Cuenta tus bendiciones! (Count your blessings!)

Hey Family!

Hey! It sounds like you had an awesome Halloween! I had totally forgotten about Halloween! Tanner, it looks like you need to lay off the French fries! Haha I´m glad you had a great night, and I´m glad you gave out hot dogs dad! That´s really a cool thing, like Christopher said, I´m CONSTANTLY amazed. The more I learn, the more i´m impressed with my Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncles and Aunts. We were out with a member of the bishopric last night, and I was telling him how that´s one thing i´ll DEFINITELY do when I get home, is just go sit with my relatives and talk! I never really made an effort to have a good relationship with too many of my relatives, and I kind of regret that!

They eat some crazy food here to celebrate the “day of the dead” called “Fiambre.” Fiambre is a big mix of tons of different kinds of food. To me it looked like a big salad. I totally wanted to try it but it had pig meat so we couldn´t. Oh well! Haha They don´t celebrate Halloween here by trick-or-treating very much. A lot of the different churches have called it evil and stuff, as well as it´s just straight up too dangerous! The gangs and stuff really make the most out of that, and it´s just not worth it to the people. It gets a little too “REAL.”

I´m so glad you were able to find Yisel! She´s the coolest ever, she´s just an awesome person. She helped so much with mission work here in Monte María… She was always praying and taking us to meet people in her colony and her ward, and she will be so thankful for what you have done for her! Her mom grabbed my hand last week and was just crying and crying and said “Please tell your mom to take care of my daughter!!” I told her that I had already told you, and that you were on it! You´re awesome, thanks for everything. Her mom is awesome! She makes pupusas (food from el Salvador), and they´re DELICIOUS! So if you can whip up some pupusas for her, that would be great… haha Just kidding.

Well, I can´t even begin to explain the blessings we received this week! First of all, I did a bunch of baptism interviews, because the Elders in the district are baptizing like crazy! I was interviewing a certain Sister that I had had the opportunity to teach on divisions, and could just tell she was an AWESOME person. Well, I asked her who she wanted to baptize her, and she said she wanted me to do it! Just like last time, even though I think she´s awesome I felt a little funny because I wasn´t a constant in her conversion process. She said that´s what she wanted though, so I accepted! She and her husband were baptized, and it was such an awesome experience. They´re Carlos and Glenda in the pictures we sent.

THEN, when I thought I was receiving about all of the blessings I deserved and then some, we had a MIRACLE in sacrament meeting. Yesterday 8 people showed up, 4 of them being a mom and her kids that I had never met. She has been taught by elders for a while, but never could be baptized because she was living with her abusive boyfriend and he didn´t want to get married in order to live the law of chastity. She picked up her kids, and the lord just happened to place her here in our area! She showed up to church and said, “I´m ready to be baptized!” I still can´t believe it! I´ve just been in shock. We went and visited her yesterday and put 4 baptism dates. THEN we went out with the first counselor in the bishopric last night, and today we will be putting our 6th baptismal date for the month of November. Just two days ago we had been talking about our goals here in the area, and we put a goal of 1 baptism… haha The Lord is blessing us in HUGE ways.

Tanner, GO BIG! Seriously, it will be really really hard, but that´s the only way you´ll learn! That´s the best advice I have for you. Don´t ever think you´re not capable of doing anything. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO! I know that some things seem hard, but that doesn´t mean you should just take the easy road. You´re so cool! I´m so proud of you!

I just want to tell you all I love you so much. I´m loving life here in the mission, and even though I can´t wait to see you, and I love you all so much, I just love this mission thing! I´ll see you all WAY too soon… ha

Elder Micah Melville

P.S. this is the district!




Carlos and GLenda,
one of the little girls that just showed up to church wanting to be baptized!

WOW......

Ok, so I wanted to be all mature and make like I´m one of those weathered missionaries. You know, make it sound like nothing phases me right? Haha, Well, I opened those pictures you sent, and I can´t lie. I´ve been sitting here in the internet café squealing like a little girl for the past 5 minutes or so. Geeze, don´t do that to me! Haha WOW! Tanner, I admire you, you have some sort of gift that I was never blessed with… Maybe it´s persistence? Who knows! I was in a used clothes store the other day trying to convince a guy to buy some stuff from the owner (a member), and it made me think of Dad and his selling skills… I just don´t think I was too blessed in that area…

Family! Ok, really speaking though, I just want to tell you that I love you. The topic today in our district meeting was love… How we can use love to reach our goals, and really be the kind of missionaries we want to be. It was our companionship´s turn to give the message, and it was just a good, fun meeting! I´m really impressed with my companion. He did so well! We went around and every missionary had the chance to write in each other´s journals about things they admire in other missionaries, and all of that. It was really cool, and I just learned so much about love! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I can´t show it too well right now because i´m far away, but soon enough i´ll be home trying to figure out how to SHOW it, and not just SAY it.

Wow, so it´s been such a great week. A great week in the mission means of course it was as hard as all get out, because that´s how it is, but at the same time it means that it was SO rewarding. We found out last night that a big part of our area really isn´t our area, but the area of another companionship in our district. That kind of hurt a little bit, realizing that we´re just going to need to let the other missionaries teach all these investigators, but they´re incredible missionaries, who will do a great job, so it´s ok. One of those investigators is Maria Victoria, who decided she wanted to be baptized again… haha I´m not sure, but I guess I just wasn´t sent here to be baptizing a bunch of people! Almost EVERY time we get close SOMETHING happens. That´s the way life is, and we´re going to keep moving ahead.

We have a baptismal date with another guy named Jairo, i´m pretty sure you´ve already heard about him. He´s a great guy, and he´s really good at the guitar. He came to church yesterday with a complete suit, tie, and even a white shirt. What made me even more happy is that he came walking down the street when we were going to get him with his Book of Mormon in hand ready to go. Little tender mercies like these are so important here in the mission, as well as in life. I´m really thankful for him and his example.

Speaking of tender mercies, we have a new program in the mission, where the plan is to DUPLICATE the baptisms in this coming year. This is a huge goal, and actually has put a lot of pressure on the missionaries to reach the numbers each week. We are supposed to find 3 new families each week, or 10 investigators. Last night before our 2nd to last appointment, we had a whopping 1 new investigator… haha It was a little tough to go through the week not finding ANYONE! The thing is, our Heavenly Father is always there, and sometimes he will try us to see if we´re just going to keep going, or if we´re going to give up. THEN, if we do the things how he wants, or at least for the most part, he will reward us. We went in to our 2nd to last appointment last night, and the family was totally changing everything around in their house. So, we helped them a little bit, then went and sat down to teach them… They called in the rest of the family, and can I just tell you… The kids just kept COMING and COMING, and COMING, and COMING! We got up to 6 new investigators, when a completely different family that is living in the same house showed up! Last night the Lord blessed us with 9 extremely positive new investigators. They are the Family Rivas and Barrios, and we are SO excited to see their progress!

We´re having a huge activity here in the ward to get new investigators this Friday. All the ward members are inviting their friends to come to an open house in the church. Everyone always sees the mormon churches and talk about how nice they are, and we´re giving them the chance to come in and see one. We´ve printed invitations and have just walked the streets inviting everyone(that´s how we found The Rivas´ and Barrios´). All of the ward members are preparing a room that will teach a part of the plan of salvation, and the investigators are going to be able to come see and learn. We´re really excited, and I know it´s going to be great.

Well, It´s time for me to sign off! I love you all so much, and I never even realized how much my love for you would grow on my mission. It´s growing! Hang in there, and just know I love you all soo much! Christopher and Tanner, you´re so cool!

Love you much, see you wayyy too soon!

Elder Micah Melville

P.S. I was assigned to give a talk in Zone Conference, and Elder Clark is going to be there, he´s in a quorum of the 70, and gave a talk in conference not too long ago. OH GEEZE! Pray hard!

HEYY

Hey family!

Thanks a million for the emails! They were great!

So I don´t have much time, I received so many awesome emails, but i´ll try to do my best to give you all the update.

Today in our district meeting, the Zone Leaders, as well as the Assistents to the President came to the meeting. I´m not too sure why, but the assistents wanted to be with us, and wanted to do divisions with us today. All day today we´ll be doing divisions with them, so it´s been pretty crazy getting all of that planned. We were supposed to get the keys from the stake president today for the meeting, and we had it all planned, but he went running to work, and forgot to leave the keys! haha of ALL times to start district meeting late, it was today. We had to make the zone leaders wait a little bit, but everything turned out great. It´s just been a crazy morning and I feel like my head is spinning! haha

So we´ve had a great week. We put another baptismal date with a guy named Jairo. He´s 21 and a really good guy. He lives with his family in a house that looks like fort knox. This was the house that we contacted and they said they didn´t want anything... But I told them they needed to listen to us before denying us the opportunity. Well, it worked! He has a date to be baptized the 31 of October, and we´re doing our best to make it happen!

