June 4, 2012

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing this fine week?! Things are going great here in
Armenia! Summer weather is finally here and it is really really hot.
But that is okay because they sell ice cream cones around every block
so I'm staying nice and cool haha. As of this last week I have
officially been in Erebuni for 7 months! I'm probably just going to
spend the rest of my mission here haha. Things are going great though
and Elder Peterson and I are having a good time with the work.
I had the opportunity of going on an exchange this last week with
Elder Hall! We had a great time together. It made me think back to the
MTC and I was amazed at how much we have both grown since then. He is
an amazing missionary and it was really cool to actual serve with him
here in Armenia for a day. We had a cool experience together. We were
street contacting and we came across this guy. He knew a good bit
about us and he just seemed like a good guy. I talked to him for a
minute and found out that his brother was baptized about 5 or 10 years
ago and is currently inactive. He told me that he had just gotten back
from Russia and that there were things in his life that he wants to
change and that he wants to be baptized so he can get on the right
path. It was really a miracle cause I don't think his brother is on
our records, for one reason or another. But we ended up bringing him
to a baptism this last weekend and he really enjoyed it and then he
came to church yesterday as well. It just amazed me at how God put him
in our path and the chances of all that working out. We are hoping to
get over to his brother's house with him this next week and see if we
can reactivate his brother. What a blessing from the Lord!
Our other investigators are doing well also. Angin and her sister
Marieta are doing well and we are continuing to teach them. They are
accepting everything well but because of health problems I'm not sure
they are going to be able to progress. We'll have to wait and see with
them. Aram is doing well also and is still pumped to be baptized. He
is still struggling to get to church on time but we are seeing
improvements with him and we are hoping to help him get over the hump
this next week. Haik is doing great also! We hadn't been able to meet
with him for about a week cause of his work but randomly one day I
called him and I wasn't expecting for him to pick up cause I thought
he was at work, but he picked up. I invited him to a baptism that was
scheduled for that day and it turned out that he was already on the
other part of the city were the baptismal font is. Everything just
kind of fell into place and we were able to attend that baptism with
him and afterwards talk about what he needs to do to be ready for his
baptism. We are working to help him get some time off work so that he
can come to church on Sundays. Hopefully it will all work out!
Mom, I forgot to tell you. Abraham invited us over to his house last
Sunday and when we got there we ended up celebrating your birthday
with him haha. He is such a good guy. I had told him it was your
birthday and he decided he wanted to throw you a party over here haha.
We ate ice cream and other treats. So, know that your birthday was
celebrated all the way over here in Armenia as well.
This last week was Abraham's birthday and he threw a little party. It
was funny cause he invited me and Elder Peterson, the two other
missionaries in our branch, Elder Steglich and his companion, the
senior couple from our branch, and President and Sister Carter and
then just people from his family. When we walked in this huge table
was set and full of food haha. And so he has us sit down and we start
to eat. And once we get done eating he starts blasting Armenian music
and him and his family all start dancing Armenian style. And I'm just
thinking in my head, "oh man, please don't make me dance." haha. And
next thing I know Abraham comes over and makes everyone of us stand up
and come over with him and dance. He honestly would not let us sit
down. He got everyone up except President Carter, who pulled out his
camera and said he was taking pictures...I was proud of him for the
excuse. I noted it and added it to my list of excuses for next time
somebody tries to force me to dance. But we ended up having a really
good time. Abraham taught us all how to Armenian dance and what not. I
think President Carter has some very embarrassing evidence of me
dancing, which I hope and pray that he keeps to himself haha. We then
had some cake, which Abraham had written a missionary verse from the
bible and then it said Happy Birthday future Elder Abraham haha! For
Abraham's birthday I didn't want to just buy him a tie or something so
I decided to compile together some of my favorite talks from General
Conference over the last 5 or so years and made it into a book. At the
first thought of it all I thought it would be a quick and easy
process, but it turned out to be a weeklong project. I ended up
spending most of last preparation day and a lot of my lunches this
last week to put it all together. It was really hard just choosing a
few talks from each Conference issues cause there are so many amazing
talks! I picked out talks that were about missionary work and the
priesthood and the temple and anything else that I thought could help
him in his life. I've found that when I go through times that are kind
of hard or that I'm struggling with something, the thing that helps
the most is when I go to Conference talks and read about it. So, with
doing this my hope was to give him something that he can turn to for
guidance and strength when he needs. I ended up cutting talks out of
the magazines and then putting them into protective pages and then
into a binder. Like I said, it took a lot longer than I had planned
but it turned out well. I put around 50 talks in there. But the
process of doing it all made it something that I will never forget. It
made me realize just how thankful I am for the fact that Joseph Smith
restored this Church and for the fact that we have living prophets
today who receive revelation for our day. I love General Conference
and for the words of comfort and for the guidance and direction that
we can receive for ourselves from it. I took a few pictures of it and
I'm going to try to send them to you next week!

