Tuesday, September 27, 2011

September 27, 2011

Hey everyone!

How are things going this week? Sorry this is a day late this week. We went to do our emails yesterday but the internet was down in all of Charentsavan so we got permission to do our emails today. Luckily we still got our full p-day yesterday. I took a nice and long nap. It was amazing haha. Anyways, it has been another busy week here in Armenia. The work is going really great! I'll start out by filling you in on how some of our investigators are doing...
First off, Allah is doing so well! We've continued to teach her with Branch President and we've seen so much change in her. Before, she would refuse to the prayer in our meetings. Her response was always, "I can't, I can't. I'm not ready." But now she quickly accepts when we ask. We don't understand what she is saying cause it is in Russian but Elder Cook and I were just saying the other day how we can always feel the Spirit when she prays. During one of our meeting we were asking her about her reading and how she felt about it all and Branch President was translating. And I guess some stuff got lost in translation cause I started explaining the importance of having a testimony about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon and Branch President interrupted me and was like, "Oh, she already said that she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet." Haha I was like wow, that might have been an important thing to throw in there! It was a very pleasant surprise to say the least. haha. We are hoping for her, Luiza, and Kristine to all get baptized in the next couple of weeks! They are all doing so well. I'm just so impressed with Luiza. She makes such a sacrifice to come to church every Sunday. She hasn't missed a Sunday since we started teaching her. I have so much respect and admiration for people who make sacrifices like that on a weekly basis like she does. I know that she will be blessed for it. She is such a good example for all the other members here in Charentsavan who live 5 minutes from the building and don't come. Anyone who lives in Charentsavan can get to the building in 15 minutes. That's how small Charentsavan is! haha. I love it though. It is hard to believe that I've almost been here for 5 months already. I hope I get to stay here long enough to finish the teaching process with some of these people!

We picked up a guy this past week named Gayvork. He's a good guy. It was interesting caue we talked to him on the street a couple weeks ago and he wasn't really feelin it haha. But we were walking down the street the other day he yelled down at us from his little balcony to come talk to him. When we went up he told us that he isn't sure if he has much longer to live, apparently cause of some heart complications. But we were able to talk with him about our message and then invited him to be baptized, and he accepted! We'll see how things come along these next few weeks. It is amazing how God prepares people. I've really learned that nothing I do in missionary work is of myself. It is all about being someone The Lord can trust and being worthy to be someone He can work through. That is something I am working on and focusing on. I love being a missionary!
So, is everyone excited for General Conference this week?! Haha I've been counting down for a couple weeks now. Unfortunately, I've got to wait an extra week. It takes a translating team a week to translate all of Conference into Armenian. Luckily we get to watch it in English, otherwise I would get absolutely nothing from it haha. But they like for us to watch it at the same time as our branch so we will watch it the same time they watch it, just in another room. I'm so excited though! Our mission has a cd with a bunch of old Conference talks and devotionals on it. I listen to them in my free time. I'm so mad at myself for all the sessions that I have missed in the past couple of years. School dances could have waited and spring break could have waited. My priorities were a little out of whack. Luckily, that is not the case anymore! haha. I love hearing from our Prophets and Apostles. There is nothing more important than listening and following our leaders. President Monson truly is God's mouth piece on the earth today. I hope you all can watch all the sessions of Conference this weekend. I read an article in this last month's ensign that talked about a guy who shared his testimony about how we have a living Prophet and how we can listen to them every 6 months. And the nonmember asked the guy what they said most recently and the guy said that he couldn't remember a single thing. I thought about that personally and I probably would have had a similar response the last few years. It made me really sad. Well, needless to say, I'm going to write out some questions that I have right now in my life and I hope you all will do the same! I loved Elder Holland's talk at the end of last Conference, when he said that if you listen closely to every talk, the Spirit will speak to you and show you how the talk applies to you. Something along those lines haha. But that is so true! Plus, our Apostles and Prophets spend months preparing for us, so why shouldn't we prepare a little for them? haha. I'm so thankful for this Church and I am so thankful that we have the opportunity to hear from living Apostles and Prophets! This Church truly is lead by God through revelation. I know that to be true. I can't wait to hear those things that God wants us to know at this point in time. Let me know some of your favorite talks and I'll share some of mine the following week after I watch!
I love you all so much! Thanks for all that you do for me. Especially your support. I couldn't have asked for a better family! I hope you all have great weeks and know just how much I love you all! Can't wait to hear from you all next week!