We´ve been working SO hard, and trying our best to find new investigators. That´s been our big problem. We realized that having to hide from investigators so that they will open the door and let us into their house to teach them probably isn´t the way the Lord prepared it, but we´ve got to figure out the ones who are chosen and who aren´t. I just hope and pray that we can do better with that.

We´re planning a big open house in the church on the 30th, and i´m really just hoping and praying that it will work! I´m hoping the lord will bless us so that we can find these chosen people.

Tell Jesse Lanham thanks for the email, I think he´s so cool and miss him like crazy. Elder WALDO! haha how cool is that. He´s such a great guy. LOVE YOU MUCH! SEE YA!

Elder Micah Melville

It's Going Too Fast!

Hey Family!

Thank you so much for emailing, like always! I really appreciate it. There are latinos here in the mission who don´t get emails from their families every week! Can you believe that? Internet isn´t very accessible here in the homes of the people, so you have to go pay money at an internet café. I´m pretty sure that´s just kind of hard for some of the families of the missionaries… So I just want to tell you THANKS! I really appreciate the emails and support I receive every week! It´s awesome, and I´m always so happy to hear all of the little details of what is going on at home!

Sorry I haven´t been too detail-oriented in these past few emails. I just feel like being in Patzicia messed up my email writing! I got used to not having many investigators to tell about, so now even though we are teaching a bunch of people, I just forget to talk about them! I´ll try to dedicate this email to the details! I hope you didn´t worry too much about my last email, we follow the spirit and do what we feel is the safest thing to do, and if we don´t feel good about it we just don´t do it! Oh, and the showers are the same in just about all the houses here except for Boca… I already was spoiled and now it´s time to just enjoy the showers how they are! Ha We´re safe don´t worry!

OK.. Your questions! Christmas package? Seriously, i´ve been thinking about that, and I know exactly what I want you to do. I feel like I don´t need anything! There is a girl from our ward here in Monte María that is coming to the Provo MTC at the end of October, and then after that will be going to the mission on Temple Square. How cool is that? Her name is Yisel Pérez (it´s like Giselle), and she is AWESOME! She has one of the strongest testimonies I´ve heard down here in Guatemala, and has helped us SO much with the work down here. I want you to not worry about sending me a package, and just spoil her to death in the MTC! She´s not going to be getting any packages from home, and so that would be AWESOME if you could do that! I´m just loving life here in the city, shopping at GNC and País(It´s the Wal Mart down here in Guatemala. It´s not the same, but just about!), eating beans, rice, pasta, eggs, tortillas, and just loving every minute of it! I don´t need protein, I can buy it here. The only thing I can´t get here is ama ama! haha. We´re eating at some little food restaurant by the house because the members that live close can´t cook for us. It´s cheap... but it works! (They have REALLY good broccoli. Just ask Jesse… haha!)

Our church is the Stake Center, it´s a big beautiful building, one of the newest in Guatemala as far as I understand. We live right down the hill from the building, and we have a lot of the missionary meetings there, so we´re always running back and forth getting the building ready to have interviews, meetings, and conferences. We got to watch all of the sessions of conference, and I´m still just loving every second of it! I just hope and pray you can get on the internet and print out some talks and study them! They´re so good, but they´ll be boring if you don´t spiritually prepare yourself first… 3 Nephi 17.

We had 2 new missionaries come into the district this change, one who has a change less than me and is an AWESOME missionary, and another new missionary. We have an awesome district and had a great district meeting this morning with inspired questions!

Mom, we found out Felix is incredibly catholic, and we just can´t see the potential in him changing… He would just kind of want to contend a little bit, not too much but enough to the point that we decided it was better to keep looking for those who are prepared in the area.

RICKY! I can´t believe you had a one hand slam dunk in a game! Haha I was telling an Elder just this past week how cool you are and how much I used to LOVE coming to your games and watching you play. Don´t let people try to take your feet out from under you or anything though, you can´t get hurt! Seriously though, that´s sooo cool! The dream you had sounds kind of interesting… I realized in Dad´s email today that WAY too soon we´ll be able to see each other again… but not soon enough! Haha I miss you like crazy.

TANNER! Hey buddy, why are we too cool for Elder Melville now!? Are you too busy chatting with all your girlfriends!? Haha I hope you´re loving life in JR HIGH and choosing the right. STAY STRONG and DON´T be doing anything you shouldn´t be. IT´s not worth it! I love you soooo much and miss you like crazy.

Hey, I´m just wondering if you can get on iTunes or something and download –A Paupers Himnal- by Kalai, as well as a song called –I´m just wondering- It´s an EFY song or something. Just buy it because I have it on CD here. Thanks!

Well Family, We´re here in Monte María working hard. I can hardly believe it´s almost been a year… In some ways it feels like a LOT longer, and then in other ways it feels like it´s been WAY too fast. I just hope I can learn everything that my Heavenly Father wants me to, and be who he wants me to be. We have a bunch of investigators who are learning a lot, and some are starting to progress! We improved a lot in our new investigators found last week, but the investigators we have just have a TON of obstacles in front of them before they can be baptized. We found one who had disappeared, named Byron Salguerro, yesterday in church! He just showed up! He was one of those who was going to be baptized but had some big obstacles and just left. We have an appointment with him tonight and i´m so excited. We´re teaching Maria Victoria still, and she has some problems with the Sabbath day, so she couldn´t be baptized. We´re teaching a family of 4 named Hugo, Maribel, Bryon, and Hugito. They´re the coolest family and have received answers to their prayers, but aren´t married and the Dad is working and studying so he can´t come to church. It´s been hard, but SO fun being able to help these people come to know Christ. I know that if we put Christ first in EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING else will just fall into place, but if it seems like it isn´t falling into place, it eventually will.

I have to go, but I love you all so much! Thanks for everything, and just know i´m thinking about you and missing you a lot.

Elder Micah Melville

P.S. We saw a bunch of swat guys waiting in FULL armor on the way to Internet today. There were some protests because people don´t have water… SO CRAZY!

RICKY TEACH THAT LESSON LIKE YOU MEAN IT! STUDY AND REALLY LEARN IT! YOU¨RE A STUD! SHANKS DOOD!

Hola Hola!

Hey family,

HEY! Thank you so much for the emails! I really appreciate your support as always, and I can´t even begin to describe how awesome it is having people who are writing me every week, but not only that, praying and showing their support in so many ways. I really appreciate you all so much, and I just want to tell you that I LOVE YOU!

Last night we were in an appointment with a member of the bishopric, and I found myself telling them the story of my Dad, the popcorn man! haha they were laughing, and thought it was funny to hear about ¨el hombre de poporopo.¨ Also, yesterday morning I was telling my companion the story in english. Remember how we´d always get the red wagon out, fill it with popcorn, and if there was room for us we´d get in or just walk around the neighborhood giving everyone their ¨Sunday Night Popcorn?¨ haha That has left a huge mark on my life, and I´m so thankful for Dad´s awesome example. I think that helped us as a family a lot more than it did anybody else. THEN we could talk about ¨Melville Mingle.¨ Good times.

Christopher, I cannot believe that Thurl Bailey walked into your government class! hahaha I would pay BIG MONEY to see the look on your face! That is the coolest thing ever. It´s too bad you can´t go, do you have to give the shoes back? haha

Tanner, I´m glad to hear you are still practicing your ping pong skills, practice up! Just wait until I get back home and we´ll have to play.

So, having a new companion with me has really helped me realize a lot! I feel like i´m starting to get used to life in Guatemala, and the crazy things we see EVERY day just don´t fase me too much anymore! The other day we were in an appointment with an LA Gang Banger. He is covered with tats, and speaks English really well. We asked him why he had come down to Guatemala, and we got a whole lot more information than we were bargaining for... He told us that he had come down because someone killed his cousin down here in our colony, and he came back to take care of him(the guy who killed his cousin).haha I just thought, ¨Wow, that´s kind of intense!¨ We just kept teaching and left, and I didn´t think too much more about it. A little bit later my companion was saying, ¨That is so crazy!¨ I didn´t even think twice, he was even telling us stories about how he was in prison, and the stuff they have to go through in there in the prisons. haha Just thought that was kind of funny.

Also, my companion helped me realize something else that isn´t quite normal. There aren´t water heaters here in Guatemala like the ones in Utah, they are little things on the showerhead that connect to the electricity in the wall and heat the water right over your head. Every now and then when you touch where the water comes out it gives you a little buzz! haha My companion touched it and told me about it. He´s helping me realize a lot. Please don´t let this worry you, I really just feel like i´m starting to become a Guatemalan!

I felt so blessed to be able to hear the conference. One of my most favorite talks was from Richard G. Scott, on saturday morning. He spoke a lot about revelation, and how we can receive personal revelation. I learned so much and just could FEEL it. That´s what I love. We can receive personal revelation in our lives, but we just have to pay the price!

