Letter #31 12/26/11 Happy Holidays!!

Landon loved the dinner cooked for him on this fire!

Christmas Morning 2011!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Cabo San Lucas!

This is how they get hot water.  It does not look safe at all!

Hola famiy, I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! I imagine that you went to IHOP or Denny's, went and spent the rest of the day at grandma's. And i hope that talking to me on saturday wasn't too much of a distraction. I couldn't believe how fast the 2 hours went. Surprisingly, even with 2 hours there's a few things that i forgot to say. Question, how much does it cost me to use my debit card. Also, i'd like it if you sent pictures every once in a while. I can put them on my memory card and print them out in wallmart really cheap. I felt like i talked a little too much saturday and i realized that i had a lot of questions for you guys that never got answered. How was the Funeral? I was at a Funeral that same day for a sister in the ward that passed away. We song a lot of hyms and bore testimonies. The entire time i was thinking of Grandma Thomas. I didn't know her to well but i know she was an amazing women and that right now her spirit is in a really happy place. The Plan of Salvation is true. Also, what classes are Lexi and Mckell taking? And Mom, what do you do with all you're time when Lexi and Mckell are at school and dad is traveling? Did you guys do anything different for Christmas? And dad, have you been swamped with work since you starting covering the offices in Maryland?

So i talked with the sister about when lexi called in advance and she told me that she understood everything you said, she was just a little confused and thought it was a joke from one of her sobrinas that lives in Texas. haha, We had an amazing Christmas yesterday. There were'nt many people at church, but surprisingly there were still a couple gringo families to fill up the empty seats. Haha i was a little surprised to see tourists on Christmas day but it was nice to talk a little english with a family from Utah on Christmas. In the evening we went to San Lucas to sing. We didn't sing to well but it was awesome. There were a lot of people listening and i even got to see a few members from my old area. I was especially glad to see Bernardo, the last baptism that i had there. He is still doing great and we were able to talk for a long time while he gave us a ride home to San Jose in his Mustang.

It was awesome to be able to talk with everyone from the family on Saturday! I'd like to hear from all of them too. Rachel and Ryan were in Oregon i'm guessing? Would've been nice to talk with them too. Well i loved all the packages that you sent!! I loved everything inside each one but i want to especially thank Aunt Melanie for the Hym book, Marcie for the Adam's peanut butter and CD, Grandma for the sweater, and mom for the power bars and the mini Preach my Gospels. Wow those are amazing!! I was studying the lessons today on our busride. And Elder Garcia is incredibly greatful aswell. He me that when he saw me open mine he was going to ask if he could make a copy of every page so he could have one too.

Well thanks for everything. I hope all is well this week and that you guys enjoy the rest of your time together. We have a lot of plans to find new investigadors, we're probably going to start doing english classes so that will be interesting. I love you all. Elder Mecham

Letter #30 12/19/11 Christmas Phone Call!!

Love the Teddy Bear!!

Elder Garcia always has a smile on his face!!

Hey family! This week was pretty good. There was a lot of celebrating this week. Wednesday we had a huge Christmas celebration in San lucas. We had all the Elders in la Paz and Los Cabos meet in San Lucas nd we had some activities and had meeting of testimonies. It was a great day, we didn't get back to hour house until pretty late. I won't lie, i'm a little more than excited to talk to you guys on Christmas. We didn't really have a lot of options for houses where we can talk. Of the active members in our area there are 2 that have phones in there house. We talked with the family who's going to spend their Christmas here in San Jose and they told us that we could do it the 24 in the afternoon. So Saturday at 5 in the afternoon is when we're going to be there in the house waiting the phone call. You guys call the house, the number is   . You should call at 5. We're going to get there at about 430 so don't be scared to call 5 minutes early. The family of Elder Garcia is going to call at 7. I'm extremely sorry about the time. I know thats when everyone allways goes to Grandmas. It was literally the only time that worked out. I understand if you guys would rather go to grandmas.. But i'll be waiting there at the house either way. HAha. But seriously i'm sorry.. I tried to make it work out in a different time but it wasn't going to happen. But the good news is that the family is going to feed us tamalis afterwards!!

Well this week we have had very little success. We spent a lot of time visiting the less active members. It is incredibly frustrating trying to deal with them and all their problems. There are a TON of inactive members, and almost all have testimonies of the church, thier just lazy and don't want to get up early, or have been ofended by someone in the ward and refuse to go. Out of all the inactives we visited, not a single one went to church. I think this week we're going to dedicate a little more of our time to finding more investigadors. But we don't want to find any ordinary investigador, we want to find the escogidos. We know that they're out there, we just need to be obedient and do everything possible to find them, and once we've given everything God will put them in our path. Right now we have a few awesome investigadors that really want to get baptised, but have a big obstacle that stopping them. For all of them the obstacle is their family. We have a women who wants to get baptised but needs to get divorced from her prior husband and get married to her current husband who doesn't want to get married. Big problem, but nothing a little faith can't change. We're going to keep working hard this week. Well Love you all and i cant wait to talk to you Saturday at 5! And Merry Christmas to everyone. I love you all, friends and family. Thanks for you're examples, love, and support.. Elder Mecham

Letter #29 12/12/11 Baptism!

Hey everyone! I´m writing a little bit late once again. We had an incredibly long zone meeting in San Lucas this morning. The bus ride from our house to the Church in San Lucas is about an hour and a half to two hours so we just barely got back. But the meeting was great, i learned a ton and it was nice to be back in my first church building and see a few of the Elders from my old district. I´m loving San Jose, it´s a little different than my last area, but i love it. One of the biggest differences is the attendance during church. The Building is about 45 minutes on a bus from hour area, much shorter if you have a car, but the majority of our investigadors don´t have cars. This could represent a problem but it´s nothing that a little faith can´t change. There are also not nearly as many members that go to church. We have a TON of less actives. The majority of the people who give us our lunch every day our less active or completely inactive. We have a lot to do here. The good news is that we had 2 baptisms on Saturday! Its a younger couple, they got married Friday, baptised Saturday, and confirmed Sunday. They´re awesome! I was a witness in the wedding and had the priviledge of signing their papers. Getting ready for their baptism didn´t quite go as planned. We arrived at the church in the morning to prepare the font and found that it was full from the last baptism 3 weeks ago with water that looked like it had been the home to many living creatures, this wouldn´t be a problem because all we had to do was drain it, but the drainer doesn´t work. So we had to drain the entire thing with buckets! Great experience. I wasn´t mad because it was a great opportunity to do some much needen exercise. It took us a good 2 and a half hours. With this and another list of problems that we had with the water, we spent the entire day in the church building preparing for the baptism in the evening. But their baptism was amazing so it was all worth it.

Elder Garcia is a great Elder. He´s from the Cornavaca area. I don´t really know how to spell it but i know that´s it´s the mission that Brandon´s serving in. He is incredibly humble. He´s basically a perfect example of every Christ-like attribute. He also has a strong resemblance to the panda bear in Kung Fu panda. I´m really looking forward to working with him this change. We teach great together and get along great. He doesn´t talk a whole lot so i really don´t know to much about the rest of his life, but i know that he´s a great person and has a strong spirit. 

