Monday, December 31, 2012

A fun P-Day with the District in Zaragoza!



Feliz Ano!!!


Happy new year family and friends!

It was so great to talk the family over Skype on Christmas. I love you guys so much! And I can’t believe Carson is engaged...I so asked him on Christmas day when he was proposing and he told me nobody knows!! And now days later he is engaged....thanks a lot cousin!! Ha ha just kidding but this will already be the 3rd wedding I am missing. I am just that long lost cousin in the family now who is never in the wedding photos ha ha. But congratulations cousin!!!

My favorite miracle from the week was with our investigator Mercedes. She is just progressing along so well and she gave up coffee a couple of days ago. She even invited her friend to come with her to her baptism this week but then her friend starting asking her why she was doing this so fast. Then she told her that she had received an answer from God that she needs to do this and that God has told her that this is the right thing to do. She truly is incredible and already has a strong testimony of this church and the Book of Mormon. I love her so much. And we have a ton of people that hopefully we can get in with this week. Everyone said to meet after the holidays so after tomorrow no more holidays!! We have big plans for this week.

Just by talking to my family (and friends :)) I am so grateful for the people in my life. I am so grateful to have a supportive, loving family in my life. And I am so happy to have such amazing friends that have ALL been examples to me; through serving missions and from the support I receive out here in Spain. I really am so blessed. Out here in Spain, it is hard to find a complete loving family where everyone is part of the church. That has definitely strengthened my testimony about how families and friends are such a blessing in this life and that we can truly be with them forever. So thank you all so much for everything, may the New Year bring more happiness and new adventures!!

Con Amor,

 

Elder Farah

Monday, December 24, 2012

Just hanging out with my buddy Charles Abou, BYU basketball star!

Feliz Navidad!




Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I am not going to lie, it doesn´t feel like Christmas too much out here. I can´t believe that tomorrow is Christmas day. It feels kind of weird, but it is all good! Our baptism with Edward went through and now he is a member of the only true church on the planet.  He literally has been to Hell and back.  He has been to jail in the Bronx of New York, has tattoos, used to do drugs, crack, smoke, and drink, and break the law of chastity probably weekly. But now I can testify to all of you that this man is changed and that the gospel changes lives.  I have seen it first hand with so many people, and especially with this man.  He has faithfully changed everything about him and loves everything about church so much.  I love him so much, and he loves us and the church.  He literally changed his life.  And I feel so honored to be a part of that.  He is my brother!

And Mercedes, is another fehca that we have! She is from Peru and we taught her all week and she came to church and loved it a lot.  She is gold and will be getting baptized on the fifth of January. Happy new year to me! Me and Elder Pearson did work this week and we are trying to find new people and build up our pool of people again.  And we have a lot of people that we are going to be getting in with this next week after Christmas. I am excited :)

Ok so another legit miracle.....I hung out with the CHARLES ABOU from the BYU basketball team!! Yes I am dead serious.  He is playing for a team here in Spain and showed up at our church yesterday. I greeted him at the door and said I know who you are!! And so we talked for a while and then after church we were going to visit a nativity scene at the pialr here and pass out books of Mormon so of course I invited him to come and he came with us! So I hung out with Charles Abou in Spain...pretty crazy.  He is actually super super nice and loved seeing some American faces and loved spending time with the missionaries!  He is so great, and it was so crazy that I met him here in Spain...and of course we talked sports and everything.  But he is a good member of the church, and is super nice. It was so much fun!!

Ok well I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, I am excited to talk to the fam tomorrow!!

Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Farah

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Buenas!!



Buenas!!

So this week was nuts, we had to move pisos last preparation day and it was insane, it took the whole day!! We didn’t even get time to do anything fun but oh well ha ha.  But we finally have working hot water and a super nice big piso. It is so great; the other piso had had elders in it for over 20 years so it was just destroyed.  But i will get the address and email it on here next week.

