Week 61 - Miracle at the ATM!!

Hola Everyone:

So, this past week has been really good! It has been good to have a new son to train and the bonus with Elder George is that I not only get to help him learn to be a missionary but also, I get to help him learn Spanish! Elder George is really hard working so I really think that we are going to work well together and he will be a great missionary!

This past week, we have been doing a lot of street contacting and things like that will put him in situations that will help him to learn faster. We have been having a few random lessons here and there but as always, contacting here has been really tough!

The highlight of this past week was having Demetrio get baptized this past Saturday. Demetrio is about 65 or 67 years old and was a referral from one of the members of the Ward, so his conversion went really smooth and he progressed fast. In the pictures, you will see that he was baptized by his friend in the Ward, Brother Moi. Which is really great because it helps to connect him better to the Ward so he is less likely to become inactive when we get transferred out in the future. Also, this past week, we continued to teach Nancy and her kids and they are still progressing really well! They have a baptismal date scheduled for 12 October.

A cool thing that happened this week was we contacted a guy named Juan and he was sort of interested in the Church. He told us that he had been to the United States to work in the past and had some contact with the missionaries then. He told us he didn’t’ have time right then, but to come back the next day and talk to him more about the Church. So on Sunday, which was the next day, we went back and got to know him better. While getting to know him, he told us about something that had happened to him the night before after we had left him. He said that Saturday night he was really hungry, but didn’t have any money and that his job only paid him on the 15th and 30th of every month. Saturday was the 28th and he really wanted something to eat so he decided to walk down to the Centro of Actopan to the ATM. While he was walking, he said a prayer in his head and asked the Lord if we were actually missionaries for the true Church and if we were, give him a sign so that he would listen to us. As he put his card into the ATM, he found that there was money in his account although he knew there should not have been. He knew it was a miracle and he cried as he told us the story! The spirit was super strong when he told us the story, so I am hoping that he progresses well with the lessons!

I love being a missionary and love changing the lives of his children that are ready!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Elder George and Elder Fawcett

Come Meet Your New Comp!!

Waiting for Assignments

Missionaries at the Bus Station!

Elder Fawcett, Demetrio, Bro. Moi, Elder George

Demetrio's Baptism and Ward Members

Week 60 - Sheep Tacos and Son #2!

Hola Everyone:

Sorry for not getting my letter out yesterday, I was at the Mission Office all day and didn’t have a chance to write so I am having to send this out Tuesday morning but I will explain a little more about that in a minute.

So, this past week was the last week of the changes and it went by really fast and was a really good week. On Tuesday, we had interviews with President Maldonado and my interview went really well and he is pleased with the work that I am doing. This is a pretty hard area to find new people to teach, but by working with the members, we are starting to have some success. Finding new people to teach on the streets is still going pretty slow, but the investigators that we have received as referrals are really progressing!

We had a great discussion with Demetrio this past week and he is ready to be baptized so we set a date for him actually this Saturday the 28th! He is really excited to become a member of the Church and so we will be working really hard with him this week to finish up the discussions and get him ready for his baptism. Nancy and her daughter are also continuing to progress really well and we are also working hard with them to get them ready for their baptismal date here in a few weeks.

So, with it being the end of the change, I actually got a surprising phone call on Sunday morning! President Maldonado asked me to once again train a new missionary straight out of the MTC. That means I will be staying here in Actopan for a while which I am really happy about! Sunday night, the Tony Family in our Ward had a little party for the missionaries and in particular for Elder Buttar’s who is leaving. We had some sheep tacos and cake which were really good!

So yesterday, I went to Pachuca in the morning and spent the entire day in various meetings with my new Companion. His name is Elder George from San Diego California. Yep, I got a Gringo straight out of the Mexico MTC. He is a great Elder and wants to work hard so we should really work well together. I don’t have any pictures of him but will get them for next week.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Member's Daughter Painting My Nails

Sheep Tacos

Party with the Tony Family

Elder Buttars Leaving!

Elder Spangler liked the Cake!

Bishop Garcia and Wife With Elders Maquin and Fawcett

Week 59 - Viva Mexico!!!

Hola Everyone:

Well this week has been really normal and we haven’t had anything too crazy happen. It has really been hot here like it normally is so hopefully all of you back home are starting to enjoy some cooler temperatures.  

