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
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| Elder Steglich, Silva, and Elder Faiclough |
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