Week 54

Hey Everyone!

Well the mark is past and everything is supposed to go by faster. and so far that is very true. this last week flew by so fast! it scares me so much. i really just dont wanna leave here haha.

Monday 8-18-14

today was pretty boring to be honest. i just took a big nap when i got home from everything. i was so dang tired. it felt very good to be able to relax tho. i havent had that for a very long time. we didnt really even teach any lessons today too. so that kinda sucked. but we did get to talk to a women by the name of Samantha who lives in a really nice living scheme. she seems like she would do really well in the gospel. she was taught by missionaries like 10 years ago over in Sav as well. we set up an appointment to see her on fr4iday so im really stoked for that. it was the highlight of the day tho. we really had nothing else to do for the rest of the day

Tuesday 8-19-14

Zone Conference is one of the best and worst times ever. its the time that all the missionaries can get together and learn, but we always learn what we are doing wrong haha. for this zone conference, Elder J. Devn Cornish, the area president, came and addressed us. man it was freaking sick! that man knows so much about the gospel! sometimes being a missionary is the best thing ever! one thing that he talked about was "The Doctrine of Christ - The Missionary Purpose". a few things that he said was that its not ok for us to be Telestial Beings cause we have so much more potential that that. he also said our message as missionaries is the most important message ever. no soul will ever get to our real home without living and having the doctrine of christ. as well as Missionaries are the only onesw in the Kingdom of God (church on the earth) who have the authority to teach and baptize non members. if we dont deo it then people have to wait until they die to be taught the gospel. those are some major things to think about. he also talked a lot on how we needed to work through the members more, especially the less active members, in order to baptize more. the mission is letting too many people slip through. he showed us how for every baptism the mission gets, it takes 23 new investigators just to get it but in Hatti they get a baptism for every 8 new. less active members are the way to go because they have friends who are not LDS. the reason that so many other missions have such good numbers is cause they work with the less active members. so thats one thing that we are going to do in Santa Cruz. most of the members are less active so its a perfect place to implement all that was learned. plus, it will reactivate less active members as we teach their friends with them. two birds with one stone haha. 

Wednesday 8-20-14

well most of our appointments blew out today so i think i got some blisters from sitting on my bike haha. not really but we did a lot of riding around today cause no one wanted to see us for some reason. we did get some pretty good finding done tho. it looks like we found some people who could progress really well. the next step is just to teach them. they all are very humble and they live in nice living schemes too. its so great haha! we did have a lesson with Amoy tho. and we did a role play with her. the confidence that she has has really gone up since i first got here! she is gonna be such a good missionary! thats really it for the day tho.

Thursday 8-21-14

i was scarred for life today. we biked up to brother samuels house today to do some service for him. well it was freaking awful. the first part wasnt bad, we just held some nails for him. but its when he fed us that things turned bad. walking in that house, the only thing you see is porn. the spirit is not there at all. we ate as fast as we could and then just got out of there. i really am scarred for life because of it. the rest of the day we did some work with the members. we went up to sister dunkley to coordinate a lesson with her. she is pretty good with missionary work. she seemed quite excited for it too. then we went over to Tianna to coordinate a lesson for Mickailia. really not a big day with lessons but it was still a very productive day.

Friday 8-22-14

today was probably one of the most interesting and productive fridays that i have had in santa cruz. we took sister dunkley to a lesson before we super planned, and it blew out. but she was all good with it. she even helped us to contact a person up by her house kinda. it was pretty sick. then after planning we went up and saw samantha, the lady we met on monday. we had a really good lesson with her. it was just about our purpose but she was very active in the lesson. she kept us thinking and we kept her thinking so that it was more of a conversation. i really believe that once she comes to church she is gonna be there for life. she has a small family )her, an 11yr old girl, and a 5yr old girl) that the members in the branch would just really love. after that we went and had a lesson with Mickailia about Prayer. it was a pretty good lesson. its one thing that she struggles with remembering to do. this week i am texting her to remind her so hopefully that helps a bit. and hopefully her dad will give her permission for baptism here soon. he should be coming to church next week with a group he is in charge of so we are having some big prayers for that. friday night activity was pretty good as well. we started out with the normal games (like uno and charades) and it went into karaoke cause all the girls (meaning everyone that came) wanted to do it. that about killed me haha. its having girls between the ages of 13-15 just yell in your ear. but it was fun so thats what matters haha.

