Week 34 - Early April Fools!

Hola Everyone:

So sorry about this letter being really pretty short, honestly there has really not been a lot going on this past week to report about.  It is getting towards the end of the cycle and although we are working really hard and contacting a ton of people, it is just really hard to get anyone to commit to anything or much less get them to come to church!

So last week, I was really hopeful about the less active families we found and had hoped that they would have come to church.  The Luna family had the daughter that we were going to teach so we don’t know what went on with them, but we have an appointment with the Luna family tonight so I guess we will go over there and find out.

Probably the most interesting thing that happened this past week was that we went to see Sister Fagatoa in the hospital yesterday.  If you remember, Sister Fagatoa is from my MTC group. She had like a bubble in her intestines and it got really big and almost popped. If she wouldn’t have gone to the hospital, she would be in more serious shape than what she is and needing surgery. 

So, in closing, I guess I will explain my first picture!  So yea I thought it would be pretty funny to send that home next week for April Fools day and make up a bunch of stuff as to why I was in the hospital, but then I decided that might not be such a good idea for my parents so yea, I sent it this week instead!

Anyway, I love being here in Mexico although some times the work is pretty slow and hard!  I know this is where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing right now.

Love 

Elder Fawcett

I Thought This Might Have Been a Good April Fools Picture!
Then I Thought About It a Little More!!

Sister Fagatoa After Surgery

Week 33 - Changes in the Mission

Hola Everyone,

It’s hard to believe it’s P-day once again. For our Zone activity today, we went one last time to Teotihuacan. We were able to get some fun souvenirs that we haven’t seen anywhere else like a jaguar whistle, a chess set and a poncho. You’d think that they would have souvenirs everywhere, but they don’t. Just in the tourist places. We took the Book of Mormon tour again which explains the history and the descendants of the Lamanites.  It’s a fun place to visit. We will miss not having it in our mission anymore.

With that being said, I’ll explain. So, to give you all a little bit of background of why Teotihuacan won’t be in my mission any more. We had Zone Conference this past week and lots of changes were announced. The Mexico Pachuca mission has nine stakes in it. It usually includes part of the state of Pueblo, part of the state of Mexico and most of Hidalgo which is mostly Pachuca. The Church has decided that it is going to cut out Tecamac which is in the state of Mexico and the first area that I served in here.  It includes Montes, Jardines and Teotihuacan. They will now be in the Mexico East Mission. They will be taking out all the missionaries from the Pachuca Mission out of those areas. That change will be happening at the end of the month. The missionaries that are there now will be showing the missionaries from the Mexico East Mission around the area on Saturday. The last day for them down there is Sunday. They are going to have one giant baptism for all their investigators that they have been teaching. So far there are going to be 35 people who will be baptized.  We are expecting about 32 missionaries to come to Pachuca next transfer and so we will be opening new areas. So, basically the big news was that Teotihuacan was being cut out of our mission.

As far as other changes, there were a few to P-day rules. We can now go to the computers anytime on P-days. There is no longer a time limit on writing, but we need to be out working by six.

Also, this past week, we were contacting and we found some inactive families.  One of them is the Hernandez Family. They are a family of five and they are older. They went inactive because they didn’t know where the Church was. So, we told them where the Church was and invited them to come, but they didn’t come yesterday.  We are sad about that. We are going to visit them and see what we can do to reactive them. The other family is the Luna Family. They have a daughter who is 12 who has not yet been baptized. We are hoping to activate them so that the daughter can be baptized. They did come to Church and we have appointments set up with them. We are going to work with them and do what we can to help them.

Elder Bodegas and I have been working hard and President Kimball is happy with us and the progress we are making.  The area we are in has historically been a really hard area and in the short time we have been here, we have already seen 3 baptisms and all 3 of them are doing great.  Francisco is attending the other Ward and he is doing great and Teresa and Jorge come to church every week and are also doing great.

  

Well, it is getting even hotter here but I am doing great and I love being a missionary!  I am learning so much and I appreciate the time I have to serve the Lord!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Zone Conference

Elders Bodegas and Fawcett

Teaching

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Learning!!

Oxen Pull Activity

Top of My Area

City Below

Roof Tops

Long Walk Up

P-Day Activity

Parking Lot

Picture of Teotihuacan

Our Guide

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My District

Wouldn't Be Surprised if He Wore it Home!

Week 32 - Translating for the Doctors!

Hola Everyone:

So, what a cool week it has been and I can’t believe that I have already been in Mexico for almost 8 months now!  Today we were supposed to have a Zone Activity and go and see the huge Christus Statue in our mission, but we had to postpone it because we spent the day translating again for some Eye Doctors that have been here for most of the week.  They are from Indiana and they all belong to the Lion’s Club there.  So, for the entire year, they collect used glasses from people that don’t want them anymore and then have the convicts in the various jails around them use special equipment to figure out what prescriptions each of the glasses are.  They then come down here to Mexico for a week and perform free eye exams for people before giving them a pair of glasses to wear.  Everything is really bright here and there are a lot of people with bad eye sight that cannot afford glasses so that is how they get them.  

