Week 3 - Half Way Through the MTC

Hola todas mis Familia y Amigos;

Week 3 in the MTC is complete and it feels like each day is moving quicker.  Spanish is still difficult and I am striving each day to become a little bit better. Each day, I feel the strength of the Lord in my life as I feel his spirit helping me and carrying me through the rough days. A foreign MTC isn’t easy, having Spanish around you all day long is hard. But, it is so well worth it. I love being a missionary, it is a blessing to be a representative of my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ each and every single day. I love this gospel and I testify with all my heart that it is true. The Savior lives, this is his church, and I am one of his missionaries. I am so proud to represent him!

So this week was pretty much the same hahaha, nothing really changes all that much from day to day but let me tell you about a few of my experiences from the week.

• Last Wednesday I bought a Quechuan Book of Mormon at the Distribution Center. Quechuan is the native language of the Incan people and is spoken by a number of people in Cusco. So, over the course of the next two years, I hope to pick up a little of it. I am sending a picture of it so you can see how crazy it is. The words are all like 10 plus words long hahaha and I can hardly speak Spanish so I am praying that I don’t need to know a whole lot of Quechuan.

• So these past few weeks, my right ear has been hurting like crazy. So I went to the doctor and I found out that I had some sort of funky infection… So I have been taking ear drops and it’s getting better hahaha… I need all the hearing I can get so I can pick up this Spanish!

• Sunday my comp was super sick. We went to sacrament meeting but he had to leave a few times and I had to run out after him to help take care of him. Then he just slept and I did all I could to take care of him. I offered many prayers on his behalf and he was better by the next day for the most part, no more throw up!

• This week I just wanna say that the gift of tongues is real. There have been so many times this week where words have been brought to my remembrance. It has truly been incredible and I pray for more experiences with it.

• This Saturday we are going on splits with the missionaries in the Lima West Mission. We are going to do a little bit of proselyting with them so I am thrilled for it.

• This past week was Peru’s Independence Day, so it was cool because we got to eat some unusual dishes… I couldn’t tell you what they were because I honestly have no idea. But they were delicious so I am thrilled to have some more once I get out in the field. That’s pretty much it for this week. I love you all and miss you all so much. I testify that with Jesus Christ, all things are possible if you have faith in him.

Love

Elder Fawcett

Peru Temple

Selfie with the Peru Temple

Week 2 - Rice, Chicken, Rice

Hola todos mi Familia y Amigos,

Week number two is in the books and boy has it been a crazy week! The CCM is pretty much the same everyday hahaha! But I have absolutely learned a whole lot of new things within the week. Being on a mission is definitely the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life, but the absolute most rewarding!  I miss all of you so dearly, but I absolutely love this opportunity I have to represent our Savior Jesus Christ. Every single day I hop out of bed, even when I am exhausted (because I don’t sleep too well in the beds here… My bed is smaller than a twin and it’s hard to sleep when you have to scrunch up a lot to fit in the bed hahaha), shower in either scalding hot or freezing cold water, then dress and put on the my name tag. Each day as I put on my name tag I look in the little mirror in our room and notice “Elder Fawcett”, right above JesuCristo (Jesus Christ) and remember that I am an acting representative of him. It truly is incredible. No matter how hard the days get, I always remember that these two years aren’t about me. “Forget yourself and go to work” is something that I always remember. This is all about our Savior Jesus Christ and I am so grateful to represent him each and every single day!

Let me tell you a few things about this past week…

• So after emailing last week we went to the Lima, Peru Temple. I can honestly say that it is one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Everything was in Spanish essentially and it was incredible. They gave the missionaries headsets for the session so that we could see it all in English… but the ending was all Spanish so that was pretty interesting!
• Spanish is coming along slowly for me! Hahaha! So we have been teaching lessons in Spanish and I was teaching repentance. I was teaching when I accidently said the wrong thing. Instead of “We need to be forgiven of our sins” I said “We need to be forgiven of our fish….” Oooopsss… But to make it even worse I also said “Fishing draws you away from Heavenly Father” instead of “Sinning draws you away from Heavenly Father” so it’s coming slowly… But I am working as hard as I can at it. I have been filling up a little notebook and I study it all day with words to increase my vocab.
• Our pretend investigator is getting harder… He asked us about polygamy in Spanish and so explaining that in Spanish after only two weeks was pretty tricky but it went alright… We wanna commit him to baptism soon!
• THE FOOD IS CHANGING a little… This week we had soup with all sorts of chicken parts (seriously all kinds), that was pretty tasty actually. We also had some kind of cow heart stuff which also tasted good with the sauce it had on it. Best of all, we had hotdogs cut on top of fries and anyone who knows me knows I love fries… the hotdogs just added variety.
• The Latinos love me. Seriously every Latino comes up to me and is like “Elder FAWCETT” and gives me a big hug. My favorite Elder is Elder Moran who is from Panama. His family is really poor and he has only been a member for a year but he has the strongest spirit. He comes up to me every day and we talk the little Spanish I know for a while. Then there are two other Elders who are trying to learn English from us. One of them learned “I am go to sleep “ and he says just like that every single time… even after we correct him! There is also another Elder who always comes up and is like MUCHO GRINGOS!!! Hahaha it is great!
• I have dropped like 5 pounds since I got here… despite always being full of rice and chicken and whatever else… I am dropping all my weight… But boy would I kill for some panda express orange chicken right now (yes I do eat chicken for every meal but I really want some Chinese right now…) …. So if someone can hook me up with that I would be pretty thrilled!!
• My English is starting to merge with Spanish.  So sorry if my letter is a little iffy… I am trying my best… Everything is Spanish all day pretty much so it is hard sometimes!

