Hey everyone!
So, this week is kind of a weird P-day. It is mission wide cleaning day and it is mandatory that we put at least 4 hours into deep cleaning our places and then we are supposed to go get pizza with our districts afterwards. So, basically we have no time to email. I'm sorry! I actually haven't even been able to read all of your emails. I am going to print them off and read them later on today. But I will respond to anything next week as well as the emails for next week. I have some good/bad news. I finally got my birthday package!... haha. I am so sorry. I had a feeling it would come as soon as you sent another
one. I feel really bad though. I want you all to know that that was the best package ever though! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I loved it all. The letters were amazing and I really appreciate you rounding those up for me. They meant a lot. And the scriptures are so great. I can't wait to start reading from them and breaking them in. The journals, and little cards, and everything was great. So, thank you so much! I wanted to just bear my testimony really quickly about The Book of Mormon. I finished reading The Book of Mormon again yesterday and I want you all to know that I know with all my heart that it is true. I am so grateful for the peace that it brings into my life. Being on my mission has really shown me it's importance as well. I have had the great opportunity to see many people gain a testimony of this church and it's truthfulness, because of The Book of Mormon. I have also had the sad opportunity to see many people that once were on the path, but have wandered off. It almost always leads back to The Book of Mormon. They either never prayed to know if it is true or they stopped reading it daily. That is why many of our Prophets have said that it is the foundation of our religion. I know that to be true. I am so thankful for the Spirit that The Book of Mormon brings everytime we take the time to open it's pages and read and for the strength that it can bring to our souls. I am looking forward to starting it again today! I hope you all have a great week and know that I love you! You're the best!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
January 9, 2012
Hey everyone!
How are you all doing this week?! I can't believe another week has come and gone by. Things have been going really well here in Erebuni. I wasn't really sure what to expect this week with the holidays and all, but this week actually turned out to be one of Elder Seegmiller's and my best weeks together. Funny how things work out that way. But I'll start out by telling you a few things that happened this week and then I'll explain a little how they celebrate the holidays. This week Elder Seegmiller and I were able to find a few new investigators. It was really interesting how it happened too. So we went out to street contact and we made it maybe 5 minutes and the very first person we walked up to invited us into his house. When we first walked in his family all looked at us really standoffish but after sitting down and talking for a few minutes they all kind of warmed up to us. There was the man, his wife, his wife's sister, his mom, and his two little kids. They were all really nice and were basically shoving food down our throats haha. But they kept telling us how we have a light about us and how peaceful we are. It was really cool to be told that. And then before we left, we asked them if there was anything that we could do to help and they just said that us coming was the biggest help they needed. Then the father made us promise that we would come back later in the week. All in all it was a really great
experience! I'm not sure if I've explained our investigator Aram very much, but he is 17 years old and he speaks English. He is actually from Austria and is learning Armenian right now too. But he is a really funny kid. He wants to be a body builder and Arnold Shwartzineger (sp?) is his biggest hero haha. Whenever Elder Seegmiller calls he yells, "GET DOWN", in an Arnold accent haha. It never gets old. He speaks pretty good English but not great. He understands really well though. He says some funny stuff such as instead of saying big guy, he says bigger guy. Also, he struggles with saying Fairclough so he just calls me The Max. Haha that is probably my favorite. But we had been struggling to get him to really grasp the gospel. He really likes us though, especially Elder Seegmiller, and he calls us his brothers. He reads from The Book of Mormon every day and talks to Elder Seegmiller about it on the phone every night before we go to bed. But he still didn't have a testimony and we both felt like he was doing it just because he likes us so much. So we decided to be really straight forward with him one meeting this week and we focused on really helping him receive an answer about The Book of Mormon. He said he believed it was true, but we had to explain to him the difference between believing and knowing. We first talked about why we are here and made sure that he understood and then we explained (probably for the fourth time) how to receive an answer through prayer. But this time we decided to kneel down with him right there. First, we prayed and showed him how he needs to ask and then we had him say a prayer. It was by far the best prayer I have ever heard him say, which we were way pleased with. After talking for a bit longer we both went on our ways. Then about an hour later he called and told us that he was feeling the calm and peaceful feelings that we had been talking about, that everything was starting to make sense, and that he knew The Book of Mormon was true! It was really neat. We were then able to take him to another set of missionary's baptism which was really amazing. Normally things with Aram are kind of hit and miss with meeting with him. We found out the morning of that there was going to be a baptism at the mission office for a guy from India and that it would be in English. It was perfect! We really wanted to take Aram but were pretty worried since he is usually so busy. But Elder Seegmiller and I knelt down and prayed together that
it would work out. We then called Aram and he said the usual, "I'm not sure right now, but we'll stay in contact." Things were not looking very good haha. But we continued to pray together and when we called an hour later before we needed to leave he told us that he could come. I know for a fact that the Lord was helping us and that He answered our prayer. Cause things are NEVER that easy when setting up appointments with him haha. But the baptismal service went really well and I think Aram felt the Spirit there. Elder Seegmiller and I are really excited for this next week and seeing how he progresses.
