Week 11

so first off, i have a Patois (pat-wa) Bible! its so funny. whoever can guess what verse this is will get a shoutout next week! (its all i got ok.... haha)

"Den Pitta memba we Jiizas did se: "Bifou di russta kruo, yu a-go se yu no nuo mi, chrii taim. pitta go outsaid an im baal, an im baal, an im baal so til."

Just remember, i have to listen to that almost everyday from people speaking it. its super hard! this is not an English speaking mission!!

Day 83 Monday
it rained like crazy during our lesson today!  we were having a Family Home Evening with the Campbell family. the lightning was right over us. there was one flash that had no delay to the sound! it was super loud! and its not a crack of thunder, its a big BOOM!!! super sick! the power was out too so it was weird. thats really only like the 3rd time ive been inside a house when the power is out. it was also weird cause we were trying to teach someone in the family who is not baptized by not teaching her directly. its really confusing. we are just trying to get her with as many experiences with the spirit before we teach her directly.

Day 84 Tuesday
we had like 2 lessons today. thats super sad cause the first one didnt happen till like 3pm. it was brother banter. he is doing pretty good. he is still a little crazy but there is no doubt that he is converted. we taught him about the sabbath and he was acceptive to it. that surprised us cause he is a former 7th day. somehow he didnt bring up the whole saturday is the sabbath thing. we are starting to think that he was never too converted to the 7th day church. the other lesson we had was with loreen. we taught her the law of chastity and rightfully so. the note she gave us on friday was super sketchy. she said that it was just a misunderstanding. we dont think she knew what we were talking about. she said that it was an assignment that she did for a class tho. that just means too things. 1) she is super naive. 2) that is one creepy teacher. we set up another appointment with her tomorrow. she gave us another note so that lesson is gonna depend on what is in the other note.

Day 85 Wednesday
today we had district meeting. as usual, it was really good. i also got the Patios Bible :) super funny as i said before. driving to ochi always sucks tho. we never get back to Port Antonio until like 3 or 4pm. the only lesson we had once we got back was with loreen agian. we dropped her. we found that the second note was even worse than the first one. we talked to her about it and she said that she had given it out to other people too. it was a quote from a book. we decided to drop her until after transfers just to be safe tho. she said that she would continue to read tho. she is in like alma right now. i did confirm with Kashane tho that she does have a crush on Elder Dalley so now we have to wait until he leaves Porty to teach her. kinda a downer but its better safe than sorry

Day 86 Thursday
so Chantel, a referral we got from Asha-gaye in the branch, is awesome! she is the one that we almost had to give to the other missionaries cause we didnt know where she lived. she got a very weird answer to know that what we teach is true but we'll take it haha. she wanted to see a bird with a yellow belly. idk if she saw it in a dream or not but she saw it so she believes us haha. dont worry tho. we taught her how the Holy Ghost works so she can get a real answer. she keeps a all of the commitments tho. she is very prepared. we just have to have her parents give written permission to be baptized on November 30th cause she is 16.

Day 87 Friday
it hit me today that transfer calls are in a week and then transfer day is in just under 2 weeks. its weird to think that i may have a new companion. i almost dont want that but it will be good to expand my teaching. everyone says that im gonna train the Jamaican elder from Linstead that comes but i think that its gonna be my MTC comp elder henderson that does that. our numbers for key indicators this week have been super low. me and elder dalley decided that we got a bit lazy and we are going to repent and be sure to not do that again. brother banter was the only lesson that we had today. he finally got the Godhead. we just need him to realize that he prays to God the Father, not Jesus. hes a work in progress...

Day 88 Saturday
our main lesson today was with Roshane. he came in and told us that he doesnt need to read cause he already knows that the 7th day church is true. we tried for like 20 minutes to tell him he needs to read to really know. we finally changed our approach and committed him to read to know if we are a true church or a false church. we felt bad about that commitment but whatever gets him reading at this point is fine by us. if there is one thing that ive learned out here its that i dont like the 7th day church a lot. they are very stubborn where i am.

