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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Week 45 more changes.‏

Hello Family and Friends,

This week has been a good week here in Costa Rica. It was spent saying goodbye to all the people my companion wanted to visit. He was and is a great missionary, I learned so much from him and honestly it was hard to see him go. He became another brother to me and he is a huge example to me. Today we went to changes meeting and heard the final testimonies of a lot of missionaries who have changed my mission, my old companion Elder Hernandez, my old District Leader Elder Ampuero and my companion Elder Silva, all have marked my life and my mission. The mission continues here in San Francisco, me with a new companion Elder Centeno from El Salvador, he is a super nice person and a great missionary, we are looking forward to having success and help here in the work of the Lord. WHatever happens I am determined to keep my head up and my attitude positive. The changes meeting was great, all the elders who were having a birthday in September recieved a bag of candy and the entire mission sang Happy Birthday to us. It was super cool.

This week in church Javier came back to church, this time with a shirt and tie, he is progressing fast towards baptism, we are going to try and put a baptismal date with him this week, we will see how that goes. We are on the lookout for more families, and hoping for a family of 4 who are a super amazing family they have many challenges and many desires to follow the savior. THey have a religion that they have only followed because of tradition but feel confused about it and are beginning to question it, we have told them to pray and ask the Lord about our message, every meeting we get one tiny baby step toward baptism, we are putting in all our strength and efforts to help them receive this amazing blessing.

I have been thinking a lot lately and one thing I have learned in the mission is this, that the Lord knows us. I have grown such a stronger love for my Heavenly Father, I know how much he knows me, and he blesses me. I realized how hard at work he is in our lives and how much of our daily lives arent only happenstance, every part of our lives is a part in the plan of God. I have learned the Lords tests and have tried my best to overcome them, I know with his help I can accomplish great things. I know the Lord places specific obstacles in our way here on our life journey, its all on the path to perfection. If we support it well, we will receive the greatest blessing God has for us, living in His presence forever with our families. I know this is true and I have not one doubt in my mind. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, I know that the work here on the mission is divine and it goes far beyond our time on earth. I know God lives, I know He loves us, and blesses us. If we remember every challenge and trial comes from him, we may have more faith and more determination to endure to the end and recieve the blessings he has for us.

Family and friends, I love you all with all my heart, you are always in my thoughts and my prayers, I hope this week brings some of the worlds greatest blessings to you. I love you with all my heart. Love,
Elder Falor

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PURA VIDA!

Week 44, ¡¿10 meses ya!?‏

Hello Family and friends,

This week in Costa Rica was excellent. Each day I feel the love of my Heavenly Father grow stronger and stronger and I feel Him closer and closer, this week was filled with a lot of tender mercies. It started off with interviews with President Galvez, we had some training meetings with the Zone Leaders and la Hermana Galvez, its crazy how I went into the meeting feeling a little unsure about things and a little nervous and all that jazz, but the Lord blessed me with a tender mercy, and every lesson, every training session I felt was directed towards me personally, I felt it came exactly from the Heavens. I entered the interview being the second to last person in the room and president asked me how I felt, I told him I felt at peace because I felttruly blessed and ready to get to work! The Lord knows His children.

We´re working as hard as we can with all of our resources to continue the work of the Lord here in San Francisco, we have found a few new families and September is looking like a promising month for us here, even though my companion wont be here, he is doing all he can to make sure that the area continues to progress. This week we had an investigator in church, his name is Javier, he has had quite the life story and has come to a decision to change his life, he is taking it one step at a time, we have gone to his house every sunday since my time here to get him to go to church and he never came, so this sunday with determination me and my companion stayed and offered to help him. We made him breakfast and ironed his clothes for him, just in time to get to the chapel by nine, he seemed to enjoy his time there and he truly felt the spirit. We know that he is ready to get baptized and that baptism in this church is what he is looking for and its what will change his life.

On Saturday it was national day of service, (I dont know if it was worldwide or only in CR) but all the stakes and wards and branches and districs in the church in the country went and did some specific service. Our service project made a huge impact on me. Barrio San Francisco met at nursing home to offer their help, unfortunately we arrived late, but just in time to see the members dancing with the elderly people and making them smile. Some were painting their fingernails and others were just there to talk and give comfort. It reminded me of my good old days at Legacy House and I though of how priveleged we are to have places like Legacy House for our loved ones. Nursing homes are a lot different in CR, the old people are just dumped off, and they are considered lucky if they recieve a phone call from their children, they truly enjoyed the presence of those who gave their time and efffort to help comfort them. I saw the true love of Christ, true charity in the eyes of all those members that day, I felt at peace knowing the Lord was happy with our service, the Lord was pleased with His children, to see them giving a good example and good name to His Beloved Son. It was a truly emotional day, it almost brought tears to my eyes, I felt truly grateful to be a part of this church, of a program that is changing the world, that is changing it for the better.

