Monday, January 19, 2015
Week 74
Monday, January 12, 2015
Week 73
Monday, January 5, 2015
Week 72
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
Thursday, January 1, 2015
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
Monday, December 22, 2014
Week 70
Hey everyone whats up? MERRY CHRISTMAS ON THURSDAY!!!!!!!
so this week we finally had a baptism! so freaking sick!!!!
Monday 12-15-14
pday was super fun today. we went out to morant bay to play basketball. its been so long since i have last done that. or at least it feels like forever haha. it started raining on us right at the end too so that made it even more fun. then after emails we went and did arm ball at the church. that sport is dang fun! im gonna have to be sure to take that sport home and play it with everyone haha! teaching today we saw sister stanley and george. sis stanley is way cool. she is one of the nicest people i have ever met. she just needs to be coming to church more often. we committed her to coming more so that she has the possibility of working in the temple one day. idk if that is going to happen or not but at least she can be ready if the chance comes. we also had the zone leaders stay over night so that they can give alwayne his baptism interview tomorrow. so that was the pday really haha.
Tuesday 12-16-14
well today i was with elder england for a tradeoff. he did the interview for alwayne and alwayne passed big time. so everything is now set in stone for his baptism on saturday. we also had a thought with sheika. to not a lot of teaching really done today. we had to coaster into kingston to end the tradeoff too so elder hall and i had to run some errands in down town. when we got back we just did some mission prep. so not a super eventful day.
Wednesday 12-17-14
well it was district meeting again today. it was pretty alright. i am kinda getting dead on teaching them now haha. i kinda hope that someone else comes to yallahs to take my spot as DL haha. nothing really big happened today tho. we're a bit worried about joyce tho. she is not reading like at all. its been over a week since we last saw her and she didnt read one thing. we might have to drop her soon if she doesnt pick up the reading. then our family home evening ended up going into some doctrine mentioned in the King Follett Sermon. so that was probably the most interesting thing all day haha. i think that with christmas eve being next week, we'll have a lot more fun tho haha
Thursday 12-18-14
well we had another day of long biking. we did about 7 miles by 1pm today. we went up to easington for a lesson, and then dropped right down into Albion. it was a good lesson thank heavens haha. we will see what happens with the next time that we go there. then there are some members that are really starting to piss me off. one is just making a bunch of excuses of why they arent at church and the other one is just all talk. they dont do anything. the family for them is not in a good spot right now. then we went and had a lesson with sonya on the plan of salvation. we went pretty in depth with it so we only got to the atonement. but it was a really good lesson. i thought that sonya was feeling something during it. i felt the spirit so hopefully everyone else was too. the next lesson should be way good.
Friday 12-19-14
today was pretty good. out leson with alwyane was good. he had to leave so he kinda rushed the lesson. then we had a lesson with some other guys. they are still potentials so we will see what happens. but friday night activity was fun. we did arm ball, and then some dominoes. we got daquon to talk with elder newcomb too at last. hopefully that will help him out. im just super stoked for alwynes baptism tomorrow right now tho!
Saturday 12-20-14
not a lot of teaching today but we got what matters most! A BAPTISM!!! alwayne was baptized in the ocean in the morning. it was so sick. elder newcomb did the baptism and they were being knocked around by all the waves haha. it was pretty funny to see. if they had said the words at the right time, the wave may have baptized him its self haha. but everything went super well. then we had the branch christmas party. we were there for about 6 hours to help out with anything that needed to be done, as well as party with the branch. people were having a good time tho. it was a big success. i think around 70 or 80 people came so we had a great turn out. super fun day really haha
Sunday 12-21-14
well we confirmed alwayne in sacrament meeting today. i was the one who confirmed him. it was a bit scary haha. i have never done that before. but everything went well. i didnt mess up on the words somehow. now the only thing left for me is to personally baptize someone. but im fine if that doesnt happen haha. other people should do it :) church was pretty good tho. we are starting to go down in numbers, so thats not good. hopefully we can get more people to come tho. we also went to a meeting for george today. we may be doing a lot of service for him. the government kinda screwed him over so he is losing his house in a week. things are starting to get really interesting in yallahs i guess haha.
so thats the week. i enjoyed it a lot. having a baptism is always the best thing ever. its been a long time comin for alwayne as well. now we just need to get him out on a mission in a year haha. its so crazy to think i have been out here for 16 months already. it feels like just yesterday that i was home playing nba 2k haha. its gonna be a sad day in august. but at the same time, i cant wait to go home so i can come back to jamaica and see everyone!!!! Jamrock for life baby!!! haha :D
Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham
Scripture Thought
The Christmas Story
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Week 69
well wa gwan everyone?
this week was pretty eventful. i got the news of grandpa dying on Tuesday. that was a pretty big shock. but thankfully the gospel tells us there is more to look forward to. im doing pretty alright with it all. but anyways.... here is the week....