We are teaching someone named Maria Victoria. She is a lady who lives in the ¨projects¨ i guess you could say. Her son just went to sneak into the states illegally, and has been really worried for him. She´s progressing a lot and doing really well in the gospel, but the challenges just keep trying to knock her off her feet. It´s amazing seeing how much satan doesn´t want these people to know about the truth, and even more participate in the saving ordinances. She has a baptismal date for the 10th of October.

It´s about time for me to go, but I just want to say thanks for everything. I love you all so much, and miss you a ton.

See ya soon!

Elder Micah Melville

P.S. We didn´t have changes, we´re still here working hard in Monte María. =)

Hey Family!

Hey Family!

Thanks a ton for the emails, how awesome is everything right now? I’m really glad to hear that even though things aren’t perfect, you’re hanging in there and you’re making the best of it! Dad, i’m really sorry to hear about your work. Don’t let people make you mad... haha I thought I was somebody who didn’t get mad, but when people totally disrespect you and what you believe in, I’ve found i’m Ricky’s brother and I have a little bit of my Mom in me! haha.

The other day we were contacting, and we knocked the door of a house that looks like fort knox. It has every little security feature imaginable, and just to open the door you have to go through a series of locks and all kinds of things like that. That’s how scared the people here are, and that’s how bad the delinquency is... It’s really sad. It’s been a little bit hard for missionary work because the people just can’t trust anyone. Anyways... We were contacting and the people said, “Who?” and we said “LOS ELDERES!” and they said “NO GRACIAS!” Well, we had been hearing that a LOT and I was kind of getting sick of it. I yelled back, “You don’t even know why we’re here and what we’re doing! How can you just say no?” (Or something along those lines). I was expecting them to just ignore us or something, when someone came to the door! Turns out we’re teaching a guy named Jairo who lives there and he came to church yesterday! Who knew?

Today we had our last district meeting of the change, and It was pretty sad, because there is an Elder named Elder Velasquez who will be going home to Honduras next week from our district. It was his last meeting, but we really enjoyed it a lot. We gave testimonies in English, did some other business, and we watched a video about John Rowe Moyle. He is the one who carved the “Holiness to the Lord” in the Salt Lake Temple. He lived in Alpine, Utah, but because of his calling he would walk repeatedly from Alpine to Salt Lake City... He’d WALK! THEN, his leg had to be amputated. Well, He made himself a wood leg, and then kept doing it! All of this he did because of his calling. I’ve really been trying to apply the principle of sacrifice in my mission and put others first, my calling, and the Lord. I’m not too great at this but I’ve learned a lot. It hit me that he would WALK, when we don’t even have it in us to drive up to SLC to hear the prophets voice in person during conference... wow.

I couldn’t believe some of the stuff you told me in that email! I don’t want to talk about it too much but that’s just crazy! Christopher at homecoming, Dad seeing all of the muslim people, Uncle Nathan seeing the branch president in Turkey? Everything else too. Wow. I love you all so much and i’m so thankful that you’re sharing these things with me!

So I realized something the other day, and it really just kind of hit me. I feel like it’s probably something I should have learned before, and I know you all probably know about this, but I feel like I have been looking and looking for “the secret” to applying the atonement in my life. I have obviously almost always known that you need to repent, and use the steps of the gospel including faith in christ, repentance, baptism, receive the holy ghost, and endure to the end, and that’s what you need to do to return to our Heavenly Father. I was looking and looking for another way. I was studying the atonement when all of a sudden it hit me... THAT is the way to use the atonement. THAT is the big “secret.” There isn’t another way to do it, like praying for certain things, or anything “different” like that. The big secret is to follow those 5 steps, being sure that you’re doing them with faith, and that is how you use the atonement! Ha It’s so basic, but it really hit me hard.

Also, this week, I found out the gospel is a VERB. Kind of like those channel 1 commercials that say “Verb, it’s what you do!” That’s how the gospel is! It’s all about what we’re doing! Not necessarily about what we know, but it’s all about what we’re DOING! THAT is why we leave commitments with the investigators. Not so that they can hear a pretty message, but so that they can CHANGE and DO the things they need to do. Don’t you just love the gospel!? I love it.

I just want to tell you all thank you so much. I really appreciate the support that you give to me every day, and I think about you a lot. Thanks for your prayers. Like I used to say at the beginning of the mission... I can feel them. That’s why I love the gospel as well. The way it feels. When you DO it, APPLY it, you can FEEL it.

The area is improving, and I am really excited to see the differences. We’re working with a Maria Victoria right now. She has a baptismal date for the 10th of October. We put the date with her and right after, her whole life just started to cave in and she’s having a lot of problems... You can see the adversary is working hard too.

I love you all so much, Just so you know it’s going to be a little bit longer because this Monday is changes... Also, there isn’t pouch anymore, don’t send any letters to the pouch address in SLC, just send them straight to the office here in Guatemala.

Love you much, see ya soon!

Elder Micah Melville

One year ago today I gave me farewell talk... WEIRD. Way too fast.

My companion is the tall blonde!







HEYY here are some pictures... ANTIGUAAA... Notice i'm there with Elder Patterson....

Hey Family!

Hola Familia,

Hey! How´s everything going? Great I hope. Thanks for the emails, Like always, I can´t get enough! I love hearing about your lives and everything that´s going on! It´s good to hear that you´re doing great!

Ok, I´ve just got to get this off my chest once and for all... I went and bought some kimchi! I was so excited, and it tastes pretty good! The cockroaches just LOVE that smell for some reason... I wonder why. haha jk.

Dad, it sounds like you had a really successful show, i´m really glad that everything went well. I love that even in the hard times if we put Christ first, everything else just works! I feel like I haven´t done that enough lately, and i´m trying to figure out how to come closer to him, and really come to know him. Thanks for the email! I can´t believe BYU got torn up by FSU! Do they just get too prideful?

Christopher, thanks a ton for the email. I´m really excited you got to see Jesse speak! Isn´t he awesome? I loved my patriarchal blessing, it taught me a lot and still does. If you feel like you should get it, GET IT! Pay the price before though, and be SURE you´re full of the spirit. Prepare for it in advance, read your scriptures with sincerity, fast, and do all that, it will make it such an awesome experience. Keep being an awesome kid, just know I love you so much!

Tanner, hey buddy! It sounds like you´re doing so well in school! 3.8! I can´t believe it! Tell Mr. Panee you´ve got to get your grade up and make it a 4.0! haha I remember the good old days with Mr. Panee. Does he still count the wasted time and make you pay it back? I remember sitting by Curtis Mitton and we looked at eachother and couldn´t stop laughing when we were supposed to be quiet! Oops! haha Keep being good, I love you so much.

Mom, I´ve been thinking about you a lot lately, and all of the sacrifice you´ve made in your life for others... I just wanted to say thanks. You´re such an incredible example of putting others first, and just LOVING them, and not worrying about yourself. I´m trying SOO hard to follow your incredible example of CHARITY. It´s not easy, and the more I try the more I realize how awesome you are. Thank you so much.

It´s been a definite challenge for me, trying to be on top of EVERYTHING this past change. There have been so many things that have really tried and tested me, and I just hope and pray to my Heavenly Father that i´ve done what he would have me do. We´ve been working hard, and even though our numbers don´t look too hot, I know that really that isn´t what matters the most.

Like i´ve always said, the Lord will try us before giving us a blessing. I had 2 awesome tender mercies of the lord this weekend, and It just helped me to remember he´s here for me! He´s helping me and guiding me.

I was doing a baptismal interview, and the little boy I was interviewing said, ´I WANT YOU TO BAPTIZE ME!¨ haha I told him, ¨you don´t even know me! areyou sure?¨ He said yes! and I told him to talk to his family and then let me know. SUre enough on Saturday I baptized him! This was just a little tender mercy of the lord. Even though I didn´t do too muchto prepare him, I just felt happy.

On sunday we had 7 investigators in church! Can you believe that? It reminds me of the Boca days, where we were SO blessed. The blessings are always there if´you´re doing what you can, it doesn´t matter where you are.

I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!! Have an awesome week,i´ll see ya soon!

Elder Melville

Buenos Dias

Hola Familia!

Hey! It´s been about a week or so, and it´s been crazy how fast the time has gone. Thank you so much for your emails, I really appreciate them so much. I was incredibly sad to hear about Ryan Alder. I can´t even believe how hard that would be, and I hope that everything is going well in the ward, and with the Alder family. I´m so thankful for the Plan of Salvation, as well as modern day revelation, that helps us really understand our purpose here on the earth. He was an incredible person, and it´s obvious to see now was his time to go on to the next chapter of his life.

