Elder Myers Feb 22, 2010

hey everyone! i love you!

well as always i never know what to write in emails because i dont know what i have written before, whats interesting etc etc so that is why my emails always seem so unfocused and non informative haha

anyway well elder cooley and i are still working hard in this our (probably) last transfer together. I cant help but wonder where i will be next becuase i will probably be the one to move since elder cooley is district leader here but you never know. I think that i will move to a white area because your second area is usually different than your first... but i am not thinking about it too much because transfers arent until the 16th of march...

a quick story: today our district minus the sisters and two elders ate habanero chiles elder cooley, elder maxwell (he has been here in this district since i have been here and i like him a lot) anyway we ate 2 each. so that brings my habanero count to 3 and some change because last night we had some diced habaneros with jorge and the chavez fam for dinner.... they are spicy!! haha but it was fun. i think dad should try one but mom i would highly not recommend you eating one....

well we are still teaching eduardo- jorge's homosexual friend... he is progressing really well and coming to church every sunday! jorge is really quite the recent convert missionary! his testimony is really blessing mine and helping it to grow. eduardo is already inviting other missionaries over for dinner in our district (he signed up on the dinner calendar the ward passes around on sunday...) but there are only allowed to be one companionship at dinner at once so we wont go with them...

i also went on splits with the zone leader (one ZL came in our area with elder cooley and i went there with the other ZL) it was really fun and i learned a lot, as always on splits... its great to learn from experienced missionaries. his area is USC so that is pretty cool too- i dont know if i told you about that but we drive by campus a lot when we go down to the spanish ward which is on jefferson and vermont... i havent run into kate shumway though! haha or peter's (and sorta my friend) friend michael breen.... anway i am still trying to step out of my comfort zone and apply my talents and strengths to the mission. its so funny that i dont like tracting because i think its usually akward because i talk so much but i feel like i ruin the situation with that attitude and i have found that when i just be myself it ALWAYS works out (for this and all other areas of missionary work) so yeah thats something i am working on right now- i am trying to stop being a missionary and start being myself- hoping that i will get to the point where myself is at harmony (i wish i didnt use that word but i cant think of anything else...) with Jesus/a missionary...

i am also working really hard at being simple. elder cooley is really good at it and it really helps in teaching people. especially in another language and especially the kinds of people we teach- most of whom have not recieved the same blessings and opportunities of an amazing education... (which i wish i took more advantage of! ahh i cant wait until im not a teenager officially anymore but thats a sidenote) anyway. being simple would help me be less of a worry wart which i am discovering now more than ever that i worry a lot and i let things get to me/i dont "pick my battles".... i dont know if i have talked to you about that before... but yeah....

elder cooley and i are also teaching three new families! they havent come to church yet (only been one sunday though) but they are keeping their assignments to read/pray etc but we need to get their work schedules fixed! man that area of my mission would be so much easier if i served in utah! haha but yeah one family is from el salvador and guatemala, and the other two are from mexico... so we will see how they turn out! we will work as hard as we can, but in the end its up to the Lord and their agency to judge if they are ready or not to be baptized...

some quesitons: what would you like to hear me talk about more? i skimmed through ians email and i was wondering if you want to hear more about my area? or specific stories or what? or whatever is fine... i just dont know what being on the recipient side of my emails is like haha. plus i cant remember what i have told you before...

oh elder cooley and i went to the church on normandie and hollywood or sunset i cant remember so he could do a baptismal interview... dad- is that near where you go for work?

-how is lucy doing with the art thing? is she still bummed about not getting captain?

-how is emma doing stress wise in high school? they both made it through season! and there first semesters! and probs almost third quarter too! how was turnabout? i dont know if i have heard about that....

