October 3, 2011

Hey everyone!

How is everyone doing this fine week? It was great to get all of your
emails and hear that you all enjoyed General Conference this past
weekend. I can't wait to watch it! Well, we didn't end up going to
Sevan today, so I actually have more time today haha. We are thinking
about maybe going next week but I'm not sure yet. We'll have to wait
and see. Everything has been going great here in Armenia though! It's
hard to believe that I have been on my missions 7 months already! We
eat dinner with the other Elders on Sunday nights and Elder Smith and
I realized that yesterday was our 7 month mark. We took a picture and
everything haha. I'm sending it and some other pictures with this
email. Let me know if you get them!
Well, Charentsavan is going great. It got super cold out of no where
this week haha. It went from short sleeve shirt weather, to long
sleeve and a jacket in the matter of a day. I'm going to buy a winter
coat maybe this week or next. I'll let you know for sure when the
purchase goes down. As far as investigators go, things are going
really great! We've made so much progress with Louiza this past week.
She is hopefully going to get baptized next Saturday! She would get
baptized this weekend but because of Conference we are going to push
it back. She is doing so well though. She is so ready. We had some of
the most spiritual meetings of my mission with her. The other Elders
in Char are teaching her grandson and he is ready for baptism as well,
so they are going to get baptized on the same day. Pretty cool huh?!
I'm pretty excited haha. Louiza told us yesterday that she can tell
there is a difference with us and that we have a glow about us. She is
so pumped to be baptized with her grandson and to some day go to the
temple! Our other investigators are doing really well also. We are
hoping for Allah and Kristine to be baptized in the next couple of
weeks also. They are progressing well spiritually and we are starting
to notice changes in them. It is so cool to see that take place! I
wasn't able to see either of them very much this week because we went
on two exchanges this past week.
First, I went with Elder Frye, Elder Smith's companion, and then I
went with Elder Seegmiller. It was really great being with Elder
Seegmiller again. He's about 6 weeks out now and it was really cool to
see the progress that he has made, as well as myself. I had a really
great experience with him during our exchange. We were doing some
street contacting and we stopped and starting talking to this guy in
his 20s. He seemed like a nice guy and we did some testifying and then
he told he wanted to talk more and that we should go into the store he
works at and talk more. So we followed him in and we started talking.
It started out really nice and calm but the tides quickly changed
haha. He was asking about the Book of Mormon and we gave a brief
explanation and then I read the first paragraph of the introduction to
him. All of a sudden he started going off on us about how the Bible
says not to add anything on to it and a bunch of other stuff that I
did not understand. haha. I was probably understanding like 50% of
what he was saying, which makes it really hard to try to explain and
teach things that he doesn't understand. I got out a few words before
he walked us to the door, but basically I just got owned...haha. I
laugh about it now but I was really discouraged about it as we walkd
away because Elder Seegmiller was looking to me for help cause he
didn't really know what was going on. I just kind of realized that if
I don't understand than we aren't going to get anywhere. But I started
praying as we walked away. I was just just pleading with the Lord to
help me understand and speak. It wasn't five minute laters that a
group of three guys called us over, all about the same age. I was just
like oh great, not again. But as we walked over and started talking to
them, I was amazed at how much I was actually understanding. I do
pretty well with gospel topics but the everyday things are a little
more difficult. They were asking stuff like if I could send home for
an iPhone and give it to them for $300 cause it is more expensive
here. And they were asking stuff like if we have free days to be with
girls here, I'm really glad I understood that one haha. I didn't
understand or speak perfectly but I could tell there was a difference.
I know that that simple prayer was answered, not even 5 minutes later.
That just strengthened my testimony of our Heavenly Father. How he
really does hear our prayers and our pleads for help. I know that is
true for all of us. I am so thankful for that experience and the
strength that it has brought to my testimony. Since then, I feel like
the language has really been starting to improve. I'm finding it
easier to speak and to understand. I know that God knows each and
every one of us perfectly. He knows the things that we need and He
knows how to help us. I'm so thankful for the power of prayer. For the
opportunity and privelege we have to talk directly to our Father in
Heaven. I'm grateful that I can pray and express the desires of my
heart to Him. Much of the world here refers to prayer as burning a
candle in a dark and damp church building. But I am so thankful for
the relationship we are able to form and have with God. What a
blessing!
Thank you all for your emails this week. I'm so happy that you were
able to watch and listen from our Prophets this weekend. I can't wait
to share my thoughts with all of you this next week! I love you all so
much! Thank you for all of your support and love and care! You're the
best!

Love,

Elder Fairclough