Week 62

Hey everyone!

this week was pretty good. of course youll see one less day cause of the holiday last week. lets begin :)

Tuesday 10-21-14

man today was super good! with it being elder creagers last pday in jamaica we went into Kingston to eat at tracks and records, the usain bolt restaurant. man that place is so cool! i am so going to go there when i get back to jamaica! they even took a photo of all us missionaries and put it up on the website or something. its either there or on there social media page. try and find it! we didnt really get any work done today which blows. someone was too scared to go out in a little sprinkle so me and my other comp just sat outside for an hour so we could say that we did our best. that really pissed me off that we had no lessons for the day. so glad that i can get work done now without having someone being scared of the rain.

Wednesday 10-22-14

it was transfer day. elder creager and beckford left and elder fowkes came in to be with elder newcomb. im with elder hall now and i am "mothering" him. i also got my journal back from santa cruz so that was great too. love the signings that are in there :) we didnt get a whole lot done for the day. but i felt pretty accomplished. the biggest lesson was with alwayne. it kinda sucks that i dont get to teach him now. we just split the areas for real now so i dont get him. at least not until he is a recent convert haha. then i can go up and teach him again. hopefully that will happen soon tho. should be on november 8th that he gets baptized.

Thursday 10-23-14

the lessons that we had were super strange. we almost dropped our investigator shanice today on the 2nd lesson. she just isnt willing to do anything yet. she is giving the same excuse she did like a year ago when missionaries went there. im not gonna have it really. if she wont act now, then im not going there now. yallahs is one place that i do not want to waste my time at. then we also had a lesson with some potential investigators. i guess that they are also related to a member. everyone in st. thomas is somehow haha. the member wants us going back there so we will, but its gonna take quite a bit of work to get them baptized.

Friday 10-24-14

we had an interesting friday haha. we didnt get too much teaching in of course. we mostly just stopped by for quick visits with people. we did get a lot of referrals so thats good. but during friday night activity we noticed that 3 of the bikes were gone. luckily not mine haha. we thought that somebody stole them. but later on, after about 10 minutes of looking around for them, alwayne and daquon rode up on them. man that pissed us off but also had us laughing so hard later haha. then later alwayne ut a cockroach on elder newcomb and he flipped out. i dont think i have ever seen a misisonary that pissed off before. i really thought that alwayne was gonna have a funeral before a baptism haha. thats about it for the day haha

Saturday 10-25-14

this area of yallahs is a little bit tougher than the other area. we dont have a lot of investigators so finding is something that is more of a focus. the day was pretty good nonetheless tho. we didnt have a lot of appointments but things are looking up i would say. things are looking good on the other side of yallahs so pretty soon they should be getting super good over on this side.

Sunday 10-26-14

happy birthday bro! should done that last week but forgot to haha. we didnt have the turnout at church like last week but we still had like 25 or 30 people who came so not too bad. i am back to teaching youth again. dont worry, its not young womens again haha :) its the young men. hopefully soon there can be a young mens president tho. it would be good to give a real member that calling. i love teaching youth, but members need to do it first haha. today just blew out for appointments tho. everything but a recent convert lesson blew out. this next week i think we'll really be doing some finding so it should change here soon.

Thats really it for the week. nothing really too eventful after tracks and records haha. cant wait till next week tho. :)

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
3 Nephi 27:19-21

Week 61

Hey everyone!

Monday 10-13-14

so today for pday we went into kingston and had a big basketball tournament type thing with the entire kingston and spanish town zones. basically everywhere that the stake is and then us haha man did it feel good to play again. its been so long since i played some real stuff. like 14 months haha. the basketball in spanish town was good but never american way. i so hope that we can do that more. i guess that we go out to Morant Bay each week for shopping and there is even a hoop there so that should be really fun. yallahs is so great haha :)

Tuesday 10-14-14

we went out to bull bay to see Shackeyra to start off the day. man is she prepared! she asks great questions and she understands very well. the only concern really is the distance to church. its a 15-30 min coaster ride and public transportation is hard on sundays in bush places. but she said that she really wants to come so thats a good sign. then we also saw alwayne today. he is way chill. the only thing that is holding him back from being baptized is him not coming to church on time. hopefully this week he will. it was a good lesson today tho. not really much else to report on today.

Wednesday 10-15-14

it was a bit rough today. we had quite a few RCLA lessons but nothing super interesting or exciting happened. we have been having to work on some branch president crap thing. with elder beckford being the branch president right now, we have a lot of stuff that we have to work on with him. its a bit frustrating but it has to be done i guess.

Thursday 10-16-14

kinda a rough day. we didnt really get a lot of lessons in today again. we had to do more Branch President stuff in the morning and we had to go to town for it. the only lessons we had today were with alwayne and anneika. both of the lessons were a bit rough tho. the lesson with anneika didnt quite go how we planned, and then with alwayne we ended up bring a member that is a little interesting. next time we will have to coordinate with the member. he should be leaving on his mission in like a month so that would be a good thing to teach him too. yallahs is really growing on me tho. i absolutely love it here!

