaries at their little secret meetings say things like, "Man!

Your going to that place? Sweet. I'd kill to go there." and not

"If I have to spend another day in that area, I will punch myself."

Sunday, we had a cool baptism for a sister in Sankubanase. We decided
to have it right after church. It was awesome to have the entire
congregation attend one of our baptisms. This sister was baptized by
her husband, with the entire branch there. It was a great feeling,
welcoming someone all together into the family.

President called us on Sunday. No matter how long I serve, leader or
not, numbers look good or not, that will always terrify me. We were
sitting in a lesson when "Pres. Smith" shows up on the phone. "You
take it," I say to Elder Do., and quickly go back to teaching. He
came back. "President says to call him back when we can be on speaker
phone." Oh no... That's never happened before.

-Ring ring... ring ring...-

"Hi! President Smith.”

“ Are you both there?"

*gulp* “Yes President," I said.

"Just finished reading both your letters. I'm very impressed with you

          two. You're doing great work. Make sure you teach
          the other missionaries in your Zone to do those things, okay?"

“Yes, President".

"Alright. Thank you!"

-Click!-
... few seconds... *Gasping for air* "We're alive!!" hahahaha. I love
President, but I thought I'd share a small missionary moment there, as
I really didn't have anything else this week to talk about.

Elder Ke. and Elder Om. had their trial moved again. THIS Thursday
should be it, though.

As Dad likes to say "Never let not having anything to say stop you
from writing a huge letter." Mission accomplished.

Love,
Elder W. Farnbach

#82 - Best Week Ever / Jenga

Dear Family and Friends,                               March 28, 2011

This was the best. Week. Ever. Started pretty innocuously enough, but
it just kept rolling on until things turned great.

    Monday, for the first time ever, the Assistants came up on splits
with us. It was pretty nice to go into two areas at the same time.
Elder Do. went to a inactive village called Sankubanase,
and I stayed here in Abomosu proper. It's interesting. I was worried
lately that we'd pretty well fished these places out, and was dreading
next month. This week, however, we found a whopping 19 new investigators.
And I guess we were just living right, because I felt guided in my
teaching and my proselyting more then ever before. Every night this
whole week, I'd get home, plan, say my prayers, and then flop onto my
bed and say "My life is just so awesome I don't know what to do with
myself!" Then, we played Jenga. I don't know why Elder Ga. had Jenga,
but it was way more fun then I ever remember it being. We all got
pretty good at it, until we had one game where there was literally no
more blocks to move... and it was Elder Bo.'s turn. Sweet.

    This week, I really learned what Elder Ballard means when he says
"Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a source of spiritual power
that gives you and me the assurance that we have nothing to fear from
the journey." I felt a real power working with us as we went out and
tried to be as perfect as possible all day. Mountains of work were
accomplished, more then I'd ever imagined we could do. I was happy every
minute of every day, even when investigators didn't want to come along
for the ride. And we did all this with a baptism AND two meetings this
week!

Agnes O. was baptized along with her son. I was the baptist again.
I was so happy to baptize this wonderful, faithful lady AND her son!
Yay families! Best part? We found two NEW families this week, too.

    We've also been working a lot to motivate all the members around
us. Again, as we tried to do our best, miracles happened. Hint to
missionaries, if you have stubborn members, LOOK LIKE you are being
helpful. Make it obvious. I like the example of the unjust judge. Be persistent, and
things happen. When auxiliary leaders don't come to your meetings, go
to their house and say "Oh, I know how terribly busy you are. Here, we
simplified the meeting, and will now be having a 15 minute
coordination with you!" Do this around 8:00, so that next time,
they'll know better. Now, I may be sounding negative, so let me point
out the positives. Both of them greeted ALL the investigators who came
to Church Sunday. Our RS president has asked that we take her to each
home so the presidency can visit them. WOW! And we had a branch
missionary training. With 5 branches, and little work being done, we
made them all report on what they've accomplished in the last 3
months. Then we taught about accountability. Some of them were clearly
embarrassed, and we pointed out that it is probably how they'd feel
when Christ asked them about their stewardship. As I read 3 Nephi 11,
I was impressed that the first thing Christ did was introduce Himself,
and then gave a stewardship report. "I have suffered the will of the
Father in all things." I think this was His way of saying "And when
you and I meet, I'll ask you about the same thing."

    The District PEC was cool too. We are gearing up for a district
conference, and I'm really excited. Those meetings used to be everyone
getting together and complaining about challenges in their callings.
Only bad was discussed. But using the training given in the Worldwide
handbook training, it was a great, spiritual experience. I feel like
wonders are happening in the Abomosu District. I love being here, and
I love EVERY MINUTE of it!

    The other great thing I learned this week is the power of true,
sincere prayer. I love the phrase "my soul hungered". It just tells me
that, what I can see, taste, hear and smell cannot constitute faith.
No amount of external testimony will satisfy the heart. Faith comes
from talking to God, and having Him talk to you! It is a very real
thing. True, sincere prayer probably contains little that you've said
before, and probably less of what is said in "official prayers"
(Sacrament meetings, classes, etc.). It is true, open communication
with God, and it does no good to hide anything, as He knows it
already.