Saturday 8-23-14

i think that today was very interesting to say the least. we got to see a new guy by the name of andrew plummer. it was a good lesson really. he lives in a super nice house but is busy all the time so its hard to see him. hopefully work will allow him to be in Santa more so that we can actually go and see him. i did get to sit in a couch tho! it was the first time in a couch since the McCalla home in Spanish Town! it was so freaking good haha! then afterwards a storm came in that reminded me of the one back in Port Antonio when i was at the Campbells home. the lightning and thunder were really right over our heads! one bolt even came close to us i think! it hit a telephone wire or something so we smelt that for a few minutes. it was so cool but also very scary! at the end of the day when we went to have our meeting with Pres Durrant, he told us that due to certain health reasons, the seminary teacher had to be released and that he needed us to teach it cause there were not a lot of other choices. so the missionaries are now the seminary teachers in the Santa Cruz branch. im pretty stoked for it to be honest. i so wish that i had done more in seminary. i love to teach youth too so it will be a ton of fun! its something that we get to do 4 days a week so one of us each day will probably do a lesson. it doesnt start till september so we'll see what the time is going to be like. it will probably be right in the afternoon when everyone is getting home from school or something. its gonna be the best time i think. but that also means that the missionaries hold most of the callings in the branch. we're the clerks, young womens, youth sunday school, elders quorum, activity directors, and most of whatever else you can think of other than branch president and relief society. santa cruz is an interesting place for sure but you gain some great experience from it for sure.

Sunday 8-24-14

today was one of the hardest days of all time. the only highlight of the day was when we had a lesson with Mickailia right after church. and even then there was a let down. we taught her obedience. it was a good lesson tho. the down part was that her friends (members) were a bit more focused on going and watching a tv show instead of helping to teach her. but the good thing is that Mickailia was pushing for the lesson to happen. she didnt even care if her friends were there or not, she just wanted to have the lesson haha. that means she is either almost or fully converted to the gospel! perfectness haha! even if she doesnt get baptized real soon, she will definitely be going to church for the rest of her life. it may have to wait till she is 18, but we are pushing for her to be baptized ASAP! oh and i also had to give a talk in church today. i have now given 3 talks in church on my mission haha. today was about excising faith. i basically just read Alma 32 and added some stuff in it. oh well haha. im much better with things when i can prepare for a bit haha. the rest of the day really sucked tho. every single last person we could go see blew out. there are some people that we have been trying to see since i got here, and we still have not really seen them. they just always flake out. that is the part of missionary work that i just hate. people need to learn how to put God first and not forsake him for the world when things go wrong. i am so glad that i served a mission. i see so many things that the gospel brings to people when they live it and its what i want. the things that come from not living the gospel, i never wanna have for anything. i would die before those came in my life.

So thats the week. i really loved when elder cornish came. he is a very smart man and super nice as well. i so wish i could go out teaching with him for a member present lesson haha. Missions are by far the best thing that anyone can do. when the person is ready, they need to go on a mission. either the situations in life will humble you, your mission will humble you, or your wife will. and i dont want it to have to be the 3rd one haha (its a good thing dont worry :D)

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Moses 7:26-41

Pictures

Week 53

Ya Everybody Wa Gwaan?

well the mark is here. i have been out for just a little bit over a year. its a super scary thought for me cause home seems so foreign now. i feel like i have lived in Jamaica for my entire life. Missions do some strange things to you, but everything they do is the best things ever!!!

Monday 8-11-14

well today was zone pday. we went over to Mandeville and played volleyball, american football, basketball, and frisbee with the entire zone (from maypen to here). it was super fun! i have never been so tired in my entire life tho! there were a few times that i thought i was gonna get a freaking bad charlie horse and be out for the day for everything. but thank heavens that didnt happen haha. we also got some pizza from dominoes so the whole thing was super fun! we didnt get out of the house until like 7 tho cause of showers and a haircut that elder dean had to get. but we taught a pretty good lesson with the russells. but i was so tired for the entire day! i so hope that another zone pday comes up soon!!

