Week 26

Whagwan?

This week was kinda crazy. our weekly numbers were kinda low on one aspect. We had a total 2 lessons with an investigator. the number of lessons we had with RCLAs (recent converts or less actives) was 17! we met a lot of less actives over the week so we saw them a few times haha.

Monday 2-17-14
So today for Pday we first played some football (soccer) in the morning. it was pretty fun. i just stayed back and played goalie. not cause im good at it. just cause it was the best way for me to still run a little but stay back as much as possible. someone kicked me in the toe so my toe has been hurting ever since then. it has a nasty bruise too. its funny haha. the shopping here is also so much better than it is in Porty. There is more food to buy and the price is cheaper. guess thats what you get when you go from bush town to big city. we also went into Kingston. we had to drop off one of the bicycles that a new missionary left. the Zone Leaders had to take it but since they are our ride to email and shopping, we just went with them haha. it took us almost the rest of the day until we went shopping. so crazy. but kingston is a nice place. its just freaking huge! but after we got back we went and had a couple of lessons. we went to a members house, sister baldeo. the lesson was a likkle distracting cause her children werent the most focused. but it was still a good lesson. at the end of the day we went over to Nakeitha. we ended up just seeing whagwan with her. even tho she comes with us to help us teach like every day. but she also gave us a bit of food so whatever :). but speaking of that, i found out that with me being sick the last likkle while, my appetite is really screwed up. i cant eat as much as i used to. i will be working on that one tho. my goal is to not be sick for the rest of the transfer, and hopefully mission, or life. life would be nice haha. we will see how that goes. i will be eating healthier so that should help a ton

Tuesday 2-18-14
So the first lesson that we had today was with another member. sister dicosta. she is like 80 years old. so less active but you cant blame her to much. she was pretty sad when we went. i guess that her daughter died a couple of months ago and she is still mourning over that. i feel super bad for her. one day she will see her again. thank heavens for the Plan of Salvation. we also had one of our only investigator lessons. it was with a lady named Hyacinth. she is pretty interesting to say the least. in my mind she looks like she is mad all the time. she also has an interesting interpretation of some bible verses. good thing we dont bash. its just weird stuff. it was a good lesson so all is well. we also gave sister cardoza, a member, a blessing. she just came out of the hospital for something with her heart. her son served a mission here in like 2008. his name is Matthew Cardoza. i know that Levi might know him. he served in mo bay, portmore, kingston, and porty.

Wednesday 2-19-14
Once again it was time for district meeting. i must say tho. it was weird not having to go to ochi for it. or to go a long ways. we just went over to the church here in spanish town. like a 20 min bike ride from the house. so easy now haha. the meeting was super good as normal. we talked about having the spirit in planning. we have been talking about planning for a bit in those meetings. its kinda weird cause no one likes to plan but its something that has to be done. after the meeting we also saw sister edwards, another member. i must say, that lady has got some major charity. her husband is super sick, like in a wheelchair sick, and she is just the happiest person you will ever meet! she has been less active for the last likkle while but she is now active. we also saw a less active member who is starting to come back to church, Christinea. she is super nice. we hope to be getting some referrals from her soon. she lives in the same housing scheme as us and we wanna try to teach in there more. we also saw the McCalla family, members. they are super cool! elder norman told me that they were super cool and he was right. the first time i went there is when i barfed but this time i didnt barf haha.

Thursday 2-20-14
Today was a likkle bit of a hard day. the first part of the day we did service. from like 10am to 2pm. all we did was chop yard. thats where you get a machete and cut the grass (or weeds as it normally is) in someones yard. first we did it for a less active member, and got a small referral from someone who walked by. they were from a different branch on the island and said that her and her family lived just down the road and they wanted us to pay them a visit. we did that later in the day and we are gonna try to reactivate them into this branch since they live in our boundaries now. then after we got done with the less actives, we went and helped the zone leaders out with their chop yard service. lets just say that my forearm hurts and will be huge when i get home haha. i also had my first ever branch mission leader correlation meeting. since porty never had a branch mission leader, i never was able to have one. but they are really effective meetings. they help so much and take a lot of load off of our shoulders.

