Monday, September 26, 2016

September 19, 2016

This week went well.... Sadly Vivana Elorriaga did not make it to church this weekend so her baptismal date fell through. She was going to get baptized this next week. Now she will probably get baptized this next month on the 8th of October. She is doing well but she still has some doubts about why she needs to get baptized again if she had already been baptized in the Adventist Church. This next week we will review what the priesthood is and also what three important parts of a baptism... As we explain it here it is like making lemonade... you need the water, the sugar, and the lemon.... Well the same with baptism.... we need water, the desire, and the priesthood authority. If one is missing the baptism is not vaild in the eyes of God.

Jaricza Carlos Bonilla is doing well. Her father has the goal to get come back to the church so that he will be able to baptize his daughter on the 6th of October. We have already taught her about ther restoration and on sunday we taught her the plan of salvation. She understands well, but she is shy so some times she does not want to answer the questions we ask.

The Cabello Family sadly didnt make it to church... They are having a hard time remembering that they should read the book of mormon.. .This sunday we showed them the restoration video. Sonia said that she believed it all and that she was good. We then explained to her the importance that she needed to receive a spiritual witness of what we were teaching her.. We are need this certain conviction that this gospel is true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God... The only way to receive it is one by reading, and putting in to practice the gospel... and then by asking God... I invite all you you to ask God again to know if the church is true and if the Book of Mormon is the word of God... I know that your testimonies will grow and be strengthened... I promise you all this as a respresentative of our Lord Jesus Christ...


I love peru

Elder Mecham

Monday, September 12, 2016

September 12, 2016

Hey I am doing well... This week was different yet fun... This week we went to the leader´s council with President and Sister Williams... It was great.. We talked about the doctrine of the laying of hands... Is it a practice or doctrine.. well it is doctrine. in doctrine and covenants 36 2 explains that when there is an ordinance with the laying on of hands it is as if Christ puts his own hands on their head.
We also talked about 1 Nephi 17 how nephi had many trials and difficulties yet he still pulled through... I love how he quotes the scriptures...


I am doing well. My companion does not have changes... This week Vivana and Jaricza attended church. They both have baptismal dates for the 24th of September.... I am super excited.... I 


We are doing great...

GO UTES
6 in a row......

September 5, 2016

Well another good week done and gone. It is crazy how fast this change has gone. We have worked hard together and hope to stay one more change together.

Sadly our investigators did not make it out to church this week so four of our baptsimal date fell through. It is sad to not see them come to church, but we are going to keep working with the Cabello family. Also this last week we found a less active family that went to church this week and the last week. We are in the process of rescuing them and also to complete the family. Their daughter Jaricza has 11 years and did not get baptized because the family became less active. We have put a baptismal date for her for the 24 of September.. We are making sure she is reading the Book of Mormon and attending and that she understands that she is going to make a promise with God. Also the other investigator that we are working with is Viviana...

The zone is doing well, this week there were many lessons with members and also a lot of other lessons. The zone had an average of 29.75 lessons per companionship. This next week Proceres is going to baptize two people. 

The thing that we really lacked was in contacts... this week we will put a emphasis on contacting.
 Well this is the last week of the change...  I really hope that President williams leaves me in this area

August 29, 2015

We had another great week and also we baptized Karol Llontop of barrio Puerto Rico. She was baptized on Tuesday and then on Friday she went to Trujillo and see the temple with her mother, and then sunday she was confirmed. The baptism went well. It started about 15 minutes late but we tried to get them there. The bishop from Urrunaga was the one to baptize her because he was the one to introduce her to the church. During the meeting the spirit was present. For me I felt the spirit strongly as we were waiting for her to change. We put some videos on and many really touched me heart. Especially one about temples and how we should be willing to sacrafice anything to be able to attend the temple. It is my goal after the mission to attend the temple weekly, so that I can have the strength and guidance I need especially in these times that are coming up.


We went to consejo de obispos this sunday and as a stake they put the goal to have 4 baptisms every month in every ward. They also said that on of the reasons that there are not many baptisms is because the ward missionaries, the ones that have them, are not attending correlation. They also committed again to do the family home evenings in their houses. We are going to do our best to have the strong bond between the members and the missionaries.

We finally found some more investigators. 3 came from a FHE with the Primary president. The coolest thing is that she brought them to church this sunday. We also found the rest just contacting and praying to be guided to the chosen ones.



