Happy Easter!!!

Friends and family!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!! Such an awesome time of year! It's been so cool to be a missionary at this time and ponder everything Jesus Christ has done for us! Our dinner cancelled on Easter so we just made sandwiches but it was still awesome!! 

And my uncle Eric is being baptized! That's so awesome! I wish I could be there for it but hey it's all good! It's going to be the best decision you'll have ever made! I love you guys! 

Well this week was awesome!! I love the Samoan ward! It's kinda awesome because when I tell them that I served in Samoa for a little bit they just light up! And they love that I can speak the language too! It surprises the heck out of them!! I love it! So one super cool thing is we were talking to our bishop and he grew up in Alafua and that was basically right in the center of my area in Samoa! He was explaining where he lived  and I had dinner with his two of his nephews so it's kinda awesome! Again..... It's a small world!!

So my companion is Elder Judd from Arizona and he is the man! I could have seen us being super good friends back home! It's always nice when you get a companion and you're like best friends! He's teaching me how to play the ukulele so soon I'll be able to play some good stuff!:) and he loves subway too!!!!

Our area is huge! We cover northern anchorage and eagle river and into wasilla so it's pretty big!! Remember when I was back home and I said I wanted to go to Compton? Well we cover mountain view which is basically the Compton of Alaska! It's awesome!

Our week has been filled with talking to less actives! Our bishop gave us a list with all the less actives so we have just been calling and visiting trying to get people back to church! And they came!!!! We had soooo many people at church on Sunday! Hopefully they all keep coming haha!

Haha so one thing I love is our first counselor! His name is brother brown and he's hilarious!!! He always calls us gay and not to fufu and he calls everyone n*ggers and he's this old crazy guy!!! 

On Saturday night elder Judd and I had take some stuff to the mission home and then ended up having dinner with president and sister Robinson so that was cool! 

Well that's all I can really think of this week! It's so cool to be back in the Samoan culture again because the people are just too awesome! I love speaking and learning the language again too! I haven't really had any Samoan food yet but probably this week! Well hopefully! Happy Easter again! I love and miss you guys! You're in all my prayers!

Love, Elder Fawson

I got transferred to the Samoan ward!!

Friends and family!!!

Well to start off thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! I got lots of emails on Wednesday and it was pretty awesome! We had dinner with a family and somehow they found out it was my birthday (I think I mentioned in my sacrament talk) and they made me a cake and sang to me! It was kinda awesome! 

Oh and transfer calls were on Friday and IM BEING TRANSFERED TO A SAMOAN WARD! It's the northern lights ward and it's I'm northern anchorage but we basically cover all of anchorage if they speak Samoan! Crazy! So on Wednesday morning I go there! I'm so excited! 

Well this week was pretty awesome! On Monday we had a super busy day and ran all over anchorage doing errends and getting some stuff! 

On Tuesday we had district meeting and after our zone was together and we guessed where everyone was going and what was going to happen! Haha it was so fun! The YSA missionaries and us did lots of Tracting in our area this week because we don't have any investigators at the moment! But anyway after that we Did some service for an older lady! We just gathered a bunch of garbage around her house and took it to the dumps! We do lots of service for people. I love it! It was also free ice cream cone day at Dairy Queen so went there 3 times! It was awesome!!!!

On Wednesday well it was my birthday!:) we did some Tracting in the morning after studies until lunch! We met the cook inlet elders and went to IHOP for lunch because we got gift cards! Haha so that's so funny! After that our zone went and helped that one guy that we helped move take some trash to the dumps and stuff! It was fun! We had dinner with the Sego family and they made a cake and stuff! It was super cool! I. Don't know what it was about it but I was just in such a good mood and wanted to just work!!

On Thursday we did a lot of Tracting! Like ALL DAY!!!!! And the weirdest things happen! It's the funniest thing ever because sometimes you just have to laugh instead of becoming discouraged! Your fear of man definitely goes away that's for sure! One of the doors this native guy opened the door and start like singing and acting out bible scriptures and it was hilarious! He had like 300 note cards in his pocket he pulled out and started like saying random ones and we were just dieing on this guys front porch!!

