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

Week 56 - Finding Lost Sheep

Hola Everyone: 

This past week was really pretty good.  As I mentioned when I got here, the Bishop has asked that we really focus our time and attention on finding members in this area that have gone inactive.  To let you know how bad it is, there are over 800 people on the records as being members of the Ward and less than 200 are coming every week since I have been here.  I guess it makes a lot of sense, work on finding the Lost Sheep rather than finding new ones to bring into the fold!

Last week while contacting, we did find one new investigator that we are teaching now, his name is Paulo and honestly, he has a lot of questions.  We taught him the 1^st lesson this past week and it took quite a long time to get through the lesson which is alright! He is doing really good, so we will have to see how that goes with him. We have another lesson schedule with him this week. I hope he will really start to progress!

Also, this week while we were out with the Ward members finding the less actives in the area, we found a family that had just stopped going to Church, but wanted to come back.  They have 2 young girls named Erika and Leathi, ages 10 and 11 who are not Baptized, but would like to be so we are working with them and have a date set up with them for Sept 8^th.  We are also hoping that we can get their Dad ready since he already holds the Priesthood, so that he can perform the baptism for his girls.

Other then that, it has really just been a normal week.  This area is really pretty and it is nice to sort of be out of the city for a change!  So, something that also happened this past week.  I was playing with some members and twisted and felt a sharp pain in my knee!  No, not the one I had 2 surgeries on, the other one.  Well, it really didn’t swell up like I thought it would, but it still hurts a little so I guess I will have to take it a little easy to let it heal up.

I love being here in Mexico, the people are great!  I hope everyone has a great week.

Love

Elder Fawcett

Pachuca Soccer Jersey

District Class

Street Market

Catholic Church in Town

The Bulls!!

Around Town

Mountains

Houses are Spaced Out

Week 55 - Stolen Bike!!!

Hola Everyone:  

So, this week has been pretty good!  After first getting here last Monday, the Bishop took us to our apartment and helped us to get moved in a little bit and then he had a meeting with my Companion and I.  He told us that he had assigned members of the Ward to go out with us everyday so that we could get to know the area a little quicker and so we could meet some of the less actives.  Honestly, that has been going pretty well and we have met a few “magic investigators” that way.  A magic investigator is being a person that is not a member of the Church, but is a member of a family that is a less active family.  We have had pretty good luck so far in meeting with less active members and getting them interested in the church again.

In talking to the Bishop, he really wants us to work on reactivating people of the church more than anything in getting this area going again!  There are a lot of inactive members so that is probably what we are going to be spending a lot of our time doing with the Bishop and other active members.

So, something that happened that wasn’t so cool this week was that we were at the Church on Friday studying and as usual, we left our bikes outside which is normally not a big deal since there is a fence around the Church.  When we went out to leave, we found that one of the bikes had been stolen so that means we have to walk until we can find the other bike which we are pretty sure we will find sometime!

Probably the coolest thing from this week was that my Mission President gave my comp and I permission to go back to my old area on Saturday for the baptism of Sergio and Jose!  In the pictures, Sergio is the Father, but it was really cool to get to go back and baptize him after working with him for so long!

 I mentioned last week that my new city of Actopan is a little smaller and we are assigned to work the outskirts of it for the most part which is pretty cool and different from my past areas.  I told you that my new Companion is Elder Maquin from Guatemala, but I don’t remember if I told you that he speaks Mayan! I actually speak better Spanish than him, but I am also picking up some of the Mayan language from him!  Today I spent the day with the AP’s because my Comp had to go to Immigration so that was pretty fun!

I hope everyone has a great week; I love being here in Mexico!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

City of Actopan!

Cool Catholic Church We Will Visit Later

Gotta Love Nacho Libre Corn!

Covered in Mayo and Chili Powder

Elders Solorzano and Fawcett at Serio and Jose's  Baptism

Some of the Family

Sergio's Family

Sergio and Elder Fawcett

Our Area

This Area is a Little Greener!

Lot more Open!

