Week 85 - Times Are Changing

Hola Everyone:

Well this week has really been a bit long, but we have been doing our best to keep busy and do the best that we can.  We have been trying to do a lot of contacting since I was not in the Area for the past 2 weeks.  Honestly, it sort of feels like I am starting the Area over again and we have just started contacting each of the houses in the Area.  We have found a few people that we have started to teach, but not really anyone that has advanced that far to mention.  As you can probably tell by my picture for the week with my Companion, we got a little sunburned but I guess it is all good!

We had another lesson with Marcela and Abby this past week. They are still doing really well and progressing towards their baptism in the next few weeks.  We taught them a lesson on Commandments and as I said, it went really well.

As for other stuff going on this past week, just like at home, the Coronavirus is sort of getting to be a big thing down here. Honestly with the Church closed to members, it is kind of hard to teach people when we cannot take them to Sacrament meetings on Sunday.  We have not been getting a lot of information on how things are going to change for us because of the virus, but I have a leadership meeting with the President tomorrow so hopefully I will learn a little more about what is going on.  Regardless of what happens, we are working our hardest at trying to find people to teach and serve.  Compared to the first of my mission, I can sure tell that the world has changed!

I hope everyone at home stays healthy and safe.  I love serving the people of Mexico!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Sunburned Elder Mansilla and Fawcett

Week 84 - Back With a Native!

Hola Everyone:

Well, this past week has really gone by fast!  We did a lot of work in the Loreto Area so my Area was sort of ignored during the week.  But it was really a good week!  As I told you last week, we had an appointment with the Mission President and the Bishop of the Loreto Ward.  The Bishop wanted to expand the missionary effort in the Area and wanted more missionaries assigned here.  After the meeting, President Maldonado agreed that it would be a good thing to put more missionaries in there so that will be happening with the changes today.

So, speaking of Changes, I got my new companion assigned to me today. His name is Elder Mansilla from Chile.  I will get a picture of him for next week.  He has been out for about a year and honestly I am excited to be with a native again.  I have really been working hard on making my Spanish perfect before I get home and it honestly is a little harder when you comp is from the States!  I have noticed that you lose a little bit of your Spanish when you are with another Gringo!

Well, I indicated that we didn’t do a lot of contacting in my area this past week, but we were able to teach Maricela and Abby leccion 3.  They are really doing great and we were supposed to have their baptism this past week, but they want to have some of their family members there so we moved the date back to Abril 11 to accommodate that.  We have other people in the area that we are teaching, but no one that has advanced very far. So, I will tell you about them when they start progressing.

Well, I am really looking forward to this next cycle with my new Companion.  I am hoping that things will really start going great!  Although I have avoided it up to this point, my Mission President asked me if I would be the District Leader in the Area so that I can help get the new missionaries established in the new Area for the Loreto Ward.  It is in the Mining District so that should be pretty cool and I look forward to helping them get that Area going.

Well, I hope everyone stays healthy and has a great week.

Love

Elder Fawcett

Elders Fawcett and Stacey with Loreto Ward Member

Elder Fawcett and Loreto Ward Member

Pacuca City Sign

Each Letter is Hand Painted

.

.

.

.

.

.

Week 83 - Christo Rey

Hola Everyone:

Well, this week have gone by pretty fast and has been really good!  The Area I am splitting my time up with is called Loreto and it has a lot of mountains and hills in it. So, we have been doing a lot of climbing up and down this week. It has been pretty tiring! The two Elders I am in a threesome with are Elders Aquirre from Honduras and Stacy from Utah. They like to work hard so we are getting along great and having a fun time together!

So, next week is changes and I will finally be getting my own companion, but it is sort of up in the air where I will be assigned!  The Bishop here in the Loreto Ward wants to have a 2nd set of missionaries assigned here so who knows if I will go back to my old area or end up staying here!  We have a meeting to talk to the Mission President about it tomorrow so maybe I will get some sort of idea but who knows.

