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

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,

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

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

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

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