Letter #84 12/31/12 feliz ano nuevo! Special Changes!

At the mission Christmas Party!  Ho Ho Ho!

In Costa Rica, the new area!

Greetings familia

It was nice talking to you! Christmas day was definately one of the craziest days of my mission. They called me at 2 telling me i was going to have special changes, and that i had to be at the mission offices with all my stuff at 4. Thanks to some awesome members that helped me pack and with a ride, i was able to make it there on time to talk to you guys. After our skype call, i came straight to my new area. I'm in Costa Rica!! (the city) It's right outside of Culiacan. It's a really small town. There's only 4 missionaries here, being my district, and both areas are super insanely small. It's a branch so there's not too much attendance, but i'm used to that. So far i have really liked my area. We have about 4 or 5 pueblitos that belong to our branch as well but i still haven't visited a single one. We have plans to go tomorrow. 

My companion is Elder Knowles from springfield, Utah. He has about 6 months in the mission and we get along great and have a lot of things in common. I asked him if he knows Knowles in Draper and he said he wasn't sure.. He doesn't have a lot of time here in this area, actually, he and his companion that he had before i arrived were opening the area and only had 1 week here so we are basically starting from scratch. I love a good challenge! So far we've met some really promising people that we're hoping to find and teach this week. 

Yesterday was epic. It rained ALL DAY. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but our area has a total of 2 paved streets. Luckily Elder Knowles also likes to hike so we had a good time getting muddy the whole day. We get lost quite a bit since we still don't know the area too well and have been walking quite a bit. For the first time i was really happy to have my boots. Here, they don't sell oranges by the pound, or by the kilo, but by the bucket!! We bought 2 buckets of oranges for 30 pesos along with 4 kilos of bananas. I love Sinaloa!! 

I hope you all behave yourselves and set inspired goals for the new year! I'll only be setting goals for the first 6 months and worry about the rest later.. I love being a missionary, the gospel, and all of you guys!!  Happy new years!! Elder Mecham

Letter #83 12/24/12 Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas eve! I hope all is great at home. I was glad to get
emails from every one of the LLoyds. Thanks guys! I love you all.
Also, i´v recieved all the packages you sent me. 2 from mom, 1 from
the Lloyds, 1 from the Kilbournes, and 1 from grandma and grandpa.
Thanks everyone!!

I´ll start out with the call. It will be a Skype call! We´re going to
be doing it from the church building with a brand new laptop and a
great internet connection so im not really too worried. We´ll be able
to talk for 1 hour so have your questions ready. It´ll be tomorrow,
the 25th, at 4 in the afternoon. I wanted the morning but we´re going
to be having our district meeting. I´ll log on to lexi´s account and
look for you guys. If for some reason it doesn´t work out, call
6677539902. It´s the number of the church.

We don´t have too much time today, but we had a great week this past
week. Elder Staply and i get along great. He´s a good guy. We found a
few new investigadors and were able to put a few baptism dates. We had
little time to work because of the Christmas activities. The ward
activity was a blast. It consisted of lots of food, Mexican Christmas
musis, and jump rope! I dominated. The Mission Christmas activity was
also really fun. We played dodgeball, ate food, and had a 3 hour
testimony meeting. It was super spiritual. President Cantu is a man.
Tonight we´re going to have dinner with an awesome family in the ward.
We´re going to break a piñata, and eat menudo!! There´s nothing better
than a Mexican Christmas. They gave us permision to return to the
house at 1030 so it should be a memorabe night.

Christmas is pretty amazing. It´s always strange being away from the
family, but this is the last Christmas i´ll ever have as a missionary.
I´ll never have another chance to serve people every minute of every
day and help them realize the importance of our savior and all the
blessings we recieve. I´m thankful for the gospel, my family and all
my friends, and for this amazing opportunity to serve the lord being a
missionary. I´m glad to be here in the mission and i´d never trade it
for anything.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and that you know i love you.
I´ll see you tommorrow!! Love Elder Mecham

p.s. mom, i was only able to send this to you because i´m using an old
computer. BYE!!

Letter #82 12/17/12 New Companion!

Dear family,

There´s not much time today. I don´t know if you were keeping track or not, but we had changes. I´m still here in Culiacan. Elder Aleman left for los mochis and i recieved Elder Stapley, a gringo!! My second one since i arrived to Mexico. He has about a year in the mission and i´m excited to be working together. He´s from Mesa, Arizona.

This past week we had a good time working. I´m getting used to having changes. Yesterday felt like any other day even though they were calling us to tell us our changes. Beforehand they always called us saturdays, but recently they´ve been calling us Sunday evening giving us less time to pack, but more time to work and stay focused.

We have a pretty exciting week planned. Tomorrow we have the ward Christmas celebration.It´s a taquiza! Everyone´s going to bring their favorite dish and we´re going to bring investigadors. Wednesday we have the mission christmas activity. This is probably the most anticipated activity of the whole year since all the missionaries in Sinaloa get together and play dodgeball!! I´m pretty stoked.

This change we´re planning on having a lot of success. Hna O and her daughter are both super excited. We found out that hermana O drinks coffee... This means she´ll have to wait until Jan 14 to get baptised, but i know it´s for the best. We also went to Tepuche this past week. It´s a little city about 20 mintutes from Culiacan that belongs to us. It was nice hitch hiking again. I always enjoy the ranchitos! We´re going to keep working there. We foud a couple people who are interested in the gospel and going to church.

About the phone call, i still don´t know if it´ll be a call or skype. I´m also not sure when or where, but don´t worry. I´ll tell you everything next monday. Chances are that it will be Christmas morning around 10ish. I highly doubt it´ll be Christmas eve like last year. I´m looking forward to talking with you and i hope you are all there. I love Christmas, and i love being a missionary. Have an Amazing week! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #81 12/10/12 Happy Birthday Dad!

Landon's District in Culiacan!

Landon at the Botanical Gardens

Buenas Tardes, and happy birthday dad! Thanks for being such a great father. Hope everything is good at home, and that you're enjoying Christmas and the cold!

We had another pretty decent week. Some of our investigadors are really starting to progress, while at the same time, we've had to leave quite a few because they weren't completing with their part. P, the sister that was escogido, told us that she didn't want us to keep visiting her because she likes her church more. We asked her if she read and prayed and of course she said no. Reading in the book of mormon is EVERYTHING! If someone who seems like a golden investigador never reads, they're never going to progress. When they read, they recieve revelation without even realizing it and little by little come to know that the church is true. If they don't read and pray, satan slowly works his way in and destroys the tiny seed that we plant and the investigador falls. 

We have several baptism dates for the 29 of December. We're going to be praying that they can all work out. We have one couple that needs to get married and a couple other people who still need to go to church without our help and pay tithing. These new rules are tough, but it's for the best. Our ward is also really excited right now, they are all helping us a ton and we're recieving a lot of references. 

Yesterday Elder Aleman and I both spoke. I based my talk on the scripture Isaias 58:10. It says that when we serve the hungry and afflicted, that we're lifted up out of our own darkness and recieve light. I related the subject of service to missionary work since the best way we can serve is by sharing the gospel. I remembered preparing my farewell talk which was also on service, i honestly don't remember much from that talk, but i can say that my method of preparing is a lot different now. 

Today Elder Aleman and I went to el Jardin Botanico. It's a sweet gardin that has a lot of different plants and natural art. It was pretty intense. I almost felt like i was with our family on vacation or something because Elder Aleman wanted to stop and read EVERY little description and take pictures of EVERYHING (remind you of someone?) haha but we had a good time. I'm attaching a picture. I'm also going to attach a picture of my district. I love you all and hope you all read the scriptures. Love Elder Mecham 

Letter #80 12/3/12 Querido Family!

