4.27.15 - Esta humido a 90 porciento

Hello Hello!

Spring is gone. It's 98 degrees outside and super humid. There were some freak storms throughout most of the week, and I saw some video of a tornado touching down in pleasanton texas and throwing some palm sized hail around. It was a really great week this week guys, I really couldn't ask for much more.

I went on an exchange with elder White who's from Las Vegas. I actually met him when I went to boys state the summer before senior year. He's the guy everyone wants to hang out with on Pday because he's so funny. He served as a moving Elder for 5 transfers and is now one of our great district leaders. Moving Elders move missionaries in and our of apartments and take care a lot of the logistical. Plus, they get to drive the missions only Silverado. It was raining for about 2 hours pretty hard on Wednesday. We ended that day covered in mud from our bikes and passing cars. We taught a few children that day, and it definitely put us to the test to see if we could teach to the understanding of a 9 year old. I think we did ok, but honestly the dad was an active member and gave the girl all the answers. She'll be fine.

We gave a training on friday to the district leaders about teaching to the understanding of a class (or a district sized group of people) it's a little different than working one on one with a family.I think the hope is that if we can get our teaching up to par, we'll raise the standard of gospel principle teachers everywhere in the church, haha. It really came down to the preparation, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together i'm sure could have come up with that, but as far as establishing clearly what you want learned by the end of the lesson, how you'll explain and what questions you'll ask to the class so they come to the right conclusions, at the end from their comments it sounded like there was some progress. i'm excited to re-attend everyone's meetings this next week and see a change. They were inspiring meetings before, but I know there's more in these leaders that is yet to come out.

Saturday was a blessing-nightmare day. The Herrera's came to the Castor family's baptism, who the other elders have taught for 4 months. They arrived 40 minutes late so they missed the ordinance. They had previously committed to be baptized on may 2nd, it was kind of a soft date and we thought  their attendance to this service would really sure it up. They did stay for the little eat and mingle afterward and met sister rangel who is an older single lady. She tyranted for about 10 minutes about how bro herrera would be changed by his baptism and would have to give up his macho, drinking, abusive life and would become a more loving and gentle husband (sister rangel is divorced). He was looking to me a little offended like, "What is this lady talking about?" I returned a smile and a shrug hoping he'd understand i knew he wasn't like how she'd stereotyped him to be. We planned to have a quick lesson for 20 minutes about the law of tithing with bro calderone there, but it turned into a 2 hours conversation where ALL of their concerns came onto the table. It got pretty personal pretty fast. They almost gave up on us, but we finally settled on moving the baptism to the 16th after going through all of the baptsimal interview questions and trying to resolve a few more concerns like, why don't we ever open the scriptures in Gospel Principles class. They gave me a good scare where they didn't come to church until 30 minutes into sacrament, and they then left after the 2nd hour because the mom was really fighting with her 1 year old.

We had a good lesson with Margarita, and after reading how the people of Limhi were supported in their trials through the strength of God, a few inspired questions and a lot of silence she committed to come to church even though it started at the same time as her previous church. She did come and the gospel principle class not only opened up to the scriptures but it was on the atonement, and it seemed like she got a lot out of it. her story is interesting, we found her just shortly after her husband was arrested. They've been together for 42 years. She doesn't know why he was arrested, and doesn't know which prison he's being held in. She's now trying to figure out how she's going to pay bills since he was the primary income earner and they have a few grandkids that live there with them that are about 18. she knows we're representatives of jesus christ, and now it really falls on us to figure out what is the next thing she needs to learn.

I love this work. I love being a missionary. God lives.

I love you!
Stay Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell

4.20.15 - Que es una enchilada sin la tortilla?

In our attempts to be even more comprehensive in our teaching to the least educated parts of San Antonio i may or may not have taken a step too far in over simplifying the doctrine. When teaching baptism it was not being grasped that baptism was not baptism if not done be God's priesthood authority. Explanations didn't cut it, scriptures and pictures got us close, and finally i just said, "What's in an enchilada?" well there's tortilla cheese and salsa, "and if you make an enchilada without a tortilla what's left? an enchilada?" Well no that's just cheese with salsa on it. So that's like baptism without god's priesthood. ohhh, ok. "Great, let's move on." I'll try and work on a more scriptural approach before I make that my standard.

Elder Christensen is an excellent companion. He's been out a transfer longer than me, and will go home after just 2 more so He can be ready to start up his junior year at Westpoint. He's very smart, and very hard working. He was just assigned to serve as a Zone Leader but it doesn't really seem like I need to train him on how to do anything other than the small procedural chores we take care of each week.

I was on a 3 day exchange with elder hill after we'd dropped Elder Scott off to go head home and that kept us busy working our 2 wards together.

