Week 5 Parana Terminal

LA HUMEDAD ME MATA. (Translated: The humidity is killing me!)

Wow wow wow I have never sweat so much in my life. It gets to points where I can't even walk any more because my eyes are stinging and I can't open them because there's so much sweat, but I can't wipe them because everything else I have is wet too. It's the worst. Fall come faster please!!! But really. Humidity. It's terrible. Pretty sure Outer Darkness is made up of straight fire and humidity. Anyways.

What a huge week of growth. I have learned and grown so so much this week. Miracles are coming to pass and I know that God is at the head of this work. I tell you what, missions are so great. They're like this awesome two year workshop where you get to dedicate all of your time every day to the gospel and living it better. What in the world could be better than that? You're free of all worldly distractions and are able to focus fully on the things that matter. I love the mission so much, it's great.

A miracle happened to the family of E**. Her man, J**, had many problems with us and E** was about to separate from him. But last week, he was very drunk and fell from the second floor of a building, and also as I understand it, received electric shocks from a cable when he fell. That experience gave him a desire to change, and he has not drunk liquor at all this week, attended church with E** and her daughter K**, and also received lesson 3 from us last night. He is now starting to think about being baptized with E**, and we hope that K** will be baptized too. Now J** and E** are looking for how they can marry. Miracles happen in the mission, I'm sure of that. If we work hard and work together with the Lord, and if it is His will, I know we can baptize this whole family.

A couple of fun things from the week: As we were tracting in Colonia, a little pueblito in our area, we passed by a house, and they were playing jazz music super loud, and I was jamming out so hard! I thought of Amaya too, shoutout to her for her jazz skills. Man, I really like jazz. It was great.

Also, there continue to be cockroaches everywhere. They breached a new boundary this week. As I was brushing my teeth, I felt one on my back. It had somehow gotten under my garment and on my back, so I reached in, grabbed it, and threw it in the sink and drowned it. Definitely a different world here.

Thought for the week: Covenants are crucial. We have to keep our covenants. But not only that, because we hear that all the time. Covenants are also a great source of comfort. We have a promise from the Lord of eternal life if we will keep our covenants, and that should be something we value and treasure above all else. We can take comfort in the fact that no matter what happens, we have that promise from the Lord, no matter what. I invite everyone to not only keep your covenants, but also: Treasure your covenants.

The Lord directs this church, and there is nothing greater in this life than the gospel of Jesus Christ, absolutely nothing. I love my Savior with all my heart! He lives!

Elder Meyers

Factura con dulce de leche (Katelyn asked me to eat one for her).

First haircut in Argentina

Last tootsie roll :(

Look at my tie (dark part is the sweaty part)

Look at the temperature on my clock, just look at it!

Our fan (literally one of my personal heroes haha)

Purple tie for fast Sunday

Rainbow!

Shirley, who's a member of our ward, just got her mission call this week to Vina del Mar...who knows maybe she and Hma Kelson will be comps.

Zone p-day at Stake Center

Zone p-day at Stake Center

Zone p-day at Stake Center

Zone p-day at Stake Center

A better picture of our church

Week 4 Parana Terminal

First of all, sorry for the delay, yesterday and today are holidays, so it's not exactly predictable when things will be open, since everyone is sleeping in and partying. Also the heat came back, which is no bueno. I used the thermometer on my alarm clock yesterday to measure the temperature, and it said 124F!! It was probably a little exaggerated, but regardless of the exact temperature, it's hot.

We got back to work this week, which was good. A couple highlights from the week:

E**, our most progressing investigator is doing so well! Her baptismal date right now is set for the last Saturday this month. She's nervous about it, because she doesn't want to rush into it, and she feels like it's something super sacred so she wants to make sure she's ready. We also have to wait and see what happens with her marido, since they're still living together. She's praying a lot to know whether she should separate from him or not, so we hope things can work out there. She said this week that she knows she needs to get baptized for sure, and that the church is true, it's now just a matter of when. So that's super awesome.