Friday was an interesting day because we had transfer calls that night so you're mind is just going 110 MPH and it like the feeling of Christmas Eve! So like I said before I'm going to a Samoan ward and I will be with elder Judd and he is awesome! I met him a little bit at our Iditarod service! im excited!

Saturday we went to the baptism of this girl makayla that Klatt ward Elders had! It was really awesome! There was a million people there so we didn't stay very long so that all the other people could be there and sit and everything! After we went to Costco for lunch with a companionship in our zone! Nothing like paying a $1.50 for a drink and polish dog! It's the best! And then after we basically just Tracted with the cook inlet YSA elders! And on Saturday nights our zone gets together and does zone caroling to investigators or less actives and such! And man is it fun! Haha it's a blast! 

Well that was kinda my week! Not a whole lot of lessons because we are just looking for people to teach! We shared the new Easter initiative video called #hallelujah with tons of people and everyone actually really likes it! It's awesome how just a 2 minute video can bring the spirit sooooo quick! It's really kinda awesome! 

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! They were awesome and made my day! Love you guys! 

1 Nephi 9:6

Love, Elder Fawson

Joke of the week: What did the Mexican fire chief name is two sons?

                                Hose a and hose b

Friends and family!!

Holy crap this week went by quick! This week was awesome! So last P-Day we went on this hike up flat top mountain in the snow and man was it awesome! With it being snowy we slid down the side of it to get back down and that was probably the sketchiest and craziest thing I've ever done! haha I'll try to get a video of it the next time we go! 

On Tuesday we did exchanges with our zone leaders after district meeting and I went with elder Garver to his area! He's the funniest guy ever and from Provo! So we did lots of door knocking and well you never know what you are going to get when you knock on the door of a random house! One of the houses we knocked and this lady said to come in so we just cracked the door open and this lady was just distraught and sobbing. We asked her what was going on and if she needed any help and she was telling us that she has to murder her best friend and we were like Ohhhh no no no! Come to find out she was talking about her cat that was appearently dieing of liver failure! She kept asking us if God was going to forgive her and she kept saying she was going to go to heck and stuff like that so we kinda just gave her a card with our number on and got the heck out! We think she was on drugs because her house smelt kinda funky too!

On Wednesday we finished our exchange and it was awesome to be with elder Garver. Goes home in like a month in a half so he taught me lots of tricks of the trade! Haha we then went to help some other missionaries in our zone move a guy! We pretty much helped him all day so that was fun to do some service! 

On Thursday we did lots of tracting in our area and got lots of doors to the face! It was just awesome! I'm not sure why but I love it! Haha and then towards the end of the day elder Bailey began to spend much time in the bathroom with good ole diarrhea! Haha he had a fever and no energy and the nurse came and look at him and said he had this flu type bug going around and told us we had to stay in the rest of the night and the day after so we basically just sat around the apartment all Friday! Good thing for ipads! I just watched a bunch of gospel videos while elder Bailey slept! It wasn't too much fun!

Saturday was pretty dang awesome! We did a distract tract in a little town called Girdwood and it is so cool there! The drive from anchorage to Girdwood is actually one of the top 5 most beautiful drives in the US! It was awesome! We got dropped of in a van to a road and basically knocked doors and talked to people! There were some guys we talked to that were doing stuff out front and they talked to us and then there were people that told us to get off their property so it was kinda crazy! Haha all you can do is just laugh! We did that for a little bit them went back to our areas and we did some tracting after! We actually some pretty awesome people! There was this one guy that hunts in Utah all the time and showed us all of his animals that he shot and invited us to come back! So that's way cool and then we met another guy that seemed really interested and was going somewhere and told us to come back! So we have some things rolling! 

Sunday we got the just stupendous opportunity to speak in sacrament... And it was actually really good. I didn't feel nervous at all! I had explained our I'm related to Dottie and all the old lady's came up to me after and telling me how much they loved her and taking pictures of me to send to her so it was kinda funny! I met a sister bluemail and she grew up in Roosevelt Utah and she told me she knows my grandma and they grew up together! Small world!! It's crazy!  I felt like today I got comfortable in the ward! We have transfer calls coming up this week on Thursday so we will see what happens! 

