Letter #92 - "God works in His way and in His time...." Palo Gordo, Guatemala

well hello there

so it was another week here in palo gordo, and sadly it was my last week with elder hutchinson.  he leaves to go home on wednesday so i will have a new comp, but no idea who it will be.... this week we worked like crazy so that ereser would get baptized before hutch went home.  we had like 3 sweet lessons with him and he was so close, but sadly it didnt happen..... it was really sad especially for hutch, but we know that soon he will be baptized.  it was a good reminder to me that God works in His way and in His time, and that it doesnt really matter how many people Hutch and i baptize. all that matters is that they get baptized so that they can be saved.  so yeah it was a good lesson to remember but at the same time a hard lesson to learn.  going into sunday i was pretty bummed, then all of the people that we had committed to come to chruch didnt show, so i was super bummed.  then i got texts from the rest of the zone and as a zone of 12 missionaries we brought 17 people to church!! it was a huge miracle!! in all of my time in palo gordo the most that the zone had every brought was 10, so 17 was a HUGE improvement.  i realized that this was the miracle for working so hard to get ereiser baptized; although the result we were hoping for didnt happen, God blessed us for our hard work.  

it was exactly what i learned this week.  i found the story in Mosiah 8:

 8 And they were lost in the wilderness for the space ofmany days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters, having discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.

 9 And for a testimony that the things that they had said are true they have brought twenty-four plates which are filled with engravings, and they are of pure gold.

king limhi had sent them to find zarahelma, and they couldnt but they were DILIGENT, and they did find the 24 plates that became the Book of Ether.  they probably thought they were a failure, but without them we would not have Ether.  their diligence over 2000 years ago has blessed us with 15 more chapters of the Book of Mormon, and they are amazing chapters. it was the same with us - in spite of our diligence with ereiser, he didnt get baptized but there were many blessings for other people because of our diligence.  

 

answers to moms questions:

 

ereiser is SO CLOSE, he is ready but is scared. his brother who has really been helping him is going to work in canada for 6 months in less than a month so ereiser is scared about what is going to happen when his brother leaves.  arnoldo is still cool; we are just trying to figure out what we need to do to get him to church. erlin came to church, this is the weirdest thing ever.  when ever we go visit him he seems super cool and so close to baptism, but then doesnt come to church for like 2 weeks after we visit him.  if we dont pass by, he goes to church and seems really happy there but still hasnt been baptized..... irma is super cool but she had to go to the captial to take some health tests (she is like 40 and heathly but just out of nowhere lost her vision, now she is completely blind, and doctors have no idea why, she reminds me a little bit of Job), because of that she didnt come to church , but is still super cool.. besides that we have to start look for some new people to teach.

hutch leaves on wednesday, he is excited but sad to leave also. im really sad, he has been my best comp, we have had so much fun together and i have learned a lot from him.  he is going to work in utah and is trying to get into byu so hopefully i can see him there. i have no idea what will happen, i hope i can stay in palo gordo, but i think there is a 50-50 chance that i leave. i have some ideas of people who could be my comp ( as a zl there are a lot less options of comps, so i know basically anyone who could be my comp) im excited for a change but nervous at the same time.  the best thing i learned from pres was this ¨excellence is not an action, it is a habit¨ - love that!  the suit is sweet, im sorry i dont have any pics in the suit... the best meal of the week were dobladas (potatoes and chicken folded inside tortillas and fried.)  at the restaurant we eat fried chick, carne asada (a steak cut really thin and grilled) or chuleta (pork chop that is breaded).  there is a lady named leti who is super cool who does our laundry we pay here 125 quetzales per month each (like 20 dollars)  our branch pres. is super cool, he is named Roel.  he has been a member his whole life but was inactive for a long time.  he drank a lot but then 4 years ago he came back to church and then less than a year after reactivating became pres.  i havent got the package from dori yet but i have to go to the office this week, so hopefully it will be there.  that is crazy that the homecoming talk date is set, any idea what my topic will be???

well i think that is it, i hope you have a great week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

pics 

-  us riding up to Ixtagel (a huge mountain that is part of our area)

-  us with an amazing family from Ixtagel,  they have been members of the church for 10 years and have to walk for an hour and a half to get to church, they are always the first ones to show up

-  view from Ixtagel

-  elders from the zone checking out a local market

 

 

 

 

