March 30, 2015 SQUAD

Hi Squad!

I hope y'all are enjoying you're primavera and this Easter season! 

MonteBello had another top notch week.  It's starting to heat up here in Sin City! 

This morning we did a "Thor" workout with all of the priests in our ward.   They were so dead by the end so that was pretty funny.  Shoutout to Elder Thorne for helping me start to get in better shape! That dude is a genius! 

getting these guys in shape... me too

Two exchanges this week, 1 with Los Feliz companionship and the other with the Zone Leaders.  With Loz Feliz, Elder Constantino and I had a pretty cool experience in their area on Tuesday.  It was in the middle of the afternoon, and we had already visited all of the people we had planned and no one was there… so we went to this apartment complex and there was no one outside at all.  So before we got out of the car, we prayed that there would be people to talk to and that we would see a miracle.  Right when we got out of the car people started coming out of their apartments so we had a lot of people to talk to and then after, in the neighborhood we saw a garage open so we went to see if there was anyone in there to talk to... no one there, but then we went to another garage down the street there was this older couple in there.  They weren't interested but they said their neighbors might beJ so we knocked on their door.. no one there. So we were walking back to our car and there was this lady who just got home and Elder Constantino was like, "this lady is the reason we're here" and we started talking to her and then she looked at our name tags and said, "ELDERS?!?! I haven’t had you guys over in 6 years!" She has been taught before by missionaries but she moved and lost communication.  She let us in and we began teaching her. So now the Los Feliz elders are teaching her and she is reading the Book of Mormon! #buckets

ŸThen Elder Anderson came to my area for an exchange on Thursday so it was two white boys running the area #whiteboysmakenoise

ŸA priest and I were out walking in a neighborhood last night and we started talking to this guy who was grilling. He fed us chicken tacos and gave me this pepper to try.  I was crying the rest of the night cause it was so spicy but he said that when his wife gets back he will come to church with us.  

ŸYou know you are in a Spanish Ward when... a little girl is drinking a bottle of horchata during church. I was so jealous. 

ŸWe had a family of investigators come to church on Sunday and one of their boys is in primary age so i was taking him to primary but his primary teacher wasn't there so Elder Yoshida and I taught their class.  Those ninos were crazy! 

ŸWe had interviews with President Snow this week! I know I've said this before but that man is a spiritual giant and I learn so much from him! Our interviews are really short but I love the time I get to talk to him. Also a special shoutout to Sister Snow for giving a great training on how to lead music! I'm coming for you Abby!

Ÿalso BREAKING NEWS our mission is officially getting ipads on May 20th! Elder Donaldson will be coming (the mission president of the mission who had "The District" videos that Dad and I love) and also maybe Elder Bednar and Elder Russel M. Nelson might come too! I am so hyped for that.

ŸEveryone look for Michigan St.'s point guard Tum Tum Nairin on TV in the Final Four! That is one of Elder Thorne's best friends. 

ŸOk dagum are y'all stoaked for General Conference this week?!?  The hype is real here on the mission.  Listen closely and receive your own personal revelation! This is going to be better than the Final Four I promise! Tune in on BYUtv this Saturday and Sunday! 

Love you all! Follow the Prophet!

Elder Faldmo

#YAKTB

March 23, 2015 Talofa lava‏!!!!

Que onda que onda?

Another great week in the NLVM and in the Monte Bello ward aka the promised land. 

• ŸShoutout to Uncles Justin, Jason, and Jared Hurst for using teamwork to make a dream work and getting me another bike this week! 

• ŸShoutout to Spencer Hemmingsen for turning 19 this week! 

I'm in a cool area right now because I'm very close to the temple and there is almost all Spanish speaking people around me.  I was able to go to the temple twice this week, one time because every week, the missionaries in our ward do a "Temple Walk" where we invite people to come and walk around the temple with us.  Then the other time I did was because Makay went to the temple for the first time to do baptisms for the dead.  Me encanta ver el templo!

only in NLVM do you get temple x 2 in one week

We had a mini-missionary with us this week for a couple days! His name is Jose and he's 19 years old and joined the church about 10 months ago.  He's just like Abby.  He was Student Body President, Homecoming King, and pretty much a straight up stud.  He used to be a Jehovah's Witness untill one of his good high school friends gave him a Book of Mormon after the whole youth in their ward were challenged to.  He was baptized soon after he started meeting with the missionaries. He is putting in his papers in a few weeks and we are pumped for him! 

Me and my man Jose!

After an 8 year old baptism in our ward on Friday night, there were two Samoan ladies that were bringing in things for the wedding reception for their niece the next day and I said "talofa lava" and told them that my dad served a mission in Samoa and then the lady said, "give me his number right now!” Then she called dad and i guess dad served right in her village from what I heard.  Dad you still fluent in Samoa?

