Harold and Roma NYC

Family and Friends

2009-07-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

We have been a little behind in our blog posting so we will catch you up as much as possible for the last few months. Since Teri and Troy had baby Brodie in New Mexico it was only fair that they come to New York to bless him. Troy has a sister and brother-in-law here in Harlem and it was easy to convince Troy's mother and dad to visit here to help bless the baby in the Harlem ward. It was a fun and blessed event for the three families involved. We love being around the Brown's and the fun we have being with them. We had the entire group here for dinner after and enjoyed the time visiting and playing with the baby. Teri was able to stay a few extra days here with Brodie making everyone happy that missed the birth and the special time after the birth of a grandchild. We also welcomed Brian and Erins new little girl Isla into our family. She is a beautiful little girl and has already added a great deal of joy to their family and we can' wait to meet her. Grandchildren are wonderful!!!!!

We had a fun visit from some old and favorite friends the Millers from Littleton Colo. It was so great to see them and we had a nice time visiting upstate NY and seeing a few of the sights and we took them to our Sunday meeting up in Kingston where our missionary assignment is located. We welcome guests and even tho we have a small apt. we can put you up on the floor or you can stay at a hotel nearby. We can't go home, but we can have guests and be flexible with our schedule and would enjoy spending a little time with you if you are in the NY area. The whole state is very unique and has many places to visit other than the city.

We have had the pleasure of working with Pres. Searle as a mission president and now we have a new president as of June 30. He is Richard Smith and his wife Jill. He is an attorney and farmer from Rexburg Idaho. As soon as he gets his feet on the ground, I am sure he will provide wonderful leadership to our mission. Mission Presidents have so much to do, it is a dizzying blur of activities and they are expected to get up to speed and continue to push the work forward almost immediately. They are only given about three hours with the previous president and then they are on their own. We are trying to get him up to speed with office activities while he is trying to meet and interview missionaries and meet local leaders and learn to drive in the city. He will be very effective very soon as the Lord watches over those who watch over His missionaries. The New York North Mission is the top baptizing mission on the East coast and he want to keep that going. The senior couples have appreciated his kindness and spirit as we work together.

Our work can get hectic at times during the month. This last week was a transfer week and the end of a cycle, we also welcomed 20 new missionaries and 19 were honorably released.
We have gotten to know these fine men and they are ready to serve and continue to grow. Let these servant of the Lord know that you love them and keep them actively engaged in moving forward. Too many go home and if they don't go to college right away they tend to feel they are not as needed and get lost. Help them transition and look out for them they will be the leaders of the future and need our watchful care and love. Anyway it was a frantic week where Sister Farnsworth carries a big load as it is the time to do all kinds of paper work. She makes sure all the missionaries gets the assigned missionaries to the right companions, districts, and zones. Their cell phones and number have to be assigned and changed and they need to have their support money and move to new apartments. She is very efficient and I sweep up behind her paying the bills for the whole process. It is a zoo sometimes, but fulfilling when it is over and we have everyone in the right places with apartments, cars, and phones.

We don't get much proselyting time on Sunday when we are up North in our old area. It is hard to get much done in 4-5 hours, but we do what we can. The Kingston ward has had some nice success recently and the New Paltz branch could be better, but it is like many new areas of the church they struggle with leadership. We need more senior couples to help and train these new leaders. We will be struggling to get everything done in the next few months as we will go from 6 couples down to 4 and 2 of those have other assignment leaving just two of us to do the work. There are fewer senior missionaries putting in their paper due to economic conditions and we need more. I know it will be a struggle, but you are needed out here.

We are all waiting and looking forward to the coming of the Savior. He will only come when the things that have been prophesied are fulfilled. If we are really looking forward to His coming, there is much work yet to be done. It will require the strength of all members teaching and living the gospel. If you can't go on a mission now do as much as you can do locally to help move missionary work along. Make the sacrifices, and savings that will allow you to serve.

I didn't get the blog published a couple of weeks ago so I will update you on the past few weeks activities. Another Sr. Missionary couple who went home last week has acted as the senior couple social and activity planner. He set us up to go out on a pier on the Hudson River to watch the New York Fire works display(the largest and most expensive the the world according to most New Yorkers. There were 5 large barges anchored about 1/2 miles away from the pier. With computer the way they are, all 5 barges fired the same set of fireworks at the exact time for about 45 minutes. I was spectacular!!! After the show there was this great mass of humanity in the streets as the gathered multitude began the trek home. We had come by subway and we were afraid that we wouldn't be home until 2-3:00 AM. It seems like the crowd dissipated more quickly than anticipated and we were home and in bed before midnight. I have come to love the largeness of the events in the city, the scale is beyond what I have experienced. Sis. Farnsworth is not so much enamored with all the people and the attendant masses of people.