This week was pretty dang awesome! Just know it's all true! I love you all sooo much and I think it so awesome that josh and kass got their mission calls! We are all right by eachother! Crazy!!

Love, Elder Fawson

ALASKA!

Family and Friends,

Well I'm in the last frontier! And I have had some crazy experiences already!! It's a small world for sure! When I was first leaving I was sitting at my gate and this guy came up to me and said "good luck Elder Fawson" and I said "thanks!" Haha then he said "I served with a Paul Fawson in the Philippines and he's a foot doctor now!" And I said "hey that's my uncle!" It was crazy!!! And I am serving in the O'Malley ward in anchorage which I was told is my aunt Dotties former ward! And they all know her so it's way cool! It seems like everyone I run into we have something in common! Oh and next Sunday we get to speak I'm sacrament so that will be just... Awesome haha!

And some cool blessings I have now is an iPad and a car and a pretty nice apartment! AND SOME WARM WATER SHOWERS!! Pretty awesome!!!! One cool thing I've done here too is fixed the heater in our apartment! They kept sending people out to fix it and it didnt work so all those a/c's I put in with my dad was a good thing! It was 49 degrees and so I took the thermostat off and there was some toggle switches that needed to be adjusted and now it's nice and warm!! Thanks dad!!!!

Well Alaska is pretty dang awesome! The best way to describe where I'm at is its kinda like park city!!! Haha it's sooooooo cold too!!! Down right nippy!!! And there is solid slick ice everywhere too! (I've already slipped and fell a few times haha!) 

My companion is Elder Bailey from Moroni Utah! He's been out for 15 months and is pretty fetching awesome! He's a hard worker too!! So I'm in an English ward! I'll probably be going to a Samoan branch when I'm transfer somewhere else! It's kinda weird teaching in English! It's a bit easier haha! But when I got here everyone already knew me and everything it was kinda funny! And they were all like saying hello and everything in Samoan and trying to see how good I could speak it was funny!

I came at an awesome time with the Iditarod up here! It's basically like the Olympics! We got the opportunity to do some service in it!! So they have a ceremonial start and they just run down this street a couple miles and people come watch and everything! So they had a snow path going through these roads and we would be stationed at intersections and they would let cars go though and then stop traffic so we could rake the snow back up for the dogs to come though because they when through one at a time and there are 86 of them! It was one of the the coolest things ever! I'll send pictures!!

Man the elders are so awesome here in my zone and everything! It's an awesome atmosphere! We are just looking for lots of people in our area to teach and going through the area book and referrals! 

Well with having my iPad we get to look at our email whenever we are on wifi and we are usually on wifi everyday so if you ever feel like sending an email or picture or anything feel free! I just can't reply until p day!!

Well it's crazy to be back out and just back to email again! I know it's all true! I love you all back home and be safe, make good choices, and Jesus loves you! Love you guys!

Love, 
Elder Fawson

 

Back to the MRC!😔

Malo Lava Soifua! 

Well This week has been pretty good! Sadly this week on Tuesday I started to have the symptoms of chicken kunea come back so the nurse here and President and Sister Hanneman told me to stay down most of the week so well thats basically my week!

We had an island conference this week and so that was cool! One of the really cool things we are doing is the missionaries on the island of Upolu are going to be singing to the Prime Minister of Samoa on December 24th so that will be really awesome! 

At that zone conference I learned a lot of cool things and one of them was about prayer and not using repetion! And President related it to emailing our families! If we just pray the same thing every morning and night to our heavenly father it is like emailing our families the same thing every night so that was something that really got me thinking about my prayers and how I can make it more meaningful! 

President also announced that they are opening up most of the smaller Samoan islands also like Tokilau and Manua and Manono so there is always a possiblility of going to one of those islands and being the only missionaries on the whole island so thats way cool! 

So... In my new area we are really in the outback of samoa and have water tanks that we run off and we ran out so we had to go shower at this members house down the street and let me tell ya! that was a different experience! haha so basically their shower was right on the road and it was a faucet that came out of the ground and there was a big bucket and a little bowl and you fill up the bucket and then you basically just use the little bowl the dump the water on you and you do this wearing nothing but a lavalava while all the little samoan kids watch and laugh! haha! it was a great experience! 

