Letter #40 - "2 miracles of the week!" - La Blanca,Guatemala

well hello again.

so this week was pretty good (and it was made even better when i heard about my Heels big win over duke!!!!) but yeah i am still here in la blanca with elder walton and i love it here.  even though last week was really really tough, we got through it and now things are looking up again!! i would like to tell you about 2 very good things that came out of this week that were without a doubt blessings from the Lord for enduring these challenges that we have had the last couple weeks.  

first of all on tuesday night we were with our elders quorom president (modesto) and we were visiting with him and we had a little bit more time and he asked me where we were going to visit. i told him that he would take us where we needed to go and that he just needed to follow the spirit.  so we started driving and driving and driving, finally arriving at the house of his nephew.  we went and started talking to him and everything and he is super super cool!!! we taught a wonderful lesson and he and his wife agreed to learn more and to come to church with us on sunday.  we taught them one other time during the week and then on sunday they came to church and loved it!!!!! i have no doubt that he will get baptized soon!!! it was such a miracle to find him and he is just so ready for all of it!!!

the second happened a little bit later in the week.  i was talking to my zone leader about how i was frustrated because i know that we can see a lot of success in la blanca but that i felt like we werent seeing this success because we werent working effectively with the members.  he suggested that i fast to find a solution.  so i did.  last night in a meeting with our mission leader we began to discuss ways to receive more references so that we can find more people that are more likely to progress.  many of the ideas that inspired us were things that the stake president had told us even before i had thought of this problem.  it was so cool to see that the Lord had sent me the ideas and the answer to my prayers even before i had prayed or fasted to receive the answer!!

so yeah this are looking good and we are expecting to have a HUGE month of march (i cannot belive it is march, but that is a different topic haha) but yeah that is the way it is here.  

so yeah i hope you all have a wonderful week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

oh i almost forgot... THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM FOR THE WONDERFUL PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!! i loved it soooooooo very much!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 Service project - looking scary!!

 

 

 

Soccer game in the rain!

 

 

 

 Whipped cream facial??

Letter #39 - "after the trial of our faith we receive blessings" - La Blanca, Guatemala

well hello

so i dont have a bunch of time this week because of some things we ended up having to do today... so this will be quick

so this week was rough,  after such a great week we had a bunch of people to work with.. we really tried to focus on teaching these people and helping them progress toward baptism but we just had a very very hard time finding them all week long.  no one is home during the day and everyone seemed to be busy in the evening.  that lead to a lot of walking and a lot of contacting, which is not bad but it just makes the week seem really really long and it makes us get frustrated..  to makes things a little worse no one came to church with us this week.

up until the end of the week i had this thought that this week was a test for me.  it was a test to see if i would continue working hard with a good attitude even when there were trials.  although i recognized the test i was wondering to myself if i was passing or failing this test.  i was left wondering this until last night when the elders quorom president came by our house and started to talk to me.  he gave me the names of 3 families where we can go work!!  i was so excited for this and i really have the faith that these people will progress.  this helped me see that i was passing this test and becuase of my work and because of my attitude i was finally blessed.  it reminded me of the scripture in Ether 12:6 that after the trial of our faith we receive a witness or blessings.  i love this work i am stoked to keep work and i love being here

i hope you have a wonderful week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

I HATE DOOK

Letter #38 - "echando fuego‏!!!" - La Blanca, Guatemala

well hello again

so this week has been very hectic, but here is what went down.  on monday night we got a call that there were emergency changes and that elder delgado and elder keller were leaving.  they also told us that there would be no new missionaries coming into la blanca, leaving just me and elder walton together.  elder walton is really cool, he is from wyoming and has 5 months in the mish.  so that went down tuesday and that day we also had to go to the doctors because i had a bacterial infection, but dont worry i feel better now!! this week we also had to paint and move into our new house, we had some problems with the other house so we moved.  so after we finally got done with all of those crazy things we had to do, we got to work.  and we worked very hard.

