Wwek 43

Hey everyone!

so ya im in a new area. the area is Santa Cruz, which is kinda on the south-western part of the island above a place called Black River. the title of the letter says it all. Santa does not live at the north pole. it feels like im in Africa right now. it is super hot, it never rains, and that makes cloud cover very rare. plus, there are hills up the wazoo! ive never had such a hilly area! getting to appointments is so hard! the god thing, the house is by KFC so we can go there whenever we want haha.

Monday 6-16-14

so pday today wasnt really too relaxing. the first off, since i had my transfer call, i had to pack the whole day. once we got done with shopping at stuff, i was packing. i really hate packing! hopefully i will only have to do one more thing of packing while im on my mission. well i guess two. one to leave here for one more area, and then again to pack to come home. but it really sucked to say the least haha. then we had a lesson with Chayanne. that really was not a good lesson. she was very distracted the whole time. it seemed like she was trying to hide from us. of course we tried going there without a member again. that was stupid. we never shoulda gone there without someone. it was the last lesson i had with her so elder farb and carter will be able to take care of that. then we went to see the cardoza family. we met with matthew and his mom. we decided that we were gonna teach them the thing that president brown gave during stake conference. "6 ways to build/keep a stake". it went super well! they loved the aspect of getting activities going again. idk why but it seems that all of the branches just stopped doing activities. they were really good with it in the 90s but started to slack off. hopefully that will change soon cause the cardozas are right on top of it. they said that they would talk to bishop smith about getting them going all the time again.

Tuesday 6-17-14

today is my last day in spanish town!!!!!!!! THAT REALLY SUCKS!!!!!!!!! i just dont want to leave at all. this is the worst feeling in the world!!!!!!! i love spanish town so much!!! i really feel like ive made the very best friends that i ever could down here!!!!!!! somebody wanna come take my spot so i can stay here?!?!! so today i went and said my final goodbyes to people. the big ones were Christinea, Nakeitha, Britteny, Sherefah, and Khadejah. so basically the best friends down here that i made haha. i really am going to miss those people. kinda weird how they are all girls too..... no comment there i guess.... but i got a bunch of photos with them so ill be sure to send them. that was kinda the whole day tho. elder farb and i just went around and got a bunch of members to sign my journal. i really hate last days in areas. i just cant wait to come back to spanish town after i get home! im so planning a trip as soon as i can to come back down here! SPANISH TOWN IS ZION!!!!!!!!

Wednesday 6-18-14

Transfer day. the worst day of my entire life. the day i have to leave spanish town. so the drive out to santa cruz was really cool. there were a lot of hills on the way. the road that leads down into the town is like one of the biggest hills ever. its down hill for like 3 miles or more. i kinda wanna ride my bike down it haha. but we really didnt do anything today. elder phippin and i got all of our stuff unpacked and then did a bit of shopping to tide us over until monday. the bad thing, im already super area sick. i really miss spanish town and i have only been away for a few hours. these next few days are just going to be very depressing for me. but i am way excited about santa cruz. it is a very small branch (10 people come to church, and 65 are on record) but it is a very nice place! the weather is normally very hot and there are tons of hills. it should be a lot of fun sweating all the time and working my legs out constantly haha.

Thursday 6-19-14

well, i was right. THERE ARE SO MANY HILLS!!!!!! getting to our first appointment was so hard! i have not had so many hills or so steep of hills my entire mission! Porty doesnt even come close and Spanish Town is super flat! i was not prepared for this haha. and yes, im still very "area sick". i really miss spanish town. but today was a really good day. we met a lot of the members mostly. our first lesson was super good. we went up to see Amoy, a potential missionary, and her mom, Sister Warren. we wanted to teach Amoy how to teach the restoration to someone but it ended up being focused on sister warren. we only got through how god loves us and gives us families but she was crying during the whole thing! she even gave us a referral for her other daughter! it was a great way to start out the area! it looks like there are a lot of less actives in the branch, as yesterday shows haha. i love working with less actives tho. something in them just has me loving to work with them. i really look forward to seeing what happens these next 6 weeks/months.

