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!!