Week 89 - Rodents in the Soup

Hola,

What a great week. First off I just wanted tell you all about an interesting experience that I had this week. So we were out visiting a very humble less active member when after the visit they invited us to have soup. Now as you all know, it’s very rude to not accept food but as I smelled the soup I got a little worried. As it was served we prayed and then I quickly said another prayer in my head that it wouldn’t make me sick. After the prayer I commenced to spoon little pieces of the soup into my mouth as I did so I noticed little pieces of meat floating around. Knowing that it was not chicken or beef I didn’t ask what it was until I finished. After my Companion and I had both finished, I asked what kind of meat it had been. The lady looked at us and said that it was a type of rodent that I would just rather not say what it was exactly. I will say that up until this point, it was probably the worst thing I have ever eaten. But I ate every bite and managed it with a smile! :)

This past week we had a multi-zone conference and interviews down here in Puno. As I sat down to have my interview, the first thing that President says is “Wow Elder Fawcett, time sure has gone fast! You are almost done!”. I had to try not to laugh as I realized that my Mission President is a little trunky. Haha! It was really funny because after talking to all of the missionaries going home with me, he made the same sort of comment to all of them! It was a great interview that gave me some goals to think about as I finish the last few months of my mission. The conference was also fantastic and it was great to see a few of my old Companions and friends I have made here in the mission.

My Companion and I worked super hard this week! We found a bunch of new investigators and I just want to take a few minutes to tell you about all of them. First off I just wanted to tell you about the older man that we helped last week with the bags of cement. His name is Sergio and is 70 years old. He has 14 children and a total of 30 grandchildren which makes it a possible number of 44 potential future investigators if everything goes well! He is currently a member of the 7th Day Adventists Church, so it should be interesting as we talk about church attendance.

We also found a great new family to teach. But before I tell you about them I just want to share a cool experience that we had with them. So as my Companion were headed to a visit, we stopped and contacted a really nice lady named Lucy, who seemed really receptive. She said we could pass by whenever so the next day we passed by. As we approached her house, we noticed a huge German Shepard dog sitting in front of her door. We tried to approach but the dog growled and barked. We tried praying and doing everything possible, but in the end we were unable to visit her that day. The next day we passed by and the same thing occurred. We prayed and without any luck we left, hoping that we would get the chance another day. Finally, on the third day we arrived to visit the house again and once again the big vicious dog was guarding the way. This time, we didn’t want to give up so we prayed again and this time as we said amen, a cat ran right past our feet and the next thing we knew the dog was down chasing the cat down the street! As we approached the door, Lucy happily let us in to her home to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her family. We haven’t had the chance to meet the father yet but we met the 3 children that they have. Her oldest, Dominic is 10 years old so we have been working with him and his mom and hope to have a visit with the father this week as well! After thinking a lot about this story I have realized that every person who begins to know the Church has some sort obstacle to get past, for Lucy it was just a matter of getting past the dog!

In closing this week, I just want to take the chance to share how grateful I am for missionary work. It has been such a blessing in my life and I am very grateful for each and every experience that I have had and am having. There is no greater work on the face of this earth than the spreading of the truth to every single soul. I am grateful for the people who I have personally been able to help get to the waters of baptism and all of whom are all still active in the Church, with 1 of them currently serving a full time mission and other preparing to do so. I have seen countless blessings in my life but perhaps the one of the greatest blessings was watching my younger brother Tanner, open his mission call this past week (with the permission of my Mission President I was able to see him do so) to serve in the Pachuca México Mission. There is no greater joy than to see people you care so much about take steps to do just as you do each and every day. I am proud of Tanner and just as I tell each and every young convert that recently has joined the church, the chance to serve a mission is special and the things you learn will change you and others forever. I love you all and pray you have the best week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

3 Brothers at Tanner's Mission Call Opening!

Elder Fawcett and Elder Iza

Elder Fawcett and Elder Vargas

Lunch at Member's Pizzeria!

Streets of Puno City

City of Puno

Downtown Puno

Week 88 - Ward Still Without a Bishop

Hola,

Well this week came and went ridiculously fast! I cannot believe how fast time is going at this point! Can I just say how grateful I am to have a rain jacket! It seriously rains so much here and no matter how much rain it is dumping we are out working in it! It’s a blast! The rainy season is starting to come to a close but that isn’t stopping it from getting me soaking wet every single day! What makes it even better is that we work in an area that is uphill so it turns into a nice slip and slide when we are in a hurry to our visits!

