Week 34 - Early April Fools!

Hola Everyone:

So sorry about this letter being really pretty short, honestly there has really not been a lot going on this past week to report about.  It is getting towards the end of the cycle and although we are working really hard and contacting a ton of people, it is just really hard to get anyone to commit to anything or much less get them to come to church!

So last week, I was really hopeful about the less active families we found and had hoped that they would have come to church.  The Luna family had the daughter that we were going to teach so we don’t know what went on with them, but we have an appointment with the Luna family tonight so I guess we will go over there and find out.

Probably the most interesting thing that happened this past week was that we went to see Sister Fagatoa in the hospital yesterday.  If you remember, Sister Fagatoa is from my MTC group. She had like a bubble in her intestines and it got really big and almost popped. If she wouldn’t have gone to the hospital, she would be in more serious shape than what she is and needing surgery. 

So, in closing, I guess I will explain my first picture!  So yea I thought it would be pretty funny to send that home next week for April Fools day and make up a bunch of stuff as to why I was in the hospital, but then I decided that might not be such a good idea for my parents so yea, I sent it this week instead!

Anyway, I love being here in Mexico although some times the work is pretty slow and hard!  I know this is where I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to be doing right now.

Love 

Elder Fawcett

I Thought This Might Have Been a Good April Fools Picture!
Then I Thought About It a Little More!!

Sister Fagatoa After Surgery

Week 33 - Changes in the Mission

Hola Everyone,

It’s hard to believe it’s P-day once again. For our Zone activity today, we went one last time to Teotihuacan. We were able to get some fun souvenirs that we haven’t seen anywhere else like a jaguar whistle, a chess set and a poncho. You’d think that they would have souvenirs everywhere, but they don’t. Just in the tourist places. We took the Book of Mormon tour again which explains the history and the descendants of the Lamanites.  It’s a fun place to visit. We will miss not having it in our mission anymore.

With that being said, I’ll explain. So, to give you all a little bit of background of why Teotihuacan won’t be in my mission any more. We had Zone Conference this past week and lots of changes were announced. The Mexico Pachuca mission has nine stakes in it. It usually includes part of the state of Pueblo, part of the state of Mexico and most of Hidalgo which is mostly Pachuca. The Church has decided that it is going to cut out Tecamac which is in the state of Mexico and the first area that I served in here.  It includes Montes, Jardines and Teotihuacan. They will now be in the Mexico East Mission. They will be taking out all the missionaries from the Pachuca Mission out of those areas. That change will be happening at the end of the month. The missionaries that are there now will be showing the missionaries from the Mexico East Mission around the area on Saturday. The last day for them down there is Sunday. They are going to have one giant baptism for all their investigators that they have been teaching. So far there are going to be 35 people who will be baptized.  We are expecting about 32 missionaries to come to Pachuca next transfer and so we will be opening new areas. So, basically the big news was that Teotihuacan was being cut out of our mission.

As far as other changes, there were a few to P-day rules. We can now go to the computers anytime on P-days. There is no longer a time limit on writing, but we need to be out working by six.

Also, this past week, we were contacting and we found some inactive families.  One of them is the Hernandez Family. They are a family of five and they are older. They went inactive because they didn’t know where the Church was. So, we told them where the Church was and invited them to come, but they didn’t come yesterday.  We are sad about that. We are going to visit them and see what we can do to reactive them. The other family is the Luna Family. They have a daughter who is 12 who has not yet been baptized. We are hoping to activate them so that the daughter can be baptized. They did come to Church and we have appointments set up with them. We are going to work with them and do what we can to help them.

Elder Bodegas and I have been working hard and President Kimball is happy with us and the progress we are making.  The area we are in has historically been a really hard area and in the short time we have been here, we have already seen 3 baptisms and all 3 of them are doing great.  Francisco is attending the other Ward and he is doing great and Teresa and Jorge come to church every week and are also doing great.

  

Well, it is getting even hotter here but I am doing great and I love being a missionary!  I am learning so much and I appreciate the time I have to serve the Lord!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Zone Conference

Elders Bodegas and Fawcett

Teaching

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Learning!!

Oxen Pull Activity

Top of My Area

City Below

Roof Tops

Long Walk Up

P-Day Activity

Parking Lot

Picture of Teotihuacan

Our Guide

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My District

Wouldn't Be Surprised if He Wore it Home!

