Week 70

Hey everyone whats up? MERRY CHRISTMAS ON THURSDAY!!!!!!!

so this week we finally had a baptism! so freaking sick!!!! 

Monday 12-15-14

pday was super fun today. we went out to morant bay to play basketball. its been so long since i have last done that. or at least it feels like forever haha. it started raining on us right at the end too so that made it even more fun. then after emails we went and did arm ball at the church. that sport is dang fun! im gonna have to be sure to take that sport home and play it with everyone haha! teaching today we saw sister stanley and george. sis stanley is way cool. she is one of the nicest people i have ever met. she just needs to be coming to church more often. we committed her to coming more so that she has the possibility of working in the temple one day. idk if that is going to happen or not but at least she can be ready if the chance comes. we also had the zone leaders stay over night so that they can give alwayne his baptism interview tomorrow. so that was the pday really haha.

Tuesday 12-16-14

well today i was with elder england for a tradeoff. he did the interview for alwayne and alwayne passed big time. so everything is now set in stone for his baptism on saturday. we also had a thought with sheika. to not a lot of teaching really done today. we had to coaster into kingston to end the tradeoff too so elder hall and i had to run some errands in down town. when we got back we just did some mission prep. so not a super eventful day. 

Wednesday 12-17-14

well it was district meeting again today. it was pretty alright. i am kinda getting dead on teaching them now haha. i kinda hope that someone else comes to yallahs to take my spot as DL haha. nothing really big happened today tho. we're a bit worried about joyce tho. she is not reading like at all. its been over a week since we last saw her and she didnt read one thing. we might have to drop her soon if she doesnt pick up the reading. then our family home evening ended up going into some doctrine mentioned in the King Follett Sermon. so that was probably the most interesting thing all day haha. i think that with christmas eve being next week, we'll have a lot more fun tho haha

Thursday 12-18-14

well we had another day of long biking. we did about 7 miles by 1pm today. we went up to easington for a lesson, and then dropped right down into Albion. it was a good lesson thank heavens haha. we will see what happens with the next time that we go there. then there are some members that are really starting to piss me off. one is just making a bunch of excuses of why they arent at church and the other one is just all talk. they dont do anything. the family for them is not in a good spot right now. then we went and had a lesson with sonya on the plan of salvation. we went pretty in depth with it so we only got to the atonement. but it was a really good lesson. i thought that sonya was feeling something during it. i felt the spirit so hopefully everyone else was too. the next lesson should be way good.

Friday 12-19-14

today was pretty good. out leson with alwyane was good. he had to leave so he kinda rushed the lesson. then we had a lesson with some other guys. they are still potentials so we will see what happens. but friday night activity was fun. we did arm ball, and then some dominoes. we got daquon to talk with elder newcomb too at last. hopefully that will help him out. im just super stoked for alwynes baptism tomorrow right now tho!

Saturday 12-20-14

not a lot of teaching today but we got what matters most! A BAPTISM!!! alwayne was baptized in the ocean in the morning. it was so sick. elder newcomb did the baptism and they were being knocked around by all the waves haha. it was pretty funny to see. if they had said the words at the right time, the wave may have baptized him its self haha. but everything went super well. then we had the branch christmas party. we were there for about 6 hours to help out with anything that needed to be done, as well as party with the branch. people were having a good time tho. it was a big success. i think around 70 or 80 people came so we had a great turn out. super fun day really haha

Sunday 12-21-14

well we confirmed alwayne in sacrament meeting today. i was the one who confirmed him. it was a bit scary haha. i have never done that before. but everything went well. i didnt mess up on the words somehow. now the only thing left for me is to personally baptize someone. but im fine if that doesnt happen haha. other people should do it :)  church was pretty good tho. we are starting to go down in numbers, so thats not good. hopefully we can get more people to come tho. we also went to a meeting for george today. we may be doing a lot of service for him. the government kinda screwed him over so he is losing his house in a week. things are starting to get really interesting in yallahs i guess haha.

so thats the week. i enjoyed it a lot. having a baptism is always the best thing ever. its been a long time comin for alwayne as well. now we just need to get him out on a mission in a year haha. its so crazy to think i have been out here for 16 months already. it feels like just yesterday that i was home playing nba 2k haha. its gonna be a sad day in august. but at the same time, i cant wait to go home so i can come back to jamaica and see everyone!!!! Jamrock for life baby!!! haha :D

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

The Christmas Story

Week 69

well wa gwan everyone?

this week was pretty eventful. i got the news of grandpa dying on Tuesday. that was a pretty big shock. but thankfully the gospel tells us there is more to look forward to. im doing pretty alright with it all. but anyways.... here is the week....

Monday 12-8-14

today was so stressful. we went into kingston to shop at price smart. its like a costco for down here. i dont know why i always get excited to go to places like that and megamart. they are still way expensive cause you have to buy it all in bulk. plus i think the food will last about the same amount of time. of course, i still have it so im doing pretty good with it all haha. we had a good night teaching when we got back tho. we had to hurry up to joyces house and have a games night there. it was very relaxing for her. a lot of stress seemed to come off of her shoulders with it. then we went down to george and leonard for a short spiritual thought. i always love going there. they are extremely humble people. i love seeing their love for the gospel and the commitment to always live it. so a stressful start, to a relaxing finish i guess haha.

Tuesday 12-9-14

we got quite a bit of work done today. we were able to watch the restoration dvd with sister loague. that was really good. she said that we always come with something that she is thinking of. sometimes knowing peoples concerns helps a bit haha. then we had a realy good lesson with Shashay today, the girl we had a different lesson with on sunday. she ended up reading all of the plan of salvation pamphlet, marked it up, answered the questions in the back, and put a little part of it on Facebook!!! man it was awesome to see! we had a really good lesson with her too. there was a small interruption that drove the spirit away but she still understood it super well. prepared people are the best!

Wednesday 12-10-14

well.... today was pretty crappy. we started out going to alwayne and having him teach us a lesson on alma 56. he did a super good job. he is gonna be a fantastic missionary when he is baptized. so that was really good. and we even had a really good talk/lesson with sister grant. man is she a saint. i am convinced that she will be going to the celestial kingdom. she is just so nice to everyone, and sacrifices so much to go to church and help people. she is always at church no matter what. but the day fell apart from there. i found out about grandpa during this time. that was a complete shock. but as i said before. im doing pretty well with it. it looks like he died in a good way. just went out peaceful. the rest of the day we didnt really see a lot of people. we had a good family home evening with sister alvarenga about revelation. thats really about it tho.

Thursday 12-11-14

we had zone conference in kingston with elder martinez of the 70 today. it was super good. it was more of a discussion about a talk we were supposed to read. but i forgot to read it haha. guess i better get to reading it here soon haha. then we got all of our christmas gifts. i opened mine pretty fast (sorry mom haha ;) ) i was pretty stressed out today for some reason. not really sure why. hopefully by tomorrow it can just settled down so i can have a good day.

Friday 12-12-14

well we only saw daquon and alwayne today. we went up and read a little bit of alma 34 with daquon. he wanted to go in and play some video games so we only got to read like half of the chapter with him. not really too much you can do there. then we went over and alwayne teach us again. this time we had him go from alma 32. once again tho, he did a fantastic job. he teaches things very simply, asks inspired questions, and relates it to the person he is teaching very well. he makes me feel like a bad missionary haha. we gave him prayer as a topic that he needs to teach us on now. hopefully we can take him teaching with us real soon. for friday night activity we ended up having a rap battle. of course i stayed out of it haha. i cant rap worth a crap ;) but it was prety fun haha :)

Saturday 12-13-14

we saw a lot of people today. probably around like 7. but only like 4 of them really were numbers. oh well. they were still effective lessons so i cant complain about that at all :) the big lessons that we had were with daquon and sonya. with daquon we went up and read with him. we just finished the last part of alma 34 with him. he seemed to learn from it. hopefully he will apply it tho. he needs to talk to elder newcomb about some stuff really bad right now. the good thing is that he is one of the only people that i see that really let the scriptures speak to him. he really learns a lot from them and can really feel the spirit talking to him when something comes up. its way cool to see. then our lesson with sonya was interesting we read from alma 47 to start out. then we got onto her going to some parties, to having good friends. everything is good with her really. we somehow got onto the topic of our life stories too. not much for me to really say haha. i was a sheltered child :) i was a bit worried that it was too off topic but she didnt hesitate to say the closing prayer so i guess it was all worth while haha. building relationships with people is one of my favorite things down here. i never want to bring random people to the gospel. just my friends and family. mostly family tho haha. i dont have friends down here. just family :)  right now i just really want alwayne to come to church tomorrow. if he comes then he can be baptized.....

Sunday 12-14-14

ALWAYNE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!! WE ARE GOING TO BE HAVING A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY!!!!!  im so stoked for that! its been way too long since i have seen a baptism. he is so ready for baptism and i cant wait for it to happen! elder hall and i had to go up and rebuke daquon tho. he didnt come to church cause "he didnt feel like it". we gave him a good chastisement but also did it very lovingly. if he doesnt come to church next week then i am going to hit him over the head with a rock. well maybe not that bad, but im gonna want to hurt him bad haha. we had to do a lot of tracting today tho. a lot of things blew out so we just tried to hand out some pamphlets and cards.

so thats the week. one thing i love down here is meeting prepared people. whether it be a young adult in porty, a family in spanish town, a teenager girl in santa cruz, or a young male in yallahs, its the best thing ever! they always end up being such great friends and family to me! i just cant wait to come to jamaica again to visit everyone without time restrictions haha!!!!