I don't know if I've told you very much about the Herrera family yet. they came to church after an invitation on the street a month ago and haven't missed a Sunday yet. They said they're committed to stay in the church, but are hesitant to set a baptismal date. They finally stayed for the first 3 hours yesterday, and Bro. Hilario taught a powerful elders quorum lesson on how relying on the word of god from the scriptures offers you spiritual power to provide for the needs of your family. We're hoping that kicked Lorenzo into gear so he can continue past the first few chapters of Nephi. They were pretty ready to accept the Word of Wisdom, we'll need to follow up this week to see if they actually threw out their coffee, and I just realized they wrote down on the Sunday School attendance their names with different last names so i'm really hoping the law of chastity doesn't turn into a big fiasco like it sometimes does. They don't get along all of the time as is.

Aside from that Drama, we've been blessed to find a few other great families that seem like they're really prepared. It's never a bad day when in the serve of the Lord.

I love you very much!
thank you for your support!

Be Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell

4.13.15 - Para que entiendan

Well hello there!

Time is just flying. I cannot believe we got transfer calls again. I'll stay in the Las Palmas ward another 6 weeks, and I'll receive a new zone leader companion. Can't wait!

The big focus for us this last week was, unintentionally, relying on the spirit. That really just sums up missionary work. Maybe we were just finally doing our job. We needed to take a few hours worth of notes we'd taken from MLC last week and convert those into training we'd be giving on Thursday from 8am to 1 pm. It felt like we had to take a crash course on things we still weren't very confident in quickly become experts so we could turn and answer the younger missionaries questions. the problem was it wasn't just principles on how to teach, we covered things like the harmful affects of comparing, self-doubt and ill-speaking of the Lord's annointed. Through much prayer, study and discussion we hopefully bettered ourselves in the process. The last one really struck me, because President called it a cancer that had to be cut out from the mission. We are the Lord's annointed for this time, and so belittling our abilities or our calling is to speak ill of those whom god has chosen and qualified. The discussion was not to pump up the missionaries by any means and send them home with their heads held high, we reminded them in whom they trust and depend for their success. We reminded them in who's name we act and in who's behalf we act. We hope we can all "Rely wholly upon he who is might to save."

We did teach some teaching skills. PMG Ch.10 under resolving concerns gave us the chance to work on all the things we'd done previously, such as practicing scriptures, teaching simply, asking inspired questions. It also added the new element of determing where doubt was really coming from. Normally concerns are social. They also either stem from a lack of testimony or a lack of commitment. Isolating the root of the concern helps us to know how to best address it.

As we've tried to be better at these things ourselves we've seen that there is a LOT more silence as we let people think and let the spirit, the true teacher, work within our investigators. it's been a powerful change. People have made some connections on their own that we originally had been, I don't know.. making too easy? Responses like, "So the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints is the only church that has God's Authority?" Has really made it feel like all of the practicing paid off.

I'd love to tell you more, but we're going to run to malt shop to eat lunch with elder Scott because he's going home tomorrows.

I love you very much!

Stay Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell

4.6.15 - Coferencia General de puro espanol

We watched the Saturday morning session through the Sunday morning session in Spanish. My notes for the first few talks were going great, I was keeping up and was able to write and listen at the same time. Nearly an hour into the second session I was really starting to strain and was losing words in every few sentences. My notes for the following sessions suffered. I really liked the dynamic of having a translator for the prayers which are done in real time, and there were a few instances in the Saturday sessions when the translating was just gone for nearly 20 seconds and you could hear equipment getting jostled around in some room in Salt Lake. My Favorite part of the translation was during the closing testimony of one speaker on Saturday Afternoon, the translator felt the power of the words he spoke and became very emotional while the speaker continued unwavering. The hardest talk was definitely Elder Christofferson. His vocabulary was far far beyond my 4th grade spanish.
I got a giant egg for Easter! It was so big! Plus it was full of goodies my whole apartment is enjoying.

I also got to serve with Elder Hart who's about to finish his training while elder masters served with Elder Hall and Elder Drennen.

Elder Hart is great to serve with, he has a gentle heart. he's very sincere, and just good natured.
At MLC on Friday we learned more about how the true teacher is the spirit. I set the goal while watching conference to make the decision every day to look for more light, to gain just that much more understanding by the spirit. it won't come to us unless we act as agents and search for it ourselves. We also learned a little more about how by living in such a way that the spirit is strong in your presence the spirit will correct others who are searching to better themselves. If they're not looking to improve.. well then there's the military's way to make you better, haha.

One quote i loved from conference which i don't know how well i can transalte said we can't cast out darkness by chastising it, we instead have to bring in more light. I hope to make that a bigger part of how we train new missionaries, and those that are still fighting to make the decision if they want to serve with ALL their heart, might, mind and strength.

The Herrera family is doing great, they came to general conference and sister funtez, a very experienced and loving sister in the ward, first offered to take their 1 year old so they could focus on the speakers (their kids were still going a little crazy) and that turned into a nightmare. He cried as she left the sacrament room and she was blatantly uncomfortable awaiting his return. When she came back he was delirious and the mom made a rescue effort to soothe him. So that back fired. She later took out the 2 older boys and took them for a walk to pick flowers from the church grounds and play in the nursery which was much more successful. The older boys really took to her, and wanted to keep playing after the session was over. It seemed like the parents had a powerful experience listening to president uchtdorf and elder Holland. They said they'll prepare us a meal when we see them on Tuesday. We invited them to be baptized in the last lesson on the 25th of april, and they said that seemed a little soon so we said great, and we'll keep working with them.

