Ancestors and Elder Corbridge visit January 27, 2016

Hey everybody here's a quick update of what's going on with me the past week or so:

These past few days we have had the opportunity and the blessing to have Elder Lawrence Corbridge of the 1st Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy and his wife with our mission. It started with a special MLC on Sunday night and then 2 mega zone conferences on Monday and Tuesday.

Front Row: Sister Corbridge, Elder Corbridge, President Snow and Sister Snow.  

Me with Elder Thorne and sister training leaders in the back:)

While Elder Corbridge was here I had the chance to be interviewed personally by him and get some 1-on-1 time. He is probably the most intelligent person ever with the scriptures. One question I posed to him in my interview was "how can I avoid temptation after my mission?" and without delay he responded with D&C 45:57:

"For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived--verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day."

Here are a couple of other things I learned from him these past few days:

    * The bad news is that the Lord requires everything. Our time, talents, and interests. The good news is that the Lord only requires everything.

   *D&C 64

33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.

Greatness is the compilation of many small things done well. Day after day, obedience after obedience, workout after workout (Spiritual or Physical). 

Last Wednesday was the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast for all of the missionaries throughout the world. We were able to hear from a few of the apostles (Anderson, Bednar, Oaks) and others from the Missionary Executive Council.  It was titled "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts." I loved it because all of the talks and trainings were on the 8 fundamentals of missionary work or from the Missionary Guide Preach My Gospel. It's all about the fundamentals for whatever we do in life! 

I also was able to go on exchanges with Elder Chambers this past week! I'm so grateful for the mission and the friendships we develop because of it! I can't wait to watch him play at BYU after the mission!

So I have become quite fascinated with my ancestor named Thomas Sirls Terry. A member from a Ward I formerly served in is a descendant of him also and gave me a huge book with all of Thomas and his family's history.  Here are a couple of my favorite Thomas Sirls Terry quotes from his journal:

"When famine and starvation stared me in the face, and hunger had so weakened my mortal frame, that when at my labor I would have to sit down to rest in order to gain strength... still I hung on to my faith and integrity in the Lord ... and when a mist of darkness had darkened the horizon of truth and when the prophets of God, who were slain for the testimony which they bore, by the wicked friends of hell, and when destruction seemed to the total overthrow of the whole church, my faith was still in the Lord, and would serve the God of Israel and would never let anything shake me from my firm position in the commandments of Christ. Therefore, my dear children, let nothing of an evil nature persuade you from a righteous course through life, and always carry out your righteous decrees and be firm in your determination."

"I was a Mormon, and was determined to gather with the Saints. Although it was critical times with the Saints as they were driven from Nauvoo the year before, the church was on the move, and they had no home, and more than this, but a very few friends. But their God was my God and if they died, I could die with them."

I'm grateful for the spiritual strength we get by learning about our ancestors!

Elder Faldmo 

January 18, 2016 "No Bad Days!"

This week was pretty eventful. On Tuesday to Wednesday I was down on exchanges with Elder Taylor in Lake Havasu City! The city slogan is "No Bad Days" and after a day there it's hard to believe that there could be bad days in Havasu.The people there are super nice and there

are a lot of members of the Church there too! Elder Taylor is from Alaska but he was born in Penguitch! The same place Grandpa Ross was born. He might play baseball at Dixie after his mission. I also went on exchanges on Thursday with Elder Wasden, my former comp!

I also got an exchange in with my man Elder Chambers

On Saturday, we had 2 baptisms. The first was Landon. He is dating a member and his whole family is Baptist. It was hard for him a little bit because of that, but Elder Thorne was able to relate a lot to him because his mom's whole family is all Baptist too. S/O to Kim Thorne for
being a trailblazer!  

Elder Thorne, Landon & me

Lora's family walked into church a few months ago and she been progressing ever since! Her parents got baptized a few weeks ago and on Saturday she and her little brother got baptized.

Elder Thorne, Lora and Me-- Photobomb by Lora's little brother:)

Today, President and Sister Snow took us to the Valley of Fire! It's right by Overton and looks similar to Zion National Park and Dixie Redrock. There was some slot canyons that we were able to go through.  It's super cool and a perfect time of year to visit it!

Thorne and I sporting our KC championship T-shirts 

Happy Birthday this week on the 22nd to my father David! Love you dad! Thanks for being a great example of hard work and consecration!


Elder Faldmo

January 11, 2015 The Story of Bryan Mandujano‏

This was one of the best weeks of my mission! 

Mostly, for the fact that Bryan Mandujano got baptized! For those of you who don't know, I
started my mission in North Las Vegas in a Spanish Ward named El Rancho. While there, Elder Rivas and I were working very closely with Bryan. Over the course of the last year and a half since I left El Rancho, a few crazy things have happened to bring Bryan to last Saturday... His baptism. Here is his story.

