Hola,
What a busy week it has been! I am sure you are all dying to
know what happened in my transfer to the new Area where I am serving. But first
I just want to tell you about what happened in my last few days in Cusco. So on
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I spent a ton of time going to say goodbye to
members, converts, and investigators. It was really hard for me to say goodbye
to so many lifelong friends that I made in Cusco but I am so grateful for the
opportunity that I had to get to know each and every one of them! It was such a
blessing to work with so many great members of the church who are going to make
a big difference here in Perú. I will miss them all so very much! But perhaps
the hardest goodbye that I said was to my wonderful pension! She has honestly
become one of my best friends here in Perú and I loved spending time in her
home with her family each and every day! She is the best and I know that I will
always be in contact with her for the rest of my life!
As Thursday rolled around, I was invited to go eat in a very
nice restaurant with President Herrera and Elder Fincher (the other Elder who
left the office with me) for lunch. It was great to sit down and talk with him
and eat some delicious food! Perhaps one of the greatest blessings and privileges
that I had in the Office was getting to know him personally along with his
family. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve with him in such a
unique and special way. Following Lunch I finished getting things ready then I
went and picked up my new Companion, Elder Vargas. We went and bought a few
things to take down to Puno for our new house than that night we hopped on a
bus and travelled down to Puno. The following day we arrived in Puno early and
immediately got to work looking for a place to live. After looking for a while,
we ended up finding a nice one room apartment in the middle of our area. Since
I have experience doing contracts (I did probably a million while I was in the
Office), we set everything up with the Land Lord and were able to take the
room. Following that we went shopping and got some mattresses and blankets and
that night we slept on the floor. It reminded me of camping, in the middle of
Perú without anything except for my bags and a place to sleep.
The next day we were able to get the rest of the furniture
we needed and set everything up. Our next task was to find a pension (someone
to feed us). So we went and talked to some members and were told to go look for
an older woman who lived the street above our house. We did just that and ended
up finding a really sweet old lady named Beti who told us she would love to
feed us all 3 meals every day! The craziest thing is she “coincidently” lives
literally 4 minutes walking from our new apartment! It has made things really
easy because everything is so close together, including our Chapel which is
about 5 minutes in the other direction.
As Sunday rolled around we went to Church and were greeted
by some very friendly Ward members who were super excited to have Elders in
there Ward. As we were looking around, we asked who the Bishop was and were
told that there was not a Bishop because he had been released about a month and
half ago due to some issues in his life. Currently the Area where we are
serving is being led under the direction of a High Priest and only about 50
members who come to church each week. There is a lot of opportunities to serve
here and I am really grateful and humbled to be able to serve in such a unique
and special way. The members are so grateful to have us here and it almost made
me feel sad as members greeted us with great big smiles on their faces, eager
to help and serve us in whatever form or way that they could.
In closing this week I just want to share a quick thought
that I had this week. As I stated earlier in the letter, there seemed to be so
many coincidences that occurred this week. The way that everything seemed to
fall into place seemed so much simpler than I thought it was going to be. It
almost seemed as if everything had been prepared before we got here to make the
transition here so much easier. I know without a doubt in my mind that the Lord
was directly helping us to make opening up this new Area an easy transition so
that we can get right to work finding people to teach and helping to establish
his kingdom here on the earth. There is no such thing as coincidences, only
miracles. I hope that each of you have a terrific week and a great start to
December and Christmas time. A talk that was given in the Christmas devotional
reminded me so much of what it is like to be away from home during such a
special time of year. As I have served my mission, I have truly come to learn
and feel the love of Jesus Christ in my life. To truly love him means to give
up your greater desires for the needs of others. This Christmas I am so
grateful I get
to share that love with the people here in Perú and to help them come to know and feel the love of our Savior in their lives.
to share that love with the people here in Perú and to help them come to know and feel the love of our Savior in their lives.
Love,
Elder Fawcett
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| President Herrera, Elder Fawcett and Elder Fincher Farewell to The Office!! |
