Tyler, the 9 year old missionary

August 29, 2006
Dear Family,

How are you doing? I'm doing pretty well. I hope the physical therapist is helping dad. It's a big relief to know what's wrong and that he will be able to get help for it. I'm glad the food storage is helping out. Hooray for food storage. Someone asked me about food storage this week, actually, so I'll be happy to tell them how it's helping our family.

Next week, Wednesday is P-day for us, so don't expect a letter until then.

Last week, we had people at church just because invitations were extended. We have new spiffy invitations to church that we gave to all the youth we could and committed them to inviting a friend to church.

Yesterday was zone conference, it was really good, and gave some good motivation. Zone conferences give such a high to the work. Also, last night we went to the stake presidents house for dinner and a gospel discussion about the Abrahamic covenant and the spirit of prophecy. It was really good, and now we're ready to go out and convert some people.

We contacted 5 referrals this week. One of them was a media referral, and the person hadn't lived there for 6 years. Just so you know, it really wastes the missionaries time when you call the number pretending to be somebody else just to get the missionaries over there. The right way is to go through the referral phone number.

Nadre didn't end up coming to church. Nobody did. But it's okay, we're still working hard and trying to find people to teach and helping the members make invitations and get out of their comfort zone.

We taught Sunday school to the teenagers on Sunday. It was really interesting. I wanted to tie them all up and tape their mouths shut. Good Sunday school teachers are really admirable and hard to come by.

Anyway... honestly not much of note happened this week. Just a lot of knocking on doors and trying to find people.

OH! One thing did happen that was real interesting. We got a referral for a 9 year old from the Kirtland visitor's center- Tyler Feist in our ward had referred this kid named Noah, the visitor's center had called, and the dad agreed to let us come over. So we had Tyler (also 9) write his testimony in the front of a Book of Mormon and come over with us to take it to him.

Noah is Jewish, and unlike most jews we meet, his family is VERY observant. He and his dad were wearing yamakas; and it was their Sabbath so they didn't have any lights on and had nothing in their pockets. I really saw an illustration of the law that Christ fulfilled, or rather the strict hedge about the law that was the law of Moses. Too bad they didn't have the spirit of prophecy, or they'd know that Jesus Christ is the messiah they've been waiting for. Noah didn't accept the Book of Mormon, but they were complementary about Tyler wanting to share what he believed. I told them that this was Tyler's idea, and we didn't push him to introduce us to his friends, and they were really nice about it. I asked him a bit about what they believed, testified a bit, and that was that. A little weird, yes, to have somebody not interested at all to let us in, but good all around. Now Tyler has to find somebody else to give the Book of Mormon to.

Well, that's about it. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Myers

Some good potentials

Aug 22, 2006
Dear Family,

How are you doing? Is dad doing okay? Dad, I appreciate you taking the time to write me; I'm glad to hear from you.

Elder Peterson met Stass, eh? I don't really even know an Elder Peterson. Heh. Maybe I'm forgetting somebody. There are two elder Petersons in the mission, but I don't know any of them that would be in Ventura.

I'm sorry the pain is still going. I've been praying hard for you this week, dad. I hope now that the girls are home they're taking good care of you and making you velveeta macaroni and cheese, just how you like it.

That's cool that you got to be there and testify to Scott. Is he coming to church? My old companion, Elder Holt says that seeing the Testaments was a big part of his conversion. While he was investigating, he still wasn't sure about everything when he took a trip to
Salt Lake City and visited temple square. During that movie was the first time he RECOGNIZED feeling the spirit, and after that he knew he had to be baptized. It took him a lot (his parents weren't real supportive) to be baptized, but now he's a great missionary.

This week, we taught a Hindu man who is the Harris's neighbors. (The Harris family is like the missionaries family in the ward. They have two boys out on missions, in Australia and Argentina.) We have met him several times before, at ward activities and a scout thing, and just going to their house to talk to them. He was interested in meeting with us, so we went over and talked to him about the ten commandments because he wanted to know about them. He likes talking to us and says we can come by anytime. which is a lot, since we're always working on referrals for sister Harris.

On Thursday morning, we taught a new investigator named Jill at Sister Feist’s house, only to get a call from Sister Feist that afternoon saying that Jill was too concerned about what her family might think and that she didn't want to meet anymore. *sigh* what can you do?

