December 12, 2011

Hey everyone!

It was great hearing from you all this week, as always. To answer all
of your questions, my birthday was great! Can you believe that I'm
already 20 years old?! Feels good to be out of the teens, that's for
sure. As for the actual day itself, it was just another day of work.
It was really great though. One of my favorites so far. And of course
Elder Seegmiller and I bought some cake and ice cream. Haha I already
told you all that it isn't a birthday without some cake.
Unfortunately, I didn't get the birthday package before my birthday
but I went ahead and opened up 2 of the ties and the cd from that
Christmas package that you sent. Figured it was a fair compensation
haha. Thanks so much! The cd is great and I love the ties! So,
overall, it was another great birthday!
The work is going really well here in Erebuni. Avetis came to church
yesterday, which we were way happy about. We also had a great
experience with another one of our investigators, Gretta. We invited
her to an institute class with some of our really strong members (we
picked Gretta up from the sister missionaries that left the area right
next to ours). We stayed after the class to get to know her a little
bit, and we had some of the members stay too. Long story short, out of
a 45 minute meeting, Elder Seegmiller and I said about 2 sentences.
The members just bore their testimonies about how they got their
answers that the Church is true and what the Church has done for them
in their lives. It was really sweet. We're really excited to see where
things go from there! The rest of the work has been going great. It
has really been picking up the past few weeks which has been really
great. I'll be sure to let you know how they're all progressing this
next week!
The language is going well too. Slowly but surely I am starting to
understand and am able to say more and more. Which, as you can
imagine, I am very happy about haha. Still have a long ways to go, but
things are going great!
I wanted to tell you a funny story about this guy we met on the
street. It was a teenager about our age and he was super nice. He
ended up inviting us into his house and we talked for a little bit but
he was too interested. He really liked us though and afterwards he
walked us out and told us to come back over the next day... to skype
our families. Haha. I kindly told him that we couldn't and thank you
but the kid wouldn't take no for an answer. He was just like, "I know
you miss your families. Just come here tomorrow and any night you want
and skype them and nobody will know." I just laughed and said we were
good but he wouldn't accept it, so we just said thanks and walked away
at that. As were walking away I was just thinking in my head, "man,
this guy found my weak spot" haha. But Elder Seegmiller and I got a
pretty good laugh out of it. But then the next night he called us
asking when we were going to come over to skype you guys. I was like
man this guy is worse than satan right now. haha. Thankfully hes
backed off and we haven't heard from him since. But speaking of, I'm
supposed to get our Christmas skype figured out. We have a few
different options and it is completely up to you guys and what works
best for you. We can either skype Christmas eve night, Christmas
morning, or Christmas night (your time). Elder Seegmiller and I would
like to skype Christmas morning (for you guys) which would be
Christmas night for us. But really whatever works best for all of you.
Hopefully things won't be too crazy. But yeah, just let me know your
plans and what would be best for all of you. I'm so excited to see and
talk to you all! I can't believe it is already Christmas time. I feel
like I was just talking to you all in the airport, but that was 7
months ago! But just let me know what is best for you all this next
week if you can. Thanks!
Just a little weather update, it is really cold here haha. It snowed
and iced up the other day. I was wearing my shoes with the worn down
soles and I totally ate it a couple of times. I didn't stand a chance.
I'm not sure what hurt worse, the falls or my pride. It was pretty
funny actually. The best part was getting up and walking it off like
nothing happened. Haha gotta love it. I learned my lesson and pulled
out the yaktrax. We'll see how things going from there haha.
And I also wanted to apologize to you all. I have Christmas presents
for everyone, but completely dropped the ball and haven't sent them.
Things have been a little crazy. But I'm going to try to send it in
the next week or two. Just know that I love you all and that your
presents will be on the way soon. Sorry!
I was preparing for district meeting this next week and I came across
a talk by President Uchtdorf from a couple of conferences ago. I'm
sure you remember it. It's titled,"Of Things That Matter Most." It was
a great reminder to me to not complicate things, but to focus on the
things that really do matter the most. He talks about the relationship
we need to have with God, our families, others, and ourselves. Being
in the city, it is easy to see how most people are caught up in the
things of the world, much like back home in America. It is tough to
see people try to find happiness and peace in the artificial things of
the world. I am eternally grateful that I have the things that do
matter the most in my life. I have a relationship with my Heavenly
Father, I have an amazing and loving family, and I have this gospel in
my life. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to share that
gospel with others. If any of you feel like life is going a million
miles per hour or is getting too stressful, read this talk. I know
that true happiness and peace comes from the principles that are
spoken of in this talk. I love you all and hope that you all have
great weeks! You're the best and I'm thankful for all of you!

Love,

Elder Fairclough