We also found a new investigator this week who's definitely been prepared! We are having trouble finding people right now, so that's a blessing. She said that she would be baptized if she came to know that the church was true, so hopefully our lessons this week go well.

The last thing was that Hno and Hna C**, an inactive couple, came to church this last Sunday, and both of them bore their testimonies! Hno. C** was bishop a long time ago, so we know they can be a huge strength to the ward if they will stay active. This was the result of a lesson we had with them last Thursday. We were actually on splits, and I was with one of the APs, Elder Blackmon. The lesson went super well, and we were able to ask some inspired questions. I felt strongly that I should ask Hno C** when he had felt closest to God in his life, and he said in the temple. We started talking about the temple, and he hasn't been for 10 years or so. But he really started to feel the Spirit, and he said he wanted to go back. Even though he had said we only had 10 minutes with them, we ended up teaching for about 45 minutes, and they came to church, so that was definitely a highlight.

A couple other things from the week: Like I said, we had splits on Thursday with Elder Blackmon, an AP, and Elder Arnold, one of my ZLs. Elder Blackmon es un capo!! He's from Florida, the only member in his family, and a member of about 3 years. He got here exactly a year before me, last January. We got along super well. As we were working, I don't think we stopped talking once all day. He's super pumped to go to BYU after his mission, and loves BYU sports as well. He's totally embraced Mormon culture since he got baptized and just loves it, which is good, because I'm a Utah Mormon who loves Utah, so we get along well, haha. The best thing, though, was that Elder Blackmon just loves the gospel. He delights in the scriptures and in spiritual things, and it was so great to be able to talk about all kinds of spiritual experiences during the day. I hope I can be more like him as a missionary.

Our adventure for the week was that our water heater busted. It started leaking and spraying water, and pretty much our whole kitchen floor was flooded. That took a while to clean up, and we ended up getting an entire new water heater.

Last thought for the week: A lot of times, when missionaries get their mission calls, they talk about how they just knew that that mission was the right mission for them. To be honest, I never felt that. When I got my call, I was interested, but didn't have that confirmation. This week, that confirmation came. I know that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, and where the Lord can teach and instruct me in the best way for me. I know that sometimes we don't understand the Lord's purposes for things that go on in our life, but if we go on in faith and obedience, the Lord will always teach us more and give us greater understanding. Follow Him in EVERYTHING, because He knows best. He really does.

Christ lives today!
Elder Meyers

Week 3 Parana Terminal

Hola todos!

This week was definitely a little tougher. Last pday while we were playing soccer, my companion twisted/sprained his ankle, and we had to stay in the pension pretty much all week. The first day, to be completely honest, was nice, because I had some time to myself while my companion was resting to read and study, and think a lot. But as the week went on, I started to go a little bit crazy. I hated sitting around and doing nothing, because that's not what we're here to do as missionaries. I spent most of the week reading my scriptures and other books from the missionary reference library, cleaning the apartment, watching a couple of the videos we have (like the Testaments and the District), and cleaning up the area book (the elders who were there before were terrible at keeping the area book, so I did my best to clean it up and put it back together). I learned a lot in my studies and I feel like I figured out a lot of ways that I can be a better missionary. Hopefully I can implement all of those things this week.

A couple of interesting things. There is a ward choir in our ward, which is really fun, but to be honest they sound really bad haha. It seems like pretty much every Argentine is tone deaf. But that's ok, their spirit is good. I was able to go to ward choir practice last Sunday night and play for them, and then accompany them in sacrament meeting yesterday. It wasn't the most beautiful thing I've heard, but their spirit was strong and it was good nonetheless. It also helps me appreciate my MoTab music more haha. 

I also have been growing my alfajor collection. Oh boy, I'm worried I'm going to get way gordo because alfajores are just too good. Our bishop went on vacation this last week and brought us back a box of alfajores from Mar de Plata where they were, and oh my goodness they might have been the best thing I've ever tasted. Of course, they were super expensive and I'll probably never get them again, but they were amazing. Our bishop said he felt bad buying them because they were so expensive (about 30 pesos each) but when he tried them, he thought they were easily worth 30 pesos, and I definitely agree. Anyways. Enough about alfajores. 

