Oct. 29, 2012

It was another one of those weeks :)

 

We have been teaching Hermana S____, the mother of Hermana F____ who is a member of the church, along with all of her family. Hermano and Hermana S____ live in small ranch town close to Guadalajara Mexico but moved here temporarily to live with their daughter and her family. It has been probably one of the funnest (and easiest) teaching processes. She was golden. Yesterday, she got baptized along with the F___s' daughter who recently turned 8. It was such a fun baptismal service! I love the F___ family to death and have fallen in love with hermana F___s' parents. I told them I'm going to visit them in Mexico. I can't wait. I have heard that Guadalajara is beautiful.

 

Pretty cool/funny story:

Part 1 -

A couple weeks ago we noticed this jogger running and then spotted him again a couple days later but in a whole different part of the city. It seemed like we saw him no matter where we were. One time, we were driving to an appointment and we saw him again and we were like man we should teach this guy the gospel. He has a whole lot of time to run, he should have plenty of time to sit down with us and hear our message. We considered rolling down the window and flicking a pass-along card for him to read while he jogged but then figured that would be dangerous. We laughed and continued on our way.

 Part 2 -

There is a recent convert in our area that goes to the singles ward and has done an amazing job at sharing the gospel. Her friend got baptized right before Elder Stevens and I got here and we have been visiting and teaching him. He's a super cool guy. Anyway, she told us a couple weeks ago that she has another friend that agreed to meet with us. We tried setting up some appointments but they kept falling through. Finally we had one set for last Sunday night at Natalia's house. We get to her house and she introduces us to her friend. Guess who it was? The jogger!!! Haha so our wish came true. We have started teaching this guy the gospel. It's been tons of fun. We had another lesson last night and we have another tomorrow. I wish I could stay here a little longer!

 

Wow, the time just flies by huh? Things are going so wonderful. Thanks so much for your prayers and sending me such amazing letters. I'm not quite sure why I'm being so blessed. I guess instead of asking why, I'll just continue to give thanks. This is going to be another great semana :)

 

Los quiero!!

 

-Elder Brett

p.s.  a few more pictures

1st picture - This is me and little Jonathan Godoy, the almost two year old little monster. We always say kneeling prayers as a family and he has gained the habit of kneeling with us and folding his arms. It's super cute. He also gained the habit of making weird faces whenever he sees a camera lens. I love this family.

 

2nd picture - Me and the elders in our apartment.

3rd picture - Me and my companero jumping off the swings at the park after a grueling game of futbol. We have a great zone, but two weird zone leaders ;)

 

10/22/2012

So I was planning on sending a couple pictures this week but I forgot my camera in the apartment. Dang. Maybe next week.

 

Cool story though from this past week: Elder Stevens and I finally made contact with the boyfriend of a less-active muchacha that became a member about a year and a half ago, and we set up an appointment for this past week. We went by at the specified time but no one was home, We stepped off her porch and started walking to the car when we noticed just across the street an older couple walking from their van into their house. I'll be honest, I sort of just felt like getting back into the car and going to our back-up appointment. But guess what, sometimes the spirit prompts us to do other things. So when the little voice in my head told me to have a little courage and go over and talk to them, I decided to obey. When we made it over to their driveway, the lady had already gone inside but we managed to catch the husband before he followed her in. I began the conversation and just wanted to introduce myself but before I could say much he told us that he didn't believe in God. I was somewhat apalled and must have stammered at a response because before I could really ask him and figure out why, he pulled up some chairs and told us to sit down.

 

Turns out, he actually does believe in God but he has been going through some difficult situations lately and has felt that his faith isn't as strong as he would like it to be. We were having a pretty good conversation with this gentleman and felt pretty happy that we decided to follow the prompting to talk to him (He is deaf in one ear so it's mas o menos difficult to communicate with him but we just try to yell loudly so he can understand). As we were talking though, the wife came out the front door and walked over to greet us. She said that she was so glad to see us and that she was actually a Mormon. She and her family got baptized years ago but haven't been to church in a long time. She said that she hasn't seen the missionaries in several years and whenever she saw them pass by, she wasn't able to stop them quickly enough. She has been praying that the missionaries would come to her house again. She told us all this and then started to cry.

 

We had a great visit and they shared with us that they have been talking lately about coming back to church and getting closer to God. Her husband isn't a member but wants to go to church with his wife. We will be visiting them this week with some members from the church to fellowship them. They are not in the best of health but I hope that they will be able to make it to church. They are a wonderful couple.