Thanks again for the emails! I love getting the emails and being able to read about how everything is going. I found out about the BYU game last night and couldn´t even sit still! My companion and I were both kind of freaking out! Even though he´s from Oklahoma he wanted BYU to win, so it was really cool! I´m so excited for BYU, hopefully we can have an awesome season this year. You´ll have to let me know where BYU is ranked in the polls.

So I have something kind of funny to tell you! The other day we were in a little bit of a rich area contacting some houses. We were contacting and contacting, and even though the people didn´t want much we were just enjoying it. We saw a sign with a bunch of oriental writing on it, and we knocked the door. Out came a guy who has a Korean Restaurant... But not only that, he´s korean! haha He said he doesn´t understand Spanish or English very well, so he wasn´t interested. We found the solution to that really quick and I told him i´d be passing by with a korean Book of Mormon. haha I was just loving everything minute of that, how cool is that, I´m meeting people from Dad´s mission country here in Guatemala. A few doors later we knocked a door, and it was another Korean guy! It turns out there´s a Korean colony thing in our area, and they all assist the korean catholic church together!

This second guy couldn´t speak spanish though, so I pulled out some of my bilingual skills and decided to start preaching in korean. haha I was all trying to say an yang hasim nikka, and he just kinda laughed and rolled his eyes. We went in and it turns out he has a store of ALL THINGS KOREAN. Kimchi, Choco pie, those little pocky sticks, even down to Korean toothpaste. I bought some little candies, we talked a little bit of spanglish and left. He wanted to know what we were doing and everything though, so i´m going to have to find the Book of Mormon in korean! haha The next time I go i´m going to buy some kimchi. My companion had a korean room mate and is a little worried about the smell or something, but i´m so excited! haha

Everything is good here in Guatemala. We had our district meeting today and it went really well. We´ve been trying to make our district meetings a lot more espiritual so that we can have that extra boost and spiritual strength to help us through the week. Everyone is trying to bring inspired questions that will help us learn the doctrine, and we have already had some awesome experiences. Things are a lot busier, and I just have a lot less personal time. It´s ok though, I really like it a lot better this way, just trying to dedicate everything I have to the Lord. I´m not too good at that yet, but It´s teaching me a lot. The district leader just makes sure everything is good with the district, and directs district meetings, calls every night to make sure everyone got home safely, takes numbers, stuff like that. It´s really not too big of a deal but it´s taught me a lot.

Elder Lewis is awesome, he speaks spanish really well, and I really am happy to have him as a companion. Yesterday he kind of got a little frustrated with a family and was speaking VERY strongly and VERY bluntly about how they need to be reading because it was the best thing in his life, and they needed to know it too. I loved it though, and i´ve learned a lot from his sincerity and desires to help people progress. Hopefully this family will start reading!

Tanner, it´s SO weird to me to think you went to a school dance! hahaha AND you danced with a girl! weiiirrrddd... You´re growing way too fast! Awesome though, I hope you are enjoying junior high and gettting good grades! Read your scriptures before you study anything else. I´m serious, that will help you so much! I miss you a ton too Tanner, and love you so much!

I´ve been studying a lot about ¨real intent¨ lately and why I do the things that I do. Do I go to church really to receive revelation and learn from my Heavenly Father? Or do I go because that´s just what I have to do on sundays... Do I read my scriptures and study every morning to really learn and grow and come closer to my Heavenly Father? Or am I doing it because President Baldwin might get mad if I don´t... When I pray am I praying with faith, KNOWING and BELIEVING that my Heavenly Father is listening to me, trying to help me become better? or Do I pray just because that´s what all the other good little elders do... It says in Moroni 7 that if we are doing things for the wrong reasons it´s just like we´re not even doing them at all... Which to me is really interesting! If we can do everything we do with sincerity of heart, with real intent, really having the desires to come closer to our Heavenly Father, he´s going to really show us he cares. We´re going to be able to FEEL it. I love that so much.

So I just wanted to tell you all how much I miss Elder Lanham... I´m not even kidding. This girl in our ward started talking about this Elder who came and could speak JUST like a latino. I knew right then who she was talking about, and said OH MAN THAT´S ELDER LANHAM! haha Then I showed her the little picture that I have on my Book of Mormon cover and we talked about how awesome Elder Lanham is. It´s just not the same without him in the mission, and I really miss him a ton. He´s famous even in the areas he wasn´t assigned to!

Just so you know ricky, I see Elder Patterson all the time. We´re both training together in the same zone, and I love him so much! We´re buddies and we´ll definitely have to hang out after the mission. I see him just about every Tuesday.

Well, it´s time to sign off, but just know I love you all so much, I think you´re all awesome and really appreciate your emails. I miss you all like crazy, but like always, there isn´t any work like this work and i´m so happy to be here!

Love you much,

Elder Micah Melville

Hey!

Hey Family,

How´s everything going? I´m so excited, the emails you sent this week were incredible. I´m so glad you got to see Elder Lanham! He´s such an incredible person, just being around him makes people want to be better. I´m not even kidding. You all know that by now. Thanks for the video! I opened it up and it was a little weird seeing you and hearing your voices! Don´t worry, it won´t make me baggy, I haven´t even had a chance to think about home this week, i´ve been SO busy. I love it like this!

Throughout my mission i´ve really thought a lot about how I can give all I have to the Lord. You know, heart, might, mind, and strength. I´ve really tried my best to do that, but obviously haven´t been perfect. I´ve realized what that really means though this past week! Haha Whether i´ve liked it or not i´ve been giving EVERYTHING just to keep up! I feel so good and happy, even though I feel like I need to improve in so many ways.

Christopher, I can´t believe you got a letter from the university of Pennsylvania… That´s awesome. Do you have an agent yet? Are you pro yet? Haha But really Elder Cunningham´s dad was asking if you needed an agent. They´re going to email you all I think. Congratulations!!! I hope you had an awesome birthday, and knowing Mom i'm sure you did! I have a card here to send you, but I have had NO time at all! Sorry! I´ll see what I can do! Haha

Tanner, you almost got a boat? Haha I think you´re crazy. Thanks for the email, I hope everything is going well in JUNIOR HIGH! I can´t believe it! Just be yourself, and put Jesus Christ first. Don’t follow the crowd, but I know you´re awesome and will make good choices. How are all the Junior High girlies? Haha

Well, it´s been the craziest week ever… Baptism interviews, less active members showing up in our living room wanting to talk and wanting priesthood blessings around 7 in the morning while i´m in the shower, trying to help investigators progress, coming home and making phone calls in the night… It´s been a lot of work, and a lot of fun.

I´ve been thinking a lot about consecration and sacrifice lately, and i´ve learned if we really want to have the spirit, if we really want to FEEL our saviors love, we need to make sacrifices… The Lord will always be there to help us make it through, we just have to give ourselves up and let him mold us.

I already have to go, thanks for everything and just know that I love you like crazy. See ya later!

Elder Micah Melville

What a Week!

Hola Familia!

Hey! How´s everything going? Sounds like everybody is busy again, back in school! Christopher and Tanner, you´ll have to email me and let me know how it is going!

First of all, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Mom and Dad, I´m so thankful that you are my parents, and that you´re so awesome. I hope you´re going on dates once a week or something like that. I´ve seen too many families with so many problems thanks to
Satan´s temptations and influences. I´m not too worried though. Second of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Ricky! How old are you now? You´re going to be 17 on Sunday! Ha I feel like I should be the one turning 17… Time flies fast! Pretty soon you´ll be sitting in a little internet café in some other side of the world (Maybe China! Haha) trying to figure out how to work the keyboard to write us! Haha Thanks a million for the emails, I hope everything is going great in school! Keep praying and getting fathers blessings!

So I thought the week before was interesting, but can I just tell you the week i´ve had this week! I won´t lie to you, it´s been one of the hardest weeks in the mission, but also, one of the most rewarding. It was the last week of the change, and Elder Cunningham and I were working incredibly hard so he could finish strong, and so that I could finish the change strong and up and running for this coming change.

His parents came, and we went to get them at the airport. It was really interesting seeing how all of that worked out, their faces when they saw each other and everything. I thought it was going to be pretty hard seeing all of that, but I feel like I actually did pretty well. I didn´t think about home too much, just a little bit.

We went to Antigua on Friday, and the temple on Saturday. Normally you can´t just do that, but because Elder Cunningham´s parents were here and because he was going home we were able to go! Before that we had a day at the mission home because we were the most successful zone. I wanted so bad to get to Antigua Thursday night but being there on Friday basically took away all my chances to go the night before. Please tell Brother Lazerson thanks a ton, and sorry that we couldn´t make it!

