Letter #92 2/25/13 Baptism!!

Querido familia,

This week went great. Hermana S got baptised!! She is awesome and super excited to perserverar hasta el fin (endure to the end). Her baptism service was great. We had a combined service with the other missionaries in our district. There were 2 baptisms. I have an awesome district here. We`re all incredibly old as far as the mission goes. We all have more than a year and a half! We also all get along great. Today we played soccer in the morning with a few of the members here in the ward. We`ve made it a habit to play soccer every p day and lots of times we´re even able to bring investigadors. It´s good for them to see that we´re not robots. 

The branch here is having a tough time. Yesterday in church there were only 42 people. We´ve been trying to get the branch to have the ward council and yesterday we FINALLY were able to convince them to do it. We ended up having a big turn out; the branch president, his councilor, the primary president, and the 2 of us. It was actually a good meeting. We´re planning a lot of good activities here to get the branch excited and to hopefully find new investigadors. We´re going to try something that i´ve never done before. Instead of teaching English classes, we´re going to be teaching reading classes. There´s a huge number of illiterate people here. We´re going to tell the members to invite there friends and neighbors who aren´t members to come and learn to read for free!! I like the idea. I think we´ve have more success than i´ve had in the past with english classes, and we´ll be helping the people with something that is neccesary in life and not just helpful, like english. 

We were able to find some really potential investigadors this past week. We found a family of 5!! We´ve only taught them twice, but they´re super excited! I know we were guided by the spirit to find them. We had been looking for a reference, but knocked on the wrong house, it was a man who wasn´t too excited but we asked him if he knew anyone we could teach. He told us that we could go with a man named sergio on the next street. We went with "sergio" but it turned out that he didn´t live there. The lady who answered the door ended up being someone who is looking the the true church, has 3 kids, and all accepted baptism dates!! We don´t always find people in the way we hope, but the Lord always guides us to the people he´s preparing if we listen to the spirit. I love being a missionary!! 

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

Letter #91 2/18/13 Letting go of investigators...

Hey everyone,

This week went pretty well. First of all, i´m still here in Costa Rica, there were hardly any changes. Elder Lopez and i are still together. It turns out that the missionaries that were going to arrive from out of country are waiting for their visas so chances are that as soon as they arrive we´ll be having special changes and it will probably affect a lot of missionaries since a lot are going to arrive. 

This week was a little bit different. I hardly worked with Elder Lopez. He went to Culiacan for a training seminary from wednesday till saturday. I stayed here in Costa Rica and worked with Elder Clark. He is fresh in the mission, has about 2 weeks, so i got to be daddy for 4 days!! It was pretty fun, kind of maid me want to have a kid, but i´m feeling a little old.. Normally they put the missionaries with less than 1 year to train so that they learn faster. 

We had a great week as far as the work goes. We have slowly been leaving several investigadores that we had. It´s always a little tough to make the decision to leave investigadors. There´s several reasons; we develop relationships with them, we get to know them really well, and the truth is that nobody likes to look for new investigadors. It means walking in the sun, talking with the whole world and being rejected several times every hour, and harder work. It´s much more enjoyable to be teaching. I LOVE teaching. But we knew that our investigadors were´nt going to progress. When you know that, and you keep teaching them, you´re waisting the Lord´s time. We took the decision to leave several people, and as a result we have found a TON of new people. We had a couple days of searching almost all day long, but we know have several new investigadors, aswell as a super long list of references and contacts that we need to look for. 

One of the people we found is names C. He´s a teenager and is awesome. He went to church on Sunday!! He´s super excited.  S went to church as well and payed her tithing!! She has as date to get baptised this Saturday. We´re hoping that everything turns out great. Pray for us!! 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #90 2/11/13 New Companion!!

Good week, we had special changes!! Elder Knowles is no longer my companion. He went to los mochis, i´m a little jealous cause i LOVE los mochis, but the Lord has work for me here. I´m here with Elder Lopez. He´s from Mexico City and already has a while in the mission. I don´t know how long we´re going to be together for, but there´s a good chance that our time together will be really short since we´ll be having changes again on Sunday. Something interesting about Elder Lopez is that his parents live in Provo! He has 1 sister and she just entered the MTC. She´s 20 and will be serving in i San Diego, California. His family moved to Provo about a month after he left on the mission. I told him that my sisters live in Provo and that i was going to tell them to visit his family.

