Week 48

Hey Everyone!

Jamaica is still hot. and humid. its so normal haha. but here is the week :)

Monday 7-21-14

today was the weirdest Pday of all time. after all was said and done, we cleaned our house. the person next door to us moved and has a bigger apartment that we want to get so we cleaned for it. our house is a bit of a mess so getting it is gonna take us cleaning it haha. but its not too hard. its not a big apartment so its not hard to clean. then we went up to the russell home and i found out that i really dont like people who chat too much. there was a person there who just talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and, you guessed it, talked. and then talked some more. he was even attacking a member of the branch with it so i was not very fond of it. the lesson we learned about the priesthood. we watched 2 talks from last conference. ones from Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring from the priesthood session. 

Tuesday 7-22-14

so today we got to borrow a bike from President Durrant. thank heavens for that haha. walking is just getting so old now. we didnt get to use it till later in the day tho. but we did get to see Mickailia today. we had a pretty good lesson with her. we taught her about enduring to the end. the last part of the gospel of jesus christ, if  it can be considered a last thing haha. she understood pretty well. after that we biked out to Nigel. we had a pretty good lesson with him about our pre earth life. he wasnt understanding too much so we didnt get to get through a whole lot but i think that he gets that we lived with God before we were born. afterwards we went back to Staysha and had a lesson with her. it wasnt the best lesson. we were very unprepared for it. i thought that someone else was going to teach it cause they had planned it. but they didnt so someone else had to step in and do what they had found in studies that day. next time will be a better lesson tho.

Wednesday 7-23-14

well today we had zone meeting. the scary part is, the zone leaders called me last week and told me that they wanted me to prepare a 10 minute lesson to teach in zone meeting. its something that normally isnt done now but they felt like they should so they asked me to talk about being an example to members. just to sum it all up, i thought of 5 things that missionaries do so they can be examples to members

1) Work on Own Referrals (tracting and street contacting)

2) Good Effective Prayers in Mornings and Nights (see Henry B. Eyring "The Priesthood Man" April 2014 General Conference Priesthood Session)

3) Have Fun (No one likes a Robot)

4) Be Professional (maintain sacredness of calling/follow Misisonary Handbook Rules)

5) Have Faith In Them (Alma 32:40-43)

a lot of the other stuff i shared for it is also found in some Gordon B Hinckley talks called "find the lambs, feed the sheep" and "of missions, temples, and stewardship". it was pretty good. i felt a bit weird cause you know i dont like public speaking but people said that i did a good job. idk haha. but after when we got home we went and saw sister russell and did a small bible study. this time tho we went into Moses and talked about Enoch for a bit. it wasnt too prepared cause we did it right off the bat but it was still pretty good. but that was it for the rest of the day. we walked down the hill and no one else could see us. 

Thursday 7-24-14

HAPPY PIONEER DAY! that i dont celebrate down here cause it doesnt exist..... haha anyways... today we saw Mickailia and talked to her about receiving revelation. it was a really good lesson in my opinion. it was something that she was wanting us to teach for a while and she really understood and enjoyed it. when we tried to commit her to the 16th again tho, she was very sketchy about it. she thought that she had to know more. so we spent a bit more time with her and talked about the baptism interview questions. i really hope that it is resolved now. she is gonna be gone until the 2nd of August tho to Bog Walk (north of Spanish Town) so we cant teach her till the sunday after. we did get her member friend Tianna to really encourage her during the week. she went with her on the camp thing so she will be helping her to read, pray, and really think about the 16th or baptism! i really hope she is baptized while i am here! we are putting a of work into her. we didnt really do anything else all day. we are gonna be doing some planned finding her soon so that we can get some more investigators.

Friday 7-25-14

the only thing that we were able to do today was Friday Night Activity. it was super fun so i have no complaints there haha. and we had a really good turn out too. i think we had close to 10 people come, that might include us but idk. ill take what i can get haha. we did a building block game again. i forgot what its called haha but you try to take the blocks out without the tower falling and you put them on top and just keep going. its pretty fun. and then we also did Uno. fridays are always a super fun time for me. i love just getting a little relaxation on the weekends haha.

