E-Mail 8-16-10

Dear family

This week was pretty much crap! ha-ha Ya bad week! First of all I hurt a baby, I feel so bad it was a little kid in church and he came running over to us so I grabbed his arms to pick him up and carry him…and his arm came out of socket!!! YES came out! I feel terrible. So then I went to the sisters house to say sorry and took the kid a bag of candy and she told me he has always had that problem and it happens all the time. His arm just comes out of socket alot and don’t worry cuz she just takes him to the doctor and he puts it back in and it’s not a big deal! Ya I felt terrible, I still feel bad and she was joking and was like “some white shirts size 14 to 14 and a half would make up for it just joking” her son is getting ready to go on a mission. I’m not sure if it was joking cuz then they started talking about how white shirts here are crappy and really bad quality and all this stuff so if you and dad can and only if you can, could you just get like 2 or 3 of the CTR shirts and mail them and I’ll give them to them cuz I feel so freaking bad.

So also the person we were going to baptize this week didn’t get baptized. She is a 17 year old girl named Tania and we have been teaching her and everything was going way good. We had permission from her mom to baptize her and she loved church. It was all going perfect then her dad got back…he leaves for months for work and he got back the day of her interview. She started telling him everything that was going on and how happy she was to get baptized and he got mad and freaked out and said she couldn’t! We went over to talk to him and he started to come out and saw us and ran back in. I think I scared him, we asked for him and he wouldn’t come out and the wife came out and was just like “he said no and that he doesn’t want to talk to you guys.” She can’t get baptized till she is 18 in March, crap I hate that freaking guy!

Now for the good stuff, we had a meeting with Elder Johnson from the quorum of the 70. It was so cool, we learned so much. He showed us that it is impossible to have faith in things that are not real (such as the Virgin, Buddha and all that stuff.) There is a scripture that says “faith is believing in things which are not seen but are true” so he showed us you can’t have faith in stuff that is not real. Then he asked us “Who can show these people where salvation is? We started saying the members and prophets and all this stuff and he was just like, “Nope just you guys can. The members don’t have time and were not called to do it. The apostles have other stuff to do, and the prophet is way too busy. YOU are the only ones who can give them salvation!” Then he asked us “Do you realize that? and if so do you realize how big your responsibility is???” It was way cool!

I love you guys hope all is well and Darby gets better. I pray for you guys always love you!

Love Elder Fackler

E-mail 8-9-10

Hey family

This week has been good. We had alot of success, we took 8 people to church and we baptized again. It was a kid named Alfonzo, we got his family active again and we got him baptized so it was cool. We should baptize again this week, a girl named Tania. She is way cool, she is a 17 year old girl and she plays this game called Roller Derby, where they are on skates and whichever team goes around the track the most wins. But they hit each other and smash each other and punch and everything! It’s like hockey just crazier and for girls ha-ha!!! Ya she kinda scares me.

I did get my box so you know and are not worried. Everything was in it and works great thanks a ton. My comp is getting mad at me for the peanut butter cuz we have been working out like crazy trying to get buff ha-ha. He just says “you are just going to lose it all with that stuff it is pure fat.” It reminds me of Jordan ha-ha I’ll just have to eat a little at a time for a long time. But it’s funny cuz I always catch him eating it, which makes me laugh.

This week we had a meeting as a mission to learn to teach better cuz the church put out all this stuff to help us teach better. We had meetings to learn the new stuff. I learned so much it really was so cool and helped me so much. My comp and I had to teach a section, all the Zone Leaders had to get a part ready and present it. We did and ours was how to begin teaching, I thought we did a good job. It’s funny I don’t get nervous anymore in front of alot of people, I’m fine. Everyone else was way worried cuz the whole mission was there but I was fine so it was just kinda funny.

This week we have a meeting with the area president, a guy from the 70’s. He is coming to talk to our mission, with just the Zone Leaders which will be so cool.

The day we went to the meeting we had everyone sleep in one house and we started having wrestling matches. It was so funny no one wanted to wrestle me they were all scared. I think since I lost weight I look stronger now lol.

I’m doing good and am happy and loving it! OK I love you guys!

Love Elder Fackler

E-mail 8-2-10

Dear family,
This week was good, as for the work we took 8 people to church this week and we are going to baptize again this week so that’s good! The area is starting to get going and we are starting to see some results for all our work, which really makes me happy and my companion.

My health is great, we have started doing tons of exercise so I’m loosing more weight and getting kind of buff ha-ha! I like it, I feel good and I feel like I look good which is good cuz I don’t have a girl waiting. I have got to come home sexy ha-ha. I want to come home weighing like 265 so I’ll look good lol so I can find my future wife lol.

