Familia de Oro (a golden family)

I had changes this week. I have left Alameda, San Marcos and I am now in San Bernardino (Sanber), Mazate Flores. I have left the mountains and I am now it the best zone in the mission. It baptizes the most out of all the mission and it is filled with a bunch of American restaurants (Wendys, Taco Bell, Subway, Pizza Hut, Burgur King, Little Ceasers, etc.) It is really great. the weather is completely different here though. I definitely don't need my sweatshirt anymore. During 2-5 it is so hot that i sweat so much that my glasses just fall off my face, but at 6 and on it is nice weather. It doesn't bother me though. The people here are a lot different also. they are less educated, but they are so much more humble and nice. We will just be walking and contacting and the family we will contact will always let us in and be really excited to meet us. For example, This week my companion and I were heading back to eat lunch, but on the path he told me that one day we should contact a house we were passing because they always stare at us when we pass. Although we were late for lunch, I told him that we should just do it now.It turned out that it is a Familia de Oro (a golden family) They told us that they will go to church this week, they don't go to a church, and they don't work Sundays so they can go to church every week. They were really happy to talk to us and gave us food. The family is a family of 12 people and they can all get baptized except for one (he is 7). We have a new house and all it has is a fridge, Pila, desks and beds. I am living out of my suitcase right now. My new companion is called Elder Goldinez and he is my favorite companion I have had so far. He is from Honduras and is the District Leader too (I was lowered this change). In Mazate, it is so prosperous that it has two zones Mazate Las Flores and Mazate Linclon. I am in Mazate Flores, but Hermana Clifford is in Mazate Linclon. I will not see here too much, but I did see her at the conference this Saturday, so we took a picture together. I don't have it; she does, she told me she will send it to me so if i can I will send it to you if she does send it to me, if not, she will probably send it home today sometime. I watched the conference in Spanish this time, but to be honest I didn't watch it all to much. I decided that I was going to spend more time getting people to the conference than watching it and my area is kinda far from he church (that is the hardest part of my area. the people are pretty poor and it is hard to get people to church unless we pay for them). My Spanish is fine though. I don't understand songs though and I cant listen to songs to improve that on the mission anyways, so I am not too worried about it. Other than that it is fine. I do learn more words in each area because every area has things that the other area didn't have. It is kinda like the micro-culture changes that are in each area. It's great here.

I also bought a jar of frosting and ate it, It was a bad idea...

There are changes this week. An assistant told me that I was going to have changes this week, but who knows what will happen. I have been kinda thinking that i would like to go to a harder area where the church isn't to strong and help out members and stuff. We found a lot of new people this week and a few of them seem pretty positive and some other investigators are progressing, It makes me happy.  We have one family that we are working with, the dad is really interested to learn, but it is hard for him to go to church Sundays. The wife wasnt too interested in what we were saying before, but this week we included her more in the lessons and she began to get really interested in the spirit world when we taught the Plan of Salvation. We also found a 16 year old girl who had a shirt that said Spencer W. Kimbal. It is a school here in San Marcos so we started talking to her about prophets and stuff and she got really interested. We are just trying to find time to talk to her parents. We made brownies this week too and gave them to our bishop. They love us now. I also bought a jar of frosting and ate it, It was a bad idea because it isn't probably the best thing to do, but whatever, no regrets.

This week was quite eventful.

This week was quite eventful. We went to Reu and had out District leader meeting. I love those because they help me out a lot, I get good food, and most of my group are district leaders (because we are all awesome), So I get to see them. They are all in the coast so I don't know them, that is the same reason that I do not know or have ever seen Hermana Clifford. My companion had a stroke of genius and came up with an idea to help get the members more excited about the work. We went to a bunch of members houses and explained to them how people from the Book of Mormon are real life heroes. We then gave them a Book of Mormon to give to someone and took there picture with it. We then made a giant poster of the pictures with a picture of the Avengers (but iron man and captain america are changed to Book of Mormon characters and told people to join the the team and it invites them to give out a Book of Mormon. We put it in the church and all the members really liked it, but the stake president got really mad at us and said that we were wasting time just taking pictures with members. I'm not sure why he is mad when we got a picture with his family and his family liked the idea. We also had emergency changes this week and Elder Cook is leaving the area. When we found out, we were all eating dinner with the bishop. Elder Cook doesn't want changes so the bishop offered to call the mission president and tell him no. He called him. It didn't stop the changes from happening, but he gave him more time to be in the area (like 3-4 days). We were also told that there will be more emergency changes later today. The changes are making the Zone Leaders and assistants stress out so everyone seemed kinda annoyed. It is definitely teaching me a lot about being a leader. We didn't have much time to work with our investigators this week because of all the other stuff we had to do, but we were blessed to find a some one this week. She used to live in San Pedro and all her family got baptized except her and her daughter because her husband didn't let them do it. They then moved and she left him, and now we found her. She still wants to get baptized and is excited to go to church this week.