I have good news for hour Christmas day phone call. We can talk for 2 hours! Everyone was pretty shocked to hear that. I thought you´d be pretty happy too so i decided not to wait to tell you, but i´ll let you know more details later. Also, i got the packages from Aunt Melanie and Grandma today. Thanks a ton!!! You´ll be happy to know that they didn´t need to open them in the airport from Sinaloa to Cabo so it will all be a grand surprise. I hope the whole family knows how much i love them and that i pray for them. I´m greatful for the close relationship we all have and during with all the christmas lights and music  around here it brings back good memories at Grandma´s house. I be sure to work extra hard for you guys so you can get some blessings. Well love you all, especially dad because it was his birthday. Elder Mecham

 

Landon and Elder Garcia emptying that font!! Good Exercise!

Signing the marriage license- cool experience!

 

Letter #28 12/05/11 Transfer to San Jose!!

Hanging out in Cabo!!

Baptism!!

Landon the Alien!!

A little tower building time!

Hey everyone! A lot happened this last week. First of all, i'm not writing you from Cabo San Lucas, i'm in San Jose! It's 20 minutes from Cabo. Haha but from what i've seen from the 2 hours i've been here it's going to be a little bit different. For example, write now im writing in a trailer of some old man who has 4 computers that he rents. My area is a little more isolated from the all the stores and everything, but i'm super excited. I was pretty shocked when i heard i was leaving my area. With Elder Carrillo going home i thought for sure that i was going to stay. I won't lie, it was incredibly hard to say goodbye to everyone. I didn't think it would be so hard because i know that i'm going to meet great people in all my areas, but i felt really comfortable with the ward, and all the people in my area. I'm hoping that i'll be able to see some of them again before i leave the baja.

Probably the most exciting news of the week is that B got baptised! He's the friend of V and he was able to stay away from all the temptations of satan and his baptism was amazing! He wanted to do it at 7 in the morning because he wanted to have a clean mind walking in to the water. Him and V are both awesome. I was able to see them progress a ton in the 4 months that i was in Cabo. Saying goodbye to them was probably the hardest out of everyone, but i know i'm going to meet plenty more people and see a lot more lives change in the same ways that theirs did. After B got confirmed the first thing he did was pay his tithing. He's a Stud.

So my new companion is Elder Garcia, another Elder Garcia. He's extremely nice and i'm hoping that we have a lotof success this cambio. We're going to work incredibly hard. This ward has a few problems. The Bishop is inactive, that's probably the biggest one, but i know we're going to be able to have a ton of success if we just work hard and are obedient.

That's awesome that lexi got accepted into the study abroad program!! She's going to be speaking fluent spanish. And I hope everything is good at home. It's weird that it's December right now. It definately doesn't feel like December here, but i'm excited for Christmas! Thanks for all the Christmas music, that has made me very happy. Love you all, and Happy birthday DAD!!!

Letter #27 11/28/11 Baptism & Dolphins!

Hey family! Sorry for writing so late and probably scaring you a little bit. A lot happened this week. Ill start out with the best news, V got baptise! I dont know if you remember me mentioning V before.. He was one of my first investigadors with Elder Garcia. He lives with his friend who got baptised in Utah about 15 years ago and is incredibly inactive, but it turns out his friend has no record of getting baptised so if he keeps the commandments with week were going to baptise him too! But we stopped teaching V about 2 months ago because he had no plans of getting baptised, but last wednesday we were in front of his house talking with his friend when he arrived home from work, we started talking with him a little bit and mentioned how his friend is going to get rebaptised and challenged V to pray about it and see if he should get baptised as well. We returned Thursday and he said he would do it! He told us that the day before, while at work, he had been praying a ton for help in his life and when he got home and saw us he knew it was his answer. He got baptised Saturday! I was stunned, we had no plans of having a baptism last week, let alone this cambio, and now were going to have 2! Well if B can stay away from the temptations of Satan..

The reason that im writing so late is because our Zone completed our goal for the month and today we had a day long activity, approved by the president, in order to celebrate! In the morning we played soccer in a huge turf court for about 3 hours, and we spent the rest of the day watching movies! Nothing special, just some movie about football, singles ward, movies like that, but we had a great time. After i wrote you guys last Tuesday we were lucky enough to get to see Dolphins! Theres a member in the ward who is a dolphin trainer and she told us that we could come and watch people swim with dolphins one day if we wanted to. It was pretty thrilling, but a little strange walking around in the tourist parts of Cabo. For the first time since i arrived in Mexico i wasnt the minority. And you would be extremely surprised how many mormon tourists there are. Id say 1 out of every 5 groups of people were mormon. We know this because of course every single one wanted to stop and talk with the missionaries, and me being the only one who speaks english got to do all the talking.

More than anything id say that this week ive learned the God rewards us for our efforts, even if its not how we expect. We have been working incredibly hard to find new people, and weve found a lot, but nobody that seemed escogido. But after everything, we ended up baptising someone that weve hardly talked to the past 2 months. That was definately a miricle I hope everyone knows i love being a missionary!

Well i love you all! This is the last week of the cambio, it will be interesting to see if i stay or if i go. haha. Im hoping i stay. Please pray for me. I love you and i think about you a lot, but not too much, but i still love you an incredibly large amount and i hope all is well. Elder Mecham

P.S. Thanksgiving i did nothing involving thanksgiving, i almost forgot. But i love the pics!

Letter #26 11/22/11 Cabo Youth Conference!

Hello! First of all, im sorry that i couldnt write you guys yesterday. We changed our p day to today, only for this week, because yesterday we were helping out with a giant youth conference the whole day. All the youth from the Southern part of the Baja have been in Cabo this past weekend and yesterday we helped them with a missionary activity. It was pretty sweet, we taught them how to contact houses and after we split up into groups of 6 youths and 1 missionary and went out and contacted. I had a group of 6 boys who were between 15 and 17. They were all super excited and loved it. After that they had a giant Cultural dance that lasted 3 hours. It was awesome! It was held in a giant dance pavillion in Downtown Cabo and there were a ton of people. We brought 2 investigadors and they loved it. Its good for the investigadors that mormons have fun.

But thats why i didnt write yesterday. In case youre wondering, no, i didnt get to dress up like Santa Claus again... But were going to do it again in the near future. Everybody keeps asking us when Santa is coming to come back so we really dont have much of a choice. This last week we worked really hard to find the houses of the people and give them their pictures with Santa and share a quick message. Some of the people have been really accepting and weve made other appointments to return and teach them, but others were just really happy to have their free photo. But if all we get is one baptism, it will all be worth it. Right now we are still really struggling to have investigadors that are progressing. We have a lot of people who are super excited and potential for baptism, but have absolutely no time. They leave in the morning to work at 10 and get back at 9, which unfortunately are the hours that we work aswell. With these people we basically only can find them one time a week and that really isnt enough to get them to progress fast enough.

Ive been thinking alot about faith this week, and putting our confidence in God. This past week we had 2 investigadors who have already recieved testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and know that everything is true, but still wont get baptised because their afraid of what their families are going to think. We told them that they need to put their confidence in God; that he created all the planets and the sun and he can use that same power to make things in our life work out the way we want it to if we just have faith. Afterwards i was thinking about it and i realized that its not only true with our with our investigadors, its true with us aswell. This area hasnt really had much success the past few months, but im conviced that if we just put our confidence in God, are obedient to all the rules, and love everyone, that were going to find the escogidos and have baptisms by the end of this cambio.

