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!!!

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!