     Sunday was spent in Asuom. The meeting was a little frustrating,
but the lesson was okay. I feel like I learned something important.
Yokes are placed when someone wants work done. The difference between
a "yoke" and a "burden", in my mind at least, is that a yoke
accomplishes something. Do we think that the experience of testifying
before Caesar was easy for Paul? Yet he was sent to do it, and
therefore had the Lord's help. Compare that to the woman at the
Pharisee's feast. The terrible burden of immorality was upon her, and
she put it on herself. It served no useful purpose, and therefore, she
was not entitled to the Lord's help to carry it. Only when she had
repented did that burden come off.

    I love you all. I love missionary work. I love Ghanaians. They
are beautiful, blessed people.

Love,
Elder W. Farnbach

#81 Shallow Water Baptisms

Dear Family and Friends,                      March 21, 2011

Slow week. Really slow. And kind of gradual. Like a downhill. Those are my
thoughts. When things are getting a little easy, you know you are NOT
going up.

Whatever sickness I had, passed again pretty quickly. Just a question
of not eating for about a day and a half to let my stomach fix
whatever was wrong.

Tuesday, we had a baptism for two small children whose parents just
never got around to baptizing them. Thankfully, that's not most of
what we do anymore, but Elder Do. said that's what it was like
before I arrived. It was nice, as we insisted the father's were the
ones to perform the baptisms. President Deho gave a
wonderful welcome to them. President Deho is the branch president in
Asunafo branch. Generally, our branch presidents are all pretty
awesome.

Wednesday, we had to go on splits with the Konongo elders, so I spent
some more time with Elder He... and we had ANOTHER baptism,
this time for Ko. Ye. It was a little frustrating as we had to
wait for hours to get the font water up to knee level, but he put up with it
like a champ. [The power has been out in the area for awhile. This makes water

difficult to come by. ] We've invented a new baptism method. I think it'll
really catch on, like the Fosbury Flop. The baptist is kneeling and the candidate is
sitting down. The baptism goes on as usual, but this time, the water
is only about a foot deep. Think of all the water we'd save!

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we were out of travel money, and low on
subsistence funds, so we spent the whole time in Abomosu. It really is a
tiny place. I'm pretty sure we knocked on every door. As President Monson
would say "Great! Now just teach and baptize them!" Working on it. We
had a great lesson with an Elder from another church. We'd just
listened to Elder LeGrand Richards' "Missionary Experiences" talk,
about how you NEVER have to argue if you just learn how to tell our
story. Things became a little tense when we talked about the Priesthood,
but we really emphasized that it is not the Bible that determines the
truth. God has not, ever, in the history of the world, decided to lead
His people with a book, no matter how inspired. The Exodus had Moses,
the Meridian of time had Christ, and the last days had Joseph Smith.
The only time the Children of Israel were led by the written word was
when they were in a state of apostasy, after Malachi, and before
Christ.

Transfers are coming up. Maybe it's a sign that I'm going home soon,
but I'm really not even thinking about it. I suspect I'll finish in
this village anyway. Maybe the fact that I am TOTALLY SICK OF FUFU is
a sign, too. I am really loving everything else, though. And I am
totally safe. The rest of the world is falling apart, but Ghana is
still Ghana. Plus, I've become pretty deft with a cutlass these past
few weeks, so if any nonsense comes up, I should be okay. Elder Do. grew up
in a barracks and the Terry's have a generator. We'll be fine.

Love you all,
Elder W. Farnbach

P.S Elder Ke. and Elder Om. have their final trial on the 30th.
Prosecution, according to reports, has all but given up. Please pray and fast for them.

P.P.S My 21st Birthday is also my 21st month on mission. Golden
Mission Birthday!

#80 Lost Camera

Dear Family and Friends,                              March 14, 2011

Well, I imagine today's letter will be a little bit short. I'm not
feeling too well again and need to sleep. It's just a
repeat-performance of last time, so I'll be up and going by tomorrow.
Don't worry.

    This last week was kinda stressful. We maintain a rigorous split
schedule, and try to go every week (though President just told us we
don't have to split anymore as it costs too much money). This week, we
went to Asamankese. On the way, I lost my camera (Dear Mommy, before
you worry, read the rest of the e-mail) AND I ripped my pants.
Frankly, I just came home from that split angry and upset. When we
realized the camera was gone, I had given up on it. But, Elder Do.
luckily had the ticket from the tro-tro we rode. This is the ONLY
tro-tro we ride that issues tickets, mind you. The ticket gave the
license number of the vehicle, and we got in touch with the station
master to get his route and phone number. We had sat in the front, and
I had figured the driver would be the first to see it. We called him,
and he HAD it! So, the next time he was in Asamankese, the Elders
there got in touch with him, and recovered it. Seriously, that's one
of those tender mercies that God gives. Do I NEED a camera on a
mission? No. There is nothing necessary about it. But Heavenly Father,
knowing I'd been taking some great pictures, and knowing that I wanted
to have some memories to show my kids, allowed me to be in the PERFECT
circumstance to make up for my carelessness.