This week Bryan Mandujano and his wife got baptized. He is a true example of the love our Savior has for all of us and that our Savior's hand is always extended to us... no matter how far we think we are. Bryan was found by missionaries about 19 months ago. He has always had a sincere desire to follow Christ and be baptized but he has struggled with substance abuse and addictions for the last couple of years. Missionaries have taught him constantly  and tried to help him for the last 18 months with dozens of potential baptismal dates which all failed because of his relapses. Many of us who taught him even began to question and lose faith that he would ever be able to overcome his addictions. At one point, it even got to where his girlfriend had a plane ticket to leave but at the last minute decided to stay with him. With their newborn son she felt she couldn't break up the family.

Things continued on for about 3 months after that. Just 1 month ago, Bryan was in the car with one of his friends that is a member of our church. They got in a really bad car wreck and his friend died because of the crash. Bryan was in a coma for a month and they weren't sure if he
would make it,  but he did come out of it. When he woke up he had limited use of his body and had permanent damage. However he said that during his coma, his friend who had died in the crash came to him and told him he was ok. His friend told Bryan that he didn't need to worry about him because he was in spirit paradise waiting for Bryan because he had made the covenant of baptism. Bryan immediately changed after that. From that point,  he started progressing for real and since his first meeting with the missionaries. He finally was clean of drugs for the first time! All that remained for hi to enter into the covenant of baptism was to be married to his girlfriend Maria. This past Saturday Maria and Bryan were married and
baptized directly after the wedding. For the past 18 months many missionaries have worked with Bryan and Maria and he finally has entered the fold. Bryan and Maria are now striving towards an eternal family through their future temple sealing and overcoming all the odds against them!

Maria, Bryan & their baby boy surrounded by many of the missionaries in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission that have taught and helped Bryan



This stuff it too good! I love this mission! #NLVM

Love,

Elder Isaac Faldmo

January 4, 2015 DRIZZY DRAKE

What's up everybody??  we've had a pretty great past 2 weeks!

We rolled out the 2016 mission vision at MLC this week. President Snow played "Started from the Bottom" by Drake at the end of the presentation and threw on a KC Royals hat and the whole room went nuts. It might have been the greatest moment of my mission so far.

Reason #472657 why President Snow is the coolest mission president out there. 

I thought Elder Chambers was going to flip a table and Rockwood was going to pass out. It's a pretty fun time in the mission right now. There's a ton of work being done here. We're reaching

new heights here in the NLVM! We're just trying to #elevate our way to Tier 3 missionary work here in Las Vegas!

Mary got baptized on New Years Day! She's a foreign exchange student from Russia and is still working on her English but it's been cool to see her progress in the Gospel through trials in her life. Her host family are all members and she's going to go to BYUI next fall.

Elder Thorne, Mary's host family and me

I grew a lot spiritually in 2015 and I'm excited to keep progressing here in 2016! It's time!
Let's get to work!

Elder Faldmo

December 14, 2015 Christmas Conferences, YSA success, and.....Thorne fell into a hot tub‏

Hey everyone here's just a quick update of how we're doing:

We had 3 Christmas Conferences this week. The first was all of the Henderson zones, then out of valley (Kingman/Lake Havasu Zone), then we finished the week off with the Las Vegas Zones 

President Snow, Elder Thorne & I in our matching ties, and Sister Snow

Elder Thorne and I trained at all of them on Revelation through Church attendance. We also had a guest appearance at all of them by Santa Snow and a talent show (our mission has the most talented missionaries btw)

We are teaching a lot of people and one of them is getting baptized at the end of this month. Her name is Mary and she's a foreign exchange student from Russia. She just got here a month ago so she's still learning English and culture. She lives with a member family and is going to BYU-I next fall! She's super prepared! We were teaching this guy by a pool this week. He was a little under the influence of alcohol. We got done with the lesson and Thorne takes a couple steps back forgetting that we are by a pool and splashes right into the hot tub.... 

He said he was just showing the guy how baptism works but I'm not buying it.  The drunk guy said he looked like a model after he got out who agrees??

Elder Faldmo

Me, Elder Thorne, Sister Snow, Sister Training Leaders & President Snow

December 7, 2015 Raining Miracles...

Elder Thorne and I LOVE President Snow!!!

Things are going great here, Elder Thorne is a stud! He rains miracles all the time. We are having a lot of fun serving in a YSA Ward. We have a lot of RMs in our YSA Ward that are really good missionaries. We are teaching a lot of people that are our members friends right now
and that's how it's supposed to be! Our Ward is going to be constantly changing because of people leaving and coming at the end of every semester. We have a couple of UNLV athletes that are in our Ward that served missions that help us out a lot when they aren't busy with their athletic season.

Elder Thorne and I are very tired all the time. During weekly planning we were talking about some things and fell asleep...while we were talking! Yeah we don't sleep a lot. It's all good though!

We love being here right now, time is going by super fast so we're kinda just soaking this up! We feel super blessed to be companions right now! Everyone here is pumped for the BYU Vs. Utah game! Elder Thorne and I figured out we were both at the Las Vegas Bowl together when we were kids when BYU played Oregon!
#HYPE #ELEVATE #Win4Taysom? #NLVM

Bowlers & Comps... Midwest Guys

President Snow took us bowling today!
Elder Faldmo

November 30, 2015....Giving Thanks for Great Things Happening in Vegas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, we went to President Snow's house and Sister Snow cooked for us! Before and after our Thanksgiving meal we met for about 6 hours to discuss and come up with the 2016 Nevada Las Vegas Mission Vision. 

