Week 26 Santa Fe Rural C Oficina

Hola a todos!

Sorry I didn't have much time to write last week. It's been a crazy week this week! We're getting ready for two Christmas mission conferences this coming week, and there's a lot to do. This week, Presidente and Hermana Perez became grandparents! They were actually here in the office with us when their granddaughter was born. It was a pretty cool moment, they were super excited. The next day Hermana Perez left on an approved leave so that she could be with her daughter. That's awesome, but it has left us with a ton of work, because Hermana Perez normally does all of the organization for big mission events. We have quickly learned just how awesome she is at organization, because even with four of us in the office, we can't quite seem to keep up with her jaja. :)

It's been a little bit of a weird Christmas season. When we're in the office or the pension, we are listening to Christmas music, and we have all our decorations up, but then we go out to proselyte, and it's hot, smells like summer, all the kids are getting out of school, people are breaking out the barbecues, everyone is coming out to drink mate. Definitely a weird double world. But it's ok, it's still great.

We are definitely being blessed in our area! We have received so many awesome references, including a few from Hna Levrino (the wife of Elder Levrino, the area seventy who lives in our ward). She is absolutely amazing. She gaves us some references, and so far each one that we've contacted, or that other missionaries have contacted (she gave us references that were in multiple areas in Santa Fe), has accepted a baptismal date! So we now have two investigators with a baptismal date! They are Gxxx and Axxx. Gxxx is about 28, and is the daughter-in-law of one of the members, and Axxx is her 8 year old son. When we went and contacted her, she told us the Hna Levrino had already given her a Book of Mormon as well as the the pamphlets from the first three lessons, and she had taught her how to pray, and that she (Gxxx) was now reading the Book of Mormon and praying every day, and that she had already received a response to her prayers and that she knew the church was true. I mean, what?? We literally don't have to do anything, just teach her a couple more lessons and help her come to church. I've never received a reference that was so absolutely prepared to hear the gospel. Truly the Lord is preparing the hearts of those who will heed His call. Axxx is super excited as well. Missionary work is the greatest. It is a joy unlike any other. Often times, we work long hours in the mission office, but my favorite part of every day by far is being out in the area, sharing the gospel and trying to bring a little more light into the lives of others. This is God's work. I know it.

I just want to bear my testimony of obedience. Obedience is the first law of heaven. Obedience brings great blessings. Obedience brings peace, love, happiness, joy, and the power of heaven into our lives. If we will only obey the commandments of God, we can be happy! It is so simple, yet the devil does all in his power to make it so complex. That is why it is crucial to have the Spirit of the Lord as our constant, daily companion. The Spirit guides us, helps us to see and to hear, to not be blinded by the traps of the enemy of all. Obey the Lord in all things, and He will bless you, I promise! That promise is woven throughout the entire Book of Mormon. How many times have we heard the phrase "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall prosper in the land"? I bear testimony of the truthfulness of that promise. Obedience is the path to happiness!

I love you all! I wish you all the very best this week and hope that you are having a great Christmas season, lighting the world one day at a time!

Elder Meyers

Hermana Perez with her new grandbaby!

Me with my advent calendar

Elder Robles giving Elder Henriquez a haircut on p-day jaja

Picture with the twin sons of the Levrinos, Tomas and Juan.  They just put in their mission papers!  They are both awesome and often go out on splits with us.  Also with Hno Lisandro Reviriego, a returned missionary and YM president in the ward.

Elder Carrion and I went to try this little restaurant place around the corner from the office today for pday.   It was actually super good!  I got the super good pork cut with pineapple sauce.  Not bad.

Elder Carrion

Week 25 Santa Fe Rural C Oficina

No time this week. But I love you all! And I hope that you are lighting the world! Remember that you are the light of the world, but that Christ is the light of the world, and only through him can we illuminate the lives of all. This is His gospel, His church, and His world, and we are His. He loves us, because we are His. May we love Him with all our hearts and let Him lead us always!


Elder Meyers

Week 24 Santa Fe Rural C Oficina

Hola a todos!

