Letter from Monday, November 24, 2008

Hello again from Texas. It's been another week already...
...crazy!

Congratulations to Dan and Laurie! Next time I email,
they'll be married! Woohoo!

I was disappointed to hear Monique's call didn't come this
last week, I was hoping I'd be able to find out today. But,
next week for sure!  Woohoo!

I'm excited to hear that Joe's had the chance to go biking.
I haven't heard too much from him lately...what's going on
Joe?

Also, thanks mom for the updates from the kid's blogs. I
appreciated hearing about what's new there.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I'll miss being with you
all, but I'll get a few dinners here, so that makes up for
it! :)

That's super exciting that Bro. and Sis. Jesperson have
been called to preside over a Spanish-speaking mission.
I'm curious to see where they'll end up. Anything else new
in the home ward? Any mission calls or anything lately?

Well, things have been a little rough emotionally for me
this last week, there's been a lot of disappointment with
investigators, but I guess that's how this work goes. The
Lord definitely strengthens us, I've experienced that
without a doubt.

Well, now for the activities and such from this past week,
and the update on investigators.

Alejos and Esmerelda - Nothing new here, we haven't been
able to get ahold of them again yet. We're still working
on it.

Nora and Edgar - We met with her on Saturday, and it she
said she doesn't want to be baptized...however, she KNOWS
that this church is true, it's just a matter of resolving
doubts. Satan is definitely doing everything that he can
there...

Ivan - We set up an appointment to meet with him tonight.
I'll let you know on this next week.

Marta - Well, she came to a baptism on Saturday night, and
she felt the Spirit. We'll meet with her again Tuesday
night, and try to set up a more firm date as to when she'll
be prepared to be baptized.

Vanessa and Freddy - Well, nothing new this last week with
them. The appointments all fell through... Oh well, we'll
keep moving forward.

Lydia - Well, Lydia is making a lot of progress. We taught
her about the Plan of Salvation, and she really seemed to
understand. However, she didn't keep her commitment to
coming to church yesterday. She's getting closer though.

Ester and George - We taught these two a couple Saturdays
ago. George isn't too interested, but Ester and her kids
definitely are. We taught them on Saturday about the Plan
of Salvation. They seemed to understand it well. We asked
her how she felt about the message that we shared with her,
and she said something along the lines of, "I don't know
why, but I believe that this is true." It's definitely a
great experience to see the spirit touch people's lives.

Robert and Terry - Well, Terry was baptized when she was
8, but hasn't been active since. Robert is a truck driver.
His sister and brother-in-law are members, and have been
a great example to them. He says that his brother-in-law
drank alot more than him, and was a lot worse than he is,
and how he's changed his life around with the church.
However, he doesn't think that he can do it. We're going
to introduce him to a member in the ward here that had
the same story - truck driver, drank, etc. So, we'll see
how that goes.

Griselda - One day when we went to visit her, her kid was
sick, so we gave her a blessing. The next time we visited,
we were talking about how Christ established his church
upon the earth, and we showed her the picture of Christ
ordaining one of the apostles. She recognized that he
ordained his apostle by the laying on of hands, in the
same manner that we had given her daughter a blessing.

Well, I've decided I hate dogs here in Texas. Well, most.
They're everywhere. Mangy. Gross. Disgusting. Most look
like they shouldn't be alive. They seem to be on Satan's
side. Some won't let us even approach the door. The
worst is when we get up on the doorstep to knock a door,
and they come out from under the doorstep and start to
bark at us and try to bite us. Oh well. Yay for
frustrations with dogs! :)

Well, I love you all, and you're all in my prayers. Thank
you for all the prayers in my behalf.

The church is true.

Con amor, Elder Meservy

Letter from Monday, November 17, 2008

Well, it's already been another week here in Texas! Time is
flying bye. I did talk with President Miller about grandpa
and grandma Moulton. He remembers them. My bike did arrive,
but it's still being put back together, so, I'll have it
shortly.

My companion, Elder Sandberg, is great. We get along really
well. He's from Heather Ridge in Orem. (up by the old
Novell buildings).  Well, I'll walk you all through an
average day in the life as a missionary in the Weslaco
North area:
6:30 - Exercise for half an hour.
7-8 - Eat breakfast, shower, and get ready for the day.
8-9 - Personal Study, half of which I spend studying the
 Book of Mormon, and the other half I spend in Preach My
 Gospel.
9-10 - Companionship study, this is typically used to
 prepare our lesson outlines for the lessons we'll be
 teaching throughout the day.
10-11 -Spanish Study. Lately for Spanish study I've been
 reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish, and learning new
 vocabulary from it.
11-1 - Lessons or tracting.
1-2  - Lunch.
2-9 - Lessons, or tracting.
9-9:40 - Planning.
9:40-10:30 - Preparation for the next day, and for bed.
10:30 - Bed time.

There you have it. That's my life pretty much day in and
day out.

I have 45 minutes for emailing each week.

Texas is definitely a flat place. I miss the mountains, and
it's hard to get my bearings of which way is north, but oh
well. It's dry, hot,and humid, but that's ok. It's actually
cooled down the last few days quite a bit.

I'm excited that Monique's papers are ready to assign. I'm
looking forward to seeing where she gets called, and I'm
sorry to hear that she's been sick, my thoughts and prayers
are with her....(surprise?):)

Well, it sounds like BYU's been doing well, it sounds like
if we beat Utah this Saturday, that we still have a chance
for a BCS game. Hooray!

I can't believe Dan and Laurie's wedding is only a week and
a half away! That's so exciting! Where's my invitation?
...not that I'd be able to come or anything...

