Elder Taylor Fawcett: Week 56 - Fulfilling Lehi's Prophecy

Hola,

I’m just going to get started right off about my week! It sure seemed to be one of busiest ones yet! Hahaha I know I say that like every week but as you get lost in the work of the Lord you just find more and more ways to serve and work for him. Anyway so one of the biggest highlights of the week was the fact that our investigator Julio is progressing super well! He came to church for the second week we honestly are working so hard to get him ready for the baptismal date we have put for him. This past week we had a really cool visit with him in which we taught him the Plan of Salvation. As we taught, his face seemed to light up more and more as we went on throughout the lesson. As we progressed and came to the part of the lesson where we talked about the post-earth life it was incredible to see his reaction. He literally hugged us and thanked us with tears in his eyes for bringing him knowledge that he has been looking for throughout his whole life. We have very little time until his date but we are determined to help him reach it!

As an update on the family we have been teaching, Ismael and Alieana have both really been busy with work and other stuff so setting up appointments with them has been a little difficult but the family is still progressing pretty good!

Other than that, this week we had Elder Uceda (Quorum of the 70) travelling around the mission and it was pretty crazy for me because I had to take care of expenses and that sort of thing so that was cool. The conference went super well and we all were very blessed and edified because of his visit. Perhaps one of the coolest things was personally having the opportunity to meet him and present myself. It was awesome!

Now just for a quick story! So I may not have told you but being here in Cusco is so much different than any other part of the mission. The people of Cusco are incredible and such but, a lot of them participate in the traditions of their ancestors which means they are all very Catholic. Being a Mormon missionary here is cool. The people really do respect us and watch out for us, however the work here is a lot more difficult. For example one interesting thing that happened this week was when we were out proselyting at the top of our sector. Besides the fact that there are tons of dogs at the top of the sector we like to walk up there because the contacting is usually a whole lot better than down in the city part. So as we were walking I nearly got eaten by like 10 dogs but luckily a nice guy came and got all the dogs away (not quite sure how that works because I am like 2 and a half times the size of the man) and after that it made for an interesting contact. I started speaking Spanish to him and then he started responding to me in Quechua. Knowing that he was understanding me in Spanish but just trying to make us go away by speaking Quechua I kept talking to him in Spanish and as a result he kept speaking Quechua. Then I got this really cool prompting so I took out a contacting card I had on me that had a picture of the savior on it. I pointed to it and said “Wiracocha” which means the Great White God that visited the Incas. The guy immediately stopped talking and then listened. I explained to him that we were bringing a message about the Great Wiracocha that visited the Americas and pulled out a Book of Mormon that had a picture of Jesus Christ visiting the Americas in the front of it. As I did so he began to respond in Spanish and took more interest in what I was saying. It was incredible as we explained what the Book of Mormon was and at the end he ended up taking the copy I had. Though he declined a visit from us, I know that even just the small things we do as missionaries makes a difference.

For pictures this week, some of them are from my Sector in Cusco to show you what it is like. The other pictures are from the trail the the Office Elders / President run each morning for our exercise time. Going up is about 2 1/2 miles. Towards the top it gets a little tough but by running at this altitude, I should be in great shape when I get home!

In closing I just want to bear testimony that I know that Lehi´s prophecy is being fulfilled each and every day. We are literally bringing the Gospel to HIS descendants each and every single day. Though these people seem to be caught up in the traditions of their ancestors I know that as missionaries we have the message that they really are looking for in their life. I love this work and sharing the Gospel with the incredible people of Perú.

Love,

Elder Fawcett