Landon and cute little turtles!!

Cute yummy little turtles!

A papaya tree in front of the bishop's house!

This week was pretty decent. I hope it was great for all of you. First of all, it´s still incredibly hot in Culiacan, but i´m still feeling the Christmas spirit thanks to Marcies Christmas lights! Thanks Aunt marci. We have been enjoying the sun and doing a lot of searching this week. We had very few investigadors in the begginning of the week, and after a lot dilligence, we have more! We did a lot of street contacting and asking members for references. We´ve had a huge problem here, and it´s that we have a ton of directions of people from references from the members, street contacts, etc.. But when we arrive to the house, there's nobody! It happens ALL day EVERY day. Every hour of they day we put 4 plans, and usually we end up going with all four, finding nobody. However, we were still able to have success.

We had a great experience on Wednesday. A member was going with us to contact a reference that she had given us, her friend was busy and jehovas witness so she sent us off, but on the way back to the house of the sister, we contacted a women sitting on a bench. Her name is O. At first she was giving us excuses, saying she didn't have time to talk. I thought she was going to be like the majority of contacts and tell us she believes in the virgen and doesn't want to change. We quickly shared with her about the restoration. I testified, my companion testified, and the sister that was with us testified. After about 5 minutes she ended up giving us her address and we invited her to church. We weren't able to find her after that but it turned our on Sunday she went to church!! And she brought her 2 daughters that are also old enough to get baptised! We haven't even taught her yet but she has a lot of potential. Our mision has been talking a lot lately about the class of investigadors that we're baptising. Lots of times, people get baptised who really shouldn't get baptised. We need to search for people who can be future leaders, people who are self relient, and are repented. 

Our testimony meeting yesterday was super powerful. I couldn't believe how many members got up to bear their testimonies, and their testimonies were all perfect, brief, yet powerful. A recently baptised family that has really impressed me shared their testimonies and i couldn't believe how strong they were after only 2 months as members. It's a young couple with about 4 little kids, 2 of which are already members, but they all gave their testimonies. Even their kid that's only 6 years old, and he did it alone! I can't even describe how much i'd love to find a family like that. I know God blesses us according to our desires we obey him, and have faith. My companion and i have been praying a lot to find a family and i actually think that Hna O is an answer to our prayers. 

I'd say one of the best parts of the week was last night at 6. We went to the Christmas devotional!! It was incredible, i especially loved President Monsons talk. We were only going to go if we brought investigadors but we hadn't invited anyone. At about 530 we went with a young couple that we've been teaching, invited them, and we went!! They brought their 2 kids, a 1 year old baby and a 5 year old girl. They were incredibly rebelious during the devotional, but it was all great! 

Thanks mom for sending the package to Elder Aleman. He'll really appreciate it. I'm going find out if it'll even be possible to skype for christmas, but the rule is that we have to do it in the house of a member, and that could be hard. Also, i really don't trust the computers or internet connections of the members. It's a little different here than in our house. It could turn out really bad, but i'll look into it. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas season! Elder Mecham

Letter #79 11/26/12 Teaching Every Hour

Dear family,

To start things off, we had a great week. I feel like i learned a lot and that our area is progressing little by little. Wow, I will tell you the truth, i completely forgot about thanksgiving. I can honestly say that Thursday i never once remembered that it was a special day. It's kind of a bummer, i planned on eating mashed potatoes for breakfast to celebrate but oh well.. But i did open the Christmas package from Aunt Marcie. Thanks!! Everything she packed in is perfectly delicious. 

This week we were working super hard, trying to find new investigadors. We can no longer knock doors, but we've been doing more street contacts than ever. We try to talk with literally everyone we see, besides the ones that look dangerous, and we've found some people with a lot of potential. The only problem is that in our area, EVERYONE WORKS! They all tell us that they're after 7 PM and on Sundays. Basically, every day after 7 we're incredibly busy trying to find the people that we feel could progress, while still finding time to teach the few investigadors that we're going to keep. Yesterday, someone we've been teaching since the first day i got here finally went to church! Her name is P. She's 23 and is the daughter in law of a less active member. Our problem with her has been that, like everyone, she's impossible to find in her house! She works making crafts and Christmas decorations and little things like that. I think she'd get along great with Mckell. On saturday night we finally taught her for the second time, invited her to church, and she went. It was the primary program yesterday. It was actually really well planned and the kids were all awesome. Our primary would bring some good competition. 

We have been teaching a lot of lessons lately. President Cantu said that we should teach every hour so we've been trying to teach everyone we talk with. The majority of our lessons are super short, and we teach the people where we find them; in their work, in the street, washing their car, the point is that we're teaching them the gospel and planting seeds! And it gives us a long list of future investigadors. We had an interesting lesson with an older lady last week. She was tending her 10 grandkids and they were being a little bit rebelious. She lost her patience and started screaming at a little boy and smacked him bith a belt. I read her Ephesians 6:4. It says not to provoke your children to wrath, but to raise them in the Lord. After that the lesson went really smooth. Her grandkids calmed down, she calmed down, and we were able to feel the spirit. When we share the right scripture in the right time, the spirit always testifies to the investigador and they feel that what we're teaching is true. 

It's been nice to see all the Christmas lights here. We're hoping to have a really WHITE Christmas, and i don't refer to snow, but to children of God dressed in baptismal clothing!! haha, Pres. Cantu said it first.. They told us that this year for the phone call we're going to have 2 opcions. 1) a 2 hour phone call, or 2) one hour talking on skype. We can pick which we want. I cant pick, so i'll let you guys pick. Allthough i will say that i'm leaning more towards the 2 hour phone call. It's more time, more quesions, and i don't even know if there's a member here with skype. But let me know. I love you all, have a great week!!!! 

P.S. mom, what blood type am i?

Letter #78 Working hard in Culiacan!

Dear Family,
We had a pretty decent week this week. First of all, we had a few changes in our district. Elder Romero went to los cabos and an Elder named Elder Cannon came and took his spot. Elder  was sick and couldn't work all of last week. This meant that we had to do splits with them all week so that they could at least work in their area for half the day. We took turns looking after the sick Elder while the other 2 would go out and visit the appointments we had. It was a good week, but unfortunately we weren't able to work in our area too much. However, despite the lack of time, we were able to find an awesome couple that wants to get baptised! Well they accepted baptism dates, but they still have a long way to go.. there married and everything, but before getting baptised they're going to have to go to church without any help from us, pay tithing, and obey the word of wisdom for one month. We're pretty sure the husband drinks and the wife drinks coffee so it could be a little while before they get baptised. Our biggest challenge has been that we haven't been able to find our investigadors! We teach them once, the lesson is awesome, they feel the spirit, and after that they dissapear. Everyone is incredibly busy in Culiacan! They're always going out to eat or to the movies and other activities like that. There're too many things to do here! I'm kind of missing the ranches where everyone just sits in there houses all day.. We've also had a problem with bringing investigadors to church. The people here are great at promising us saturday night that they're going to go, and sunday when we pass be their houses, we find nobody..We have a lot of awesome people right now, we just need to teach with power and authority and make them feel the spirit. However i understand that there are always people who know what they should do, but still don't do it.

We have a pretty awesom district. I've really enjoyed having sisters in my district. They're a ton of fun and are great missionaries. So far they haven't had any crazy cat fights and i'm hoping that continues. Today we went to the Zoo!! It was pretty sweet. It's not too big but it was definately worth it. Elder Aleman is still doing great. He actually doesn't have as much support from his family like i thought. There's a chance i'll be asking for a few things to give to him that he's lacking.

