Week 17 - Lighting Up the Temple

Hola Everyone:

So, wow, what a week! On Sunday, we were given permission from our Mission President to go to the Mexico City Temple with our Ward Members for the turning on of the Temple Christmas lights. There was like tons of people there from all over.  We were given permission to go although it is outside our Mission because we are so close.  We literally took an Uber 30 minutes to get there!  There were a ton of missionaries from the other mission there but it was just our District from the Pachuca Mission.  It was also really cool because I got to see one of my Sister MTC teachers.  It was kinda cool to see her with Elder Williams, you know, because the last we saw her we couldn’t really speak Spanish and she was like crying because we can now talk to her!  Also, I took a picture with an Elder named Elder Plumber and he was a Senior when I was a Junior at Davis High and we played together on the Football team.

Other than that, this week was pretty freaking crazy, honestly, you know, some weeks are just like that in the mission and not every week is fun but this past week we were able to have some pretty good success! Tuesday, I went on exchanges with my Zone Leader and he was really happy with how I am progressing and how well I know the area.  Exchanges are great because I get to learn new things from other missionaries!

So, last week we were told that they were going to be splitting up our Area because it is so huge.  I guess in the past there were 2 Areas here and I don’t know why they changed because it is such a big Area, we can’t get to all of it.  Anyway, we were asked this week to go out and find another house for the other set of Elders that will be coming here next week and we found this amazing place for them and it is a lot better than the place I am living in now! With changes next week, I know my Companion Elder Castro is probably leaving because he has been here for 3 Changes, but I don’t know about me.  It is a lot of stress thinking that I am going to not only have to train a new Companion, but also another set of Elders on this Area.  There are still a ton of members who are less active that I hardly know and even though they don’t come to Church, they still feed the missionaries and it is hard even for Elder Castro to find where they live when we get invited over there.  AS I mentioned last week, there are no street signs so you really have to now where you are going.  The other thing that is hard is remembering all the members names.  When women get married down here, they don’t drop their last name, they just add their husbands name to theirs so everyone has like 4 names and no one calls anyone by their last name because it is confusing. So, if I wasn’t a missionary, they would call me Hermano Tanner!

The best thing about this week was that we had the baptism for Daphne and Xochit.  It was pretty cool and I was asked to baptize Daphne and Elder Castro baptized Xochit.  Now there have been times on my mission where I have just hated it, always being tired and sick, but being able to baptize Daphne made it all worth it and made all the bad times worth it. It made me realize why I am here.  In the pictures of the baptism, I show the parents and family who are not members, but they were there to support and so now, we are trying to work with them. 

We’re working with a few investigators right now. We have just started teaching them, so we are just starting to get to know them. They live behind our house, so depending on how our Area is split up, we might be turning them over to the other missionaries that will be in that Area. 

I don't know how much teaching we’ll be able to do this week. We got a lot of stuff to do with the new house and etc… Usually last the week before transfers there is a lot preparation going on. Like preparing the Area for new Elders to come in. I’m not sure how other missions work, but the way our President does transfers is he’ll call the Zone Leaders Sunday and tells them who needs to go where and when. Sometimes we only get a two-hour notice to pack all our stuff up and go. I’m wondering if I’ll be changed, but I’m almost positive Elder Castro will be changed because President doesn’t like to keep us missionaries in an area more than four months. But you never know. President is always full of surprises. So, stay tuned! 

So that was my week. I love being a missionary and I’m grateful to be serving the people of Mexico.

Love,

Elder Fawcett

                                                                   Playing with a Member's Little Girl!

Daphne, Xochit and Their Family

Elder Fawcett, Daphne, Xochit and Elder Castro

At the Baptism!

Elders Fawcett and Plumber

Mexico City Temple Lighting

Tons of People

At a Member's House

Their Dog!

Member's Daughter

Another Daughter

New Missionaries Apartment!

Week 16 - We All Have Obstacles in Life!

Hola Everyone:

So, this week went by pretty fast and we really worked hard!  Tuesday, we had interviews with the President and he is really happy with the progress we are making.  Also, we had inspections of our house.  Cleaning up the house really good and having El Gato Jose has really helped because our house is now rat free!  We still have no food in the house but whatever, at least the rats are finally gone.

