Week 74 - Solar Showers When It Rains!

Hola,

I am exhausted! This week my Companion, Elder Vargas and I walked a TON! We have been contacting like crazy to try and find people to teach. Opening an Area is very difficult especially when the Ward doesn’t have a Bishop. It makes it so much harder. The apartment where we live has a solar shower and it has been cloudy and rained a ton which means that I have had cold bucket showers all week. But I honestly have loved every single day here in Manco Capac! Cold showers are the BEST! I have never been so excited to get out of bed even though I feel exhausted still, bathe myself in cold water and then walk up hills and talk to friendly and not so friendly people all day! It is the absolute best and each day I feel so privileged to be able to do so! As I stated, Elder Vargas and I have been contacting a ton of people, so I would like to let you all know about some of the incredible new investigators that we are teaching!

The first person I want to tell you about is named Milder! Milder is 25 years old and I met him last Monday when he was cutting my hair. Besides giving good haircuts, he is the father of a little 1-year-old boy and is currently living with his girlfriend. They aren’t married so I can’t call her his wife. As he was cutting my hair this past week I just started talking to him and he immediately started to open his heart up to me and tell me about his life. He has had a lot of problems with his girlfriend and such and has felt so many times throughout his life that God has just abandoned him. I took the time to explain to him that our Heavenly Father really does love him and his family. As we have taught him I have felt of the love that the Savior and our Heavenly Father have for him and we have begun to help him progress.

The next person I will tell you about is another young man named Ronald! Ronald is 22 years old and is super smart. Ronald owns a shop where he sells materials to make pants, suits, and many other things. So this past week we walked into his shop and contacted him. He had a well-worn copy of the Bible sitting on his desk so I knew that he was going to be a really good investigator. We were able to set up a visit with him and went back to teach him. The visit we had with him was awesome! He was really interested in the Book of Mormon and has already read all the way to the Book of Alma! Not only that but the next visit we had with him, we noticed that he had highlighted many parts of the Book of Mormon that he liked and was interested in. He is an incredible person but he knows the Bible super well! Honestly he knows it like the back of his hand. As we taught him lesson 2 he was really interested in what we were teaching. He took notes and everything. But the only problem is that he also has a ton of questions about almost everything we teach. There are a few things he has doubts on but we are striving every visit to resolve them using the Bible that he knows super well along with the Book of Mormon to help him understand even more! Perhaps one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in a lesson occurred when I was teaching him this past week.

As I stated, Ronald knows the Bible super well but doesn’t seem to believe that there is life after death. It seemed strange to me as we began to teach him about the Plan of Salvation because he told us that after we die, there is nothing. As I began to pray in my heart, I wasn’t sure what to tell him. I knew that he knew the Bible and I didn’t want to fight with him on scriptures so I just shared my testimony with him. I told him that I knew that God had a plan for him in his life and that he loved him and wanted him to live in his presence again someday. Ronald began to get emotional and I could tell that he felt the Spirit witness to him that there really was a life after this one. That God really did love him and want him return to live with him someday. I then pulled out a picture of my family and that’s when I knew that he could feel that what we were teaching was true. I explained to him that not only he could return to the Presence of God but he could also return and live with his loved ones forever. The experience was very powerful and I know that he could not deny the Spirit witness to him the truthfulness of the things we were teaching him.

In closing for this week I just want to bear testimony of the reality of the work I am doing here. It is honestly really tough to open up an Area and there has been so much opposition in everything we have been trying to get going. But at the same time I have never seen the hand of the Lord more than I have while I have been here. There has never been a day when I have not felt His hand on my shoulder, pushing me along, telling me to contact that last house! I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve as a missionary here in Manco Capac and for the great opportunity I have to share this message with the people here. There are so many incredible people to meet and I know that the Lord will continue to lead and guide us to find them. We are merely his hands to accomplish a work much greater than we can comprehend. I love you all and wish you all a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

                                                                New Apartment in Manco Capac

One Final Shot Leaving the Office! . .

