The importance of enduring to the end

June 27, 2006
Dear Family,

There are passalong cards for mormon.org with the Salt Lake Temple on it. Unfortunately, none of them have pictures of Christ on one side. But, you could probably make something yourself, mom. You're crafty (in a good sense). In fact, I'll send you a couple of the Salt Lake Temple ones.

That's awesome that Dixie was able to bring a neighbor to church to hear her son speak. That's an awesome opportunity to share the gospel. I expect each of you to have at least one nonmember there when I get back ;P.

Next week is transfers, and I'll probably get a new companion, so stay tuned. Elder Holt and I have done a lot getting the members to trust the missionaries (before elder holt there was a pretty infamous missionary kind of wreaking havoc). Not that we've done anything but do our job and be obedient, but it's gone a long way.

We have another baptismal date with a lady named Mary. She's 80 years old. She had been taught before by elders, then sisters in her ward. She dropped the sisters because they didn't teach to her understanding. But, she really liked the elders, so we're teaching her again now, and it's going very well. Her baptism date is July 8. We'll have to work hard to get everything taught to her (she is eighty years old; she's not quite senile or anything, but she does need more help understanding basic concepts)

On Sunday night we went on exchanges with the priests. After visiting all the people we had planned to, we still had an extra half-hour, so I took my exchange ( the bishop's son ) tracting. We could have taken the easy way out and just gone and visited an active member, but instead, we just knocked doors and endured to the end, when it was time to meet back. Heh, members never like tracting. Anyway, we tracted an apartment building, and the last door we knocked on before going home, we met a really nice guy who said we could come back and meet with him in a few days. It just goes to show the importance of enduring to the end.

We had a couple other good meetings. Chris is progressing very well; hopefully he'll get his answer soon. I'm impressed that he reads and prays about everything that we give him; he has the "real intent required."

We've been teaching a lot of lessons; we taught 4 yesterday alone. So, we're keeping busy, and that's the way we like it.

Today, Elder Holt was called with a survey, and after he answered the question, he asked the lady if she'd be interested in learning more about Christ from missionaries. She said yes (whether out of politeness or not, we'll probably never know) and he gave her the number to the referral center in the MTC.

We met a Chinese family who has a 9 year old son who wants to learn about Christianity. (sound familiar?) His name is Alex. His parents said he can come to church, and we're going to give him the children's Book of Mormon stories. His mom is Buddhist, but fine letting him convert as long as the religion stresses him being a good person and doing good things. So, there's a really big potential there.

That's about all, though. Thanks for the letters and the support. I love you all.

Love,
Andy

The Great and Spacious Building

June 20, 2006
Dear Family,

That's awesome that Elder Wells is in your general area. He has a really cool family.

How is Utah right now? Is the weather good? It is very very hot here. It has been over 90 degrees most days. I know it's not quite Phoenix heat, but it's pretty intense in a collared shirt and a tie.

I'm glad you're getting to read Preach My Gospel, mom. It is a good handbook. I'm also reading the Doctrine and Covenants straight through right now. I already finished the bible, and the Book of Mormon twice on my mission so far.

This week, we had some good success. Sister Harris reluctantly gave us a referral that she didn't know what kind of response would be met with. Her name was Patricia. We stopped by and made an appointment for Saturday morning. Then on Saturday, we came, and sister Harris was already there. Patricia is going through a nasty divorce and her husband had taken a whole bunch of their stuff and the house was a mess. So we helped them clean up a bit. We hooked up one of Sister Harris's old TVs and set up the sound system, and I figured out what was wrong with the computers. So we were able to do some good help for her. We also taught her a first discussion and are going to meet with her again and have dinner at Sister Harris's house. So, that's a great referral. People in crisis are great referrals for missionaries. The other great referral is teens Michelle's age. Michelle, if you knew how critical that age was, you'd probably do nothing but share the gospel with people you know. Do anything you can to bring nonmember friends home, to church, to seminary. Don't be pushy, but be firm and unwavering.
We also met with Chris again, and we met some other people. We're pretty busy checking back with people and teaching at nights. This week, we are double-booked every night; we need those exchanges. John Raney and John Moran are both doing excellent, still coming to church and reading and praying and meeting with us. John Moran is coming on exchanges this week; he was ordained a priest on Sunday.