Week 32 - Translating for the Doctors!

Hola Everyone:

So, what a cool week it has been and I can’t believe that I have already been in Mexico for almost 8 months now!  Today we were supposed to have a Zone Activity and go and see the huge Christus Statue in our mission, but we had to postpone it because we spent the day translating again for some Eye Doctors that have been here for most of the week.  They are from Indiana and they all belong to the Lion’s Club there.  So, for the entire year, they collect used glasses from people that don’t want them anymore and then have the convicts in the various jails around them use special equipment to figure out what prescriptions each of the glasses are.  They then come down here to Mexico for a week and perform free eye exams for people before giving them a pair of glasses to wear.  Everything is really bright here and there are a lot of people with bad eye sight that cannot afford glasses so that is how they get them.  

This past week, we spent most of Tuesday and Thursday as well as today translating for the doctors!  They all couldn’t believe that I have only been studying Spanish for just over 7 months and how easy it was for me to translate whatever they needed me to into Spanish!  Learning Spanish has been pretty tough, but I am happy that the Lord has blessed me as I have and continue to study every day.  At this point I am pretty comfortable speaking to people about most anything and I am happy that I was able to use my Spanish ability to not only teach the Gospel, but also to assist the Doctors to help the people.

The other big thing that happened this week was that we had the baptism for Francisco on Saturday and it was a really spiritual baptism, probably the most spiritual baptism I have had on my mission!  The Bishop was even crying and it was just a really great experience.  Francisco is going to be a great member of the church.

So outside of the Baptism and translating, we spent the rest of our time contacting. Honestly, it is sort of getting frustrating because we contact people, teach them a lesson and invite them to church and they never come.  We have taught a lot of lessons but it is really hard to get any of them to come to church!

It is really Hot in Mexico now!  I hear you all had snow this past week and honestly, I kind of miss that right now!  In my pictures for this week, I took some of the mountains because that is one thing that I really miss back home is seeing and being in the mountains!  But Mexico is Great and I wouldn’t trade being here for anything.  I love being a missionary here in Mexico and I Love the People of Mexico!

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Translating for the Doctors

Checking People In

Elder Fawcett, Francisco, Ward Member, Elder Bodegas

Francisco with Ward Members and Friends

Mountains of Pachuca

Week 31 - Elder Fawcett and Elder Fausett!

Hola Everyone:

Wow, it is already the starting of another week!  So, this past week was the first week of the new Change and we have a lot of new young missionaries in our District.  One of the older Elders that is new to my District is the other Elder Fausett which is pretty cool and I have a picture with him.  So, for most of the week, we have been doing a lot of contacting and fortunately, we have also found a lot of new investigators to teach!

Karla is one lady we found and she has a pretty hard life right now.  Her Mom is dying with stage 4 ovarian cancer.  We were right in the middle of teaching her about the Plan of Salvation when she got a call and had to go and see her Mom in the hospital.  We have another appointment with her this week and she seems really interested!  

Some of the other people we are teaching includes the Rangel family that we have had a few lessons with and they are really cool.  They are not married which is sort of a problem and they have a daughter and they have some word of wisdom issues.  We are working with them to start coming to church with us and this next week.  We have taught them the first 2 discussions and have another appointment with them on Friday.  We have also been teaching Nie who lives in our neighborhood.  We have taught her 3 lessons and are not going to teach her anymore until she comes to church with us. So, we are keeping our fingers crossed that she will come this week so we can continue teaching her.

Teresa and Jorge are continuing to come to church every week and they are really doing great.  Honestly, they are probably the best converts I have had and are really super strong members.  Francisco, I think is also going to be a great member of the Church and he is scheduled to be baptized this coming week.  If you remember, he is the investigator that we have been teaching that is in another Ward’s boundaries but doesn’t feel welcome over there so we have been teaching him.  So, we are going to baptize him into the Pravi Ward which is the Ward where he lives, but he can figure out which Ward he wants to attend after that!  In teaching Francisco, it has really been a miracle because he has smoked for like 40 years, but has just been able to give it up completely!