Letter #91 - "2 showers and 2 toilets!!" - Palo Gordo, Guatemala

hello

so yes i know i am writing in the morning and that is because we have to go down to reu for a meeting with president today.   this was a good week. we worked hard and started trying to find new people because all of those people that we were teaching arent progressing.  we started working more with the members to be able to find more positive people, and little by little it is working!! the coolest thing is that we found this family this week that is super cool, that i am super stoked to work with.  ereiser came to church again and has totally ready to get baptized just that he doesnt feel ready, so we are going to work very hard so that he can get baptized this week before hutch goes home.

this week i also had to talk in sacrament meeting - they asked me to talk about tithing with was very weird because we are always asked to talk about the missionary work.  i found a scripture in Psalms that i loved.  the english translation isnt as good as the Spanish, but it says that we should prove God to see that He is good.  i loved that because it is so true  - for tithing or whatever commandment.  so yeah that was cool. 

 

answers to moms questions:

 

yes i am starting to feel better - i am taking some medicine that has been helping me a little and i am using a bunch of vitamins - hahaha. the weather is the same but i am finally getting used to the cold.  yes i have talked to chase every week and he is doing well and really excited to go to byu.  ereiser is so close to baptism.  he was the only investigator who came to church.  bummer!  we are teaching this person named arnoldo who is so cool.  we are still trying to get sulma to come to church besides that we basically dropped everyone else.  the zone is doing alright,  i feel like there are 2 or 3 companionships that are doing really well and the other ones are struggling a little.  ..... the new house is like 3 blocks from our other house but is 3 times bigger and we pay the same. the best thing is that it has water!!  it is still the 4 of us.  we dont have a mircowave of an oven but we do have a 2 showers and 2 toliets.  the suit is finally done, i am wearing it today to go with pres. 

 

well i think that is about it. i hope you have a great week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

Letter #90 - "We had a miracle baptism!" - Palo Gordo, Guatemala

well hello

it was another week it and to be honest it was pretty uneventful.  going into this week we knew that we had a lot of people that could progress but we weren't really sure what was holding them back.  we worked hard this week but saw little success... one thing that we did that worked very well was that we tried hard to give service every day, and we succeeded .  we chopped wood, de-kerneled a LOT of corn, and even flattened a big piece of land so that they could build a house on top of it.  even though we have been kind of stressed out this week we realized that when we were giving service we were able to forget about ourselves and our worries when we just focused on serving others.  well yeah besides that the only note worthy things are that 1. ereiser came to church again and he really liked it; we are hoping that he can get baptized this week, and 2. that we changed houses. for a few weeks we had been having problems with water in our house and thing were getting pretty bad (went 2 straight weeks without water, we had to go to the house of other missionaries to shower) so this morning we moved to a way nicer and way bigger house, so that was pretty exciting.

as far as what i learned this week, i really liked something that i read in Jarom (i feel like often we over look Enos, Jarom, Omni, and Words of Mormon because they are each only one chapter long, but they are all so good!!).  the scripture that i liked said this

 11 Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them.

 12 And it came to pass that by so doing they kept them from being destroyed upon the face of the land; for they did prick their hearts with the word, continually stirring them up unto repentance.

 

it really reminded me as a missionary that i have to work diligently so that i can help this people prevent their own spiritual destruction.   i thought that was way cool!!

 

answers to mom's questions:

 

Update on investigators:  ereiser came to church again, hopefully he will be baptized this week or next.  erlin is so confusing, we had a sweet lesson with him this week, where he almost comitted to get baptized and then he didnt come to church.  we are working with a guy named avelino who wants to change but usually drinks saturday which makes it really hard to get him to come to church.... we are still trying to teach sulma and also a girl named edith but things have just been kinda frustrating;  they seem so positive but then we it comes to acting, they put excuses.... irma who came to church last week is still going well but she couldnt make it this week. hutch leaves on the 4 of march to go home.  yes i will be very sad to see him go home.... yes i have enough warm clothes.   the zone is doing alright, we had interviews with pres. this week and he told us about a few problems in the zone that we didnt know about, but then last night we just talked for no joke like 2 or 3 hours about what we are going to do to help the zone out. yes we are safe dont worry about it.  i dont feel sick very often, but right now i have a bad cough and feel very congested.... no it isnt that often that there are safety problems here, there are a few dangerous area in the mish, but not many.  yes there are some very dangerous spots in guatemala but they arent here in the mish.  i stopped by with the suit guy this morning.  the jacket is almost done, we fitted the vest today and hopefully by wednesday it should be done.