Day 89 Sunday
church here in porty is always a party. a lot of the members dont have all of their screws in the right place but they are very converted. its hard to know what they say a lot tho cause of all the Patios. maybe the bible will help haha. jk. there is a reason that will never be part of the standard works haha. we taught the Campbell family about missonary work. not sure if they got the point to the lesson so we may have to reteach it haha. oh well. ive also been super bad at my journal. i never thought that writing would be a big stress and work to me. oh well. it does help me with my emails home ;)

not really much else to say. see you all next week!
Love,
Elder Kurt Meacham

Week 10

Whagwan?!

so mini news, my Book of Mormon that ive had for the last 11 years has fallen apart. i had to get some new scriptures. i was pretty ok with that cause i got the new 2013 Quad! first time in my life that i have had a quad! plus they are the new ones! they look really weird on the inside but its by far the best version!

Day 76 Monday

Most productive pday ever! we didnt teach a lot (of course. never cut into a missionaries pday haha) but we still had an awesome day! really we only had one lesson but it was a sick one! we taught Roshane. he is a 7th day who is 19 years old and super committed to Christ! the only problem is that he is stubborn and thinks that the 7th day church is true. which from what ive heard is an apostate group from the LDS Chruch. i guess that Ellen G. White, their "prophet" used to be a Mormon. but anyways during the lesson we decided to reteach the book of mormon. the last lesson we had didnt go to well so we thought that it would be the best thing to do. Usually when we teach Roshane, he tries to teach us. this time he didnt tho! we sat there and just listened to us! we also shared the mormon message about Elder Hollands testimony of the book of mormon. it brought in the spirit so strongly! hopefully this will help with his conversion and he starts reading the book!

Day 77 Tuesday

Traveling i think is our best investigator now. we always have appointments with it haha. we are starting to go out to Brother Banter in San San a lot cause he is supposed to be baptized on November 16th. problem with him: he believes almost everything that he sees on TV. were gonna watch a video with him here soon and see what that does haha. our other main lesson was with a former part member family. i say former cause the one person in the family who wasnt LDS was baptized just a few weeks ago. i really love to teach them! Brother Campbell (the new member) is super funny! he is always cracking jokes when we teach him! its never at bad times either so that helps majorly!

Day 78 Wednesday

i realized today that we only have 3 full days of teaching. the only days we have are tuesday, thrusday, and saturday. all of the other days we have church, meetings, and super planning, and pday i guess haha. going to district meeting is worth it tho. Elder Dalley does a good job with them. everyone thinks that ill be the next district leader and train the 1 missionary that will be coming in next transfer. its how it has worked with all of the missionaries that he has trained. they are the leader and a trainer for the next transfer haha. we ran into loreen at the church too. she is Janets kid. we decided to teach her cause if we keep waiting to teach the whole family then she will never be baptized. we had a pretty good lesson with her about the word of wisdom. she lives it already haha.

Day 79 Thursday

i hate not knowing where people live. with the 4 missionaries here we split the parish at the church. we got a super prepared investigator but she goes to church over by our house. which is the other missionaries area. we are hoping that she lives on our side of the parish. she is super prepared! she is a referral from a member. they are best friends so it helps a ton with member present lessons! she even gave us a referral on the first lesson! the person is out in Buff Bay so its the other missionaries person haha. Buff Bay is a 30min drive from here if you are going toward Ochi. we then had a lesson with Kenroy later in the day. he is Kadeens friend. the lesson was on the book of mormon. just like monday with roshane, IT WAS AWEOMSE! we played elder hollands testimony again and he said that he was definitely going to read it! we are so going to play that if we can for every lesson on the book of mormon!

Day 80 Friday

almost everything that we had scheduled didnt happen. we only had one appointment follow through and it was with Brother Colthirst. the blind LA member. he is still super awesome tho! we met up with loreen again tho. its weird for us cause we told her the next time we could see her was tuesday. we moved some stuff around and decided to go and see her. she is progressing really well. she just needs to come to church! we then spent over an hour after the lesson helping her find taxi fare to get home. apparently she thought that Kashane would give it to her but really he had no money to give. we remembered a member that lives near the church and sheepishly begged him for money for her. he willingly gave it tho so thank heavens for that. she did put something in elder dalleys backpack tho. ill ask him about it tomorrow.