Our investigator E is progressing a lot! She comes to church every week and reads the Book of Mormon every morning with her daughter. They had New Beginnings for the Young Women on Saturday night, and E and C (her daughter) came, and they had C sit up front with all the young women and take pictures with them and everything. Even though the ward is small, those who are active are like family, and it was an awesome experience to see them really bringing in C. It made E super happy, too, I think, to see such warmth and friendliness. Hopefully everything will work out and she can get baptized this month! She is definitely ready and has so much faith in Jesus Christ. I've felt of Christ's love for her and know that He is pleased with her for her choices.

Spiritual thought from my many studies this week: Gratitude is so key. Whenever we are down, gratitude will bring us back up. Every time. Period. No arguments, no questions. Sometimes, it can seem hard to find things to be grateful for, but they are there I promise. There was a time this week that I was just so down, and I didn't feel like I could do it anymore, but when I started looking for my blessings, it brought me back to my Savior and I was able to find peace. And it can start with the littlest thing. For example, it may seem silly, but I started out being grateful that the light in our study room is a nice warm yellow color and not one of those unfriendly blue white lights. And I was grateful for the stars, that I could see them that night. There are ALWAYS things to be grateful for. Look for them, I promise they will bring you back to your Savior.


Well, that's all for this week. Christ lives and loves each of us!

Elder Meyers

Alfajores from our Bishop

All the missionaries playing soccer at our Stake Center on P-day

David's duck on my desk (David gave Jonathan this duck for OHS graduation and it meant a lot to David that Jonathan took it with him on his mission)

After soccer today we all went to eat at a buffet.  It was super pricey but fun.

Elder Fajardo gave me one of his Columbian soccer jerseys to remember him. haha

Me and my companion, Elder Huerta, with the alfajores from our Bishop.

My alfajor collection so far.

Sorry, you just don't understand how good they are

Week 2 Parana Terminal

First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER EMILY! And Kristen, for turning 18, that's super weird to me! Everyone know that Emily is awesome and is an amazing sister!

This week was HOT! Saturday I was told by a member that it had gotten up to 43C, which is 110F! I definitely believe it. I've gotten pretty used to the heat though, so today when I woke up and it was only like 85F because it had just rained, it felt so so good. To be honest, I never thought I would have trouble with the no swimming rule on a mission, but I have never thought about the Scera pool so much in my whole life haha. Anyways, I realized I forgot last week to talk about the daily schedule. This mission is 7-11, and since there's siesta, we do personal study and training from 8:30-10:30, and then comp study and language study after lunch from 3-5. We also get a half an hour to take a nap from 2:30-3, but a lot of times it's so hot you really can't sleep anyways. But it is nice to have that time during the hottest part of the day to be inside.

This week we had a worldwide missionary training on Wednesday with a ton of General Authorities. I don't remember everyone, but there was Elder Oaks, Bednar, Andersen, Sister Oscarson, Elder Brent H Neilson and some other seventies. It was super good! I just wish that I was more fluent in Spanish so I could understand everything and get more out of it, but that will come. The biggest thing I took away from the training was that we aren't the teachers, the Spirit is, and also that we must remember that each person is our brother or sister, and that they came from the exact same place that we did. The whole training was great because it helped me really reignite my fire for missionary work, because I've been feeling a little down. We spent a lot of time in the richer part of our area, and nobody there wants to talk, and a lot of times they're rude to us. So it was good to be reminded of our purpose and the joy of missionary work. We also had a zone conference beforehand and ate lunch together, so that was fun to see all the missionaries.