This week Marcia came to church and is progressing super well! She is learning a whole lot and perhaps the best part is she has a lot of interest in the Plan of Salvation and being able to obtain eternal life. We have invited her to be baptized and if everything goes as planned, we will hopefully have her baptism very soon.

Our Ward still doesn’t have a Bishop. It has been almost 8 months without a Bishop in the Ward and it is starting to take a huge toll on the members. Most Sunday’s my Companion and I play a huge roll in Sacrament meeting and we usually give talks! It’s a great learning experience for us though and we are learning a lot about how much responsibility a Bishop has. This week only 38 people came to church and a bunch were investigators. Most members are struggling due to having to work to provide for their families rather than attending church each week. Although it has been difficult, we are grateful for the members that continue faithfully and those that help us in this work. We are trying to reactivate some members and hopefully they find a candidate to be the Bishop soon!

Luis is still struggling. This past week we had some lessons with him and the Spirit was super strong. He knows that everything is true and has a testimony but this past week, another obstacle got in the path of his progression to baptism. His Grandpa (whom he is close to) got super sick and was sent to the hospital. They are not sure how long he will be there or if he will be able to leave at all. For Luis, it is a time that he feels he needs to be with his family so he says he wants to take a week or so to be able to get things under control. We have been praying a whole lot for him and know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for Luis and that with his help, he will someday be baptized and make a great missionary as well.

We also had another cool activity as a Stake this week. Each Ward was assigned a different area of Perú and had to prepare a typical plate for that area. Our Ward received Ica which is on the coast of Perú and they prepared a really delicious plate. It was a great time to see some traditional Peruvian dances and to celebrate their culture with them. There are so many different types of plates here in Perú that it seems that each time there is a celebration, I get to eat a new type of food!

This past week my Companion and worked super hard looking for more people and knocked on so many doors. It is super interesting to see people reaction when they see us. Some insult us and swear at us while others simply look out their window, see us and never answer the door. The thing that we have learned a lot is our objective as missionaries is to do more than simply speak with everyone. It is to serve them. This past week we were walking to a visit when we saw an older man carrying bags of cement. We stopped and without hesitating helped him carry the bags home. After arriving at his home we realized that it was a man whom we had contacted days earlier who wasn’t very happy that we had knocked on his door. After finishing the service, he thanked us and we talked to him again. This time he invited us to come back. After this experience I have learned there is a way to everyone. There is a way for us to convert every person in our area, it’s just a matter of finding the way to do so for each and every person. I love this work and am so very grateful for the chance I have to serve others just as the Savior did every day, 24 hours a day! I love you all and hope you have a terrific week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

You Think I Am Joking About the Hills!
Just Imagine Them With Water Pouring Down Them!

Ward/Stake Activity, Area Ica

ALL Peruvian Food is Great!

Week 87 - Master Chef of Manco Capac

Hola,

So today it is pretty much dumping rain. I know I have stated many times before how much it rains but today it became a whole new level of rain. We pretty much looked like we had jumped into a swimming pool by the time we got back to our new apartment. Thankfully we are almost out of the rainy season though! This week was fantastic and although we struggled at times to find new investigators the Lord blessed us so much through our efforts to knock on every door possible and talk to every person in the streets.

To start off, this past week Luis put a goal of going to the Temple with all of the youth in August. He has gained a testimony of pretty much everything, he is still just waiting for his Dad. This past week his Dad was super drunk when we went to visit him so we were not ever able to talk to him. This coming week we have made it a goal to get the permission and baptize him as soon as possible. I know that although it has been incredibly hard, Luis is going to make a great member and convert to the church. He has a lot of goals including serving a mission, which has also been a great motivator for him to gain a testimony of the things which we are teaching him.

Also this week, we had the chance to find 2 great new investigators. First, we found a young adult named Marcia (yep Mom same name as you, ;)). She is the niece of the Stake Secretary and the very first visit we had with her went great! She has a ton of questions about the church and as we began teaching her Lesson 1, she was really happy to learn that our Heavenly Father has restored the original church of Jesus Christ to the earth. As we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, she was really anxious to learn more about it. This week we have another visit with her so hopefully she will continue to have more desires to learn. The other new investigator from this past week was a reference given to us by 16-year-old young man who is the only member in his family. He gave us the reference of one of his friends named Maria. Maria is also super interested in the church and even came to the activity that we had this past week as a Ward!