Sorry for the short letter. We are a little short on time, but know that i love all of you guys!! Thanks for everything!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #77 First week in Culiacan!

Dear family. We had a successful week. To tell you the truth, i don't know what the missionaries were doing here last change because we started out the week with literally zero investigadors. We spent a lot of time going to the houses of the members to get to know them and ask for references. We've actually been teaching them lessons that we would teach the investigadors so that they remember there baptisms and feel the spirit, and once we have the spirit, we start to ask them about their friends. We had some really great experiences.

I'll tell the truth, when i heard that i was going to be coming to Culiacan, i wasn't too happy. Now that í've been here for a week, i'm really excited to be working here. The ward here is AMAZING! All the members LOVE us and are willing to do just about anything for the missionaries. There's a lot of members who are really excited to work with us. Several members have been going to lessons with us and taking us to meet their friends. There are also several members here that are return missionaries. Yesterday i counted the attendance and there were a whopping 115 members!! It's almost as big as my first ward in los cabos, the only difference is that we're the only 2 missionaries here! There's definately a lot of work to be done and i know i'm going to love my time here. Our area is in the outskirts of Culiacan. The majority of the neighborhoods are surrounded my forest or  hills so i really don't feel like i'm in the city. The sisters give us a ton of homemade flour tortillas and Frijoles puercos(pig beans). They're the 2 classic dishes that Culiacan is known for. 

Elder Aleman is a great Elder. We are different. He really likes things like action figures and japones cartoons so we don't have too much in common, but despite our differences, i feel like we're already great friends. He is 22 years old and just got baptised 3 years ago. The majority of his family got baptised with him so he has a little more support than Elder Roman. 

This week we had a surprise Zone Conference. President Cantu spoke just about the entire time. Something that really stuck to me was quote from Boyd K. Packer. He said in simple words, "you find what you look for''. If we're looking for success in the mission, and we put the progress of our investigadors before EVERYTHING, we're going to have success. At the same time if we look for excuses, we're going to find them. 

Hope you all have a great week!! I love you all and hope the best. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #76 11/05/12 Culiacan!!

Hey everyone, where to start.. first of all, i'm in Culiacan! I guess you could say i'm excited. I've never served in Culiacan before and it is the Mexico CULIACAN mission. I really loved my ward and area in Mazatlan but i already had a while there. I was starting to get a little sick of walking the same streets every day... but we had a few investigadors who were really starting to progress so that's always tough. My new area is called Mirador (watcher), and my companions name is Elder Aleman (german, although he's not german, he's from Guerrero, Mexico). I'm still district leader, however my district is a little bigger. There're 4 companionships and 2 sisters! It should be interesting with the sisters. Luckily, i already know both of them and they're really easy going (sisters usually have lots of problems). I'm also super excited because one of the companionships consists of 2 of my former companions in Angostura! Elder Romero and Elder Calleja. We're going to be doing lots of divisions.

This last week in Mazatlan was splendid. D got baptised! He was super excited. I waited until after his baptism to tell him that i was going to leave. I'm going to miss him and his mom. They're both amazing converts. D is going to be an awesome missionary. It was amazing to see him and his mom progress in the gospel. I never got to see hna S get baptised, but she told me that the day she gets baptised that she's going to send the pictures to my email. She had gone to church every single sunday for 2 months, arriving early, and paying her tithing. She already has a goal to go to the temple. She's going to be moving to Tiajuana in about a month and wants go through the temple there.

Our mission is raising the bar as far as converts go. The investigadors now have to go to church 2 times before getting baptised, the diference is that one of those times they need to go without any support from us, or the ward. They also need to make a contribution of tithing or fast offerings before going to church. In the past 3 years there have been 110,000 baptisms in Mexico. Sadly, the attendence has only raised 10,000. Our mission is making a goal to have converts, not just baptisms. This means that we have to really love the people we teach and not just see them as numbers.

Last week we recieved amazing news!! Due to the change in the age requirement for missionaries, the missionaries are going to be in the MTC less time. This means that we're going to have some changes in our release dates. It will now be 3 weeks later! I'm pretty excited to be able to find more escogidos for the 3 weeks. I wanted to tell you now so that you dont plan any big vacations or anything. There also might be a possibility of leaving 3 weeks earlier, but there's still plenty of time to decide.

Thankyou everyone for the packages!! I recieved all 4 christmas packages on saturday. Yesterday i had an incredibly hard time trying to fit them in my 2 suit cases along with my clothes, books, and other essencial items, and today it was even harder trying to haul my 2 suit cases, each weighing 70 pounds, in all the buses, but i'm sure it will all be worth it christmas morning. Thanks!! Love you all, and Happy birthday grandma!!!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #75 10/29/12 Happy Halloween!

Querido familia,

We had another good week here in mazatlan. We worked a lot and were able to see lots of blessings. I´m a little distracted right now because right outside the window from where i´m writing there´s a SUV full of about 10 soldiers with M-16 machine guns. But dont worry, it´s  normal to see that here. This past week we worked a lot with less active members and recent converts. Friday we recieved the news about a new rule banning the knocking of doors. I´m pretty sure it´s a rule for all of mexico but not positive. There´s several reasons for the rule. First of all, it´s incredibly inefficient and we hardly ever have success while contacting. It´s about 100 times more effecient to go with 1 reference from a member than knock doors for 1 hour. Another reason for the rule is that knocking the doors of unknown people here can be a little dangerous. We´re really happy for the change and are hoping to have more success and more baptisms! We have gone with several members to ask for references and are planning on giving a few missionary prep classes to the whole ward so that they can share the gospel a little better and with less fear. 

I´m incredibly greatful for all of you guys and all your support. Last week i realized just how blessed i am to have such a wonderful supportive family. Elder Roman basically has no support from home. His dad writes him about once every 2 months and when his mom writes him, she´s begging him to come home. The last letter his mom wrote him she told him that his mission is ruining him. In response to her letter he told her to repent! Elder Roman is awesome. He has never once complained and never lets anything his family tells him get to him. 

Saturday we had a ward missionary activity. We had a good turnout of members and were able to bring 2 investigadors. We went to the city park, which happens to be in our area, and ate delicious food and everyone played football. The members are all great here. They´re lacking a little excitement as far as the missionary work goes, but they all love us and i´ll miss them when i leave. 

It´s been awesome to see Hna Y progress. This last sunday she was sustained as relief society secretary!! She is responsable of filling our lunch calender every month. She is also understanding the principals of the gospel a lot better. It´s been awesome to see the change in her since she got baptised. It´s obvious that she now has the gift of the holy ghost, she understands and remembers everthing a lot easier. This week D, her son, is going to get baptised! 

You asked if they celebrate halloween here. I´m not too sure how it is here in Sinaloa but last year in San Lucas there were several kids trick or treating. This year i already have my costume ready! An hermano gave me a sweet sombrero. It´s basically identical to the indiana Jones´ hat. I sent a picture of me wearing it while washing my clothes earlier today. I also sent a picture of the ward activity. I hope you all enjoy halloween and that you behave. Love you all!! 

Elder Mecham

Letter #74 10/22/12 Mazatlan!!