On Saturday, we went to the Great and Spacious building, Saddleback Church for an adventure. We went to one of their services. It was definitely entertaining, and the pastor was a very motivational speaker. We were stared at by a lot of people, but many people came up to us and introduced themselves and thanked us for coming. There were a couple thousand people at the church during that service, and there are several services throughout the weekend. I wish everywhere we went, people would come up and meet us; we'd sure baptize a lot more easily. The holy spirit definitely made a welcome showing when we went to our ward on Sunday, though.

Happy Fathers Day, dad! I'm sorry I didnt' get you anything, but I was with you in spirit.
We taught a Hindu lady this week. It is pretty tough to relate to them, but she said she'd read through the Book of Mormon and we could come back sometime. That's about all we could ask for.

When we went tracting on Father's day, we did a "Happy Father's day, we're sharing a message about our heavenly father, may we come in?" approach with this lady. She let us in. Then she said, "I wasn't supposed to let anybody inside." Then we saw a big hand-written sign on the door that said "Mama, if anybody comes to the door DON'T ANSWER IT. PRETEND NOBODY'S HOME." so, I guess maybe she was a bit senile. She was the only one home, but we knew we had to make the message quick. We bore our testimonies about God as our loving heavenly father and asked her who god was to her. She looked around warily for a few seconds then whispered, "I think I met him once." I wasn't sure if she was crazy or what when she said that, but I asked her to explain. She said she died once when her exhusband was beating her and she was brought back to life in the hospital. she said she saw god. When asked what he looked like. She said he had long hair and was dressed like us. We asked if he had a body. She said yes. She said her mother was there and said, "You're not supposed to be here, you're supposed to be in Hell" and then she came back to life. Crazy, huh? We bore our testimonies about Christ to her and then left. It was very interesting.

That's about it for this week. Good luck on the bike tour, Mom. Keep up the good work, everybody. Stay safe. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

The anti-mormon basher makes a fool of himself

June 13, 2006

Dear Family,
How are you all doing? Good? Good.

Yesterday, I went back to the doctor's office about the cough that almost went away a month ago, but has been slowly coming back again. It seems that the antibiotics didn't kill the bacteria that caused bronchitis. Interestingly enough, the doctor said I have a borderline asthma that gets triggered when there's a bacterial lung infection. So, I got another antibiotic and an advair inhaler. The church insurance covered the antibiotic, but unfortunately, not the inhaler any more than 30 dollars. So, I'm sorry but there's another charge on the credit card. This should help, though. I guess the "gold mine" came to defray some other costs :P. If you need to take it out of my checking account go ahead and do that.

End of school, eh? It's that same time of year here too. People are very excited to get out and have a summer of freedom.

That's cool that Michelle is [possibly] transferring to Redmond High School. It's definitely better to go where the friends are.

Kyle is doing... okay. He should have started fasting last night. He hasn't got the answer yet. We're meeting with Chris again tomorrow. We visited him at his work, a Christian bookstore.
We're also teaching a couple named Stephanie and Isaac. I don't know how committed they are to finding out it's true, but we're teaching them anyway.

We went to a mission president's investigator fireside on Sunday night with brother and sister Saadeh and a convert of just under a year named Danny Jambon. Danny hits his 1 year mark in about 4 days, and he's going to get his mission papers right then. He's got such a fiery testimony; he went tracting with Elder Holt and was running from door to door. He's an awesome member. After the fireside, he went up to one of the investigators there and talked to him and bore his testimony. It was cool. One of the nonmembers there was actually an uninvited (and unskilled) anti-Mormon basher. When President Garner opened it up for questions, the anti-Mormon tried to run the show and pretty much made a fool of himself. If I was an investigator there, I'd definitely have a stronger testimony just because of the bad spirit emanating from the guy. I think everybody could tell when the Holy Ghost left that meeting. President Garner did a very good job of not arguing, just giving the right answers and keeping his cool.

