Letter #43 3/19/12 Que Rollo Plebes?

Beautiful way to end a day of work!!

Is this a spider or a pet?  Who could sleep with that loose in the house!!

Looks like Landon still likes the food!!

A hole in the floor of the pickup bed... very safe transporation methods!!

Hey everyone! Como estan? Well this week was pretty average... No baptisms.. But everything else went well. I hope you guys all had a great week! Thanks for the letters. I´m glad to hear that you got the letters i sent as well. I kind of forgot who i all wrote but i have faith that they all got there without any problems. And you´ll be happy to know that the whole oreo thing didn´t distract me at all. Sad, but life moves on. But thanks Mckell for the pictures!! Brought back good memories.

So P and G still didn´t get baptised. I´m incredibly confused.. They say that they know they need to get baptised, they know the church is true, but they say they want to wait. And we ask why and they just say "we don´t know". Wow... incredibly frustrating. The forces of satan are powerful. But there getting married this friday so that should be enjoyable! I´ve literally groan to love their family. I´ve been able to see them grow since the first night we contacted them. I know they´ll get baptised pronto. 

So you may be thinking that it could be a bad idea to have 2 gringos walking around solo in Mexico, especially when we still haven´t mastered the spanish language, but we really haven´t had a single problem. We actually have plenty of people who want to talk to us just because they see that we´re not from Mexico. There´s also a load of people who refuse to speak to us in spanish and we only use the 5 frases they know of english; how are you? what´s up? etc.. It´s a little frustrating, but the people are all great. 

We had an interesting experience with a spider this week. Acutally, it was a torantula. We found it snooping around in our back yard and in the process of trying to kill it with a lighter and bug spray it ran for cover in the house!! And since then i haven´t seen it. I sleep with my bug spray and lighter by my pillow every night. 

Dear mom, still haven´t gotten the package yet, but don´t worry. I´m sure it´s on the way. And the CD player is working fantastic. Thanks a ton. I woun´t mind a couple more Alex Boye CD´s in the next package. I´ve heard a couple of his other Albums and i really like them. 

This week i finished Doctrinas y Convenios in spanish! So amazing! I have so much respect for Joseph Smith. I have been trying really hard to learn more about him and live to his example. He was constantly serving others and understood the importance of putting God above everything. And never got angry with him, even when he had incredibly hard challenges. He just accepted that it was all for his bien. Well love you all, hope you have an amazing week! 

Letter #42 3/12/12 Goodbye Oreo!

Hola familia! Wow... Oreo..... I'm basically about to cry right now.. But that's okay. I'm pretty confident that dogs go to the Celestial Kingdom, but i'm definately going to do some good scripture searching and praying this week to find a good answer. She was a good dog. Mom, i hope you didn't take it too hard.. I know you really loved her and was hoping she was going to live another few years. I know it's going to be hard but you guys should try waiting until i get back to buy a puppy.

 

Well other than the the sad news, i hope you guys all had a great week!! Thanks for the email Aunt Melanie, i love hearing from you guys. We had a decent week here in Ahome. We have been working incredibly hard and have been extremely busy. To tell the truth, after a long week of diligintly searching investigadors i can't really say that we found a single one that's going to progress. But the good news is that 2 of our investigadors we've had for a while are progressing a ton! P and G. They should get married and baptised this week!! They are amazing people, and even though we haven't had much success with the other investigadors it really feels good to see that they're growing to love the church and recognize the spirit. They tell us that since we've started visiting them they can feel a difference in there home. It builds my testimony that the families are literaly stronger  and happier when they're built with the gospel as the focus. So thanks Mom and Dad for always remembering that.

 

So this week i had my first little taste of Sinaloa craziness. We were eating dinner with a family of members last thursday when we heard about 20 automatic gun shots coming from right down the road. From what i hear, this happens about 3 to 4 times a week in Culiacan, but here in Ahome it's rare to hear it more than about once a month. The family just kept eating and acted like nothing happened. When we finished, we asked if we could have a ride home because of the possibilities that there could have still been more gun shots and the family started making fun of us... haha but the gave us a ride in the end.