Love,

Elder Fairclough

Elder Steglich, Silva, and Elder Faiclough

May 21, 2012

How are you all doing? It's been another great week here in Armenia.
I've some exciting news too. As of Friday, I have officially been in
Armenia for a year! Isn't that crazy?! I can't believe how fast this
past year went by. But I've got a lot to fill you in on so I'll go
ahead and get started.
We had an amazing meeting with Aram the other day. He is doing so
great and working his way towards baptism! One thing we have been
trying to help him understand a little better is the concept of sin
and repentance. So we had been trying to figure out how we could help
him understand those principles and the other day when we met he told
us about an experience he had had. Apparently he was in a store with
some friends and they were goofing around and a window got broken. The
store manager told him he had 30 minutes to pay for the broken window
or else he was going to call the police. Neither Aram nor his friend
had the money, so Aram had to call another friend to come and pay for
him. Are you seeing how perfectly that all fits together with
repentance and the atonement? haha. Elder Peterson and my eyes both
got really big as we were listening to him tell us this. So we tied
him breaking the window in as him sinning and him calling his friend
to come pay for the window as him calling on Christ to be freed from
the burdens of sin. It was so amazing to just see it all click and
make sense to him. Big, tough Aram who wants to be a body builder like
Arnold Shwartzineger (?), was left there with tears in his eyes as he
made the connection that Christ is His Savior. The Holy Ghost was so
strong and it was a meeting that I will never ever forget. I know that
Jesus Christ is my Savior and that he suffered for pains, afflictions,
and for my sins so that I can call on Him when I am in those moments
of need and distress.
We also had a great meeting with Abraham this last week. He met with
President Carter yesterday and he told Abraham that in October they
can start working on his mission papers! How cool is that?! Abraham's
B-day is the 31 of this month and he wants to have a little party and
he invited President Carter and us and some other missionaries. But we
have zone leader council that day so I wasn't sure if we were going to
be able to go. But President Carter told him that he'd bring us all in
his car to his party after our meeting haha. Abraham says hi and hopes
that you are all well!
I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Steglich this
last week. It was so great. I always wondered what it would be like
serving with him once I knew the language better and it turned out as
great as I thought it would be. Even though the exchange was only for
a day I was able to learn so many things that I can do better with and
improve on, just by watching his example. It was funny cause a year
ago I had just gotten to country and here we were a year later,
serving together again for a day. We had a great time and I learned a
ton from him. I'm just crossing my fingers that we can somehow
miraculously serve together again haha.
I'll end this weeks letter with a funny story. I realized last week
that I haven't been sharing funny experiences lately and I don't want
you all to think that I've lost my humor...haha. I haven't said a
whole lot about Elder Peterson so I'll share one with him. He is such
a great missionary. He's what I call a busy bee, he always has to be
doing something or speaking to someone. So, last Prep day I was super
tired cause we had had to get up real early so that he could go skype
his family for Mother's day. So we got back and I just crashed and
took a nice long nap haha. And when I got up he was deeply insued in a
game of Monopoly...against himself haha. I mean he had cards and money
going and was even talking to himself. My initial thought was, "man, I
must be driving him crazy" haha. I was such a party pooper! haha. But
I will have you all know that I play games happily these days without
being begged to do so haha. Well, I think that's it for this week. I
hope you are all doing well and know that I love you! Have a great
week!