On Wednesday, I went on splits with Elder Mendez. He has been on his mission for 22 months and is from Guatemala.  He speaks really good English and worked for T-Mobile before his mission.  We went contacting for most of the day and he really helped me out in learning new ways to contact and it was really cool.

On Thursday, we had divisions in my area and Elder Williams and I went out all day together.  It was really cool being the Senior Companion for the day and having to be the one who knew the area and the things to do.  Elder William’s and my Spanish abilities are at about the same level and we didn’t have any Latino’s with us so it really helped both of us learn fast because we had to. We went and taught Alfredo about the Aaronic Priesthood and he was able to get that on Sunday with Manuel.  They both were given the Aaronic Priesthood and were Ordained to the office of a Priest and the was really cool to see.  Also, we went and taught one of the member’s Mom.  She is blind and has diabetes and has a pretty hard life. Honestly, she was really depressed and we talked with her for a while and shared some scriptures about tribulations and disabilities in life.  But while we were talking to her, I thought, I am like 18 years old, listening to a lady who can’t see, has diabetes, speaks Spanish and is really depressed!  But I really connected with her and shared with her an experience from my own life.  I told her that I can’t focus very well although I have tried my hardest, it is really a struggle for me.  For my entire mission, I have studied really hard every day and keep all the rules but it continues to be a struggle for me!  But I know that it is something that I can’t run away from and is a problem that the Lord has given me to overcome in my life. Everyone of us has been given obstacles to overcome in life and I know through the Lord’s help we can and will overcome them!  So, that was really cool to be able to share something about myself with her and we expressed our love for her. As Elder Williams and I left, the Spirit was really super strong and she told us that she felt a ton better, so yea that was really good.

Elder Williams and I were also invited to lunch at a member’s house. We were having a hard time finding the address because Mexico address’ are so hard. There are no street signs or anything. As we were looking for the member’s house, a guy in a white tank top whistled to us. Elder Williams and I just looked at each other cause here we are two Gringo’s walking down the street in the middle of Mexico and were thinking oh no. So, this guy is begging for us to come over to his door.  We were very apprehensive, but we went over and the guy asked us what we believed in. We told him God and Jesus Christ. He then told us ok, come in. So, we went in and talked with him and come to find out he’s been a less active member for 10 years and his wife is not a member. They are extremely interested in coming back to Church and so we wrote down their information and Elder Castro and I have visited with them later in the week. We think we will have success in reactivating him and teaching her so were crossing our fingers. 

On Friday, Elder Castro and I had an appointment with Daphne and Xochit and we talked about their baptism which is this Saturday the 24th and they have asked us to baptize them. I’ll be baptizing Daphne which is kind of scary having to say everything in Spanish because full Spanish names are pretty hard, but I’m really looking forward to it and am honored to be doing it. I feel very blessed that I’ll have four baptisms in my first area at least.  

Noe is still gone. We are kind of moving on from him because we really don’t think he is ever coming back. But if by chance he does, we’re here. We have a few new investigators and we’re having success with them. So, we are excited about that.  

I have one last story. So, we meet with a member who is practically a single mom because we never see the dad, but we think there is a dad in the picture somewhere. Anyway, she started to cry to Elder Castro and I because her son that is maybe one or two years old has been having some health problems. She was really worried about her son, so while he was asleep, we gave him a blessing. It was really cool because it was my first-time anointing someone and I did it in Spanish! It was super cool!

So that was my week. It was a busy one. My Spanish is getting better every day. I love being a missionary and I love serving the people of Mexico!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

Spanish Studying Wall!

Home Inspection!
Rat Free but Still No Food!

Week 15 - Just Stick to the Basics!

Hola Everyone:

Well, this week wasn’t really all that interesting so today’s letter is going to be pretty short!  We did find one new investigator who's name is Adol.  He met with the missionaries 3 years ago and apparently, they taught him but for some reason things didn’t go very well with them.  He is 20 years old and has agreed to start the discussions over with us.  When we went over to teach him, his Mother and Sister were there and everything went pretty good with Adol but his sister was really ticked about something and questioned the fact that there is an afterlife. She went off on us for a while and then left to go out and have a cigarette.  His Mom also sort of went off on us a little because I guess the previous missionaries were not that great or something so I guess we took the punishment for that!  Anyway, we set up another appointment with him but he wants to meet us at the Church because of how things went at his house!

