Here we are again! Every single week it seems like I was just barely writing the letter from the week before. This week was super busy for us and a little difficult due to some event going on here in Puno. In our area, there was a big Catholic street market that went on all day every day for the entire week and a lot of people attended it which made it a little difficult for us to find and teach people. To give you some details about what this market consisted of, it basically was a market where people sold small items such as houses, fake money, cars and many, many other things. Basically the belief here in Puno is that is they buy a small house replica for example and have it blessed by a Catholic Priest, it will then come true for them. This applies to pretty much every other item that was sold there. It was really interesting and got even more interesting when we were confronted by one of these Catholic Priests in the street.
The Priest began to question us why we weren’t buying the items and having them blessed. Not quite knowing what to say without offending him, we just said that we weren’t from around here and don’t participate in those type of things. He then began to attack with anti Mormon doctrine and we calmly had him open the Bible in his hand to a few scriptures to resolve his question. After reading the scriptures he didn’t have much else to say and we then contacted him. Sadly, he lives in another area but it wouldn’t surprise me if this Catholic priest someday is baptized into the church.
Other than contacting a Priest we contacted several other people throughout the week. It was very difficult honestly to find people but we were able to teach some of our investigators. Edwin has accepted to be baptized and its now just a matter of him attending Church more and accepting to live all of the commandments. He has changed a whole lot during the time we have been teaching him and is making a lot of friends in our Ward. Along with Edwin, Milder the barber has finally committed to attend Church with us this week. He is a good friend of ours and I told him that I don’t have much time left and that I wanted him to come to Church with us until I left. He accepted and so this week we will hopefully have him in Sacrament meeting with us. The only problem with him right now is he wants to give me a very interesting hair cut for me to go home with. He insists I will look good with designs cut into my hair but I kindly have to reject that haha.
This week is changes and so today I begin my very last change in the mission. I am staying here in the area I am in and with my Companion I have been training so the goal I have set is to continue to help the Ward as much as I can until I leave. There is still no sort of leader in the Ward and a lot of responsibility falls upon us but we are really close to the members and trying to help all of them with everything that they are doing. 6 weeks is such a short time and it is crazy to think that in a few short weeks my time will be coming to an end. We are working hard and trying to accomplish the most we can with the time that I have left.
In closing this week, I just wanted to share a thought I had as yesterday was Mother’s day. I just want to give my Mom a shout out and thank her for all of the many, many things that she has done for me during the mission and everything she did before to make me the person I am today. There is no way I can repay her or express sufficient gratitude in any way for all of the love that she has shown me throughout my life. I have frequently thought about how incredible it is for each and every person to have the love of a Mother. It is something that can neither be defined or put into words. As I have thought about it, I have realized that the love that a Mother feels for her child must be the closest thing to the way that our Savior Jesus Christ loves us. He knows each and every one of us personally and perfectly and understands how we feel in the most difficult moments of our lives. His love for us is infinite and eternal because of his infinite and everlasting Atonement. I am grateful for him and to be able to feel his love not only for me but also the love he has for the people in my Ward, my investigators, and every person I have the chance to meet here in Perú. I love you all and hope that you have a great week.
Love,
Elder Fawcett
Catholic Street Market
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