Saturday 7-26-14

so the big day. transfer call day. we had a little bit of a shcok today. first the obvious ones. i am staying and elder phippen is training. we all knew that that was coming. the surprise was that elder dean will be staying with me. basically everyone in the mission thought that he would be gone. it was just set up for him to leave. but i will be his comp for the next 6 weeks. this will be his last transfer here tho. it will make his 4th. but thats the calls haha. we had a good lesson with staysha today tho. we went over how to recognize revelation. she really loved the lesson cause its something that she really wanted to know. its something that we will be teaching to people a lot now. its a very necessary lesson for people cause it seems like most people dont know how to recognize it. that was really all we did today tho. nothing else exciting. 

Sunday 7-27-14

We had to go to Maypen for church today. it was District Conference so we bused with our branch over there. it was pretty good. president brown went over something that he also did in stake conference about 6 weeks ago. he said that in order to get a stake, as well as keep/build a stake, members in Jamaica (as well as everywhere i might add) should do 6 things:

1) Open Your Homes (invite people to FHE, members and non members)

2) Open Your Mouths (See D&C 33:8-10)

3) Open Your Hearts ("The Worst People Can Say Is No!")

4) Open The Temple Doors (Go To The Temple As Much As Possible; make it your first priority)

5) Open The Chapel Doors (Have Activities At Church Almost Everyday)

6) Open Your Wallets (Be An Honest, Full Tithe Payer and Pay Fast Offerings)

he also said that if this is stuff that we dont do, that we cant look at the past. today is a new day so it should be a new start. if its stuff that we havent done, then we need to start. this is stuff that will bless everyone!

everything that President Brown said is true. this is stuff that will not only bless the whole church, but it will bless each person in the church. i really hope that this is something that the entire church can grasp and start doing. retention, and baptisms, will go higher if it all happens. after wards when we got home we didnt really have time for much. we saw sister dixon and showed her a talk on discipleship. after that we just kinda went home and ate.

so this week was pretty eventful haha. transfer calls and zone meeting and district conference were super interesting. its things like zone meeting and district conference that really make me realize all the time why i am out here. My "purpose is to invite people to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. How Great Is My Calling!" if i do my all then the lord will take care of the rest. 

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Alma 32:40-43

Talk of the Week

"How to Receive Revelation and Inspiration For Your Personal Life" Richard G. Scott April 2012 Conference

Week 47

Hey everyone! wappen to yuh?

this week has been... painful. our bikes are.... ya. maybe it would be better if you just read :l

Monday 7-14-14

today was a pretty sad day as for lessons. we didnt teach anyone today. elder dean had to fix his bike and it ended up taking from the start of the evening up till 9pm. it really sucked haha. me and elder phippen just sat up on the veranda and talked about life really. it was mostly about the future for the both of us. ive been pretty freaked out by that haha. in one year or so i have to decide what to do with my life. not really the best thing to think of haha. but president brown told me once that a mission is the best place to figure life out. there is so much revelation that comes here that its almost impossible to not have your life figured out by the time you leave. so far i think i have it planned out for when i go home but president brown is planning to interview me here soon, as with other missionaries, and i will be getting a lot of advice from him about everything. oh and one more thing... its my 11 month mark today. ive now been on a mission for 11 months! its so freaking awesome!!!! its flown by so fast! i dont want it to end but at the same time i cant wait to get home!

Tuesday 7-15-14

so we woke up to a really great surprise today. NOT! when we woke up to go to the gym, elder phippen looked at our bikes. there were only 2 bikes there. and there is 3 of us. yupp, someone stole a bike again. and not only that, it was elder phippens bike again. we think that someone is stalking us haha. but that really ticked us off. they even had to move a bike to get to his bike! so we are now walking again. i feel like the utah state aggies crowd when they say "welcome to hell". thats what it is now haha. walking, as i have said before, is of the devil. it was a pretty ok day tho. it rained for once. and it was a hard storm too. we had to go see Mickailia tho so we went and trucked through it haha. we got to her house and started to teach on faith. she understood it very well. we also showed the talk by elder holland "lord i believe". lets just say that the lesson was really good haha. but that was all that we could really do today. we had some lessons in the morning but they werent all that interesting. ill say this tho.... walking sucks haha