I hope everything is good at home. Its crazy that its already thanksgiving, it still feels like summer to me because of the heat. But its starting to feel really good when the sun goes down. Lots of people are starting to wear coats starting at about 6 at night but im pretty happy with my short sleeve shirt. Well i love you all, were working really hard here and trying to get lots of blessings. I hope some of them make it back home to Utah. Thanks for all the emails, Love you all!!!!! Elder Mecham

Letter #25 11/14/11 Ho!Ho!Ho!

 

He knows Lexi and Mckell would love this!!

Hey everyone! Hope you all had an amazing, exciting, and spiritual week. Thanks for the letters! And thanks a ton for the packages! Don´t worry i didn´t open anything that i shouldn´t open. It was a little hard with the packet from Aunt Marci because the package was already opened (they have to open everything in the airport security) but i didn´t even take a peak. Thanks!!! And the music is amazing mother, thank you very very much.

This week was fantastic, but we didn´t have a baptism... But we are slowly finding more and more people. Our investigadors most potential right now are our neighbors. It´s a mom and her 2 daughters, ages 8 and 9, and they´re awesome! They went to a baptism last week and loved it and church on sunday. One of the daughters was feeling sick during church and we gave her a blessing before she went to primary and she basically instantly recovered and was fine the rest of the day. They´re going to get baptised for sure. They love to learn and love reading in the book of mormon. Allthough, it´s a little weird that their our next door neighbors. We don´t have blinds or anything in our apartment and they run past our window all the time playing tag and other games, normally around 10 oclock at night when we´re getting ready to sleep. And every time the run past they stop and talk to us, and they talk a lot... I haven´t had much time to get things done at night because we spend a lot of time talking.. There´s not much we can do. But i´m super excited for their baptism!! Should be the 25th of this month. 

So this week, in order to find more investigadors, we tried something a little different. We had planned that we were going to set up a table outside of the local market and hand out pamphlets and Books of Mormon with a few members of the ward, but our ward mission leader thought that that was too boring. He showed up with a full on Santa suit and a giant sign that said free pictures with Santa. And me being the only white guy got to wear the suit!! I spent half of saturday dressed up like santa clause shouting Hohoho and feliz navidad. Haha i´m going to try and send you some pictures but i´m having some problems with the computer right now. But it was a huge success. We have 25 new refrences. We told all the people that took pictures that we were going to deliver the fotos to their houses and share a message for their families. 

Well i hope you all have an amazing week. Oh and mom, to answer your question the spanish is fine. I´m thinking in spanish always and i´ve had dreams in spanish but for the most part their in english. It depends on the setting of the dream.. But i love you all!!

Good thing he's still wearing his tag!!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Letter #24 11/7/11 A calmer week!

Landon and Elder Carrillo outside the church in Cabo.  

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the emails you sent. I love reading them knowing whats happening in Utah. Also thanks for the packages! Were going to have a zone meeting tonight and the leaders told me that i have 3 or 4 packages waiting. Thanks!! And dont worry, im going to save them for Christmas... I hope that everything is good in Utah. The weather here is starting to cool down a little but im sure its still hot compared to back home. The mornings are pretty cool here though. Ive been using a blanket every night this past week wich is weird because a 3 weeks ago i had my fan on full blast and i would still wake up sweating. I like sleeping in the cold more, but showering is getting a little uncomfortable.

Everything is a lot more peaceful here than the week before. Thursday night we were finally able to sleep in our apartment, but we worked in our area the majority of tuesday and wednesday. The President just wanted to be extra safe that everything passed. Last weekend was pretty interesting because we werent able to work for almost 3 whole days! I thought it would be nice to have a little break and rest but i was wrong. The whole time i just felt lazy and wanted to leave! We had fun but i was definately ready to work when they finally gave us the green light. 

We started working tuesday morning and continued our search for new investigadors. We worked incredibly hard contactacing refrences and old investigadors but still had no luck. We did everything possible but nothing was working. We were a little frustrated because finding people to teach really shouldnt be that hard, but we new that if we stayed obedient and work hard that everything would work out. Finally wednesday we started to have a little success. We found an ancient area book that has records of investigadors that didnt get baptised from 3 plus years ago. We sorted out the ones that looked potential and started contacting them. We ended up contacting about 30 houses and in the end we were left with about 5 new investigadors that are awesome! I know that it was the spirit that led us to find the old area book and that our prayers get answered when we have faith. 

Im continuing to learn a ton from Elder Carrillo every day. We havent had that much time to study because every morning last week we were taking buses from the house of the ZL to our house, but Elder Carrillo is an incredibly hard worker. I know that if we keep working hard that were going to be blessed this cambio with success, hopefully lots of baptisms. 

Well i hope that everything is good. Im excited to read you letters! Love you all!!!

Letter #23 10/31/11 A little excitement in Cabo!!

Hey everyone! Wow.. A lot has happened this week. First of all, thanks for the emails and fotos! Sounds like the Lloyds had a blast and that Rachel and Ryan are loving Europe! Elder Carrillo is amazing. Ive learned a ton! He was a little quiet at first and i was worried but ive realized that hes an amazing missionary. He knows every scritpure there is. Hes currently teaching me how to prove every religoun wrong by using the bible, just in case... We worked extremely hard this week trying to find new investigadors because currently we have 1 investigador in total and she cant get baptised becaused shes not married and her boyfriend is crazy so she doesnt know if she wants to marry him... We have recieved over 20 refrences and have searched our entire area book for old investigadors and have contacted every single one of the houses and theres nobody. We did everthing we could this last week and nothing was working, but Elder Carrill and i both felt that by the weekend we were going to be rewarded for our hard work with new investigadors. I dont think we were rewarded but we were definately surprised.. Friday morning we woke up with a million missed calls from the members and messages saying to stay inside and be careful. I guess Friday night, when we were fast asleep, there was a mini war between the drug dealers and the police. A mini war that lasted 4 hours and had a constant flow of grenades and gun fire. This is normal in Sinaloa but not in Cabo so the people are going crazy. Saturday morning we evacuated to the house of our zone leaders and weve been here ever since. Since Friday theres been a few more miniature wars, all within 5 minutes of minutes of our apartment, so we still havnt been able to return. We also havent been able to work, weve been locked inside the apartment with 4 other missionaries. But we here that everything is over now so were hoping to be able to return tomorrow or wednesday. We now know why weve had zero success, its because our area is full of drug and gun dealers!! But dont worry, seriously this is normal and were all really safe. Seriously dont worry, we have the spirtit with us for protection. But i love you family!!!

Next email:

seriously, i hope youre not worried. were really safe. people dont hurt missionaries and only drug dealers have died. and everything is over. i know the church is true. love you!!!!!

Last email:hey good news, i just heard that everything i told you in the previous email is a bunch of rumors. haha the people here gossip a ton. We are going to return to our house tonight and work tomorrow! haha i cant believe i believed all that crazy stuff. well im really excited to work tomorrow, i know that if we rely on the spirit were going to be able to find the escogidos. I love being a missionary and i know that the Lord will always help us through our trials when we are obedient to his commandments and ask for help. The people here are amazing and i love every day of working. Due to the confusion these last few days ive had a lot of time to read in the book of mormon, pretty much all day long, and i know without a doubt that its true. I hope the everyone at home takes the time to enjoy the fruits of the book of mormon every day. I know that youll be blessed with knowledge and the spirit. I love you all and i hope you know that theres no reason to worry, everything is tranquilo here. Love you!!!

Landon loves kitties!  Happy Landon!  Not so happy mom after this letter!

Letter #22 10/24/11 Hey Everyone!!