Well Family, 10 whole months have passed since I´ve seen your beautiful faces in person, I cant believe how fast time goes, but the saying is true, time flies when you are having fun. The mission is the funnest thing I have ever done. I am so glad that I have 14 more months to enjoy doing what I am doing. The clock just keeps ticking and to be honest that scares me, I dont want it to end too soon, but I know that all has its time and purpose, and I have 14 more months to give my life to this work. I hope you all know how truly deeply grateful I am for all your love and support during this time in my life, you are such strength for me! I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and plead to my Heavenly Father that He will continue to bless you all! Ihope you can all see His presence in your lives and recognize the blessings He constantly gives us.

Today was a good pday, since it was my companions last pday in the mission as well as 2 other missionaries in the zone, we went and played paintball! It was my first time playing in my life and it was a lot of fun! It was a good experience, but I know I will pay for it tomorrow and I will be super sore!

Well Family, I love you all so much! Thanks for all you do! You rock! Stay strong, keep the faith and lose the fear! You are forever in my prayers.
Love,
Elder Falor
PURA VIDA!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Week 43

Hello Family and friends,

I hope you are all doing well, all your letters found me happy and well here in Costa Rica. I want to tell thanks to everyone who sent me a letter, and I will do my best to promptly send a response as soon as I can! I am doing excellent here in San Francisco! We had a difficult week, a family we have been focusing on denied the invitation to get married and baptized this month, we are doing everything we can and understand that at the end the work is in the Lord's hands. We are working super hard to find families, the mission has turned family hungry, if there is a couple walking down the street with a child, I am always positive the missionaries have contacted them. President Galvez says that we must repent if we let one family pass us by without sharing with them the possibilities of going into the eternities as a family unit. To say the least we are doing everything possible so that more people arrive in the doors of the Holy Temple. Our convert, Brenda, moved to Nicaragua this week, we are hoping for a prompt return so we can help her and her husband unite themselves to become an eternal family as well. Church went well this week, unfortunately we had no investigators in church, we will repent for that error and keep going forward, looking ahead for next week. We have an investigator whose name is Javier, he was an old investigator of some other elders back in April, the elders dropped him because of his lack of progression, but we have recently decided to teach him again and the Lord has done His work and helped Javier find the importance in the message we bring. He seems ready for change and willing to make it by baptism.

My companion and I are working super hard here to help bring the Lords work to pass, also because he has about 15 days left of his mission! Crazy! But we are doing all possible so that we can both be effective in the Lords hands here in San Francisco. We always have our downs, often times more than the ups, but every down is meant to lift us up, and every up is worth a thousand downs. Tomorrow we have interviews with Presidente Galvez, I am so excited to be able to talk to him and share with him some of the experiences that have happened in my mission, he is a wonderful inspired man, and I am so grateful to know him and to be able to work under his guidance.

This week was a good one, even though it had its difficulties we learned a lot and we found a lot of ways to improve, my companion is awesome, he is helping me so much and teaching me so much, he is the type of missionary I want to be when I have 23 and a half months. I am teaching him english and he is doing pretty good with that! We are working really good together and I will be sad to see him go, but this is a part of his life that has to end and he has to continue. I learned this week how we are truly not alone, the Lord never leaves our side, if we feel lonely its because we have distanced ourselves, we are the ones who give into temptation, hatred, pride, anger and all the bad and we take ourselves away from His guidance, but I found He is always standing with His arms outstretched to receive us.

I hope all is well at home, I hope you all know how much I enjoy reading your letters, you all inspire me! Thanks for everything you do! Sorry this letter is so short, but I will definitely write more next week! I love each and everyone of you, you are always in my thoughts and occupy my prayers, stay strong, keep the faith and LOSE the fear!
les amo con todo mi corazon,
Elder Falor

Monday, August 8, 2011

Semana 42 y un gran cambio‏

Hello Family and friends,

I hope this letter finds you all well wherever you may be. Thanks as always for your support, I really feel your love and support, faith and prayers all the way here in Costa Rica. I love you all with all of my heart. This week was absolutely amazing, just like the rest. I participated in something that forever changed my mission and my life. The week started off with divisions where I went to an area called PorVenir while my companion went to a leadership training meeting. I was with Elder Constantino from Idaho, he only had 1 and a half weeks in the mission, I knew and sympathized for him and what he was going through. We had a great divisions, even though I was the missionary with a lot of time, he taught me a bunch of things that I had forgotten along the way. We worked so hard, and were doing everything we can to help the work of the Lord increase in Costa Rica. I truly felt influenced by His spirit, led by His hands, and effective as a missionary, it was a truly great experience. After I arrived home after the divisions and recieved a call and a special assignment. I was to head down on more divisions with Elder Hoyt my zone leader from Texas, we were to go to Puntarenas and all that was told to us is that we were going to help translate for a bunch of gringos on a boat. We met with more missionaries in the mission office in San Jose, there was about 12 gringos.