 

i would like to thank you for fasting, it helped!!  we had a miracle baptism in the zone because of it!! it was the guy whose son got kidnapped, but he got married and baptized this week!!

well i think that is about it. 

i hope you have a great week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

 

 

Cake bake-off with some investigators!

Letter #89 "...do the small and simple things..." - Palo Gordo, Guatemala

well it was another week here in fat stick (palo gordo) and it was kind of a tough week.  we had some good things that we were hoping would happen in the zone but because of some problems it did not go as planned..... but I guess even with that it was a pretty good week. it was my first week in more that a month when i had a full week to work, no meetings in reu, no long buses going down to the heat, just work.  so yeah that was great!!  besides that we worked really hard to try and find new people to teach and bring to church. after having so many problems finding and teaching a few of our old investigators we had to look for other people to teach.  things turned out pretty well because we were able to find some really cool poeple including a lady named irma who we found on saturday and she came to church with us on sunday so yeah that was great!!

this week we also tried really hard to focus on planning better. it has been a struggle for us because we come home tired and hungry and then we have to call the zone so that we can see how their days were, so it doesnt really give us that much time to plan but we focused on doing it and things got so much better. we had way more things to do and we were able to work way more effectively.  it is such a testimony to what it says in Alma 36:

 

 

6 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.

 7 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.

if we do the small and simple things that we should, the Lord blesses us.

one thing that i learned this week was  from a video we watched in church on sunday.  the branch president showed a video from the area presidency that was talking about how to help people come to church or how to help them come back.  in the video Elder Ochoa said that the purspose of a visit is not to just visit someone, but it is to bless them.  i loved that it helped me remember that what i need to do is bless so many other lives while im still here in guatemala.

answers to moms questions:

 

me and hutch are getting along really well.  we live with elder mendez and guitierrez.  mendez is from honduras and has 8 ish months in the mission (he came into the mission with godinez), guitierrez has like a month in the mish now and is from california but his parents are from mexico so he already speaks really good spanish.  yeah we get along really well and have a lot of fun.  the branch president and his counselors and super cool,  i really liked the mission leader but he just got a job in xela which is like 2 ish hours away and so apparently he is going to live there and now we need a mission leader.. every week i play the piano in church.  besides that i dont really have any other callings, i was going to teach sunday school this week because our mission leader gave those classes but they had some one else do it for this week.  the funniest event of the week, well im not sure to be honest. with hutch we are just about laughing constantly, haha but yeah you know we are still boys and at that very immature age, so you can imagine some of the stuff that goes on - hahahaha.  the best book besides the scriptures that i have ready is The Peter Potential. i know it was way short but it was so powerful.  the one thing i wish i would have done before the mission would have been share the gospel with my friends.  there were so many people (christina, quinn, trevor, mason, and others) that i should have invited to church and helped them see and learn more about the truth.  this week i didnt feel that cold except for one day when it poured rain (which is really weird because usually it doesnt rain until may...).  yes we are still working out, hutch wakes me up everyday at 5:30. i usually am not to happy to be up (you remember from the seminary days) but i go, and then afterwords im happy that i went. as far as the suit goes, it should be done this week. i havent seen it yet, but who knows if it will actually be done this week - guatemalans have the reputaion of procrastinating and not getting anything done by deadlines, so we'll see what happens haha!!

its sounds like the normal craziness back home and that makes me happy. i would be worried if things got normal and boring haha!

 

 

so yeah i think that is about it for this week, i hope you all have a great week.  on a seperate note, im way sad that Dean Smith died; he will always be the best basketball coach ever

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

ps the fotos are from some waterfalls that we went to today

 

 

Letter #88 - "We are doing a great work..." - Palo Gordo, Guatemala

 hello!

well it was yet another week here in palo gordo.  everything is going really well.  this week we lost 2 days of work to go to Reu to have a conference wtih Elder Ochoa of the Seventy.  so yeah we were with him in a meeting from 8 til 3, and then hutch and i had to leave and go to another chappel in reu for another meeting with Elder Ochoa from 3:15-6.  then we left to go back to the mountains,  but the meetings were really good!!  i learned a lot, and i felt like the theme of his message was John 7:17

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

so its a simple idea but so true; if we want to know what God wants to do, we just do it and then we will know if it is what God wants or not.  as far as the work goes it was kind of a frustrating week in that the same thing happened as last week. we kept focusing on Ereiser and Sulma but they couldnt come to church again, then out of nowhere Erlin and Dolman came. its really weird because when we try and teach Erlin and Dolman it seems like they have excuses to not listen to us and they dont want to commit to get baptized, but they just keep coming to church....

this is the best thing I learned from the scriptures this week:  i love the story of Nehemiah.  he was just such a man and so focused on what he had to do, and he didnt let anyone get in his way.  i love nehemiah 6:3

And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

we are doing a great work and we should let anyone or anything get in the way.