Edward is still good to go for this Saturday to be baptized!! I am so excited for him. He really has stopped doing everything bad and is ready to change his life.  He is a true example of how this gospel changes lives, and he is so ready for this.  I love this man!!!

This past week we have been working really hard to find new people and build our pool back up.  Some days you just have to grind them out, especially when you knock over 100 doors and every single one gets slammed in your face and people yell so me crazy things at you.   But me and my companion laugh and make it fun and we are trying to have the faith that there is someone behind that door. And if a old person opens up the door and doesn’t want anything; right before they shut it I ask for some advice for us young boys in life. It has brought some pretty fun answers ha ha.

This miracle we had occurred yesterday, last night.  After working so hard all day, and getting doors slammed in our face, we were visiting a lady for the first time and she was a reference from a member in our ward. First off this member is incredible, she is always looking for new people that we can teach and she told me on Sunday that she might not have a chappa on her shirt, but her chappa is up in the heavens. She has some of the strongest desires to build the kingdom of God and help the missionaries. But we visited this woman and she is from Peru, and Elder Pearson loves the people from Peru, so we did a basic leccion zero and we found out that she had a nephew die at 2 years old. She lives alone, but wants to live with her kids really bad, and knows that now is the time for her to change and endure to the end. She knows that she needs to endure to the end, and we just talked about how this Gospel can always bring us happiness and is always a bright light in our lives. We invited her to be baptized for the 5th and she accepted,

I can’t believe it is almost Christmas, it doesn't feel like it but we have a few decorations in piso and we sing the Christmas hymns every morning so we are trying to bring in the Christmas spirit!! And for the record, if anyone anywhere gets mission calls I need to know where they are going and when!! Thanks ;) I love you all so much, thank you for the support!!

Love,

Elder Farah

Monday, December 10, 2012

Elder Farah sent a flash drive home with 1500 pictures so I will do my best to share my favorites with you from the life of a missionary in Spain each week!










All I want for Christmas...is more baptisms!! And to hear from family and friends


Hello family and friends!!

This week was great. We had a zone conference with President Pace!! I love seeing him and his wife; I just love them so much. And I love learning from him and her and the assistants that we have. They are amazing missionaries, and I know that President Pace is called of God and holds the keys to the success of this mission. After hearing from Elder Richards, we have all been trying to teach more simply. Teach someone as if they were an 8 year old getting baptized, which is really what we are doing when it comes to their knowledge of the church. And I know how to teach simply with my Spanish skills, ha ha, but I am improving everyday and trying my best. And we have been knocking a lot more doors.  The Area Presidency of Europe has encouraged us to knock doors during lunchtime so we have been trying that in our proselytizing. If I can baptize a true Spanish family on my mission, that would be such a huge miracle. The hardest part is getting into the apartment because the main door is always locked and sometimes there is a door man. So I hit 7 or 8 buttons at a time assuming somebody is expecting someone then they buzz the door open and we walk in. Or I say cartas, which means letters and sometimes they think I am the mailman and let me in. We make it fun.

We met with Edward yesterday after church and had a lesson with him. He is doing so good and he wants to change his life so bad. We found out that he was in jail for a while and in there he would read the Bible. But now he is reading the Book of Mormon ;) We taught him the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and he gladly accepted both of them. He has already stopped all the drugs and didn’t know coffee was bad so now he will stop that. And I had to straight up tell him no more sex. My companion is very formal and sincere, and tried to explain it in a formal way, but then I just straight up told him to stop. He wants to, he gladly accepts everything. We are seeing him three more times this week. I love this man so much, he is doing so good and I know that the Lord prepared him for us. His whole story is a miracle, and his pisomate Mike helps us a lot and helps him a lot. We are visiting him tomorrow and you bet I will be checking his fridge for beer ha ha.

We are trying to stay warm here. There is a ton of wind in Zaragoza and that can be rough sometimes, but we just keep walking and put one foot in front of another and the Lord blesses us and gives us the strength to keep going. I really hope to hear from all of you this Christmas, hope you are all having a good holiday month!!

