Week 39 - Just a Short Letter!

 Hola Everyone,

So, this week has been really busy and super hard! We’ve been contacting a lot and really focusing on investigators.  I went on a lot of interchanges. The first one I went on was on Tuesday with Elder Miller who is our Zone Leader. We got a lot of contacts and meet a few interesting people. 

On Wednesday, we had a Zone meeting and were able to talk with the Stake President about implementing a new Stake Mission plan because the Wards are really shrinking here in Tulancingo and we have decided that we need to do something to strengthen them. 

To give you an update on our investigators. We talked to the Olvera Family all week and they were doing good. They said they were going to come to Church on Sunday, but they didn’t make it. We even went to their house before Church, but they weren’t there. We are going to try again this week.  We have been working hard with Clemente and Chucho. They are the grandfather and grandson we have been working with. He didn’t come to Church on Sunday because he was sick. But we had a Choir activity that he came with us to. So that was good. It’s just hard because his wife is Catholic and so he’s scared to join the church because of that.
  
Sorry for the short letter this week. We have just been super busy, so I haven’t had too much time. I love being a missionary and serving the people of Mexico! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

Elder Perez and Elder Fawcett

Stake Choir Activity

Week 38 - Taking Investigators to the Temple

Hola Everyone,

Well, it’s been another week here in Tulancingo. It was a pretty good week. We’ve been busy opening the area and contacting like crazy. We’ve been working hard with the Olvera family, but it’s been difficult. They don’t come to church, but we invited them to go to the temple on Saturday because our ward was going. But they didn’t come because they couldn’t. So, it’s been hard. We are going to visit them tonight and hopefully we will have some success.

We also have an investigator named Clemente. He is really cool! He’s been investigating the church for like five months. His wife is super Catholic, so it’s been hard. He would like to get baptized, but his wife doesn’t support it.  He has a 16-year-old grandson named Jose who would like to get baptized too. He’s a happy kid. We invited them to go to the temple on Saturday also. They came and we went to the Visitor’s Center and the Sister Missionaries talked with them. We walked around and looked at the stores. It was pretty busy so we got done with the tour pretty fast.  We also went to a free Zoo that’s across the street from the temple. We couldn’t really do much since our Ward was still in the temple.

Also, this week, we had Zone Conference. Nothing new to report. President Kimball just wants us to keep working hard. If we can meet our goals, then at the next Zone Conference we will be divide into two groups and meeting at a church that’s by the Temple and we’ll do a session at the Temple together.

So, that was pretty much this week. We are working hard and trying to contact as many people as we can. I love being a missionary and I love the people of Mexico!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

My New Area

El Santo

Clemente Family at Temple

Mexico City Temple

Parots at the Zoo

Gotta Love the Snakes!

Lizzard/Salamander, Whatever!

Zone Conference

New House, Laundary

Study Area

Bunk Beds

Pretty Good Bathroom

Week 37 - 3 Elders and 2 Bikes

Hola Everyone!

It’s been a week in Tulancingo. So, I’ll just start off by saying that I am in a trio right now. There’s me, Elder Perez and Elder Pantoa. Elder Pantoa is going home. He’s leaving us today to go stay with the Assistants because he’s going home tomorrow. It’s been pretty interesting, but a good trio. And Elder Wells is in my District so that’s pretty cool!

Tulancingo is a kind of a pretty place and kind of not. An interesting fact about Tulancingo is that I don’t know if you all have seen the movie Coco, but in the movie when they are in the Land of the Dead and they are trying to get into the party of the super famous singer. And there’s a bouncer outside and a wrestler with a silver shiny mask walks up and they say,” Oh my goodness, you’re Santo!” So that wrestler is a real guy and a really good wrestler. He was actually born here in Tulancingo and his name is El Santo and they have a famous restaurant for him. 

I also learned that we do have bikes in this area. I just didn’t see them because they were getting fixed. Well, we were actually riding them one day and getting contacts and I stopped and contacted this guy who was about 30 years old. I asked him if I could give him one of our contact cards and asked if we could contact him. He stepped back and looked at our bikes. He asked us if we liked our bikes. We told that we did and then all of a sudden, he started going through his jacket and all his pockets. You could tell he was looking for something. He then asked us if we planned on selling them anytime soon. Like you could tell that he was thinking about robbing me and couldn’t find what he needed to do so. He then started looking on the ground to see what he could find and that’s when we told him to have a good day and took off!

With there only being two bikes between the three of us, Elder Perez rides his bike alone and carries my backpack. While, Elder Pantoa rides on the pegs on the back of my bike. Interesting, but fun. One of our short journey’s is shown below!

So, another story. We were contacting on Wednesday and we found this lady who asked if we could maybe help her daughter. We went in to the house to see this girl that was about 18 and she was super super skinny. She is suffering from some type of disease. I’m not sure if it has to do with her brain because its hard for her to move and even talk. We gave her a blessing and then made an appointment to come back to teach a lesson. When we went back, we talked to the girl’s mother for a while and the girl was still kind of out of it. But then all of a sudden, she came to and kept telling her mom she wanted us to leave. But we continued to visit with the mother and she woke up even more and started getting really upset and screaming that she wanted us to leave now. She most definitely did not want us there which we thought was very interesting. We haven’t gone back to visit them yet, but we plan on it this week. 