Friday 6-20-14

so today was a slow. the work here is way good it was just a super slow day today. we met a lady named Iona. she doesnt seem as interested but her daughter and her friend seem very interested. they are like 12 years old each and they are super smart! im not sure if as smart as the campbells in spanish town but they are way smart! we want to be able to teach them. we'll have to meet with them again some time. we also met sister thomas. she is super smart as well.she is training her daughter how to be a missionary already! and she's 13! i love when people do that haha! even her friend is super smart! it seems that the people out here are just like the smartest things ever! thats gonna make things super fun! we also got a really random referral. President Blake, 2nd councilor in the mission presidency, drove up and saw us, pulled us over, and told us that he wants us to go and teach his uncle in a part of our area! it was super cool! i love referrals haha

Saturday 6-21-14

for some odd reason, a lot of people down here remind me of people in spanish town. i guess that just explains how "area sick" that i am haha. Lisa, a potential missionary, reminds me so much of Khadejah. they just talk and act so much alike. it kinda scares me to be honest haha. and then this kid named Bryan, a recently reactivated priest, reminds me of Sherefah. of course thats cause they both do cadet stuff (army). but it kinda scares me. we had a really busy day. we need to get in a lunch time tho. we didnt eat until like 4 today and that just wont do. i need food before then haha. especially since there are a bunch of hills. but we'll cross that bridge when we get there haha. nothing really exciting happened in the lessons. i really cant say the one thing that i did think was funny...... its not good haha.

Sunday 6-22-14

man it is a small branch here. i guess there is normally like 7 who come to church on a normal basis. well we had way more than that! we had like 12 be there before sacrament, and 16 were there by the end of church. you can see just how small it is haha. the church is an old doctors office so its super small. but its a relly good branch. the people here are really genuine. but the sad thing is that there isnt a lot of worthy priesthood, so us missionaries are the branch clerks. we're not quite the branch presidency cause there is a guy here, President Durrant, who is super cool and really wants the branch to grow. he is the only one out of 3 guys tho who is worthy to hold a calling. i have a lot of high hopes for him tho. he really wants this branch to grow and he has the confidence to do it! but so far i really love Santa Cruz! its a super nice place with excellent people! i also love that its a bit more like Porty. just a small town. there isnt much here but there is enough. spanish town of course was way nice cause i was away from the main part of town. but even town here really isnt too bad. i really look forward to serving here!

so thats the week. im super sad to be out of spanish town but i am really glad to be here in santa cruz. its small now but soon come it will be a big branch. if i can get more people to come here then my job is done. i really just want to help this branch hit its potential.

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
D&C 45:66

Week 42

alright first off everyone look up this link https://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-holland-organizes-first-stake-in-jamaica?lang=eng

my converts and most of Port Antoino is on the photo of the jamaica stake thing!!! thats so awesome for me!!!!!!!!!

the ones i know are the far left for the first 4 girls. then its the 2 girls above them, then its kashane, then the girl next to him and the 2 boys below her are in the branch (the young one being my convert as well as the girl to the right of him) and then the far right one is sister blake. it makes me so happy to know that Jamaica is growing in the church so much! soon come these people will have the same blessings that Kingston and Spanish Town have! I love the Gospel!

so the world cup is on now and everyone down here is going crazy. i myself am going for spain. too bad they got their butt handed to them haha. oh well. i also made a lot of predictions. i have only missed one game so far. and the best part. the email place we are at right now is playing the Germany vs Portugal game haha! i love football so much more haha!

Monday 6-9-14

today was a pretty relaxing day. not really too much to do. the only lesson we had today was with Shelly. it really was not all that good. there were a ton of distractions and she was not focused at all. we wanted to teach her the Plan of Salvation but because of the non focus, we didnt. we just read the Book of Mormon with her. a guy was also outside kneading some Ganja so that didnt help too much. Jamaica sure is an interesting place haha.