Love,


Elder Fairclough


P.S.
Next week I'm not going to have very long for email. We are going to go to a super old church in Sevan (Sevan is the huge lake in Armenia). Apparently it is way cool and pretty. I'm going to take a ton of pictures and I'll send them the following week! Just heads up, cause I might only have time for a one big email. Sorry! I would still appreciate an email from you all if you have time though. I guess I'm kinda greedy huh? haha. I love you all!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

September 19, 2011

Hey everyone! How is everyone doing this week? It was great to hear from you all! You're all so great. Thanks for your support and words of encouragement and love. I love you all!

So, another great week has come and gone by here in Charentsavan. Everything is going really well though. Not a whole bunch of new stuff going on. Things are going really well with Elder Cook. We are getting more comfortable with each other and teaching well with one another. I'll start by telling you all a little bit about some cool experiences we had this week with some of our investigators. First off, Allah. She is doing really well. It has made a big difference meeting with her and our Branch President together. She doesn't look at us with a confused look as much anymore. We came to find out that she didn't know what the word for to repent in Armenian is and some other really important words like that...haha yeah that would not have been good if we had just kept going. But she is really doing well. I can really notice a change in her. She is offering to say the prayers now and stuff like. I love seeing that change in people! Never gets old. We had a really cool experience with her this past week. She had us come to her friends house to meet with her and we weren't expecting to really focus too much on her friend but as we started talking to them all we came to find out that her friend's husband and mother just died. It was really sad as she was talking about it. Her husband was just 28 years old and they have a son who is 4 or 5. After all the talking and learning about her, we didn't have a whole lot of time to teach but we were able to teach her some of the Plan of Salvation. She just sat there and cried. It really strengthened my testimony of the Plan of Salvation. She had so much despair and darkness in her life, and talking about the Plan of Salvation helped me see how much our Heavenly Father truly loves us. Our much hope and happiness and comfort there is in His plan for us. I'm really looking forward to meeting with her this next week. Next, Luiza. I'm not sure if I've told you much about her but she was a referral from a member in our Branch. She lives in a village about 20 km out of Charentsavan and she comes to church every week! haha. We can only meet with her Sundays after church because she is so far out. She is doing so great though. But when we met with her yesterday we had Alec come in the room with us because we can't be only with women. Alec usually goes off on little tangents in our meetings but usually it is for only a few minutes and then he just goes back to normal haha. Well, we were trying to teach Luiza a little about the Plan of Salvation and apparently Alec doesn't agree with the fact that our bodies and spirits will be resurrected together. Haha yeah, I have no idea. He's getting old. Anyways, he just went off for like 20 minutes. Like he just went nutso. I don't even know what to say. He seriously had like a crazy/restless look in his eyes haha. I was just like oh crap, I have no idea what Luiza is thinking. We tried calming him down and to get him to listen to us but he was just talking non-stop. But Luiza totally just calmed him down. She started talking about how we all just need to be more faithful and endure faithfully and stuff like that. I had no idea how strong she was cause she usually is just really quiet. It was so great! Alec just sat there quietly for the rest of the meeting. And then when the meeting was over, Luiza went up to him and asked him if he'd come to our meeting next week. It was so cool to see! Other than that everyone is doing really well. We are teaching Silva's daughter-in-law, Kristine, and she is doing so good! She has already read almost all of The Book of Mormon! I'll let you know how she progresses this next week. Everyone else is doing really great though! This week was just a busy week but way good. I'll let you know how everyone is doing this next week!
I don't really have a whole lot of other side stuff to share this week unfortunately. The mission as a whole has been in a little bit of a slump so President Carter raised the standards for meetings, new investigators, and people we talk to on the street in hopes of everyone proving to themselves that we can do better. It went really really well and everyone had a much much better week. But this last week was also probably the busiest of my mission as well. It was so crazy! I loved it though. My competitive side came out a little bit haha. We hit all the goals he set for us, except the number of people we talk to on the streets. We missed it by 4! haha. Its funny to see the little things that bring out my competitive side. haha. But I'm really looking forward to this next week and the work we have ahead of us. We are going to hit all of our goals this next week! Haha I'll let you know how it goes.
The language is coming along well. I am starting to notice a lot of things that I need to work on and at the same time, notice those things that I am doing well with. I still wish I could understand more and say more than I can but as they say here "kamatz kamatz" (slowly but surely). I had to give a talk yesterday in church. It went pretty well I think. I was pretty nervous haha. I spoke about missionary work and the importance of us opening our mouths as members of the church. I'm not sure if they understood or got the spirit of what I was trying to say, but I did my best! haha. I think things are going to start going really well with the language though. Even though it is super frustrating, I find a lot of joy in learning more. I just can't wait until the point when I can really express myself and say all the things that I want to say. I know that the hard work that I put in now will make it happen. There are a lot of missionaries that learn just enough of the language to get by and then they stop working hard. In my opinion, they miss out on so much. Learning this language has taught me the principles of diligence and putting my trust in the Lord. I have learned that as we are diligent and doing all we can, and then turn the rest over to the Lord and put our trust in Him, that is the moment when the blessings come. I know this to be true and I'm thankful for that simple fact. As I think of that, I look forward to working a little bit harder than I did the day before. I've been truly blessed because of this.
Well, I think that is about it for this week! I hope you all have amazing weeks! You are all so great. Thank you for all that you do for me and help me with! I couldn't do this without ya! I love you so much! Talk to you next week!