Wow, Matt´s home! That´s great to hear. Thanks for the pictures. Looks like you all had a great time! Last tuesday i talked to an Brother Corona, He´s an Elder that returned from Villahermos on Monday and lives in our stake. He said he knew Matt and reafirmed that he got stuck in Mexico, only he told me that he had heard that it was going to take a couple weeks to work out his papers and everything. Guess he was wrong.. Tell Matt hi for me and tell him that he nunca dejará siendo un misionero, y a seguir echando las ganas! Y que encuentre su medianaranja rapidamente.

We had a great week. We started out super excited after not having too much success the week before and having incredibly low numbers. We set new goals and worked super hard to achieve them, and for the first time in my mission, we did it! We completed with every goal we set, besides baptisms and confirmations. We worked a ton with with the members this week also visited a lot of less active members. Our ward is starting to get a little more excited with the missionary work. We´ve recieved a few references and are doing divisions every week. Hna Y is still doing great. This week they called her as the relief society secretary!! We´re hoping that her calling is going to keep her active and involved in the church. We´re also teaching her son, D, and should get baptised next week.

I had told you guys earlier about an investigador named S that works in our area. We passed the reference to the missionaries that correspond to him and they are now teaching him in his house. He should be getting baptised next week as well. We still see him on a regular basis, he even told us that he wants Elder Roman to baptise him so it looks like we´ll be attending his baptism! I also had another experience that strengthens my testimony that God loves us and listens to our prayers. The day after we passed the reference to the other missionaries, another pair of missionaries called us from Culiacan to pass us a reference. They told us that they´ve been teaching a man that works in Culiacan during the week, but lives in our area. They said they´ve already taught him all the lessons and has a baptism date for the first week of November. We visited him Saturday and is super excited.

Elder Roman and I are still doing great together. He got a little sick last week, turns out he can´t eat anything that has chilli anymore in his whole mission. He´s going to have some major problems since they litterally toss chilli in EVERYTHING here. Mom, you should be greatful that he´s my companion. He takes really good care of his skin, making me, as well, take super good care of my skin. He also has an unbrella and if we´re not walking in the shadow, he uses it. Which is basically all day long. He also reminds me to put on sun screen. There´s a lot of people here with really bad skin problems since the majority of people work outside all day long. It´s a good reminder.

I re-listened to Uchdorfs talk about living a life with no regrets several times this week and i loved it more every time. He talks about how we need to enjoy where we´re at and not think about the finish line before we get there. We´re going to keep working hard this week and find more people to bring unto Christ!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #73 10/15/12 Baptism!

Great week. First of all, i'm a little surprised about Matt. When i read that he's not coming home today, i first thought about President Thomas S. Monson's talk he gave on Sunday. I thought that they main point of the talk was that there are no coinsidenses. Everything happens for a reason and i'm sure that there is a reason (unknown for the time being) that he was not supposed to come home today. But i liked that idea of going to Chuck a rama afterwards. You'll have to send me pictures!

 

Right now i'm in another area with a Elder Goates, an Elder in my zone. Our companions are currently in Culiacan working out some visa issues. They left yesterday, so last night i worked here with Elder Goates. It's been nice to hang out a little with anoher Gringo. This morning we played soccer and afterwards we made carne asada with a few mexican teenagers.

 

Hna Y got baptised! Her baptism was awesome. I felt the spirit and i could tell that she did as well. We were a little worried that she wasn't going to get baptised this week because she learns a little slow and honestly doesn't understand a lot of things even now, but after a lot of prayer we decided that she was ready! Knowledge really isn't a requirement to get baptised. More than anything the person needs to have the desire, be willing to obey the commandments, and pray to know that it's true. The members are going to be helping her now so that she keeps going to church and has her sights set on the temple! Y also has a 10 year old son who we're going to start teaching. He went to the baptism and to church on sunday and loved it. We told him that in 2 weeks he'll be able to get baptised and he got really excited. We found hna Y one day when we were walking to lunch. She talked to me in english and i asked her if we could visit her in her house. She honestly didn't have much of a desire in the beggining but little by little we were able to see her change. It's awesome to see the spirit work with the people as they learn more about our savior and start keeping the commandments.

 

Elder Roman and i are still doing great together. He is definately different than the rest of my companions i've had. You would never guess that he is so new to church. He knows a ton about the scriptures and LOVES teaching. He shares his conversion story with just about everyone we come in contact and it's been a big help. It's nice having a companion that's a convert, i'd actually love it if every companion i had was a convert. He's trying to take advantage of our time together to learn english. I always pray in english so that he can listen. Strangely, i feel more comfortable praying in spanish. I often start my prayers in english and finish in spanish without even realizing as i change languages.

 

S, the contact that works as a security guard, is awesome. He doesn't live in our area, but he loved the book of mormon so much that he's been sharing it with everone he knows! He gave a book to his friend, A, who's now been reading and seems really excited. He's trying to quit smoking and we're helping him by teaching him the gospel!

 

Well i hope that you all have a wonderful week and that Matt comes home at some point before next monday. Love you all!! Elder Mecham

Letter #72 10/8/12!! General Conference!!

No idea where this is!  Maybe the backyard?

Landon on the ferry to an island for a baptism interview.  Gorgeous!!

Hey there everyone, great week. First of all, i got 2 packages! ¡Gracias a mama y abuelita! Everything you sent was great, i give props to whoever picked out the grey paisley tie. I´m going to have a tough time keeping that from my companions.

Best news of the week is, i can hardly believe it, but we went to all 5 sessions of conference!!!! And we brought investigadors to every session! We had a bit of an advantage since the stake center is in our area, making it very easy for investigadors to go. I left this conference feeling spiritually uplifted and with a stronger testimony that Thomas S. Monson is a profet. Elder Roman and i both felt the spirit super strong after the afternoon session Yesterday. Elder Roman was balling, i was able to contain my emotions a little better, but the experience was super powerful. I also have a new love the the tabernacle choir. Since i started the mission i´ve enjoyed them more and more. The investigadors who went all had great experiences as well. We had a few people who went both Saturday and Sunday, Hna G being one of them. She has a baptism date for this saturday!! We´re teaming her up with our other investigador of around the same age, Hermana S. They made friends yesterday at conference and today we´re going to have a family night with both of them.

We had super awesome experience on Friday while we were walking to lunce. We were basically running because we were late when we heard a man shout at us. He was working in a hotel when he watched pass by and wanted something to read. We stopped and talked to him and gave him a book of mormon and left our number on the back. After 10 minutes he sent us a message saying that he wanted us to come back and teach him how to pray. We passed be the next day and he had already read 12 chapters of the Book of Mormon! He told us that he knows it´s true and that it was no coincidence that he felt prompted to shout at us, he had never talked with missionaries before and didn´t have a clue what we do. He went to the preisthood session on Saturday and said he felt that Thomas S. Monson was a profet called by God, Yesterday we passed by and he asked us if he could have 3 more Books of Mormon; 1 for his friend at work, 1 for the owners of the house he rents, and 1 for his wife. He is insanely escogido!! Only sad thing is that he doesn´t live in our area... We works all day as a security guard in a hotel in our area, but we´re going to pass the reference to the missionaries of the ward he belongs to. We are just happy to have been the missionaries that made first contact with him. These past couple weeks we´ve found a TON of people who i feel have been prepared to recieve the gospel, but sadly don´t live in our area. The important thing is that we´re working our hardest, and helping people come unto Christ. It doesn´t matter if we are just the ones that are planting the seed, it´s the same work.