Hey everyone! Thanks for the emails! Im excited to read everything. I hope that lexi and Mckell are happy in school and dating lots of boys, but not too many, and that Dad enjoyed Maryland. Thats sweet that get to travel there now too! And Mom, I hope youre loving teaching and the wonderful fall weather. Its continuing to be pretty hot here but surprisingly it doesnt really bother us. Once youre used to sweating all day it just feels natural.

 

We had another great week. We found out our cambios on Saturday. Elder Garcia went to Culiacan and i stayed here in Cabo. Im definately going to miss Elder Garcia. Hes a great missionary and i learned a ton from him. I feel blessed to have such an amazing first companion. But im excited for this next cambio here in Cabo with my new companion Elder Carrillo. Hes from from Mexico City, really small, and im his last companion that hes going to have. He goes home in December, which means that he has tons of experience. Were going to have a lot of success in these next 6 weeks so that he can go home happy.

 

Yesterday, being Elder Garcias last day in the area, we spent a lot of time saying goodbye to people. I think the highlight of my week was last night when we went to the hospital to see a baby of one of the recent converts in the ward. The baby was just born Saturday and is basically an angel. But when we were leaving the hospital someone shouted out for us in a different room. It was an old lady who has been really sick the last week and new that we were with the Church and begged us to give her a blessing. After we gave her the blessing she was basically crying when she thanked us and the spirit was incredibly strong. I know that we were guided there by the spirit. I am loving being a missionary!

 

I weighed myself last week and the scale said that ive lost 15 pounds since i last weight myself in our home. Im pretty sure its 15 pounds of pure muscle. I had to leave my perferct pushups in Culiacan.. Also i havent received the package from grandma yet but im sure ill get it our next zone meeting which should be in a week or 2. Thanks Grandma!!!!!! I feel really lucky to have a loving caring family at home. Thanks!

 

I sleep good every night. I normally fall asleep within 15 minutes and am out until my alarm sounds at 6:27. And i havent had any problems with feeling sick or anything. Acually Elder Garcia had a lot more problems than i did. I think i have a super tough stomach because i know that a lot of stuff we eat isnt completely sanitary. But im alive and i feel good so i really dont care. And everything tastes good and thats all that really matters. I felt pretty bad for Elder Garcia last week, he wasnt feeling good and had huge blisters on his feel and we walked more than any week yet. Hes a trooper.

 

Well love you!!! Ill write you again in a week!   Elder Mecham

Letter #21 10/17/11 Hey Everyone!!

Hola! Another good week. Thanks for the emails, Im glad to hear from Rachel and Ryan! Im excited to read their letter and see how things are in europe. Were writing really late this week cause weve been busy all day trying to fit in as many things as possible for what is very possibly Elder Garcias last P day in Cabo, and one of the Elders in our districts, Elder Palmars, last P day in the mision! Hes our Zone Leader and is a great Elder. We played Soccer this morning for a good 2.5 hours. We found a small court with turf! We were excited because normallly we only play on cement. Im kind of starting to miss basketball.. But soccer is still awesome.

We had a good week but we are really struggling with our numbers. We are having a lot of trouble meeting our goals and its a problem that weve had for the past month. We have a couple awesome investigadors but one needs to get married and we are pretty sure that the other moved last week so we really only have one.. We have others but nobody thats really potential. We have to find more people!!! That will probably be our focus for this week.

I had a really good day thursday. We did divisions with another compionship in our district so i went to work in their area and Elder Garcia stayed in our area. I worked with Elder Martinez and we had a blast. We did a whole whole lot of hiking in the desert. Their area is half house and half desert and the only way to get from neighborhood to neighboorhood is hiking in the desert. There were times when we were hiking for literally 30 minutes with out anything around us except cactuses and sand. I had fun for the day but i think i like my area more. We have awesome members and an awesome view of the ocean. The morning after the divisions we played soccer! I love starting off the day with sports. I wish we could do it every day.. Im also starting to learn a lot of slang words. Were teaching this guy from Mexico City and the first lesson i couldnt understand anything he said because it was all weird slang. Spanish is crazy but im starting to feel pretty comfortable.

I ate a ton of fish this week, and yesterday we had sushi! I love cabo. Im hoping i stay here another change but well see.

I hope that everyone has an awesome week, I love you!!

Letter #20 10/10/11 Hola Family!!

Hola!

Good week. A got baptised!! I wish i could send the pictures but i still can´t find my converter.. But it was awesome!! I got to baptize her, it was great!! A and her whole family are awesome! She has 3 kids, all boys, ages 1,3, and 6. They were all there and loved it. Thanks for those disneyland mints you sent me, those pretty much made it possitble that we were able to have the spirit during the baptism. All the kids were going crazy during the talks and testimonies, running all over the place and shouting, so before we left the room for the baptism i gave them my can of mints and they sat down and ate them in quietness during the baptism. Im really happy that i finally had a baptism, but now we really don´t have that many other investigadors that are really potential. We have one named P who is super strong, attends church every week, loves reading in the book of mormon, but isn´t married to her boyfriend who she lives with. I know she´ll get baptised because she loves the church but she´s not planning on getting married for a while, like 6 months.. But we´re going to change that today. Haha she really is awesome though, sometimes she calls us just to say that she read in the LDM and loved it or to confirm our next appointment or things like that. Other than her we don´t really have that many other people. We´re going to search hard this week to find more. The word of wisdom has been a huge problem here. I don´t think they have D.A.R.E. in their schools here because almost every male over the age of 20 smokes tabaco. It´s rare to find a nonmember that doesn´t smoke. 

Thanks a ton for the package! I was able to listen to the CD´s on a stereo that someone lent me. Their awesome! But right now i´m having some problems with my ipod.. It won´t turn on or anything. You might want to consider sending me copies of all the CD´s that you bought in case i can´t fix it. I´m in the process of trying but im having some problems. You don´t have to worry about sending me a liahona. We get the Liahonas every month. I never new how awesome they are!! The one for October is sweet! If you haven´t read it i would definately recommend it to you. 

Grandma said that she knows an Elder Foulger in the mission so i asked Elder Garcia if he knows him and he said that he does and that is a great Elder. He said that he worked with him for a day in Sinaloa. I hope i meet him before he leaves! Sounds like we´re cousins or something. 

We have a good morning today. We went tie shopping with the district. I bought 2 pretty sweet ties for way cheap. They run at about 3 dollars a peice here!! I wanted to but more but i also bought a couple cords for my ipod and speakers. I hope i can work this out.. 

Well I love you all, hope you all have a wonderful week and read your scriptures every day. Adios!!

Letter #19 Hola Family!!

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the emails! I love reading whats going on in utah. I'm glad everyone is well! We just had an insanely long zone meeting so we dont have that much time today. But we played soccer for 2 hours in the morning so its all worth it. Im loving soccer more every time i play! And thanks for the package!! I got it today. I didnt have much time to look through it but everything looks great. Thanks for the CDs and the pictures of the family at disneyland!! My zone loved them. haha. And thats awesome that Hermano Fox is in the ward!! He was one of my favorite teachers in the MTC, i liked all our subs but Hermano Fox was easily my favorite. 