Tuesday 6-10-14

today i was on a tradeoff with elder tuala. so we were in his area. a lesson we had early in the morning was interrupted pretty bad haha. we were about to get right past the prayer, and then some jamaicains got in a huge fight so we had to stop the lesson. there were a lot of jamaican cuss words going around haha. sometimes they are just funny. this was one of those times where it was a split. it was funny, but you could feel the spirit just leave right off the bat. thats really it for the day. we didnt get to do a lot of interesting things haha.

Wednesday 6-11-14

so we had a really good district meeting today. it was just a discussion about how we can best use the stake. it was probably one of the most productive meetings ive had on my mission. we also went and saw Matthew. he is really starting to cheep up.we are starting to get him back into missionary work. he even pulled out a role play for us right on his veranda. i was in awe. he had to be a really good missionary when he was serving a few years ago. the other thing that we went to do was see Christinea. she told us that she wanted to serve a mission! i was really happy with that one! she has come a really long ways since i first saw her clear back when i first got to spanish town. she is gonna make an excellent missionary! i so hope that she will be able to serve while i am still out here! that would be the sickest thing ever! and thats all for the day. a lot of things are blowing out this week. its kinda sad but i am still loving the week!

Thursday 6-12-14

so we did another tradeoff with elder tuala. but this time he came to our area. the first thing we did was see Israel, a less active member. we mostly just read with him. he usually flakes out for church but we still invited him. did he show up, no. but we'll work on that. we also saw chayanne today as well. we took britteny with us for that. she loves going out with us to her haha. we reviewed the plan of salvation with chayanne cause i guess on tuesday she said something that meant we had to review it. it was really good and she now gets the whole thing. she is also on date for July 5th. that day will be super awesome if we can get Shelly on board as well. and once again, thats it. so many appointments are blowing out this week. its really crazy.

Friday 6-13-14

so the world cup is super awesome! ive really been keeping track of it this year. members are a huge help haha ;) people down here get into it a lot as well. we get a lot of people just asking us what team we bringin. its way cool to be honest :D first thing we did was have a lesson with christine. she had to go but we taught her the last part of the plan of salvation. she understood it real well. we also found a girl by the name of Kadesha there. she sat in on the lesson for a bit and then we set up a time to see her later in the day. she is super prepared! when we went and had the lesson with her about the restoration, we didnt even get to the great apostasy before we extended her a baptismal date. the spirit was just really strong and she was understanding a lot of stuff. she was basically teaching us! it was one of the best lessons of all time! we gave her June 28th as her day. she was a little sketchy about it but she'll be baptized soon regardless haha. we also had a lesson with the campbells. it wasnt as good. i think we just need to do topics with them. they seem to enjoy that a lot more.

Saturday 6-14-14

so i got my transfer call today and it was the worst news of all time. im going to be leaving the area! i really dont want to leave here. i love Spanish Town so much! the members here are like the best people ever! here and Port Antonio are always going to be my 2 favorite places on earth. i thought that Porty was the place to be but Spanish Town is such a great place too! i definitely have got to get back to Jamaica as soon as i can haha! so i will be going to Santa Cruz. its a really bush spot on the west side of the island kinda by Black River. i wont be going there too much tho. i think its for a different branch. i will be in another Tripanionship tho. it will be with Elder Deans, from Nassau Bahamas, and Elder Phippin, from Idaho Falls. he is one of the guys that i roomed with in the MTC. so this should be a really fun transfer haha. the main lesson that we had today was with the campbells. ya its way late in the night. it was all we did tho haha. more stuff just blew out. the lesons are back on track tho. we went over hope with them and everything was back to normal. its sad that i have to leave the campbells. they are by far my favorite family ever! besides my own of course haha. we also did not play basketball today. with the world cup on, everyone was inside watching that. we didnt really think of that before so we ended up going to the court still haha. Christinea decided to come with us so that she could spend more time with us before i go haha. it was pretty fun. we had a small game happen when jay showed up later. my elder baller status from the MTC is definitely back. i can always just end the game on a 3 now. why couldnt i do that back home? haha

