Letter #57 - "Best week yet!" - San Isidro, Guatemala

hello again

well it has been my best week here in san isidro!! this week i have tried to focus more on just loving everyone.  i know it sounds simple but because of just trying to love everyone we have seen a lot more miracles this week.  here are just a couple of great things that happened this week: we found a family that has already started reading the Book of Mormon and wants to learn a lot more; a less active youth brought his little sister to church who wants to learn more; a family brought a neighbor to church;  we found some way cool people contacting; and we had the highest attendance in church that we have had during my whole time here.  so yeah it has been a good week!!  basically that is it - i would just like to attach a couple of my favorite scriptures about charity (the pure love of Christ) which is the key to success in teaching the gospel.

 

moroni 7:46 -

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye arenothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity,which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

matthew 22:35-40 -

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him aquestion, tempting him, and saying,

 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with allthy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

 38 This is the first and great commandment.

 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour asthyself.

 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and theprophets.

elder scott (really the whole talk is great, this is just a part that i really liked) 

How can each of us become such a significant influence? We must be sure to sincerely love those we want to help in righteousness so they can begin to develop confidence in God’s love. For so many in the world, the first challenge in accepting the gospel is to develop faith in a Father in Heaven, who loves them perfectly. It is easier to develop that faith when they have friends or family members who love them in a similar way.

so we really need to love everyone, and  i know that if we try hard to do it we will be blessed. 

 

 

answers to moms questions:

our most positive investigators are eamed, yelmer, mario, luis, and nancy.  yelmer has come to church twice and will be bapitzed soon.  mario already knows everything and wants to get baptized he just needs to come to church.  luis and nancy are new investigators but are reading the book of mormon with their family and want to learn a lot more.   i would send pics put i forgot my adaptor! im sorry im gonna see if someone here has one if not you will have to join me in your search for patience and wait one more week haha. the attendance at church this week was 155.   we have a good group of youth and a lot of little children.  here the weather is just about the same every day -  it is blazing hot in the morning and then the rains come down and the floods go up in the afternoon.   to be honest there isnt really much native food from Guatemala - the only native things are tortillas, eggs and beans.  but this week we had this mexican food called flautas which is mashed potatos and chicken rolled inside a tortilla and fried with a spicy green sauce on top and lettuce is was AMAZING!! the biggest trial i have overcome i would say would be working hard and enjoying it with difficult companions.  the best lesson i have learned is the power of true faith.   

thanks so much for the email and for always helping me out, i hope you have a great week

 

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter # 56 - San Isidro, Guatemala

hello again

so its been another tough week, but that i guess that is just part of the mission... this week i got the chance to speak with President Ruiz. he was going around the mission doing interviews this last week and so of course i got a chance to talk with him.  during the time i mentioned the struggles recetnly that i have been having and he read these 2 scriptures to me that have helped me out alot.  

Jeremiah 33:3

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

D&C 58:3-4

 3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time,the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

 4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

so yeah those two scriptures have remeinded that i can only control myself and i just have to do everything possible to obey and work hard and then the Lord with do the rest.  this week we had a great day when we committed 3 people to get baptized! i was so happy and thought that finally i was seeing the blessings for my hard work, and then 2 days later everything can crashing to the ground..... it has been really hard to keep going but i know that i can do it.  thank you all for your support for me. 

 

answers to moms questions:

 

(** I always send him a list of 10 questions that he has to answer so I can actually get some real info out of him now and then!!)

YES the world cup is HUGE here!! even though the guatemalan team is terrible and has never gone to a world cup, people here are CRAZY about the world cup,  it is very hard for us to find things to do while the games are going on.  we dont watch the games, but i try to keep myself up to date on what is happening with the games so that i have something else to talk with everyone about.  yes san isidro is better off financially than la blanca which is better off than brillantes.  we are right out side of a big city. the funniest thing that happened this week was when we got home last night and some of the missionaries that live close to us got into our house and hid there and scared the crap out of us haha. to be honest i didnt eat anything bad this week. 

thank you so much for sharing that story with me.  i think that is what i am missing.  i work hard, but i think my problem is that i havent been loving my companion or my investigators like i should. thank you so much for that example and i am going to do everything possilbe to improve this.  