Also, Elder Pantoa and Elder Perez got here to Tulancingo about two weeks before I did. It’s because they were in Tecamac when they closed it and so they opened this area. So, they found this investigator whose wife is Catholic. Their son died like two months ago on Wednesday. And so, the family invited us to listen to this Catholic celebration and eat some food and then wanted us to share something. We listened to a lot of prayers, one for every bead on the necklace. Then we were able to share somethings with them about our church, so that was pretty cool. 

On Saturday, we went to teach a lesson to some investigators, the Olvera family, but they didn’t have much time. So, we ended up playing a game with them because that’s what they wanted to do. We played Scrabble. Well, those of you that play Scrabble know that it’s hard to play in English let alone Spanish.  But interesting enough, I won!

Today for P-day, we went for a hike in the mountains as a District and it was really good to be in the mountains again and it was really pretty.  There was a really cool bridge we had to cross and a lot of really neat waterfalls.  This area seems to be really cool and I am excited about being able to help open up another new area.  I love the people here in Mexico and I love being a missionary!

Love

Elder Fawcett

                                               3 Elders 2 Bikes!!! (Little Long But the Dogs are the Best)

Lunch With Member

Lunch We Bought

Outskirts of Tulancingo

Elder Chavez and Elder Fawcett

The Mission!

Homes

More Homes

Looking Good!!!

The 3 Some!

Cool Bridge

Long Way Down!

Long Way Up!

Misc Pictures

On the Edge

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Week 36 - Death of Hermana Manley

Hola Everyone:

So, this week went by super-fast and honestly it was sort of boring!  But the first thing I want to say is that I got transferred today and so did my Companion Elder Bodegas.  Yeah, we were able to get 3 baptism’s in this area, but President Kimball decided to close it again from having missionaries.

Before I tell you about transfers, I will tell you how the rest of the week went!  So, on Tuesday, I went on interchanges with Elder Thorpe and worked in his area for the day.  It was pretty fun and we were able to contact a bunch of people.  On Wednesday, we had our last District Meeting and we celebrated the “death” of Hermana Manley as she went home this transfer.  We made the meeting like a funeral which was pretty cool.  On Thursday, I went in interchanges with Elder Fausett.  We worked in my area for the day and had a pretty great time and worked hard.

On Friday, we got a phone call from the Assistants telling us that the decision had been made to close our area and that both of us were getting transferred out!  So, we both started packing up everything in the house.  In addition to packing everything up in the house, we also had to clean up everything since we were closing down this area.

On Saturday, we went to the Church to watch General Conference and for all the English speakers, they put us in a little room where we could watch it in English.  Conference was really good, but honestly, I was surprised that there were no big changes this time.  We had all heard they were making changes to the missionary program, but I guess not this time.

So now for transfers. I have been transferred to Tulancingo and my new Companion is Elder Perez who is from Lima Peru.  Honestly, it was pretty hard to say goodbye to Elder Bodegas. We have become great friends and he is the best comp I have had!  Anyway, this morning I got on the bus and traveled East to Tulancingo which is about 50 Km east of Pachuca.  After I got to Tulancingo, I waited a little while for my new companion and member to pick me up in their car and off we went to my new home.  I will tell you more about the area and my new home next week.

I love being a missionary and serving the people of Mexico!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Our Last District Meeting

Funeral Ceremony!

Goodbye Hermana Manley!

Our Hermana's!

Watching General Conference

The English Speakers!

Week 35 - Contacted Over 100 People!

Hola Everyone,

It’s been another great week here in Mexico. For P-day today we went and played soccer. That was fun. We also went bowling and to McDonald’s. Which is always good. So, it’s been a pretty laid-back P-day, but it’s been fun.

So, this past week went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders because my companion is a District Leader. I went with Elder Cassette. That’s really his name, like a cassette player. He’s a nice guy and is 17 months into the mission. We were out contacting and contacted someone who wanted to fight us with scriptures. He said he had read the Book of Mormon and took out his Bible and wanted to start proving us wrong. Elder Cassette is most definitely on the nicer side. As for me, Elder Castro taught me when I first got into the field to defend. So, we studied a lot back then and I continue to study now so that I can be on the offense and the defense when it happens. Because here in Mexico it is quite common to go up against people with scriptures. If you don’t know the Bible, they can and will destroy you with scriptures.

We are still struggling with our investigators. None of them seem to want to come to Church. So, we’ve been working hard on that. We teach lessons a lot during the week, but when we invite them to Church, they say they will come and then they don’t show up. We are struggling to find progressing people. The goal for the mission is contact 10 people per person, so 20 contacts a day per companionship. We have talked to over a hundred people this week. I think that some areas just tend to go through tough times like this sometimes.

We are looking forward to General Conference and hearing any new announcements. We all know that there will be some. There are rumors down here about changes to the Missionary Program, so we are all curious as to whether those are true or not. It will be fun and interesting to here.

Next week are transfers. My Companion and I are pretty happy together, but we know we will probably be changed even though we don’t want to be. It will be interesting to see who goes where and who stays.

Well, that’s all for now. I love being a missionary and serving the people of Mexico! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

Puebla Rico Families Daughter (Investigators)

Lunch At A Members House

Parrot Outside of a Store

On the Street