 

answers to moms questions:

 

no it hasnt rained in the mountains the whole time ive been here, but the rainy season is may til october so im not sure if it rains as much here during the rainy season... we almost never eat with members. there is a restaurant that we pay to give us our lunch tuesday thru saturday, sunday we make something in the house and on monday we get something while we are out doing something for pday.  i paid the tailor half for the suit he said it should be done by like the 10 or 11 of february.  the best thing i learned this week is that if i just make sure my investigators are completing their commitments and want to repent, they will be baptized. i forgot to ask pres about the ecclesiastical endorsmenet but we have interviews with him next week.  the greatest blessing of being a zone leader is being able to have more time with pres and with elder ochoa and being able to help a lot of different people.  my favorite person of the week would have to be an investigator who i interviewed for baptism this week - she is so amazing.  a few days before her baptism a ridiculous number of crazy bad things happened, (lost her job, and a bunch of other crap that i cant even imagine) and i interviewed her right after all that crap happened.  when she told me about all of that stuff, i had no idea what to tell her, but then she just told me, "i know this is happening because im gonna get baptized, but it doesnt matter what happens. im going to do it!!" it was super cool to see her great faith!! yes i got the package - THANKS SO MUCH!!

well i think that is all... have a great week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA

 

 

 

Letter #87 - "God always answers our prayers!" - Palo Gordo, Guatemala

hello

so it was yet another week here in fat stick (palo gordo) and it was a great week.  it was the week of the changes which means that we lost a full day of work, but even with that we were able to get so much done.  president had challenged the whole mission to really focus on finding new investigators this week and he said all of those that hit a certain number (for us it was 12) would be able to go to the temple.  we found 19!! and as a zone we found 115!! this is more than double the number we had found in whatever other week that i have been here in palo gordo!! so yeah it ended being a super sweet week.. 

we had a cool experience sunday.  we had like 5 or 6 people that we were hoping would come to church, but we were sure about 2 of them (sulma and ereiser).  we passed by sulma and she couldnt come.  to be honest it made me really discouraged.  we walked to church in silence, both a little bit confused because we had had such a great lesson with her on saturday night.  we got to church and eresiers brother who is a member showed up and said that ereiser couldnt make it.  then i was so frustrated, we had worked so hard, we had done everything we could and then good things werent happening.  i sat down and started to play the prelude music and then i saw 2 families walk in.  in both the families the fathers arent members and we have been working with them but we didnt have that much faith that they were going to come, but they came.  it was such a great miracle to see that we were blessed for our hard work.

as far as what i learned this week, i had a way cool experience.  president had challenged us to read 25 chapters of the Book of Mormon and then pray and ask God again if the Book of Mormon was true.  so this week i hit the 25th chapter since he had left us this invitation. before i began to read i prayed and asked God if it was true.  as i began to read i felt like i needed to read the heading (something i almost never do) and look what it says:

Nephi’s words are true

 

when i saw it i felt the spirit and also started laughing. it was so amazing that God always answers our prayers. i invite all of you, members or no, to read that Book of Mormon and then to ask God if it is true (even if you have already done it) i know God will respond

answers to mom's questions:

investigators: Ereiser - he accepted baptism for this saturday but has only come to church once, so we have to see if we can get permission to baptize him like that or we are going to have to help him come to church more before he gets dunked.  Sulma - her older brother is a member and she is very interested.  we have taughter he twice and we just feel like she would be such a great member.  Erlin - came to church again, but was drinking this last week; we believe that he wants to get baptized but he is afraid that his family will get angry if he does it. Dolman - his wife is a member also.  he came to church this last week.  im not really sure what to think about him.  it is almost like he doesnt take us seriously when we talk to him, but he wants to change and stop drinking, but we will have to see how we help him.  the best food of the week was a hamburger that i ate today: it had 2 patties, an egg, ham, and a middle bun.  also last night we made warm cinnamon sugar milk and OH MY GOSH it was AMAZING!! yes i can see a couple volcanos but it is hard, because we are on them so it is hard to see them... i havent been able to ask pres about my ecclesiastical endorsment, but i will see him on friday and saturday.  so i will do it.  yes chase wrote me, i cannot belive he is home...yes we are living with elder mendez and elder guiterrez (he is new).  the greatest miracle of the week is that our zone had a lot of changes and now we have amazing missionaries and things are getting a lot better in the zone. 