Another week in the office! We are getting used to the new office, as we are kind of in the "new generation" as an office. It's been good. We had a great zone meeting this week, where the zone leaders gave us some good challenges, especially with finding new investigators. We've been working a lot this week to find new investigators and to help our current investigators progress. Mxxx and Dxxx continue to progress little by little, but they still don't feel like they quite have the faith to get married. We had an amazing lesson full of the Spirit with them last night. Whenever we teach them, the Spirit is always so strong, and I know that they can feel it as well. They told us about all of the changes that they have seen in their lives, the harmony that they feel in their family because of the Book of Mormon. They are so close!! We've also received a few referrals, and we've been blessed to find a couple new investigators! Things are going great in our area.

It's getting a lot hotter now, summer is definitely on the way. And it's not just hot, it's humid and heavy too. Woot! :) Jaja I don't think I'll ever get used to the humidity. It kills me.

We had another capilla abierta in Cinco Esquinas in Paraná. It was pretty cool, because even though the weather didn't cooperate at all (there was a huge storm with tons of wind and rain and a little bit of hail) and it was raining literally the ENTIRE time, we still had about 5 people come, and every one of them accepted a baptismal date. The missionaries would go out looking for people, even though it was raining, and come back absolutely drenched without having found anybody, but at the end it still felt like it was a success. It was pretty cool.

This week, I have been studying a lot about faith. I absolutely love the section on Faith in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. It says:

"Faith leads to action, including repentance, obedience, and dedicated service. When you have faith in Jesus Christ, you trust the Lord enough to follow His commandments—even when you do not completely understand the reasons for them. You accomplish what the Lord wants you to accomplish...

Faith is a principle of power. God works by power, but His power is usually exercised in response to faith (see Moroni 10:7). He works according to the faith of His children. Doubt and fear are opposed to faith.

Your faith will increase through diligent study, prayer, dedicated service, and obedience to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and the commandments.

Your faith in Jesus Christ grows as you become better acquainted with Him and His teachings. As you explore the scriptures and search them, you learn of His ways, His love for all people, and His commandments.

Faith is essential to our progress in this life and in the gospel. It is how we grow. As we excercise our faith, we can accomplish great things, and we come to align our will more with the will of our Heavenly Father, and we understand better how He works among the children of faith. Have faith! :)

Have a great week!
Elder Meyers

Picture with all of the missionaries in the Rural Ward (me, Elder Carrion, Elder Gifford, Hna Johnson, Hna Gallegos,  Elder Henriquez, Elder Dillon, Elder Robles)

Me with my Christmas tree. :)

Week 23 Santa Fe Rural C Oficina

What a WEEK! I always think I can't possibly get busier or more tired, but the Lord seems to be trying to prove me wrong. :) This was a crazy week, with 14 new missionaries and a LOT of last minute changes and urgent happenings. But it was lots of fun. Monday we had a big lunch in the mission home with all of the missionaries who finished their mission, and that was a lot of fun. This was the first time that we had a big group of missionaries going home that I knew really well. Each of the missionaries that went home was someone I knew well, so it was fun to spend time with them on their last day. Tuesday we went to the airport and dropped them all off, took pictures, and then watched the airplane take off. Crazy moment to realize none of them will ever be in the mission again. I still remember my first transfer when I did splits with Elder Blackmon. Time goes by WAY too fast. When we got back from the airport, we got the office all ready, and then all the new missionaries arrived! An awesome group, as always, full of spirituality and excitement for the work. We had missionaries from all places in South America and North America, and even one from Spain! Pretty cool. Wednesday we had our orientation meeting for all the new missionaries and their trainers, and had a lot of fun with that, as always. Thursday was leadership council. A lot of new zone leaders, including two who are from my group of missionaries! As I said before, time flies. Also, the two new assistants, Elder Gifford and Elder Llanos, and two new sister training leaders, Hna Jones and Hna Pacheco. Lots of change. Friday, we got everything ready for capilla abierta, and that evening we headed out for Nogoyá! We stayed the night, and Saturday had capilla abierta! So much fun. In the morning, when we do visits, I had the chance to go with Elder Gifford to my old area and visit a bunch of people. It was so much fun! I was loving every moment, being able to work in my old area again. Everything was so familiar. I got a little sunburnt, though... I guess it's because I'm inside for a lot of the day, and when we are outside, it's usually evening, so four hours straight in the morning-midday on a clear day can do that to you. :) We saw lots and lots of miracles, and it turned out as a huge success. We had more people come to the capilla abierta in Nogoyá than in some wards in Santa Fe! So cool. This is definitely God's work, and His hand is in it. We only have to have the faith to do it. I remember going into the capilla abierta, I started to feel a little bit of doubt, knowing how difficult the area can seem, and wondering if it would work, but then I stopped my self and said "Where's your faith? Have some faith in God! Don't you believe that He can do all things?" And so right then and there, I decided to stop doubting, and just do what I needed to do to the best of my ability and leave the rest to Him. And it turned out great! One thing I have noticed from capilla abierta is the focus on the individual. It always seems like with these activities that they are meant to find very specific people, very specific children of God. They have never resulted in huge droves of people coming in at a time, all ready to be baptized, but usually one or two at a time. And I have thought, it is so amazing to me that God would do all of this, organize this whole activity, bring in 20+ missionaries plus all the members of the ward, not to mention all the money spent in food, transportation, preparations, etc., all the time coordinating, just to bring one or two people. THAT is the worth of souls. He will do all of that and so much more, just to be able to bring one of His children back to Him. Truly the worth of souls is great in the eyes of God.