Mom, to awnswer a couple of questions, Elder Roman is from Santiago. I had forgotten that Danny served in the Dominican Republic! Also, about the shoes, to tell the truth boots aren´t neccessary in sinaloa. At least they weren´t this year. It sounds like in past years it has rained a little more. I´m using them every other day, but just because my other shoes are falling apart little by little and i want all 3 pairs to last me until the end of my mission. I think it´s a good idea to buy a pair of shoes just to use on Sundays and Baptisms so that you always have a pair that looks nice, and another 2 pairs for every other day.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #71 10/1/12 Elder Roman is Awesome!!

Dear family, How is everyone? Unfortunately today we have very little time to write. We have a district meeting right now and its very far away. This week was pretty decent. Elder Roman and i had several spiritual experiences together and little by little were finding more investigadors. Yesterday una Hermana that we{ve been teaching forever finally went to church! She speaks english and always wants to speak english in the lessons. We{ve been worried that that she was more interested in practicing her english than learning the gospel but we{re seen a lot of progress in her in this last little bit. I hope she keeps it up so she can get baptised! Hermana S is having problems because she is currently living with her x husband and rules are that if they live under the same roof, and arent married, she cant get baptised. She has continued to be super active in everything and loves all the lessons. She is also on the schedule to feed us every week. This week we{re going to be looking for new investigadors. This past week i resulted to a finding method that i hadn{t used in months, contacting. It had been forever!! But i{ve now broken the streak. We had gone almost every inactive member in the ward, and found every old investigador from the area book, and we were left with no other opcion. We had little success for our area, but were able to find and teach some people who live in other cities that i think could really progress. It doesnt matter who plants the sead and who reaps it. The blessings are the same!

This past week we also had the oportunity to go to the island again! I enjoyed the boat ride and took a couple fotos but i think i{ll be sending them next week because the computer i{m using is ancient! Elder Roman and i are having a great time together. He is awesome. He has a little over a month her in Mexico and is still adjusting to everything. I would have thought the the Dominican Republic and Mexico would be almost identical in cultures sense their so close, but there are actually a lot of differences. They don{t eat tortillas in the Dominican Republic!! He actually says that the food is a lot better here than in his house. There are also a lot of differences in the language. Believe it or not, i{ve helped him with his mexican spanish, and at times, i{ve been the one who has had to translate things so that the people understand. Haha, obviously he speaks better spanish than do, but there{s a lot of words that exist here that he had never heard of before, and a words that are spoken in his house that people don{t understand at all. 

I love every one of you and  im thankful for you letters and for everything you do for me. Stay safe, and read the scriptures! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #70 9/24/12 New Companion!

Landon's last District

Ward Family Home Evening Farewell Party!!

Dear family,

We had another good week. I´ll start out by telling you that I´m still here in Albatros, Mazatlan! I´m pretty happy because i was hoping i´d stay. But, like i expected, Elder Lara and i were separated. He went to Culiacan.. haha i felt a little bad because he kept telling me he didn´t want serve in Culiacan for the heat but i guess the Lord had other plans for him. I´m sure he´ll realize quickly that the changes are inspired and that that´s where he´s supposed to be.

As for my new companion, his name is Elder Roman, from the Dominican Republic!! Pretty sweet eh? I´m excited to get to know him. There´s a lot of missionaries from South American countries, but he´s the only missionary in our whole mission from the Dominican Republic. He has 3 months in here in Mexico and 6 in the mission, he spent some time waiting for his visa. We´ve allready gotten to know eachother pretty well and he seems like he´ll be a great companion. He´s the only member in his family and he got baptised when he was 19, he´s now 21. He is also set on learning english here in the mission and today we´ve been speaking a LOT of english. To be honest, right now he doesn´t know a lot, but i´m sure that by the end of this change he´ll be speaking like a native! He also has a pretty sweet accent when he speaks spanish, i´m hoping it might rub off on me a bit.

This past week was a good one. We spent a lot of time trying looking for new investigadors and honestly weren´t able to have much success. However, on the brightside, S wants to get baptised here in Mazatlan!! She is going to move to Tijuana in December and was wanting to wait until she gets there to get baptised so that her brother who´s a member can baptise her, but this past week she said that she doesn´t think she´ll be able to wait! However, she recently went through a divorce and is still living with her X husband and, unfortunately, the church doesn´t allow that she can get married unless she is living apart from her husband. We´re going to pray a lot that she has the faith and desire to find a new house so that she can take the next step and get baptised. Hermana E, the women who´s 86 years old, is getting really sick. She honestly can´t go to church right now and we´re thinking that she´s going to be accepting her baptism in the spirit world. It´s a little sad because she has a strong desire to get baptised but physically can´t do it right now. I know that God is merciful and that she has no need to worry. Everything will work out well in the end.

This week i finished the New Testament!! The book of Revelations is pretty intense, i definately plan on studying it a little deeper after the mission. It felt good to finally finish the NT since i started reading it about 9 months ago. I´ve been steadily reading about 2-3 chapters a day. This Wednesday my ward is going to be sending off the first missionary in almost 10 years! He´s going to Puebla. He´s been like our 3rd companion these past 3 months and i´m super proud of him. He´s also the only member of his family and it´s been a struggle for him these past few weeks because he´s family isn´t giving him any support. Last night the ward had a family home evening to say good bye and it was super spiritual. Everyone took turns saying there last words to him and everyone was crying. We brought an investigador and i know he felt the spirit super strong!

Mom, i don´t think i have a tape worm but i´ll see what i can do to make sure. Also, this week i went to a dermintologist for my rash. They said it was due to sweating to much and gave me a soap, a spray, and a cream, all insanely expensive but luckily the mission paid for it, and now the rash is almost gone.

Wow, the cabin again!! Can´t believe it. Hope your not all sick of the cabin by the time i get home!! I got the letter from Kam and i´m excited to read it. Love you all!! Hope you have a wonderful week. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #69 9/17/12! Mexico Indendence Day!

Pizza for Independence Day!

Landon, Elder Lara, and a patriotic Hotel!

Zone soccer!!

Dear family, hope you all had a good week. I´m a little sad to hear about the BYU game, oh well.. there´s always next year! Thanks for the fotos from Labor day! Looks like you guys had a blast at the cabin! That cross bow looks pretty awesome, although it was a little strange seeing grandma shooting it. haha.

This week was a good one. Little by little we´re seeing the fruits of our labors. Despite having very few lessons, 2 a day, we were able able to bring 2 investigadors to church and put 3 baptismal dates! We have a couple people who are looking promising. We´ve found that the majority of people who listen to us here are all rather old, but i enjoy talking with elderly folks. You can learn a lot from their experience in life, even though some are incredibly stubborn.. Our 2 most promising investigadors right now are E and another named S. E has 86 years under her belt and is awesome! She wants to get baptised but is incredibly sick, can´t walk, and only has one fucioning eye and the other barely works. It´s been tough to bring her to church but we´re going to pray a lot so that she can progress. S is awesome. He is 75 and lives with his downsyndrome son. He goes to a Christian church but knows that his church is lacking the preisthood. Tomorrow i´m going to show him my preisthood lineage and hope it´s what he needs to finally get baptised! He went to church yesterday and loved it.

This week i finished El Libro de Mormon! It always feels great to finish it. Great book, i highly reccommend it to anyone who wants to find answers to life´s questions. After meditating, i´ve come to the conclusion the principal message that the book of mormon is that it doesn´t matter what happens to us or what our circumstances are, the way to prosper both spiritually and temporally and overcome lifes trials is through obedience to the gospel. The majority of the book of mormon talks about wars or rebellions. When the people obey the Lord, they always come out on top! And it´s not always easy, lots of times god wants to test our patience, but in the end we´ll be happy when we hold to the iron rod and never fall away from the gospel. The profets tell us everything we need to do to be happy, we just have to have faith and do it!

