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

Monday, October 15, 2012

LMFAO, party rock, water, and train and more partying

Hello family and friends from the great city of Zaragoza!!

Another week down here in the mission. This week was crazy and we had lots of funny things happen to us. Let’s start with water. Something is wrong with our hot water and it hasn’t been warming up. And even when it does, it is not that hot and it is just a drizzle with not that much pressure. In the summer we could bear it but now it is getting colder and the last thing we want to do is take a cold shower when our piso is freezing in the morning. So we went old school a few days this week and would warm up a pot of water and use a cup. Ha ha it was more work but better then a cold shower. And then we had a baptism last Saturday and we had to have it at 12. So the other elders went to the church at like 8 to fill up the font then came back. So then me and Elder Tirado went over at 10 just to check on things and get ready for it. We get there and there is no water in the font. The other elders had forgotten to put the plug in!!! So for the next 2 hours we were filling up buckets from the sink in the kitchen and just going as fast as we could to fill it. It normally takes 5 or 6 hours to fill and we had 2 hours. But somehow we filled it and we were able to do the baptism. It was a miracle to get that thing filled. But we had to do it. And my third investigator was baptized ;) and I was able to baptize her too!! And my companion did the confirmation. I was so happy, and you can see the change in her. It is so great, and we have another one of our investigators being baptized next week!! So many miracles down here in Zaragoza. And it started raining a ton this week, and we get soaked. So there is my water for the week ha ha.

So with the trains...well we had to go to Lleida for a zone conference and we had to go in the night before to stay with more elders, because we wouldn’t have had time to travel in the morning. So we get to the station and try to scan our tickets and the train worker gave us the wrong time...so then we had to buy more tickets and barely made the train and now we are broke for that.  Then 2 days later I had to go to Barcelona to get my card that proves that I live here and the office sent us a number on our phone to use at the station to print our tickets. And of course we forgot the phone with the number. So we were scrambling to use the pay phone to call the other elders in our piso to give us the number and barely made the train again. It was crazy.

And with the fiestas. Well the festival of the pialr was last week. Apparently it is world know and it is just a party for a week and everyone goes to it. It is so crazy, and the buses are packed to the brim which makes it difficult for us to travel. It was just annoying, everyone was just drunk. But the pialr looked really neat and pretty. We saw it a couple times. But we are glad the party is over. And LMFAO had a concert in Zaragoza....a few of our investigators went. It sounded way fun!! And I hear that Carrie Underwood has a concert back in Utah....hope my girl did good!!

Anyway everything is going great in the mission; it is just getting a lot colder here. But we are seeing so many miracles. And we also have interviews this week with president; I can’t wait to see him again. I love him so so much. Please pray for the mission goal of 600! I know that prayer works and it is real. So we could use the help. I love you all.

Love,


Elder Farah

P.S....write me!!

Monday, October 8, 2012

18 and 19!!!



Down here in the life of the Elder in beautiful Zaragoza....

Conference is the best!! It is like the super bowl for missionaries, for reals.  There is something about being set apart as a missionary that makes you appreciate our church leaders more and how much they really do care about missionary work.  Speaking of which, as the whole world knows, the mission age has changed.  When us missionaries heard that our jaws dropped to the floor and we jumped for joy.  We need more missionaries!!! And I am so happy that the age has changed.  Too many kids go to college for a year and have too much fun.  Or just don’t do anything with their lives.  So I am so glad that worthy young men can go straight out of high school and the sisters can go a lot earlier now too!!  It is incredible.  I  immediately thought about my beloved brother, Josh. And from what I just read form my lovely parents it sounds like he is excited and already wants to go straight out of high school :) What a great blessing and opportunity.  It is amazing kids like him in this rising generation that caused this change. I am so jealous and excited for him!!! Honestly it was a little hard to focus on Elder Cook’s talk after because my mind was going crazy.  But it just reassured me that we truly are in the last dispensation.  Temples are starting to dot the earth, and we have only begun to scratch the surface of missionary work.  This will help explode the missionary work next summer.  We need more elders and sisters in the Lord’s army.  I know that this was direct revelation from God given to President Monson. 

