Week 13 - Drunks All Around!

Hola Everyone:

This week was busy, very busy. We had a lot of experiences with drunk people. It’s very hard to understand their Spanish when they are drunk.  They come up to us and say, “Jesus” a lot. We just say, “yeah, we represent Jesus Christ.” They will talk to me and my Comp and ask where I am from. I tell them Utah, but one guy insisted I was from Phoenix. So that was funny! The drunks also ask us for money a lot. So, we give them anywhere from 5-10 pesos. I gave one guy 5 pesos and he gave me this giant hug. He smelt heavily of beer and it was quite disgusting. Another guy kept yelling to me, “Gringo, Gringo, do you have any money?” I said, “All I have is 5 pesos.” He said, “okay, give it to me.” So, I did and he high fived me. We have found that giving them something is better than getting robbed because we have many opportunities to get robbed and so we just give them a little bit of money and they leave us alone. They ask us for help a lot of the time too. One had dropped some stuff he was carrying and asked us to help pick it up and we did.   We come in contact with the drunks quite a bit.

Here’s another update on our rat problem. We are still getting them. It had slowed down for about a week, but now they are back. And honestly, I don't know what to do. We’ve cleaned our house and have kept it clean but, we caught two today. They always come in from under the front door and we've done things to try to fix it, but they keep coming.  We don't have any food anywhere. It’s definitely something I'm going to highlight when I talk to the President. It’s starting to frustrate me a lot because no matter what we do, it keeps happening.  When we go and have exchanges with other people, they have food in their kitchens and house. They are lucky because they have cereal and stuff, but I sometimes feel like my Comp and I have to starve because we can’t have food in our house or it brings in more rats. When I get a new Companion here in the next month, he’s going to be sad to know that he can’t have any food here because the rats have moved in and are here to stay. I’m constantly washing my hands because if I touch something, I don’t know if one of the rats have been on it or not.  

As far as our investigators go, Alfredo and his uncle Noe are doing pretty good. They both come to Church a lot.  This week I had Elder Boldagas go on splits with me here in my Area and we taught both of them about Tithing, Fasting and Fast Offerings and they both accepted that pretty well.  They are great investigators and accept everything we are teaching them.  Also, this past week, Elder Castro and I taught a discussion to these two little girls named Daphne and Xochit. They are nine and eight years old and I have to say that teaching kids is even harder than teaching adults with my limited Spanish abilities right now.  Anyway, the discussion went well and both of them are scheduled for baptism on November 24^th.   

Today, we taught a woman named Josephena and she was really hard to teach and had a lot of questions for us.  I guess she is having a lot of problems in her family and her husband who has left her, so I guess things are a mess in her life.  Anyway, we taught her a discussion and have an appointment with her for the next discussion next week!

So, the pictures I am sending home today are of the inside of one of the Combes we use to get around the City and of my weekly planning journals that I keep.  Elder Castro gave me the one with me and Elder Williams on it and they make them by pasting a picture onto a cereal box, cutting it out and then punching holes in it and putting the binding in.  Anyway, I made myself one that I use to study Spanish and that is the one with Christ in the Boat from the Ensign.

Anyway, things are going pretty great, we have people to teach and we are doing a lot of service for people.  This week I got to cut a member’s grass with hand shears and although you may be getting cold back home, it is still hot as heck here! But we had a good time anyway.

Sorry I don’t have a lot of picture of my area. Tecamac is the roughest City of the Mission and my area “Montes” is by far the most dangerous area, so I don’t dare take my camera out because I don’t want any more reasons to get held up and robbed.  Other places in the Mission are a lot better so I will be able to get more pictures there!  But, I hope with Day of the Dead coming up I will be able to get a few pictures this week!  I Love being a missionary and sharing the Gospel every day!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Combe We Use Every Day

Empty Combe

Planner Elder Castro Made Me (Front)

Back

My Spanish Planner (Front)

Back

Week 12 - First Baptism!!!

Hola Everyone:

So, this past week wasn’t as interesting as the week before because we didn’t get to go to any really cool Mexican ruins but it was still a pretty interesting week.  To start off, as an update to our rat problem, yea I think that we still have them but honestly, we have stopped caring at this point.  We keep setting traps and catching more and more which is really getting old. But, we don’t think they are upstairs in our beds and we don’t have any food in the house at all anyway so we are just living with it.   My Companion doesn’t want to move somewhere else because he is going to probably get transferred in 6 weeks anyway.  Which by the way brings me to the point that today we are having changes which means that I have been in the field for 6 weeks now!  Anyway, my Companion is 99% sure he is going next time because our Mission President doesn’t like to leave people in any place longer than 3 transfers.  For me, that means I will be here until after Christmas!

