The Work Is Moving Forward

Dear Family!

This has been a great week, and I´ve been blessed yet again to see miracles from my Heavenly Father. The highlight of my week was on Friday, when I was able to accompany Leandro and Maxima, two recent converts that I´ve mentioned before, to the temple as they entered for the first time to do baptisms. I was asked to help in the baptistry as a worker, so I was able to watch as they both entered the baptismal font. Tears of joy streamed down my cheeks as I was blessed to watch them take part in temple work and see the joy on their faces. This gospel has truly changed them. Maxima is a different person completely, always smiling. Afterwards, we were able to talk to them about the rest of the work that is done in the temple, the sacred work that seals families together forever. They still are working faithfully towards the goal of being sealed in the temple next August. I hope that I´ll be in an area close enough to the temple that I can attend.

Also, I was so excited that they asked me to help out as a temple worker. I loved it! And it really made me want to work as a temple worker, especially in the baptistry when I get home. I love the temple!!

This Sunday my heart almost burst with joy as I watched two inactive members walk into sacrament meeting. One is a mother of 3 who hasn´t attended church for years. We´ve been visiting her for so long, and she finally came to church and brought two of her children with her :) The other is a 17 year old named Victor who hasn´t been to church for about a year. He used to always leave when we came to visit his house (we have lunch there with his mother every Friday), but he slowly started to talk to us. And now he makes sure that he´s there every time. He has really started to trust us. He suddenly started coming to the ward activities and we were shocked when we saw him walk into sacrament meeting on Sunday.

I could physically see the change in these members faces. As they are beginning to once again live the gospel and accept it fully into their lives, I can see the light and the happiness illuminating their lives. It brings me so much joy! I have developed a deep love for both of them as I´ve visited their houses and beared my testimony to them.

I know that this is the work of the Lord and that He is very heavily involved in all of it. He is moving His work forward and blessing the lives of His beloved children more and more each day. My heart is full of gratitude that he´s given me the opportunity to be even a small part of it. I love this gospel and I love my Heavenly Father.

Love and miss you all lots!
Go Forward With Faith,

Hna Falslev :)

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Well, it´s been yet another week full of many miracles and many blessings. This week many of the less-actives, recent converts, and investigators that we´ve been working with attending church on Sunday. One in particular that I was excited about is named Ramon Carrillo. He´s a recent convert and he´s been having a lot of difficulties lately. We haven´t been able to talk to him for quite a while now for various reasons. Finally we were able to find him and talk to him on Friday and invite him to a group activity that night. AND HE CAME! He later told me that the spiritual message in the activity was a very direct and clear answer to his prayer. He was so happy :) Then he came to church on Sunday too!! He´s such a wonderful person who has one of the most contagious smiles I´ve ever seen; he simply needs to make some changes in his life. It´s truly been miraculous to see the Atonement of Jesus Christ at work in this man´s life. I´ve learned so much about the beauty of the Atonement as I´ve seen this man apply it. This gospel is incredible!

So after church on Sunday we had to walk through a monster of a rainstorm.....like there aren´t words to describe this torment. The six missionaries in our ward arrived at our lunch appointment completely drenched. In situations like that you really can´t do anything other than go with it and laugh about it afterward.
We spent a lot of our time this week working on a service project. A member asked if we could help him to clean a house. We thought that would be a simple enough project and happily accepted the invitation to help. We arrived to find out that he is actually completely renovating a house that should probably just be destroyed. It turned into a week-long project. The house has already come a long way, but not without many hours of hard manual labor. After the first day, after 9 straight hours of scrubbing and scraping we returned to our house. I walked in, dropped my bag, and layed down on the floor. I physically couldn´t move. We were all so exhausted! I can honestly say that I´ve never been so exhausted in my entire life. I do enjoy the service projects however, and they truly are one of the best ways to share the gospel :)
 One last thing . . . I read a talk this week that really changed the way that I look at the gospel. I´m going to include the link and suggest that you all read it if you can.
 http://www.lds.org/new-era/2012/08/his-grace-is-sufficient?lang=eng Much love to you all!
Go forward with faith!
Hna Falslev :)

Buenas!