 

We're going to keep doing everything we can this week to find new investigadors and keep helping G and P prepare for their baptism. I hope all is well Utah and that you recieve plenty of snow!! It's slowly getting extremely hot here.. But i love everyone of you!! Thanks for everything you do for me, until next week, Elder Mecham

Letter #41 3/5/12 The first house past the boat dock..

Is this possum dead or is it playing possum???

hola familia!! Had a pretty good week this week. Thanks for all youre letters that you sent!! This morning we had a zone meeting and i recieved the packet you sent mom! Thanks for everything, its perfect. I really like those rings you sent! And i plan on having a blast playing with the Hot Wheels!!! Haha, joke. Im going to give them to little niños who dont have toys and i cant wait!

So as usual, we worked really hard this last week. Weve changed a few things that we were last change, and i think were going to have a ton of success. Weve been going with a ton of unactive members and just teaching something small and simple and then asking for references. Weve had a ton. Sometimes they give us there friends and sometimes theyve told us of neighbors that were talking with the missionaries before but stopped for some reason or another. Weve also been working in a few of the Ejidos id never gone to before so im seeing places that i never saw last change. We also recieved a reference for somebody that lives in an ejido called Colorado. Ive never been there, but i hear all the houses all right on the beach! The direction actually says it{s the first house passing the boating dock. Im pretty excited to look for it.

We had a sweet experience with an investigador this week. He has been reading the book of Mormon a TON and knows its true. He isnt a big drinker, but always drinks a little on the weekends, but we still hadnt taught him the word of wisdom. One night when we were talking he said that since he started reading the Book of Mormon hes felt that he should stop drinking. He was able to have revelation about a commandment that he had never heard of by reading the book of mormon. I know that the LDM testifies truths to everyone!

Elder Peterson is a great companion. We get along great. Were different in a lot of ways, but we also have a lot of things in common.  Hes incredibly focused in the mission which is awesome. His last change he had another Gringo companion and he said that they rarely spoke spanish and that right now he{s really not too comfortable with spanish, but everyone understands him fine so it{s all good. I know that he graduated the same year as me, he played lacross, has a girlfriend that goes to BYU Idaho, and likes to be outside. He also like exercising so weve been running and playing basketball in the mornings!!

Well i hope you all know how much i love you. Thanks for everything!!! Until next week, Elder Mecham

Letter #40 2/27/12 Culiacan & New (american) companion!

Good friends from the MTC!!  Elder Nordfelt!

Reunited with "dad" Elder Garcia!!

First baptism in Ahome!

Wow.. A lot has happened this week. First of all, it was a wonderful week. Everything started when we found out Tuesday that Wednesday morning we were going to go to Culiacan! We had a gian training meeting Thursday that lasted all day. It was AWESOME. I feel like i learned a ton. It was pretty much a full day of listening to Pres. Cantu, and eating. But i think the best part was that i was able to see a few Elders that i hadn´t seen in forever! When i got there i found out that i was going to be staying in Elder Nordfelt´s house, my compa from the MTC, and that Elder Ship was going to stay there too. I hadn´t seen then forever!! The picture i sent you is of all the Elders from my district in the MTC that came to Culiacan. We all had a great time catching up for the 2 nights we stayed together. It was the first time we´ve been together since we arrived here in Culiacan. I also was able to talk with Elder Garcia!! MY papa!! I love Elder Garcia. We talked for a while and he´s loving his area he has in Culiacan and is going to finish his mission in 5 months. He also wants Lexi and Mckell to write him if they get the chance... haha.

