Week 79

Hey everyone!

sorry about no letter last week. idk what happened to it. i cant even remember if i did one or not haha

This week was amazing! we got so much work done! but we did get our transfer calls and it pissed me off a bit. ill get to that later tho.....

Monday 2-16-15

it was one of those relaxing days. we took it way easy for the day. but when we went out teaching we had a good day too. we saw a new person named samantha today. she had come to church yesterday so we set up a time to see her today. she has some really good desires. its a bit weird cause she is one of those girls who works at a bar............ but she has good desires and thats what matters haha. then we saw george like we do every week. it was a really productive pday. something thats pretty rare but sweet when it happens haha!

Tuesday 2-17-15

today was pretty interesting. we had a good lesson with Ileen on the restoration. she seems to have understood ti pretty well. our lesson with Okara was super great too. sheika had a really good lesson plan for her. we taught about repentance. she got the whole thing so thats good. she committed to do it. next up tho is the Law o Chastity. that should be interesting haha. the week so far has been really good. hopefully it keeps up.

Wednesday 2-18-15

we had zone meeting today and the rule that i was dreading came in today. we now cannot teach ANY FEMALE without a male being there. im really scared about what this is going to do with our teaching. we were still able to see samantha in the night tho. she brought a few males over. that lesson was super good! she seems way prepared. hopefully it continues. yallahs has really been having a lot of people get prepared. this branch is gonna grow pretty fast!

Thursday 2-19-15

i went on a split today. the first one that i have ever done on my mission haha. elder newcomb had to do some BP crap so elder stewart went with elder fowkes and i got to take around Pete Meddow today. he is way sick. everyone was super glad to see him too. he really helped to get the effects of this new rule out of the way too. it gave us a male at each of the lessons we saw Ileen and went over the Book of Mormon. turns that she cant read tho. but we committed sis stanley to help her out with that. then we also saw sonya and went over the first part of the FTSOY. kinda a lame lesson. our lesson with sis lee was great too. her and george really hit it off. things are a lot better with her than i expected them to be. yallahs is booming haha.

Friday 2-20-15

today we saw Okara and taught her the law of chastity. it was actually a really good lesson. it was super spiritual and no awkwardness at all. okara continues to impress me every time that we go there. games night was sick too. we had a lot of people come and had a lot of games for the night. the best if dominoes tho haha. cant wait to be passionate about that game back home haha. 

Saturday 2-21-15

well today we had the transfer calls. i found out that i will be going to the Boulevard Ward in Kingston. my new comp is gonna be elder pullan. i think he is from Heber, Utah. im kinda pissed tho cause i really dont wanna leave yallahs. this place is the best place that i have ever been to. i would so take here over home any day of the week. it changed my whole mission around and now i just have to leave. but elder pullan is cool so im excited for that. im sure going to miss this place tho. we went to a baptism for Sis Nicely today. i taught her for 2 weeks when i first came to Yallahs. elder newcomb and fowkes have been teaching her since. she finally got baptized haha. it was way sick. her kids should be baptized here soon too. they just have to pick a day. then we got brother campbell to come with us to sister lee and samantha. both of the lessons were freaking sick!  the new rule has actually been doing some wonders for us. most of our discussions have come after the rule came. so it looks like things are going to be good for that. then FHE was pretty good. it just feels really strange to start having people sign my journal. i wish it was something that i didnt have to do. i wanna stay in yallahs

Sunday 2-22-15

today was super sad. i had to give my farewell testimony in church today. i really do love this place so much. its by far my favorite area. i cant wait to come back here in october and/or chirstmas!  after church i went on another split with alwayne for the day. we went and dropped Orasha cause he hasnt come to church once. then we went up to Sonya so i could prep them both on the lesson. the lesson with okara was on eternal marriage. the lesson was really great. there were a few..... odd..... comments made during it but Okara said that she really wants to be married in the temple and she committed to do it. then after the lesson the 3 of us ended up talking about some other things. someone said that they really wanted to see a super bad movie so i spent the next 30-45 minutes trying to get them to commit to not have anything to do with the movie. they were pretty stubborn about it, almost as much as me haha. they were really sad but they finally and honestly committed to not watching the movie or anything close to it. it took a while but it was time well spent. i think i found the reason why i was here tho. i got here when i did so i could get help from one of the members while i was trying to reactivate them. the steps they took when i first met them are so sick and i hope they stay on the path. finding friends like that in areas is the best thing ever! they are a huge reason why i stayed out on my mission.

