Letter #24 - "...shall we not go on in so great a cause?" - Los Brilliantes, Guatemala

well hello again,

well it has been another week here in brillantes.  this week i am sorry but i dont really know what to say... it has been a hard week here and we didnt see a lot of success but we know that we will see more miracles after this trial of our faith.  i would just like to share a couple brief experiences with you that helped me get through this tough week.  first of all on thursday i did division with an interesting elder.  we contacted this house and began to teach this old man.  as we were teaching, the man and this elder began to argue scriptures back and forth about prophets.  i knew that nothing good would come out of this so i jumped into the conversation and just said this: "hermano, i know and testify that there is a living prophet on the earth today.   he talks with God face to face and he has sent us here to do the will of God.  you may not believe us, and we dont want to believe because of us, we just want to invite you to pray and ask God if He has a prophet on the earth today.  i know and promise you that you will receive an answer¨ it was super cool and powerful.  i didnt feel like i had said anything that special but then i was reminded that no one can dispute a testimony and that we feel the spirit more strongly when we testify.  also on friday i read doctrine and convenants 121 and 122. these 2 sections are absolutely AMAZING!!!! i would encourage all of you to take some time this week and read them. then last night i was pretty upset because of the difficulties of the week and i was reading in doctrine and convenants 128 verse 22 it says (with a little bit of my own interpration):  "22 Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. ^aCourage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into ^bsinging. Let the (investigators) speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the ^dKing Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to ^eredeem them out of their ^fprison; for the prisoners shall go free."

it was so cool to receive the reminder to push forward in this great and important cause.  as elder holland said (it refering to the missionary work): It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world.¨   

so yeah that was my week.  things are going to pick up soon - our goal for the month of November is 6 baptisms and we know we are going to do it with the help of the Lord

hope all is well wherever you are.  have a great week

love

elder meyer

s

Letter 23 "Completed two of my goals for the mish..." - Los Brilliantes, Guatemala

hello again

 well as i said last week i wasnt gonna have changes and i didnt so i am now going on my FOURTH change in brillantes (about 6 months) and my third with elder galvez.  that is a lot of time in one area.  to be honest with you all i was a little bit upset that i was staying here because i felt ready for the next big adventure but apparently the Lord has more work for me to do here.  so this week was really good and i completed two of my goals for the mish this week.  the two goals were these: baptize in a river and secondly go to the temple.  first of all with the river.  i cannot remember what i told you all last week but the hermanas in our ward had two kids that were going to get baptized but that we couldnt find when they were supposed to be baptized.  so on monday after pday we went there to the river near their house and i baptized one of them and gavlez did the other.  attached are fotos of us hiking to the river and us at the river.  so that was monday and then on tuesday as a zone we went 2 hours north to the temple in xela (or quetzaltenango).  that temple is AMAZING!!!!! it is tiny but is built in a way that when you are inside it feels super huge.  from the perspective of the inside it is the most beautiful temple i have been in.  and wow it was so amazing to return to the temple and feel the spirit there so much stronger than anywhere else on the planet. it reminded me that the temples are houses of the Lord. as i was in the temple i read three of my favorite scriptures - 3 nephi 5:13, isaiah 41:10, and helaman 5:12.  i would encourage you all to read these scriptures.  better yet i will just put them in the email for you hahhahaa. they are in the same order that i put their references.   Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been  called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.         And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.    so yeah those scriptures are amazing and have really helped me a lot and i know they can help you all too.  so basically after those 2 dope crazy unforgettable days things slowed back down.  we are teaching a lot of people right now and its looking like we are going to have a very good month of November.  mom asked what part of my testimony had grown the most - my testimony has grown the most in these areas: the power of faith, love of God for His children, and the importance of the small things.  i have already expained about the small things in the previous email.  but faith is where i have had the biggest improvement.  a missionary told me that many times we say that faith without works is dead, as it says in the bible ,but he told me that just because we have works doesnt mean that we have faith.  i realized that i really needed to believe that God was going to guide me and that i was going to be able to talk with the spirit and that i would be able to find people.  

well that is about all i have to say for this week;  hope all of you have a great week 

 love 

 

elder meyer

 

 

 

Letter 23 - "What a Week!!" - Los Brilliantes, Guatemala

hola

well as you can probably tell from the subject line i had quite the week so i will try and tell you all about it... a week and a half ago President Ruiz came to talk with our zone. in September as a zone we baptized the most in the mission he said he wanted to reward us for that but that he also wanted us to repeat as leading the mission in baptisms for october.  so the deal was if everyone found 20 new investigators this week, as a zone we would go to the temple, but if only one area didnt do it no one would go.  we accepted the deal because we wanted to go so bad.  at first i was terrified... 20 is a lot.... in my 11 weeks with Galvez the most we had found was 13.  i knew we could do it just that it wouldnt be easy.  we talked about it and decided that we needed to focus more on planning and study and faith to accomplish this goal.  so we planned more prayerfully, studied more, and worked with faith and as we say in spanish animo (excitment) 3 small things that make a huge difference.  with the help of these things we found 21 new investigators this week!!! and tomorrow we are going to the temple!!! i have really thought long and hard about how it happened and this is my only answer.  Alma 37:6-7.  It says: Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.  i have grown to love this scripture on the mish because if we do the little things we are blessed soooooooo much!! i know that because we did the little things God helped us.  while i dont know how He works, i know He does work and blesses us.  

