12.16.13 - Getting the hang of things

So this week, was a sweet week. We had a lot of good progress personally, as a companionship, and in the work. I'll highlight just a couple things.

 

Our mission President generated a finding by faith program to replace what missionaries had been doing for the past years.. knocking doors. It prioritizes activities and gives guidance on how to most efficiently handle situations involving members, less active members, non members, investigators, recent converts and so on with an emphasis on finding new families to teach. unfortunately it's not being implemented very effectively throughout the mission.

I did an exchange on Wednesday with Elder Olsen. We stayed in my area, south side San Antonio, and we both had about 2 and a half weeks of experience. Elder Ware took my car (I'm actually not authorized to drive cars yet) so we biked all day. I really like the bikes. When I sit in a car all day I can't talk to all the people that I pass by, but on a bike I can talk to everyone. Way more effective. But it also takes a long time to get from appointment to appointment.

 

Anyway, Elder Olsen and I sat down and began to plan out our day. Then five minutes later we were still staring at empty planners. Elder Olsen and I and our lack of general mission know-how made us very reliant on the guidance of the spirit: which is the founding principle of finding by faith. The result was direct guidance toward 6 families who were all receptive of our message. Three of those families are now progressing and some of those first lessons were all in Spanish. I was really happy about it.

 

On the way to one appointment I drove by a house and thought, "Let's talk to that family."

 

I drove on, but after a minute or so I decided we'd better turn back and we ended up finding a great family.

 

Really quick again, a returning less active asked me, "Why does it have to be hard? I don't want it to be hard." He was referring to the process of becoming like a little child and following Christ. it struck me as odd and I thought of scriptures like Ether 12:6. I did some more reading and I was led to first Nephi and the Lehi's vision. He described a concourse of people all making their way to the tree of life. These people had all kept their first estate. They commenced toward the path leading to the tree but then a dark mist surrounded them. The mist is interpreted to be the temptations of the devil. First peter chapter 1 verse 6 the Greek translation for temptation is affliction and trials. If this applies, then people get lost on their way to Eternal Life by temptations of all sorts and hardship that is prominent in this world.

 

When we as missionaries teach the analogy of Christ's Gospel as a gate that leads to a path which ultimately ends at the Celestial Kingdom. Baptism is the gate and the path is having faith, repenting and persevering to the end. What we don't always talk about and I realized that we should is that there's a rod of Iron all along the path leading to the Kingdom of God. The rod of Iron is that Word of God - his commandments. Ultimately, our being blinded by the mist of darkness in this world forces us to cling firmly to the word of God and to hold tight as we walk with the only thing that gives us direction a vast and blinded world.

 

I've got a rope between myself and the Bar and I'm walking around this vast world grabbing people by the hand and pulling them back to the rod, so they can have that solid support which gives them direction and purpose. A last thought is that the only way we can know if we're moving the right way is if we can feel it. They vast world is filled of dark mist, temptation, affliction and trial, but if we feel grounded in obedience, if we are compelled to do good, if we feel god's love then we know we are moving in the right direction. Nothing we can see will change that. We can't see God's Kingdom and our walking there, but we can feel it.

 

Feel that Iron Rod, and cling to it as you walk to the Mansions on High!

 

I love you!!!

 

Elder Tyler Meidell

12.2.13 - The South San Antonio 5th Ward

Hello Everybody,

The time has actually come. After a lifetime of anticipating what it would be like to be a missionary in the mission field doing missionary things: the wait is over.

I flew into San Antonio on Wednesday and was filled with a sense of belonging. I felt like I'd received an impression that I was in the right place doing the right thing.

We were met be the Mission President, President Slaughter, and his wife and kids. It was a warm reception and we quickly got our stuff loaded into the President's Assistant's van and headed off to the mission home. We had a few meetings about expectations, guidelines, what we needed to be prepared for during the Christmas Season, and everything else we could have a meeting about. They brought us some great barbecue and it was a pretty solid day. That night we slept in the Assistant's Apartment. I got a nice spot of floor to rest for a couple hours. We had to get up at 2am that morning so I was pretty beat, and then the next morning we got up around 4:30 to get everyone ready before the transfer meeting that started at 8. I think the excitement to get to my first area was all that kept me awake.

I was assigned to South San Antonio 5th ward and 10th C. My trainer and companion is Elder Ware from Stansbury Park, Utah. He's rock solid. He's been out 10 months, he's our District Leader, and we're over 5th ward which is Spanish Speaking and a third of 10th ward which is our same area but the English Speakers. I don't use Spanish a ton, but enough that I feel like i'm still getting a little better. We teach in English and Spanish about 50-50, but we usually just talk to each other in English.