so thats the week. it was super good. im way sad to be leaving yallahs of course (if you didnt get my ranting in this email haha). yallahs has really turned into my favorite place in the whole world. areas on your mission are like vapor, they are there, and then its gone (see James4:14). i wish that this vapor was bigger. i wanna stay in yallahs for the rest of my mission so bad. i really have come to love the people here. i felt the love when i got here and that is another reason why i am still out here. i dont know what woulda happened had i not served a mission, but i dont want to find out. serving a mission has given me a great testimony of this gospel and i have made the very best friends ever down here!

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Acts 5:15 with Matthew 14:36

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Week 76

hey everyone.

sorry about last week. we got back late from kingston so i had no time to email at all but to sum up last week. it was really great. we picked up a former investigator that i taught a few lessons too before and she is progressing really well. her name is Okara and she has a baptism day forthe 21st of february. so here is this week (#76)

Monday 1-26-15

well of course for pday we went into kingston to play basketball. we played with the constant springs elders and the zone leaders. it was way fun, but i still hate going into kingston. the bush is where i am the most comfortable. probably where i will end up living back home haha. out in the middle of no where. teaching was alright. just saw one person. monday nights are so hard when things blow out.

Tuesday 1-27-15

today was kinda a bummer. we went up to a less active member, and found out that he is crazy. he has been baptized for a year now and knows basically none of the doctrine. we went over the baptism interview questions and he failed it hard. things are gonna be really interesting with that for the next while. then for all of the other lessons we had today we went around and showed some short movies on the D&C dvd set. so not really a super exciting day.

Wednesday 1-28-15

zone meeting today wasnt so great. kinda a bit of a rambler. but we had a good day when we came back tho. our lesson with okara was a bit shakey but we did learn that we need to be a lot simpler with her. we have another lesson with her later in the week so it will be great then. then we went over to Sonya and had a super good lesson. we just went over expectations that she has for herself in the gospel and then the ones that God has for her. elder stewart and i have been doing that with a lot of people and it works out super well. she made some really great goals and understood the goals that we/God has for her and she committed to do them. one of the best expectations lessons that i have had in the few weeks ive been doing them.

Thursday 1-29-15

it was a pretty good day. we saw 2 new people as well as sister Lee. the 2 new ones are so new that i still dont know what to think of them. sister lees lesson was good, but it was also a lesson i think that she wanted to get out of cause she was tired. she had just gotten home from work. we tried doing visual aids, getting her involved more, but she seemed way tired. i think she is meant more for elder stewart than me. oh well. as long as she gets baptized haha. 

Friday 1-30-15

well today was a blowout. every single thing that we had planned fell through. so the only thing that we got done was FNA. it was still way fun tho. not as big of a turn out but elder fowkes and i did 2 1/2 hours of french and cutthroat dominoe. cant wait to be playing that more at home haha! :D

Saturday 1-31-15

we did pretty good for the day. we spent 90 minutes rebuking brother mckenson. he is a less active that has not been to church in like 10 years. he would not make a solid commitment, and elder stewart and i were not leaving that house without him saying he would come to church. he finally did tho so thats good. later in the day we finally got Sonya to come and do missionary work with us! she only came for one lesson, but she did a great job! we took her to see Okara and she taught her part of the lesson in like 3 seconds so simply! i so wish i could do that haha. okara even retained it all so much! i need to start doing that haha. for family home evening we taught on family history work. i always get rebuked when i teach that haha. but im gonna do some back home. yes dad, that means you'll have a friend to help you out haha. so today was super good. its gonna be one of those "sleeper days" haha.

