20 Enero 2014

Buenos tardes mi querida familia!! I hope all is well there in beautiful American Fork :)

This Wednesday we have changes yet again, however, Hermana Lopez and I will remain together in Pedregal for at least one more change. I´m extremely grateful for the opportunity that I´m going to have to work in my area for another change. We´ve begun working with a new investigator named Judith. About 3 weeks ago the elders in our ward contacted her in the Super 99. They passed the reference on to us, with nothing but a telephone number. I had been calling her almost every day for these 3 weeks, but she could never meet with us due to work, her mother´s health, and other small inconveniences. Even though I had never spoken with her for more than 5 minutes at a time I felt really strongly that we needed to meet with her and continued trying to set up an appointment. 

About a week ago an enthusiastic member expressed interest in spending a day with us. We set up a day to leave with her, praying that she would have a good experience and enjoy the day that she spent with us. After visiting a few investigators and less-active members we asked her if she could think of anybody who she would like to visit with us. She told us that we were coincidentally walking along a street where an old friend lived and that she had been thinking about her a lot lately. We quickly explained that it was not a coincidence and that the Lord had given her that prompting for a purpose. 

We walked less than a block and arrived at the house. As we walked up to the door she told us that she was named Judith. My companion and I turned to look at each other, knowing that we were thinking the same thing......It´s her! We said ´´buenas´´ and the moment that I heard her voice I knew that it was her because I had spoken with her so much on the phone. 

We had an incredible lesson, in which we all felt strongly the influence of the Spirit. We explained to her that none of these things happened by coincidence, and that the Lord was calling her because it is time for her to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. She accepted a baptismal date and I trust fully that she will be baptized this change. I´m really excited to work with her because I know that the Lord has put us in her path for a reason. This truly is a marvelous and beautiful work!!!!! 

I´ve been thinking a lot about a phrase these past couple of weeks.....HAVE FAITH. FIND JOY. I think that´s an incredible attitude to have. It´s so simple. Have faith, trust in the Lord, and actively search for happiness. There is always joy to be found if we look for it. I´ve been working to apply this philosophy in my own life, I challenge you all to do the same :)

I love you all soo much!

Go Forward With Faith,

Hermana Falslev :)

13 Enero 2014

Yet another good week here in Panamà. I´ve had some great experiences this week. On Wednesday I was able to attend the sealing of two recent converts in my ward. That was an incredible experience. It was amazing to watch as two people were bound for all of eternity. I couldn´t wipe the smile off of my face, the spirit was so strong in the sealing room! I love the temple!! What a beautiful plan that our Father in Heaven has for each of us :)

Later we went to visit an older member in our area. Her husband is not a member and is extremely sick. He can´t leave his bed. It´s difficult to see him laying there because there´s not much left anymore, he´s so thin that you can see the bones throughout his entire body. Each time we visit we sing a hymn and say a prayer. This time they asked if we could stay there with him as they went to the store because he had already fallen once earlier that day. He´s gone down hill health-wise this week. He is blind, but this week he has been ´´seeing´´ things that nobody else has been able to see. As we were waiting there with him we tried talking to him, but he didn´t respond to anything we said. He lived in the states for a while and speaks English. He only responded when I spoke to him in English, so we started a conversation. He asked me about the people that were with me.....people that I couldn´t see. My companion didn´t understand exactly what was going on, and got a little scared as he started to point to the people that he could see. I felt completely calm there in the room and started to ask questions for curiosity´s sake. He didn´t tell me much, but he explained that among others there was a young man, a boy, and a tall man by my side. He asked me what their names were. When I said that I didn´t know he was really confused and said that it was obvious that we knew eachother. He then mentioned that it was like somebody else was speaking through me. I spoke to him for almost two hours, during which he told me that at least 2 other men entered. It was a really cool experience and didn´t want to leave once the sister got home, but as I was leaving the room he said that they were all leaving with me and wanted to know when we´d all be back. Yet another spiritual and interesting experience to put on the record :)

