Elder Myers September 27, 2010

Hello everyone!

Boy is it HOT here! We are getting a heat wave and it has been like 95 the past three days and we heard it is here to stay for a little... It is wayyy hotter than it ever was this past summer!

The people

We are both doing very well here in Centinela East. We had to drop our investigator this passed week. As you know from the DDM you went to, she wasn't keeping her appointments and she did not come to church this passed week. We will continue to have contact with her though because we are going to keep teaching Sergio (her son/RC). We plan to pick her back up when she comes to church/keeps commitments that we will give to her and Sergio. She hasn't smoked in a while, which is good! Like we said, it is weird that she kept her big commitments but not the easy ones like appointments...

We also found out that Jamson Chuc- who was baptized the second week Elder Franson and I got into this area- does not have a testimony of the Church and he had many doubts that he was holding back this whole time. We went by weekly since he was baptized but we thought the only reason he was being not interested at church/in appointments was because he is really really shy. We have been applying the trainings since we received them and he has started to open up, until this passed week when he really opened up. Needless to say I know that the things we learned in the trainings really work and that they are the by far the best approach to missionary work. We now know how much help he needs even though it was discouraging to find out how unconverted he is to the gospel. I was pretty down after the appointment because I really want to help him and I know the only way is through the gospel. I didn't let it get to me too much though.

my thoughts

yep it is official my biggest struggle is personal diligence you could say. I am working on having more effective studies, to be honest a lot of the time Elder Franson and I get into a conversation (most of the time it is strictly gospel related) during comp study which bleeds into Spanish study. I know I could be doing more to get better at Spanish like actually studying my vocab pocket notebook thing throughout the day...etc I wouldn't say I am struggling with the language and I think it has been improving but I wouldn't say I am fluent either, just really conversational... I am really trying to get over the excuse of it being hard to learn Spanish being bilingual and in the states, and no one under 25 wants to speak Spanish- even to their parents a lot of the times, which is weird and kinda sad...talk about parent to teen communication problems...

Love!
Elder Myers

Elder Myers Sept. 20, 2010

I love you all!!

The work:

This past week we had to drop a less active family and a referral that seemed very solid. I have never liked dropping people but this past week it really got to me. I feel like time and time again I get very into/excited for new or current people and then we have to drop them or they drop us. I have so much faith in them and then I find out they were just being two faced the whole time and leading us on. I know what preach my gospel says about "no effort is wasted" and we are planting seeds but still.... It seems like people just tell us what we want to hear and it is very hard for people to just be open and sincere with us. It seems like the more I put into the relationship the more I fall. Oh well... Better love and lost than to never have loved at all or whatever. I don't really know how to explain my situation- I guess the classic frustration with a Latin area as well as the classic being sad when you drop someone. I also really want to see true conversion- where, as Elder Packer explained, they become someone and you can stop babysitting them because they are self sufficient.
Sergio is becoming more and more truly converted/self sufficient... slowly but surely. His mom, Elisleidi, has a very strong desire to be baptized/converted/live the gospel but the past couple of days she has not been showing that with her actions. She canceled two appointments and didn't come to stake conference. She had "good" excuses of her baby being sick, her being sick(ish) but they are still excuses. I know people slip up on their way to conversion/baptism but at the same time I don't know how to help them be more self sufficient. I know I can't change any one's desires/agency but still I would like to see her/the people in general back up their words/desires with action. In general however, she is keeping her commitments and doing not just saying.... We came by and found her sick in bed. We were going to leave after following up/seeing if we could help with anything etc... but she told us to stay and we had a short lesson.
I had two or three amazing experiences this past week applying the training. One of which was one of the most spiritual lessons I have had on the mission. It was very random because we were at our dinner appointment. After asking some questions we found out the hostesses sister in law (the one we had the lesson with us) was not a member but was investigating. We asked some more questions and before we knew it she was pouring out her soul with her doubts/concerns about why she wasn't baptized yet and the spirit was very strong and we all recognized it... So that was a really big testimony builder for teaching by the spirit and following the training by asking inspired Qs, listening, discerning and teaching to their needs....