Thursday we went on splits with the ZLs, which was super fun! I went with Elder Arnold, who's from Reno, Nevada. He and I get along really well. He played soccer in high school, and is going to BYU. He also loves being outdoors and going on adventures in the wilderness. He's also way into piano, and is a very talented classical pianist. He played a little for me at zone conference, and he's very good. Also, while I was with him, I got to try Grido's ice cream for the first time! It's kind of like the main ice cream chain here, and so missionaries love it. It was super super good! Especially Alfajor Blanco. Mm. Que bueno.

This week, I've learned a lot about faith. I've realized a lot of times that I pray for things with intent, but not with real intent, if that makes sense. I pray believing that I will recieve an answer to my prayers, but that's not faith. Faith without works is dead. After we pray for things in faith, we have to actively look for and seek out the answers, because often times they won't present themselves to us, and we can miss them if we're not EXERCISING our faith and showing our faith in our Heavenly Father that He will answer our prayers. Active faith is key for answers to prayers.

Well, that's pretty much it. Send me pictures, I love to see what people are up to! Also, if I don't respond to your emails, I promise that I read them and that I love and appreciate them so so much! There's just never enough time to respond, so I apologize now. Love you all! Christ lives!


Elder Meyers

An Asado (Argentine BBQ) we had with some members

Lunch with Elder Fajardo (MTC comp) and his comp Elder Marcelo (our DL).  Elder Fajardo is in my district!

The building where the Bishop lives.  He built it and owns it, so a ton of  members live there too.

Our church

Me and Elder Arnold (Zone Leader) on splits with Grido ice cream (so good!)

My tan line

View from the front door of our street

Elder Huerta, the ZL's Elder Mitton and Elder Arnold, and me.

Week 1 in Argentina--Parana Terminal (1st area)

ARGENTINA!!!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

I'm here in Argentina now! It's super hot, usually between 94 and 105 every day. And there's no air conditioning anywhere. If I don't get anything else out of this mission, at least I know that everyone back home has a cushy life haha. My trainer is Elder Huerta and he's from Ogden (his parents are from Mexico and Guatemala). Go to the mission blog for pics. Also, I was super busy getting all situated this week, so sorry I don't have a ton of pictures. Anyways, we started proselyting right away. It's really hard here, because nobody wants to set appointments, they just say, oh, I should be around this time of the day, and then half the time when we go back they're not there. As far as investigators go, we don't really have many. We have two who really want to be baptized, but can't because their maridos don't want to get married, and there's not much we can do about that. We did find two new investigators yesterday, though, and one seems promising! His name is Juan, and he strongly believes in being a good person and in following Jesus Christ. It took us about an hour and a half to get through the basics of the Restoration with him, though, because every time we asked him a question he would talk for about 10 minutes non stop haha. But he's concerned with all the bad in the world and how all the youth nowadays aren't very responsible and spend all their time being disrespectful and doing dumb things. He's worked hard all of his life. Right now he doesn't seem to really want to do anything different, but he's pretty interested our message, so hopefully that goes well!

I played piano in church because nobody plays in this ward. The ward/our area is called Terminal (no idea why). There's about 40 active members, so it's not super big. There's this one guy in the ward, I can't remember his name, but he's the counselor to the Elder's Quorum President and he's about 50. He's super active in the church, and I love him a lot. He can quote General Authorities all day long, it's so cool! I wish I was like him. The people here are ridiculously hard to understand. I understood pretty much every spanish speaker in the MTC, but I got here and I could've sworn they were speaking a different language. I've just gotten really good at smiling and nodding and pretending to know exactly what they're saying.

The area we're in is just outside of the center of Paraná. We're in a poorer part of the suburbs, because that's where most of the members live. There's dogs everywhere, and dirt everywhere too. But the food is really good, so that´s good. It's kind of weird never eating in the night time, but the lunches are always really good.

Anyways, not really any time left, so I just want to leave you all with the this thought: Repentance is everything. Repentance is the purpose of the gospel. I know it. It is through repentance that we receive help, deliverance, everything! Every time in the scriptures someone wants help, they have to repent first. We have to repent in order to receive anything from God. So repent all of you! Every day! Multiple times a day! And I'll do it with you, because I definitely need to repent of a lot of things. Anyways, ciao!

