Letter #74 10/22/12 Mazatlan!!

Wow, Matt´s home! That´s great to hear. Thanks for the pictures. Looks like you all had a great time! Last tuesday i talked to an Brother Corona, He´s an Elder that returned from Villahermos on Monday and lives in our stake. He said he knew Matt and reafirmed that he got stuck in Mexico, only he told me that he had heard that it was going to take a couple weeks to work out his papers and everything. Guess he was wrong.. Tell Matt hi for me and tell him that he nunca dejará siendo un misionero, y a seguir echando las ganas! Y que encuentre su medianaranja rapidamente.

We had a great week. We started out super excited after not having too much success the week before and having incredibly low numbers. We set new goals and worked super hard to achieve them, and for the first time in my mission, we did it! We completed with every goal we set, besides baptisms and confirmations. We worked a ton with with the members this week also visited a lot of less active members. Our ward is starting to get a little more excited with the missionary work. We´ve recieved a few references and are doing divisions every week. Hna Y is still doing great. This week they called her as the relief society secretary!! We´re hoping that her calling is going to keep her active and involved in the church. We´re also teaching her son, D, and should get baptised next week.

I had told you guys earlier about an investigador named S that works in our area. We passed the reference to the missionaries that correspond to him and they are now teaching him in his house. He should be getting baptised next week as well. We still see him on a regular basis, he even told us that he wants Elder Roman to baptise him so it looks like we´ll be attending his baptism! I also had another experience that strengthens my testimony that God loves us and listens to our prayers. The day after we passed the reference to the other missionaries, another pair of missionaries called us from Culiacan to pass us a reference. They told us that they´ve been teaching a man that works in Culiacan during the week, but lives in our area. They said they´ve already taught him all the lessons and has a baptism date for the first week of November. We visited him Saturday and is super excited.

Elder Roman and I are still doing great together. He got a little sick last week, turns out he can´t eat anything that has chilli anymore in his whole mission. He´s going to have some major problems since they litterally toss chilli in EVERYTHING here. Mom, you should be greatful that he´s my companion. He takes really good care of his skin, making me, as well, take super good care of my skin. He also has an unbrella and if we´re not walking in the shadow, he uses it. Which is basically all day long. He also reminds me to put on sun screen. There´s a lot of people here with really bad skin problems since the majority of people work outside all day long. It´s a good reminder.

I re-listened to Uchdorfs talk about living a life with no regrets several times this week and i loved it more every time. He talks about how we need to enjoy where we´re at and not think about the finish line before we get there. We´re going to keep working hard this week and find more people to bring unto Christ!! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #73 10/15/12 Baptism!

Great week. First of all, i'm a little surprised about Matt. When i read that he's not coming home today, i first thought about President Thomas S. Monson's talk he gave on Sunday. I thought that they main point of the talk was that there are no coinsidenses. Everything happens for a reason and i'm sure that there is a reason (unknown for the time being) that he was not supposed to come home today. But i liked that idea of going to Chuck a rama afterwards. You'll have to send me pictures!

 

Right now i'm in another area with a Elder Goates, an Elder in my zone. Our companions are currently in Culiacan working out some visa issues. They left yesterday, so last night i worked here with Elder Goates. It's been nice to hang out a little with anoher Gringo. This morning we played soccer and afterwards we made carne asada with a few mexican teenagers.

 

Hna Y got baptised! Her baptism was awesome. I felt the spirit and i could tell that she did as well. We were a little worried that she wasn't going to get baptised this week because she learns a little slow and honestly doesn't understand a lot of things even now, but after a lot of prayer we decided that she was ready! Knowledge really isn't a requirement to get baptised. More than anything the person needs to have the desire, be willing to obey the commandments, and pray to know that it's true. The members are going to be helping her now so that she keeps going to church and has her sights set on the temple! Y also has a 10 year old son who we're going to start teaching. He went to the baptism and to church on sunday and loved it. We told him that in 2 weeks he'll be able to get baptised and he got really excited. We found hna Y one day when we were walking to lunch. She talked to me in english and i asked her if we could visit her in her house. She honestly didn't have much of a desire in the beggining but little by little we were able to see her change. It's awesome to see the spirit work with the people as they learn more about our savior and start keeping the commandments.

 

Elder Roman and i are still doing great together. He is definately different than the rest of my companions i've had. You would never guess that he is so new to church. He knows a ton about the scriptures and LOVES teaching. He shares his conversion story with just about everyone we come in contact and it's been a big help. It's nice having a companion that's a convert, i'd actually love it if every companion i had was a convert. He's trying to take advantage of our time together to learn english. I always pray in english so that he can listen. Strangely, i feel more comfortable praying in spanish. I often start my prayers in english and finish in spanish without even realizing as i change languages.