Love,
Elder Fairclough

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

September 12, 2011

Hey everyone!

It was great to read all of your emails today. You all sound like you are doing so well and loving life! Things are going really great here. It was a very busy week and a lot of change happened. I'm not even sure where to start!


So, Elder Steglich and I went down to Yerevan for P-day last week. We had planned everything out, we were going to do a little mini split with the AP's (Assistants to the President) and then stay the night at their place so that we could get to Zone Leader Council on time. So we did our email down there and then we went to this pizza place and ate a TON of pizza haha. Then we went to a tie shop and I bought some really cool ties. It's funny, ties have turned into the equivalent of a pair of nikes for me haha. I've only bought a few but I've traded a ton. I've got quite the collection now haha. Anyways, so then we met up with the AP's and did our little exchange thing and like 30 minutes later we get a call from President Carter. News of the week: I'm still in Charentsavan but I am no longer companions with Elder Steglich. I was shocked. It was funny cause we had just been talking to each other earlier that we should just spend the rest of our missions together as companions. Haha so life goes. But Elder Steglich is now an Assistant to the President and my new companion is Elder Cook. We are both Zone Leaders, so nothing really changed with me. Things are going really good though. Elder Cook is a great guy. Very goal oriented and a very hard worker. We get along well though. Not quite as well as Elder Steglich and I did, but I'm not sure I'll have another companionship like that. But we report our numbers for the day to the AP's every night so I talk to him just about every night. Plus, he told me he is going to come on an exchange here to Charentsavan with me in a couple weeks. We're both pretty excited about that. The change has been different but good at the same time. I really feel like I'm supposed to be with Elder Cook and here in Charentsavan right now. That is what I love about missions. No matter what, you know that you are where the Lord needs you to be.
This was kind of a slow week for the work here. We didn't get any work done Monday cause we had to come back here so that Elder Steglich could pack. And then Tuesday we were in Yerevan for zone leader council and Thursday we were in Yerevan again for zone conference. So, needless to say, it was just a crazy week. haha. Zone conference went really well though. President Carter and Sister Carter just got back from a Mission President's seminar thing so they had a ton of great things to share with us and a lot of good counsel to give. This next week is going to be a really great week! Our investigators are doing pretty good. Allah is doing really well. We had been teaching her at her place and she seemed to be accepting things well but sometimes she would just look at us with this blank stare. She reads in Russian but she is Armenian and speaks well so we were just kind of confused why she didn't understand. So we talked to our Branch President and he told us to meet with her at the church with him. So we met with her at the church yesterday with our Branch President and it was amazing. Whenever she got the blank stare on her face our Branch President would translate into Russian. I now know what I look like when people say something to me and I don't have a clue what they are saying...hahaha. It was a really cool experience though cause we had been trying so hard to get her to pray and she was just having a really hard time with it. But our Branch President explained everything to her in Russian and she finally agreed to say the closing prayer. She said it in Russian, so we didn't understand anything, but the Spirit was way strong and when she said amen and we all opened our eyes we noticed that she was just crying. It was so cool! I love experiences like that when you absolutely know that they are feeling the Spirit. Then theres Yervand. He is doing great! I'm not sure if I told you about him last week or not but he is the guy who can barely walk and has to use a crutch to get around. It is really sad because he lives alone and is farely new to Charentsavan so he only has