Week 92 - Nothing Abnormal, Just Nasty Cheese!

Hola,

For starters this week, I didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary thankfully. But I did get a little sick again from the nasty cheese that they sell in the street here. I may have talked about it before but the cheese here is absolutely disgusting. I do my best not to eat it but sometimes, I have no choice and just pay the price later. It is all good though, they are just experiences that are helping me learn and grow more just like everything else I have the chance of going through as a part of my mission.

Mutual on Saturday was once again a huge success. My Companion and I taught the youth how to make tacos since most of them have never even tried a taco (they don’t exist in Peru). We taught them how to make tortilla dough which is pretty simple, along with delicious guacamole, topped off with some great taco meat (made it without taco seasoning since it doesn’t exist and it turned out way better!). It was a great experience and almost everyone from the Ward showed up for the activity. Not only that but once again we were blessed to meet some new nonmembers who we are hopefully going to be able to teach in the coming weeks.

This past week we had a great miracle occur with our investigator Marcia. She sort of disappeared for a while but this past week we found her and continued to teach her. We asked her about her feelings on baptism and she said she wasn’t sure about whether she should or not. We invited her to pray that night to receive and answer about what she should do. That night, she did so and had an amazing experience that she told us about. It is a really sacred experience so I don’t want to share it right now but I will say that she received a very clear answer in a dream following her prayer. After receiving her answer, we were able to finish teaching her all of the lessons and on Sunday she passed her Baptismal interview. The only thing left for us to do is getting a family member to sign her baptismal register (she is only 17 so she cannot legally sign yet). Her parents live a long way away from Puno and she is studying alone here so she called her Mom for permission and she told her that it is her decision. So we are going to hopefully have her Aunt and Uncle who are members in another Ward sign it for her this week with her Mom’s permission and have her baptism on Saturday. It truly is a miracle how our Heavenly Father can so quickly change some one’s heart!

Another cool experience is we were invited by the Oliviera family to celebrate their oldest son, Johnathon’s´ birthday. It was super cool and I always love a Peruvian style birthday with cake in the face and eggs on your head. I got him a cool Real Madrid Soccer Jersey (that is one of the biggest soccer teams down here in Perú, it is based in Spain but plays internationally all over the world) since he is one of my good buddies I have made while here. Celebrating his birthday with him reminded me a lot myself when I turned 16. Reflecting on the past 2 years of my life I realize how much I have grown in these past few years.

In closing I just want to talk about one of the things that has been on mind a lot recently. After General Conference, I made myself a goal to learn as much as I could about Personal Revelation since President Nelson stated how important it is for us as members of the church. As I have been studying it a lot lately it has reinforced my desire to continue seeking it as I strive to work as a missionary and continue to grow my testimony. On Sunday I had to teach all 3 hours of church (talked in Sacrament meeting, taught Gospel Principles, and also the Young Men), which has occurred many times, but as I did so I learned just how useful Personal Revelation can be. It has been a blessing to me throughout my mission and continues to be as I strive to always look for ways to serve others. It is important for all of us just as the Prophet stated and I just want to challenge everyone to try and seek it out in your daily lives. I love you all and pray that you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Fawcett


                                                                    Our New Apartment Again! 

Traditional Peruvian Cheese in the Streets!

Celebrating Jhonathons B-Day!

Jhonathon

Taught Them How to Make Tortillas!

Cookem Up

Chop Up the Vegetables

Socialize

Putting Everything Together

Up the Street From Our Apartment

Down the Street From Our Apartment

Week 91 - Cactus Fruit

Hola,

What a week! So this week’s new food was actually a really good one. I was served cactus fruit and I can honestly say it was delicious. However, I pretty much destroyed my hands while trying to get to the edible part. Once I did, the fruit was delicious and it was interesting to once again try another food that I never have tried. Also, remember how we moved houses about a month ago? Well we once again moved this past week because my Companion and I had been unable to sleep for a week or so due to a dog that literally barked right outside our door every single night, all night long. We are currently living in a nice new building that was recently built. I will send a video next week so that you can all see. In addition this week my Companion and I continued to work very hard and had some great miracles occur.

First off, we started this week off with a whole lot of rejection. It seemed like nobody wanted absolutely anything to do with us. But by the time we got to Sunday it seemed like everything had completely changed. During our time together my Companion and I have contacted our entire area, but after knocking on some doors for the 2nd time we received a different response from people who had slammed their doors or had even gotten upset about us knocking. After knocking on a door, we were greeted by an older woman who had gotten really upset the last time we had done so. Hesitating a bit, we contacted her and after thinking about it for a second she said that she would be happy to hear us. So this week we are headed back to teach her. It truly is interesting how the Lord prepares people in his own time and how sometimes it takes multiple attempts for someone to receive the gospel.