Wednesday 7-16-14

so we had district meeting in Junction today. its never fun to travel i will say that. at least we can taxi there tho. walking would just be mad man status haha. it was pretty good. once we got back we had to go out to our investigator Nigel. he lives hecka far out there. it was like a 90 minute walk just to get to him. but he called us yesterday saying that he wanted us to go and see him so we had to go there haha. we had an excellent lesson with him tho. he told us that he knows the book of mormon is true and we committed him to be baptized. we didnt extend a date cause he needs to get married to the girl he is living with first but he did commit to baptism which is awesome! that took the entire day tho. we walked to him, had a lesson, and then walked back home. bikes would be great haha

Thursday 7-17-14

today was a good day. the big things that happened today is that we went to see Mickailia again. this time we taught her repentance. just going through the gospel of jesus christ real slow like president brown said to. she understood it very well again haha. she is progressing really great. thank heavens for fellowship as well too haha. hopefully that can continue after she is baptized. it should for her, but we need it for us too haha. then we went and saw staysha. she is doing pretty well. she is progressing its just very slow. she hasnt recognized her answer yet. she has it, all the signs are there. but she just doesnt realize it. that will happen soon come. she wants to know so thats the good thing.

Friday 7-18-14

so fridays of course we never get to much done cause we are in charge of friday night activity and we have to super plan. the only things we were able to get today were buy snacks for the night and teach mickailia again. this time we taught her about baptism. she told us last time that she was going to be gone on august 2nd, her baptism day, so we rescheduled it to the 16th. its a bit sad but she seemed a lot more comfortable with it. im super stoked for that day tho! friday night activity was super sick too. we watched the Joseph Smith movie to start off with, mostly cause Mickailia wanted to see it, and then went on to charades. it was a way fun night. by far the funnest activity on my mission. even tho this is the only place that activities have happened haha.

Saturday 7-19-14

i have found out that walking really hurts. we almost couldnt get up and down the stairs to our apartment in the morning and night. it sucks haha. but today we saw Mickailia and Staysha again. as normal, Mickailias lesson was really good and she understood well. we taught about the Holy Ghost today. kinda a weird lesson but it went really well. the lessons with her i like a lot tho cause they are very relaxed. there is nothing awkward about the lessons. it feels more like a conversation than a lesson. which is so much nicer. then we went and saw staysha and taught her about faith. she really enjoyed the lesson cause she said that it was what she needed. she wants to exercise faith, but really, she needs too do that soon. she has never come to church and she has been taught for a really long time, like before i got here. hopefully we wont have to drop her soon.

Sunday 7-20-14

well, i did something today that i have not done in forever. i gave in talk in church. to give you an idea of how long ago that it was, i was being trained in Port Antonio when i last gave a talk in church. thats a super long time. its been like 10 or 11 freaking months! but i guess that i did a good job. somehow i took up like 20 minutes in something that was prepared in like an hour, that morning to be exact haha. it was about our saviors love. pretty interesting topic haha. then when sunday school was about to start, i was gonna have to teach it too. but i was saved when Mickailia said that she would teach it haha! saved by the investigator! but of course we made sure that the lesson wasnt going anywhere bad. but she did a good job. we didnt have to make any correction haha. then we went walking for lessons. not really anything exciting there. all that happened is that me and elder phippen almost fell over a lot cause our legs are killing us. santa cruz is killer any way you go. either your legs kill from walking or biking. or the pot holes in the road tear your car away. oh santa cruz. why must you be the gateway that the devil sits at haha.

so thats the week. my legs hurt so bad haha. plus i think im a bit sick. idk tho. i will see what happens in the next week. its nothing thats going to keep me in the house tho. its almost as bad to be in the house than out in the sun. it just gets super hot in the house while its just hot outside haha. but the mission is great. i continue to feel the spirit each day. ive been way more in tune with it since i got here and started a new style of teaching for myself. i honestly cant wait to apply all the things that i have learned out here into the world. my life after the mission is gonna be weird but its also going to be the best life ever because of the "tithe" i have put on my life right now.

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Ether 12:18

Week 46

Hey everyone wa gwaan?

