21 na ako. Week 43

Well life as a 21 year old is a lot like life as a 20 year old. Especially as a missionary. 

Transfer day was last week and I will be here another 6 weeks! I thought I would be transferred, but I guess I still have a lot to learn here.

 We have the new STL's in our apartment. They are really great and I am very excited to have them here to learn from as well. They are both American (Sister Tua'one and Sister Waldrom) so this is the first time on my entire mission that I will live in a house with 0 Filipinas. Pray for us.

But of course life is good here. We have lots of ups and downs, and I have a lot of responsibility now to help the new sisters get used to the area and Sister Mann because she has only been here 6 weeks. So my plate is kind of full right now, but I think the ward will be really willing to help them!

We have been trying to find new investigators as usual and last night we found a couple. We have a goal this week to find someone this week and baptize them by the end of this transfer. We know it is possible and we are ready for it.

Not much is new here. My birthday was good. I ate balot. Two actually. We have really great investigators. And by the end of this transfer, I will know this area like the back of my hand. We are doing lots of exploring and we continue to see miracles as we talk with as many people as we can.

I love you all and hope you have a good week!!!

Love,

Sister Mecham

Birthday gifts!

Birthday Ko!

more birthday. Me and Sis. Japus

Julie Ann and Vincent and their puppies!

Spending time at the lake for my birthday!

One of the Elders made us matching Tron t-shirts for our zone!
Sis's Mann, Mecham and Japus

Sis's Mecham, Japus and Cox

May and her cute kids!

Ang Birthday Ko and Transfer Week week42

Well somehow time has escaped me again. Also I am reminded of how much I hate computers.

Anyway. Life is good. I turn 21 next week. I don't really know what to think about that. Everyone here thinks I am 28, but it's only because they look 25 here until they are 50 then they just get really old. But it's all good.

This week was great. We had a good week and we taught really good lessons. I absolutely love seeing the change in people's hearts when we teach them. The hard part is just getting them to overcome their natural man tendencies and exercise their faith to read the book of Mormon.That is hard. Satan is really good at making people doubt or be lazy or 'busy'. But I know we have planted some really good seeds here. 

This week I have spent my free time peeling my face and scalp from my sunburn last week and getting scolded by everyone for not using sunscreen...oops...but, 

this week has been good though. A very average missionary week. The biggest thing that happened this week was conference. I wish we could have conference everyday. Definitely better than Christmas.

We were able to get May and her 2 kids to come with us to Saturday morning session. The kids were super bored, but I think May liked it. They went out of town Sunday so they couldn't see those sessions. Then last night we watched President Monson's talk and Lawrence Corbridge's talk about the Olympians with Julie Ann and Vincent because they also didn't come and it was SO GOOD! The spirit was so strong and I think it was really good for both of them to see just how the church is organized.

As I watched conference I was really looking for things about love and charity and EVERY single talk said something about the Love of God or how to love others. It was perfect. I especially loved President Monson's talk because it was 100% about love.

I love our church. I know it really is Christ's true church. I am happy for the challenges I have as a missionary and for the rejection. I have questioned my faith, but I know now it really is the only true church and I know that we are so blessed to be members of it. I hope you all will take the challenge to read and study Preach My Gospel. I have learned so much from it and learned a lot more just about how to be a member of the church. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love,

Sister Mecham

Conference! week 41

Well somehow time has escaped me again. Also I am reminded of how much I hate computers. 

Anyway. Life is good. I turn 21 next week! I don't really know what to think about that. Everyone here thinks I am 28, but it's only because they look 25 here until they are 50 then they just get really old. But it's all good.

This week was great. We had a good week and we taught really good lessons. I absolutely love seeing the change in people's hearts when we teach them. The hard part is just getting them to overcome their natural man tendencies and exercise their faith to read the book of Mormon.That is hard. Satan is really good at making people doubt or be lazy or 'busy'. But I know we have planted some really good seeds here. 

This week I have spent my free time peeling my face and scalp from my sunburn last week and getting scolded by everyone for not using sunscreen...oops...but, 

This week has been good though. A very average missionary week. The biggest thing that happened this week was conference. I wish we could have conference everyday. Definitely better than Christmas.

We were able to get May and her 2 kids to come with us to Saturday morning session. The kids were super bored, but I think May liked it. They went out of town Sunday so they couldn't see those sessions. Last night we watched President Monson's talk and Lawrence Corbridge's talk about the Olympians with Julie Ann and Vincent because they also didn't come and it was SO GOOD! The spirit was so strong and I think it was really good for both of them to see just how the church is organized.

As I watched conference I was really looking for things about love and charity and EVERY single talk said something about the Love of God or how to love others. It was perfect. I especially loved President Monson's talk because it was 100% about love.

I love our church. I know it really is Christ's true church. I am happy for the challenges I have as a missionary and for the rejection. I have questioned my faith, but I know now it really is the only true church and I know that we are so blessed to be members of it. I hope you all will take the challenge to read and study Preach My Gospel. I have learned so much from it and learned a lot more just about how to be a member of the church. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Love,

Sister Mecham

"Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!" week 40

Summer is upon us here in the Philippines. The fans are on full blast, my sweat glands are on overload, the umbrellas are always up, my water disappears rapidly throughout the day, and I have a rather pangit sunburn that radiates heat.

But life is really good here. 

This past week has been pretty good. It was a pretty normal week. We had exchanges with our STL's on Thursday and I went with Sister Malig (not the one I used to live with...her cousin) and it was perfect. She is a Filipina and we were just talking throughout the day and we got on the topic of baptisms again.  I told her I am definitely more of a planter and her whole expression changed and she just got super excited and said that her dad is actually a farmer in northern Luzon and she said that there really are farmers who are better at planting and the seeds they plant always thrive, while others just die. It was really cool to hear that. I know that if we just keep doing our best, one day these people we are teaching will be able to accept the gospel. It was a really good exchange. 

Friday, Sister Mann was a little heat sick, so we had to stay home to let her rest. It didn't look very fun. She started feeling lots better after that.

Saturday was wonderful. We had zone interviews and it was really so good to be able to talk with President again. He said he has really seen how much I've changed from my first few months in Candelaria till now. (He is doing a lot better. They think he had dengue). After that we got to stay and watch the Women's Conference. That was amazing. I started crying when the little beehive girl got up and gave the opening prayer and then like 5 other times after that. It was PERFECT!!!!!!! This church is so perfect too! It was exactly what I needed. Plus it made me even more excited for conference.

Sunday was good. Julie Ann and Vincent were out of town, so we only had Grace at church. She is doing really good :)

And today. We woke up at 5 (it was painful) and were out by 6:30 for our zone pday. We went to Nagcarlan again and went on a Hike. Holy cow. It was literally straight up a mountain. It was a paved road though, but holy cow! It was a killer!It led up to a hill with 2  huge crosses on them. (The catholic church really likes to put big statues of things on hills here...) It took forever, but it was gorgeous. I have a lovely sunburn now too. We need to figure out where we can buy some aloe vera. The hike definitely reminded me of something that dad would take us on.:) Luckily though we brought plenty of food and I brought a big water bottle. Plus there were little tindahans to buy cold water and Gatorade. America needs to adopt the idea of tindahans. They could really come in handy.

Any way. I think that's mostly it for now. Two weeks till my birthday. Conference this weekend. Life is good here. The church is true, and our God is a God of miracles.

I love you all!!!

Love,

Sister Mecham

feeling good at the start of our hike...

but it quickly turned to this.

We are out of shape!

Birthday and Easter Package!

Last transfer's p-day

We love our Easter Candy!