August 29, 2011

Hey everyone! Can't believe another week has already gone by. How is everyone doing? I hope all is well. It was great to read your emails! It has been another great week here in Armenia. The work is going really well here. I don't even know where to start haha.Some way good news... we picked up another family this week! Haha I figured that would be a good place to start. Their names are Julietta, Suran, and Narine. It was way cool too. Some of our meetings feel through the other day and we were trying to make some calls and try to get a meeting with someone. And out of no where Elder Steglich decided to call Julietta. She had walked in on one of our meetings with Silva a while back but we were never able to really pick her up as an investigator. But she invited us over that night when Elder Steglich called. When we went to meet with her that night, her daughter and her husband were there. We didn't really know how things were going to work out but it turns out that they are a really great family! haha. They all accepted baptismal dates too. It was such a great meeting. We haven't been able to meet with them again but I'll be sure to keep you updated on them.
We also did a pretty cool activity this week to try to pick up some more investigators. We had kind of like a movie night thing. We pretty much only invited the members of our branch who we thought might have referrals and the really strong ones who can stay under control haha. It was a really cool experience though. We watched The Testaments and had our branch president give a spiritual thought and all that good stuff. We watched it in Russian though cause they haven't translated it into Armenian yet. But Lusine brought her neighbor and we are hoping we can pick him up as an investigator this next week!
Other than that everything is going well as far as investigators goes. We are in the early stages with the people we picked up last week and this week, so nothing really new on that front. For the most part, they all have baptismal dates for September so hopefully things can work out in the next couple of weeks!
I went on exchanges this week to Erebuni with Elder Seegmiller. Erebuni is part of Yerevan and it was my first time actually doing missionary work there. Let me just say, it is a whole different world from Charentsavan haha. It was a way cool experience though. Especially cause Elder Seegmiller just got into country 2 weeks ago. It was so cool being able to work with him for a couple of days. I was somewhat nervous for the exchange because of the language, but at the same time I was really excited to go out and see how much I actually knew. We stopped by their place to drop my stuff off first and we talked a little bit about how things were going and about the area and everything. We talked about the language a bit and how it was coming a long and he just told me that he feels completely lost. I was just like I know exactly how you feel haha. But we both decided that we were going to rely on the Lord with everything for the next 2 days and just do our best. We had some amazing experiences together though. First, we met with one of their investigators named Kamo. It was really interesting leading out on all the lessons and what not. But we decided that Elder Seegmiller would say as much as he could about each point of the lesson and then I would teach everything he did. I wasn't sure if I would be able to know how to say everything I needed to but I just went with it. And prayed a whole bunch haha. But we started the lesson and it went really well. I was amazed at how much I could understand and how much I could say. It was so cool. Like half way through the lesson I realized that I was able to teach it all and that I was understanding the things he was saying. There were obviously things I still didn't understand but I'd ask questions or ask him to say it another way and then I could understand. It was so cool! haha. Then after the lesson we went street contacting. As we were walking we said hi to this group of men and they didn't seem too interested in talking to us so I was going to keep walking but Elder Seegmiller walked over to them. We started talking to them and I was telling them who we are and why we're here and all that good stuff, and then one of the guys was just like come and eat food with me. I was kind of skeptical at first but then I was just like whatever. So we went with this guy and he brought us to his place and we started talking to him and then his daughter brought out all this food haha. Armenian hospitality is amazing. Nothing like it in the entire world haha. So we started eating and talking to them and taught them why we are here in Armenia and what our purpose is as missionaries and then  I invited them to be baptized. And they accepted! haha. It was pretty cool. And then we went on after that and ended up talking to some lady on the street. She was saying how hard this life is and we just bore testimony about the Book of Mormon and how it will help her and she seemed pretty interested. At some point in the conversation she asked where the church was and was just like yeah I'd like to meet with you two, just come to this spot another day and we can meet. So we went on our way and kept talking to people and didn't really think too much about it. Elder Seegmiller called me yesterday and told me that that lady came to church and brought a friend yesterday. haha. I was so happy for them. Overall, the exchange was exactly what I needed. It gave me a chance to actually do what I was saying, to trust in the Lord and rely on Him, and He really did take care of us. What a blessing and testimony builder! I feel so much better about the language and where I'm at. Its good to know that if I was the more experienced missionary that we could survive and get some good work done in the process haha. I was really impressed with Elder Seegmiller too. He is such a hard worker. I did my best to speak comfort to him about the language while I was with him haha. Hopefully it helped him out a little bit.
Everything else is going really well here! I'm so happy to be here and serving these people. I'm so blessed and so thankful for these amazing experiences. I love being a missionary! My testimony and surety of this church's truthfulness grows everyday. I hope you all are doing well and having great experiences in your lives as well. I love you all very much and pray for you every night. I hope you all are enjoying life! Have a great week!


Love,


Elder Fairclough