Hermana Ana, My Very First Pensionista Invited Us to Lunch Today

Hermana Yesenia and Elder Fawcett

Saying Goodbye to My Mom in Peru

My Family Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree We Made

Elder Vargas and Elder Fawcett

Elder Fawcett, Beti and Elder Vargas

Beti, Our New Penchanista

Just Loved Beti's Facial Expression!

Week 73 - Starting From Nothing!

Hola,

What a busy week it has been! I am sure you are all dying to know what happened in my transfer to the new Area where I am serving. But first I just want to tell you about what happened in my last few days in Cusco. So on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I spent a ton of time going to say goodbye to members, converts, and investigators. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to so many lifelong friends that I made in Cusco but I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to get to know each and every one of them! It was such a blessing to work with so many great members of the church who are going to make a big difference here in Perú. I will miss them all so very much! But perhaps the hardest goodbye that I said was to my wonderful pension! She has honestly become one of my best friends here in Perú and I loved spending time in her home with her family each and every day! She is the best and I know that I will always be in contact with her for the rest of my life!

As Thursday rolled around, I was invited to go eat in a very nice restaurant with President Herrera and Elder Fincher (the other Elder who left the office with me) for lunch. It was great to sit down and talk with him and eat some delicious food! Perhaps one of the greatest blessings and privileges that I had in the Office was getting to know him personally along with his family. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve with him in such a unique and special way. Following Lunch I finished getting things ready then I went and picked up my new Companion, Elder Vargas. We went and bought a few things to take down to Puno for our new house than that night we hopped on a bus and travelled down to Puno. The following day we arrived in Puno early and immediately got to work looking for a place to live. After looking for a while, we ended up finding a nice one room apartment in the middle of our area. Since I have experience doing contracts (I did probably a million while I was in the Office), we set everything up with the Land Lord and were able to take the room. Following that we went shopping and got some mattresses and blankets and that night we slept on the floor. It reminded me of camping, in the middle of Perú without anything except for my bags and a place to sleep.

The next day we were able to get the rest of the furniture we needed and set everything up. Our next task was to find a pension (someone to feed us). So we went and talked to some members and were told to go look for an older woman who lived the street above our house. We did just that and ended up finding a really sweet old lady named Beti who told us she would love to feed us all 3 meals every day! The craziest thing is she “coincidently” lives literally 4 minutes walking from our new apartment! It has made things really easy because everything is so close together, including our Chapel which is about 5 minutes in the other direction.

As Sunday rolled around we went to Church and were greeted by some very friendly Ward members who were super excited to have Elders in there Ward. As we were looking around, we asked who the Bishop was and were told that there was not a Bishop because he had been released about a month and half ago due to some issues in his life. Currently the Area where we are serving is being led under the direction of a High Priest and only about 50 members who come to church each week. There is a lot of opportunities to serve here and I am really grateful and humbled to be able to serve in such a unique and special way. The members are so grateful to have us here and it almost made me feel sad as members greeted us with great big smiles on their faces, eager to help and serve us in whatever form or way that they could.

In closing this week I just want to share a quick thought that I had this week. As I stated earlier in the letter, there seemed to be so many coincidences that occurred this week. The way that everything seemed to fall into place seemed so much simpler than I thought it was going to be. It almost seemed as if everything had been prepared before we got here to make the transition here so much easier. I know without a doubt in my mind that the Lord was directly helping us to make opening up this new Area an easy transition so that we can get right to work finding people to teach and helping to establish his kingdom here on the earth. There is no such thing as coincidences, only miracles. I hope that each of you have a terrific week and a great start to December and Christmas time. A talk that was given in the Christmas devotional reminded me so much of what it is like to be away from home during such a special time of year. As I have served my mission, I have truly come to learn and feel the love of Jesus Christ in my life. To truly love him means to give up your greater desires for the needs of others. This Christmas I am so grateful I get
 to share that love with the people here in Perú and to help them come to know and feel the love of our Savior in their lives.

Love,

Elder Fawcett

President Herrera, Elder Fawcett and Elder Fincher
Farewell to The Office!!