Monday 12-8-14
today was so stressful. we went into kingston to shop at price smart. its like a costco for down here. i dont know why i always get excited to go to places like that and megamart. they are still way expensive cause you have to buy it all in bulk. plus i think the food will last about the same amount of time. of course, i still have it so im doing pretty good with it all haha. we had a good night teaching when we got back tho. we had to hurry up to joyces house and have a games night there. it was very relaxing for her. a lot of stress seemed to come off of her shoulders with it. then we went down to george and leonard for a short spiritual thought. i always love going there. they are extremely humble people. i love seeing their love for the gospel and the commitment to always live it. so a stressful start, to a relaxing finish i guess haha.
Tuesday 12-9-14
we got quite a bit of work done today. we were able to watch the restoration dvd with sister loague. that was really good. she said that we always come with something that she is thinking of. sometimes knowing peoples concerns helps a bit haha. then we had a realy good lesson with Shashay today, the girl we had a different lesson with on sunday. she ended up reading all of the plan of salvation pamphlet, marked it up, answered the questions in the back, and put a little part of it on Facebook!!! man it was awesome to see! we had a really good lesson with her too. there was a small interruption that drove the spirit away but she still understood it super well. prepared people are the best!
Wednesday 12-10-14
well.... today was pretty crappy. we started out going to alwayne and having him teach us a lesson on alma 56. he did a super good job. he is gonna be a fantastic missionary when he is baptized. so that was really good. and we even had a really good talk/lesson with sister grant. man is she a saint. i am convinced that she will be going to the celestial kingdom. she is just so nice to everyone, and sacrifices so much to go to church and help people. she is always at church no matter what. but the day fell apart from there. i found out about grandpa during this time. that was a complete shock. but as i said before. im doing pretty well with it. it looks like he died in a good way. just went out peaceful. the rest of the day we didnt really see a lot of people. we had a good family home evening with sister alvarenga about revelation. thats really about it tho.
Thursday 12-11-14
we had zone conference in kingston with elder martinez of the 70 today. it was super good. it was more of a discussion about a talk we were supposed to read. but i forgot to read it haha. guess i better get to reading it here soon haha. then we got all of our christmas gifts. i opened mine pretty fast (sorry mom haha ;) ) i was pretty stressed out today for some reason. not really sure why. hopefully by tomorrow it can just settled down so i can have a good day.
Friday 12-12-14
well we only saw daquon and alwayne today. we went up and read a little bit of alma 34 with daquon. he wanted to go in and play some video games so we only got to read like half of the chapter with him. not really too much you can do there. then we went over and alwayne teach us again. this time we had him go from alma 32. once again tho, he did a fantastic job. he teaches things very simply, asks inspired questions, and relates it to the person he is teaching very well. he makes me feel like a bad missionary haha. we gave him prayer as a topic that he needs to teach us on now. hopefully we can take him teaching with us real soon. for friday night activity we ended up having a rap battle. of course i stayed out of it haha. i cant rap worth a crap ;) but it was prety fun haha :)
Saturday 12-13-14
we saw a lot of people today. probably around like 7. but only like 4 of them really were numbers. oh well. they were still effective lessons so i cant complain about that at all :) the big lessons that we had were with daquon and sonya. with daquon we went up and read with him. we just finished the last part of alma 34 with him. he seemed to learn from it. hopefully he will apply it tho. he needs to talk to elder newcomb about some stuff really bad right now. the good thing is that he is one of the only people that i see that really let the scriptures speak to him. he really learns a lot from them and can really feel the spirit talking to him when something comes up. its way cool to see. then our lesson with sonya was interesting we read from alma 47 to start out. then we got onto her going to some parties, to having good friends. everything is good with her really. we somehow got onto the topic of our life stories too. not much for me to really say haha. i was a sheltered child :) i was a bit worried that it was too off topic but she didnt hesitate to say the closing prayer so i guess it was all worth while haha. building relationships with people is one of my favorite things down here. i never want to bring random people to the gospel. just my friends and family. mostly family tho haha. i dont have friends down here. just family :) right now i just really want alwayne to come to church tomorrow. if he comes then he can be baptized.....
Sunday 12-14-14
ALWAYNE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!! WE ARE GOING TO BE HAVING A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY!!!!! im so stoked for that! its been way too long since i have seen a baptism. he is so ready for baptism and i cant wait for it to happen! elder hall and i had to go up and rebuke daquon tho. he didnt come to church cause "he didnt feel like it". we gave him a good chastisement but also did it very lovingly. if he doesnt come to church next week then i am going to hit him over the head with a rock. well maybe not that bad, but im gonna want to hurt him bad haha. we had to do a lot of tracting today tho. a lot of things blew out so we just tried to hand out some pamphlets and cards.
so thats the week. one thing i love down here is meeting prepared people. whether it be a young adult in porty, a family in spanish town, a teenager girl in santa cruz, or a young male in yallahs, its the best thing ever! they always end up being such great friends and family to me! i just cant wait to come to jamaica again to visit everyone without time restrictions haha!!!!
Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham
Scripture Thought
2 Nephi 31:18
Monday, December 8, 2014
Week 68
hey everyone!
we have been in Kingston for some shopping today. thats why this is so late. so i dont have my journal with me so it may be a short email today. we did a lot of biking tho. we went to a place called Llandeway. look at the directions on google maps and you can see how far it is haha. too far for me
Monday 12-1-14
well we went and talked with sheika for a bit today. i dont really remember what happened. all i know is that it was pday and it was a bit relaxing. at least i hope that it was haha.
Tuesday 12-2-14
today i did a tradeoff with elder newcomb in his area. with transfers tomorrow, i had to get one more in so it was officially in the transfer haha. it was pretty fun. we were able to see quite a bit of people during the day. it seems everytime i go into their area its a good day haha. maybe that can happen for ours here soon. we had a good week, but we get pretty average days.
Wednesday 12-3-14
in district meeting i taught about D&C 20:37. we went really in depth with all of the qualifications. it seems like it was super good. hopefully it helped the other elders tho. today we were able to see joyce. we went over the family proclamation to the world a bit cause she isnt getting along with her family. idk whose fault it is, but its pretty stupid. it was an alright lesson. joyce read finally. and she was really into it. now we just need to get her reading everyday. we were also able to have a family home evening with sister alvarenga again. we showed the thing that we did on sunday. it went alright. sister alvarenga seems way excited to share the gospel with this christmas thing so i guess that i cant complain haha.
Thursday 12-4-14
well today was the day that we biked out to Llandeway. that was a far bike ride. we had some appointments blow out so elder hall and i decided that we would just go on a road until we felt like we had to stop. well, when we felt like it, it was time to go back for lunch. we didnt see a lot of people out there but the land sure was pretty. its worth a drive when i come back haha :) we were able to see daquon today. that was a good lesson. he is really back on track. he told us that he would be early to church this sunday. as long as we talk about what he knows is going to help him, the lessons are always super good. we also saw Alwayne today. we had a lesson on tithing. really he knows it all. he just needs to come to church 2 times in a row to be baptized. he wants to do it so hopefully he starts to act more on it. then we went and talked with george for a bit. he is going through a rough time so we just went down to help him out a bit. things in yallahs are going pretty good.
Friday 12-5-14
haha man was today interesting. we dropped sister bassett today. she is just too hard hearted. she wont act on anything we teach her so there is no point in going back there. we said some other things to her but thats for a different conversation haha. then our lesson with joyce was pretty bad. she didnt really want a lesson so we just read with shantoy. joyce eventually joined us and we left them with some homework. friday nigh activity was awful too. we had a big spirit of contention there with a lot of things. first sheika was mad and i had to talk to her about it. then i got pissed and basically didnt talk to any missionaries for the rest of the night. not the best day in the world.
Saturday 12-6-14
today we had a really good day for numbers. we went to alwayne and went over d&c 20:37 with him. he is all set. we had a small concern about that but we figured everything out in the lesson. then we went and had a lesson with daquon. we wanted us to read something from the book of mormon with him that he came across on friday night. so thats what we did. it was alma 32. he seemed to like the first part of it more. kinda rare, but i think i might too haha. its so cool. we kinda got kicked out of a lesson tho. we just kinda pushed someone outta their comfort zone and they kicked us out in a very nice way. i felt bad about it. i talked to the person at church about it and they said that nothing happened then. idk about that but ill take it i guess. we still have a good relationship with the person so im not too worried.
Sunday 12-7-14
we ended the transfer off really good. we had alwayne come to church, so that means that he only needs to be on time one more week and he can be baptized! super stoked with that! we also had a lesson with a new person. it was pretty good. we will see what happens on tuesday tho to see if we keep going back there. we also saw sonya today. the main thing i learned there is that i need to shut up haha. ever since i have gotten to yallahs i have been a freaking chatter box. i will probably be having elder hall talk a lot more. i need to allow other people to talk and also the spirit. when i speak, there is almost no time for someone to really listen to the spirit. sometimes its just me rambling on about nothing. this week i will be controlling that tho.
so we had a good week i would say :) we hit 20 lessons and the district had some good effective numbers as well. time on my mission is going by way fast all of the sudden. sometimes i wish it would be faster but most of the time i just wish it would slow down haha. the mission is just too much fun. i have found more members of my family down here. all my friends here are a part of my family. its almost like i just belong here in jamaica. haha we'll see tho. maybe ill just retire to here :)
Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham
Scripture Thought
1 Corinthians 15:54-57