Day 81 Saturday

today we had a day of service. we just cleaned up the beach for a few hours today. the news even came and did a small story on it. they interviewed me. ill bet $10 jamaican that they will put me on the news cause im a white boy haha. after that i found out what loreen put in elder dalleys bag. she gave him a song that she had wrote for him. at first i thought it was nothing but when i started reading it i freaked out. she has a crush on us. its really scary. i thought that we might have to have an emergency transfer. its super creepy too. we called the zone leaders about it and they laughed. they also said we need to teach her the law of chastity if you catch my drift. on a scale of 1-10 on how bad it is with 10 being horrible, its at like a 13!

Day 82 sunday

remind me to never go less active or go apostate. we went to a members house to coordinate for a lesson and her mom came our. her mom stopped going to church a few weeks before i came here cause she got offended. she has now almost completely denied the church. its so bad that i almost kicked her in the face when she told us that it was the biggest mistake of her life to let her kids come into the church and that she wanted to take all their names off of the church list. she can make her choice but her kids still have their choices!

So thats my week in Jamaica. not a bad week if you ask me haha

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Week 9 (Photos will be posted tomorrow)

Hey Guys!

 

 

so i have a special announcment. i am probably one of the only people in the Jamaica Kingston Mission history to ever drive a car while in training! driving here is kinda weird cause its on the left side and the wheel is on the right. but dont worry, i didnt crash haha.

Day 69 Monday

Today was super hecktic! it was National Heroes Day down here so 99% of the stores were closed! National Heroes Day is what it sounds like. they celebrate all their national heroes. Jamaicans take their holidays very serious so thats why almost everywhere was closed down. we had to do emailing between the 4 of us missionaries on one computer so it took a long time. luckily we took turns. me and elder dalley went shopping while the other 2 were doing their emails. later in the day the church had a small activity for the Day so we decided to go to that. it was pretty fun. everyone just got up and made of a fool of themselves on purpose! somehow i talked myself into going up there. to be honest.... it sucked. i dont preform well haha.

Day 70 Tuesday

strange strange strange strange day today. we tried to see a member who went to the doctor. i guess on monday he fainted from high blood pressure and sugar, and a fever. one of the members of the branch presidency wanted us to give him a preisthood blessing. the only reason he didnt then is cause he had no oil. i may be giving him some here soon cause he is always calling us. well to say the least, we never found the member. he wasnt there when we were. we went up to a guy who is LA and saw him. he is awesome! if he gets back to church then he could very well be the next branch president!

Day 71 Wednesday

Today we had district meeting in Ochi and we did a trade off. With the car that we now have, every single meeting we have is gonna be in ochi since we can drive. elder dalley is the main driver but president brown didnt think of trade offs with that. after awhile he told me to watch the driving safety video and for me to drive when elder dalley couldnt! i was excited but scared at the same time cause Jamaican drivers are absolutely nuts! so after district meeting i drove us the 2 hours home to Port Antonio. Elder Dalley stayed in Ochi for the trade off. we saw Shanique when we got back. she is super prepared and really converted! Golden Investigator by far!

Day 72 Thursday

i did almost nothing today. me and elder beck had to leave at 11am to go back to ochi so we just went and got him some Bag Juice. NOTE: if you wanna make a lotta money, sell bag juice! its the best thing since sliced bread! which is also amazing i found out haha. we didnt get to Ochi till one and then we had to wait for the other elders to get back to the ochi house. me and elder dalley didnt leave Ochi till after 2 45 cause we had to eat and then i bought a couple of hats to wear around the house. hats are still my life haha. we didnt get back to Port Antonio till like 4 45 cause of all the time we wasted in ochi. then we taught one of our 7th day "investigators". the kid tried to teach us again. he is super solid and thats the problem. the 7th day church really changed his life and he is really stuck on that. hopefully the Spirit will convince him here soon.

Day 73 Friday

so i finally got the package that the family sent me a month ago. the stuff in there isnt going to last me long haha. the circus peanuts are still off limits till christmas tho haha (your welcome fudgebag lol). everyone in my apartment isnt all that excited for that. i guess i have the only bags of them on the island and they all like them a lot. Today for teaching we went out to San San on our bikes. thats like a 90min ride! then went 45 back toward the church, and then 30 min back toward San San. lets just say that me and my bike are in a complicated relationship right now.