The good news is that I will probably be able to eat Taco Bell today

Today, me and my companion have to go to Rue for a meeting so I have don't have much time to write and it is earlier than I would like to write. The good news is that I will probably be able to eat Taco Bell today. This week we did a play of the restoration and then after we had a missionary dress up as Goliath and little kids hit him with balls like they were David. If they hit them, they got a bar of chocolate. we also went to Xetulu this week, which was really fun. I didn't get to eat much before, so I almost puked on some of the rides. Pretty fun stuff. There was also a new ride with boats. Basically it is the slowest and lamest ride ever (it is like it is a small world ride from Disney Land but there is no song, no dancing things, and you just keep making an S.), But they put water cannons on the boats so you can aim them and attack other boats and people that are out of the ride. That was fun to attack other zones and the Mission President.  If they had the cannons at Disney Dad, Joey and I would have never gotten off those things.  We didn't have anyone go to church this week, which meant a lot of baptism dates fell, Which is really sad. Also, there is a big chance that me or my companion will get emergency changes tomorrow because they are opening 2 new areas and they are going to put 10 missionaries there, so they told us that our zone will have 9 emergency changes. I will know more about it later today.
Love, Bret

They ended up eating a bunch of our food storage, so we have to buy it all back

We are going to xetulu again this week (the amusement park) so we are working today and have only a short time to work today. so Guatemala didn't have a melt down this week because the president resigned and he is being put on trail. We still had to stay in the house all Sunday because it was elections that day. we ended up studying, eating, and playing Uno all day in the house. It is staring to rain consistently every day now, which is great. I still like the rain and it can get you more opportunities to teach people too. The assistants had to sleep in our house this week so I got to do divisions with them. They ended up eating a bunch of our food storage, so we have to buy it all back. Besides that not much happened this week. Our investigators are doing well. We had a baptism for this week, but it fell because she didn't go to church this week. We also have another family that says that they will start going to church this week. We also visited an inactive family. The husband was a stake president and then he went inactive - but he said that he will start going back to church this week. If the family starts going back, that would be a huge gain for the ward. All in all I am good though. I kinda wish i was in my area more, but I have to do divisions and divisions usually help out my other areas a lot. I trust my companion though, he is a really good missionary.

In other words, we are loaded on beans and toilet paper.

So we now have a singles ward and another ward? Is the other ward even from our stake? So Guatemala is getting pretty unsettled. The elections are this Sunday and the citizens are about to explode. The president they have now is corrupt and is stealing money put he is not be put on trial, so the people are going nuts over it. they are trying to get him taken out before elections so they are blocking off streets and having manifestations (that is when people parade the streets with posters and torches and stuff), so no one will vote so there can be no new president, but there will be one. If there is a new one the "Experts" are saying there will be a Golpe de Estado (when I put it in google translate, something in France just pops up). Golpe de Estado is basically just when the people fight against the leaders. Last time this happened they had to rewrite their constitution.We had to buy a food supply this week for the next week in case things get too hectic and we have to stay in our house all week playing Uno or something- In other words, we are loaded on beans and toilet paper. we cant leave Sunday either (day of the elections). We will go to church and then go back home. It's pretty exciting to learn about Guatemalan politics, they have like 20 political parties that are all popular, unlike us, we just have 2. We ended up making our own Political party too called MECHO (i am not sure really how to spell it, but it means faired skinned people but not gringo). I am also glad that we have 4 missionaries living in the house so when we are in the house there is more people instead of it just being my companion and I. My new companion is great though. He is a hard working and a smart missionary. I do still live with Elder Cook (I mean he still lives with me), and I am still the district leader. this change I got two new areas in my district so I am now in charge of 6 areas. that is half the zone and right now we have the biggest zone in the mission with 12 areas. That is so strange that Chase is leaving to the mission. it makes me sad that I will have to wait two years to see him now. Thanks for everything. I have to go.