 

S, the contact that works as a security guard, is awesome. He doesn't live in our area, but he loved the book of mormon so much that he's been sharing it with everone he knows! He gave a book to his friend, A, who's now been reading and seems really excited. He's trying to quit smoking and we're helping him by teaching him the gospel!

 

Well i hope that you all have a wonderful week and that Matt comes home at some point before next monday. Love you all!! Elder Mecham

Letter #72 10/8/12!! General Conference!!

No idea where this is!  Maybe the backyard?

Landon on the ferry to an island for a baptism interview.  Gorgeous!!

Hey there everyone, great week. First of all, i got 2 packages! ¡Gracias a mama y abuelita! Everything you sent was great, i give props to whoever picked out the grey paisley tie. I´m going to have a tough time keeping that from my companions.

Best news of the week is, i can hardly believe it, but we went to all 5 sessions of conference!!!! And we brought investigadors to every session! We had a bit of an advantage since the stake center is in our area, making it very easy for investigadors to go. I left this conference feeling spiritually uplifted and with a stronger testimony that Thomas S. Monson is a profet. Elder Roman and i both felt the spirit super strong after the afternoon session Yesterday. Elder Roman was balling, i was able to contain my emotions a little better, but the experience was super powerful. I also have a new love the the tabernacle choir. Since i started the mission i´ve enjoyed them more and more. The investigadors who went all had great experiences as well. We had a few people who went both Saturday and Sunday, Hna G being one of them. She has a baptism date for this saturday!! We´re teaming her up with our other investigador of around the same age, Hermana S. They made friends yesterday at conference and today we´re going to have a family night with both of them.

We had super awesome experience on Friday while we were walking to lunce. We were basically running because we were late when we heard a man shout at us. He was working in a hotel when he watched pass by and wanted something to read. We stopped and talked to him and gave him a book of mormon and left our number on the back. After 10 minutes he sent us a message saying that he wanted us to come back and teach him how to pray. We passed be the next day and he had already read 12 chapters of the Book of Mormon! He told us that he knows it´s true and that it was no coincidence that he felt prompted to shout at us, he had never talked with missionaries before and didn´t have a clue what we do. He went to the preisthood session on Saturday and said he felt that Thomas S. Monson was a profet called by God, Yesterday we passed by and he asked us if he could have 3 more Books of Mormon; 1 for his friend at work, 1 for the owners of the house he rents, and 1 for his wife. He is insanely escogido!! Only sad thing is that he doesn´t live in our area... We works all day as a security guard in a hotel in our area, but we´re going to pass the reference to the missionaries of the ward he belongs to. We are just happy to have been the missionaries that made first contact with him. These past couple weeks we´ve found a TON of people who i feel have been prepared to recieve the gospel, but sadly don´t live in our area. The important thing is that we´re working our hardest, and helping people come unto Christ. It doesn´t matter if we are just the ones that are planting the seed, it´s the same work.

Mom, to awnswer a couple of questions, Elder Roman is from Santiago. I had forgotten that Danny served in the Dominican Republic! Also, about the shoes, to tell the truth boots aren´t neccessary in sinaloa. At least they weren´t this year. It sounds like in past years it has rained a little more. I´m using them every other day, but just because my other shoes are falling apart little by little and i want all 3 pairs to last me until the end of my mission. I think it´s a good idea to buy a pair of shoes just to use on Sundays and Baptisms so that you always have a pair that looks nice, and another 2 pairs for every other day.

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

Letter #71 10/1/12 Elder Roman is Awesome!!

Dear family, How is everyone? Unfortunately today we have very little time to write. We have a district meeting right now and its very far away. This week was pretty decent. Elder Roman and i had several spiritual experiences together and little by little were finding more investigadors. Yesterday una Hermana that we{ve been teaching forever finally went to church! She speaks english and always wants to speak english in the lessons. We{ve been worried that that she was more interested in practicing her english than learning the gospel but we{re seen a lot of progress in her in this last little bit. I hope she keeps it up so she can get baptised! Hermana S is having problems because she is currently living with her x husband and rules are that if they live under the same roof, and arent married, she cant get baptised. She has continued to be super active in everything and loves all the lessons. She is also on the schedule to feed us every week. This week we{re going to be looking for new investigadors. This past week i resulted to a finding method that i hadn{t used in months, contacting. It had been forever!! But i{ve now broken the streak. We had gone almost every inactive member in the ward, and found every old investigador from the area book, and we were left with no other opcion. We had little success for our area, but were able to find and teach some people who live in other cities that i think could really progress. It doesnt matter who plants the sead and who reaps it. The blessings are the same!

