Monday, July 26th

Well, I suppose this letter will start off with my trials with my bike this week. As the following events happened, I had the "Standard of Truth" going through my mind with a few added words... here it is..."No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, tubes will go flat, and Elder Meservy may crash, but the truth of God will go forth boldy, nobly and independent....." So...I had 6...yes...six flat tires in four days. It was really frustrating. I finally got a pair of higher quality tubes. I haven't gotten a flat with these new ones yet. However, six flats takes a lot of time out of the week. I definitely had some frustrations with it. Anyway, so I got that fixed and then on Saturday I crashed pretty bad on my bike. My bike is perfectly fine, and I'm doing reasonably well for how bad I crashed. I really don't know what happened. I was getting of my bike...I swung one leg over it to get off, and next thing I knew I was pushing my bike out of the way and rolling on the ground. Well, I jumped up, and turned around to see Elder Anderson laughing about it. He's not sure exactly what happened either, but I think it made his day. We both got a good laugh out of it. I got a couple of scrapes, and a lot of bruises, but came out of it a lot better than it could have been.

My next story has to do with our four baptismal dates that were going to be baptized this weekend. Well, I shouldn't write some of the details on here, (I'll tell you all more about it when I get home) but the kids are back with their mom, and the dad moved back to Mexico. That was tough. The mom doesn't really want anything to do with the church, and doesn't really want the kids to have much to do with the church either.

We had one person come to church yesterday. Unfortunately the other 6-7 we were planning on didn't come, but I guess there's not a whole lot that can be done about that.

Well, this week is that start of my last transfer. I found out I'll be staying in this area, and that Elder Anderson will be my companion for another transfer. It looks like I'm going to be on bikes for the hottest part of the summer. That's alright though. I am looking forward to this last transfer and working harder than I've ever worked before.

This truly is the work of the Lord. I love my opportunity to be in His service. I love you all.

Love,

Elder John H. Meservy

Monday, July 19th

Alright, well. This week has been pretty normal. Nothing too exciting has happened to me this week. Elder Anderson and I continue to work our tails off. The Lord certainly is blessing us as we do everything that we can. Either this weekend or the following, we should have 4 baptisms (Juan's kids).

So, yesterday we were planning on having about 8 people that would be coming to church for sure. Well....we had 0. That was tough. I know that there's only so much we can do, but I wonder what we did wrong, or how we can fix that. We had been averaging about 4-5 people at church the last few weeks before, but for whatever reason, it just didn't happen this week.

On Friday, we helped out the the Laredo Youth Conference. We went and did service for a few hours getting stuff ready for the hurricane victims. We sorted clothes and food and all sorts of things. It was a good opportunity to serve. It was also nice to get out of the hot Laredo sun for a few hours.

One day this last week we didn't do the best at planning lessons close together. Well...we figured we ended up biking over 30 miles that day. I got a little sunburned...not too bad.

I've really realized how much I love the Book of Mormon. I've now read it 4 or 5 times on the mission, and am wanting to finish is at least once more before I come home. I swear that it must change every time that I read it, because I find new things every time that I read it that apply specifically to the challenges I'm facing at the time. How grateful I am for the scriptures in my life.

Well, I'm attaching a few pictures from the flooding. Some people's homes were flooded. When I took these pictures was a few hours before we actually got evacuated.

The first picture is America. She's one of Juan's kids.

The next picture is the flooding up on the street by our house.

The next picture is of a gazebo in a park that got flooded.

The last picture shows where the river normally is. Do you see the trees in the middle of the river? That's the bank usually...So, it was really high up.

So, one more quick story. President and Sister Trayner came to church up in Laredo yesterday, and Sister Trayner asked me if Dave had written me since they had gotten down here. I told them that Dave hasn't written me ever... They thought that was funny. I love you all...even though some of you don't write me :)

Love,

Elder John H. Meservy

Monday, July 12th

This week things have been pretty hectic. I'm assuming most of you have heard about the flooding of the Rio Grande. Well, we live within a block of the Rio Grande. Swat came through and we had to evacuate. That was pretty exciting. We got pictures of the river, but I accidentally left my camera in the car...Maybe next week. Luckily, we are on a top floor apartment and nothing happened. It's amazing that we got evacuated, because the river had to rise a LOT in order for that to happen. Well, it rose to the point that we had to. It covered parks, and streets, and all sorts of stuff. As far as I know, on the American side of the river, there were no deaths. However, the evacuation made it difficult to get to interviews. We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for quite a while. We also had to spend the night at the other elder's apartment. My companion and I got to sleep on the tile. It was probably the worst sleep I've gotten on the mission.