This week has been interesting. a few things happened that ticked me off pretty bad but it was still a good week haha

Monday 7-7-14

Today was a pretty good pday. for once we had a bit of time to ourselves. after we got done with emails and shopping, we had some time to go and play some basketball. the court is right by our house, and kfc haha, so its not too hard to go play there. the court is pretty good. the only problem is that the hoops are bent. we might be fixing that soon and going to buy a net. we'll see what happens tho haha. after pday was over we went up to sister russells house for family home evening. which really was just a lesson for her since she was the only one who came out. we talked a bit about the plan of salvation. just going into it a bit more than normal so that she understood more things about it haha. that was our entire night tho. mondays are so short for teaching haha

Tuesday 7-8-14

it was a very mixed day today. it started out so well tho. we went and saw amoy and sister warran and watched the "are you sleeping through the restoration" talk by president uchtdorf in the last priesthood session. we just got done going through the restoration with them after a few weeks so we decided that that talk would be a great way to end it off. later in the day we saw Mickailia. we taught her a bit of the Plan of Salvation. she is doing way well. she is set to be baptized on August 2nd so thats good news. she is understanding way well too. we would baptize her the week before but she would have to wait a week to be confirmed cause its district conference that sunday in Maypen. but i think that august 2nd is a great day for her. we also went over to Staysha and had a really good lesson with her on the plan of salvation as well. she seemed to really like the concept of the pre earth life. something about her hearing that we have already heard the gospel before just seemed to spark something in her eyes. but her is the part that made it mixed. we were coming back from her house and stopped on the side of the road to decide where to go next. a truck was coming so we moved a bit more out of the road so that it could turn left past us. well the truck ran over a full bottle of engine oil and the thing exploded all over me. my shirt was completely ruined. it took every ounce of me to remain christlike right there haha. i dont think the guy knew that he did that but it still ticked me off all the same haha. lets just say that i now have a shirt to burn for my 1 year mark. ive played it off now tho. its kinda funny when you think about it :)

Wednesday 7-9-14

so we had a pretty good day today i would say. district meeting was in santa today so travel was not a big deal for us. the meeting was pretty good. always has the spirit haha. the lessons we had today were with Todd and Patrine. they live in the same house but we had to do them at different times cause todd wasnt home at first. the lesson with Patrine was pretty good. we talked about our purpose and covenants, i dont know if she will be able to come to church tho. she is very busy and it doesnt look like she is willing to move stuff around to come. we'll see what happens tho. then todd came in and we had a lesson with him. in my opinion, the lesson was not very good. it was off topic for almost the whole time, and his friend wasnt helping. there were good questions but they really werent all that serious. i feel like we kinda wasted an hour of the day. i guess we did gain some trust tho. we just have to be sure that if we teach todd, it cant really be with anyone except a member who is very good at staying on topic and being serious.

Thursday 7-10-14

today was very interesting. we didnt get out of the house till like 3 cause elder phippen was a bit sick with reoccurring headaches for the past week. so we just stayed in during the hot morning. and to let you know how hot it was, i had a fan on me while i was resting, and was still sweating profusely. santa cruz really is the gateway to hell haha.  the mornings are always so hot here. not until afternoon does it really start to cool down, which is very ironic. the farther you go in the day, the cooler it gets. jamaica weather confuses me haha. but we did get a  chance to see Mickailia again today. we didnt have much to do so we went and did a check up and ended up having a lesson on a question she had about the book of mormon. so it was way good haha. its nice when people focus during lessons. it makes things so much easier and its way more fun cause you can just relax a bit.

Friday 7-11-14

i just realized that i missed free slurpee day. that sucks. i wanted a slurpee haha. but today was still a pretty good day for us. we went and a good lesson with Staysha and finished up the Plan of Salvation. she still really likes it. all she really needs to do now is to come to church. once that happens, its in the bag, for lack of a better term haha. we also invited her to friday night activity for the night. she said that she would try to make it. sadly she didnt make it tho. :( after Staysha we went up to the church and had another lesson with Mickailia. the lesson today was not as good. there was a little 9 year old girl there who was distracting the lesson a lot. Mickailia learned all the stuff in her head for sure, but we dont think that she really learned it in her heart. the spirit wasnt really there for it. we taught the last half of the Plan of Salvation. we might have to do that again. we'll see what happens of course. the activity tonight was super fun tho. we did a karaoke night. even tho it was just a couple of teenage girls screaming the whole time, it was still super fun! i really wish that we did this type of thing in Porty and Spanish Town!