My thoughts:

I think I am finally consciously realizing that I am not going to come home perfect. I am really trying not to worry myself too much because I am really trying to tackle too much/expect perfection out of me. For one I am realizing I can only work on 3 (I'm thinking that is the number right now) goals per week/at a time... I cannot have a huge list of things I want to change about myself or accomplish... I just feel overhwhelmed at how much I want to do...

That being said- I am starting to more fully realize that it is not who I want to be, it is who God wants me to be. The trick is just finding that out.

I know that the things I am starting now are going to be things I work at for life- being more fully converted to the Gospel with a rock-solid, fool-proof, 100% for certain testimony, seeking and recognizing promptings from the Spirit, recognizing God's hand in my life, developing and showing charity, serving people, relying on God and not "leaning unto mine own wisdom", seeking the kindgdom of God first and not the riches of this world, not caring about worldly approval/compliments etc- just not worrying about what others think of myself, being better at not argueing or wanting to be right, making decisions better and faster, being diligent, being studious- esp in the gospel, being obedient, having better/more specific prayers, more faith in God. The list goes on and on...

My theme right now/I am thinking for life though is: charity and the Spirit. I think those two are just vital in life and in missionary work. I know if I seek the Spirit I will be guided and it will all be ok (kinda like faith....). I know how important service is and caring for other people... At the same time I know that we need to develop all the Christlike attributes (which are conviently laid out in a chapter of PMG)/follow the whole gospel not just parts of it... I do feel like I am lacking in the diligence section. I just dont like hacving goals/to-dos to go undone, but they always seem to... This worry is biggest in my studies. I want to be better at Spanish/more efficient/diligent at Studying it. I still have to finish the Old testament and D&C but I also want to read PMG/the BoM everyday....

Love,
Elder Myers

Elder Myers Sept. 13, 2010

Hello everyone!

How are you all? I love you!

The work:

Alex Ortiz was baptized yesterday! That was a HUGE relief for us. He has definitely tried our patience and many other missionaries too. His older brother came to the baptism and has shown some potential for starting to prepare for baptism. He has not shown any interest in learning in the past so we are excited about that!

I don't know how much I told you about Sergio's mom, Elisleidi Avila, but she came to church yesterday! She is progressing amazingly. We had some speed bumps with her in the beginning being to stressed and busy as a single mom for us to teach her too much but we had a couple amazing lessons (just understanding her was a miracle in of itself because she is from Cuba and speaks extremely fast) the past week. She also told us that she has a drug problem, but didn't give us anything besides that, but she talked with the bishop yesterday about it. She also smokes cigarettes a lot. Right after Sergio's baptism we asked her if she wanted to learn about what Sergio learned. To be honest we didn't have too much faith because she hadn't shown any interest previous to his baptism and we had been told by Sergio that she practiced a spirit worshipping religion from Africa. To our astonishment she was very excited to learn, wanted to come to church and even said she wanted to be baptized and asked us what she needed to do that. Her baptismal date is for Oct 10. Since then she had a slow start with appointments and being busy but now she is keeping her commitments and understanding everything well. We are excited to complete Sergio's family! His sister (7yrs old) is also coming to church and loves it!

We are going to the visitor's center with her family, their neighbors- the less active Archundias family who haven't recently slipped back into not coming to church because they are too busy with their friends...., and their felowshipping family in the ward.

Aside from that we are working activating/completing the part member Ferman family. Cesar came to all three hours of church yesterday and we are hoping that his siblings will follow his example.

My thoughts/goals:

I am over my year mark and I think I am starting to realize what people were talking about when they said it was hard to endure to the end. I know that I have learned a lot and become a better missionary. I am still a junior companion and I feel like at this point I'm just learning humility and patience because I feel like I have passed the stage of learning by being trained- officially, I know we should always be learning- so I feel like I now need to learn through having more responsibility etc placed on me, but we will see what the Lord has in store. I do know this has something to do with me learning to not worry so much about what others think about me- just about what God thinks about me. I am learning to ask God what He wants me to become instead of just asking for help with MY goals and ideas.

As for our companionship- it is going quite well. We both learn from each other a lot and we work well together. We both like to talk and debate so as a result we are trying to not get into silly arguments/debates that we seem to have once a week. They don't get in between us because we like debating but still we both feel badly because it makes us loose our focus and sometimes the spirit.

