Hello family and friends! Week 6

Hello everyone back in the good ol USA!

I hope everything is going well where you are! Things are good here in Costa Rica, its a hot afternoon here in Tibás and today has been a crazy day and this has been another crazy week. Today I had my first changes meeting, it was good to see how they normally are, because when I came to CR it was different because of Christmas, the mission is HUGE and there is so many missionaries I still dont know yet. We had a great time singing together my all time favorite hymn Llamados a Servir or Called To Serve, hearing counsel from our inspired President, and listening to the final testimonies of those finishing their missions. Obviously I didnt have changes, but Elder Nuñez in our house had changes and the Elder that replaced him is from El Salvador, I just met him like 6 minutes ago, so I still don´t know his name, but he seems pretty chill.

I learned a lot as usual this week. The biggest lesson I learned here is something that has been a lesson learned in progress throughout my whole mission thus far. And Its something that all people a like that apply in their lives. It´s giving your all, even when immediately you cannot see the results, it´s always acting in diligence to everything, even when you don´t understand. It´s putting in all you got, and you fail again and again, but you can rest assured knowing you did all you could, you put in your 100% and you gave your all. Many times I find that I do all I can, I speak in spanish all day long, as much as I can, I read spanish books whenever I get the chance, I study my grammar, I read the scriptures in spanish, I fast, I pray, and sometimes it seems my spanish has hit a plateau. I have not yet figured out how to communicate the way I want to in spanish just yet, and that is so frustrating to me. I love to feel the spirit, and I love to communicate with the spirit to those around me, and I have not been able to figure that out yet here, and sometimes, I just cry and think I have failed at being a missionary. But in the midst of this time of struggle, a voice in my head says, just do all you can, just give all you have, and in my time, I will pick up the slack. I know I say this a lot, but I cannot stress the reality of this promise, and the availability that is in it for ALL of us. Give all you can, work with all diligence, use every bit of energy that is supplied to you for that day, and if at the end of the day you feel like you´ve failed or you havent done any good, stop thinking that. Whenever we give all we can to God, to our fellowmen, to the Gospel, to the commandments, or to a good cause, we HAVE NEVER FAILED! We cannot fail when we are among good works. It´s a promise that I keep having to remind myself of daily. That even though I cannot communicate, I know that if I do all I can, that one day, that tiny light at the end of this tunnel Ive found myself in, will grow and increase in size, and I will be able to fulfill my purpose as a missionary, and in 21 months, I can return home with honor, knowing I did ALL I absolutely could, just like Billy Betz would say "leave it in the pool!" I´m going to leave it all in Costa Rica.

This week I found how small we really are in this great work. Jeffrey R. Holland said to us missionaries at the MTC that the work of the missionaries is bigger than himself, its bigger than all of us, and how true is that. We may choose to excercise our agency, but the Lord might have other plans in store for us as missionaries. An example of this is what happened on Sunday night. All of our citas fell through, our feet hurt from walking ALL over our area, we were hot, and sweaty, and super tired. We decided to stop byone of our investigators that we found on the 25th of December, Jose and his family. We had only taught them once, and tried to stop by numerous times in the weeks to follow but they were never there, my comp said to me that we were gonna pass by Jose and his family, and if they werent there, this would be the last time, we don´t have time to keep going over there and having them not keep their citas with us. We walked the entire way, from Cinco esquinas to La Florida (opposite ends of my area) just to see these people, not knowing for sure if they were home. We showed up at their house, and to our surprise they were home. We shared a wonderful lesson of the book of mormon. Although my spanish was still pretty broken, I felt the spirit lifting my up and being my stepping stone to relay this message to them. They had some doubts after our first meeting, but we settled them telling them that Yes, mormons do like to dance, listen to music, eat meat, and watch TV. Haha. The message that we shared was beautiful, if I do say so myself, but on the most part of the Book of Mormon. How beaufiul that book is, what a weird statement, but true. We have true tangible proof of Gods love for His children, in zillions of copies, and hundreds of languages, available for every willing heart and mind. I love the Book of Mormon, it is the reason I am here, to declare the God lives, that He still communicates with us, that we have a prophet, that we have a Savior, full of love and grace. That our God loves us enough to prepare a plan of happiness, of salvation for all of His children who live worthy to receive it. That our families, our most precious possesions here on this earth, can last even after we all pass through the veil of death, that we never have to say goodbye to our families for longer than only a short period, and we know that after every goodbye, a hello is soon to follow. How wonderful this message is...honestly, we are so lucky.

Well family, I am doing great, each day is a struggle, but like i always say, the Lord brings me back, always. Just when i feel I cant give more, I am comforted, just when I feel I can´t walk another step, I am filled with energy, Just when I feel I can´t understand another word, I get a glimpse of the gift of tounges and the reality of that promise. He´s there for each and every one of us family, not only missionaries.

Well family, as always know that I know what I am doing is true. That I have not a doubt in my mind that the message of the restoration, the message of the plan of happiness, and all the messages we share are divine and from a loving heavenly father, not to tie us down, but to protect us. and to essentially, bring us everlasting happiness, more happiness than anything the world can offer. Know that I know our Savior lives, and know that I know Him, and He knows me, and you, all of you. Know that He suffered, unbelievable amounts of pain on our behalf, and he did it willingly, and he died, only to be resurrected so that all of us could receive this gift, of having a perfect immortal body. Know that we have a prophet, a living mouthpiece between heaven and earth, and his name is Thomas S. Monson. I know, and pray that you know that God is here, that the veil between heaven and earth really is quite small, heaven is closer than we think, and we can find it if we fall to our knees and offer up the desires of our hearts. I know, without any doubt that the Gospel of Jesus Christ literally is the Gospel of Jesus Christ established by him, and restored to the earth in its entirety through the prophet Joseph Smith, and through Joseph Smith, we have the fullness of the Gospel in the Book of Mormon. The words in those pages are divine, and from God, they are inspired to help with our days, we can apply them in any circumstance, trial or anything we face, we can draw incredible amounts of strength from that book, I know I have in these short 6 weeks in CR. Know also family, that I love you. With a love that I can´t quite describe, a "you dont really know what you have until its gone" kind of love. I appreciate you, you all mean the world. You´re in my prayers, continue on in faith, and continue being the great people I know you are and can be. I love you! Stay strong!
Until next week,
Elder Falor