Love,

 Elder Farah

Monday, December 3, 2012

Papa Noel

Santa Claus visited us in a zone conference last week to tell us that the greatest gift we can give this season is the Book of Mormon. And he is right :)

Miracle After Miracle


Happy December!!!

I just want to share one of my favorite miracles I had this week. This miracle was incredible. We were visiting one of our recent converts, Mike and he has a piso mate that we have tried to teach before and has never wanted anything, but he is extremely nice. So we went to visit Mike and we walked in and his piso mate, Edward, was smoking and drinking beer as he does every day, but today was different. He said that he wanted to pray with us and of course we said alright that is great! So we sit down and prayed, and then he says I want to become a member of our church. I was shocked, so then I asked him why and he said I have a son on a mission in Argentina and my ex-wife and other son are members of your church. I have been a few times before and I know that this is my time. God has told me I need to go back to church. He said straight up that I want to change my life and quite smoking and drinking and be baptized. He has such strong desires and he wants to change!!! And he showed up to church on Sunday and told me how good he feels to be there. This man is so sincere and I can’t wait until his baptism. I want to write his son on a mission once he is baptized and tell him that his dad has changed. I just have so much love for this man, it is the typical story. And I can’t wait. I am so excited to see him tomorrow. He needs to stop smoking and drinking. The usual here right? But I can’t wait to help him and I know this is the one and only true gospel that can help.

Here in Spain there isn’t a whole lot of Christmas around. In the really nice parts of the city yes, but most places no. So we are trying to decorate our piso a little bit ha ha. But that is alright, the members will take care of us and I think we have already had like 4 invites for dinner for Christmas so we will see how it goes. But we did have a Thanksgiving Feast with the food my dear mommy sent me. It was so good!! Most of the stuff we just had to add water so we didn’t mess it up ha ha.

One thing I have learned out here on the mission is how to show true love. I hug every member I see and every investigator I have (just the guys of course) but I have learned just to show pure love for everyone and be their friend. That is when these people trust us and feel the spirit, when they feel loved. Church is my favorite time of week; I have never loved church more in my life. I see all the members and all of our recent converts. And it is the greatest feeling ever to great each one of them one by one at the door with a smile on my face. I love these people so much, and would do anything for them. I can’t ever say no to anyone about anything. It gets me in trouble sometimes ha ha but I just love them so much. Love is a huge attribute of Christ, and I am trying to master that along with being myself. Because that is why I was specifically called to Spain. For who I am.

I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!!

Love,

Monday, November 26, 2012

And Another Two Go Down!!!


Hello family and friends!!

Yes this past week was Thanksgiving. And it was a normal day for us ha ha. We tried to make it fun and celebrate a little bit for as much as we can for Thanksgiving. We have a football in our piso so I slept with the football in honor of the turkey bowl. Now we might buy some cheap decorations for our piso for Christmas, I am not sure yet. We are still in our old piso, and are still trying to move out. But there of course is a bunch of problems so we are just waiting for them to be taken care of. And we still have to shower with buckets of water, and it can be really cold in the mornings!! But it is all part of the adventure of the mission.

Our two baptisms this week were amazing; it was another family that we brought into the gospel. And the best part was is that eddy’s brother baptized him and his wife and he is a recent convert of only 3 months. It is just amazing to see how much people can grow and how much they change through this gospel. They were confirmed yesterday and looked so happy. They are very excited to be in this church and to learn more. And he asked to have my gold tie. So now I have to give it to him next week h aha because I love him and can´t deny any member or convert of mine anything. It kind of gets me in trouble sometimes, I say yes to everyone in the ward and then can’t do everything they ask but I try and they just laugh at me because I am also so crazy at church trying to do 100 things at once. I just love church so much. I love seeing everyone in one place so happy and learning about the gospel.

