Focus on the Positive

September 28, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this week has been a fantastic week. I am so very grateful to be a missionary. It is easily the best thing I have done for my life. My perspective and my love for life has increased so much. I love my life and I love being a missionary.

This week we had to present for zone meeting on faith and expecting miracles, including baptism. It was a really really good meeting. I loved preparing for it and learned a ton this week. While we were preparing, we thought of Nephi and his family and the differences between Nephi vs. Laman And Lemuel. Laman and Lemuel always murmured. We talked about the many reasons why we murmur and why we say we can’t baptize. The zone came up with several ideas…a person’s agency, working in a rich area, the church is far away. Many many things. As we were talking, we realized that many of the things we murmur or complain about are things we can’t really change, and that we should focus on things that we can and should change. And the thing that you usually can change is yourself. And I realized that although there are many reasons why we can’t accomplish a goal, the truth is we need to be focusing on how we can accomplish the goal and not how we can’t accomplish a goal. Focus on the changeable circumstances, not the things that we can’t change. I realized the importance with faith coupled with diligence and positivity. I feel Nephi finds so much Joy as he gets the plates, but Laman and Lemuel don’t really find that much Joy because they are focusing on the negative. If we focus on the negative in the middle of a miracle, we may miss the miracle. I feel there is so much good and power behind positivity.

I am so grateful to be a part of this church and also I am so grateful for all that I am learning. I am grateful to understand the importance of what baptism is. I feel mission is more joyful than even getting the plates because we are working to help people to come to know the gospel and come to have eternal life. I am grateful to be a part of this great work.

We have a sweet new investigator and he seems sincere in his desire to know if the church is true. I love people who are sincere because the Lord answers those who are sincere and I feel I have faith that he will come to know this church is true because he is so sincere in his desire to know if it is true or not. He is a very good guy. He has not been attending our church for a while and attending many other churches but his family is kind of against the church. Which I don’t really blame them because the rumors are so bad here in Lusaka. So I hope the Lord will be able to touch his heart along with his family’s hearts.

My companion Sister Natsala is great, she is from Uganda. Yes I knew her before I came on mission. We met in Uganda Mbale when I was there. So that is pretty sweet. She is hardworking and I feel she has a lot of strengths that I haven’t really been all that good in applying my whole mission, like asking for referrals. She is powerful. And I am grateful to be working with her.

Well I love being a missionary. I am part of a great work, and I know it. And I am grateful for my testimony and I hope that I go back changed, and I hope I come back different and I hope I stay that way.  It truly is great to be serving in the Great Zambia Lusaka Mission.

Sister Falco

Can't Borrow Light

September 21, 2015

Dear Family and friends,

I am really grateful to be a missionary. I have felt so much joy this week and I’m loving every minute of it. It’s the best!

I learned something this week--there is so much importance in daily scripture study. This week was transfers so we picked up my companion on Tuesday and missed personal and companionship study. And then on Wednesday we took sisters to the airport to go to the Copperbelt so we missed it again. We had a service project on Thursday and missed it again. On Tuesday, we were talking to a guy who is atheist that kept questioning us and pounding us with questions and for some reason it got to me a little bit. The conversation kept playing over and over and over in my head. And I was full of doubt. I was frustrated with myself. I have been on mission for 15 months and I have had some of the most amazing experiences and here I am doubting. Finally Friday came and I had personal study and felt so much peace and so much joy from reading the scriptures and the doubt disappeared. What President Mckay said is true, “You cannot borrow anyone’s light for an extended period of time, not even your own.” I reflect on President McKay’s talk so much as a missionary. I feel it is exactly what I needed to hear before my mission. CHOOSE To believe! There MUST be opposition, there will be doubt but we must choose to believe.

Zambia had its first Stake Conference on Sunday. It was so powerful. I loved it. It was like being home again. It was such a blessing to be able to attend.

I really want to be accountable to the Lord and accountable to myself. I really want to do my best, to be the best and always try my best. I really am grateful for all that I have been given.

Being a missionary is the best.

Sister Falco

Gospel Matching Game

New Companion from Uganda, Sister Butali, who was also my MTC Companion
I knew her family when I did humanitarian trip in Uganda!

Happy, Dancing Convert

September 14, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Mission is the best! I am grateful to be a missionary!

Well since you didn’t get the email about Joel, I will tell you a little bit about Joel, our recent convert. He is great! The missionaries were teaching him for a while and he struggled because of his drinking problem but he progressed and was ready to be baptized. The week of his baptism he was so cute. He made me so happy. He would dance around his room saying “I’m going to be baptized!” It was darling. It was a great day when he was baptized. Such a great convert!