Also, this past week, we had an appointment to teach Daphne and Xochit the second discussion (the Plan of Salvation) which we did in two parts because it is sort of hard to understand.  It is really fun to teach them because we like them and they like us and you don’t have to be as serious with them since they are younger and are not trying to argue scriptures with us like a lot of people.  Anyway, things are going really good with them and we have an appointment for the 3^rd discussion and we have set a Baptismal date with them for the 23^rd of December.

Noe was supposed to have a Baptismal date for 10 November but he has still not come back in town and honestly, I don’t know for sure what is going on with him. I am just hoping he comes back in town soon so we can keep teaching him. So, that is the status of our investigators, we have received a few more reference contacts that we are going to go and visit this week as well.

So, on Thursday, we had Zone Conference with the President and we talked about our Mission’s initiative of “Ironman 212” which is basically trying to get 212 baptisms this month and our Zone is leading in that effort so yea that is pretty good and he was really happy about that and told us that we were all doing a really good job.  The pictures I have for today are from that Zone Conference!  Anyway, our Mission is on track to meet our goal of 212 baptisms.  I have my next interview with the President on Tuesday this week!  Also, at Zone Conference, he told us that we are going to be meeting our New Mission President in December which I thought was pretty weird.  But I guess I will know who my new Mission President is going to be in December and whether or not he is White or Latino!

Sunday, all of Mexico had a special meeting with Elder Rasband and a few others and they mainly talked about reading the Book of Mormon and just sticking to the basics of being a member of the Church.  Just like people in the United States, people here struggle in trying to just do the basic principles of the Gospel.  It was a good meeting but I also learned that they are going to have a special Stake Conference on December 1^st and they are going to be making some changes with the Wards and Zones of our Mission. 

So, when I first got here to Tecamac, my Mom commented on how close to Mexico City I was.  In fact, when we go to get on a bus to go to our Mission Home in Pachuca, we have to go to the bus stop in the East Mexico City Mission, we are literally that close!  We have to be careful where we go because the streets are so close to the other mission.  Anyway, I guess they are going to be combining this Area into the East Mexico City Mission which is pretty cool because that means my Companion and I are the last missionaries from the Pachuca mission to serve here in the Montes Ward.  Anyway, we don’t know when that is going to happen but it could be the first week in December but I think they will wait until the January changes.

Everything else is going pretty good and I am still studying Spanish really hard and it is getting better every day.  I really love being a Missionary and love serving the people of Mexico!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Pictures From Zone Conference

Week 14 - El Gato Jose and Alfredo's Baptism!

Hola Everyone:

This week has been really challenging! We had a lot of miracles, but some not so great things too.  So, Sunday we went to only two hours of church because Elder Castro received special permission to go to his past area for a baptism of a family that he taught. We traveled about seven hours by bus and almost didn’t make it back to Tecamac because we could find a bus. But luckily, we were able to find one and it took a while to get back because of the traffic.

We had Alfredo’s baptism this week. His baptism was originally scheduled for November 10th. But when we were teaching him this week, he told us he was going to be in Pachuca on the 10th and wasn’t sure if he would make it back for his Baptism on time. So, he decided he really wanted to have it this past Friday.  Well, President Kimball was in our District Meeting this past week (because he sometimes does that), so we asked him if it would be ok to move the Baptism up and he said it was ok. So, we did. We got Alfredo baptized and it was great. He is so happy! He was ready to be baptized and he asked Elder Castro to perform the ordinance. We hope to get his Uncle Noe baptized soon too. His Mom cried during the baptism and came up to us after to set up and appointment for us to come teacher her. So that was awesome!

But some interesting things happened that day at the baptism. First, we went to the Church and turned on the boiler and the water for the baptismal font because it takes quite a while to fill. We made sure everything was ready to go and then we went to print the programs that Elder Castro worked on forever. Well, they did not print very good at all and we didn’t have time to fix them! So, the baptism had no programs which we felt really bad about. We headed back to the Church and when we got there all the windows were fogged up. We were grateful to know that at least there would be warm water for the baptism until I walked up to the door and opened it. There was a stream of water that came out! We were beside ourselves at this point and wondered what else could go wrong. But luckily it was not our fault that the church flooded. Someone put duct tape over the overflow drain that’s at waist level and so it couldn’t drain and just kept filling up. We called our District and a member family, (the Jordan’s) to come help us because we only had a couple hours till the baptism. Thankfully, the church floors are all tile and we just had to push the water out. We were all soaked by the time we were done. But needless to say, it was a miracle because the Church was completely dry in less than an hour in a half.