We said good bye to our good friends and fellow couple missionaries the Evans who we will dearly miss. They were such great missionaries and friends. They just did their job and loved missionaries and did all the little things necessary to help the mission run smoothly. I can only hope to be as good as he was. I had to take over a few of his social planning activities and I set up a concert in Bethel Woods, the real sight of Woodstock. It was not incidentally in the town of Woodstock, but in Bethel Wood. There is now a museum there and a beautiful amphitheater where they hold concerts of varius kinds all summer long. I hate to admit it, but I am a doo-wop fan and Sis. Farnsworth set it up the trip and we went, and it was a fun day for me. I think the others in the group, not so much.

While Woodstock has become somewhat of a shrine, it was more of a shame then and shrine to us. It was my generation and acted a strengthing event for the continuation of everything that is elil and wrong in our society and a great victory for satan. There were 400,000 young men and women doing every sin imaginable. It has cost our society immesurable harm and many still view it as such a wonderful event. Such a travesty and waste of humanity. We get a glimps of the opposite wonderful young people of today as they have resisted the temptations of the world and are serving in behalf of the Lord as missionaries all over the world. We will win this war and I am confident of that happening. If we could get 400,000 worthy and committed missionaries (both young and seniors)we could influence the world for good and maybe offset much of the evil perpetrated and enshrined at Woodstock. A heratical comment from my generation.

We had some bad news in the mission this last few days. One of the APs and a terrific young missionary was struck with leukemia. He had to be sent home for treatment and futher diagonis and chemo-therapy. Sis. Farnsworth was very instrumental in seeing how badly he looked and pushed him to go see a doctor. They were able to take tests to begin to understand the condition. I am sure he will fight hard to overcome this illness. Keep him in your prayers his name is Elder Stephen Evans. It is hard to see such a great young man to be stricken with this dangerous illness.

More later.

Love
Elder and Sister Farnsworth

2009-05-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

2009-05-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

OUR BABY HAD HER BABY!!!!!!!

The highlight of our week was the arrival of our ninth grand baby. Teri and Troy did a stupendous job. It was definitely a joint effort with Teri doing most of the work and Troy as the supportive and attentive coach. Check out the Brown's blog to see this beautiful little guy. He has dark hair and lots of it. We have never had a baby with hair. He is the cutest little guy.

It just about killed Sister Farnsworth and Teri not to have her mother there for this joyous occasion. I think that the biggest sacrifice that Senior missionaries make is missing significant family events. It did give a wonderful opportunity for her big sisters to try to take their mothers place in helping her get back on her feet. The Brown's, Troy's parents have a daughter, son in law and a grand child back here, so they have decided to bless the baby back here and that will give us the opportunity to get to know little Brodie for the first time.

Its hard to believe that we have been here in Scarsdale for 2 months. We enjoy the area that we live in and though the apartment is a bit worn, it is comfortable for the two of us. I think we have talked several times about not needing much more than this size of a living space. Well maybe a little larger, but it is comfortable and unique. We usually stop several times a week at the local bagel bakery to buy a couple of piping hot bagels for breakfast. There is a deli across the street were we can buy any kind of deli meats and cheeses. We have several more eateries of various kinds. I have mentioned them before, but food is what makes me tick. We don't get much involvement with actual missionary work. We help in running the mission. Getting them here and back home again and all the in between.
We do enjoy the interaction with the missionaries some of which come in almost every day. There are many wonderful missionaries in our mission, but there are a few that have some problems. The ones that have been raised to tackle adversity are the most successful, because they know that they will succeed if they only work at it and are obedient. Preparation mentally and physically are more important maybe than scriptural knowledge. They need to know how to work and work hard. Their schedules are such that they will pick up the scriptural part as they study each day. When you have a missionary who is emotionally strong and spiritually prepared then you have a great package and they are successful missionary.

Our closeness to the train let us go visit Central Park in NYC. It was a beautiful day and it seemed like most of the city was in the Park. You don't get an idea of the number of people who live here until you get to a place where you can see a part of the people who live here.
It is such a beautiful place and many people were out enjoying the day the day. It is so nice to be so close to all that the city has to offer.