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

2 Nephi 31:18

Week 68

hey everyone!

we have been in Kingston for some shopping today. thats why this is so late. so i dont have my journal with me so it may be a short email today. we did a lot of biking tho. we went to a place called Llandeway. look at the directions on google maps and you can see how far it is haha. too far for me

Monday 12-1-14

well we went and talked with sheika for a bit today. i dont really remember what happened. all i know is that it was pday and it was a bit relaxing. at least i hope that it was haha.

Tuesday 12-2-14

today i did a tradeoff with elder newcomb in his area. with transfers tomorrow, i had to get one more in so it was officially in the transfer haha. it was pretty fun. we were able to see quite a bit of people during the day. it seems everytime i go into their area its a good day haha. maybe that can happen for ours here soon. we had a good week, but we get pretty average days.

Wednesday 12-3-14

in district meeting i taught about D&C 20:37. we went really in depth with all of the qualifications. it seems like it was super good. hopefully it helped the other elders tho. today we were able to see joyce. we went over the family proclamation to the world a bit cause she isnt getting along with her family. idk whose fault it is, but its pretty stupid. it was an alright lesson. joyce read finally. and she was really into it. now we just need to get her reading everyday. we were also able to have a family home evening with sister alvarenga again. we showed the thing that we did on sunday. it went alright. sister alvarenga seems way excited to share the gospel with this christmas thing so i guess that i cant complain haha.

Thursday 12-4-14

well today was the day that we biked out to Llandeway. that was a far bike ride. we had some appointments blow out so elder hall and i decided that we would just go on a road until we felt like we had to stop. well, when we felt like it, it was time to go back for lunch. we didnt see a lot of people out there but the land sure was pretty. its worth a drive when i come back haha :) we were able to see daquon today. that was a good lesson. he is really back on track. he told us that he would be early to church this sunday. as long as we talk about what he knows is going to help him, the lessons are always super good. we also saw Alwayne today. we had a lesson on tithing. really he knows it all. he just needs to come to church 2 times in a row to be baptized. he wants to do it so hopefully he starts to act more on it. then we went and talked with george for a bit. he is going through a rough time so we just went down to help him out a bit. things in yallahs are going pretty good.

Friday 12-5-14

haha man was today interesting. we dropped sister bassett today. she is just too hard hearted. she wont act on anything we teach her so there is no point in going back there. we said some other things to her but thats for a different conversation haha. then our lesson with joyce was pretty bad. she didnt really want a lesson so we just read with shantoy. joyce eventually joined us and we left them with some homework. friday nigh activity was awful too. we had a big spirit of contention there with a lot of things. first sheika was mad and i had to talk to her about it. then i got pissed and basically didnt talk to any missionaries for the rest of the night. not the best day in the world.

Saturday 12-6-14

today we had a really good day for numbers. we went to alwayne and went over d&c 20:37 with him. he is all set. we had a small concern about that but we figured everything out in the lesson. then we went and had a lesson with daquon. we wanted us to read something from the book of mormon with him that he came across on friday night. so thats what we did. it was alma 32. he seemed to like the first part of it more. kinda rare, but i think i might too haha. its so cool. we kinda got kicked out of a lesson tho. we just kinda pushed someone outta their comfort zone and they kicked us out in a very nice way. i felt bad about it. i talked to the person at church about it and they said that nothing happened then. idk about that but ill take it i guess. we still have a good relationship with the person so im not too worried.

Sunday 12-7-14

we ended the transfer off really good. we had alwayne come to church, so that means that he only needs to be on time one more week and he can be baptized! super stoked with that! we also had a lesson with a new person. it was pretty good. we will see what happens on tuesday tho to see if we keep going back there. we also saw sonya today. the main thing i learned there is that i need to shut up haha. ever since i have gotten to yallahs i have been a freaking chatter box. i will probably be having elder hall talk a lot more. i need to allow other people to talk and also the spirit. when i speak, there is almost no time for someone to really listen to the spirit. sometimes its just me rambling on about nothing. this week i will be controlling that tho.

so we had a good week i would say :) we hit 20 lessons and the district had some good effective numbers as well. time on my mission is going by way fast all of the sudden. sometimes i wish it would be faster but most of the time i just wish it would slow down haha. the mission is just too much fun. i have found more members of my family down here. all my friends here are a part of my family. its almost like i just belong here in jamaica. haha we'll see tho. maybe ill just retire to here :)

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

Week 67

Hey everyone!

so transfer calls were this week. i will be in Yallahs still. hopefully for a little while longer haha. it would be so awesome!!!

Monday 11-24-14

Today started out really relaxing. i was able to take a nice long nap for my pday. pday is the only day that i will ever take naps cause if i do it any other time, i have no motivation to go out and teach and i just feel like crap. gotta take advantage of the times i get right haha. we didnt get any lessons in today cause we ran into a situation with the tithing. everything was eventually figured out so its all good. but kinda just a boring day in that aspect.

Tuesday 11-25-14

oddly enough our morning was a lot better than the rest of our day. it was still pretty hard tho. we had a lesson with jessica on prayer, and it did nothing. the spirit was not there i i dont think that she payed any attention the whole time. her prayer at the end sounded like she didnt learn a single thing. we'll have to go over that again at some point. our lesson with daquon was quite good tho. we did another role play with him, this time on prophets. he is super good at teaching haha. at least better than i was before my mission haha. once he is a missionary he will be a stud. he is very motivated from YSA so hopefully he can stay on this path that he got on.

Wednesday 11-26-14

zone meeting was pretty good. i didnt write down a whole lot of stuff but it was still pretty interesting. one thing taught was D&C 20:37. as a district leader i have to have that in my head when i do baptism interviews, when they come that is haha, so it was really good to be able to go into depth with it. we only got in one lesson and it was a small family home evening with Sister Alvarenga and some people who live around her like Daquon and Alwayne. we had a pretty good thing planned but then her neighbor started to move in so everyone started to help out with that. we only got in a short thought but it should be really good to be able to get in the habit of going there every week. im super stoked haha.

Thursday 11-27-14

we had a pretty alright day. elder hall and i were pretty excited to share a chirstmas thing that we learned about in zone meeting. its onchristmas.mormon.org if you want to check it out. its also the front thing on thelds.org page and will be the only thing on youtube on december 7th haha. its super big. we were able to share it with sister robinson and sheika today. our lesson with joyce was pretty interesting. we told her that she needs to be sure to read from the Book of mormon. we also taught her the proper way to pray. that was the interesting part haha. she seemed a little... struggling... with it but i think that the spirit was telling her that it was true. she is progressing super well. i really hope that she will soon accept a baptism day. i really want it to be in the next few lessons. pray hard haha.

Friday 11-28-14

today was a bit strange. we had 2 lessons, but neither one was one that we planned for. we had a sit and teach lesson with a guy named Omar. we taught him the plan of salvation cause he seems super attached to his son. he said that he feels like it could be true. im pretty stoked with that haha. its a start to him feeling the spirit so we can really work with that. we also had a short thought with Daquon. friday night activity was pretty good too. im just a bit tired of members who come complain that nothing is happening when they dont do much to change it. complaining is one thing that just annoys me. stop being a part of the problem and be part of the solution.

Saturday 11-29-14

we only had one lesson today cause it rained the whole time but it was a super great lesson! one of the best times i have ever felt on my mission. we went up to Sonya, a less active member, and talked to her a bit about the book of mormon. she hasnt read it in years so we just started to review it. after a while it got into how long it had been and she said that it had been a very long time since she had read. then we asked her how she felt when she was reading it all those years ago. she told us that she didnt remember that much. but then the spirit talked to her. she then remembered that when she was reading she felt very safe and she knew who Sonya was. she then said that she doesnt know who Sonya is now and she doesnt remember how to be. she started crying and left the room for a minute. man was the spirit so strong!! we committed her to reading everyday to find out who she is again. giving people a reason to change is the best thing to do. if they dont have a reason to change, they wont do it. but Sonya has something that she wants to change and something she wants to find out. she is gonna make some big steps and i am super excited to see those steps made. later we texted her to remind her to read and she already had! things are really looking up for her. the next few weeks are gonna be so great for her!

Sunday 11-30-14

church was pretty good today. not much really happened tho. we didnt really even get a lot done today. but we were able to help out a member who is in some serious trouble. he is gonna get kicked out of his house if he doesnt pay like $500 US by the 29th of december. he is struggling pretty bad with stress and depression. i so wish that i could help him. he really is just hanging on by his testimony of the gospel right now. he is such a great member. with elder newcomb being able to sign checks tomorrow, i think we are gonna try to see what the church can do to help him. he is one member of the church who deserves it completely. he is faithful, converted to the gospel, and never asks for help from the church. hopefully things can get figured out for him. we may have a lot of service planned for january but our fingers are crossed that we dont, in the best way of course haha.

so ya thats the week. there was a huge up, and a huge downer right on the last 2 days. hopefully everything will work out well for them both. but the gospel is defiantly true! nothing is ever going to change that! i hope that each one of you can be converted to the gospel! it is the fulness of Christs teachings and the one thing we can always turn too in our rough times.