Another thing that happened that was kind of cool, is that when we went to the baptism in Elder Castro’s previous area, there was a new Sister Missionary there that has only been there for two weeks. We asked her where she was from and she said Puno, Peru. Come to find out, she knew my brother Taylor when he was serving in her Ward for a while. It’s such a small world.

Also, this past week as many of you know, it was “Day of the Dead” in Mexico and I didn’t get many pictures because honestly it really wasn’t that grand here in Tecamac like it is in other areas of Mexico like Pueblo where my Companion is from.  While having lunch in our Ward friend’s house this past week (the Jordan’s) I did take a picture of there ofrendas which is more of a traditional thing to remember their ancestors during this time of year and is really not a church thing.  It is just a tradition so it is no big deal that members of the Church do it.  But anyway, that was Day of the Dead here.  I did see kids trick or treating on November 1^st and I was like yea you’re a day late but whatever!

Finally, an update on our rat problem! So, a Ward member offered to let us borrow their cat for a few days to hopefully get the problem cleared up.  President said it was alright for a few days so well hopefully that will finally get rid of them!

I really love being a Missionary and serving the people of Mexico.

Love

Elder Fawcett

                                                                 Even When You Get Splashed, Yea Gota Laugh!!!

                                                                            Our Temporary Rat Control!!!

                                                                            Cleaning Up Before the Baptism!

Taking El Gato Jose Home!

Jordan Family's Ofrendas

Lunch with Jordan Family

Burritos and Soup

Elder Castro, Alfredo and Elder Fawcett

Alfredo's Family

Member's at the Baptism

Baptism

District Meeting

Week 13 - Drunks All Around!

Hola Everyone:

This week was busy, very busy. We had a lot of experiences with drunk people. It’s very hard to understand their Spanish when they are drunk.  They come up to us and say, “Jesus” a lot. We just say, “yeah, we represent Jesus Christ.” They will talk to me and my Comp and ask where I am from. I tell them Utah, but one guy insisted I was from Phoenix. So that was funny! The drunks also ask us for money a lot. So, we give them anywhere from 5-10 pesos. I gave one guy 5 pesos and he gave me this giant hug. He smelt heavily of beer and it was quite disgusting. Another guy kept yelling to me, “Gringo, Gringo, do you have any money?” I said, “All I have is 5 pesos.” He said, “okay, give it to me.” So, I did and he high fived me. We have found that giving them something is better than getting robbed because we have many opportunities to get robbed and so we just give them a little bit of money and they leave us alone. They ask us for help a lot of the time too. One had dropped some stuff he was carrying and asked us to help pick it up and we did.   We come in contact with the drunks quite a bit.

Here’s another update on our rat problem. We are still getting them. It had slowed down for about a week, but now they are back. And honestly, I don't know what to do. We’ve cleaned our house and have kept it clean but, we caught two today. They always come in from under the front door and we've done things to try to fix it, but they keep coming.  We don't have any food anywhere. It’s definitely something I'm going to highlight when I talk to the President. It’s starting to frustrate me a lot because no matter what we do, it keeps happening.  When we go and have exchanges with other people, they have food in their kitchens and house. They are lucky because they have cereal and stuff, but I sometimes feel like my Comp and I have to starve because we can’t have food in our house or it brings in more rats. When I get a new Companion here in the next month, he’s going to be sad to know that he can’t have any food here because the rats have moved in and are here to stay. I’m constantly washing my hands because if I touch something, I don’t know if one of the rats have been on it or not.  

As far as our investigators go, Alfredo and his uncle Noe are doing pretty good. They both come to Church a lot.  This week I had Elder Boldagas go on splits with me here in my Area and we taught both of them about Tithing, Fasting and Fast Offerings and they both accepted that pretty well.  They are great investigators and accept everything we are teaching them.  Also, this past week, Elder Castro and I taught a discussion to these two little girls named Daphne and Xochit. They are nine and eight years old and I have to say that teaching kids is even harder than teaching adults with my limited Spanish abilities right now.  Anyway, the discussion went well and both of them are scheduled for baptism on November 24^th.   