Member's Dog at Lunch

Week 54 - A Really Hard Week!

Hola Everyone:

So honestly, this week wasn’t the best! We were supposed to have a baptism for the Sergio Family, but there were some problems that I won’t go into. So, the date had to be moved to next week. The family was really sad and I was also! They had really been looking forward to the day, but Satan is always there putting obstacles in people’s way so they will have to wait another week.

As for other investigators, we have been working really hard finding people to teach.  We had another lesson with Erika and her daughter and we taught them about the Plan of Salvation.  Erika got really sad during the lesson as I was explaining about spirit prison.  She told us about how her Dad wasn’t a member of the church so she was sad, but then I explained to her about the work that we do in the Temples and what we can do for those who have died without hearing about the Gospel in this life.  She got really happy for that.  The lessons are going really well with them and they should be getting baptized in the next few weeks.

So, I have only been with my kid for 7 weeks, but last night I learned that I was getting transferred today.  Honestly, it was quite a shock since I have only been here for one cycle but the President indicated that he needed me to go and open up another new area.  Honestly, with the success that we are having in this area, that is really hard for me. I have opened up many areas while I’ve been on my mission and I guess I’m pretty good at it and so that’s why they keep having me do it.  

My new area is the City of Actopan which is about 1 hour north of Pachuca.  My new companion is Elder Maquin. He is from Guatemala, speaks Mayan and is just coming to the Area today also. He has been out less than a year and as the senior companion, the President wants me to help him out. I am looking forward to getting to know him and my new area.  I don’t know much about the area yet but it seems to be more of a farming area and the Bishop met us at the Bus Stop as we got here to take us to our house so I guess that is a good sign!

Well, being pulled out of an area after getting it finally established has really been hard on me today, on top of that, I saw my trainer, Elder Castro, at the Bus Stop in Pachuca as I was leaving. He is done with his mission and is headed home tomorrow.  So, all of that has me a little down today but I am hoping that things are only going to get better from here!

I love being a missionary and growing through hard experiences!

Love 

Elder Fawcett 

Members Helped Me with a Coin Collection

Sort of Like the Quarters Back Home

Goodbye Elder Castro!!!

Week 53 - Hump Day!!!

Hola Everyone!

So, this week was pretty good and we worked pretty hard.  Probably just like back at home, it is pretty hot here in Mexico!  This week once again, we did a lot of contacting, met a lot of people and had quite a few discussions. The problem continues to be to find people who are really interested in the Gospel and want to know more than just one discussion.

So probably the highlight of this past week was that it was my Hump Day in the mission.  Really hard to believe that I have actually been away from home for 1 whole year!  As is tradition, I got to burn one of my shirts.  Everyone in my District has been really busy this week so one night this past week me and my kid, Elder Solorzano, celebrated my 1-year anniversary.

So, my Companion and I are starting to work pretty good together but one of the other missionaries in our Ward has been having problems with his knee so that has also been sort of a problem for us.  Elder Warren has been having knee problems which I can sort of relate to from my past and the President wants him to take it easy so we have been doing splits with his Companion so that they can keep their investigators progressing.  It is nice to help but it takes time away from our own work!

As for our investigators, the Sergio family is still doing great and they are scheduled for baptism this Saturday and hopefully there will not be any problems and that will happen.  In addition to them, we have started teaching a Women named Erika who is the wife of one of our members and their daughter.  They really seem to like the church and the lessons are going really well with them so hopefully we will be able to put a date on them soon!

Well, that is pretty much all that happened of interest this week, today we had a BBQ as a District since next week is the end of the cycle.  The Sisters keep wanting us to use the black mask stuff on our faces to clean them up so that is what is on my face in the pictures today.  

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love 

Elder Fawcett  

                                                                              Elder Fawcett's Hump Day

12 Months in the Mission Field

Serving the People of Pachuca

One Year Down

BBQ Today as a District

Elders in my District

One of the Sisters

Getting Ready for the Week

Setting Up Appointments Nice Face Mask!