Letter #53 5/28/12 Pizza!

Shrimp meatballs... yummy!!

Sweet hat!!!

Hey everyone, i hope you all had a fantastic week! The heat has been really strong here, how is it up there in Utah? We had a pretty decent week. We had a super relaxing Pday today in Gramuchil. We were just hanging out in the house of some other missionaries eating pizza and talking about our missionary experieces. I'm really enjoying spending time with my District and Zone, even though there's only one other gringo in the whole zone! Elder Romero and i have been getting along great. He reminds me a lot of my friends from home. We worked extremely hard this week, and unfortunately weren't able to find many people. Right now we don't have too many prospects for baptism for the near future but we're searching diligently and i know that the Lord will help us arrive to the houses of the escogidos.

I was reading an article by Elder Bednar that i really liked. He was talking about the enabling power of the atonement and that if we relly on the atonement when we have afflictions and trials that we'll be able to endure them and remain joyful. He said that we're still going to have the trials, we can't always avoid it, but that with patience we'll be able to make it through. He gave a lot of awesome examples of the book of mormon of when people rellied on the atonement and asked in their prayers for help and they we're strengthed to the point that they were able to make it through without pain. My favorite is when Nefi's brothers tied him up and we're making fun of him and in Nefi 7: 17, he asked the lord that he could have the strength to brake the cords and free himself. We can't expect that we're never going to have dificult things happen to us, but i know that if we relly on the atonement  that we can have the strengh to make it through even in the hardest of times. I'm not saying i've been having a lot of trials lately, i just really liked his article. I've actually been really happy. A and J are both doing awesome! The past 3 sundays they've been coming all the way to Angostura in ride every sunday so that they can go to all 3 hours of church, and afterwards going to the extension meeting by there house. It's awesome seeing their exitement and desire to serve the lord with everything. It feels great to have converts that are strong in the church. One of the hardest things of the mission is seeing new members fall away from the church. I know that Armando and Joel are going to be strong members and add a lot to the branch here in Angostura. 

I sent a picture of shrimp meatballs, they were amazing and i thought it was an awesome twist to the normal meatballs we eat. I love the creativity of mexicans I should recieve my package next monday, we're going to have a zone meeting. Thanks a ton! I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember to read in the scriptures and pray everyday. I love you all, Elder Mecham

Letter #52 5/21/12 Cambios!

Baptism!!

Landon should always be holding a puppy!

Looking Cool!! (as cool as you can look while hitching a ride in the back of a pickup)

Wow, what a week.  I can easily say that it was one of my favorite weeks of my mission so far. I'll start out by telling you the changes. Sadly, yet expected, Elder Calleja left. We had a great change together, but my new companion is awesome. His name is Elder Romero. I actually already new him, he was in my distrito in San Jose. He's awesome, we were already great friends and i'm looking forward to getting to know him even better. He has about 3 months more than me in the mission. I'm actually in a kind of weird position, in San Jose i respeced him alot and learned a lot from him, being new in the mission, and now he's my junior companion. Haha i don't know why, but i'm looking forward to learning even more from him.

So this past week was Amazing, and it all started Tuesday when i did divisions with my Dad!!! Elder Garcia, my trainer and and former zone leader, we had a great day, one of my favortite days of the mission. We worked together in his area and rode bikes basically the entire day. I learned a ton!! Elder Garcia is a great missionary. Unfortunately, he's no longer my ZL, but i still love him. 

I had a few awesome experiences this past week, small, but meaningful nonetheless. We have had and incredibly dificult time finding an investigador that we know could really progress. He's never in his house!! But Wednesday we had plans to hunt him down. In the morning i said a prayer and asked that he could be in his house when we passed at 3. Before going to his house i said another prayer asking that we could find him. We passed by, and we wasn't there, but i wasn't the least bit worried. We talked with his mom for about 10 minutes, and right as we were getting ready to say goodbye, F drove up in his car. We had a really spiritual lesson about the plan of salvation and got him excited to get baptised. I know that it was an answer of my prayers that we were able to find him. 

This past week i ate sea turtle. Yes, the sea turtle that is on the endangered species list. It was delicous, but the family told me that if the authorities catch you eating it it's a 30 thousand dollar fine. WOW. Also, J got baptised!! I was a wonderful baptismal service. And again, the day of the baptism we had no water!!! But everything worked out in the end. Well love you all, hope you have a great week!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #51 5/14/12 Happy Mother's Day!

The "tree" extension, where they have sacrament meeting each Sunday.

Landon's awesome district!

The bathroom at the "tree extension"

Most of the Angostura branch!