This past week, we have been continuing to do a lot of contacting of inactive members with the active members and honestly there really has not been anything of interest happen to really report on.  This past week, the Bishops Dad did give us a referral that actually did come to Church.  His name is Demetrio and he is an older gentleman.  He seems to really like the Church and we were able to teach him the first lesson and things went really well with that so we are hoping that he starts to really progress.

Also this past Sunday, we had a Mom that we contacted, Nancy, come to Church with her daughter.  We taught both of them the 1st lesson as well.  They seemed really great and I felt like I needed to extend the offer of baptism to them which they accepted so we have a date for them on 12 Oct.

Yesterday was Noche Del Grito which was pretty cool and is basically the kickoff to their Independence Day from Spain.  They party in the streets and in the center of town and throw confetti filled eggs at each other.  It was really neat and then later in the evening, they all shouted Viva Mexico which just means long live Mexico.

Well, I still really love it here in Mexico and can’t believe how fast time is going.  It seems like P-Day comes around faster and faster each week.  I hope everyone has a great week.

Love

Elder Fawcett

Elder Fawcett and Elder Maquin

Independence Day

Party Tonight!

Party in the Center of Town

Love The Suit!

Viva Mexico

Our District

City Lights

Week 58 - The Good Shepard (Herder)!

Hola Everyone:

Well, this week has gone by pretty fast and has really been pretty good.  We are still working really hard trying to find people to teach and to reactivate people in the Ward.  We have asked the members of the Ward to try and find some of their friends and other people they know in the area that we could potentially teach the Gospel to, so we have just started to see some of the fruits of that effort.

On one of the days this past week, we went way out into the countryside with one of the members to a referral which turned out to be part of another area, so we also asked those missionaries to go with us.  The referral was an older couple who sort of seemed interested, but we had to end up giving them to the other missionaries.  But it was a fun chance to help teach them and play around a little bit on the little farm that they have.

Another referral we got was a woman that is about 40 years old and her name is Cuadalope.  She came to Church this past week, but honestly teaching her is pretty tough because she has an awful lot of questions that we spend a lot of time answering. But hopefully she will progress and we can get somewhere with her.  As for Erika and Leathi, things have not been going very well and honestly things are pretty much at a standstill, so I really don’t have any update on them this week.

Well as for investigators, that is really the highlight for the week!  On Tuesday, we had Zone Conference down in Pachuca and Elder Pino from the 70 came and talked to us about being good missionaries.  It was a really good Zone Conference and it was fun to get to catch up with some of the other Elders and Sisters in the mission. 

I hope everyone has a great week.

Love 

Elder Fawcett



                                                                         The Good Shepard or Herder!

A Day on the Farm

My Zone

Meeting Elder and Sister Pino

Zone Conference

Week 57 - Lunch with Members!

Hola Everyone:

Well, another week is already over and honestly it has pretty much just been another normal week.  We are still working hard trying to find new people to teach on the streets but honestly that is going pretty slow right now!

We are also still working a lot with the members of the Ward here to try and find the inactives and trying to bring them back to Church.  On one of the mornings this past week, we got up really early and went to early morning seminary (at 5:30 am) with one of the young men in the Ward.  His name is Luis and he stayed with us for the entire day and it was fun to go around all day and talk to him.

Last week, I told you about 2 young girls that we are working with that we found while finding less actives, well, things with Erika and Leathi went a little bit south this week with them!  What I didn’t tell you last week is that their parents are divorced and the Dad is really active but the Mom is less active!  The Mom and Dad had some issues this past week so it has been hard to keep in touch with the girls.  Their baptismal date has been pushed back and we are working really hard with the Dad to set things up but since they live with the Mom it is sort of hard!  The Bishop is really helping us so things should work out but it is really just difficult right now!

Also, this past week, we had Stake Conference and the Mission President and his family came up to attend the Conference.  After the meetings, he took all of the missionaries out for Taco’s which was cool.  Speaking of eating, I have included some of the pictures from our lunches we have had with the members this past week.  You can see in one of the pictures that yea, I somehow ended up with a chicken on my head!  Also, I included a picture of one of the huge bugs in this area, I am not sure what they are but they are honestly huge!

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.

Love

Elder Fawcett

Elder Maquin on the Street

Ice Cream after a Hard Day!

Lunch at a Members

Bug/Beetle on the Street

At a Member's House

Countryside

Stake Conference

Taco's With the President