This past week, we spent most of Tuesday and Thursday as well as today translating for the doctors!  They all couldn’t believe that I have only been studying Spanish for just over 7 months and how easy it was for me to translate whatever they needed me to into Spanish!  Learning Spanish has been pretty tough, but I am happy that the Lord has blessed me as I have and continue to study every day.  At this point I am pretty comfortable speaking to people about most anything and I am happy that I was able to use my Spanish ability to not only teach the Gospel, but also to assist the Doctors to help the people.

The other big thing that happened this week was that we had the baptism for Francisco on Saturday and it was a really spiritual baptism, probably the most spiritual baptism I have had on my mission!  The Bishop was even crying and it was just a really great experience.  Francisco is going to be a great member of the church.

So outside of the Baptism and translating, we spent the rest of our time contacting. Honestly, it is sort of getting frustrating because we contact people, teach them a lesson and invite them to church and they never come.  We have taught a lot of lessons but it is really hard to get any of them to come to church!

It is really Hot in Mexico now!  I hear you all had snow this past week and honestly, I kind of miss that right now!  In my pictures for this week, I took some of the mountains because that is one thing that I really miss back home is seeing and being in the mountains!  But Mexico is Great and I wouldn’t trade being here for anything.  I love being a missionary here in Mexico and I Love the People of Mexico!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Translating for the Doctors

Checking People In

Elder Fawcett, Francisco, Ward Member, Elder Bodegas

Francisco with Ward Members and Friends

Mountains of Pachuca

Week 31 - Elder Fawcett and Elder Fausett!

Hola Everyone:

Wow, it is already the starting of another week!  So, this past week was the first week of the new Change and we have a lot of new young missionaries in our District.  One of the older Elders that is new to my District is the other Elder Fausett which is pretty cool and I have a picture with him.  So, for most of the week, we have been doing a lot of contacting and fortunately, we have also found a lot of new investigators to teach!

Karla is one lady we found and she has a pretty hard life right now.  Her Mom is dying with stage 4 ovarian cancer.  We were right in the middle of teaching her about the Plan of Salvation when she got a call and had to go and see her Mom in the hospital.  We have another appointment with her this week and she seems really interested!  

Some of the other people we are teaching includes the Rangel family that we have had a few lessons with and they are really cool.  They are not married which is sort of a problem and they have a daughter and they have some word of wisdom issues.  We are working with them to start coming to church with us and this next week.  We have taught them the first 2 discussions and have another appointment with them on Friday.  We have also been teaching Nie who lives in our neighborhood.  We have taught her 3 lessons and are not going to teach her anymore until she comes to church with us. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed that she will come this week so we can continue teaching her.

Teresa and Jorge are continuing to come to church every week and they are really doing great.  Honestly, they are probably the best converts I have had and are really super strong members.  Francisco, I think is also going to be a great member of the Church and he is scheduled to be baptized this coming week.  If you remember, he is the investigator that we have been teaching that is in another Ward’s boundaries but doesn’t feel welcome over there so we have been teaching him.  So, we are going to baptize him into the Pravi Ward which is the Ward where he lives, but he can figure out which Ward he wants to attend after that!  In teaching Francisco, it has really been a miracle because he has smoked for like 40 years, but has just been able to give it up completely!

This week I got to go on inner cameos with my MTC buddy Elder Williams and he is honestly having a pretty hard time right now.  He has been pretty sick and had to go to the hospital for 3 days.  He had been throwing up blood and they found that he had 2 huge ulcers in his stomach.  As missionaries, they give us these little cards to flash at the hospital if we have to go there and they treat us like rich people which is pretty good!  So, we contacted for a little while and then went and had lunch.  He threw up afterwards but all I saw was food so I think his ulcers have scabbed over but I took him back to our apartment to lay down for a while anyway.  He has to really watch what he eats and wants for everything to just get better because they have a rule in our mission that if you are in the hospital for more than 6 days in a single month, they will send you home and he doesn’t want that to happen!

So, to end with this week, I got a phone call from the Mission Office this afternoon while my Comp and I were taking a little break from the heat. I guess there are a bunch of American’s coming to the Area next week for a meeting or conference of some sort and they have asked us to come over and help translate for them.  I haven’t used my Spanish like that yet so that should be a pretty different experience!  Anyway, it is really getting hot here, but I still really love being here and serving the people of Mexico.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett 

Sunset After an Appointment!

Lunch with the Feliz Family

Elder Fausett and Elder Fawcett

My Money for the Month!