So a funny story, we have been drinking tons of water cuz it is so hot now. So anyways my comp drank a ton on Thursday and had to pee way bad. We were way far away from anyone’s house we knew so he found a bottle and shoved it down his pant leg to go. He started going and some people came by so he took his hand out of his pants and when he did that the bottle dropped a little. He didn’t feel it and he peed all down his leg and in his pants! It was so freaking funny I really just about died laughing. He was so funny about it, he was just like “well that’s a big problem!” and made jokes about it. We took pics and ya it was way funny.

I’m dying tired ha-ha. We did a service project all morning helping a guy put cement in his drive way. We didn’t have a mixer so we had to mix it all by hand with shovels. Then we had to carry it with buckets and poor it and flatten it and get buckets of dirt and rocks to mix it. Ya it was just not fun! My body hurts ha-ha but the family is cool. They went to church on Sunday so we helped them. That’s a real compromise lol if they go to church we put a drive way in ha-ha!!!

Man I can count my changes on one hand, 5 left that is going to go so fast it scares me. Maybe I’ll extend hahahaha just kidding mom. I signed up for 2 years THATS IT. Lol I love it and am learning tons but 2 years is good no more lol.

I’m excited to be an uncle but if you and Big Kev are being Nonie and Papa I am being a Tio ok ha-ha. I hope it’s a boy that will be so cool. What does Ross want?

Oh ya, last Tuesday I got mad at my district. They were so disrespectful and had the worst attitude again in my meeting on Tue. so I lost it. Some of the elders were teaching and they taught so bad. I was like “what are you guys doing?” and they were like “we don’t teach like this for real just these practices are dumb!” So I got mad!!! I was like “I hope you don’t teach like that cuz I almost fell asleep. If that is how you do it in practices it’s the same in the field and that was terrible. You and your comp should go back to the MTC and start again.” Then I was just like “elders I am not going to be rude to you guys cuz you represent Jesus Christ, but if you don’t try to teach good in the practices we can’t tell you what to do to get better and you won’t progress. That’s why we do these, and then you get frustrated cuz we tell you to fix something you say you already do, just not in practices. Well if you don’t want to get stupid advice from us that you already know then teach like you know it! Not like 2 handicap kids!!!” and a bunch more stuff. Ya I was a little upset for their disrespect, I just told them 100 percent honestly what they were doing that was bugging me (with love) and ya it was funny. We went out and I felt bad cuz you know how I am about stuff like that and my comp was like “Dude that rocked! You let them have it with the spirit!” ha-ha. It made me laugh but they have been better and more respectful cuz I just told them I had had it. I talked to the president about it and he was just like “Good they needed it.” So ya I felt good.

But mom that is it for this week. I love you tons! I’ll talk to you next week, love you!

Your son, Elder Fackler

E-mail 7-26-10

Dear family

This week was ok, we had to lay the law down with are zone ha-ha they were not being very respectful. We had a meeting and had a talk with them and it seems like it helped. We didn’t yell or anything just said the stuff that was bugging us and said “We didn’t ask to get put here as there Zone Leaders, President got revelation from God and put us here and that God put them here so we could help them!” We told them that we can’t help them when they have attitudes and stuff. I think it helped, which is good and if not I’ll just kill them hahaha.

As for me and my comp, we are doing good! We baptized 2 people, ones name is Lidia she is cool. She has been talking to the missionaries for a year and never got baptized. We went and had a way spiritual lesson with her and she agreed to be baptized and went through with it which is cool. Then another lady named Marie. She was cool at first, she hated us but we won her over. She prayed and got a way cool experience and got baptized. I was pretty stoked lol!

Ok cool story, well we saved a dog ha-ha. It has been raining like crazy here so there is water everywhere. There are these huge canals that are full of water, so anyways we were walking along the edge of one of the canals and we heard a bark and looked down and in the canal there was this little white dog on an island. So we decided to save her ha-ha. It is like a brick wall canal, so I got my comp and lowered him in (about 10 feet to the bottom) and he walked across in thigh deep water. He got the dog and came back, handed it out to me and then I pulled him out ha-ha! The dog was way happy we saved it. I think it had been in there for awhile, it was our Christ-like deed for the day.

I’m so sick of being wet! It has rained here the whole week, the whole freaking time. I’m so sick of being wet and muddy but it is my last rainy season ha-ha thank heavens!!! Oh, also we were walking home at night and it was dark and we were walking in a grass field. Anyway we are walking along in this field and my comp is in front of me and all of the sudden he steps and it is a huge hole full of water and he just falls in!!! It was so funny cuz we were already soaked. Ya he was just going along in front and all the sudden he was gone ha-ha!!! I looked down and he is just buried in water, it was way funny. I’m glad he fell in not me!

I’m excited to know if Ross will have a boy or a girl that will be way cool. I can’t believe school is about to start again, it is going so fast. I’m so glad I’m here mom, really you have no idea! I’m so glad I had you and dad or I really would not have made it. I’m so glad you and dad were always in my life and watched over me. Thank you so much, I have really learned so much since I have been here. Most of all I have learned how blessed I was by God to get you and dad. I love you guys!

Love, Elder Fackler