Letter #19 Hola Family!!

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the emails! I love reading whats going on in utah. I'm glad everyone is well! We just had an insanely long zone meeting so we dont have that much time today. But we played soccer for 2 hours in the morning so its all worth it. Im loving soccer more every time i play! And thanks for the package!! I got it today. I didnt have much time to look through it but everything looks great. Thanks for the CDs and the pictures of the family at disneyland!! My zone loved them. haha. And thats awesome that Hermano Fox is in the ward!! He was one of my favorite teachers in the MTC, i liked all our subs but Hermano Fox was easily my favorite. 

So this week wasnt as great as all the rest.. haha but i learned a ton!! Now that i can speak and understand spanish a little bitter ive had a little bit more responsibility with everything. Its been harder but its good because ive learned everything that i need to improve on. I feel like this week ive really grown a ton. So we had a baptism set up with A. She is one of our strongest investigators and has a solid testimony, a best friend in the ward, and was really excited to get baptised. We didnt think that anything was going to be able to stop her from getting baptised. But Friday we waited and waited for her to show up and finally, 10 minutes after her service was supposed to start, she sent us a message saying she doesnt feel ready... I was pretty bummed.. We still havent talked to her since so we dont know exactly whats going on. Thats pretty much the only super depressing thing that happened during the week but we have faith that this friday shes going to get baptised. I think that right now i really need to work on my patience and my faith, actually i need to work on all my Christlike attributes, but especially patience and faith. I feel like at times those 2 kind of contradict each other.. Haha but were going to work really hard this week so that we can have a baptism this Friday. I still havent had a single one!!! And theres only 3 weeks left in this cambio!! We probably have 5 people right now that have a lot of potential to be baptised in these next 3 weeks but were going to have to work really hard and rely on the spirit for everything. 

The best thing of the week was definately General Conference!! Of the ones that we were able to assist i was able to watch in English! They had a separate room for all the gringos. Haha and there were surprisingly more than just missionaries. Theres 2 gringo families in our stake. 100 percent white. I dont know how long they've lived here but i asked one of the kids who is 12 years old where hes from and he told me Cabo San Lucas. Haha i love Mexico but i dont have any plans to raise my family here.

Well thanks for everything!! I love you all and i wish you all success in the week to come. Adios!!

Elder Mecham

Letter #18 09/26/11 Hola from Cabo!!

Dear Family
I´m loving everything about the mission. This last week i learned a whole lot because we had a zone conference with President Cantu!! That was probably the hightlight of the week. He is a pretty amazing guy. He pretty much just talked to us for 2 hours about how every day we can see miracles and got us all super pumped with the spirit! We´ve had the same investigadors for over a month now and we still can´t get them baptised.. But this friday we have a baptism scheduled with A and she is super excited! I have pretty much no doubt that she´s going to get baptised this friday. I´m excited because it will be my first one! And we have about 5 other investigadors right now that are really close, so i´m thinking that octububer we´re going to have a lot! Yesterday in Church we had 6 investigadors! It´s awesome seeing people attend for their first time and love everything. I can´t imagine how happy their going to be when they get baptised!

We have 6 Elders in our ward because the ward is huge, and those same 6 are in my district. In Cabo there are 2 church buildings and both have 2 wards that meet in them. Our Zone has 20 people. There are a ton of members here, but not so many are active. There´s a ton of people that get baptised and after a couple months become inactive. But every sunday the chapel is completely full. Sacrament meeting is crazy here because people literally refuse to leave the chapel when there babies are crying. And it´s also not uncommon at all to have a lady breastfeeding with baby without a blanket or anything during the meeting. I don´t undrstand why it´s so hard to cover up!!

I think every day i´m becoming more and more mexican. Every monday we play soccer with the other missionaries and it´s becoming my favorite sport. Also, when people dont have chili and tortillas i usually don´t enjoy the meal. But it´s ok because i love mexicans. Ceviche is probably my favorite meal here. It´s raw fish or shrimp with lots of veggies and lime. I love it because it´s really fresh.