Sunday 2-1-15

well church sucked today. we were supposed to have a special conference for the caribbean but the internet here sucked so it never happened for us. we had like 45 people come, and they didnt get much. sister fisher did get something tho haha. she ended up quoting something she heard. it was only like 5 seconds long but she still got at least one thing from it haha. so we had a testimony meeting instead. we'll be doing fast sunday next week. it was way good tho. Okara was gonna do it, but she was shy, and sister lee got up and gave a simple one about how church blessed her week. so sick! this next week we should be doing a lot of work. so far we have had 20 lessons and 22 lessons. we really are trying to get to 30 so we are well on our way.

so thats the week. not like a super good week but we worked hard and thats what counts. we should be having some baptisms soon so pray hard haha

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Alma 34:8-10

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Week 74

well...... im out of patois phrases for the week haha

this week was transfers. i got my new comp. his name is elder stewart, from houston, TX.

sorry if this letter is short. i forgot my journal at the house again haha.

Monday 1-12-15

well for pday today we went to port royal. we went and played capture the flag at one of the abandoned forts there. it was pretty sick. but i did realize how much i dont like capture the flag haha. there really is no point to it. plus, it really sucks when you get put in jail haha. teaching was just us going around to sister alvarenga and george so we could get some pictures for elder hall before he leaves. not a whole lot of actual teaching haha. the days that we end up going to town i hate. going into town is the very worst thing ever! i so want to limit it to once a month for only zone meetings.

Tuesday 1-13-15

we went around and got elder halls journal signed. all finished up for transfers tomorrow. i kinda forgot a lot of stuff that happened today. i do know that we went out to Whitehorse and got fed by sister stokes. that food was pretty dang good.

Wednesday 1-14-15

well i had to teach one final district meeting today. i found out like the morning of haha. i spent about half the day with an elder from constant springs. we had a good day. we were able to get in a few lessons and a good thought with sheika. then elder stewart came and i spent the rest of the day with him. we went up to sonya and had a lesson with her. she didnt read again. so we read with her and gave her an assignment to read a little more. man, people who are like me back home really make me sad, cause it reminds me of how retarded that i was then haha.

Thursday 1-15-15

well we had a really busy day. it was another day where i think every hour was filled up, we had a lesson in each hour, and our numbers today looked awesome! we went into sister hudsons yard like 3 times today for different people haha. i think the best lesson we had today would be with sister hudson tho. sheika and sister alvarenga started to rebuke her so hard for not coming to church. i just sat there and was thinking "this is awesome" the whole time haha. she really needs to hear it from some members instead of some missionaries. now given, i have never told her that bluntly, but it was still super awesome to see haha. she still made up some dumb excuse for not coming to church, so things are not going to be good for her if she doesnt change soon.

Friday 1-16-15

the best part of today was FNA. before that tho we went over to george and taught a little bit about the temple. hopefully he can start to make harder plans to go there. butfriday night activity had a good turn out again. we just need to start getting more investigators to show up now haha. but my former companion elder danvers showed up (the one in santa who got sent home). so i talked to him for the last part of it. it was good to talk to him again. still kinda the same guy, but he's sick haha.

Saturday 1-17-15

well today we went and saw angela, ritzans mom. it was.... interesting. we ended up talking all about some super deep doctrine. i didnt say much tho. elder stewart kinda taught the whole thing.... not too much i remember other than that haha.

Sunday 1-18-15

church was really good today but kinda bad too. we had like 50 people there by the end of it and like 40 were there for the sacrament. the numbers are now starting to make a good jump. but youth class today was way bad. one investigator said that she wanted to go to a different class because people in youth class dont talk. only like 4 or 5 people really talk in the class. alwayne even rebuked them at the end of it. we might split the class tho so that will hopefully help. but we finally got to see akeemo today. not really the best lesson. hopefully next time we can have the spirit in it more.

so i think thats the week haha. hopefully i remembered enough stuff. the mission is awesome tho. its stress, but its some of the best stress that a person can ever have. infact, its THE BEST stress ever haha.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Hebrews 11

Week 73

ya wa gwan mi generals?

this week was pretty good. elder hall and i had a super sick lesson. and we got transfer calls.

