Hey everyone! Can't believe another week has come and gone! How is everyone doing this week? It was great to read your emails and see that you are all doing well. Things are going really great here in Charentsavan. Elder Steglich and I survived together through our first transfer cycle so we were pretty happy about that haha. We were also pretty busy this week again which was also really nice. As always I'll start out by telling you about the work...
A bit of good news, Lida and Ando were baptized Saturday! It was such an amazing experience. Elder Steglich baptized Lida and I was able to baptize Ando. The baptism was held at the mission office in Yerevan because our building doesn't have a baptismal font. A good bit of members from our Branch were able to come which was good that they had some support. President and Sister Carter were there too which was pretty cool too. I'm really lucky to have been able to have this experience so early in my mission. Especially cause I was able to go through the entire teaching process with both of these investigators. I think we picked Ando up my first week here and Lida my second or third. They were both so happy though and it was so great to see them dressed in all white. A week or two ago one of our Zone Leaders was telling us that his favorite memories of his mission aren't the days of baptisms but the times afterwards when you see them passing the sacrament or giving a talk in sacrament meeting. I was thinking a lot about this and obviously I'm not to that point yet and I'm sure I will love seeing them in the enduring to the end phase but my favorite memories of my mission so far have been in the moments leading to baptism. The moments in lessons when you see them grow and beginning to gain a testimony. Those moments are what make the baptism special. I can't wait to see the both of them in the upcoming weeks and however long I'll be here. But, all in all it was a great day!
Other that that we are moving right along with our investigators. Silva is doing amazing. We had a couple cool experiences with her yesterday. First, she ended up bearing her testimony yesterday during testimony meeting and it was so good! We've only been teaching her for a little over a week and her testimony is already so strong. And then last night in our meeting Silva's sister in law was there and we were talking about religion with her and she was asking us all these questions about the difference in our church and what we believe and Silva was answering all the questions, telling her all about Joseph Smith and bearing testimony that the church is true. It was so cool to see! And at the beginning I didn't think the sister in law would be interested to meet with us again but when we asked her at the end she said she would love to! It was really cool to see how quickly Silva is growing. We ended up setting a baptismal date for her later in the month but she told us she'd be willing to be baptized tomorrow haha. We're really excited for her and how well she's doing. And then as for Tadevos, Lucine, and Tigran they are also doing well. We weren't really able to meet with them this week unfortunately because they both just got new jobs and their schedules are crazy but yesterday Tadevos and Tigran came to church an hour early because they were so anxious to come! haha. This branch needs Tadevos so bad. Other than branch president we don't really have any mature adult males so we are working really hard with them. Tigran also went to the youth conference that the church here in Armenia put on for all the youth. He apparently loved it and had a great time. He taught himself how to tie a tie and then wore it to church yesterday. haha. We are hoping that their schedules will sure up a little more this next week so we can start meeting with them regularly again. And then there is Larisa. Its so fun to teach her. She is progressing really well and is so excited to be baptized. She has a date for the week following this one so we'll see how that all shapes out. Other than that all of our other investigators are doing the same. Ashot and Geyvork both went to youth conference as well and had a great time. Unfortunately they went out of town this weekend though so we haven't been able to meet with them since. But, as usual, we've got big plans for this next week so hopefully things will work out! haha
The funny story of the week actually comes from the baptism haha. Lida is not a small woman and I'm just so thankful that Elder Steglich baptized her and not me haha. And for some reason Armenians are not very fond of water. I'm not exactly sure what thats all about but they just aren't. So the first time Elder Steglich went to baptize her head didn't go fully under. So he stopped and explained to her again that she had to go all the way under. The second time, she gave Elder Steglich absolutely NO help. haha. She just like flung her self back and when he pushed her under she freaked out and kicked her feet up. So they stopped and talked for a second and relaxed and finally on the third time it went smoothly. But after the whole ceremony she came up to Elder Steglich and was like you drownded me haha. Then we met with Silva later that night and we had a member there and she was like "Lida is telling everyone you drownded her" hahahaha. We were dying laughing. And then she came up to him again yesterday at church and told him that he drownded her again. You kind of have to know Lida but she's just kind of a crazy lady. And her baptism just completely fits her haha. But luckily both Elder Steglich and I have gotten a good laugh out of it.
Things are going really well here in Armenia though. Its starting to get hotter here in Charentsavan too. I'm just so thankful that its not as hot here as it is in Yerevan. We have to go to the mission office every Tuesday for district meeting and it is always miserably hot haha. But other than that everything is same old same old. We are both working hard and doing our best. The Lord is really blessing the work here and I'm just really thankful to be a part of it all. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I love you all and hope you are all doing well! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
P.S.
Here are a few pictures from the baptism. I'm going to send a lot more in a seperate email. Hope you like them!