As far as my Area goes, I had another baptism this past Saturday of Daniela.  It went over really well and as always; the spirit was really strong and the whole experience sort of made my entire week.  Maricela and Abbey are still progressing really well and they are still set to have their baptisms on the 14 of March which is 2 weeks.  As for new people to teach in my Area, we honestly have not had much time to find anybody since we have been spending a lot of time bouncing back and forth between the 2 areas.

So, I know everyone has been hearing about the Coronavirus back home, well we have been hearing a lot about it here as well. People in our Area are starting to sort of freak out about it because there have been confirmed cases in my mission and Area.  We have been told to watch out for ourselves, but we will have to see what happens with all of that.

So today for P-day, we actually got permission to go out and do something!  We went to the Christo Rey which is in our area and it was a great hike and it was a pretty good day to get out for a while.  The Statue is really big and it was really cool to go there today and no one else was there except for us.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week and stays healthy and safe!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Elder Fawcett and Daniella

Daniella and Ward Members

Hills we Hike

Elders Fawcett, Stacy and Aquirre

Lesson Elder Aquirre and I Taught

Slimming Down

Heading Up

Hike Begins

Cristus Rex

Almost There

I Represent the Savior!

Size Comparison

City From Cristo Rey

Week 82 - This Week Has Been Muy Loco!!!

Hola Everyone:

Well, this week has been muy loco!!  My Companion, Elder Van decided to go back home to Nebraska this week because he has been suffering with some issues with his stomach.  He has only been out on his mission for about six months so he decided that rather than stay and deal with it for 18 more months, he would go home and get it fixed and then go back out.

With my Comp being gone, I have been working super hard to keep everything moving along in good shape in my Area.  When he first left, which happened pretty fast, I was put with my Zone Leaders which live pretty far from my Area, so we were pretty much all over the city try to work both Areas at the same time.  Today, I was put in with two of the Elders in my District so they are closer to my Area, but it is still pretty hard trying to work two different Areas during the day.  The good thing is that I will only have to be in a threesome until March 9th at changes then I should go back to my Area with a new Companion.

So outside of all of the craziness this week, we were able to have the Baptism for Carlos.  He was really happy to be baptized and the day went really well.  He asked me to baptize him which was a really awesome experience for me. Daniella has also asked me to baptize her this coming week at her baptism, so that is something that I am really looking forward to.  Also, this past week, I met with Maricela and Abby and taught them a lesson and got them to commit to a date of March 14 for their baptism.

Honestly, it is great to be working in an Area where the work is progressing pretty well.  The members are really supportive and it really does make the days go by a lot better to have success after being in so many areas where the work has not been moving along so well!

Today, I got my Christmas package from the Willow Brook Ward as you can see in my pictures!  Thanks to everyone who wrote to me and I love the apron!  It took a little while to get here, but this week is my Birthday so I will just count it as my birthday present!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great week! I know it will be a busy one for me since we have to really run while working two areas at the same time!

Love

Elder Fawcett

My Apron from the Home Ward!

Scorpion I Found Cleaning the Apartment!

Also Found This Cleaning

Neighbor's Garbage

Elder Fawcett and Carlos

Elders Stacey, Agguire, Fawcett Bolanos and Carlos

Week 81 - It Is Getting Hot!!!

Hola Everyone:

This week has been pretty decent overall!  We have been working a lot with the investigators we have so it has gone by pretty fast. Carlos is scheduled for baptism this coming week so we have been working a lot with him to make sure that he is ready for his interview and everything this week.  We feel like he is pretty much ready to go and we are hoping that everything goes well and he can be baptized on Saturday.

As for Daniella, we taught her again this past week and it went really well.  She accepted a baptismal date for the 29th of February which is only 2 weeks away so we are going to be working a lot with her to make sure that she gets all of the lessons and is ready to go for next week on Saturday.

