Hola;
Well, 6 months done, 18 more to go! This past week was absolutely
awesome! Elder Haws and I celebrated 6 months in the mission this week and it
was awesome! He and I have been together since the beginning and we’ve had lots
of legit experiences! So to celebrate we burned ties. Now, considering that I live
in such a poor country and a tie is something that not everyone has, I felt a
little bad just burning it so to make up for it I bought 6 ties in the market
that didn’t cost much and gave them to investigators, converts and members to
make up for just burning the tie that someone poor could have used. We gave speeches
and burned the ties and we drank the National Peruvian only soda “Inca Kola”!
It was great! Now that I’ve got 25% of the mission done, I realize how far I have
come and how little time I have left! The next milestone is less than 6 months
from now and will signify I only have half the time left to serve the Lord 100%
of the time. So, I now understand how precious each and every day is!
As I have reflected over the past 6 months, it is incredible how much
personal growth I have had. 6 months ago
I never would have thought that I would be able to say basically anything I want
in Spanish, dream in Spanish and would have had the experiences that I have
had. There have been a lot of difficult
times but the Lord has been by my side the entire time helping along as I have
needed it! Aside from learning to rely on the Lord, I have really learned a lot
about life. People here in Peru don’t
have near the world possession that I was blessed with back home. In the stores, they have things like clothing
that don’t sell at the DI and the people that wear it are happy with what they
have. No one judges anyone else for what
they have or what they wear. People come
to church in wearing what they have and no one looks down upon them! I wonder why that isn’t the same back home
and why people there cannot be satisfied with all that they have been blessed
with in life and are always comparing
and wanting the next latest and greatest thing!
Other than that, let me share a few stories from this week. So my
Companion and I were out and we had a little spare time. So, we decided to
knock on some doors. After knocking on probably 10 doors and having the
majority slammed in our faces we came to the last door. We looked at it and immediately
we saw that there was a paper taped to the door that said “We believe in Mary
and Jesus, forever Catholics”. Feeling like we should knock anyways, we did so and
after opening the door, they spoke to us asking what exactly we believed, explaining
we were representatives of Jesus Christ, they became interested and we now have
an appointment to go back. “Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be
opened unto you”. You never know who the
Lord has prepared for you to find.
Another cool story. So this past week, I was in bed unable to sleep.
That was then that I got up to get a drink. When I exited the bedroom, I saw
one of the Elders we live with staring out the window with tears in his eyes.
It was Elder Caal, the Companion of Elder Haws. I walked over and talked to him
and was able to help him out and it turns out that he had been praying for
somebody to come help him. In the mission, I’ve truly learned to recognize the
promptings of the Spirt. There is always going to be that one person that the Lord
needs for you to help. I’ve learned that
you need to listen or else the Lord will stop sending you those promptings. So,
I’ve made it a goal to try and always follow those promptings because you never
know how the Lord will use you to bless the life of someone else.
One more quick thing for the week.
So, during my time here in Puno, I’ve met some really incredible
people! One such person is the Stake
Patriarch. He frequently eats at my
Penchanistas and it has been really amazing to hear his stories. He has been a convert for about 25 years now
and has served ever since he was baptized.
The amazing this is his right hand has some sort of problem, so he
cannot use it really. Amazingly, that
hasn’t stopped him. He has continually
served in various Church callings and now places his right hand on members and
gives them their Patriarchal Blessings.
It truly is an incredible example of True Service.
Well, that’s all for this week!
Hope you all have a fantastic, safe and happy week! Really excited to see what adventures this
week hold for me!
Love
Elder Fawcett
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| Official Soda of Peru! Celebration of 6 Months |