have a great week thank you so much for all of your help

love,

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter #55 - "BOOM, he was there in church!" San Isidro, Guatemala

well hello there

so it has been another week, and it has been hard.  but it has also been full of small miracles.  the whole time i have been here in san isidro i havent had very many investigators so i have been trying so hard to find some positive people.  we have tried just about everything and it has been tough.  but this week some good things happened :) we have been working very hard with this one lady named Magda.  she is super cool and is in church just about every week.  a couple of months ago her mom was baptized and that is when she started coming to church.  we have been working a lot with her so that she can get baptized.  about a week ago i had a feeling that we should take a paper that we use in the house to keep track of what we teach to her (something that i have never done before in the mission). we did it and she was super stoked to see what all the principles are that we teach.  we are now reteaching everything and filling out the paper together.  she told us that when we have filled it out she will get baptized.  it was such a miracle to get the revealation to use a paper that will help Magda get baptized.  the other very cool thing that happened this week was that a family that got baptized a month ago brought their kid to church.  this couple has 4 kids but none of them listened to the missionaries or wanted to go to church or get baptized, so just the parents did it.  so i have tried to work with the kids and it has been hard, but this week we were walking in the street and i saw one of the sons and i started talking to him and i asked him, "when are you gonnna come to church with us?"  he said "this sunday" and i was like ARE YOU SERIOUS??? and he was like yeah.  and then BOOM he was there in church!!! i was stoked!! so yeah those were to two big miracles for the week..  work has been hard, but that is part of the mission.  i love it here.  well i hope you all have a wonderful week

answers to mom's questions:

 

i havent heard anything about yener... i think i might call him soon to see how he is doing.  we went back with the girl (katherine) who was so excited to read the book of mormon, she read it, in english (her first language, she was born in seattle) and didnt understand any thing.  so i went over to her house and taught her whole family about what it said and it was a good lesson.  we dont have a lady who cooks for us, we eat with members from the ward every day.  we do have a lady who does the laundry.   our ward mission leader is alan.  he is super pilas as we say here.  he is great.  he is the first mission leader i have had who has served a mission.  he served in honduras.  he has 3 kids has already been a bishop for a number of years and is a very great guy.  it is really hard for me to pick a favorite scripture but here are a few : moroni 7:33, d and c 6:33-34, d and c 123:17, d and c 128:22, and pres. uchtdorfs talk on gratitude.  yeah i am feeling better -i had paracites but i got some pills in me and they killed all of that crap (literally!) that was in me.  the guy who we talked to with the dog promised he was going to church didnt go.  we couldnt find him all week, he wouldnt return our calls, and didnt show up this sunday either... so im not sure what is going to happen with him....

that is way cool about jake and that scripture that uncle matt read!! and also tell jess and chance congrats for me!! those calls are sooooo coool!!!!!

 

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter #54 - "working like donkeys in the rain!" San Isidro, Guatemala

hello there

so yeah its been another week here and we are still just "trabajando como burros en la lluvia"!! haha that is something that my comp always says,  it means we are working like donkeys in the rain.... im not quite sure why he says it but he does.....  but yeah this week was pretty normal, lots of rain, lots of working, and a little bit more hope.  i dont have a lot of time and im feeling a little bit sick so im gonna be kinda short...  the coolest thing that happened this week was when we were walking in the street and i saw this man without a shirt on and a HUGE PITBULL. i was all for avoiding him and the dog, but then i had this feeling, without a doubt it was the Spirit, told me "go play with that dog". it was about the last thing i wanted to do, and i didnt know how to do it, but as we got close the dog walked almost right up to me. i asked the owner if it was a mean dog he said no and i just started petting it.  after that i started talking to the owner and he was super cool and very interested in the gospel.  the day after that i was on divisions but one of my zone leaders came and with my comp they set a baptizmal date with him on the first real lesson!!