Elder Knowles left to on Wednesday. I spent almos the whole day Wednesday in the bus station waiting for Elder Lopez so we weren´t able to get to work until Thursday, but we had a good week. I´d say the highlight of the week was definately church. It was branch conference so Presidente Cantú came! It was incredible. He spoke for about 20 minutes in sacrament meeting, afterwards he taught sunday school, and after about 5 mintues of listening to the District president teach the combined preisthood/relief society lesson President Cantú felt that he needed to take over and ended up teaching the whole hour. He is an awesome teacher. I learned a TON and the whole branch is super excited to work. He talked about a lot of basic principals but did it in a way super powerful. He talked about faith. Faith is to know the will of god and afterwards make it happen. If it´s god´s will that we move a mountain, we can do it. If we have a lot of faith that something´s going to happen, but it´s not God´s will, it´ll never happen. Before asking for the blessing, we need to ask if it is really what God wants, and he´ll never reveal his will to us if we´re not living the gospel. Everything starts with obedience, it doesn´t matter how much faith we have if we don´t first obey. 

One of the small miracles we witnessed this week was a member that we gave a blessing to. He is dying from cancer and has months that he´s been in bed and hasn´t been able to go to church. The doctors don´t expect him to live much longer. We went to give him a blessing, more than anything so that he can be in peace for the rest of the time he´s here, and that he can have the strength to go to church at least one time. Yesterday he was one of the first people there and stayed for the whole 3 hours. He also arrived on foot, walking almost 20 minutes. The priesthood is the power of God!! 

I hope you all have an awesome week!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #89 2/4/13 A reading race!

This week was pretty decent. We are working with a whole lot of investigadors, but very few are progressing. We are working with a ton of people who love to listen, but are afraid to commit to do anything. It´s pretty typical to have that problem in the ranches. Unlike other areas, we have absolutely no problem finding people to teach, we could teach all day long, but we need to ocupy our time teaching people who have a desire to follow Jesus Christ and not just listen about him. The good news is that C went to church again! She´s great, only that she learns really slow. Last week, for the first time, she prayed out loud and it was HUGE for her. She doesn´t know how to read and is incredibly shy. She doesn´t talk that much, but she´s slowly gaining confidence in us and opening up a bit. It´s getting tough with B. He still hasn´t gone to church. He says he can´t go because he has to take care of his mom who can´t walk. Honestly, i understand him, but there´s no excuses for not going to church!! If you want to go your going to find a way to go. We have told him this many times but he´s finding it hard to accept. We´re going to keep praying diligently. A is still deathly ill. We gave him a blessing last week, we´re hoping he has a miraculous recovery and is able to get baptised.

The mission is the best, i´m loving every second of it. We are working a ton with the branch here. We´re still trying to activate our mission leader. He hasn´t gone to church since i got here.. We watched "to this end was i born" with him to try and motivate him. He said he was going to go to church, but didn´t go.. It´s a little frustrating because every Sunday after church we go to his house to have our meeting and we usually find him asleep on the couch.. 

Elder Knowles and I are have a Jesus the Christ race! We´re going to see who can finish it first, but i already know he´s going to win. He´s reads like crazy!! It reminds me of Lexi when she reads Harry Potter. To be able to finish it quickly i take advantage of every second. I read while i´m cooking, eating, shaving, ironing... I love reading about the life of Jesus Christ. He literally was PERFECT in every aspect. I love that he and his fathers will were the same. I´m trying to become more like him, and it´s tough, but i challenge everyone to do the same! LOVE YOU ALL!!! Elder Mecham

Letter #88 1/28/13 District Conference!

Querido familia

í´m still here in Costa Rica and i´m still with Elder Knowles. Actually our whole district stayed the same and there were only a few changes in the zone. I´m glad to be staying here. It´s an smaller area than what i´m used to, but we teach a ton here. We also have some investigadors that are really starting to progress. The branch here is awesome. We recieved a ton of support this week. We had 12 lessons with the members which is the most i´ve ever had in one week. We regularly don´t have more than 7, one every day, but we have been getting the members pumped to teach with us and give us references. We mainly work with the recent converts. There´s about 5 here that have gotten baptised in the last couple years that are are super excited and always willing to help us. Sometimes in the lessons the even talk a little TOO much because of their love for the gospel and sharing it with others. It reminds me of how i felt when i had just left the MTC, wanting to talk with EVERYONE and thinking that EVERYONE was going to accept the gospel and be baptised because "who wouldn´t want to get baptised in the only perfect church?". We sometimes have to tell the Recent converts to let us do a little more teaching and invite them to simply share their testimony. I´m just greatful that they are willing to help us. It makes up for the lack of support we have from the leaders and "members since birth" that have lost their desire to share the gospel. Don´t ever become one of them! 

Yesterday we had the District conference. It was in la cruz de lota. A little city about the same size as Costa Rica that´s about 2 hours from here. We had one bus for the 2 branches that left from the church at 7 in the morning. Following the 2 hour conference we ate lunch, and then the leaders had a special 2 hour training meeting. We brought C, an investigador, and she had a great time. She sat through all 4 hours and said she enjoyed it. We didn´t get back to Costa Rica until almos 5 so she was able to spend almos the whole day with members, making friends, and being nourished by the good word of god. She was definately spiritually uplifted. 