Bret

I eat meat from who knows what part of what animal

This was a super awesome week. Elder Hermano Jared Fuentes (I am still not sure what to call him, just take two of those names and you might be right) left and returned home. That kid was really funny. We also had changes this week and I am not training, not sure why, I thought I would be, but I have my new companion with me and he is awesome. His name is Elder Méndez and he is from Honduras. He has only one more change than me on the mission. My old companion, Elder Cook, is training a gringo and it is kinda fun to watch him and see him... adapt I think would be the word? It reminds me of when I first got here. We also now have 4 people living in the house which life kind of a party when we are home. It is also helping the area out a lot. Our dats (dinner appts) are not twice as good -they are three times as good because there is just a kind of help you get when there are two missionaries in the ward even though you don’t work in the same area we split the area in half. Sorry, I don’t have pictures of any of this though.

 This week we also got to see Elder Russell M. Nelson talk. He was going to go to Xela and we were going to see him talk in person, but something happened and he couldn’t come so he did a live broadcast in Honduras to those missionaries and our mission got to watch it. He said somethings that I will never forget and it strengthened my testimony of the living prophet and apostles. One thing he said was that he had a grandson go on the mission and when he got back he couldn’t talk English anymore. He said that it made him really sad that he couldn’t speak in English anymore because that meant he did not use his language study time to teach his companions English like he was supposed to. That made all the gringos cringe a little. He also told us that God is very unpleased that there are more men in the church that do not have the Melchizedek priesthood than those who do. He also told us as missionaries that "I am not asking you guys for baptisms or converts, I am asking you guys to prepare people to go to the temple." when he said that it really changed my perspective on less actives.   Well, my area now is the area that we were not working on too much so we didn’t have too much going on in our area, but this week we were able to find a family and two other people accepted dates for baptism. We still don’t have much but I am sure that by the end of this week we will have a lot to do. we also have a baptismal date for this week, he is completely good to go, he just says that if he can receive a stronger testimony through prayer this week he will get baptized with another kid that the other Alameda area is going to baptize this weeks. Please pray for him. His name is Antonio. well, I have a District leader meeting this week, so I have to go back to Reu this week to so I will probably eat Taco Bell at least once this week and think of dad and Joey and tacos.

 Ummm, as far as eating, I am eating the normal Guatemalan stuff. I am growing a secret love for platanos though. It might be something that I miss when I get home. So maybe you can figure out how to whip me up a plantano shake? But ya, I am just eating beans, rice, (I am kinda advoiding tortillas and tamales, I am kinda done with them), bread, platanos, caldo (it is a soup that is just water, grease, and vegetables), potatoes, salads of cucumbers, corn,,peas,,carrots, and sometimes lettuce, and I eat meat from who knows what part of what animal, but ya that is kinda it.  Thanks for always making me try food.  Sorry I didn’t eat all your vegetables.  I will now.

 The apartment is really good. where we live is where a senior couple stayed for like5 years or something and they left all the stuff they bought here so we have a washer machine and dryer, a really big bed (but Elder Cook has it), some carpet (I am still awe stricken about that), sofas, and a microwave and a real oven. We are living like kings here in Alameda.

 I don’t know if I will ever leave the mountains, I am not too concerned about it though. I do think that if I do leave though, I will come back 2 or 3 changes after.

I am District Lider Mecham!

He is small- Like grandma Niccum small

The Mini Missionary is the coolest Chapin I have met

It was a fun week this week. Monday was a normal P-Day adventure and like normal we had a District Meeting Tuesday morning, but when we got home, we called to make sure we could still go to appointments and called to make new ones for the ones that fell. right as we finished and were about to head out, the Zone Leaders called us telling us that we had to get down to Reu for a meeting tomorrow. We then called everyone back to cancel and get to Rue as quick as we could. we almost got stuck in Xela over night, but we somehow found a bus (the last bus) that was leaving 20 minutes late because the driver left to buy food or something. We super lucked out though. We stayed the night at the Assistances house with some other missionaries that I knew because they are dying so they went to the temple for the last time with the President. The reunion was for all those who are going to train this change, and me and my companion were asked to train (or at least go to the training meeting). The whole time they were telling us that we MIGHT train, but there were 24 people there and there are 24 new missionaries coming in and we also ended up writing a letter to our kids. So ya, I would say I am training. I am excited to train, kinda.  It just kinda depends on if my kid will want to work and how obedient he will be. We also found a kid this week that wants to get baptized and has accepted a date to do it. Him and his sister (and her boyfriend) went to church too. Their parents are encouraging him to get baptize but they don’t want to take the step themselves, but I got at least six weeks more to bother them about it. The Mini Missionary is the coolest Chapin I have met. He is really funny and really baggy (trunky). It is a good thing he is dying this Wednesday. 