The first few days was just a mental overload. I was trying to figure out how to teach, how to act, what I should be thinking about, I was trying to memorize 2 ward rosters and all of the different processes we go through to plan our days, weeks, plan lessons, and then trying to understand all of the relationships and ties between investigators, less-actives, members and what they know and still need to know, and just everything to the smallest detail.  Elder Ware was cool about it. He wasn't forcing it down my throat and he didn't leave me to fend for myself either. He kept his distance, and while we were doing weekly planning he was nice enough to answer the questions I asked 4 times in a collected voice while I tried to get a mental map of the situation I was walking in to. We've since had a few very productive conversations about what our goals are for ourselves and this area over the course of the transfer and I think we've got a solid game plan mapped out.

Thanksgiving Day was my first day in the field and we had 2 dinner appointments. Love that. We ate with a family that just knows missionaries but has never heard a lesson. Then we ate dinner #2 with some recent converts, the Sanchez's. It was a little tough having nice thanksgiving dinner chatter in Spanish, but It was lively and fun!

The people here are awesome. The wards are pretty small, but the members really love the missionaries. They really like to feed us, even if they don't have anything to feed us. We stopped by a less active family, the Garcia's (No idea how many times i'm going to use that name, haha) and they are getting by just by running a little day care in their living room. Not a whole lot there, but they saw us and the wife ran out to get 2 pizzas to serve us while we sat and talked. It was really nice. I think we had pizza 3 times that day.

We have a few investigator families we're working with presently. One little boy, Brandon, is 9 and his family is becoming active again. He will be baptized this week! The Rodellar family just set a date to be married and baptized in the next 3 weeks! We stopped by one lady's house just as we were finishing up Saturday night because some of the missionaries who were here 2 years ago had she said she was very nice and would be willing to listen later...soo 2 years later we showed up and sat down to share the message of the restoration. It was an amazing lesson. I only say that because I spirit was potent as we spoke and bore testimony. I look forward to seeing how she progresses. There are many more families and individuals preparing but those are our guys with baptismal dates right now.

The work is moving, and it's picking up speed. I can't stress enough the critical nature of member participation in the work. But I'll save that conversation for another time.

A fun little thing i've come to learn about San Antonio residents. They do not leave. I went to a birthday party and in getting to know the people there it was divulged that half of the people in the neighborhood went to 1st grade together! and their parents went to 1st grade together! It blows my mind. They just pick a house and do their thing and wait till their kids can pick a house down the street. It's like the street is a collection of Spanish cousins. It's cool. Different and cool.

I'd like to share a quick thing about faith. I had wanted to understand why faith was a necessary part of our life here on earth. I know that this time is a time to prepare to meet God, and that all we learn here will be an advantage to us in the world to come as we continue to progress to fulfill our Eternal Purpose to be like God in his omniscience and omnipotence. So learning, having love, becoming pure, all of these things very directly help us become like our Father in Heaven, and then why faith? Among it's many uses here, one thing I learned in regard to learning is in Alma 32. We plant good seeds (word of God) in our fertile and willing hearts, wherein we experiment our faith by testing the principle to see if it will swell in our breasts and enlighten our understanding and lead to fruit (Good works), we then identify the nature of the seed, good or bad, based on whether good or bad results come of it. Then, as it grows, we can begin to have faith in that once principle  in a continual process of experimenting, identifying, and enjoying the product of good works and an increase of faith until eventually our knowledge become perfect and our faith dormant. Faith being the absence of knowledge but the action based on a hope of truth. Faith is a preliminary step in the Universal process of gaining perfect knowledge.

Perhaps you all knew that, but it was new for me to think faith is what prepared and led us to have perfect knowledge.

There is so much more to write, but I think I'll need to stop for this week. I love you all very much. I miss you dearly. I hope you're praying for me like i'm praying for you!

With all my love,

Elder Meidell

11.26.13 - Casarme?

So like I said before, Elder Loosle lived in Mexico City, Guatemala and El Salvador. He was our go to when we needed to understand a word or some grammar principle. He also taught us a lot of slang the teachers said we definitely shouldn't use and some jokes that were popular in his schools in Central America. The one that stuck to us the most was Piñota. Piñota just means big pineapple. Which is what you yell at someone after they've been tricked into looking at something that isn't there. So for example, we're sitting in the cafeteria and someone nonchalantly waves to a fake person behind another Elder. The poor Elder will either wave back awkwardly and/or look behind himself to see who was being greeted and find no one there. Then everyone in on the joke will yell "Piñota!" I don't know, i don't really get it. But i've Piñota'd and been Piñota'd enough for one life time. It was a good joke we had within our district.