Day 74 Saturday

first off. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BRO! DONT CRASH THE CAR!! we went to a member to try and get a referral today. it was frustrating. she is a MAJOR talker! sometimes she will go off about random things that has nothing to do with anyones salvation and she doesnt even realize it! Kudos to the missionaries who taught her a year ago. dont get me wrong tho, she is all for sharing the gospel and has super good referrals. we didnt get one today but she is gonna help us a lot! we tried to have a family history lesson with Kadeen but it was a disaster. Family Search just didnt like us for the day

Day 75 Sunday

So can i just say that i love the brach here! there are some people who have some amazing faith! the blind guy who came last week came again! Brother Colthirst is less active but is starting to come back to church! he has almost no money and he is coming! we love the guy! Kadeen also came to church. the reason that is awesome is cause since she has been coming teaching with us a lot. her money got kinda low with all the taxiing that we did. she wasnt sure if she was gonna be able to make it home or not but she still came! super sick and super solid Recent Convert!

i guess thats really all that i have for today. any other questions or things you guys wanna know??

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

 

Week 8

hey everyone!

we got a car so now when we go to mo bay it doesnt cost a lot! no one has driven in jamaica before so its weird being on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car.

Day 62 Monday

today was super slow. we spent most of our pday in the stores around town shopping. not the funnest thing to do at all. it sucked too cause i remembered that i still had a flat from before so we were going to get that fixed when we started to teach. someone came and fixed it but forgot to put my brakes back on afterwards and we couldnt do it. thankfully someone came and did it for us and we talked to him a bit. the teaching was super short cause that took up quite a bit of time.

Day 63 Tuesday

today we drove to Ochi at like 6pm so our teaching was super short today. none of us have ever driven in jamaica before so we were pretty scared. elder dalley is the driver and that scared us way bad. he started going to kingston before we got to Annotto bay, hit a curb on a bidge majorly, he was hogging the left side of the road too much haha. and then almost went the wrong way on a round a bout when we got tried to fix the kingston problem. we did get to ochi in one piece tho so dont worry haha

day 64 wednesday

our whole day was full of driving. we got up early and left Ochi at 6 so we could be to Mo bay by 8 30. we hung out there for a bit and then had zone meeting at 10. president brown and the aps came so that was cool. zone meeting was super sick too! it was all about how we need to really start using the members in the lessons and how we need to use them to get referrals. pretty cool if you ask me haha. it was like 2pm before we got out. we dropped off ochi and went back to porty tho. about the time that we got to Port Maria a huge storm came and hit us. we were gong like 20kmph and hugging the left line. it was nuts! not what we wanted for our first time driving in jamaica haha! we did get back in one piece agian so thats good news.

day 65 thursday

today was just really stressful. i was super homesick and almost came home. luckly i went throught the day and decided to stay. im not one to quit on stuff i start so im gonna stick this one out. i think that the main things im missing are: sunday drives to harts, my family, friends, sports, and the fact that i probably gave up a great job up at KSL. i never relized just how much that i really gave up to come out here. i guess its worth it tho. plus i do get to talk to everyone once a week so that helps a lot!

day 66 friday

we finally got back to brother banter! he is the investigator that just randomly showed up to church and sasid that he wanted to be baptized. we forgot about him for like 3 weeks so we felt really bad and wanted a second chance at him. thank goodness the Lord had mercy that he gave us another chance. we are not going to let this one go away again. we had a desire lesson with him and he still seems interested to know if what we teach is true so we are going to be sure we see im like 3 times a week. we also had president brown stay the night. he was doing a baptism interview for someone. we didnt teach the guy, the senior couple who works up here did. the guy didnt do anything wrong. president brown just got super excited when he heard that he was being baptized that he wanted to do the interview and the baptism. apparently he has been trying to be taught for like 20 years. he finally got taught a bit ago and is going to be baptized tomorrow. its intimidating to have him here but way cool at the same time! he is basically just one of us!

day 67 saturday

well we had a baptism for the first time in a month! of cousse it wasnt ours but we get to count it in our nuimbers. not about the stats but still. pretty cool haha. president brown is the one who baptized hiom. once that was over he just went back to kingston. it was way cool to have him here tho! he taught us a few things that we are definatly going to be sure to use in our work! we got to a less acitve member and got him to say that he is coming to church. the only reason that he doesnt really come a lot is cause he is blind and doesnt have any money to take a taxi. he also will not beg for money cause its very demeaning to him. which is a good thing just so you know. big respect on that one. he said that he was going to be there tho so thats a good thing.

