Elder Myers March 29, 2010

hello everyone!!! i love you!

well first off i went to the beach today! it was beach p day so we got to go to the beach down in westchester... farther south than venice and santa monica. it was very fun! but we were still misionaries of course so we didnt lay out in the sand in our suits and swim and all that stuff... president and sister blackburn were there for a little bit too. it was just our zone. we played volleyball and water balloon toss contests- in companionships were you keep backing up and try to catch it- you know the game... we also made a human pyramid (sp) with our whole zone and even president joined in for one of the pictures on the bottome layer! haha it was pretty intesne...! it was cool because we have been staring at the beach for the past week on the PCH and we finally got to go for our one time!

hmmm what else? this area is very different from my last area and elder biglers last area.... in some/most ways the work is harder. we are struggling just getting on to the members/part member families/less active members' schedules. they are very busy, but very nice! they are feeding us pretty much every night but most of the time thats the only actual lesson we get to teach that day.... but slowly we are starting to develop schedules and relationships with the people so that we can teach more so that they can progress... its just a different game up here. we talked to some sisters who served in beverly hills in the past and we talked about how it really is about networking and having the members trust us. service plays a huge part. and of course they love the simple acts of kindess i guess you can call them- the ward mission leaders wife called us this morning to thank us for the card we had given her for thanking her for dinner... i only wrote like four sentences but she said that it was so sweet!...

anyway i feel like i can really connect to the people though, which is good especially for my personality. I don't really know what i am trying to say but yeah.... this area is def good for me but its def hard there is no way around it. In my last area we taught a lot of "preach my gospel" lessons- or right out of the text book lessons. Thats not necessarily bad but it def would not work in this area, i really feel like i am teaching people not lessons and i love that.... if that makes sense...? Now the only problem is; as I said before- we dont get the opportunity to teach that much... Elder Bigler and I both feel like we could have this area on fire if we could just get into everyones houses and sit down and teach/bond/build a relationship with the people.... so basically there is tons of potential but since bold/pushy tacticts dont work down here- in fact they are detrimental. so that is kind of the reading i am getting from this area so far....

we are both struggling though with the idea of fulfilling our purpose... its hard to explain but you feel so much more like a missionary- well at least the stereotypical missionary in my last area- you watch as investigators accept and apply the gospel and watch as they are transformed by it and progress to baptism. We were teaching a whole lot and finding a whole lot and speaking another language in a very different culture. It felt like sort of how I imagined it from the MTC. for example- daily contact which is something they stressed a lot in the MTC was a big part of my last area. We always talked to our investigators pretty much every day... we pretty much taught them everyday... here daily contact is... i dont want to say bad but you just have to get more creative with it- the sisters told us about how they put sticky notes on the doors of less acticve members or active members when they were in the area- saying something like we were in the area just checking up, looking for an opportunity to help/serve etc or phone calls or something like that... basically i feel like my creativity and patience are being tried haha

another thing along those lines is how much we are working with members... I love how organized the whole thing is with a meeting with the ward mission leader and then a meeting with all the leaders in the ward- i forget what its called but yeah we are feeling a lot of support from the ward/bishop which is amazing... the only thing is we are working with a lot of less actives and even active members. or trying to work/teach them... so far the work has been pretty much "ward-listing" where you get info from the bishop on the ward list about part member and less active families and go around and visit them/introduce ourselves (because we were flushed into the area/both of us are brand new to the area- which i think i already told you....) anyway thats sort of my point- we are doing a lot of visiting and not a lot of teaching by the black and white, strictest definition. In my old area we would sometimes say "we dont just vist we teach" or something like that but here its so much more important to build relationships and not be pushy.... so yeah thats another hard part about fulfilling our purpose in this area- because we as missionaries have a specific purpose from Preach My Gospel (you should check it out...? PMG i mean just a random thought to see a little into missionary work) anyway i know that part of my purpose here is strengthen and serve the ward and reactivate less active members because obviously its all about saving souls as jorge (my recent convert) would say... but still i dunno what i am trying to say....

