What a difficult week!!! To start off talking about the week, I need to
update everyone on the fact that these past five weeks of the change have been
really hard. My Companion Elder Aguilar has been working out some issues in his
life and I don’t want to go into them but this past week they came to a head
and the Mission President thought that it would be best if he was moved up to
Cusco for the last month of his mission.
Changes are next Monday so for this last week of the change I will be
partnering up with the other Elders in my house.
Other than that, the big thing we had for this past week was the
Multi-Zone Conference with 3 other Zones of the mission here in Juliaca. In
total, there were 80 missionaries and so it was pretty dang crazy planning for
it. Sadly, I had to prepare the whole conference by myself because my Companion
wasn’t able to help me. It was really
crazy, but somehow I was able to make all of the plans for the Multi-Zone. Now
I know that I did not do it alone. The Lord’s hand was there each and every
step of the way as he carried me through each and every one of the
difficulties.
With it being Multi-Zone Conference there was a really incredible story
that happened. So at each Multi-Zone, the
Mission President likes to celebrate birthdays for the missionaries who will
have their birthday before the next Multi-Zone. One thing I had to do was buy
four large cakes in preparation for the Zone Conference. I bought the four
cakes early that morning and with the help of a few missionaries, I brought the
cakes to the Chapel where we were having the Multi-Zone Conference. We got all
four of the cakes to the church safely, but then a missionary accidentally
knocked a cake off the table, completely destroying it. After cleaning it up, I
assured the Missionary not to worry and that I would figure something out. Not
having much time, I realized there was no way we would have time to fix the
cake situation. So I prayed for the Lord to help me somehow figure out what to
do. That’s when I remembered the story of the Savior feeding the masses with
only a few fish and loaves of bread. Somehow I felt like the same principle
would work if I just had faith. So when it was time for the cake, they began
serving the three cakes to the 80 missionaries present. After serving a nice
decent size piece of cake, I realized that there would end up being enough
somehow. With the size of the 3 cakes and the big pieces that were served to each
missionary, and a large amount of missionaries, it truly was a miracle that
there was more than enough for everyone!
This week we also had the chance to visit a family. This family
consists of the father (member), the mother (nonmember), the oldest son
(member), and the two youngest sons (nonmembers). We taught them about prayer
and invited them to start praying together as a family. That night we had the
chance to kneel with them as a family and pray with them. The father offered
the prayer and immediately I realized that it had been a long time since he had
prayed. After he finished the prayer, he looked at us with tears in his eyes
and said it had been years since he had prayed. He told us that he knew God
lived and that he would never miss a day praying again.
In closing, I want to share one other cool thing. So at Multi Zone I
was able to see Elder Barrios (the missionary I trained in Puno). He is
currently training a new missionary and I had the chance to hear about the
success he is having in the Inca Pachacutec Ward. He has baptized three of the
investigators we were teaching along with having three more with dates to be baptized.
That was really neat to hear about how well he is doing but the neatest thing
to hear about was that Jhon (the investigator I was able to baptize right
before I left Puno after teaching him for six months) is very active in the Church
and attends each week. Not only that, he
recently went to the Temple with the Young Singles in the Ward and did Baptisms
for the Dead. He also is dating one of
the young women in the Ward and has plans to someday be married and sealed in
the Temple for time and all eternity. Elder Barrios told me that Jhon has also been
called to serve as the new Ward Mission Leader, so he will have the chance to
help so many other people as well.
I testify that Missionary work is a privilege. A privilege that so very
few are blessed with. It is a chance that so few are blessed with. To be a representative
of Jesus Christ is something so Sacred. It is so important to remember that we
represent the best and most perfect missionary there ever was or will be. I am
so grateful for His Perfect Example. I am so far from perfect, but I know that
this is exactly where I need to be right now, I am so grateful for the
incredible experiences the Lord is blessing me with and the chance I have to
put on my name tag as a representative
of Our Lord and Savior each day. I love you all so much, thanks for everything!
Hasta la proxima sermana!
Love,
Elder Fawcett
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| Adonis and his Mother Hermana Roxanna in their Home My Penchanista here in Juliaca |