Friday morning we returned back to Ahome and despite not working in our area all week we had a baptism Saturday!! I was so incredibly feliz i can´t even describe it. We baptised a niño who´s 10 years old. His parents are members but inactive, but that´s going to change. He wants to be an Elder!! We told him he had to get baptised first so that´s what he did. After the baptism Saturday, we recieved the famous phone call from the Zone Leaders that we get every 6 weeks. I had almost forgotten that it was transfers, but they informed us that Elder Cardenas was leaving, and that i was going to recieve an American!! Elder Peterson. He´s from Brigham City Utah. I barely met him about an hour ago but i can tell we´re going to be great friends. I can tell he´s a hard worker, and likes Harry Potter and Star Wars!! We both have the same amount of time in the mission. He was in the other district in the MTC that came here to Culiacan. I¨m pretty excited to have an American Companion. So far we haven´t spoken any english, but i´m pretty sure we´re going to break that really soon... I feel pretty comfortable with my spanish so i´m not that worried. 

Well thanks for everything. I hope you all have a wonderful week and read the scriptures. I love you all, and i love the church and being a missionary. 

Elder Mecham

Letter #39 2/20/12 Motorcycle ride

Hola familia, sorry for writing so late, we had a huge zone activity in Mochis, it ended a little late, and the bus took forever to bring us back to Ahome. Thanks for all you´re emails!! It always makes me happy to see that i have a good number of emails. Hope you all had fun at the cabin!! I´m looking forward to seeing you´re pictures. Mom, i hope you were´nt too lonely at home when dad was in Sacramento but i´m excited to hear how the BYU game turned out!

This week was pretty good. No baptism.... Hermana T is awesome and everything but we´re considering dropping her because she hasn´t been to church for 3 weeks! She lives pretty far, but neighbors are members and she knows that they´ll give her a ride if she says she´s going to go. We actually had a pretty interesting experience yesterday before and during church. We haven´t had investigadors in church the last 3 weeks so this week we were determined to bring EVERYONE. And we litterally did everything possible in order to accomplish it. Sunday morning we did splits so that we could personally go and pick up 2 seperate families with rides. Elder Cardenas went to little ranch extremely far while i stayed somewhat close and went with another member in his car to pick up a niño who wants to get baptised. We both went, and neither of the people were in their houses, so we went to church, arriving just in time for our talks, and once we were done speaking we left again to hunt down our investigadors. We went with a couple more families, they couln´t go.. And then we went with a family that we just found last week. The mom was doing her laundry and told us she was really busy, so we helped her finish everything and brought her to church so she could enjoy the last 10 minutes of Relief Society. And she loved it!! I´d say it was a miracle that we were able to bring anyone so we were both very pleased.

We´ve had a lot of investigadors that have had a lot of trouble with their families. They don´t support their decisions to get baptised or don´t even want us visiting them. It´s tough because we talk all day to the people about how the family is most important and all God wants is that our families can be happy, and their own parents and husbands are keeping them from being baptised. Elder Cardenas and I have been focusing a lot in finding scriptures to help these people out but so we´ll see how it goes.

This week we caught our first ride on a motorcycle!! One 15 year kid and 2 missionaries all on the same bike. Wow would i love to have taken a picture. Speaking of pictures, sorry i haven´t sent any. We haven´t had much time. Well i´m going to go but thanks for everything. I love you all and i hope you know how greatful i am for all that you do. Oh and thankyou Aunt Marcie and Melanie for writing me! Love hearing from you guys.

Elder Mecham

Letter #38 2/13/12 Happy dia de amor y la mistad!!

