What a fantastic week! We had several visits with our investigators this week, but it was still pretty tough due to the Virgin de La Candelaria which is still going on down here (it ends tomorrow, Tuesday). Most people drink so much alcohol that they either spend the entire next 24 hours laying on the side of the road or super drunk bothering the missionaries. Hahaha. But it was a very interesting week as far as drunk people go. Most are friendly and just try to speak English to me even though they don’t even know any words besides “Hello”. One of the most interesting experiences was when a little 5-foot drunk man came up to me and wanted to fight. Luckily I have had lot of experience with drunk guys so I just told him a hilarious joke and he laughed and accepted a visit from us this week when he is sober again. Sadly, the joke doesn’t work for all of them and let’s just say I am glad that I can run pretty fast and block a few drunken punches in order to get myself out of the situation!
For starters this past week we finished up teaching our investigator Russell. He is super prepared for baptism and passed his interview yesterday super easily! He is super excited for this coming Saturday and is also excited to go to the Temple with the Ward here in a few weeks after he receives the Aaronic Priesthood the week after his baptism! It is such a great blessing to be able to watch our investigators learn and grow. Russell was such a blessing to find and we are constantly striving each day to find those who are ready and prepared, just as he was.
Luis was another story. Luis has the desire to be baptized, but he wants the support of his father. His mother is completely willing to give him permission and even signed his baptismal register. His father on the other hand doesn’t want to support him. After explaining many times to Luis the importance of baptism, he is still set on not being baptized until his father will help him. So, at the end of one of our visit I asked him to commit to a promise that I had made him. I told him that our Heavenly Father would answer him if he asked him if he should be baptized now or wait until his father is willing to accept it. I then promised him that if he would kneel beside his bed after a sincere prayer and not stand until he received a direct answer that the Lord would answer. He committed to do so and that night he had an incredible experience.
After offering a sincere prayer, Luis stayed on his knees for a long time. After waiting, he then fell asleep on his knees and had a very special dream in which he received a very direct answer. I will not go into many details because his experience was very special and sacred. But I will say that he knows that he needs to be baptized and we are just trying to work with him so that he can fully comply with the Word of Wisdom and be baptized.
Perhaps one of the most interesting experiences of the week was this past week we made a video to get the members excited and interested in an activity we are having this Friday. It is about Family History and for those of you who know me, know that I have been able to learn a lot about Family History from my Grandpa and I spent a lot of time in Temple before the mission doing baptisms. The youth in my Ward are very interested in Family History and most have only researched up to their Grandparents and nothing passed that. So along with being able to help teach the youth “Family History” recently, we planned a Ward Cinema Activity in which we will be watching a new Disney Movie (our Mission President allows us to watch Animated Disney movies) called Coco. It supposedly has to do with Family History and as I stated before we made a video as missionaries to get everyone interested in the activity. As I was helping the youth and teaching them how Family History works, I was able to find people who needed their work done and after verifying all of the information ended with about 50 names that I plan on working on when I return from my mission. The Lord is truly hastening his work on both sides of the veil.
In closing this week, I just want to state how grateful I am to be here in Perú. In the area I am in. Doing the things that the Lord desires each and every day. I love being a missionary because it brings me to the greatest joy that I have never been able to experience anytime ever before in my life. Each day brings its challenges but no matter what I will never forget or regret the decision I made almost 2 years ago to submit my papers and leave everything behind to serve the incredible people of Perú. I love you all and hope that you each have a terrific week!
Love,
Elder Fawcett
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