Letter #67 9/3/12 Striving for the Temple!

Hey everyone! Glad to hear you had a good week starting school and everything. I had no clue it was labor day! That´s fun that you all went to the cabin. It seems like you´ve been going to the cabin a whole lot lately. And Congrats to Kameron for going through the temple! Wow, i would´ve loved to have been there. And go BYU football!! How

We had a pretty decent week this week. We continued our hunt for new investigadors and had were able to see some fruits from our efforts. Again, we had very few lessons. 14 in the whole week, but we did a ton of street contacts. And we had 5 investigadors come to church!! For 2 in was their first time attending and they both loved it. One was a street contact! We invited him to church and he said he´d go, i thought he was just saying it so we´d leave, but he went! There was also a women that called us this last week, saying that the missionaries had visited her about a year ago, but wasn´t really too interested in changing her catholic beliefs. She told us that she recently visited her sister in another state and went to the mormon church with her and loved it! She wanted to know what time church starts here so that she can keep attending. She came yesterday and already looked like a member. She was wearing a dress, arrived 10 minutes early, stayed all 3 hours, got to know several members, and had an interview with the Bishop. She has lots of problems in her house so we´re going to be teaching her in the church. As long as she´s already married and hasn´t commited any pecados graves, she should get baptised in he next couple weeks!

This weekend our whole stake went to the Temple. Here in Mazatlan they go to the Guadalajara temple. All the stakes from Culiacan and up go to Heramosilla and everyone south of Culiacan goes to Guadalajara. Our ward has been getting together every week to make tamales and sell them in order to have the 300 pesos for the bus from here to guadalajara. Savings accounts don´t really exist here. If someone needs to pay for something other than the weekly grocery run they need to work extra hard to come up with the money. 300 pesos is less than 30 dollars, yet there were several members who weren´t able come up with it. I was sad to see that only 7 from our ward went. I would LOVE to be able to go to temple!! This week i was thinking a lot about the covenents we make and the blessings that are promised to us when we keep those covenents. I know that the blessings are real and powerful. And the coventents are important. Our purpose as missionaries isn´t just to baptise. We make sure that every convert has their sights set on the temple! Baptism is great, but without make the covenents in the temple, there´s no way we can make it back to our heavenly father.

Well love you all, thanks for being amazing. Thanks Marci for writing me! Love hearing from you and about the family. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #66 8/27/12 Hanging in there in Mazatlan!

The view from Landon's house in Mazatlan!

Seems like a pretty nice place!  Big and fairly clean!

Where are the sheets?  Still... not too bad!

Hey family! Buenas tardes. Wow, interesting week. I read your letters. Thanks! Sounds like everything is great at home. Back in School!! Wow, how exciting! Mom, i hope that your kids behave themselves and that you don´t have too many "troubles children". Lexi and Mckel, i hope that you enjoy your classes, your teachers, your wards, and your roomates. And if you don't, hang in there!

Very sadly, LHey family! Buenas tardes. Wow, interesting week. I read your letters. Thanks! Sounds like everything is great at home. Back in School!! Wow, how exciting! Mom, i hope that your kids behave themselves and that you don´t have too many "troubles children". Lexi and Mckel, i hope that you enjoy your classes, your teachers, your wards, and your roomates. And if you don't, hang in there!

Very sadly, Luis didn't get baptised.. Wow, satan works hard. He had his interview thursday and passed! Everything was set, he was going to get baptised Saturday, but after passing his interview he said he wanted to wait until this saturday so that his family can attend. We told him it would be fine, then Saturday when we passed by his house he said that, for personal reasons, he wants to wait until November! After sharing lots of scriptures, and baring testimony he told us he'd pray and ask if he should get baptised this Saturday. We haven't seen him since but we're hoping for a miracle. We did a WHOLE lot of looking for new investigadors this week. Our strategic plan to find new people was to do a mix of going with less active members who have non-member family members, searching old investigadors from the area book, and talking with EVERYONE we find in the streets. We had many very interesting experiences and conversations with people. I can't believe how many Jehovas Witnesses there are in Mazatlan! We found several incredibly inactive members this week who have completely denied getting baptised and have now gotten re-baptised in other churches. We had to show them there names in the lists to prove that they are technically members of the church. Very sad.. We spent the majority of the week walking. Almos every lesson we had lasted no more than 15 minutes and was held in the doorstep of the person and basically consisted of trying to defend our beliefes with people who honestly had no desire to ever go to church or even try to understand what we share.

Right now we're just trying not to get down. ANIMO ANIMO!! Luckily, Elder Lara is really easy going and i've never seen him even the least bit depressed. We're trooping along with our heads held high and i now that we're going to find escogidos! Yesterday i spoke on patience. I talked about the sons of Mosiah and how they were stoned, beaten, and thrown in prison, yet they never got discouraged. At the end of everything, they baptised thousands! I know that patience is a virtue of Christ and that if we indure hardships with patience, never parting away from the gospel, God blesses us!