I have to tell you about some of the funny experiences we have had. You may know that many of the chapels in the city are built in reconstructed buildings. They are just like a regular church on the inside, but they may not be in as wonderful on the outside and the neighborhoods may be in difficult areas. The church in Harlem has some interesting stories. Some missionaries came into the Harlem building and there was a very pungent order coming from the baptismal font. They investigated further and found a very dirty street person taking a bath in the baptismal font. Suds and soap every where and some towels nearby. The missionaries had notice a dirty ring around the the edges of the font. It seems that one of the street people had figured out a way to get in the church and use the the facilities to their best advantage when no one was around. It makes the phrase becoming clean after being baptism takes on a different meaning.

The other one was on our visits to the Woodstock area, we drove into what looked like a compound trying to find active members. So let me set the scene. Here comes this dark Chevy Tahoe with a man in a shirt and tie and well dressed woman coming into this fenced compound with several out buildings around what looked to be a main house. It was a classic made for the movies FBI raid on a old hippie farming area. Well there were people running out of the back of these builds into the woods to protect their crops. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not too much.

We have some wonderful experiences with people and if they don't join now they will have another positive interaction with a member of the church and usually they will join the church at some point in time in their lives. People are looking for real joy and happiness in their lives and if they have seen that in other people they usually try to find it again. I don't know how the Seattle Mission works, but our missionaries try to get a baptismal date before their first teaching appointment. The New York New York North Mission is the top baptising mission on the east coast and we are pleased with the effort and results. I will send some of the promised pictures and sign off.

Love to all,

The Mission Office

2009-03-19T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone from the city of Scarsdale. We are finally in our apartment here after way too much time in the Mission Home. The Mission Pres. and Sister Searle were very cordial and have done everything they could do to make the transition as easy as possible, but it is still living out of suit cases and then working all week and then back to Highland on the weekends and then back on Monday morning, It is over now and we feel good being here. We have one more trip back to pick up another load of our goods and then we will travel back on Sundays only

This a rather unique experience and it should be fun. We live in a one bedroom apartment that was new right after WWII and is completely full now and an interesting area. As you might imagine it is dated after at least 10 coats of paint and wood floors and it looks its age. It is comfortable and we are sure will bring some interesting experiences. We are about 200 yards away from the Scarsdale train stop and many of the people here are young and work in the city. By train it is 20 minutes to Grand Central Station and the subway system into New York. Our apartment complex is a part of a village that encompasses about 6-8 blocks with many restaurants, shopping areas, specialty retailers and the like. On Sister Farnsworth's birthday, we walked across the street to an Irish Tavern to have dinner and it was so full of St. Paddy's revelers that we could not get a seat for 45 minutes, not to worry we went about a half a block away and ate at a nice Chinese Restaurant. Up the street is a health club and there are many convenience already here. It has a definite personality and we will try to meet people and share the gospel with them. This is a city that is mostly the tribe of Judah and is very wealthy and set in there ways and religion. Our little village is made up younger couples and a few smaller children and older people. The cultural diversity is something we have never experienced and it has a nice feel to it. We will take a few photos and send them with this blog. We really don't have much time to doing proselyting during the day, but as we meet people we will try to do our missionary work during the evening.

Both of us stay busy from 8-5 with our work in the office. Sister Farnsworth is honing her secretarial skills for the Mission President and I keep the missionaries working. I pay their monthly allowances, pay the apartment rents and all the other bills that are a part of the workings of a mission. I also handle about 40 plus cell phones for them. Each companionship has a cell phone assigned to an apartment rather than trying to give it to individual missionaries. It would be a total zoo trying to follow them around when transfers take place. The next fire drill will happen in April when the church will issue all new cell phones and expect each old phone to nave the same telephone number. The data and old phone numbers will be transferred by infrared by lining the phones up next to each other and hitting the transfer button and maybe it will work with 19-21 year men and women. I think it will be a Chinese fire drill, but on the other hand they all know enough about cell phones they probably are better equipped to make it a success. I am supposed to be in charge of getting them out. The big tech nerd that I am. All I know is that you charge them up turn them on punch a few buttons and there is someone on the other end and then they call you back and you try to answer right before you get in a wreck. I do love technology, but I don't understand how it work and don't care to know. I am nerd enough without adding tech to my resume

A couple of weeks ago we went to a festival of Orchids at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. Over the last few years I have become very fond of flowers and their many varieties and beauty. I would respond to being a flower nerd but a tech nerd not on my best day. Anyway it was a beautiful show and Sis. Farnsworth took some outstanding photos which we have included here for you viewing. It was fun and just a part of the culture that is New York.

