7th week update

Hello Family and Friends,

Not much has happened this week really. We had a crazy first three days of the week, Monday we found out about changes in our district, they whitewashed an area and since my comp is District Leader we had to travel to an area named Zurqui in order to know the Hermanas and their investigators for the Elders who were coming in on Wednesday. So we traveled about an hour or so to Zurqui on Monday, and Tuesday, also Wednesday after changes meeting. Thursday my comp had a meeting in Los Yoses with the President because he is DL so he went with a Trainer from our zone and meanwhile, I was left to be senior comp with a missionary from El Salvador, who speaks no english and had only 4 days in the mission...that was nervewracking, but all went well. His name is Elder Hernandez, he is a great missionary, he is 26 years old, and is a convert of one year, I see a lot of myself in him and I admire his desire to serve righteously, and with all he had. Friday and Saturday was nothing really different, we walked, and walked, and walked, trying to find people to teach. We´ve hit a rough spot, we have investigators but some of which are not progressing, and our area is very hard and very difficult. But we had FHE with a member family last thursday and with a family of investigators, and we watched a movie called On The Way Home. It was a great movie about how through trials and adversity, the family can find peace and happiness through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit translated the meaning for me, and it was very strong and powerful experience. We are working with that family to get them married and baptized! We are doing all we can but often times they are never home! Very frustrating but all is well. Tomorrow we are going to contact all day to find more investigators and more people to share this message with.

Well, thats stuff on the mission side, not much really, each day is a new experience. I am deeply grateful for all your love and support and amazing letters of support. I truly can use every word that was said to me in each of those emails. I understand that no body is perfect, and that includes missionaries. But I feel so grateful to the Lord, to the Prophet, to my Savior to all who made it possible so that I could be here. And I would hate to lose their trust. Absolutely hate to lose their trust, because they confide in me, they trusted me to go out and to be responsible for some soul out there who needs the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am terrified not to obey, because I always want to be available for the blessings that I so desperately need. I am doing my best here family, to stay obedient, to do everything in my power to be the disciple my Savior expects me to be.

I learned here, and more in the past couple weeks that Satan is real. He is real, and he is there, but only as much as we let him. I dont remember if I shared this with you or not but I remember something Sister Lucero at the MTC shared with me, she said ¨When we acknowledge that Satan exists we just give him power. When he gets power we begin to doubt outselves and let him in. I believe that there is just opposition.¨ How true that statement is. Satan is there, and he will always be there as many times as we give him permission, and we unconsciously give him permission when we agree with the thoughts he puts in our heads of ourselves, other people, and the world. I know that there has been a few times I have let him in, and I have let him tell me that I have failed as a missionary. I have let him make me think that I had already ruined my mission, that I couldn´t redeem it and that there was nothing I could do to learn spanish or to help anyone. He made me believe that I had let my Heavenly Father down. And honestly, he has made this experience harder than I believe it needed to be.. I know it has to be hard, I know there has to be opposition, but I dont need to give in to it. Because when I do, I let him win, for those of you who know me personally, you know how stubborn I am, and how much I would HATE to let him win. I´m trying everyday to not acknowlege the negative feelings toward myself or towards the work. ANd I am allowing my Heavenly Father to take the reins of this work, because it´s His, and it´s not Satans right to destroy it. It´s bigger than him, its bigger than me, and he cannot win.

I want to share with you a story that I read only 30 minutes ago, but I believe is very applicable to me now, and can be applicable to anyone who faces trials and adversity.


"One day the mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule 'braying. After carefully thinking over the situation, the farmer decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. So, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened...and asked them to help him haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

As the first shovelfuls of dirt began to rain down on the old mule; he became hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back...a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back...HE COULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP! This is what he did, blow after blow.

"Shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought "panic" and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!

You're right! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, STEPPED TRIUMPHANTLY OVER THE WALL OF THAT WELL!

What seemed like it would bury him, actually blessed him...all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

We need to take our problems and shake them off and use them for a step

upward !!! When we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity...THE ADVERSITIES THAT COMES ALONG TO BURY US CAN BECOME A BENEFIT AND BLESS US!

Remember that FORGIVENESS -- FAITH -- PRAYER -- PRAISE and HOPE...all are excellent ways to "SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP" out of the wells in which we find ourselves!"


I know I have felt the burdern of my trials and problems feel like they were weighing me down, and burying me, suffocating me, but in the end I know that it is through the gospel of Jesus Christ that I can draw from to get the strength to shake it off and step up. I know that there has to be opposition family, it´s all part of the great and marvelous plan of our Creator. It´s how we handle this opposition that depends on our success. It´s not in our Fathers plan to fail, we live in a failing world, but were NOT sent here to fail. Our Father knew that there were times we would come close, and he knew that there were times when we feel alone and like there is nothing to do to get out of this hole or "well" that we´ve found ourselves in. I know, because I have experienced it, that there is redeeming power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in his Atonement. There is power beyond our ability to comprehend available in the Gospel. We have the tools, we have the strength to rise above our struggles and our times of hardship in this world increasing in wickedness.

I know that my Redeemer lives. I know him as my dear eternal brother. I know that he is always at my side. I know that I can find peace and amazing happiness in the scriptures, in prayer, in church, in studying about my Savior. i know that they are all easily available to all of us. I know God is pleading for us to return home, and I know that we have hundreds of other brothers and sisters on the other side of the veil cheering us on in this time of sorrow. I know that God knows us. I know that we were saved to come here this day, to bring about the great work of our Father. I know without a single doubt that this Church is the true and LIVING church on the earth today. I know that, and I am so happy to have that knowledge.

Family, I am so grateful to each and everyone of you, you are all in my prayers! I pray every day that God will pour out his blessings upon you and bless you as he has blessed me. I pray that you will keep that faith and lose the fear. The two cannot exist together, and our Father works according to our faith. I have forgotten that here, and I can see as I reflect on it all the times I had faith were the times when my burden seemed lighter, when my knowledge seemed increased, when my confidence grew, and when my surety increased of a Savior and of a God who love me, both live and stand looking over me, blessing me and guiding my paths continually. I love you all family! I hope all is well! Thank you again from the bottom of my heart!
Elder Falor