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
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