We have been here in Scarsdale now for 3 weeks and I haven't finished this blog for the past 3 weeks. I will be better now that we are a little more settled. I always wanted to live on the east coast just to experience the people and the life style as well as the culture. I was a little disappointed when we were asked to come work in the office as we had just gotten our wings and experience and had made a little progress. We still travel back about 70 miles each way to our first area and see most of our friends and home teach about 6 families. We have been able to get some of our families back to church. It will be difficult to do much missionary work, but we will do our best. We realize the importance of doing the background and logistical part of the mission and have enjoyed our work here. I am excited to continue in this new assignment and our work in the mission office. We have a lot of association with the MP and the AP's. Sometimes the office is full of 10 missionaries and all kinds of commotion. It is fascinating to see these young men and women carry out the missionary work of the church. They do a great job and they do a great job.

There is huge need for senior couples for all kinds of missionary service. We have had 10 senior couples in our mission and we will be going to 6 by the middle of the year. There are proselyting, Church Education, Storehouse, genealogy, public affairs, and many other that can do some great work. Please encourage all senior that are healthy and willing the Lord needs you. It takes a big
organized team to keep the Lord's work going. I have gone on for too long. I will put on a few pictures and sign off for now. Please know that we love and appreciate your prayers and your friendship.

Elder and Sister Farnsworth

Transferred

2009-01-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

The news for this blog is that we are being transferred to the mission office. Sis. Farnsworth will be the secretary to the MP (that is missionary speak for Mission President aka the boss, the man in charge) and I am to be the financial secretary for the mission. Sis. Farnsworth's new assignment seems to be very challenging, mine not so much. I do look out my window onto a golf course so that will take some of my daydreaming time, just kidding. We are both very excited about the new assignment. In addition to the mission office, we are assigned to a ward in the Bronx. Look out for my New Yaacck accent in my next bloug. We thought we would be here for at least a year, because or lease on our apt. is for one year. The Lord thought otherwise and we are on our way to Scarsdale (of diet fame) NY. It will be great to work with the AP's and the MP on a regular basis and I am sure in the ward missionary efforts in addition to our daily assignment. We will be closer to the city so it should be fun. We have really great apartment here with a washer and dryer and 2 bedrooms and study along with about 800 sf. and basically brand new. We are going to a 25 yr. old apartment with laundry facilities in the basement. I think we are both past the time when we like a community laundry facility. We will have to see what we can figure out.

As we look back on our experience here, it has been a hard working and gratifying experience where we have seen the full mission challenges that the young elders get to have. I can't say it has been fun, but I can say we have grown from it. As a matter of fact, I can say that there have been some downright discouraging days that we wouldn't trade for anything. The MP says that after 4 months life gets better and it is working out that way. We get discouraged primarily when our appointments juke us, dog us, don't tell us they won't be there, whatever you want to call it. We set up a full day and sometimes no one keeps the appointment. Nothing new to the veteran missionary, but we get to learn those lessons too. We have had our most fulfilling experiences with new members and less activies. Sis. Farnsworth befriended 2 older sister, one 93 and one 76. The one who is 93 was the first person in New Paultz to allow missionaries from our church to rent from her. She has 93 years on her body, but her mind works better than mine. She has a 89 year old brother who she is close to and a 60 plus year old son who she is estranged from and no one cares too much about her. Now she has Sis. Farnsworth as her friend and her life will not be the same. It amazes me how many older people back here have no one to care about them or for them. We have also been working with a young family to have regular, quality family home evenings. They have a big black Lab that Joe, their son, has a special relationship with and I have put a picture in the blog for you all to see.

In the 70's when I was in High School, everyone wanted to know if you went to Woodstock. It was the height of the Hippie movement. I had not of course, but I have now. I can legitimately say that I was at Woodstock as you can see by the picture above. Just a little side light for those above 55.

It is just a whole lot of different things we are doing some wonderful and some not so much. It will be hard to tell all the stories on the blog, needless to say they are times we shall treasure when we look back on them. There is something about hard work that amplifies the memory of the experience.