So my favorite experience from the week.  It was during my personal study.  I was reading in Mosiah chapter 18 when I can across verse 16 and it talks about how Alma baptized 203 people in one day in the waters of Mormon.  In our mission, our goal is 600 baptisms by the end of this year.  We have roughly around 377. So that means we need 223 more in these last 3 months between the 100 elders in the mission.  So I turned to Elder Tirado and forcefully broke the silence during our personal study ha ha.  I was like Elder!! I got some revelation!!!  If Alma can baptize 203 people in one day, and God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then we can for sure baptize 223 in the last 3 months and make our goal! God can help us work this miracle.  So Elder Tirado called our zone leaders to find out how many more we needed and they loved it so much that they sent out a mass text to the zone talking about the revelation that I received and how we need to keep the faith to accomplish this.  Me and Elder Tirado were laughing so hard.  I was just using it as motivation for us and just told my companion, and then it even made it to the top were President Pace mentioned something about that verse in a mass text to all the missionaries.  But in all seriousness, we have the faith to baptize 223 more in these last 3 months and we would love the prayers from all of you reading this. 
In a talk this past conference President Monson talked about the importance of prayer and how that is how we find out the truth of all things and there is no greater happiness then finding out the truth through prayer.  Prayer is the way to talk to God; I feel his love and his spirit the more I pray.  It is incredible how much more I feel him in my life through all my prayers.  I know that he lives.

Alright back to work this week, I love you all!! I hope to hear from you!!

Love, Elder Farah

p.s. we have 2 more baptism dates :)

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

My First Investigators!!!!

Hi family and friends :)

This week was probably the most stressful, crazy, week in the mission. But it was my best week in the mission, by far!! We set a goal as a companionship to teach 25 lessons this past week, the normal for the mission is 20. And we thought we were crazy after we set that goal because we had so much to do. We had to prepare the baptism and we had an activity planned for both of the branches, and us 6 missionaries were putting on a little skit for them called the life of a missionary. Needless to say, it was a success and we blew it out of the park. We even had food and everthing. It was so funny, and a member recorded it for me so I will have to send it home so you all can laugh!! And when we have bapstims and activities, we have to plan everything, it is nothing like in the states where the members will just do it for you. But they are still a great support, and just the fact that so many pople showed up was a miracle! We had like 60 people there. The church is so far away for a lot of the members, upwards of an hour bus ride. And some people just walk because they can't afford to pay the bus. They are so committed. We need to be more grateful for the fact that we have so many churches nearby and it is easy to access them.

Alright so my first two investigators, that me and my companion found, were baptized this week. We found Mishellee through her cousin, who is a less active memeber.  They are from Nicaragua and just live together. She has a son who is 3. It was incredible to see the change in her, from when we found her till now. And now her cousin is active again!! They are so amazing. And something that shocked me is that she asked me to baptize her last Saturday. So I had the amazing opportunity to bring her soul unto Christ. I could not tell you how happy I was, I was sitting there next to her all dresseed in white before the baptism and I, well, shed a few tears. Needless to say it was in Spanish, I was practicing all week to get it perfect haha. It was incredbile!!! I can´t even describe the happiness that it brought to my soul.

Not only that but out other investigator, Vivian was also baptized. We found her through her husband who is a memeber. She is from Nigergia and has a son who is 6 and he looks just like Sean Kingston haha. She asked the branch president to baptize her and of course he gladly did.  She was so happy as well, and I hope her family can go to the temple very soon.

The mission is incredible, we put in so much work the last 6 weeks to get these people baptized, but it is so worth it. And now, we still have to keep visiting them and teaching them more and more things. We are working so hard out here, I am always so tired and always fighting sleep but it is so worth it. Once I get this language thing down, I will love it that much more. I still struggle all the time, but the Spirit helps me in my times of need.

One more thing, this past week was transfers. And when that happens our preparation days are on Tuesday.  They happen every six weeks, and Iwas really worried that Elder Tirado was going to be transferred, because he has been in Zaragoza for a long time but he is going to finish training me :) I love you all and hope you have a good week!!

Love forever and always,


Elder Farah 

Monday, October 1, 2012

A Message From Sergio Godoy in Elder Farah's Branch



It is such a joy to receive emails like this one about your "Elder."
Dear Farah:
We have just finished a pleasant moments with Elder Farah and his companion Elder Tirado from 14 to 15:15 h. As usual they have left us with a sweet spirit.
Elder Tirado the senior companion said about Daniel: Next saturday we are going to have 3 baptisms, two belong to Elder Farah, he is a 'greeny of miracles' he has only 6 weeks in the mission field, he loves tracking...”
At the end , Daniel shared to us his favorite verse from the Book of Mormon:”
2 Nephi 31:20-21:
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
 21 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man 
can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen.
Really he is very focused on his mission, congratulations Kim!"
"I, Daniel Farah, having been born of goodly parents.
Regards
Sergio