Love,

Elder Fairclough

May 14, 2012

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? It was so good to see you all yesterday! Man,
I've missed you all! I couldn't believe how big Claire and Bexley have
gotten. They are the cutest little girls ever! Mom and dad, you two
seem like you're in heaven haha. It made me so happy to see that all
of you are happy. Family is what it is all about and I am so thankful
for the closeness of our family. I love you all so much and am so
thankful for your support!
I know I already explained a bit about the work here when we skyped
but I'll go ahead and give another little overview of the week. Things
are going really well here in Armenia. We've been able to pick up some
new investigators this last week and the work is rolling along. We
re-picked up Aram as an investigator this last week, which we weren't
planning on doing but we felt like we needed to give him a call. He
told us he wants to be baptized and that he is ready to make the
changes to do so. We talked a lot about the things he needs to do to
be ready, and getting to church every week was definitely a focus of
that conversation. He got to Sacrament meeting 10 minutes after the
Sacrament had gotten done getting passed and he leaned over to me and
asked if the Sacrament was over and I told him yeah, that it had just
finished. And then he leaned over to me and said, "Quick, reload the
Sacrament." hahaha. What a good guy. But we are seeing good progress
with him so we'll see where it goes.
Elder Peterson and I were thinking that we were going to have to drop
Angin this last week cause she hasn't been able to come to church
because of her health. But we were going to kind of end things off and
we went to meet with her and her sister, Marieta, just happened to be
there. We were able to talk a bit with her and she ended up being
interested. Talk about a blessing from the Lord. We've been able to
meet with her a few times and she seems like a great lady.
Our other investigators are doing well. We are continuing to focus on
the things that will help them to progress towards baptism; daily
prayer, daily scripture study, and weekly church attendance. Three
things that investigators and members need to do in order to build and
maintain a strong testimony of the gospel. Some of our investigators
are lacking one or two so we are doing our best to help them all see
the importance of these three things. But I want to share my testimony
that doing those three things really do strengthen our testimonies and
give us the strength that we need in order to handle the daily things
that Satan throws at us. If we do those things then we will remain on
the Lord's side and have His help.
This last week I thought a lot about where I am at right now and the
changes that I want to make. As I thought about these things, I
started to write down the things I want to be and the changes I want
to make (one of the many things that I learned from Elder Cook when we
were companions). I then wrote down the things I need to do in order
to become those things. I've learned throughout my mission the
importance of the principle of change. We are always changing, whether
for good or for worse and I want to make it a point of always moving
forward in the right direction. So, I've set some really good goals
that I'm excited to work on this next week and in the next little bit
to come. I read a quote recently that I really like that said, "You
prepare 19 years to serve your mission, 2 years doing it, and an
eternity reflecting upon it." I want to make sure that I give
everything I have and to make the most of these two years that I have
to serve here because I know I'm not going to get another chance like
this. I want to make sure that when I reflect on these two years that
I can remember all the things I learned and how much I grew and I
especially don't want to have any regrets.
I already explained this during skype but I wanted to write about it
again cause it left a big impact on me. Our branch president's dad
died this last week and we were able to go to his funeral. It was such
a new experience for me. At the time of death they don't celebrate a
life well lived, rather they mourn the loss and only think about that.
It was a lot of crying and screaming, especially from those that
weren't members, which was everyone but our branch president and his
brother. It made me appreciate the Plan of Salvation that much more.
I'm thankful for the perspective that it brings and the comfort that
we can feel in times of sorrow and pain. Yesterday when I bore my
testimony in Armenian, I spoke about families and how much I love each
of you and how thankful I am for the opportunity to live with you all
again after this life. As I said before, family is what it is all
about and it is an honor and privilege to share eternal truths with
these wonderful people. Truths that have brought me more happiness
than I can even describe.
Well, I love you all and am so grateful that I was able to see and
speak with you! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fairclough