Saturday 7-12-14

it was a very short and long day today. we ended up only seeing the russell family today. we did get a bike fixed again tho. elder dean is having some trouble with his handle bars coming loose so we went and fixed them. (NOTE: they are still broke. nothing ever really gets fixed with our bikes. we go to the bike guy like every other day cause all our parts are just worn out. and no, im not buying a new one. they are expensive and mine can last another year haha :) ) we today we did a book of mormon study with them. we just read the first and second chapter of the book of mormon and talked about it in detail. after that we just helped President Durrant clean the church, since he is normally the only one to do it, and had our meeting with him for the week. so a slow day for lessons but some pretty good service done.

Sunday 7-13-14

this week was not as good for church attendance but it was still good. we had to do the quarterly report today, since we are the clerks, and we found that there is an average of 25 people at church every week over the past month. thats not too bad to be honest. its up from the like.....6..... it was before i got here. interesting thing to note. i taught young womens today. the teacher wasnt there again so the missionaries did it. i was the teacher for today haha. it was.... interesting. its just 3 girls in the branch that we see every other day or so that come. almost like a normal day haha. we also went and saw sister stone. she is less active. she is so close to coming back to church tho. we want to teach her hope so bad. she feels like she cant be as happy as she was when she was baptized. i just wanna show her the talk that president uchtdorf gave in the april 2013 conference about hope. its so good! she is so nice tho. we just talked to her for a bit and then shared a scripture about the atonement with her. she is going through a lot so i thought it would be good for her. Staysha also didnt come to church so we went and had a small lesson with her. she got pretty busy so thats why she didnt come. we also read the book of mormon with her. hopefully she will be at church next week and at the activity this friday. then during the night the power in our house went off. that really ticked me off. elder phippen and i

and thats the week folks. Santa Cruz is a monster haha. the work is slow but it is really starting to pick up. the thing that would help us the most is one more missionary so that the area would be split. there is just so much to do and not enough time to do it. prayers for that haha. as always, the gospel is true no matter what anyone says. the church is definitely a lifestyle. something that is not one and done, but a once and for all thing.

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
From the Discourses of Brigham Young
I can say with regard to parting with our friends, and going ourselves, that I have been near enough to understand eternity so that I have had to exercise a great deal more faith to desire to live than I ever exercised in my whole life to live. The brightness and glory of the next apartment is inexpressible. It is not encumbered so that when we advance in years we have to be stubbing along and be careful lest we fall down. We see our youth, even, frequently stubbing their toes and falling down. But yonder, how different! They move with ease and like lightning. If we want to visit Jerusalem, or this, that, or the other place—and I presume we will be permitted if we desire—there we are, looking at its streets. If we want to behold Jerusalem as it was in the days of the Savior; or if we want to see the Garden of Eden as it was when created, there we are, and we see it as it existed spiritually, for it was created first spiritually and then temporally, and spiritually it still remains. And when there we may behold the earth as at the dawn of creation, or we may visit any city we please that exists upon its surface. If we wish to understand how they are living here on these western islands, or in China, we are there; in fact, we are like the light of the morning. … God has revealed some little things, with regard to his movements and power, and the operation and motion of the lightning furnish a fine illustration of the ability of the Almighty (DBY, 380).

Week 45

yo bossies wappen to yuh?!

this week has been pretty good. we had some pretty funny bike drama this week. just so you all know, i love bikes a lot more than walking, but i still really hate bikes haha. they are just really annoying when you have to fix them every single day about.

Monday 6-30-14

so we had a few more errands today that we had to run. nothing too bad. its just really hot haha. but the bad part is that we didnt even get to teach a lot today. everything mostly just blew out. we did get the bikes fixed tho thats the good thing. i really didnt enjoy walking too much and i never will lol. but then the bikes broke down again. thats why we had no appointments. elder phippen had some bad gears on the bike he has now and i got a flat tire halfway home so i had to patch the stupid thing up. man was that stressing. and the stuff we had later in the week was even worse....