This week I got to go on inner cameos with my MTC buddy Elder Williams and he is honestly having a pretty hard time right now.  He has been pretty sick and had to go to the hospital for 3 days.  He had been throwing up blood and they found that he had 2 huge ulcers in his stomach.  As missionaries, they give us these little cards to flash at the hospital if we have to go there and they treat us like rich people which is pretty good!  So, we contacted for a little while and then went and had lunch.  He threw up afterwards but all I saw was food so I think his ulcers have scabbed over but I took him back to our apartment to lay down for a while anyway.  He has to really watch what he eats and wants for everything to just get better because they have a rule in our mission that if you are in the hospital for more than 6 days in a single month, they will send you home and he doesn’t want that to happen!

So, to end with this week, I got a phone call from the Mission Office this afternoon while my Comp and I were taking a little break from the heat. I guess there are a bunch of American’s coming to the Area next week for a meeting or conference of some sort and they have asked us to come over and help translate for them.  I haven’t used my Spanish like that yet so that should be a pretty different experience!  Anyway, it is really getting hot here, but I still really love being here and serving the people of Mexico.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett 

Sunset After an Appointment!

Lunch with the Feliz Family

Elder Fausett and Elder Fawcett

My Money for the Month!

Week 30 - Traveling Out to Zempoala

Hola Everyone,

Another week has come and gone. Changes took place today, but Elder Bodegas and I are remaining together which we are pretty happy about because we like it here. We get along great and one of my favorite companions.  But pretty much the rest of our District was taken out and transferred except for us. A lot of new missionaries came into the mission today. About 19 of them. It will be exciting to see who’s going to be coming here.

For an update on our investigators, Franciso is doing really good. He really likes the Church and he said he’s had an amazing experience with trying to quit smoking. We’re hoping that next week he’ll be Baptized. So, we are still working with him. We are also still working with Teresa and Jorge and helping them stay active in the Church. They are doing good also. We are hoping to go to the Temple with the three of them this Saturday. We are still having a really hard time with Sylvia and her transportation to Church. With her being elderly, she doesn’t want to go by taxi or combi because she doesn’t have lots of money and its expensive. We can’t keep asking members to take her because we understand they have things to do too and we can’t always go pick her up by taxi because it is so expensive. We know if we did keep going and getting her every week, when we both got transferred out of here, she would stop coming because she can’t get here so we are trying to figure something.  This week also, we were given a few references that we are going to follow up with this week. 

I know I have told you that my area is really big, Its actually ginormous! There’re parts we haven’t even been to yet. And there’s one part that is about 30 minutes away by combi called Zempoala. We just barely had the chance to go there because one of the Sisters in the Ward offered to feed us and that is where she lives so we went all the way out there for a day.  It was pretty cool! I have included a few pictures of the sights. We saw an old Church and a sculpture of a bird madeout of real guns. 
  
Well, not a very long letter this week but I am really loving it here.  People have asked what I mostly eat and honestly it is mostly beans and chicken!  Nothing too weird or strange but it is all pretty good!  I Love serving the Lord and the people of Mexico and I can’t believe how fast time is staring to go!  I hope you all have a good week.

Love 

Elder Fawcett

Traveling to Zempoala

Bird Made Out of Real Guns

Old Church in Zempoala

Member' s Son at Lunch

Lunch

Week 29 - Christ Like Attributes

Hola Everyone,

Well, it's been an interesting week. My week started off with a call from President Kimball to tell me that my Grandma Fawcett passed away. He gave me permission to call my Grandpa the next day to see how he was doing. It was good to talk with him for just a few minutes. I am sad my grandma passed away, but I’m also happy for her. I’m happy that she doesn’t have to suffer anymore and deal with anymore physical limitations like she did.  

Another big event this past week was the big news that missionaries can now call home.  I understand why they are allowing this because there's probably a lot more missionaries going home than normal. And if they can speak with their families once a week, it can help them and comfort them. I personally don’t know if I’ll call my family every week. I mean, I've survived my whole mission so far without calling, so I’ll probably just call if needed. It’s just a matter of personal need and opinion. 

So, the cycle is winding down. I guess this is what happens when you get further onto the mission. Everything kind of starts to blend. This past week was the fifth week of the cycle and my Companion and I are not sure if we will get changed or not. I’m really hoping we don’t. Elder Bodegas has always been one of my favorite people in the mission. We work hard and get along great! But if either of us gets transferred, it’s ok. We will continue to work hard wherever we go.