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

The Three Pillars of Eternity by Bruce R. McConkie

(its a byu speech. i read it and thought it was fantastic!)

Week 66

Hey Everyone!

this week was pretty good. we had some unexpected things come up but still got a lot of work done. 

Monday 11-17-14

wo is it really already the 17th???? where did the time go haha. well today was pretty dang great. we got to see ritzan off. the aps came and picked him up so we went and said our "final" goodbyes haha. he will be serving here in jamaica so we will all be sing him again haha. other than that we had a pretty uneventful day today. mostly just hearing a few people about what members gossip and why someone is less active in the church now. so stupid. i hate dealing with stuff like that haha.

Tuesday 11-18-14

well i did a tradeoff with elder fowkes today so i do not know how my area really did as far as good lessons haha. but we did get to see quite a few people and even relaxed just a bit on the beach when we had just a little extra time. their area is in great shape. sometimes i wish that i could be in there haha.

Wednesday 11-19-14

well district meeting was kinda dumb today. i taught about bicycle safety. kinda just a last minute idea that i had. we all need to improve on it tho. my bike is a POC so i need to do something with it haha. we had a really good day afterwards tho. we were able to have a lesson with Joyce and Jessica. they understood the lessons really well. with joyce we read 3 nephi 11 cause she hadnt quite done that yet. with jessica we went over the plan of salvation. they were interesting in their own ways to say the least as well haha. jessica is just a 16 year old girl in jamaica that dresses a little.... bad. and joyce just talks a lot. mostly off topic. but we got it back on pretty alright. then we did some mission prep stuff with Daquon so he can come teaching with us one day and then a small thought with Sheikas mom. 

Thursday 11-20-14

well i chopped my leg off with a machet today. i am now biking around with just one foot. haha jk. but i did cut myself with a machet today. that was a weird feeling. its all healed up now tho. service  was our entire morning. it took forever cause elder halls bike randomly broke down so some guy came over and fixed it for free. i already know whats going to happen. its going to break. you get what you pay for down here for sure. we had a lesson with sister alvarenga and her daughter sonya today. they are super cool. very solid family as well. sonya is a bit less active but it looks like she is gonna get back to being active. we just have to get her converted to the gospel haha. but thats really all we did today. kinda a tough day haha.

Friday 11-21-14

The only lesson we had today was with joyce and her family. we read a bit with them and then talked about scripture study and prayer a bit. they even said that they would be at church on sunday! woo! friday night activity was the same as always. nobody really came. it was just us missionaries and sheika and 2 random members. we did a bon fire at the beach. we may not be having it anymore haha. we'll see what happens but if no one is showing up then there is no point in even having it. it will be interesting to see what happens tho with the members. they may have to do their own thing.

Saturday 11-22-14

we did service again to start off the day. it was just moving a butt ton of dirt. nothing to special haha. we were gonna try to help another member out with something but she said that we were "late" and wouldnt accept our help. i about told her off for it. we never said what time we would come and she never told us that she had to be somewhere. i just walked away from it to avoid a big conflict. elder hall then had his bicycle mash up again. knew it haha. so we will be walking for the next 2 days. we only got to see avril today. she is a tough one to break. getting to know her is super hard cause she almost pushes you away cause she doesnt know you. she was a little more open today but not by more than a fraction. the things i do on a mission haha

Sunday 11-23-14

well joyce and her family were able to come to church today! it was awesome! they said that they really enjoyed it! hopefully they can keep coming to church and they will accept a day. we didnt really get a lot of lessons in since we were walking. we saw okara, but i dont think that is really going to go anywhere. she doesnt really seem interested. then we towed all the way to sister meadows house. that means that i peadled my bike and elder hall sat in front of me steering. its pretty common in jamaica haha. we normally dont do it cause it looks like a "fish" bike. or gay haha. but it was more effective than walking to say the least. so thats really it. church was super good tho. i had to give a talk on baptism for 15 minutes, and it ended up being a 30 minute discourse haha. i need to work on my rambling skills haha.

so thats our week. we got the bike fixed so this week we wont be walking. dont know if i could do that again haha. but the mission is so great! i am so glad that i am able to be here! from the gospel to the friends i have made in Porty, Spain Town, Santa Cruz, and Yallahs, its all been so amazing. the people are the best part. i am so blessed by knowing them and having them be a part of my life. people always say that a missionary is a great blessing in their life, but more times than not, that person or that family is a bigger blessing in the missionary's life.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Matthew 10:34

ive been trying to read the standard works before i leave my mission so be sure to follow up with me every so often so that i can do it :)

Week 65

Hey everyone!

this week was pretty dang good. i had a small heartbreak, but it was picked up super fast. nothing bad haha. just the normal of being a missionary.

Monday 11-10-14

Well i started a trade off with elder adams today in kingston. he is the one from ephriam utah. he is one of the kingston ZLs so he was the one to gt me to come into kingston. we didnt really do anything today haha. we had to run errands so we got caught in Kingston Traffic. its hard having 600,000 people or so crammed into a 20mile by 25mile or so space haha. so many cars. but i did get to have a nice hot shower for the first time in forever! but i have to admit, im starting to love the cold showers a bit more haha. so today was just super relaxing. always good to have those days haha.

Tuesday 11-11-14

i was still with elder adams for a bit of today. we went and did some service in the morning for a member in the constant springs ward. didnt really do too much tho haha. then we had to drive back to yallahs to trade back. it was a good tradeoff tho. sure was a lot different than a year ago when we did a tradeoff with each other in port antonio. teaching skills have gotten a lot better. then not much happened when i got back to yallahs. so kinda a slow start to the week but it should get better.

Wednesday 11-12-14

another district meeting taught. today i did asking inspired questions in finding. i thought that it went pretty well. a bit long but oh well. ill work on that one haha. one day i wont have to teach again haha. i love sitting there more. i feel like i learn so much more. we had an interesting lesson with joyce today tho. we were just about to finish up the restoration with her when her neighbor came and started cussing her and her family out. im not fully sure what she was saying cause the "pissed of patios" is something that i cant understand haha. but the spirit was not there at that point so we had to end it. but joyce proceeded to tell us some things that we really did not need to know, but they made us laugh so hard! i thought that elder hall was gonna start rolling on the ground. the things that people in jamaica say just make me laugh sometimes haha. the end of the day was bad tho. we had our potential investigator ditch us so she could have a little bit of food. well, she may have lost her chance. i dont wanna waste time on people who do that. 

Thursday 11-13-14

we had quite a day today. our morning was quite busy. daquon is struggling a lot right now. he said that he wants to put whats happening right now on pause. we had to explain to him a bit that its not how that works. i was so mad inside. but he has his head on straight now so nothing too big to worry about for him. we also saw a members cousin. the lesson was pretty good. we found out that her baby father is like 47 years old and she is barely 16. some people just creep me out. we even had a lesson with Joyce and her family today. im really impressed with them. they all seem to want to know if the church is true. they even said that they have been praying to know since we got there. so prepared! we even got one more of her children to sit in on the lesson so we may have a lot of baptisms coming up soon! we just need to extend the day haha. things in yallahs are really starting to pick up. i try to stay busy as much as i can so that i can focus on the work. its when i sit around that i start to get depressed. amazing what happens when your donig the work of the lord haha :)

Friday 11-14-14

i think that today was the first time that an investigator really ticked me off in a long time. the only lesson we had was with sis bassett and saskalee. we were going through the plan of salvation and at the end we extended a baptism commitment. well, sis bassett got a little contentious. the spirit was so strong before that. we tried to recover from it a bit for saskalee but it wasnt quite there. she did say that she would pray about a day for baptism tho. i think it will be better if we do separate lessons. i think that saskalee is more accepting than her mom, but i still really wanna work on the mom. thinks will be interesting haha. then we did karaoke for friday night activity. it made me miss santa cruz so much haha. i really went through my camera and cried a bit. good thing that no one saw that haha. oh and how can i almost forget. 15 month mark today haha. bittersweet i guess. 

Saturday 11-15-14

well today broke my heart. we went out to Shackeyra cause no one has had contact with her in the last few weeks. well, her family is forcing her to not meet with us now. too much contention i guess. but Sheika was able to talk to her a bit and she still has a lot of desire. i think the best thing to do is let sheika keep in contact with her to be sure that she does what she needs to and still has a good connection with the gospel. i think i will lend her some money if she ever wants to go out there and visit her. we'll see what happens tho. then we went to ritzan when we came back and he told us that he is thinking of putting his mission on hold so that he can get a job and all that stuff. we talked to him a bit and just bore testimony that a mission was the best thing to do. later that night we called him and he told us that he would serve a mission. big relief there haha. his concerns were legit, but he just let them get to his head too much. he'll be a great missionary haha.