like one friend. But he is just a really humble guy who just wants to know more and do what is right. I really enjoy teaching him. We always ask him if there is anything we can help him with and his response the other day was, "yeah, I'm not sure if you can help me with this or not, but I really want to quit smoking. Can you help me with that?" We both just got a big smile on our faces cause we hadn't gotten to the Word of Wisdom yet. He's such a great guy! Other than that things are going about as usual with everyone else. We weren't able to see them all this week unfortunately. That family that Elder Steglich and I found can't meet for a little bit cause the baby that was just born last week is apparently pretty sick. So we are just hoping that all is well with them and doing what we can in the meantime. But the work is going well here. We didn't find any new investigators this week but we both have a good feeling about this next week. I'm excited to get to work!
Elder Cook and I had an interesting experience last night. We were doing some street contacting and we came across and big group of like 13 or 14 year olds. It is really interesting, here in Armenia there are two types of males; 1. they are just punks and just mess with you or are just rude, or 2. They are super nice and just want to talk, even if they aren't interested. Well we found out really quickly that they were the first type haha. But they were asking a lot of questions and so we answering them and trying to testify. And this one kid, the ring leader haha, was just saying ridiculous stuff. He was telling us to say the 10 commandment and just kept trying us. And then I noticed that a member of our Branch Presidency had walked up and was watching. He has only come twice since I've been here and I know that he smokes. I'm not sure if he has been released or not but he is inactive. But when I saw him I was pretty happy cause I thought he was going to tell the kids off and tell them to go away. And when he finally walked up he came up to me and asked me if I knew who he was and I said yeah. And he was just like do you know what I am? And I was like a counselor in our Branch Presidency and he just shook his head. And then the kids where all like wait you're Mormon? and he walked over to them and whispered something to them and they all started laughing. And we just turned around and walked away. I was so mad. But it was a really good learning experience for me. He was baptized less than a year ago and it just helped me to see how big of a change it is to join our church. My respect for the faithful members of our Branch grew tenfold becuase they withstand ridicule and what not because they know that this is true. It also helped me to see the importance of making sure that investigators become fully converted. It is hard being a member of this church. But how could we expect it not to be? We are a part of the only true church on this earth, Christ's church. We can't expect it to be a walk in the park. Like the scripture says in Helaman 5:12, the storms will come but if our foundations are built upon Christ, our Redeemer, we will be able to withhold anything that comes our way. I know this to be true. President Carter started out zone conference by having us sing "Come, Come Ye Saints" and he emphasized the line where it says "Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard? Tis not so, all is well" and he went on to talk about the trials the pioneers faced as they crossed the plains. It is easy to think that things are hard. That it is hard being a member of this church and to just wonder why it seems like things aren't working out or why the world is against you. But I am so thankful for what the Lord has given me. For the immense blessings that I have received. My lot is not hard. Sometimes it just takes counting the many blessings that we do enjoy, seeing the things others go through and the way they handle, and just thinking back to our Savior and all that he did for us. I know that this church is true and that we can overcome anything that we may be facing as we put our trust in the Lord and have faith.
I love you all so very much! Thank you for your support and for all that you do for me. You're the best! I hope you all have a great week and I can't wait to here how you are all doing next week!


