November 23, 2015
My Dearest Family and Friends,
Mission is the best thing that has
ever happened to me, and I feel that I am suppressing the thoughts and feelings
about coming home. I finally started packing this morning trying to figure out
how much room I have in my suitcase and my heart just ached, the emotions
associated with going home are unexplainable. Don't get me wrong I love you
all, but leaving this experience is probably the weirdest sensation I have ever
been through. I am not going home yet, but I know its finally coming. I know I
have to close the book to this experience and open a new one; it’s just so
hard.
We had pizza with President Erickson
and the Lusaka Zone. It was fun. I love that man more than anything and I have
enjoyed learning all that I have from him. He is one of a kind and he was just
rambling and rambling all day about mission while we were there. And joking
about the ones who are leaving December 8th! I will give a short
update on my mission,
We have a prime investigator,
Duncan. He is so sweet. He talks a lot. Very quick and grasps on to the truth
so quickly and so enthusiastically. I can just see him as a missionary. The
main concern was that he just BARELY got baptized in SDA (Seventh Day
Adventist) but this week he told us that he was ready for December 6th. It was
a miracle in and of itself, and I pray to stay worthy of him progressing and I
pray to see him get baptized. And I also pray to see him stay worthy of
his progression as well. He reads, he comes to church, he does everything right,
I just pray that he will continue to pursue the restored gospel.
Grace--she is wonderful, has a great
heart and a beautiful personality. She has many concerns and she seems to need
a little more time. If a miracle occurs she could be baptized December 6th.
She’s been to church enough; she reads enough… But she just isn’t quite there
and she missed last Sunday. So we will see :)
Mwamba Ngila, He is a member’s
brother. He is SO PRIME. I feel substantially blessed to be teaching him. I
know he is not baptized yet, but I have a really hard time imagining him not
progressing to his date December 6th.
We are taking over the Elders Area,
so we will have the whole ward to ourselves… but only for two weeks. But they
should have a baptism this Sunday, and I think they were planning to have two
on the December 6th as well. But we will see.
What a blessing and a privilege to
be serving a mission. I have inadequate words to describe my gratitude. Mission
has taught me sacrifice and the truth of the quote from Brigham Young, “Shame
on that man who would so call anything a sacrifice. For it is the very means of
adding him Knowledge, understanding, power and glory.” I would never call a
mission a sacrifice but rather a time of learning and growing.
I feel the Lord above all else has
had to teach me the attribute of patience over and over again. The feelings of
inadequacy as a missionary pile up more than ever before especially as you face
trials or difficulties that prove just how unconsecrated that you are. But
through them all, the Lord doesn’t just test your faith, he builds your faith,
he builds your hope and he helps you to truly understand his ways are
definitely higher than ours. I have also found much comfort as I face
difficulties to realize that even the best men sometimes fail, I have found
comfort in studying the life of Peter, and Lehi and many others. Peter will
forever have a special place in my heart. I feel I can’t compare myself to him,
but I feel I relate to him more than anyone I have yet to discover as serving a
mission.
I have also felt my love for mankind
has increased substantially and my desire to give my whole heart to every
person I come in contact with has increased. And I am forever grateful for this
experience and the time that I have had to be able to increase my love for my
fellow beings.
Above all I have found one whom I
admire above all, whom I adore and hope to one day emulate more fully and that
is the Savior Jesus Christ.
As I have reflected on the Savior
and his sinless life and the sacrifice he so freely gave. He not only gave his
life but for a time he gave up every feeling of joy, every feeling of pleasure
and replaced it with every feeling of guilt and shame and pain that each of us
individually experience. I stand in awe. No greater love hath any man give than
to lay down his life for his friends. I am absolutely confident that the only
motive that could carry the Savior through that bitter day was his absolute
perfect love for us. Love was and has been and will forever be the motive
behind our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Christ’s love has made it possible
for each of us to be able to find comfort through him. I truly believe that the
Savior knew that he had to perform that painful atonement to make the
resurrection possible, but also to be able to comfort and love us through and
through. I believe that Christ begs us to come to him, he begs us to trust him,
and he begs us to repent because he died to give us eternal life to become like
him.
There’s meekness and humility in the
fact that we need to rely on God. I have reflected on my life and I feel I have
much pride to repent of. I have an attitude of I can do it, I don’t really need
help. I feel the pride I have had can easily be seen as I reflect on past
experiences. I am pretty stubborn when it comes to allowing someone to help me.