Also, I had been concerned about how to help Artie, the recent convert with Alheizmer´s and a less-than-understanding wife that I´ve mentioned earlier. He hadn´t been assisting church because he has a difficult time remembering things like that. Unfortunately it´s difficult to go by his house because his wife wants nothing to do with us and has proven to be a little dangerous. I didn´t know what else to do and was getting quite desperate since we have no other way to communicate with him. I did all that I could do....pray. As we were walking to church I was thinking about him with a prayer in my heart that through some miracle that he would be there in the chapel. In the exact moment that his name entered my mind his car passed us from behind and pulled into the church parking lot. The joy and gratitude that filled my heart is inexplicable. I know that the Lord listens to our prayers and that with even just a little of trust in Him we will see miracles. Another one of my favorite scriptures is found in D&C 123:17 in which it explains that as we do everything within our own efforts, with a cheerful heart, we can then stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I know that He makes up all that I cannot do on my own and that His glorious work will not be frustrated.

I love you all! Thanks for all of the support each and every week!

Go Forward With Faith!

Hermana Falslev :)

6 Enero 2014

Well Family, it would appear that the year of 2014 is going to move just as quickly as 2013. Here in Panamà we´re entering summer time. Just when we didn´t think it was possible, it got hotter. They say that January and February are the hottest months of the year.......that´s great! (I hope you can hear the sarcasm dripping off of that statement :))

In other news, last week we found some really positive investigators, a woman named Mayra and her son Girberto. It´s still early to tell, but we´re both really excited to work with them. I´ll keep you updated :)

In honor of the new year, President Carmack extended a challenge to each one of us, and I would like to extend the same challenge to each of you. That is to allow the Light of Christ which is in each and every one of us to shine brighter. We have each been blessed with this INCREDIBLE gift! We have the Light of Christ within us! Have you ever paused to think about how wonderful that is? The mere thought brings a big smile to my face :) The question then is how do we make that light shine brighter? To put it simply, I would say through service and virtue. As we adjust our focuses to the well-being of others this light will increase and bless our lives as well as theirs. I am convinced that serving the children of God is the best and most efficient way to invite, increase, and share the Light of Christ. Second, as we strive to make each thought and action virtuous, I promise that we can see a grand difference in our lives. A natural result of this added virtue will be an added amount of light. We are each blessed to have this light in our lives, and even more, to understand what it is. We have the blessed opportunidad, as well as responsibility, to let this light shine brighter and brighter each day. We can accomplish this through our daily actions and small efforts that we make each day. Lastly, I´d like to share a scripture that stuck out to me the other day. D&C 50:24 . . . There is no limit to this spectacular light that we each have . . . . LET IT SHINE!!

I love you all so much!

Go Forward With Faith

Hermana Falslev :)

Happy New Year!

Dear Family! It was wonderful to be able to see and talk to you all using Skype this week. As first it was a little strange because there was a sudden connection between my two worlds, but it was a nice change to our routine. All seems to be going well back home for you guys, didn´t look like too much has changed. I must admit that I was a bit jealous to see you all eating mom´s cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate while I was handed a large plate of rice, ham, and potato salad, but I got over it haha ;) After talking to all of you we all headed to our house to eat dinner with Hna Sugasti, the member that I live with. She lived in the United States for a little while and was very excited to make an ´´American´´ Christmas dinner for us. I wasn´t quite sure what to expect when she first told me that, but it actually didn´t end up being too bad. She made some turkey with cranberry, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stuffing. I think my favorite part of the dinner was when she put the plate of cranberry jelly on the table and the three latinos sitting next to me looked at me with very concerned expressions. Elder Villanueva, the elder from Peru that you guys met, promptly asked me what in the world it was. Even after explaining it to them they were rather hesitant (except for Elder Giron, the Honduranian, who eats anything you put in front of him) When I explained that it´s even better if you eat it with the turkey they looked at me like I was crazy. They tried it and ended up loving it, even asking for more. I love seeing the difference in cultures here. The things that I find normal can seem so strange to somebody else. It´s a fun learning experience :)

As I already told you guys, on Christmas Eve I didn´t sleep at all because Central and South America celebrate ´´Noche Buena´´ with lots of fireworks and things called ´´bombas´´ which are basically super duper loud firecrackers. We woke up the next morning to see lots of garbage and firework cases in the street (it´s all still there) We still here fireworks during each day and throughout the night and they bring in the new year.

