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