Happy birthday to Charlene this week, and happy birthday
to Abbie lastweek.

I was excited to hear that Jon and Abbie sang a duet for
the Primary Program. I just wish that I could've been
there to hear it.

One of the things I miss most here on the mission is not
being able to gather together with the family for Sunday
dinners. I've definitely missed the grandkids. Tell them
all hi from Uncle John.

Well, I'll give some updates now on some of our
investigators, and some new ones, etc.

Alejos and Esmerelda - Well, not much is new here with them.
We went to teach them on Friday, and we watched Finding
Faith in Christ with them. It went well, but afterwards,
we were talking with them and Esmerelda brought up the
fact that Alejos was drinking while we were watching
it. He got frustrated, and went and drank some more. We're
really concerned, but we'll meet with them again later
tonight. We're planning on talking to them about the
Proclamation to the World.

Nora and Edgar - Well, we're still waiting for Nora and
Olvidio to get married. Not much news here. We're still
hoping that they'll be able to get baptized this month.

Ivan - Well, we haven't been able to set up an
appointment with Ivan again yet. We found out that he's
in McAllen through this coming week, so when he gets back,
we'll set up an appointment with him.

Marta - Marta has been an investigator since about May,
but we're making alot of progress with her. We had a
lesson with her this last week,and she prayed while we
were there if the Book of Mormon was true. The Spirit was
there, and confirmed to us, and to her, that what we
brought before her was the truth. We're working towards
a December baptismal date with her.

Vanessa and Freddy - These two live right next to
Alejos and Esmerelda. The way we met them was while we
were watching Finding Faith in Christ with Alejos and
Esmerelda, their music was turned up really loud. So,
Elder Sandberg and I knocked and asked them to turn it
down. They politely obliged, and we set up a return
appointment. We came back the next day to teach them,
and found out that neither is very religious, so we
taught them how to pray. He offered the first prayer of
his lifetime while we were there. It was simple, and
somewhat difficult for him, but the spirit was there, and
they agreed to be baptized as they learn more.

Carlos - Carlos is a 71 year old man. He's a recent
convert to the church. We taught a lesson about
pornography because he had some inappropriate things in
his house. He allowed us to take them and throw them
away. I don't think he realized that it was as bad as it
was. He really is a great man, and really funny.

Well, my time is about up. I love you all, and appreciate
the letters and emails.

Elder Meservy

First Letter from Texas (November 10, 2008)

Wow. Well! I'm here in Texas! It's crazy! As you can tell,
my P-day is on Monday. Definitely more humid here than
Utah. Alright, well, I'll get to the things you all are
probably most interested in hearing about first. I'm in
Weslaco North, which covers the northern part of Weslaco,
up to Hargill, parts of Donna, to parts of Mercedez. We've
got a huge area, but it's good. My address is 608 E.
Sugarcane Rd. Apt. D Weslaco,TX 78596 - I expect letters
from all of you! :)

Well, when I got here, all of the new missionaries met at
President and Sister Miller's home. We had a wonderful
dinner, and had interviews with President Miller, found
out where we were going, and who our companions were. We
talked a little bit about the mission, and then we went to
sleep at the Assistants to the President's Place.

The next morning we had breakfast at President and Sister
Miller's, and then went to the church for transfers. I
then met my companion, Elder Sandberg (he's from Orem,
apparently he graduated from Timpanogos '06),and we were
off to our area.

We're in a car usually, but it's a mix between a bike and
car. We'll be using bikes quite a bit in our area, but
usually it's the car (which I'm not complaining about).  We
went and did service for Sister Lopez in the ward (We
helped clean out a huge truck full of metal). We went
around that day tracting, and visiting members and
investigators. We've got all types of people here,there's
many who live in trailer parks surrounded near garbage and
stuff, and there's some that live in really good living
conditions.

Right now we're working with several people. I'll kind of
go through,and give you backgrounds on what's going on
with each.

Alejos and Esmerelda - Well, these two are looking for a
true church. However, they're also meeting with the
Jehovah's Witnesses, so they're getting more confused.
We've set a baptismal date, but in order for that to
happen, they neet to come to church, and continue with
their commitments.

Nora and Edgar - Well, Nora is Edgar's mom. Her boyfriend
(Olvidio) has been a member since 1995. However, they need
to get married before she can get baptized. As soon as she
and Olvidio get married, she'll be able to get baptized.
She knows it's true, and they're trying to figure out a
wedding date.

Ivan- Ivan is an 18 year old kid that feels the spirit
very strongly as we teach. However, he's hard to keep a
set appointment with because he always forgets about them.
We're working hard on getting him to church.

Well, for church here, there are two wards, an English
ward, and a Spanish ward. Our work is about 60/40 Spanish
to English ratio. So, for church, we have the Spanish
ward at 9, and the English ward at 1. So, during church,
we go on companionship exchanges. I went with another
Elder during the Spanish ward and went to work. We
switched for the English ward. I met Bro. Weese (the one
that I met on Cougarboard who lives in my mission), and
also his wife (Dad's best friend's sister).

The mission is great. The first couple days were pretty
hard, but I feel like now I've actually gotten into the
work.

If you all have more specific questions, feel free to ask,
and I will respond.

Congrats to Julia and Brian on the new addition to their
family. (Thanks, mom, for the pictures.)

Dan and Laurie - I expect an announcement in the mail.
I'm starting to be able to understand more and more
Spanish, and I'm doing my best to speak it. With time,
it will come.

Well, I love you all, and wish you all the best. You are
all in my prayers!

Con amor, Elder Meservy