 

 the other coolest part of this week was when i met this girl who was born in the states and just about year ago came to live here in guatemala.  i was talking to her about the church and everything and she told me she had a book of mormon and didnt know where it was but wanted to read it.  the next time i saw her she was jumping up and down with joy that she had found her book of mormon and wanted to know what she should read first.  it was super cool to see her excitement to learn about the gospel.  i believe our excitement to learn about the gospel is something that we can all improve on.  so yeah those were the highlights of the week.  hope everything is going well back home.

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA 

Letter #53 - "it is a surprise I am writing on Wednesday!"- San Isidro, Guatemala

well hello!

 i know it is a suprise that i am writing you all on this wednesday so i guess i will explain why and then what happened in this week plus a little.

so basically monday i got sick.  in the morning i was fine and then at lunch i thought my stomach was going to explode so i went home and slept the rest of the day.  yesterday i felt better and i got permision to write today so that is the story.

so this week we had a couple really cool things that happened.  on wednesday President Duncan (member of the seventy and president of the central america area) came and spoke to us.  i freaking loved what he had to say.  a couple of the highlights were these:  he talked about God's vision for our areas and investigators.  He wants His work to be hastened and He wants many more members.  God has His vision and we have to ask and receive the gift of seeing a small part of God's vision to be able to do our small part to have His vision come true.  President Duncan mentioned that we can have a lot more success if we want it.  if we want more success we have to plan better.  it was a wonderful conference with him, i learned so much, and have started to put the things i have learned into practice.

so yeah that was the highlight of my week.  it was a week full of hard work and im just gonna keep working and i know if i do my part God will do His part to hasten His work

i hope you have a wonderful week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

 

 

 

Letter #52 - "Changes!!" - San Isidro, Guatemala

hello again,

so this last week were the changes and well, it was time for me to be moved.  i am now in an area called san isidro.  we are like 5 minutes outside of one of the biggest cities in our mission (called malacatan) and it is a cool area.  it is hot but after la blanca i dont feel like it is that hot - haha.  the good thing is it rains here so when it rains it feels realy really nice out!! so yeah i live here with 3 other elders, elder quiroz (my comp, more on him to come), elder garcia (from hawaii) and elder rivera (from el salvador). so yeah about my comp he is really ummm intersting.  he is from peru and only has like 2 months in the mission.  this week with him has been so hard... but im just gonna keep working, and keep praying.  the ward here is awesome.  they love the missionaries, and are always willing to help us out and visit with us which is super cool and different for me.  it will be a little bit of a challenge to find the way to work with them just because i have never been able to do it before in my mission. so yeah there are some really cool recent converts here and we have been working with their families so that they too can be baptized.  it looks like we are getting close with a couple of them so in the next couple weeks we should be looking at a couple baptisms.  

i was thinking a lot about the recent converts in this area and how willing they are to share the gospel with their family and friends.  it was really cool but at the same time made me feel bad.  before the mission i almost never shared the gospel with anyone. i had a testimony and knew the scriptures but was afraid to open my mouth and help others see the truth.  i think a lot of times we are like this but these converts of just a couple weeks, who have barely started reading the scriptures for the first time who dont even know all of the doctrine, are sharing the truth with their friends.  we who have had years of being in this gospel should be setting the example; maybe we havent done it but we can start now.  so yeah i just want to give that invitation to all of you.  

so that is about all for this week, but i hope you have a wonderful week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter 51 - "Some random fotos to make mom happy:)" - La Blanca, Guatemala

well seeing as i just talked to you last night, i dont really know what to say........ im still here......

have a wonderful week,

love

elder meyer

hahaha just kidding, but seriously i dont know what to say.  this week was interesting, in that there were many activities that limited our time to work.  we had stake conference over the weekend and that was wonderful to hear from the stake leaders and our mission president who was there.  we had a way cool experience with a family that came to the conference this week.  we had been working hard with them, David and Meilin, for a long while, and while they liked the message they would not commit to go to church.  we were almost ready to drop them but then there was an activity in the chapel for couples to go and learn how to strengthen their marriage and family and they chose to go.  they went loved it and commited to go to the stake conference with us.  they came and loved it and told us they will be in church again next week!! it was super cool; in a few weeks i bet they will be baptized!! so yeah that was the coolest part of the week, well that and talking with all of you!! have a wonderful week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

ps here are some random fotos to make mom happy :)