August 22, 2011

My dearest family,

How is everyone doing this fine week? It was so great to read all of your emails! You all sound so good, which definitely makes me very happy. I'm not really sure where to even start this letter cause so much has happened this past week haha.
Well, for starters, we have had one extra missionary with us this past week. We've been working in a threesome with Elder Strader. He is going to be companions with an Elder that is coming back out this next week. He was supposed to have a mini missionary, which is just a native Armenian member who is preparing for a mission. So they basically get a full missionary experience for a week or two. Long story short, things didn't work out with that so he's been with us since Tuesday. Its been way good though. He is a way funny Elder and he's brought some variety and life into our companionship haha. That's for sure. We've had some way good experiences with the work though. Coming into this week we hadn't found any investigators in the past two weeks so we were really trying to buckle down and find some solid investigators. We had been pretty frustrated about not finding the past two weeks but we just decided to have faith, turn it over to the Lord, and trust that things were going to happen. And they did! We ended up finding 5 new investigators haha. It was way good. Some of them are going to be pretty tough to work with but it usually is a bumpy ride. We picked up a woman called Ofik. She's Rusanna and Knarik's grandma. To be totally honest Elder Steglich and I both thought she was a member haha. She comes every week and nobody ever said she wasn't a member. But she started asking a little about baptism this past week and we found out she wasn't baptized yet so we immediately tried to start working with her. Problem with her is she is very stubborn. She has some problem with one of her legs and she is always in some pain because of it but she just doesn't believe she can enter the water. So, we decided to have a meeting with our Branch President who is in a wheelchair and have him share how he was baptized. His story is so inspiring. It's truly amazing. I'll have to tell you about it some other time. But he just talked about how he knew he needed to be baptized and that no one could convince him not to. He found the missionaries shortly after his car accident and he still had some open wounds and was paralyzed but he was still determined. He shared how they had to wrap up his wounds and then it took like 4 or more missionaries to baptize him. They had to carry him in and everything. It was so amazing when he was sharing this and I was just thinking to myself, "She has to be feeling this." Like it made me want to get up and baptize all of Armenia it was so inspiring haha. And when he was done with the story the first thing she said was, "I can't be baptized. My foot is bad." We were all just looked at each other and had to laugh. It's like she totally ignored the fact that he is in a wheelchair haha. Anyways, way funny lady. I kind of have a soft spot for her. She is the one that reminds me of Grandpa Jack a little bit haha. So we are going to keep trying to pound it into her brain that she isn't too old and that God will help her. We'll see where it goes haha. Then we picked up a guy off the street and when we went to meet with him at his work, we ended up picking up the guy he was working with! haha. That happened a lot this week actually. When we were teaching Ofik and Rusanna one of Ofik's best friends walked in and we ended up picking her up too. It has just shown me even more how much this is the Lord's work. When we are obedient, diligent, and faithful the Lord will bless you. I know this to be true. I've seen it time and time again throughout my mission so far. Of course things never just go smoothly but as you just do your part and turn the rest over to the Lord, He will always take care of you. I know that he knows each and every one of us, personally. And that He knows exactly what each of us need. I actually had an experience this pat week that displayed this very very clear to me. The past two or so weeks I have just been super stressed. I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere with language. I felt like I wasn't understanding anything and everytime I went to speak things just wouldn't come out right. Like I would conjugate every verb and put things in the right order in my head and then I felt like it just never came out right. And I was just getting so frustrated at myself. I don't think I've ever been that stressed and frustrated with myself in my life. I just have always felt like I've had somewhat of a handle on things in my life but it just seemed like even though I was busting my butt with the language, things just weren't getting any better. And one day last week was especially bad. And I just came home so mad haha. I can laugh about it now. Thankfully haha. But Elder Steglich sat me down and just made me talk. And he made me realize how far I really have come these past few weeks. Of course I didn't want to talk about it but as we did I started to feel better. And then he gave me a blessing. And I knew just because I received a blessing things wouldn't just instantaneously get better. But I felt such peace about everything. And I knew that Heavenly Father knew how I was feeling. I know that He was just waiting for me to come to Him. As it is with most things in our lives. I was just expecting to have this great imrpovement because I was working hard, but I needed to turn and come to Him. I could just imagine Him at the end of a hallway with arms wideopen, just waiting for me. I decided from that point on to turn everything over to Him. It was truly amazing the difference I saw, even the very next day. I am starting to understand people more now, obviously not fully, but a TON more. And I can't necessarily speak a ton better, but I'm so much more patient with myself. It has been a huge learning experience for me. Things are going really great. I still have my frustrations, but I just think back to that experience and then I just turn it over to the Lord and trust that everyhing will work out. And it always does. I'm so thankful for Heavenly Father and our Savior. For the help that they give us in our lives. In my frustration I had looked over all the blessings and help I actually had been receiving with the language. But in reality, if you take a step back and look at the big picture, you'll see that Heavenly Father is and has been there for you every step of the way. I am so grateful for Elder Steglich and for him helping me to realize that and for the help that he gave me. I hope you all can take time this next week and just count the blessings and tender mercies of the Lord in your life. It truly is a humbling experience to do so!
I have some really exciting news! Yesterday we had a District Conference down in Yerevan for all the Church members here in Armenia. Elder Lawrence of the Seventy who is in our Area Authority Presidency came and announced that the two districts here in Armenia are being combined to make one strong district. All in preparation for there to be a stake here in Armenia! How awesome is that?! They had told me when I got here that I would probably be here when a stake was performed but I didn't think the ball would get rolling so soon. We still have a lot of work to do before there is a stake here. We have enough members here to be a stake but we need a lot more priesthood. So we are just making a big push for priesthood holders. Once the Church here in Armenia can show that they are ready to be a stake and once there are enough priesthood holders, they'll organize a stake. Nobody knows how long it will take but they really focused on everyone pulling together to make this happen sooner rather than later. They also talked about how once there is a stake here, then there is a good chance of getting a temple here as well! It was so cool to hear and the Spirit was so strong. It was so amazing to see all these amazing church members here in Armenia gathered together. I'm so thankful to be a part of this work here in Armenia. It truly is exciting times here. There is a lot of work to be done but I'm so thankful to be a part of it. I know that this Church is true. I know that this is Christ's Church on the Earth again today. I'm so grateful to be a member of this great truth and to be able to take part in bringing this joy to others!
I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week! Know that I love you all and that you are all in my prayers! Can't wait to hear from you guys next week!


Love,


Elder Fairclough