A bit of good news, Lida and Ando were baptized Saturday! It was such an amazing experience. Elder Steglich baptized Lida and I was able to baptize Ando. The baptism was held at the mission office in Yerevan because our building doesn't have a baptismal font. A good bit of members from our Branch were able to come which was good that they had some support. President and Sister Carter were there too which was pretty cool too. I'm really lucky to have been able to have this experience so early in my mission. Especially cause I was able to go through the entire teaching process with both of these investigators. I think we picked Ando up my first week here and Lida my second or third. They were both so happy though and it was so great to see them dressed in all white. A week or two ago one of our Zone Leaders was telling us that his favorite memories of his mission aren't the days of baptisms but the times afterwards when you see them passing the sacrament or giving a talk in sacrament meeting. I was thinking a lot about this and obviously I'm not to that point yet and I'm sure I will love seeing them in the enduring to the end phase but my favorite memories of my mission so far have been in the moments leading to baptism. The moments in lessons when you see them grow and beginning to gain a testimony. Those moments are what make the baptism special. I can't wait to see the both of them in the upcoming weeks and however long I'll be here. But, all in all it was a great day!
Other that that we are moving right along with our investigators. Silva is doing amazing. We had a couple cool experiences with her yesterday. First, she ended up bearing her testimony yesterday during testimony meeting and it was so good! We've only been teaching her for a little over a week and her testimony is already so strong. And then last night in our meeting Silva's sister in law was there and we were talking about religion with her and she was asking us all these questions about the difference in our church and what we believe and Silva was answering all the questions, telling her all about Joseph Smith and bearing testimony that the church is true. It was so cool to see! And at the beginning I didn't think the sister in law would be interested to meet with us again but when we asked her at the end she said she would love to! It was really cool to see how quickly Silva is growing. We ended up setting a baptismal date for her later in the month but she told us she'd be willing to be baptized tomorrow haha. We're really excited for her and how well she's doing. And then as for Tadevos, Lucine, and Tigran they are also doing well. We weren't really able to meet with them this week unfortunately because they both just got new jobs and their schedules are crazy but yesterday Tadevos and Tigran came to church an hour early because they were so anxious to come! haha. This branch needs Tadevos so bad. Other than branch president we don't really have any mature adult males so we are working really hard with them. Tigran also went to the youth conference that the church here in Armenia put on for all the youth. He apparently loved it and had a great time. He taught himself how to tie a tie and then wore it to church yesterday. haha. We are hoping that their schedules will sure up a little more this next week so we can start meeting with them regularly again. And then there is Larisa. Its so fun to teach her. She is progressing really well and is so excited to be baptized. She has a date for the week following this one so we'll see how that all shapes out. Other than that all of our other investigators are doing the same. Ashot and Geyvork both went to youth conference as well and had a great time. Unfortunately they went out of town this weekend though so we haven't been able to meet with them since. But, as usual, we've got big plans for this next week so hopefully things will work out! haha
The funny story of the week actually comes from the baptism haha. Lida is not a small woman and I'm just so thankful that Elder Steglich baptized her and not me haha. And for some reason Armenians are not very fond of water. I'm not exactly sure what thats all about but they just aren't. So the first time Elder Steglich went to baptize her head didn't go fully under. So he stopped and explained to her again that she had to go all the way under. The second time, she gave Elder Steglich absolutely NO help. haha. She just like flung her self back and when he pushed her under she freaked out and kicked her feet up. So they stopped and talked for a second and relaxed and finally on the third time it went smoothly. But after the whole ceremony she came up to Elder Steglich and was like you drownded me haha. Then we met with Silva later that night and we had a member there and she was like "Lida is telling everyone you drownded her" hahahaha. We were dying laughing. And then she came up to him again yesterday at church and told him that he drownded her again. You kind of have to know Lida but she's just kind of a crazy lady. And her baptism just completely fits her haha. But luckily both Elder Steglich and I have gotten a good laugh out of it.
Things are going really well here in Armenia though. Its starting to get hotter here in Charentsavan too. I'm just so thankful that its not as hot here as it is in Yerevan. We have to go to the mission office every Tuesday for district meeting and it is always miserably hot haha. But other than that everything is same old same old. We are both working hard and doing our best. The Lord is really blessing the work here and I'm just really thankful to be a part of it all. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I love you all and hope you are all doing well! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
P.S.
Here are a few pictures from the baptism. I'm going to send a lot more in a seperate email. Hope you like them!
 |
| Max and Elder Steglich |
 |
| Elder Steglich, Lida, & Max |
 |
| Max, Ando, & Elder Steglich (unsure who the little boy is) |
 |
| Elder Steglich & Max at Mission office in Yerevan |
No comments:
Post a Comment