So yesterday, the Latino Elders in my District decided to play a prank on Elder Williams.  For some reason they like to pick on us Americans but anyway, they told him that he was going to be transferred to Pachuca today so he spent a few hours packing his stuff up before they finally told him that they were just kidding!  Yea he was pretty mad and I would have been also but I am glad that he is staying here in the District with me for another transfer.

So, with my Companion feeling like he is going to be transferred, I am spending a lot of time trying to learn our Area and the Names of everyone which is really pretty hard because there is no logic in the way this place is laid out and my Spanish still is not the greatest and all the names sound the same to me but slowly I am getting it.

So, the first thing I want to tell you about this week happened on Tuesday or Wednesday while we were out tracting.  My Companion told me to choose the area where we would be going.  Now to tell you a little bit about the streets here, they are all dirt and it rains almost every night so when we walk around, we are usually walking in mud!  Anyway, I took him to this street where I thought we should start knocking on doors.  Now we have to be careful where we are allowed to knock doors because of the killings that are still going on, but knocking doors and street tracting is not very productive in this area anyways and on that day, we were not having any success.  But, as we were walking down the street, we saw this couple and we both thought that we needed to talk to them so I started talking to them and trying to introduce the Church to them but they quickly told us that they were not interested.  But instead of just moving on, I asked them if there was anything that we could do for them because as missionaries, we not only teach people but also like to do service for them.  Surprisingly the man said yes there was something we could do for him, he told us that he needed a prayer.  Now that was kind of strange but as we talked to him more, he told us that he wanted us to pray with him for his wife.  

After talking with them more, he told us that he wanted us to come to his house so we started following them home and the husband ran ahead, I think to clean up a little and so we walked with his wife.  Now she looked alright to me so we really wondered why he wanted us to pray for her.  As we got to their house and entered, she started to cough a lot and her husband asked us to pray for her.  We explained to him that wouldn’t do a lot, but we could give her a blessing.  He agreed after we explained what a blessing was.  Now as we put our hands on her head and began giving her a blessing, her whole body started to shake like she had Parkinson’s or something.  As we continued the prayer, she seemed to shake more and as we finished she threw up but stopped shaking!

Afterwards she said she felt a lot better and that as we were giving her the blessing she felt a warm feeling enter her body from the top of her head.  Her husband told us that they had seen several doctors and had taken a lot of medication but nothing had helped.  Their home also felt a ton better inside and they thanked us, but still were not interested in hear what we had to say.  The husband also told us as we were leaving that he had prayed that morning to find someone to help his wife!  Anyway, that was a really different experience!
      
Another cool experience this past week was that we had our first baptism for Manuel!  It was really cool seeing somebody get baptized that you introduced to The Book of Mormon.  He wasn't a hard investigator and was really receptive because he's been coming to Church for a couple of years.  I’m not sure why he never took the discussions from the missionaries before us, but he took the discussions from us. I can’t help but to think that maybe we were meant to teach him.  We had to go to the Church three hours early to turn on the boiler and make sure everything was ready and clean. We had the programs ready and went to put them on the chairs and then we remembered we couldn’t put them on the chairs because his wife is already a member and she didn't know that he has been taking lessons from us for like a month now. He wanted to surprise his wife!

She came in and sat down. She honestly just thought that it was just another baptism. So, no one said anything to her about who’s baptism it was. He excused himself and went to change into white and he came back and sat down. She slowly pieced it all together and she started to cry realizing it was her husband’s baptism. And to make it even more special, her father came in dressed in white also. He baptized his son in law. 

That's what we try to do as missionaries. We try to encourage those family moments. Manuel will get the Aaronic Priesthood in a month and then in a year they're going to get sealed. It’s nice to see that people turn their lives around. Manuel has been going to Church for years and his wife told us that he was never interested in taking the discussions from the missionaries. He just never never wanted to do it.  My branch has been open since February 2013 so it’s taken him this long.  His wife just said that there was something about Elder Castro and myself and that we must be pretty special!