We had a great day today. President Cantu recently recieved some amazing revelation! We now have our District Meetings at 6 P.M. every Monday, as opposed to having the meeting in the morning. We now have a full day for P day!! Beforehand we usually returned to our areas at arouond 2, still needing to wash, buy, and write. Life is good, i'm happy to be a missionary and excited to work, work, work!! I love you all and i hope you have a wonderful week!! didn't get baptised.. Wow, satan works hard. He had his interview thursday and passed! Everything was set, he was going to get baptised Saturday, but after passing his interview he said he wanted to wait until this saturday so that his family can attend. We told him it would be fine, then Saturday when we passed by his house he said that, for personal reasons, he wants to wait until November! After sharing lots of scriptures, and baring testimony he told us he'd pray and ask if he should get baptised this Saturday. We haven't seen him since but we're hoping for a miracle. We did a WHOLE lot of looking for new investigadors this week. Our strategic plan to find new people was to do a mix of going with less active members who have non-member family members, searching old investigadors from the area book, and talking with EVERYONE we find in the streets. We had many very interesting experiences and conversations with people. I can't believe how many Jehovas Witnesses there are in Mazatlan! We found several incredibly inactive members this week who have completely denied getting baptised and have now gotten re-baptised in other churches. We had to show them there names in the lists to prove that they are technically members of the church. Very sad.. We spent the majority of the week walking. Almos every lesson we had lasted no more than 15 minutes and was held in the doorstep of the person and basically consisted of trying to defend our beliefes with people who honestly had no desire to ever go to church or even try to understand what we share.

Right now we're just trying not to get down. ANIMO ANIMO!! Luckily, Elder Lara is really easy going and i've never seen him even the least bit depressed. We're trooping along with our heads held high and i now that we're going to find escogidos! Yesterday i spoke on patience. I talked about the sons of Mosiah and how they were stoned, beaten, and thrown in prison, yet they never got discouraged. At the end of everything, they baptised thousands! I know that patience is a virtue of Christ and that if we indure hardships with patience, never parting away from the gospel, God blesses us!

We had a great day today. President Cantu recently recieved some amazing revelation! We now have our District Meetings at 6 P.M. every Monday, as opposed to having the meeting in the morning. We now have a full day for P day!! Beforehand we usually returned to our areas at arouond 2, still needing to wash, buy, and write. Life is good, i'm happy to be a missionary and excited to work, work, work!! I love you all and i hope you have a wonderful week!!

Letter #65 8/20/12 Rain in Mexico

Hey family, we had a pretty decent week. It went by incredibly fast! I can´t believe i´m already writing you guys again. I got the pictures from Lexi! Looks like she had an awesome time in the grand canyon. I always wanted to visit there.. It rained a ton this week. Every single day.. not all day, but a lot. The good part about the rain is that it means cloud cover, which is always really pleasing. The bad part is that it also means humidity, which turns into a lot of sweat. But the work always goes on. The weather really doesn´t change anything at all, and i need to enjoy the remainder of August cause it´ll be my last one in Mexico! This is the only chance i´ll ever have to walk around in the hot and humid rain, sweating up a storm and diligently searching the escogidos and i need to take advantage of every minute!

We had a lot of lessons this week. We have a lot of people with baptism dates, which is awesome, but unfortunately not a lot are progressing towards their dates. This week we´re going to have a lot of last visits with a few families we´ve been teaching. It´s sad to leave investigadors, but it´s part of the mission. R is continuing to progress. He should get baptised saturday! We´re going to be praying a ton that he has enough power to resist the temptations of satan and keep excited. I think he´s one of the few investigadors that we´re going to keep visiting this week. We´re going to be doing a LOT of searching this week.

Yesterday was the stake conference and it was great! President Cantú spoke and it was incredibly powerful as always. A member of the seventy also came but i forgot his name. He´s a Mexican and he also did great. He came Saturday and he wanted to visit one less active member, and one recent convert. And he chose G!! She´s the lady that got baptised my first week. He visited her with the bishop and the stake president, unfortunately they didn´t want to invite the missionaries.. but we were both really happy for her. He mentioned her in his talk sunday as an example of great faith and dedication. She is already saving money to go to the temple in one year!

Well we should have a good week this week. I didn´t tell you last week but i´m district leader. Nothing really changes as district leader but i get to hold district meatings and a bunch of fun things like that. I´ll be busier and that´s always a good thing. Well i hope you all have a wonderful week!! I´m going to work super hard so that you all get blessings. Love you all!!

Elder Mecham

Letter #64 08/13/12 Run to the Lighthouse!

Early morning run up the mountain to the lighthouse!

