Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Letter #20 - "Ups and Downs" - Los Brilliantes, Guatemala

HOLY CRAP THERE IS NO WAY ZAC IS OLD ENOUGH TO GO TO STAKE DANCES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(This came in response to a picture I sent Charlie of his younger brother Zac with David Jensen going to his first stake dance ever!!)
anyways now that i have gotten that off my chest here is an update on my week:
 
hola

well this week was one of the most up and down weeks i have ever had.  the week started just kinda rough. after the baptism of maria we were almost starting from nothing again because we had been working so hard and so much with her.  we started the week with very very high goals and knew that we could accomplish them with hard work and exact obedience.  after a rough tuesday and wednesday, we decided to try a little bit harder, have a little bit more faith, and to fast.  wow thursday and friday turned out wonderful!!!! we found a bunch of people and worked a lot more with people that we already had and things were just wonderful.  then saturday was absolutely terrible.  the fecha (baptismal date we had set with this girl) fell through because her grandma called her and told her she wasnt old enough to make the decision and that she would take her away from her mom if she got baptized.  sunday was an alright day and i had the opportunity to talk in church.  i talked about the role of the members in retaining converts.  i was really happy with how it went. 
mom - i get dear elders from you every week or two and i dont think i have told you how much i love them.  you always send me such wonderful talks that help me improve and want to be better so thanks (i think that last one i got was you are His hands and the one from the seventy in the ensign).  I also love my mission president - president ruiz is super cool and a very spiritual and optimistic guy that loves being around the missionaries and he speaks perfect english even though he is from panama.  i email him every week but i have only seen him like 4 times face to face but he is awesome!!
 
 
so that is my week as a whole.  crazy.  wonderful at times and  terrible at others but that is part of the mission.  while it has been very up and down i have learned some very important things.  first of all i have learned the power of fasting.  in alma 17 it talks about the sons of mosiah and how they were such powerful missionaries because they read the scriptures and fasted (i think it is verse 2 or 3 but im not sure) the day that we fasted the lessons were more powerful and the people really seemed more interested and impacted by the teachings.  number 2 i have learned this week how amazing Peter was.  in our companionship study this week we began reading acts.  in the first 3 chapters three times, peter calls the people to repentance.  as we pondered this we realized that peter loved preaching about repentance because he had truly experienced it in his life.  throught Christ's life peter had been so up and down at times declaring Jesus the Messiah, walking on the water, and trying to serve his Master, yet at other times he was denying Christ, doubting, or having Christ tell him, ¨get thee behind me satan¨.  Peter truly expereinced major ups and downs and i know that he realized the importance of repentance and for that reason he loved preaching it.  also we learned that in chapter 3 peter follows Christ's example perfectly.  peter fell while walking on the water, and Christ reached down and lifted him up.  in chapter 3 of acts peter reached down and lifted up the lame man.  third this week i learned how much God looks out for me and knows all.  one night in the week we went to the chapel for a meeting.  we got out late and there weren't any tuctucs to take us back home.  as we started the 20 minute walk home in the dark (dangerous) a tuctuc came out of nowhere for us.  later this week we were going to contact a reference and we saw this family waiting for a taxi.  we started to talk to them about the gospel and they seemed really interested.  we set an appointment for the them for the next day.  we came to their house close to 30 minutes late because we were in another lesson that went long but as we were going to knock on the door the husband (Ricardo) came up from behind as he had gotten off work late.  we went and had a very good lesson with them.  all three of these little miracles i have seen this week have made me realize that God is in control of everything and everything works out how He wants it.

well i think that is all for this week.  hope all is well back at home - thanks for your emails and your prayers.

love

elder meyer


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