Tuesday 7-1-14

Hello July!!! man its hard to believe that in 2 weeks from now, i will have been out for 11 months!!! where did the time go?! today was a pretty good day. it was super hot in the morning, as always, and cool in the afternoon, which is being more common now. its like 95 at 10am when we go out and i swear that it gets down to like 80 by 3pm. its sad how that is cool for me tho haha. 80 used to be so hot, now its like there is freaking AC in a room all the time haha. but we went and saw amoy and sister warren today. we talked to them a bit about Joseph Smith, just trying to get them all familier with the restoration. that way they can share in with their friends and amoy can be prepared for when she goes on her mission. her papers were turned in as i got here so hopefully she will have her call here soon. after we were there we went up to the Russell home and had a small lesson with them. they are pretty interested in the plan of salvation now so when we go over there we will be talking about that. we mostly just talked about scripture study today. they also want us to come over 2 more times a week and help them study from the book of mormon one day, and from the bible a different day. thats gonna be a lot of work but i think that its gonna be super fun. we also went and saw a kid named Todd. he is a pretty cool kid. when i first saw him i thought that he was a bag of jokes but after the lesson we had with him, which was on the Holy Ghost, he seems like a really sincere kid. he is just a typical 16 yer old teenage boy haha. he is sincere but just wants to be a punk and look tough. he enjoyed the lesson really well. the future with that should be pretty fun.

Wednesday 7-2-14

today was the first district meeting that ive had in santa cruz. but it wasnt in santa haha, it was in a place called junction. its like an hour taxi ride from santa. its also a bit of a small town but its pretty nice. the church there has AC and the town is super cool cause its in the mountains haha. its everything that santa cruz wishes that it was to say. it was a pretty good district meeting. just a lot of unnecessary talking. next week should be better tho. most of the appointments that we had today too blew out as well. we only saw one guy. his name is Nigel. he lives clear in the heck out there. its like a 40 minute bike ride to his house. the only reason we still teach him is cause he is very humble and we really think that him and his family can make it to church. we told him our purpose, which is to help people make covenants, and then explained about those as well.  it took basically the rest of the evening. in jamaica, if its past 7pm, its super hard to go see people cause they think that that is super late. we have to be doing something then tho. we dont take dinner till 8 so finding stuff to do then when something else blows out is never a fun thing haha. but i also got another flat tire today. that was not fun. the holes were also too far apart to patch it and we didnt have enough patches to even get the whole thing.

Thursday 7-3-14

first thing first. i went and got a new tube for my bike tire. this thing is getting really annoying haha. we are at the bike shop almost every single day it seems like. good thing that i did learn how to patch bike tires. that sure does save me a lot of money in the long run. i just wish that i coulda done it right now. that woulda helped a lot. but the back tire sucks and thats the one that was flat. there goes like $500 right there. oh well tho. we went up to amoys house. she and her mom ended up feeding us as well. that was really good since the start to our day started out SO GOOD haha. we didnt have any lessons until the afternoon tho. we went back out to Newriver (where Nigel lives) but now quite as far as before. we saw our investigator named Staysha. she is doing pretty well. she is having some questions when she reads so we mostly just answered her questions about the Book of Mormon. all she really has got to do now is come to church. i really think that once she comes to church, she will come for the rest of her life.

Friday 7-4-14

crazy crazy day for us today. we ended up not starting our super planning until like noon cause elder phippen had to do follow up calls with the sisters in junction and then we had elder and sister vance come and inspect our apartment. they didnt give us a very good grade to say the least. i think it was a bit harsh but whatever. i can still live in the thing haha. im not dead yet and thats what counts in the long run :) so we did super planning until 3 and had lunch so we didnt get out until 4pm. and we didnt really have any lessons today either. by the time we got out, we had to go buy snacks for friday night activity, and then go to the church for a planned lesson with Mickailia. that didnt even work out tho. we were going to watch the restoration video with her but a member needed to get on the computer to do something for their calling and ended up taking forever on it. by the time the member was done, it was way past time for the activity to start, which was gonna be karaoke. we then tried to get everything working on the computer, and the internet shut down for some reason. we had some back up plans for when the member was on the computer and some of the people also were outside playing a small game of football. thats soccer for all of you american people haha. but even tho it was a total disaster tonight, everyone still had fun and next week we are going to make it up to them by doing karaoke again. i think we have a way figured out so that the computer doesnt act dumb again. we're just not going to move it from the spot its in haha. and we had more bike problem today. elder phippen somehow snapped the handle bar on his bike. so now its just half of the handle bar. so guess where we get to go tomorrow. the bike shop..... again....

