Week 17 - Lima, and Lots of Legit Experiences

Hola,

This week was absolutely AWESOME!!! I spent about half of the week out of town and out of my sector traveling to Lima to get things finalized for my Visa. That was pretty fun and I really missed working but it was great to catch up with all of my MTC Buddies and hang out with all of them for a few days.  While traveling, I spent 8 hours on a bus to Cusco than a 1.5 hour airplane to Lima, spent a whole day in and around the airport taking care of my Visa. (Eating McDonalds which I was surprised wasn’t very different from the one in the States although it did have some unique things but overall, it was pretty incredibly weird to be somewhere so advanced compared to Puno). Then, I flew back to Cusco (1.5 hours) and took the 8 hour bus ride back to Puno!

This week is my final week of my training, which means next Monday we will have changes. My companion, Elder Iza, will leave but I will stay and either receive an older missionary or I also have the possibility of training…which isn’t very likely.

This week, we worked a whole ton with a less active member named Victor. He was once a member of the church and is and ordained High Priest. He has been through several sets of missionaries for the past several years. He is a returned missionary, was married in the temple, and has a little boy. But, he has become very bitter against the church due to the fact that his Wife cheated on him and his life completely fell apart. Like all the many missionaries before my companion and I, we have been working to reactivate him. We have worked with him the entire time I have been here and I am happy to say that he has finally decided to start coming back to Church.  It is really great to see the progress he has made and to see him start coming back.

Another cool story, this past week, we were asked by our Elder Quorum President to go over and give someone a blessing with him and of course we said yes.  The house we went to was of a family who were nonmembers but they have always felt something special about the missionaries and the church.  As we entered his house, I saw him lying in the bed and immediately realized that this man was VERY Sick. My companion then commenced to tell me that I would be doing the blessing. I was a little hesitant but Elder Iza insisted. SO, he did the anointing and I did the blessing. As I placed my hands on this very sick man, I had the most spiritual feeling come over me. I felt the Love our Heavenly Father has for him and had a thought pop in my head. As I was giving him the blessing, I wanted to say and bless him that he would be healed. But as I was giving the blessing, I knew that was not the blessing our Heavenly Father wanted me to give him.  I knew that he would be passing away the following morning. I obeyed the feelings I received and blessed him with a knowledge that our Father and Heaven loved him and that one day he would have the opportunity to receive the fullness of the gospel. The following morning, he did indeed pass.

One last experience, last night, I was probably the sickest I have been on my mission so far.  I was up in the bathroom at least 4 times throwing up and everything else and when the sun came up this morning, I really felt awful. Today was P-day and I had so much to do to get ready for the new week and being so sick there was no way to get everything done feeling the way I did, but then I had the thought that I needed a blessing.  So I had Elder Iza and give me a blessing and it was a really beautiful blessing and as he was concluding, as clear as day, I heard a voice say, “Elder Fawcett, I haven’t left you since day one, what makes you think I would leave you now?” Since then, I have felt great all day and all of the things I suffered from all night are completely gone. The Priesthood is real and our Savior is real.  He is my Best Friend and I Know He has walked by me every single day through my mission and at times when it is the hardest, he has carried me. 

I love you all so very much and thank EVERYONE for all the support that I receive. I testify that the church is true and the Priesthood is real. It truly is the power of god here on the earth.

Love

 --

Elder Taylor R. Fawcett
Peru Cusco Mission

Elders Fawcett / Iza with Bishop Halmington and Wife and Daughter

These are Honestly the Ugliest Dogs I Have Ever Seen!!!

"Richard" is an Inactive we are Working with!!
Honestly, Don't Know Why
Elder Fawcett Has a Bunny Head on,
He Neglected to Mention that Part!!!

Week 16 - The Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca

Hola,

Well, this week meals consisted of mostly chunyo (3 meals for almost every day) and A TON of hard work! It’s truly wonderful down here in good ole Puno.

This week, it was ironically Halloween today because a lot of out of this world sketchy stuff has been happening to my companion and I. Things that are paranormal, with evil spirits. I am not going to say a whole lot because I feel like these stories are things I need to share after I finish the mission, but just know that I have a testimony that Satan and his followers are real and they are set on stopping our work here. Enough of that for today.

On a happier note, my companion and I committed our investigator (John) that I taught English too, to baptism this week! :) John is the investigator that a few weeks back I told you just randomly showed up to General Conference and watched it all with us.  It truly is incredible to see that a desire to simply learn English from the missionaries, turns into a potential future member! It’s difficult sometimes to be patient in cases like this, but mark my words that if you are patient, that’s when the Lord will bless you! I have seen the hearts of drunks, staunch Catholics, etc., turn into people who have a desire to join us in following our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! 

This week, my companion and I were asked to give a blessing to a baby girl who has been really very sick for quite a long time and has consistently cried every day, all day for quite a while. As we gave her a blessing of the sick, she cried the whole time but as we lifted our hands off her heads, she immediately stopped.  It’s truly incredible to see how the power of the Priesthood works. I see miracles everyday as a holder of it and I am so thankful for a Father in Heaven who trusts a 19 year old imperfect guy like me to hold it! I testify that it is real and it is a grand blessing in each of our lives.

As follow up to my stomach issues from the past few weeks, they did more tests on me and the Doctor ruled out a parasite but says it is just a very bad stomach infection so they are going to try some more powerful antibiotics so hopefully that will work and I can finally get rid of it but no big deal, it is just part of the experience!

