December 5, 2011

Hey everyone! I hope that you all are doing great this week. It was great to get your emails and see that you are all happy and doing well. Things are going great here in Armenia! Another great and busy week here. I'll start off by telling you a little bit about the work...

So, this week we were able to find two new investigators. As you can imagine, we were way happy about that. Things haven't worked out with Gago and his family unfortunately. Not yet at least. Every time we tried to set up to meet with them this week he was busy with work, but it'll work out one way or the other. I'll for sure let you all know if anything new happens with them. The two new investigators we were able to find this week are Aram and Avetik. Aram is a man from Shengavit, the city right next two Erebuni. We had sister missionaries in Shengavit up until this last week, so now we have that city to work in as well. Both cities are really big, so it should be interesting being responsible of two cities now. We're excited about it though. Aram is a great guy and is actually someone that the sisters met off the street. Elder Cook and I were able to meet with him for the first time earlier this week (we went on exchanges this week and Elder Cook came here to Erebuni with me). He is really excepting of the gospel and actually came to sacrament meeting yesterday. It was really cool to serve with Elder Cook again for a couple days too. Then there's Avetik. His is actually a pretty cool story. Elder Seegmiller and I met him on the street last Sunday and he seemed like a way nice guy. He told us how the church he goes to is too far away and that he wanted to start worshipping God somewhere closer to home. So of course we invited him to come worship with us haha. He ended up giving us his
number and we both went on our way. And in the middle of this last week we called him and set an appointment up with him to meet with us at our church. He ended up coming and we had one of the most spiritual meetings of my mission. He really is an amazing man. He told us that he was so happy that he came to meet with us and that he was feeling light and peaceful as we spoke. And then he told us that after we spoke with him on the street last Sunday, he walked over to his wife who was working in a shop close by, and apparently she said that she was so happy that he was talking to us and that she knows we were sent from God because we are so young and helping people. It was really cool. He kept saying how much he wants his family to meet with us and learn the things that we are teaching too. And he came to church yesterday as well! So all in all, it was a really exciting week for us over here. It's hard work, but great and I wouldn't expect it to be any other way. The Lord is really blessing us and I'm so thankful for that!
Thank you all for the happy birthday wishes too! I'll have to let you all know how Friday turns out. It will probably be just another day of work but thankfully Elder Seegmiller loves ice cream and cake just about as much as I do haha. No worries there. I've got to tell you a funny story from this week. So earlier in the week I get a call from Elder Steglich and he starts out by saying I have some bad news. I was like oh great this cannot be good. He then told me that I got a package...but that it was empty. And then he asked me if I wanted him to email you, mom and dad, and let you know what happened. He really sounded so convincing. But I was like no don't say anything to my parents, my mom would be devastated if I didn't get my birthday package. Then phone then went silent and after a few seconds I hear, "Wow, I feel really bad now" haha. We both got a pretty good laugh out of it but I thought he was being serious. I still haven't gotten the birthday package but I got the two Christmas ones. I'm hoping the birthday one gets here Tuesday or Wednesday. Elder Seegmiller and I have been decorating our place with Christmas decorations though haha. The little tree is up and the light up Christmas sign gets plugged in regularly. Plus we listen to Amy Grant's Christmas cd just about every morning, so we are definitely ready for Christmas over here. No worries there haha. Thank you so much for sending all of that stuff! Everythings else is going great here. I was able to go to a leadership training meeting this week and learn a lot of great things about following the spirit more in lessons. I think a lot of times Elder Seegmiller and I get caught up in the things that we need to say and with saying it right, that sometimes we fail to follow the spirit in lesson situations. That is something I'm really focusing on right now and how I can get better with that. With the help and advice of another misisonary, we both came to the conclusion that we need to put a great trust and faith in the Lord and in the preparations that we make for lessons. The other missionary told us that the Spirit covers up any mistakes that will be made with the language and will allow you to say the things that the Lord wants us to say. I really believe this to be true and am working hard on building my faith and trust in the Lord with that. I'm looking forward to really focusing on that this week. We also learned a lot about being ourselves with Armenians and not robots. This all was things that I needed to hear and start working on and I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to hear that this last week. I especially look forward to trying to apply those things this week and studying more on how I can put a greater trust in the Lord.
I love you all and am so thankful for your examples and support! You all mean so much to me and I appreciate all that you do. Know that I love you all and that you're in my prayers. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Fairclough