-how is jack doing? are you guys video taping him? speaking of which i video taped us all eating the habaneros...! in HD- is the new TV HD by the way?

to MICHAEL- HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am going to try to write to you today! and i think all i can offer in terms of a present is pictures but i know that you are a pretty satisfied and not a needy kid so i dont think you will mind hahhahaha and your papers better be in!!!!!! haha

to peter-

i dont think i have ever mentioned this but by the way i see someone wearing a white sox hat almost every day... only because its for the gang 6-o-crips or something... and i have seen only 2-3 cubs hats :( haha i just thought that was kinda interesting.... also i hope that i am in a latin area in june for the world cup! because they def dont care at all about the olympics! haha but yeah just some things i thought you would like to hear.... its so weird being in LA in the middle of "the world" in terms of worldy things and not being able to participate- its so different than like a small town in the andes mountains... but i mind it a whole lot less than i thought i would... anyway.... yup

i have to go... stay tuned until next time

i love you all!!

Elder Myers Feb. 8, 2010

hey!
happy valentines day to you too! just some responses to your email.
-temple p day will be some time in march on a wed.
-transfers are on the 16-17 of march...
-we do splits with another companionship, so we alternate which ward we go to (so i attend the spanish ward every other week...) its kind of annoying but we have to do it that way.
-elder cooley had to go to some meetings at the beginning of the transfer and im pretty sure taht he will have to in the future but i went on splits with the other two elders who are companions to district leaders in our zone just for the duration of the meeting...
- i love being in the same area and with elder cooley! i feel like my work in this area isnt finished- we arent working with that family anymore (they said they were moving but we saw them in their apartment and they didnt move... sad) we are working with a man named herbert though. he is from el salvador- i think i have told you this before... well he goes to the english ward and we are very excited about him, he just has a lot of word of wisdom problems taht we are helping him with and he is showing a lot of progress... he'll be baptized at the end of this month. we are also working with three other peoploe in the spanish ward that should be baptized in this transfer, but they are showing less comittment than herbert... oh well! we will continue to work hard with them until we feel we need to drop them... or they get baptized!
-we will always have the possibility of being english speaking as far as i can tell...at least until it changes which i dont think it will...
-jorge is doing great! he even gave us a referral that we will start teaching with him! he hasnt been confirmed yet (i will do that this weekend...) long story but it didnt happen last sunday due to some miscommunication...
-we do have a microwave, but i have plenty of KRAFT mac n cheese! haha had some easy mac before you sent me those boxes...
-i am good with deoderant and my acne pill so you dont have to send them!
-yeah im excited to start focusing on reading the scriptures straight through in spanish but for now i set a goal to finish jesus the christ (in english) this transfer. so far im learning a lot and i love it!!
-like the brother of jared- i am coming to realize that everything on earth that we do is for us! it sounds kind of obvious but we talk about God's plans etc but really none of God's plans are for the benifit of Him, ONLY for the benifit and learning and growing of us.... its cool to think about that especially in light of temple work and just reading all of the examples/history in the scriptures...
-it was good to hear about emma and lucy! i hope that they arent stressing especially over what classes to take next year! i also hope they arent fighiting! haha AP bio is one class i wish i took, also AP pysch- a LOT of poeple take it... lucy might want to take a stats math class...? it seems very useful and interesting...
- in light of all the APs and ACTs etc/just my background i have been coming to realize that i am super blessed, fortunate, and i take things for granted/dont appreciate the many blessings i have been given. i am ashamed to say that i am just saying/thinking this after having worked in my area for so long! i just realized how insanely many blessings/opportunities/talent/inteligence i ahve been blessed with! so tell lucy 29 is phenominal! (sp, and slightly ironic given what we are talking about...) a lot of the elders here even were blown away when some of them made me tell them the score i got... so yeah i am kind of... whats the word... spoiled i dunno... also we drove through beverley hills the other day on the way to the mission home and i realized just how wealthy a neighborhood we live in!!!!! its EXACTLY (well plus palm trees...) the same as indian hill estates (not where peter lives), which is no wear near the nicest part of the north shore! granted we didnt drive through all of it but it still looked like home! it was weird! so yeah i have been realizing some stuff about my background that i always knew about, but never expierenced... i mean the people taht have apartments are considered wealthy in my area considering the amount of hobos in my area and government housing (mostly for abused women with families..- they are really nice, not at all like the projects...) anwway yeah im really fortunate... and the best part is- none of its from me! i have been blessed with all of it... its a very humbling thought...
-also on that note (the inevitable saying that comes from every elder at some point... haha)- thanks for all that you did for me! i am so sorry for piling up all that stuff on you, when i could have easily done it! doing one persons laundery and dishes is not that hard at all! but 6- very hard! so yeah i feel very bad for making your life so stressful! i love you mom!
-please video tape jack often!!! he is going to be so different!
-ill try to figure out my glasses.../insurance... and dont do the drops if they are too expensive!
love you!
thanks!
ps note to all- the 1591 E temple way will be my address for the WHOLE mission and wont change... yay!