Monday 1-5-15

today was just exhausting. we went out to morant bay and played basketball for a few hours. it was fun but super hot. the rest of the day we were just so beat. the day was spread pretty even tho. we went up to sheika and gave her a blessing. she just felt a little bit dark for some reason. we also went down to george as usual and shared a short thought. pretty normal monday i guess haha.

Tuesday 1-6-15

well today sure was.... interesting. first thing we did was go to see jessica. it was actually the best lesson we have ever had with her. i was way shocked. we ended up going over baptisms for the dead. we might have to drop her again but we will see. then we saw sister fisher, a member who just moved to yallahs from montego bay. since she'll be here for a while we decided to get to know her a bit. well she answered every question that we could possibly have. she ended up telling us her life story. our lesson with sister hudson later in the night really had the spirit in it as well. she just did the same old thing tho. played it off and made up excuses.

Wednesday 1-7-15

well we had district meeting in kingston today. it was pretty good. i taught about having the spirit with us more. things are really gonna get going here in yallahs. but we ended up spending the whole day in kingston. elder hall went and got cleared to come back to yallahs so i got him back today as well. thank heavens for that haha. he is just gonna be changing the bandages on his arm now. i just dont wanna see the arm. last time i saw it i just about passed out haha. we didnt do anything in yallahs cause we got back like right at 9.

Thursday 1-8-15

man were we busy today. we had 7 lessons that were numbers. thats the most i have had since i was in spanish town! all but one of them was a recent convert or less active lesson tho. but the one lesson we had with an investigator was sick! we went over to Akeemo and taught him the restoration. he was making awesome connections, understanding everything we taught, felt the spirit so strongly, and committed softly to a baptism day ofFebruary 28th! it really was the most powerful lesson that i have ever had on my mission. akeemo said that he would be the first one at church every week if he knew that the church was true! he is a big seeker of truth and is so interested in the gospel! he loves spending time with us and hates when we have to leave haha! teaching him is one of the greatest things ever!

Friday 1-9-15

teaching today was a bit lame. we did get to see sister fisher and teach the restoration tho. that lesson was actually super good. her daughter is super smart! even tho they are less active, the 8, almost 9, year old told us the entire joseph smith story. in great detail as well. it was so cool!!!!! then FNA was way cool. we had a really big turn our. i just really hope that that can continue. we need more people to be showing up. it just goes to show you.... FOOD IS DOCTRINE haha!!!!!

Saturday 1-10-15

today was interesting. our lesson with alwayne today was super lame. we joke around too much with him. we are gonna start taking those lessons more serious. he needs to be keeping his covenants. oh ya we also got our transfer calls today. i will be getting a new comp. elder hall is going to old harbour, and i will be getting elder stewart. he's from houston texas. he was my ZL when i was out in santa so im way excited to serve with him. sad that elder hall is leaving of course. we were doing some really good work here. then for FHE tonight at sister alvarengas we watched 17 miracles. it was super good. everyone really loved it. something about that movie always brings the spirit haha.

Sunday 1-11-15

i find it funny how people in jamaica come in right after the sacrament. we had a lot of people at church. but they all came in after the sacrament was over. gets me every time haha. we didnt do much else today tho. since elder hall is leaving we are going around having people sign his journal. always a great part of transfers haha. its not till people leave tho that it really kicks in that they are in fact gone. should be good in a few weeks or so haha.

so thats the week. its kinda weird cause i think that i am on my last 6 weeks in yallahs. i really hope not tho. i have really come to love this area so much. when you really put your heart in the work, the lord does wonders for you. can only imagine what life woulda been like back home if i had my heart in the gospel before. but its a new chapter, so make it good haha.

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

D&C 84:85

Week 72

wa gwan people mi daya pon the gully side ya na.

HAPPY 2015! well i spent my new years in the hospital. so i dont know
how good of a start that is to the week haha.