So last week I was contacting a guy on the bus named Alex. He said he had to go really quick to get off where he worked. He grabbed my hand to shake it, and just sat there holding it for a while… I´m not sure why, maybe he felt something? I don´t know. Then he said goodbye and grabbed my hand to shake it again. It was kind of weird but I didn´t think anything of it. He yelled at the bus driver to open the door and he jumped out of the bus, and took 2 or 3 running steps. Right at this instant a truck came flying out of the middle of nowhere and hit him. The driver looked back and saw that he had hit someone and just took off running. My companion and I looked at each other after seeing all of this with mouths wide open, and my companion stood up and yelled at the bus driver to stop. We jumped off and I went running with one of the members to see the license plate of the driver, and my companion went back to help the guy out of the road and into the back of a truck. The driver ran and we couldn´t get his license plate, and an ambulance came and took Alex to the hospital. I could not believe what I saw, and just kept seeing him get hit over and over again in my mind that night. It was really tough for Elder Cunningham and I but we kept working and received a lot of help from our Heavenly Father. I´m so glad he´s there to help us and strengthen us in difficult times, because the difficult times just continued.
Pastors in our area went and talked to some of the investigators we are teaching and confused them, Investigators weren´t there, and a bolo was trying to pick a fight with my companion. We had a really tough day that day but we went and prayed and really felt the comfort we needed to keep going.

THEN, we were with Elder Cunningham´s parents, and his dad was driving here in Guatemala City. We were on our way to the temple and he went to turn right into a gas station. He didn´t realize it but a motorcycle was coming up really fast to pass us on our left side. He turned and totally cut the motorcycle off… The guy on the motorcycle ran right into us and went flying along with the motorcycle, and totally crashed into the curb by the gas station! I saw all this happen and just thought to myself, there is NO way this is all happening in the same week. All the little Guatemalan people swarmed us 4 north Americans wanting to see what had happened to the guy on the motorcycle. The Cunningham´s bought him new parts for his friends motorcycle, and he was ok. It turned out he was from EL CARMEN! My first area! I was totally excited and I invited him to English class with the missionaries there in Boca. He was actually really positive. Wouldn´t that be a cool baptism story? We baptized a guy that we took out on a motorcycle… haha

I sent a package with Elder Lanham of just a few little things for you all… There is a little purse/bag for you Mom, I hope you like it, a Guatemalan soccer jersey for Tanner, little bracelets for all the little cousins on Mom´s side, as well as for Christopher and Tanner… The bundle of bracelets that are wrapped in yellow and black are from Santiago Atitlan I think, and the other from Pana… I can´t remember actually, you can just say they´re from the banks of the Lake Atitlan. There are two little statues from Antigua, I think it would be cool for Dad´s office or Christopher and Tanner, whoever wants them! I bought those Germany shorts thinking it would be cool to represent the motherland, but realized that soccer shorts are SHORT! Hopefully they fit Tanner!

You have no idea how sad I was to see Elder Lanham go. He was such an incredible missionary, and has changed the way I´ve thought about a lot of things on my mission. It´s going to be tough not being able to see him, but I´ll always have him in my mind as i´m here working hard. Please tell him I love him a ton and that I can´t wait to hear from him! I was there with him to hear one of the families say goodbye that came to changes… His mom would be INCREDIBLY proud to hear the love that the people here in Guatemala have for him. As well as the missionaries.

Just when I was feeling the weakest after all the crazy events of the week, I received a phone call, telling me I had an interview with President at changes and that I needed to bring extra clothes… I wasn’t too sure what to think, but pretty soon I realized what was going on. I was going to go up to senior companion… Then I found out that wasn´t all. I was going to train a new missionary… That just about knocked my socks off thinking that I would be helping a new missionary… Then I found out that on top of that I was going to be the new district leader…. Maybe you should delete this paragraph, because I don´t really think it´s that important that other people know this… BUT Wow. Let´s just say i´ve already learned a lot, and i´m going to keep learning so much. My companion is Elder Lewis from Oklahoma, and is still learning Spanish. This is his second day in the field and he´s awesome. I´m really excited to help him and know he will be teaching me more than I could ever teach him.

I´ve got to run but just know i´m way happy here in my mission. I love it so much and i´m so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here in Guatemala amongst all these lamanites! Haha

Love you all so much!

Elder Micah Melville

The Story Continues........

Hola Familia,

Thank you so much for the emails. I love hearing from you and your emails always help me a lot to keep working hard and to help me to keep doing what I need to be doing. Keep them coming! Tell Sister Wise thanks a ton, as well as Brother Martinez for the emails, I appreciate them a LOT! I´m printing them out and i´m going to study them in a little more detail. Sorry there aren´t any pictures, I have the COOLEST picture from Santiago Atitlan here I want to send, but I can´t because my camera memory has a virus from one of the internet places and I can´t open the files. I´ll fix it though, hopefully yoú´ll be able to see. It´s me with a bunch of the guys in their special clothes just hanging out on a bench.

OK, I don´t even know where to start. This week has been jam packed - full of so many awesome stories and things that I really want to share. Of course, the weeks like this are always the weeks I barely have any time to write, SO i´m going to make this quick but the best I can.

First of all, we had a meeting with our district this morning, and Elder Lanham came because he´s the Zone Leader. I had the chance to hear his testimony again, and I can´t even begin to describe how much he has helped me, in his advice, and just everything he has done for me.

So you all remember the guy that we carried to church right? Well, we went to his house to visit him, and see if we couldn´t go teach him the lessons. The people he lives with were very cold and didn´t want us to go in and visit him... They were making up excuses and stuff and we left, but he came out and sent some kids to find us( There are three things i´m really growing to dislike: Pride, Dishonesty, and Alcohol). But we went back, and went in to his house. We were walking through this nice house, where there is a sign outside saying that one of the people that lives there is a doctor. I thought to myself, how awesome that he lives with a doctor to help him with his problems, and he is being taken care of!

Well, I found out REALLY quick that that wasn´t the case. We got to a little tiny room, with the door hanging off of the wall. We had to force the door open to get in, and almost tore it off just trying to get into the room. Once we got in I could not believe what I was seeing. He didn´t have ANY light, just a little night light to light up the whole room, hanging over a catholic picture of Mary. One step closer to the door and the STENCH hit me. It smelled HORRIBLE! We got in there and there was garbage EVERYWHERE. He told us how his family doesn´t help him and he just lives there alone in the dark. We couldn´t even stay in there long enough to teach it smelled so bad, and knew we HAD to do something.

We made it our service a few days this week to go help him. We found little bags of throw up, cigarrettes, cans of water that he drinks that had rotting, dead cockroaches, and a HUGE pile of clothes that smelled TERRIBLE! We went to the hardware store and got a light and switch and stuff, and set it up so he could have some light. We cleaned his room, and took just about all of his clothes out of his room and started washing them in the sink outside. We washed half of it, even down to his whitey tighties. OK so I washed some nasty whitey tighteys by hand... I guess you have to experience a little bit of everything to learn. haha He has HALF a toilet that he uses to go to the bathroom(It´s broken in half and he only has part of it) and we´re going to see if there´s anything we can do there... Not sure though. We just couldn´t sit down and not do anything, watching this guy slowly dying while his family just ignored him as they had their own nice little rooms, and lives completely different. We´ll see what happens, but that´s been the project. I still smell like his room I think, I can´t get it off me!

Ricky, I played basketball with some kids in the street last night and my team beat Elder Cunningham´s team, I just want you to know that you better watch out. haha jk.

Next week I won´t be writing until wednesday, because we have changes. The homecoming of my companion is on the 30th of August in West Valley. I´ll try to get the info.

We put a baptismal date with a new guy! I´m really excited, it´s for the 30th of August. Listen to number 7 on the Peter Breinholt cd it´s good.

I love you all so much and i´m so thankful for the plan of salvation. See ya soon!

Elder Micah Melville

Everything I learn makes me realize how awesome my family is to me

Hola Familia!

Hey! Thanks for the awesome emails, I opened the Pictures of the golf cart and just couldn´t stop laughing! I STILL can´t believe that. I´m glad you enjoyed Lagoon, and are getting all ready to start school again! That summer passed by so fast!

Well, can I just tell you how hard we´ve been working? The baptism didn´t end up working out. Silvia had an interview with Elder Lanham. She was worthy and all, but because of some problems she needs to talk to President Baldwin. She hasn´t had time to get an appointment to talk to him, but hopefully by the end of the month we´ll have everything worked out.

So our goal this week was to help as many of our investigators as possible get to church. This is always our goal obviously, but we put a lot more emphasis on that. We had worked hard and gotten 10 promises that the investigators were going to come to church. We were really excited, and on Sunday morning we got up and started running around the area waking everyone up and making sure they were ready to go to church. We were ALL over our area, and we were exhausted! We had done just about everything possible to help these people get to church, and we ran to get on the bus to go. Right there on the bus was a guy who can´t walk very well. He uses a walker and to walk about 20 steps it takes him probably 5-10 minutes. We had helped him to his house and helped him around a little bit during the week, and we invited him to church.