Tuesday 8-12-14

today was a very interesting day. we went up to amoys house first off. we are starting to teach her the 8 fundamentals of missionary work from the 12 week program. she is very close with her mission papers so we are going over those and doing some role plays with her. they end up being super good! amoy is gonna be a great missionary when the time comes! we then had a lesson with lisa. things are basically the same with her as before. every time we go there she denies us teaching her cause "she knows it already". but we finally found something that it seems she didnt really know or she just forgot about it. it was in the teachings of the presidents of the church book from Joseph Smith. but it was an alright lesson. i get very annoyed up there. its super hard.....

Wednesday 8-13-14

well im not sure if today was the mark or not. its day 365 so im gonna say that today was the year mark! i have now been on a mission for one year. scariest thing in the whole world!!! i now am over the hump and have everything going down hill. and down hill is much faster than up so it freaks me out even more! i really dont want my mission ending that fast! im having too good of a time here! aaaaaahhhhhhh! we had a pretty good day tho. the zone leaders came to district meeting and brought my new bike. so now we dont have to walk everywhere! im so happy about that haha! i had to have the thing shipped out from spanish town but it was worth it. only 10K for it. its probably the cheapest bike that i coulda gotten. but its in a great working order and thats what matters haha. we also found our new cook shop. its one of the best places ever! its not Jennys in spanish town good, but its still a pretty darn good place! we also saw Suzzette, today, the less active member that we found. we did a bit of the restoration today. it wasnt the best lesson but we might get 2 investigators from it. cant complain about that haha. we also did a bible study with the russells. as always, it was good. not my favorite thing to be doing but if it helps a member stay converted to the gospel, then im perfectly fine with it haha.

Thursday 8-14-14

i really dont know what happened today. it was the strangest day of all time. first thing we did was go up to Amoy, but she blew out. the family was busy at that moment so we had to go to a different person. we went over and found someone named tiffany. she lives near amoy. we sat and talked with her for a bit. she seems very strange. we think that she is staying in the house when people arent there without their permission. we had a small lesson with her tho. just the first 2 points of the restoration. we will see what happens tho. after lunch we went and saw lisa again. we spent like 2 hours there cause she just kept opening up and things started making sense to us. we found out her concern about why she doesnt show up to church and why she is the way that she is. its so sad haha. i feel bad for her cause she might have to go to a professional to get it solved. but one day she might change. she just has to make the effort by herself. she used to be a strong member, but after going to spanish town and linstead, wards that are functioning right, it really screwed her up. we didnt really have any other lessons for the day. it was just super hot. i think that it got up to like 110! elder dean and i after lisa really just went over to a side shop, bought a couple of ice cold drinks, and just sat there in the shade. i never wanna have a day as hot as that. i really feel like i was standing on the sun!

Friday 8-15-14

Fridays are days that we normally dont get too much done and it was the same this week. after our super planning, we went over to see brother samuels. he was a bit busy so we had to leave after a bit. but he is doing super well. the stress has really left him and you can really see it. he lost a lot of weight and he is almost out of debt 100%. things are starting to look up for him. he just needs to turn back to the Lord before it all comes crashing down on him again. then we went over to the church for friday night activities. it was kinda boring this week cause basically no one came. Mickailia was still gone, Tianna didnt come for some reason, and so the missionaries just sat around for an hour hoping that someone would come. after a bit the other elders had to of their people come so we sat and played dominoes, uno, and old maid for the rest of the time. kinda a boring friday for me but oh well. youll have days like that on your mission i guess.

