7.21.14 - Sandia!

Oh the mighty watermelon had a great run these past few weeks. The city had a moment of excitement when the harvest started and street venders took advantage by getting an early jump on the sales for 5 dollars a pop. As the Walmarts and HEBs entered the market it dropped to 3 dollars and the streets sold 2 for 5 dollars on every corner, then a few weeks later the melon was old news. Everyone had gorged themselves that the main swing of melon season didn't impress anyone in Eagle Pass and a warehouse was literally giving away 300 crates of watermelon for free just last Friday. Someone gave us 6 melons for free so we went around and gave them to some less active members and had a good opportunity to chat with families that didn't speak to us much otherwise.

We achieved 110 degrees this week! Onward and upward. My mom's voice of council to always wear sunscreen continues to echo in my ears as I leave the apartment every day.

Ella has been looking for work and she finally scored her dream job! She told me she got the job she'd always wanted and I was all excited I didn't even ask what it was! I assumed child care in a school or something because that's what she's always done, and then in conversation a little later it comes out she's starting today drawing people's blood. Her words, "You can't imagine the excitement of when you strike the vein and blood starts to pump into the tube." What the weird ...

At church yesterday we had Juana again who is excited for her baptism this coming Saturday. We also had the "G" family, but they snuck out after sacrament meeting so we couldn't get them to learn anything else in the following classes. The "G" girls, "Lizzy" (16) and "Gina" (12), went to mutual on Wednesday and made cookies! They said they had a great time! Sweet. We also had "Marty" at church. The week prior we had "George" with us too, which makes 2 weeks in a row a random guy I met drunk in the street has kept the card I gave him and actually made it out to church that next Sunday. Awesome. They both wont' meet with us but they want to keep coming to church. The last time we met with Marty he led us around his backyard which was brimming with fighting cocks. He fights roosters in the deep brush because it's illegal. He has 35 big 'ol Roosters, and 50 Hens and some 200 chicks running around. It's really cool. I don't have any idea how no one in his neighborhood has caught on to his schemes because those roosters never shut up. One rooster is sufficient to wake you up in the morning and he's got 30+ cawing and cooing and crowing all the live long day.

I upgraded my personal studies this last week. I bought a school binder, dividers and some other study materials so I can start tracking my studies by date, theme, questions answered,  lesson plans, and trainings. I have gotten so much more out of it. While studying prophets I read in preach my gospel that prophets receive truth by means of revelation and in turn teach the truth to the world with authority. I asked myself, what is truth? I have so much more to go, but truth is the way things were, are and will be. The truth of this world is that God has a plan to save all of his children. The truth is that we have the ability to follow or reject that plan. The truth is that we live in this world in a state of mortality and weakness. The truth is the that the atonement of Jesus Christ is the only power able to make us immortal and perfect enough to enter into the presence of God again. The Truth is that key truths necessary to access the power of the atonement were lost with the death of Christ and his apostles and that God restored those truths with the Restoration of his Gospel in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The truth will set men free.

I love you you much

Stay Salty,

Elder Tyler Meidell

7.14.14 - I Ripped my Pants

It did involve a bike this week, but I really don't feel like it was my fault this time. The Lord cannot take away our agency, but he can get pretty dang close. On Saturday we had a busy day planned with lots of lessons and lots of bike riding ahead of us. The first two houses were a bust and upon leaving house number two at 1 in the afternoon I raise me right leg to perform my epic bike mount and hear a big POP. Elder Olsen sais, "Did you just fart?" No, Elder Olsen! Why would that be your first assumption from the other side of the yard? I go to sit down on bike seat and then pop back up in surprise when the bike seat goes all the way up and through my pant seam. I ripped the seem from the front all the way back to the middle of my butt. I really liked those pants ...

I showed Elder Olsen the damage and he just died laughing. While attempting to make the emergency relief phone call he realized that he'd left the phone in the truck. The truck?! Did I just say truck?! Oh, yes I did. I drove down to Uvalde and picked it up this week.

​Boom Baby.

So we walked a little walk of shame to a members house a few blocks away. They were not home. We walked a little farther with a little more shame to another members house, to see if we could use their phone. And thus it is that the Lord leads his missionaries. This member had recently committed a serious sin and was in dire need of repentance. He told us he had been seriously contemplating leaving the church. We talked to him, asked him to meet with the branch president, prayed with him, did everything we could think of and who knows if it helped him or not. He'll ultimately have to decide whether he wants the blessings back in his life that he recognizes are missing.