So this week wasnt as great as all the rest.. haha but i learned a ton!! Now that i can speak and understand spanish a little bitter ive had a little bit more responsibility with everything. Its been harder but its good because ive learned everything that i need to improve on. I feel like this week ive really grown a ton. So we had a baptism set up with A. She is one of our strongest investigators and has a solid testimony, a best friend in the ward, and was really excited to get baptised. We didnt think that anything was going to be able to stop her from getting baptised. But Friday we waited and waited for her to show up and finally, 10 minutes after her service was supposed to start, she sent us a message saying she doesnt feel ready... I was pretty bummed.. We still havent talked to her since so we dont know exactly whats going on. Thats pretty much the only super depressing thing that happened during the week but we have faith that this friday shes going to get baptised. I think that right now i really need to work on my patience and my faith, actually i need to work on all my Christlike attributes, but especially patience and faith. I feel like at times those 2 kind of contradict each other.. Haha but were going to work really hard this week so that we can have a baptism this Friday. I still havent had a single one!!! And theres only 3 weeks left in this cambio!! We probably have 5 people right now that have a lot of potential to be baptised in these next 3 weeks but were going to have to work really hard and rely on the spirit for everything. 

The best thing of the week was definately General Conference!! Of the ones that we were able to assist i was able to watch in English! They had a separate room for all the gringos. Haha and there were surprisingly more than just missionaries. Theres 2 gringo families in our stake. 100 percent white. I dont know how long they've lived here but i asked one of the kids who is 12 years old where hes from and he told me Cabo San Lucas. Haha i love Mexico but i dont have any plans to raise my family here.

Well thanks for everything!! I love you all and i wish you all success in the week to come. Adios!!

Elder Mecham

Letter #18 09/26/11 Hola from Cabo!!

Dear Family
I´m loving everything about the mission. This last week i learned a whole lot because we had a zone conference with President Cantu!! That was probably the hightlight of the week. He is a pretty amazing guy. He pretty much just talked to us for 2 hours about how every day we can see miracles and got us all super pumped with the spirit! We´ve had the same investigadors for over a month now and we still can´t get them baptised.. But this friday we have a baptism scheduled with A and she is super excited! I have pretty much no doubt that she´s going to get baptised this friday. I´m excited because it will be my first one! And we have about 5 other investigadors right now that are really close, so i´m thinking that octububer we´re going to have a lot! Yesterday in Church we had 6 investigadors! It´s awesome seeing people attend for their first time and love everything. I can´t imagine how happy their going to be when they get baptised!

We have 6 Elders in our ward because the ward is huge, and those same 6 are in my district. In Cabo there are 2 church buildings and both have 2 wards that meet in them. Our Zone has 20 people. There are a ton of members here, but not so many are active. There´s a ton of people that get baptised and after a couple months become inactive. But every sunday the chapel is completely full. Sacrament meeting is crazy here because people literally refuse to leave the chapel when there babies are crying. And it´s also not uncommon at all to have a lady breastfeeding with baby without a blanket or anything during the meeting. I don´t undrstand why it´s so hard to cover up!!

I think every day i´m becoming more and more mexican. Every monday we play soccer with the other missionaries and it´s becoming my favorite sport. Also, when people dont have chili and tortillas i usually don´t enjoy the meal. But it´s ok because i love mexicans. Ceviche is probably my favorite meal here. It´s raw fish or shrimp with lots of veggies and lime. I love it because it´s really fresh.

I hope you guys have had an awesome week!! And that BYU was able to win... You might want to concider sending me another USB convertir for my camera.. I can´t find one here. Also i didnt get my package tuesday but i´m pretty sure i´ll get it soon. I´m so excited for Conference!! Pray that i´ll have investigadors there because if not we can´t watch.. Love you Guys!!

Letter #17 9/19/11 Mexico Independence Day!!

Hey family! This week was the week of mexicos independence. Everyone was crazy! At 11 PM all the people shout viva mexico and party a ton, but i was asleep... But i had a really good week, for the most part.. Its really frustrating with the our investigadors. We have awesome investigadors but we cant get them baptised!! And yesterday not one of our 4 powerhouse investigadors showed up to church.. I was pretty dang depressed.. And it got worse when Elder Garcia told me that when we dont have investigadors in church we have to leave after sacrament meeting to go contacting. I thought he was joking until we actually left and contacted houses.. Haha but its all good i know that all the rules are inspired by God.

But other than that the week was awesome! Last P day we went to Puerto Paraiso!! Its a really nice tourist place with a lot of stores and boats and gringos. I had been there before but only for like 30 minutes. We had a lot of time to waist so we walked around in all the stores looking for cheap ties. I bought one for 3 dollars! Mckell would like it, its a baby blue, slightly skinny tie. This week i also ate what i hope will be the worst meal of my mission, and thats Patas de Puerco (pig feet). It was basically just bone and fat... Elder Garcia said that it was by far his worst and hes been here for over a year. I dont see how people can like food like that..

The 15 of september was the big day for all the Mexicans. We had to be in our houses by 7 that day because of all the partying and drinking and everything. Elder Garcia and I ordered mexican pizza and soda and went up on the top of our apartment to eat it. The best part was definately the fireworks!! And i guess the 16th is still kind of a holiday for them so the 16th the ward had a party at night and we got to attend. It was a blast! The had a cooking competition out of all the relief society so everyone brought there best dish and we got to try all of it. We had an investigador, C, show up and he loved it. C is awesome! Hes for sure going to get baptised. Hes already come to church 4 times. His only problem is that hes incredibly busy so we can never teach him. Weve only taught him 2 times and weve know him for over a month.

Our big challenge this week was finding our investigadors. We had a lot of fallen appointments so its making things tough. Elder Garcia and I are still doing great. Hes really patient and extremely nice. We can communicate much better than my first week and so im getting to know him really well. Im glad that ill be able to work with him again this next cambio. Theres definately a lot i can learn from him and the way he works with the investigadors and members. One thing ive loved about him is that he treats everybody as a friend, not just an investigador or another member. The people here have a lot of confidence in us because of that.

I have a lot of good pictures i want to send but still dont have a converter, but today im going to buy one. And we have a confrence with president cantu tommorrow so im hoping that your package arrived! If not ill get it the first of october. I love you all and i love being a missionary!

Letter # 16 9/12/11

Hey family!! This week was pretty amazing. Probably my favorite week of my mission so far!! I´m glad that grandma and grandpa sent emailed me thanks!! And mom thanks a ton for your walk that you did!! I´m sure it was pretty hard but thanks a ton for dedicating it to me, love you!!

This week was great! The only thing that could have made it better would have been a baptism.. But this week we´re for sure going to have one. We have awesome investigadors right now! We had 4 attend church yesterday, C, V, A, and P. And they all are awesome! C is basically already a member, we just need to baptise him. But im pretty sure that even if we stopped going to his house he´d still go to church every sunday. He just really wants to get baptised with his family but their not that interested right now. A and P are both new this week and way excited! P had already researched the church a ton on the internet before we met with her so she had a ton of questions the first visit about word of wisdom and temples and joseph smith and stuff but she already loves the church and the book of mormon and is really nice. A is the same, really really nice. After our first visit with her she invited us over to her house to eat the next day, i think she really likes having us over. 

And Saturday we had a ward missionary activity!! We invited all our investigadors and the whole ward was invited and we had a ton of people show up. We played soccer and volleyball ate watermelon with chili. They put chili on everything here. Before i thought that we were only going to be organizing it, but when it started our zone leaders started playing soccer so we joined. It was a little weird playing soccer against your investigadors, especially since i was still dressed in my white shirt and tie. But it was a blast! I´m definately improving as a soccer player. I like street soccer a lot more than on a feild. After soccer we had a little lesson on the word of wisdom and ate more chili with carrotts. I´m starting to make a lot of friends here. It´s a little different when your a missionary but i love it! All the members are awesome. When we visit them they never want us to leave, it´s a problem sometimes, but it´s good because they trust us with all their freinds, and their problems... 