Elder Myers Feb 1, 2010

hello all!
first off my companion elder cooley got called to be a district leader! we found out on firday night. the great thing is we will BOTH be staying in our area! and probably with a car, although except for sunday and p day and our meetings on friday we will probably be using the bus... but it is very nice to know that because i was just starting to worry (a little bit because i am really working on not worrying about things i cant control- im getting better at it...) anyway but now we know before transfers whats going on... what a relief!

some small stuff... they were filming the TV show castle at the same place they were filming ghost whisperers like a month a go... i think dad said that he might start watching castle/that it looked interesting... kinda cool... they film a lot in my area but no movies yet just a lot of tv shows and commercials... so no star spottings yet even though we drove bty the grammys on the way home from church the other day... just A LOT of limos hahaha

i also at an entire Habanero pepper in one bite the other day at the Chavez house... (they didnt force me to haha) yeah it was really really hot hahahahaha (its the hottest commercially sold pepper in the world...) and the mexicans even think its super super hot! hha

elder cooley got the opportunity to through away some marijuana for one of our investigators named herbert. he is really really nice and progressing very well but we are still working on some word of wisdom issues...but obvi he is making huge strides! right now his date is for v day

i got the opportunity to preform my first baptism! and give my first talk in spanish in sacrament meeting! on the same day! both went very well!i baptized jorge! and his whole family came. it was very wonderful and happy, it was amazing because i was really stressed with filling up the font which didnt look like it would fill in time (we were talking about baptizing him face first... haha) and everything else but right before i said a prayer and i was very calm in the minutes leading up to it... it aws a good experience and a lesson- it should never be about us and there is NEVER a need to worry... just do what you can control, work hard and the rest will all work out... and nothing is ever the end of the world (except after the second coming... but that hasnt happened yet... haha)

i love you all!

sorry i dont hav emore time!
love
elder myers
ps mom i loved hearing about your mission!

Elder Myers Jan 25, 2010

hey we just went to a target on la brae and santa monica blvd. santa monica is the southern border of hollywood i believe. we saw some studios.... is that where you go for photoshoots etc? we saw the sister missionaries there and they said we were in their area which is west hollywood, so if the mission areas correspond to the city areas (which they sometimes dont) we were in west hollywood. i also thought about it and the english church is dead level with the hollywood sign just farther south... is the hollywood sign in the middle of hollywood (well and then north because its up on the mountain...)


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Elder Myers Jan 19, 2010

hello everyone! i love you!

sorry i didn't email you yesterday, everything was closed because of MLK day....

i dont have too much time so this will have to be short! sorry!

that was crazy to hear about olivia and all the changes in the ward! and all the new babies! congrats!!

as to the psalms- there is some really beautiful verses in their, i have recently grown to appreciate the old testament more because i ahve been reading jesus the christ- i never knew all this jewish history could be interesting! it sort of makes me want to take a bible history kind of class but well see how i am when im signing up for classes... i feel pretty nerdy now... haha also elder cooley met the proffesor from BYU that discovered all of that poetry in the book of mormon (i think in alma) i forgot what it is called but there is a whole chapter in the BOM with that patteren. he discovered it on his mission so thats pretty cool!