Today, we taught a woman named Josephena and she was really hard to teach and had a lot of questions for us.  I guess she is having a lot of problems in her family and her husband who has left her, so I guess things are a mess in her life.  Anyway, we taught her a discussion and have an appointment with her for the next discussion next week!

So, the pictures I am sending home today are of the inside of one of the Combes we use to get around the City and of my weekly planning journals that I keep.  Elder Castro gave me the one with me and Elder Williams on it and they make them by pasting a picture onto a cereal box, cutting it out and then punching holes in it and putting the binding in.  Anyway, I made myself one that I use to study Spanish and that is the one with Christ in the Boat from the Ensign.

Anyway, things are going pretty great, we have people to teach and we are doing a lot of service for people.  This week I got to cut a member’s grass with hand shears and although you may be getting cold back home, it is still hot as heck here! But we had a good time anyway.

Sorry I don’t have a lot of picture of my area. Tecamac is the roughest City of the Mission and my area “Montes” is by far the most dangerous area, so I don’t dare take my camera out because I don’t want any more reasons to get held up and robbed.  Other places in the Mission are a lot better so I will be able to get more pictures there!  But, I hope with Day of the Dead coming up I will be able to get a few pictures this week!  I Love being a missionary and sharing the Gospel every day!

Love

Elder Fawcett

Combe We Use Every Day

Empty Combe

Planner Elder Castro Made Me (Front)

Back

My Spanish Planner (Front)

Back

Week 12 - First Baptism!!!

Hola Everyone:

So, this past week wasn’t as interesting as the week before because we didn’t get to go to any really cool Mexican ruins but it was still a pretty interesting week.  To start off, as an update to our rat problem, yea I think that we still have them but honestly, we have stopped caring at this point.  We keep setting traps and catching more and more which is really getting old. But, we don’t think they are upstairs in our beds and we don’t have any food in the house at all anyway so we are just living with it.   My Companion doesn’t want to move somewhere else because he is going to probably get transferred in 6 weeks anyway.  Which by the way brings me to the point that today we are having changes which means that I have been in the field for 6 weeks now!  Anyway, my Companion is 99% sure he is going next time because our Mission President doesn’t like to leave people in any place longer than 3 transfers.  For me, that means I will be here until after Christmas!

So yesterday, the Latino Elders in my District decided to play a prank on Elder Williams.  For some reason they like to pick on us Americans but anyway, they told him that he was going to be transferred to Pachuca today so he spent a few hours packing his stuff up before they finally told him that they were just kidding!  Yea he was pretty mad and I would have been also but I am glad that he is staying here in the District with me for another transfer.

So, with my Companion feeling like he is going to be transferred, I am spending a lot of time trying to learn our Area and the Names of everyone which is really pretty hard because there is no logic in the way this place is laid out and my Spanish still is not the greatest and all the names sound the same to me but slowly I am getting it.

So, the first thing I want to tell you about this week happened on Tuesday or Wednesday while we were out tracting.  My Companion told me to choose the area where we would be going.  Now to tell you a little bit about the streets here, they are all dirt and it rains almost every night so when we walk around, we are usually walking in mud!  Anyway, I took him to this street where I thought we should start knocking on doors.  Now we have to be careful where we are allowed to knock doors because of the killings that are still going on, but knocking doors and street tracting is not very productive in this area anyways and on that day, we were not having any success.  But, as we were walking down the street, we saw this couple and we both thought that we needed to talk to them so I started talking to them and trying to introduce the Church to them but they quickly told us that they were not interested.  But instead of just moving on, I asked them if there was anything that we could do for them because as missionaries, we not only teach people but also like to do service for them.  Surprisingly the man said yes there was something we could do for him, he told us that he needed a prayer.  Now that was kind of strange but as we talked to him more, he told us that he wanted us to pray with him for his wife.  

After talking with them more, he told us that he wanted us to come to his house so we started following them home and the husband ran ahead, I think to clean up a little and so we walked with his wife.  Now she looked alright to me so we really wondered why he wanted us to pray for her.  As we got to their house and entered, she started to cough a lot and her husband asked us to pray for her.  We explained to him that wouldn’t do a lot, but we could give her a blessing.  He agreed after we explained what a blessing was.  Now as we put our hands on her head and began giving her a blessing, her whole body started to shake like she had Parkinson’s or something.  As we continued the prayer, she seemed to shake more and as we finished she threw up but stopped shaking!