Saturday 8-16-14

we had a pretty good day. we got to see amoy today and go over the role of the holy ghost in conversion. teaching the fundamentals is a pretty fun thing to do. hopefully i wont have to do that to a missionary tho haha. then we went over and saw tiffany again. still not really sure how solid she is. i dont think that she is taking it serious at all. we could only do one part of the restoration, prophets, and then had to go. we'll see what happens tho. who knows, maybe she'll turn out to be a really great investigator. we then went over to Sister Russell and did a little book of mormon study on 1 Nephi 7. i like the book of mormon a lot more than the bible, things are so much simpler. so today for the study was quite good. then we just went around trying to set up some appointments for later days. we dont have a lot of people to teach so finding is something we really have got to do. it was a slow day but i really feel like it was a very productive day for us.

Sunday 8-17-14

so today we walked sister stone to church. meaning that she came to church! so freaking sick! we'll be walking with her for the next little while to get her in the habit of coming and then see what happens from there. it should be a fun time. church was pretty good tho. we had about 25 people there by the end of church. strange how that is good now. im so used to seeing like 10 times that at church on a weekly basis. but its way nice too. you get to know everybody really easy. we tried to see a guy in a nice scheme as well, but he never answered his phone. so we walked back down to sister stone to have a lesson with her. well we never did have the lesson. she ended up feeding us. her family makes some really good food! i think that it might be our sunday meal appointment haha. we do need to see her every sunday tho. its the only time that she is not working at the market. things will be better for her at that time.

so thats the week. the week of my year mark wasnt the most exciting but at the same time i still love being out on a mission. you can never complain about it. it really is true that even if a missionary never goes to a baptismal service for someone, they always get one convert, and its themselves. everyone had better serve a mission. of the 15 million members around the world, not even 1 million have served a mission. i know there are a lot more than 1 million priesthood that can go. something has got to change. hopefully the world of saints will see that soon.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2008/03/the-atonement-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

Week 52

Hey everyone!

 

this week has been very interesting. I did start to keep a journal again so things may be a bit longer now haha.

 

Monday 8-4-14

 

Pday was so odd today. it was relaxing, but in a stressful way. all the elders here in santa wanted to go out to eat, as we do each Monday. we had haerd of a place called "Island Taste" that a lot of other missionaries had stopped at before. well we looked for it for almost an hour, asking all the locals where we could find it, and we never found it. it kinda sucked but we did find a really good cook shop right by our house and by where we shop so it wasn't a total loss :) then after I wandered around the town with Elder Kuehn for a bit. we had to pick up some more stuff in town so we went and did that. elder dean and I then went up and taught sister Russell about faith. of course we had to walk there cause my bike is still stolen (don't worry, I got a new one that should be here by the end of the month for as cheap as I could). the lesson was pretty good tho. we shared about how Nephi had a lot of faith when he was trying to get all the brass plates. one thing we can learn from that story is that its those unexpected moments that truly test how firm our foundation is. nephi had that, and he acted the best way.

 

Tuesday 8-5-14

 

events events events. first off we started by walking up to Amoy. today was one of the hottest days ever. I was literally dripping in sweat by the time that we got up there. it was super hard to cause I couldn't just stop in a shop and get a Bubla because I am on a bet with Mickailia that I cant have any caffeine for the week. (BTW, I lost the bet. buying drinks got really boring haha.) I did find out that one of the worst things ever is seeing shade from a cloud turn into sunlight slowly. that is not fun when its freaking hot outside haha. after lunch it just started raining cats and dogs, as it has been for some reason the past little bit. it almost feels like Port Antonio for some reason haha. not quite but its getting close. but we all went out in the rain for some crazy reason. elder dean and I went up to a scheme and did some street contacting. we were only able to talk to one person tho. everyone just seems to be in their house in that scheme so we will be calling into the houses the next time that we are up there. then after that we went over to a lesson with Mickailia. the most awkward lesson ever. The Law of Chastity. now it wasn't odd because of the topic.... ok well sorta. lets just say that things were pretty blunt in the lesson. from everyone. like no censor to them. I was the most disturbed that I ever have been in my entire life. but she accepted it and committed to live it. so that's a good ting haha.