Friday 2-21-14
Today we super planned again. its so weird i feel like i super planned just yesterday. these weeks are just going by so fast. before you know it i will be at my year mark. and then i will be at my 18 month mark. and all of the sudden i will be giving a talk back in PG about the supposed 2 years that i was gone. super crazy. but today was a pretty good day. most of what happened wasnt until the end of the day. We went over to Sister Wrights, member, for a cottage meeting. we were hoping that some of her non member friends would be there but it was empty except for her, another member, us, and Nakeitha. we just played games tho. she said that we can always have a short thought and have some clean fun. how true that is haha. next week we are going to have treats tho haha. we also went and taught the campbells, members. they are just way cool. we just bring up a topic on the gospel, read a scripture, and they take care of the rest. they teach themselves pretty much. we were late there again but oh well. they never seem to really mind that at all.

Saturday 2-22-14
So today we went over to the Campbells again. we had a short lesson with them last night so we just continued the same one today. we always meet with them on fridays and saturdays so ya. a lot of the day was then us going down to a very rich part of our area called White Water. we took Nakeitha with us. walking down there sucked. it was like an hour just to get there. never again will we do that. but a member down there, sister simpson, had some referrals for us so we went and contacted them. she also kinda offended Nakeitha with some stuff she said. i will get to that with sunday. but i did find out that i really hate when people blow out. sometimes its good cause the spirit says to go somewhere else. but other times its like, "thanks for using your agency to avoid us today. -_-" when we got home tho we found a frog and we threw it on Nakeithas sister Saneeka, who is terribly afraid of frogs. it was super funny. i would send the video if i could but its way to long. ill have to show everyone when i get home haha

Sunday 2-23-14
So Nakeitha almost didnt come to church with what sister simpson said to her last night. apparently it was that she told her she was making sure we didnt have the spirit with us cause she was dressed immodestly. she was in jeans and a tank top. she really doesnt have anything more than that so its hard. she is trying her best and that is what matters. we went over to her before church and talked her into coming. after church we went over and talked to her about the whole thing. we told her that if she really was hindering the spirit, we woulda told her. she isnt doing that so there isnt anything to tell her but good job. i think everything will be fine now but at the same time its gonna be a concern for the future too. we'll have to watch that pretty closely. but at church there was an interesting experience during sacrament. the power went out. i guess that spanish town has had a couple of those lately. it even went out last night in Innswood. but the meeting went on like normal. just no microphone for one talk haha. we went and saw another less active person after Nakeitha tho. Brother Brown. we have been trying to see him for the last week and we finally got to him today. it was a pretty good lesson. we just said that we should all seek for the Kingdom of God first (3 Ne 13:32-34). then we went and had another lesson with Christinea. we just had a short thought with her. soon come we will get some referrals from her haha.

So thats my week. also for Pday today in the morning we went to the church and played American Football. man i miss that. it was fun playing in the flag league i had with my friends haha. but once again i love the mission. i feel like this mission is helping me get the faith like the Brother of Jared had. Seeing the Finger of Jesus Christ is probably something that wont happen to me but i can see that it is doing wonders here in Jamaica. i cant wait until the day that we can all see what the Brother of Jared, Nephi, Enoch, and John the Revelator saw. "oh how glorious from the throne above, shines the gospel light of truth and love".

would love to hear from you all on how life, college, or anything else is going

LIKKLE MORE!

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Week 25

Whagwan!!

So i am now in spanish town! my comp of course is Elder Norman from Lindon. and i love it here. the people are so nice and everything! this area is going to be awesome to serve in for the next 6 weeks/months haha.

Monday 2-10-14

so today was kinda a different pday for me. since it was my last one in porty i got to choose what to do. i chose to just sit around and relax. everyone there is on a budget now since they have to taxi to ochi a lot. i didnt wanna waste elder davis' fare so i just said that we should sit around and relax. so thats what we did. the next couple of days are going to be just me going around to members asking them to sign my journal haha. not a lot of lessons but we will still try to get stuff done. sorry today is so short, i just decided to be a but haha

Tuesday 2-11-14

So today of course i went around and had a lot of the members sign my journal. it was pretty fun. a lot of members signed it. i guess that means that they like me haha. im gonna miss porty but im gonna really love spanish town at the same time. so at the end of the day we went to go see brother james. he was in the hospital cause he has some really bad diabetes. its so bad that just today he had to go get like 2 toes cut off. that is something that i hope i dont get. and dont worry i have cut WAY down on soda. im not sure how much of it i will be having this transfer. but ya we went up to see him at the end of the day and he had a lot of people checking up on him. he is one tough guy. the weirdest feeling of the day tho was when we went home. i started packing. it wasnt till then that i realized that i was leaving my home. i havent felt like that since i was in Miami haha. but i got all of my stuff packed up ready to go for tomorrow. well, most of my stuff. i ended up forgetting a couple of things in porty haha. ill get them later lol

