We are working a lot on finding.

May 30, 2006
Dear Family,

How are you doing? It sounds like your trip to Vancouver was fun. I hope to get to go there with you guys someday. I doubt that the aquarium you went to even compares to Sea World down in San Diego... which is, unfortunately, not in our mission, so we can't go there. Someday, though, when we all come back to see the mission, we can take a couple detours... to Disneyland... to Legoland... to Sea World... San Diego zoo... etc.

Anyway. We are doing fine here. We are working a lot on finding. Yesterday we got a member referral; Kyle is an 18 year old high school senior. He is Christian, and planning to go to a Baptist Bible college next year for school. His friend, a member named Steven, set up an appointment for us to meet him, play Apples to Apples with him, go to lunch, and then have a lesson. Two other members that are his friends came over for the lesson. It was good, the spirit was there, and we have another appointment on Thursday. He teaches his own Bible study in his home, so if he is sincere, when he gets his answer he'll be in a position to influence a lot of people. I wish we got more member referrals like that. "I want you to meet the missionaries." Our stake High Counselor over missionary work has used a very interesting approach. He tells his friends and acquaintances, "I am sending two missionaries over with a gift for you. I want you to listen to them; you don't have to believe them, but please listen to what they have to say." And then he sends the missionaries there with a Book of Mormon in which he's written his testimony in the front. Six people have joined the church because of him doing that. His name is Brother Andre, he went over to Jakko's house with us this week and talked him into coming to church. He's an awesome missionary; he converted when he was 20. He is also an artist who works in film and media; he owns an advertising firm, so I really want to sit down and talk to him.

John Moran's baptism is set for Saturday. He passed his interview. I look up to him a lot for the decision he is making.

We are still teaching John Raney in the Saadeh's home. I really like the Saadeh's; they're the perfect member family, and the dad being a nonmember doesn't take away from that at all. He is a really admirable guy, very supportive to his family. He always comes to church and leads his family in scripture study and prayer. He sits down with us for the discussions we have with John too, although from what I understand, he isn't really up to being taught himself at this time; he's had the discussions many times before. So, I don't really get to talk to him much about the gospel directly, but if I could I would try to find out what his hang-up really is. And I'd help him understand that he really needs to be committed to God above everything and really seek wholeheartedly after an answer from Heavenly Father. Maybe he's putting his heritage and family as his first priority, but isn't his true family the one he has now? Isn't his heritage the one he is creating. Besides, God is even above family. Like Matthew says, anybody who forsakes family or possessions or anything for Christ will gain it back a hundred fold. Even if his family from Lebanon don't agree with him now, they'll admire him for blazing a path when they finally understand the truth. I know Satan works hard on him because he is middle eastern and he could open so many doors as a mission president or something. He's such a good guy though, and he does good, and I know he believes in Christ. I just wish he'd understand that once he's willing to act on an answer from God, he will get that answer.

Yesterday morning, we got up at 4:45 to go help with registration for a marathon. There were about 50 missionaries there, it was pretty cool. We got free t-shirts.

We saw Jeanie again this week, and she says she wants to learn more about the church after she finishes this big project she's working on in about two weeks. So that's an awesome potential that we still have.

That's about all that's been going on this week. I hope you guys have a great week and stay safe. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

No transfers

May 23, 2006
Dear Family,

The missionary in the Everett mission from this ward is named Elder Wells. We ate breakfast at the Wells house this morning; brother Wells cooked bacon and eggs for us; afterwards we washed and waxed our car there. They are an awesome family.

Last night we taught a referral from a member in another ward. It was a good, spiritual first discussion; however, his fiancee seems somewhat opposed to his learning about it, so we don't know if we'll ever be able to meet with him again. We tried, though, and committed him to read and pray.

John Moran is going to be baptized on June 3rd. He's doing great; we're meeting with him again tonight. He is recognizing the spirit working in his life and feels that his prayers have been answered. I think John Raney has been a good example for him.

Oh, today is transfers, and neither Elder Holt or I are leaving. But half of our zone is leaving. We're the only companionship that didn't go to the transfer meeting today.

Otherwise, there hasn't been a lot of progress with people we've been working with. We've been visiting a lot of less active members, and a bit of tracting. We found one pretty promising lady named Jeanie (I'm not sure if I mentioned her last week) who was nice enough to let us in but told us she wasn't interested -- until we told her that we did, in fact, believe that Jesus was the Son of God, at which point she told us she actually WOULD be interested in learning more. So we're going to keep trying back.

We also saw the ward this week come together to help out a young man who seemed to be going wayward. Several of his young mens leaders took him out to lunch or dinner to chat with him, and another member of the ward took him and his mom to the temple to do baptisms for the first time. He is now doing much better, and I'm sure that the high activity rate in this ward has to do with how the members give of their time to show each other love.

But honestly, not a lot has happened this week. We've been working hard and things are right on track, but unfortunately, we're about to baptize the rest of our teaching pool. Or, fortunately, I guess. So we need to keep finding new investigators.

Anyway, I'm sorry that this letter is short, but there's not really anything more to say. I love you all. I hope you have a great week.

Love,
Elder Myers

I bet you don't go making any more deals like that!

Dear Family,
How are you guys doing? It was nice to talk to you on the weekend. I'm sorry to hear that Becky got sick, but I hope she's doing a bit better now. It sounds like those baked goods from boys were poisoned or something, eh? Mom, I'm glad you were able to talk to somebody while on the bike ride. That's really cool that you were able to bring up the gospel. Next time, maybe you can have a pass-a-long card for mormon.org or something.