Hno A got super sick and went to the hospital, i still say he has cancer. Hno B is still progressing but didn´t go to the conference. We´re going to be working a lot with him so that he goes to church this week. If not, we´ll have to consider leaving him for when he´s more prepared. 

I attached pictures of the house and of me making salsa in a rock. I love serving the Lord and I love the gospel. Elder Mecham

Letter #87 1/21/13 News from Mazatlan!

Hey everyone!
Good week. We taught a lot and found a few new investigadors. I´ve enjoyed being here in Costa Rica. I have a really small district, unlike my district in Culiacan, so i´ve been able to focus 100 percent of my time here in our area. This is the last week of this change, i almost can´t believe it. We shouldn´t have changes because after this change we´re going to have a mini 3 week change while waiting for the load of new missionaries that should be arriving from the MTC.

We are working a lot with an investigador named B. He´s awesome, he´s somebody i could definately be friends with after the mission, even though he´s 40 years old. He looks after his mom, who´s missing a leg, so he doesn´t work. His mom doesn´t really want to listen to us anymore. A, the old man who wants to get baptised, got really sick in the past week and wasn´t able to attend church. We´re going to pray for him so that he can get better and get baptised!

One of my highlights of the week was when i received a call from Elder Roman, who´s still in Mazatlan. He told me that 3 of the people we were teaching got baptised! First was hna S. She is the one that couldn´t get baptised beforehand because she was living with her x husband. I wasn´t surprised when he told me that, i always knew she would do it as soon as it was possible. What really surprised me was that this last Saturday her x husband got baptised! We taught him almost every time we taught hna S and i honestly didn´t have much faith in him. However, little be little i saw him change. When i left the area he shared told me how much he had appreciated our visits and that he would never forget the things he felt and learned. I still didn´t think he´d be getting baptised any time soon, but that shows that the Gospel literally changes lives. It helps people leave drugs, it helps people get out of debt, it brings families closer together, and i´m glad to be the tool by which people are hearing it. The third person is R, the Dentist that had been listening to the missionaries for 30 years. I almost cried when he told me that. I had so much respect for her and wanted SO bad that she joined the church. Í´m glad that she finally made the decision.

Thanks for everything you guys do! I´ll let you know what happens with the changes. I love being a missionary and i love the gospel. Love you all!!

Letter #86 1/14/13 Buena!!

Feeding the Lord's Sheep!

Dear family, Sounds like it´s cold! I know that the cold here is nothing compared to the cold in Utah, but it´s been cold here as well. During the day it´s fine, but at night it cools down a ton. I don´t know how cold it was last night but it felt like 35 degrees. Here insulated houses and heaters don´t exist so when it´s 40 degrees outside, it´s about the same temperature in the house. But no worries, last week a bought a sweater and i have some clothing that you sent last year so all is good.

Our house here is decent. It´s really small, but it´s on a giant piece of land. We have a massive back yard, and a patio in front. Definately way too much to clean on Pdays. We´re thinking about moving soon. The house is just 2 rooms; 1 room to sleep and study in, and a kitchen. Elder Knowles is from Smithfield, not springfield. We get along great. He´s 21, he left on the mission a little late. He studied at Utah State before the mission and worked. He´s gringo so of course all of his family members are members. We have a lot in common. He really likes hiking and being outside. He was studying something that has to do with gardening. He reminds me of dad because he loves plants. Here Costa Rica there are 2 branches. They´re both relatively small, but we have a chapel for both. I really don´t understand why they don´t join the 2 and make it a ward.. There are a lot of great members here. The Branch President is great, only problem is that he works a ton. Every week he leaves to the surrounding villages in the mountains to cell ice cream and is gone all week. Supposedly the people that live in the mountains here love Ice cream.

We had a good week feeding the Lords sheep, metaphorically and literally( I attached a pic). We have a lot of great investigadors right now. I´ve never had so many people that we´re teaching. We have put 12 baptism dates in the last 2 weeks, our only problem has been church. Only acompanied us yesterday. His name is A, and of all the investigadors we have, he lives the farthest from the chapel. He´s about 70 years old, lives in a little town about 10 minutes away, and is sick. Yet he was still able to make it to church! He should be getting baptised this month. I think i mentioned R last week. She´s missing a leg! We´re teaching her and her son. They weren´t able to go church, but they´re doing awesome. It just so happens that we found another guy without a leg! His name is I. That makes 2 legless investigadors. 

This past week we had interviews with Pres. Cantú. He´s an awesome guy. I have definately felt his love and have much respect. He has a very direct way of teaching, but there´s nothing wrong with that. He talked about how we need to do the will of the Lord, and not our own. 

About the cat, i get the chance to play with kittens and puppies here almost every day. There´s WAY to many here. I´m almost getting sick of it. I won´t be sad if i get home and the cat is already big. Do whatever you guys feel is right. 

LOVE YOU!! Elder Mecham