I hope you guys have had an awesome week!! And that BYU was able to win... You might want to concider sending me another USB convertir for my camera.. I can´t find one here. Also i didnt get my package tuesday but i´m pretty sure i´ll get it soon. I´m so excited for Conference!! Pray that i´ll have investigadors there because if not we can´t watch.. Love you Guys!!

Letter #17 9/19/11 Mexico Independence Day!!

Hey family! This week was the week of mexicos independence. Everyone was crazy! At 11 PM all the people shout viva mexico and party a ton, but i was asleep... But i had a really good week, for the most part.. Its really frustrating with the our investigadors. We have awesome investigadors but we cant get them baptised!! And yesterday not one of our 4 powerhouse investigadors showed up to church.. I was pretty dang depressed.. And it got worse when Elder Garcia told me that when we dont have investigadors in church we have to leave after sacrament meeting to go contacting. I thought he was joking until we actually left and contacted houses.. Haha but its all good i know that all the rules are inspired by God.

But other than that the week was awesome! Last P day we went to Puerto Paraiso!! Its a really nice tourist place with a lot of stores and boats and gringos. I had been there before but only for like 30 minutes. We had a lot of time to waist so we walked around in all the stores looking for cheap ties. I bought one for 3 dollars! Mckell would like it, its a baby blue, slightly skinny tie. This week i also ate what i hope will be the worst meal of my mission, and thats Patas de Puerco (pig feet). It was basically just bone and fat... Elder Garcia said that it was by far his worst and hes been here for over a year. I dont see how people can like food like that..

The 15 of september was the big day for all the Mexicans. We had to be in our houses by 7 that day because of all the partying and drinking and everything. Elder Garcia and I ordered mexican pizza and soda and went up on the top of our apartment to eat it. The best part was definately the fireworks!! And i guess the 16th is still kind of a holiday for them so the 16th the ward had a party at night and we got to attend. It was a blast! The had a cooking competition out of all the relief society so everyone brought there best dish and we got to try all of it. We had an investigador, C, show up and he loved it. C is awesome! Hes for sure going to get baptised. Hes already come to church 4 times. His only problem is that hes incredibly busy so we can never teach him. Weve only taught him 2 times and weve know him for over a month.

Our big challenge this week was finding our investigadors. We had a lot of fallen appointments so its making things tough. Elder Garcia and I are still doing great. Hes really patient and extremely nice. We can communicate much better than my first week and so im getting to know him really well. Im glad that ill be able to work with him again this next cambio. Theres definately a lot i can learn from him and the way he works with the investigadors and members. One thing ive loved about him is that he treats everybody as a friend, not just an investigador or another member. The people here have a lot of confidence in us because of that.

I have a lot of good pictures i want to send but still dont have a converter, but today im going to buy one. And we have a confrence with president cantu tommorrow so im hoping that your package arrived! If not ill get it the first of october. I love you all and i love being a missionary!

Letter # 16 9/12/11

Hey family!! This week was pretty amazing. Probably my favorite week of my mission so far!! I´m glad that grandma and grandpa sent emailed me thanks!! And mom thanks a ton for your walk that you did!! I´m sure it was pretty hard but thanks a ton for dedicating it to me, love you!!

This week was great! The only thing that could have made it better would have been a baptism.. But this week we´re for sure going to have one. We have awesome investigadors right now! We had 4 attend church yesterday, C, V, A, and P. And they all are awesome! C is basically already a member, we just need to baptise him. But im pretty sure that even if we stopped going to his house he´d still go to church every sunday. He just really wants to get baptised with his family but their not that interested right now. A and P are both new this week and way excited! P had already researched the church a ton on the internet before we met with her so she had a ton of questions the first visit about word of wisdom and temples and joseph smith and stuff but she already loves the church and the book of mormon and is really nice. A is the same, really really nice. After our first visit with her she invited us over to her house to eat the next day, i think she really likes having us over. 

