Week 10 in Aregua "C"

Dear Friends and family,

Things are still going great down here in Aregua! It's finally starting to cool down here in South America, which means that now I can walk around outside without sweating a ton, and that's awesome! We don't even have to turn on the air conditioner to go to sleep anymore. It's great.

Last week, I told you gys about a girl named M that came up to us and asked us when we could stop by to talk to her. Well, she keeps surprising us with her honesty and dedication to learn. When we plan a visit with her, she doesn't forget. She sits outside waiting for us. It's really weird to work with someone that's always pushing us to teach more instead of waiting to be pushed to learn more. Our cool experience with her this week is that she showed up to church completely on her own. She doesn't have a mother or an older sister to come to church with, so she woke herself up and walked herself to church. I'm really excited to see how she'll progress!

I also had a really humbling experience this week that really showed me how I need to improve as a missionary, and how in charge the Lord is of the work down here. I was on divisions in my area with a small peruvian named Elder Luis and we were contacting some houses. We contacted one house and stared out talking like normal: "Hi, how are you doing? What's your name? Well, we're missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ --" to which she responded "Yep. I know." She followed that statement by turning to me, looking at me in the eyes, and saying, "You passed by my house about a month ago with another missionary and promised you'd stop by to teach us on saturday. We popped popcorn, sat down with our kids, our daughter talked to us about how she wants to be baptized... and you never came.  Misionero mentiroso." I felt awful. Apparently, when I was relatively new to the area, Elder Silva and I visited the house and set up an appointment and never stopped by again. Well, after pleading for forgiveness, we asked if we could share a small thought. The hermana (named P) consented, and let us enter to talk with her. While we talked, we learned that the family is a family of less active members, and that their youngest daughter is 9 years old and hasn't been baptized yet. As it turns out, her daughter is a classmate of the girl we just baptized named A, and that in school, A talked about baptism. After hearing about her classmate's baptism, the girl went home and told her mom that she wants to be baptized too. And on top of all that, when P (the mother) was still a young girl in school, L (A's mother) was one of her classmates! I know that I made a mistake by not remembering to stop by, but this family is so ready to be reactivated, and so connected with the work we've already been doing here in Aregua, that it's impossible to deny that the Lord's hand was in our second encounter! Before finishing our short lesson with hermana P, we scheduled another appointment, for Saturday at 6:00, and this time, we showed up. We taught the family about the Restoration to remind them of the testimonies that they used to have, and then invited them to church and invited their younger daughter to be baptized. It really did feel good to be given a second chance to help out this family that's so ready to grow!

The most notable even that occured this week though was sad. Early on Saturday, a member informed Elder Smith and I that our recent convert C (the father of the family we married and baptized 3 weeks ago) relapsed and drank alcohol again. After hearing that, I felt really sad to know that it happened, and then, I got scared: if he relapsed and drank, we have to talk to him very frankly about sin and repentance... something I don't feel super qualified for. I had no idea how Elder Smith and I were going to call him to repentance without making him feel terrible or making him feel like the sin isn't a big deal. I went through the whole day worried about what I'd say, or how C would react. When the time finally came to teach them, we all sat down, had a prayer, and started the lesson. After asking what happened, C, obviously distraught, confessed that he had relapsed and spent a large portion of the money he had just earned this week on alcohol. After hearing that, I wasn't afraid anymore. Scriptures, experiences, and words just came to me and Elder Smith and I started to teach. As we started, the scripture Alma 45:16 came to mind, "The Lord can't look upon sin with the least bit of allowance." Elder Smith and I explained that to God, sin is sin and it isn't excusable. Then, without breaking stride, we shifted our message into how, through the Atonement, we can get the strength we need to overcome our weaknesses (with Ether 12:27). I'm not quite sure how we did it, but we were able to deliver a lesson about sin and repentance in a clear and simple way that didn't leave C feeling powerless or that drinking alchohol is a small problem -- we found a balance. In that lesson, I really saw the promise fulfilled that the Lord will give us in the very hour what we need to say.

The work is still going well here in Aregua -- even better after a zone activity we had on Saturday morning. All the missionaries in our zone met in our chapel at 8 in the morning and then spent the whole morning contacting people and teaching lessons in the 3 Aregua areas. I was really impressed to see how many great referrals the missionaries gave us! After the activity, we have 4 or 5 more people to work with that really might progress to baptism.

I love you all so much! Things are great. I'm eating well, I'm not sick, and I know my area better than ever. Thanks for all the support and communication!

Elder Fairbanks

"This is the house of Hermana Ani Salinas. She has like 5 trees like this full of the little oranges that I forget the name for... Tangerines? Something like that. But yeah, she gives us a ton of fruit!"

"My district leader still struggles with my name after knowing me for 10 weeks..."