One less-active family that we and the bishop have been working with is coming back to church now starting this Sunday. That's a success! (even though it was mostly the bishop)
So, it's going pretty well right now. Still no real great progressing investigators, but we're working on it. Keep praying for us to have success in finding the people who want to hear it.
We had a couple eating days this week. Wednesday, we had lunch, then an investigator took us out to lunch, then we went to do service and help a new move in and she had bought us double cheeseburgers (surprise) then we had dinner, then at my appointment with Jeff Evans he made me pizza bagel bites. That's consecutive appointments. Then on Friday, we had a dinner scheduling problem and so had to go to two dinner appointments. We didn't tell either of them. So, being a missionary is fun; we get a lot of crazy experiences.

Girls, seriously, keep passalong cards for mormon.org in your backpack. When you're asked about being Mormon, or anything, find a way to invite somebody to learn about what we believe. Pass-along-cards aren't for full-time missionaries, they're for members. We just use them sometimes too. But way to have missionary experiences. Keep being the good people you are, that's the best way to share the gospel.

Anyway, that's about my entire week. Thanks for the letters and the support. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

Carry pass-along cards

Dear Family,

Yes, John Moran's baptism went through. He's 21 years old. He was very excited about it. He was confirmed and received the gift of the holy ghost on Sunday. I gave the talk on The Holy Ghost at the baptism and it went pretty well.

Don't worry about going back over what you could have said in missionary experiences. Just make sure that you're able and willing to open your mouth and share an invitation. Even if it's a pass-along card for Mormon.org or a video or something. Practice it in family home evening, and you'll realize it's really not that hard. When you go out to eat, leave a pass-along card with the tip. We showed that to some members who took us to Chilis on Saturday and we had to leave early. They said that when the waitress came and got the tip, she put the pass-along card with the picture of Jesus prominently on the computer screen and they thought that was pretty cool. I find that it's really easy to say, "You ought to be informed about what we believe, and this website has it." and maybe throw in a little, "There are a lot of misconceptions, but if you want to know about a Chevy, you don't go ask Ford about it." Most people will agree with that, and will think it's a good idea to find out what we believe from us, and the website is a perfect nonthreatening way. Or do whatever the spirit prompts, just make sure you keep pass-along cards in your purse or something.

I wanted to respond briefly to something you wrote in your letter, Mom, about how the guy at the gym who said we keep changing so much. Well, when people have that concern, I share the following scriptures:

Hebrews 13:8, which says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
1 Corinthians 12:5, which shows that God doesn't change, but he changes things. Administration changes. How do changes in adminstration come?

Amos 3:7- through prophets.

An example:
Matthew 10:5-6 - Jesus commanded his disciples to only preach to the house of israel.

Ephesians 3:3-6 talks about how revelation to also preach the gospel to the Gentiles was received through apostles and prophets after christ's time.

The truths about God don't change, of course not. People who accuse changes in practices and administrations don't understand that God adjusts his church and commandments according to the condition of His people in the world. The truths of God have been the same revealed through every dispensation since Adam.

Anyway... we're still teaching Kyle; we have an appointment with him tomorrow. We started teaching another referral, Chris, from a young man preparing to go on a mission. "Can I practice on you?" is a very good excuse.

Not much else is really going on. Just teaching Kyle and Chris and Jeff Evans right now. Plus all the recent converts. We really need to work hard on finding some new investigators who will progress towards baptism. We dropped a couple investigators this week who weren't willing to do anything like read or pray, so we were just wasting time on them that we needed to be using to prepare other people.

Anyway, I'm out of time. Thanks for writing and have a great week. Also, thanks for the pictures. I love you all.