Monday, March 13, 2017

Week 35 - Multi-Zone Conference

Hola,

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


Elder Coil, Elder Fawcett and Elder Beaver
At Multi-Zone Conference















Zone Leaders at
Multi-Zone Conference
















Elder Cutipa, My Good Friend
and One of the Elder in My House
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Elder Diaz, Another One of My Good Friends, He Has Really Long Hair, (Which is Ok with Mission Rules), as Part of the Customs of his Village in Ecuador 













Adonis and his Mother Hermana Roxanna in their Home
My Penchanista here in Juliaca