May 7, 2012

Dear Family,

How is everyone doing this week?! I want to start out by saying HAPPY
MOTHER'S DAY to the best mom in the world! And also to my two lovely
sisters! I'll of course get to tell you to your faces when we skype
this weekend, but I wanted to go ahead and tell you now as well. I
can't believe it is already time to skype again. It really doesn't
feel like 5 months have passed since we last skyped. Crazy how fast
time goes by. But I'm going to send a separate email with skype times
and what not.
Also, there have been a few changes with email again and I'll be able
to give more details when we skype but we now only have an hour to
write all of our emails, which includes President Carter. So that is
why you didn't get a response from me personally last week or this
week. Sorry! I'm working on fitting it all in though. I'm going to
start printing off your emails and reading them afterwards when I have
time to enjoy them. But I'm going to try to do my best to fit answers
to all your questions into this email as well. One of the favorite
scriptures I like to share with people is Mosiah 2:41, cause when we
are obedient, we truly are blessed and happy. Thank you all for
helping me and supporting me with that!
The work is going really well here. We were able to pick up a few new
investigators this week, one of which is a 70ish year old German man.
His name is Wolfgang Rickman (isn't that such a great name?!). He
speaks perfect English and is a pretty funny guy. He is living here
cause Germany was too expensive and if he lived there he would have to
continue to work. So he has retired here in Armenia, of all places
haha. He was actually a referral from Salt Lake. Apparently he had
spoken to missionaries in Germany. He made it clear that he didn't
want to changes his religion again but he agreed to read the Book of
Mormon and give it a chance. So we'll see where this one goes!
Haik is doing really well too. He has been pretty busy with work this
week but we were able to have a great lesson with him about the Book
of Mormon. I've found in my mission that if you can get an
investigator seriously into the Book of Mormon that everything else
starts to fall into place. Anyone who sincerely reads and prays about
it will get an answer, regardless of age, social class, or how smart
you may or may not be. It just takes a willing and sincere heart. What
a blessing!
Abraham is doing well. He says hi to everyone. We are going to try to
meet with his brother and mom tonight actually. Hopefully it goes over
well. We're planning on doing a little FHE with them. They are great
people and like us a lot, just not quite sure how interested they are.
We are hoping to start teaching them and spark some more interest so
we'll have to wait and see!
A couple of you have asked about what exactly a zone leader does so
I'll go ahead and explain that. So the mission is made of zones that
consist of districts. So there are 3 zones here in Armenia with 2
districts in each. So before, when I was a district leader, I was in
charge of personally working with 6 or 8 missionaries with their work
and any other training given from the mission. And as a zone leader,
we are in charge of helping district leaders so that they can better
help the members of their district. And then their are 2 assistants to
the Mission President who help train the zone leaders and work closely
with the Mission President. Elder Steglich is an assistant still and
so we work closely with him now report to him every night, which is
fun. Hope that all makes sense!
I wanted to end on a spiritual note. I studies the principle of grace
during one of my studies this last week (thanks for the things you
wrote to me about that last week dad). In the bible dictionary, grace
is defined as divine means of help or strength, given through the
bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ. It reads in 2 Ne. 25:23,
that grace is counted unto us, AFTER we do ALL that we can do. It
hough a lot about the trials that we all face and how most of the time
the solution doesn't come until we try and try and it seems like we
can't try anything else and we have done all that we can. That is when
Christ's grace kicks in, if we are humble and turn to the Lord, like
it says in Ether 12:27, then we are given the strength to rise to any
situation, trial, or need we may have in order to go beyond our own
strength, capacities, or desires. I am so thankful for Jesus Christ
and that because of him we can be gifted with grace to overcome all
that we face in this life, no matter the circumstance or difficulty.
I love you all so much and hope that you are all doing well and having
a good week. I can't wait to skype you this weekend. See you soon!