Sunday 6-15-14

i am saying a lot of goodbyes now. i took a few photos at church with some members and ill be doing that for the next few days haha. transfers are always the worst. you get to love an area, and then POOF! your gone. i really am sad to be leaving tho. Spanish Town i think is the best area that i served in so far. and it always will be. this really is Zion. i think Joseph Smith meant spanish town jamaica not independence Missouri haha. we had another great lesson with the campbells today. we went over something that president brown said in stake conference of how to build/keep a stake. they are really interesting points. they loved it. i also had them sign my journal. it took a little longer than i thought but i was fine with it. it means that i got to spend more time with the campbells haha! we also took britteny with us. we were giong to see chayanne but as the theme of the week says, it blew out. she still wanted to do something so we took her with us. she seemed to have fun with it. i love that members are wanting to come out with us to teach. it means that us as missionaries are doing the job we should be doing.

so ya im super sad to be leaving. its a bittersweet thing that is more bitter than sweet. but i know its where i need to be at this point. having a few trips down here is so gonna go into a yearly budget back home haha. i just need to get a super good job.

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
something to change it up a bit haha. here it is https://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-holland-organizes-first-stake-in-jamaica?lang=eng

Week 41

hey everyone whats up?!

this week was just so amazing! as i have been going off about in the last 3 or 4 letters, ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO JAMAICA!!! AND THE FIRST STAKE EVER IN JAMAICA IS HERE!!!!!!!! this is something that everyone has been waiting for for so long! and its here! the church is growing and its gonna continue to grow! wo getting ahead of myself here...... back to the week...

Monday 6-2-14

So pday today was pretty stressing. we took a bike ride down a mountain today. we had the zone leaders drive us up to the top, which took us like 30-40 minutes, and then rode down the whole thing, which took like 15 minutes. its was fun but also a bit anti-climatic as well. it was pretty steep tho. we had to of been going close to 45-50 mph. we really had to get our brakes checked before it haha. it was a ton of fun tho. it did cause a bit of stress tho cause we got to emails way late, and then we had to bike over to the place that we shop for food. its like 2 different ends of down. that wasnt the funnest thing ever. but we got home in time to take a short rest. that felt pretty good haha. later in the day we taught Chayanne and Shelly. we had to different lessons for the same household haha. first we taught Chayanne the Plan of Salvation. or at least the last half of it. we had Britteny come with us for it since they are about the same age. she did a very good job. its so much easier to have a 14 year old explain something to a 13 year old haha. i still need to improve on that a lot but im getting better. then we took Britteny home and went and got JD to teach Shelly. that was a very good lesson. i didnt get any words in cause JD taught the whole thing! it was the sickest thing ever! that kid is still a fantastic missionary! he so needs to go back out on his mission. i dont care where he goes but anywhere is where that kid needs to be. he knew exactly what to do and how to do it. so cool!

Tuesday 6-3-14

to start off the day we saw Kayann, finally. one thing that we are doing during the week now is showing a lot of people a talk by Elder Holland to get them pumped up for stake conference. kayanns lesson was ok. she just didnt seem to pay a lot of attention to it really. thats a really hard thing to see. you prepare so hard for something and someone just doesnt care about it. i hate agency haha. now i know how God feels with us when we are like that to him. we did that with basically all of the lessons today. we saw a few more members, a couple were less active, and then went to see our investigator Christine. we did not show her any Elder Holland today tho. we needed to get done with the restoration and introduce the Book of Mormon to her. it was a really good lesson. she is very willing to come to church and listen to what we have to say. we tried to extend a day for her to be baptized but she wouldnt accept it yet. we will try again later tho haha.