Well, that process put us an hour and half behind schedule. We couldn't tell our investigators we were late because I didn't have their numbers, so we played a big game of catch up, that resulted in a moderate amount of success. Directly following the inspired lesson the first member we attempted to go by was home, and told us they had been expecting to see missionaries that day. They fed us a little and I wore Brother Nielson's Khakis for the rest of the day which made me really want to buy some tan pants.

The rest of the week was pretty standard. The one big doctrine that was really opened up to me was the Doctrine of the Scattering and the Gathering of Israel. A lot of people look in their patriarchal blessing for what makes them different and unique, but of the greatest value to them is their lineage that ties them back to the promises made to Abraham. In this dispensation of the fullness of times the first (Judah) is being gathered last and the last (Joseph = Ephraim and Manassah) is being gathered first. The blood of Israel has been scattered all across the earth to the point that their is nearly no blood that doesn't contain literal ancestry from the Holy Land and the Lord's chosen people. Israel has the innate ability to recognize, believe and accept truth. We as members of the tribe of Ephraim are fulfilling prophesy by doing our job. I feel such a sense of belonging and purpose now that I realize why I've been saved for these late days. We have been called to gather the lost tribes of Israel and that we do with a sound of rejoicing!

Jesus Christ lives. He loves us and he wants to guide us; first, to become better disciples and second to gather his lost sheep. I know he is aware of our every triumph and trial. Never hesitate to kneel before him and express the honest feelings of your heart. He listens with arms of mercy perpetually extended toward you.

I love our Savior and I love you.

Stay Salty,

Elder Tyler Meidell

7.7.14 - Un Ayuno Poderoso (A Powerful Fast)

Thanks to the power of fasting "Carlos" was baptized! We learned this last week that one month ago the priest quorum fasted to bring in a new member to the quorum. That week Carlos showed up to his cousin's baptism, accepted his copy of the Book of Mormon and started cruising through it. He quickly gained a testimony, never missed a meeting, went camping with the scouts and was baptized himself 3 weeks later. The priests fasted, and the following fast Sunday Carlos was confirmed into the church. He'll receive the priesthood in a few weeks and be an addition to the quorum in no time. He told us he was thinking about getting ready to serve a mission. That would make me the happiest person in the whole world!

That's just one more testimony block saying that the finding work belongs to the members.

You may not believe it from this picture, but Carlos, on the right, is 16. I thought he was 22 when I met him, because he's a real big guy. His uncle John calls him Slim, because offensive nicknames are cool in Spanish. We've gotten into the habit of calling him slim shady.

An additional testimony to the strength that the Lord can give us was found in the actual baptizing of Slim. We thought Al, one of the priests, should be the one to baptize him. There was the concern of him not being able to lift slim back out of the water... a legitament concern; but Nephi broke out of so many cords and bonds that either Nephi was the first Houdini, Laman and Lemuul couldn't tie knots for beans, or God can give us the strength to do all things. Al got him right out of the water, and it was sweet.

Carlos' mom Juana (right next to me) is investigating and has a baptismal date for the 26th of July. She's doing great, we hope she keeps it up! Another family that came to church yesterday was the "G" family. There's 5 of them, the parents, 2 girls in high school and a little boy. Alcohol seems to be the only foreseeable hurdle.

4th of July Exchange! In this classic Texas Scene, Elder Mora and I had a pretty uneventful day together on the 4th. I love my tico from Costa Rica! We had to be in by 8 o'clock and we just saw a few fireworks from a distance off the balcony of our apartment. That's pretty much all I can say about that. We heard the next day that everyone went down to the bridge to Mexico and got super drunk and shot a bunch of fireworks off. The neighborhoods were totaled with fire cracker remains July the 5th.

In other news, I'm getting a lot better at riding my bike without hands. My stinking satchel just falls all over the place so It's tough to turn, but i'm getting it down. Elder Mora showed me how to jump and get both the wheels off the ground. Pretty, pretty good.

The Meidell reunion looked hilarious. I was thinking about it all week. I really really wanted to be there. I wasn't really distracted, but I had a few moments where I sat and sighed to myself. I'm glad everyone stayed safe on the zip line tour! Did anyone do a wizard fight with the Roman Candles?!

I love you!
Stay Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell

6.30.14 - La Copa Mundial

The world cup is taking over my life. I kid you not, half of the Spanish Branch showed up to church repping their Mexico jerseys. Mexico played the Netherlands right in the middle of church. Dare I say no one listened.  They were getting updates and live footage from their phones the whole time. Mexico lost. Serves 'em right! I told them not to watch during church, haha! It was apparently a freak last 10 minute win with 2 goals by Netherlands in overtime. Why do I know that having not watched the game? It has come up in every conversation since. Mexico got drunk and sad for a day; and now we can all move on. If I was not a missionary and in the same situation, I can't say for certain that I wouldn't have pulled my phone out a few times either, haha.