I have decided to lay off the chocolate.

This week we got a call in the morning telling us that me and my companion are going to be split up and that we are going to receive mini missionaries. We spent the morning completely changing the house so two more missionaries could come. Only one showed up and from what I have heard, the other one bailed out, so we only have one mini missionary right now, so we are in a trio. The mini missionaries name is Jared Fuentes, and he lives in Tecunoman, the hottest zone in the mission, so he is dying from the cold at night. He is actually doing better in it that i thought he would. Right now we are focusing on finding new people to teach, so I am excited about that. I have decided to lay off the chocolate. my acne has gotten better but it is not gone and every Latino that has ever gone in the house and has seen my bags of chocolate kisses always tells me that it is the reason why I have acne, and I have been eating kisses and snickers since forever so I am deciding on laying off it a little and seeing if my skin will get better in the meantime. I did divisions this week with an elder ad he told me that his mom is crazy obsessed with a theory that the book of Mormon took place around Ohio and that there were elephants in America (the Book of Mormon proves it) I think I will look up a little about that. I am glad the dog is doing better and it sounds like your Boston trip is awesome.  I wish I could go to the museum of Science sometime.  I would love that.  The experience really was wasted on you.  You should go the museum of books.  Oh right, the bookstore.  You do that all the time. 

So we might be Guatemalan facebook famous by now.

Things are going well, but it was a super strange week this past week. There are a lot of baptisms in my area, but when my new companion came, it all changed because of all the baptisms from this year, only 5 still go to church. The stake made rules that makes it harder to baptize and the president is coming back up this week to talk to our zone. I think he will be really mad because he put a bunch of really good missionaries to get the zone to baptize again (like 18 a month), but we only got 1 this month. Our meeting with the president should be fun. Tuesday this week was an adventure. we went to visit an investigator that we are going to baptize this week, but on the way we saw him on the side of the road, bleeding. Two men were talking to him and when we came to talk to him, the two men left and just told us that he needed help. He had a bandage around his hand and a bunch of dried blood on his hand. We asked if we could see his wound and when he took of the wrap around his hand, he had a giant knife wound that was bleeding. He just told us that some lady in his house did it to him, but he didn’t know how bad it was because he is BLIND. I wrapped the rag around his hand again and we took him to the hospital. While talking to the lady at the hospital, she randomly told us to wait a minute. She then pulled out her phone to check her facebook for a little. Then she told us to continue. Some nurses were also taking pictures of my companion and I while we were there. So we might be Guatemalan facebook famous by now. Our investigator got 7 stiches (he needed at least 8) and then they sent us out. The hospital that we went to was a government hospital so it was all free. The whole time, our investigator was telling us that he NEEDED to go to his friend’s house, so we went. When we got there, it turned out that he just needed to give them some butter. It was a pretty great day.  Christine you would laugh because the people here kind of remind me sometimes of your little students that you would talk about.  They don’t always do things that make sense.

 We also did eat lunch with a returned missionary this week too. He came back to visit his old areas and on the way to Palo Gordo, he asked if he and his family could buy us lunch. We did not reject the offer I was kinda a jerk and went all out getting ice cream too, but I didn’t feel bad after I realized that my entire meal was only $6.

  I am doing a lot more divisions now and it is always cool to go to another missionaries house because they always have funny things inside. Which showed me a quote that I really like. it was a picture of Jesus holding a kid and it says "It is Good to be Important, but it is Important to be Good" (it just said it in Spanish though).  Thanks for everything you do.  

So you asked who writes – you of course and dad and my mom too.  Erika writes a lot and Millie writes to most of my siblings then Jenna and Joey.  My mom’s new baby hasn’t written me once. Wait, Jenna and Neil have Murph?  That truck has been in the Mecham family for many generations.  Neil understands it is to be taken care of and passed down, right? Like he can give it to their children or something. I will drive the bug with Millie when I get back.  I really like the stick.  

I learned a lot of Spanish "sentence enhancers" from him.