And Saturday we had a ward missionary activity!! We invited all our investigadors and the whole ward was invited and we had a ton of people show up. We played soccer and volleyball ate watermelon with chili. They put chili on everything here. Before i thought that we were only going to be organizing it, but when it started our zone leaders started playing soccer so we joined. It was a little weird playing soccer against your investigadors, especially since i was still dressed in my white shirt and tie. But it was a blast! I´m definately improving as a soccer player. I like street soccer a lot more than on a feild. After soccer we had a little lesson on the word of wisdom and ate more chili with carrotts. I´m starting to make a lot of friends here. It´s a little different when your a missionary but i love it! All the members are awesome. When we visit them they never want us to leave, it´s a problem sometimes, but it´s good because they trust us with all their freinds, and their problems... 

Today we have a lot more time than usual. Normally every monday we have a meeting with the district but today we don´t have anything because it´s cambios and we´re not changing. This morning we climbed the Lone Peak of Cabo!!! We got to the top just in time for the sunrise and it was awesome! We could see all the beaches and boats and pretty much all of Cabo. I didn´t realize how out of shape i am right now. In the mornings when we´re supposed to exercise i study spanish because when we´re supposed to study spanish we work. President Cantu eliminated the spanish study time... So i only have the 30 minutes every morning to study. But i really need to start exercising, i almost died this morning. It was a pretty big mountain though, well it was a hill but it felt like a mountain. I´m going to send pics next week, i lost my converter... But i´ll buy a new one. Oh and one thing i might want for christmas is mor of the enro shirts, the fitted ones. I like them about 100 times more. Just a thought. Love you family!!!! 

Letter #15 9/05/11 Hey Family!!

Elder Garcia! Thumbs up!!

Landon is happy to be in Cabo!!

Dear family.

This week has been really good, just like every week. I hope everything is good in Utah. Thats awesome that taylor and Brandon are both in mexico!!! Ive loved getting the emails from all my friends and im glad that more people are joining. This week i got a couple letters from freinds so that is nice. Im going to write them back today i hope. And im glad to hear from the killbournes and the Lloyds! To answer all your questions, my feet are fine and i reallylike my shoes. I dont need to filter my water because we buy filtered water. Its really cheap, like 1 dollar for a 5 gallon jug. We walk alot, but it all depends on the day. Some days more than others.

This week we had a lot of success with our investigadors. A fewhem are really progressing. Were teaching 2 guys who are awesome. One is allready baptised but has been inactive for about 10 years. He got baptised in Utah and lived there for about 10 years so he speaks English! We dont really speak english that much but we have talked a lot about Utah and everything. Were teaching his friend who is awesome. They both really want to change and i think were going to baptise the friend this week.

We have another investigador who we thought was kind of falling away because we hadnt seen him for a week and a half, but then yesterday he came to church! He is really busy with work and family and everything but he loves the church and i think were going to baptize him really soon.

My weekend was pretty good too. We had a sleepover last night!! haha we had to smoke our house because weve been having major bug problems and they told us that we couldnt sleep there saturday night, so we slept over at the house of 2 other Elders in our District. They have air conditioning!!! It was probably my best nights sleep yet and i didnt even have a bed. And now our house is clean and bug free. It was pretty bad before.. Bugs were everywhere. The weather this week has been amazing!! Weve had a constant cool Breeze, i hope it lasts..

Pretty sure yesterday was the most ive eaten my entire life, and it was a fast sunday! We had a meal right after church which was delicous but i was stuffed, and 2 hours after that we went to a recent converts house to celebrate her birthday with cake, and a full plate of spaggetti, and right after that we went to the house of an investigador and they were eating and just kept puting plates in front of us.. The people here are all super nice!! But i kind of wish they didnt force us to eat so much.. But everything is delicous!

Oh and we were witnesses at a wedding!! That was pretty awesome. Its really cool to watch people change their lives and gain testimonies. I love being a missionary!!

Adios!!!

Letter #14 8/29/11 Go Cabo!!

Hola!!

This week went by extremely fast. So Lexi and Mckell are starting school this week? Good Luck! It´s nice being a missionary because i only have one focus all day every day. All day you just focus on the gospel and teaching people. It´s pretty amaizing. I hope all the school this week goes well. And thanks Grandma and Aunt marcie for the lettlers! I´m excited to read them in after.