Pres. Miles please encourage the senior members of our stake to serve missions, they are so needed. Just their experience and leadership can be used literally every where. I am more convinced that if the Savior is to return soon it will be because we, the church, have learned that we are here to share the gospel to the world and nothing else really matters!!

I'll get down off my soap box for now. Please know that we love you all and keep praying for us, we need it.

Pictures from December

2008-12-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

Radio City Music Hall

Great little display

What a beautiful companion

2008-12-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

THANKSGIVING IS OVER AND CHRISTMAS IS ON THE WAY

Hello Everyone,

It has been an event filled last 3 weeks and it is so cold outside that we couldn't (didn't want) go to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Call us wimpy if you will, but when it's 25 degrees outside and the wind is blowing 40 plus mph, it takes your resolve away. I settled for writing to our family and friends through our blog. We appreciate comments so respond as you feel inspired.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving at the home of Bp. and Sis. Bower, the bishop of the Kingston Ward. We had all the traditional goodies including Roma's sweet potato casserole and wonderful pies along with all the other traditional items. It was very good and the conversation was stimulating. The Bishop has been a member for about 10 years and before that he was a member of the Unifiction Church (You may remember Rev. Moon and the Moonie's). Their headquarters is just across the river from us and he and his wife had an arranged marriage in a very large ceremony at their large church. It is a long story and I will tell it sometime, but is far too long for this media. He is a great guy with a wonderful perspective on life and the gospel.

Sis. Farnsworth and I spoke in the Kingston Ward a couple of weeks ago and we are getting more acquainted as we spend time up there. It is a very fascinating area with much history. At the ward Christmas Dinner on Friday evening I sat next to an older gentleman who gave me a historical perspective of the area. It was fascinating. I learned that one of the early successful businessmen in the town's name was Farnsworth and that he had a large mansion on the water front. He directed me to the library where I might be able to find something of a history of this family. I am excited to start that adventure as I felt when we were travelling back that there may be relatives here in New York State as there is some references that I have seen in our geneology. This area is so deep in history and architecture. This area in 17-1800's has been a very prosperous area because of the Hudson River and its proximity to NYC. Beautiful big mansions and Churches everywhere. I hope I can find some heretofore names of family memebers to put into the family search files. We will look for some Wooley relatives as well. Many of the citizens of this country came through NYC so it is rich in Geneology information. One of the senior couples in our mission is just assigned to the NYC records at one of the city building where they copy records all day. I am not sure I would like it much but the couple doing it.

We taught a young female doctor of podiatry in the home of their doctor friend (a member and the elders quorum president). I think we were nervous and we tried to do too much. You get so anxious to help people come to understand the gospel, it hard not to go too fast. I hope we didn't scare her off as she is a great young woman and would make a great member. We will slow down a little bit and let her get to know us better before we try to explain the last days. We also taught a FHE lesson to a part member family to the children, but directed at the dad. We are trying to figure a time when we can go out for pizza before Christmas. He is a great guy also and a very family oriented father. Pray for us to have the Spirit when we teach and not to be too excited. It is so cool to meet people that are introduced to us by friends and family.

The senior couples in the mission have activities approximately once a quarter and we had a great time and adventure this past Wed. on our p-day. The mission had arranged for a show and dinner in NYC. We went to the Radio City Music Hall and watched the Christmas show with the Rockettes. I have seen it many times on TV, but the show is much more spectactular in such a beautiful theatre. NYC is all decked out in its Christmas finery. The lights and the decorations are so well done it is like a fantacy land. While we were in NYC we experienced one of those croud type events where the density of people is more than what it should be. There was people in your uncomfortable space and they had you complely surrounded. When the croud moved you move or you push them out of the way. It is an uncomfortable position if you don't like people in your space. It was the lighting of the Time Square Christmas Tree and there were people everywhere. We came down on the train to Grand Central Station then took the "1 train to the "S" train to 65th street and got off right in fron of the Temple and went to a very relaxing and small session at the temple. It is a highly functional building and very beautifully done on the inside. We walked down Broadway about 15 minutes and arrived at our restaurant and then walked around the corner to Radio City. When the show got over we hopped "1" subway to the "7" back to Grand Central to catch the MTC train back Poughkeepsie. All this was arrranged and directed by Sister Farnsworth who is very pleased with her ability to navigate around the city. We had a few moment of concern, but it all worked out and we made it home by 11:00PM after a fun and interesting day.