    We also had Zone Conference this week. It was basically a giant
pump-up session, as a lot of missionaries have been feeling a little
run-down lately. It was all about having faith in our companions and
our areas. I taught the one about our areas. Frankly, as I look
back, I've served in all the best areas of this mission. I'll fight to
the death any missionary who says they have been more blessed in their
assignments than I have. I just hope that means I've been doing a good
job in them. What a blessing to know that Heavenly Father is SO
concerned with the welfare of His children, that He personally
hand-picks where each of the now 53,000 missionaries in the world
serves, right down to the immediate geographical area! President Smith
added that doing transfers takes him weeks, because he wants everyone
to be in just the right place. He held out some index cards he carries
in his pocket to mark his impressions. Then, he said "I've already
figured out two Elder's assignments just from looking at you in this
room." Hahaha wow. From then on, we joked about "President's writing
again! I swear, he just looked at you. Man, where do you think you're
going?"

    The other big thing that happened was we had another baptism.
S. and J. S. is the wife of a less-active that I think
we just successfully re-activated. J. was on of those guys that
just kinda fell into the water. He readily accepted everything, and my
favorite part was when he showed up to his interview all dressed up in
a white shirt and slacks. The guy just gets it!

    I can't really imagine what else to write... I love you all very
much. I'm amazed how fast everything is going, and can't really
imagine being home soon. I love the people of Ghana, and sometimes
it's hard to imagine not being around them all the time.

    Love,
Elder W. Farnbach

#79 You know what hurts? Snake bites.

Not that I got one. I just figured they probably hurt a lot.
Sorry, but there really is nothing interesting about this week, and
I've been saving that little throw-away joke for a while now.

Dear Family and Friends, 

Most of why this week was dull was ZLC. We lose two days of work when we have one.

Like I've said, I do love it, especially now that more and more
of my pals are being called as Zone Leaders (Elder Bi, Elder Tu,
Elder Be, Elder Da, etc), but it does eat up a lot of valuable
time. The instruction we have to give is literally the exact same
instruction I gave to the ZLC 6 months ago. I check my notes. Identical.
Which just means we didn't get it right the first time. President asked us
to LOWER our goal. He's pretty good about being stretch, but
realistic. To be honest though, this is probably the strongest month I
have even seen a Zone have. We have some really awesome missionaries
here, who are giving it everything they got.

    We have finally ironed out all the details about S and her
marital situation. I don't know if I have ever fully explained
marriage in Ghana. There are two kinds of marriage that are legally
recognized. There is traditional marriage, which is just a consent
between the parents of the two individuals. Usually, this is secured
by a "bride price". I have no idea how this can be considered binding,
because there is no evidence of the agreement. What prevents a parent
from taking the goods in the bride price, letting it stand for a few
months, and then claiming it was never done? Nothing! That's what!
Then there is the legal, or court marriage. Both individuals sign a
piece of paper, with one witness each, at a registered building, which
is then hung for 21 days. If there are no complaints, the marriage is
binding, and the paper becomes a license. This service is TOTALLY
FREE. This leads to a lot of frustrations to missionaries because it
really can be just that easy. Instead, most people prefer to go
through the arduous process of first "knocking", which is usually done
with a bottle of schnapps, and somewhere around 20 cedis, when you
meet the family. Supposedly, this is to let them know you wish to be
dating, but it has come to mean securing permission to live together.
Oi vey. Well, this means that people living together cannot be
baptized unless 1.) The parents assure that the two are married, or 2.)
they go and do a free, easy, binding, court marriage.
S is with a less active member and we convinced him to do what
he needs to do to get married to her so that they can stop living in
sin, and so that she can be baptized, which she reminds us she wants
frequently. Finally, Branch President called S's mom, and the
mother said yes, her daughter is married, so we'll baptize her this
week. YAY!

    The other cool thing that happened this week is we got to go to a
birthday party for Sister A. and Sister Terry. You do not see many
people back in the states dancing once they are over 40, especially in
non-formal settings. We had the District Presidency, Branch President,
and Elder A. and his wife and half the town (the A's are REALLY
popular) out there shaking it. Man, it was wonderful. I took some
photos, and no, I did not dance. I cannot imagine dancing with this
little black name tag on my suit. I met Stephen A. Jr. and his wife. She's from
Montana. Their little girl Rayna is the most adorable little girl in the world.
We were leaving, and she came waddling over. "Elder? What's your name?"
She couldn't have been more the 4 or 5. She's been around missionaries her
whole life, as that family always looks out for the missionaries in their area.
She has come to know that missionaries are ALWAYS her friends.

    I love being on a mission.

    Love,
Elder W. Farnbach