Sunday 11-16-14

Ritzan gave his farewell talk today. it was like mine. not to prepared haha. but it was better than mine by a long shot. he was sincere and didnt crack a ton of jokes haha. people in the branch are way proud of him tho. everyone was hugging him and congratulating him after sacrament so that should help him to stay out. it will be interesting to see what happens to him in the next 2 weeks haha. not much really happened other than that today. i just cant wait till next week :)

So thats the week. it seemed slow but we got a lot of stuff done. i really cant say how much that i love my mission. its by far the best thing that i have ever done. ive made so many changes and i have met my best friends out here! :D serving a mission was something to repay God, but now i owe him even more. i will never be out of debt to him!

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

D&C 10:5

Week 64

wagwan everyone!

this week for elder hall and i really exploded! we got a lot more work done than we did in other weeks! i guess here is the story......

Monday 11-3-14

well this week we did basketball in morant bay. it was right on the beach too! it was so freaking sick! i still sucked it up tho haha. i just get off all the time. good thing im not ever going to be an NBA player. but elder hall and i went and saw a potential missionary trying to help him with teaching skills. idk about it haha. this guy is....... interesting with his style. he leaves next week wednesday (nov 19) and im a little worried. but then we went down to georges house and were able to get a potential investigator from it. he brought a friend over and said that he wanted to share the gospel with him. so we taught him about the book of mormon as well as some points in the restoration. he seems pretty interested so hopefully we can get some appointments from it. and maybe one day a conversion haha. 

Tuesday 11-4-14

to start off today we went out to bull bay to teach shanice. we went over the plan of salvation. it was another disaster. we brought the potential missionary out with us, and he went off again. idk what to think. one day something will happen i guess. its just gonna be on his mission i think. then we went up and had a lesson with an investigators daughter. she didnt want the lesson at first but then she decided to let us in. out of pity i assume haha. but she got really interested when we were teaching her. we were able to let her kinda teach herself more or less and she seems like a really promising investigator. we just need some time to see her. she is busy in Kingston a lot so we will just need to squeeze into her schedule a bit. but those lessons, along with one or two more, kept us busy the whole day. we didnt really have any part of the day where we had to wonder where to go. if something had blown out, we had a great back up to go to.

Wednesday 11-5-14

well i taught my first district meeting today. talk about scary. and then to make it even more nerve racking, president brown showed up too. well that didnt help haha. but president talks a lot when he come to district meetings so it ended up being super good. he is a very spiritual guy haha. then we had a small interview. not really much to report on with that haha. just a check up on how i was doing. i think you guys can see how well it is haha. when we went out to teach we were able to contact a referral we got from sister loague. she is so cool! her name is joyce. she is just like a stereotypical grandma haha. she seems pretty prepared. we just need her to come to church with her family. we were also able to see Daquon. that kid has got a lot to go through but he is making some great strides so far. it should be fun seeing him apply the atonement even more in the next little while. we were also able to have a small lesson with a potential investigator. we started off just talking to her but were able to move the conversation into a lessons about our purpose.

Thursday 11-6-14

today was a bit of a tougher day. we had a lot of things that just kinda blew out on us. we had a really good day planned, but things just went a little bit down hill. we did get to see a new less active. she moved over from spanish town a little while ago but we just found her. she was in the other branch from where i was serving so i dont really know her that well. we just kinda introduced ourselves for today. next time we hope to get started back into teaching her the missionary lessons. we also were able to have another lesson with joyce. we went over the plan of salvation cause her sister/friend died like right after we left yesterday. she like it and thought that it made a ton of sense. so things are really looking up. i also had to teach a mission prep class tonight so that was a bit weird. i always feel bad when i teach these things haha. it just reminds me that i was a fisher price (wanna be) tool back home when it came to all this. i feel so bad haha. 

Friday 11-7-14

well, today was pretty lame. we had a pretty good day planned out again, and everything just blew out. i felt pretty bad too cause we brought Sheika with us and she gets pretty down when things blow out. she should be turning in her mission papers soon so she will get that on her own here soon haha. friday night activity was pretty lame again. hopefully next week it will be better. we have karaoke planned. should be better than having some teenage girls scream in my ear ;) 

Saturday 11-8-14

it was a hard day again today. the week started out good and then died out. but i look forward to having better days haha. we were able to see sister loagues granddaughter today and the lesson was pretty good. we did a restoration lesson. she seemed to understand it and even committed to being baptized. we will see what happens tho. she has been taught in the past and was dropped before for not doing anything. we were also able to see our potential investigator Lorane today too. we went over the plan of salvation. she was a bit hesitant on some parts of it but i think that she really liked it. we are gonna call her and follow up on her reading the pamphlet again soon. i really look forward to teaching her. im way jealous of her family haha. its just such a happy family. something i have not seen in a very long time.

Sunday 11-9-14

another hard day. the only lesson we were able to get in today was a lesson with our recent convert stevin. he is very knowledgeable in the gospel so i always feel stupid trying to teach him haha. but we talked a little about patriarchal blessings and he wants to get one. it should be interesting to see that happen haha. we had like 31 people come to church today too so thats way good. i just want it to increase haha. this branch needs to be a part of the stake here soon. but it needs to be a ward first, or at least meet the qualifications to do so haha. soon come tho, soon come.

so thats the week. it started out good, and kinda died down a bit. but this next week should be really good. elder hall and i are able to keep busy and thats never a bad thing. now we just need some results haha.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

1 Corinthians 2:9

Week 63

hey everyone! :D

so this week in yallahs was pretty good. 

Monday 10-27-14

today was one of those relaxing days. after we got back from morant bay we just kinda cleaned the house. so not really that much was done. i did finally get some mtn. dew so im back on that crap haha :) we didnt really get any teaching done today. our only lesson went a bit long with the talking so we just did intros and then had to go. but really i liked today a lot :D

Tuesday 10-28-14

today was so strange. i had to deal with someone having some emotional instability. thats never a fun thing. the only thing that we could really do was talk about the atonement of jesus christ. we were there for a bit of a predrop lesson but we decided that that probably would not be the best thing to do at this point. we gave a baptism day to pray about and they said that they would do it. so we will see how that goes. then after lunch we went and did some service for sister loague. we chopped a bunch of bush and then burned it. it was actually a ton of fun haha. then we went up and had a lesson with Sheikas aunt. im not sure if her prayer about joseph smith is a truly sincere one but maybe. something said tonight seemed to spark some interest so im excited to see where that leads us.

Wednesday 10-29-14

well it was zone meeting today so i had an extra week before i have to do district meeting haha. but we did have to go into kingston for it. but the meeting was super good. we had a great DLC before zone meeting that really helped get the stress of being a DL down a bit. then the meeting just had some fantastic topics that were discussed. we even got a chance to apply them when we got back to Yallahs. we had a lesson with one member in the branch that wants to serve a mission. we were asking him some pretty inspired questions and the lesson was absolutely awesome! the spirit was so strong. the member has got to go through a lot of things before he can go on a mission but i have so much faith that he will be on a mission one day! he is willing to do whatever it takes to get on one. its gonna be awesome to see what he goes through in the next 6 months. i also got my spark back for being out here so that feels super good as well.

Thursday 10-30-14

we had a super good day today. but it didnt really start until the evening. the majority of the day we saw some less active members. a lot of things blew out so things were a bit rough in the morning. but the evening made it worth the wait. we went out and did some finding in the scheme we live in and met a young lady and a male. they started to talk to us and brought up the church really fast. they dont know much about it but they asked us why we serve missions and what makes us different from everyone else. so we basically taught them the whole restoration while walking to their home! then the girl asked us what happens to marriage heaven and we freaked out there! we started talking about temple sealings a bit. they seem really interested and they are defiantly some kingdom builders. i so hope that its like the time that we found Janet in Port Antonio. Yallahs is starting to boom!

Friday 10-31-14

well to be honest, things were a bit lame today. super planning was long and snackless. all of our appointments fell through. and like no one came to friday night activty. ive had better days.....

Saturday 11-1-14

wow its november already. 9 months left. thats super scary. most of our day today was filled with us being in the international day of service. but i didnt do too much haha. i was running some errands for it like the whole time with elder newcomb. but we had a good turnout. like 30 people came, a lot more than we thought. we also went out and saw shanice. well, she may be moving to negril for a job. right now we need to teach her as many lessons as possible so that she can be more ready when she goes out to negril. we'll see what happens tho haha. from the sounds of it, they were plans, not set in stone things. we had a lesson with george and leonard as well. man are these 2 great. they are so passionate about the gospel. i think every time that i have gone there they have said, without fail, i will never leave the church. its not an option." man does that feel good to hear. so wish i was like that before haha.

