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