Saturday 7-5-14

well, elder phippen got his bike fixed today right in the morning. man was that necessary. later in the day we ended up biking out to this place called Lacovia. its like 5 miles away from santa. its so crazy far. its a beautiful ride out tho. you could probably get there in like 20 minutes or 40 if you really tried hard. the ride back is like 30 minutes, and half of it you can do in like 10. but we saw a member out there. Brother Morrison. he is a super cool guy. he told us all about his conversion story. its something like youwould never believe. i guess he just decided to read a good book one day and the first one that his hand touched one day was the book of mormon. he didnt like that at all haha. but he read it and started to just read and read. he ended up taking 6 weeks to be baptized and has been faithful since. he was the branch president of the hopeton branch a while back. then we had to bike back and have a lesson with Mickailia. it was a good lesson. we taught her the importance of receiving and answer through prayer and not on people. she understood real well and is gonna be praying about the book of moron a lot now. she is so sincere about it all and really does want to join the church. we gave her august 2nd as a baptism day and she said yes to it! im super excited for that! i wanna stay here for that so bad!

Sunday 7-6-14

church was so interesting today. it was fast and testimony meeting of course. thats never a good thing in a small branch. in the time allotted for testimonies. we had like 4 people bear "testimonies". more like talkamony haha. only 2 people were really like a testimony. the other 2 were not. one just said a lot of trials that she was going through at the time. the branch president had to cut her off or i think that she woulda gone for the whole time haha. the other one was like going to a pentacostal church. it was just "in the name of Jesus" every 3 seconds. the branch president had to cut her off too. and thank heavens there haha. the lessons we had today were pretty good. we saw a recent convert and talked about the talk that elder holland gave last conference. we also saw a guy named Devon. he is pretty sincere but also crazy. he asks so many weird and random questions that even when they are honest, they are just stuff that people should know by common sense. he is way smart tho dont get me wrong. teaching him should be very interesting haha.

well thats the week. its a lot better than last week ill say that haha. but santa cruz is starting to grow on me. its amazing how fast that an area can just be in your heart. the next however long im here is gonna be so much fun!

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
1 Peter 4:12-14

Week 44

So uh....... Wagwan?

This week has been so crazy. to explain the subject of the letter...... We had elder phippens bike stolen from out house monday night so we walked all week. and with santa cruz being hot.... it was not fun.

Monday 6-23-14

so today we had to run a lot of errands for out Pday. it wasnt really too relaxing. plus, it was burning hot. the only relief that we had from the heat was when we went into KFC for lunch and sat there for the AC for like 90 minutes. there isnt much else to do in Santa so that was the Pday haha. also, every single appointment that we had blew out. we saw no one today. that is never a fun thing. we biked around the whole time for nothing. but it was an ok day.

Tuesday 6-24-14

so we woke up today and went to the gym. yupp thats right, im going to the gym. its more from being forced tho haha. elder phippen wants to go to the gym for his work outs in the mornings so elder dean and i just wake up an hour early and go with him. i never thought that 6:30am would be sleeping in. its so sad haha. but we also woke up to the bike being stolen so what i great way to start off the day. not. so we had to go back to walking for a bit. and if youve seen any of my past letters, you should know taht i think walking is the way to get to the gateway to hell. with bikes, you go right by it, but walking just sucks you into it. also, with santa cruz being so hot, it feels like hell all the time. you can imagine the predicament that i am in with that haha. but we had a good time today to say the least. we found some kids fishing in a small steam near an investigator so we kinda fished with them. it was way cool. it was just some line and a hook with bait. no pole or anything. they were way small fish but they had a pretty good size one for the stream. just could fit in my palm but it was impressive the same way haha. not really any big lessons. with walking this week, we wont be having a lot of things done now. next week will be better tho.

