Monday, September 4, 2017

Week 60 -Serving the Lord thy God with All thy Heart, Soul and Mind

Hola, 

Another week down. It sure seems that the farther you get in the mission, the faster the mission seems to go by! Anyway this week was great! To start off I just wanted to let you all know that today was changes so my old Companion, Elder Ordoñez, is leaving the office. My new Companion is Elder Pinedo and he is from Colombia! He is awesome and we have already started working really hard and on teaching some of our investigators!  

As far as the investigators go, let me tell you about that! So this week we were out contacting trying to get some more people to teach when we came across some awesome people! The first of them was a really awesome reference we got of a guy about 22-24 years old! His name is Diego and is super awesome! We have taught the restoration and he is literally a golden investigator! He came to church and is already starting to progress super well! It truly is incredible how the Lord will lead you to those who are ready if you are willing to put in your full effort and try your absolute hardest to find them. We also contacted this awesome young couple that also seems like they are going to progress well but have a visit this coming week so I guess we will see how that goes! 

As for Ismael they are doing very well! His wife Aliana is totally ready for a baptismal date because she has felt the Spirit super strong in some of our visits and honestly already has a testimony that the Church Is True. The real problem however is the fact that her husband is still really struggling with his faith. He really wants to know for absolute sure that what he is doing is right and for that reason he has had a difficult time accepting the answers to his prayers. We know that with lots of prayer and fasting, the Lord will help him recognize his answer and begin to accept our message fully! Their nice, Dina, still has a lot of interest in learning and we are striving each visit to help her with her problems and also help her to accept our message a little more each day!  It truly is incredible how the Lord has the ability to soften the hearts of others through the power of the Holy Ghost. 

Also this week we has been super crazy with changes and trying to get things ready for all of that! But along with all of the hard work was the great blessing of seeing the progress of our investigator, Julio! Julio is literally the BEST!!! From what I heard from the Elders Quorum President he was out all week last week visiting the in actives and trying to help out with that! He is literally the best and a true example of what it means to take upon yourself the name of the Savior. Ever since he was baptized he has been preparing to receive the Aaronic Priesthood here really soon. His goal of being a missionary has also only grown and he is now studying Preach My Gospel to prepare for it. For me it is so incredible how someone who has such a short time knowing of the Restored Gospel, is already willing to give all he has to thank the Lord for blessing him with it. I am so grateful to have been able to witness his conversion process, it truly is incredible! 

Finally, President Herrera and his Family took us out to a really nice restaurant this past week (he tends to do that every now and then) and I had the chance to try an Alpaca Burger! Can I just say that is probably one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, I know it may sound weird but I honestly love trying new foods!  

In closing I just want to share a cool experience I had this week. So as you all may know, there are so many traditional things here in Perú. There are lots of traditional dances, traditional dishes and a whole lot of traditional idol worship that happens with all of the Catholics that are here. So I was once again in a taxi talking to a guy when he said something that really impacted me, he said It is really sad how there are so many people here who are not willing to give up their traditions and set aside there worldly things to dedicate a little more time and thought to God. After he said that I have been really thinking about that a lot this past week. What are each of us putting before God? Are we putting our work before him? Are we putting our cellphone before him? Are we putting our friends before him?  Are we putting things that aren’t worth the time before him? After a lot of pondering I have realized that one of the biggest problems in today’s world is the fact that people are not taking the time to remember our Heavenly Father. He truly does love us and as every Father does, he wants us to take the appropriate time to remember to talk to him. Each of us needs to remember the first Commandment which is Thou Shalt Love the Lord thy God with All thy Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Mind. The Lord has Commanded us to do this, therefore we should never put anything before him. As a missionary I have been striving to help God’s children in Perú to be able to understand that if we put our Heavenly Father first, it will bring us True Happiness! I testify to each of you that if we put our Heavenly Father first always, it will make us happier than any other thing will! I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Fawcett


Office Staff with President
and Sister Herrera's Family





Alpaca Burger and Fries





My New Tie!!









Kind of Cramped with All of Us in the Taxi!!








Plaza de Armas in Cusco









Another Shot of the Plaza



Fountain in the Plaza de Armas






Cristo Blanco


Side View of Cristo Blanco





Cusco from Cristo Blanco