Monday 12-29-14

well we went into kingston for my birthday today. its so weird being
20 now. it feels like a big jump haha. we went to a place called south
avenue grill. man that place is good! and expensive haha. i spent like
$4000 just on myself. the steak i got was 2100 all on its own. it was
the best steak ever tho! i guess it was the good part of the cow.
like, the very best part that everyone loves. but i wont be going
there on my mission again unless i serve in kingston. the trip today
made me realize how much i hate going into kingston. it causes so much
stress and screws up our pday so bad. and since it was my birthday,
the other elders floured me haha. but no pics. they did it while i was
in the shower. dont think you wanna see that haha. i felt like i was
stepping in a dumpling haha. but its all in the spirit. as for
teaching today, we saw sister stanley and went over diligence. then we
went and saw leonard and sister williams. the kids there wanted to
play a game so we played black magic with them. it was funny haha.

Tuesday 12-30-14

well i did a tradeoff today. but i got to stay in my own area for once
haha. the day was pretty good tho. we had a really good lesson with
sonya tho. she needs to be reading from the book of mormon more tho.
she reads from the church magazines, which is good, but not from the
book of mormon. then we had something at the church called reach out
night. it was basically home and visiting teaching. it was a day that
we had a lot of numbers today, but we need to put those into baptisms
and reactivations soon.

Wednesday 12-31-14

well elder hall has been having a weird thing on his arm the past week
and a half or so, and he woke up with his arm all swollen. so the APs
had to come and get us and take us to the hospital to get it looked
at. it ended up taking all day long. the doctors said that he needed
to get surgery to drain it (it was an absyst or something like that)
so i ended up sleeping the night in a hospital room in a chair while
my comp was passed out from anistedic haha. so no teaching done, no
district meeting done, just me talking with the APs the whole day
haha.

Thursday 1-1-15

well elder hall and i were in the hospital until like 5pm today. it
was so boring. i did get a lot of reading done tho. thank heavens for
that haha. but we still got no teaching done at all. by the time we
got out of kingston, it was like 7pmand its an hour or so drive to
yallahs. but right now i am serving with elder newcomb. elder hall was
kept in downtown kingston so he could be close to the doctor. he needs
to get the gauz changed each day so they took elder fowkes from there
and brought him with me. his cousin is the one in yallahs so they are
serving together now (special promise from pres haha) and i am with
elder newcomb. we should be back to normal by next wednesday tho.

Friday 1-2-15

i super planned by myself today haha. elder fowkes came and helped a
bit tho. i let elder newcomb go and super plan in his area. it was
interesting haha. but then almost every appointment we had fell
through. we tried to see a lot of people but no one was home. we did
have a good turnout at friday nightactivity tho. we played uno with
like 9 of us. most fun that we have had it in a long time. next week
should be way good tho.

Saturday 1-3-14

today was super good for us. we went out to 14 mile and saw a less
active member. he is a bit of a beggar tho. its annoying. bu then we
saw a guy by the name of Javaunnie. he is real cool. we just need him
to come to church. he accepts the message of the restoration, but
doesnt wanna leave his church too bad. then we also saw ritzans
family. their ok right now. hopefully soon come they will improve with
the message. our lesson with Akeemo was good too. he even invited 2 of
his friends up to hear us too. he has some faith issues, but him and
his friends seem way prepared. we did end up running into a funeral
tho. our former investigator, jessica, i guess had her mom die a few
weeks ago and they did the funeral today. i felt very bad for her. and
as weird as this sounds, i hope that it prepares her to hear the
gospel.

Sunday 1-4-14

church was great today! we had like 44 people there! akeemo even came
with a new friend. he came late but he said that he loved church. and
he is even reminding us about our next appointment. he so needs to get
baptized! youth class was super big too. we had like 15 people in the
class. so good to see haha. then the rest of the day we saw a few less
actives. the funnest part was when we went over to Sonya and floured
her. we just had to since it was her birthday today haha. we had elder
newcomb get on the roof and give her a big surprise haha. i forgot my
camera at that point so i didnt get any photos. but it was super funny
haha!


so thats the week. hopefully the subject didnt scare you all haha.
having 2 days off really made me member how much i love being a
missionary. there is a special joy in watching the change that people
make. something that you can never replace

Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought
D&C 93:24

Week 71

well.... hey everyone.....

sorry if this note is short. i dont have my journal again today. we just got back from kingston.

haha dont worry, this week was pretty good. not the best week ever but defiantly not the worst.

