Letter #96 3/25/13 Hey Family!

Hey everyone!

This week was very successful like always. We taught a TON. We had 27 lessons in total which is more than regular. I´ve had areas where we rarely have more than 15. I´m LOVING teaching. It´s awesome to arrive with a person that we don´t know, and watch as they little by little feel the spirit and start to open up to us. When we first arrive with a person, we don´t start teaching right away. We start out by asking inspired questions to be able to know what to teach. A lot of times the person has little confidence in the first few minutes and doesn´t talk too much. We have to relly on the spirit to know what to say, and what questions to ask so that the person feels that we´re truly representatives of Jesus Christ and feels comfortable sharing their beliefs and experiences. 

We had a cool experience on Friday night. IT was 8:30 and we had already gone with the 4 plans that we had put for that hour and nobody was home. I remembered a referal that we had recieved a long time ago but never were able to find home. We went and surprisingly she was there. We talked a little outside of her house, and after about 5 minutes she invited us inside. We started getting to know her, shared scriptures, and after 5 more minutes she was in tears telling about all the problems she´s been having in her family. Her dad just died and she is having major problems with her husband. She has 2 little boys and is worried about them. We talked about the plan of salvation and about the importance of obedience, she said she wanted to go to Church on Sunday seems to be an esdogida. I know that we were an answer to her prayers and that it wasn´t by chance that we arrived to her house. My testimony is also growing more and more every day that when we work diligently, God answers our prayers. An important part about being diligent, is being constant. Working even when we don´t want to, and not stopping until we´ve given EVERYTHING we have. My goal is to keep working diligently for the remainder of my mission. To tell the truth, it´s harder than it was in the beginning, but it´s not impossible! There´s a quote that goes something like this "If you don´t have a love for the people, get down on your knees and don´t get up until you´ve obtained it". Several times of my mission i´ve applied this when i feel like i´m weak in a christ like attribute and i know that it works. 

Sadly, we won´t be baptising this week. The investigadors that had baptismal dates didn´t pay their tithing yesterday so they´ll probably be getting baptised next week, but there are changes!! Chances are that i´m going but who knows. This Branch is awesome. They´re already planning me a "family home evening" on sunday for my birthday! I´ll let you know how it goes. Have a great week!!!   

Letter #95 3/18/13! Gone Fishin'

A fisher of men!

A great p-day!!

Dear family, we had a great week this week. It´s starting to get hot!! Luckily we have air condicioning in our house. We are turning it on every night, it´s incredibly loud, but it works! I´m guessing that it´s still not feeling to hot in Utah.. And no, I´m not wearing green today.. You´ll have to pinch me when i get back, if you remember. They don´t celebrate Saint Patricks Day today.

We had another week of success!! We had 6 investigadors in church yesterday. A and her kids are Awesome! Yesterday they arrived early, without the help of any member, and properly dressed for church! Hna A sang in the choir and is going with the relief society to an activity on saturday. They´re going to be dancing and she´s going to participate. They´re basically already members, but Hna A still needs to get divorced before she can get baptised. It´s looking like it could be a long and costly process. Chances are i won´t be here to see her baptism.. But i´m glad to have found her be the first missionaries to teach her. We´re going to see if her kids can get baptised this month. We usually try not to baptise kids if there parents aren´t active members, but this is a special situacion. A is active, but not a member. Her daughter is 15 and her son 9. We´re also teaching their neighbor,  L. He´s 13 and yesterday he arrived to church 30 minutes early, and all alone. He lives almost 30 minutes away from the church. He is reading the book of mormon and wants to get baptised. He´s a stud, definately a future missionary. He could also be baptised this month, but we´re not sure if it´s the best thing to do.

 We want to make sure that he´s going to stay active. The investigadors have to have more than a testimony. A testimony is not that hard to obtain. Satan knows that our church is true, but that doesn´t mean he´s going to follow it. The investigadors need to be converted!!! If they have a true conversion it means that they know it´s true, and they´re willing to follow the will of God, no matter what it means. As members we also need to make sure that we´re "converted" to the gospel, and not just have a testimony. 

This last week we had a conference with President Cantú. It was pretty intense. We talked a lot about giving ALL of what we have. I want to make sure that i´m really giving EVERYTHING i have for the rest of my mission and like dad always says "not leave anything on the court". If i could give everything to win a basketball game, i can give  everything for the Lord. 

Today we did something i hadn´t done in a while. We went fishing!! Only here you don´t fish with a fishing pole, you fish with an empty coke bottel with a fishing line tied around. It´s works better than you´d think. Some other people that were there were using the same thing and caught more than 20 fish. I think we´re better off fishing for men(investigadors).. A few investigadors took us and the other missionaries in our district. We didn´t catch anything, but we had a good time.  L went. He already wants to be a missionary! 

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

Letter #94 3/11/13 No voice!!

Dear familia

We had a great week.We´re teaching a lot of awesome people here. First of all, Hna A and her kids are still progressing super fast! They would be getting baptised this Saturday, but there´s a road block like always.. Hna A has to get divorced and then married before she can get baptised. But we´re not losing hope, she said that she´s willing to do it, but it could be a long process. We´re still hoping that her and her kids can get baptised this month! We´re also teaching her neighbor, a referal she gave us, and her sons friend. We had 5 investigadores in church yesterday! C isn´t quite as excited as beforehand, but he still has his baptism date for the end of this month. The problem is that there really aren´t other kids his age in church. He´s 14 and all we have are 2 young men, both less active and not very social. We need to do some serious prayer to find out what we can do to excite him. 