WE LOVE VISITORS

2008-11-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

We have been late on our posting to the blog the last several weeks, but we are getting more busy as the days go by. We are finding as we work in both areas the same amount of time that we have less personal time. Thank goodness for p-days. The highlight for us the last couple of weeks has been a visit from our daughter Teri who took a few days ahead of her annual shopping blast to NYC with the Browns all female shopping blitz to visit us. This trip is nothing more than a buy off sham from the Brown men so they can spend a week hunting in New Mexico with no recrimination.

She arrived on Sunday evening and we picked her up at Laguardia in NYC and brought her back up to our apartment in Highland and she did a little missionary work with us. She went to a family home evening with us at a members house and went on another visit. On p-day we took the train down to the city where she took us to the Empire State Building and a few other sites. We took a few pictures of the city. It was a nice day and we enjoyed the time together. It was great to have her there to show us the subway tangle and explain a few of the secrets and have a great Kosher Hot Pastrami sandwich. We are getting more and more confident about going down to the city and learning the ropes.

As part of the holiday time, at our next Mission Conference, we will be performing a service project in Central Park. In these bad economic times, can you imagine how great Lowe's will feel when they get the order for 170 lawn rakes to clean up Central Park. We can spark the economy just from service projects. We are all excited about getting together with the entire mission and doing this service project. It takes a lot to run this mission and we have a great Mission President and his wife. They really keep the missionaries focused on finding and baptising. We the members need to be better at integrating new members into the church. Once a person joins the church, we have a tendency to believe that they know everything, all the terms, traditions and doctrine, let alone the people. There is a high level of less activies not just here, but throughout the church, due primarily to them not being fellowshiped and cared for. (No news there) Those who have a friend, a calling, and are nurtured by the good word of Christ become active and stay active.

We had some success last evening when the young elders, with us in the background, put on a community fireside about the beliefs of the Church. We had 3 non-members and 1 less active in attendance. They did a Power Point presentation that was based on the Articles of Faith and it was very well done. We handed out several Books of Mormon and set up teaching dates for those in attendance. We approached an inactive member of the Branch to preform a special musical number for the closing song, and she agreed to do it and did a wonderful job. We recently joined the local Chamber of Commerce with the blessing of the Mission and Stake Presidents, not to proselyte, but just to do service and meet people and try to expose the church to the business community. While meeting with the membership director, she said she loved Mitt Romney and felt he should have been the Republican Candidate for President. She asked if we were from the same church, we said yes and invited her to our little fireside and she came and received a BOM. We have also volunteered to tutor at the local Junior High School. Again we can't proselyte but it will give us exposure to teachers and administrators.
We are trying as many things as we can think of to get exposure for the church, short of going door to door. We try to meet as many neighbors as we can. We know they are curious about this well dressed couple and are gone most of the day and then have young well dressed missionaries visiting from time to time. We love curiosity. We try to talk with everyone we come in contact with and see if it leads to a pass a long card or further questions. When you have on the black name tag it makes you a little more bold and is actually fun. You meet some interesting people and it creates opportunities for people to question a little about the gospel. I think the statistic say that it takes 5-7 exposures to the church for people to become interested enough to learn more.

There are many ups and downs, but there are getting to be more ups than downs. With no direct instruction as to our duties, we have had fun innovating and trying new things. There is a family in the branch that have chickens and we buy fresh eggs from them for our use. We buy an extra dozen once in a while when we think it will help us get into the home of an inactive member. We appreciate all of your prayers and good thoughts. Please continue the prayers and send a long a letter once in a while, we like the hard copies as well as the telephone conversation.

The Lord continues to bless and direct us daily. We just have to listen and be perceptive and follow his direction.

We have been invited by the Kingston Ward Bishop for Thanksgiving dinner so don't worry about us splitting a drumstick all by ourselves.

We love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

A special Happy Birthday to Jon Conley and Carl Baker, two great sons-in-law

Love Elder and Sister Farnsworth. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Papa H, and your favorite missionaries

WE LOVE OUR MISSIONARIES

2008-11-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Gospel must be true! How could it not be if you had this group of missionaries teaching people in your area. They work hard and they like to have fun. This game is called ultimate darts. It is played with 1/2" pvc pipe in various lengths depending on if you are close quarter soldier or a trained sniper. The darts are 1/2" foam and about 3" long. You must play it in the Stake Center avoiding the chapel and hiding around any corner you can. The velocity of these darts are amazing and you can be hit by a sniper with a long tube at 40 yards.