Wednesday 6-4-14

this is where our week started to get interesting. the devil was playing a big hand today. it sucked but its what comes in with life and with a mission i guess. it did start off really good tho. we had a super good district meeting. the spirit was felt heavily and we were all very involved in it. then we had jennys. you cant go wrong with that haha. but after that is where it did start to go wrong. the first thing that we did was drop gary and nicole. they werent doing a lot of stuff so we told them that lessons with us wouldnt continue. nicole i guess has been saying a lot of stuff about us behind our backs to Christinea, her next door neighbor. christinea was pretty stressed out about it. we tried to take sherefah with us as well. the lesson with chayanne we had was kinda boring so she didnt have a lot of fun today. then we heard all this stuff with nicole and we just kinda thought, "man things just cant get any better than this". it was a hard day to say the least. but we went and saw christinea before the night was over to cheer her up and it ended up cheering us all up. we ended up sharing a talk from elder holland so that helped out so much with everything. things were just shoved in our face by satan today. it sucked but its what comes with the "job" haha.

Thursday 6-5-14

i have realized that being sick on the mission is like the worst thing ever. you cant go out and teach cause you dont feel like you have the spirit, but you cant stay inside cause you just feel so worthless. ive been sick since wednesday with something but ive been trying to tough it out. its not really too bad i just feel weak sometimes and a headache haha. nothing i cant get through. we started off the day doing service tho. we thought that it was gonna take us like 10 minutes, all we were doing was moving boxes at the church with the Salvation Army, but it ended up taking us like 3 hours! man that was long and my arm started hurting from it haha. the good thing is that we got free pizza from Pizza Hut at the end of it all haha. we didnt have to eat any of our food today cause sister blake also cooked for us. we also took around sherefah today again. we decided taht we needed to make it up to her for yesterday so we took her to sister blakes house as well. she defiantly had more fun today than the last time haha. we also had a lesson with Shelly. we showed her an Elder Holland talk, of course haha. she said taht she wouldnt be at church tho cause of a funeral that she was making a big deal out of. we respected that tho and sid alright. i so wish that she coulda showed up tho....

Friday 6-6-14

today, i am still sick...... i hate being sick. its not fun at all. we did have an alright day tho. we saw christine and showed her a talk from elder holland. she loved it and said that she really wanted to be at church this weekend. she said that she wouldnt make it to saturday but sunday for sure. that made us sad but it was what we were going to get haha. she is really coming a long ways tho. i just wish that we could teach her more stuff in a less amount of time. oh well. its worth it for a full conversion one day haha. then we went and saw sister blake and did the same thing. for some reason tho our lessons have been down this week. we really havent taught a lot of people like i feel like we have been in the past. hopefully that will change next week cause with stake conference, we still have time blown out haha.

Saturday 6-7-14

so stake conference was like the biggest thing today! it was such a great time. elder holland gave a very good talk about hastening the work when he got up. he shared a story of 3 men who went to the door of someone. the guy came out and saw them. it was his bishop, elders quorum president, and sunday school president. well the man had a cig in his hand. but it was in st. george clear back so everyone knew that he smoked. they all went in the house and just stood there. then the bishop just blurted out, "frank we are here to call you as a sunday school teacher!" after dabbing his cig out on the coffee table, used for coffee and not decor as elder holland put it, he said, "BUT I SMOKE?!"  the bishop then blurted out "FRANK I DONT CARE IF YOU SMOKE! THATS YOUR PROBLEM NOT OURS!" (we had a good kick from that. southern utah humor haha). frank then turned around and saw elder holland in a different room. this is clear back when elder holland was 10 so the man, frank, is his father. he then said that his dad got a revelation to him right then taht they were talking about elder hollands class. elder holland got very serious right here and said something like, "DONT YOU EVER! THINK THAT GOD IS NOT WORKING ON THOSE TYPES OF PEOPLE! "(cig smoker, coffee drinker, beer drinker)" HE IS WORKING ON THEM EVERYDAY!!!!" (that was super scary cause he went from joking around a bit to his rebuking face and tone. i thought that i was about to die haha but back to the story). his dad then asked when he wanted it done. then elder holland said this. "THERE WAS A SUDDEN CRASH IN OUR KITCHEN. MY MOTHER SAID THAT SHE DROPPED A POT. OH PLEASE! GIVE ME A BREAK! SHE PULLED THE WHOLE CUPBOARD DOWN!" (elder holland is a very funny guy haha) but then he let us think about how that is hastening the work. hastening the work doesnt always mean missionary work. it can go from family history work, to reactivation, to retention, to whatever. the lords work is everything. and it needs to be hastened. he also said a very cool quote that got me thinking. he was referring to those 3 people who came to his dad but he said "PEOPLE LIKE YOU, HAVE SAVED PEOPLE LIKE ME!" now just imagine that. this is a man who has seen Christ himself, and he is saying that an ordinary person like us has saved people who are like him. such a crazy quote but such a great one at the same time. its very true. you never know what is going to happen when you help just one person out. that generation or the ones that follow could be effected for the rest of time.