This week was super fast and really filled. I am not sure if I already said it, but some missionaries came over to our house last Monday to take showers and the last person who went in broke the hot water. It didn’t matter too much because the next day we used the day to go to Reu for a district leader meeting. It was awesome. I didn’t escape my cold shower though because all the showers in the coast are cold, but that is because it is super hot in the coast. I am starting to get to know a lot more missionaries so it makes big meetings like this a lot more fun because I actually know people. We got back and when I got to my area my companion told me of all the dumb stuff the missionaries did in my area while we were gone (the companions of the district leaders went to my area to work while we left). I then did divisions in Palo Gordo and at night we had tortas because I heard that the best place to get tortas in the mission is Palo Gordo. Fun fact that I just learned. If Joey got back one year from today, we will both come back on the same day because i get home July 20, 2016, a year from today (my mission will be shorter than Joeys by about three weeks or so). My mission time just got shorter, which actually just makes me really sad. Our shower did get fixed though, but it is a new shower head and the water gets shot out in a straight line, but it wags around like a super happy dog. The shower head also looks like a can with a metal cup intop of it. Plus one for Guatemalan technology. We also had a super angry drunk guy follow us around this week for about 30 minutes. I learned a lot of Spanish "sentence enhancers" from him. For all those who don’t know what a sentence enhancer is, it is something that you say in your sentence to enhance it. He eventually fell down and then couldn’t get back up. My companion is really good though, probably my best one so far. We are trying to work a lot with the members but it isn’t going as well as I hoped. We have a lot of references, but it is getting hard to find time when we can visit the investigator in a time that the member can go with us. I will be in the area this week though so I hope we will have a bit more success. My companion also knows a lot about Sponge Bob so we quote it a lot. He is the one who taught me about sentence enhancers; it is a joke from Sponge Bob. I will be sad if I have changes at the end of this change.

Love, Bret

A photo! Finally.

Elder Mecham has been serving in an area in which their Pday letter writing is on a computer that is unable to take his photos. They wrote today from a spot that has a more capable computer, but he did not have his disc with him. This is the one picture he was able to send of himself with a friend from the zone. He promised he will do his best to send me many photos next week. 

I am so glad to see this boy's face after many weeks without photos!

Christine

He ended up burning the shower head, so now there is no hot water in our house. The rest of us had to shower in cold water, which was super fun.

There were changes in Alameda this week, and my companion Elder Alarcón is now gone. He went to Retaluheu and is close to the mission president. My new companion is Elder Cook from California. Yes, I have a gringo companion and he is awesome. I am training him to be a district leader so that means this next change I will probably leave this area (which is really sad, this is one of the best areas in the mission). It also means that my companion is a really good missionary, and he is. The Mission President told us that he is excited to see what we will do in this area. the night before the changes was super insane with my old companion. We didn’t end up leaving the house until 12:00 and he got wet with the phone (because of tonterías) so the phone broke and couldn’t call anyone, or even turn on. He then called out bishop at 1 in the morning to ask him if he could drive us to the park by 4 in the morning. We got home at 1:30ish and my companion still had to pack. My companion kinda left with a bang, but not a good one…haha. The family we had to baptize for this week couldnt get baptised because they did not go to church last week, but there was a fair in my area this week too and the main day was Sunday, so they wanted to go to the fair with their mom and couldn’t go to church. So we will have to wait until the end of the month to baptise them. Even our attendance in the ward dropped from 220 to 180 this week because of the fair. We are working really hard and getting to know all the members, because they all have references. We have all of tomorrow and Wednesday day filled with appointments because of the members. It is really good though, especially because I have another meeting in Reu with all the other district leaders tomorrow and Wednesday. It is good because my companion doesn’t know the area, so he couldn’t work solo, but he knows the members, so he will just go with them. Today, we had other missionaries come to our house so they could shower because they couldn’t go to the zone leaders house like normal because they are in reu for their zone leader meeting. So the first person that showered was in there for like 45 minutes because he took his time because the rest of us were talking. He ended up burning the shower head, so now there is no hot water in our house. The rest of us had to shower in cold water, which was super fun. My companion is also really tall, like 6ft 4in, and he has been in the coast his entire mission so he didn’t have a sweater. We had to find him a sweater, and it was hard because he is really tall, but not at all fat.   Thanks for asking about supplies but you have kept me stocked. As of now I am good. the only thing I would want is m&ms but they are here in my area so I just need to buy them. No one needs to send me them while I am here. We are at a new computer place so I will try to send more pictures. I could just send that one because the missionary took it at the change meeting and emailed it to me by his camera.  I am glad you got to see Joey on your trip too.  I can’t believe he has left the club.  What am I supposed to do now. 