This past week we also had the oportunity to go to the island again! I enjoyed the boat ride and took a couple fotos but i think i{ll be sending them next week because the computer i{m using is ancient! Elder Roman and i are having a great time together. He is awesome. He has a little over a month her in Mexico and is still adjusting to everything. I would have thought the the Dominican Republic and Mexico would be almost identical in cultures sense their so close, but there are actually a lot of differences. They don{t eat tortillas in the Dominican Republic!! He actually says that the food is a lot better here than in his house. There are also a lot of differences in the language. Believe it or not, i{ve helped him with his mexican spanish, and at times, i{ve been the one who has had to translate things so that the people understand. Haha, obviously he speaks better spanish than do, but there{s a lot of words that exist here that he had never heard of before, and a words that are spoken in his house that people don{t understand at all. 

I love every one of you and  im thankful for you letters and for everything you do for me. Stay safe, and read the scriptures! Love Elder Mecham

Letter #70 9/24/12 New Companion!

Landon's last District

Ward Family Home Evening Farewell Party!!

Dear family,

We had another good week. I´ll start out by telling you that I´m still here in Albatros, Mazatlan! I´m pretty happy because i was hoping i´d stay. But, like i expected, Elder Lara and i were separated. He went to Culiacan.. haha i felt a little bad because he kept telling me he didn´t want serve in Culiacan for the heat but i guess the Lord had other plans for him. I´m sure he´ll realize quickly that the changes are inspired and that that´s where he´s supposed to be.

As for my new companion, his name is Elder Roman, from the Dominican Republic!! Pretty sweet eh? I´m excited to get to know him. There´s a lot of missionaries from South American countries, but he´s the only missionary in our whole mission from the Dominican Republic. He has 3 months in here in Mexico and 6 in the mission, he spent some time waiting for his visa. We´ve allready gotten to know eachother pretty well and he seems like he´ll be a great companion. He´s the only member in his family and he got baptised when he was 19, he´s now 21. He is also set on learning english here in the mission and today we´ve been speaking a LOT of english. To be honest, right now he doesn´t know a lot, but i´m sure that by the end of this change he´ll be speaking like a native! He also has a pretty sweet accent when he speaks spanish, i´m hoping it might rub off on me a bit.

This past week was a good one. We spent a lot of time trying looking for new investigadors and honestly weren´t able to have much success. However, on the brightside, S wants to get baptised here in Mazatlan!! She is going to move to Tijuana in December and was wanting to wait until she gets there to get baptised so that her brother who´s a member can baptise her, but this past week she said that she doesn´t think she´ll be able to wait! However, she recently went through a divorce and is still living with her X husband and, unfortunately, the church doesn´t allow that she can get married unless she is living apart from her husband. We´re going to pray a lot that she has the faith and desire to find a new house so that she can take the next step and get baptised. Hermana E, the women who´s 86 years old, is getting really sick. She honestly can´t go to church right now and we´re thinking that she´s going to be accepting her baptism in the spirit world. It´s a little sad because she has a strong desire to get baptised but physically can´t do it right now. I know that God is merciful and that she has no need to worry. Everything will work out well in the end.

This week i finished the New Testament!! The book of Revelations is pretty intense, i definately plan on studying it a little deeper after the mission. It felt good to finally finish the NT since i started reading it about 9 months ago. I´ve been steadily reading about 2-3 chapters a day. This Wednesday my ward is going to be sending off the first missionary in almost 10 years! He´s going to Puebla. He´s been like our 3rd companion these past 3 months and i´m super proud of him. He´s also the only member of his family and it´s been a struggle for him these past few weeks because he´s family isn´t giving him any support. Last night the ward had a family home evening to say good bye and it was super spiritual. Everyone took turns saying there last words to him and everyone was crying. We brought an investigador and i know he felt the spirit super strong!

Mom, i don´t think i have a tape worm but i´ll see what i can do to make sure. Also, this week i went to a dermintologist for my rash. They said it was due to sweating to much and gave me a soap, a spray, and a cream, all insanely expensive but luckily the mission paid for it, and now the rash is almost gone.

Wow, the cabin again!! Can´t believe it. Hope your not all sick of the cabin by the time i get home!! I got the letter from Kam and i´m excited to read it. Love you all!! Hope you have a wonderful week. Love Elder Mecham

Letter #69 9/17/12! Mexico Indendence Day!

Pizza for Independence Day!

Landon, Elder Lara, and a patriotic Hotel!

Zone soccer!!

Dear family, hope you all had a good week. I´m a little sad to hear about the BYU game, oh well.. there´s always next year! Thanks for the fotos from Labor day! Looks like you guys had a blast at the cabin! That cross bow looks pretty awesome, although it was a little strange seeing grandma shooting it. haha.