Today we have a lot more time than usual. Normally every monday we have a meeting with the district but today we don´t have anything because it´s cambios and we´re not changing. This morning we climbed the Lone Peak of Cabo!!! We got to the top just in time for the sunrise and it was awesome! We could see all the beaches and boats and pretty much all of Cabo. I didn´t realize how out of shape i am right now. In the mornings when we´re supposed to exercise i study spanish because when we´re supposed to study spanish we work. President Cantu eliminated the spanish study time... So i only have the 30 minutes every morning to study. But i really need to start exercising, i almost died this morning. It was a pretty big mountain though, well it was a hill but it felt like a mountain. I´m going to send pics next week, i lost my converter... But i´ll buy a new one. Oh and one thing i might want for christmas is mor of the enro shirts, the fitted ones. I like them about 100 times more. Just a thought. Love you family!!!! 

Letter #15 9/05/11 Hey Family!!

Elder Garcia! Thumbs up!!

Landon is happy to be in Cabo!!

Dear family.

This week has been really good, just like every week. I hope everything is good in Utah. Thats awesome that taylor and Brandon are both in mexico!!! Ive loved getting the emails from all my friends and im glad that more people are joining. This week i got a couple letters from freinds so that is nice. Im going to write them back today i hope. And im glad to hear from the killbournes and the Lloyds! To answer all your questions, my feet are fine and i reallylike my shoes. I dont need to filter my water because we buy filtered water. Its really cheap, like 1 dollar for a 5 gallon jug. We walk alot, but it all depends on the day. Some days more than others.

This week we had a lot of success with our investigadors. A fewhem are really progressing. Were teaching 2 guys who are awesome. One is allready baptised but has been inactive for about 10 years. He got baptised in Utah and lived there for about 10 years so he speaks English! We dont really speak english that much but we have talked a lot about Utah and everything. Were teaching his friend who is awesome. They both really want to change and i think were going to baptise the friend this week.

We have another investigador who we thought was kind of falling away because we hadnt seen him for a week and a half, but then yesterday he came to church! He is really busy with work and family and everything but he loves the church and i think were going to baptize him really soon.

My weekend was pretty good too. We had a sleepover last night!! haha we had to smoke our house because weve been having major bug problems and they told us that we couldnt sleep there saturday night, so we slept over at the house of 2 other Elders in our District. They have air conditioning!!! It was probably my best nights sleep yet and i didnt even have a bed. And now our house is clean and bug free. It was pretty bad before.. Bugs were everywhere. The weather this week has been amazing!! Weve had a constant cool Breeze, i hope it lasts..

Pretty sure yesterday was the most ive eaten my entire life, and it was a fast sunday! We had a meal right after church which was delicous but i was stuffed, and 2 hours after that we went to a recent converts house to celebrate her birthday with cake, and a full plate of spaggetti, and right after that we went to the house of an investigador and they were eating and just kept puting plates in front of us.. The people here are all super nice!! But i kind of wish they didnt force us to eat so much.. But everything is delicous!

Oh and we were witnesses at a wedding!! That was pretty awesome. Its really cool to watch people change their lives and gain testimonies. I love being a missionary!!

Adios!!!

Letter #14 8/29/11 Go Cabo!!

Hola!!

This week went by extremely fast. So Lexi and Mckell are starting school this week? Good Luck! It´s nice being a missionary because i only have one focus all day every day. All day you just focus on the gospel and teaching people. It´s pretty amaizing. I hope all the school this week goes well. And thanks Grandma and Aunt marcie for the lettlers! I´m excited to read them in after.

 

This week we worked really hard, once again, to get all our investigators to church, and we ended up having 3 out of like 8. I was a little disappointed in one of them that didn´t show up because we´ve been working with him really hard the past couple weeks. He´s 15 years old and i always love teaching him cause we talk a lot about football and his school and stuff. He´s also learing english so we always talk a little in my native tongue which is nice. But he hasn´t showed up to church once and we´ve taught him almost every lesson. He always seems really excited and says he does all his reading but i have a feeling that he doesn´t really care to get baptised he just wants to talk. We´re going to work really hard this week to find some new investigadors. We´re going to focus on the members for referrals. The members here are all awesome. The whole ward is awesome. I think mom would really like the ward here. There´s tons of drama. They could probable make a reality show. And for some reason all the members really like telling the missionaries all their secrets so we pretty much know like everything. The members are also really good with giving us referrels. There´s a few members that speak english so every sunday i talk to them a lot, most of them work in the hotels. There´s all super nice.

 

My favorite food i ate this week was chicken enchilladas. I think that after my mission i´m going to keep eating nothing but mexican food. I´m starting to get to where if someone doesn´t have tortillas and chili with the meal i don´t like it. And all the fruit here is delicous! The language is definately improving. I can understand a lot more, but still not as much as i´d like. We have an investigador who i think is partially autistic and Elder Garcia says that he can understand about 30 percent of what he says. So i understand about 0. But the rest, i´d say i understand 80 or 85.

 

Being a missionary is awesome. And i love all you guys!!! I´ll talk to you next week!

Letter # 13 8/21/11 Hola Family!

Hey family!

 

Had another great week! Im looking forward to reading your letters. Thanks. And i saw matt has had some toe problems. Ouch.. Thats tough. You should let people know that anyone can email me, family, friends, everyone, I just have to mail letters back. Which is really expensive i hear... especially in Cabo. Cabo is pretty much the best place in the world. I am considering moving here and opening a hot dog stand later in my life.

 

We had a big week with our investigadors. One of the most exciting things of the week was tuesday. We were knocking doors and this mexican lady, like 25 years old, awnsered and the first thing that she said was "you speak english" and i said Si, and then we spoke in english!! She doesnt really know much spanish. She just moved here with her husband and had lived in south carolina her whole life. We taught her the restoration and it was awesome! Elder Garcia taught in spanish and i taught in English!! We had to run to the apartment to grab my english scriptures because she cant read spanish. But i know that God anwers our prayers. That day was the fist day that ive been a little frustrated with the language and that helped a ton.

 

Yesterday something pretty weird happeded. Weve been working really hard with these 2 investigadors. 2 ladies who are about 40 years old who live together. One of them is a little more interested than the other, but we finally got both of them to promise theyd come to church with us. Yesterday when we went to pick them up we walked in and one was crying a screaming lots of words in spanish that i dont know at the other. We sat there and listened and found out that theyre not 2 friends that live together, theyre more than just friends, and one of them worships satan! She had a satan statue and everything. They didnt come to church.. I think were going to have to drop them.. Its too bad because the one that doesnt worship satan is really really nice and interested in everything. Possibly shell have a chance..

 

We worked really hard to get all of our investigadors to church. We probably had 8 promise us that theyd attend but only 2 ended up coming. I dont understand why its so hard!!!

 

So i hear theres another recession in the US?? I wouldnt mind hearing some minor details... Probably 3/4 of our investigadors work in the hotels and i guess its affecting things pretty bad. My favorite food i ate this week was servicha. I think thats how you spell it... Oh and i gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting. It was pretty cool. Except for i said ive been here 3 años instead of 3 semanas and didnt realize until afterwards when every single person in the ward told... Its allright though cause everything else was really good.

