It's going very well here.

Mar 27, 2007
Dear Family,

Yes, I had a good birthday. Not only was I surprised with a cake and some balloons, but we also had 3 investigators come to church (The Twiggs and Diana Whitney) and found 3 new investigators in a part member family. So, It's going very well here. We're having dinner with the Goates tonight. Both wards are really great.

I received the book this week, thanks mom. It's the first edition, which is not that much different from the second edition, so it should bring me up to speed just fine.

I used the Discover card this week to buy a couple essentials - soap, laundry detergent, and a couple banquet dinners. My funds this month have been really tight, but in a couple days it should be better.

The bike riding is going a lot better. I no longer have to stop while going up hills. It's still hard, but we're making a lot better time.

The Twiggs are doing really well. They've been off alcohol for about a week now and they came to church and really enjoyed it. We taught them a few times, and I think they're doing their best to have sincere and lasting repentance.

Diana Whitney came to church, but I'm not sure she's any closer.

Nicole was sick the last couple days and hasn't been able to come to church. We did meet with her a couple times last week though and she's reading the Book of Mormon.

The new investigators are the Lynkowskis. The mom and oldest son are members and have recently been coming back after 10 years of inactivity. She wants the youngest two sons baptized. the husband is willing to allow it, but he's Catholic. We invited him to join with us for the missionary lessons as we teach the sons and to come to church with them and he agreed that he would. So, this is a really good opportunity.

We're planning on challenging the Twiggs to baptism this week, and setting a date with the Lynkowski kids next week. We'll see how it goes.

Yes, Elder Gibbons and I will be on the same plane home. Maybe you and the Gibbons can plan a super party bash for when we get back or something. We could all go down to Chinatown and show off our Chinese skills. If you do it before we get released we'll probably do some street contacting too :P. Uh... is there a Chinatown? Maybe just a Chinese restaurant.

This week, the Laus had the Huang family (the one I started teaching right before I left) over for dinner at their house and invited me. So I got to go and see them and Elder Gibbons and Elder Moreno. That was really cool. They all seem to be doing well. I got into Frank Xie's house and taught him a bit. He said I could come back. So, I'm getting a little chance to speak Chinese.
Last night we went street contacting, and one guy was a real jerk to me, trying to intimidate me or something. Well, he came back 10 minutes later and apologized for how he acted. That was really cool. That's the first time I've seen that on my mission.

Are you guys inviting anybody to watch General Conference? This one's gonna be good. (Not that I know any more about it than you, but you can usually be pretty confident that it'll be good.)

I got the cookies. They were delicious.

Well, another week flew by. I hope you are all doing well.

We have to ride bikes 3 days a week

March 20, 2007
Dear Family,

Michelle got accepted, huh? That's really good news! I hope she comes to BYU Provo.

Brother Goates is a really good ward mission leader. Actually, he used to be bishop, so we call him Bishop Goates. We cover two wards, the Encinitas 1st and Cardiff wards. In the Encinitas ward, Bishop Goates is the ward mission leader, and the bishop is Bishop Sessions, who is about to retire from the Navy. Other prominent members in the Encinitas ward boundaries are the LAUS from the Chinese branch. They are trying to arrange a dinner this Friday at their home with the Huang family who we found just before I was transferred, and they invited us to go. I hope it works out. In Cardiff, the ward mission leader, Bro Ek, is the father of our bishop, Bishop Ek. We reside in Cardiff ward. We're the only elders that live there.

We have to ride bikes 3 days a week, and we have exchanges go out 5 nights a week. It's a pretty hilly area, actually, and it's pretty hard being out of shape with a little bit of asthma, but I felt an improvement. We rode about 15 miles a day this week.

On Wednesday, our dinner appointment wasn't there. It was in this apartment complex and suddenly I had a major deja vu, like I had been there before. I realized that a year ago, we had contacted a referral in that area named Frank Xie, who had a family. For some reason it didn't work out. It was a long drive, so we weren't able to go back and try again. Well, here I was, my first full day in the new area, wondering why I got transferred, and I'm one building away from a known, open Chinese family. That was pretty interesting. So, we're still trying to contact them. I found another Chinese person in the area book that I am trying to contact. Yesterday we had an appointment with an investigator lady named Nicole that is just moving into the area and she lives in a motel room right now. Well, when we approached the motel, a lady with the keys came up to us and asked us if she could help us get a room. We said no, we were here to visit a friend, but she looked Asian. I asked her name before she walked away and she said her name was "June." I asked her where she was from. China. So, I talked to her in Chinese and eventually got her to take a pamphlet in Chinese. I told her that I'd come talk to her again. The appointment with Nicole went well, and we arranged to teach her twice a week. She has really been prepared for the gospel. Her husband is probably going to join us as well. This will be good.