Week 72 - Learning to Listen to the Spirit

Hola,

To start off this week I just want to get the big news out. So first off, President Herrera has asked that I stay here in Cusco till Thursday this week to help with the changes and a few other things before I head off to my new area. Now for the big news! I have been assigned to open up a Brand New Sector that has never had missionaries before in area of Puno called Manco Capac in the Zone of Bellavista. My new Companion is Elder Vargas from Bolivia who will finish his mission with me this coming June. He is an ex Zone Leader as well so I am really excited to have him as a Companion and to go back down to Puno to work as hard as I can in this new area. Like I stated, this area is brand new which means that I am literally going to be carrying the area book in my bag with me for when I get to my area. It is pretty much like we are starting out at Zero and getting the work moving along. There is currently not a place for us to live, furniture to use, or even a Penchanista to feed us. So before I head down to Puno, we are going to go furniture shopping for everything and then when we get there we are going to head out to search for a place to live and someone who can feed us (the pension). So that is so far all I know as far as changes go, but I am really excited for this new adventure to be doing something that I never thought I would do!

As far as this past week in Cusco, it was super busy! I was crazy busy trying to finish the training of Elder Larsen and trying to help get him as ready and as independent as possible for when I leave. Also I spent a good chunk of the week going and visiting members, investigators, and converts that I have had during my time here. But perhaps one of the coolest things that happened was talking to Julio, one of the converts I have had here. Julio has struggled a lot during these past few months as a member. He has had a lot of trials but has strived each day to do the best he can. Perhaps the greatest blessing for me is to see someone who started out with such little knowledge, grow to gain a testimony of this Gospel and of its reality!

This week was also Thanksgiving and we were able to have a great big Thanksgiving dinner with President Herrera and his family as well as some of the other missionaries here in Cusco. There is an awesome senior couple in our mission who got a package of some stuffing mixes and pumpkin in cans so they prepared us a few things from the States and it was really awesome! Sadly, I just want all of you to know that the food back home is VERY SWEET!!! My taste buds have become accustomed to eat food with less sugar and after eating some food for Thanksgiving it was almost like I couldn’t handle all of the flavor. It was delicious though and was a good experience to be able to experience Thanksgiving in Perú since it doesn’t really exist here.

Also this week we had our P-Day on Saturday, so we decided to visit the last set of ruins before I leave Cusco. This time we went and visited the city of Pisaq which was a city full of temples, agriculture, warfare and many other things. It was a huge city and it was incredible to go and see the last big set of ruins that I haven’t seen during my time in Cusco. It has been such a blessing to be able to go out and see so many ruins of cities that were constructed and inhabited by the descendants of Lehi.

In closing this week I just want to share a quick story that occurred while teaching a lesson to a new investigator this week. We were asked a really tough question that I honestly not have the answer too. The investigator looked at us waiting for the response and I sat there trying to think of how to respond. It then just came to my mind that I should just tell him that I didn’t have the answer and that, that answer would be good enough. Thinking twice about how to answer, I decided that I would try to answer the question to the best of my ability. As I began to answer the question I immediately realized that I should have listened to the prompting that I got from the Spirit to answer the question with a simple “I don’t know the answer”. After the visit, I was really upset with myself for missing the prompting of the Spirit that would have helped the investigator understand a little bit than he did when we left. It made me ask myself the question “How many times a day am I missing the simple promptings”. Throughout this past week I have realized that there are so many times where a prompting will come, but I will just dismiss it. In life, we are all given the gift of the Holy Ghost when we are baptized and all have the right to receive the promptings of the Spirit. Sometimes I think that it is so easy to just dismiss the promptings of the Spirit when we are going through our days and miss out on opportunities. Something that I am trying to work on currently is to recognize more the little promptings. God loves us and he will use us to bless the lives of others, we only need to be willing to listen to recognize the promptings. I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

Thanksgiving in Cusco

Office Elders with President Herrera's Family

My Cusco District .

One of My Favorite Peruvian Dishes Lomo Saltado

City of Pisaq
Pisac is a village in southern Peru’s Sacred Valley region. It's known for its lively handicrafts market in the main square. A path winds from the square past agricultural terraces up to Pisac Archaeological Park, a hilltop Incan citadel with ancient temples, plazas and the Intihuatana, a stone structure thought to have been a sundial. Views from the top stretch across the Quitamayo gorge and surrounding valley.