Dios Vive!

Elder Meyers

27 new arriving missionaries

President Perez, Elder Meyers, Elder Huerta (trainer), Sister Perez

Study area in pension

My desk

Selfie at desk

In front of pension, we live in the top

View from the back little terrace

More pics from the MTC:  Our teacher's drawing of our district

Hermano Wortham, one of our awesome MTC teachers

MTC district

Different angles of the map picture :)

Friends from the MTC:  Elder Hadfield

Elder Soper

Elder Mendoza from my BYU ward going to Costa Rica

Elder Ruiz, who's in the Orem mission from my zone

Week 2: Leaving the MTC

This week was just great! I learned so much and feel like I've really grown a lot. First of all, Robbie (or Elder Hadfield, I guess) is in my zone and branch!!! His room is just a couple rooms down from mine. His companion is Elder Castellano from Italy, and he's super cool as well. Me and my companion and he and his companion get along super well, so we've been doing stuff together when we can. Also, they're the new zone leaders for our zone after we leave, so that's pretty cool. Funny experience, on Tuesday we had devotional, but there was choir practice before, so we did some splits so that the people who wanted to go could go. My companion and I made a trio with another elder from our district, Elder Jaramillo. We had to split up when we got to practice because we were different voice parts. After devotional, Elder Fajardo and I went to find Elder Jaramillo, but we couldn't find him, even after looking in our dorm, and in the gym, and in the main building, and in our classroom. Nowhere. We ended up not being able to find him and called security, and they said they went through the security camera footage and that he had gotten in a car and left the MTC. So we were super sad and stressed. But it turns out, he had just thought we were meeting back at our dorm, and was in the little gathering room because he had forgot his key, and then had fallen asleep for almost three hours. So we have no idea who the person in the car was. Anyways, so it actually wasn't very funny in the moment, but we laugh about it now, and Elder Jaramillo was a little embarrassed, but we're all good now. Also, during in-field orientation, Grandpa Woolley came and visited me with Sister Burgess (the MTC President's wife), so that was super awesome. It was good to see him and get a hug from some family. I don't know, it's weird, ever since I got to the MTC, it seems like my whole life beforehand was just a dream, and me and my companion are always like, did we even exist before our missions? It's almost like we passed through the veil from the premortal life. Anyways, it was good to see Grandpa and remember that my family actually does exist.

So my district found out about my song on lds.org... and then told my whole district, and then every time we do anything in our classroom they get on the classroom computer and turn on my song. It's kind of embarrassing, but I guess it's good because I'm helping people feel the Spirit and that was the purpose of the song. Hopefully they can take it and help people in their missions to feel the Spirit as well.

Sister Wyson from my district, as well as Elder Moreno, who was one of my zone leaders and good friends, who were both going to Quito Ecuador, didn't get their visas in time, so they've been reassigned to Las Vegas West Mission with the Ahlanders!! I'm super excited for them and have told them all about the Ahlanders. Maybe mom and dad you could email them and let them know that they're coming just for fun.

Yesterday I sang a solo in devotional! It went really well, and I felt like my testimony grew as I testified of the Savior and His life. I'm really grateful for the blessing of music and the way that it can lift and inspire people.

I'm really going to miss my district. They've become family to me. But I know that they'll all do great in their missions. And the elders I'll still see in my mission. I'm also so grateful for my teachers Hno. Wortham and Hna. Anderson. They completely changed me and helped me to grow in so so many ways. I will always be grateful for them and what they've taught me.

I know that this is the work of God and I can't wait to go serve the people in Argentina!

Elder Meyers

This is some of my district, and then Elder Moreno holding the watch (one of the ZLs), and then Elder Ruiz right next to him, who's going to the Orem mission! Look for him. We were having a party because it was 16:16, 1/6/16. 

Our zone after gym.