 

In addition to this little miracle, we found a bunch of other people this week who we started teaching and are even preparing for baptism. It's been a wonderful week. I could do this for the rest of my life ;)

 

I've been praying about school and stuff for after the mission. I actually remembered this past week. Thanks though for y'all helping me with the decision. There really just isn't enough time for me to do all the thinking, so your thoughts and ideas have helped. Go Blue :)

 

love,

Elder Brett Meshum

Oct. 15, 2012

Hey y'all guess what? It was another great week :)

 

Since Elder Stevens and I got thrown into this area at the same time, we have spent a considerable amount of time going through the ward directory and going by all the members to figure out who is who. We have had some great lessons with active members and are now working with some awesome awesome referrals (yes, two awesomes). We found some less active familes that missionaries haven't gone by in several years and that have some great potential. We are working with several part-member families as well and have started gaining their trust. It's been great. I serve in the Mission III ward which is in Spanish and the Sharyland ward which is english; both the bishops are extraordinary. We have had several meetings with the Stake President discussing missionary efforts in the wards/zones we cover and the Stake President is such a great guy. So, I know I ranted on and on about how much I loved Edinburg, but I think Hidalgo is catching up. I absolutely love it here.

 

Elder Ferrel got transferred so I'm no longer living with my hijo anymore. Another Elder that was already in this zone now lives with us and it's been a fun apartment. Having pretty consistent changes every 6 weeks makes the time go by so fast. Hijole. Maybe I just won't use my missionary planner this transfer and see if that slows time down a bit.

 

Today we are going bowling as a zone! It will be the first time bowling on the mission, and probably on the 4th or 5th time that I haven't played some sort of active sport on P-day (unless bowling is an active sport?). It will be worth it though. We have a pretty cool zone. We're going to head to walmart right now to do some shopping and get that out of the way.

 

Love y'all mucho! Hope you have an awesome week. We have some great plans for tonight so we're gonna start our week off with a bang. I'm excited.

 

-Elder Brett

Oct. 15, 2012

Hey y'all guess what? It was another great week :)

 

Since Elder Stevens and I got thrown into this area at the same time, we have spent a considerable amount of time going through the ward directory and going by all the members to figure out who is who. We have had some great lessons with active members and are now working with some awesome awesome referrals (yes, two awesomes). We found some less active familes that missionaries haven't gone by in several years and that have some great potential. We are working with several part-member families as well and have started gaining their trust. It's been great. I serve in the Mission III ward which is in Spanish and the Sharyland ward which is english; both the bishops are extraordinary. We have had several meetings with the Stake President discussing missionary efforts in the wards/zones we cover and the Stake President is such a great guy. So, I know I ranted on and on about how much I loved Edinburg, but I think Hidalgo is catching up. I absolutely love it here.

 

Elder Ferrel got transferred so I'm no longer living with my hijo anymore. Another Elder that was already in this zone now lives with us and it's been a fun apartment. Having pretty consistent changes every 6 weeks makes the time go by so fast. Hijole. Maybe I just won't use my missionary planner this transfer and see if that slows time down a bit.

 

Today we are going bowling as a zone! It will be the first time bowling on the mission, and probably on the 4th or 5th time that I haven't played some sort of active sport on P-day (unless bowling is an active sport?). It will be worth it though. We have a pretty cool zone. We're going to head to walmart right now to do some shopping and get that out of the way.

 

Love y'all mucho! Hope you have an awesome week. We have some great plans for tonight so we're gonna start our week off with a bang. I'm excited.

 

-Elder Brett

We had a nice cold front these past two days and it was an extremely weird feeling being semi cold. Elder Stevens and I thought about wearing sweaters. It's supposed to get back up into the 90s though so we're not going to get too used to it.

 

We found this cool family this past week from Ohio. They have their lawn, house, and car decked out in Ohio State stuff. It made me gag. The family was a referral from the bishop and we went by last week to meet them and I told Bishop on the doorstep that it was a good thing that this family was a referral because if we were knocking doors on this street, I definitely would have skipped the house. haha but I guess everyone needs salvation right? Especially those Ohio State fans, because they are so far from it. :)

 

We are teaching quite a few people but most are still in the beginning stages. We have worked really well with the members and we have received some wonderful referrals from them. We've had a lot of great spiritual experiences, which have been a blessing to us and the members. It's great working in unity with them. It makes our job of "finding" a lot easier and more effective.