Wednesday 2-12-14

So today was just super weird. Elder Mortenson came and picked me up from porty. he came in a car. that was an issue cause we had to take my bike too. somehow we fit that in the back seat tho. then we talked all the way to Kingston. man can that man talk haha. and most of it was about paint. hes not a boring guy but somehow he went on for like an hour on how paining is a super good way to make a quick buck. idk haha. then we picked up some elders at the office and went over to Burger King to eat. after transfers tho i actually threw up. something in the whopper just didnt like me a lot haha. but elder norman and i finally got to go out and teach. we got up to a members house, and i threw up again. we had to walk cause our bikes suck right now, so we just started to walk home. we decided to stop at another members house real fast. i felt like crap so we left and once we got about 30yds up the road, i threw up again. man it was the weirdest thing ever! we called the ZLs tho to pick us up and we called it a day. i got home and went straight to bed. but from what i can see the area is super flat! i love that cause that means that i wont be so tired biking now! heck ya! but there are a lot more dogs here. so stones are something i am starting to carry haha. or just a good kick to the face :). its weird being here right now but give me a few days and its gonna feel like home in no time.

Thursday 2-13-14

Today we had to take a greenie around. his trainer was in a meeting for the day so the mission stuck him with us for the day. he is a great kid tho. seems like he is really going to fit in fast here. most of the day was just us walking around in a scheme by the house to see where people live. the scheme is huge so its gonna take some getting used to haha. but the good news is that i didnt barf haha. so i think that im good. something in that whopper just didnt like me at all. but from everyone that we went and saw, the members are super cool! they get really involved in missionary work. i really think that i could get used to spending my time here :)

Friday 2-14-14

Today i spent contemplating on all the girls i have waiting for me back home. so it didnt take long to stop. i starting thinking, and then i was done haha. ive just heard that v-day on the mission is kinda boring. i accepted it and laughed haha. so we have a Recent Convert that always comes teaching with us. he name is Nakeitha. she was baptized like a month ago. everyone here really likes elder henderson, who i am replacing, so its gonna be hard to gain the trust of the members. but im up for the challenge! henderson is a great guy so i cant blame the members too much haha. most of our day was spent with me and elder norman going around to the members and introducing me to them. so far i really love the members. they are just really accepting and want to work with us. when the stake comes here in the spring they are gonna get some bonus point for the apostle that comes here to dedicate it haha

Saturday 2-15-14

today we tried to do some service. we ended up standing around. not really all that good haha. but once again we went around to the members houses and introduced me. a lot of the members who are less active tho really do want to come to church. most of them just really dont have the means to do so. less actives coming back to church i dont think is gonna be too hard to do. but cottage meetings actually happen here too. members love to invite their friends over so they can hear the gospel. that was something that never really got going in porty but down here it is in full force! we also went to a scheme called Whitewater today. man that is a rich boy place! we are hoping to get some investigators there. most of the people there have cars so getting to church for them isnt a big deal.

Sunday 2-16-14

today church was fantastic! they had me get up and introduce myself of course haha. but i could actually understand what was going on. up in porty i could never understand what the teacher for 3rd hour was saying. no one really could. he has no teeth. but down here everyone is capable of doing their jobs and they do them really well. after that we kinda just went around to members again and introduced me. sorry this letter is short compared. hopefully next week we have some other things happen haha

so thats what its like so far. the area is super flat, which i love. im living away from the town so its not loud and its away from all of the crime spots. honestly im just excited to be here. i know this gospel is true. i could look through every book there is and never find a reason why this church couldnt be true. the doctrine is pure and perfect. i cant wait to put it to the test when my calling is not a missionary. but ive got 18 months before that haha

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture of the Week
2 Ne 1:21 (the last half where it starts with "arise from the dust....")

Week 24

hey everyone!

so this week has been super good! we had transfer calls this week. i got my call. i will get to what happened later haha.