This is some of my district in front of the mountains.

Our district with Hna Anderson, who was an AMAZING teacher

With my Grandpa Woolley (he works at the MTC)

Week 1 in the MTC

Week 1 in the MTC

Hola todos!

Wow, what a week! The MTC is absolutely fantastic. I'm loving every minute. Even though sometimes the days are long and hard, every day at the end I feel so satisfied with the day. Although I will say I never thought 8 hours of sleep could seem like so little. Anyways, my companion is Elder Fajardo. He's from Colorado Springs, but originally from Colombia. I'm actually the only gringo in my whole zone, so that's been a little intimidating (besides three sisters in our district, but as far as elders go, I'm the only one). Also, I was called as district leader, which also has been humbling, because I definitely don't speak the language as well as any other elders in my district, but I'm doing my very best to serve them and help them in everything the need. Also, my branch president and his wife are from the Canyon View stake, President and Sister Glazier, so just thought I'd mention it. As far as other elders, I've seen Elder Bird a couple of times, Elder Pope quite a few times, especially the first day, and Elder Hess usually every day during lunch. Also, there is too much food, but it's all good, my companion and I just talk about how much our appetites have grown here and how it's a good thing that we're leaving soon. Also, thanks to grandpa for letting me know about the juice, all the elders in my zone keep talking about how all the juice keeps making them sick. Also, all the elders think the water bottles are super cool, so good job grandpa. A tiny bit about the others in my district: Elder Jaramillo is from Utah, but both of his parents are Colombian, and he's pretty quiet but humble and a good worker. Elder Garibay is from Springville and plays football. His family is from Mexico, and they are converts. Hermana Wyson is from SoCal and is going to Quito, Ecuador. She's a little quiet, but super funny and fun to be around. She played soccer and ran track. Hermana Cheever is from Sandy and is going to Buenos Aires West. She always knows what's going on, so if we don't know the schedule we ask her. Hermana Billin is from New Hampshire, and she knows Madi Earnshaw! So Madi props for having friends everywhere. She's going to Rosario. And the cool thing is all the elders in our district are going to Santa Fe, so we are all traveling together! Also, we got our travel plans and we leave next Monday at 8:30 in the morning! So fast! So we'll see whether or not I can email next week. Also, we got to go to the temple today, so it was really nice to walk around. Anyways, I can't think of anything else to say except one quick spiritual thought.

Ok, quick spiritual thought: we watched a talk given by Elder Bednar in the CCM called the Character of Christ. It was literally the best talk I have ever heard, bar none. Anyways, the main premise of the talk is that in times when we would turn inward, Christ turned outward. In other words, when we are low or feeling sorry for ourselves, normally we want to say, I'm so sad, someone help me please, but in those times are the best times to turn outward and serve others. Here are some examples, you should all look them up and study them. Matthew 4:4-11, Christ in the garden with the guards ear, and Christ while on the cross with the thieves, soldiers, Pharisees, and His mother. It was super insightful.

Se que esta es la obra de Dios! Quiero ser el mejor misionero que puedo, y se que puedo hacerlo a traves de mi Salvador Jesucristo. Tambien se sin duda que Jose Smith fue una profeta de Dios, y que restauro el evangelio a la tierra. El Espiritu Santo es real, y puede cambiar vidas, si traemos El. Estoy muy agradecido por la oportunidad de servir los hijos de Dios, y se que el Padre Celestial puede cambiar vidas a traves de mi si guardo los mandamientos. La iglesia es verdadera!

Elder Meyers

P.S. Also please tell everyone to use DearElder if they want to write me here before I leave next Monday because I have time to read those and I will get them before emails here in the MTC. Plus letters are so so so nice to get so thanks! Please have people use it I can respond to those!

My district: Elder Garibay, Elder Jaramillo, Hermana Billin, Hermana Cheever, Hermana Wyson, me, Elder Fajardo

Me and Elder Fajardo with our Branch president and his wife.

Me and my companion at our residence.