Love,
Elder Fairclough

P.S.
Don't forget to have some questions ready for when we skype!

April 30, 2012

Dear Family,

How's everything going this week? I hope all is going well back home!
Things are going great here! Armenia is really pretty at this time of
year cause everything is starting to bloom. You walk outside and you
can't help but be happy haha. Also, big news, this last week was the
memorial day here in Armenia commemorating the genocide. Everyone goes
to the big memorial here and throws flowers in by this fire that
always stays burning. Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to go during
their memorial week, but we are hoping to go sometime soon and pay our
respects.
This last week was pretty crazy but went really well. It was my
busiest week here in Erebuni meeting wise since I got here. It seemed
like we were just running from meeting to meeting. Which is always a
great feeling. Like they say, a busy missionary is a happy missionary.
We also had our mini missionary serving with us for most of the week,
which turned out to be really great. His name is Sahak and he came to
us Wednesday and left Saturday night. He currently has a mission call
to the Arcadia, California Mission, where Elder Buel is serving.
Armenians are so great though. It was really interesting cause they
think way differently than we do, which I knew before, but living with
an Armenian helped me to see that even more. He was able to help me
out a lot with the language and also with helping me to see the
Armenian viewpoint on things. Sahak also became really good friends
with Abraham. It was so great to see them both talk about missions and
serving and what not. Overall, another great experience to remember!
Also, Abraham was able to pass the Sacrament at church yesterday! It
was so great to see. I wanted to pass with him but I was translating
so I got to just watch. He is really doing so great. He found a job
this last week which I was happy about. The Lord is blessing him for
the things he is doing and he recognizes that. In applying for the
job, the only day he asked to have off was for Sunday. I was so happy
when he told me that! So we probably aren't going to be seeing him
quite as often but I'm glad that he was able to find some work!
This last week we pick up 4 new investigators. Unfortunately, for us
at least haha, 3 of them live in the other Elders' area. A lot of
times we have to meet the people that we find on the street in our
church because a lot of people are embarrassed about the homes that
they live in. So we meet all these people at church and then found out
that they live in a different area. It got funnier as it kept
happening. I'm looking forward to this next week though, so that we
can find some investigators that we can actually teach haha.
Our investigators are doing well though. Haik is probably our most
solid investigator at the moment. He's the one we got from the
Assistants. We met him again yesterday and taught him the Plan of
Salvation and it went really well. We set a baptismal date with him
for June 16th.
Greta is also doing well. Her baptismal date is for May 26th but she
still struggles sometimes to get to church so that is what we are
focusing on with her. She really wants to be baptized though so we
will see where it goes!
We also had a really great lesson with Angin this last week. We taught
the Plan of Salvation to her as well and it really hit home with her.
She has been in a wheelchair state for the past 8 years and we can
just see how much it has weighed down on her. But as we taught the
Plan of Salvation you could just see the peace that she felt and she
kept saying how much it all made sense. I'm so thankful for the Plan
of Salvation and for the peace and comfort that it brings. It truly is
God's plan of happiness for us and is the "do-it-all" band-aid that
covers up ANY wound.
Well, I'm running out of time for this week but I want you all to know
how much I love you and admire the testimonies that you have. You
strengthen me so much and I appreciate the love and support that I can
feel from you all. Have a great week and I'll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Fairclough

April 23, 2012

Hey everyone!