Wednesday 6-25-14

we had zone meeting in Mandeville today. its a way nice town. pretty american if you ask me. the church there is super nice too! i wish santa had one like that haha. but we got quite a few more members, a lot more, until we get that haha. it was a pretty good zone meeting. i feel like its all stuff that has been repeated for the last 6 months tho. i have been trying to use all this stuff. hopefully next time it will change a bit. so now with the walking i am being sore. plus the gym isnt helping a lot with that haha. my legs are just killing me along with my abs. im a wuss i know haha. again, not a lot of lessons today. the walking is just killing us. we did see someone by the name of Sasha tho. she seems pretty interested to learn more so teaching her should be a lot of fun. we also got chatted by some rasta guy. sometimes chatting is cool and funny, but most of the time it just pushes my buttons. it wastes time so much. days are so weird here haha

Thursday 6-26-14

so today was really like being Shadrach, Meshach, and the other guy that i cant spell the name of haha. i know how they feel about being in the furnace cause that is what i am in now. Santa Cruz is by far the hottest place that i have ever been. it might even compare with the heat of Death Valley. ok its not quite that bad but its super hot here. everything blew out for us in the morning so we were stuck with nothing to do until the evening time. the only thing that we did was go to a members house and do a small lesson to prepare for another investigator. the lesson style for me here is very different. sometimes talking just doesnt come for me. there are not a lot of chances for me to talk. i am getting by it tho. sometimes its a nice thing cause i am just so out of it.

Friday 6-27-14

i really hate being an errand boy. sometimes people call us for the dumbest things. i wish that people would have it in their heads that we are called to preach the gospel, not to run stuff by your house cause you wont go there. running an errand today made us pretty late for other things during the day, which sucked bad. the best thing i think we did all day was our Friday Night Activity. it was just a bible study today tho. we had an ok turn out. there were about as many people there as show up before, like 6. by the end we only had like 3. a member, and her friend, and her brother. santa is tough yo haha. but we mostly stayed around the church today for that. the bad thing, its still hot, and we're still walking haha. my future spouse is getting hotter by the second tho ;)

Saturday 6-28-14

Today i met my first crazy member in Santa. this guy is less active and is in a lot of debt. like 32G in debt. he doesnt understand it tho. he is putting 18G into a barrel so that he can make money later. too bad he is never gonna get that debt payed off like that. we also had a really good lesson with a new investigator tho. her name is Mickailia. she is the best friend of one of the strongest members in the branch. i think that she understood the lesson pretty well. other than the other girl who would not shut up. i have learned down here that i really hate people who just chat their lives away. they get pretty annoying haha. i am way excited to teach Mickailia tho. she is way smart and would be a great missionary when she is 19 (she is 15 now). i think the branch just needs a new start. my focus really is gonna be the youth. i think that if the youth are real good here, then the branch will be very good in the future.

Sunday 6-29-14

church today was the normal haha. we had like 5 before the sacrament, and only the missionaries could pass the sacrament. by the end tho we had like 8 or 10. the sad part, like 3 of them were not even members yet. one of them was Mickailia tho. she has been at church the last 3 weeks tho. she really does enjoy it a lot. she even taught youth sunday school today! it was a fantastic job! after church the branch decided to do a little "munch and mingle" so that people could get to know each other. that went really well. the branch, those who were there at least, really loved it. i think that it was a major success. then we had a member call us to come up and eat at her house. its a bit of a waste of time to go there so we tried to get out of it. its also like a 2 hour walk up and 2 hours back. and we had no money for taxi really. so it wasnt getting out of it, it was telling her we couldnt. but she told us we had to come and then hung up. we scrambled around for some change to use to taxi up there, found it, and went. well, the member is crazy. i have never seen a crazier member than before. she even had the crazy eyes and laugh. oh man. santa cruz may kill me haha. so many things just go down here!

Despite how it may sound in my letter, i still really love my mission to the very end! once you get past the parts that make it seem like its satan the whole time, you realize that God is working on everyone all the time! but the most important person is you. my mission has CONVERTED me to the gospel of Jesus Christ. i hope that none of you will ever take the gospel for granted. it really is the greatest gift that our Heavenly Father has given us!

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
1 Corinthians 9:14