Notice the rookie in the backrow. I ran out
of breath most of the time. Sis. Farnsworth
was the ransomed hostage

It was a very fun game until one of the Sister missionaries got part of the pvc pipe bumped into her mouth and lost a tooth and quite a bit of blood. As you might imagine the game is now strictly "verboten" and anyone seen attempting to fire a dart for any reason may receive the death penalty. (missionary speak for getting sent home). There is a whole new lingo out here which we will share with you as we learn all the terms. Sister Searle, the Presidents wife, is the enforcer when it comes to safety and when she says something Missionaries flee in all directions, she really is the sweetest person here, but can be all business.

Thank goodness for great women and their support. My companion is the greatest and we are enjoying this adventure stage of our life. It has its wonderful moments when the spirit bares witness to others when being taught and other tragic experiences that happen in all of our lives.
We had one of the most tragic experiences that we have ever been a part of this week. One of our branch members was murdered just after we left her home from what seemed to be a very friendly and uplifting visit. I will share the details in other correspondence. You experience the full range of emotion on a mission from the absolute sublime and loving feeling for a new convert to the depth of a member losing their life in a very tragic manner. God has a plan for all of us and we can avoid much tragedy in our lives by just living the commandments, but there are those times when the inherent brutality of this world can come to your door. God our Father and Jesus Christ His Son love us and and they created this wonderful world where we are allowed to chose for ourselves, unfortunately many choose evil and the effects of those choices can be devastating. The pure knowledge that He is in charge and will ultimately prevail is comforting. Justice and mercy will be the principle by which we are judge and blessed. We are his children. We wanted to come here that we might show our willingness to make the choice to love Him and follow Him. Should we not make the right decisions, He sent His only begotten son to suffer in our behalf that we may have mercy before our Father and to be judged in mercy's gift from Jesus Christ after all we can do.

Life can be difficult without the blessings that come from being obedient and knowing the Plan of Happiness. Even when we met with tragedy there is solace in knowing that Christ is there and has a plan for us and everything will be fine as we see it play out in our life. Teach your friends this great plan and help them come to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and how His Plan can influence and comfort them. You can all do it just open your mouth and tell them.

I have rambled a bit, please know that we love you and think about you often both family and friends. It is nice to get your comments on the blog, keep them coming. We like letters, Blog Comments, e-mail, packages and just about anything from home. Thanks for your letters Abby, Will, Milla, Oni, Ben, Val, and Stephanie.

Love Mom and Dad; Grandma Roma and Papa H; Elder and Sister Farnsworth; your favorite Missionaries

2008-10-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

P.S.

OCTOBER HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO: ERIN, STEPHANIE, TROY, AND FIONA. We love you all.

Mom and Dad

OUR FIRST MONTH

2008-10-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

OUR FIRST MONTH

We have been out now for a little over a month and are beginning to get busy and enjoying the beginning of our mission. They don't give a lot of instruction to couple missionaries so we have had to make some executive decisions and just start working. No one has said we have done anything wrong, yet so I guess we just keep going until they tell us to do something differently. As I said before, we have been assigned a small branch in New Paltz and a ward in Kingston. There are some wonderful people here and we have enjoyed getting to know them and visit part member families and the less active. No one has been too rude to us so far and the newer converts that have gone a little less active still have a little light from their testimonies and are welcoming and several are coming back to at least visit again. We had our Primary program last week and Roma played the Primary songs and the children did a great job of participation. We had about 80 there and we re pushing the seating a little bit. You always get a bigger crowd for the Primary program. I taught the Gospel Doctrine class last week with 3 minutes notice, thank goodness for Seminary training and remembering a few of the high points in the Book of Mormon. It is beginning to be fun and we are getting busier. We were talking the other day that a big part of our days are buying gas and food. The people here in our branch can be as much as 25 miles away from us and the Mission Home is 60+ miles away so by the time we go to training sessions and visit members we are burning a little gas. Food because anytime we go to make a recipe we don't have something it calls for, so back to the market we go. Tomorrow is P-day and we are going down to NYC to scout the route to my first appointment at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute. We took a rather rushed visit last Saturday to the city and strengthened our resolve to take a train and subway versus trying to drive and park in NYC.