I dont want you to think that i am all discouraged or that we dont have faith we can liven up this area and get a baptism but its very different... my district leader did comment that you tend to feel the spirit stronger in white areas though... i belive him, although latins have a very good and deep spiritual connection (if you will) and they are "quick to believe" as it says in the Book of Mormon, and they are very humble (this is a horribly constructed sentence i am very sorry...) affluent areas tend to be less humble etc there is something very important with the level of connection between your soul/personality and theirs that really invites the spirit. This connection I feel is easier to make with white poeple, whether it be because of the language barrier, cultural barriers or simply because I was newwer (younger as we say in the mission), more cautious, less observant, different/more naive perspective in my first area I dont know....

all I do know is that I will serve wherever I am sent and that there is always lots of work to do on this earth spreading the gospel... I am welcoming and embracing the change and thinking creatively while seeking the guidence of our Heavenly Father to know how to best tackle this new and very different area.... one things for sure my faith, testimony and patience will be tried a whole lot more in this area than in an area similar to my last one...! but you know me- I like challenges!

more thoughts soon!

really soon- one last thing about my area- A LOT of time in the car! we are being very effecient with how we use our alloted miles but we cant seem to get enough of them!

Love!

Elder Myers March 22, 2010

hey everyone!!!!
im living on ocean park and cloverflield in santa monica (2410 ocean park #7) to be exact...
haha about the restaurants! i wish!
yes we have a car because our area (malibu and the pacific palisades and topanga- but our area is called malibu) is literally a third of our mission...! its like almsost 30 miles of coastline/canyons! so yeah pepperdine U is like a little over half way through our area.... the PCH is crazy! haha
my comp is elder bigler- i was comps with him for 4 days in the MTC before i was moved to intermediate spanish! so thats funny. he is from blackfoot idaho! (small town near pocatello and idaho falls....) he sounds EXACTLY like elder harper did... hahaha his job was a potato farmer (not for his dad though he was a doctor....) so yeah a little diff than lifeguarding!
it is just elder bigler and i in our ward (pacific palisades ward) and just us in our apartment. our district is us and another companionship of elders and the rest (3-4 companionships of sisters) becayuse the sisters are in venice and santa monica etc. elder dahle is my district leader and he was my first DL before elder cooley downtown! fun

oh and this was elder cooleys first area of the mission before he came to his second area to train me! so he gave me a lot of names and info....

so yeah the area is very very different we will be working a lot with the ward. president told elder bigler at the baptism of bilguun from mongolia that i got to go to yesterday! (he is senior comp) that we were kind of on clean up crew essentially because the last companionship didnt get along with the ward at all and so we have to be very social and work hard and SERVE the ward. so we had a long meeting with the bishop on sunday. bishop bolander is hilarious! i love him. he is an architect and he lives way up this canyon and he might be designing and edit house building in river north downtown! i told him dad might go there! haha

anyway yeah elder ellet (one of our APs who i am really good friends ever since he worked with elder cooley and me for a day and who has one arm but that is another story...) anyway he said that i was put in malibu because i am very social and iteligent and that is what the members need. i think the fact that i am from the equivilant of malibu except minus the hills and palm trees and plus more houses has more to do with it.... i relate really well to the ward (put it this way elder bigler had NO IDEA what a linger longer was and has never seen a country club...) so yeah. i love being the only missionaries in the ward its so much simpler and more organized and its also good only covering one ward- that makes it simplier too that way elder bigler and i dont need to go on splits to cover two wards.... there is so much potential in the ward though! there are a TON of part member families! some of the non members even attend church regularly. and there is this one muslim/iranian former taht elder cooley ALMOST babtized that we are tryinhg to get a hold of but his mom HATES the missionaries but his niece who is alos a nonmember comes to church 100% faithfully but doesnt want to get baptized just yet due to her wanting to get iranian citizenship to be an heir to some of the billions of dollars they have (navid- the guys dad is a real estate mogul in iran....) anyway yeah thats the kind of people we are dealing with. and then their is a huge surf scene! its funny. there is a priest in the ward who is sponsered by quicksilver and pamela anderson paid him to go tour around the world(she is their family friend haha) also rick schroeder is in the ward too- he is a guy from 24 and michael mclane- famous mormon muscisian- they are both on extended vacation though so i havent seen them... the schroeders are in spain! haha) anyway our area is crazy huge!!!!!!!! it took us like an hour to get to our dinner appoinment last night! and up topanga is so funny! its like trailer trash mixed with millionaires living way out in the middle of no where!- there is a part member family that lives ON a state park.... haha oh and the double wide trailers that are off the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) are literally 2-3 million and then you have to pay rent --its some funky law thing like you dont actually own the land... its super weird... but yes we do do a ton of tracting! we did 5 hours in one day but hopefully we will be able to do some more "networking" and work through the ward though but we couldnt do much before sunday.... but anyway we tracted this street that overlooked the ocean and it was gorgeous!!!! it was like the mediterranian (SP) according to elder cooley who has been there... but yeah all in all i feel at home just more nature influence and open space ahah but elder bigler is utterly amazed! coming from my old area and going here (and driving through beverley hills one day on the way to the temple...) make me realize how insanely blessed i am/was growing up!!!! holy cow! i have a billion times more opportunities than almost everyone in my last area and even elder bigler and stuff its really sad and unfair but its true... i was very fortunate to grow up where i did.... oh and we went to dinner with these amazing family and john mayer used to live next door to them! haha

