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