 

This week we worked really hard, once again, to get all our investigators to church, and we ended up having 3 out of like 8. I was a little disappointed in one of them that didn´t show up because we´ve been working with him really hard the past couple weeks. He´s 15 years old and i always love teaching him cause we talk a lot about football and his school and stuff. He´s also learing english so we always talk a little in my native tongue which is nice. But he hasn´t showed up to church once and we´ve taught him almost every lesson. He always seems really excited and says he does all his reading but i have a feeling that he doesn´t really care to get baptised he just wants to talk. We´re going to work really hard this week to find some new investigadors. We´re going to focus on the members for referrals. The members here are all awesome. The whole ward is awesome. I think mom would really like the ward here. There´s tons of drama. They could probable make a reality show. And for some reason all the members really like telling the missionaries all their secrets so we pretty much know like everything. The members are also really good with giving us referrels. There´s a few members that speak english so every sunday i talk to them a lot, most of them work in the hotels. There´s all super nice.

 

My favorite food i ate this week was chicken enchilladas. I think that after my mission i´m going to keep eating nothing but mexican food. I´m starting to get to where if someone doesn´t have tortillas and chili with the meal i don´t like it. And all the fruit here is delicous! The language is definately improving. I can understand a lot more, but still not as much as i´d like. We have an investigador who i think is partially autistic and Elder Garcia says that he can understand about 30 percent of what he says. So i understand about 0. But the rest, i´d say i understand 80 or 85.

 

Being a missionary is awesome. And i love all you guys!!! I´ll talk to you next week!

Letter # 13 8/21/11 Hola Family!

Hey family!

 

Had another great week! Im looking forward to reading your letters. Thanks. And i saw matt has had some toe problems. Ouch.. Thats tough. You should let people know that anyone can email me, family, friends, everyone, I just have to mail letters back. Which is really expensive i hear... especially in Cabo. Cabo is pretty much the best place in the world. I am considering moving here and opening a hot dog stand later in my life.

 

We had a big week with our investigadors. One of the most exciting things of the week was tuesday. We were knocking doors and this mexican lady, like 25 years old, awnsered and the first thing that she said was "you speak english" and i said Si, and then we spoke in english!! She doesnt really know much spanish. She just moved here with her husband and had lived in south carolina her whole life. We taught her the restoration and it was awesome! Elder Garcia taught in spanish and i taught in English!! We had to run to the apartment to grab my english scriptures because she cant read spanish. But i know that God anwers our prayers. That day was the fist day that ive been a little frustrated with the language and that helped a ton.

 

Yesterday something pretty weird happeded. Weve been working really hard with these 2 investigadors. 2 ladies who are about 40 years old who live together. One of them is a little more interested than the other, but we finally got both of them to promise theyd come to church with us. Yesterday when we went to pick them up we walked in and one was crying a screaming lots of words in spanish that i dont know at the other. We sat there and listened and found out that theyre not 2 friends that live together, theyre more than just friends, and one of them worships satan! She had a satan statue and everything. They didnt come to church.. I think were going to have to drop them.. Its too bad because the one that doesnt worship satan is really really nice and interested in everything. Possibly shell have a chance..

 

We worked really hard to get all of our investigadors to church. We probably had 8 promise us that theyd attend but only 2 ended up coming. I dont understand why its so hard!!!

 

So i hear theres another recession in the US?? I wouldnt mind hearing some minor details... Probably 3/4 of our investigadors work in the hotels and i guess its affecting things pretty bad. My favorite food i ate this week was servicha. I think thats how you spell it... Oh and i gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting. It was pretty cool. Except for i said ive been here 3 años instead of 3 semanas and didnt realize until afterwards when every single person in the ward told... Its allright though cause everything else was really good.

 

Its pretty awesome being a missionary and watching people change their lives. Im so glad that im here serving Jesus Christ. Theres no where else id rather be. Its insane how much ive learned these last 2 months and 3 weeks. I love the Church and i know its true. Read the book of mormon and pray a lot. Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Elder Mecham