 

Elder Stevens and I are still having a blast together. I'm not sure why I've been blessed with the best companions throughout the mission. I'm a lucky guy.

 

I'm excited for a great October and then to begin an amazing November. So much to do, so little time. I feel like I'm racing against the clock but for some reason or another the clock always seems to be a little bit ahead. Hijole. Slow down please.

 

Anyway, I love you all muchisimo.

 

-Elder Brett

 

ps Hermana C____ speaks the BEST tex-mex. I'm not sure how she does it, but literally every other sentence (and sometimes every other word!) she switches back and forth between English and Spanish. I'm going to keep practicing it. It's a fun idioma.

Sept, 24, 2012

Hola familia,

It was an amazing week. The C____ family got baptized yesterday and it was a wonderful experience. The baptismal service went great; the relief society president and another relief society sister gave short talks/testimonies and then the bishop, primary 1st counselor, and relief society president gave "welcome's" to the ward. Jonathan (the loco 1.5 year old) was asleep when they came Sunday evening to the chapel for their baptism but awoke shortly thereafter and was a little monster haha. But overall, everything went very well. I baptized Hermano C_____ and Elder Stevens baptized Hermana C_____ and Juan Pablo. 
It's been so cool to see the changes in this family. It's cool because most of my recent converts have had major spiritual confirmations or experiences before there baptism, which have all been great, but with this family it has been just one gradual incline. This has made it difficult to see all the changes from when we first found and started teaching them to now, but looking back on it, it is is quite obvious. We have an FHE tonight with them and have a cool lesson planned. We're excited.

Today we were at the mission office faxing some forms and we were trying to get back to our apartment as soon as possible to get ready to play some soccer and we hit some bad traffic at the stoplight. As we maneuvered our way around cars to get through the light, we realized the traffic was due to a car that had broken down and the guy was waving his hand out to people signaling them to pass him. Before crossing the intersection we managed to swerve to the right and park our car on the side of the road to help him out. We ran to his van and asked if we could help. We directed traffic around his car and then started pushing his van backwards to the nearest parking lot entrance. As we were pushing his super hot van, a guy pulled off to the side of the road and jumped out to help us. He was a pretty buff guy and really helped us out haha. Anyway, it was just a super cool experience. As missionaries we are basically obligated to do that sort of stuff but Elder Stevens and I were both super impressed with the guy who was on his way to work but took the time to push this guys' van that had broken down. The man was super appreciative (only spoke spanish which was cool; we got to show off our skills) and said he would call his family to come help him. Nice to know that there are some good people in the world huh?

Well, things are still going amazing here in Mission/Hidalgo. Love you all. Thanks for everything!

-Elder Brett

Oct. 1 2012

Otra semana mas! Hijole, el tiempo se va tan rapido y no lo puedo creer!

 

Tomorrow is transfers...and Elder Stevens and I are staying together! We're super stoked to stay together for another transfer. We have been having so much success together and have been blessed abundantly. I can't believe that I only have one more transfer :( We had zone conferences last week with the four zones here close to McAllen (McAllen, Mission, Hidalgo, and Edinburg) and it was so cool seeing a bunch of missionaries that I have gotten to know throughout the mission. Elder Stevens and I gave a wonderful training and then before ending the conference, all the missionaries going home before next zone conference gave their farewell testimonies. I never thought that I would be a part of that group of viejo missionaries!! It was so sad.

 

The G____ family got confirmed on Sunday. It was magnificent. We have had so many members of the church come with us to lessons and they are really starting to feel at home when they are at church. Hermana S____, one of the greatest ladies and relief society presidents I've ever met, gave her a sunday dress and she wore it yesterday. We are going to get her husband a white shirt and slacks (and tie of course). The kids were actually somewhat behaved during sacrament meeting (except for little Jonathan, he never sits still). They were having some family problems when we first met and started teaching them and it's amazing to see the changes in their family. As they left church on Sunday, I ran out and yelled adios from the door and they all just looked so happy. The kids are adorable. I can't wait for y'all to meet all these families. I've been so blessed to be here instead of Mexico! Haha. It's going to be a heckuva lot easier to visit all my converts. I'm so excited.

 

Anyway, I'm including a picture of the family.

 

love you all!

-Elder Brett