Elder Thomas Farr: Our Encounter with the Trash Man

Its been an eventful week mes amis!

I apologize for my rather short email last week so here's some more information for y'all:

My companion is Elder Dart and he's from Utah. He originally served in the Philippines speaking Tagalog so language study is pretty wild with the two different languages. He's been a super fun trainer and I've been having a blast getting to know him.

The other companionship in our apartment is Elder Mansell and Elder Bird. Elder Mansell is going home next week which he's pretty bummed out about.

Elder Bird originally served in Barbados speaking English. He's an amazing missionary and teacher. He has a way of explaining the things of the gospel that surpasses just about anything I've heard before. On Wednesday we I had the fantastic opportunity to spend a few hours teaching and learning with him and it was awesome.

On Tuesday night, Elder Bird got a surprise call from our mission president, President Beck, asking if he could come down to Manchester to be one of the president's assistants! The thing was, he would have to leave on Thursday, two weeks before transfers. So we got him all packed up and drove to New Hampshire to send him off with the APs. It was a sad day for all of us.

So now we're back to a trio with Elders Dart and Mandell as Zone Leaders and me, just about as new to the mission as someone could get.

One of the friends we're teaching is named Victoria. Victoria was being taught by the missionaries about a year ago but didn't end up getting baptized. But last Sunday, Elders Bird and Mandell took her to see the baptismal font and she said "I've been here, I've dreamed about this place." So now she's scheduled to get baptized in a couple of weeks! We had another lesson with her on Saturday where she shared a bunch of scriptures she'd been studying. One of the passages was Jacob 5 which, frankly, all three of us Elders were too scared to try and understand. We were all crazy impressed with her understanding, she's teaching us a lot.

I've gained a very strong testimony this week that this is the exact mission and area where I'm meant to be right now. As excited as I am to get out to Cote d'Ivoire next, I now know that Heavenly Father needs me, specifically, as a tool to aid in the spiritual progression of specific people here in Vermont.

Funny moment to close this out:

A few days ago the three of us were going down to drop our trash in the trash room of our apartment complex. When we opened the door, there was a man in the corner of the room dumping trash, let me describe him:

He was wearing a purge-style mask with an American flag print on it, had a very askew American flag bow-tie, had probably a dozen beaded necklaces around his neck and one necklace with a whole lot of bottle caps pinned in the sash and a big Volkswagen emblem, seemingly ripped right off of a car, attached at the bottom, he also had very large rainboots and moved very much like Golem from Lord of the Rings.

We, very cautiously, made our way past him to dump out trash when he shouted, "Are you those Mormons?!" To which we responded, "Sort of!" He then lifted his mask which revealed quite the striking goatee. We then proceeded to have a (and I use this term very generously) regular conversation about the restored gospel. He didn't take to it too well but it was an interesting experience regardless.

Anyway, it's been a great week and I'm keeping super busy. I can safely say that this last week has gone by quicker than any other week in my life. They say time flies when you're having fun and I absolutely am. 24/7 I am focused on the gospel and it's the greatest and most important thing I could be doing right now.

The church is true, the prophet is called of God, and the fullness of Jesus Christ's original Gospel has been and continues to be restored to the Earth!

I love you all! Bonne semaine!