Also, we were able to work a lot with our members this last week. We got fed a ton but the meetings we had with our members were some of the best member meetings that I've ever had. The district presidency here is pushing for the members here to spend more time in Preach My Gospel and so in these meetings we taught them from different chapters from Preach My Gospel. I'm not sure if any of you have a copy of Preach My Gospel, but if you don't I hope that you can get one. I love Preach My Gospel and it has given me some amazing direction in my life. I'll let you know how the meetings go with members these next few weeks as we focus more on that. This last week was really great overall. People are slowly starting to snap back to reality here, just like most of you have been haha. I never would have imagined that an entire country would pretty much shut down for a week. It was so crazy. Sometimes we walked outside and it was like a ghost town. The Lord really blessed us with a great week and I am really thankful for that. Basically what they do here is they just fill the tables in their house with food and just invite family and friends over and have a good time. They didn't do anything special for Christmas, which was actually really sad. You couldn't tell any difference between their Christmas day and any of the other days of the week. I'm not sure why they celebrate on January 6th to be totally honest. They had some crazy decorations all around the city though. They set up some huge trees and decorated them and then some people put up Christmas lights. It was definitely very very different from how we celebrate at home. I'm just really happy that I get to be here for this next year cause it really was an exciting time. Generally, most Armenians are kind of down in the dumps but, at least for this week, everyone was really happy. So, if any of you are feeling down in the dumps, just try taking an entire week off and eating as much food as possible... The more I think about it the more I realize that that is actually not a good idea at all haha. But the Armenians seem to love it! haha.
I hope that you are all doing well and enjoying life. I wanted to share something that was said in church yesterday. One of the leaders said that we can be followers of Christ and not expect hardships or trials. But when those hardships and trials find us, we can at least rejoice in the knowledge of knowing that we are following Christ and are ready to grow and become more like Him. I know that this is true and I hope that you all can remember that if you ever feel overwhelmed or like you are having a hard time. I love you all and am thankful for all that you do for me. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
How are you all doing this week?! I can't believe another week has come and gone by. Things have been going really well here in Erebuni. I wasn't really sure what to expect this week with the holidays and all, but this week actually turned out to be one of Elder Seegmiller's and my best weeks together. Funny how things work out that way. But I'll start out by telling you a few things that happened this week and then I'll explain a little how they celebrate the holidays. This week Elder Seegmiller and I were able to find a few new investigators. It was really interesting how it happened too. So we went out to street contact and we made it maybe 5 minutes and the very first person we walked up to invited us into his house. When we first walked in his family all looked at us really standoffish but after sitting down and talking for a few minutes they all kind of warmed up to us. There was the man, his wife, his wife's sister, his mom, and his two little kids. They were all really nice and were basically shoving food down our throats haha. But they kept telling us how we have a light about us and how peaceful we are. It was really cool to be told that. And then before we left, we asked them if there was anything that we could do to help and they just said that us coming was the biggest help they needed. Then the father made us promise that we would come back later in the week. All in all it was a really great
experience! I'm not sure if I've explained our investigator Aram very much, but he is 17 years old and he speaks English. He is actually from Austria and is learning Armenian right now too. But he is a really funny kid. He wants to be a body builder and Arnold Shwartzineger (sp?) is his biggest hero haha. Whenever Elder Seegmiller calls he yells, "GET DOWN", in an Arnold accent haha. It never gets old. He speaks pretty good English but not great. He understands really well though. He says some funny stuff such as instead of saying big guy, he says bigger guy. Also, he struggles with saying Fairclough so he just calls me The Max. Haha that is probably my favorite. But we had been struggling to get him to really grasp the gospel. He really likes us though, especially Elder Seegmiller, and he calls us his brothers. He reads from The Book of Mormon every day and talks to Elder Seegmiller about it on the phone every night before we go to bed. But he still didn't have a testimony and we both felt like he was doing it just because he likes us so much. So we decided to be really straight forward with him one meeting this week and we focused on really helping him receive an answer about The Book of Mormon. He said he believed it was true, but we had to explain to him the difference between believing and knowing. We first talked about why we are here and made sure that he understood and then we explained (probably for the fourth time) how to receive an answer through prayer. But this time we decided to kneel down with him right there. First, we prayed and