At this point in the mission I honestly feel like I just barely wrote a
weekly letter hahaha! Anyway, here we go again! This week was literally way
awesome!!! First off the top thing that happened this past week was we had a
wayyy spiritual lesson with Diego! Last week I know I mentioned that we are
teaching him but this week I would like to tell you a little bit more about
him. Diego is 23 years old and has literally had a really hard life. When he
was 3 years old his Dad left him and his Mom. After a few years his mom
remarried and his stepfather took him and his Mom to live in Japan for several
years for his work. He struggled growing up not really having the influence a
father who really did care about him, so after many years his mom, and
stepfather moved back to Perú and he is currently living on his own trying to
find his way in life. In his life he has attended just about every church you
can imagine, Catholic, Jehovah´s Witnesses, Baptist, 7th day Adventists, and
even Buddhism in Japan (he also speaks Japanese fluently!). So coming from a
religious background that has taught him many correct things along with many
other things that have been very twisted, it made for a very interesting
lesson.
For the most part he accepted the story of Joseph Smith pretty well and
only had a few questions but found the Book of Mormon very interesting. He has
already read a whole lot of it and is really loving it! But when we came to
lesson 2 that made for a really interesting lesson. For the most part he knew
and understood the whole idea of the Plan of Salvation but having been to
several different churches he had his own ideas and thoughts about it. For
example he had a really hard time accepting that the Fall of Adam was necessary
for the plan. After sharing scriptures and patiently trying to explain it to
him, he just didn’t understand. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, but I got the
prompting to just keep going with the lesson. So that’s exactly what we did. We
continued and right as we hit the Atonement, the Spirit came powerfully into
the lesson and there was no doubt in my mind that he had felt the Spirit. As we
continued we still had a few struggles and I am just grateful that I know the
Bible well because had I not, we would have been in real trouble because Diego
knows it super well! As we got to the end of the lesson and taught him about
the 3 Kingdoms of Glory, that was where his heart really changed. After explain
and teaching him about each Kingdom, I looked at him and said “Diego what is
your goal?” That was when I noticed the change in his countenance and I knew
that he had finally understood the point of the Fall of Adam and everything
else that we had taught. He looked at me and said that he was willing to do
anything he could to get to the Celestial Kingdom. That was when the Spirit
told me it was the time to invite him. So I looked at him and told him that he
would one day achieve that Glory if he was willing to fully follow Jesus Christ
in his life. Then I invited him to be baptized on September 30th and he said
that he would!!! So we are really looking forward to helping get prepared for
that. I know it’s not going to be easy because he still has a lot of questions
but I know that he will one day he will be wearing all white stepping into the
waters of baptism.
Other than that, this week we also had changes with the new
missionaries so it was awesome to do some trainings with them! I always enjoy
spending time with the new missionaries because it reminds me of myself and how
I felt over a year ago when I got to the mission. Not knowing Spanish worth a
dang, or even how to effectively teach the Gospel. I really would love to train
a new missionary again later on before I finish the mission!
As for everything else down here in Cusco they are pretty great! I sure
love these incredible Peruvians! The families we are teaching are doing great
as well. Ismael and his wife are still struggling but I know that even though
they have lots of struggles, the Lord will continue prepare them to accept all
of our message someday. We also have a new investigator that is the brother of
one of the members in the ward. We have yet to have a visit with him but I am
really excited because his brother who is a member is an RM and is super cool!
We are hoping to teach him and get him baptized because his brother has
commented that it would be cool to serve a mission!
Overall things are going terrific down here in Perú and we are getting
really excited with some of the people we are teaching. This week I would just
like to close with my testimony that I have come to obtain through the
experiences I have had. The mission was never meant to be an easy experience
for me. There have been a lot of times throughout the mission when I have
gotten very discouraged because thing weren’t going or turning out the way “I”
wanted them to or had planned on. Investigators not progressing the way “I”
wanted or not necessarily being placed in circumstances that “I” wanted to be
in with a lot of different issues. But one of the big things that I have
learned here is that the mission shouldn’t be what “I” want. If it were that
way then how would I ever be able to learn the things that our Heavenly Father
wants me too? Life should never be about what we want because that isn’t the
reason why we are here. We are here to Love others and to show to our Heavenly
Father that we have the desire to be like him because he isn’t concerned at all
about himself. In life, there are so many times when people are so concerned
about what “they” want and forget about the example that the Savior set of
completely forgetting yourself and doing what is best for others. Here in Perú
I hear things every once in a while with what is going on out there in the “real
world”, which really saddens me because I realize that if people would forget
about themselves and their personal interests, the world wouldn’t be worried
about going to war all the time or so many of the other problems that are going
on right now. As disciples of Jesus Christ we should always strive to forget about
ourselves and do what the Savior would do! I love you all and pray each and
every day for you!
Love,
Elder Fawcett