we are both very excited to see how this all turns out, its hard because we both feel frusterated because in some ways the work is so less efficient (taking 1-2 hours sometimes to get to dinner appointments for example...) and that both the bishop and the president said that we would be working a lot through the ward reactivating people and getting priests to go on missions etc (the world class surfer will be hard but he wants to go but he is getting a lot of pressure from his friends and from his sponsers to not go....) but its more effective in other ways- its way more organized in terms of PEC (i think thats what it is) but ward meetings etc... but its frusterating because tracting is super ineffiecent- no one is really rude persay but they dont listen to us more than hello, good afternoon! haha but i am not discouraged, i feel like this area is a good match for me- im happy and i know how to network... but yeah we both are struggling because compared to each of our last areas (he was near watts in an all spanish area) we feel like we are not as DIRECTLY fulfilling our purpose of converting new converts, because you can def convert people that have been members for years.... and service to the ward etc etc.... i just hope that the beach isnt too much of a temptation for me and distract me! speaking of which we have beach p day next monday!!!!!!!!! i think its next monday,... so i am super excited for that!

until next time!

Love!
William

ps i will be busy writing letters today! so everyone* expect a letter soon!

*as many as i can get to! haha

Elder Myers March 15, 2010

hey everyone!

first of all, i found out about transfers early because elder cooley got a call from president blackburn, but he is training again! and staying districct leader in this area so president said that i am moving! but i dont know where to yet.... another adventure! my gut feeling says a rich white area in the marina zone (the coast....) its been right about all the transfers but we will see....

i am starting to feel like i am not drowning/being overwhelmed in the mission.... i am getting into more ruitines(SP!) etc but i am still kind of nervous feeling like there is so much that i want to learn before i go home! i know its a long way away but still! my testimony is also growing a lot, i figured out that i have sort of a problem with faith, i think that my brain doesnt like that concept haha but yeah i am working on not having a doubting attitude but its really in my nature to question and second guess myself. but slowly but surely my testimony is growing into that rock solid 100% for sure testimony i always talk about! so yeah i am realizing that you can be 100% for sure and have faith at the same time- even the prophets/people who have seen heaveny father still have to have faith. i mean take lamen and lemuel for example, they saw angels and still didnt belive.... so yeah.... i also realized that in my quest to gain that 100% for sure testimony i have become a little self centered, i some how need to completley forget myself and get to work!!!

anway we have our first baptism in the english ward this sunday! (i get to come back from my new area to see it because i taught him...) he is super solid i think i have talked about him before- his name is bilguun and he is from mongolia! but it is super cool to see him accept all of the commitments we give him even though he has virtually no christian background! he is so innocent in this respect and he is loving church and reading and studying the book of mormon! tell me if i havent told you about him yet and i will write more....

we had eduardo's baptism this past sunday! it was as always, amazing! jorge gave a talk on the holy ghost and bore his very strong testimony on it. i loved it! i love him. i am going to miss their family so much! they show us so much love! and jorge said that he will work very hard to learn english by the time that i am done with my mission (mostly because he needs it for his job searching that he is doing and so that he can talk to you guys! it will be great! i am excited for you to meet them/for you to see my mission- the joys of staying in the US...) but yeah thats a long way away so i wont talk about it....

by the way i am still reading jesus the christ and really wanting to read mormon doctrine and books like that... but i cant.... i am going to reanylze my goals because i reallt want to get cracking on the scriptures in spanish! maybe even the OT!

i love you all very much! if i have time i will write more in a little bit.... ill tell you my new area next monday! (i move in this wed...)