as for the family that i started teaching, they have actually moved out of state it was very random and sad but there is nothing you can do...

as for the familia chavez that we have been teaching- the uncle has a baptism coming up in the end of january and we hope the rest of the family will follow suit after they see him do it (who are all kind of nervouus to change from their catholic upbringing) but they aall have great testimonies...

we aare also starting to teach the adoptive mom of one the recent converts taht the sisters before us taught.. she was going to be babtised this sunday (8 days after our first lesson- mexico city style!! haha) but we dont think she will anymore because she missed stake conference (that was the regional conference broadcast... very cool to see it in spanish although i like it better in english only becasue translators arent emotional and passionate- it was especially noticable in elder holland's talk... yeah its pretty hard to focus on translators but it was very cool non the less!!) anyway she had a family emergency so i think that we are pushing her date back to the 31 (same day as the uncle) but that is still a very quick turn around...! its this wuick because on our firt appointment she asked us how she should prepare herself to be baptized because that was something that she wanted to do....! haha it was crazy she is basically handed right to us all ready and everything! very cooL!
also we contacted this former investigator that we had tried 2 already with no answer anyway she was with her member friends at the time! huge coincidence (sp) but even bigger- she hadnt seen them in 14 years!!!! and they picked that day and time to meet and we showed up! the lord def does align the pathes of his children! it was pretty cool. so yeah we are starting to teach her so well se how that goes

love you!!!!!
sorry it was so short
ps I'm sending my stuff home i think today so yeah expect taht soon!

stay warm!!!

Elder Myers Jan 11, 2010

hey everyone! sorry i dont have too much time because this email client is horrible and it always deletes my messages but anyway!
i love you all!

im sorry to hear chicago is -17! i was sweating up a storm sitting at a bus stop in the sun! it will cool down to a bitter 64 tomorrow though!

the chavez family have not been baptized yet, we have run into a couple of minor speed bumps in their road of eternal salvation but we are confident they will be baptized in this month. the uncle is very ready (jorge) he has a strong testimony and always studies his reading and has great Qs. he just has a few things he needs to clear up but he is super ready and everyone else is almost ready too. its just hard converting deeply rooted catholic familes. its such a culture in mexico and the grandparents live with them and although they are very very nice they are also very very veyr very catholic and very in love with the virgin mary. we love the chavez family though! we always joke around in the district that we are going to start a chavez (well ambris- granparents name... branch! haha)

speaking of the chavez familia i had fritada at their house last week! fritada is fried pigs innards...!!!! i didnt know what i was eating at the time- they said it was chicarron which is basically mexican ham/bacon (its fried pigskin...) anwyay i thought it was interesting very very very rubbery. fortunatly like everything else in mexico there was copious amounts of chile on it so i didnt taste the full flavor haha

dad or mom asked about waht i am studying. i just finished the miracle challange (last month) of the NT and BoM and now i have started reading (very slowly and carefully with much note taking) jesus the christ. i am also going to start el libro de mormon soon! i love jesus the christ so far! it is an AMAZING book to read on the mission and i am always very excited to read it everyday. elder talmage has some amazing insites into everything and i like how thorough (sp) he is! love the detail! im learning so much! for example about the nomenclature of jesus christ and His various titles...
love it

well i dont have much time left! i love the city and getting to know the streets better! i cant wait to bring everyone out here when i get back, but lets not think about that yet! haha. i just hope that i am getting some street smarts! haha at least i will know the bus system really well and the subway- its soooo nice! jsut not that useful- not extensive like NYC but nonetheless its so new and nice and surprisingly not dirty like verything else hear... haha yeah we had a really bad smog day the other day! it was crazy we couldnt see the hollywood sign anymore and the mountains were very hard to see and we almost couldnt see the far ones at all- those ones were even harder to see! it was crazy!i love it! haha

well i have to go!
i love you all!
i hope everyone gets a chance to see my pics!