Not a whole ton happened this week. We helped a nonmember named Judy move. While we were there, we met one of her neighbors, who recognized us as "Men of God" and made her son come down to meet us. We offered to bring him a Finding Faith in Christ DVD, and she consented - with the added bonus of her feeding us dinner. So, that was a cool service opportunity. Judy's mom has Alzheimers and kept telling us "We got the best end of the bargain!" (referring to how we offered to help last week, and that got Judy to church). She literally said that, and "I bet you don't go making any more deals like that!" about 15 times. It was funny. And at the end, Judy said, "I think I might start going to the Mormon church in Georgia." So, that's really cool. Mission accomplished there.

John Raney is still doing well. He blessed the sacrament this week. John Moran is still reading and coming to church and doing well. He's planning on being baptized mid-June.

I went on exchanges with Elder Doria this week. On one door we knocked on a guy let us right in. When they do that, you know they're either a member or a minister. I didn't recognize him, and it turned out he was a minister. So we talked about his responsibilities at Saddleback, and just prayed we wouldn't get into a bash -- and we didn't; he had to go, so we said a prayer together and it was a positive experience.

We taught a Finnish man named Jakko at the doorstep the other day. He said he is open and we can come back sometime, so we're excited for that. We're going to take our amazing stake mission leader Brother Andre over there; he's also a convert from Lutheranism.

And that's about all that's happened this week. Things are going good, we're doing fine. Thanks for all your support and your letters. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

Baptism!

May 9, 2006
Dear Family,
It has been a good week. Today we went to the Newport Beach temple. It was the first time I have been. It is a fairly small temple, smaller than the stake center next to it, but it is very nice. It's nice to go to the temple once in a while.

Saturday was John's baptism. His parents came to support him, as did many members. His brother opposed it, but he did it anyway. After the baptism he bore his testimony and everyone was blown away. It was a great baptism. The next day, Sunday, his parents came to see him confirmed in sacrament meeting, then he was ordained a priest afterwards in the Bishop's office. His parents were touched by the whole thing and very proud of their son. The Saadehs think that the family is very close to investigating themselves. Brother Saadeh has been affected a lot also by having the discussions at his house. In all, John's conversion has started ripples that no one can comprehend the effects of.

We taught the Chinese lady Xiao Yan again last night. She was very receptive and we had a good discussion about faith, prayer, scripture study, etc. My Chinese is definitely digressing, but it's not terrible.

John Moran is also progressing and coming to church. He actually drove us to the temple today, so we've had a lot of contact with him. He is reading every day.

On Saturday morning, we taught the Kim family the plan of salvation, and they are doing well. They're still not coming to church, but they're progressing in their own way.

Also on Saturday, one of the ladies in our ward gave us an assignment. She had her car fixed by a guy who she started talking to about the church, and felt prompted to send us over to his house with a plate of cookies. He was so touched that he was brought to tears, and he invited us back.

We also talked to an old contact of Elder Holt's this week, named Judy. They had tried everything to get her to church, but she never came. Well, she's moving soon, so we asked if we could help. she was very touched by this, then we invited her to church. So she came, and she was BAWLING during fast and testimony meeting. It was a very good experience for her. We will send the missionaries in Georgia to go get her.

Well, that's about it for this week. It was exciting and good. I hope you all have a great week this week. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

I don't know the first thing about teaching a Muslim

May 2, 2006

Dear Family,
Hey, Becky and Michelle, that's cool that you won a contest. I want to hear more about what happened. Those pictures look like you had a good time. Did you get their CD for free? :P.

Okay, so on to about my week.

John Raney is still on to be baptized on Saturday, solid as solid can be.

We started teaching John Moran on Sunday, and he's doing well. He has a tentative date of mid-June, when he graduates from college. He's studying video game design, and got interested through his girlfriend Jill Zor. He's keeping up on his reading assignments and coming to church, so he's pretty solid on the road to getting his answer from God.

During the first couple days of this week, we met with a lot of rejection. We tracted a lot and were turned away and received rude or offensive comments several times. But we kept going through a few hard days, and finally started seeing some success.

A couple days ago, we did a check back for a young man named Abrar, who looked Indian. When we knocked and asked for Abrar, his father answered and scolded us for asking for him because he was a minor; if we wanted to talk about religion we should talk to the father. So we asked if we could talk to him, he said yes, he let us right in, and we had a great discussion. We gave him a book of Mormon and he gave us a Koran, and at the end, he apologized several times for getting angry. It just goes to show that a soft answer to an angry person can turn away their wrath and open hearts to you. Now, I don't know the first thing about teaching a Muslim, but at least he's reading the Book of Mormon, and maybe he'll come to the knowledge of its truthfulness. It was very interesting to get to know him. He said we can come back sometime.

Yesterday, we tracted and, for the first time ever with Elder Holt, got in a door. His name was Luis; we taught him the restoration and committed him to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. He's not an investigator yet, but he has promise. He is from Mexico and has very good English. Then, a few doors later, we met a lady who seemed very anti at first, and we nearly got into a bash with her at the door, but we were able to bring it down a little bit and ended up talking for about 1 1/2 hours at the door. Elder Holt apologized for getting a little bit intense and flustered, and she really warmed up to us. she said she'd invite us to have dinner with her except she didn't know what they were having or when, but said she'd like to see us again when we're in the neighborhood. She had a lot of questions, and we invited her to go to mormon.org and look through it. She said she would, and I think she had a little more understanding when we left than when we got there.

We did a little bit of service this week too. Actually... a lot. We helped move a couple people.
So, basically, it was a fairly slow week at first, and we found a few potential investigators later on in the week. We have two progressing investigators with a lot of promise.

I hope you all have a great week. I love all of you.

Love,
Elder Myers