We also got to ride in the back of semis and stuff. It was pretty sweet stuff.

Happy Fourth of July. We had a family all set for baptism this week, which is good because we promised president that we would baptize this week, but the bishop told us that he wants us to wait  two more weeks until we baptize them. So it won’t happen this week. We had a cool service project as a zone this week. We helped move a clinic from one office to another. There were just a bunch of (Guatemala) problems though. For example, we had to move giant desks from up stairs to down stairs, but the stairs were not big enough to bring down the tables. We then had to drop the tables from the second story to the ground to other missionaries, but there were only enough room for two missionaries to lower the desk and for two to catch the desks. It is a good thing that we have had zone gym days almost every day this change. we also got to ride on top of trucks with office supplies stacked on each other so the pile of stuff in the bed of the truck was twice as big as the truck. We also got to ride in the back of semis and stuff. It was pretty sweet stuff. 

 This week is changes, but I have no idea what is going to happen. The mission president called us this week. I answered and he talked to me about normal District Leader/Mission President stuff, then he told me that he wanted to talk to my companion. He then got another call and told me he would call me back to talk to my companion. I waited until 11:30-12:00 in the night and I fell asleep waiting, but he never called us. The next day the zone leaders showed up at our house because the president told them to come for something (they couldn’t tell us why). Later that night, we ate at the Bishops house and his wife told us that the President called our bishop. Our bishop hinted at us that one of us are going to have changes, but my companion doesn’t think that he will have changes, but, we will know tomorrow.

 For the fourth of July, all the Gringos wore they ties that are of the American Flag (I think it is funny that all the gringo missionaries have American flag ties). We didn’t do anything that day though because it was the American cup for soccer and Chile played so we didn’t do anything that day but watch the game (it went into overtime and penales (i dont know what penals are in English, it is when it is just the goalie and someone has to kick the ball in to goal to win the game)). 

It looks like you and the family are having fun.  I am hoping Dad and me and Joey can do another temple trip when I get back.

Why did we get a new car?

Hi family!

Freak, that is insane that Travis is home. Why did we get a new car? WE can't sell the excursion.  That car is my childhood. Oh well, is it manual at least? If it is not I will be really sad if the bug is gone. I plan to drive that with Millie when I get home. We can share at BYU. That is cool that you guys got new cars. My dad (Elder Barnes) was an auctioneer, so he knew a lot about car prices, years and models, and stuff like that. It is interesting to hear about what missionaries talk about when they get back.  Thanks for keeping me updated.  They have had one of the most spiritual expiriences that they will have in their life, then they have the opportunity to talk to the people who they grew up with (for the most part). I am doing better with what we wrote about, I am still learning how to handle myself with the situation but dad’s advice was 100% on. A mission is about serving others. I am seeing what works and what doesn’t, but it is a lot better.  Thank you for your prayers. We also found a family super cool this week. He and his Wife are super humble, and the members are super supportive of helping them, so I think we will baptise him and his wife next week. We also talked to a 7th Day Adventist.  He knows a lot about the bible and is really old. He told us that he would go to church with us if we go with him. The only problem (besides the fact that we should just flat out not do it) is that his church is the entire day 9AM to 6PM. I don’t understand why other churches do that? I understand why it is much better to have church for more than just one hour, but the whole day? The Sabbath day is not just church, if you are there all day, you are missing out on the opportunities you have to do the other things you need to do on Sunday. It was funny, one day I was talking with Elder Pucket and he was telling me an experience about how he was teaching a 7th Day Adventist and he pulled out a scripture that was super clear that says that the Sabbath day was the seventh day, which is Sunday. I laughed and then explained to him how the seventh day is Saturday and not Sunday. I blame weekends and calendars. If Sunday was not included when talking about weekends, more Americans would know that.