We have another investigator couple, the Twiggs. They hit rock bottom this week, going into a really bad alcohol binge. About 5 days of straight drinking. By the end, they wanted nothing more than two things: 1) to stop drinking and repent and 2) find more alcohol and keep drinking. They weren't doing very well. Finally they got some professional help. Yesterday they were sober and doing much better. They are making plans to stay away from alcohol entirely in the future. They also set up a regular schedule for us to come over twice a week.

Our other investigator, Diana Whitney, is kind of elderly. She speaks some Chinese, too. She lives in a retirement community. She didn't have any belief in God before, but has been coming to church and attended a baptism. We shared with her about faith as taught in Alma 32 and encouraged her to act upon her desires and little bit of faith in experimenting upon the word. She said she would. She's very intelligent.

So, that's our investigators right now. 4 of them. We have some really hot potential investigators too. We're working hard and exercising our faith through much bike riding. Thanks for all your prayers. I love you all.

Elder Myers

March 13, 2007
Dear Family,

Well, today, I was transferred to Encinitas 1st ward and the Cardiff ward. It was kind of surprising. I'm back in English work. My companion is Elder Archibald from somewhere in Utah I never heard of. I'm in the Del Mar zone, which is a very small zone of only 5 companionships of elders. Elder Gibbons went back to the Chinese branch.

This week, we had a similar experience to your dinner experience. We were invited to dinner at the Johnson's house, where they had a nonmember over. We taught the compete restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. It was pretty good. We also helped somebody move this week - there was a nonmember there also, and Elder Moreno taught her the restoration during lunch. If somebody can listen, we've got to teach them.

The Huang family was doing really well. They showed up to church - an hour late because nobody told them about daylight savings. We taught them again Monday, and Mr. Huang said the closing prayer. The spirit was definitely there, and I think they're recognizing it, but, alas, I'm gone. It was a good week, though.

Uh, not a lot else is happening that I can really remember. Transfers always create a blur. I'm excited to be here. I hope I can go back to Chinese for the last transfer though.

Yes, I know the Heaths, and I know they're Brother Heath's parents. I saw them today, in fact. We've talked several times about the Heaths.

Good job on missionary work Michelle. Keep it up.

I better go. I love you all.

--Elder Myers

He lives right by the temple (doesn't everybody?)

March 6, 2007

Dear Family,

I'm so proud of you guys for taking the challenge. You guys did a great job, even if you didn't reach the 70. :) Yes, you can count any sort of talking about the church. We reached our goal this week (barely, we had to spend Sunday night street contacting at the movie theater) and taught some good lessons.

We were really blessed this week to get a message with a referral from elders in La Jolla. They told us they met a guy on the street and got his address and phone number. He lives right by the temple (doesn't everybody?) Well, last night, we went over there, and he was busy right then but we arranged an appointment for 7:00. We called Ronald and he came and taught with us: we taught the whole family, and they seemed really interested. Their names are Mr. Huang, Mrs. Lu, and their daughter Evelyn (not to be confused with the other Evelyn). We're going back Friday. They are from Taiwan and don't know a lot about our church except that it's really focused on families and that's very important to them. So, hopefully that works out.

The testaments is now out on DVD according to the April Chinese Liahona. So, maybe it's not quite out yet, but that's a good way that you can teach people more about the Book of Mormon.
We found out that the new mission president for this mission (starting July 1) is going to be Richard Brady from Orem, UT. His wife's name is Janice.

Was that our next door neighbor?

Mr Fan came to church again this week. There were a lot of nonmembers there. We had a new student in English class. Not much else has happened this week. Tonight, we're teaching Mr. Fan at Ronald's house.

Well, that's about all for this week. I love you all.
--Elder Myers