Sunday 11-2-14

today was pretty good. we didnt have an investigator come to church. testimony meeting was kinda scary tho. we had 2 members come up and give weird ones. one was a crazy guy, you can expect what happened there. then a member got up and just told everyone off for offending her and said "im not trying to be mean and all". people were not happy with it. i think she was rebuked in the next 2 testimonies and then after sacrament she was being pointed at. i felt bad but also, she shouldnt have done that. then most of our lessons fell through during the day again. so not much teaching really done. we did get to read with Daquon tho. i cant wait to see that kid go on a mission. he is going through so much right now and he takes it like a champ. he is gonna be a super stud missionary!

so really thats the week. not too much happened but we did get a good Cornelius experience on thursday. hopefully things can work out super well with that. but the mission is getting closer to an end, which means that i am getting closer to a bawl fest! things out here are just too good to be true, but they are true. this is something that i will never trade for anything. i would "sell everything to have the pearl of great price" that i have found here. not again at least haha.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

D&C 18:38

Week 62

Hey everyone!

this week was pretty good. of course youll see one less day cause of the holiday last week. lets begin :)

Tuesday 10-21-14

man today was super good! with it being elder creagers last pday in jamaica we went into Kingston to eat at tracks and records, the usain bolt restaurant. man that place is so cool! i am so going to go there when i get back to jamaica! they even took a photo of all us missionaries and put it up on the website or something. its either there or on there social media page. try and find it! we didnt really get any work done today which blows. someone was too scared to go out in a little sprinkle so me and my other comp just sat outside for an hour so we could say that we did our best. that really pissed me off that we had no lessons for the day. so glad that i can get work done now without having someone being scared of the rain.

Wednesday 10-22-14

it was transfer day. elder creager and beckford left and elder fowkes came in to be with elder newcomb. im with elder hall now and i am "mothering" him. i also got my journal back from santa cruz so that was great too. love the signings that are in there :) we didnt get a whole lot done for the day. but i felt pretty accomplished. the biggest lesson was with alwayne. it kinda sucks that i dont get to teach him now. we just split the areas for real now so i dont get him. at least not until he is a recent convert haha. then i can go up and teach him again. hopefully that will happen soon tho. should be on november 8th that he gets baptized.

Thursday 10-23-14

the lessons that we had were super strange. we almost dropped our investigator shanice today on the 2nd lesson. she just isnt willing to do anything yet. she is giving the same excuse she did like a year ago when missionaries went there. im not gonna have it really. if she wont act now, then im not going there now. yallahs is one place that i do not want to waste my time at. then we also had a lesson with some potential investigators. i guess that they are also related to a member. everyone in st. thomas is somehow haha. the member wants us going back there so we will, but its gonna take quite a bit of work to get them baptized.

Friday 10-24-14

we had an interesting friday haha. we didnt get too much teaching in of course. we mostly just stopped by for quick visits with people. we did get a lot of referrals so thats good. but during friday night activity we noticed that 3 of the bikes were gone. luckily not mine haha. we thought that somebody stole them. but later on, after about 10 minutes of looking around for them, alwayne and daquon rode up on them. man that pissed us off but also had us laughing so hard later haha. then later alwayne ut a cockroach on elder newcomb and he flipped out. i dont think i have ever seen a misisonary that pissed off before. i really thought that alwayne was gonna have a funeral before a baptism haha. thats about it for the day haha

Saturday 10-25-14

this area of yallahs is a little bit tougher than the other area. we dont have a lot of investigators so finding is something that is more of a focus. the day was pretty good nonetheless tho. we didnt have a lot of appointments but things are looking up i would say. things are looking good on the other side of yallahs so pretty soon they should be getting super good over on this side.

Sunday 10-26-14

happy birthday bro! should done that last week but forgot to haha. we didnt have the turnout at church like last week but we still had like 25 or 30 people who came so not too bad. i am back to teaching youth again. dont worry, its not young womens again haha :) its the young men. hopefully soon there can be a young mens president tho. it would be good to give a real member that calling. i love teaching youth, but members need to do it first haha. today just blew out for appointments tho. everything but a recent convert lesson blew out. this next week i think we'll really be doing some finding so it should change here soon.

Thats really it for the week. nothing really too eventful after tracks and records haha. cant wait till next week tho. :)

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
3 Nephi 27:19-21

Week 61

Hey everyone!

Monday 10-13-14

so today for pday we went into kingston and had a big basketball tournament type thing with the entire kingston and spanish town zones. basically everywhere that the stake is and then us haha man did it feel good to play again. its been so long since i played some real stuff. like 14 months haha. the basketball in spanish town was good but never american way. i so hope that we can do that more. i guess that we go out to Morant Bay each week for shopping and there is even a hoop there so that should be really fun. yallahs is so great haha :)

Tuesday 10-14-14

we went out to bull bay to see Shackeyra to start off the day. man is she prepared! she asks great questions and she understands very well. the only concern really is the distance to church. its a 15-30 min coaster ride and public transportation is hard on sundays in bush places. but she said that she really wants to come so thats a good sign. then we also saw alwayne today. he is way chill. the only thing that is holding him back from being baptized is him not coming to church on time. hopefully this week he will. it was a good lesson today tho. not really much else to report on today.

Wednesday 10-15-14

it was a bit rough today. we had quite a few RCLA lessons but nothing super interesting or exciting happened. we have been having to work on some branch president crap thing. with elder beckford being the branch president right now, we have a lot of stuff that we have to work on with him. its a bit frustrating but it has to be done i guess.

Thursday 10-16-14

kinda a rough day. we didnt really get a lot of lessons in today again. we had to do more Branch President stuff in the morning and we had to go to town for it. the only lessons we had today were with alwayne and anneika. both of the lessons were a bit rough tho. the lesson with anneika didnt quite go how we planned, and then with alwayne we ended up bring a member that is a little interesting. next time we will have to coordinate with the member. he should be leaving on his mission in like a month so that would be a good thing to teach him too. yallahs is really growing on me tho. i absolutely love it here!

Friday 10-17-14

fridays are still the days that i really look forward to. we had a really good lesson with Alwayne about missionary work. he seems super excited to serve. his baptism  should be in a few weeks so one year from then he will be able to serve. then of course we had friday night activity. thats always super fun! always great to be able to take a small break.

Saturday 10-18-14

so transfer calls were today. even tho i knew what my call was, i still got something unexpected. of course i will be staying in yallahs and being with elder hall (south ogden utah). but i will also be the district leader. that was super unexpected. in light of current circumstances, i never thought i would get that call haha. the lord is taking a huge risk right now lol. im a bit behind to cause i didnt go to a training like a month ago for it. it wasnt known that i would be one until i got to yallahs. but our day was super awesome. we saw sister nicely first, where she basically told us that she loves the church and knows that its true. she still has a lot of questions but she is so accepting. so sad i wont be teaching her come wednesday. she is super prepared and i cant wait to do her baptism interview! then we went out to bull bay to see shackeyra. she is so prepared! she had an entire summary of what she read in the book of mormon! then we started teaching the plan of salvation and she loved it. somehow we even got into baptisms for the dead. dont think i have ever dont that before haha. but she is way accepting. she said that she just feels that its right. such a good sign there! she said that she is coming to church so im super excited!

Sunday 10-19-14

wow church was packed today! we had like 50 people show up. thats like 30 more than normal i think. plus, like 10 of them were non members. like 7 or 8 are investigators too so church was super sick today! its the most people there for a long time. we even had 6 come to church. Shackeyra, alwayne, and sister nicely and her family came. all but shackeyra were late tho so that was a bit of a bummer. i guess that shackeyra was like bearing testimony in sunday school as well. its so sick! yallahs is starting to explode with missionary work! its a great time to be here. the more that i think about it, i have to be here. it is where the lord wants me right now.

Monday 10-20-14

pday wasnt today because of a holiday. but we went to shackeyra to start the day off. it was a super good lesson on the gospel of jesus christ and her cousin even seems really interested. she recognized that she came into the house at the time we were there as a sign from God. she lives near shackeyra but i will be teaching her. that is our area so it should be fun going out there. we also saw alwayne during the day. it was a really good lesson. when we all take it serious, his lessons really have the spirit in them. he just needs to show up to church 2 times in a row on time and then he will be baptized. better happen soon haha!

so this week was good. i super excited for yallahs. its starting to boom with missionary work so its gonna be such a great place to be for the next 4-6 months. 

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

1 Corinthians 10:13

Week 60

hey everyone.

i dont have a lot of time to email this week so i will be summing my days up real fast.

Monday.

We went to mandeville cause pres had to talk to elder danvers today. idk what it was about but it seemed to make him a little upset. it started in conference but idk what it is and i really dont want to. but we didnt get any teaching done today. it was too stressful really. it was relaxing but at the same time it was so stressful with everything that went on.

Tuesday.

well we had a late start today. we spent most of the day just fixing the bikes. then i went and taught seminary. thats always a fun thing to do. but right as we got into planning pres called us and said that elder danvers needed to pack his bags cause he would be going home in the morning. so there went the day. a kick right in the gut. i will be getting elder rammell, who is also having his comp go home. he is from my mtc group so im excited to serve with him. i just wish that it didnt have to be under these circumstances.

Wednesday

so elder danvers went home today. freaking sucks. i will always want to forget the moments of packing a comps suitcase, and then watching him drive off. it freaking sucks. but i did get elder rammell today. me and him had a lesson with a lady. long time since that has happened haha. it seems like she could go places. we'll see tho.