This week we had a Ward activity that my Companion and I planned with our Ward Mission Leader called “Master Chef Manco Capac”. It was a HUGE success! We have planned a whole lot of activities in the Ward to try and get the members more involved in missionary work and this activity was the first activity that we had almost all of the Ward members either present or participating. It consisted of each family preparing a plate of food and judges (we asked members from other Wards to help judge the competition) who would judge the food based on 3 things: 1. Taste 2. Smell 3. Appearance/Presentation. It was a huge success and the members went all out on the things that they prepared. My companion and I also participated in the activity and we each prepared our own plate. The plate I chose to make was some food from back home. Sloppy Joes, Corn (although I had to use the Peruvian Choclo, the big corn which isn’t the same because normal corn doesn’t exist here), and Banana Vanilla Pudding. It turned out super good and although I have not cooked much during my mission due to having a Pension, all of the members complemented me on everything I cooked and asked for the recipe!

In closing this week, I just want to share my testimony of how grateful I am for the people I have the chance to work with each and every day! The Peruvian people are incredible and as you get to know them, they become some of the greatest friends you could ever have. They are such humble people who would literally take the shirt off their backs and give it to you. I absolutely love serving them and am very grateful for the ways in which I have learned from them. I love this Gospel and the ways that it has blessed my life and the lives of the people I have had the chance to teach. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett



                          Our New Apartment! (Had to Move Due to a "Business" that Opened Above Us)


Various Pictures from Master Chef of Manco Capac!!

Week 86 - Carrying Home Our Investigator!

Hola,

This week was great. For starters I just want to start off by telling you all about this past Sunday at Church. So as I stated last week in my letter, Russell received the Priesthood and this past Sunday he had the chance to bless for the first time. He didn’t have a white shirt or tie so I bought him one since none of mine will fit him well and I gave him a tie of mine. On Sunday he had the opportunity to bless the Sacrament for the first time and for me, it was such a special experience to see someone who I had the chance to teach, preforming an ordinance for so many people in the Ward. Not only that, but Luis came to church this week and since it was Fast Sunday he got up all by himself and went to the pulpit and shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon with everyone in the Ward. Everyone kept asking us after when Luis was baptized because his testimony was very powerful and helped many people. Sadly, Luis is still not a member but that brings us into another story of this past week!

So as all of you know, Luis has been listening to us for quite some time. He has had his difficulties but has now been able to overcome all of them and is now ready to be baptized. He has the desire to be baptized but this past week we found out that Luis wants the support of his Father as he enters the waters to be baptized. Although we were able to have his Mom sign his baptismal register, Luis has stated that he is waiting for his Father to support him in order to make this decision. We have talked to him a lot about the importance of baptism and this week I got a really strong prompting that the solution wasn’t convincing Luis that he needs to be baptized because he already wants to be, the solution his convincing his Father to support him. So, after talking with Luis he felt as well that it would be a good idea for us to talk to his Father. This week we have planned to “surprise visit” his Father in order to talk to him and help him so that he can be supportive of Luis and so that Luis can make this very important covenant with our Heavenly Father.

This week we spent a lot of time knocking on more doors and although we have had more than we can count who have either slammed the door in our face or yelled at us, we have been able to find a few good potential new investigators who are willing to listen to us so hopefully we can find them again and teach them this coming week!

Also this week I bought a cool new souvenir that I plan on bringing home. It is a musical instrument called the Charango! It is a traditional Andean musical instrument that is played a lot here in Perú and throughout my mission I have heard it a lot! I have been learning how to play it from a member and so far I know a little bit and hopefully by the time I get home, I can play a few songs. The Charango I bought has a hand wood carving of Machu Picchu on the back which makes it even more special.

In closing this week, I just wanted to share one quick last experience from this past week. So as many of you may or may not know there is a huge drinking problem here in Puno and we run into drunks all day everyday but this past week we saw a man who had passed out and couldn’t move.  Coincidently we knew him and we couldn’t just leave him passed out in the street. So, with the help of my companion we put our friend on my shoulders and I carried him back home. The next time we saw him he thanked us and this week we are hopefully going to go and teach him again (he is an investigator of ours and a good friend).

I know that this is the Lords True Church. The things I see are things that are unreal and unexplainable. We are blessed through our trials and although we are struggling to find investigators right now I know without a doubt that it always works out the way the Lord desires. As it states multiple times in the scriptures, the blessings come after the trial of your faith. I have found that sometimes the hardest things in the mission are the things that have helped build my character and have made me the missionary and person that I am today. I will never give up on an investigator and perhaps that is bit of a weakness that I have but I see it as a strength because I have been blessed to see the potential that each and every Peruvian has to become a faithful advocate and defender of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to share the gospel with them each day. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Fawcett


                                                                    My Peruvian Charango

Typical Daily Life!

Our Church Building

Teaching Russell Family History!

Family Night With Investigators!

Charango and Case

10 Strings

Back Carving

Front