 

Wednesday 8-6-14

 

today was super long and we didn't really get any teaching done. the day started out with us going to Junction for district meeting. even president brown came. he had to do some interviews with us afterwards so that's what we did. we didn't get out of Junction until like 3 or 3:30. but we didn't go home after that. a member in our branch who lives near Junction invited us over for her "Independence Day" cook out. so we were there for the next 2-2 1/2 hours. the food was super good tho don't worry haha. we didn't end up leaving there until close to 6 tho. but we did get back in time for us to go to Barrington and teach him about reading his scriptures more. the lesson was a bit scattered but it seemed pretty good too.

 

Thursday 8-7-14

again it was another hot day. walking up to amoy drenched me in sweat once again. walking there and back is never my favorite thing to do but its so worth it. with her going on her mission soon we need to be sure to see her. today we just got a lot of her papers done again. she forgot to fill some things out I guess so it was more of a fill out and visit type of thing today. after lunch we went up and saw lisa, not too thrilled at the idea tho. well, she almost kicked us out before the lesson started. but we just sat on her veranda and she came out after a bit. it was more of a visit tho. she told us the same thing that she has been saying for a very long time. ill be at Friday night activities and at church on sunday. (she did come tho thank heavesn). we also saw Keith today. he is a bit new. it was a how to begin teaching lesson that also included parts of the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon. the lesson was really good. he is a fantastic guy, a guy that the church needs. he is a bus driver but also almost like a youth counselor. so cool! next time we see him we will be teaching him the Plan of Salvation, by his request. he even committed himself to read and pray about what we talk about. so sick!

 

Friday 8-8-14

 

So as normal, not a lot was done on Friday. we super planned. tried to go and see someone, and then ran out of time. the person we went to see blew out so we had to go to the store and buy some snacks for Friday night activity. we were also supposed to meet a member at the church so that they could use the computer for their calling but they never ended up coming. but we had a lesson with Mickailia about the word of wisdom. idk why but the lessons with her just don't seem to be as good as they were before. now given, she still understood and accepted it, but the spirit just hasn't been in the lessons like it has been before. but she did tell us that she knows that she needs to be baptized soon. we left her with a commitment to pray about a day. then she said that she was thinking about September 6th, just right before one of us leaves. so I think that once we get permission from her dad, things will go super well with that. then Friday night activities was super good again. we did jango, the tower game, and charades. Fridays are always my favorite time haha :D

 

Saturday 8-9-14

 

quite a few things happened today, both good and bad. first off we talked to brother samuels for a bit, a less active member. he is...... interesting. I guess that he used to be a big drug lord in Canada before he was baptized. like one of the top guys. he also lived with 8 different women, other than his wife, at the same time and had a kid with each of them. brother samuels scares me just a bit haha. he says things just so calm and with almost no emotion. lunch is the time that really ticked me off the most. the other elders came home and told us that Mickailia's father was home. so I jumped up and wanted to go cause I knew that we really needed to talk to him. well elder dean just sat on his bed and refused to go. after about a 20 minute stand off (really just me standing there) I gave up and just sat down. we then went up to her house after lunch to try to talk to him. well mickailia told us that she had been execting us sooner and that he had been asleep for the last 20 minutes. and this is almost an hour since we had been told that he was home. man did that piss me off!!! we had a golden chance to talk to him and it was blown!!! and to make things worse, we let her down! she wanted us there and we didn't even go! never again am I gonna let that happen. the spirit was prompting me to do something and I didn't give enough effort on my part! the blessing that was gonna come from that is now gone. we are gonna have to work extra hard just to get the work back up to where it was with him. ahhh!!!! but we ended up staying there for a while. We talked to her friend DonnaLee, who just got back from Oregon for the World Track Championships. she seems pretty cool. she lives out past Braes River which is hecka far out there. Mickailia will be staying there for a bit so teaching her is not really going to happen for a bit. dang it! but then Mickalia was starting to talk about baptism a bit and she asked me who I thought she would choose to baptize her. I jokingly said me cause I haven't really been in the white clothes to baptize yet. but then I said elder phippen. she said no so I guessed elder dean. well she told me that when the time comes, she wanted me to baptize her! my heart kinda dropped there haha. when I asked her why me, she said that it was because I am the one that has real conversations with her. I don't know how, but my style of missionary work payed off! so I really think that once we get permission from her dad, we are going to have no problem baptizing her. she is expressing the desire more and more so there are like no worries on that end. we just need to get her dad to give permission now. she didn't have too much faith in it but I told her that I would fly down to Jamaica if I had to. so I better start saving my money up haha. today wasn't really a big lesson day, but it was super productive. we also found a less active member who is not on record yet, and talked to a lot of people. things are really starting to look up for Santa Cruz