I am also trying to debate/argue less on a personal level, which has been a goal of mine for a long time now on my mission. I just want to not have the attitude that I am trying to prove my point. It is not very charitable- which is another thing I am working hard at recently. I am also trying to apply the scripture in Proverbs 3:5-6 too because I know that I rely too much on the wisdom/learning of men that I was taught at school etc. and not enough prayer/relying on God. This also relates to my goal to not worry so much about what people think about me.

Love!
Elder Myers

Elder Myers Sept. 7, 2010

Hello one and all!

As usual I will start with a comment on the weather here in SoCal. For the first time in a very long time it isn't sunny (and I don't know if the clouds will burn off by around 12 like they usually do...) But none the less I wish everyone a happy (late) Labor Day!

-My semi laborious feelings/thoughts as of late....

Well.... my greenie fire as officially worn off and now I am in the endure to the end phase (I loved the camel and the letter mom wrote, where did she get the idea? It was kind of bad timing but I found a beanie baby camel with endure to the end written on it in our apartment like two days before I got the package... but I didn't really understand the meaning besides that I was over the hump... It was a great letter! I learned a lot, tell mom...)

This past transfer I really learned to have charity and really teach people not lessons. Now I am going to keep focusing on that but also amp up my diligence/efforts that seem to have suffered a little at my cause of getting to know my investigators etc. I need to apply the ideology that the greatest thing I can share with someone to show them my love is the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement. We both feel like we need to teach "the lessons" to PEOPLE more but keeping in mind the trainings we just received. As Elder Franson is the District Leader he is in charge of helping the American Sign Lang (ASL) Elders to overcome their huge struggles to apply the training to a VERY different audience.

Elder Franson and I get along really well. Besides one silly argument that we had one p day about BYU (he is from Provo and as a result has some pretty strong feeling against it) we work amazing together. He is very patient with me and others and he is very worry free/"chill" as the teenagers these days would say (coming from a wise old 20 yr old like me, so far removed from this rising generation by a full 3 weeks of experience and maturity)

So, he is helping me to not worry as much as I do, not care so much about what people think of me, overcome my VERY secular education/years of resistance to Gospel learning combo that I was doing in high school (aka he is helping me "lean not unto thine own understanding etc- Proverbs 3:5-6 and trust God) It has been really good for my testimony and to really put my doubtful thoughts/fears behind me. I am also trying to really lean, rely upon and recognize the promptings of the Spirit.Additionally, I am really trying to be "chill" and work hard at the same time. I am also really learning humility and the power of prayer...

Also I am trying really hard not to be a "story seeker" looking for crazy things from spiritual miracles to ghetto stories of drive bys etc...

-A little about the great labor of the Lord....

The first week of this new transfer we spent mainly visiting some potential baptismal dates/formers and tracting a lot around them, a lot of recent converts, our baptismal date Alex Ortiz and contacting some referrals we got. As always we balanced keeping current people going with finding new people.

Alex Ortiz has his baptismal interview today at 7. It was amazing because last night, when we were going over the baptismal questions (for the third time since we have been teaching him and his probably 20 billionth time with missionaries in general) he admitted that he does finally believe that the church of Jesus Christ was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith and that President Monson is a Prophet of God today. I feel badly because I wasn't as patient with him as I should have been in the beginning but since we have been praying for charity and patience it has been going much better. I know that part of the things that I am supposed to learn in this area is just that. Elder Franson is very patient.

We are also working to support and make our recent converts more self sufficient/rely on God more. (aka not babysitting them as much) We were very happy when Sergio is extremely shy with grown ups got his own ride home from church without us even telling him he had to find his own ride... We are making daily contact and committing them to read the Book of Mormon daily. I am learning a lot, especially since Elder Packer talked about it, of how important following up is.

We plan to go to the Visitors Center with Sergio, his neighbors the Archundias kids and the active member family that gives them rides. I know that the trip will really help them to become more self sufficient in the church.

We are also still trying to prioritize the amount of contact the Less Actives families that the past missionaries were working with need on a weekly basis...

My studies are going well, this week I will be making the transition to having almost 100% of my studies be in Spanish- starting with reading the Doctrine and Covenants in Spanish and then finishing the Old Testament in Spanish after, to complete my reading of the Standard Works and the Missionary Library...

--
Love!
Elder Myers