It´s apalling to me that we´re already finishing December and beginning 2014! I´m excited to set goals for the new year. President Carmack shared a thought about setting goals in his email to us this week. He said that we can make big changes by keeping small but effective goals. He shared one of my favorite scriptures, Alma 37:6, that by small and simple means are great things brought to pass. I know that as we make small, meaningful efforts, we can see grand miracles!

I love you all dearly and send lots of good wishes your way!!!

Go Forward With Faith!

Hermana Falslev :)

7 Months

How are you all?! This week was a little crazy due to changes, which always involve meetings, hauling around luggage, more meetings, and doing our best to adjust to a new situation. I am still serving in Pedregal, however I have a new companion named Hermana Lopez, from Guatemala. That makes 3 Chapinas and 1 Mexicana for companions :) She actually came in the same group as my previous companion, Hermana Perez, so she has about 4 1/2 months in the mission. I think that we can do a lot of good for our area together. I had a difficult   time believing that I hit my 7 month mark yesterday! Time flies when you´re having fun ;)

It´s been really cool to see a change in the members in the last couple of weeks. A challenge that we have in all of the mission of Panamá is working with the members. In each ward it is our goal to develop a relationship of love and trust with the members, it can be difficult at times. However, I have begun to see a change in some of the members that I thought would never open up. One hermana sat down with me the other day and told me EVERYTHING. She told me that she felt a really special connection with me and that she has a lot of trust in me. I love it when we have opportunities to work with the members like that! That´s when miracles start to happen :)

I studied the principle of fasting recently. I came to this conclusion . . . Our mind and our body give us certain temptations, and by completely avoiding or denying everything our body tells us for a little while and only focusing on what the Spirit tells us, we learn the difference between spiritual promptings and temptation, which in some situations can be hard to discern. Fasting really has little to do with food. We come closer to God when we fast and we recognize His Spirit in our lives even more. I now understand fasting in a whole new light and am looking forward to starting the new year that is coming up with a fast :)

My dear family, I love this gospel and I love you all!

Go Forward With Faith,

Hermana Falslev :)

Happy Mothers Day

Hola mi querida familia! Còmo estàn todos? Another week has passed and yet another change has ended. Hermana Pèrez has changes and I will be staying in Pedregal, Tocumen. I´ll find out who my new companion is on Wednesday. Also, on Sunday all of Panamà celebrated Mother´s Day. It was really strange, because there´s also Christmas decorations everywhere, but hey, that´s just the way it is :) It´s been a good week, lots of lessons learned :) The Lord has a way of teaching us exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.

The other day during our studies my companion jumped up from her desk and ran to the other side of our room screaming. A snake-ish/salamander type of creature had crawled onto her bag next to her leg. It was obvious that she wasn´t going to go anywhere near it, so even though I was not looking forward to being near the little monster it became my responsibility to get it out of our room. I found out quickly that it was really fast. I ended up chasing it around our room, pulling every piece of furniture that we have away from the wall. Finally I got it under a cup (our room in total disarray) We sat there for a little while trying to figure out what to do next, my compa advising me from the other room :) I slid a piece of paper under the cup and took it outside. As I went to release it, the little monster slid across my hand and slithered toward me. I screamed and ran. My companion was then bent over, dying of laughter. She says she has no idea how I covered a 10 foot distance with one leap, but crazy things can happen when your filled with adrenaline. There´s the funny story for the week.

Now, I´m beginning to understand a little bit more about my purpose here in Pedregal. There are so many churches here, so many people who preach ´´la palabra´´ There´s always people who are willing to let us in to listen to ´´la palabra de Dios´´ That´s great and all, but it started to bother me a little. I´ve been trying to adjust my teaching so that they understand that I am not here to simply share a pretty message and leave them to continue living their lives. I´m hear to tell them that the gospel has been restored, including the proper authority to baptize, and that they must take the first step of baptism. I am not here to simply share my testimony, I am here, and even more, I have been called, to baptize the children of God. As I´m beginning to understand this concept a little more, I´ve set a goal this change to be much more direct in my lessons. That is kind of a scary idea to me, much easier said than done. However, an elder shared a scripture with me that has changed my mission and become my motivation. 1 John 4:18. I love this scripture and have every intention of applying it in my work here in Panamà.