 

Its pretty awesome being a missionary and watching people change their lives. Im so glad that im here serving Jesus Christ. Theres no where else id rather be. Its insane how much ive learned these last 2 months and 3 weeks. I love the Church and i know its true. Read the book of mormon and pray a lot. Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Elder Mecham

Letter #12 8/15/11 Go Mexico!!

Eight new missionaries and President & Sister Cantu!

Landon's first missionary apartment ... Cabo!

First companion... Elder Garcia!

Did we send him to Mexico or outer space?

Landon Scissorhands!

Mexico is pretty amazing. Im glad you guys all had fun in Disneyland! Im a little jealous of that.. I was thinking you guys should definately pick me up after my mission and we can come here to cabo. Everyone says that the beaches are really awesome. I've definately enjoyed all the oatmeal and treats that you sent me. Thanks a ton! Just a thought, if you wanted you could send my CDs and there are members here that can put them on my ipod for me. Theres one album that everyone says is really good its called something like a Nashville rendition tribute to Joseph smith, something like that. Just a thought if you wanted. I dont think theres a specific rule here for music, just the standard missionary rule that it said in my packet. Enya and Classical music and stuff like that is all good. Weve really enjoyed having my ipod.

Im going to send you the pictures today. Our house is pretty awesome. You can see the Ocean from our Shower!! Its a little ways away, but its there. I hear our apartment is a lot nicer than a lot of other places in the mission so we're pretty lucky. We have a small problem with bugs. Theres a lot of ants in our apartment. Lexi probably could never live there. They are all over the counter and our plates and sometimes crawl on my scriptures. I just brush them off its not really a big deal. Everything else is really sanitary. Except the other day when we were at a members house i saw something that kind of scared me. They were eating dinner and had set a plate aside in there kitchen and when they werent looking 2 mice ran over from behind their microwave and started eating off the plate. I told them and they just said it was no big deal and gave the plate to their kid. But i guess if they're all still living and healthy its really not a big deal. I tried Menudo for the first time. I dont really understand why people here like it. I can eat it but i definately wouldnt say that i enjoy it. Everything else has been pretty amazing though.

Saturday was a big day cause the Stake Choir had a performance. They were surprisingly really really good. It was kind of weird though cause after every song everyone would clap their hands and after a testimony at the end everyone gave a huge applause.. The spirit was still there though so its all good. I didnt realize that it was going to be this hard to get investigadors to go to church. We have a lot of people who are taking the lessons and who are understanding everything and reading in the book of mormon but have major problems with church. Everyone works all day sunday.. We're going to work really hard this week. I love being a missionary and i Know the church is true. Love you guys!!

Letter #11 Me encanta Mexico!!

Hey family!! You guys are in disneyland right now? I didn't  have time to read your emails yet but i'm going to print them off and read the tonight. Basically Mexico is the best place in the world. I got your package today!! Thanks for that. We don't have Much food in our house. I'm going to try to send you some pictures after i send this but i can't promise. I left my little connector in the apartment and we don't have much time today. But i'm gunna try don't worry. I'm glad you guys are going to be in Disneyland having a blast! We are going to be looking at the exact same ocean! You can see the ocean from our apartment, it's pretty sweet. We have an awesome view.

Mexico is basically the best place in the world. I love it here. All the people are so incredibly nice. Every day we have a meal with someone in the ward. It's always at around 2 or so and its basically the only meal that we need all day. It's crazy how much they expect us to eat. I will of had 2 plates and be stuffed and then they'll bring out a whole different entre to eat. Yesterday Elder Garcia literally ate so much that he threw up. I guess it's rude if you don't finish your plate.. I always tell them i only want a little but they don't know what that means. It's delicous though!! My favorite things so far are the tamallies. And yesterday i had frozen coconut milk that was really good. There's also a lot of mangos here so i've had a lot of those. But all the food is amazing. All the drinks too. The horchata is a million times better when it's homemade.

I'm pretty much loving everything about being a missionary. I love Elder Garcia. He speaks a little less english than i  do Spanish though. Everything he knows is from songs that he's heard. Communicating has definately been an adventure. Sometimes it will take us 20 minutes until i understand exactly what he said. I always know for the most part what he's saying but i like to all the words he used and make sure i understand the context and everything. A lot of times ill understand every thing he says, i know all the words, but when i translate it, it makes absoulutely no sense according to my understanding of the word. Lots of words have multiple meanings so he'll say it in one context hear it in a completely different context and we'll talk for a while until i totally understand. It's fun though and i'm enjoying learing. Spanish is pretty awesome.

I also love the teaching. It's really awesome when you randomly knock on someone's door and they let you come in and we teach and the spirit is there and everything makes sense to them. My only problem with my teaching is that i can't always understand what the investigador is saying, and our whole job is to teach to their needs and listen to what they say.. I don't always know what they say so i just teach what i know. If i ever miss anything Elder Garcia can adress it so it's no big deal. I'm going to love these next 2 years. I've already grown a ton and i'm only going to grow more. It's going to be pretty awesome when i can understand everything. All the people here are seriously so so nice. They offer us stuff whereever we go. All the members here are awesome. I guess if there's one thing that has surprised me the most it would be that we do a lot of teaching and retaining rescent converts. They told us we would in the MTC but it didn't really hit me how big of a problem it is that a lot of people get baptised and then just stop going to church and everything. Kind of sad..

 

This morning we played some f'utbol and basketball with the zone. It was pretty fun and i'm definately improving my futbol skills. Thanks for being such an awesome family and have fun in Disneyland!!

Letter #10 08/03/11 I made it to Mexico!!

Hey familia!!! How are you guys? It was really nice to talk with you guys on monday. there letting me write you guys today so that you know im alive. the keyboards are a little different here so my typing is not very good. im in cabo!! im excited. my companions name is elder garcia. hes really nice and from mexico city. he doesnt really speak a lot of english and i dont speak a lot of spanish but were going to make things work. so far its been a little hard communicating but im hoping to learn fast. i just barely arrived in cabo like an hour ago. there was one other elder from our group that came and we had to wait for today because you fly here. its a really small plane, only holds 10 people so it was a little scary. president cantu is really nice. he met us at the airport when we got to culiacan and took us back to the offices. we did interviews and he told us where we were going and who our trainers were going to be. i was pretty stoked when i heard i was coming here. all the other elders were pretty jealous. after interviews we went to his house and his wife had a delicous dinner waiting for us. Delicous tacos with way good guacomole and salsa! Im going to love the food here. After that we went to the our house we were going to sleep in. Its were the secretaries live and they have a lot of mattresses for when they have meetings and stuff. it wasnt a very nice house but it couldve been worse. There were a lot of dead cockroaches and random trash everywere and it was incredibly hot. they had fans but my room didnt have one. I definately didnt sleep very well but its okay i feel fully energized. i think iv gotten around 10 hours of sleep the last 3 nights. The next morning we got up and had a few meetings with the assistants and then everyone was off to there areas. I said goodbye to Elder Nordfelt but im sure ill see him again soon. They didnt really have much for the 2 of us going to cabo to do. We just sat around and read for a couple of hours until they told us we were going to go out and teach with them. It was pretty cool teaching for my first time, although i didnt say too much. we taught these 2 teanage kids the first lesson. It lasted 2 hours! I think that i was speaking for about 10 or 15 minutes of it but its allright. We got back to the house at about 10 because we had to pick up some elders from the bus station for a meeting. One downside of cabo is that you can only bring one suitcase because the plane is so small so i had to condense all my stuff againg.. I ended up leaving a lot of stuff in my other suitcase back in Culiacan but its mostly stuff that i dont think ill need anyways so its not really a big deal. Then i had to get up a 445 this morning to make it to the airport. The plan was seriously crazy. I wasnt even close to being able to stand up in it. It was also a little tough because nobody spoke english in the airport, but we made it witout any real problems. Our house here is pretty sweet, its a lot nicer than the one in Culiacan, and its yellow! im really excited to serve here. I think that Elder Garcia is going to be an awesome trainer and ill be able to learn a lot from him. I hope he'll be able to put up with my lack of spanish, but im going to work my hardest to learn. I feel like i really just need a little more confidence and ill be okay. My usual p days are monday, by the way and ill try to send you my address and a couple pictures next time. I love you guys!!