 

Sunday 8-10-14

 

well today sure was interesting. as always, church was really good even tho we had no investigators show up. but we had a lesson with lisa right after church and she opened up quite a bit. I think that the lessons with her now will be better. but we will have to see. then the rest of the day was us talking to sister stone and sister Dixon. there wasn't really much doctrine taught but we did gain a lot of trust with them. next time we see sister stone tho we will be talking about the word of wisdom I think. she sells rum, cigs, and tobacco at her stand in the market so we need to get that out of there somehow. she is way nice tho. sister stone is one of my favorite people in the branch.

 

so that's the week. things really ticked me off but it was a good week non the less. its amazing how one moment in time can change how you look at things. never again will I waste an opportunity that needs to be taken. things on my mission have been really great, but they are about to get even better. they will always get better I guess tho cause of the new things that I learn each day.

 

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

 

Scripture Thought

D&C 122:7-9

Week 51

Wa Gwaan everyone?!

so i realized that i messed up on my weeks. my year mark is next week so i changed it so its right haha. this week kind made me a bit mad. and it didnt even happen until the last day of the week haha.

Monday 7-28-14

so today was pretty fun haha. after emails we went and played some basketball with the branch presidents kids who are visiting from Florida. they are super chill and pretty good at ball haha. it was just so hot tho. my head was killing me afterwards! that explains how hot it is here haha. hopefully winter come here soon. its still hot but not as hot. weather here is so confusing haha. i also had elder phippen give me a haircut. i really hate getting my hair chopped haha. its not a bad cut tho. its a lot more professional then what i did have before. lessons today we just went over the things that president brown taught in district conference with sister russell. it was a pretty good lesson. so kinda just a normal monday. 

Tuesday 7-29-14

today was pretty alright. we saw amoy in the morning and went over what we did with sister russell yesterday. pretty good lesson. she is just shy so we did more talking. she has her mission papers in tho and is getting an interview from president brown sometime this week so everyone is super stoked for that! after lunch we walked over to Nigel (ya we are still walking for now) and had a pretty alright lesson with him. we went a little farther than we wanted to because of his understanding level but he understood it pretty well. we taught him about our purpose here on earth and the atonement. afterwards tho we had to walk clear down to staysha. we had a really great lesson with her. we decided that morning that we were gonna read the story of Enos with her. man did she love that story! she was telling us all about the verses she liked and why she liked them! she finally got an answer she recognized that the Book of Mormon is true! it was so fantastic!

Wednesday 7-30-14

transfers were supposed to be today but all the people coming in were having some problems with their visas so transfers were moved to friday. but we had a trade off with the zone leaders today. elder barber came down here. but before that we had a pretty good district meeting. it was a last minute thing and there were only 5 of us there but it was still good. afterwards.... lets just say that the windows of heaven were opened up unto us haha. it rained cats and dogs for so long! we were all in KFC and the rain was coming down real hard and the power in KFC kept going out! things got serious in there man haha! then the ZLs came and we walked up to Lisa. we had a pretty good lesson with her. she was nice for once thats a fact. going up there is never my favorite thing to do but when you represent Jesus Christ, sometimes you have to do things that you dont like. oh well. all in the good name i guess haha. but the rest of the day was us doing some finding cause we have no other investigators. should be fun for this transfer haha

Thursday 7-31-14

today was freaking crazy! elder phippen didnt join us today cause he was dropped off at the house and then had to be picked up again so that he could go to spanish town for the trainers meeting. so elder dean and i went on our own today. but we didnt really do much cause we had to get elder deans bike fixed and then it started raining like crazy again. idk whats up with santa now haha. i hope it rains but the way it has the past likkle bit is not good. no one wants to see us when it is that bad. and thats what happened today. because it rained so much we couldnt do much at all. not really any lessons.

