Letter # 78 - "It was a very special moment for me!" San Isidro, Guatemala

well it was another week

things are going fine and i feel like the week goes by so fast that it feels like I just wrote to you.  it wasn't a very exciting week so I'm not quite sure what to say!  this week i had a really cool experience so i guess i will just share that and then someting that i learned.  because of a very weird situation on Tuesday, i was able to go back to san isidro for a day to visit some of my old investigators and to teach them again and to interview the brother of misael (we  baptized him in october and now he has baptized his brother).  well it was so cool to see these people again, but the best part was i was able to talk to misaels dad. i had never met him before but he asked me if i knew who was the missionary that had taught his son because he wanted to thank him for his help.  i just listened and at the end told him that it was me.  he just got a huge smile on his face and said thank you and gave me a hug.  it was a very special moment for me, and was one of the moments when being a missionary is so gratifying and worth the effort, the sacrifice, and all the frustrations!  

this week i was reading a lot in the book of 1 samuel.  i loved that before david did anything he asked the Lord if he should do it.  i loved that example, he did exactly what it says in alma 37:37

Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

answers to mom's questions:

 

the bishop asked me for some help this week and we did something that really helped him out so he was happy with that. it was really good for us to work together.  i really want to do a visit with him but i want it to be a very good visit so i think im gonna wait until we have a very important lesson.  the sisters are very very cool yes hermana merrill is going home in 2 week.  yes we have a ward mission leader and he is good,  but the frustrating thing is that he doesnt have a phone so we cant call him to leave with us.....  the best thing i ate this week was this very good garlic beef.  yes my comp is making great progress.  he speaks very well for a gringo with little time, he is just a little scared to talk sometimes...  today for pday we went to a restaurant and ate creepes.  yum!! in our ward we have an attendance 130ish every week. there are 2 wards that meet in our building.  a lot of the members have cars but where we live almost no one does.  i was finally able to do divisiones with an elder that i have known and been close to all mission long and we were just talking about all the crazy things that have happened in the mish.  the best miracle of this week was that we were able to bring 4 people to church on sunday so that was great.

well it sounds like things are pretty good back at home. i really liked that story about the sheep.  well i think that is it for this week.  i hope you have a wonderful week!

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter #77 - "Super cool to walk around all day and not sweat!!" - San Isidro, Guatemala

well hello there.

so i am writing late this week because we got permision as a zone to go to the mountains for pday!! it was super cool to walk around all day long and not sweat!! it was a first in 18 months haha.  but yeah here i am.  since i am writing late i would just like to share that we are working hard and even though we are struggling a little bit, we are sure that everything will turn out ok

and i would like to share my favorite thing that i learned this week.  so i am still reading the old testament (sometime i think it is amazing and other times it think it is so weird (for example judges 3))  anyways i love love loved the story of gideon.  it seemed to me that he was so scared to lead isreal and to destroy the wickedness and the idols, and God knew that he was scared but He reminded gideon ¨have not i sent thee¨??   for me it was a great remeinder that God has called me to be here and for that i cannot fail.

answers to moms questions:

 

 the mountains are a lot nicer a lot prettier and a lot cleaner but holy crap the altitude killed me (i think i'm the first kid from colorado to say that...) the 23 of us in the zone went.  its not jungle its pine forrests.  yes you can see volcanoes.  my comp is a new missionary from Idaho - he has been out 6 weeks.  i have a to give a lesson in a meeting once a week and then i go on divisions and he stays in our area working and in the night i call all the areas to see how they are doing in. im sorry i havent taken any pics because of some problems with the batteries but ill take some for next week i promise.  i love being district leader. it makes it a little harder do good work in my area.  right now to be honest we dont really have progressing investigators..... we had one his name was angel but the bishop told us that we couldnt baptize him for a few months.........  so right now there is nothing.... i would love if you could put my district on the prayer role: elder fickes, elder arias, elder keck, elder lagos, elder purmire, elder gonzalez, hermana merrill and hermana avendaño.  thanks.  there are 2 districts in my zone.  and yes i love my zone leaders.  i saw president yesterday.  he came to our stake conference and he is amazing.  my favorite person in the ward is a guy named isaac that got back from the mission like a year ago and he is just always so happy and so funny (he reminds me a little bit of alex) .