So anyway, that was my week and it was pretty cool to have a baptism.  As far as other investigators go, we have a baptismal date scheduled for Alfredo and his father Noe for November 19.  Also, we are teaching a woman named Maria who we are probably going to challenge this week.

I Love being a missionary and all the great things I am experiencing!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Elders Williams, Fawcett and Bolanos

Members at the Baptism

Manuel and His Family

Elder Castro, Manuel, Elder Fawcett

Week 11 - Teotihuacan

Hola Everyone,

Its been quite a busy week. I’m extremely tired this week. So, I’ll just start off from where I left off! Last Monday we went to Teotihuacan and it was really cool there. Our whole District went as a District activity. Elder Williams and his companion, Elder Bolanos slept over the night before and I had to share my twin bed with an Elder who is 6’ 8. And that was an adventure I never want to do again! Then we got up really early like at six in the morning and we left our house about 6:30. We got on a Combes and we went to Teotihuacan, which is not very far from my area. When we got there, we met up with a member who works there as a tour guide and he showed us the significance of Teotihuacan and how it relates to the Book of Mormon.  It was really cool because Elder Bednar talked to us in the CCM and afterwards, he went up here to visit Teotihuacan. So, if that’s not something that shows you it’s a historical church site, then I don’t know what is!  Out of all of ruins in Mexico and he went to Teotihuacan!

So, while walking around, our guide explained a lot of stuff to us.  First off, he explained the significance of numbers and everything else that were on the pyramids.  On the temple of the stars, which is the smallest pyramid, there is a snake looking thing with feathers. Our guide told us that is supposed to represent Jesus Christ. It is kind of hard to understand but I guess people talk about seeing the “Good Snake” because if you remember Moses putting up his staff with a snake on it, it was a “Good Snake” because if they had faith and just looked at the snake they would be healed.  Most people think that snakes in the Bible only represent bad things like Satan but actually there are both good and bad snakes! I don’t really know why they referrer to him as a snake but, Jesus in this case is the representation of the snake that was on Moses’ staff. 

Now the other image that you see is a crocodile and that is weird, but let me explain that to you. Now a crocodile does two things when it leaves the water.  It goes out to eat or find food, a.k.a find the promised land and also have its seed or have its babies. The Crocodiles on the pyramids represent Lehi. Lehi left his home and went looking for the promised land or food like a crocodile and then he also had his seed with him and had more on the way to the promised land. So yeah, that’s how the Native Americans distinguish him. It’s actually in the Book of Mormon multiple times if you pay attention. If you look at the picture of when Christ came to the America’s, there’s a temple on the left side of the picture and you’ll see the crocodile symbol. It’s the same symbol that are on the temples. That is Lehi and then again it is found in the picture of Samuel the Laminate on the wall.  It’s the same symbols that are on the temples/pyramids that I took pictures of. So that’s cool. The other thing the tour guide showed us is how acoustic it was there. You can clap your hands and hear it echo off the walls and if someone stood in the middle and talked, everyone around could hear them. The last thing about Teotihuacan is the Sun Temple which was the biggest pyramid. Notice the stairs. The first set of stairs on both sides are across from each other, this represents premortal life. Then the next set of stairs are parallel and combine which represents mortal life. These stairs then split off into two separate stair cases which represents paradise and prison. Then the stairs combine into one stair case, which represents the straight and narrow path to exaltation. So that was cool and makes a lot of sense. That’s why I think Teotihuacan could be where Jesus Christ went when he visited the America’s or at least one of the places.  There are a lot of carvings that I think can be found in the Book of Mormon and the 3 temples (Sun, Moon and Stars), sounds a lot like the Celestial, Terrestrial and Telestial kingdoms. Finally, if you look at satellite pictures of Teotihuacan and the constellation Orion’s Belt, they are in the same shape as Orion’s Belt. The three stars. So yeah, that was Teotihuacan. 

I don’t have a lot to report on our investigators this week because I was on exchanges almost everyday this week. I went on exchanges with Elder Bolanos, Elder William's companion. I don’t know how they work exchanges everywhere else, but here you swap companions with another set of Elders, you work all day in that area and then sleep in the missionary’s bed you swapped with and they sleep in yours!  The next morning you wake up and go back to your own companion. I did that Tuesday with Elder Bolanos and we went and taught Gloria. I didn’t know that much about Gloria, but she was really interested in the Church. She had her YouTube pulled up so we showed her some Church videos on YouTube. And we did Hola with her. Hola is just basically pray, read and come to church. Basically, its kind of a transition lesson to the next lesson. We searched some scriptures and that was fun. But I guess Elder Williams and Elder Bolanos got a call later saying that Gloria’s husband no longer wants her taking the lessons which is really sad because I believe she was really ready for the Gospel. 