Monday 12-22-14

well today we relaxed for pday. elder newcomb and fowkes went out to kingston for something so elder hall and i were stuck bored in yallahs. funniest part of the day is when i had a random bum from Morant Bay start to cuss me out. he was begging us and i told him we had nothing to give, so he kept asking. i then told him to "gu we" (go away). he didnt really like that haha. he started calling us BCs, BBCs, white bast---, some f bombs, and so on so forth. you could say that he was just a bit pissed off haha. later in the day we went and saw george. he was feeling quite down with what happened on sunday. cant blame him really. so we just went and tried to cheer him up.

Tuesday 12-23-14

today was another day of a lot of biking. we saw sister stanley in the morning, which was a really good lesson. we talked about the importance of reading and praying every day. sister stanley is such a good member. all she really needs to be doing is coming to church more. shouldnt really be too hard for that one. the spirit seems to be working on her quite well. then we biked out to easington to see shantel. not too sure whats going to happen there yet. our lesson was really awful. no spirit, and no organization. we cant see her till next week so it will be interesting to see what happens with that. then we went to sonya and had a pretty good lesson with her. she seems really down with the church and all that so we just told her that we are only here to invite. we then told her our own conversion stories. it was a pretty spiritual lesson. hopefully it has some effect on her.

Wednesday 12-24-14

today was a pretty interesting day. we didnt really have a lot of lessons cause it seems like no one really wanted to see us. but we were able to find some people today. the biggest part of the day was when we went to sister alvarengas home and did family home evening. we were lacking some more fun so tonight we just read some christmas stories with them and then played some games. elder hall taught some people how to play rook while others did dominoes, and then 1 or 2 people sat around and watched. honestly, it was a fun time. next week on "watch night" should be way fun.

Thursday 12-25-14

haha today was interesting. to start off we went and delivered a lot of christmas messages to people in the morning. then we all talked to our families. fun time there haha. we ended up going to alwayne for a quick visit, and he fed us a bit of food haha. unplanned meal appointments are so awesome! then we went over to george and had a small thought. he then fed us in a planned meal appointment. being fed more than once is so hard for me haha. i need to learn how to pack even more food still haha. but the last christmas on the mission was pretty fun. looking forward to next years tho.

Friday 12-26-14

well the only lesson that we ended up having today was with sister stanley. we talked a lot about charity. its not really something that she has a problem with, but elder hall and i decided to go over the christlike attributes with her. its always good to have a little bit of a self evaluation on that haha. should be way fun to do. friday night activity was us playing dominoes again. it was interesting cause a crazy member of the branch came, and was the only other one there, and just about beat us all haha. and for everyone out there, dominoes is all skill, not luck. haha

Saturday 12-27-14

today we did a lot of service. we went over to georges house and chopped some yard next door to him. i guess that his sister owns that property so they are gonna finish a house on it and then move in there when they can. we are gonna be sure to go and help them out with that as much as possible. then we had to go like 3-4 miles away and do some more service. i was dead tired haha. but after all that, we went to a kid named Akeemo that we found on christmas eve. he is way sick! he is planning on running for the university of maryland in 2016. we had a great first lesson with him. we started talking about the atonement and then it somehow got into him asking some pretty deep questions about where God came from. we didnt answer it yet but told him we would get back to it in a different lesson. one of the best first lessons that i have ever had. he even told us that he normally doesnt like to talk religion but with us its way cool. he goes to church right up from us so getting him to come shouldnt be too hard.

Sunday 12-28-14

today was a sad day. we went up to joyce and had to pre drop her. she isnt really doing that much work. an interesting situation came up too. i dont think i can say it but its super unexpected. hopefully it all gets sorted out. but that really was all that happened today. we had a missionary come back i guess. formerly elder staurt came back to the branch. he was the ranch president from like feuary to may. so we had quite a bit of people at church haha. especially a lot of white people. here a quote to put on the quote board tho. im scared of white people haha. they just look so weird!

well thats the week i guess. not really too eventful haha

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Scripture Thought

Luke 17:32