We had a conference all the way up in Bilbao this week with Elder Richards from the Second Quorum on the Seventy, a general authority. It was amazing and I know that he is a man called of God. He talked to us for 4 hours with videos and practices and the whole nine yards. It was so great to meet a general authority like him. And I got to see President Pace again, and I love seeing him if course. It was so good. Bilbao is so pretty! I want to serve up there one day really bad. It did take us 5 hours to get up there on a train and 5 hours back but is was worth it!! And we even got to stay in a hotel!!!  And it had carpet!! I have never been so grateful for carpet and a working shower. It is funny the things you really become grateful for out here.

Alright I love you all so much :) hope to hear from you soon!!

Elder Farah

Monday, November 19, 2012

Turkey Week!


Hello family!!!

Well...Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home. I hope that Josh catches a
touchdown for me in the Turkey Bowl. This week was also a bad week for
sports, BYU and the Ducks lost to some sub-par teams...Especially the
Ducks! Ha but oh well.

My companion is a stud and well, let’s just say, that President Pace is his
Uncle!! And not only that, it gets better; his dad is THE Elder Pearson in
the First Quorum of the Seventy. Yes, I am companions with a General
Authority’s son. It is crazy; he told me all of this yesterday. He is such
a hard worker and very, very obedient. I know that we will do great things
together. Of course I still miss my father of the mission Elder Tirado,
but I love Elder Pearson, he is a such a nice soul.

This week we kind of re-set the area so to speak, cleared out the phone, area
book, and went through a bunch of old investigators and passed by a bunch
of members to get references and are trying to find new investigators really bad!! We
have our 2 baptisms still lined up for this Saturday, and it is a husband
and wife!! We love bringing families into the Gospel, this Gospel truly
blesses families. I just know it does. I am so excited for them to be
baptized this Saturday. There is still a lot of work to do, but it is all good. And
this week was pretty crazy. Technically Elder Pearson is the senior
companion but since I am the one who knows the area I was making all the
calls, getting around our area in Spain (which can be difficult by bus and
everything in Spanish) so it was a different experience!! But I think we
did all right. I was a little nervous at first because I had to do all
that but I prayed really hard to be comforted and I know that the Lord
helped me more than anything. PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED. I just know they are.
Prayer is so powerful. We have a lot of new visits with new people this
coming week and I am very excited to set some baptism dates and teach
people the Gospel!! I get excited for visits with new people these days,
it is funny how excited I get.

My favorite miracle from the week was a recent convert who is already less
active showed up to church for the first time in a while. I had never seen
him or knew who he was. So we jumped on him, set a visit, and he has a wife
and a family that haven´t been baptized yet. We are very excited to
encounter this family this week and start teaching them. There is nothing
more rewarding then bringing families into the Gospel. We have high hopes to
teach this family this week. What a miracle it was to have him randomly
show up to church this week. The Lord really does place people in your
path; you just need to work for it.

So well as always I have a favor to ask of all of you through prayer. One
of our recent converts, Mike, his brother who was 22 died on Saturday. He
came up to me on Sunday and I gave him a big hug and he looked at me with
tears in his eyes and said my brother died. We are visiting him tonight; I
feel so badly for him. I love this man so much. He changed his life to be
baptized, got rid of drugs, alcohol, and sex. His life is changed. I am
glad he has the Gospel in his life now to help him through but please
pray for his comfort.

I love you all so much! Keep the faith!! Do work!!!

Love,

Elder Farah

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Transfers!


HOLA!

So the life of Elder Tirado and Elder Farah is over here in Zaragoza. He was called to be a zone leader in Hospitalet. He is an amazing missionary and a great leader, and will do amazing things up there. I hope to be an amazing missionary like him one day. So now I am sitting here with my new companion Elder Pearson. He is from Salt Lake City and only has one more transfer then I do, but his Spanish is incredible!! He is really smart and a very nice elder. I am excited to be with him. We just need to get to work so that we can get 600 baptisms this year! We are super young out here, but just call us the Oklahoma City thunder. Young but we do work!