As far as an update with our investigators, we put down a baptismal date of March 9th for a guy named Francisco who's not from our Ward. He comes to our Ward because he doesn't like his home Ward. He's not very far away, but he likes our Ward better because he says the people are nicer and he feels more welcomed.  People shake his hand and he comes to church faithfully.  It will be the first week of the cycle so I’m hoping I’ll still be here to see him baptized.

 We didn’t have many opportunities to teach people this week because for some reason it's just getting really, really hard and nobody's falling through with their appointments. We'd call them or we’d go to their house and knock. They don't answer. Then we’d stop by again come by again or they’d tell us a good day to come and then we'd go that day and then it falls through again. So, we're still struggling with progressing investigators. From what I understand, that’s why this area has been closed is because we look at the progress records in our area binder and it seems like every Elder and Sister that used to be here almost a year ago, had the same problem. There are just mostly people that say, yeah, I'm interested, but you're lucky if you get an appointment with them. So, we're really kind of pushing hard on that.

Also, this past week I got to go back to my past area in the Montes Ward because Elder McBreaitry and his new companion have continued teaching the family that I first contacted and we started teaching.  I was able to see them get baptized and that was great! They were so excited and happy! It was weird going back to my previous area. It honestly made me appreciate the area I am in now a lot more. It was a good area. But it was smaller than this area and the state of Mexico is so much different than the state of Hidalgo, which is Pachuca, which is most of our mission. It's more relaxed here. There's not as much traffic and stuff like that. And it's cheaper here. Colombes and taxis and stuff like that are a lot cheaper because we used so many taxis. It's funny because everything's expensive. We've used our bikes probably about two weeks of this whole cycle because my Companions tire is flat. He needs a new tire, but for some reason we can't get into see the Armano (the brother who's in charge of doing the bikes). So, we haven't been using them. 

It’s starting to get hot here and it’s only February. Last night we had to turn on our big fan because we were sweating so much. I wasn’t sure it would, because when I first looked at my mission, it said it was pretty cold. And it really doesn't get that cold. There are days when it’s kind of chilly and I put on my jacket, but never freezing cold. I miss the cold and I miss the Snow, that's for sure!

I hope your all doing well. I love serving the people of Mexico and I love being a missionary!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fawcett

As a part of this week letter, I would like to talk about Christ like attributes and the people I think are the best example on them which are my Grandma and Grandpa.  In 3 Nephi 27:27 it says, “What manner ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am.”  Here Christ clearly states we should be like him. We can do this by developing these attributes:

1. Faith in Jesus Christ:  My whole life, I have seen Grandpa as a strong faithful member of the gospel.  With raising children in the gospel, he taught them the importance of the gospel and as a result, all of his children are active members of the church.  I have also had the chance to watch my Grandpa take care of Grandma.  Which in her conditions for several years was pretty difficult.  However, without fail my Grandpa took her to Church nearly every week to renew her covenant and his as well.  Grandpa followed the teachings of Christ in this action of faith which I know was not always easy.
2. Hope:  My Grandpa is an amazing example of this.  For years, my Grandpa has taken care of my sick Grandma and never in my life have I heard him complain about doing so.  I can only imagine the pain my Grandpa has felt with seeing his wife’s health be on a downhill slope for so many years.  However, my Grandpa has never given up on her even through the medical bills, the pain he has gone through or anything else in helping Grandma.  My Grandpa has always shown his hope and faith in the Lord. I know with the death of Grandma; my Grandpa has faith and hope the she is in a better place with her family (Ether 12:32)
3. Charity and Love: (Moroni 7:45-48). I could write so many examples of the charity and love of my Grandpa.  He took care of Grandma for a lot of years.  Most people would put someone like my Grandma in a nursing home and with the little care and attention she would have gotten there, she would have died much earlier.  But my Grandpa has spent the past several years taking amazing care of her.  He has spent the better part of his retired live and money taking care of his wife, never complaining.  Even though he has had lots of bills, he has never stopped helping me pay for my mission.  He has always put the needs of others before his own and has been a great example of showing what true love is as he has taken care of Grandma. (Alma 7:24).
4. Knowledge: (D&C 88:118), My Grandpa is very smart and has always been there to help me when it has come to school work or understanding things in the temple. He has always been a guide to me.  His understanding of our family genealogy has always amazed me and I know that a lot of people on the other side owe him thanks for doing their work. 
5. Patience: This is probably my favorite thing about my Grandpa.  He is the most patient person I know.  He never gets angry or upset and is always very understanding which makes him a great teacher.  It has been amazing for me to watch him take care of Grandma and show his patience has he took her for walks, fed her and cared for her every need.  My Grandpa has been patient with his trials just like we are taught to do.  If I could be as good with having patience as my Grandpa, then I would be a much better missionary. 
6. Humility: (Alma 26:12), Grandpa is also the humblest man I know.  When we are humble, we are able to trust in the Lord.  Especially during our trials throughout life.  Grandpa has taught me a lot of things in life through his humility and example.
7. Diligence: (D&C 58:38) Grandpa is always diligent in the Lord’s work.  All of the genealogy work and family history work he has done have bless a ton of lives on the other side of the veil.  Watching him always put the Lord first has been a great example to me and has helped me learn how to serve diligently as a missionary.
8. Obedience: I know my Grandpa is a man of obedience.  If I ever do something stupid on my mission, my Grandpa out of love is quick to remind me of the rules and the way I should be acting.