dont worry too much about the trip ill get over it haha.  it sounds like things are going well that activity sounds super cool.  well i think that is it have a wonderful week

 

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA 

Letter #76 - "Malacatan......... again......... (this time with air conditioning)‏!!"

hello hello

so i guess i will start off with the big news... yes i had changes, where did i go you might ask.  the answer is malacatan.   where is malacatan, well it is the same city as san isidro, just that san isidro is on the north side and now im on the south side. it is no joke like a 3 minute car ride from san isidro to my new area.   so yeah that is kinda interesting.  i am here with elder fickes,  he is from idaho and i am finishing his training (that means that he has like 6 weeks in the field).  the very good news in all of this now is that i live in a wonderful house that has AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!!!!!! oh and there is actually a shower that has HOT WATER!!!!!!!!!! when i finally shower there it will be my first hot shower since the ccm :) (ccm is the Guatemala MTC)

so yeah as far as my area goes,  it goes from the south part of the city until the mexican border,  we went there on friday because there are some members that live out there.  it is a very interesting area because it is very poor and the people are very friendly and receptive  but most of them dont have money to go in the bus to church and it is too far away to walk.  so that right now has been kinda difficult to work and find really positive people.  this week i was also able to do divisions with another area and i learned some very important things - 1.  the book of mormon is the best missionary tool, well that and the spirit.  and 2. the Lord has called us to ´´strengthen thy stakes´´ (Isaiah 54:2).  to do that we must be strong members of the church and then help those that arent as strong or those that arent members to be strong members also.

 

oh hey i have a funny story for this week.   i got stuck in an elevator for 2 hours today haha.  the stake center is 2 stories and it has an elevator and i was going with a missionary to buy something to drink and we decided to go down in the elevator and it got stuck and we were there for 2 hours haha.  it was actually really funny because i get along really really well with that missionariy and we were just joking around the whole time haha

 

answers to moms questions:

 

yes i am district leader.  that means i have to do all the baptismal interviews and that i have to do a lot of divisions with the other areas and that i need to go visit a lot with my sister missionaries.  i have 10 missionaries -- me and my comp,  the 2 sisters that are in my ward,  4 that are in a town called san pablo and 2 that are in another town called el rodeo.  my ward is about 130 active members but there are more that 1000 on the records, needless to say there is a huge problem with retention.  i dont know what the best thing i ate this week was but the worst thing i ate this week was fihambre.  it is something that they only eat for day of the dead (1st and 2nd of November) and it is like a huge plate of cut up hot dogs, sausge, pepperoni, chorizo, other sausage type things, cheese, beets, carrots, beens, lettuce, broccoli, and boiled eggs all mixed together and served cold..... it is HORRIBLE.  still no news on the package but i think it will be here soon.  as far as Christmas for me the normal - books, ties, clothes. as far as everyone else im still not sure.... in my last 6 months i would like to baptize 2 more families, see reyna go to the temple, and finish reading the old testament.

i cannot believe that there are only 6 more months it is so crazy.  

that hymn is so cool - i had never realized that we sung it as if we were Chirst. that is sweet

so yes that is what i learned this week.  i hope you have a great week.

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

ps here are some pictures of me and elder black, we came to the mission together, celebrating 18 months burning pants, we also burnt shirts because we forgot to do it when we completed a year.