We had an amazing SQUAD meeting last night.  We had a meeting with all of the auxiliary leaders and some of the counselors and came up with the first Monte Bello Ward, Ward Mission Plan! It was one of the coolest experiences of my mission.  It was like revelation bouncing from one person to the other about what we need to do here in this ward to hit the next level of missionary work.  Just like Coach Ripperda said, "every day, you either get better or worse, you never stay the same."  Get better today! 

Love you all! Keep being disciples of Christ! 

Elder Faldmo   

March 16, 2015 Fam Bam

Fam Bam!

What a great week do be in this dispensation yeah?

It's like that experiment where the scientist put ants in a jar and then put saran wrap over the jar and the ants couldn't get out... but when he took the saran wrap off, the ants didn't even try to get out cause they didn't think it was possible...  All I know is that the Lord is taking off the saran wrap in right now, especially in Vegas.

So yeah, lots of work to do here and so little time in the day.  I've never been more tired in my life but I'm learning the important skill on my mission of how to be effective while you are tired.  It's something that we all need to learn how to do. 

Monte Bello Ward is doing well and I love the 3 other missionaries in the ward.  Except for the fact that Elder Thorne kills me every morning with this workout that he has. (The "Thor" workout). I'm so thor #puns. 

Elder Thor is also trying to make me quit sugar and sweets and ice cream and I say ok then I have sugar anyway and he says to me, "Elder Faldmo, how can you expect your investigators to keep their commitments if you can't keep yours?" hahaha

We set a lot of people with baptismal dates this week and found a ton of new investigators! Elder Felix is the man and he is helping me out with my Spanish. 

We had a sweet "Why I Believe Fireside" last night with some awesome speakers.  One was one of my favorites elders…Elder Herrera. He joined the church a little over a year ago and now he's serving a mission! Makay (who I taught and baptized in Warm Springs) was there so that was good for her to hear since she wants to serve a mission!

I had to speak in sacrament meeting on Pascua yesterday aka Easter.  It was difficult cause Spanish ya know… but I love this time of year with Easter and general conference around the corner so it's all good! The Atonement is where it's at! Use it.

Love,

Elder Faldmo

My man Mike got baptized this week! Mike was a born and raised Southern Baptist from Missouri but the Book of Mormon changed his life! He reads it every day and after his baptism he gave a powerful testimony of how he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the Restoration! His son Lane is dating a member and will get baptized hopefully next month! Love these guys 

ESPANOL March 9, 2015

Hello friends!

I'm back to my Spanish roots, drinking horchata like every day, eating only spicy food (porque si no pica no sabe), telling people that I'm from Parangaricutirimicuaro, and todo eso. 

My companion's name is Elder Felix. He was born in Sinaloa but moved to Chihuahua in the Mormon Colonies of Mexico when he was a kid.  It's a blessing to have a native speaker as a companion for sure.  He came out with me but he only went to the MTC in Provo for 2 weeks so he will go home a transfer after me. 

me and elder felix in the middle

Our area is pretty big since it covers about half of the Central Stake.  The other Elders in our ward cover the east part by the temple and we cover the more ghetto part on the east side.  It borders my first area, the El Rancho ward.  Our ward is Monte Bello.  It starts at 9 AM and the daylight savings time took a toll on the ward.  When sacrament started there was about 20 people there including the 4 missionaries so….  after the opening song a flood of people came in.  There are a ton of priests so they always come out with us. 

It's official now that Elder Faldmo's favorite food is Mexican food and also pupusas.  I could live on tacos, pupusas, and horchata the rest of my life.  It's like I get La Jua's but 10x better every night for dinner.

I had my first baptism interview this week and it was all in Spanish so that was fun.  But really, it was one of the coolest experiences ever... seeing someone tell you in their interview that they want to use the atonement in their lives and follow Jesus Christ. 

We have an artificial tuft soccer field right across the street from my apartment and so that is being used well by the missionaries in our stake.  Call me Chicharito!

vivian: 

All smiles for Vivian's baptism on Saturday!! She was a joy to teach and she couldn't stop smiling after she came out of the water.  Such a cool experience.  She started with no background with God at all but she had the desire to know and so the Spirit taught her!  The reason she said she wanted to know more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is because her next door neighbors, the Shupes (bro. shupe baptized her), were always nice to her and one Sunday when she saw the Shupes going to church she asked them, "Where do you go every Sunday?" and they said "to church, you wanna come?" #membermissionarywork

My District is an all Spanish District so that's pretty neat and out ZL's are both Spanish speaking so we'll be able to do a lot of things in Spanish. 

I helped a family get their remote control airplane down from a tree.  I climbed the tree and shook it ya que estoy gordito and it dropped. they were very grateful and now we are teaching them this week.  Firemen save cats, Elders save airplanes.  

That was a hodge podge of stuff but everything is great here in Monte Bello! Vamos a encontrar, ensenar, y bautizar.

Love you all!

Elder Faldmo