I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and that we have the fulness of the gospel, and that when we live that gospel in every aspect of our lives, we truly change and become more like our Savior. The gospel changes lives. I have seen it so many times during my mission, especially in my own life. When we become converted to the gospel, we have no more desire to do evil, but to do good continually.(Mosiah 5:2) May we live the gospel EVERY day, not just Sundays, and strive in every moment to remember the Savior, as we have covenanted to do.

I love you all!

Elder Meyers

Greeting new missionaries as they arrive

Greeting new missionaries

Elder Carrion (my compannion), Elder Henriquez, me, and Elder Gifford (new AP)

Elder Blackmon finished his mission

Elder Pearson finished his mission

Elder Chartrand (from Canada) and me

Hna Tomala (from Ecuador)

Hma Craig (from US)

Hma Guevara (Guatemala)

Another sleepover in Nogoya with Elder Gifford and Elder Robles!

Selfie with Elder Clayton in Nogoya!

Lunch with missionaries in Nogoya

Capilla Abierta in Nogoya

Capilla Abierta in Nogoya

Capilla Abierta in Nogoya

Me and President Romero in Nogoya (Branch President)

Elder Blackmon and me at the airport before he went home

All of the missionaries going home with the AP's and office Elders

Lunch in the mission home with the new missionaries

Training for the new missionaries

Me with Hno Arrua and Hno Rego, a member from Nogoya but who normally lives in Terminal!  I met him in Terminal, and he came down for the capilla abierta

Me and Selina and Abril, the two young women and sisters from Nogoya.  They both got baptized while I was there (by Elder Gomez and Elder Mckell)

Selfie with Elder Clayton (he's the zone leader for Nogoya right now)

Me and Hma Arrua

Week 22 Santa Fe Rural C Oficina

Queridos amigos y familia! Como están todos?

It's the week of transfers, and this transfer, we are having a lot of changes, including a lot of new missionaries. It's just crazy, but it's been a great week. A couple of highlights:

Last Sunday, we had an AMAZING stake conference with Elder Teixeira, a general authority and president of the South America South Area (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay). He is from Portugal, but raised his family in Germany, and speaks six different languages. One thing I loved that he talked about was obedience. He told an experience of when he was the president of the Europe Area, and he was with President Monson on a 10-day tour of the area. He said that President Monson absolutely loves the movie Sound of Music, so during one of the days that they were passing through Salzburg (the city in Austria where the movie was filmed), they went to the small cathedral where the wedding of Maria is filmed. They sat, and were pondering for a while, and then, all of a sudden, President Monson put his hand on Elder Teixeira's knee and said with a lot of firmness and intensity,"Elder Teixeira, wherever you go, whenever you visit the saints in any part of the world, always exhort them to keep the commandments." And then President Monson got quiet again, and then said, "Ok, shall we go?" It just kind of came out of nowhere, but Elder Teixeira said it changed him, and he testified to us of the great importance of keeping the commandments, and the happiness and joy that can ONLY come from living the commandments of our Heavenly Father. I loved the conference. And we had a stake choir, and I got to play the piano, so that was fun, too. :)