Elder Myers Jan 4, 2010

hello everyone! i love you!
elder cooley and i had a fun new years in our apartment, we had to be in at 6... i stayed up finishing the book of mormon because we had a mission wide challenge to finsih the new testament and book of mormon in the month of december and highlight all the miracles that we see, since its miracle month here. our goal was 80 baptisms and we fell just short with 70 just in december. it was more than any other month in the mission ever so that was great! it was 1 per companionship. elder cooley and i have been blessed with a lot of opportunities to teach in our area and so we had two- mom you asked if we had that last one- yes anthony (the blind man) was baptized on the 27th and elder cooley confirmed him last sunday while i was at the spanish ward. as i side note not only did i miss that at the english ward last sunday but i also missed seeing john heder (napolean dynamite), hyrum smith from the new joseph smith movie, an elder from best two years and someone else. they were all there for a baby blessing so all the elders at the english ward at the time got to meet all of them. i missed out haha i still have 2 years, although i know that im not here to see famous people haha

as i said earlier elder cooley and i have been blessed with a lot of teaching opportunies and we are going to baptize the familia chavez the sunday after next because they will be out of town this coming sunday. they have been to church with us 3-4 times and they are so nice! we also just found a new family and we are going back to teach them for the second time, but we have talked to them another two times but both times they couldnt have a lesson once because there parents werent home and once becuase it was the holidays... it was really weird the past two weeks but the schedule and everything is back to normal so thats great. they have a lot of potential! they are from mexico and are always really excited to talk to us and even said that they were eaiting for us to show up on christmas day at 7 ( we forgot when we set up the appointment that the friday we set it up for was christmas and that we had to be in by 6...) anyway we are teaching them tomorrow. we are teaching a few other people that are not super solid at the moment- we are trying to figure out how commited they are to the gospel.... ekder cooley and i dediced that teaching and baptizing families is a very very efficient way to preach the gospel... especially when they have like 40 relatives taht live in LA like the chavez do...!

on friday we had an amazing mission wide conference! it was the first and only of the year (well we thought that but president blackburn announced that we will have another one just before he leaves in june- but that one will be in the temple!) but anyway we watched part of this video, well documentary, about the historic stuff from the book of mormon (called the journey of faith) its really good- you would love it! but not so much the girls (its a little missionary/nerdyish haha) anyway after that the man who wrote a rough stone rolling (the book on joseph smith that i really want to read after the mission- appearantly he is pretty unbaised, because he is mormon, and lays down all the facts...) he is a professor of mormon stories at claremount so it was cool to hear about teaching the gospel instead of proselyting/teaching the gospel. we had a good question and answer session, he knows just about everything there is to know about joseph smith. it was really really cool especially in light of all the recent church publications/releases of a lot of the original copies of the book of mormon and other historic documents-like an account of the first vision written by joseph's own hand... (the one in JSH is believed to have been dictated by joseph but written by the first presidency... and those are the only two documents we have on that. i learned a lot of stuff! i have a lot of reading to do after the mission....!

as for my reading now (mom, you asked about that i think...): i am going to start the book of mormon in spanish and i have already started to read jesus the christ (in english haha) but so far i love that book! i am taking really good notes on it too. its very very informative!

so all in all i am learning a lot! but unlike most of the stuff i just talked about that i am going to learn after the mission- all this stuff now is to strengthen my testimony so i can bear it with more power and clarity to invite the spirit to do some major converting! i am quickly learning what they always said in the MTC/before the mission that its not the messenger but the message. we just have to be obedient, faithful and worthy of the spirit always and then the lord does the rest!

love you!


ps can you add these people to the forwarding list (they were my MTC teachers...) thanks!
vanceandrew2103@gmail.com
davidgarciamilla@gmail.com
darintjohnston@gmail.com
so yeah could you forward any particularly good emails to them? or all of them i dont really care, whatever is easier... thanks!

pps what are grandma and grandpa's email address? do they email?