Week 32

Hello family and friends,

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your letters of love and support that I receive every week. Its been great to hear about whats going on and to get a little something from all of you. I think of you all daily and give thanks to my Heavenly Father for having such amazing people back home. I am truly blessed to have you all in my life.

This week was a good week here in Guacimo. It feels like this change flew by, I remember getting off the bus here and thinking, with this heat, time is never going to pass, but it did, here we are almost 6 weeks later. Next week is changes, I am almost positive I will still be in Guacimo, but one can never predict the changes. This week was good though because officially the rainy season has started! WOO HOO! We have had some CRAZY storms, with thunder so loud it shakes the earth and knocks the power out for quite some time. Our neighbors got a new puppy and I encouraged them to name it Kolby, so that is something cool that happened this week. We are always working with our investigators and finding and teaching. I love being a missionary, and getting the amazing opportunity to share my testimony, I never get bored with sharing the gospel, I leave every lesson learning something new, that way we are all growing closer to the savior, which is what our purpose is to do. Some times the people dont accept the gospel, and sometimes Gods will is in the contrary with what we want as missionaries, adn we have to learn to accept it.

I learned that lesson this week. We have been working really hard to get this family baptized, their names are Yorleny, Fabiana, and Fredy. We have literally done everything for them to get them baptized on their date that was set on the 28. We thought of every possible idea, we brought my peppermint oil to put on her cigarettes to get her to stop smoking, we have had some of the most spiritual lessons, they have all recieved a special witness of the truth through the Holy Ghost and they know what they want and they want an Eternal Family. We fasted and prayed to know their needs and we do all we can. And often times, God needs us as missionaries to learn a lesson, that even though things might not always work out, we still need to put in 310 percent of our efforts. His will may differ from ours in many situations, and we have to learn to accept it. Yorleny and Fabiana decided they didnt want to get baptized the 28th of May. Honestly, we were devastated, but humbled because we knew that God had His work in His hands and He is ever in control. We just have to go along with it, accept it, and keep working towards our goal. I know God has plans for us, greater than us. He has blessings set aside for those who choose to follow Him through His gospel, we are simply messengers of the truth and instruments in His work.

That was a hard lesson for me to learn, I get frustrated with the fact that I dont have very many people that I have brought to the waters of baptism. I am taking the advice I received from an exmissionary here in Guacimo, she told me she didnt have very many baptisms either, but she said her goal as a missionary was to always be like the Book of Mormon prophet Abinidi, who taught all he could with all of his strength and at the end of his service and his life, only one person was recorded of hearing his words and following them, Alma heard and followed the warnings of Abinidi and eventually baptized thousands in the Book of Mormon. THat really humbled me, I may not be a missionary who leaves the field with 76,000 baptisms, but I can rest assured knowing I am planting the seeds, I am doing all I can in the great scheme of things, and God will take care of the rest. Maybe God didnt intend on me having so many baptisms, He knows what I can be, and He knows what He wants me to be, I just have to go along with it.

I am doing great here in the mission, we are always putting forth our best effort, and trying to improve daily. There is nothing quite like beign a missionary, its something I cant explain, its not a walk through the flowers, but its the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my entire life. I love it.

Well this week was a good one, and thanks to you all for writing me and taking the time to have me in your thoughts and prayers, you are always in mine, I love you lots!
until next week!
Elder Falor