showed him how he needs to ask and then we had him say a prayer. It was by far the best prayer I have ever heard him say, which we were way pleased with. After talking for a bit longer we both went on our ways. Then about an hour later he called and told us that he was feeling the calm and peaceful feelings that we had been talking about, that everything was starting to make sense, and that he knew The Book of Mormon was true! It was really neat. We were then able to take him to another set of missionary's baptism which was really amazing. Normally things with Aram are kind of hit and miss with meeting with him. We found out the morning of that there was going to be a baptism at the mission office for a guy from India and that it would be in English. It was perfect! We really wanted to take Aram but were pretty worried since he is usually so busy. But Elder Seegmiller and I knelt down and prayed together that
it would work out. We then called Aram and he said the usual, "I'm not sure right now, but we'll stay in contact." Things were not looking very good haha. But we continued to pray together and when we called an hour later before we needed to leave he told us that he could come. I know for a fact that the Lord was helping us and that He answered our prayer. Cause things are NEVER that easy when setting up appointments with him haha. But the baptismal service went really well and I think Aram felt the Spirit there. Elder Seegmiller and I are really excited for this next week and seeing how he progresses.
Also, we were able to work a lot with our members this last week. We got fed a ton but the meetings we had with our members were some of the best member meetings that I've ever had. The district presidency here is pushing for the members here to spend more time in Preach My Gospel and so in these meetings we taught them from different chapters from Preach My Gospel. I'm not sure if any of you have a copy of Preach My Gospel, but if you don't I hope that you can get one. I love Preach My Gospel and it has given me some amazing direction in my life. I'll let you know how the meetings go with members these next few weeks as we focus more on that. This last week was really great overall. People are slowly starting to snap back to reality here, just like most of you have been haha. I never would have imagined that an entire country would pretty much shut down for a week. It was so crazy. Sometimes we walked outside and it was like a ghost town. The Lord really blessed us with a great week and I am really thankful for that. Basically what they do here is they just fill the tables in their house with food and just invite family and friends over and have a good time. They didn't do anything special for Christmas, which was actually really sad. You couldn't tell any difference between their Christmas day and any of the other days of the week. I'm not sure why they celebrate on January 6th to be totally honest. They had some crazy decorations all around the city though. They set up some huge trees and decorated them and then some people put up Christmas lights. It was definitely very very different from how we celebrate at home. I'm just really happy that I get to be here for this next year cause it really was an exciting time. Generally, most Armenians are kind of down in the dumps but, at least for this week, everyone was really happy. So, if any of you are feeling down in the dumps, just try taking an entire week off and eating as much food as possible... The more I think about it the more I realize that that is actually not a good idea at all haha. But the Armenians seem to love it! haha.
I hope that you are all doing well and enjoying life. I wanted to share something that was said in church yesterday. One of the leaders said that we can be followers of Christ and not expect hardships or trials. But when those hardships and trials find us, we can at least rejoice in the knowledge of knowing that we are following Christ and are ready to grow and become more like Him. I know that this is true and I hope that you all can remember that if you ever feel overwhelmed or like you are having a hard time. I love you all and am thankful for all that you do for me. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
January 3, 2012
Happy New Years everyone! How are you all doing this week? I'm sorry I am emailing you all a day late. Things have been a little crazy here the past couple days and there weren't any internet cafes open
yesterday. It's really crazy actually. Pretty much everything in the country shuts down for the first week in January and they all just throw big parties and have a good ole time. It made missionary work this past week pretty interesting cause they were all preparing for this week. Armenians save up ALL year just for this week and then they just blow it in a matter of a few days. What they do is they make a ton of food and buy a ton of food and then just set it out on a table for the whole week and they just have family and friends come over throughout the week and they eat and party. We got the first dose of it yesterday actually. We went to a members house and they pretty much forced food down our throats for about an hour haha. I've also run into some of the most drunk people that I have ever seen in my life these past two days haha. On the other hand so many more people are willing to talk to us right now, cause at least for this one week there aren't any problems here in Armenia haha. People are just coming up to us and saying hi and telling us Happy New Year, which typically is a very rare thing. So, there are definitely some upsides to the holiday. It will be really interesting to see how the rest of the week progresses though.
