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