Love,


Elder Fairclough

Monday, September 5, 2011

September 5th, 2011

Hey everyone!

Sounds like you all had a great week, which as usual is great to hear! Unfortunately, my time is a little short this week cause I'm in Yerevan. We have Zone Leader Counsel tomorrow and we are just staying the night with the AP's cause it starts earlier in the morning. But I did my best to get some personal emails out and hopefully this one will fill you in on how things are going here. It was another great week here in Armenia!
Yesterday at church was especially great! I can honestly say it was one of most spiritual sacrament meetings of my life. To start it off, Tadevos blessed the sacrament and Tigran passed it to the congregation! It was so great to see them using their priesthood already! I could tell they were kind of nervous but they did such a great job. They both looked great in their white shirts and ties too! And then Lusine, Tadevos, and Tigran all received callings. I was so happy that they were given assignments cause I know that it will only strengthen them. And then, the best part was the testimony meeting part of sacrament meeting. Tadevos got up and bore his testimony and did so amazing! He talked about how when we were teaching him he always wondered what it felt like to know that these things were true. Then he said, "After today, I no longer have that question anymore." It was so powerful. He received that confirming witness from the Holy Ghost and it was so cool to see! And then right after him Tigran got up and bore his testimony. It always amazes me how much he knows and how strong he is spiritually. He is only 14 but he is so mature. I think there are big things ahead of him in the future. I really hope so. He is such an amazing kid. And then after him Silva got up and bore her testimony as well. It was so amazing to see them get up and bear their testimonies. That was one of the best moments of my mission. Just seeing these people get up and bear such strong testimonies barely a month after their baptisms. It was just as satisfying, if not more, as when they got baptized. That is what missionary work is all about. I really hope I can stay in Charentsavan for a while so I can continue to see these great people continue to progress and grow!
As for our other investigators, they are all doing really well! Unfortunately we weren't able to visit that family at all this week. The daughter had her baby Monday so they have been super busy. Something really funny happened when we went to visit them Monday though. We had no idea she was that close to giving birth, but we got to their place and they had guests over so we were going to say we could come back another time but they insisted that we come in and eat with them. So we came in and they had us sit at this table to eat with them. It was Julietta, Suren, their son (the husband of the Narine who had just given birth) and then Narine's parents were there as well. So we went to eat and Elder Steglich asked if we could say a prayer on the food and they were like sure no problem. After he said the prayer Narine's dad, who by the way is super super drunk, is just like what was that. haha. Armenians say "Our Father" prayer from the Bible and that is about it. They always make a big deal about it that we don't say it. But anyways he started asking why we don't say that prayer and we started to explain how Heavenly Father is literally our father and how we talk to Him from our heart. Then he turns to Julietta and Suren and says forgive me, and right then I was like oh great this guy is about to lay into us haha. And he just started talking about how cause he is older he has that much more faith than us and some other stuff as well but I couldn't really understand cause he was so drunk. As he was going off on us he was kind of swaying side to side and I was just thinking in my head, this guy is about to pass out haha. I felt kind of bad but I was kind of hoping he would so he would stop talking haha. But he finally stopped and it was just super awkward haha. It was just really quiet and no one really knew what to say. So we were just like, well we've got to go and got up and left haha. The guy was started to do shots so we thought it was good to get out before he got any crazier haha. It was really cool though cause Suren and Julietta were defending us to him. We walked away having a lot of respect for them and we really can't wait to start meeting with them again this week. Hopefully things go better this next week. I'll be sure to let you all know! haha.
Other than that, everything else has been pretty normal. I love being a missionary. I love it all. The experiences like I had in sacrament meeting yesterday, and even the super awkward ones where drunk guys are yelling at us haha. I can honestly say that I can't imagine being happier than I am right now. I love sharing this gospel with others and seeing it change their lives. I'm so thankful for this opportunity that I have to be a missionary and to serve these great people!
I hope you all have a great week! I'm sorry again about the email being so short! I'll do much much better next week haha. I love you all very much and can't wait to hear how your weeks go! Let me know how you all are doing! I love you all!


Love,


Elder Fairclough