Anyways it has been a pretty good week! I miss you all so very much but I know this church is true.

LOVE YOU ALL!!! TE AMO!!!

Elder Fawcett

 My MTC District	 My Comp and Native Elders
 Awesome Elders	 Grateful for these Elders
Cusco Brothers	 License to Serve
 Some of my Early Favorites!	 Skittles???

Typical Breakfast

Week 1 - Surrounded by Spanish

Hola Mis Familia y Amigos,

First off I am sorry for last week and not being able to get any emails. They wouldn’t let me send any emails other than one to say I got here okay. So I sincerely apologize for that.  This week has been quite the adventure! We got to Peru around midnight, got off the plane and went to find our bags. Following the search for bags we walked through security and found a guy holding a sign with the churches logo on it. We then hopped on a bus and drove to the CCM (Peru MTC). The ride was really interesting, the streets were empty and trash covered all of the sides of the road. I definitely knew I was no longer in the states! When we arrived at the CCM we talked and eventually got to bed around 3 am. They let us sleep till 8:30 and then we got up and got our companions. My companion is Elder Reuckert who is also from Utah and my district is full of other American Elders who are all also going to Cusco.

I first wanna tell you about each day and what it consists of. We begin our journey of learning and studying. Every single day we wake up at 6:30, shower and then study the gospel. We then have language learning for pretty much all day. Every single thing here is in Spanish. We learn in Spanish, listen to talks in Spanish, you name it and it’s in Spanish. It was hard at first, because I didn’t have a
clue what was being said but throughout the week I have learned a whole lot about the language. Following study in the morning we head to breakfast. Breakfast in the CCM is the same pretty much every day. Eggs, bread, some sort of weird fruit juice and that’s it. It’s not too bad, but it’s really repetitive. After breakfast is more studies and more classes all in Spanish. We then head to lunch and have rice, potatoes, and some sort of chicken along with another kind of fruit juice. This too is the same pretty much every single day. It is really good but it is the same every single day. Following lunch we usually have more classes and then have physical activity each day for an hour. We usually play soccer, volleyball, or lift self-weights.

Playing soccer with the Latinos is by far my favorite though. Despite getting schooled by them, it’s really fun. After physical activity we usually then head to more classes and do some study of the language and the Book of Mormon. I have read the Book of Mormon cover to cover once and I am half way through again in only one week here! It is absolutely amazing! After that we have dinner, which is essentially exactly the same as lunch except it’s a different kind of chicken and we usually get a soup with it. Yes, I have had chicken feet soup several times already, and it’s actually not too bad. A little chewy but not bad at all. We also get milk cake, Jell-O, or churros (which are nothing like American churros) with our dinner sometimes. The food hasn’t been bad but I have heard that it gets old after a while. Next week they are preparing cow heart for us so I am pretty interested in trying that. Once dinner is over we head to a devotional (in Spanish) and then go and teach a fake investigator a lesson in Spanish. They have small fake houses at the CCM that we go and knock on the door and speak with a fake investigator. So far, Elder Reuckert and I have taught him the first two discussions and have gotten him to commit to baptism… if only it was going to be that easy in field haha! Then we study some more and get to bed by 10:30 every day. My room sleeps 6 Elders on 3 bunk beds. I got the top bunk and it’s kinda interesting because my legs don’t really fit in the bed…. So that’s been quite the experience. Each day is the same and consists of similar activities if not identical ones each day.

Now I will tell you some cool stories/facts from the week.

• First off I want you all to know that the CCM is pretty much a glorified prison. We are fenced in by huge stone walls and limited to stay inside the walls for all 6 weeks here.
• On Sunday we have meetings all day, we literally are in church all day. But I can honestly say that it is my favorite day besides P-day.  I absolutely loved the incredible spirit that was present.
• Also on Sunday, we were sitting in a meeting and all of a sudden the ground started shaking! It shook for about 10 secondsish and then stopped. It was super cool because I have never felt the ground shake like ever in my life. Apparently it was a small earthquake so that was pretty neat.
• We hear sirens pretty much all day here. Seriously every single day all day there are sirens. Apparently there are gun shots frequently around here and people down here are just plain out bad at driving.
• We went to Interpol yesterday to get our Peruvian IDs so I got to escape for a few hours. We road in a bus and I can honestly say that driving here is the sketchiest thing in the world. They don’t give anyone the right of way and if you wanna merge you just gotta do it haha. So I will no longer be scared when my little brother drives. Interpol was boring but we got to buy some Inca Cola (Peru’s national drink) at a small store so that made it all worth it.
• Lastly, I found out from the CCM President that we actually will be flying to Cusco. So I will fly out and not drive on the bus after all.
• We taught a Latino to say the word fork this week but ...… he had difficulty pronouncing his R's… So it came out as a swear word…Hahahaha.

Well that pretty much sums up my week here. Spanish is coming slowly but I will eventually get it down. I Love you all and miss you all so much.

Love, 

Elder Taylor Fawcett

All My Luggage Made it to Peru

Flight From Atlanta to Peru

Peru MTC

Elder Fawcett

First Companion, Elder Reukert

MTC Map, Not like Provo!!

Typical Lunch

Typical Dinner

Volleyball Court

Soccer Field

Exercise at the MTC