Well, first things first, we had changes last Wednesday. I'm still serving in my dear Santa Librada, but I have a new companion. Her name is Hna Salguero and is from Guatemala as well. She only has 3 months in the mission, so we're learning together :) She told me that she was really nervous when she found out that she was going to have a North American companion, but then everybody told her that Hna Falslev is the Norte that already knows Spanish so it was okay haha :) One elder actually told me that he thought that I was Latina when he first met me, but that may in part be because I'm no longer very white.

On Tuesday a sister in our ward from El Salvador taught us how to make pupusas. We had a lot of fun making them, AND they were delicious. It's like a taco . . . but better :) This week I also tried chiceme--a yummy drink made out of corn. I also tried pepinillo--a little green fruit that is without a doubt the most sour thing that I've ever put in my mouth. Yup, that won't happen again any time soon.

I believe I've already told you guys a little bit about Leandro and Maxima. To put it simply, they're my miracles :) The change that I've seen in them is difficult to describe and incredible. My heart starts to swell just thinking of it :) They're so special. Well, we went to visit them last Tuesday because Hna Rodas was leaving for changes. They began to express their gratitude to us for bringing them this gospel. Maxima said, You've given us everything. You gave me a bible, a Book of Mormom, and a hymnbook. Then Leandro said, No, they gave us knowledge, they gave us happiness and hope. What more could they possibly give us?! I wish that you could hear it in his voice. Moments like that make every single trial that I've had here worthwhile. The gospel of Jesus Christ has changed their lives and I've been very blessed to witness it. The amount of love that I have for them is overwhelming. I'm convinced that it's simply the love of God being transmitted through me to His children here in Panama. I'm very grateful to take part in this blessed work. It's awe-inspiring to see what can happen when someone decided to fully accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. IT'S MIRACULOUS!

Go Foward with Faith,

Hna Falslev :)

Small and Simple

Buenas Tardes Familia! I hope you are all doing fantastically well :) It´s hard to believe that yet another week has passed, this week seemed to have gone by especially fast.

On Wednesday morning we went to the temple as a zone. Oh how I love the temple!! There really is no better way to brighten a day. The few hours that I got to spend in the temple made my whole week better. It truly is the house of the Lord and He blesses us with so much peace when we take the time to go.

I think I´ve officially learned Panamanian. Actually, I know that I still have a lot to learn, but I feel very comfortable with the language now. One of our investigators actually asked me if I have Latino ancestry the other day. And one of our contacts didn´t believe me when I told him that I was from the United States. It took about 5 minutes for my compa and I to convince him that I was telling the truth. Then he kept asking me to say stuff in Spanish because he was baffled at the fact that I didn´t have an American accent. That made me happy because my goal was to learn to speak Spanish like a native. Mission accomplished :)

I´m learning that the Lord communicates with us through such simple means. Yesterday Hermana Rodas and I found a family that seems SO prepared to receive this gospel simply because we decided to take a different route home. They seem really positive, and we´re both really excited about teaching them. The Lord is constantly speaking to us, but more often than not it is through something small and seemingly insignificant, so sometimes we don´t count it as much. The Lord´s hand in the small things is such a great testimony to me that He truly loves each of us and is aware of us. He frequently brightens my day through the tiniest of tender mercies. I love the scripture Alma 37:6-7 (I think) that explains that the Lord works through small and simple means to bring to pass great things, miracles. It´s so true and I´m learning it more and more every day. I know that the Lord loves me and is aware of me. He´s constantly speaking to me, I just need to take some time to listen :)

I love and miss you all. Thank you all for being so wonderful and supportive. I know that I´m extremely blessed to have each of you! Much love!

Go forward with faith!

Love,

Hermana Falslev :)