day 68 sunday

today was awesome! we had brother banter come to church! thats a miracle cause he told us that he couldnt be there this week! he came and loved it tho! he said that he is going to make his choice really soon on if he wants to be here permenatly! big time work that we need to do! brother colthirst also came! he is the blind guy! he said that as him and his wife were walking to church, someone came up to them and offered them a free ride! this is why people need faith. the Lord will always provide a way if yiou try to do what he says you should be doing! miricales are working around us and we need to take advantage!!!

Keaden- HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THE 26TH LITTLE BRO!!!!!!!!! ITS NUTS TO THINK THAT YOU ARE THAT OLD! JUST THINK, YOU COULD BE DOING THIS IN 4 YEARS TIME. you have to be out of school first haha. JUST DONT CRASH THE CAR WHEN YOU START DRIVING LOL!!!

thats all i got for this week. kinda a weird week but pretty cool at the same time. we had zone conference cancelledc this week so idk when i will be back there but hopefully soon. and just so you know, for any one that goes to Mo Bay on a cruise, its a crappy town. its a lot like LA. lots and lots of gangs

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Week 7

hey everyone! jamaica is still the sickest place on earth! i really couldnt imagine being anywhere else. so far ive been chased by dogs once, and i was charged by a goat.... ya that was embarrassing haha

Day 55 monday

today we only had one lesson. we got a referral from the other porty missionaries so we went and taught her. she is really obsessed with visions. she thinks that every dream she has is a vision. now we need to think of a way to tell her that that is not how it works. not sure how to do that but it should be interesting when we tell her that. she also talks a lot so its hard to say a whole lot. a 10 minute lesson plan turns into us being there for like an hour. its nuts! 

Day 56 Tuesday

we did service today. i felt bad cause we were running late and could only stay for like 30min. we are way behind on studies that trainees have to do so thats why we stayed for so short. we then went up to Stephanie and had a good lesson! i think she is finally starting to get this obey thing! hopefully she comes to church this week! we had a long ride out to Clear Springs so we could teach Shanique. i dont think that ive mentioned her yet but she is way sick! she loves hearing what we have to say and accepts everything! shes been to church once. she missed last week cause her daughter was in Kingston in the hospital. kinda weird with that one. no details. we wanted to teach janet but she wasnt home and it turned into a horror film. her house is way in the forest and it got scary cause we heard something in the bushes. lets just say that we booked it out when we could haha

day 57 wednesday

elder gordon got transferred to portmore (near kingston). he was the native missionary in my house. we got elder strickland who doesnt know where he is from cause he has moved so much. we told the district about our one investigator for prayers. within a few days he had his mom die, house burn down, and get thrown in jail for "something he didnt do". sometimes things happen haha. we taught Julia again. ..... that was a lot of talking. it was long and lets leave it at that haha. im starting to wake up really cold. i have no blanket. just a sheet. i got thinking, and i realized one thing. ITS NOT EVEN 70 DEGREES! I BET ITS LIKE 75! haha temperature is really screwed up here haha

day 58 thrusday

it was a painful day. normally when we start out our days we stay near the church. this time we went clear out to Clear Springs to teach shanique. my legs werent used to riding yet so the ride there hurt a bit. sometimes i wish i rode my bike more but then i think, nope, there is a reason i had a car. they are nice haha. our dinner appointment blew out cause she had gone to kingston. it wasnt too bad cause she is a member ahah. we went and bought some food and then taught stephanie. she is still doing really well

day 59 friday

super planning took up a lot of time today so we had almost no lessons. it used to rain in the nights mostly but now its creeping up into the time that we are out. like i said before, people hate rain here. they all take cover in their homes. they wont let us come cause its rude to make us be in the rain i guess. president brown did say we could have lessons in the KFC tho.... might need to try that haha. my bike gave me trouble too. i had a flat so we went and got that fixed. then as we were riding along, like 3 min later, my other tire blew out. we had to walk clear back and get that fixed. that took up a lot of our time too. i think i spent like 1200 on it cause i had to get new tubes too. so glad that my bike was only 7000 instead of the 20000 for the new ones.