My language is coming! While Elder Anderson was showering I was talking to this old man and I was actually conversating with him and understood everything he said so it was really awesome! So I guess you can say Im already fluent! haha just kidding! 

Well thats kinda it this week! Just a lot of resting so I can go 100% in the lords work so yea! I cant wait to find teach and baptize again! haha I love and miss you guys! 

Love, Elder Fawson

Happy Halloween!!

Malo lava!

Well this week was crazy! I was in the MRC (Missionary Recovery Center) all week and last monday the doctor said I would need to stay down and rest all week so President decided to put Elder Kaiso in a new area so I lost him this week and all week I had no idea who my new comp would be and if I would be in a new area! Luckily there was 3 of us that were sick all week so we just kinda were eachothers companions and we just talked all day haha! On Saturday president Hannemann came in and we are all starting to feel better and he asked if we were ready to get transferred and we were like uhhhhhh.. We were just transferred! But He met with each of us and I thought I would be going back to my area just with a new comp but He told me I was going to Lotofaga fou which is way backside backwoods samoa and it is soooo awesome and beautiful back here! And Best of all! My new Comp is sooo awesome! His name is Elder Anderson from Oregon! He loves basketball and the NBA so we get along so well and there is never a dull moment! 

My new area is HUGE! luckily we have bikes but it is big and lots of big hills haha! The really cool thing is there is a beach  and ocean in our area so thats really cool! and there is also a resort haha! 

One of the really cool things about being in the MRC all week was I got to know President and Sister Hannemann really well and they are awesome people! They truely do love the work and are so excited to be here and help us bring others unto Christ! 

Well I was in the MRC all week so there wasnt really many adventures or anything like that but I am feeling lots better and I am ready to work hard again with Elder Anderson! It is so crazy to me that it is already November! I feel like it was just the blink of an eye ago it was June 17th! It seriously blows my mind anytime I think about it!

Well I love you guys and think about you soooo much and pray for each and every one of you! REMEMBER: When in doubt, Pray it out! I love you guys! 

Love, Elder Fawson

First transfer!!!!!!

Malo lava!

Well I have been in the mission for 4 months! its so crazy to me because it definently hasnt felt that long haha! But the crazy news is on sunday was transfer calls and well thats the "hold your breath day" haha! We got a call at 9 from the AP's and I have been transferred to Tulaele and Elder Johansen is getting transferred to Siumu which is backside Upolu! So that means also that they are whitewashing our area in vaimoso so thats crazy! I love our area in vaimoso sooo much! I am going to miss the families so much and it will be so sad to leave all these people! 

And well this week was.... RAINY! It rained all week! And when it rains... IT POURS! haha! and one of the funniest things here is that when it rains all the moms take their kids clothes of and tells them to go shower outside so when it rains there is just a bunch of naked kids running around and well its a different world out here! haha 

On Tuesday, We got the oppurtunity to go to the temple and well it was one of the best temple trips of my life! And not just because the temple is air conditioned and it was hot outside! haha but because we really needed it! With all the changes and everything it was nice to be there and just be in the peacefulness! well and it was in samoan so you can imagine how I felt haha! It was really awesome though! The temple is truely the house of God and I have never felt so close to him then when I walk out  the doors! I love the temple! 

My studies this week have really been just in Preach my Gospel and learning the best ways to teach all the lessons! 

Yesturday at church it was one of the happiest moments of my entire life! We went to our church and we had so many investigators and less actives come to church! it was so awesome! It was kinda like all of our hard work was paying off! We did so many visits and worked so hard this week especially because of transfers and the uncertainty of it and so we just worked harder this week then ever and well it was so awesome because most of the people we visited this week came to church! Words cant describe how awesome it is to see them there! 

Overall, This week was awesome! Im so excited to start a new adventure of my mission in my new area! I am going to miss Vaimoso soo much and all the awesome families! Thank you guys for all the love and support and love for me!

Ether 12:27

Love, Elder Fawson