Alright my favorite miracle from the week has to be the stake conference that we attended. We did have to get up at 2:30 a.m. in the morning and take a 4 hour bus ride there and a 4 hour bus ride back, but it was worth it. The church really is growing; we have another stake here in Spain. We have another ward. And that recent convert room before the stake conference was filled; we had a special meeting for them before the conference. I couldn´t help but to sit there and smile and just want to get more converts into the church. Because every single one of those people had smile on their faces and looked so happy and you could just see the light shining through them. The members and converts here are so dedicated to travel to things like that and their faith is incredible. It is a miracle to have another stake, and I know the church will only grow some more. And Elder Richards from the Quorum of the Seventy was there presiding and spoke. It was incredible!!

So we have not moved pisos quite yet, but hopefully by the end of this week we will be in!! We will still be picking up mail from our old piso, but I will get the address out as soon as I can. If you have doubts, just send the stuff to the mission home but then I only get mail from there like once a month.

This work is incredible and I love it so much, I am in charge for the next couple of weeks since Elder Pearson came to my area. But I have no fear!! I was trained well and I have the Lord on my side, so everything is great. The Spanish is the same, slowly but surely with faith and patience. Remember that faith is the first principle in the gospel, and everything we do relies on how strong our faith is. Always have faith and trust in the lord. I love you all so much!! I hope to hear from you!!

Love,



Elder Farah

Monday, November 5, 2012

And TWO More Go Down!!!


Hello people back in good ol´America

Alright so many miracles to pick from but remember how we had the miracle with Sophia last Saturday? Well her sister was just as big!!! We had to go teach Sophia on our preparation day last week and while we were teaching her, her sister was there as well. We started going over the baptism calendar we had given to Sophia, and we were just about to invite her sister to be baptized when her sister just asked can I be baptized too? Of course we said yes and put the fecha for her for next week. But she said no I am ready to be baptized this week!! And she had already been to church a few times. So me and Elder Tirado looked at each other and said alright let’s do it!! So we had the blessing of having 2 people baptized this week. This truly is the second harvest, those miracles prove it. It was incredible, but we are always looking for more!! We need 600 this year!!


And we are going to need a lot of help to get it, we are around 415 I think and only have two months left! But I know with the help of the Lord we can do it. And not only that, but they are making a new stake in Spain!! And our branch is included!! Because our branch has grown so much, I think we will become a ward. We are excited for Zaragoza to be part of a stake!! Next weekend is the historic day, and we get the opportunity to be there. And President Pace is calling the new stake president, we are very excited.

I think this past week was as normal as it gets in Spain; we didn’t have anything lite on fire and soaked this week so I think we managed pretty well. And we even get to go and buy food today!! WOOO!! The whole month of October, we hardly had anything but we made it through and are very happy that we get to stock our cuboarda and shelves today with food and not have to pay with it with personal money. Halloween is kinda celebrated here, not a lot. Some people dressed up and went tricking treating, but just little kids. A member invited us over for some food on Halloween night so we celebrated it there. Other than that we heard drunk people outside our piso all night breaking bottles but that is normal for here ha ha. I did miss seeing carved pumpkins and scary stuff. It is starting to get cold here, but as long as it doesn’t rain and we don’t get wet, we stay pretty warm.

Alright just know that I am having the time of my life!! Ya it is the hardest thing ever and nothing ever goes right, my Spanish frustrates me, but all you can do is laugh and smile. As long as we just keep a good attitude out here, everything goes great. I love you all!!

Love,

Elder Farah

Monday, October 29, 2012

What Other Crazy Things Can Happen...


Hello the great world of normal lives!!

So first of all I am glad to hear that BYU finally figured out how to put
the ball into the end zone this week, good win. And the ducks hanging 70
points on the Buffaloes....typical game. We love getting our updates on
football every preparation day!!