The church has put out some lessons in addition to Preach My Gospel. So, we spent part of interviews learning about that. The one we learned about was teaching the doctrine of Christ. As we've applied that even in the last few days, we've been able to set 6 new baptismal dates. It's really a blessing from the Lord.

When I first walked into the chapel for interviews, Sister Trayner came up to me and the first thing she said was, "You look just like your brother, Dave." I don't know if that was a compliment or not, but I'll take it as one. It's interesting to already see some differences between the Trayners, and the Millers. I definitely love them both, and I will do everything I can to assist in this great work. It's amazing to feel the Lord talking through you to the blessing of others. I know that it's nothing that I've done. I feel like Ammon in Alma 26. I really am grateful that God can use someone even like me to assist in this great work.

I love you all.

Love,

Elder John

Tuesday, July 6th

My dear family and friends,

This week has been a pretty good week over all. I suppose I should start with the most important news. This last week we had the baptism of the Juan (the Jehovah's Witness). It was great. The Spirit was really strong. It was great to see another baptism.

Well, over this past week we've found and have been teaching some great people. As a matter of fact, we had 7 people come to church this last week. That was probably the most people I'm had at church during my whole mission. We weren't even expecting that many to come, but a couple of former investigators randomly decided to show up, which was great.

Today is Elder Anderson's birthday. It seems to be going pretty well for him I think. I hope it turns out well for him.

I certainly missed the family during the 4th of July celebration. I'm wondering who won the game of Pit. Hopefully someone beat Ryan.

My birthday last week ended up being great. It was SO fun to see those families again. It really was a great birthday.

Regarding Hurricane Alex. We just got a little bit of rain up here in Laredo. I didn't even know any missionaries had been evacuated until I read my emails today. None of them got evacuated up here. It was nice to have a few cooler days with the rain, however. But, it's on it's way back up heat-wise.

The first picture is on my birthday. On people's birthdays, after they sing, and blow out the candles, you're supposed to bite it without utensils.

The second picture is Juan's family. His kids are coming to church now, so we've started working with them as well.

The third picture is Juan's family, and his brother's family. His brother's family are members of the church, and his brother is actually the one that baptized him. That was neat.

The 4th picture is of Me, Hno.Martinez,Juan, and Elder Anderson.

Well, I love this work! How grateful I am for all of my many blessings. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all very much!

Love,

Elder John

Monday, June 28th

Happy birthday to me! Woohoo!

It's been a great day (Thanks mom and dad for the birthday package!)

Well, unfortunately our baptism didn't happen this last Saturday like it was supposed to. He had been having alot of doubts we were trying to resolve all throughout the week, and I guess he just didn't feel ready. He told us yesterday that he's ready now to be baptized. We read over 2 Nephi 9:8-9 with him, and Mosiah 4:10. Also, during personal study I felt I should read Isaiah 55:8-9 with him. Anyway, it went well, and he's excited to be baptized this coming week.

Things are going great with my companion. We get along really well.

Apparantly a hurricane is headed toward our mission. I probably won't see any of the effect of it because I'm so far inland, up in Laredo, but it's still pretty crazy. Also this week we get our new mission president. Today, actually. I'm excited to meet him. I sure will miss the Millers though.

Today will be fun. The Villareals from my last area invited me over to go eat with them this afternoon, which will be fun. I'm actually going to be able to go because I'm still in the same zone that I was before. I'll also visit with some other members, and the Reyna family.

Anyway, I still can't believe how fast the time is going. I'm attaching a few pictures. I'll write just a little bit about each one as well.

1) Elder Anderson and I holding three dolls. This is at a member's home. It's where we're teaching the man who will be baptized this coming Saturday. He's the brother of the member.

2) Elder Anderson and I took this picture this morning. I thought that it was really funny, so I figured I would sent it.

3) This is at the same home as where we were holding the dolls in #1. This is Kaylee. She wanted to try combing my hair. (I'm pretty sure it was because I don't have much...)

4) This is us after playing table tennis with our BYU hats on (shortly after opening them from the birthday package).

5) This, believe it or not, is sandilla amarilla (yellow watermelon). This was at a less-actives home. She brought us some agua de sandilla (watermelon juice pretty much) and it was yellow. Well, we asked her about it, and she pulled out this yellow watermelon. We were surprised. Never had I seen it in yellow before. It was great though. Tasted just like red watermelon. Now I have to distinguish between the two.

Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures and the letter this week. I love you all tons!

Love,

Elder John H. Meservy