 

Another good one for me was just after finishing a lesson with a substitute teacher. Her profile was very interested in Eternal Families and so that was the emphasis of our lesson. She came up to me after the lesson and said she was very grateful for the power of the spirit we taught with because she received personal revelation during the lesson. Sweet! Then she started getting really really excited and starting talking really really fast and honestly I started getting pretty lost. Then she ended her sentence with "casarme." A new word I'd just studied. Casar.. to marry.. if its reflexive and has me at the end then the action is being directed toward myself or in this case herself... Marry..me.. "marry me?!" It clicked in my head at the same time as Elder Paddock's and we stared wide eyed at each other for a moment. Then I looked down at her to find her with big eyes and a huge smile staring back up at me...

 

I said something to the effect of "umm.. excuse me?" 

 

She then realized what i thought she said and just started busting up: I thought she was gonna cry, or die, she was laughing so hard. Then i got a little offended, like what, you wouldn't want to marry me? Anyways, "casarme" is more like to give myself in marriage. My bad, I'm an idiot. Although strike the wedding bells because my substitute teacher wants to marry her boyfriend. Haha, and not me. Whew!
 

Another little joke I like is something Elder Ogan taught me. He goes up to the new Elders and says, "Oh man I love your tie! Let me just fluff it up a little." He then kind of rubs his thumbs up the tie, and as he works his way up his fingers are expertly unbuttoning the Elders white shirt without him feeling a thing. Hahahaha, then like a minute later they'll realize or someone will tell them their shirt is completely unbuttoned. Haha, it gets me every time. I don't know how he mastered this skill, but it's a good one. I've practiced a little, and i get in these awkward situations where I get a few buttons in and they'll catch me. Then i'm standing in front of another man unbuttoning his shirt... Agh, Some moments I'd like to erase from my memory. Haha.

 

Attached is a picture of my newest teacher Hermano Salvador. Super cool guy, love him to death. There's also attached a picture of two (of the 6 i've had) other Districts in my diminishing zone which i am no longer in charge of. The hand gesture i'm making doesn't mean anything, It was just what we did when we said "provecho" which  means enjoy your meal; and our District was dumb and we used it to say enjoy (with the hand gesture) to bug our teachers - pretty frequently.

 

I leave tomorrow morning, so i'll talk to y'all again when i'm state side!
 

Much Love,

Elder Meidell

 

 

11.25.13 - Just about out of here

 

Hey loved ones,

 

I felt like my emails have been pretty unbalanced up till this point. I've said a lot about what i've learned and felt while I was here, but not so much about all the fun i've had. I blame the little timer that's set on my computer and counts down from 60 minutes every time I pull up my inbox. I didn't want to leave out any of the good doctrinal stuff, but now I have some time to kill before I leave for Texas and I'll try and catch you up on some of the stuff that makes me laugh real hard here. In the future, i'll try and make a point to note these things as they occur too.

 

The first thing is, when we got here, the glass door in front of the dorm toilet had had a whole the size of a large dinner plate scratched out of the filament which had rendered it opaque. Now, it's just glass. I'm sure you can see from the picture that the location of the hole gives everyone who walks by a horrendously surprising view. To rectify this obvious blunder we taped a piece of paper up over the hole and made it a rule that you had to bring a pen in when you went to.. use the bathroom. Now people make excuses to... use the bathroom so they can see everyone else's art and notes. Ha!

 

Last week when Elder Paddock and I were still on some hard drugs and had to wake up at 3 to take our perscriptions, my alarm went off and for whatever reason we both just coulnd't remember why we were supposed to get up. Elder Paddock heard the alarm and rolled off his bed to start praying, and I was so confused as to why I was up I just followed suit and started praying too. When in doubt, pray. Then i realized it was 3 am and fell back asleep. I got up later to blow my nose at 5, and Elder Paddock heard me get up and tried to start praying again! so I just grabbed him and pushed him back into bed, and he fell asleep with a little sleepy smile. Hahaha.

 

There was this girl here who was a week ahead of us who was real attractive. We can't talk to girls, but we built her up in our minds to be this amazing human being because... well what else are we gonna do. We called her G-Swag which stands for "Grandma Swag" becasue she thought she was such a hipster and straight up dressed like a frumpy old lady. Then finally, one Elder happened to walk by her (He lived in San Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico City for half his life and is very nearly fluent in Spanish) and he said "buenas!" which is just a really quick way to wish someone well in passing, and then this girl who thought she was just too hot busts up laughing with her companion and said, "Haha! he forgot to say Noches!"... It turns out, G-Swag is an idiot. Hahaha. I don't know why that rocked our world, but we laughed for a good 20 minutes.

 

I will have a little more time to write some other stories tomorrow.

 

Lots of love,

 

Elder Meidell

11.21.13 - Sick as a Dog

What a great P-Day at the temple. I love the spirit that dwells there and the great opportunity we have to learn there too.