Today we visited the floating islands of Lake Titicaca and that was pretty incredible! Our zone is the best zone in the mission this change, so the Mission President allowed us to go because it’s normally not allowed! We went out there by boat and they are located about 20-30 minutes off shore. There are quite a few people who live out there and they very seldom come to the mainland.  The floating islands are made out of reeds that they have to replace about every 23 days, which make the ground really squishy, and it was really neat to go out there.  The people were extremely nice and the missionaries used to be located out there but haven’t been for quite a while due to some issues with Elders in the past.  With the new Mission President being put in our Mission, hopefully this area will be opened up again.  We actually have an old church building on one of the islands and the members would love to have us come back out there.

Another funny thing we have been doing down here involves the major beer company here in Peru.  There are a lot of alcoholics down here that drink a lot of beer.  Underneath the bottle caps there are points that you can collect for prizes so all of the missionaries are collecting the bottle caps because one of the prizes is this really nice jacket with a picture of Machu Picchu on it.  We only collect them on P-day but just in walking down to the Pier to catch the boat today my companion and I each collected over 500 points because the bottle caps are everywhere.

I love you all so much and thank you all for the tremendous support! Oh and BTW I am going back to Lima for my Visa this Wednesday, so that should be quite the adventure.  8 hours in a bus to Cusco, and then a plane trip to Lima and back! But, they do have a McDonalds in Lima so I can’t wait for that! 

Love Elder Fawcett

Pop Corn in Peru

Elder Fawcett Waiting for the Boat

UROS or the Floating Islands

Artifacts From the Floating Islands

Our Zone on the Boat to UROS

Gathering Reeds Every 23 Days!

Approaching UROS

Docking at UROS

Some of the Zone Elders

Elders Fawcett and Haws in Typical Island Clothing

Our Church on UROS

There are Many Very Large Islands

The Reeds the Islands are Made Out of Are Edible, Yes I Ate it, I Eat Anything!!!

Elders Haws and Fawcett On Top of the Look Out On One of the Islands

Week 15 - Spaghetti Noodles and a Parasite

Hola:

This week was great! We had a conference with President Herrera and it was super awesome. We also had interviews with him as well. My interview went pretty well, President Herrera was very happy with the work Elder Iza and I are doing and he was also very impressed with how much my Spanish Language abilities have progressed. Our Mission President is super awesome, I think he probably the best one out there!

This week we did quite a bit of teaching and we have investigators at different stages of the teaching process.  We are hoping to schedule a few more baptisms in the next few weeks but we will have to see how things go.  Also this week, we received a new less active who has a number of problems that we are helping him to work with.  Ironically, his name is Richard even though they pronounce it differently down here!  He was baptized when he was 8, got married and had a daughter that is now 6 but hasn’t seen her for quite a while.  Along the way in his life, he made some bad decisions that caused his life to make a turn for the worse.  He lost everything; his wife and his daughter and has forced him to live in the streets. He has been living in the streets for several months and has many problems with a number of things including a big dependence on alcohol. But one day, he said he had a personal revelation that people would be sent to help him, and that’s when we found him.  He really has a desire to return to the Church and so it is great to help him do that. We are helping him out a lot and it is amazing to see him change and overcome his weaknesses.  It is really cool to see the change in people’s lives, it doesn’t matter where you are, where you have been or what you are doing.  The Gospel can make you whole again.  If you are doing bad things, you can always change and can come back!

In the last little while, I have been thinking a lot about my mission and I have realized that it really doesn’t matter if I have 1 million or one baptism while I am out here. That is not what matters and that is not why I am here.  I am not working out here to rack big numbers or statics, I am out here because at this time in my life this is where the Lord wants me to be and it doesn’t matter if I am teaching new converts or reactivating members, I am here representing our Savior Jesus Christ.  So far, I think that the biggest convert in my mission so far has been myself. I have grown up a lot and my Testimony has really grown in the short time I have been here. 

In sacrament meeting this week, I was sitting down when the Bishop came up and asked me if I would talk because the assigned speaker’s couldn’t make it this week. So, I agreed even though I was scared out of my mind. I didn’t have time to prepare anything really, so I went up to the pulpit and somehow I was able to give a talk for over 12 minutes on how every member is a missionary, It was very difficult because I had to completely do it by the Spirit because I didn’t have time to prepare. But all the members said my Spanish was great and that they really appreciated the message.

This week, I got served some sort of what I thought was spaghetti noodles... but as I began eating it, I realized they were NOT noodles at ALL! As a matter of fact, until after I had eaten it all, I really didn’t want to know what it was because it was so nasty! After I was done eating, I found out it was Tripe or Small Cow Intestines. As for my stomach infection I mentioned last week, the antibiotic didn’t do anything so after more tests, I guess I get to go back to the doctor’s this week and get treated for my First Parasite! Not a big deal and I am not the first Elder to get one! 

I love this work and all of you! Thanks for all your support!

--

Elder Taylor R. Fawcett

Peru Cusco Mission

Elders Hatfield, Coils and Haws Part of my MTC Group

Elder and Sister Herrera See, I am Taller than 2 Months Ago!

Skills!!! See I Did Pay Attention in Sewing!!!

Not Quite the Davis High Band and No Candy but Parades Everyday!!!

Maracuya Fruit It is Really Good!!!

Kind of Weird Inside but Still Really Good!!!

My Companion Elder Iza is Quite the Artist!