Elder Myers March 8, 2010

hey everyone! i love you!

not too much has happened since last time and i dont have very much time left so this will have to be a short one...

we are still preparing eduardo for baptism this sunday...! we are planning on having jorge baptize him which will be amazing! they are both making huge progress! random note- they are just friends, never were partners... but yeah we went to a presidents fireside (a counselor of our mission presidency- who is from argentine spoke) anyway jorge bore his testimony- we signed him up before hand and it was amazing! he is so happy! he told a little synopsis of his conversion story, it was amazing! to go from living on the streets, drug addict etc to finding happyness and knowing the gospel is true! its amazing! his testimony is so strong! he always calls us his "salvavidas" life savers and also life guards but in this case life savers... so yeah they are both progressing really well! that is the only thing causing me to worry slightly about transfers because i will have to completly let go of that situation. but i trust them and moreover i trust the Lord. i have no doubt they will both remain active! so thats good!

we are starting to teach jorges brother/his family. the daughter is ready for baptism- we used to teach her a while back but the dad didnt like it so we stopped but now she said that he said that she could get baptized...! the only problem is that he isnt ready yet so we dont know how to handle that situation..... but it will all work out! he is a drug addict still(ish) but the whole family is pressuring us to teach him because they say he needs "la palabra de Dios" he is nice but i dont know how much we can do but i have seen the changing miracle of the gospel before so if he makes a choice to try to change his life i know it will all work out! they just need to make that initial decision and stick with it and the rest is in the Lords hands through us, well the holy ghost really.

i am really starting to realize that is essentially our job- to invite the holy ghost so that they can be converted. i always knew that but now i am seeing it in action. jorge and eduardo always tell us that we leave something special in eduardos house when we leave and that eduardo feels something different when he is with us! random funny story about them- as we were leaving eduardos house for an appointment the other day the jehovahs witnesses knocked on his door! it was kinda funny because eduardo said sorry i am with them! haha and jorge was smiling! it was great... also jorge says hi to you all! he told me to say hi, we were just at his house because it was the only time taht his brother had time to have an appointment (usually p day ends at 6) but it turned out he was too busy working on something in his car... so we just talked to jorge for a little and then left... also i took a picture with most of the ambriz family (jorge's dads last name...) so i will have to send that soon!

also we found a new guy to teach in the english ward! yay! he is really solid! he is a mongolian college accountant student that showed up at church randomly last week! turns out he lives right next to us! it also turns out he has a member friend at BYU hawaii who told him about the church... his (well both of their names) is bilguun. he is awesome! he is getting baptized on the 21st! its a miracle because that is not like asian culture to accept that change so quickly... and on top of that he has very very little christian backgroung or knowledge but he is keeping all of his assignments in the book of mormon- even though his reading of scriptures is understandably not that strong... (we are waiting to see if the mission home has a BoM in mongolian...) he also asked if there was a movie he could see to help him picture the BoM so we watched testaments... so we are very excited about him!

also we won the metro trophy! haha so the Zone leaders came over this morning to cook us breakfast! its based on points that we get every sunday for investigators with a baptismal date at church and actual baptisms etc... we won because we had three at church with an extra point for having our bap dates match church attendance... (it was a slow week because usually it takes like 7ish points to win, but hey well take it!) but yeah its all just to get us focused and excited for the people in our areas...

hmmm well i went to my first wedding this week! it was at the church and it was so a couple could get baptized... it was someone in our districts' investigator... haha so the first i have ever seen was in spanish done by the bishop! haha

also as for the two other families- we have pretty much dropped them... they dont come to church.... but one still shows a little life so we might give them one more chance... but it looks like well be giving them a "drop" lesson this week... people need to show committment... and the drive to leave the culture (thats all it really is sadly) of the catholic church... leave the comfort zone of waht they have grown up with....

hmmmmmm well i played a fun and energetic game of soccer today at the local park (very very diff than wilmette parks... we felt like sandlot!) it was good to be active! i forgot how good it is for my body and mind!

well i have to go!

i love you all!!!!

ps transfers are indeed next wed but i will email on monday still.

pps sarah, ben, peter expect a letter from me ASAP i promise.

kenzie yours will be in the mail today or tomorrowm, its already done.

sorry others i considered kenzie as the biggest threat of coming to LA and strangling me so yeah.... life preservation.... yeah

but i love everyone!!!