 

This week has been a little harder on me than I'd anticipated, and I've prayed for and received a little understanding as to why. A few weeks back when i talked about needing to deepen my personal well so i could have more resources to give to others, i was in the process of praying for help in developing depth in Christ-like attributes. Be carefule what you ask for, becuase your prayers are heard and answered, although most likely not in the way you'd expect. What better way for me to dig deeper within myself to find the love i needed to share with others than to be forced to do so at a time when my instincts were to become more reserved and less approachable.

 

The same week i wrote that earlier email, I got sick along with my District. I'm usually pretty healthy so i was surprised my body had succumbed at all and I fully anticipated a rapid recovery. When relief never came I got a little concerned that my illness was going to hurt my ability to study. I received a Priesthood blessing and as a result I gained the mental strength and clarity of thought to remain effective in learning, a very real and personal miracle in my life, although the discomfort of the symptoms remained. We then received some new Districts into the Zone that were not "hit the ground running" ready. I mean to say they weren't prepared to be obedient or diligent in their work and as a direct result their ability to progress was hindered. I could tell you my schedule, but to the same effect i'll just say I got busy handling the zone and my personal mission prep, and all the while I was trying to perfectly emulate the characteristic of Charity which is the pure love of Christ.

 

I was feeling stretched during this time and I prayed often for guidance in my studies to know how to best help the zone, and for an outpour of Christ's love, so I could show these Missionaries the love they needed to trust me, to be motivated to work hard, and which Christ wants them to feel. I was far from perfect in having charity in my heart at all times, although I felt an answer during this time as each District began to make large strides to become ready for the mission field and my faith grew tremendously. At this time I realized that my sickness was making it so i didn't feel like I had the resources I usually did and like I wasn´t sufficiently able to handle these problems on my own, so I would have to exercise more and more faith and after the trial of my faith have an increase in my testimony.

 

I had faith before that I could receive help, but now I know that Christ is anxious to help and will have his hand made known throughout his work. The next week, this last week, I felt like i'd learned a great lesson and was ready to implement it. But i wasn't done being taught. SO, I got pink eye and a gnarly sinus infection. It was real gross. I got tag teamed by mucus and phlegm for days. I would wake up like every hour in a coughing fit, with a solid head ache, and then my nose would get dry and bleed for 5 minutes. It was not conductive to a cheerful attitude during the day. All the same, I attempted to have charity.

 

I hope by now I've shown by my actions that I've adequately had my prayer answered, because I don't want to start out being sick in the mission field. Fortunately, after praying earnestly for my headache to die a painful death (i didn't really say that) so I could focus on my way to the temple this morning. I've made a 180 degree turn and I feel really great. I think the growing pains will be done for a while.

 

We listened to a 2012 MTC devotional this week by Elder Bednar where he taught his personal method for learning from General Conference. Really simply, he writes out the Doctrine being taught, the actions he felt prompted to take as a result of the invitations offered by the speakers and then the blessings being promised as a result folloiwng the invitation. I thought it was great! I loved the insight.

 

We said goodbye to 2 spiritual giants this week. Hermano May (White) and Hermano Villanueava (Mexican). These two men (attached) taught us in 3 hour blocks in the morning and afternoon, respectively, about the spanish language, how to teach, and role played numerous investigators we had to teach. Hermano May just finished two years as an MTC teacher and is a huge inspiration for me, best of luck to him back in Utah. Hermano Villanueava is going to Colombia to find a girl he met on his mission, has contacted by email since, and now wants to marry..? A little more luck to him, haha.

  

I've been in a bubble here people! Is the governments still shut down? I don't know! I just found out there was typhoon in the Philipines. Haha, someone needs to keep me up-to-date.

 

Great to hear from you all,

lots of love,

 

Elder Tyler Meidell

11.14.13 - 'Don't be Lot's wife'

Hello Good People!

It's been a fun week, a little tough on our District but pretty good overall. The temperature dropped from the 70's in the evenings to the 40's so the little blankets we had didn't really suffice for a couple days. I didn't sleep too well and whether the weather change was a factor or not 8 of the 11 in the District got pretty ill, myself included. I think everyone is clearing up now, but there was a few days of hacking and flem that was just really.. really gross. Last night we came home to find 2 extra blankets on everyone's bed and they were much appreciated.
 

We've increased the number of investigators we teach each day from 1 to 2 and now from 2 to 3, so Elder Paddock and I really have to spend nearly all of our personal study prepping for these 20 minute blocks. I really like the pace, it's making me stretch to be as good as I expect myself to be.
 

I got my first missionary hair cut today ... and now I have no hair. I think the ladies that cut all of the gringo's hair are just used to them not being able to communicate what they want, so they proceed to do whatever they want to us. I told her I've got some gnarly cow-licks on the back of my head, and she responded saying she recognized that, and then shaved it all short anyways! It's alright though, I'm not any uglier than i was! haha.
 