This weekend was the celebration of the independence of Mexico(16 de septiembre) which is the excuse for EVERYONE to forget their lives and responsabilities for 2 days and drink like there´s no tomorrow. Saturday, President Cantú gave the whole mission orders to return to our houses at 8 and also avoid areas with a lot of parties. Our entire area was a giant party! Pretty tough to avoid. Elder Lara and I celebrated by ordering a pizza and watching the Plates of Gold. It was a good night.

I attached 3 fotos. One is from this morning, we played soccer and volleyball with the zone. If you´re wondering who the guy in the back is with the giant beard and army helmet is, he´s a homeless guy who passed by the church and we invited him to play volleyball with us. He surprised us with his skill, it definately wasn´t his first time playing. The other picture is of our pizza night and the other of a hotel that had Mexico colors. Well love you all and i love being a missionary!!

Elder Mecham

Letter #68 9/10/12 Boat Ride!!?

Beautiful!

On the way to a baptism interview!  On a boat!!

This investigator isn't progressing very well!

Hey family! Glad to hear that everyone´s okay. And it was nice to get an email from Grandma! wow, Kameron had his farewell! I hope you recorded it so i can watch it when i get home. But how exciting! And Matt´s in his last change! Dang, goes by fast. I feel pretty good right now being right in the middle of the whole experience.

Well this week.. what can i say? I won´t lie, it was pretty average as far as the mission goes. Of course we had spiritual experiences and worked super hard, but nothing out of the ordinary. We had 2 lessons with S, the one that called us wanting to go to church. She´s great, and wants to get baptised! And she already knows the church is true and had already read 50 pages in the book of mormon before the first lesson! But unfortunately there´s a few details that are keeping her from getting baptised right now. We´re going to keep visiting her and hope and pray that we´re the 2 missionaries that get to see her baptism, but if not, i know that she will get baptised one day and is going to be a faithful member of the church forever and in the end, it doesn´t really matter who or where she gets baptised, the most important thing is that she is learning the gospel and i´m proud to be the one teaching her. Unfortunately, we weren´t able to find many people this week, walked a LOT again, but i don´t mind walking and we always seem to have fun while walking and contacting despite the heat and sweat. Yesterday we had a family home evening with 15 investigadors! A member invited all his kids and grandkids, none of which being members, and we taught them all the restoration. We´re going to be regressing with a few families this week and hopefully putting baptism dates!! Saturday we planned a ward missionay activity. It was a sports activity and they played basketball and volleyball. We had to do EVERTHING. We bought a ton of watermelon and oranges, expecting lots of people, but sadly only 15 people went, all of which being members... We´re trying to get the ward a little more excited but we´re struggling a little.

So these past couple weeks i´ve developed a fairly large rash, or some say fungus, due to the humidity. It doesn´t really bother me, but every morning i cover my entire body with powder to try and minimize the sweat. Sometimes i wish i was mexican so i wouldn´t have to deal with these white guy problems!

Oh i almost forgot, this week we went to do an interview and i got to do something that very few missionaries have the opportunity to do; take a boat ride! The future member lives on an island! It´s in the area of 2 Elders in my district. The boat ride lasted about 10 minutes and was very enjoyable, although at first i felt like i was sinning putting on a life jacket and being so close to the water. I attached a picture to back up my words. Today we had a nice P day, we went to check out some tourist areas and buy a few things. I´m loving the extra time they´re giving us. It´s always nice to have a good exciting P day to start the week, now we´re going to work super hard and find escogidos! I pray every day the the lord will guide us to the people that he´s preparing. I know they´re out there! Well hope you all have a great week. Love every single one of you!

Love Elder Mecham

Letter #67 9/3/12 Striving for the Temple!

Hey everyone! Glad to hear you had a good week starting school and everything. I had no clue it was labor day! That´s fun that you all went to the cabin. It seems like you´ve been going to the cabin a whole lot lately. And Congrats to Kameron for going through the temple! Wow, i would´ve loved to have been there. And go BYU football!! How

We had a pretty decent week this week. We continued our hunt for new investigadors and had were able to see some fruits from our efforts. Again, we had very few lessons. 14 in the whole week, but we did a ton of street contacts. And we had 5 investigadors come to church!! For 2 in was their first time attending and they both loved it. One was a street contact! We invited him to church and he said he´d go, i thought he was just saying it so we´d leave, but he went! There was also a women that called us this last week, saying that the missionaries had visited her about a year ago, but wasn´t really too interested in changing her catholic beliefs. She told us that she recently visited her sister in another state and went to the mormon church with her and loved it! She wanted to know what time church starts here so that she can keep attending. She came yesterday and already looked like a member. She was wearing a dress, arrived 10 minutes early, stayed all 3 hours, got to know several members, and had an interview with the Bishop. She has lots of problems in her house so we´re going to be teaching her in the church. As long as she´s already married and hasn´t commited any pecados graves, she should get baptised in he next couple weeks!

This weekend our whole stake went to the Temple. Here in Mazatlan they go to the Guadalajara temple. All the stakes from Culiacan and up go to Heramosilla and everyone south of Culiacan goes to Guadalajara. Our ward has been getting together every week to make tamales and sell them in order to have the 300 pesos for the bus from here to guadalajara. Savings accounts don´t really exist here. If someone needs to pay for something other than the weekly grocery run they need to work extra hard to come up with the money. 300 pesos is less than 30 dollars, yet there were several members who weren´t able come up with it. I was sad to see that only 7 from our ward went. I would LOVE to be able to go to temple!! This week i was thinking a lot about the covenents we make and the blessings that are promised to us when we keep those covenents. I know that the blessings are real and powerful. And the coventents are important. Our purpose as missionaries isn´t just to baptise. We make sure that every convert has their sights set on the temple! Baptism is great, but without make the covenents in the temple, there´s no way we can make it back to our heavenly father.

Well love you all, thanks for being amazing. Thanks Marci for writing me! Love hearing from you and about the family. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #66 8/27/12 Hanging in there in Mazatlan!

The view from Landon's house in Mazatlan!

Seems like a pretty nice place!  Big and fairly clean!

Where are the sheets?  Still... not too bad!

Hey family! Buenas tardes. Wow, interesting week. I read your letters. Thanks! Sounds like everything is great at home. Back in School!! Wow, how exciting! Mom, i hope that your kids behave themselves and that you don´t have too many "troubles children". Lexi and Mckel, i hope that you enjoy your classes, your teachers, your wards, and your roomates. And if you don't, hang in there!

Very sadly, LHey family! Buenas tardes. Wow, interesting week. I read your letters. Thanks! Sounds like everything is great at home. Back in School!! Wow, how exciting! Mom, i hope that your kids behave themselves and that you don´t have too many "troubles children". Lexi and Mckel, i hope that you enjoy your classes, your teachers, your wards, and your roomates. And if you don't, hang in there!

Very sadly, Luis didn't get baptised.. Wow, satan works hard. He had his interview thursday and passed! Everything was set, he was going to get baptised Saturday, but after passing his interview he said he wanted to wait until this saturday so that his family can attend. We told him it would be fine, then Saturday when we passed by his house he said that, for personal reasons, he wants to wait until November! After sharing lots of scriptures, and baring testimony he told us he'd pray and ask if he should get baptised this Saturday. We haven't seen him since but we're hoping for a miracle. We did a WHOLE lot of looking for new investigadors this week. Our strategic plan to find new people was to do a mix of going with less active members who have non-member family members, searching old investigadors from the area book, and talking with EVERYONE we find in the streets. We had many very interesting experiences and conversations with people. I can't believe how many Jehovas Witnesses there are in Mazatlan! We found several incredibly inactive members this week who have completely denied getting baptised and have now gotten re-baptised in other churches. We had to show them there names in the lists to prove that they are technically members of the church. Very sad.. We spent the majority of the week walking. Almos every lesson we had lasted no more than 15 minutes and was held in the doorstep of the person and basically consisted of trying to defend our beliefes with people who honestly had no desire to ever go to church or even try to understand what we share.