i would have to say it was one of the best weeks of my mission!! things are really looking up here!!!! we reacivated a family that lives super far away and then on saturday we were able to baptize one of their sons which was way cool!! i love this family.  the dad's name is Kardex and is one of the most happy people i have ever met, he always just has this huge smile on his face and is so willing to sacrifice the very little that he has for the church.  i was talking to him one day about the sacrifice he makes to come to church (a 45 minute bike ride) and he said that it wasnt hard at all!! he said that it was way better than before because now they have bikes and their kids are old enough to sit down and be quite in the sacrament meeting so that way he can actually pay attention.  anyways he and his family are AMAZING!!!

besides that we were able to find some way cool people this week and we had 8 investigators in church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is A MIRACLE!!!!!!!! i was SO STOKED!!!!!!!  things here are really catching fire and in the next few weeks we are gonna see a ton of miracles and quite a few baptisms!!! so yeah it was a crazy week but a great week!!

hope all is good back home

hope you all count your blessings

have a good week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter #37 - "...be courageous regardless of what people say or think..." - La Blanca, Guatemala

well hello

first of all i would like to say that i am quite disgusted with the superbowl......... that is very sad........ at least i didnt watch it haha.......... second of all i need to say that i am so proud of my cousin Jake who got his mission call to Norway!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is so cool!!!!!!!!!!  third of all i have proof that it is too hot in la blanca, if you can see that foto yes it does say 108 degrees farinheit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so yeah with all of that being said it was a good week.  we had 2 baptisms.  first was a 15 year old named eduardo.  his is super cool and already has a strong testimony of the church.  the second is named luis. about a month ago his aunt, a member, began to come again to the church after years without going. she always knew the church was true but because of problems with her husband she didnt like going.  she decided a month ago to be courageous regardless of what people say, or think of her.  upon returning to church she brought luis with her.  he now loves the church is now a member because his aunt had the courage to return to chruch.  

really we all need to have courage as it says in Joshua 1:9 

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the ^aLord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

as we do that by going to church and by inviting others to come with us we will be blessed and grow together.

 today we got word that there will be emergency changes tomorrow for elders keller and Delgado so i will be with elder walton for at least the next 2 weeks.   on tuesday eduardo´s brother and his sister in law (a very cool member) invited us over for dinner, we thought it would just be a typical guatemalan dinner but it was wonderful, delicious, huge, elegant, and worthy of the states.  as i was eating i realized that it was my blessing for you buying food for those elders a couple of weeks ago.  we have some way cool investigators right now and we just need to keep working with them so that they attend church so we can baptize them, and starting tomorrow i will have more investigators and i will have to see what i need to do for them.

 

well that is about all i have to say for this week.....

i hope you all have a good week and that my heels can keep winning

love

elder meyer

 

 

 

Letter #36 "Satan is trying really hard to keep them away from us!!" - La Blanca, Guatemala

well i guess i should start with the most important thing........ HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP YOU ARE 50 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!   so yeah i just wanted to say that and now i guess i will talk about what went down this week....

so to be honest this week was really frustrating cuz we could never find anyone to teach.............. im not sure what happened but just no one ever seemed to be home, im not really sure how that works but we just were trying so hard to teach all these people that we have been working with and that are progressing but we just couldnt find them......... Satan is trying really hard to keep them away from us!!!!  it was super frustrating..... to make things even worse, it is getting hotter and hotter everyday and i dont how i will survive if this trend keeps going haha.... but seriously....  so yeah it was a rough week, but i know that is part of the mission. there are good days there are bad days there are great weeks and there are bad weeks. i know that we still have a chance to do something special in la blanca in the next couple months if we just keep working hard.  so yeah thats what happened here.