We had totally forgotten about the invitation we gave him(It was ward conference and we walked around with invitations), and remembered right as we got on the bus. He had walked all the way to the bus stop, gotten on the bus (That in and of itself is a process), and was on his way to church! We helped him off the bus, and realized we weren´t going to be able to make it to church on time if we let him walk on his own… SO my companion picked him up and carried him up a hill, at the top gave him to me and I carried him to the church!

I can´t deny the fact that I felt something really special yesterday morning as I was praying to my Heavenly Father for the strength I needed to carry this guy in my arms to church. The Lord gave me the strength I needed to do it, and it was just an overall awesome experience. After 2 meetings he told us he needed to leave, because he needed to visit some people who were sick! It was an awesome experience, and we have an appointment to go teach him later today.

So Elder Cunningham and I have been working incredibly hard. Last night we both got into the house EXHAUSTED! We have just been working hard, but loving life and having fun as we´ve been doing it, and the hilarious experiences just keep coming and coming!

The other day we got on the bus and one of my companion´s drunk friends was sitting in the back. In front of all the people on the bus the drunk guy jumped up, started yelling, and ran to my companion. With his arms wrapped around my companion he started yelling MI AMIGO! And making a HUGE scene in front of everyone on the bus. I just had to turn around and look the other way to control my laughter as my companion stood there BRIGHT red. My companion was a little bugged after that but I cannot stop laughing!

We had to go to an internet café to do a project we´re working on for the ward the other day, and there is a lady who is absolutely CRAZY who runs it. I know it sounds mean, but i´m serious, she´s a little bit off the wall. She walks around saying ¨BENDICION!¨ (Blessing) over and over as her way of greeting people, and as we were in the internet place she was talking about how she was dreaming of a field of white flowers which was so incredible because it means they are godly… Anyways, we were trying to get into this internet place, when as she was greeting us and telling us to go in, she grabbed my companion´s head and gave him a big kiss on the cheek! It´s the custom here when people greet eachother, but nobody does it to the Elders who knows better. As she was coming for me I stuck my hand out and grabbed her hand trying to avoid it… but she said ¨NO! BESO!¨ and grabbed my head and kissed me on the cheek. My companion and I have been constantly weirded out but laughing about this.

I was doing the dishes the other day, just thinking about something I had studied in Doctrine and Covenants 76. There is a verse that talks about overcoming by faith… I was thinking about how we´re here to overcome the natural man, and become better by our personal control. I was thinking about people who are really good at overcoming the natural man, when it hit me HARD! My dad is probably the best example of this I´ve ever seen. Everything I learn makes me love, admire, and appreciate my Dad just that much more. I´ve NEVER heard him talk about how he had tons and tons of baptisms on his mission. I´ve never heard if he was a district leader, zone leader, or even senior companion. Why? Because he knows that this stuff doesn´t even matter. He is humble, and doesn´t buy things just to show the neighbors. He doesn´t care what people think about him, and he just gives everything he has, to his family. Dad, I just want to tell you thanks, I love you so much and I am so thankful for your example to me. Like i´ve already said, everything I learn just shows me how incredible your example really is, and how AWESOME you are. Thanks for everything. Mom, I don´t even want to get started with you or my little bros or I might just lose it and make a scene here in front of everyone in the internet café… haha

I love you all so much!

Elder Micah Melville

Hola from BUSY Monte Maria

Hola Familia!

So pretty sure I can´t stop laughing about the whole camping trip! Dad, right when you were explaining about how you rigged up a way to sleep in the back of the truck I IMMEDIATELY remembered that one night we tried to spend in the boat up at Strawberry Reservoir… Do you remember? It was a BRILLIANT idea, we were going to put the seats down in the old boat and sleep in it! Hahah Until we ended up with all the clothes we could find wrapped around our heads to try to stay warm, not getting ANY sleep at all. That was FREEZING and i´ll never forget that. Haha ALSO I could just see the explanation of Dad totally eating it in front of everyone with that big happy smile on his face…. “Look what I can do!” Haha Thanks a million for those emails, I have been sitting here laughing out loud!

I´m really glad you all had an awesome week, I´m really sad to hear about Sister Lebaron, but how awesome is the fact that we know about the Plan of Happiness. I remember watching the family of the 20 year old who died in Patzicia just cry and cry and cry… They didn´t have a very firm understanding of the Plan of Salvation, but have now had the opportunity to learn and have that peace in their hearts. I forgot to tell you but I gave away my Book of Mormon with Travis Landeen´s testimony in it! I gave it to this family and explained the story and everything. I had carried that book around my whole mission and it was SO worn out! I explained why, and it was such an awesome spiritual experience. The mom said, “He´s probably my sons missionary companion!” I´m sure it brought a lot of peace into their hearts, and it has shown them their need for the gospel in their lives.

I had given Travis´ Book of Mormon away before, and for a really long time there it was one of the only ones the investigators had given me back, rejecting it. That is a testimony that it was meant to go to this family, I know it. I could feel it as I was giving it to them. Please tell his parents thanks a million for this opportunity, and that I plan on making another one to share.

Elder Cunningham and I are here working like crazy in Monte María. We have had some awesome experiences and we will be having a baptism the 7th of August! I´m really excited, her name is Sylvia Portillo. I´ll send pictures!

I feel really safe as I´m walking through the streets, knowing that I´m protected. I saw that email about the attacks on the tourists…. There are angels around us at all times as long as we´re obedient. I´ve been able to see the Lord´s hand protecting us, and I don´t feel afraid!

I can´t remember if I told you this last week, but there was a bolo that came up trying to get some money from us and he said, “I know a little bit about this Julio Smith you know…” haha That´s just been one of our little jokes between Elder Cunningham and I. I´m loving being with him, but I can already see that this has the potential to be really hard seeing him go home to Utah… Where i´m from! Haha His parents are coming to get him so i´ll spend some time with he and his parents – pray for me, I just know they´ll remind me of you. I´ll just do my best to stay focused.

I´ve really noticed that we´ve all been learning a lot of the same lessons, As you share with me your experiences, I´ve noticed a similarity in what has happened during the week. Heavenly Father is teaching us, we just have to do his will and learn! Soak it all in, we never know how much time we have to be here in this awesome learning experience.

Well it´s time to go, but just know I love you all so much! I miss you like crazy but like always, this is the only thing I want to be doing right now!

Christopher and Tanner I love you so much, keep doing what you´re doing. Make good choices – they affect your future so much! Satan will use even the TINY little choices you make against you. Be strong! I love that you gave your testimony Ricky. Keep doing it! Love you both so much!

Elder Micah Melville

Hola from HOT Monte Maria!

Hola Familia,

Hey! Can I just tell you THANK YOU SO MUCH! Haha I saw the bag and thought to myself, “Haha! NO WAY!” I heard it was big, but that bag is BIG! Thank you so much for everything, I really appreciate it. I know that you had to have put a lot of time into it, and you have no idea how awesome it is. I think you went way overboard, but hey, no worries! My companion insisted on carrying it on the bus and the way home, i´m surprised he´s still standing. Haha Poor Brother Redd, tell him thanks a million! We´ll be eating very well here for a nice long time! Also tell Uncle Nathan and his family thanks a ton for the tie, notes and the chocolate covered cinnamon bears! They know me way too well, that´s my favorite! I love the tie so much!

So it sounds like you had an interesting experience in Las Vegas! I can not stop laughing thinking about Dad and Tanner in the pool trying to have a nice relaxing time with a bunch of HUGE women all around in bikinis. They probably could have crushed you two! It´s a good thing you left. Haha

Christopher, I was really bummed to hear about what happened at the tournament! Did you drink enough water? Are you taking creatine? Be careful with that! Something that i´ve learned on my mission is that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. We need to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives, even though it may be extremely hard. I´ve had some of those days where I´ve just wanted to sit down and cry and ask why? But there´s always a reason for why things happen. Remember that! It´s hard to accept, but possible! You don´t want to sign an acceptance letter too soon, maybe a better offer is on the way? Haha jk. Have fun in Bear Lake, be careful!

So I just have a few funny stories to tell you this week… I forgot how lively and funny things were in the capital! I´m going to start with one of the funniest… SO last Monday after internet and lunch my companion and I were going to our appointments, but they were falling, a guy came out to give us the Book of Mormon back telling us he didn´t want us to come back, and a whole lot of other stuff was happening. My companion got frustrated and said, “This day couldn´t get any worse!”

Well, we were contacting trying to find people to teach, and we went down this path to some houses out on the mountainside. As we walked we just kept passing dog after dog after dog, and they started following us and running around getting a little excited. We went down this path to a house and my companion started contacting the guy who lived in the house. I was following behind trying to scare a dog away who was right on our heels barking and growling and stuff. I went to pretend to throw a rock at it and it came running at me! Haha I jumped down a few stairs, the dog ran right past me and bit my companion in the leg! He´s not the most patient person ever, and I was just waiting for him to go off and start throwing some dogs. He did really well though, and with bloody pants and a red face finished the contact. We went and called the nurse and now everything is good. Haha I am still laughing about this one.