So that is it from Reu for the blog.  Love, Bret

I am a missionary now, and I can’t believe in coincidence either, only miracles and answers from God. (and good advice from my earthly father)

As a district leader, I love doing the meetings every Tuesday. I am not sure why, I just like trying to help the missionaries in my district. But, this Wednesday, we had our interviews with the president. Mine was really quick. Every interview he talks about you Christine and mentions how every time there is a photo of me you say something. I told him it is because you are always doing family history on the computer or in Utah, so she can always check on Facebook too. This week has been the same though, but we had to put weekly DATS with the president and he is going to travel back up here Tuesday (tomorow) to see how we did. We did really bad, so tomorrow should be fun. That is interesting that you reminded me about how dad said to  love and serve  my companion in his testimony. I do remember that and he was right.  I have prayed and thought a lot about how I need to handle my companion and what I should do and that is the answer I always get. It is like in the Batman movie when Officer Gorden (I have no idea how I still remember his name) told Robin that he is a detective now and he can’t believe in coincidences, well I am a missionary now, and I can’t believe in coincidence either, only miracles and answers from God. (and good advice from my earthly father)That is super cool that Sam is leaving this week. I am glad that father’s days was awesome for dad. It is really kinda a bummer that dad likes nuts in his cookies. It kinda ruins it for the rest of the family, because we (or at least  the kids) don’t want to steal as much from him.

Love, Bret

Being a district leader is alright though. It is babysitting more or less,

 I don’t have anything to send pictures. Where we write in my new zone, the computer can’t read my camera or memory. Being a district leader is alright though. It is babysitting more or less, but I think it just all kinda of depends on how you district is as missionaries. My companion has a hard time with working sometimes so sometimes we don’t leave the house until 5 o´clock and we don’t work too efficiently either, but I am learning a lot from him. I don’t fight with him because that just brings about a bunch of bad things, but I do what I can. I am so grateful for dad’s advice about serving and loving your companion.  He was right and it has helped a lot.  My investigators are good, I think. We haven’t visited them in a bit. We did have a baptism though, only one though, the other two fell during the week. That is a cool idea about the drive in Movie Theater, Bugs’ Life in the garden combination.  Those kids most love you.  You were the best neighborhood mom- you always had a million things for us to do and learn so of course you are the best primary president.  Are you in Provo right now? Why? Probably for family history. That is cool that there is girls’ camp this week. I remembered going up with dad when he was on the high council all those years. It was always really fun and it was great to be there when the camp was empty.  Joey and I got into so much up there.  Glad to hear Cynthia is doing well.  That is great that Joey can baptize her.  Hopefully my blog is saying something to another of your friends.  You and dad are good missionaries. Keep it up. The elders must love you guys. 

They then ate all my M&Ms through the night.

I am doing good, but being district leader has its ups and downs. It is really cool to do interviews and talk with the missionaries in your districts, but from all the meetings in Reu, studying, and DATS, it really takes away from sleeping, so I am have been really tired lately. We also go to the gym about 3 times a week so we have to wake up a lot earlier to do that. My companion is not a district leader. In a district there is only one district leader, but in the zone, there are 2 and they are both companions. There are also 2 assistants that are companions too. Sometimes 4 if both the companions are going to leave from the mission at the same time.

 This week we had a meeting in Rue for all the district leaders. My companion from the MTC is a district leader too, so I saw him at the meeting. It was really cool to see him. we were told that we have to do divisions at least 3 times every week which is kind of a bummer because it means I am now really only in my area 3 days a week at that includes Sunday and Monday. It will be hard on my companion, which makes me sad, but I talked to the experienced district leader in out zone (I say that because he is the only one that was not called as a district leader this change) and he said that he finds that when he does divisions, the Lord blesses his area. I believe it. It was fun to go down with the district leaders because it takes about 5 hours to get to Reu from San Marcos so we eat at good restaurants (if Taco Bell and McDonalds qualify for being good restaurants), and we just talk the whole time.

 This week we are planning on having three baptisms. One is completely set, but the other didn’t pass the interview with the zone leader. She has a "Special Case" though. I’m not sure how and I am still not really clear on what that means, but basically they are going to call President and he can give us permission to baptize her. It would be really sad if she can’t get baptized. she has faced a lot of persecution from her family and friends about being baptized, but she has endured through all of it. Her son will also get baptized with her if she gets baptized this week too.

 Well, life is good right now, the mission is great, and the church is true.