Two other people that we have been working with are Marcela y su hija Abby (Marcela and her daughter Abby).  Everything is also going really good with them and we plan on teaching them again and will be asking them to accept a date of 7 March for baptism.  That will be 3 weeks in a row and we are super happy about that so I am just hoping that everything goes well.

Other than teaching, we had our Stake Conference and Zone Conference this past week and both of those meetings were really good and we had good speakers at both of those.  It is nice to get together in meetings like those and see some of the other missionaries in the mission and catchup with old Comps. 

Well other than that, I don’t have much else to say other than it is starting to get really hot down here already.  I didn’t get a winter like all of you did, it seems like down here we skip over Winter and pretty much most of Spring and Fall!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Still Studying Everyday!!!

Our Ward Lunch Calendar

Week 80 - Pachuca Monumental Clock Tower

Hola Everyone:

This past week has really been a good one!  We are working really hard and it is honestly great to be back into an area where the people are more receptive and the Ward really helps us out.  We talked to a lot of people and had a lot of lessons but no real golden ones this week, but at least we a have been finding people to teach!

We did have a really good visit with Carlos this past week and he is continuing to do really well.  I don’t think I told you last week, but he was a referral from the Mexico City Temple Visitor’s Center so we have been talking to the Sister Missionaries from there a little bit about his progress.  He has been coming to Church frequently and is progressing pretty well.  We taught him about tithing this past week and he accepted that pretty well.  Also, we set up a baptismal date with him for 22 February so we are happy about that!  As for Daniella, we were not able to visit with her, but we are hoping to visit with her this coming week.  She is also progressing and we are hoping to get a Baptismal date set up with her soon.  We also have a few other people that we are teaching, but I will talk more about them next week after we visit with them a few more times!

On P-Day, we went to the Pachuca Monumental Clock Tower which is in our area and it was really cool to see.  The clock was built around 1910 to commemorate the Centennial of the Independence of Mexico.  The machinery inside the clock are identical to the ones that are inside of Big Ben in London.  The clock tower itself is about 140 feet tall and there was a person at the tower that gave us a really cool tour inside.  I was a little slow in turning on my camera video, but it gives you the general sound!

Anyway, this coming week is going to be a really busy one for us. We have Zone Meeting and Stake Conference so it should be really busy!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Elder Fawcett

                                                                         The Clock

Pachuca Monumental Clock Tower

Bells at the Top

Gears the Make it Work

Connects to 4 Sides

Winding and Adjustment

Walking Up

Going up Top

At the Top

Looking Down

View From the Top

Another Side

My Typical Breakfast

Panoramic View from the Top

Week 79 - My Companion's Birthday

Hola Everyone:

Well, this week has been a pretty good one!  I have been getting to know my new area and honestly it is good to be back into a “good” area again. People on the street sort of just blow us off as we try to talk to them, but the members of the Ward are more active in helping us to teach so that is really a good thing!  Honestly, it is a pretty good Ward and I am trying to get close to the members.  I am hoping that we can have some success here.

As for investigators, we are currently teaching two that are both member referrals.  The first one is Carlos whose Mom is a recent convert and he has already been to Church 3 times with her in the past.  This past week, we taught him the Law of Chastity and that went really well.  I think that this next Tuesday, we will probably try and put a date on him on.  Our other really good investigator is Daniella.  She is 12 years old and her Mother and Grandma are already members so we will also be working this week to try and get a date set up for her.

Other then that, honestly things here are just what I would consider normal.  It seems as a missionary that a lot of the days sometimes just run together over and over again.  Since I am now well into my sexy six, I have been trying to watch what I eat a lot more and I have been really cutting back on the “Real Sugar” Coke which is really hard.  Hopefully with doing that and walking the tons of miles we do every week; I can come home somewhat more in shape. Although I have lost most of my muscle and my suit sort of hangs on me now!

Well, I hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Elder Fawcett

                                                                         My Companion's Birthday!!

My New Area

Looking Over My New Area

Park by Our House

Night View From Apartment

The Other Side!

End of the Day

Sunsets Like at Home