Looking Great!

Hitching a ride in Mazatlan!

Hey fam. Another good week. I'll start out by telling you that i'm still here in Mazatlan with Elder Lara. Looks like we're going to have another 6 weeks together! I was pretty happy. We have a few investigadors that should be getting baptised this change and i know we're going to find a lot more. I've enjoyed working with Elder Lara. He's really really tranquilo. He is basically always laughing and making jokes but at the same time he knows when to get serious. Also, i got your package! Thanks a ton. It was great! I was pretty happy to see some peanut butter. I was able to read  your letters beforehand this week. Sounds like you guys did a ton this week! Make sure to tell Kameron happy birthday for me. What day does he leave again? I can't wait to start getting his letters! There was quite a bit of excitement here when Mexico won in soccer, but i won't lie, i'm pretty happy that the olympics are over. WAY too many tempatations. Haha just about everyone was wathching them and me and my companion being, big sports fans, had to go to pretty extreme measures to avoid seeing them. I'm looking forward to the next olympics when i can sit down and enjoy them.

So this week we continued working a lot with J, but unfortunately he still didn't get baptised. We haven't been able to find his dad from whom we need to get permission. We're going to pray and pray that his dad lets him get baptised and if so, he'll be baptised this saturday. We found a new investidador that looks really promising named R. He's about 75 years old and lives alone. He was in the navy and loves to tie nots and has read the book of mormon 2 times! He said he loves it, only that it talks too much about wars. He wants to get baptised the 25th of this month. He has a small problem with smoking, but we're going to pray that he has the strength to stop. He went to our ward missionary activity on Friday and loved it! We had a movie night. Elder Lara and i organized it. We watched 17 milagros! It was pretty awesome. We watched in on a giant wall with a projector and ate popcorn. The idea was that the members were going to bring their friends but it turned out that we were the only  ones who brought investigadors. J and R. But they loved it! 

The pictures are from saturday. We ran to the lighthouse! We had to get up at 430 to be able to get back on time. I'm still a little sore, but it was 100 percent worth it! On the run back we had fun taking pictures with all the monuments on the boardwalk. Well i hope that all of you have an amazing week and remember to read the scriptures. I've been reading a lot in Corinthians. The 2 books testify that our church is the church of Jesus Christ a ton! Take care and i love you!  

Elder Mecham

Letter #63 8/06/12 Aquarium!

Landon's newest investigator!

Landon and Elder Lara hope to be together for another change!

A friend in Mazatlan!

Hey family! We had a pretty awesome week. I loved the pictures you sent! I always love getting pictures. Looks like you had a good time at the cabin and lexi´s trip looked awesome! I say our family does a trip like that in about a year. I´m glad to know that everyone´s enjoying this last little bit of summer. I´m just hoping i can make it through this August heat. Everyone says that August is the worst month as far as the heat goes and i believe it.

This last week we had a super spiritual experience with an eternal investigador. She has been listening to the misionaries on and off for the last 20 years. We are hoping that now is her time to finally make the decision and get baptised! In the lesson we were just asking questions, testifying, and reading scriptures in order to find what´s been stopping her from getting baptised. Afterwards we challenged her to pray and ask if she should get baptised. She said that last prayer and asked and instantly started to cry and couldn´t stop. I know that she was touched by the holy ghost and that she felt that she needs to get baptised. The spirit was so strong! We´re going to keep praying so that she can finally decide to act according to her answer. 

We have a very posible baptism for this saturday. He´s a kid named J. He 11 years old and LOVES to go to church. He goes with his Aunt becuase his parents aren´t members and really don´t want anything to do with the churh. He says that he´s gone to a lot of churches but that he feels something special when he goes to our church and knows that it´s where he belongs. When he told us that he had never heard of Joseph Smith and had never said a prayer. It goes to show  that if someone is spiritually open, they can literally feel that our church has the fullness of the gospel by simply attending church and listening to the spirit. 

Today we had a little district activity since we have changes next week. We went to the Aquarium!! It was pretty amazing. Basically a mini-Seaworld. We saw a sea lion show, i took a picture with a parrot, and i touched an alligator! Elder Lara and i are both hoping that we stay here for this next change. I love it here and wouldn´t mind spending a good part of my mission in this area. Well love you all, have a wonderful week!!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #62 7/30/12 Go Mexico!!

The seminary in Culiacan!

Hey family, Thanks for the pictures! Looks like you all had a great time, the cousins and everyone look great! Parker and Slater both look a lot older. I also got the pictures from mckell. The trip looks awesome! Now i´m the only one in the family who hasn´t been to Europe.. Oh well, Mexico es mejor! There are quite a few people here that are super in to the olympics. I hope the U.S. does well but that everything stays peaceful between Mexico and the U.S.