Well, that´s all for now folks. I love you all dearly! Have a spectacular week :)

Go Foward With Faith!

Hermana Falslev :)

¿Si lo que tù estàs haciendo no tiene consequenc​ias eternas, para què lo estàs haciendo?

 

My dear dear family! I hope all is well! It´s difficult to believe that yet another month has passed! I´m not sure exactly what happened to the month of November and it certainly doesn´t feel like December because the snow I´ve been praying for is yet to arrive ;) Perhaps the Lord is just teaching me patience :)

Well, this has been quite the week. To begin, on Wednesday my comp and I decided to go contacting after lunch. Our first contact . . . well, he actually contacted us. He was a young man named Julian who told us that he had recently converted to Christianity and was super enthusiastic about the Bible. I´m fairly certain that we covered every gospel topic while standing on the side of the road. And the funny thing is that he pretty much did all of the talking, it was difficult to get a word in. But I really enjoyed talking to him. I love the people that we meet here :) Then we decided to explore a new area that neither one of us had ever been in. I really like contacting that way because if I can get a little lost I tend to rely a little more on where the Spirit needs me to go rather than my own intuition :) Not to mention that it usually turns into an adventure haha. Well, we ended up turning down a little road . . . in which we encountered two dogs that I´m convinced were part bear. I was standing next to a door when one of the dogs jumped up against the fence and tried to eat me. In my panic to get away, I ended up leaning against another fence. Seconds later another bear, I mean dog, jumped against that fence and also tried to eat me. Needless to say, I jumped and ended up on the other side of the street. After recovering from my heart attack my comp and I headed to another house, laughing as usual :)

I believe I´ve mentioned that on almost every corner in Panamà there is a little store called a ´chino´ because it is always run by a Chinese family. Well, the ´´chinos´´ are notorious for being difficult to contact and not very receptive. So, our District Leader put a fun little goal for all of us to contact a chino. After my close encounter with the bears we headed to a chino. We began talking to the cashier. She looked as us with a confused look and told us that she doesn´t know any Spanish. We left a pamphlet with her and gave her our biggest smiles. . . .it´s the effort that counts right? About 1 minute after leaving the chino we were got in one of Panamà´s crazy rainstorm. We ran for shelter, but it only takes about 5 seconds to be completely soaked in these rainstorms. We waited it out for a while, but decided that we just needed to face it. I figured that we were already wet, so I decided to play around in the puddles/rivers on the side of the road. I may or may not have started splashing my comp who in return started splashing me as well. No harm done, we were already soaked :)

Now, for the spiritual side of things :) This week our entire zone had a ´´Noche Blanca´´. We all gathered together and had a total of 10 baptisms. President Carmack and his family were even able to attend. It was a beautiful experience. A young girl that we´ve been teaching, named Argelis, was able to be one of those that got baptized. While sitting there, I began to think a lot about the importance of enduring to the end. Baptism is an essential first step to living this gospel, but this gospel is not merely meant to be skimmed, or that is, lived only on the surface. This gospel is meant to become a life-style. We should accept it whole-heartedly and completely into our lives. It is then that it truly begins to enrich our lives and change us. This gospel is in the center of my life, it is a large part of who I am. I pray that each one who takes that essential step of baptism will truly accept this gospel into their lives and be able to see the blessings that their loving Heavenly Father has awaiting them. This is an eternal gospel, with promised and eternal blessings! Are we living for the eternities? I know that I want to live for the eternities because I know without a doubt that I can live with my Heavenly Father and my dear family FOREVER! Let us all make the effort to center our lives around those eternal promises! :)
I miss and love you all dearly!

Go forward with faith!

Hna Falslev :)