We have two progressing investigators. They are both great people; we will see what happens. One is super into the Bible and believes he is switching Gods if he joins our church. We’ll see how it goes.

Our mission curfew was changed so we can stay out later. Everyday when we walk home, it’s usually in the dark. I look around at the place I am in and I just feel so much gratitude, I am so grateful for the experiences I am having and I am so grateful that I am growing and becoming. I really am so happy for everything. I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is easily the best thing I have ever done, and has laid a great and fantastic foundation that will bless me throughout my life.

I really want to be a more genuine person, I feel sometimes I am so forgetful and it makes me so ingenuine and sometimes I feel I have guile--I do things for the wrong reasons, but I will work on it.

A quote I found and love: “Don’t sweat the small stuff, just keep climbing up the ladder”.

Transfers happened this week. I am with Sister Natsla and we will be STL’s again which means I will be driving. I am a little scared because the last time I was driving I crashed. But it will be great to serve in this way. I’ll be fine.

I am grateful to be a missionary!

Sister Falco

This is from Mom-- I got to hang out with this cute recently returned missionary from Zambia! He just returned on Saturday and spent quite a bit of time in areas where Carly served. It was fun to hear stories he had to tell on her and best of all...he brought a flashdrive full of pictures!! I'll post some more soon.

No Email This Week - August 31, 2015

Sister Falco sent photos but for some reason her email didn't make it! :(


This is what she wrote about them:

We baptized J_____. He is a great guy. He was so excited. . .dancing and laughing and he was so excited about his baptism. It was darling!

Why Accountability

August 24, 2015

Hey Family and Friends,

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

It’s the best!!

Something that I have been studying is accountability and have realized how important being accountable to the Lord is.

Why does the Lord want us to be accountable when he already knows what we have done? He wants us to not justify away our sins. If we go through our day and really talk to our Father in Heaven about our actions, we can be taught and realize where we have gone wrong and where we need to change and be better. God really has no ego. Being accountable to Him allows us to progress and become better people. And I feel really blessed to be able to recognize the Lord’s hand so apparent in my life.

God has no ego. If we really understand this statement, we will come to know that everything He does is for us. It will be hard for us to shake our hands at the heavens when we go through trials or when we see others go through trials if we understand God is the most selfless being. Absolute trust in our Heavenly Father is necessary if we are to go through life with a smile on our face.

If God has no ego, we too should desire to rid ourselves of our ego and become true followers of Jesus Christ. And this ego can leave us as we seek diligently and apply the gospel and understand that our hearts need to be broken. We need to have moments where we do want to ask our Father in Heaven why, but we slowly learn to realign our will to the Father’s, and we slowly learn to be more compassionate and more loving and more kind.

Sometimes when we go through trials, we may pray for the trial to end but sometimes we just have to take heart and trust in God, remembering that he is helping us to become who the Lord wants us to be.

I love being a missionary!!! 

Sister Falco

President Chanza!

I will Rise Above My Past

August 17, 2015

My dearest family and friends,

I will rise above my past.

I have been thinking about how often we blame our past for who we are. I will not let my past define me. I have the ability to choose between good and evil. Human nature learns and thrives on patterns. Our behavior becomes a careless pattern if we are not careful.  I feel like in many conversations we blame our past for why we are a certain way. We might say, “My past is why I am a closed book, or why I am not good at communicating.” It may be true but for me I feel it is just an excuse not to step up and become who we can be. For me, I am done blaming my past for acting a certain way. I am done letting the past define who I am. I will lose my life for the Lord so I may become the best I can be. I am done with getting frustrated when I fail. I will step up and become exactly who the Lord wants me to be. I will have a fast rebound when I fail. The Lord is hastening the work, and if this hastening requires hastening and chastening and refining, I am ready and I am willing. I want to be refined. I want my will to match the Father’s. I want my mind to becomes His. I want to face trials where for a small moment I might feel forsaken, I might feel he has hid his face, and I might ask where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place and through it all I will be the one who removes my ego from myself and my heart will be broken and my vulnerabilities will become strengths.

This life is worth it. It is worth the trials. It is worth everything to become like our Father in Heaven. I love being a missionary, but even more than that I love being a child of God. I love this gospel and I love agency. Who knew that controlling ourselves could bring so much joy instead of controlling our surroundings! This mission is the best thing I have ever done.

I love being a missionary!
Sister Falco

 Reunited Again with Sister Rasband

 Fun Friends