Right now we're just trying not to get down. ANIMO ANIMO!! Luckily, Elder Lara is really easy going and i've never seen him even the least bit depressed. We're trooping along with our heads held high and i now that we're going to find escogidos! Yesterday i spoke on patience. I talked about the sons of Mosiah and how they were stoned, beaten, and thrown in prison, yet they never got discouraged. At the end of everything, they baptised thousands! I know that patience is a virtue of Christ and that if we indure hardships with patience, never parting away from the gospel, God blesses us!

We had a great day today. President Cantu recently recieved some amazing revelation! We now have our District Meetings at 6 P.M. every Monday, as opposed to having the meeting in the morning. We now have a full day for P day!! Beforehand we usually returned to our areas at arouond 2, still needing to wash, buy, and write. Life is good, i'm happy to be a missionary and excited to work, work, work!! I love you all and i hope you have a wonderful week!! didn't get baptised.. Wow, satan works hard. He had his interview thursday and passed! Everything was set, he was going to get baptised Saturday, but after passing his interview he said he wanted to wait until this saturday so that his family can attend. We told him it would be fine, then Saturday when we passed by his house he said that, for personal reasons, he wants to wait until November! After sharing lots of scriptures, and baring testimony he told us he'd pray and ask if he should get baptised this Saturday. We haven't seen him since but we're hoping for a miracle. We did a WHOLE lot of looking for new investigadors this week. Our strategic plan to find new people was to do a mix of going with less active members who have non-member family members, searching old investigadors from the area book, and talking with EVERYONE we find in the streets. We had many very interesting experiences and conversations with people. I can't believe how many Jehovas Witnesses there are in Mazatlan! We found several incredibly inactive members this week who have completely denied getting baptised and have now gotten re-baptised in other churches. We had to show them there names in the lists to prove that they are technically members of the church. Very sad.. We spent the majority of the week walking. Almos every lesson we had lasted no more than 15 minutes and was held in the doorstep of the person and basically consisted of trying to defend our beliefes with people who honestly had no desire to ever go to church or even try to understand what we share.

Right now we're just trying not to get down. ANIMO ANIMO!! Luckily, Elder Lara is really easy going and i've never seen him even the least bit depressed. We're trooping along with our heads held high and i now that we're going to find escogidos! Yesterday i spoke on patience. I talked about the sons of Mosiah and how they were stoned, beaten, and thrown in prison, yet they never got discouraged. At the end of everything, they baptised thousands! I know that patience is a virtue of Christ and that if we indure hardships with patience, never parting away from the gospel, God blesses us!

We had a great day today. President Cantu recently recieved some amazing revelation! We now have our District Meetings at 6 P.M. every Monday, as opposed to having the meeting in the morning. We now have a full day for P day!! Beforehand we usually returned to our areas at arouond 2, still needing to wash, buy, and write. Life is good, i'm happy to be a missionary and excited to work, work, work!! I love you all and i hope you have a wonderful week!!

Letter #65 8/20/12 Rain in Mexico

Hey family, we had a pretty decent week. It went by incredibly fast! I can´t believe i´m already writing you guys again. I got the pictures from Lexi! Looks like she had an awesome time in the grand canyon. I always wanted to visit there.. It rained a ton this week. Every single day.. not all day, but a lot. The good part about the rain is that it means cloud cover, which is always really pleasing. The bad part is that it also means humidity, which turns into a lot of sweat. But the work always goes on. The weather really doesn´t change anything at all, and i need to enjoy the remainder of August cause it´ll be my last one in Mexico! This is the only chance i´ll ever have to walk around in the hot and humid rain, sweating up a storm and diligently searching the escogidos and i need to take advantage of every minute!

We had a lot of lessons this week. We have a lot of people with baptism dates, which is awesome, but unfortunately not a lot are progressing towards their dates. This week we´re going to have a lot of last visits with a few families we´ve been teaching. It´s sad to leave investigadors, but it´s part of the mission. R is continuing to progress. He should get baptised saturday! We´re going to be praying a ton that he has enough power to resist the temptations of satan and keep excited. I think he´s one of the few investigadors that we´re going to keep visiting this week. We´re going to be doing a LOT of searching this week.

Yesterday was the stake conference and it was great! President Cantú spoke and it was incredibly powerful as always. A member of the seventy also came but i forgot his name. He´s a Mexican and he also did great. He came Saturday and he wanted to visit one less active member, and one recent convert. And he chose G!! She´s the lady that got baptised my first week. He visited her with the bishop and the stake president, unfortunately they didn´t want to invite the missionaries.. but we were both really happy for her. He mentioned her in his talk sunday as an example of great faith and dedication. She is already saving money to go to the temple in one year!

Well we should have a good week this week. I didn´t tell you last week but i´m district leader. Nothing really changes as district leader but i get to hold district meatings and a bunch of fun things like that. I´ll be busier and that´s always a good thing. Well i hope you all have a wonderful week!! I´m going to work super hard so that you all get blessings. Love you all!!

Elder Mecham

Letter #64 08/13/12 Run to the Lighthouse!

Early morning run up the mountain to the lighthouse!

Looking Great!

Hitching a ride in Mazatlan!

Hey fam. Another good week. I'll start out by telling you that i'm still here in Mazatlan with Elder Lara. Looks like we're going to have another 6 weeks together! I was pretty happy. We have a few investigadors that should be getting baptised this change and i know we're going to find a lot more. I've enjoyed working with Elder Lara. He's really really tranquilo. He is basically always laughing and making jokes but at the same time he knows when to get serious. Also, i got your package! Thanks a ton. It was great! I was pretty happy to see some peanut butter. I was able to read  your letters beforehand this week. Sounds like you guys did a ton this week! Make sure to tell Kameron happy birthday for me. What day does he leave again? I can't wait to start getting his letters! There was quite a bit of excitement here when Mexico won in soccer, but i won't lie, i'm pretty happy that the olympics are over. WAY too many tempatations. Haha just about everyone was wathching them and me and my companion being, big sports fans, had to go to pretty extreme measures to avoid seeing them. I'm looking forward to the next olympics when i can sit down and enjoy them.

So this week we continued working a lot with J, but unfortunately he still didn't get baptised. We haven't been able to find his dad from whom we need to get permission. We're going to pray and pray that his dad lets him get baptised and if so, he'll be baptised this saturday. We found a new investidador that looks really promising named R. He's about 75 years old and lives alone. He was in the navy and loves to tie nots and has read the book of mormon 2 times! He said he loves it, only that it talks too much about wars. He wants to get baptised the 25th of this month. He has a small problem with smoking, but we're going to pray that he has the strength to stop. He went to our ward missionary activity on Friday and loved it! We had a movie night. Elder Lara and i organized it. We watched 17 milagros! It was pretty awesome. We watched in on a giant wall with a projector and ate popcorn. The idea was that the members were going to bring their friends but it turned out that we were the only  ones who brought investigadors. J and R. But they loved it! 