We have some caged soccer/basketball courts here, and I am in love with playing caged soccer right now. There are a couple good players here that really make it way fun.
 

Now for the good stuff ...

One of the speakers this week talked a little about Mark 12, when Christ was asked whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar, and he responded by having them bring him a coin with the face of Caesar on it and said, "whose is this image and superscription?" to which the others responded, "Caesar's." Christ then said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." The word that has significance here is image. The coin held the image of Caesar and therefore was to be given to Caesar, which then leads us to think, what has the image of God? And of course we, mankind, do. From Genesis we know that man was formed in God's likeness and image. Therefore, i believe what Christ also intended to teach was that we are to give to God of ourselves, whether that is of our time, talents, faith, love and all that we have to offer.

Later in the week we talked about Luke 17:32, "Remember Lots Wife." From the story when Lot was commanded to leave Soddom and Gamorrah without looking back because it was going to be destroyed. Lot's wife did turn to look as they fled and was turned into a pillar of salt. It comes down to the fact that she did not have faith in God's plan for her, and she did not believe that anything He could have her do would be as great as what she was leaving behind. I think the combination of these two stories has much relevance for missionaries and everyone else. As missionaries we are expected to leave behind all the things of the world and to commit ourselves to live in a way that allows us be completely in tune with the Holy Spirit because we know that God has a plan for us, and if we fulfill it, we will have more joy than anything we could devise from our own wit and cunning. So when missionaries find themselves singing songs that are no longer in accordance with their purpose the others will lovingly look to them and say, "don't be Lot's wife." For normal people, it still pertains. Live in a way you can be receptive to God's plan for you, and have faith that his plan is always for your benefit. The way you can do this is to offer all that you are to Him, and strive to do his will.

Two things i liked from Elder L. Tom Perry's devotional to all the MTC's this Tuesday (not in his exact words):

Never cease to marvel at the use of the Priesthood Authority of God.
 

When you work alongside the Lord, you cannot keep up with Him.
 

This next point, which I don't want to be taken as sac-religious, is that this giant golden man (attached) that is on top of some ambiguous building outside the CCM would be a definite eye-catcher adjacent the golden angel Moroni, hahaha.
 

The other picture is of the second set of roommates i lived with, Elder Romero and Elder Valazqes.

Thank you to everyone who has emailed me, I love to hear from you and to hear how you're doing.

with my love,
 

Elder Tyler Meidell

 

11.7.2013 - Prayer and the Brother of Jared

Hey hey,

Today is another happy day in the life.

I'm gonna jump right in to what I've learned this week. From class and devotionals the theme of this last week appeared to be praying. I'd say I pray ... realistically ... 20-25 times a day. Those prayers being all out, on my knees, offering the sincere thoughts of my heart. Those do not include the prayers that go through my head during study, during lessons, during counseling with other missionaries and so on. We pray so much, Elder Ogan, one of my roommates, has bald patches on his otherwise hair hidden knees. I tell you this to give some credibility to my stipulation that before this week I understood what it meant to pray.

In our Sunday devotional, we learned about offering specific prayers and how they can strengthen out relationship with God. In this process we recount to our Heavenly Father what we did during the day, kind of like we're checking in, and we're very realistic with ourselves while we do this. Then we recognize all that God has blessed us with in that day even if they're the same things we receive every day. Next, we implore for those things we desire as they are in accordance with God's will for us. In asking it is critical that we search out what God's will is for us, so we can know what to ask for and better understand how he wants us to grow. I believe that God knows what we are ultimately able to become, and i also believe that it is someone far greater than we could ever become of our own volition. So as we seek his will, we can trust that if we do all he asks of us in diligence we will lead the kind of lives that will end in the realization of all that we hope to become, because God´s will, will be our will, and God's will is the Immortality and Eternal Life of man (being perfected and living His presence). If you don't pray with specificity, start to. If you already do this, be more explicit in what you can be grateful for and in what things, exactly, you want help with.

A quick tangent. The brother of Jared, who was commanded to build 8 barges so his family could cross an ocean went and asked God with faith if he could have light in his barges during the trip. Christ responded, what would you have me do? The Brother of Jared then gathered 16 stones and asked that God touch each one with his finger so they could glow and so his family could have light during their journey. It's important to realize God did not simply bless them with light upon request, but instead asked what the Brother of Jared thought should be done, and then decided if it was a good or a bad plan.

In our lives we must address God in context. We can address our problems first by bringing them up to the Lord, then studying them out in our mind until we think we've found a reasonable solution, and then we can bring them before the Lord to see if he will "touch our stones" so to speak. In dong so we should give heed to what is God's will for us so we can ask for those things which are important to us or which he wants us to accomplish. Hopefully this brings clarity to specific prayer.