Well i had a pretty amazing week. We were in Culiacan ALL WEEK! We stayed in a house with 6 other missionaries and had a fabulous time. We had the same schedule every day. From 9 to 12  we listened to Pres. Cantu talk about los milagros, from 12 to 5 we did divisions in the area of the Elders we stayed with and worked in their area, and from 5 to 8 we listened more about how to find miracles! It was a pretty awesome week. It was super hot and rainy in Culiacan but it didn´t stop us from working. Every day we left the conference super excited to work and search for the escogidos. 

We covered a lot of information in the conference so i´m just going to tell you a few of the things that i like most. First of all we talked about the obvious and crucial need of teaching with the spirit. The scripture i like most is D&C 50: 13-18. It says that if we try to teach in any other way, we aren´t teaching in the way of the Lord. There´s a lot of other ways that missionaries can try to teach. A lot of missionaries know a ton about the gospel and know a ton of scriptures. It´s great to have a lot of knowledge, but there are a lot of people who relly on their own knowledge and persuasive words than listening and teaching by the spirit. 

We also talked about how we are all ¨"chosen ones" and that we´ve been taught and prepared to do the work of the Lord since the preexistence. Every one of us has a potencial that we can fulfill and multiple spirtual gifts but in order to recieve everything we need to be perfectly obedient. If we don´t obey, we have no promise. We talked a lot about how every one of us has a lot of things that we could change to be better missionaries or better people in general, but we´re never going to make the changes if we don´t act. We´re here in the mission and in life to act, not be acted upon. That goes for us as missionaries, for the members, and for our investigadors. If we´re going to act, first of all we need to have the desire. We talked about how our investigadors need to have the desire if they´re going to change and how we can give them the desire by using inspired questions.

President Cantu is amazing. I know that he is the only mission president that can give me the guidance that i need to meet my potential as a missionary and that he´s called of God. Pres. Cantu has a different way of communicating himself. He talkes really direct, and word he says is full of power and it makes you feel the spirit. Well i hope you all have a wonderful week!! I´ll be praying for you all. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #61 7/23/12 Happy Birthday Mom!

The painting crew!

Nothing like a good hard days work!!

Now this family can have a cement floor!

Three cute baptism girls!

A nice drive along the beach!!

A little beach-side reading!!

Hey everyone! I hope all is well at home. We had another good week here in Mazatlan, really busy, stressful, and physically tiring, but it was great! The best part of the week was definately Saturday. We had a baptism! The 2 niñas got baptised. It was incredibly stressfull all week trying to work it all out and never really knowing for sure if they were going to get baptised or not. I have a really long history of stressful baptism days so im used to it. In the end it all turned out perfect and the baptismal service was great. It was probably the best organized baptismal service ive ever been to. The president of the primary went early and decorated the whole room with paintings of the temple and ribbons and things like that. It looked great! 3 niñas got baptised in total. The 2 investigadores and an 8 year old girl from the ward. The 3 are now best friends.

We had the wonderful oportunity of doing service 2 times this week!! The first time was Tuesday. We painted! It was very enjoyable and a nice break from our regular work, not that i dont love the regular work. On Thursday we did more service.. not quite so enjoyable. We had the awesome task of moving a giant pile of rock hard clay into a house so that they can put in a concrete floor. The floor beforehand was pure dirt and it wasnt very solid. It was a long day.. I spent the majority of the time loosening the clay with a pick, moving it inside the house, and packing it down with a stick connected to a giant piece of concrete. Im going to send a pic, make sure to notice how soacking wet my shirt is. Id say it was one of the hardest service projects ive ever done in my life, but it was incredibly rewarding because now the family is going to be able something besides dirt as their floor. Thusday night when we returned to the house we were so exausted we just crashed on our beds and fell asleep at 9. Both service projects we were lucky to have the help of our ward missionary leader, Omar, Hes the taller one in the fotos. Hes great. Hes 18 and just got his mission call to Argentina. He helps us a ton and joins us with our lessons almost every day. 

Unfortunately, this week we had very few lessons because of the service and baptisms. We actually don{t have very many lessons here in Mazatlan. This week i think we had a total of about 5 lessons where we actually sat down with the investigadors and had a serious lesson. The rest are quick little lessons on the doorsteps of the people who dont have time or dont accept anything more. This means that we spend a lot of time walking which i really dont mind. We had a nice run in with an American this week. She spoke no  spanish and said that she was guided to Mazatlan to do the Lords work. This week were going to try and teach her, only problem is that she lives in a hotel.. 

Well i{m glad to hear that you got Grandma all moved in and that my room is still safe. Its going to be great having her so close to the house. That is the perfect place for her. This week we have a week long training meeting in Culiacan. We leave at 3 today and return saturday. It should be great, allthough i{m not really looking forward to the heat.. I hope you all have a wonderful week!!! Elder Mecham