I won´t lie, i´m a little scared that there going to take me out of this area. We still have a long time to go until changes, but there are 8 missionaries from the Utah that are waiting for there visas that could arrive any time. I´m praying that i stay here for the rest of this change! It´s an awesome branch and i really think that at the end of this month we´re going to have several baptisms. 

This week i had a little reminder of my first couple months here in Mexico. I completely lost my voice and couldn´t preach! A missionary without his voice is like a car without a driver.. Worthless!! I was a little frustrated, it´s incredibly hard call people to repentance if you can´t talk! The past year and a half i basically have been talking ALL day EVERY day. Whether i´m talking with my companion or people we meet in the street, we´re always talking. I lost my voice Friday, and it was our turn to give talks on Sunday. On Friday i went to a clinic to see what they could do for me. It ended up being a great idea. They gave me shots! Only here in the clinics they don´t actually inject you, they just give you the medication and the seringe and send you off. My companion doesn´t know how to give a shot so we went with a sister who kindly helped me out. I took one shot every day and by Sunday i was ready to speak with a voice of a trumpet! And i needed it, the microphones were broken in the chapel and i had to give my talk like in the olden days. 

Something i´ve loved about Elder Lopez is his dedication to the scriptures. Every morning, before the regular study time, and every night after planning, he´s reading the scriptures. I´ve been trying to follow his example and it´s been awesome! I finished Jesus the Christ and am close to finishing Doctrine and Covenents again. I´m studying more than i ever have in the mission, i need to take advantage of every second i have! I know that i´ll never have another opportunity to study the scriptures like this again in my life. 

This week we´re planning on having a lot of success and giving it all. I hope you all have a great week!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #93 3/4/13 A sucessful week!!

Dear family

This week was a week of success. We worked hard and were able to bring 4 new investigadors to church! That´s the most we´ve ever had here, and it´s pretty good considering that there were only 40 people in church in total. We are teaching a family! It´s a mom and her 3 kids, it would be much better if we were teaching the dad as well, but he´s not as excited as the rest. The mom´s name is Alma(soul in english). They loved church. I´m pretty sure that i told the story about how we found them in my last letter. They lived in the house of a reference from a street contact. The whole ward was talking helping them a ton, saying things like "we´re so excited for when you get baptised". We´ve haven´t talked with the mom since church but i´m pretty sure she either got really excited and is going to want to get baptised as soon as posible, or is scared to death. We´ve been praying that it´s the first option. 

We´ve also been teaching C a lot, he´s progressing but wasn´t able to go to church yesterday. We´ve been worried because there are zero kids his age in church, but we´ve deciced that our best option is going to be teach and baptise all his friends and their families! I´ll let you know how it goes. His friends actually love listening to us, but we don´t want to baptised anyone that´s just going to inactivate afterwards and more than often when teenagers get baptised and their parents don´t support their decision, they inactive quickly afterwards. 

We´ve been trying to be a little more creative with our teaching methods. Not a single lesson is the same because we teach people not lessons, but i won´t lie, after 20 months of teaching the restoration every day, there are a lot that are very similar. We´re trying to change that. I have a small white board that i bought a while ago and we´ve been using it in the lessons. During our lessons we´re constantly drawing, and making lists to help people better understand the basic principals of the gospel. We´ve had a lot of fun coming up with new ideas to teach. We also made visual aides to teach the church of Jesus Christ with profits and apostles. I never actually thought i could be creative, but my calling is bringing out my true talents! I´m hoping it sticks with me when I get home.

I´m glad to hear that i got accepted to BYU. It´ll be good to have the option when i get home. Also, i recieved the package!! Thanks mom!! Today we went to Culiacan with the district to go tie hunting. We had a good time. I bought an ab wheel that i´m pretty excited for. Got to go, but i love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!! 

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

Letter #85 1/7/13 Hey Family!!

Dear family and friends. We had a great week this last week. It was the last week of the hollidays here. The hollidays don´t end here until the 6th of January. It´s the day of the 3 reyes magos! The reyes magos come to your house and give you gifts, kind of like santa clause. Yesterday a lot of members from our ward had a special meal together to celebrate and they invited us. It was nice, except for when a sister spit a mouth ful of fruit punch all over my companion and i. She litterally drenched us with punch. My shirt was completely red! It was an accident so we forgave her.

This week we worked super hard. We are blessed here in this area because we litterally have no problems teaching people. There are tons of people that are willing to listen to us, and tons of people that are willing to accept baptism dates. This week we put 8 dates with new investigadors that we found, but unfortunately its really hard to bring them to church. We are teaching quite a few elderly people (ages 60 and up) And they always come up with the same excuses that they´re sick or tired. I have felt prompted several times to share Mathew 11:28-30. "come unto me and i´ll give you rest". I think it fits perfectly for all the elderly people we´re teaching. They all want to rest! We explain to them that they only way to find true rest is by coming unto christ (or going to church). I put a lot of emfasis on "COME unto me". We have to act in order to get the blessing. It was very clear with everyone that they had to go to church, but Sunday morning they were all still sleeping. We´re going to be searching this week for people that have a real desire to come unto Christ. 

Yesterday we taught an awesome family. It´s a mom and her son. The mom is 70 and her son is 45 and single. They both have their problems; the son is a drinker and the mom is missing a leg. They were both really excited when we invited them to church for the next week and accepted baptism dates for February as well. 

The branch here isn´t too big. We had 40 people in church yesterday but only because there was a baby blessing. I´d say about half the people came from the other branch that´s here in Costa Rica to support the family. Here, about half the people work in the field, and the other half work in Culiacan, so there´s a giant mix of people here. Some rich and some poor. The neighborhoods are also really weird. You´ll see a giant mansion and the neighbors house is a single room made of junk.  I love being a missionary and i love the gospel. Have a great week!!! Elder Mecham

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