Friday 8-1-14

Merry August!!!!!! one year is almost here! today we met with a guy named Raymond. he is a maroon. its basically a run away slave that live by santa but govern themselves. youll have to look more up about them haha. it was a pretty good lesson. we taught our purpose and a little bit of the restoration. next time we go back will determine if he is an investigator or not. but today it rained hard again!  elder dean and i ended up just sitting in KFC to wait the rain out. but by the time it stopped elder phippen came back with his trainee. we went and met them at the house so they could get in. the new guys name is Elder Kuehn (pronounced like Keen). he is way sick. he is from Layton, Utah. he just got out of high school. now im not the youngest one in the house haha! i think its been since the MTC since i was older. im still not quite the oldest but im close haha. because of the rain friday night activity was blown out so that was all we did for the day.

Saturday 8-2-14

So i had an interesting time right when we were going out to teach. we had to get elder deans bike fixed again (santa hates us im telling yuh) and when we got out. something was wrong with my bike. it had no seat. somebody came into our yard and teifed my bike seat. and it was only the bike seat. elder dean and i got a big laugh from that one. we really think that someone in santa is watching us now. its not good haha. but i got a new seat for my bike. it was about time that i did tho. the thing was a bit broke and was torn up. it was pretty comfy to say the least tho. the new seat is better in my mind however. but we spend the morning fixing the bikes again. we are now full time bike fixers and part time missionaries haha. after that we saw brother samuels. he is still nuts. he had his debt go down tho. he was in 32,000 jamaica debt but its like down to 8000 now. its not bad but i dont think he will ever have his other debts payed off. then we went up to amoys house and talked about faith. it was one of the best faith lessons i have ever had on my mission. we talked about a lot of stuff to do with faith. but the bad thing, on the way up there elder dean had the chain to his bike snap. we couldnt fix it either. we had to coast all the way to amoy, teach the lesson, and then ride all the way back to the bike shop and leave it there for the weekend. just saying...........I HATE BIKES......... haha.

Sunday 8-3-14

so this was the hard day for me. but it did start off really good! testimony meeting today had the theme of conversion stories. i really loved it. it wasnt like one of those crazy ones that i have mentioned before, it was a somewhat normal one. there was still a crazy one or two that happened but the spirit was really felt in church today. it was so cool! then we had to teach young womens again. luckily elder Kuehn took that one. he seems very willing to just take on challenges and do it. such a stud haha. then elder dean and i were fed by a member after church. man was that food good! i think it was some of the best homemade food that i have ever had on my mission! after that we started walking up to teach Mickailia, she got back from camp yesterday, but we had to walk by the church. well i had parked my bike there for the time being. when i looked in there....... my bike was gone....... i was super ticked off! i just got the thing fixed and someone came and teifed the thing from right outta the church! now i have no bike. luckily the office is gonna see what its gonna take to get me a new bike. i might have to pay for it but it might be less than if i go to a shop down here and get one. well see what happens. hopefully i can get a pretty decent one. i dont care if its good, as long as it is ride-able haha. the lesson with Mickailia tho was a hard one. i was heartbroken during it. she wont accept a day for baptism. i think what i am going to do is do what happened to my converts in Port Antonio. Elder Davis was a genius and just kept teaching them even tho they would not accept a day. after some time, they just asked to be baptized. im gonna try and implement that for Mickailia. we'll just keep teaching her and when she feels that she is ready for baptism then she will just ask us for it. it may take some time but waiting is never a bad thing. i hope she will be baptized when i am here in santa tho. that would be so sick!

so ya thats the week. we will be walking for a bit till i get a new bike. ill find out today or tomorrow if i have to get a bike from a store or if the mission will help me out with it. hopefully i can get a cheap one from the mission. the store sells them for like $13,000 JMD. not really what i want to be spending right now. we'll see tho. the church is still true haha. nothing is ever going to change that!

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

2 Nephi 31:17-18