On Thursday we had an insane rainstorm. It only lasted about 10 minutes the very worst part of it, but it was literally like buckets of water falling from the sky. We couldn't even open the door of the office because there was so much water coming down. In about 3 minutes all of the streets flooded completely, with water up to the rims of the car tires. Our basketball court had at least 2 inches of water covering it within 5 minutes. It was insane. And what was crazier, Elder Carrion and Elder Henriquez went to Hernandarias to close a contract for the new apartment for the elders that are going there, and over there, the storm was even worse. For about 10 minutes, it hailed hailstones almost the size of golfballs. They pulled into a service station, but all of the tail lights and mirrors on the truck were shattered, and the entire body of the truck was dented in hundreds of places. It looked like somebody had taken a machine gun to it or something. It was unbelievable. Crazy weather stories.

On Saturday, we had a capilla abierta in San Martin (that's in the Santa Fe North Stake). I had a pretty embarrassing moment. So, to explain a little, to begin the tour, the sister missionaries start by welcoming everone, and then, like in the Visitor's Center at Temple Square, they invite everyone to listen to a recording of the words of Christ as they look at the Christus statue (Of course we just have a big stand, but it still works great). So my job this time was to hide behind the pulpit and press the play button for the recording when they finished talking. Everything was going great, just fine (we've done this a bunch of times already). And then, I don't know how, but I was super exhausted that day, and during one tour, I pushed play, and then during the recording, I somehow fell asleep, and fell over so that I was laid out on the ground. I just konked out! And the sisters finished the tour, and then another group came in, and the Sister Training leaders from Santa Fe (Hna Garcia and Hna Guevara) started the next tour, not realizing that I was completely out (because I was behind the pulpit). So they start the tour, and say "Now we're going to listen to the recording" And nothing happens. The say it again, and nothing happens. So Sister Garcia looks back and sees me laid out on the floor, and says in a whisper, "Hey! Elder Meyers!" Nothing. Again. Nothing. Then Hna Garcia went up on the stand, while Hna Guevara told the tour group that we were just having technical difficulties, and Hna Garcia came up to me and whispered my name "Elder Meyers, Elder Meyers!" Then she started shaking my wrist, and then my arm, and then my shoulders, and finally I woke up! I was so out of it! I was completely confused about what was happening, and Hna Garcia turned on the recording and then went down. About a minute later I realized what was happening, and I was so embarrassed! I have no idea why how I was so out of it. Afterwards, Hna Garcia told me she was just like "Is he dead?" jajaja Oh man.... the mission. It's great.

Anyways, I love you all! I hope you have a great week, and always remember to keep the commandments!

Elder Meyers

All the ice cream for transfer week

Look at all that Grido ice cream!

Elder Maynard, me, and Grido

Asado for the farewell lunch yesterday in the mission home (3 Elders and 4 Hermanas finished their missions:  Elder Blackmon, Elder Pearson, Elder Chartrand, Hna Guevara, Hna Craig, Hna Tomala, and Hna Castillo

Farewell lunch

Farewell lunch

A picture of me with all of the assistants:  Elder Maynard, Elder Blackmon, Elder Pearson and Elder Robles (Elder Blackmon and Elder Pearson's last week)

Pictures from the crazy rainstorm!

Soaked Elder Blackmon

Crazy rainstorm

Selfie from the capilla abierta in San Martin during lunch

Elder Tello and me

Pictures of Elder Carrion and Elder Henriquez with the crazy hailstorm

Elder Carrion with the hail stones

Look at all the hail

The tail lights in the mission truck were shattered in the storm

Look at all the dents from the storm

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