Serving here in Cusco is such a cool experience. This past week we had some way cool experiences happen that were seriously the best! First off I just want to talk for a second about how awesome the people here in Perú are. So as most of you know I was always the kid who was outside in shorts and a T-Shirt when everyone else thought it was cold. Well here in the mission all of the natives think it is really cold and sometimes it is but most the time it’s like 60 degrees so I am just fine out in a short sleeve shirt. Well, this past week we were out and it was exactly like that. Everyone thought it was freezing cold and for me, it was warm. Having learned from experience I have learned that I should always wear a jacket or else the people get mad at you, but this past week I was in the process of washing mine. So when we went to visit a member in our Ward, he looked at me and said “Elder where is your jacket? You are going to freeze out here!” He then commenced to take off his OWN jacket and hand it to me. “You need this more than I do!” He said. Well here it is really offensive to reject things from people so I kindly tried explaining to him that I was perfectly okay. After promising to him that I would immediately go and get my jacket off of the clothes line where it was drying at our house, we saw the little man who recently was converted to the church that only speaks Quechua walking down the street. I am not sure if I have explained what he does for a living but the little Quechua man picks up plastic bottles for a living (old soda bottles, 2 liter bottles, anything like that). Noticing that the little man was shivering and not wearing a jacket the member walked up to him and handed him the jacket that he had wanted me to wear. The two of them spoke in Quechua and I didn’t catch all they said but when the member came back he explained “I gave it to him to keep because he needed it more than I do.” This experience really taught me how we all should live our lives. So many times we are so concerned about our own needs that we fail to recognize the needs of others. During the rest of my time in Perú I would really love to continue to learn these loving characteristics from these incredible people.
As far as my week this week as you all will see in pictures I sent home I had the chance to baptize this really awesome lady named Wendy this past week! Wendy was inspired to join the church through the example of the way that her Uncle who is a member has lived his life. She is awesome and it was a really cool experience to be able to perform the baptism.
This week we also taught our new investigator named Billy that I mentioned last week! Billy is super awesome! He has so many desires to learn and grow and in the first visit that we had with him the Spirit was super strong and he accepted the Restoration very well and completely believes the story of the Book of Mormon and everything. He has been reading it and is loving it! He is progressing super well, he came to church and we also put a baptismal date with him! We are hoping and praying that we can get him as ready as possible because he is going to make a great member of the Church!
Diego as well is progressing well. Unfortunately things aren’t going as well as we thought because he isn’t going to be ready to be baptized quite yet. He hasn’t gained that solid testimony that he needs to be a member, which is really important because as missionaries we aren’t just here to baptize anyone who is out on the street. We are here to baptize people who are not only willing to fully take Christ's name upon them but also people who are ready to help build up Gods kingdom on earth. If you would all keep him and all of our other investigators in your prayers that would be awesome because I know that would really help them a whole lot!
Last story for the week! So this past week we were doing some work in the office when we heard a knock at the door. Outside we were greeted by a short little man who was homeless and looking for somewhere to work. He asked us if we were the ones that hired people to work for the church but we explained to him that we weren’t. After that we explained to him that we were missionaries and our job was to help other obtain the happiness that our Heavenly Father desires for all of his children. He looked at us and at first was a little hesitant because he didn’t believe that God actually wanted him to be happy because he literally has nothing but after explaining to him that true happiness isn’t found in material things, he started to understand a little better. Although he didn’t accept to listen to us, we did invite him to Church. As Sunday rolled around we were outside greeting people as they entered the Church but there was no sign of the homeless man. Today we were talking to a few Elders in another Sector and overheard them talking about a homeless man who had randomly shown up to their Sacrament Meeting. After talking to them for a second we realized that it had been the same person that we had invited to Church. It just goes to show that sometimes, we cannot fully see the effects of efforts as we serve the Lord.
The work here in Perú is moving on well and we are seeing the Lord’s hand in each and every day of our lives. I have truly grown to learn what it means to be a True Disciple of Christ. It is more than just the everyday things we live. It is the way we think, act, and treat others. I have learned what it means to have the Love of Christ in us by trying to love all of Gods children here in Perú, even when they yell and swear at us or try to make fun of our beliefs. I love being a missionary and hope that each of you have the best week!
Love,
Elder Fawcett
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| Elder Fawcett, Hermana Wendy and Family at Her Baptism |
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| Hermana Wendy |