Also, the down part of being a district leader is that you just have to deal with other people unwise decisions. For example, yesterday, someone from the zone and someone from San Pedro (the other zone in the mountains) had to ship their companions off to the Capital to sign for their visas so the two missionaries stayed in Tejutla (it is in the zone, but about an hour out from my area). We ate dinner with the Bishop of our ward and when we got back to the house at 9:00. On the way home I get a call from Tejutla and Elder Virgin (the elder from Tejutla) asked me if we were home yet because he is in our area because it is the greenie area of the other Elder from San Pedro so he left to my area to go say hi to members there. They then had to stay in my house because I couldn’t tell them to back to their area because it was too far to walk and there are no busses at night. They then ate all my M&Ms through the night. It just made me mad that they thought they could come in my area a waste the day (that’s my polite way of saying screw around all day).

 I also want to say thanks to you and dad again for the packages. I now have an insane amount of food that I will be sharing with my district because there is no way I can bring it with me when I have changes and I don’t think I could eat it all in 5 months. You guys have basically bought the love of my district and for that, I thank you.

ELDER MECHAM HAD CHANGES.

ELDER MECHAM HAD CHANGES. I moved from Chamac, San Pedro to Alameda, San Marcos (San Marcos is the only other zone in the mountians, so I am still enduring the cold). My area has been compared to Zion by the other missionaries and they are right. It is probably the best are in the mountains. The members are super cool and there are a lot of them (the attendance this week was 216- that’s like our ward pretty much isn’t it?  San Miguel is about that size right?) And even the investigators are really attentive and are willing to work with us to do what we ask of them. I have also been called as the District Leader, and I am over 4 areas. It is interesting, and I am not really sure what I am doing, but I am just going at it. It is pretty great. I also took pictures for this moment back in San Antonio. There is a political group caller Líder (Leader) and I took a bunch of pictures of me posing next to one of their advertisements, but they are in my memory that doesn’t work now. I will find another place and take the pictures here again in San Marcos. My companion is Elder Alarcón from Chile. I think he is the only elder in the mission that is from Chile. He is a really cool and laid back guy, but sometimes it is hard to work with him, but he is really good with the members. Also, the house I live in is amazing. It has a fridge, oven, microwave (which is really surprising), and washer machine and a dryer (which is even more astonishing), and a room with a carpet and couches. I AM LIVING LIKE A CHAPIN KING. San Marcos is also a lot richer than San Pedro, so most everyone has a car and many have gone been to the U.S. (legally for the most part. Most don’t make too much money if they go illegally. The mortality chance is much higher too if you go illegally). I did get my box from you guys and it is chalk full of kisses and peanut butter. I am really glad I got it at the beginning of when I had changes, so now I have a lot of time to finish it before I have changes again because there is no way that it will fit in my bags. It is really nice to eat again while I study during the night, especially now that I have to take DATS and all that good stuff every night. I am excited for this month; we already have a baptismal date for an investigator for the 13th. The people are just really friendly here too. It is great.

If we lived in the days of Christopher Columbus, I would have told you guys that i found the edge of the world.

It is nice to know Christine that you got an early start on your nesting for when I get home, but I still have a lot of time in front of me so don't worry too much. This week was hard but came with a lot of undeserved success. We had very little lessons this week, but the lessons we did have came with much success. it was a very bitter week for dats but very successful for the area. weird how that worked out. Thursday I ended up getting sick and am in the hospital right now... SIKE! I am fine. hahah I did get sick, but it only lasted for a few hours. I also did divisions for the first time when i stayed in my area with the District Leader. I was the first time that has ever happened in my mission because usually the district leader is my companion (that is actuall a lie, it happend one time in the previous change). It was cool though because the District Leader was my old companion, so I was with an old companion the whole day. we also have changes this week so I will know if I have changes tomorrow. anything could happen because I am more or less still in my first area, the president is talking to my companion about him training, and the stake president is asking for Hermanas in the area that I am (I guess we are not cutting it (I don't blame him though, the Hermanas are awesome)). For P-Day we went to a river in a volcano, it was super cool, but we came on a bad day and it was super foggy so we couldn't see much. Dad would have loved it though and I would love to go here with him. Since it was foggy you actually couldn't see anything, but still cool.  If we lived in the days of Christopher Columbus, I would have told you guys that i found the edge of the world. there was two feet of water outward and then nothing. Nothing below the water, above it, or up high in the skies. it was super cool. I took pictures, but we got back so late that I don't have time to attempt to upload them. so once again, I have failed you guys with an even more boring letter for the blog. But the work continues. Love you all and I am thankful for your  support and prayers.