I forgot how funny the Bolo´s are here in the capital! As we were walking down the street the other day, a bolo stood up, spread his arms apart and YELLED, “WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!” in English. I´m sorry but I could not stop laughing.

Yesterday we made a cake for one of our investigators because it was her birthday. We took it to the family and they were happy and all, but they went and stuck a CD in the cd player. My companion and I were a little worried because we can´t listen to music… When they put in the Barney soundtrack in Spanish. Haha Let´s just say that was a quick appointment.

Well, It´s been an awesome few weeks, with a lot of hard work. I feel so tired when I get home at night, but it´s a good tired, because it means we´ve given it our all and we´ve worked hard. We´ve had some awesome situations where we´ve seen the hand of the Lord guiding us, and helping us through the work. He is protecting us and we are constantly receiving reminders of that. I love this work with everything I have. Even though it´s so hard sometimes, I love it! I´m still trying to come to know Christ better, and I know that through being obedient, i´ll be able to keep coming closer and closer to him. You too!

I love you all so much, and miss you like crazy. Thanks for everything!

Elder Melville

P.S. I love the CD´s, thank you so much! Good Job Mom! I´m impressed. I knew you could use the computer, this mission thing is just what you needed!

Hola from Monte Maria!

Hey Family!

So, it´s awesome to hear about everything that is going on in Utah. This is my favorite part of the year, so enjoy it for me! I think that´s really awesome that you´re doing a golf tournament for the basketball team! I hope, and i´m sure it was a success. It sounds like you´re keeping busy!

It´s been such a week here in Monte María! We´ve been working really hard and doing our best to use every moment in a way that will help us to help others come unto Christ. I am so happy to be back to the days where the whole day is full of appointments and we´re just running from one to the next. There is nothing better!

We had some interesting experiences. I love being here because the lessons can be taught in a lot more depth, and the people understand it better. We´ve focused this past week on The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is basically the first thing we teach. When we are contacting people we put it in their hands and let them feel it and explore it. While we´re walking down the street we carry it in our hands just to bear testimony as we go from appointment to appointment. I know that we can find the answers we need in our lives through prayer, reading the scriptures, and receiving revelation. There´s a quote that I really like that says, “If you want to talk to your Heavenly Father, pray! If you want him to talk to you, read the scriptures!” I know without a doubt this is true! If you want to see if it´s true, try it! It´s the only way we can know the truthfulness of the book. We can come to know Christ so much more from this book.

Someone very wise told me in an email, that they´ve noticed that there are a lot of the things we do in the church that are just way too casual. It´s funny because i´ve thought about that a lot over the past few weeks. Sometimes we need to think and remember, that when we pray, we aren´t just praying. We are talking to our Heavenly Father, and if we do it with faith, he´s listening! When we take the sacrament, every week we are renewing our covenants with him! When we need an answer to our questions, we can receive it! We just have to do it with a sincere heart and faith, and we´ll be able to see and FEEL the difference. I love that!

Thanks for sending the bag! I can´t believe you sent a bag so full! I have no idea where it is, but I hope i´ll be able to find it soon, because it sounds awesome. Haha


Answers to all of the questions:
1. My new companion is awesome. He played football at Hunter High in West Valley City. We have already gotten really close and I think he´s awesome. There´s only one thing I´ve found wrong with him – he´s going to the U to play football after he gets back… It´s ok, we´ve put it behind us and we´re buddies. Look for Cade Cunningham when everything gets up and going, I bet he´ll be playing really quick. We´ve been doing a little bit of exercise in the mornings, and it´s been a lot of fun.
2. I´m remembering why I love the city! We had 26 lessons in total the past week, which is a bunch. My companion says it was the most he´s had in this area, but I want to say, that´s more than I had my whole time in Patzicia… We visited a lot of members in Patzicia, but not counting those, and only counting less actives, I really think it´s pretty close. We´re working like crazy, finding a ton of new investigators, and teaching a lot of lessons, that´s what it´s all about, and that´s the secret to happiness in the mission.
3. We´ll see what happens with the bag... You sent a bag that weighs 50 pounds!? Haha I feel bad for Brother Redd, AND my poor little companion or whoever has it. I´m trying to figure out how i´ll be able to find it.. I´ll call the secretaries today and they´ll be able to find it for me.
4. I think we´re the luckiest here in the Central Mission, because we have both Antigua, and Lake Atitlan here in the mission. Those are 2 of the biggest tourist spots in Guatemala, and they´re awesome. All of the missions have good stuff though i´m sure.
5. Yes all of my clothes are way too big now, but we found a lady in the ward who is going to tailor them a little bit so they´ll fit a little bit better… haha
6. It is a little bit harder when you know your companion is going to go home after this change… With Elder Cano he was ALWAYS thinking about home and the situations at home and stuff, so that was pretty hard trying to get him to work. With Elder Cunningham it´s been a lot easier in the aspect of working, because he wants to finish strong. The thing that´s going to be hard with Elder Cunningham is the fact that he´s going back to UTAH! Haha Really though, it´s not too bad.


I love you all so much, I miss you all like crazy but there is nothing I´d rather do! It´s hard, tiring, but one of the most rewarding experiences i´ve ever had. Thanks for your prayers, I´ve seen and felt them manifested in my life! Love you all so much, see ya soon!

Elder Micah Melville

Here you go!

Hola Familia,

Hey! How´s everything going? I really appreciate your emails! They are always so awesome, and I love the little details, like always. I got a lot of emails from friends as well, thanks a million! I can´t write back through email, but i´ll see what I can do about getting some letters sent out. I´m glad to hear Christopher is getting close to his camping merit badge! Keep working hard. Tanner, you put underglow on the golf cart? Ha Sounds like something you´d see here in Guate.

Well, it´s with a lot of sadness and a whole lot of excitement that I have the opportunity to tell you i´ve been changed! I received the phone call from the zone leaders and before I knew it I was in change conference! Saying goodbye to the people of Patzicia was one of the hardest things ever, and I feel like i´m leaving a bunch of my family behind. Even though that area was a definite challenge, I had some of my best learning experiences, and i´ll always remember the charm of the mountains. Hermana Per gave me a handstitched piece of Corte, and all the little kids were giving me a bunch of little odds and ends(marbles, stickers for the back of my plaque, etc...). Can you believe how giving and humble they are?

So here I am, RIGHT in the capital. I thought I was in the capital in Boca Del Monte, but now i´m right in the thick of it. I´m not going to lie, even though I was only in Patzicia for 2 changes, I was getting used to it, and now I feel a little strange here in the city. I´m not too worried about it though, that´s one thing i´ve learned, is how to adapt to the drastic changes in the mission. My new companion is Elder Cunningham, and just like Elder Cano, he´s on his way home. This is his last change, but instead of thinking a lot of home, he´s thinking about how hard he needs to finish his mission. I´m SO thankful for this, because he´s an excelent missionary, and an incredibly hard worker. Usually i´m the one doing the pushing, I can´t wait to just get out and GO! We´ve already had the amount of lessons we would have had in a weeks worth in Patzicia, and we´ve only been together 2 days. The Lord is blessing me, and i´m so excited. Elder Cunningham is from SLC, and reminds me A LOT of Jordan and Jason Melville, I just can´t decide which. Probably more like Jason. He loves snowboarding and wants a Subaru. I´m so lucky, he´s awesome. The area is a pretty good area, It´s called Monte María, and it´s really close to everything in the capital. There are even grocery stores close! Ha How weird is that?

Even though this has been a little bit of a surprise, i´m really excited for the change, and way excited to see what the Lord has in store for me. I know that i´m here for a purpose, a reason, and i´m willing and ready to work hard and give it my all. I have received SO many blessings, I owe it to my Father in Heaven to give it EVERYTHING I have. Thanks a ton for all of your support, just know I love you all so much and I think about you a ton.

I talked to my companion in Patzicia, Elder Arias, before I left, and he said he would be ok with getting the stuff that Brother Redd brings to me. The only other way would be to leave it in the CCM, but they will have to pay a small price. Maybe they can try to leave it in the CCM, and if they let them, great, if not, they can give it to Elder Arias and he´ll send it to me. Tell him to tell Elder Arias to take it to interviews. Really, honestly, you don´t need to send me much at all! I´m happy, healthy, and working hard. I don´t need any more clothes, just a lot of letters and pictures... There´s nothing better! The new lacrosse head would be awesome, and the shaft doesn´t matter, maybe just not the weird shaped debeer one... Obviously i´m going to need a ball or two... Don´t worry too much about sending me stuff, I can only have 3 bags. Keep it small!

