Week 74 - Mural Palmitas

Hola Everyone and Feliz Año Nuevo:

This week has been pretty good and we have been working really hard but honestly, this area is a little dead right now.  We have been doing a lot on contacting but it is hard due to the time of year!  No one wants to be bothered by us and so we are doing our best to stay positive and keep working hard.  We don’t really have any contacts that are really progressing so that is a little hard!  

This past week, we got locked out of our house on the 24th, Christmas Eve.  We went and found a member of the Ward that has an apartment right next to ours and had them cut off the lock so we could get in.  It turned out to be a good thing for us because they invited us over for dinner that night and then had us over again on Christmas day for dinner again.

Aside from getting to go to dinner with our neighbor on Christmas, that day was pretty much just a normal working day for us!  We were able to call home for a bit but then we just went back to work.  Our Mission President is pretty strict and didn’t allow for any Zone Gift exchange parties like we had last year!  That was pretty hard but I guess it was alright.

So, a little bit about my new area, as I told you last week if you look for the painted housed in Pachuca, those hills are my area!  It is pretty cool but we do an awful lot of walking up and down the hills all day which I am really happy about since I am entering into my “sexy six” and all of the hill climbing is going to help me get back in shape!   This area is once again for me a pretty rough area to be in.  There tends to be a lot of bad things that happen here so the Sister Missionaries that have been put in here to help us have to be in their house by 8:00 every night and we have been told to watch out for ourselves pretty close!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Mural Palmitas

Hills I Walk All Day!!

Week 73 - Adios Sister Fagatoa

Hola Everyone and Feliz Navidad!

So, this week here in my new area has honestly been pretty hard.  We are opening this area back up again so we are doing a lot of contacting and trying to get to know the area more than anything.  It is a good area I think, but honestly the coolest thing about it for me is that we are located in the colored house.  I will get a picture of the hillside for next week to show you what I mean!

In opening up this area, we have been going through a lot of the old contact books from the past and have been following up on people that we have felt like we needed to contact again.  So far, we have found that most of them are away on vacation for the holiday so we have not had much luck yet, but we will keep trying to get in touch with them.  This is like the 5th time that both the Mission Presidents I have had, have asked me to either open up a new area or reopen an old one. So, I guess I am getting pretty good at it by now!

This past week, we had our Mission Christmas Party.  At the party, we had a devotional from the President that was really good and then we ate some tacos that were really pretty good.  After eating, we all performed skits that each of the zones had prepared which was really fun.  After the skits, we went outside and did some pinatas. They let the Sister missionaries and the younger missionaries break them this year since I broke one of them last year with the first swing!  So before leaving, they passed out gifts for all of us that the Stakes in the area had made for us and they also gave us each a new pair of socks.

The party was really fun, but the worst part was saying goodbye to Sister Fagatoa who will be going home in 2 weeks.  She was in my MTC group and has been a great friend throughout the mission.  Pretty weird to see her go home!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Christmas this year!!!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

Elder Simi and Elder Fawcett

Stairs to Home

Top of the City

Me and My Comp!

City by Day

My Comp, Elder Simi

My New Area At Night!

Our Christmas Dinner

My Comp and other Polynesians

Christmas Skits

Mission Bag

Saying Goodbye to Sister Fagatoa

My District in Actopan

City Center of Actopan

Christmas Tree in Actopan

Week 72 - Back to Pachuca

Hola Everyone:

Well, this past week has really been a long one you could say! We worked really hard and got a lot of things done, but it sure seemed like a long week! So, to start off today, I am no longer in Actopan. After being with my Kid for 2 cycles, it was time for me to go! I have been moved to an Area called Real De Minas in Pachuca. Yep, I am back in the city of Pachuca again, but in a different Area that has been closed down for a while! It seems like my whole mission; I have been either opening or reopening areas and this one is no exception. This area has a Ward, but has not had any missionaries in it for a while so we are starting with nothing once again. My new Comp is Elder Sime from California, but his parents are from Tonga so that is going to be really cool. He has been out in the field for almost a year now! Pretty weird now that I am one of the old guys in the mission!