day 60 saturday

its crazy to think that its basically been 2 months since i went into the MTC! its gone by pretty fast! only 22 months left i guess.... cool but not cool at the same time. we have not had a lot of lessons this week. travel time is really killing us and people keep blowing out. we always get stuck on what to do. president brown did say that he wanted less lessons and more baptisms but this isnt the way he is planning i dont think. Julia is still obsessed with visions! we have not found a good way to tell her no yet. we did find one thing out tho. there is a big difference between state side missionaries and the missionaries down here with that topic. when a state side missionary hears that, they think "dude that is the coolest thing ever! your so elect to have seen that! will you be baptized tomorrow!?". when we hear that, we think, "aw crap. not another vision! why does everyone think they have visions!?" its kinda funny but frustrating haha...

day 61 sunday

fasting is real hard for me. ive only done it one time in my life and that was last month. when i was out here. thankfully i had something to fast for this month so it wasnt too bad. church is still really awesome! we only had one person that we are teaching show up so we need to improve on that. i did get charged by a goat. it was probably the funniest thing ever! 2 other missionaries messed with it and nothing happened. but when i went to it it charged me! why do all goats hate me!?! haha. we taught Kadeens friend tho. he is way in the world but he can progress fast if he wants to. it was really the only lesson we had. hopefully things look up next week!

thats all i really got this week! hope that everyone is doing well!

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Week 6

HELP IVE FALLEN AND I CANT GET UP!!!! haha conference was awesome if you couldnt tell from that! it was the first time that i watched them all and the first time that i took notes! i loved every second of it! i have like 18 pages of notes! its weird to think that its already the end of the first transfer. im staying here in Port Antonio with Elder Dalley for at least the next 6 weeks so no changes on my end.

Day 48 Monday

i think that the tropical storm is way close cause it is super wet! i was drenched when i went for emails. my shopping was way cheaper too. it wasnt the $3100 like last week haha. i did find out that some CDs that i bought before dont work so im gonna have to get more. i wanna get a few discs with the Mormon Messages on them haha. no teaching today cause they all blew out. people need to learn to keep commitments

Day 49 Tuesday

we did some more online training and it was about family history. i never knew how big that stuff really was! its something that i wanna do now and me and elder dalley are gonna be sure to use it as a finding idea! people are interested in it! Teaching is still hard this week cause it keeps raining. we have to find shelter like all the jamaicans do. its more of a finding activity but its not bad cause we do need people to teach. Rainy Season is almost done, like the end of the month i think, so after that its just going to be like 75 degrees till christmas and april haha.

Day 50 Wednesday

Today was super sick! district meeting was in Ochi today and it was all about planning and finding people. even the APs showed up!  after that was over they took us to Annotto Bay which really helped with taxi fare. we then went out on an hour long bike ride to get to our teaching appointments. we taught a less active and got him to come teaching with us after an hour break! then we went and taught our golden investigators! they are so sick! November 4th is gonna be a great day for them! Prepared people are awesome!!!

Day 51 Thursday

we had a slow but productive day again. my lunch took an hour to make so i had to eat it while making it if that makes sense. then we went and taught stephanie right before our dinner appointment. she is pretty receptive to the gospel but doesnt understand the importance of obeying the commandments too well. we still have a ways to go. after that we went to the church and preped kashane on a lesson. Kashane is a member who is 18 and getting ready for a mission. he just has medical papers to send in and he is good. we thought that he would get along great with Janets 16 year old daughter Cutie. dont worry that is just her yard name. her real name is Lorene. ALWAYS PREPARE THE MEMBERS FUTURE MISSIONARIES!!!!

Day 52 Friday

Today was super strange. during personal study we had one of our investigators text us saying that he was in jail. the police just have not been very kind to us haha. a few days ago they came to our door at 6am. they asked us a few questions and then said they had the wrong house when we told them that we were missionaries. then they pulled us over that same night and got mad cause we didnt have lights on our bikes. ironically, they were stolen earlier in the day. we told them that and they asked if we reported it. we thought to ourselves, who cares. they're like $700. we really cant do anything. cops are so weird. but i guess our investigators house burnt down, his mom died, and he is supposedly innocent from whatever they said he did. hopefully he will get out cause we are gonna teach him no matter what. the question is just, what lesson does he need right now?! every lesson applies to him at this point! really weird.