Another miracle we had was during an activity we had with the youth of the Ward. A few weeks ago President Herrera told me that we needed to start having Mutual activities in the Ward to better work with the youth. There is not a Young Men’s or Young Women’s President in our Ward so we are sort of acting as the Presidents to all of the youth. Thanks to having great Young Men’s Leaders back home during my time in the Young Men’s program, it made it really easy for me to plan activities with my Companion. We divided the month into 4 different activities for each month, Week 1. Sports (basically playing a different sport each month because the youth love to play sports). Week 2. Cooking combined with the Young Women (preparing plates to help prepare them for missions and for adulthood). Week 3. Duty to God and Mission Prep (My Companion put a goal to try and help every young man in the Ward receive his Duty to God and prepare to serve a mission). Week 4. Careers (this was one of my favorite things I did in the Young Men`s program, most youth here have no idea what they want to do for their future careers so my Companion and I are calling different adults in the Ward to come and teach us about their careers to get the youth thinking about what they want to do in the future). These are the 4 basic ideas we had and have been praying a lot and have felt it will be a great benefit for all of the youth in the Ward. For the past couple months my Companion and I have been teaching all of the young men in the Ward each Sunday, and we have noticed a great change in their desires to prepare to become leaders and holders of the Greater Priesthood. We have worked hard to activate every single young man and personally visited every single one of them and in the mutual activity and this Saturday we had a great turnout as every single young man in the Ward was present in the activity (we played soccer). The youth even brought nonmember friends whom we hope to teach in the coming week as well!

Our investigators are all slowly continuing to progress as well and I know that as we continue to work hard, miracles will occur for each and every one of them. I am so grateful to be a missionary. Missionary work is so much more than teaching and baptizing people. It is about loving and serving as the Savior Jesus Christ did. I love him and am grateful to serve each and every person that I can here in Peru. I love you all and pray that you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Fawcett

Cactus Fruit

Our New Place, Video Next Week!

Good Ole Puno!

Boat on Lake Titicaca

Week 90 - Popping Fish Eggs

Hola,

Another great week. This week was highlighted by the fact that we had Zero Electricity or Water for 5 of the 7 days this past week. To bathe we put buckets out to catch cold rain water and to see in the dark house we used candles. It was a pretty interesting experience and it took an entire day to be fixed once the Landlord got back but we thankfully have electricity and water again. It was pretty much like glorified Peruvian camping but it was fun either way. Other than that, I really enjoyed watching General Conference. It was incredible to listen to our Prophet and hear him talk about something that I have learned so much about throughout my mission, Personal Revelation.

This week we had divisions and I was able to go out with my old Companion, Elder Pinedo, to work in his area and to meet some people that he is currently teaching. It was a cool experience to go out and teach with him again. My Companion and I found a really interesting new investigator this week named, Edgar. As we were out contacting, I noticed a man who looked familiar. As we got closer I knew that I had seen him before. After talking to him I found out that he is the brother of a member from my first area who was the Elders quorum President. After talking a bit more, I also found out that not only did I know his brother but I knew him because I had taught him about a year and a half ago with his brother in my first area. It was an interesting experience but I am looking forward to working with again.

We also continued to teach Marcia this past week. She is progressing very well and we are hoping to have her baptism very soon hopefully. Along with Marcia, Lucy and her son Dominic are also progressing very well. They have a lot of questions for us and are always interested in what we are teaching them.

This past week we also found a great new part member family we are teaching. The mother is a member, but her husband and daughter are not. We have been working on teaching them but so far only the daughter, Rosey, is progressing well so far and even came to conference. Luis, whom we have been teaching for a while, also was able to attend and stated that the Spirit was incredibly strong as he was heard the prophet speak.

This week I also had another interesting food experience, although this time it was thankfully not rodent. Since this past week was holy week, a lot of people with a Catholic background cook some very interesting dishes. One of these dishes I had the chance to eat in the home of a member. Once again, an interesting bowl of soup was placed in front of me. It smelled very interesting and as I began to eat it, I noticed little egg looking things inside. As I finished my stomach began to hurt and I asked what the soup had in it. I was informed that it had fish guts along with fish eggs. Now I have had fish guts before with no problem but as I ate the fish eggs, they “popped” inside my mouth and honestly it was all I could do to swallow them. Now at that point my stomach already was hurting but as we left the house, I had a nice pleasant experience vomiting in the middle of an alley way. Luckily no one saw me and I was alright. Just when I thought I had tried everything here, I tried another very interesting traditional Peruvian Plate.

In closing this week I just want to state how grateful I am for living Prophets. I personally took so much away from General Conference but my favorite talk was by President Nelson. Personal revelation is something that has helped me every single day throughout my mission. So many times, I feel the Lords Spirit guiding me and helping me to know what it is that I need to do. Although I am imperfect, the Lord has blessed me as I have strived to have the guide of his Spirit. Personal revelation is something we all must have in our lives and I know that if we follow the Prophet’s council to strive to receive it in our lives, we will be guided to know what it is we must do. I love you all and pray you each have a great week.

Love,

Elder Fawcett

Our Stake Volleyball Tournament, Our Ward Took First Place!

Seat Cover in a Taxi Cab I Took This Week!