First Baptism!

Elder Meyer's first baptism!!

Letter #9 - Las Brilliantes, Guatemala

well hello again family,

first of all i would just like to say HOLY CRAP!!!!!!! you all are doing so much, asia, family reunions, youth conferences, tennis camps, ER trips, scout camp. those crazy summers were always so fun, but being here is just as wonderful!!  being here i am still busy, but in a very different way.  i never go far, but i walk, sweat, teach the gospel, and try and speak spanish all day every day.  this week i have focused a lot on one thing: leaving it all here.  last week in the emails, what i found was two emails telling me how amazing scott holmes´ homecoming was and how he talked about how he left it all in the field.  as i left the little internet cafe where i write, i thought a lot about this and decided that i need to do the same thing.  i am proud to say that this week i left it all in the field.  we worked so hard all day every day.  we taught great lessons, found a lot of people, and brought a great investigator to church.  i am still frustrated with my inability to express myself and understand what people are saying to me, but everyday i feel like my spanish gets just a little bit better, and i am hoping that by the time i am done with being trained (7 more weeks) i will feel great about my español.

this week we had a really cool experience finding and teaching a family.  we have a pretty small area and just about everyone is a member or very much against the church, or at least already has an opinion about the church, making it very difficult to teach them and have them being open to learning more.  one day we were walking near the edge of our area trying to find a house that we were told were talking to the previous missionaries.  we missed the turn for the house and before we knew it were by this beautiful field/forest thing.  i just wanted to turn around and find the house, but my companion said that we needed to talk to the family that was living in the field. so we did.  we found jose and lesvia.  they are super poor and have one little niño but are talking with us now.  the first time we taught them lesvia seemed really positive and committed to baptism, but jose was super quiet and seemed like he wanted nothing to do with us.  we returned a couple times for lesvia, and then the third time we went jose finally opened up and it was amazing to see the progress he is making! we are hoping to baptize them at the end of the month. 

soooooo i think that's it for this week..... JUST KIDDING THIS WEEK I BAPTIZED MY FIRST PERSON!!!!! so i guess i should tell you what happened.... i kinda feel like this is cheating, because i didnt teach her but, my comp is district leader so we occasionally go help out the hermanas in our district and so we went and taught this 12 year old girl named esperanza.  then on saturday we went back up there for the baptismal interview which my comp has to do, at the end of the interview he asked who she wanted to baptize her and she said me!! so that night we went to her baptism and i dunked her 3 times.......... for those of you who are confused, in our church we baptize all by immersion and the one baptizing says a prayer prior to the person going under the water; if anything isnt done exactly right it is redone.  so when i got in the water all i was thinking is ¨dont mess up¨ and then i did twice, both times her feet came out of the water as the rest of her went under but i finally got it.  attached is a photo of me the girl i baptized and the hermanas that taught her.  i look like a giant haha, and for some reason latinos dont smile in pictures...

so now i think that is everything.   i miss and love you all.  hope all is well.

elder meyer

Letter # 8, Las Brilliantes

hola friends and family

so i am still here and im gonna try and tell you all a little bit about this week.  tuesday we had a farewell conference for president, he is leaving later this week.  i felt really weird there, because it was the second and last time i would see him.  the conference was good and super long and of course all in spanish meaning that i could only understand some of it, but thats ok.  this week we have been working very hard to find new investigators and have done a fairly good job with that.  we have also been working very hard with this family.  a year ago their oldest son joined the church after having been a very strong member of the evangelical church.  we have been working with his parents and siblings to help them get baptized.  they know the church is true and want to be baptized but have a very common problem for Guatemalans, they are both married to other people.  apparently here it is very cheap and easy to get married but difficult and expensive to get a divorce so often people will just separate without getting divorced.  so we have been working with them to get that sorted out.  we also got to attend 3 baptisms this week, elder segard is district leader so he gets to interview all the investigators who want to get baptized and because of that we got to see three people enter the waters of baptism this week. one day we also provided service for this man, and the work was exactly like it was in belize last year which made me very happy.  spanish is coming along poco a poco (little by little), i feel pretty good about speaking in lesson, but i am terrible at small talk, and have difficultly understanding people, because they talk sooooo fast!!  last night i was super sick and got a blessing that said i would be able to get over my sickness quickly if i followed the promptings of the holy ghost.  so as i was laying there just feeling terrible, whenever i thought that i should do something (like sit up, take a shower, get some water) i did so and by the end of the night i felt way better so that was awesome. 

well i love being here. its hot i sweat all day every day but its great!!  i miss you all

love

elder meyer

Letter #7, Retalhuleu Mission, Las Brilliantes

well hello family and friends,

so first of all i would like to applogize for how long it has been since i last wrote.  usually in the ccm we wrote on wednesdays but we left tuesday and then i didnt get to write til my p day (today).  but anyway i am here in the field.  so i am going to try and update you all real quick on what is going down here.  the last week of the ccm went by with nothing worth reporting except the last day of bball i hit a 3 quarters court hook shot. but anyway tuesday mormning we woke up early to leave for reu.  we got here and i no joke immedaitely started sweating... and i dont think i have stopped sweating since.  we just had meetings and stuff with president all day and then did divisions with missionaries at night.  wednesday we got our companions.  my comp is elder segard from lynchburg virginia, he has been out a year, and is a pretty cool guy.  our area is called las brillantes, no joke it is a mini guatemalan utah 80 percent of people here are members.  we have started to get to work but it has been difficult and frustrating because elder segard was sick on both saturday and sunday so we werent able to do much.  he is feeling a little bit better today which is good, hopefully tomorrow everything will be good. 