 

 

 

Letter #75 - "Last week in San Isidro!" - San Isidro, Guatemala

hi

so this was my last week in san isidro.  please dont ask me where i am going because i still dont know but yes i do know that i will be leaaving. so to be honest this week was kind of a sad way to end my time in san isidro because, well we worked hard this week but didnt see much success...  after the 4 baptisms a week ago we realized that we didnt really have many investigatores and that we needed to find people like crazy.  we were working hard to find new people.  we really tried to focus on working with the members to find people that are more positive and more likely to progress and be baptized, but unfortuantely it didnt go very well for us this week. 

on a happier note, saturday was very cool because Preisdent gave us permission to go the the temple with our converts.  we were able to go to the temple with hugo, his wife, misael, yelmer,  and a couple other people that got baptized before i got to san isidro.  that was a very cool experience to be with them when the entered the temple for the first time.  it just helped remind me how important it is go to the temple because it is the house of the Lord and that we can feel the spirit more strongly there than in any other place.  so yeah i think that is about it for the week.  i hope you have a great week.

 

 

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

 

 

 

Letter #74 - "MILAGROS!!" - San Isidro, Guatemala

hello hello hello

so this was a wonderful week!! we were able to have 4 baptisms!!! it was so cool!! i guess i would like to tell you a little about each baptism,

first - misael.  misael is a neighbor of hugo who was baptized about a month ago.  hugo brought misael to his baptism and since that point misael has not missed a single meeting in the church.  he was baptized and is now prepaing to serve a mission in a year!! he is so excited and loves the church so much.  he is also going to the temple in less than a week for the first time to do the work for his brother.  how cool is this kid??

second and third - luis and alfredo.  they are sons of a member who has been less active for a few years.  we started working with her, she came back to church and really wanted her sons to get baptized, but her husband didnt.  we tried talking to him, had the bishop talk to him, and had other missionaries talk to him.  when that didnt help, finally we just started to pray a lot and fast. while the dad still isnt too happy, he agreed to let the kids get baptized!!

fourth - paola.  a little over month ago elder fifita (a missionary in the ward next to ours) lost his wallet, and never thought he would see it again.  then a man walking in the street came up to him and asked him, are you fifita? and of couse he said yes, he said i found this wallet and i think in belongs to you.  and it was fifitas wallet with everything still in it.  fifita took advantage of the opportunity to contact this man, and then went one day to visit him.  this man is named fredy and he lives in my area.  after visiting him one day fifita told me about this family and that we should visit them, so we started to visit them.  paola is fredy's wife and she was just so ready to hear the gospel and is just amazing!!

 

 

answers to moms questions:

 

i have eaten fish four or five times in the mission. most people work in constrution, or selling food.  the majority of the women work.  here in malacatan people dont grow that much food but there are some people that grow corn. changes are the 29th, as far as what president has told me i will be changed but to be honest  weird things happen at changes!   yeah it will be a bummer to not be with godinez any more but i was already sure that this would be our last change together.  im not sure about Christmas - i will have to think about that and let you know.  I don't have a lot of good ideas what to do for exercise, im getting up on time but i just dont know what to do for exercise - if you think exercise bands would be good that works with me..  

 

so yeah that was my week.  i hope you have a great week

love

elder meyer

 

 

 

Letter #73 -"now you are convincing me that i should get baptized!" - San Isidro, Guatemala

well hello again

so it was another week her in san isidro and everything is going well.  we have some way sweet people for this upcoming week to get baptized.  first there is misael.  he is a neighbor of hugo who was baptized like a month ago.  hugo broght misael to his baptism and that is where we met him and started to teach him.  we have been teaching him ever since and since that point he has not missed church once, and he also went to 2 sessions of general confernce.  this week he accepted to be baptized the 18th!!! so that was way sweet but the coolest things was that after church sunday he went to the stake missionary preparation class because he already has the desire to serve a mission.  he is already starting to prepare so that in a year he can be a missionary!!! there is also paola who is way cool too!! with her it was a clear how much of an impact that the prophet and apostles can make on a person and the Spirit that is so strong when we listen to them speak.  during elder bednars talk she turned to me and said "now you are convincing me that i should get baptized!"  she will also be baptized on the 18th.  to me it is so great to see that God is always preparing His children to accept the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit and the blessings that someone receives when they decide to get baptized!!