Ok so our crazy adventure for the week. We were all cooking lunch the
other day in our tiny kitchen. I was making cheese and ham quesadillas,
Elder Tirado was making shrimp wrapped in bacon and the other elder in our
piso was making mac and cheese (typical man meal right?). So we were all
super focused on our pans on the stove. We had a bar of bread that was a
little stale, so Elder Tirado decides to throw it in the microwave to warm
it up and make it soft. But you need to know that we have an old school
microwave and once you turn the knob, it will just go for up to ten minutes,
it doesn’t stop automatically. So he threw it in, and well let’s just say
that we forgot about it. We smelled something burning and saw smoke and we
just though it was our food. Then Elder Spencer points at the microwave and
yells ¨Oh my goodness!!¨Our bread and microwave were on fire and there was
black smoke fuming. We hurried and turned it off, grabbed the smoke alarms
and ran outside because we were all coughing so much. Ha ha we were laughing
so hard and needless to say now, we don’t have a microwave, we warm
everything up on the stove. And we had to have everything open for the next
3 days to air out our piso and we froze a little bit. It is all good now.
Just another crazy adventure in the life of the Zaragoza elders.

We have another baptism this week!!! It was such a miracle. I was going
through the area book calling a bunch of former investigators because we are
starting our area fresh and wanted to clear out our pool of people and get
more progressing investigators. So I called this woman named Sophia and she
didn’t answer. But later that day she called us and said I want to be
baptized. WHAT?!?! Me and Elder Tirado were in shock. That never
happens!! So she is getting baptized this week :) such a miracle, it was
definitely the Lord blessing us with someone who is ready. It was
incredible, one of the biggest miracle of the mission. I can’t believe it
still.

Yes it is getting pretty cold here. I never thought I would wear a v neck
sweater vest, leather gloves, and a scarf. But they keep you so warm!!! And
it is fashionable here in Spain I guess...so we are trying to stay warm and
it is only the end of October ha ha. But I am so happy and am having so
much fun. We are working super hard, but can always work harder. I love
this gospel and I know it is true.

Love,

Elder Farah

Monday, October 22, 2012

And Another One Goes Down!!!


Hola Familia y Amigos :)

All I really have to say is, we are being so blessed down here in Zaragoza. We had 4 people between our District go down. And there are only 3 companionships in our district. But the investigator that we baptized is from Nigeria and his name is Mike. We had to work really hard with him to get him baptized. He always had the desire to be baptized but had a problem with his coffee and morality. But it was truly a miracle that we experienced with him the other week. We went to go teach him and he had told us that he had gotten rid of his girl and was completely done with coffee and wants to follow Christ because he knows it is the right thing to do. Me and Elder Tirado were shocked!!! Mike has so much faith, we made sure to keep a close eye on him every day before the baptism and he is staying strong. Mike is our brother, and he loves us and we love him. I can’t believe that we have had 4 investigators get baptized in the last 9 weeks when we white washed the area. Such a miracle!! And I have a companion who just knows why he is here and how to work efficiently. I am learning everything I can from him because after this transfer he is probably leaving, so our area will be left to me.

But we are working so incredibly hard, especially to get 600 in 2012. I would like to invite all of you who read this to pray for the mission of Barcelona to get 600 people baptized this year. We need about 200 in the last month. It is going to take a miracle to get this, but we can do it. I have the faith, and I know our mission does as well. But the power of prayer is incredibly strong; I would like to invite you all to help us please :) We hope to set another baptism date with a family this week, they are so good. We are very excited about them. This week we just need to find new people.

So as you know our piso is super tiny and super old. And we have been showering with buckets of water all week....let’s just say it is really cold in the mornings ha ha. When we were at interviews with President Pace and his wife, word had gotten out about our piso so Hermana Pace gave us every green light to find a new piso. So that is what we did, I think we found one today!! It is so nice....and so pijo...ha ha. But we are sending everything to the office so hopefully we can move out next week and get our hot water back!!

But my favorite part about last week was my interview with President Pace. I love that man and his wife so much. I know that they were mission presidents called specially for me and who I am. The interviews are only about 15 minutes long and it is the fastest time of my life. But I love him so much. He could be an apostle one day, I’m sure he will be!!

Alright I love you all very much. Thank you for all the support!!!


Love,

Elder Farah