Our Planning for the Nevada Las Vegas Mission 2016... big plans!

It was cool to bounce off each other's revelation and come up with vision and plan for our missionaries and members in the valley for 2016!



Our post Thanksgiving Meal Meeting Mess with the Snows

Elder Thorne and I are starting to build up our area and are teaching some really cool people right now! One of them is named Andrew and he's down here in Vegas because he's one of the managers for Rand Paul's campaign for Nevada. He's a super smart guy and very sincere and understands everything really well. It's really fun to teach people like him!  On Saturday, Thorne had a baptism to go to from his last area so I needed a companion for a couple of hours so I got Will Edwards to help me out! And then the Clarks came to my sacrament meeting on Sunday and
Will Clark poked his head in but didn't see me so they left :(

I hope you all are doing great! Love ya!

Elder Faldmo

November 23, 2015 @mammafaldmo

Hey everyone sorry I didn't have any time to write today! We had meetings that went long.
But, our week was good! We're starting to get things rolling here in the young singles' ward and
are excited for all of the new people we are starting to teach! We had 3 back to back exchanges this week since it's only a 5 week transfer and so we have to squeeze in the exchanges around their interviews and the Christmas Conferences. One of them, I was in the
North Zone with my former companion Elder Rockwood. I love that guy!

Happy Birthday on Thanksgiving to my wonderful mother! I love you Mom! #RockinRobin

All is well here in Vegas! Happy Thanksgiving!

Let me know what ideas you have for me and Elder Thorne's Christmas Card!

Elder Faldmo

November 16, 2015 Week 1 of the transfer down...

What's up people!?? 

Faldmo and Thorne here. 

My new comp... Elder Thorne

We just are getting adjusted to the YSA Ward. It's different for sure because we can't teach everyone we meet now but it's a lot of fun. We didn't think our mission would be the first time we attended Institute but this week it was! It's really cool to teach people our own age. 

We found some success ballin' in Sunset Park this week! We play 2 on 2, beat them, and then teach them. One guy said he was filming us and he said he put it on YouTube!

When you become Elder Thorne's companion, you learn a couple things. First off, your diet sucks, and also your abs get used to being sore. I am happy to be with someone that pushes me  to be my best!

We got very little sleep this week so we are glad week 1 is over! Airport runs and training the new missionaries was a success though. 

Thorne & I training the new missionaries in the mission home this past Wednesday

Ready for flu season...

We are excited to focus a lot more on our area now and to find, teach and baptize!

We love you all!
Elder Thorne & Faldmo

November 9, 2015 New Comp, New Ward!

Hi people, there are some changes here. THE Elder Tyler Daniel Thorne will be my new companion and President is switching our area from the Bermuda Ward to the YSA Ward for our stake. I'm really excited for this new Ward and having Elder Thorne as my companion! Along with the fact that our sisters are friends at BYU and our families will be together this weekend in Missouri for the BYU game makes it perfect timing. President said he could call his parents to tell them so we prank called his mom and we made it seem like he was in trouble and was struggling and then we broke the real news to her and Kim was not happy with us... Sorry Kim! :)

I just want to give a special shoutout to Elder Sawyer. He has been in me of my favorite companions and is one of the greatest missionaries & leaders out there. I have learned a ton from him! The mission is reaching new heights because of him. I'm glad he's finally getting a
good companion after being with me - he is headed by the temple to be with Elder Chambers! :) And he's from right by Flathead Lake in Montana so only the best come from there or serve there right Grandpa Ross?

We had MLC this week and we rolled out the 7 Fundamental Components of Leadership: 

Stewardship Trust

Leadership Presence

Model Area

Charity

Exchanges

Delegation & Working through Others

Strategic Planning

We did this because once missionaries come into a leadership position, they don't always know what specifically they need to work on or do. We made a manual for these fundamentals and all of the leaders in the mission will have them to study.

Yesterday for church it was a special conference broadcast for the North America Southwest Area of the church and Elder Oaks, a member of the Relief Society Presidency, and 2 of the 70 spoke to us. Elder Corbridge was one of them and he is coming to our mission in January!
Elder Oaks (remember when he slept in our basement Mom and Dad?) gave an amazing talk and testimony. He emulated Christ as he spoke and I know he is one of the few special witnesses of Him on the Earth today.

This church is Jesus Christ's church on the Earth today. It's let by Prophets and Apostles. Christ talks to us through them. If we read the scriptures at all, we shouldn't be surprised if they tell us things that are contrary to the world or being "politically correct." I've received revelation and understanding through personal prayer about the recent handbook addition about kids with same gender parents. It's all from God and true.

Here's a picture of our last district meeting of this transfer!

One of my last pics of me and Elder Sawyer as companions

Love you all a bunch! 

Elder Faldmo