The US navy, united with a charity group from the Church and a charity health group called Project Hope, they were making a mission to central and south america offering free health services from dental to optometry to physical therapy they had everything, the only thing was they didnt speak any spanish, so who better than the missionaries to do the job, haha. Costa Rica was the 8th country on this mission. So we headed to Barranca, Puntarenas about an hour out of San Jose, I saw the ocean for the first time in 9 months, but that wasnt what took my breath away. As I stood there seeing all these people working so hard and not receiving a dime for their efforts, I realized that everyone was running on pure love. I witnessed pure love in action. It was absolutely beautiful, there is no other words to describe it. I loved being an instrument in the hands of my God, even though we were not allowed to preach, people saw our examples and knew and recognized us as representatives of Jesus Christ.

I spent the first day in General Medicine, translating to find out more about the pacients cheif complaint. It was seriously life changing and mission changing, I felt like I was seeing life through the eyes of our Heavenly Father, I experienced an immensely deep love for all of the people who came, those from Puntarenas, those from San Jose, from the United States, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Ecuador, Peru from all over the world. It was truly a humbling experience. I cant quite put it into words how I felt, but I know that I felt good and I felt the influence of the spirit. My second day was spent outside filling out forms and admitting pacients, that was different than the first day but it was just as amazing. I loved everything about my experience in Puntarenas, I was supposed to go today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, but I didnt go today and we will see about the rest of the week.

My spanish shot through the roof, and I recieved an even stronger testimony of the gift of tongues!! I know that this was a blessing from the Lord, everyone from every different walk of life came together for one purpose and the driving influence was love, and that was the biggest lesson learned. Love is the meaning, love is the ending and the beginning, love is the left and the right and its what keeps us going, we nothing without love and charity, the pure love of Christ.

Another one of the great experiences was the change to eat a real MRE, meal ready to eat, that was such a great experience as well, and didnt taste as bad as I thought it would! It was an awesome experience, one that I will take with me for the rest of my life, I will never forget the faces of those who are sick thank me as I helped in this Gods work. I know that Love is what the world needs, and I know it starts with our desire to serve God. I know that the work that I am doing is true, I know its from God and I know its the most important thing I could be doing at this point in time. I learned so mcuh in just a few short days, I forever thank my Heavenly Father for allowing me to serve a mission. This experience is one that I would never trade or take back for the rest of my life. I hope you all know that I love you with all my heart and I think of you often, you are all in my prayers and I love you very much!

con mucho amor, Elder Falor

Week 41 y el bautismo de Brenda Rodriguez‏

Hello Family,

Another week has past and here we are again, thanks again for all your letters, I look so forward to things that are going on back home. This week in San Fran was spectacular. On Saturday we had a baptism. Brenda Rodriguez was baptized by the Bishop at 3 pm in San Francisco. I was so happy to see another baptism, because it was another one of Heavenly Fathers children who found their way back to the path. I knew and felt Heavenly Father´s smile at the baptismal service. Its an amazing thing that baptism can do to a person, it changes them emotionally, spiritually and even physically they look different. I loved seeing Brenda enter into her first set of amazing sacred covenants with her Heavenly Father, I sat content and happy knowing of the blessings that lie ahead for her. Each journey to baptism is different, Brenda had her share of rollercoaster moments, but made it into the waters of baptism on Saturday. Watching her get baptized gave me the necessary strength I need to move forward. We set high goals for the month of August and are always doing everything in our power to accomplish them. I hope that I can be more effective in the Lords hands and see more of His children enter into these covenants. Brenda is an amazing person and an example that the Lord is really preparing people to hear the gospel, she was one of the chosen people that we as missionaries are searching for.

As the Lord helps me to help and refine the lives of the people I am teaching, I find that He is refining my life. I realized that the people I am teaching also teach me. I learn something new from every person I come in contact with and each day is filled with remarkable growth and change. I love being on the service of the Lord. Its the most difficult and most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. I know that what I am doing is more than knocking doors and teaching lessons, this work is meant to last longer than our time here on earth. If people chose to accept our message there is millions of blessings available to the faithful followers of Christ. I know this church is true. I dont have a single doubt about it. I know that I have been called of God, I know that my calling came from Him through a prophet to be here in this specific place at this specific time speaking this specific language. The Lord knows and blesses each and every one of us. I am so grateful for this opportunity and so grateful for all the people backing me up back at home. Sorry this letter is a little shorter, I will try to write more next week. Remember I love you all very much, stay strong, keep the faith and LOSE the fear.

Con amor,
Elder Falor