Now for the good stuff! On Tuesday we heard from Elder Daniel Johnson of the First Quorum of the 70. His topic was on who we believe God is. He brought to our attention the accepted Christian definition of prayer which i tried to write down but only got in parts. It was essentially that God is an immense and unknowable being who we cannot understand. He is above all passion and is both separate from and one with Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. The takeaway was, he is incomprehensible. He then commented on how missionaries do not take enough time helping people understand our belief in God and they should spend more time because it is very different from the rest of the World. Things we've grown up knowing must not be taken for granted because they change the very foundation of religion. The God, the one I know, is our literal spiritual father. He is a man with a perfected body of flesh and bone. His ultimate purpose is our eternal salvation and accordingly he weeps with us when we make mistakes and he rejoices with us in our successes. His firstborn son is Jesus Christ who has been ressurrected and he too has a body of flesh and bone. The third member of the Godhead which is united for the purpose of bringing salvation to mankind, is the Holy Spirit. It is critical that he does not have a body, so that we can feel his influence on our souls. If we can effectively teach this principle all other lessons will be a joy, because people will understand their place as a part of one large spiritual family, where the head is dead-set on their success and will do anything to help them.

Elder Johnson then asked if we had a personal testimony of all those things we preach, and asked us to pray specifically to know by the spirit if these things are true. He then promised us that if we would ask with a sincere heart and real intent we would receive an answer we would never forget. the five questions he told us to ask God are as follows:

1. Do you really exist?

2. Do you have a body of flesh and bone?

3. Do you know that I exist?

4. Do you know my name, about my family, and the things I go through each day?

5. Do you really love me?

I am so greatful for his invitation. I hope you'll do as i have, and pray to know for the first or the hundreth time, the answers to these questions. I can bear fervent testimony that the answer to each question is firm, compassionate and loving yes, and it's a yes for every person.

Attached is where I sleep (on the left) yes mom I make my bed now. The other picture is what Halloween looked like for us here at the CCM.

Lots and lots of love,

Elder Tyler Meidell

10.31.13 - The Bucket Analogy

The first week here felt like a month and the second week only felt like two weeks. Hopefully by the time i leave time will have reverted back to its old self when 1 = 1. I think i'm in the swing of things now, we all have our daily schedule that is upheld by the minute and we find some comfort in the monotony because the subject matter we're learning really does a doozy on our minds and spirits. I feel like a Holy bucket (you can take that physically or metaphysically, however you please). All day I am filled with Spanish vocab and grammar that i do my best to contain, although some of each lesson drips out and I have to go back and sop it back up and try and hold on to it again while the next lesson on conjugations makes me overflow and just makes a mess of frustration all over the room. 

We then learn more about Christ's Gospel and how we must attain the attributes he lived, and this helps fill in our cracks, or at least lets us be ok with our cracks for a while more. While teaching and practicing  we'll ladel out bits of ourselves to others, so they can benefit from our knowledge or love. Then, when our gaurd is down, we'll have a meeting where the spirit is very powerful and it fills up parts of my bucket i didn't even know i had and as a result i realize i'm an even bigger bucket that can hold more Spanish. The trend continues until you blow a teaching appointment and all of your innards feel like they just got plastered to a wall. Prayer and faith then bring a hose and fill you right back up, ready to grow and expand. I think my experience here is helping me transform from a bucket into a well, where i can have enough faith, patience, confidence in spanish and Love in God, my companion, and all those i meet so that i can prove to be a resource for others when they need help filling their buckets. It takes a lot of effort, but we're taught that stress + faith + work = growth. i really want to deepen my well, so i can have a greater ability to magnify my calling and serve the people in San Antonio

 

I hope you enjoyed my bucket analogy.. I thought of that.. just now. I'm sorry it needs a little more work, i'll try and work out the kinks later.

 

My roommates left for the missions in Mexico this week, and that was sad, but then we got new ones and that was really exciting! When they were in a meeting their first day we made their beds for them, put starbursts on their pillow and poorly drew them a picture of their 4 American roomates with hearts all over it.. so now they know.. Americans are weird and friendly.

 

Today is Dia de las Brujas (Halloween) which no one really cares about, but these next two day will be Dia De los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and i just know the city is going to erupt with activity. We're already kept up with the angry traffic that I think picks up in the wee hours of the night, and now the 15 million inhabitants of this giant crazy city will have actual reason to be up making noise at 3 in the morning. It's gonna be awesome. We can't leave the 16 foot wall around the campus here, but it's going to awesome. A note about the campus: it is very very big, and very beautiful. Compared to the gray dirty buildings that are stacked on top of each other all around us, it really is a heaven on earth.

 

Things in Mexico are stinking cheap. I bought a tie for like 45 pesos which comes to something just shy of $4. I'm gonna stash up while i'm here. Also, on the way back from the temple a man approached our bus with a bag of 10 bananas which we happily purchased for 10 pesos. Match that deal Wal-Mart!