It is unbelievably beautiful here in the fall of the year as you might imagine. Just about every color can be seen on the trees and foliage in this area. We have included a few pictures which don't do it justice because of the quality of our camera and the e-mail distortion, but if you have never seen the fall in New England it is worth the trip. We have used our P-day to explore a bit and it has been a lot of fun. As we have the opportunity to teach and testify, our testimonies have become stronger and we have grown in appreciation of what the Lord has done for us and the light and warmth the gospel brings to people's life. It is amazing to me how many people who just live there life with no direction and no goals. We love the work that the gospel asks us to do and the people it teaches us to become. Being able to serve full time is a blessing of which can't be described and we are not yet as busy as we could be. We were recently assigned to handle missionary apartments, so we have gotten our white gloves out to inspect and help the missionaries remember what their mother's taught them. Like the stripling warriors, they must remember the faith their mothers taught as well as the cleanliness of their quarters.

Above are a few pictures of this area and the beauty that is here in upstate New York

Love Mom and Dad; Grandpa and Grandma; Elder and Sister Farnsworth

2008-10-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

WE ARE OFF

2008-10-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

After a wonderful and spiritual week in the MTC we were all pumped and ready to teach all of God's children in New York State about the Plan of Salvation. The MTC is a wonderfully spiritual place full of the hustle and bustle of a very busy organization with young and older missionaries everywhere. You hear multiple languages and ways to teach the Gospel most effectively in every corner, classroom, and hallway. Add the Holy Ghost and you have a very powerful combination of strength and direction. Its hard to describe, but a unique experience for us and one we are very grateful to have had the opportunity to participate.

We got all packed up from our 5 days staying with Troy and Teri in their new apartment in Provo, (we did not stay at the MTC) ,and headed for Roosevelt Utah to spend 2 days with Roma's dad and her family in the Uintah Basin.

We had a great time visiting with everyone topped off with one of those old fashioned family dinners with all the most recently harvested fresh vegestables with roast beef and rolls. Did I mention desert. We both ate too much.

We left with many tears from all the family and it was finally good to be on our way. Our journey took us through 12 states and 3,000 miles. We have never taken a cross country trip so it was the first time we had the oportunity to see the beauties of this great countries heartland. We saw more corn than all the cattle in the world could consume, thank goodness for ethenol or corn would become the most used grain in America. It was none-the-less beautiful and we were thankful to live in suh a great country. The midwest is a very clean part of the country with manacured farms, beautifully mowed with little litter and debris anywhere to be found. It was great to see the pride people take in their land.

The highlite of the trip was a stop at the historic Church sites in Nauvoo and Carthage ,Illinois.

We were both touched and appreciative of the early saints, their courage, grit, hard work, love, perserverence and leadership. We truly have a heritage that blessed the past, current and future members of our church. Roma did much of the driving and so we arrived safely in Highland-New Paltz area to begin our mission. We talked with Mission President about not going to the Mission Home first and he let us come and get into our apartment before going to see him in the mission office. We are scheduled to have dinner with Pres. and Sis. Searle tomorrow.

We are here and have been to church where Roma was immediately drafted into playing the piano for sacrament meeting and primary. We have been to 2 family home evenings, and several member visits and trying to remember names. Roma has them all down and has to remind me of the ones I forget.

We are very happy to be here and begin our service, it is exciting and we are starting to see where we might have an impact.

Pray for us, and for the work. We appreciate what influence it has on us and how the Lord helps us.

2008-09-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

We made a quick trip to California to say our goodbyes to Stacey, Jon and sweet little Hailey. Jon knows so many great places to eat it's always an experience to come and visit and try his new finds. We ate here at a fabulous Brazilian restrauant down in Hollywood. BOSSANOVA's and then creamwiches at DIDDY REISE. What a treat. Stacey and Jon have moved into their home since we were here last.

We've also said goodbye to Steph and the boys a week ago. Carl never made it up. So hard to say goodbye and know how many changes will occur and the growth these little ones will make.

Less than a week and we will be hitting the road.

Later,

H & R

NYC Here we Come!

2008-08-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

Harold and I decided that we wanted to keep a blog while we are on our mission in New York so that we could keep friends and family updated. There are 23 days and counting until we leave, and we each time we cross something off our list, we end up adding two more tasks. We have waited a long time to be able to serve as a couple and cannot believe the day is rapidly approaching. We are excited, nervous, and humble by this opportunity to serve the Lord. We hope that this blog will be of interest and we will try to write about the wonderful experiences that are sure to come.