 

yeah hutch (his new companion) is awesome!! we are quite the team.  we are the craziest compaionship of zone leaders in the mission,  and maybe the craziest companionship in the whole mission hahaha, but i am just loving being with him.  we work hard, and have so much fun, and there is nothing better than that!!

 

well i think that is it.  i hope you have a great week

love

elder meyer

GO HEELS GO AMERICA 

 

 

Letter #86 - "Work hard, play hard, but dont forget to work hard!" - Palo Gordo, Guatemala

hello

well it was an unexpected week - why, you might ask?  well on monday night at like 11, I was about to fall asleep when we got a phone call and it was from the asistants.  they said that my comp had emergency changes and that the next day they would be there to pick him up at take me to the office for another training meeting we were going to have with president and then i would get my new comp there.  and that is exactly what happened!  my new comp is elder hutchinson. he is from virginia beach, va. he has like 23 months in the mish and is the MAN!! i love him.  we have only been together like 5 or 6 days but we have already had so much fun together and are working so hard.  we decided that we wanted to have a saying and so our saying is work hard, play hard, but dont forget to work hard!! yeah it is funny but it fits us so well; we are crazy and have so much fun but we are working so hard.  and we are going to the gym every day - mom that should make you happy! 

so as far as the work this week we were able to find a bunch of new people which was great because to be honest we didnt have very many people that we were teaching, but we found a bunch and we are going to find even more this week!! we found this guy named Ereiser (pronounced like eraser) who has an older brother who is a member and we had a sweet lesson with him and then he came to church this week and really liked it!! so yeah that is about it as far as the work goes - it is really picking up!

this week i was reading in 2 chronicles and i read one of the coolest chapters ever - chapter 20.  the whole chapter is amazing. it tells of Isreal and about how they were scared that another nation was going to attack them, so they all fasted - the ENTIRE NATION FASTED TOGETHER and because of that they were saved by God.  i love verse 17:

 

Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.

we dont need to fear because we will see the salvation of God if we do our part. i also love verse 20:

Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.

as a missionary i am always teaching about prophets and i love the promise that if we believe in the prophets we will prosper.  it was a huge testimony builder about the importance of prophets and how the Church is the true church because it has a living prophet.

answers to mom's questions:

my comp hutchinson is the man.  i think he might already be one of my favorite comps!! erlin (one of their investigators) has had some problems.  we have done everything possible to be able to teach him but he hasnt been there or has told us to come back another day, its kinda frustrating and im not sure what to do with him.  we know we need the help of his wife. we fasted with her on sat and it was great but then she didnt even show up to church on sunday and that frustrated me..  the part of the gospel that is most difficult for people to accept is that there is only one true church.  a lot of people think that they can go to whatever church and if they are obedient that they will be saved. my favorite part of the gospel to teach is eternal families. every night we spend about 30 minutes calling and talking to our missionaries, twice a week we have meetings with everyone and we take a fair amount of time to plan the messages we give.  about twice a week we go on divisions, and once or twice a month we go to reu for meetings.  my zone is zona San Marcos.  if you could put these people on the prayer roll it would be great: me, elder hutchinson, elders morin, puckett, garboza, morales, calvio, mendez, evans, hermana castillo, and erlin, reyna, helen, dolman, and ereiser.  im mostly adjusted to the cold weater. our house is not heated, but we do have hot water in the shower and there is not heat in the church. hutch is HUGE so we wake up early every day and go to the gym. 

 

i talked to president  about extending this week and he told me i should ask the Lord and you what I should do, and that the two of you would give me my answers so i want to know your honest opinion about extending.  (I replied that I was happy either way - he could come home in April or stay an extra 6 weeks.  I asked Charlie what he thought grandpa would say - LOVE his response!)   i have no idea what grandpa would say....he might say something like:

 

``garbage, charles just hurry up and come home i miss you!`` 

 

or he might say:

 

 ``charles you are a gentleman and scholar and there are few of us left, and you might be the only one in guatemala so you should probably stay a little bit longer!```

 

i think im leaning towards extending.  im gonna  pray really hard about it this week, please do the same thing and ask the whole family to do it.  then I will let you know next week, does that sounds ok??

 

thanks for all of your advice and all you do to help me!   i hope you have a wonderful week and that you work hard and play hard, but dont forget to work hard!

love

elder meyer

 

GO HEELS GO AMERICA