I push people away as I face difficulties or not even push people away but act
like everything is okay. Patricia Holland explains the importance of opening up
to people in way that I never could, “It is not God’s will for us to socially
“Go down with the ship” when rescuers are all around us I believe that ability
to say, “I am hurting and I need help” is a humble and courageous act of
meekness. Even Christ, when in agony, pleaded with his disciples to stay with
him and pray with him as he himself prayed more earnestly to his Father. If
Christ himself asked for help from friends, family and priesthood leaders,
undoubtedly we will not make it through life without doing the same.” All I
know is I am slowly learning to open up and I need to continue to strive to
repent of the stubbornness that I do have.
The love of mankind is what carried
Christ through Gethsemane and the love of God is what will carry us through our
own tribulations and trials. I have pondered over much of the life of Christ.
Christ’s suffering as he was tempted by the devil and was fasting gave Christ
the power of the spirit (Luke 4 vs 14) The resistance or self mastery Christ
obtained through these forty days is substantial. He didn’t perform any
miracles until AFTER the spiritual strength he was endowed with AFTER he
resisted, after he grew in knowledge and power and glory because of the trial
he faced. So often we think of trials as just a proof to our Father in Heaven
that we can do it, but it’s more than that. It’s a time where we are able to
grow more fully and be endowed with more spiritual capacity than previously.
The miracles Christ performed were
astounding. The miracles he performed allowed him to relieve some suffering
from the saints. He healed the sick; he allowed the blind to see, cleansed the
leper, allowed the cripple to walk. The list goes on and as wonderful as each
of these events were it was a type or a foreshadow of the relief that the Savior
was about to perform in the atonement. It did the world the most good, as hard
as this was, to make it possible for all of us to return to him. And I feel as
hard as it was it did the most good. And I feel you can compare it to each of
our lives. Our hardest times and most trying times will and can bring forth the
most good, I truly believe that if we humble ourselves the tree rings of growth
will be well nourished with water during the season of trials and tribulation,
but we MUST allow the trial to do us the most good, because trials can either
make or break us.
Carrying our cross may be difficult,
but will never reach our full potential if we do not carry our cross. The most
good will come as we face trials. The atonement has given me the ability to
realize the things we call sacrifices and the things we suffer are the greatest
blessings the Lord could ever bestow upon me.
Also as I have pondered over the
“Character of Christ” by Bednar. I have had a stronger desire to reach out to
those who I come in contact with. I pray that I may be able to overcome the
natural tendency to be self-centered as I face difficulties and to reach out as
the Savior did. As I have reflected over the sending of angels to John after
the temptations and also as I have reflected on the healing of the ear after
Gethsemane, I admire the Savior’s ability to reach out when he suffers, but I
also wonder if he is teaching us a lesson of how to deal with difficulties.
Reach out as we suffer and our burden will become lighter.
I have pages and pages written as I
have reflected over the life of Jesus Christ from my journal, but these are
just a few.
On a final note, I would just like
to testify of the craftiness and the evilness of sin. Sin itself distorts
reality, destroys wisdom and limits our potential. Christ knows that when we
sin we fall short of our potential. We sell our souls for something less
because we don’t understand our worth. I truly believe the best way to help
someone to turn away from their rebellion is to help them to know just how
meaningful they are, and their potential to be relevant to God’s plan. Satan
teaches us we have no worth, and he does it tactfully so that we may fall into
sin and even have a more distorted view of our worth. Many who rebel, you will
find them saying, “Its okay, it doesn’t matter” but I feel that under that
statement there’s a greater belief of “I don’t matter”. Satan’s effective tool
is to convince us we have no worth. We commonly see it even in ourselves--feelings
of worthlessness and even inadequacy, but these are taking the Lords sacrifice
in vain. Do we really imagine that the Lord would suffer so much for our
worthless soul? Joseph Smith said it best, “The worth of every soul, (you and I)
is great in the sight of God. The Lord calls you imperfect because he sees
something greater inside of you.
I would like to testify that I know
that He lives, and I have come to know Him more fully on mission. And I testify
that I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will carry you and will change you
into the person the Lord expects you to be. I can in nowise deny the power of
God because I have been changed by grace. Every time I think to doubt the
reality of God, I remember the days when I have felt the grace of God and when
I remember those times I have the inability to deny the power of God (Moroni 10
vs 10)
I love being a missionary. And I
don’t know how I will ever take off my nametag, and get on that plane to the
United States. My heart will forever be in Malawi and Zambia. But I will come
home a new person with a stronger testimony of the divinity of God and continue
to grow and develop into the person the Lord expects me to be.
Sister Falco
Beautiful People! Sister Grace, Sister Natsala and Sister Claire. LOVE THEM ALL!!
This family is the best family I have ever come in contact with! Love them!
Christmas party way back when...
Just a picture from a long time ago...got the pictures from the mission office today