We taught Mary again twice this week. she's working her way through the Book of Mormon; she's in 1 Nephi 10. She's actually understanding it really well so far, and she keeps asking "what's going to happen to those naughty boys?" Heh.

We started a zone fast on Saturday night for missionary work in our ward. Sunday night, we were fortunate enough to have the entire zone come to help with a tract-out, since our ward's work is going slow right now. So, for two hours, we had about 10 companionships in the area looking for people. We got a LOT of good potentials found from that, so we're really excited.

We're working on Alex, the 10 year old kid, through the scouting program right now. The mom, yes, does want to let Alex get baptized, but she has to take him to church first and that's out of our hands. Scouts is a good way to get him in with the boys his age, though, and we're definitely working on that.

This week, I taught a man named Nadre for the second time. The first time I had a high priest named brother Scott, and they had a very good connection. This week, I had a priest with me on exchanges. Nadre really wants to meet with Brother Scott there, and he really wants to come to church with his son this week. Potential, potential is everywhere, but these people have to take the steps themselves. All we can do is invite.

We helped a lady in our ward clean her house this week, and something amazing happened - I was grateful that I grew up doing chores. That house has 6 kids and it was SUCH a mess. Now our house wasn't always perfect, but it was pretty good, and I'm suddenly thankful for that. It's so hard to even stand being in a place with so much stuff lying around, much less live there. We did some good service, but it hardly made a dent in what had to be done. The weird thing is, nobody even asked us to do that, we just felt like we should go to this certain family's house (which we hadn't actually seen the inside of) and ask how we could help. You know how sometimes you can't tell if a thought is your own or if it's the spirit? Well, if the thought tells you to go do something good, it's probably the spirit. And even if it's not, at least you do something good. So, when you get an impression and don't know which it is, and it's good, just do it.
That's all the time I've got. I love you all. I'm praying for you, Dad.

Love,
Elder Myers

Moving to the Murris House

Dear Family,
This week, the Millwards time with the missionaries was up, and we moved out to the Murris house. It's kind of weird cause it's just a block away and it has the exact same floor plan. Yet it's entirely different, mainly because there aren't any animal heads on the walls. We're not sure yet if this is temporary. It took all day saturday to pack up and move our stuff and the furniture and dispose of all the junk on the shelves from missionaries in past generations. The murris may be temporary, so we're basically living out of our suitcases right now until we find out for sure where we're staying. Bro Murri is the first counselor in the bishopric and Sis Murri is the relief society president, so you can expect they're a really great couple, and there's a wonderful spirit in the home.

Transfers were today. Nobody in our district was transferred.

I'm glad you guys are working on clearing out the boxes from the garage. We've done a lot of moving people here, and I think people would be a lot better off and a lot happier if they were more organized and stored less junk.

Yesterday we helped move a guy named Shane Yates. It was long, but I'm glad we were able to help. While we were moving, we had an appointment with Mary that we completely forgot about. However, Sister Lake, one of the ward missionaries, knew we were having that appointment, and wasn't planning on going, but strangely felt inspired on attending the lesson with Mary. Well, we didn't show up, but Sister Lake was still able to read scriptures with Mary and teach a good lesson, so we see that even when we screw up sometimes, the Lord is still mindful of his children and his work will get done.

We had one investigator, Amanda, at the Mission President's fireside on Sunday and it went well. We had to give her and Britney over to the singles ward missionaries, though, and now we have zero progressing investigators. Patricia came to church, though. Sister Harris thought it was a really long shot, but that morning I felt like I needed to commit her to inviting Patricia to church, and so I called her up and did. Next thing I knew, I saw Patricia there at church. Interestingly enough, that week a missionary returned home who had just been serving in the area where she was from in Mexico, and he gave a phenomenal talk.

This week, one of the nights we had nothing to do. So we spent a long time street contacting, and talked to 35 people. Nobody was interested, but we kept going, and the very last person was named Grant, and he was super interested in going to church with us. He promised he'd come next week. We stopped by his house, just around the corner from us, and dropped him off a Book of Mormon and a Bible. However, we probably have to give him to the singles ward too.