i would just like to share a story and spiritual thought that was part of a talk i gave on sunday in sacrament meeting.  according to the story (i dont remember the details that well, i just remember that brother ashburn one sunday told it years ago in teachers quorom) the church was preparing to build a chappel in a city for the ward that had been growing.  as usual the church asks the members to achieve goals to qualify for the chapel, this time the church wanted the members to donate a certain amount of money to go into the costs of building the building.  the bishop went to every house of the members to ask for money.  finally he went to the richest member of the ward and asked him for money.  the man wrote a check for $10,000 and gave it to the bishop.  the bishop said that he should donate more.  the man said bishop i know this is more than any other member has donated and with this money we will meet the goal.  the bishop said i am here for the Lord asking you for a sacrifice and this isnt a sacrifice.  the man thought, took back the check ripped it up and said i will give Him more - something that is a sacrifice.  i was thinking a lot about sacrifice recently because it is something that is asked of us as members of the church, it is necessary to sacrifice to receive blessings and one day exaltation.  we must remember that it isnt a sacrifice if it doesnt hurt. we must give up things we like and do things that are hard and for making these sacrifices for the Lord we will be blessed

so yeah that is all i got for this week, but before i forget i want to giver a huge shoutout to my cousin Nate who just this week got his mission call to california, anaheim mission speaking vietnamese!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am so proud of him and the sacrifice he is about to make

well have a wonderful week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

GO BRONCOS, SUPERBOWL CHAMPS HERE WE COME 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from Pday when the missionaries hiked up a riverbed.

Letter #35 - "..pretty soon things are gonna take off!!" - La Blanca, Guatemala

well hello again

so first of all i am sorry i lied to all of you.  i know last week i said that this week i would write on tuesday, and i told all of you that because it was the plan because today we were supposed to have interviews with president.  then last night we get a phone call telling us that president wont be coming because he wants us to have our pday so here i am today writing.  please dont be angry with me hahaha it was presidents fault hahha dont tell him i said that hahahaha.  so yeah anyways i am still here in la blanca and have just come off one of the best weeks of my mission.  well you might be wondering why it was so great, so i guess ill tell you haha

last week in my eamil i believe i mentioned that we had hit a rough spot and that we thought that to overcome this problem we needed to use members more.  i believe i also said that we met with out new branch mission leader (mario) and we have a new plan. a week ago we started implementing that plan.  now many of the members are more willing to help us but even better than that they are inviting their friends to come to church!!!! because of these changes we are finding more people that are ready to be baptized and are having more people in church.  i would like to give one example of this happing.  on tuesday we received a reference of a less active who just moved to la blanca.  we went to visit her and also met her husband (armando) and his brother (eduardo) we began teaching them and they are so cool!!!! we went back during the week and only eduardo was there but we taught him and in the second lesson with him he told us he knew the church was true and wanted to get baptized!!!!!!!!!! it was AMAZING!!!!!!! it was honestly one of the coolest moments of the mission!!!  we are working with him so that he can be baptized either this saturday of the one after that.   we are gonna work with him and then are hoping in a little bit of time he will be able to baptize his brother!!! so yeah that was dope.  sunday we had some other really cool people come to church and many of the less actives we have been visiting came too!!! i am just so exicted for the future here in la blanca i feel like pretty soon things are gonna take off!!!!!!!!!!

so yeah that was dope, but then to make the week even DOPE-ER on saturday we had a conference with the whole mission and Elder Soares from the presidency of the seventy and Elder Moralez an area seventy came and spoke to us.  it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!  they spoke and told us how important our job is, how much we are loved by the Savior and the prophet  and taught us how we can be better.

so yeah that was my wonderful week.  and then the week got even better when i heard that the BRONCOS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL AND THAT MY HEELS FINALLY WON (this week i only wore carolina blue ties to try and send good vibes to the heels and it looks like it worked!!!!)

so yeah have a great week,  keep giving my heels and broncos good vibes!!

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

GO BRONCOS

 

 

After an intense soccer game!!