As you can see, my Grandpa is the most Christ like person I know.  With the passing of my Grandma, I know that it has not been easy for my family but thanks to my Grandpa, she was able to be with us a lot longer than should would have been.  I really love my Grandma and I learned a lot from her but those memories are personal things that I do not want to share.  But I just want to say what a true hero/example Grandpa has been to me for all the years taking care of Grandma.

Goodbye Grandma!

Baptism of Gabriela, Melanie, Angel, and Valerie

Elders Fawcett and Bodegas with the DL

Week 28 - Bike Crash!!

Hola Everyone,

The highlight of this past week were the baptisms of Teresa and Jorge. I baptized Teresa and Elder Bodegas baptized Jorge. Then I confirmed Jorge and Elder Bodegas confirmed Teresa. I get a little stage fright speaking English let alone Spanish in front of a lot of people, but everything went well and it was so rewarding to see them get baptized and confirmed. At the baptism we didn’t have a lot of members, but we had all the missionaries from our District with some of their investigators.

We did a lot of contacting this week. We have a few investigators we are working with, but no one real promising yet, except for Sylvia. She wants to come to church, but she is old and lives alone. Her daughter doesn’t speak to her and she doesn’t have a lot of money. So, we have asked one of the members if they could bring her to church and they did and were fine with it. But then they kind of back tracked and said they didn’t want to make a habit of it. We told them that we understood. We have asked the Ward for support, but they just kind of got mad at us. We aren’t sure why, but that’s where we are right now. Opening a new Area is super, super hard.

Another thing that happened this week is that I had a bike accident. Basically, I fell off my bike. I don’t know how, but I hit my head and broke my helmet. But don’t worry! I’m okay. I don’t have a concussion or anything like that. I’m just grateful that I was wearing a helmet.

My Spanish is still coming along. I’m starting to get a little faster since I am coming up on my seventh month mark. I just keep studying and doing the best I can.

It’s almost the end of the Cycle again, so we will have transfers next week. It will be fun to see what changes will be made. There’s a lot of missionaries coming in this Cycle, almost as many that came in with me. There are about 20 that are coming in and when I came there were about 25. So that’s pretty cool. We’ll see if Elder Bodegas or myself gets transferred, but I really don’t think we will. Usually they keep us here for two Cycles, so one of us will probably go next cycle. 

The whole mission was told a couple weeks ago that Elder Quentin R. Cook from the Twelve Apostles would be coming this week. But we haven’t heard any more about it except that he might not have time to come. So, we are not sure if her his coming or not, but we hope so!

We are working hard and doing the best we can. Thanks for all your support and letters. I love the people of Mexico and I love being a missionary!

Love, 

Elder Fawcett

Elder Bodegas, Jorge, Teresa and Elder Fawcett	Ward Member with Jorge and Teresa
Jorge Sporting his New CTR Ring	Elders Bodegas and Fawcett with the District Leader
Thank Heavens for Helmets!	Yep, It Is Broken!
Teaching Kids English in the Streets	Contacting!!!