i would just like to highlight one crazy experience from this week.  on saturday we went to a baptism in our ward.  the hermanas had been working with this lady named Marleny.  her daughter is a member and is currently on a mission in Mexico.  on saturday she was baptized by Galvez.  the work for the baptism was ridiculously stressful.  we got there at 9 for the baptisms at 10.  we began to clean and fill the font.  when there was 10 inches of water in the font the water turned off...... we began running to see if we could find a pool to baptize her in or a river that was clean and deep enough but couldnt find one.  finally someone who lives close to the church let us use their well to fill the font one bucket at a time.  after we filled the font for an hour by hand i thought we were ready but there was another problem.  Marleny´s daughter had received permission from her mission president to skype her mom and watch the baptism.  at 11 we realized that we had computer problems and it was not until 12 that finally, her duaghter watching from Mexico, that was Marleny was baptized.  after changing ,the daughter spoke to her mom and all of us. the spirit during that baptismal service was unlike the spirit in any other baptismal service.  it was there that i was reminded that the gospel is for families.  the greatest thing we can achieve in this life is an eternal family.  it was a wonderful moment.

well i think that is all i have to say for this week, but oh yeah i still didnt have changes so i will be in brillantes another 6 weeks (6 months in total) and i will be with galvez 4 and a half months.

CONGRATS TO SAM AND THE WHOLE CHARGER TENNIS TEAM!!!!

hope you all have a great week.

love

elder meyer

Letter 22 - "The Best 2 Days of My Life!" - Los Brilliantes, Guatemala

well hello again

this week was interesting.  due to things like interviews with president and a day where we went with the hermanas in our district we actually had a lot less time then normal to work, however i can say that this weekend was absolutely amazing!!!! of course i am talking about general conference!! what an amazing opportunity we all had to hear ten hours of servants of the Lord instructing us.  as i listened the scripture in D&C 1 kept coming to mind which says: What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my^aword shall not pass away, but shall all be ^bfulfilled, whether by mine own ^cvoice or by the ^dvoice of my ^eservants, it is the ^fsame¨  in reality the Lord spoke for ten hours this weekend!!!!! as i listened to all of these inspired men and women be mouthpieces for the Lord i realized that there were more or less 3 themes of this comference: faith, repentance, and missionary work.  i am just going to throw up some of my favorite quotes from this weekend.  ¨faith is always pointed toward the future¨- Elder Dube, "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith" - president Uchdorf, " Hope is never lost" - elder Holland, "you can do it now" - president Uchtdorf, ¨Heavenly Father has been so good to me¨- president Monson, ¨dont forget to look up¨- elder ochoa and ¨exclamation point!¨- Elder Nielson.  wow it was truly 2 of the best days of my life.  i dont know how i could possibly pick a favorite of all these wonderful messages but my favorites would include talks by Elder Holland, Elder Scott, Elder Dube, Elder Nielson, and Elder Ochoa.  as i have thought a lot about conference i have realized that while in the church it is a part of our life to know that every six months we will hear the prophet and apostles speak, to the rest of the world this message appears a little bit crazy but more than anything else it shows that as elder McConkie said ¨God speaks¨ i hope that we all took advantage of this last weekend because i know it can change our lives for the better.  fortunately the opportunity to learn and grow from this weekend is not over because as Elder Hales said ¨the greatest blessings of conference come after it is over¨ 

to go along with conference i would like to share a big miracle galvez and i have seen this week.  about a month ago we baptized maria and she is still going strong and is ususally one of the first people in church hahah. we have been working with her husband slowly but surely.  when we began to teach him (Jorge) and maria he would hide the bathroom during lessons and not leave until we were done then slowly he started listening to us and then began to ask questions.  we have had the feeling that if he would come to church with us just one time his heart would be touched and he would receive the desire to be baptized.  we knew with conference the opportunities that we had to bring him and HE CAME AND LOVED IT!!!! while we still have a fair amount of work to do with him it was quite a miracle to see him watch conference and learn with us. 