 

It is fortunate we have a P-day on Halloween. My District is buying a ton of Mexican junk food from the little store they have here and we're gonna spend a few hours later today doing something really weird for us now... knocking doors. However, this time we'll be accepting food from each other rather than presenting the BOM. I think i'll like doing both equally. But if someone were to give me food while i taught them about the BOM, wow, that might just be too much happiness to handle, haha.

 

My companion was nice enough to let me run around the track this morning, which i wish i had more time to do here, and it's turning out to be a very nice day. Elder Paddock's Spanish is making remarkable bounds and teaching is becoming a lot more fun.

 

I really like being a Zone Leader because it let's me get to know and spend time with different missionaries here on campus. I've been very impressed with all of them. I had another District leave for their missions and another come in this week so my companion and I will have another opportunity tonight to teach about what it means to be a missionary and which rules are followed on campus that aren't specifically expressed in the missionary handbook. Some examples of this: Elders don't sit next to sisters at meals, Elders let sisters cut to the front of the line at meals, Elder don't walk sisters to their Casa's, Elders don't walk side by side with sisters, Elders don't give sister's high-fives. I don't know how well all of these rules are followed but if anyone is worried about the implications of Elders living so close to sisters... worry no more... sisters are on a pedestal the Elders don't go near.

 

100% obedience is preached far and wide. At first I felt like the onslaught of missionary rules were just to  control an army of 20 year old's, and i don't like being treated like cattle. So it rubbed me the wrong way, for someone to say, if you don't go to bed at 10:30 you won't have the gift of tongues. A little trial and error though has helped me to know that God is at head of his work here. The rules do keep us in line, but they are endorsed from on high and if you want those blessings promised to the faithful, you must now do more to be counted amongst the faithful. I go to bed at 10:30 and i've viewed the difference in myself, in that, my ability to deepen my well each day is increased when i uphold the commandments laid forth by the orchestrate of this great work. 

 

Elder Allen, the managing director the church missionary department spoke to us last tuesday. I am very committed to this work. I have committed to sell out and to thrust in my sickle with my might. I believe doing so will change me, and I trust it will only change me for the better.

With my love,

Elder Tyler Meidell

Attached are my two American Roommates Elder Bergevin form Washington and Elder Ogan from Oregon, then i'm with Elder Cabanas and Elder Polmas who just left to serve in the XOCAM mission

10.24.13 - Gift of Tongues

NOTE: THE MEXICO MTC ADDRESS IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST!

Thursday is my CCM (MTC in Spanish) P-Day, I wish i could've had the chance to tell you that before so it went so long in between messages. I've missed you all and home so much! There have been a few days where I've really had to pray for help in focusing on my studies here and to stop dreaming about what it would be like to be with family again. Other than those days though, I've been very happy and very I think learning quickly. I have a great District to learn with. I'll try and send the pictures we took of ourselves at the Mexico City Temple this morning sometime later today. What a beautiful temple! It's so big, and still maintains an amazing spirit so palpable I thought I could've cut through it with a knife.

Mexico City Temple

The first few days took some effort to adjust through. I had a little cell-phone with-drawl along with my roommates where i'd reach in my pocket every few minutes to check the phone that became my white missionary handbook overnight. I guess i check that like I would a phone now. The Spanish we're learning isn't advanced enough to heighten my ability to express my self in Spanish yet, although in my Dorm room with one shower and 6 roommates I have a native Hispanic companionship that i talk to often and who help me with my pronunciation and teach me all kinds of new vocabulary though a ridiculous game of charades. One night during study i tried to figure out what Juan (John) was saying and after a minute of obscure hand gesturing my companion and i started to BAAAA for the natives so they could confirm that we had correctly interpreted the word for lamb.

The 3rd day on Campus we had to teach the first lesson in Spanish to a teacher posing as an investigator named Carlos. He  doesn't speak English well in the first place, which i guess is the point in having us "immersed in the culture" so we had to get creative with how to phrase our lesson so the message could be conveyed clearly enough so at the minimum the Spirit could teach what we didn't know how to say. English is definitely the exception here.  My companion and I studied a lot and by the second meeting (where we really just finished the first lesson) we had committed Carlos to baptism. He was our medium difficulty investigator of a set of three, easy, medium, and hard, we´ll teach for a week each. We went on to prepare him for baptism with the second and third discussion during the course of this week which went a lot smoother. I'd be lying if i said i didn't feel the gift of tongues at work in my life.I came in with very little confidence in any of my Spanish and i'm now identified as one that can help teach the other missionaries in my District and Zone. A quick funny story about Carlos. Outside of being a teacher at the CCM he works another job and attends school so he's usually really tired when we teach him. In our last lesson after agreeing to say the closing prayer he closed his eyes and bowed his head and instantly fell asleep. Literally, instantaneous snoring. We didn't wake him up for  about 10 seconds and then laughing finished the meeting and left him to fall asleep during the next companionship's lesson! HA! I hope that never happens to me in a real lesson.

Elder Paddock & Elder Meidell

My companion, Elder Paddock, is from St. George Utah. He swam in high school and is just your solid Utah Mormon guy. We butt heads a little but we're a good companionship. He is directly on the straight and narrow, haha he has to pull be back on every now and again when i get distracted and aren't in bed by 10:31.

On Sundays everyone is expected to prepare a 5 minute talk in spanish and then 6 missionaries are chosen at random during sacrament to speak, this way everyone is on their toes and ready. I was called our first Sunday to speak and surprisingly i was the only one to have prepared in Spanish. This was accentuated when the CCM president and his wife decided to  sit in on our meeting and made a big huff about our Branch's lack of preparedness. Later that day we had interviews and shortly following mine my companion and I were appointed zone leaders for the duration of our stay here. He got all puffed up about it, and i had to talk him down and tell him we were just given a position of servitude. It's ok, i figure it's a utah thing. Tonight we are greeting the new district in our zone and have prepared a 30 minute lesson on the objectives of a missionary. We're excited, and hopefully ready.

The food is alright, I love that it's all Mexican! however that has meant we got few weird dishes... I eat Corn Pops pretty often with my meals.

A fun fact about Mexico City! The Catholic Church obviously has a tremendous influence here and they are very good about celebrating the Saints honored each day. Fireworks go off right outside our walls, on average i'd say 3 times an hour including and especially the night hours. Some people wrote home saying the gangs were at war... but they don't sit with the natives during meals so they really have no idea.

We get 45 minutes each day to exercise and my district isn't a particularly athletic bunch but we've had a lot of fun playing soccer, volleyball, tennis and soccer tennis. It came out a few days ago that most of my District was pretty into Video Games before coming so it's like i'm back to studying with Nick Johnson. Most especially is the Elder i've become good friends with, Elder Bergevin from Washington State, who studied Spanish for 12 years. Another is Elder Atkinson from San Diego who has watched every episode in over 80 TV series and started an internet site featuring his commentary and critics of each televised program.

I'm excited to keep learning and serving. It seems like I'm expected to learn how to be a missionary while I help others become the same thing. The way i've found to do this is to focus my studies on questions other missionaries have, this way everyone is making productive use of their time.

I guess by the end of a week a feel more like Elder Meidell and less like Tyler, and that's not as weird as i thought it would be.

Something I learned in study this week: Christ's teaches he is the bread of life, and he who eats of his flesh and drinks of his blood, living water, will have Eternal Life. This led me to consider mana, the bread God sent each day and which had to be gathered and savored each day. First off, the mana was preparing that people to understand the principle of Christ's sacrificed body which had to be sought after and consumed each day so they could be filled with it's deliciousness. So they could feast on the word more or less and so the word would grow and become delicious. In Christ's life he confused everyone by saying he who would eat of my flesh and drink of my blood will never hunger or thirst and will live forever. No one wanted to eat Christ. They weren't listening through the spirit so they couldn't understand the metaphor at work. Now we eat and drink his flesh and blood respectively, each Sunday. This study increased the importance of the Sacrament in my mind. Christ has preluded to the renewing of the Baptismal Covenant since he taught the Israelites. If we uphold this Covenant in all that it entails we are promised Eternal Life. 

Byah!

I miss you all very much, and i look forward to hearing from you again. The actual address here is:

Carr. Tenuyuca Chalmita No. 828

Col. Zona Escolas, deleg, G.A. madero

C.P. 07230, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

I think we had the address for the old one previously.

Con mi Amor,

Elder Tyler Meidell

10.16.13 - Arriving at the Mexico MTC

Hey family,

I literally just arrived at the MTC, they gave me my name tag and registration packet and then instructed my group to write home. There is definitely an emphasis on writing so i'm sure you'll hear plenty from me. The flight was easy compared to the to and from Hawaii flights. The group that sat all around me spoke only Spanish and i did my best to communicate with them but after covering some basic topics all we could do was look at each other and shake our heads in dismay. It was frustrating and definitely motivated me to emphasize becoming proficient in Spanish while I have professional teachers available. 

I met 9 other missionaries in Phoenix, although i doubt i'll see much more of them once we get into the swing of things.

My companion´s name is Elder Paddock, and that's all i know so far. Mexico city is huge. It's so big. It's quite run down and many cities have florescent paint jobs. A building without graffiti is a definite exception, and traffic is far more dangerous that in New York which surprised me. It was the definition of controlled chaos.

I look forward to hearing from you and having more to tell you the next time i get computer time.

Much Spanish love,

Elder Tyler Meidell