Thursday

Well this week just gets worse and worse. pres came into santa cruz today and interviewed me, he told me that "it would be best if i leave Santa Cruz" oh geez was i pissed. He drove me all the way to kingston and then told me that i was going to be in Yallahs for the next little while. holy crap. lets just say that this day sucked and all i want is to be back in santa cruz right now.

Friday

well my first day in yallahs was pretty good haha. i still want to be back in santa but yallahs is a really good place. we saw the top investigator, Alwayne, who should be getting baptized really soon. then we did friday night activities. yallahs has a missionary as the branch president so we have to be there. right now im comps with elder newcomb (gilbert, AZ) and elder beckford (sav la mar, Jamaica). pres told me that at the end of the transfer i will be with elder hall (ogden, UT). his trainer, elder craeger (kaysville UT) is going home so i will be his second comp. its a great place tho.

Saturday

We had a ton of lessons today. more than i had in santa at least. we had to taxi to most of them as well. but they are all super prepared people. peoples names are Shakiera, sister nicely, Jackie, and Nikki. Shakiera and sister nicely i think are the most prepared. they just live a little distance away from the church. the only concern they have haha. but it was a super good day. i am having a ton of fun in yallahs. i look forward to being here.

Sunday

well my first sunday was an interesting one. yallahs gets a little bit more than santa cruz does as far as people coming to church. the members are great, like santa, and they want to do missionary work. we just have to bring them out haha. the people have such powerful testimonies of the gospel. i really am going to love it here. serving with elder newcomb and beckford is so great. we saw nikki today and it was such a great lesson. 

sorry for the shortness this week. i will get a longer one next week. i just had like no time today.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

James 1:12

3 Nephi 5:13

Week 59

Hey everyone!!

 

conference is defiantly the best time of the year! I learned so many things from conference. I even had questions answered that I didn't even know I had. I never go into conference with questions cause I know that every concern that I have will be answered. but its so amazing how these people just know what to say. the Spirit is so real and the church is so true!

 

Monday 9-29-14

 

today was a great day. it was a big time blessing. first off it was another relaxing day. we were able to just sit around the house and relax to some music for the day. then we went and talked to sister Thomas and tianna for a bit to just say hi. we were going to see sister Russell but she was up in longwood. but after we got done talking to them we went up there. we shared a small message from the last conference to get them pumped up for this one. they are probably the main family we will stop by a lot cause they are close by to where we mostly go. just stopping by people is such a great thing. it builds so much trust. so going to do that back home. its called home teaching haha.

 

Tuesday 9-30-14

 

I had such a terrible day. I really think that it was productive but I was just in such a bad mood today. we did service for sister Russell and barrington to start the day off tho. we really have got to find more chances to do service. if we aren't going to be teaching cause the work is slow then we might as well go get our hands and clothes dirty. plus it will keep me busy. I rally am tired of just sitting around. it has onlyi made me realize how much that I hate idleness. santa cruz is so bad with that. but that's going to change. I will not leave here until something happens. then that's when I got pissed. some stuff was said in the house that I took kinda offensive. it ended up ruining my whole day. but its all worked out now I talked about it with the other elders so we all good now. then we went up to the church and taught seminary. I really need to get the book of Mormon teaching guide along with everything else. they are such great tools! they give you so much info! one day tho. right now I have other things to focus on haha.

 

Wednesday 10-1-14

 

wow its October already. means I got 10 months left. crap. that's not good haha. today was a pretty good day. districet meeting was super good to start off. something told me that it was what I was needing to hear. we talked about preparing to receive revelation. that is some4thing that I really have got to work on. so I better start now haha. really the only thing that happened today was that I taught seminary again. elder phippen and kuehn had an appointment that they had to got to so we switched days for the week. I love teaching seminary so I will take whatever chance that I get to teach it haha :)

 

Thursday 10-2-14

 

it was a very good day today. all the lessons we had involved us just talking to people. it was so relaxing. I felt more like a missionary than ever before. I really felt tht we were productive and our time was very well spent. we talked to sister Dunkley for our morning appointment for like 2 hours. just through that she told us why she has not been coming to church as much lately. it was so much more effective than trying to throw scriptures in her face. then we talked to shane, sister stones husband, for like an hour after lunch. I thought that it was productive cause he can gain trust in the missionaries for in the future. then we ended up talking to keith for like and hour and barrington for an hour as well. things just feel so much more productive. I really think that more concerns were solved today than ever before. now I just need to get this skill perfected haha. im still having trouble talking a lot in lessons tho. I feel bad cause elder danvers does a lot of talking. I need to talk more and I know that. I may have to learn to cut into conversations but we'll see what happens.

 

Friday 10-3-14

 

man there was a crazy storm today. it was almost pitch black at 4:30 today. we just got done with a lesson with sister Russell and started to walk away and had to take shelter at sister Thomas house right across the street. storms here are so awesome. they just come down so hard and the lightning is so crazy! Friday night activity was way sick as well. I was the only one really doing anything in it as a missionary but it was way fun. I like hanging out with the others a lot more anyways. makes me feel like a normal person haha.

 

Saturday 10-4-14

 

so today was conference. the super bowl for missionaries. and its so true haha. I love it with all my heart. ill give all of my favorite talks as the scripture thoughts. I thought that the talks applied to people really well. I learned a lot in it. Mickailia was able to show up as well. she only came for the afternoon session today but oh well. I wish that she coulda heard Uchtdorf and Andersen talk. they gave some really good ones that I thought applied to her so well. oh well. she'll get the talks later haha :) I cant wait for tomorrow tho. there should be some great talks. I find it interesting how my desires have changed out here on my mission. they were so below where they shoulda been but now that I am basically 14 months out, they are so much different and so much better. Missions really do a lot to you haha :D

 

Sunday 10-5-14

 

conference again today. again such a great day. its really all that we did today. I so wish that I could stay a missionary for conference cause they are so awesome. but ill have to see what its like at home first haha. I don't really have anything to compare it too.

 

 

so that's the week. sorry the letters are so short. not much is really going on right now. soon come things will get better.

 

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

 

Scripture Thought

all from this conference.

Lynn G Robbins

Dieter F Uchtdorf (Saturday morning)

D Todd Christofferson

Dallin H Oaks

Neil L Andersen

Tad R Callister

Henry B Eyring (sunday morning)

Thomas S Monson (sunday morning)

Richard G Scott

David A Bednar

Week 58

Hey everyone!

 

this week was super hard. we didn't get a lot of teaching in this week. it has been raining like crazy! so not cool! so i apologize if this week is just ranting or venting. it should be very interesting....

 

 

Monday 9-22-14

 

so pday was us cleaning the house today. like a 100% deep cleaning. this house i don't think has been cleaner before. we spent like 3 hours cleaning. it was one of the worst things ever haha. i just really hate cleaning, but i do love the feeling after your done. the spirit really is so much stronger. its amazing how much eaiser it is to feel and lose the spirit as a missionary. just the simplest things can make you gain a lot or completely lose the spirit. i guess its like that back home too, i just never paid any attention to it. ive got somre pretty big changes to make haha. i better let the mission humble me before my future wife does haha. now we just need to keep the house clean. the senior couple will come soon to do a check and i really want to pass it. our only lesson today was a FHE with sister Russell and Aaliyah. re read from helaman chapter 12. other than that, nothing else happened today.

 

Tuesday 9-23-14

 

today i am just tired of everything. this is one of those days as a missionary that i just cant wait to forget about. first off, our morning blew out within 30 minutes. that ticked me off a lot. then it rained again so that means that all of our afternoon and evening appointments blew out. then to top it all off, seminary isn't as good as we want it to be. its just really like teenagers. just talking. man i feel way bad for all of my seminary teachers in the past. never again will i do that. things in santa are just really making me mad today. every time we have a great day planned, it just blows out. i really hope that something will change soon.

 

Wednesday 9-24-14

 

so today was zone meeting in Mandeville. it was a really great meeting. all the stuff there really applied to santa cruz so much. ive got a lot of room to work on loving people. i feel like i do a pretty good job at it but today really makes me rethink that. the only lesson we had after, cause of the rain again, was with Keith. it was a really good lesson. we kinda just talked to him. but it was one of the best lessons weve had with him. i cant wait to get into teaching him. he will progress so well!

 

Thursday 9-25-14

 

i feel like a terrible missionary today. reason being is cause everything is blowing out and i cant seem to keep us busy. its very hard to keep faith in this area. but i gotta do it so that things will happen here. i love santa, its just having a rough time with me. i did get to teach seminary tonight tho. it was so good tonight. it was funny, but it was very focused at the same time. tianna and aaliyah even asked some really great questions that made me think a bit. i love teaching seminary. once i move to Hartford one day that's so what i want to do for a calling :)

 

Friday 9-26-14

 

well today we really did nothing. we super planned, sat inside cause it rained till 5pm, then went to the church for Friday night activity. elder kuehn and i did get to have a lesson with Mickailia about tithing tho. it was a pretty good lesson. even with elder kuehn being a new guy, he is a way better missionary than me. he makes such good points and is so sincere. he is more of a person. i so wish i was more like him haha. but Friday night activity was even cancelled cause of all the rain. the power went out too so that didn't really help much. today was one of those Fridays that i just didn't like. i usually look forward to Fridays but today was not as good.