Menudo- Landon's favorite dish... not!

Hola family! It feels like i just talked to you all. I enjoyed being able to talk to everyone and i hope i was able to answer all your questions. I feel like i didn´t really get to here too much from you guys, but that´s all right, more than anything i´m just glad to hear that everyone´s doing well. I´m attaching a few pictures. One is of menudo, a famous dish consiting of cow intestine that everyone loves. I´ve had the wonderful oportunity of being able to try it 2 times in my whole mission. If you don´t think it looks that appetizing i can promise you it tastes worse... I also sent a picture of the tree that gives us shade during the extension sacrament meeting and the ward bathroom that´s located behind the giant tree. There´s also a picture of my wonderful district that i thought you might like. All four of us. And the last one is of the majority of the branch members after the A´s baptism. Hope you enjoy them, i´m gunna try to be better at sending pictures every week.

This last week we focused almost all of our time in the 4 baptism dates that we have coming up this Friday and weren´t really able to find many new investigadors. I also had the interesting experience of being able to dedicate a grave. I had never met the guy who died but i guess he was a member of the ward. The President didn´t even know him, but his wife is a member who goes consistantly. Last week he was peacefully eating a peice of chicken, alone, when a bite got stuck in his throat and he choked to death. It´s crazy to think how fast your life can end. That´s why it´s so important to ALWAYS choose the right and stay in the straight and narrow path.

I wanted to share something from President Cantu. It´s 3 steps to prayer that can help us to be able to recieve the answers with more ease. 1. Detect the problem 2. Do everything in your power to fix it 3. Pray specifically, saying what we´re going and willing to do with our own efforts, making a promise, and asking for the blessing with 100 percent faith without doubting anything. I´ve drastically been trying to improve my prayers and recently i´ve seen huge differences. I think it´s most important to ask for specific blessings or ask specific quesions. I know that God answers our prayers when promise to do our part and have 100 percent faith. I have a couple stories, but they´re really long. You´ll have to remind me to tell them in the next phone call. haha

Well i love you all. Thanks for the call yesterday. Mother, i hope that you know how much i love you and i hope you had a spectacular mothers day. Hasta Luego!!

Elder Mecham

Letter #50 5/7/12 Buenas Tardes!

Baptismal Font at the "Prayer House"

The Prayer House at Angostura

Hey! We had a pretty busy week, unfortunately we weren´t that busy with investigadors, but we had some pretty intense/spiritual meetings. First of all, i got the package from Aunt Marcie! Muchas gracias!!! And thanks for the fotos of Jackson and Slater too. Looks like jack had a blast! 5 de Mayo was hardly celebrated here. Actually of all the hollidays i´ve witnessed was the holliday with the least amount of drunk people. Like i said, this past week we didn´t have that much time, Tuesday we had our zone meeting, and wednesday we went the Mochis for the conference with Elder Tenorio. He was awesome!! I learned a ton, but we didn´t get back until late Thursday. Even with our busy schedule, we were still able to have some great lessons and bring a worthy number of people to church sunday.

We had a pretty awesome experience Friday. The day started out pretty ugly, we both woke up feeling really sick because of something we ate Thursday, i won´t lie, i felt horrible, and so did Elder Calleja. We were really tempted to call it a day and stay in bed and recover the whole day, but we new we needed to leave and work. And it´s a good thing we did because we found an Escogido!! His name is Felipe and i am 100 percent certain that we were led by the spirit to arrive to his house. He is the son of a reference from a reference that a less active member gave us. The first time we went with the reference, the lady completly rejected everything, we taught her lesson 1 and she didn´t even accept the free book of mormon we give out to everyone. We were guided by the spirit to pass by her house and ended up finding Felipe. He accepted a baptismal date and kept asking us why the missionaries hadn´t arrived to his house sooner. Sunday he even brought his friend with him.

Sunday we had a full house in church. There weren´t enough seats for all the people! A few less active members came who hadn´t come in years, and since they visited last they´ve gone the a lot of other christian churches. Over the course of time they´ve forgotten the right way to pray and be reverent. During church there were about 3 people who kept shouting "praise the Lord!!" or "Haleluja!" every 2 minutes. They also think that when one person prays, everyone should say there own personal prayer out. Other than that, the service Sunday was great.

So about the mothers day phone call, we´re going to do the calls from prayer house you guys can call at 8 PM on Sunday. The number is 6977348336. We´ll be able to talk for 1 hour. Hope you´re able to call! Also, mom should be the one i talk to according to a rule made by President. Hope youi´re able to call!!

Hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all, Elder Mecham