I love you.
Stay Salty and Keep your Covenants.

Elder Tyler Meidell

3.30.15 - Las Casa Disfrazada

A surprise new investigator family made our last weeks efforts seem very gratifying. We were following the plans we'd set, and stopped by a former investigators house. He saw us and waved us over from across the street, but when we walked through his front door the house was totally quiet. He'd regretted inviting us in or something, because while we stood in his front room calling for him no one responded, or even made a sound. It was creepy. So we left and i remembered like i have numerous times before the words from President Challis to take time to stop, and assure that your plans are being guided by the spirit.

So we knocked on the neighbors doors and no one was home. I took another sweep of the street and saw some kids playing outside a few houses down. That's pretty conclusive evidence determining that parents are also home. the kids were funny and called their parents out for us and the mom was very friendly, and unlike a lot of people she did not have a lazy non-committal attitude. We didn't really teach her anything, we just asked if she wanted to come to church. She went to get her husband and when Lorenzo came out we had a little fear strike us because we've met a lot of nice women that get totally shut down by controlling unbelieving spouses. Lorenzo was really nice too! we only spent a few minutes with them, explained what church would be like, and of the 10 people who said they'd be at church on Sunday they're the only ones that came. I don't know how to translate "sus hijos son tremendos" but it gets the idea across that they cause quite a hastle for parents to control. Their 3 boys were having a fit in church, and i taught a woman in eagle pass who literally stopped coming because she felt so bad her son kept launching bouncy balls across the sacrament room. Therefore, being sensitive to the need of the parents to control their kids in public all we could manage were some mints and pens and paper. That worked for all of 5 minutes until they tore the paper to shreds. Then in came the angels.

Hna dominguez and Hna garcia, two of the sweetest old ladies you'll ever meet snatched the kids up and entertained them for the rest of the hour. That helped us a lot while we gave our talks on the organization of the church of jesus christ and the book of mormon as the converting tool of the gospel. Anyway, to get back to the disguised house, the family we taught lives in a shack. It's beat to death, and I think it's a south side tactic to keep people from stealing your stuff. The outside looks like homeless people stay there, and the inside is immaculate. All custom made by Lorenzo himself.

We had zone conference on Wednesday, it was ideas to help us teach so people understand.

We held a District Leader council on Friday so the district leaders could practice how to effectively correct their district members during role plays.

On sundays we eat with the Hilarios, and they consistantly prepare us so much food we don't eat lunch in preparation for the mammoth of a meal they make for us. It always is the best food I eat every week, and it was easily 3000 calories on its own. it took up 2 bowls and 3 plates...

saturday the ward had a plate sale fundraiser, and we attempted to organize a volleyball tourney. Their event was way more successful than ours, but it was fun getting to meet a ton of new people.

I love you!
Stay Salty!

3.23.15 - Santos Avanzad!

I can hardly believe how much we did this week, and how fast it went by. my gut is telling me this next week is going to go even faster.

I went on an exchange with Elder Fajardo. He's excellent. He said prior to being called on a mission he worked with a little government department doing research on new vaccines. His area has been struggling, but we found a family at 8:30 pm just before heading in for the night. based on his numbers I was just looking it they appear to have gone to church too, so i'll need to follow up with him on that.

I met a lot of drunk people this week. We met luis at about 1pm on saturday. He waved to us from the street so we went into the little drive way by his house. He was literally surrounded by bottles and cans of beer. there must have been more people with him the night before, because there were easily 30 bottles scattered across the ground. His family said we hadn't slept all night, and when we got over to him he must have come to an understanding of how drunk he must have looked because he started jumping around doing a little dance while he kicked all of the beer bottles into a pile. Luis tried to get us to tell him if there were any single women at our church and then got mad and offended when i said there probably weren't any he would like. Anywho, we did teach his nephew and a friend and it turned out alright.

The Las Palmas ward has the fire right now. We send around a little calendar around during elder quorum and someone from the ward goes out to teach with us basically every night. Brother Sanchez taught the first lesson with us last Saturday and he definitely felt the missionary fire, he got to bear his newly formed testimony of living prophets and he's pumped about it.

There were a few days of planning where we did weekly planning for the members of the zone. We wrote out all 23 people and then talked about how they're doing, what their next step of progression is, and what we're going to do so they make that step by the end of the month.

We're working a lot on using the scriptures while we teach still.

For people i'm not too close with i'm pretty quick to try to build them up and let them know they're doing a good job. For people i know well, i usually take for granted their knowledge of my praise for the good work they're doing. So i'll just talk about all the stuff we're working on, and just assume they know i think they're doing a good job. So if anyone has any helpful hints for how to avoid that i would love a troubleshooter. Thanks!

We taught about 20 lessons this week and the Recendez family let us take their coffee can with us when after we taught the word of wisdom this alst thursday. Soo, that was awesome.

I love you!
Stay Salty!

Elder Tyler Meidell