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).