Day 53 Saturday CONFERENCE

i have decided that conference is aweome! i guess i kinda gave a lot of info at the beginning of the letter so thats basically it! we had no teaching cause we went to all 3 sessions today. we did find out patterns of how conference works and who talks on what. the pattern didnt happen this time but one thing did for sure. Ever since Elder Bednar become part of the 12 in 2004, he has not had a talk where he didnt say in some sorta way "i pray that the holy ghost will be with me in this talk". of course he said it again and all us missionaries laughed so hard! it was sick! Elder Gifford Nielsons talk was way good too. ive been waiting to hear him speak since he got put in the 70.

Day 54 Sunday CONFERENCE

nothing really went on today so ill just put some quotes that i liked from conference

"Never look back, always look at what you still have to do" "its not where you serve, its how" Edward Dube

"Sometimes we must act instead of expecting" Bednar

"Take up your cross and join with us!" Uchtdorf

"the work will never move forward without the members" Gifford Nielson

"we chose to live in a fallen world" "the love of god is there for you whether you deserve it or not" "Dawn will break!" Elder Holland

"we should strive to be in the world but not of the world" "there are no strangers or outcasts" Gerald Causse

"I had fallen and i couldnt get up" "rise up and become men of god" "rise up, stand up, and walk in the light" Uchtdorf

"the lord knew you would have those days" "i knew you could and would..." Eyring

"look to the lords law for our standard" Oaks

"dont trade your membership for the world" "living the gospel is not always easy or comfortable, but its worth it" Bonnie Oscerson

"Dedication Perseverance, and self disipline" "you must become the rock the river cannot wash away" Richard J Maynes (who came and spoke at the MTC)

"the stronger the wind, the stronger the tree" Monson

"make any necessary sacrifices to protect you children and the future generation" Cook

"Sin is still sin even if its legal to man" Nelson

Thats all i got for this week, hopefully it seems interesting to you cause it is for me haha

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham

Week 5

Whagwan everyone?! if emails could have feelings then this one would be crying a lot. it rained freakin hard on our way to the internet cafe so i am completely soaked right now! Jamaican weather is absolutely crazy! all the missionaries are super stoked for conference to be this week! we've been looking forward to this for a while. me and elder dalley are gonna try to use a lot of talks for the next 2 weeks with our investigators. Following the Prophet is gonna be the main lesson we teach so that it leads into them coming to Conference. i think that this is gonna be the first time ever that i will see all 5 sessions. ive always been asleep for the morning ones so it will be really cool to see them all for the first time! its also weird to think that the first transfer is almost over. ill still be here in port antonio with elder dalley for the next transfer but the time really has flown by! i want 2 years to seem like that but at the same time i really dont cause i love it down here!

Day 41 monday

Pday defiantly helped out a lot. after not feeling the spirit on sunday i had it back for today. Good news and bad news. Good News: i finally got to play basketball!!! ive been waiting so long for this! Elder Gordon (native missionary) and i went to the other side of town and played. Bad news: i found out that my MTC name, Elder Baller, is gone. i sucked it up so bad. it was like i was playing church ball again haha. it has been a month since ive played but it was still super bad. hopefully over the next few weeks ill have that back. We'll be going in the mornings so waking up at 5aminstead of 6:30 is gonna be interesting. I also got a very good quote in my emails that really helped out my day. "Dont Give Up, Dont Ever Give Up" - Jimmy V. probably my favorite quote of all time. its simple, blunt, and very loving. 

