I am a missionary called by the Prophet of God

Hello Mom (and family),
Thanks so much again for your letter, it really boosts my spirits to read them. It was so great to talk to you, I wish I could of talked longer but one of the Elders was standing next to me the whole time saying ¨ya mop¨ which means like yeah friend, and he really wanted to talk to his family. But I was bummed because I could of talked to you for a little longer, but oh well, it was nice to hear what I could and it was so great to hear your voices it gave me some serious strength to continue which is definitely what I need here. So to answer your questions, it´s been weird here because we haven´t had a really typical day, because with all the new training stuff, the christmas season and the coming up of a new year there hasn´t been a typical day. But usually what will happen is we will wake up at 630 and from 630 to 8 we are getting ready for the day, like exercising or showering or things like that, and at 8 to 9 we have personal study, which is crazy because now that i am in the field it is a requirement that you study in spanish, so I am reading the scriptures in spanish and I hardly understand any of them, but it´s alright, I had a great study this morning because I was really struggling with everything, but somehow the Lord lead me to scriptures that still had the same impact on me, even in spanish. So then at 9 to 10 we have companion study, where all the elders in the house get together and we sing a hymn and share what we learned in personal study and then we practice and study in our companionships for what we are going to do that day. Then I´m supposed to have language study from 10 to 11 but since my comp is native I dont really have an opportunity to study the language. Then we will usually go to the cocinera or cook´s house and she will cook us lunch and then we begin proselyting, either contacting, meet up with investigators for lessons and so forth. We might return to the house once or twice to use the bathroom and get something to drink but usually we are out walking from noon to 9 every day, my feet, hips, back, and everything has never hurt so much before. But it´s great. Our apartment is pretty nice considering the circumstances, unfortunately all the elders I live with are really dirty, and they don´t flush the toilet or clean up after themselves, but its pretty nice, we have a living area sort of with no furniture a back yard 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms. It´s crazy, from the outside here all the houses look super small, but when you get in the inside they are really quite big, depending on your area. And, yes, all four of us live together. And I´m not sure what we do on Pdays because my last pday we had a conference for like 4 zones for christmas, but Monday isn´t our pday its just our internet day, on pday we might take a nap, do some study, and play soccer Im pretty sure, because soccer is huge here. They have two teams in CR Sopressa and Liga and you are either one or the other, you can´t not be a fan of either, so people will come up to you and ask you what color you are, it´s funny. I love my comp but I wish I could understand more of him. In lessons he is so powerful and spiritual and has a lot of knowledge of the gospel, we just have a huge communication gap. San Jose is crazy like I said, it´s just like one of those cities you see on like amazing race or something, cars going everywhere, people crossing the street everywhere, dogs roaming around, people honking, and shouting. Its hard to explain what it´s like, you just have to experience it. It is pretty modernized, it doesn´t look that way, but when you get inside buildings and stuff it´s a lot like the US. And, we mostly travel by foot, often times we take the bus because Tibás is a big area but it costs money for the bus so we try and walk as much as we can. Sometimes we take taxis but theyre so expensive we are really not supposed to. I haven´t seen much crawling stuff, just HUGE ants, and cockroaches is about all in the city. And we have zero food in our apartment so I haven´t had much for breakfast, in fact today was the only day I´ve eaten breakfast in the apt. since I got here, I had an apple that a member gave us yesterday. And when I called on friday it was from my apartment, in our living area we have a phone. My mission president is somewhere in San Jose, I´m not sure how close he is to Tibás but I imagine its about an 30 minute trip by taxi maybe an hour by bus. Oh man, about that assault, it was so scary, it was weird a man just jumped out from like a little ledge overlooking a river thing and just tried to steal this girls cell phone, we´re really not supposed to get involved in things like that so we turned around real quick, but the guy saw us and turned and ran away and the girls just walked off and continued to text like it was something that happens often. I get so scared everytime we walk past that area now, but nothing weird has happened since. My area in Tibás isn´t really that scary, it has some poorer parts that are freaky but not as bad as the other elders who have to go to a town called Leon 13 and that place FREAKS me out. Elder Nuñez took me there on the 24 and it was terrifying, everyone was drunk and lighting off fireworks, not a good combo. But so far for me, Leon 13 is the scariest so far I´ve been in, and it´s one of 2 places that is the most dangerous in CR.

Well, I hope that answers your questions. This first week on the field has been absolutely crazy. I understand what a sister missionary once told me about learning a language, first you cry and then you learn. I´ve had my moments where I just want to cry and break down and give up, but in those moments are times that I learn the most about myself, spanish, the gospel, and everything around me. I can honestly say this week has been THE hardest 7 days of my entire life. Absolutely without a doubt, but like I said earlier everytime I direct my focus on the Savior, it gets a little easier. Yesterday was a perfect example of that. We went to el Barrio de Tibás and had our normal church meetings, I didn´t understand ANY of it, but the bishop asked me to pass the sacrament, and me, not knowing what that sentence was in spanish, foolishly said yes, haha it was scary but It was good becasue there was only like 20 members there when the sacrament was passed. I then said the prayer in PH, which also terrified me, but everyone comes up to me and says that my pronunciation is good. After the meetings, a member could tell I was having a rough day and he asked me in his broken english, if I had prayed and I said yes, harder than I ever have prayed before, he said are you studying with your comp and I said no, and he said are you fasting, and I said no. So I´m going to try to fast, to get that extra help from my father in heaven to learn spanish. I feel once I know spanish it will all come easier, the traditions, the gospel, the food, everything. It was nice, he told me afterwards, you can do this, you are a missionary. ANd that struck me really hard, I am a missionary, called by a Prophet of God, I have God on my side, and with God nothing is impossible, absolutely nothing. There are no boundaries to the amount that I am capable of learning.

I really deeply and sincerely appreciate all you do for me, you are my rock and my comfort. Like it says in the Josh Groban song ´´you raise me up so I can stand on mountains, you raise me up to walk on stormy seas, I am strong when YOU are on MY shoulder, you raise me up to more than I can be´´ Thats so true and something I often think of when I get discouraged.

Yesterday was better after church because we went contacting with the Bishop who is super nice, I bore a few testimonies in our lessons and it was good, we also placed our first BOM since I´ve been here which is great. After a long day of walking we went to the Bishops house and had a nice dinner of tamales and good carmel milk drink because yesterday was FREEZING!

Well I am glad to hear that all is well at home, just know I am thinking of you DAILY here, and constantly looking to you all for strength. I couldn´t do it without you. I love you, you are in my prayers always and forever,
your son, brother, grandson, nephew, best friend, adopted son, and favorite Elder

Elder Falor