Hey everyone! Yes.. they celebrate valentines day here, but its not called valentines day. The streets of Ahome are currently covered with little stands celling teddy bears and hersheys kisses and blasting mexican love music. Don't worry, there is plenty of love here. So i'm curious as to what your plans are for tomorrow. You'll have to let me know what you did. We had another somewhat good week here in Ahome. I would say it was a good week because i'm having a great time, but we haven't baptised here this entire change!! It's hard to be fully happy when you're not having baptisms... I'd definately say that there's a lot of pressure to end this change with a baptism. Our zone has kind of been going down hill the last few months from what i've heard. The last change the entire zone had a total of 5 baptisms. . But this last saturday we had an amazing zone conference with Presidente Cantu. He's an awesome guy and i feel like i learned a ton saturday!! If anything i just feel more ready and motivated to do everything possible to get our investigadors to church and ultimately in the baptism font. I feel like this change we've been a little to trusting in the investigadors and haven't done everything possible to get them to church. For example, when people have told us, don't worry about me, i'm going to go to church for sure, there's nothing that could stop me. We have trusted them and haven't gone out of our way to bring them. I've learned that that's not going to be enough. This week we're going find a way to personally go and pick up every investigador that we have, even if we have to do divisions with the preists to go get them.

We have also dropped a good number of investigadors so this week we're going to do a lot of looking for new ones. The good news is that Hermana T is still looking really promising for a baptism this week. She has started bringing friends to our lessons because she wants them to listen too.

We had a pretty good P day today in the city of Mochis. We celebrated valentines day by going to a Buffet!! I'd say it's comparable to a Mexican version of Chuck a Rama. I'm still getting along great with Elder Cardenas.  I know that if we can just focus ourselves, and do everything with the spirit that we're going to be able to end this change baptising and have people prepared for  the next change as well. We are lacking investigadors, but we have a ton of contacts and references. Since we're catching rides all day we take a lot of directions down and give out a ton of pamphlets. This week we're going to find everyone of them and pick out the escogidos. 

Well i hope everyone has an amazing week this week and stays safe. I also hope that you guys can enjoy a little Utah weather. Here it's slowly starting to get hotter.. Well i love you all, take care and read in your libro de mormon. LOVE YOU!!! 

Elder Mecham

Letter #37 2/06/12 Campfire!!

Hitchin a ride!

Roasting marshmellows!

Just like a scout campout!!  Love his backyard!

Hey everyone!! How are you all doing? Thanks for writing me! Hope alll is well in Utah. I recieved a christmas letter from the Ottosens today, make sure to tell them thankyou! I love getting mail.  We had another good week in Ahome. Well mas or menos. Were not having too much success right now, but our spirits are high and i now that the success is on the way. The problem is that we havent had investigadors in church the last 2 weeks.... A lot of our inv live far away and dont have cars. Yesterday we found a ride for 2 families were teaching that live far and we passed by their houses in the morning and they gave us lame excuses of why they couldnt go.. Its tough but were thinking were going to have to drop everyone and start from scratch.. We{ve bee praying a ton for help from above and i know that were going to start seeing results from our work. We still have one golden investigador who should get baptised next week. She basically just wants to wait until weve taugh her husband and kids everything so that they can get baptised at the same time, but her family isnt quite as excited as she is..

We had am amazing lesson with an investigador who has a ton of problems with the law of castidy but had no clue that he was sinning. His problem is big and its going to be hard to overcome, but it was so awesome to hear him say that he{s going to change and obey the commandment no matter what. He has a ton of faith. Unfortunately he wasn{t able to go to church because he owns a beer drive through and couldnt take off work, but this week we{re going to teach the word of wisdom and i have no doubt that hes going to do what he needs to in order to change.

This week we had a little campfire in our backyard and roasted marshmellows!! I think were going to make it a weekly ritual. I sent you a couple fotos so you can see our wonderful backyard. We also have a guava tree that has about a million guavas right now. Were thinking about opening a guava stand and giving them away for free along with a pamphlet and an invitation to church. Ill let you know if it works out. Mom, to answer your question, we still have a meal with a sister every day except sunday and it{s always delicous. And i still don{t have my luggage from Culiacan, i{ll have to wait until a pass through there to get it and that could still be a year in the future. I also had to leave a backpack in Cabo full of things that werent neccessary so that my pack didn{t way too much so right now i don{t have the majority of what i brought to mexico, but i have enough, dont worry. Well have a wonderful week!! I love you all muchisimo. Elder Mecham