As I said earlier, the work was a little slow this week. Everyone was getting ready for New Years and said they didn't have time to meet. But we have a pretty packed week for this week cause when we were trying to get meetings last week they all told us we have to come next week. Things were really crazy here. People were just going to the grocery stores and making food, so it wasn't too productive of a week on the streets either. I think this next week is going to be really good though. It will be good to take advantage of everyone being in such a good mood and hopefully we'll see some really great things flow from that. I'm sure we'll eat some really interesting things this next week as well. I've already eaten a beet salad... haha. I just wrapped it in a ton of bread and shoved it down my throat. I'm sure there will be worse to come. I realized that I have definitely grown a lot with the foods that I eat these past few months cause I'm not sure I could have finished that 10 months ago haha. Elder Seegmiller and I are really trying to us the church video Joy to the World as a finding tool on the street this next week, as well as with members. We both feel that a lot of Armenians get caught up in the festivities of the week and don't remember Christ as much, so we are definitely trying to focus everything we do as we street contact on Christ. It is really sad to see these people get so caught up in the food and alcohol and the worldly things. They celebrate Christmas on January 6, and as far as I can tell, it kind of melts away into the week because they've been partying for the 6 days before. We'll see though. We've been
focusing all of our lessons with members on Christ as well which has been a really great experience for me. I mean, we always teach and testify of Christ but we've put an extra emphasis on Him this last
week and it has been really great to see the Spirit that has come into our work. It has really shown me the importance of always keeping everything we do centered on Christ. Because these people all believe in Christ, I sometimes don't put as much emphasis as I should on the Savior, but this last week has shown me the importance of that. Everything in this gospel is made possible through Christ and He truly is our perfect example. I was reading a little in John this last week, and Christ is talking to the apostles and He tells them, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." I was just thinking about how true that is. We show Christ our love for Him by keeping His commandments. It is that simple. The people here have great faith and believe in Christ, but because they don't have the fullness of Christ's gospel, they aren't keeping all of His commandments. That is why we teach the gospel and invite them to be baptized, so that they can show their love for Christ by keeping all of His commandments. I'm truly thankful for the opportunity that I have to spread that gospel and to help others to show their love for Christ. It truly is a blessing to be able to do that and is a way that I can show my love for Him. This is an amazing work and I am so grateful to be a part of it! We had an opportunity this last week to bring a bit of the Christmas spirit to some of our members. We chose a few families and members from our branch that are really struggling right now and we decided to help them the only way we knew how... by leaving bags of food on their doorstep and knock and run haha. Elder Seegmiller and I, as well as the two elders in the city next to ours, all got together and bought a ton of food (in case you're wondering where some money went from my account...haha). It was really fun to still help people the way that our family and Elder Seegmiller's family has always helped others. It was so much fun though. I have some funny videos to show you in the future. But it felt really good to help some people who did have anything to celebrate the New Years, let alone do the traditional Armenian week long celebration. We weren't able to give a lot but the spirit of Christmas really hit us and reminded us what it is all about. I love this time of year and the opportunities that we have to lift others. I am so gratefully for all of you and for always setting such an amazing example for me and showing me what Christmas is all about!
Well, I think that about does it for this week. I hope you are all doing well and know that I love you. Stay healthy, be safe, and enjoy the holidays! I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
yesterday. It's really crazy actually. Pretty much everything in the country shuts down for the first week in January and they all just throw big parties and have a good ole time. It made missionary work this past week pretty interesting cause they were all preparing for this week. Armenians save up ALL year just for this week and then they just blow it in a matter of a few days. What they do is they make a ton of food and buy a ton of food and then just set it out on a table for the whole week and they just have family and friends come over throughout the week and they eat and party. We got the first dose of it yesterday actually. We went to a members house and they pretty much forced food down our throats for about an hour haha. I've also run into some of the most drunk people that I have ever seen in my life these past two days haha. On the other hand so many more people are willing to talk to us right now, cause at least for this one week there aren't any problems here in Armenia haha. People are just coming up to us and saying hi and telling us Happy New Year, which typically is a very rare thing. So, there are definitely some upsides to the holiday. It will be really interesting to see how the rest of the week progresses though.