 

Saturday 9-27-14

 

another day in santa cruz that everything fell through. we were able to talk with Barrington and Sister Russell for a bit tho. then it rained for a little while again. stupid rain. after all the rain we had a small lesson with chin. i don't know how far that will go cause she tried to get out of some previous lessons so we'll see what happens. then we went to mickailia and asked her for some referrals cause we have no one to teach but her and keith. we gave her a bit of homework too. then we had our weekly meeting with president durrant. i think i really need to work on just going with the flow more. i still feel like a robot. hopefully soon i can get used to people never being home. well see tho. some things i think i will just always hate.

 

Sunday 9-28-14

 

well today was a pretty boring day again. elder danvers was feeling a bit sick and i didn't want to stay in so i went on a small tradeoff with elder phippen after church. we went up to Mickailia and had a lesson with her. we just reviewed one of the lessons that we had done in the past. not really a good lesson. just so jumbled and unprepared even tho i spent like 2 days on it. oh well. things happen. she did get the point to it so that's good. we had a good time just talking there too. then after that we didn't do anything. everything blew out so we just went home and planned for tomorrow. so interesting haha.

 

 

ya so that's the week. sorry for the uninterestingness haha. hopefully this next week things will really pick up. Santa Cruz is known as the refiners fire down here and its very true. something in santa cruz is teaching me something. i just need to know what it is. things work out in the end tho. i just don't want to leave here until something happens. that's when i will feel comfortable about leaving but not until that happens.

 

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

 

 

Scripture Thought

ok so i had a few this week cause there were a lot of cool ones that i found/were shared with me. here they are:

 

D&C 21:4-6, 9

and

D&C 58:1-4, 26-28

Week 57

Hey everyone!

 

this week was pretty good. it rained a lot tho. almost everyday. haha i never thought that santa could get this much rain. i always wonder why its not just a giant lake haha. but im not complaining. i love the people here so its great!

 

 

Monday 9-15-14

 

todays pday was very boring but yet very relaxing. we went to the church early for emails so we were done with shopping and all that by like noon. so for 6 hours we just sat around the house and did nothing. there really is not a lot of places to go on Mondays for us here in Santa. even YS falls is closed on Mondays. but we should be going to Treasure Beach in October. So that's good. after pday we went up to the russells and had a lesson with them about the temple. sister Russell is really excited about the temple. i so wish that i had that in the past haha. oh the things a mission does to you. but each day is a new start, so lets get started i guess haha.

 

Tuesday 9-16-14

 

today was very interesting. we had our entire morning blow out. and we biked up the main road like 4 times day. that freaking sucked! i hate hills so much! we spent a little bit of the day in providence, then it rained so we had to come home. then we went back to see Vanessa, the referral from borther Morrison. it was a really good lesson. with her. we went over a bit of the restoration with her. she understood the first part of it really well, she basically summed up the first 2 pages of the pamphlet. then we answered a lot of questions that she had about the church. she isn't really investigating the church right now but we hope that she soon will be. then elder danvers and i went down to the church for seminary. he taught today so i got a small break. then after that we went up to the claytons house, all the way back up the hill. kinda just a normal day there. so santa cruz is starting to pick up. hopefully it does even more haha

 

Wednesday 9-17-14

 

happy day 400! haha. man was today interesting. districet meeting was pretty good again haha. but right as we got home from it the rain started pouring. we got rained in until like 5 30. of course we all took a nap as well so that may have put us back a bit. oops. oh well. it felt really good to nap. i normally don't cause i always wake up feeling bad but today was good. we did get to have some good lessons tho. we saw sister Russell and keith in the evening. sister Russell was a book of Mormon study while with keith it was an overview of the plan of salvation. the lesson was fantastic tho. keith is a really great guy. we just need to meet with him haha. i have no doubt that once he hears the gospel, he will get baptized.

 

Thursday 9-18-14

 

a lot of things blew out today. basically our entire day. the only person that we saw today for a lesson was lisa. and all we did there was read. i think that the main thing i got out of today tho was how lucky i am to have good companions. elder danvers really is a great comp. there are some things about me that i don't even need to tell him. mostly cause its something that he has already picked pu about me. i am fully confident that elder danvers and elder carter are going to be my favorite companions on my mission. i really need to pick up a few things from these guys. ok ok. i need to pick up a lot from them. having great comps is one of the best things about a mission. i so wish that i could go back and change some things in a few companionships that i have had. oh well. just some more things to learn i guess.

 

Friday 9-19-14

 

Fridays are starting to be very strange days. we didn't have one lesson till right before Friday night activities with Mickailia. plus for some reason, its been raining like all week! it always rains right as we are about to go out from lunch too so we end up spending a bit long inside. it kinda sucks. but our lesson with Mickailia was.... alright today. i think the fact is that i just haven't taught these lessons for a while now. its something that i am going to have to study in preach my gospel again. the lord sure is right in 2 Nephi 28:30. i will never doubt that scripture. we taught her to follow the prophet tho. she asked good questions so that's good. glad im not hindering any progression haha. then Friday night activity was fun again. im not sure how we have fun with the same games for 12 straight weeks but we do haha.

 

Saturday 9-20-14

 

well not much really happened today. basically all of our appointments blew out again. we mostly just rode around and checked up on people today. as much as i love being a missionary, life just shouldn't be this stressful. i love the stress cause it teaches me so much, but its just so much. the highlight of my day was really in my studies. i will let you all know what it is at the end. its gonna be the scripture thought for the week. one thing that i know i need to improve on is not being such a robot. i feel as a missionary that i have a mindset that everything has got to be about the gospel. but people listen to you more when you are a normal person that brings the gospel up at good times. i so need to learn the principle "teach people, not lessons" again. its one of the most important things. i think that if i relax and take a step back then it will be better.

 

Sunday 9-21-14

 

wow, today was a super good day. after church we rode up to Vanessa with brother Morrison and had a really good lesson with her. brother Morrison is a beast too! he makes things so natural! he woulda been a great missionary. i can only imagine what his son must be like. then after that we had a lesson with Mickailia on the Sabbath. the lesson was pretty alright. again. i just haven't taught the lesson for a really long time. i need more practice haha. we also had to ride all the way up to sister larmond to pick up some food for the other 2 elders. i don't like that hill but it was worth it haha. they shared a bit of it and it tasted so good! we were also fed like 3 times today! sister Russell gave us some food when we made a quick visit, Sister Thomas fed us when we were waiting for the lesson with Mickailia, and then Sister Stone gave us some food to take home when we made a stop by there in the night. so much food haha. so it was a good day for lessons and a long day for biking haha. but i loved it.

 

 

so this week was really good. it rained a lot but the week was very worth it. im really excited to see what happens a bit later in this week. i do still wish that i wasn't at my 11 month mark before coming home. i feel like there is so much for me to do here. i never wanna leave haha. Jamaica is the best place on earth for sure. i cant wait to come back here!

 

 

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

 

 

Scripture Thought

Helaman Chapter 12

Week 56

hey everyone!

 

this week was transfer week so I got my new comp. I will get to that later.

 

Monday 9-8-14

 

so I am really bad with budgeting. to start the day I had like $13000 for the rest of the month. that is not good since I started with like 25000. I will have to try to survive off of that for the month haha. my food bill was the lowest its been since port Antonio so that's the good thing. now I might have to cut down on the soda..... maybe. we'll see haha. the only lesson that we had today was with sister Russell and we watched finding faith in Christ. its such a great movie haha. so not really that much happened today.

 

Tuesday 9-9-14

 

so transfers were moved to today for some reason. so that means that I was with elder phippen and kuehn for the day. but there was like no work done on my side of Santa today. we went up to one of their investigators, came in for lunch, and then basically had to go up to the church so that I could teach seminary. but right after seminary is when I got my new comp, Elder Danvers. he is from Spanish town, in the same ward that I served in too. he came on his mission like right as I got there but we have talked a lot. I am way excited to serve with him. by the time he showed up it was way late so I just let him unpack and settle in.

 

Wednesday 9-10-14

 

today was pretty good. we didn't really see a lot of people but it was still an effective day. we had district meeting in Junction today and that went really well. then when we came back we went and saw a few members for elder danvers to meet. we saw sister Russell, and kinda brother Dunkley and sister Dunkley. we also kinda saw sister Thomas and lisa. the good thing is that we were able to stay busy for the entire day. that's one thing that hasn't happened too much since I have been here. its good to see that tho. we also saw Mickailia today. she was struggling with her reading so we helped her with a schedule to put the time in to read. now the next part is to follow up on it all haha.