Oh, by the way. Elder Lanham is my new Zone Leader and we´re going to be going on divisions again! How cool is that? He was just sitting right next to me at internet, but he left. You have no idea how much I love Elder Lanham, and how much he has influenced me and my mission.

Well, It´s time to go, but just know I love you all so much! The Book of Mormon is true, and I´m still learning like crazy! I´m so thankful for my savior Jesus Christ. I know he lives and loves us.

Elder Micah Melville






Hey family, here are some pictures of my most favorite family ever, the Per family. They have 3 missionaries out right now. One in Ecuador close to the temple. Tell Aunt Susan thanks a million for the email! Also, Tell her if she sees Elder Per, she needs to talk with him and tell him thanks for sharing his family with me.

Hola from HOT and Sunny Patzicia!

Hola Family,

Hows everything going? The Internet has been going weird AGAIN, and so far I haven´t been able to read your emails, but I decided I was going to start writing, and copy it over when the internet becomes available. Can I just tell you how CRAZY the past few weeks have been? I have had some really interesting stuff to tell you, and of course, the weeks when I have the most to say, I have the least time, or the internet decides not to work. Oh well, that´s life, and i´m still just loving it!

So two weeks ago, we woke up and went outside of the house and we saw a bunch of the ward members out in front of one of the non-members houses across the street. I saw a garbage bag in the shape of a bowtie outside of the house, and a big blue tarp tent in the front yard. Whenever you see a garbage bag in the shape of a bowtie in Guatemala it means someone has died. Well, the wife had given birth the night before, and within minutes the baby had passed away. We were given the assignments to speak at the funeral (In their front yard) and then we went to the cemetery. It was pretty sad but really interesting to see how they do everything here in Guatemala. The awesome thing is, that the members helped! Your prayers were answered, and the members helped this family, who just a few days before we had knocked the door and didn´t want anything.

I talked to the Dad at the funeral, and he said that he would like us to go over to his house and have a “Prayer” with him and his family. How awesome is that!? ¡GRACIAS! to the members, we found a new family to teach, and we had the opportunity to go and teach them the Plan of Salvation. We have been teaching them, and although things started out really positive, the members started gossiping, and broke this poor Dad´s heart. Now he doesn´t want us to go visit him thanks to the things he heard the members say, and we´re continuing our search for new investigators. This is something that I´ve learned to accept… Not our will be done, but the will of our Father. Thanks to the example of Jesus Christ, we can learn to accept things like this and move on.

Ok, so that was 2 weeks ago. Last week, a young single adult in the ward died in an accident on a motorcycle (Please be careful). Just like the tradition follows, we went to his house the night after, where there was a service. A bunch of ward members gathered in his house, and our ward mission leader gave a talk, as well as another Brother in the ward. They asked me to direct the music in the service… haha I was pretty nervous for that, SO MANY PEOPLE and it was all a capella. There were a bunch of people crowded into the house, and I thought to myself, ahh I´m so lucky to not have to be giving a talk here, this is a BIG funeral.

Well, I thought too soon. The next day they had a service, where upwards of 500 people showed up at the church, the majority non-members. The bishop decided it would be awesome to hear from the elders. I was SO nervous and couldn´t decide what I wanted to say. Obviously I was going to teach the plan of salvation, but how!? I was so nervous I could hardly focus on preparing. I got to the funeral feeling VERY unprepared. Thanks to that humility I felt like I had the spirit with me and just got up and taught the plan of salvation with everything I had, and it turned out alright! Even though I felt like I was teaching the whole pueblo and their dogs, I felt calm, collected, and just let the spirit guide. I´m so thankful for this blessing I was blessed with. I know it wasn´t me, but it was a blessing from my Lord and Savior.

We have been working hard and we were blessed with the opportunity to find a family of 5 yesterday, with the potential of more. They seemed really positive and had a ton of questions. The investigators i´ve taught with the most questions are the ones with the better probability of being baptized. We did something this week and found 12 references, and i´m SO excited for what lies ahead. The changes are coming and I don´t want to leave Patzicia. I don´t want to leave and I´m pretty sure that i´m not going to leave. We´ll see what happens. Not my will but the Lord´s… remember? Haha

I received an email from Brother Redd, and i´m really excited that they are coming! Here are the answers to his questions.
1. The Stake Center is located in the exact same place where the Randall Ellsworth chapel was located, It´s really big with a green roof. To get to the Stake Center you just need to turn left on the street after the Puma station in Patzicia, at the bottom of the hill. The other chapel is located up towards the volcano. To get to that chapel they need to turn left right before the little bridge to cross the road. There is a sign that says “Acatenango.” They need to heads toward the colourful cemetery, it is to the right and a little further above if they are facing the cemetery.
2. I don´t have the addresses of the buildings right now… Would they be located on lds.org? Sorry! The addresses here are way confusing, we just ask people in the general area if they know where we´re trying to go. Everyone in Patzicia knows about the “Iglesia Mormona Arriba” and the “Iglesia Mormona Abajo.” The church up on the hill is smaller and older, and the church down below is the Stake Center, where the old chapel was.
3. As long as there aren´t changes, and as long as they go to the meeting at 10 AM in the Stake Center, we´ll be able to find them after the Sacrament Meeting, when we finish in our ward at about 11.
4. The wife of the Stake President says she knows where to take everything to find the families who are really in need. She says she can help find all the families members/non-members if you would just want to leave it with her, and we can help her. I´m still trying to figure that out.
5. We talked to the primary president and they are trying to figure everything out to sing for the tour. If not, my companion and I will do it! Haha. They like chocolates (Snickers, Twix, etc…)


You have no idea the problems I´ve had with internet, I´m going to have President Cua call Brother Redd. Every time I try to email this email the power goes out. I didn´t get to answer all of the questions but hopefully they´ll be able to resolve it when Presidente Cua calls! Love you all so much and i´ll see you soon. Every day i´m trying to get to know Christ a little bit better… Get to be more like him and REALLY know him. I know he lives and loves us all. I love you all so much and i´ll see ya later!

Mom, I don´t need anything! I´m happy! We´re visiting 2 member families tonight who have plans for my birthday… I just keep getting blessings!

Love you all so much,

Elder Micah Melville

Hey!

Family... I´m so sorry. I had an email written but I lost it. Something happened... Here are the answers to the questions and I have to get off.


I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! YOU¨RE AWESOME!

Answers to questions:
1. We are here in Patzicia, and it has it´s own stake. Some of the outlying areas have wards and branches in the stake, as well as missionaries. There are a TON of members here in the ward, we had 275 people come to church a few weeks ago, that´s awesome, but a little hard for the leaders to support that many people. The members are very loving, but VERY prideful. There are a lot of people that go to church just because that´s what their family does… It´s the custom. Not all members are like this, but a lot. There is a family called the Family Per, and they are INCREDIBLE. I love them so much, they wash our clothes and she cooks our almuerzos. She reminds me of you Mom! Don´t worry, you´re not replaced… But the lord has been blessing me a lot.
2. Sorry for not sending a lot of pictures, that´s something I need to do better. I´ll see what I can do! Our new house is a lot better… The toilets flush with the switch, (the others in the other house you have to just dump a bucket of water in the toilet after and that´s how it flushes… haha). The showers are pretty good, and Elder Arias and I are just enjoying it.
3. Elder Arias is an awesome missionary, an awesome worker. I love Elder Arias and we´re working way hard. We saw the best numbers I remember seeing this week in Patzicia.
4. If the Guatemalans have a siesta time we aren´t allowed to know about it… haha We work all day long.
5. Transfers are the 12 of July… SO if I get changed I won´t be able to see Brother Redd… But i´m about 95 percent sure i´ll still be here in Patzicia.
6. I heard that Elder Hautau is an AWESOME missionary. I haven´t seen him for a while but i´ve heard he´s speaking Spanish, is really obedient and is working hard. Elder Misini is just an awesome missionary like he always has been.
7. I miss the baptizing that goes on in the city, but I LOVE the mountains. I´ve fallen in love with Patzicia and the way of life here, I´m going to miss it when I get changed. The work is a lot different, but we´ve still been able to see some fruits of the work in seeing some Less-Active and Inactive families start coming again, it´s been incredible. We don´t have too many investigators… That´s our big challenge right now, trying to find new investigators! There are a lot of people here that just don´t even want to give it a chance… But we´re finding the people who will!
8.You don´t need to worry about sending any more medicine or anything like that, I´m doing ok! Ama Ama is my favorite, and if it isn´t too big of a hassle you can keep sending that, as well as granola. I love granola. Licorice sounds good too. I´ve forgotten all of the good stuff there is at home! It probably wouldn´t hurt to send some protein if there is space. Maybe just a bunch of burnt church CD´s would be awesome in a little pouch? You really don´t need to worry about sending me too much, it´s ok!


Love ELder Melville