kekeaki

So one of our investigators got baptized and another 4 have baptismal dates. The people here are really humble and already believe in Christ, it is just a matter of teaching the Restoration and Book of Mormon, from what I can tell so far. The work is good here, there are a couple of members who do great missionary work, so much so that my comp accidentally calls one of them Elder half the time. Another thing about the baptism, they hadn't assigned anyone to speak about baptism so they asked me like 5 minutes before it started to speak... so I did for maybe 2 minutes but the people are nice and said I did a good job, which is probably an overstatement.

I have been reading a lot in Gordon B Hinckley's Teachings of the Presidents book and it is very good. A lot of just pure simple doctrine explained in the pages. GBH talks about cultivating a spirit of happiness and optimism in one of the chapters and it really boils down to a choice. We can either choose to be hopeless, depressed, worried, anxious, etc. Or we can choose to be happy, hopeful, excited and confident. The power of agency is real- lets not "choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil" but rather "liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men" as it says in 2 Nephi 2:27.

For all those who have served missions, they know it is very easy to give in to those first set of attitudes and feelings (especially in the first couple of months) but the sun always breaks through the clouds, so why not choose to enjoy the rain while it lasts. I am not saying I have done a great job at this, but it is something that a Prophet of the Lord thought was important to share so it is important to try to get better at it.

Thank you all for your support, it is tough to serve but easier knowing there are people praying for you and thinking about you.

Have a good week,

-Elder Farner

(Word: kekeaki, meaning endure.... heard it a lot)