Day 42 tuesday

We got quite a bit of new investigators today! we had a goal to get 4 new ones and we got 4! they werent the 4 that we were planning on but who cares about that! 4 people are interested in the gospel! the family is still really screwed up down here. people just get married in their hearts cause some of them are Rasta, and its against their religion i guess. law of Chastity is the "make or break" lesson i guess. we taught a couple who has been together for 8 years but is not married. the guy didnt keep the commitment to read the restoration pamphlet but the girl did. she read it like 4 times. she even did the questions. she felt bad that she couldnt finsh them tho. she didnt have a book of mormon haha. she softly rebuked the guy too for not reading. at the beginning of the lesson we asked her if she would be at church and she wasnt all too sure about it. but by the end of the lesson she was saying that she would for sure be there! SO SICK! we also met a guy named Roshane. he said that he has made some mistakes in his life that he regrets and he just wants to turn his life over to God. he saw the other missionaries one day and talked to them. he lives in our area so they gave us the info. he is a SUPER chill guy! he even brought his brother who didnt seem to interested at first but was very interested by the end. 

Day 43 Wednesday

District meeting was not a disaster this time. Ocho Rios just came here on the taxi so it worked out well. we watched the driving and bicycle safety videos. THEY ARE SUPER CHEESY!! its more of a comedy thing than anything else! but after that we did another trade off. Elder Dalley went to Ocho Rios with elder beck so i stayed in Port Antonio with Elder martin. it was kinda scary cause it was my first time having to really take charge in all of the lessons. Kadeen, the baptism we had on the 14th, came teaching with us all day too so she can get ready for a mission in a year. the day was super good. we had some crazy spiritual lessons and the people really seemed receptive to them. it was an amazing confidence boost for me.

day 44 Thursday

today was super slow. me and elder martin had to go to Ochi to get Elder Dalley so most of our morning was spent doing that. the fare to get there isnt cheap either. its like $600 to get there and $600 to get back by just taxi. if we took the 6am bus then we coulda saved a bill or so but we needed a longer trade off. elder dalley had to cover for me on the way back cause i ran out of cash so i will owe him on monday. we didnt have a lot of lessons cause we didnt get back until like 5pm. we had our dinner appointment and then a lesson next door to that. just to say, Driving in Jamaica really sucks. "come what may and [deal with] it" i guess haha

day 45 friday

During the middle of our weekly planning President Brown stopped by. he came and gave us some super sick advice. basically what he said was that we needed to have less lessons and more baptisms. we need to be sure that the lessons we do have are perfect and we get fellowshipping involved big time. we need to spend more time getting someone to come with us and prepping them by telling them how they will help that person and what parts they will have in the lesson. it really hit hard cause we have been struggling with that. we are really gonna rethink what we're doing and apply that stuff. We tried it that night with a home teaching thing. no one in the branch does their home teaching so its lead to a lot of inactive members i bet. we prepped someone on what was going to happen and then went over to the less actives house. i dont know why we had to be there cause he taught the whole lesson by himself! it was so awesome!

Day 46 Saturday

Days are really starting to get super short. there is almost no time in the day or night for me to do things that i need to do, like laundry or writing in my journal. its quite depressing to be honest. scheduling is very hard too. i guess that anytime after 7pm in jamaica is considered late so our dinner is at 8pm. and then most of the investigators we have live like an hour bike ride away. we cover the eastern side of the Portland parish (state) so its hard to get out there. ive yet to be past Blue Bay but the travel time is nuts. we try to get several appointments out there but its still way crazy. we decided that we are going to switch off every day where we go. one day we will be in prospect and anchovy near the church. and the other day we will go out to Drapers and san san to teach the people out there. hopefully that will all work out. we have been finding a lot of people out there so it should work wonders. it probably wont be long until we just start going out there everyday

day 47 sunday

so for some reason ive been having really weird dreams lately. the past few nights i have been having dreams about some of the girls back home. ya its kinda creepin me out too. everyone in my house says that im gonna have a "Black Dream" tho. i guess that is where you dream that everyone back home is black. im not sure which one is creepier. hopefully the dreams will stop or make sense after a while. we really only had one lesson today. Stephanie, she lives next to our thursday dinnerappointment, finally came to church so we had a lesson with her right after. we taught her the Word of Wisdom. it doesnt look like she has any problems with it. just her baby-husband. its still been raining a lot! i wish i knew where that Tropical Storm/Hurricane was!!! Jamaican rain is just crazy! it can be 100% sunny but rain like crap at the same time! 

Everyone - dont forget to Email any questions you have! i love to answer them! my email iskurtley.meacham@myldsmail.net

Well thats all that i got for this week. Hopefully more will happen for this next week haha

Love,

Elder Kurt Meacham