Sunday 6-8-14

well the stake is officially here! elder holland and elder cornish set up the first stake ever in Jamaica! this next generation of missionary work is here now. i cant wait to be doing all of this with a stake president as well. now i feel like all of those state side missionaries a bit haha. but the stake is only in Spanish Town, Kingston, Old Harbour, Linstead, and Portmore so i might get transferred out here soon haha. hopefully not tho. i wanna stay the rest of my mission in Spanish Town! another nice thing is that during the night i was able to get up to the church for a minute and see some of the youth. elder holland wanted to talk to them as well so we went up right at the end of that meeting to see some youth. i was able to see all the youth from Port Antonio that i was super tight with! man did that feel good! i miss home so much haha! Porty and Spanish Town are always gonna be my 2 favorite places of all time. there are no better places than them. i dont care what anyone else says about that haha. but it really does feel good to be here. its the best thing of all time.

so thats the week. it was pretty eventful if you ask me haha. but being out here is by far the best choice that i have ever made. there are people down here that i need to talk to and those people in turn need to talk to me so that they can teach me something. i will never regret the choice to come on a mission. this is the Lords work and nothing can stop it. the church is true. i may not have come out on a mission with a lot of knowledge, but i will come back with the best knowledge of all. and thats that i know this church is true without a shadow of a doubt. nothing could ever shake my faith in that. to put it as the Prophet Joseph Smith said Love You All, "the Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

Love You All,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
"The standard of Truth" from Joseph Smith Jr.

Week 40

Hey Everyone wappen?

so this week was pretty good. im not really sure what to say about it so ya..... here it is i guess:

Monday 5-26-14

today was just a relaxing Pday. we had a lot of time to kill on our hands so we stayed at the house and just rested up. missionary work gets tiring haha. we then went and picked up Sherefah to go to Chayannes. the lesson with Chayanne was pretty good. we just read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon with her. her attention span is a bit small so we kept the lesson pretty short. but we did get a new investigator from the lesson too. its Chayannes aunt Shelly. she joined us for the lesson and we set a return appointment to specifically see her. she has some really good desires. it should be pretty interesting to teach her as well too.

Tuesday 5-27-14

today we did some service in the morning for someone we want to teach. her name is Christine. she was doing some stuff to her lawn when we passed by one day so we came back today to help her out with other things. service has been a big part of us getting to teach people so we continue to use up the 4 hours of service per week we have. by the end of the week we have no time left for it. but we set up a return appointment for later in the week so im really excited about that. the only other lesson that we had today was with Chris and his mom. we went over and talked about chris serving a mission. his mom said that she woundnt hold him back from coming to church, even tho she has been the past little bit. she is going to support him but its gonna be a little bit of time before we can really get them all coming on a consistent basis. it was kinda a short day with all of this stuff but it was still a pretty good day. oh ya just so that everyone knows (and to freak the mom out a bit ;) ) one spot in our area was closed down today. some guy got shot with an M16 or something when we were right down the street. i never heard any of the shots haha. but i did hear that the cops found like 27 bullets at the scene. Jamaica crazy man haha :D