This week was a good one. Little by little we´re seeing the fruits of our labors. Despite having very few lessons, 2 a day, we were able able to bring 2 investigadors to church and put 3 baptismal dates! We have a couple people who are looking promising. We´ve found that the majority of people who listen to us here are all rather old, but i enjoy talking with elderly folks. You can learn a lot from their experience in life, even though some are incredibly stubborn.. Our 2 most promising investigadors right now are E and another named S. E has 86 years under her belt and is awesome! She wants to get baptised but is incredibly sick, can´t walk, and only has one fucioning eye and the other barely works. It´s been tough to bring her to church but we´re going to pray a lot so that she can progress. S is awesome. He is 75 and lives with his downsyndrome son. He goes to a Christian church but knows that his church is lacking the preisthood. Tomorrow i´m going to show him my preisthood lineage and hope it´s what he needs to finally get baptised! He went to church yesterday and loved it.

This week i finished El Libro de Mormon! It always feels great to finish it. Great book, i highly reccommend it to anyone who wants to find answers to life´s questions. After meditating, i´ve come to the conclusion the principal message that the book of mormon is that it doesn´t matter what happens to us or what our circumstances are, the way to prosper both spiritually and temporally and overcome lifes trials is through obedience to the gospel. The majority of the book of mormon talks about wars or rebellions. When the people obey the Lord, they always come out on top! And it´s not always easy, lots of times god wants to test our patience, but in the end we´ll be happy when we hold to the iron rod and never fall away from the gospel. The profets tell us everything we need to do to be happy, we just have to have faith and do it!

This weekend was the celebration of the independence of Mexico(16 de septiembre) which is the excuse for EVERYONE to forget their lives and responsabilities for 2 days and drink like there´s no tomorrow. Saturday, President Cantú gave the whole mission orders to return to our houses at 8 and also avoid areas with a lot of parties. Our entire area was a giant party! Pretty tough to avoid. Elder Lara and I celebrated by ordering a pizza and watching the Plates of Gold. It was a good night.

I attached 3 fotos. One is from this morning, we played soccer and volleyball with the zone. If you´re wondering who the guy in the back is with the giant beard and army helmet is, he´s a homeless guy who passed by the church and we invited him to play volleyball with us. He surprised us with his skill, it definately wasn´t his first time playing. The other picture is of our pizza night and the other of a hotel that had Mexico colors. Well love you all and i love being a missionary!!

Elder Mecham

Letter #68 9/10/12 Boat Ride!!?

Beautiful!

On the way to a baptism interview!  On a boat!!

This investigator isn't progressing very well!

Hey family! Glad to hear that everyone´s okay. And it was nice to get an email from Grandma! wow, Kameron had his farewell! I hope you recorded it so i can watch it when i get home. But how exciting! And Matt´s in his last change! Dang, goes by fast. I feel pretty good right now being right in the middle of the whole experience.

Well this week.. what can i say? I won´t lie, it was pretty average as far as the mission goes. Of course we had spiritual experiences and worked super hard, but nothing out of the ordinary. We had 2 lessons with S, the one that called us wanting to go to church. She´s great, and wants to get baptised! And she already knows the church is true and had already read 50 pages in the book of mormon before the first lesson! But unfortunately there´s a few details that are keeping her from getting baptised right now. We´re going to keep visiting her and hope and pray that we´re the 2 missionaries that get to see her baptism, but if not, i know that she will get baptised one day and is going to be a faithful member of the church forever and in the end, it doesn´t really matter who or where she gets baptised, the most important thing is that she is learning the gospel and i´m proud to be the one teaching her. Unfortunately, we weren´t able to find many people this week, walked a LOT again, but i don´t mind walking and we always seem to have fun while walking and contacting despite the heat and sweat. Yesterday we had a family home evening with 15 investigadors! A member invited all his kids and grandkids, none of which being members, and we taught them all the restoration. We´re going to be regressing with a few families this week and hopefully putting baptism dates!! Saturday we planned a ward missionay activity. It was a sports activity and they played basketball and volleyball. We had to do EVERTHING. We bought a ton of watermelon and oranges, expecting lots of people, but sadly only 15 people went, all of which being members... We´re trying to get the ward a little more excited but we´re struggling a little.

So these past couple weeks i´ve developed a fairly large rash, or some say fungus, due to the humidity. It doesn´t really bother me, but every morning i cover my entire body with powder to try and minimize the sweat. Sometimes i wish i was mexican so i wouldn´t have to deal with these white guy problems!

Oh i almost forgot, this week we went to do an interview and i got to do something that very few missionaries have the opportunity to do; take a boat ride! The future member lives on an island! It´s in the area of 2 Elders in my district. The boat ride lasted about 10 minutes and was very enjoyable, although at first i felt like i was sinning putting on a life jacket and being so close to the water. I attached a picture to back up my words. Today we had a nice P day, we went to check out some tourist areas and buy a few things. I´m loving the extra time they´re giving us. It´s always nice to have a good exciting P day to start the week, now we´re going to work super hard and find escogidos! I pray every day the the lord will guide us to the people that he´s preparing. I know they´re out there! Well hope you all have a great week. Love every single one of you!

Love Elder Mecham