Afterwards she said she felt a lot better and that as we were giving her the blessing she felt a warm feeling enter her body from the top of her head.  Her husband told us that they had seen several doctors and had taken a lot of medication but nothing had helped.  Their home also felt a ton better inside and they thanked us, but still were not interested in hear what we had to say.  The husband also told us as we were leaving that he had prayed that morning to find someone to help his wife!  Anyway, that was a really different experience!
      
Another cool experience this past week was that we had our first baptism for Manuel!  It was really cool seeing somebody get baptized that you introduced to The Book of Mormon.  He wasn't a hard investigator and was really receptive because he's been coming to Church for a couple of years.  I’m not sure why he never took the discussions from the missionaries before us, but he took the discussions from us. I can’t help but to think that maybe we were meant to teach him.  We had to go to the Church three hours early to turn on the boiler and make sure everything was ready and clean. We had the programs ready and went to put them on the chairs and then we remembered we couldn’t put them on the chairs because his wife is already a member and she didn't know that he has been taking lessons from us for like a month now. He wanted to surprise his wife!

She came in and sat down. She honestly just thought that it was just another baptism. So, no one said anything to her about who’s baptism it was. He excused himself and went to change into white and he came back and sat down. She slowly pieced it all together and she started to cry realizing it was her husband’s baptism. And to make it even more special, her father came in dressed in white also. He baptized his son in law. 

That's what we try to do as missionaries. We try to encourage those family moments. Manuel will get the Aaronic Priesthood in a month and then in a year they're going to get sealed. It’s nice to see that people turn their lives around. Manuel has been going to Church for years and his wife told us that he was never interested in taking the discussions from the missionaries. He just never never wanted to do it.  My branch has been open since February 2013 so it’s taken him this long.  His wife just said that there was something about Elder Castro and myself and that we must be pretty special!

So anyway, that was my week and it was pretty cool to have a baptism.  As far as other investigators go, we have a baptismal date scheduled for Alfredo and his father Noe for November 19.  Also, we are teaching a woman named Maria who we are probably going to challenge this week.

I Love being a missionary and all the great things I am experiencing!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Elders Williams, Fawcett and Bolanos

Members at the Baptism

Manuel and His Family

Elder Castro, Manuel, Elder Fawcett

Week 11 - Teotihuacan

Hola Everyone,

Its been quite a busy week. I’m extremely tired this week. So, I’ll just start off from where I left off! Last Monday we went to Teotihuacan and it was really cool there. Our whole District went as a District activity. Elder Williams and his companion, Elder Bolanos slept over the night before and I had to share my twin bed with an Elder who is 6’ 8. And that was an adventure I never want to do again! Then we got up really early like at six in the morning and we left our house about 6:30. We got on a Combes and we went to Teotihuacan, which is not very far from my area. When we got there, we met up with a member who works there as a tour guide and he showed us the significance of Teotihuacan and how it relates to the Book of Mormon.  It was really cool because Elder Bednar talked to us in the CCM and afterwards, he went up here to visit Teotihuacan. So, if that’s not something that shows you it’s a historical church site, then I don’t know what is!  Out of all of ruins in Mexico and he went to Teotihuacan!

So, while walking around, our guide explained a lot of stuff to us.  First off, he explained the significance of numbers and everything else that were on the pyramids.  On the temple of the stars, which is the smallest pyramid, there is a snake looking thing with feathers. Our guide told us that is supposed to represent Jesus Christ. It is kind of hard to understand but I guess people talk about seeing the “Good Snake” because if you remember Moses putting up his staff with a snake on it, it was a “Good Snake” because if they had faith and just looked at the snake they would be healed.  Most people think that snakes in the Bible only represent bad things like Satan but actually there are both good and bad snakes! I don’t really know why they referrer to him as a snake but, Jesus in this case is the representation of the snake that was on Moses’ staff. 

