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!