Friday 10-17-14

fridays are still the days that i really look forward to. we had a really good lesson with Alwayne about missionary work. he seems super excited to serve. his baptism  should be in a few weeks so one year from then he will be able to serve. then of course we had friday night activity. thats always super fun! always great to be able to take a small break.

Saturday 10-18-14

so transfer calls were today. even tho i knew what my call was, i still got something unexpected. of course i will be staying in yallahs and being with elder hall (south ogden utah). but i will also be the district leader. that was super unexpected. in light of current circumstances, i never thought i would get that call haha. the lord is taking a huge risk right now lol. im a bit behind to cause i didnt go to a training like a month ago for it. it wasnt known that i would be one until i got to yallahs. but our day was super awesome. we saw sister nicely first, where she basically told us that she loves the church and knows that its true. she still has a lot of questions but she is so accepting. so sad i wont be teaching her come wednesday. she is super prepared and i cant wait to do her baptism interview! then we went out to bull bay to see shackeyra. she is so prepared! she had an entire summary of what she read in the book of mormon! then we started teaching the plan of salvation and she loved it. somehow we even got into baptisms for the dead. dont think i have ever dont that before haha. but she is way accepting. she said that she just feels that its right. such a good sign there! she said that she is coming to church so im super excited!

Sunday 10-19-14

wow church was packed today! we had like 50 people show up. thats like 30 more than normal i think. plus, like 10 of them were non members. like 7 or 8 are investigators too so church was super sick today! its the most people there for a long time. we even had 6 come to church. Shackeyra, alwayne, and sister nicely and her family came. all but shackeyra were late tho so that was a bit of a bummer. i guess that shackeyra was like bearing testimony in sunday school as well. its so sick! yallahs is starting to explode with missionary work! its a great time to be here. the more that i think about it, i have to be here. it is where the lord wants me right now.

Monday 10-20-14

pday wasnt today because of a holiday. but we went to shackeyra to start the day off. it was a super good lesson on the gospel of jesus christ and her cousin even seems really interested. she recognized that she came into the house at the time we were there as a sign from God. she lives near shackeyra but i will be teaching her. that is our area so it should be fun going out there. we also saw alwayne during the day. it was a really good lesson. when we all take it serious, his lessons really have the spirit in them. he just needs to show up to church 2 times in a row on time and then he will be baptized. better happen soon haha!

so this week was good. i super excited for yallahs. its starting to boom with missionary work so its gonna be such a great place to be for the next 4-6 months. 

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

1 Corinthians 10:13

Week 60

hey everyone.

i dont have a lot of time to email this week so i will be summing my days up real fast.

Monday.

We went to mandeville cause pres had to talk to elder danvers today. idk what it was about but it seemed to make him a little upset. it started in conference but idk what it is and i really dont want to. but we didnt get any teaching done today. it was too stressful really. it was relaxing but at the same time it was so stressful with everything that went on.

Tuesday.

well we had a late start today. we spent most of the day just fixing the bikes. then i went and taught seminary. thats always a fun thing to do. but right as we got into planning pres called us and said that elder danvers needed to pack his bags cause he would be going home in the morning. so there went the day. a kick right in the gut. i will be getting elder rammell, who is also having his comp go home. he is from my mtc group so im excited to serve with him. i just wish that it didnt have to be under these circumstances.

Wednesday

so elder danvers went home today. freaking sucks. i will always want to forget the moments of packing a comps suitcase, and then watching him drive off. it freaking sucks. but i did get elder rammell today. me and him had a lesson with a lady. long time since that has happened haha. it seems like she could go places. we'll see tho.

Thursday

Well this week just gets worse and worse. pres came into santa cruz today and interviewed me, he told me that "it would be best if i leave Santa Cruz" oh geez was i pissed. He drove me all the way to kingston and then told me that i was going to be in Yallahs for the next little while. holy crap. lets just say that this day sucked and all i want is to be back in santa cruz right now.

Friday

well my first day in yallahs was pretty good haha. i still want to be back in santa but yallahs is a really good place. we saw the top investigator, Alwayne, who should be getting baptized really soon. then we did friday night activities. yallahs has a missionary as the branch president so we have to be there. right now im comps with elder newcomb (gilbert, AZ) and elder beckford (sav la mar, Jamaica). pres told me that at the end of the transfer i will be with elder hall (ogden, UT). his trainer, elder craeger (kaysville UT) is going home so i will be his second comp. its a great place tho.

Saturday

We had a ton of lessons today. more than i had in santa at least. we had to taxi to most of them as well. but they are all super prepared people. peoples names are Shakiera, sister nicely, Jackie, and Nikki. Shakiera and sister nicely i think are the most prepared. they just live a little distance away from the church. the only concern they have haha. but it was a super good day. i am having a ton of fun in yallahs. i look forward to being here.