So just like always, I left an area right as it was starting to pick up again! So, Diana who I talked about last week, came to church again and we taught her a few more lesson and she is progressing really well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and is asking a lot of good questions. She is still committed to being baptized on the 28th of December so I hope the President will let me attend that! This past week, we also had another investigator come to church, his name is David. We also taught him a few lessons and his second lesson went for over 2 hours because he had so many good questions to ask. He will also be getting baptized in the next few weeks.

When I learned that I was being changed, I spent yesterday telling my investigators and Ward member’s good bye that that was pretty hard because I have made quite a few friends here in Actopan. But I guess that is the life of a missionary.

Well, I guess I have to figure out this new area so that is about it for today. I wish everyone the best with Christmas next week! I love spending this time of year with the people of Mexico!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Elder Fawcett and Elder Sime

Week 71 - Light the World in Actopan!

Hola Everyone:

Well, this past week has been a little different than most! We spent a lot of the week contacting and teaching people which is pretty normal, but on Thursday our entire Zone came to Actopan and we had a Light the World Activity in the centro of Actopan which was really cool! We put together a bunch of milk, hot chocolate, chocolate tablets, candy, toys, clothes and bread. We then put together a little program where we sang and did different things and then we spent the rest of the afternoon giving out the food and toys to the kids of the city. The Mission President came up and was really pleased with what we were doing and overall, it was a great activity and introduced us to a lot of people in the city.

So, a little interesting story for the week, on either Friday or Saturday, we were out contacting and this drunk guy came up to us and started to talk to us about all sorts of stuff. He saw my planner in my shirt pocket and took it out and kissed the picture of Jesus on it and then did the same to my Companion. He then gave both of us a hug and then wandered down the street! A little weird but I guess just another day here in Actopan!

On Sunday, we were successful in having one of our investigators come to Church finally! Her name is Diana and her sister is a member and is going on a mission in a few months. The discussions with her are going pretty well and I put a baptismal date on her for the 28th of December so we are happy about getting someone to progress!

So, last week I told you that we had a multi-zone activity with the President where we played soccer and had carne asada which was really fun. So, this week I am sending home some pictures of that activity! I forgot my camera last week so you get extra pictures today!

Well, I hope everyone at home is doing great, as you can see by the pictures, we are still in short sleeve shirts here! Sorry to hear about all the foggy weather back home, but I do miss the colder temperatures!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Chill-in at the Multi-Zone Activity

Setting up for Carne Asada

Carne Asada

Sunset at the End of the Day!

Food for Light the World

Clothes we Gave Out

Elders Fawcett and Sime

Elders Fawcett and Wells

Toys We Gave Out

More Toys

More Stuff we Gave Out

We Hung Out All Day Long

Contacting in the Countryside

Beautiful Open Air

Week 70 - Bashing in the Park!

Hola Everyone:

Well this past week has been really HOT here in Actopan!  Pretty weird that at home it is cold and snowy and here it is still hot!  This past week, we have been working like crazy trying to contact new people in all sorts of different ways.  Sadly, the contacting in this area is not that great and honestly it seems like it doesn’t matter how much we work, we are still having a hard time.  We have made a lot of cita’s but most of them just seem to fall through.

So, something sort of interesting that happened this past week, Elder Bodegas and I were together with our comps and were just walking around the centro in the park when some people just came over and started to talk to us. They were telling us all about the Bible and how we were wrong because we believed in the Book of Mormon and of course they just started to throw out scripture versus from the Bible and stuff. Elder Bodegas and I did all the talking because our Comps are young and couldn’t understand everything.  I really don’t like bashing with people like that because it sort of pushes away the spirit but I showed them some quotes from the Bible and then read to them 2 Nefi 28 and they didn’t have any comeback so they just left!

As for our investigators, they are not really progressing because they will not come to Church so it honestly is just really a slow time for us right now!

Today, we traveled to Tepa for a multi zone activity with the President.  We BBQed Carne Asada and played soccer for a few hours.  I’ll send pictures next week since I forgot my camera today, but it was a really fun activity. I was grateful for my new knee brace that worked really well and I didn’t have any problems with it at all.

Well, I hope everyone has a great cold week, I honestly wish I had some of that cold air here!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Carne Asada