Wednesday 5-28-14

so today was a pretty good day i guess. we had zone meeting to start off with. the power was out in the church so it got pretty hot inside. we had to move rooms to where the power was actually working. but other than that it was good haha. the next lesson we had was a lesson with Ricky. we were gonna prep Christinea on it but Ricky came walking up wanting to have a lesson so we had one with him there on Chrstineas veranda. it was an ok lesson. it seems that we didnt really move on when we were supposed to. we will be better then next time tho. then the next lesson we had was with Chayanne. we were going to go over the plan of salvation but i forgot some cards we wanted to bring so that it was a little bit more fun for her. so instead we went over the book of mormon just a bit. mostly just read with her. but sister russell came in and gave some pretty good input with it. we did catch a couple of points in some doctrine that we need to go over again but thats not a big concern. we then stopped by the McCalla house for our last appointment. we were gonna share a thought with them but Sherefah suddenly had us clean up a wedding dress that she was using the next day for school. she had messed it up so she had us "dry clean" it. meaning it was dry, but it was getting cleaned. idk..... but we did that for an hour and then had to go home to keep the rules haha.

Thursday 5-29-14

to start the day off we went back over to Christine, the lady we did service for. the lesson with her went really well. she explained that the things that she likes in a church is basically everything that we do in this church, even tho she doesnt know that we do that haha. i really think that she will be baptized soon. we are planning on extending the 28th of June as her baptism day. once we see her next week we will do that. we feel like we need just a bit of doctrine taught first before a day is set. but she is very prepared for the gospel and i look forward to teaching her for the next little bit! later in the day we went over to Shelly, chayannes aunt, and had a really good lesson with her. its kinda weird. her whole countenance changes when she sits in lessons with us. she is strict with the kids there, but is super calm when she sees us. the good thing also is that we can get through the lessons that we have planned. we seem to be moving onto each point easier. thats super good. then later in the day while playing some indoor football, i floured one of the elders. it was super funny. its a custom in jamaica to flour someone on their birthday so thats what i did. i will send you some pics if i can.

Friday 5-30-14

so today we didnt do service to start off haha. we had to super plan first. kinda sucks but we were able to get some snacks before so it wasnt so bad haha. one lesson we had today was with matthew cardoza. he opened up to us about some things taht he has a hard time believing in. i want to help him but at the same time it might need to go to a professional. we'll have to see what happens tho. the last lesson of the day was with Ricky. this time we took him over to the Campbells tho. it was a really good lesson. he understood what was being said, we were able to get through all the points, and the campbells did a really good job at teaching the lesson. they are still a bit new to it but that will change in no time at all. they bore their testimonys and i think that it really helped Ricky out a lot. im super excited to have the campbells teach tho. they are just so solid! :D

Saturday 5-31-14

so we now have one week until Elder Holland comes down to the island! im am so super stoked for that! the first thing that we did today was go and chop through the "forest" in Christineas back yard. the grass back there was just super tall. it took us like 90 minutes to get the thing done, which really is a pretty good time. she wants to help us out with missionary work as well so we are really trying to get her to fellowship a lot of people. afterwards we went and saw Chayanne. this time we taught her just the first part of the Plan of Salvation. we are gonna put it in like 2-3 lessons for her so that its easy to understand. she understood it pretty well but i forgot my cards again. we will get it in the next time tho haha. we also went to Christinea and prepped her for the next lesson that we have with Ricky. we talked about the Book of Mormon so that we can share that with him. after that we went and played ball haha. its still a super fun thing to do and we can really find people from it. then we went over to the campbells home with Christine and talked about the restoration. as normal, another great lesson. the campbells are just solid haha.

Sunday 6-1-14

wo when did June come in so fast?! im almost a year out! what the heck? today was super cool tho. the church was packed! there were about 150 people at church! thats the most that there has been since i have been here! we normally get like 120 or so but we had to open the over flow today! so cool! thats really about it tho. we had a lesson with the campbells that was ok. kinda flip flopped. after that we just went in and gave our numbers and had dinner. so kinda a short day haha.

so the members are really getting into missionary work. its super cool. i so wish i had done that back home. but i never saw the missionaries around haha. utah i guess. oh well.

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
Mosiah 3:19