Monday 2-3-14
so this P-Day was kinda long. elder davis went fishing with elder strickland. and since everyone knows how good of a fishing partner i am (suckish) ;) i stayed behind with elder ashby. we took a while on emails and shopping so i think i got a total of 1 hour to myself. oh well tho. after all that tho we went and had a lesson with Asha-gaye. yes we go there a lot but she is a less active member that we are not going to give up on. we had a very spiritual lesson with her on why she needs to be reading and praying. hopefully this time it really sinks in on what we are saying. we also went and had family home evening with the campbells. mondays are kinda the day that we go and do that. we shared Helaman 5 with them. i have been really obsessed with that chapter lately and im not sure why haha. it was a super good lesson. we didnt get to what we wanted to get to but it was still super good.

Tuesday 2-4-14
so today i kinda got sick again. dont worry its not like it has been the past few weeks. i just had a little bit of heat exhaustion i think. when we went up to Kashane's house i didnt feel to good. i had a little barf attack at his house haha. i thought i was good after that but i wasnt. so i went home and stayed in. i was super pissed at that. but i cleaned the house up a bit after i took a nap. elder ashby and i gave the house a small deep clean. other than that, i did nothing today.

Wednesday 2-5-14
today we went over to Ochi for district meeting. it was pretty good, as usual haha. president brown was coming up today to interview the youth for a temple trip coming up here soon so we had to get back fast cause we had to take Asha-gaye there to talk to him about something and he also wanted to interview us later in the day too. well we did get back in time. Asha-gaye walked away tho. we took her to the church to talk to him and after we left he got back on his phone. she felt a little weird so she just went back home. kinda frustrating but oh well. i had a good interview with pres brown tho. he has a really cool way of just making you feel so much love. it lasted about 40 minutes. kinda shorter than normal but oh well. it was the first one i had had since i got on the island so i was just glad to have one. we also had a good lesson with Shanice. she is a little bit of a party person so we taught the gospel of jesus christ and had a big commitment on repentance. she knows she is doing some wrong things so i think we should be good for a bit haha. she is only 50% sure about baptism right now but its cause of all the stuff she is doing. that will change soon with more lessons and her applying them.

Thursday 2-6-14
so today was a very interesting day. we had a lesson with Kadeen. that was a pretty good lesson. we taught about sacrifice. we are starting to teach out of the Gospel Principles book with her. it makes things a little easier. we also went up to sister wilson. she seemed a bit sad. im not really sure why tho. hopefully we will be able to find out what it is here soon. we also tried to have a family home evening with the taylors. it ended up being just Asha-gaye and her mom joining us while everyone else just stole our bikes and rode them around. it was a good lesson but very distracting too. sister taylor wasnt too glad about all of the distractions. we are gonna go back on monday haha. it will be better :)

Friday 2-7-14
today we went and checked on sister clarke. she is doing a lot better than before. we found that her dead husband never went to the temple so we got his info, got his stuff updated on family search, and got the name printed! there is a guy in MoBay that is gonna do the work when the temple trip comes up. its gonna be so sick! we also went and saw the Campbells again today. they are still doing good haha. we tried to get a referral from them but to no avail. the shop was pretty busy. thats really all we did today.

Saturday 2-8-14
ok so here is the transfer call day. as it turns out..... IM GOING TO SPANISH TOWN!!! my comp is gonna be Elder Norman. he is from lindon utah. in case any of you are wondering, yes, it is Sawyer Norman. he is gonna be my new comp for the next 1 or 2 transfers so we are super stoked! elder davis will be staying in porty with elder strickland and ashby. ya they are going to be a tripanionship. porty is now a 3 man area for 6 weeks. kinda weird but cool at the same time. Elder Davis and I went down to Kingston today to return the van. somehow we got the thing down there. it wouldnt start at first so we had to get it jumped. but we went on a split with the APs. lets just say that i really wanna serve in Kingston haha. the members there are all set for missionary work! we went to one member where we shared a scripture just to give her a compliment, and she gave us 3 names of people that she is gonna invite to church! it was crazy

Sunday 2-9-14
so it was my last Sunday in Porty. its way sad but im excited for Spanish Town on Wednesday. mostly what i did today was get my signing journal signed by a few members. i am going to get more of them to sign it on Tuesday when we get more time. thats really about it. we went and checked on brother James i guess. he is gonna have to have his toe amputated. his diabetes just killed his foot really bad. Delano was also having some trouble with stress so we gave him a blessing. we had brother james do it since he is Delanos father. it was super awesome and the spirit was defiantly there.

So yupp thats my week. next week youll be hearing of me in spanish town and how the move is. i am so glad that i get to move to a spot that i am needed but also sad that i have to move from Porty. i love it here. but Spain Town is gonna be a blast!