Letter #9 07/28/01 Goodbye MTC!!!

Hey family!

 

Thanks so so much for all the packages and letters. I think the packages this week were the best i've had so far. And i was glad to hear from the killbournes and get the mint brownies! Those might have been the best mint brownies i've ever had in my life. I actually still have some. I'm glad they sent me there trip journal! I've read like half of it so far and it's really funny. Sounds like it wa a pretty amazing trip. And if you see Taylor's parents you should tell them thanks for the card and the money that they sent me.

 

Sounds like you've been having a fun time out boating! Whenever i ride the bike in the gym i can see Utah lake and i always wonder if you guys are out there. We all finished with gym which kind of sucks.. But i'm so excited to get to Mexico! You guys should send me some pics sometime of your summer. So i guess i don't have to bother about telling you my travel plans.. Be expecting me to call sometime when we're in LA. I might try and call in SLC too, we'll just have to see. If i don't end up calling for some reason then i'm really really sorry. It's kind of weird to think that i'll be talking to you guys in a few days... These last 2 months have flown by. I feel like the MTC has prepared me about as much as possible and now the only way i can learn more is to actually get out there. It's probably going to be tough at first though..

 

This past week Elder Prince has been a little sick. He has some virus in his throat so he's been sleeping quite a bit which means that either Elder Nordfelt or i stays in the room with him while he sleeps. Yesterday was really exciting because we got to walk down the street from the MTC to the doctors to pick up his perscription (it's like a 5 minute walk, but still really cool to leave). If that would have happened 2 weeks ago i would have been going crazy, but it wasn't as exciting knowing that in a few days we're going to be flying to Mexico.

 

My spanish is getting pretty good, or at least i thought that until yesterday.. We were talking to some argintinian girls during lunch in spanish and i thought I was doing really good, but then when we told them that we're leaving to Mexico next week they burst out laughing! It kind of shattered my confidence a little.. But at least we were able to have a normal conversation with them. I really feel like i've learned all i can here. I've memorized everything in the books they give us, now i just have to learn how real mexicans talk, which i can only do in Mexico.

 

To answer your question, the four of us that are going to Culiacan are all on the same flights, but the 3 who are going to Chiwawa are going to Dallas and then to Chiwawa. They have to leave the MTC at 3 in the morning!! Pretty crazy. Elder Prince is going to Chiw by the way. And he's feeling a lot better today so he should be all set to leave. It's kind of sad that i'm not going to see the other 3 again. I love all of them. Our district has gotten really close since we only have 7 people. But a couple of them are going to BYU after so i'll probable see them at some point.

 

Tomorrow we have some big departure conference all day long and i guess we just get instructed on being a missionary all day and have to watch a bunch of videos about being sanitary and everything. I'm not really looking forward to that. I've really loved the MTC though. It's awesome here, even though it's a little like prison. The food is pretty decent and you learn a ton. My testimony has grown more these last 2 months than it has the last 5 years of my life. I know the church is true and i'm so excited to go and bless people! Way more excited than i thought i would be. But i'm really going to miss getting letters and packages every week. And air conditioning and hot showers. Tonight i'm going to take a hot bath. I think it'll be my last chance in 2 years so i'm going to really enjoy it.

 

Anyways have fun at the cabin tonight!! And tell every one i love them!

Letter #8 7/21/11

Hey fam.

 

Happy birthday!!! Love you mom!! This week has been encredibly fast.. It sounds like Killbournes had a blast! They sent me their trip journal. I printed it off and i'm way excited to look through it! I'm pretty jealous of that whole trip, and lake powell right afterwards.. wow. Thanks for the packages! Everything tasted delicous as usual. I kind of wish lexi and mckell would have sent me some more Harry Potter food, haha it's okay though. Sounds like the movie was awesome!! Can't wait to watch it.. in 18 months. It's okay though, I love being a missionary!! And i'm going to love it even more once i'm a real missionary in the real world! Reading Matt's and Tyler's letters gets me so excited! 10 more days!! We should get our flight plans today; not for sure though. But i'll let you know if i do.

 

Dear Mom, thanks for being such an amazing mother. I love you!! And i'm proud of you for walking so much. I wish i could join you. And thanks for sending all those pics! I wanted to put some of the ones of Lexi and Mckell up on my desk but i think they're a little immodest.. It's okay though, i put the one of Dad with his sunglasses on. My companions tell me i look just like him. I also have a pic of grandma and grandpa :) I love them! Please continue sending pics, It's the absolute best. But maybe a pic of our whole family sometime during my mission? Just a thought.

 

Sounds like Powell was a blast!! I saw that Kameron was getting some major air.. Looks like i might have some competion. Haha. And Congrats to Lexi for winning the competition. It sounds like it was a pretty big deal. I'm a little dissapointed in Kameron... Haha. So in a next package maybe you could send some clean and pure face lotion, some burtz beez, possibly a watch if you remember that one that i bought last summer from wallmart, i showed lexi too. You don't need to, but it's a brown one, i think Timex brand. But it's like 30 bucks, if you see one like it that's cheaper that'll be good. Or just don't send me one. It doesn't matter, and possible another journal. I love the one Mckell gave me though! I just think i might fill it up at some point. And for my Missionary plack i want Alma 26:12. Please.

 

I see Taylor all the time during meals and in my classroom building. We talk quite a bit. I see brandon around but i normally only get to talk to him on Sundays. Once he sat by me at a fireside so that was nice and we got to talk quite a bit. He actually just tapped on my shoulder as i was writing that to say hello. Haha kind of funny. He was coming to write his letter i guess. He's still really buff. Last week we took a picture with a lot of Alta kids. We had 16 total and i know there's more that didn't show up. I'll make sure to send it home to you.

 

So about Elder Prince. He's awesome! He's one of those really smart genius kids. I seriously think he's the best White American Missionary in the MTC at speaking spanish. He also got a really really high ACT score but he'd probably be mad if i told you. But it was one less than perfect. He really like running, so i run with him during gym a lot. He really brings a lot to our companionship. He went to BYU and i think lived in Heratage. He went to bingham highschool.

 

We taught the old lady at the TRC again. She almost fell asleep multiple times but we'd just start talking really loud and ask her questions so i don't think she ever actually fell asleep. The Spanish is coming along pretty good. I am definately improving every day. It all makes perfect sense in my head, but it's a little harder to speak. I can understand everything our teachers say though. After a little time i'm sure i'll be able to speak it as well as i know it. I hope.. It's pretty crazy that i'll be in mexico in less than 2 weeks!! I'm extremely excited.

 

Love you guys!