Zambia Mission: Mission is Not a Lukewarm Endeavor

August 3, 2015

Family and Friends,

If I could give anyone advice about mission, it would be Mission is not a Lukewarm Endeavor. You can’t give part of your soul to God and expect to have a happy mission. You must give all of yourself to the Lord and then you will find this indescribable joy of a mission. Mission has the potential to be the happiest days of your lives or the hardest days of your life. I would be a liar if I said that I haven’t had hard days as a missionary but I feel the happiness I feel as a missionary outweighs the sadness by a long shot. I love being a missionary. I am so very grateful. Sometimes I just sit in bed, and I don’t want to go to sleep because I want to take in every moment. Being a missionary is a blessing, the joy is so indescribable. I love the story of Ananias and Sapphira and how they kept back part of the price; I really hope that when I start to want to hold onto who I was that I remember to give and give of myself. I really hope that my will becomes more swallowed up in the will of the Father. My heart has been broken a couple of times on mission, usually because the flesh is weak but the spirit is willing. The spirit cries I will, and the flesh isn’t quite on the same level. I have had many experiences as Peter did when he denies Christ and wept bitterly, I love Peter. I love his enthusiasm and his zeal and his perfectly imperfection that gives me the courage to continue onward. But through this all, my selfishness has been buried and hopefully it won’t just be buried but it will be annihilated.

Something I really want to invest in when I go home is reading and writing, I feel I have had so many experiences and I feel I have a hard time expressing the gospel and the experiences I have because of my knowledge in these two things is my weak point, I feel I am better at math and stuff.

I have foretasted heaven many times on my mission. I feel mission is the greatest blessing I have had. The times I feel this indescribable joy is when I have felt like Peter and I feel so inadequate and my heart pleads for mercy and I am able to find the mercy and peace of forgiveness. I have experienced a small taste of heaven. I also feel this joy when you really understand the significance of helping others. I also feel I have felt this joy when you begin to have your mind enlarged or enlightened to the Gospel. When you love everyone as yourself, that’s the joy of the gospel, when you love everyone to pieces that’s the joy of heaven, when you look back on trials and see the beauty in them, or when you even see the beauty as you are struggling, that’s a taste of heaven, When you understand the worth of yourself and the worth of others, that’s a taste of heaven.

I love being a missionary. The lord has blessed me immensely with great joy. My knowledge has increased, my love has increased, I am on the Lord’s errand in Africa. How can I not be happy? Brigham Young once said, “The man who enjoys the spirit of religion has no trials but the man who tries to live the gospel but clings to the world has trials acute.” I can’t say that I am someone who is ALWAYS living in the spirit of religion, but I strive to and I have found that what Brigham Young is saying is very very true.

We have three possibly progressing investigators--the girl I wrote about who got raped decided to stay in Lusaka and she came to church!! FINALLY!!!! But we will see…the sisters before us were teaching her since January and this his her first time to church so hopefully we will see her continue to progress.

Brother Djo is doing great, he is a good guy. I hope he can overcome his addiction and finally make the covenant of baptism.

And we have a young girl, who is an angel. She is nine and she has been coming to church. Her parents are less active, but she always comes with the son who is super duper active. And she really really wants to be baptized. She is an angel. I love kids.

Can there any good come out of Nazareth?

From Nazareth came example,

From Nazareth came sight,

From Nazareth came strength,

From Nazareth came life,

From Nazareth came faith

From Nazareth came peace,

From Nazareth came courage,

From Nazareth came Christ.

Thomas S. Monson.

Oh how I love him.

I love this question given by Nathaniel and I love the response, come and see.

I feel each of us have our Nazareths, as Thomas S Monsoon writes, “Nazareth was the most disregarded valley in a despised province of a conquered land.” Each of us have our trials or our disregarded or despised valleys; we have those trials that we may despise, we may not see why we are going through them, but if we come and see with an eternal perspective we can see that many good things come from Nazareth.

From Nazareth came example,

From Nazareth came sight,

From Nazareth came strength,

From Nazareth came life,

From Nazareth came faith

From Nazareth came peace,

From Nazareth came courage,

From Nazareth came Christ.

Our minds are carnal, far from spiritual matters and it’s hard to truly understand the gospel and why we all are required to go through Nazareths if our minds are carnal. We must work and achieve a spiritual mind.

I love being a missionary. It’s the greatest thing I have ever done. But even more than that I am so grateful for my testimony and I pray that I never lose it, that I never get slothful as I come home and return from being a full time missionary. I hope that I continue growing and becoming enlightened. I am truly happy and grateful to be a missionary.

I love you ALL!

Sister Falco

My area is pretty cool.