so yeah the other very cool thing that happend this week was that we saw that the people we have helped come to the church and be baptized during our time here in san isidro are now helping many other people come to the church and be baptized.  hugo has already brought misael.  we are also working with his brother in law.  maryori and emily have already brought omara, their sister, and now we are working with 2 of their cousins and 3 of their neighbors.  if these members who have just weeks or months being members can help so many people what can we do if we have been a member for our whole lives?? 

so yeah keep that in mind.  some times we are afraid that bad things will happen if we share the gospel but i read a scripture that talked about this that i loved (d&c6:29-30)

 29 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if they reject my words, and this part of my gospel and ministry, blessed are ye, for they can do no more unto you than unto me.

 30 And even if they do unto you even as they have done unto me, blessed are ye, for you shall dwell with me in glory.

 

 

answers to moms questions:

yes it is still hot, it rains almost every day at 3 or 4 and when it rains really hard it cools down.  misael, paola and luis will be baptized this week.  we are working with samuel, elbira, franklin, jordan, sandy, and diego.  HOLY CRAP i cannot belive that it is time to start thinking about coming home! yeah i would love to be an efy counselor when i get home at least for a few weeks but i will also want to be with the family.  i can talk to president when you give me more info about filling out the application.  i talk to chase but i havent said anything about next year.  i think it would be great if you could talk to his mom.  i know that when we were making plans when we were in byu we were talking about  living south of campus and we were think about living with andy, mitchel and i cant remember who else... talk to chases mom about it, i think that would be the best.  the best miracle this week was that we were able to work with these new converts to find and start teaching a bunch of people. my favorite book i have read on the mission besides the scriptures would be the peter potential.  i love the youth of this ward. they are the people that help us out the most.  we always go to mutual because almost every week they bring a friend.  i miss the family, sports, air conditioning, hot water, being able to sleep in, and breakfast food.  the best thing i have learned from elder godinez is that i just need to be myself and work hard;  if i do that everything turns out great.  

so yeah i think that is it for this week.  i would just like to congratulate sam and zac and the whole charger tennis team on a great year.  that movie sounds way cool. i would love to see it but im guessing that i will have to wait until i get home to see it....  well i think that is it.  

have a wonderful week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter #72 - "General Conference is Awesome!" - San Isidro, Guatemala

well hello again

so this week was general conference.  and it was awesome!!! president really had us focus on getting as many people as possible to conference,  so all week long we talked to as many people as possible and we shared this scripture:  Numbers 12:6,8

6.  And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.

8.  With him will I speak mouth to mouth

so yeah i really like that scripture because it teaches us that prophets do speak with God and so for that we should really really listen to him and we should not let conference end right now; we have to study what they said and then apply it. 

with all of that being said, we were able to bring 12 people to conference!!! for me that is a huge miracle!! for that im super excited to be able to work with all of these people!! it was very interesting for me to see that many of the people we invited and thought would come didn't, but many of the people that we had stopped working with or didnt even know came.  for me it was so great to see that the Lord blesses us for working hard, even if the people that we were invited didn't come, He noticed that we were working and praying for people to come so He blessed us.  

answers to moms questions:

 

um i would have to say my favorite was bednars talk. i also really liked pres uchtdorfs in the priesthood session.  i watched four of the five sessions in spanish .... most of the people come sunday to the church to watch conerence but saturday stay home and watch in their houses... we had 12 investigatores in the conference!! godinez is good -  im really liking being with him.  he is from honduras.  yes my debit card expires at the end of this month...  in the house we just have an eletric stove that takes more than 20 minutes to heat up and a fridge... that is it... we have lights, a shower and a toilet. there is running water but it is so cold. i will be district leader next change.

that is great that kelsey watched conference with you!! do you know if she is thinking about baptism?? any other updates on her??  that is great for sam and that is a bummer for zac about tennis but he will have more opportunities.  

 

well i think that is it - i hope you have a wonderful week and that all goes well in state.

 

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA