March 12, 2012

Bari Louis!

I'd like to start off this email by telling all of the women Happy
Women's Day! Haha. So, apparently they have a holiday here in Armenia
called Women's Day and it is one of the biggest holidays here. They
celebrate it big on March 8 and then they pretty much consider the
next month dedicated to women until April 6 or 7, which is Mother's
day here. Interesting huh? That is what I love about holidays here.
They don't just celebrate for a day, they celebrate for weeks and
months. I like to call it "the dad birthday week effect" since he
always tries to make his birthday a week long instead of just one day
haha. I spent most the day telling the women I saw Happy Women's Day
so I wanted to go ahead and tell the most special women in my life the
same thing. Happy Women's Day!
So, this last week went really well. The work is really starting to
pick up here and we've finally got a really solid teaching pool that
we are working with. For the last little bit it has been a little
frustrating cause we've been picking up investigators but then they
haven't been going anywhere. But the Lord is really blessing us and
we've got some investigators that are sticking really well! First,
I'll fill you all in on how they are doing.
Aram is doing really well. Still the same old Aram haha. But he is
progressing really well and is set to be baptized April 7. The only
thing really holding him back right now is church attendance. He comes
to church every week but he never gets there in time for sacrament.
Which we aren't going to baptize him unless he can get to the most
important part of church every week. So we have just been working with
him on that. It is kind of hard because where he lives the
transportation doesn't go by his house that early so he gets there as
soon as he can. We've been trying to find a way to help him get there
but I think it is just going to take a lot of effort and devotion on
his part to get there in time. Kind of a tough situation but he feels
confident that he can get it to work and he really wants to make it
work. So we'll see. It is so strange teaching in English though. I
think I've just gotten into the rhythm of teaching in Armenian. It is
just different cause you learn to say only the essential stuff in
Armenia and then you go to English and all of a sudden you can say
absolutely anything you want haha. But it has been a good experience
for us all. It has been tough doing the Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes
to him without Elder Seegmiller though haha. I'm just not that good at
it. I guess with some practice it will come. GET TO THE CHOPPER!
Abraham has also been doing really well. We've been meeting with him
almost everyday. He has a really great, questioning soul. Usually our
commitments to our investigators is for them to pray to know if the
things we teach are true, if the Book of Mormon is true, if Joseph
Smith was a true prophet, etc. But he just tells us that he already
prays after every meeting to know if what we are teaching is true
cause we should all know from God what is true and what isn't. Which
makes our job just teaching everything simply and clearly and give him
the best chance to get an answer. He says that he believes everything
that we have taught up to this point is true! He also told us a really
cool experience this last week that he had. He hasn't been able to pay
his phone bill for the past few months and hear they give you court
papers if you miss paying your bills. The bill was for 36,000 dram,
which he had no way of paying. But he hasn't had a job and hasn't been
able to pay it. Well, the deadline was coming up and he was really
worried about it. He had an impression that he should try putting his
debit card in and pulling money out, even though he knew there was no
money on there. He said he decided to just follow it and he put the
debit card in and miraculously he was able to pull out 39,000 dram. He
said he had absolutely no idea where the money came from, but he knew
it was a miracle from God. And he said that was just one of three
miracles that have happened to him since we've met him. He has been in
a really tough situation and it was really cool to see how Heavenly
Father provided for him. It just goes to show that we are all children
of Heavenly Father and that He is looking out for us all. But he is
doing great and we are really excited to continue to work with him.
We also found an investigator named Anahit this last week. She is
doing so well. We were only able to meet with her once this last week
but she accepted everything really well. Apparently we spoke to her on
the street a few weeks ago and gave her a pamphlet with our names and
number on it (for some reason I do not remember talking to her at all
haha) and just last week she called us out of no where and told us
that she read our pamphlet and that she wants to come to our church
and be baptized. I was extremely confused cause I didn't know who in
the world this lady was. I had written her name in my planner but I
couldn't remember her face to save my life. But we were able to plan
up and meet with her and it went really well. She came to church
yesterday and stayed for all three hours and said that she loved it!
Like I said, the Lord is really blessing us.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet with the new family this last
week. The dad got really sick and they said that this next week would
be better. So, I'll be sure to let you know how things with them go
this next week.
This last week, on Women's Day, our branch had an activity and we
brought our investigator Abraham to it. It was a really interesting
experience, to say the least haha. At the activity they did a thing
where we went around and talked about the importance of women and then
we made them lunch, which was really good. But the interesting part
was they had a karaoke type thing and one of the members who sings at
restaurants here sang for everyone and they played Armenian music. And
I'm sure you all haven't seen how Armenian's dance but it is really
sweet. I'm sure they've got videos on the internet if you wanted to
look. You could just type in Armenian dancing or Armenian wedding
dancing or something. But they all start dancing. And all the members
here are fairly new, within the last 10 years or so, so they consider
us all to be there own. Which is really great cause they all love
missionaries so much. But they would not let us stay sitting down. And
you all know how I am with dancing. But I figured when in Armenia
right? So they taught me how to do the dance. It will take some time
and I'm sure I looked like an idiot haha but it was really fun. Just
thought you would all get a good laugh out of that.
Also, we are getting a missionary from Ukraine this next week. Because
Armenia has one of the biggest Embassies over in this part of the
world, the missionaries in neighboring missions are going to start
coming here to renew their visas. But long story short we are going to
be getting a missionary that is from Georgia! He actually is a friend
with one of the sisters in our district who is from North Carolina.
Small world. But I thought it was cool that we are going to have
another Georgian with us for a few days this weekend.
Other than that, everything is going great! I love this work and am so
thankful for this opportunity to serve a mission and to serve the
people of Armenia. Even more so, to serve my Heavenly Father. I know
that this Church is true! I love you all so very much and am so
grateful for your examples and support! Have a great week and know
that you are all in my prayers!


Love,

Elder Fairclough