This week, we taught 27 lessons! So that was really great! Of the 14 new investigators we still had only Slim come to church. He passed his baptismal interview last night and is ready to be baptized next Saturday. We're extra jealous of him this week because he's going camping with the young men tonight. I want to go camping. I don't want to go camping as much as I want to be a missionary, but I like camping.

In other news, John and Hermalda decided to skip reading the Book of Mormon all the way through and jumped from 2 Nephi into the Doctrine and Covenants. Hermalda never lets John read, I think she's made it into Doctrine and Covenants 41 in 2 weeks. She's tearing through her reading and Juan is asking for another jumbo book that has letters big enough for him to read. We'll do our best! Their testimonies are growing very quickly, and it has a lot to do with their desire to share their testimonies with their family members. Everyone looked very sharp in their new white button up shirts yesterday too. I hope they keep it going!

In other news, we watched 2 dogs die in the streets this week. Well one was from the street, and the other was an investigator's that happened to be on the street. No cars involved, they simply collapsed and died. Heat stroke strikes again. I imagine the stray was really dehydrated, and the investigator's dog was a Huskie. Obviously, a dog designed to thrive in freezing temperatures will not do well at 110 degrees. It was a very pretty dog, though.

Finally, the Spanish branch got a new branch president called! Man! Nine weeks with the last president missing in action, no ward mission leader, and absent teachers I can't wait for brother Arana to kick everyone's butt into gear. I think we'll see a lot of progress come from this.

I studied blood in the scriptures for a few days this week. In Leviticus 17 it describes the process to do a sin offering, and it struck me that the blood of the living body was considered anciently and throughout all biblical time as the life of the creature. As the blood of animals was sprinkled on altars it of course was the sacrifice of life necessary to pay the price for sin and foreshadowed the ultimate and infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9 teaches us that almost all of the law is justified by blood. The description in, I want to say Luke 22, that describes the blood that was shed from the body of Jesus Christ as he voluntarily suffered the pains necessary to satisfy the demands of justice required by the laws of God brings even more significance to the shedding of his blood. The shedding of his blood was necessary to satisfy the law.

As an extension of this thought, this brings us into a more clear view of who we are. Yes we are sons and daughters of God, yes we have the eternal potential of everlasting increase, but we are also fallen men, and fallen men cannot die and satisfy the demands of justice through the shedding of their own blood because it is already our nature to die. Because every accountable one of us is fallen and will commit an error we have separated ourselves from God. There must be a means by which we can overcome our fallen state and receive reconciliation with God or the plan of God would be entirely frustrated.

Jesus Christ requires that we recognize our imperfections and our fallen state and come to him in humility (Ether 12). Then by relying on his strength and meeting the requirements of repentance he will grant us by his grace the needed reconciliation. We still sacrifice life for sins like in Ancient times. However in our day Christ asks us to sacrifice our life, all that we are, openly and freely in the service and worship of our God who is mighty to save.

I love you! I miss you!

Stay Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell

6.23.14 - Puchanga

That's a big ol' party. We saw a kind of party yesterday in the church. The second councilor in the Spanish Branch Presidency was overjoyed to see his daughter reactivate in the church and bring her husband and two daughters to the waters of baptism. Brother G's wife was even more thrilled and threw a puchanga after the baptismal service with some elaborate decorations, brisket, punch, and gifts for everyone who came. It had kind of a quincenera flavor to it. Well, that's what we get in a branch where the the vast majority of the members have been baptized within the last 5 years; a lot of people who don't know how it's supposed to be done, teaching new members how it shouldn't be done. Haha, and then there are 8 missionaries who try to quietly guide everyone back on the right track.

A first presidency announcement this week! Missionaries will be required to teach lesson 5 of PMG Chapter 3 before baptism and will take charge in the re-teaching of the 5 basic lessons again following baptism in the proceeding 3 months. I think this will greatly increase the success of retention in the church.

We are still working with the "C", "S", and "G" family and I feel like we spent the whole week out on the streets just meeting more people, asking them who they knew and searching for the elect. The Contreras family has been hard to get a hold of, which makes me feel uneasy. The "G" family is doing really good, Ella was hearing a lot of chismes (gossip) at work this week and she said upon reading the story of Nephi and his brothers she received some answers and some extra strength. It's tough to keep Tad and Emilio in Primary. They both have their own attention span problems, and being 11 and a half they're already at the age where they're not too excited about Primary activities. Not to mention they know 0 songs and 0 people, we sat in with them yesterday and took them out for water and bathroom breaks frequently so they'd stop having anxiety induced bursts of rage, haha. It really was pretty comical for everyone, aside from the terrified primary president, including for Tad and Emilio.