As I said earlier, the work was a little slow this week. Everyone was getting ready for New Years and said they didn't have time to meet. But we have a pretty packed week for this week cause when we were trying to get meetings last week they all told us we have to come next week. Things were really crazy here. People were just going to the grocery stores and making food, so it wasn't too productive of a week on the streets either. I think this next week is going to be really good though. It will be good to take advantage of everyone being in such a good mood and hopefully we'll see some really great things flow from that. I'm sure we'll eat some really interesting things this next week as well. I've already eaten a beet salad... haha. I just wrapped it in a ton of bread and shoved it down my throat. I'm sure there will be worse to come. I realized that I have definitely grown a lot with the foods that I eat these past few months cause I'm not sure I could have finished that 10 months ago haha. Elder Seegmiller and I are really trying to us the church video Joy to the World as a finding tool on the street this next week, as well as with members. We both feel that a lot of Armenians get caught up in the festivities of the week and don't remember Christ as much, so we are definitely trying to focus everything we do as we street contact on Christ. It is really sad to see these people get so caught up in the food and alcohol and the worldly things. They celebrate Christmas on January 6, and as far as I can tell, it kind of melts away into the week because they've been partying for the 6 days before. We'll see though. We've been
focusing all of our lessons with members on Christ as well which has been a really great experience for me. I mean, we always teach and testify of Christ but we've put an extra emphasis on Him this last
week and it has been really great to see the Spirit that has come into our work. It has really shown me the importance of always keeping everything we do centered on Christ. Because these people all believe in Christ, I sometimes don't put as much emphasis as I should on the Savior, but this last week has shown me the importance of that. Everything in this gospel is made possible through Christ and He truly is our perfect example. I was reading a little in John this last week, and Christ is talking to the apostles and He tells them, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." I was just thinking about how true that is. We show Christ our love for Him by keeping His commandments. It is that simple. The people here have great faith and believe in Christ, but because they don't have the fullness of Christ's gospel, they aren't keeping all of His commandments. That is why we teach the gospel and invite them to be baptized, so that they can show their love for Christ by keeping all of His commandments. I'm truly thankful for the opportunity that I have to spread that gospel and to help others to show their love for Christ. It truly is a blessing to be able to do that and is a way that I can show my love for Him. This is an amazing work and I am so grateful to be a part of it! We had an opportunity this last week to bring a bit of the Christmas spirit to some of our members. We chose a few families and members from our branch that are really struggling right now and we decided to help them the only way we knew how... by leaving bags of food on their doorstep and knock and run haha. Elder Seegmiller and I, as well as the two elders in the city next to ours, all got together and bought a ton of food (in case you're wondering where some money went from my account...haha). It was really fun to still help people the way that our family and Elder Seegmiller's family has always helped others. It was so much fun though. I have some funny videos to show you in the future. But it felt really good to help some people who did have anything to celebrate the New Years, let alone do the traditional Armenian week long celebration. We weren't able to give a lot but the spirit of Christmas really hit us and reminded us what it is all about. I love this time of year and the opportunities that we have to lift others. I am so gratefully for all of you and for always setting such an amazing example for me and showing me what Christmas is all about!
Well, I think that about does it for this week. I hope you are all doing well and know that I love you. Stay healthy, be safe, and enjoy the holidays! I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
December 26, 2011
Hey everyone!
We're a little short on time for emails this week but I still wanted
to write an email and wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope you all
know that I love you very much and am so thankful for each one of you.
I want you all to know that I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and
Redeemer. I know that He loves us all. It is because of that love that
He fulfilled all that Heavenly Father sent Him to do. It is because of
that love that we can be cleansed from sin and live with our Heavenly
Father after this life. I am eternally grateful for Jesus Christ and
all that He has done for me. I have felt of His love in my life and I
am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to share this gospel,
so that others can feel that same love in their lives as well. This
Christmas time brings a great spirit into the world and I hope that
each of you have felt that this December. I testify that Jesus Christ
lives and that He loves us all. I hope you all have a great Christmas
and know of my love for each of you!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
We're a little short on time for emails this week but I still wanted
to write an email and wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope you all
know that I love you very much and am so thankful for each one of you.
I want you all to know that I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and
Redeemer. I know that He loves us all. It is because of that love that
He fulfilled all that Heavenly Father sent Him to do. It is because of
that love that we can be cleansed from sin and live with our Heavenly
Father after this life. I am eternally grateful for Jesus Christ and
all that He has done for me. I have felt of His love in my life and I
am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to share this gospel,
so that others can feel that same love in their lives as well. This
Christmas time brings a great spirit into the world and I hope that
each of you have felt that this December. I testify that Jesus Christ
lives and that He loves us all. I hope you all have a great Christmas
and know of my love for each of you!
Love,
Elder Fairclough
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