 

Thursday 9-11-14

 

we went and saw more members today. we saw sister Thomas right off the bat tho. we spent a good amount of time there. she gave me more revelation about what to do with Mickailia than I could ever ask for on my own haha. our focus now is gonna be on her getting a good relationship with her father and to listen to what he says. she is a typical teenager right now but as the church says, we need to be a "peculiar people". so that's what we're going to do haha. it should be really good. once that happens, then baptism wont be hard at all. we also did seminary today. I taught again to give elder danvers a small break. I feel so bad for my seminary teachers in the past haha. sometimes when they are talking I feel so bad cause its what I did back home. haha if only I learned a lot of things before my mission haha

 

Friday 9-12-14

 

today was super fun! first we had a lesson with Mickailia before Friday Night Activity. we were going to teach her about families/obey but she didn't read quite far enough so we read with her from the Book of Mormon. wish we woulda gone more but oh well. things happen. then friday night activities had a really great turn out. I think we had close to 15 or 20 people who showed up. it started out a bit rough but once people went and did their own things, it was really good. we had one group doing dominoes while another was doing football in the dark. then that group just moved onto Karaoke. having 3 teenage girls yelling isn't the best but it sure is funny haha. sometimes I wish I could go back to the good days like that. but I guess that right now are those days. going back home will be a strange thing in August but it will be great to see a new life. Jamaica has my heart tho. I wouldn't want to be in any other place in the world. I really cant wait to come back here as  a normal person haha. the people here are so great. the members and investigators really make you mission.

 

Saturday 9-13-14

 

we did a ton of biking around today. I think that we biked everywhere in our area. I guess only like 3 parts we didn't go but we had to have biked like 20 miles or more today. my legs hurt so bad from it haha. we did have a really cool experience today tho. we were going to see if one of our investigators was home in Longwood. right as we got to his house we got a call from a member of the branch. he called us with a referral. when we asked where she lived it ended up being on the street we lived on. when we asked what house, it was the house across the street from where we had stopped. it was such a great part of the spirit! we contacted the person right then and she even brought out her sister. they seem really solid. sometimes the spirit just leads you to do things and your not sure why, but you just go with it haha. santa cruz has really stepped up now. I think it is very slowly turning into my favorite area. of course every place is awesome haha. I need to stop keeping track of favorites. they always change all the time haha

 

Sunday 9-14-14

 

so now I have been out for 13 months. kinda sucks haha. I so wish that I could be here in santa for a long time and then just go back to Spanish town or port Antonio. I miss everywhere too much haha. today was pretty good tho. church went very well today. not anything crazy happened and that's always a good thing haha. we also got to see sister stone a bit. she didn't come to church so we just went to check her and then she ended up feeding us. man that food is so good! if I come home with an addiction to rice and peas and chicken, don't be surprised haha. then we went over to Mickailia and taught her about families/obedience. it was a pretty good lesson. with her being a typical teenager we were pretty straightforward with her. hopefully this will get her with more trust and building a good relationship with her dad. and big time hopes that that ends up happening soon. one cool thing is that she loves all of the church books that she gets. I gave her a preach my gospel and she had been going through it. she even kinda rebuked me for not telling her to do something in her prayers. she has progressed really far since I got here. whenever the day that she gets baptized is, its gonna be one of the greatest days ever!

 

 

so ya that's my week. it was a pretty good week. most of the lessons came on the last end of the week so it means that we can get in a lot of lessons. this last transfer I only had like 43 lessons so that needs to improve a lot. I have some high hopes for this transfer. the spirit is here in santa, we just have to follow it.

 

 

Big Up Yuhselves,

Elder Kurt Meacham

 

 

Scripture Thought

Isaiah 55:8-9

Week 55

Hey everyone!

This week was transfer call week. ill get to who my next comp is gonna be later haha.

Monday 9-1-14

Today was i think the worst Pday ever. but the good thing is that it started out good. we had alot of time to ourselves. then we went over to the church and taught our first seminary lesson. it went really good. it5 was fun and Mickailia, Tianna, and Aaliyah seemed to enjoy the learning from it. the day destroyer was right after. we called mickailia to see if we could talk to her dad, cause he came and picked her up from the church. but she told us that he said that she cant go to seminary and can really only be at the church on sundays and fridays. that really made me mad. the time on my mission when i want someone baptized more than anything, and satan decides to get in the way of it and stick every single trick he can to prevent it. i guess it just means that we need to work harder. and thats exactly what i am going to do!

Tuesday 9-2-14

today was one of the better days as far as lessons go. we didnt teach a lot but it was very effective. we taught someone by the name of Anneika a part of the restoration. idk how far she will go but we'll see what happens. then when we came home for lunch the rain started to come down hard. and once again, the lightning was right over our heads. there was one flash that went on for like five seconds. you could really see all the different colors of lightning. im convinced that it hit the church that is next door to us haha. im so used to that now that my natural reaction when i see big flashes like that is to cover my ears. elder phippen said that the thing was super loud. i so wish that i coulda heard it right haha. then afterwards we wetnt up and saw the clayton family. they are a super great family. they just have the same concern that everyone else in the branch does. people just need to learn that coming to church no matter what is gonna be worth it on judgement day. salvation wont be fun unless we are with our Heavenly Father. infact, thats what salvation really is.

Wednesday 9-3-14

haha today we had no lessons. even district meeting was pushed back to tomorrow. we got to go up and chop sister dunkleys yard today tho. and of course, i got some pretty nasty blisters on my hand. i am really gonna start wearing a glove or some tape when i chop. we'll have to see tho haha. then afterwards, sister williams fed us. she lives a very long ways from church. like 34 miles far away. we had to go outside of both areas in santa cruz to get to her house. its like 2-3 miles above treasure beach, clear over in the Junction Branch! no complaints tho haha. she makes some of the best food. i thought that i was going to blow up. she made us a thanksgiving feast! by far one of the best meals that i have ever had in Jamaica. it was breadfruit, chicken, portk, and rice and peas. oh my goodness. getting there was pretty hard tho. it was like a 60-70 minute taxi ride to get there. we almost didnt make it back to santa haha.

Thursday 9-4-14

So today was district meeting for us. it was pretty good. especially since the sisters fed us curry chicken and rice afterwards! haha we have the best district ever here in St. Elizabeth! i also realized tho that i hate taxis. the whole time they us 4 missionaries crammed in the back seat. i am so going to rent a car when i come back to jamaica. once we got back to santa we had a lesson with Samantha on the Book of Mormon. it was alright. im not sure how much that she really got it. then we went down to teach seminary. elder dean took care of that today. then after that we went up to Mickailia to talk with her a bit since she couldnt come down to seminary. i guess that her dad had one of his friends come to her and tell her a bunch of false things about the church tho. but she knows whats up. she has been coming to church for months. she knew that everything he said was not true. she trusts us a lot more haha. all i know at this point is that its gonna be a lot of prayer, fasting, and faith to get her baptized soon. i will never allow satan to win. losing to him is not an option.

Friday 9-5-14

it wasnt really the best friday ever today but it was still pretty good. planning didnt take too long today, which is always a plus. sitting down for hours on end is not the funnest thing to do. afterwards the 4 of us, yes all four missionaries, went up to the church and had a lesson with Mickailia and her friends. it was mostly meant for her friends so we just taught them the restoration. it was also a really good review for Mickailia. she actually retained a lot of info. i was very impressed since she hasnt really heard the restoration for like 3 months. friday night activity tonight was alright. it seemed very scattered. we did get to watch a lot of Mormon Messages right before so that was way cool. not a whole lot was done today tho.

Saturday 9-6-14

ok so here is the transfer calls. i will be staying in santa cruz. expected. elder dean will be leaving and going to Savannah La Mar. so that means that i need a new comp. i will be getting Elder Danvers. he is from Spanish Town Jamaica. i actually got to go and see his mom a lot when i was serving in Spanish Town. his house was in my area. but he came back on his mission as i got there. we did get to know each other a lot tho. im really excited to be serving with him. this transfer or 2 is gonna rock! although, i hope i stay for longer than 2 haha. i really love santa! the only lesson that we were able to have today is with brother samuels. not really the best. the market isnt really the best place to teach someone. but it is better than his home so we have to make due. the we also had to walk up to Amoys house. sister warren was in town so we had to go and pick up some clothes for elder phippen that we had left with her before. the good thing is that they will be coming on the weekends so we can still go up there and see them. but ya thats about it for today haha.

Sunday 9-7-14

fast and testimony meeting was so great today. people had some really awesome testimonies to share. you could really feel the spirit in each one of them. after church we had a lesson with Mickailia on charity. for some reason our lessons with her have gone a bit down hill. ever since she got back from that police camp thing in bog walk a few weeks ago. im not sure if its us or her but i really believe that it has got to be us. im gonna be sure that our lessons get back to being with the spirit. but her and i had a really good conversation after the lesson. that is one thing that i really love to do. when i can just sit down with someone,and talk to them about whatever. that really helps make the mission a lot more fun and a lot more worth it to me. one thing that i live by now is "people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care". something that is definitely true. it really takes off a lot of stress too. then afterwards we went down to sister stones house so that she could feed all of us missionaries. this was a really good day to end the week on. it is days like today that always remind me of how much that I LOVE the gospel and make my mission worth it even more! i so wish that this never had to end!

so thats the week. im super stoked to be serving with Elder Danvers. this transfer is gonna be so sick. i might be worked to the ground tho. but thats alright haha.

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
D&C 122:7-8 and D&C 121:8