The not so slim nephew of John and Hermalda, Slim Shady, came to church again yesterday and we had a lesson with his mom Juana this past week in the "S" home. John and Hermalda were testifying boldly the whole time and after starting the lesson as a cold shell Juana really opened up and instead of just consenting to the baptism of her son, she's committed to start reading the Book of Mormon and to come to church.

Elder Olsen and I received transfer calls last night ... 1 more transfer in Eagle Pass!! That's going to put me here for 6 months. I never that I'd be here so long, but I love it. I'm living in my refiner's fire.

The Lord requires us to look at all of the weakness he has given us, and then to put our faith and trust in him so that we can overcome those weaknesses. It is a game changer when we realize the things we struggle with are given to us from God, and given to us for the purpose of humbling us so as to direct us toward his powerful and merciful hand. We cannot trust in the arm of man, not even our own arm, and as we submit as completely to his will as he submitted to the will of his father we will be able to achieve a faith in him that is sufficient for salvation. Our faith starts with a desire, it is impelled forward with an action and if what we put our faith in is from God it will reimburse us a blessing and turn our desire into a hope. That hope is nurtured diligently until we have a true belief in the Word of God. Still, that belief is not the kind of faith God expects of us. Until that belief has been tried and tested, or until we've been buffeted sufficiently by the darts of the adversary so that like a tree in the strong wind we become unshaken and immovable our faith is not perfect in Christ. Don't ask for trials, but accept them when they come, because God will not tempt you beyond that what ye are to bare. Moving forward with a steadfastness in Christ might as well just say faith.

We had our concluding conference, "Faith in Finding" with President Slaughter this week. I'm grateful for the inspiration given to our leaders.

I love you and I miss you,

Ever Salty,

Elder Tyler Meidell

6.16.14 - El heuestio sabroso

The Funny Bone! I don't really have a story to go with this, but a better translation for the funny bone in Spanish is the the little flavorful bone. So, that's pretty funny.

We didn't teach a ton of lessons this week, but it was a really good week.

Elva and her boys were baptized!

I love this family. Tad and Emilio are the quirkiest little men I've ever met, but they have hearts of God. Their mom is the most nurturing person. She works in a foster home and takes care of many other people's children in addition to her own 4 and I couldn't be happier for them and the decision they made.

We found out Tuesday that she would be off on Friday, so we whipped together some invitations, a program, made all of the calls and got a baptism ready. It was announced at church so only the people who really mattered in their lives made it out, so it was a very simple and very pleasant service.

A big thanks to the "R" family for helping us! And congrats to them (They're expecting ... a baby)!

We were biting our nails to see if they would be confirmed on Sunday, and miracle would have it she got Sunday off as well. They're Mormon Primo! Haha, she said she was so nervous before getting confirmed she didn't sleep the entire night. There was no reason to be nervous, it was easy as pie.

Her cousin Jennifer--who everyone calls Carlos or slim--and who we call Slim Shady (which falls in line with the really rude Mexican culture that also nicknames really skinny people Gordo) came to church, plans on coming next week and is diligently studying the scriptures.

We didn't work last Tuesday because I got sick and was a little too feverish to ride the bikes. Something is going around the District, and now we're all left with hacking phlegm coughs.
Elder Rogers is dying in a week. We celebrated his birthday with him on Friday, haha is crafty mom, who i guess majored in chemical engineering, sent a box full of mason jars packed with chocolate zucchini cake. We frosted it and it was as fresh and delicious as could be. Haha, I couldn't help but think that anyone with some Zollinger blood in them would have come up with some similar cake shipping scheme (including not being able to resist putting zucchini in it).

​Happy Fathers Day!

I thought I'd just attach a part of our email from President Slaughter this week.

Today we too can remember our fathers: God, our Heavenly Father, the Father of our spirits, from whom we descend. Adam our first father, who fell that we might be. Noah our father with whom the priesthood covenant came through the great deluge. Abraham our father of the covenant whose blood runs through our very veins and whose promises are ours if we continue faithful. Jesus Christ, whose sons and daughters we become through spiritual rebirth. We truly are of a royal lineage. We have reason to greatly rejoice in our fathers and in the great blessings that come through them. I believe there is no other people on earth that have greater reason to celebrate fathers day than do we.

We have an inspired mission president, I am very grateful for his efforts in serving the Lord in the mighty TSAM.

Faith is a decision to exercise the hope we have in the saving grace of our Lord. Make the decision, and live by your faith!

I love you and I miss you!

Stay ever Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell