Hola Familia,
Hey, how´s everything going? OK, first of all, I know, it´s Tuesday! I´m so sorry i´m writing late, yesterday is our Internet day, but our whole zone went to Antigua, so I didn´t get a chance to write! Can I just tell you how awesome Antigua is?
Thank you so much for all of your emails, they´re all awesome, and they help me a lot out here!
It sounds like you all are doing pretty well! Christopher is tearing it up in basketball, the girls are probably going CRAZY, and i´m sure he´s chilling with ALL of them right? Hang out with all of them Ricky! Keep working hard, and get healthy!
I love your language advice Dad, it´s true the more I use the language, the more I learn. Likewise, the less I speak, the less I learn. I´ve really been able to learn a lot. I bore my testimony in zone conference this week, and I´ve really learned that it´s the spirit that gives you the ability to speak, so when I have the spirit I can speak, but when not, it´s a lot harder.
Tanner, thanks a ton for your letter. It´s amazing the things that faith can bring about. Faith works wonders, and you showed your faith in praying for help! Faith is everything we need to work off of out here! When we have Faith, we can feel the spirit, and we remember that we truly are representatives of Jesus Christ, but first of all we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. It sounds like your basketball team is doing great too! Keep up the good work!
OK, I´ve been having computer problems, and I was planning on sending you a picture, but I can´t because my camera battery just died! You´ll never guess what the picture was of....
Well, Oscar was baptized! Everything went through, we had his interview and everything worked out great. When they came out of the interview I asked Oscar if he was ready! He said he was, and the zone leader said, ´´Oh he´s ready, and guess who´s going to baptize him? YOU!´´ Oscar decided he wanted me to baptize him! I can´t even describe what I felt when I heard the news So the baptism was on the 17th of January, and I did it! In spanish and everything, it was a little nerve wracking, but SO amazing.
I wish I could keep writing, but I only have 5 minutes left of time! So i´m going to go through really quick and type a few things that happened this week.
The BOLO Elder Lanham and I found in the street.... Yep we´re teaching him and he is accepting everything we teach and wants to come to church and EVERYTHING. Can you believe that? This is the guy that Elder Lanham took his beer and threw it.
This is for Uncle Nathan, we were teaching a guy, and he was CRAZY. As we were leaving his house he said, oh hey, here´s a lion! I looked over at a tub of water in his front room, and soaking in a tub of water was a Lion.... ha I´m not kidding, that was crazy.
I gave a girl a blessing in Spanish... that was hard. Like I say, the spirit is real and the gift of tonges works wonders.
Antigua made me homesick because it felt like a place we´d go with Grandpa Savage and Sherrie and the family, it´s so awesome, I want to go back! It´s beautiful.
Deidy and Estuardo are new investigators... They will probably be baptized soon.
Changes are this week... I think I might be leaving! No Idea, but i´m just starting to wonder!
I love you all so much, thanks for everything! Just know everything is awesome and I love it here!
See ya later
Elder Melville
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
"IN GOOD WE TRUST"
Buenas Dias Familia,
Hey! How is everything going? Thanks a ton for the emails, I love them! It´s hard for me to believe that there really is that much snow in Utah right now! Sheez, I´m sweating like crazy! The weather is perfect, nice and warm during the day, sometimes a little hot, and nice and cool at night. All of the people here are always saying how they´re cold, and are asking me if i´m not freezing with my short sleeve shirt on... haha Then I tell them there is a bunch of snow where i´m from and they realize i´m just fine!
Christopher and Tanner, I love hearing about your basketball games, it sounds like you are doing awesome! Keep up the good work, remember who you are and you can tear it up and do anything you set your mind to. I´m serious, if your weak, shy, older brother is in Guatemala teaching people the gospel in Spanish, you studs can do just about anything! It´s all about our Savior Jesus Christ, and like I ALWAYS say, just keeping him central, and we can do anything.
That brings me to my next point. I was riding on a bus this week, and up on the front of the bus it had painted, ¨In Good We Trust.¨ This was painted in English, i´m not sure why, but it really got me thinking. One of the biggest challenges we have while teaching the people here is helping them realize that this church is the one and only true church, with the AUTHORITY restored on the earth today. There is no other way by which we can return to our Heavenly Father and be saved! It is the Priesthood Authority that gives us the ability to perform the ordinances necessary on this earth (i.e. Baptism) in order to make the covenants necessary to be able to really grow and become who we have been sent here to become.
People are confused. Just like Joseph Smith back in the day, people don´t know how theý re supposed to find the truth and what they´re going to do when they do find it. If they aren´t ready to receive it, they don´t even realize it when they´re staring two of Jesus Christ´s representatives right in the face hearing the truths. A lot of people have just decided to go to the church in their neighborhood, and to just be good! They can just be good, put their ¨Jesus Lives¨ and ¨God is Love¨ and all kinds of other stickers about Jesucristo on their cars, and hope for the best. We have been teaching and finding people like crazy, trying to emphasize the Authority! When the Zone Leader heard our numbers he thought they were the numbers for our District, not just Elder Muñoz and I (we have a small district with the Office Elders and Assistants, so the numbers aren´t usually too awesome, but that was just funny to hear).
Well, about the Familia Marroquin!(The family we contacted that I had a chance to contact before but didn´t) We had a lesson with them this week, and I left their house feeling like someone had torn my heart out, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it. Seriously, I was already imagining him as Young Mens President, he´s such an amazing person, but they just aren´t ready. He is Catholic and has his beliefs, and just decided he was only listening to us just to find out about other churches. He was going out of town to Panama for a really long time (That was the part that made my companion sad) and decided to tell us he wasn´t interested in believing our message, but he just liked hearing it. It was a really good, spiritual lesson, but man, that hurts! It´s alright, they´ll come around someday, i´m sure.
I got the package of pictures, WOW! I LOVE pictures. I don´t think there is anything that can make a missionary happier than a bunch of pictures! Thanks a million.
We found an hombre named Israel Ramirez, he is WAY cool and totally ready to hear our message. He was talking about how he wanted to come to church with us, and it was way cool. Well, We had to teach him in his little Pinata shop, and we had to squeeze in there around the pinatas! haha Well, lets just say It was an interesting experience teaching Lesson 1 with my neck all tweaked teaching through Barney´s Legs. hah
Yesterday we were bearing testimony of the importance of families, and how important they are. I bore testimony, and was talking about how I remember being able to feel and know of the faith of my parents through their prayers when we would pray as a family, and I taught about how that strengthened me. I just want to say thanks a ton, that hit me really hard yesterday, and I´m so thankful for your examples.
Thanks for the package and everything! You´re awesome, I´ll be looking for it. I´m glad my email made your day a little brighter Dad!
I love you all so much, I´m so thankful for all you´ve done for me! Your support and influence has helped me a lot, THANKS!
Just know i´m loving life here in guatemala! see ya soon
Elder Melville
Hey! How is everything going? Thanks a ton for the emails, I love them! It´s hard for me to believe that there really is that much snow in Utah right now! Sheez, I´m sweating like crazy! The weather is perfect, nice and warm during the day, sometimes a little hot, and nice and cool at night. All of the people here are always saying how they´re cold, and are asking me if i´m not freezing with my short sleeve shirt on... haha Then I tell them there is a bunch of snow where i´m from and they realize i´m just fine!
Christopher and Tanner, I love hearing about your basketball games, it sounds like you are doing awesome! Keep up the good work, remember who you are and you can tear it up and do anything you set your mind to. I´m serious, if your weak, shy, older brother is in Guatemala teaching people the gospel in Spanish, you studs can do just about anything! It´s all about our Savior Jesus Christ, and like I ALWAYS say, just keeping him central, and we can do anything.
That brings me to my next point. I was riding on a bus this week, and up on the front of the bus it had painted, ¨In Good We Trust.¨ This was painted in English, i´m not sure why, but it really got me thinking. One of the biggest challenges we have while teaching the people here is helping them realize that this church is the one and only true church, with the AUTHORITY restored on the earth today. There is no other way by which we can return to our Heavenly Father and be saved! It is the Priesthood Authority that gives us the ability to perform the ordinances necessary on this earth (i.e. Baptism) in order to make the covenants necessary to be able to really grow and become who we have been sent here to become.
People are confused. Just like Joseph Smith back in the day, people don´t know how theý re supposed to find the truth and what they´re going to do when they do find it. If they aren´t ready to receive it, they don´t even realize it when they´re staring two of Jesus Christ´s representatives right in the face hearing the truths. A lot of people have just decided to go to the church in their neighborhood, and to just be good! They can just be good, put their ¨Jesus Lives¨ and ¨God is Love¨ and all kinds of other stickers about Jesucristo on their cars, and hope for the best. We have been teaching and finding people like crazy, trying to emphasize the Authority! When the Zone Leader heard our numbers he thought they were the numbers for our District, not just Elder Muñoz and I (we have a small district with the Office Elders and Assistants, so the numbers aren´t usually too awesome, but that was just funny to hear).
Well, about the Familia Marroquin!(The family we contacted that I had a chance to contact before but didn´t) We had a lesson with them this week, and I left their house feeling like someone had torn my heart out, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it. Seriously, I was already imagining him as Young Mens President, he´s such an amazing person, but they just aren´t ready. He is Catholic and has his beliefs, and just decided he was only listening to us just to find out about other churches. He was going out of town to Panama for a really long time (That was the part that made my companion sad) and decided to tell us he wasn´t interested in believing our message, but he just liked hearing it. It was a really good, spiritual lesson, but man, that hurts! It´s alright, they´ll come around someday, i´m sure.
I got the package of pictures, WOW! I LOVE pictures. I don´t think there is anything that can make a missionary happier than a bunch of pictures! Thanks a million.
We found an hombre named Israel Ramirez, he is WAY cool and totally ready to hear our message. He was talking about how he wanted to come to church with us, and it was way cool. Well, We had to teach him in his little Pinata shop, and we had to squeeze in there around the pinatas! haha Well, lets just say It was an interesting experience teaching Lesson 1 with my neck all tweaked teaching through Barney´s Legs. hah
Yesterday we were bearing testimony of the importance of families, and how important they are. I bore testimony, and was talking about how I remember being able to feel and know of the faith of my parents through their prayers when we would pray as a family, and I taught about how that strengthened me. I just want to say thanks a ton, that hit me really hard yesterday, and I´m so thankful for your examples.
Thanks for the package and everything! You´re awesome, I´ll be looking for it. I´m glad my email made your day a little brighter Dad!
I love you all so much, I´m so thankful for all you´ve done for me! Your support and influence has helped me a lot, THANKS!
Just know i´m loving life here in guatemala! see ya soon
Elder Melville
HERE YA GO!!!
Hola Familia,
How is everything going? It sounds like things are going great in Utah. I´m so happy to be here! I thought I was missing the snow a little bit, but 5 degrees below? Pfff that´s tough! Christopher, WOW. I just don´t even know what to say about you. In a slam dunk contest? Playing varsity? Tanner? What have you been up to! I haven´t heard from you for a while! I´m so proud of all of you though, thank you so much for the awesome emails, I love them! I got an email from Sherrie, Emily, Shane, and last week from Uncle Nathan. Will you tell them thanks a ton? Seriously, those emails are awesome, I really appreciate them! I heard from grandma about her back, I´m so sorry! I´ll keep her in my prayers, like I always do. I hope everything works out! Thanks for all of the emails, you all are awesome.
Well, I´m here in the internet cafe, and I just have no idea where to start. I have a list of things to tell you that is huge! We have had some of the funniest, greatest, weirdest experiences this week.
So, When I first got here, I was PETRIFIED to try to talk to people in Spanish. I´m shy in English, let alone in Spanish!? ha Well, I´m happy to say this is wearing off, and yesterday we went on splits with the secretaries. The secretary I was with, Elder Stoddard said, ¨Alright, you´re the Senior Companion, you´re guiding this whole day!¨ So he was having me do everything. I´m getting used to talking to people now, so It´s not half bad, but we stopped at a members house to give a lesson. I´m not sure what happened, but all I can say is the gift of tongues is real. It wasn´t me, it was a blessing for sure, but I lead the whole lesson, shared our little spiritual thought, and just sat and talked to the people! I had to ask for a word or phrase every now and then, but I feel like it´s finally clicking! It was definitely a milestone with the whole spanish thing.
So, when I was a little worried to talk to people, I saw this family. This was one of the first nights we were here, and I thought to myself how I wanted to talk to that family! We were going somewhere so I didn´t talk to them! (I know, I know i´m learning my lesson!) Anyways, I watched where they went, and thought to myself, one day I WILL talk to that family! The next night we were passing where I saw them go, and I said to my companion, we should knock on the door of this house! Well, It turns out that this family doesn´t live there, but by some miracle they were there again! We talked to them and set up an appointment! We´ve been teaching them, and let me tell you, they are AWESOME investigators. They are asking all the right questions, and they sincerely want to know if it´s true or not! I am SO excited for this family. There are the two parents, Edwin and Cecilia Marroquin, and they have a baby. I love this work.
You know, It´s kind of funny how you told me to stay away from drunk guys dad... (We call them ´BOLOS´) here. Yesterday we were walking down the street, and I see this guy who has connections to the ward. He lived in Boston with his family, and grew up in Boston, so he can speak English. He´s here because after Sept 11th, the government cracked down, put him in Prison in Lousiana, and then sent him back here to Guatemala. He is an awesome guy, who is sincerely seeking the truth, but won´t accept the gospel. He reads his bible and knows it really well, but not well enough to accept that he needs to be baptised. He won´t listen to the missionaries very often.. Anyways, the other day we were talking in English, and we totally hit it off, we´ve been having these deep conversations and stuff. He calls me Mel, and we´re ´friend´s´. Well we were walking down the street to a Cita, and we saw him standing there! He stopped us and wanted to talk to us. It was pretty obvious he was drunk with the big strand of spit stuck in his goatee and with how weird he was acting. He was really rude to my companion and just wanted to talk to me.
So, we´re just sitting there talking and he´s telling me how God loves us and how we´re all important but he has none of the answers. It was really interesting to see how desperate he was! He started balling and crying and asking me what God expects of us. I was doing my best to testify that we are his children and that he really does want us to return to live with him and have happiness in this life. He started telling me how much he loved me! I was like... I love you too! haha and I put my hand on his shoulder because he´s crying and could just tell how hard his life is! Well, all of a sudden he grabs my head, pulls it in towards his, and gives me a big wet nasty kiss on the cheek! Wow, Can I just tell you how awkward that was? I had NO idea what to do. My companion was standing there trying so hard not to laugh, and everyone has been getting a big kick out of the fact that Elder Melville got kissed by a Drunk guy! Whew, so, let this be the lesson. NEVER tell a Bolo you love him.
I´ve really been thinking about the Book of Mormon a lot lately, and the more and more we teach and talk and study it, the greater my appreciation is for it. Seriously, It is incredible. The fact that I love about it is we can know it´s true for ourselves! We don´t have to believe our friends, family, or some Pastor somewhere. We can know, between ourselves and our Heavenly Father if this book is true or not. I love the challenge in Moroni 10 that the prophet Moroni gives us to pray and ask our Heavenly Father, with FAITH, and we can find our answer. How awesome is that, we can know between ourselves and our Heavenly Father! No other person! So, we need to take advantage of this! Don´t believe because the Prophet tells us good stuff that we should follow, don´t believe because it´s just what our family does. Find out, using FAITH if this book is true or not. If we don´t believe that we will get an answer, we won´t, but if we DO believe, I PROMISE we can receive the answers we need through the Holy Ghost. I love that.
Well, my time is just about up, and I need to get to work! We need to find more investigators who are READY to hear the message. So i´m just going to spit out some answers to your questions really fast...
Elder Hautau is still having a tough go, the Assistants are arranging splits so that I can go out and do work with him in our area.. WHEW pray for me. I´m way excited though.
Fast sunday is hard on the mission, but easily INCREDIBLE, I bore my testimony in spanish, it was great. It was great to hear Elder Lanham´s testimony too.
We have a baptismal date! A little 9 year old named Oscar Blanco decided to be baptised! He will be baptised Jan 17 at 6 pm. COOL!
I gave the whole Blanco family CTR rings, as well as some other people, and I´m DRY out. They love those, so if you have more to send that would be great. thanks.
My head is fine, you can barely see the mark... haha
My back and feet get tired, but no big problems! Everything is great and I feel like i´m blessed wíth strength when i´m working as hard as possible.
I´m just about out of green drink, so if you can find a big thing of that, that would be great! Anything healthy! People can send whatever they think i´d like, I don´t care haha
They don´t
have to send anything though
I need a bunch of addresses, and if they´re at college just their home addresses are fine. Courtney Brown,(is she married?) Cara Claybaugh, Jillian, Thanks for Kaseys email addy. Marc Miller.
I love you all so much, I´ll see ya soon!
Elder Melville
How is everything going? It sounds like things are going great in Utah. I´m so happy to be here! I thought I was missing the snow a little bit, but 5 degrees below? Pfff that´s tough! Christopher, WOW. I just don´t even know what to say about you. In a slam dunk contest? Playing varsity? Tanner? What have you been up to! I haven´t heard from you for a while! I´m so proud of all of you though, thank you so much for the awesome emails, I love them! I got an email from Sherrie, Emily, Shane, and last week from Uncle Nathan. Will you tell them thanks a ton? Seriously, those emails are awesome, I really appreciate them! I heard from grandma about her back, I´m so sorry! I´ll keep her in my prayers, like I always do. I hope everything works out! Thanks for all of the emails, you all are awesome.
Well, I´m here in the internet cafe, and I just have no idea where to start. I have a list of things to tell you that is huge! We have had some of the funniest, greatest, weirdest experiences this week.
So, When I first got here, I was PETRIFIED to try to talk to people in Spanish. I´m shy in English, let alone in Spanish!? ha Well, I´m happy to say this is wearing off, and yesterday we went on splits with the secretaries. The secretary I was with, Elder Stoddard said, ¨Alright, you´re the Senior Companion, you´re guiding this whole day!¨ So he was having me do everything. I´m getting used to talking to people now, so It´s not half bad, but we stopped at a members house to give a lesson. I´m not sure what happened, but all I can say is the gift of tongues is real. It wasn´t me, it was a blessing for sure, but I lead the whole lesson, shared our little spiritual thought, and just sat and talked to the people! I had to ask for a word or phrase every now and then, but I feel like it´s finally clicking! It was definitely a milestone with the whole spanish thing.
So, when I was a little worried to talk to people, I saw this family. This was one of the first nights we were here, and I thought to myself how I wanted to talk to that family! We were going somewhere so I didn´t talk to them! (I know, I know i´m learning my lesson!) Anyways, I watched where they went, and thought to myself, one day I WILL talk to that family! The next night we were passing where I saw them go, and I said to my companion, we should knock on the door of this house! Well, It turns out that this family doesn´t live there, but by some miracle they were there again! We talked to them and set up an appointment! We´ve been teaching them, and let me tell you, they are AWESOME investigators. They are asking all the right questions, and they sincerely want to know if it´s true or not! I am SO excited for this family. There are the two parents, Edwin and Cecilia Marroquin, and they have a baby. I love this work.
You know, It´s kind of funny how you told me to stay away from drunk guys dad... (We call them ´BOLOS´) here. Yesterday we were walking down the street, and I see this guy who has connections to the ward. He lived in Boston with his family, and grew up in Boston, so he can speak English. He´s here because after Sept 11th, the government cracked down, put him in Prison in Lousiana, and then sent him back here to Guatemala. He is an awesome guy, who is sincerely seeking the truth, but won´t accept the gospel. He reads his bible and knows it really well, but not well enough to accept that he needs to be baptised. He won´t listen to the missionaries very often.. Anyways, the other day we were talking in English, and we totally hit it off, we´ve been having these deep conversations and stuff. He calls me Mel, and we´re ´friend´s´. Well we were walking down the street to a Cita, and we saw him standing there! He stopped us and wanted to talk to us. It was pretty obvious he was drunk with the big strand of spit stuck in his goatee and with how weird he was acting. He was really rude to my companion and just wanted to talk to me.
So, we´re just sitting there talking and he´s telling me how God loves us and how we´re all important but he has none of the answers. It was really interesting to see how desperate he was! He started balling and crying and asking me what God expects of us. I was doing my best to testify that we are his children and that he really does want us to return to live with him and have happiness in this life. He started telling me how much he loved me! I was like... I love you too! haha and I put my hand on his shoulder because he´s crying and could just tell how hard his life is! Well, all of a sudden he grabs my head, pulls it in towards his, and gives me a big wet nasty kiss on the cheek! Wow, Can I just tell you how awkward that was? I had NO idea what to do. My companion was standing there trying so hard not to laugh, and everyone has been getting a big kick out of the fact that Elder Melville got kissed by a Drunk guy! Whew, so, let this be the lesson. NEVER tell a Bolo you love him.
I´ve really been thinking about the Book of Mormon a lot lately, and the more and more we teach and talk and study it, the greater my appreciation is for it. Seriously, It is incredible. The fact that I love about it is we can know it´s true for ourselves! We don´t have to believe our friends, family, or some Pastor somewhere. We can know, between ourselves and our Heavenly Father if this book is true or not. I love the challenge in Moroni 10 that the prophet Moroni gives us to pray and ask our Heavenly Father, with FAITH, and we can find our answer. How awesome is that, we can know between ourselves and our Heavenly Father! No other person! So, we need to take advantage of this! Don´t believe because the Prophet tells us good stuff that we should follow, don´t believe because it´s just what our family does. Find out, using FAITH if this book is true or not. If we don´t believe that we will get an answer, we won´t, but if we DO believe, I PROMISE we can receive the answers we need through the Holy Ghost. I love that.
Well, my time is just about up, and I need to get to work! We need to find more investigators who are READY to hear the message. So i´m just going to spit out some answers to your questions really fast...
Elder Hautau is still having a tough go, the Assistants are arranging splits so that I can go out and do work with him in our area.. WHEW pray for me. I´m way excited though.
Fast sunday is hard on the mission, but easily INCREDIBLE, I bore my testimony in spanish, it was great. It was great to hear Elder Lanham´s testimony too.
We have a baptismal date! A little 9 year old named Oscar Blanco decided to be baptised! He will be baptised Jan 17 at 6 pm. COOL!
I gave the whole Blanco family CTR rings, as well as some other people, and I´m DRY out. They love those, so if you have more to send that would be great. thanks.
My head is fine, you can barely see the mark... haha
My back and feet get tired, but no big problems! Everything is great and I feel like i´m blessed wíth strength when i´m working as hard as possible.
I´m just about out of green drink, so if you can find a big thing of that, that would be great! Anything healthy! People can send whatever they think i´d like, I don´t care haha
They don´t
have to send anything though
I need a bunch of addresses, and if they´re at college just their home addresses are fine. Courtney Brown,(is she married?) Cara Claybaugh, Jillian, Thanks for Kaseys email addy. Marc Miller.
I love you all so much, I´ll see ya soon!
Elder Melville
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