The pictures are from saturday. We ran to the lighthouse! We had to get up at 430 to be able to get back on time. I'm still a little sore, but it was 100 percent worth it! On the run back we had fun taking pictures with all the monuments on the boardwalk. Well i hope that all of you have an amazing week and remember to read the scriptures. I've been reading a lot in Corinthians. The 2 books testify that our church is the church of Jesus Christ a ton! Take care and i love you!  

Elder Mecham

Letter #63 8/06/12 Aquarium!

Landon's newest investigator!

Landon and Elder Lara hope to be together for another change!

A friend in Mazatlan!

Hey family! We had a pretty awesome week. I loved the pictures you sent! I always love getting pictures. Looks like you had a good time at the cabin and lexi´s trip looked awesome! I say our family does a trip like that in about a year. I´m glad to know that everyone´s enjoying this last little bit of summer. I´m just hoping i can make it through this August heat. Everyone says that August is the worst month as far as the heat goes and i believe it.

This last week we had a super spiritual experience with an eternal investigador. She has been listening to the misionaries on and off for the last 20 years. We are hoping that now is her time to finally make the decision and get baptised! In the lesson we were just asking questions, testifying, and reading scriptures in order to find what´s been stopping her from getting baptised. Afterwards we challenged her to pray and ask if she should get baptised. She said that last prayer and asked and instantly started to cry and couldn´t stop. I know that she was touched by the holy ghost and that she felt that she needs to get baptised. The spirit was so strong! We´re going to keep praying so that she can finally decide to act according to her answer. 

We have a very posible baptism for this saturday. He´s a kid named J. He 11 years old and LOVES to go to church. He goes with his Aunt becuase his parents aren´t members and really don´t want anything to do with the churh. He says that he´s gone to a lot of churches but that he feels something special when he goes to our church and knows that it´s where he belongs. When he told us that he had never heard of Joseph Smith and had never said a prayer. It goes to show  that if someone is spiritually open, they can literally feel that our church has the fullness of the gospel by simply attending church and listening to the spirit. 

Today we had a little district activity since we have changes next week. We went to the Aquarium!! It was pretty amazing. Basically a mini-Seaworld. We saw a sea lion show, i took a picture with a parrot, and i touched an alligator! Elder Lara and i are both hoping that we stay here for this next change. I love it here and wouldn´t mind spending a good part of my mission in this area. Well love you all, have a wonderful week!!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #62 7/30/12 Go Mexico!!

The seminary in Culiacan!

Hey family, Thanks for the pictures! Looks like you all had a great time, the cousins and everyone look great! Parker and Slater both look a lot older. I also got the pictures from mckell. The trip looks awesome! Now i´m the only one in the family who hasn´t been to Europe.. Oh well, Mexico es mejor! There are quite a few people here that are super in to the olympics. I hope the U.S. does well but that everything stays peaceful between Mexico and the U.S.

Well i had a pretty amazing week. We were in Culiacan ALL WEEK! We stayed in a house with 6 other missionaries and had a fabulous time. We had the same schedule every day. From 9 to 12  we listened to Pres. Cantu talk about los milagros, from 12 to 5 we did divisions in the area of the Elders we stayed with and worked in their area, and from 5 to 8 we listened more about how to find miracles! It was a pretty awesome week. It was super hot and rainy in Culiacan but it didn´t stop us from working. Every day we left the conference super excited to work and search for the escogidos. 

We covered a lot of information in the conference so i´m just going to tell you a few of the things that i like most. First of all we talked about the obvious and crucial need of teaching with the spirit. The scripture i like most is D&C 50: 13-18. It says that if we try to teach in any other way, we aren´t teaching in the way of the Lord. There´s a lot of other ways that missionaries can try to teach. A lot of missionaries know a ton about the gospel and know a ton of scriptures. It´s great to have a lot of knowledge, but there are a lot of people who relly on their own knowledge and persuasive words than listening and teaching by the spirit. 

We also talked about how we are all ¨"chosen ones" and that we´ve been taught and prepared to do the work of the Lord since the preexistence. Every one of us has a potencial that we can fulfill and multiple spirtual gifts but in order to recieve everything we need to be perfectly obedient. If we don´t obey, we have no promise. We talked a lot about how every one of us has a lot of things that we could change to be better missionaries or better people in general, but we´re never going to make the changes if we don´t act. We´re here in the mission and in life to act, not be acted upon. That goes for us as missionaries, for the members, and for our investigadors. If we´re going to act, first of all we need to have the desire. We talked about how our investigadors need to have the desire if they´re going to change and how we can give them the desire by using inspired questions.

President Cantu is amazing. I know that he is the only mission president that can give me the guidance that i need to meet my potential as a missionary and that he´s called of God. Pres. Cantu has a different way of communicating himself. He talkes really direct, and word he says is full of power and it makes you feel the spirit. Well i hope you all have a wonderful week!! I´ll be praying for you all. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #61 7/23/12 Happy Birthday Mom!

The painting crew!

Nothing like a good hard days work!!

Now this family can have a cement floor!

Three cute baptism girls!

A nice drive along the beach!!

A little beach-side reading!!

Hey everyone! I hope all is well at home. We had another good week here in Mazatlan, really busy, stressful, and physically tiring, but it was great! The best part of the week was definately Saturday. We had a baptism! The 2 niñas got baptised. It was incredibly stressfull all week trying to work it all out and never really knowing for sure if they were going to get baptised or not. I have a really long history of stressful baptism days so im used to it. In the end it all turned out perfect and the baptismal service was great. It was probably the best organized baptismal service ive ever been to. The president of the primary went early and decorated the whole room with paintings of the temple and ribbons and things like that. It looked great! 3 niñas got baptised in total. The 2 investigadores and an 8 year old girl from the ward. The 3 are now best friends.

We had the wonderful oportunity of doing service 2 times this week!! The first time was Tuesday. We painted! It was very enjoyable and a nice break from our regular work, not that i dont love the regular work. On Thursday we did more service.. not quite so enjoyable. We had the awesome task of moving a giant pile of rock hard clay into a house so that they can put in a concrete floor. The floor beforehand was pure dirt and it wasnt very solid. It was a long day.. I spent the majority of the time loosening the clay with a pick, moving it inside the house, and packing it down with a stick connected to a giant piece of concrete. Im going to send a pic, make sure to notice how soacking wet my shirt is. Id say it was one of the hardest service projects ive ever done in my life, but it was incredibly rewarding because now the family is going to be able something besides dirt as their floor. Thusday night when we returned to the house we were so exausted we just crashed on our beds and fell asleep at 9. Both service projects we were lucky to have the help of our ward missionary leader, Omar, Hes the taller one in the fotos. Hes great. Hes 18 and just got his mission call to Argentina. He helps us a ton and joins us with our lessons almost every day. 

Unfortunately, this week we had very few lessons because of the service and baptisms. We actually don{t have very many lessons here in Mazatlan. This week i think we had a total of about 5 lessons where we actually sat down with the investigadors and had a serious lesson. The rest are quick little lessons on the doorsteps of the people who dont have time or dont accept anything more. This means that we spend a lot of time walking which i really dont mind. We had a nice run in with an American this week. She spoke no  spanish and said that she was guided to Mazatlan to do the Lords work. This week were going to try and teach her, only problem is that she lives in a hotel.. 

Well i{m glad to hear that you got Grandma all moved in and that my room is still safe. Its going to be great having her so close to the house. That is the perfect place for her. This week we have a week long training meeting in Culiacan. We leave at 3 today and return saturday. It should be great, allthough i{m not really looking forward to the heat.. I hope you all have a wonderful week!!! Elder Mecham