so just a real quick experience that i wanted to share was the last day in the ccm we gave everyone in the district a blessing. as we did this the spirit was ridiculously strong.  i had the opportunity to give one of the hermanas a blessing and it was really cool to feel the spirit putting words in my head

so on a seperate not asia looks super dope!! looks like you having a blast

hope all is still well

love

elder meyer

ps friends and family who i have not written back i am soooooooo sorry.  i only have very limitted time to email but i will try and get to it soon!! oh and if you want to mail me something use the address for the mission office

Letter #6 - Guatemala City CCM

hola todos

 

sooooo whats up?? well im stilll here, and besides that there isnt too much to say, soooooo bye

 

 

haha just joking haha

but honestly im not quite sure what to say.  i am now in my last week here at the ccm and thats super crazy!! this week has been just like every other week here, except we also got to go to the market and see this big map. a week ago tuesday, we went to this big to scale 3d map of guatemala, nothing too exciting, but there president talked about the book of mormon geography which was kinda cool.  apparently a lot of people think that the city of nephi was right here in guatemala city!! then we went this big 2-story market and that was pretty sweet.  so thats  it as far as stuff out of the ordinary that i have done... but i did finally get that wonderful package, and the dear elder so thank you for both of those!!

 

as far as spiritual experiences this week i have a couple of experiences i want to share.  on sunday we watched the joseph smith movie, and although i have seen it before it was wonderful!! at the very end right before he is killed he says, ¨brethren shall we not go on in such great a cause?¨ i love that!! and for the first time i realize i am part of the cause.  whenever i get discouraged all i have to do is think ¨shall i not go on in this great cause?¨and then i suck it up and get back to work haha

 

then one day during personal study i was super scared, because i realized i am a week away from being in the field and i dont feel like i know enough spanish to teach, and then i read doctrine and convenants 31:3-5. i would type it out but i dont have my scriptures on me, but anyways i read that and i knew that i would be blessed, i will receive help and will succeed, becuase God has sent me here to succeed not to fail.

 

so yeah the church is true.  i love being here, and i am stoked to go teach people in a week

 

love

 

elder meyer

Letter #5, Guatemala City CCM

 

 

whats up familia and whoever else reads this!!

 

well im still here, still sweating, and still loving it.  that being said this week was tough!!! this was mostly due to the fact that i spent all day saturday sleeping or puking... sorry if that is too much information for you... so yeah the food isnt exactly wonderful, but at times it is really horrible haha. but anyways im still still learning some spainish.  by now i feel quite good about my espanol.  in lessons i am able to say most of the things that i want in one way or another, but my conversational spanish is still minimal, but whatever.  as of tomorrow i will be one of the old ones/next ones to leave!! HOLY CRAP!!!! time here goes sooooooooo fast!! i have been here for a month!! but anyways nothing has changed still the same hilarious companion, a wonderful district, great teachers, and bad food haha tomorrow will be a very exciting day tho... we will be going to a market in guatemala city and going to this big map thing where president will talk about where we think some of the book of mormon events took place so i am stoked for that

 

since i cant really think of anything else i guess i will share something sweet that we watched today.  we were talking about the importance of the spirit in teaching and in converting and we watched part of a devotional with elder bednar he said something along these line :"if you have the question if a thought is your own or the spirit inspiring you, i have one piece of advice : QUIT WORRYING!!! be a good boy or a good girl, follow the commandments, do what you are supposed to, and then say the thoughts that are in your mind when you teach"  i really love that!! to me its a reminder that if we are living worthily we will have the spirit to lead and guide us.  

 

well i love this church, i know it is true.  i love all of you too

 

con amor

 

elder meyer

Letter #4 - Guatemala City CCM

hola all,

 

so i am still here in the ccm.  to be quite honest there is very little to say.  every day we wake up, study, eat, study, teach, and learn spanish.  thats what all day everyday is like haha but anyways i guess i could tell all of you about the super exciting trip we had to walmart haha so we took a bus through the city to walmart.  the drive was absolutely stunning.  guatemala city is on a hill and as we drove over one of the big ones we got a great view of one of the volcanoes, and it looks just like it does in all to movies haha just a big cone shaped volcanoe but that was pretty dope.  we got to walmart and had a half hour to buy stuff, nothing too exciting but it felt exactly like a walmart back home in good old murica haha but then we got to go eat food at a way nice mall which was sweet, i never thought pizza hut would be so exciting, but it was haha. besides that there isnt too much more to say to all of you... i love being here, even though i sweat constantly, even though i feel like i am in jail, even the food isnt the greatest, i dont think i have ever been happier.  this church is true!! love you all, to any of you reading this please send me even just a quick email i would love to hear from all of you.

 

con amor

 

elder meyer