And that's about all that's happened this week. We have a few more potential investigators, but nothing really groundbreaking. Have a wonderful week; I love you all.
Love,
Elder Myers

Lots of street contacting

Dear Family,

I'm glad you're having a good time in orem. Thanks for praying for Kyle. I'm not sure how he's doing; I know he's really confused. His parents won't let him talk to us and have been trying to have anti-mormons brainwash him. They even wouldn't let him go on their family trip to yellowstone, making him go to a Saddleback weeklong camping trip instead. Weird. Kyle has graduated. The school he was going to go to is in Riverside county.

There's not really much more news on anybody else. It has been kind of a low week; a lot of appointments cancelled, and a lot of working with the members who know Kyle. Mary is doing well. We had another good meeting with her yesterday. She's still coming to church. I'm glad Michelle's car is doing better and wasn't expensive. Phew. How are the missionaries in your ward?That's awesome that you're giving referrals.

I'm sorry that not much happened this week, but there really isn't that much to say. We made sure to get over 70 street contacts this week, and guess what? Two of them were people who we had already met and were potential investigators. One of them told us she hopes to see us again soon. Oh boy, will she ever. I actually had made a 13-page compilation of scriptures and teachings on the ressurection for her member friend to give to her, so I feel good about it. The zone leaders also tracted into a guy who we had given a pass-along card for a family booklet to, and he recognized them as associated with us, so he let them right in. Cool, huh? So, the challenge to contact 10 people outside of tracting every day is inspired, and the Lord has been putting people in our way. We mostly just stand out in front of Wal-mart.

We taught Britney again too, and answered her main questions. She's still reading and praying and she's felt the spirit, but she still wants to learn more. Excellent.The Chinese family all got sick and so they'll call me when they have time. :( But I got a referral from the mission office for another Chinese person :)

Well, I'm racking my brain but nothing else really happened. I hope you are having a wonderful week. Thanks for your prayers and your thoughts and letters. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers

Mary was baptized, Alex is ready, Pray for Kyle

August 1, 2006

Dear Family,

Thanks so much for the letters you wrote on family night! It was awesome to hear from every one of you. I hope you can all write again soon. Girls Camp and Lisa's corresponding week sounded really fun. You girls have definitely grown funnier in the year I've been away. It must be one of the blessings of my missionary service. ;P. Becky, I'm disappointed you were only able to eat 8 sugar packets.

Oops, I forgot to bring the letters to the library to respond to them in my email, so just know that I really, really appreciated the letters from every single one of you and that I love you all.

This weekend, we baptized Mary without a hitch. Her first words after being baptized were "Wow!" It was pretty cool. She was confirmed the next day. That night, we had a zone tract-out, and two missionaries tracted into her. She told them about her baptism and confirmation and they thought she must be some crazy old lady, until we heard the story and set them straight. It was a good experience for all who were involved.

I got a referral for a little Chinese family who want to start coming to church, so we went down and met them at a ward party in Aliso Viejo (in another zone) and we're teaching them again on Friday.

We taught Alex again and he's doing well. His mom asked, "How do we get him baptized?" We said we could take care of that. He should be coming to church this Sunday. We're going to get him hooked into scouts.

We taught a few referrals and picked up a few new investigators this week. It was pretty good.

The big news this week comes regarding Kyle, though. We challenged him to baptism on Wednesday, with a date of Monday, August 14th. He accepted, and he was excited. He came to church on Sunday, fasting for the Lords help in telling his parents. We prayed for him also.

Well, from what I heard, he told them yesterday, and they absolutely flipped, to say the least. His dad threatened to entirely disown him if he joins the church. They already took away his cell phone, his car, and his job. And they aren't going to pay for his college. I haven't been able to talk to him, but he has many good LDS friends that told me what is going on. So it's a really tough situation. He turns 18 in less than two months. Some of us are fasting for him today. Please pray for him.

John Moran spoke in Sacrament Meeting this week and did a great job. I kept wanting to brag to people, "I taught him, that's my convert!" He's a great member.

On Saturday we were also able to go to Mission Viejo for the baptism of one of Elder Nielson's old investigators, Truc. He was excited to see her join the church.

We started doing service at the library. We shelve books mostly, and it's a pretty nice way to spend a couple hours. A guy started talking to us, trying to bash with us. He got really mad when I walked away after he made it very clear that he wasn't going to listen to anything we said. Oh well.

It's rained like 3-4 days this week. It's been much nicer weather here too.

That's really all that happened this week. Pray for Kyle. Thanks for writing, and I hope you guys have a wonderful week. Stay safe. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Myers