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