I want to start out by saying how thankful I am for all of you, that
you support me the way that you do. Most missionaries don't get
letters from their entire family every week but I am so grateful that
you each take the time to write me and let me know how you're all
doing. You're all the best!
Well, things are going great here in Armenia. The weather has really
heated up and we are already wearing short sleeve shirts. I was hoping
to get a month or two in just long sleeve but it went from wearing a
jacket to short sleeve over night. Pretty crazy. Things are rolling
along here though. New missionaries got here this last week, which is
always exciting. I can't believe that it has almost been a year since
I got here. I'm slowly getting to veteran status haha. We've got two
new missionaries in our zone so it will be fun to be able to see them
at district meetings and what not. I love being around missionaries
just out of the MTC cause they bring so much life and excitement that
it is contagious to other missionaries around them. Well, I'll go
ahead and fill you all in on the work here.
Abraham is doing really great! He comes to meetings with us or the
other missionaries in our branch every single day. It is so great to
see his desires to get out and serve God. He talks about how he wants
to be a missionary all the time. We gave him some of our church books
that have been translated into Armenian and he has been reading them
daily. While we were teaching him he would read daily but he would
wait until 10 or 11 at night to read and he would wake up around 12 in
the afternoon. But as he was reading our Missionary Handbook, which
has all of our "rules" and standards that we live by, he came across
the part about our schedules and how we need to wake up at 6:30 and go
to bed at 10:30. He hasn't started waking up or going to bed that
early but after he read that he decided he wanted to change to be more
like a missionary so now he wakes up around 8 every morning and reads
his scriptures and he told us he has been trying to go to bed around
11 too. What a good guy! It always amazes me how he will read
something and once he feels that it is true and from the Spirit, he
will follow it full heartedly. Also, he received the Aaronic
Priesthood yesterday! He was so happy. He didn't feel like he was
ready to have that kind of responsibilty but he said that if it was
God's will for him to receive it, that he would and trust that he
would use it right. President Carter came to our branch yesterday and
told Abraham that he wants to be the one that sends him on a mission
in a year and that made Abraham smile from ear to ear.
We were also able to pick up another investigator named Haik. The
assistants, Elder Steglich and Elder Wahl, actually picked him up as
an investigator but then found out that he lives in our area. So we
did a little trade off meeting and the four of us missionaries met
with him. He is a great guy. He is 22 or 23 years old and he is just
looking for some direction. He said he had never had any desire to dig
deep into religion but that the message we are sharing has made him
interested and that he wants to learn more. We talked to him about the
Book of Mormon and prayer, and that through those two things he can
find out that this is Christ's true church. We are taking him to FHE
at a senior couple's home tonight so hopefully that will go well also!
Angin and Greta are doing well also. Greta was able to come to church
yesterday and she is starting to progress really great. We had taught
Greta a few months back but she would never come to church. And out of
no where she has started to come again and she has come the past two
weeks. We struggled so hard to figure out how to get her to come to
church and then we let her go and she has started coming on her own
haha. Hopefully she can continue to move along and work her way
towards baptism. I'll let you know how they both come along.
Here is some exciting news. This next week Elder Peterson and I will
be getting a mini-missionary. Mini-missionaries are natives that are
working towards serving a mission. So they pair them up with actual
missionaries so that we can help teach them how to be a missionary and
what not. I don't really know the guy that will be serving with us but
his name is Sahak and as far as I know he doesn't speak English. Looks
like it's all Armenian this next week haha. He comes on Wednesday and
will stay with us for a week. I'm really excited to serve in a
three-some with an Armenian. It will be a great opportunity to help
him out and also to hopefully improve my Armenian a little bit!
And unfortunately I still haven't finished conference. I might just
have to read it in the Ensign when it comes out. But I'm hoping that
the assistants will be able to burn it on a disc for us so that we can
watch it during our lunches or at night.
I think that is about it for this week. I hope you all know that I
have a testimony of this work. There really is no greater thing that I
could be doing with myself right now than to be here in Armenia,
serving a mission. Who would have thought Armenia. I know I didn't
cause I didn't even know Armenia existed haha. But I know that I am
supposed to be here and I am so thankful to be able to serve these
Armenian people. I'm also so grateful for the learning experiences and
the life lessons that I come across on a daily basis. And through
those experiences and lessons, I know without a shadow of a doubt that
this Church is true. Nothing has ever brought me more happiness and I
am eternally thankful to be a member of this Church and to be able to
invite others to find the same happiness that I have found. I love you
all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Fairclough