Now the other image that you see is a crocodile and that is weird, but let me explain that to you. Now a crocodile does two things when it leaves the water.  It goes out to eat or find food, a.k.a find the promised land and also have its seed or have its babies. The Crocodiles on the pyramids represent Lehi. Lehi left his home and went looking for the promised land or food like a crocodile and then he also had his seed with him and had more on the way to the promised land. So yeah, that’s how the Native Americans distinguish him. It’s actually in the Book of Mormon multiple times if you pay attention. If you look at the picture of when Christ came to the America’s, there’s a temple on the left side of the picture and you’ll see the crocodile symbol. It’s the same symbol that are on the temples. That is Lehi and then again it is found in the picture of Samuel the Laminate on the wall.  It’s the same symbols that are on the temples/pyramids that I took pictures of. So that’s cool. The other thing the tour guide showed us is how acoustic it was there. You can clap your hands and hear it echo off the walls and if someone stood in the middle and talked, everyone around could hear them. The last thing about Teotihuacan is the Sun Temple which was the biggest pyramid. Notice the stairs. The first set of stairs on both sides are across from each other, this represents premortal life. Then the next set of stairs are parallel and combine which represents mortal life. These stairs then split off into two separate stair cases which represents paradise and prison. Then the stairs combine into one stair case, which represents the straight and narrow path to exaltation. So that was cool and makes a lot of sense. That’s why I think Teotihuacan could be where Jesus Christ went when he visited the America’s or at least one of the places.  There are a lot of carvings that I think can be found in the Book of Mormon and the 3 temples (Sun, Moon and Stars), sounds a lot like the Celestial, Terrestrial and Telestial kingdoms. Finally, if you look at satellite pictures of Teotihuacan and the constellation Orion’s Belt, they are in the same shape as Orion’s Belt. The three stars. So yeah, that was Teotihuacan. 

I don’t have a lot to report on our investigators this week because I was on exchanges almost everyday this week. I went on exchanges with Elder Bolanos, Elder William's companion. I don’t know how they work exchanges everywhere else, but here you swap companions with another set of Elders, you work all day in that area and then sleep in the missionary’s bed you swapped with and they sleep in yours!  The next morning you wake up and go back to your own companion. I did that Tuesday with Elder Bolanos and we went and taught Gloria. I didn’t know that much about Gloria, but she was really interested in the Church. She had her YouTube pulled up so we showed her some Church videos on YouTube. And we did Hola with her. Hola is just basically pray, read and come to church. Basically, its kind of a transition lesson to the next lesson. We searched some scriptures and that was fun. But I guess Elder Williams and Elder Bolanos got a call later saying that Gloria’s husband no longer wants her taking the lessons which is really sad because I believe she was really ready for the Gospel. 

On Wednesday, I went on exchanges with our Zone leader, Elder Alasko. So, the same thing all over again. I went over to their house; his companion came here. I slept in his bed he slept in mine. When I was with him, we did a lot of contacting on the streets and we had a lot of people that were interested in what we had to say.  My contacting is getting better, that’s for sure.  We taught Lesson 2, which was really good and I actually was able to chime in with a few points which is sometimes really frustrating because I’m still learning Spanish and I don’t know what to say. But I did really good this time. So that was nice! Then we had an appointment with a member. Our days are really kinda fast because we are so busy. 

On Saturday, we had a few appointments but I spent a little bit of time practicing teaching the discussions to another Elder in our District.  Now I know that sounds kind of boring but for the last few days, we have not been allowed to do a lot of street contacting! For the past few days, there has been a problem going on with a couple that I guess are ex-military and they have been around our streets, like actually our streets and they have been taking people and cutting their limbs off, killing them and putting them in trash bags and throwing them on the street. Yep its creepy, but President Kimball has told us we are no longer able to contact houses during anytime of the day and we have to be off the streets by six o’clock until they are caught! 

As an update to our rat situation, we set aside all morning to clean our house. Its finally clean and we are going to keep it clean but if we keep getting rats, we are moving. We don’t want to do that because then we would have to pack everything up just to go somewhere else! 

Well, that was this week pretty much. We do have a baptism this week that I’m excited for with Manuel. It should go well. We’re excited to keep teaching and watch people prepare for baptism. We keep getting lots of references. We are working hard and its nice because when I got here we didn’t have any investigators but now things are starting to go pretty well. Thanks for all your prayers and support. I love being a missionary!

Love you all,

Elder Fawcett

                                                                             Status of the Rats in my Apartment!!!

Nacho Libre Wrestling Mask

First Package From Home

Member's Puppy

Teotihuacan