 

i cannot believe that it is snowing back there!! here the temperature doesnt really change all year long so to me i still feel like it is summer..... everytime i remember it is october i kinda freak out because it still feels like july to me haha.  that sucks about the fridge but i guess that is part of life.  is caden old enough to go to priesthood session??? if so HOLY CRAP!!!!  i do remember my first priesthood session with you and the andrews and i remember that i, like caden spit out a california roll, and that you dropped a piece of sushi in your soy sauce and it splashed over everything haha. i also remember conference from 6 months ago when we went and then went to the cheesecake factory afterwards.  as preisthood session was starting i was really sad because i was watching it completely alone. as i was watching it and as i sang by myself in the middle of the conference i knew that grandpa was there watching with me in that small hot room in Guatemala.  

you also in your email wrote about bearing with patience. This is something that i have tried very hard to work on here in the mish, just like you i am very impatient but i try to think about all the things that Christ went through and also Joseph Smith.  i also think about section 121 of d&c that says that if we endure our trials well we will be exalted on high and i know that that part of enduring trials well is doing it patiently.  i am also very glad that you are going to the temple every week, it is such a blessing that we live so close to a temple. i never realized how important and how big of a blessing it is until i got here and havent gone in 4 months (but word on the street is that we are going as a zone a week from tomorrow)

 

so that is all for the spiritual stuff. here is a quick explanation of the 2 fotos that are with this email.  first this ¨friend¨ we found in our bathroom one morning.  and second.  as i have said i was able to watch conference in english and now you might be asking who did you watch it with, well here is a picture of all the people i watched the priesthood session with.  if you add one sister missionary that is all that i watched the other sessions with hahaha.

well that is all for me for this week.  hope all is well back home

love

elder meyer

ps congrats to my bro sam for winning regionalls!!

 

 

 

Letter 21 - "I Am a Child of God" - Los Brilliantes

hola familia

well it was another week here in brillantes.  and holy crap it was rough!!! things just seemed to go wrong all over the place but i guess that is part of the mission.  while it was rather difficult this week there were a couple of cool things that happened.  first of all on saturday night we had a ward talent night and a bunch of the people did random mostly funny things in front of everyone.  Galvez and i sang a song and then the two of us with the sister missionaries in our ward and the ward mission leader and a couple other people did a tongan dance and it was pretty awesome!! attached are some fotos of this pretty sweet night.  on a more spiritual note sunday was wonderful.  it was the annual primary program for our ward.  for all of you who dont know what that is, once a year all the kids in the church (ages 4 to 11) have a program they share with all of the adults.  it is always quite entertaining and usually hilarious.  this time was no exception; however, it was quite spiritually uplifting.  as all of the kids were saying their little parts i thought about the scripture in Matthew that says: ¨suffer the little children to come unto me for such is the kingdom of heaven¨ as i thought about the meaning of this scripture i realized that the children are so pure, innocent, sincere, and full of faith and love.  this is how we must act to enter the kingdom of God.  as they sang every time i just had a huge smile on my face and felt the spirit so strong.  while the songs where in spanish i knew the words in english and i just loved it so much!!! it made me remember the scripture in D&C that says ¨for my soul delighteth in the song of the heart¨ the words like ¨i am a child of God¨ and ¨we are as the armies of Helaman ... we will be the Lords missionaries to bring the world His truth¨ were so touching to hear.  

well that is really all i got for today..  it was a rough week but we are hopoing a for a better week with more success and more baptisms coming up...

also this upcoming week in general conference.  first of all HOLY CRAP THAT MEANS IT IS ALREADY OCTOBER!!!!! but second of all that means we get to hear the Lords servants teach us.  i was reading back through the last conference issue and one thing that stood out to me were the testimonoies of the apostles about Christ. many of them used words as if they had seen Him, and i dont doubt that they have.  i invite all of you to make sure you take the time to hear these words that will help you improve your life.

well that is all i got for this week.  yes it is still hot yes i am still sweating.  and if it is october that means basketball is coming sooooooo GO HEELS!!!!!

hope all is well back home

love

elder meyer

 

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

Letter # 19 - "Little by Little" - Los Brilliantes, Guatemala

hello again

this week i dont have a lot to say.... but i will tell you all about our baptism.  a little over a month ago we met this lady named Maria, she has a daughter who served a mission for the church and while she had listened to many many missionaries she never had the desire to be baptized.  we began to teach her and little by little she grew to learn about the gospel.  little by little she progressed and came to understand and live the gospel.  on saturday she was baptized.  she is a wonderful lady that is already helping us find more people to teach.  her husband isnt a member either and little by little we are working with him.  as i look back on the progess that maria has made i realize how true it is that by ¨small and simple things are great things brought to pass¨ (Alma 37:6)  this gospel is one of progression and all we need to do is little by little, progress and grow.  i also remember a talk by President Uchtdorf where he said something like this; ¨isnt it great that the perfect place for us to improve and live the gospel better is right where we are?¨ i love knowing that little by little we have to improve, but we can start where we are right now.  this is what i have seen in maria - she has little by little improved where she was and now she is member of the church.  besides the baptism there wasnt anything else too big that happened but we are preparing for a big week that we are starting today so hopefully i will have some really good news next week.  

hope all continues to be well

love

elder meyer