Sunday

well my first sunday was an interesting one. yallahs gets a little bit more than santa cruz does as far as people coming to church. the members are great, like santa, and they want to do missionary work. we just have to bring them out haha. the people have such powerful testimonies of the gospel. i really am going to love it here. serving with elder newcomb and beckford is so great. we saw nikki today and it was such a great lesson. 

sorry for the shortness this week. i will get a longer one next week. i just had like no time today.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

James 1:12

3 Nephi 5:13

Week 59

Hey everyone!!

 

conference is defiantly the best time of the year! I learned so many things from conference. I even had questions answered that I didn't even know I had. I never go into conference with questions cause I know that every concern that I have will be answered. but its so amazing how these people just know what to say. the Spirit is so real and the church is so true!

 

Monday 9-29-14

 

today was a great day. it was a big time blessing. first off it was another relaxing day. we were able to just sit around the house and relax to some music for the day. then we went and talked to sister Thomas and tianna for a bit to just say hi. we were going to see sister Russell but she was up in longwood. but after we got done talking to them we went up there. we shared a small message from the last conference to get them pumped up for this one. they are probably the main family we will stop by a lot cause they are close by to where we mostly go. just stopping by people is such a great thing. it builds so much trust. so going to do that back home. its called home teaching haha.

 

Tuesday 9-30-14

 

I had such a terrible day. I really think that it was productive but I was just in such a bad mood today. we did service for sister Russell and barrington to start the day off tho. we really have got to find more chances to do service. if we aren't going to be teaching cause the work is slow then we might as well go get our hands and clothes dirty. plus it will keep me busy. I rally am tired of just sitting around. it has onlyi made me realize how much that I hate idleness. santa cruz is so bad with that. but that's going to change. I will not leave here until something happens. then that's when I got pissed. some stuff was said in the house that I took kinda offensive. it ended up ruining my whole day. but its all worked out now I talked about it with the other elders so we all good now. then we went up to the church and taught seminary. I really need to get the book of Mormon teaching guide along with everything else. they are such great tools! they give you so much info! one day tho. right now I have other things to focus on haha.

 

Wednesday 10-1-14

 

wow its October already. means I got 10 months left. crap. that's not good haha. today was a pretty good day. districet meeting was super good to start off. something told me that it was what I was needing to hear. we talked about preparing to receive revelation. that is some4thing that I really have got to work on. so I better start now haha. really the only thing that happened today was that I taught seminary again. elder phippen and kuehn had an appointment that they had to got to so we switched days for the week. I love teaching seminary so I will take whatever chance that I get to teach it haha :)

 

Thursday 10-2-14

 

it was a very good day today. all the lessons we had involved us just talking to people. it was so relaxing. I felt more like a missionary than ever before. I really felt tht we were productive and our time was very well spent. we talked to sister Dunkley for our morning appointment for like 2 hours. just through that she told us why she has not been coming to church as much lately. it was so much more effective than trying to throw scriptures in her face. then we talked to shane, sister stones husband, for like an hour after lunch. I thought that it was productive cause he can gain trust in the missionaries for in the future. then we ended up talking to keith for like and hour and barrington for an hour as well. things just feel so much more productive. I really think that more concerns were solved today than ever before. now I just need to get this skill perfected haha. im still having trouble talking a lot in lessons tho. I feel bad cause elder danvers does a lot of talking. I need to talk more and I know that. I may have to learn to cut into conversations but we'll see what happens.

 

Friday 10-3-14

 

man there was a crazy storm today. it was almost pitch black at 4:30 today. we just got done with a lesson with sister Russell and started to walk away and had to take shelter at sister Thomas house right across the street. storms here are so awesome. they just come down so hard and the lightning is so crazy! Friday night activity was way sick as well. I was the only one really doing anything in it as a missionary but it was way fun. I like hanging out with the others a lot more anyways. makes me feel like a normal person haha.

 

Saturday 10-4-14

 

so today was conference. the super bowl for missionaries. and its so true haha. I love it with all my heart. ill give all of my favorite talks as the scripture thoughts. I thought that the talks applied to people really well. I learned a lot in it. Mickailia was able to show up as well. she only came for the afternoon session today but oh well. I wish that she coulda heard Uchtdorf and Andersen talk. they gave some really good ones that I thought applied to her so well. oh well. she'll get the talks later haha :) I cant wait for tomorrow tho. there should be some great talks. I find it interesting how my desires have changed out here on my mission. they were so below where they shoulda been but now that I am basically 14 months out, they are so much different and so much better. Missions really do a lot to you haha :D

 

Sunday 10-5-14

 

conference again today. again such a great day. its really all that we did today. I so wish that I could stay a missionary for conference cause they are so awesome. but ill have to see what its like at home first haha. I don't really have anything to compare it too.

 

 

so that's the week. sorry the letters are so short. not much is really going on right now. soon come things will get better.

 

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

 

Scripture Thought

all from this conference.

Lynn G Robbins

Dieter F Uchtdorf (Saturday morning)

D Todd Christofferson

Dallin H Oaks

Neil L Andersen

Tad R Callister

Henry B Eyring (sunday morning)

Thomas S Monson (sunday morning)

Richard G Scott

David A Bednar