On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with our Zone leader, Elder Alasko. So, the same thing all over again. I went over to their house; his companion came here. I slept in his bed he slept in mine. When I was with him, we did a lot of contacting on the streets and we had a lot of people that were interested in what we had to say.  My contacting is getting better, that’s for sure.  We taught Lesson 2, which was really good and I actually was able to chime in with a few points which is sometimes really frustrating because I’m still learning Spanish and I don’t know what to say. But I did really good this time. So that was nice! Then we had an appointment with a member. Our days are really kinda fast because we are so busy. 

On Saturday, we had a few appointments but I spent a little bit of time practicing teaching the discussions to another Elder in our District.  Now I know that sounds kind of boring but for the last few days, we have not been allowed to do a lot of street contacting! For the past few days, there has been a problem going on with a couple that I guess are ex-military and they have been around our streets, like actually our streets and they have been taking people and cutting their limbs off, killing them and putting them in trash bags and throwing them on the street. Yep its creepy, but President Kimball has told us we are no longer able to contact houses during anytime of the day and we have to be off the streets by six o’clock until they are caught! 

As an update to our rat situation, we set aside all morning to clean our house. Its finally clean and we are going to keep it clean but if we keep getting rats, we are moving. We don’t want to do that because then we would have to pack everything up just to go somewhere else! 

Well, that was this week pretty much. We do have a baptism this week that I’m excited for with Manuel. It should go well. We’re excited to keep teaching and watch people prepare for baptism. We keep getting lots of references. We are working hard and its nice because when I got here we didn’t have any investigators but now things are starting to go pretty well. Thanks for all your prayers and support. I love being a missionary!

Love you all,

Elder Fawcett

                                                                             Status of the Rats in my Apartment!!!

Nacho Libre Wrestling Mask

First Package From Home

Member's Puppy

Teotihuacan

Week 10 - Trials While Understanding Spanish!

Hola Everyone:

So, a lot of new things have happened this week.  Beginning with the fact that we have almost fixed our Rat problem. But in the meantime, we are having to buy most of our food off of the street vendors.  I am ok with it though.  On one of the days this past week we got this sandwich called a “Coabana”.  It was massive and chucked full of things like ham, an egg, steak, cheese and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t know but it was soo good!  My stomach handled it pretty good and only hurt a little afterwards.  It basically handled it pretty much like the rest of the Mexican food I have been eating.

Also, this past week, I got my first hair cut from the street.  They are really expensive so we went to this weird salon place and this weird looking woman came out and started cutting my hair.  She started talking to Elder Castro and we realized pretty quickly that this woman was actually a man and he thought I was pretty good looking, yes, he was gay!  So sadly, my Spanish is getting better and I could understand him as he commented on “my eyes, my strong built chest and my shoulders.”  So that was a trial of my faith because the old part of me wanted to show him how strong my fist was and what it could do to his jaw and teeth.  However, I remembered that Christ wouldn’t do that so I just sat there while my hair was cut!

So now on a more Spiritual note, this week we had a lot of success with member referrals.  We have a Baptismal date for the 20th of this month with Manuel.  He has gone to our Church for a couple of years now but for some reason, no missionaries have ever talked with him.  So, we have started teaching him.  He is very ready for baptism.  The best experience I had with him was when we were teaching him Lesson 1.  I got to introduce him to the Book of Mormon through my broken Spanish and he was able to understand what I was saying.  He accepted the Book of Mormon from me and agreed to read it.

The other member referral Baptism date is with a man named Alfredo.  His is also very interested in the Church.  He accepted our invitation to be Baptized on Nov 10th.  He also got his father who is fairly older to start listening to us and now he is coming to Church also.

This week has just been interesting.  We spend a lot of time trying to talk to people on the street and this week I had a man come up to me with a cigarette in his mouth and I was able to have him leave me with tears in his eyes and a copy of the Book of Mormon in his hands.  We have had people come up to us and just need help and we are able to help them.  It is just amazing to be able to help people that need help!