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture of the Week
Helaman 5:12 AND James 4:14

Week 23

Hello Everybody!

so this week has been pretty funny. a little frustrating but at the same time its been funny. you will see why ;)

Monday 1-27-14
so for Pday this week me and elder davis went to the beach in long bay again. its so nice to be doing things on Pday. i may never get to see this part of the world again so hopefully i can get more stuff done on the rest of my pdays here. but after pday we went over to Keena to pre drop her. we taught her that she needs to be reading more and she told us that she would take things more serious. we will have to see what happens. she hasnt been reading the book of mormon at all cause she "has to study my bible". its a real big work in progress. after we went to keena we were going to have a lesson with Kashane and just see whats up with him but we forgot that it was monday so it was FHE night. his mom was there and we were about to have a lesson with all of them. but then we got to talking to everyone and just wasted time to be honest. we are repenting of that haha.

Tuesday 1-28-14
So today we had a lesson with Janet again. she is starting to talk about baptism so thats good. but at the same time she wont accept a day to be baptized so its a bit annoying. one day she will be baptized but i dont think that its going to be when i am here. oh well haha. we also had a lesson with Kadeen. i thought that the lesson went pretty good. Kadeen does seem a bit down tho so we will be finding out whats up the next time we see her. of course not going into too much detail haha. we also tried to have a lesson with Asha-gaye again. somehow repentance came up again. she feels guilty about what she did but at the same time she doesnt think that its a big deal. we are getting her to the point to admit it to the right person but she has to come to church first. afterwards we had a lesson with Shanice. she is super solid and is putting forth some really good effort. she hasnt really thought about the day that we gave her to be baptized but thats not a big deal right now. she will be baptized when she is ready. and that should be way soon if she puts forth the effort that she is right now.

Wednesday 1-29-14
so today we had zone meeting in Mobay today. we got up super early, like 3am, and drove straight there. lets just say that i was a little tired haha. i didnt drive but i was up for the whole 4 hours there. we had breakfast at Burger King so that helped a bit haha. Zone Meeting was pretty good tho. it was all about the Spirit and Planning. yes it sounds weird but it was really good. elder davis had to do some interviews in Ochi so we ended up staying there for a while. like 8pm while. so we didnt get home until like 10pm that night. i was just super tired and went to bed right when i could haha.

Thursday 1-30-14
So today the only lesson that we ended up having was with Asha-gaye. we found out one thing there. NEVER TEACH AT HER HOUSE! her brother just disturbs the lesson, the bar is too close so the music keeps blaring, and you cannot feel the spirit like at all. we are gonna try to start to teach her at the church from now on. it will be much better having construction blare in our ears than all the noise down at her house. later we had a family home evening there and it was pretty good. everything kinda calmed down after awhile. playing games there is always a fun time haha. its pretty intense.

Friday 1-31-14
Again the only lesson that we had was with one person. this time it was with Shanice tho. so a good change. we taught her the plan of salvation. she didnt seem to be paying attention too much but afterwards she could repeat everything that she had learned and it was all of the important stuff. i guess thats a good thing haha.

Saturday 2-1-14
so today was just super funny! first off we dropped Keena. everytime we go there she isnt there. she didnt read. so we told her that when she will take it serious then we would come back. we then went over to Asha-gaye again. thats where it was funny but at the same time i felt so bad. her friend Kyle, who lives there, splashed a glass of water on her when she said to not. she started cussing in patios and telling kyle that she was gonna murder him. then she threw a wine bottle at him. ya. like a glass bottle. it never hit him but it came super close. she was pissed!  i felt bad that i couldnt do much but i was laughing at the same time. then during the night we were goofing off a bit. elder strickland and elder ashby wrestled me for my pants. after about 10min of them trying they finally got them. it was probably the funniest thing of my entire life.

Sunday 2-2-14
So today during testimony meeting we had someone come up and sing at the pulpit. he is a less active member who doesnt really want to be here but comes from time to time. i didnt know what to do. finally he stopped and gave an actual testimony but it was still really weird and super funny. church was good as usual haha. really that was the whole day. not much to  really say other than that

so thats my week. pretty eventful for me haha. but this mission is the best in the world. its sad to me to think that im almost 1/4 of the way done but at the same time its cool to think of. but i love it here and wanna keep doing the best that i can!

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture of the Week
Alma 7:14-15