So, this weekend as you know it was Conference.  I am sure that buzz at home is the new Church meeting schedule.  I know why they made this change!  I believe Church Leaders are trying to put more responsibility on the Family which they should.  Satan is attacking the Family with all he has.  I know people get sick of listening to that doctrine of Family.  Honestly why though?  Families are so important!  I can’t wait to have my own Family!  Through my Mission so far, the Lord has really made me a believer in how important my current and future family are to me.  As I am out here, it is hard to watch people forfeit the blessings of having a forever family for a moment of satisfaction.  General Conference really was amazing.  I am so happy I was able to watch it in English with Elder Williams.

Being a Missionary brings so many emotions.  It is hard not to miss your loved ones at home but through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I am able to focus on the work as well as being able to learn to speak Spanish.  I am so grateful for his hand in my life.  The people he has put in my life have made me realize what a blessed person I really am. I am so weak but through Christ, I can become strong and help the people here in Mexico

Love 

Elder Fawcett

My First Haircut Off the Street!

Coabana

Week 9 - I Had a Mice Week!!!

Hola Everyone,

So, this week went by pretty fast. I will do my best to remember everything that happened.  First thing last Monday, we went to Pachuca to President Kimball’s house. Once we got there, our whole Zone started to play whiffle ball. President Kimball was the pitcher and he got beaned a few times and got some pretty big bruises too. After playing, Hermana Kimball made us some hotdogs. They were very good and I ate like three. After that we went back to Tecamac to get back to work. 

This past week, we didn’t have any success in contacting. We contact at least 15 people a day and we leave our numbers on a pass along card, but no one ever calls us back. But don’t think we aren’t having success. We get a lot of referrals from members, so we try to focus on those referrals.

One of the great experiences that I had this week was with one of the referrals. We were at a member’s house and we had just got done eating. That’s when an older woman named Tonita walked in and sat down. She asked us who we were, so we introduced ourselves. We started talking with her and getting to know her. Then she started to cry. She told us about how her mom passed away about 2 months ago. Today, we are going to teach her about the Plan of Salvation. So, stay tuned…

Another pretty interesting experience that happened was when we were yet again at a member’s house. While we were eating, this door kept banging and banging. The family didn’t acknowledge it until after we were done eating. The mom would look at the door and then us. She told us that there is a bad spirit in their house and how when she would check on her daughter at night, she would be floating.  She then told us that whenever she would try to call us, the phone wouldn’t work. It would work for her to call other people, but not if she tried to call us. So, we all kneeled down and Elder Castro raised his hand and he prayed to cast the spirit out. After the prayer, the door stopped banging. I can testify that the Priesthood is the Power of God and it is the power to do anything.

This week we had interviews with President Kimball. He is a very spiritual man. I went in and told him a few things I was having a hard time with. He then asked me to read a few scriptures. After that he explained that he knows that the Lord has called me to be serving in the City of Tecamac at this time. That really hit me. I have been wondering why I am serving in this little town that no one has heard of. I haven’t found the exact reason yet, but I am however very sure that there is a reason I am here in Tecamac. The Lord needs me here.

I will now explain the title of this letter. We were in our kitchen one night and heard a noise. We then saw a mouse run from our kitchen to the outside by going out the bottom of the door. So, we went to the store and bought some traps. We have caught about 5 this week. So yeah. Our kitchen is full of tons of poop and no food. But hey, it’s all good.

Also, on Saturday we celebrated Elder Castro’s one year in the mission. We had some Little Caesar’s Pizza at the church with Elder Williams and Elder Bolanos. We ate a ton and Elder Castro burned a shirt. Also, my favorite food here are Conchas. They are like bread with sugar on top. They are the best!

In closing, I just want to say that I know the Lord is watching out for me. He is keeping me safe and is helping me with my Spanish.  I’m still not understanding a lot, but it is coming a little at a time. I love visiting the members. Sometimes I forget that I am an Elder and that people look up to me. It’s kind of weird, but very humbling. I feel that I am not strong enough yet with my Spanish to help the members and the investigators much but, through the Lord weak things can be made strong. I love being a missionary! And I love you all!

Elder Fawcett 

Interviews with President

P-Day at President's House

President Kimball Took a Few Hits

Our Zone

Elder Castro’s One Year Shirt Burning

Mexican Conchas

Tie From My Trainer

We Gave Each Other a Tie

2 Friends We Caught

Another One But I Don't Think it is a Mouse!