August 22, 2016

This week we had a Multi zone with half of the mission. I was able to meet up with a lot of my buddies and also with Elder Darrington my son, so I was happy. The multizone was very spiritual and emphasized that we are a chosen generation and also the the end of the world is super close. In short Terms if the whole history of time is split into 12 hours with each of the dispensations starting with Adam and ending with the second coming we are at 11. Joseph Smith started the 11th hour so how much time do we have left. President Williams said that right now on the clock it reads 11hours 58 minutes... well he s coming... The good thing is that this is speaking in God´s time, but still all I can say is wow I have some prepartation to do. Because the Bridesgroom comes at 12 and I do not want to be with my spiritual lamp empty.

I also learned about becoming more converted. Even Peter the Rock as Jesus Christ called him needed to strengthen his conversion. As we know, after being with Jesus for more 3 years he still was not truely converted to the Lord. Later he denied Christ 3 times, but he later became the Peter we know now...strong firm and was willing to die for the name of Christ.

My question is how your conversion procress? I know that I lack a lot, but I know that it is possible,

my mission and it has changed my own life. For intstance, this week we visited Karol Llontop almost everyday of this week to help her prepare her baptism on the 23rd of August. When we talked about the Word of Wisdom, awesomly the sameday of the multizone we were super prepared... thank you, she took us directly saying, Look I have a problem I love Coffee and I do believe that I will be able to give it up. We shared more about the blessing and also we had her memorize Phillipians 4´13. She then asked us for a blessing. I was pleased to give her one in which I felt and knew that she would be able to leave the her coffee addiction. The next day she bought ECCO and told us that she would be fine. Later in the week she confirmed that she had been able to break the addiction, but that her head hurt alot... We told her that it would soon go away and she would have more energy. It is amazing to see the power of the Atonement in people´s lives. I love this Gospel and I am so glad that my older spirtual brother, Jesus Christ, suffered, bled, and died for me and all of humanity.

We did the work visit with Artesanos 1. I worked hard with elder Bravo. They are doing well, they just need to keep searching so that they can find some new investigators. They had a baptism this week so they are working well. I made sure to contact like crazy with them. In the afternoon we had 7 lessons and 23 contacts and also found a new family. They are doing well.

I am doing well and I hope the best for all of you guys... Love you to bits...

see you in 9 weeks


Tomorrow we have a baptism..


YEs

Elder Joshua Leo Mecham

August 15, 2016

This week was fun. Finally a calm and normal week to work in the work of the Lord. Last week was harder because we were busy with a lot of meeting and we traveled to the office many times, but this week we had time to just do what we gotta do, love the people and talk to anything that moves.
This wednesday we did a work exchange with the elders in Urrunaga. I went with Elder Aceldo from quito, ecuador. We worked hard and we found some more people to teach in their area. This tuesday, personally I placed 4 Books of Mormon. I love talking about the Book of Mormon... I know that it has a power in the conversion of all who read its pages. The things that are in it are worth more than gold, or any Diamond. It really does hurt a bit when people reject the Book of Mormon, but I look for the next person... Asi es la obra de Dios.... I know that the BOM answers the questions of the soul and clarifies all doubts that come from the bad translation of the bible. The 2 testify of Christ and both bring us closer. But as Joseph Smith said. it is the most correct book upon the face of the earth. The work visit went well... I have a picture with elder Aceldo while we were studying.
 Also this week we did a Missionary Night... the theme of course was the Book of Mormon.. After we played a game similar to pictionary just without pictures. Just the person had to describe the word without using works or jestures. Later we also played Ping Pong with the members... There is a picture of us playing doubles.

Karol Llontop is progressing and will be baptized on the 23rd of August... Mitchell's birthday. It is such a pleasure to teach her.

We are also teaching Yessenia Zuloeta and the family Cabello... Sadly they did not attend church this sunday so we had to move back their baptismal dates. Yessenia for the 2nd of September and The family Cabello for the 10 of September... We are working hard with them.

All is well

Elder Mecham

August 8, 2015

I do believe in miracles! It sounds a little funny or like a grew up watching a lot of Peter Pan, but this statement is truer than true. We have been teaching Yessenia Zuloeta for over 5 weeks now and she has been listening and completing with all her commitments except for one... she had never attended church. She has a bautismal date for the 27th of August and if she did not attend this sunday... well her fecha falls... We taught her saturday and committed her to come, she was undecisive, but as always we promised her blessings and poured out our testimonies about church attendance. She still was iffy about the decision. Later in the night we called her and she said if she was going to attend it would be a surprise... After I heard her reponse I thought, Whelp,,, there going her fecha. Sunday came and we waited, and waited. and then waited a little more... It was a great meeting by the way.. I really enjoy testimony meeting because the spirit flows and teachs while you listen and focus on not only what the members say, but also what the spirit said... I gave my testimony and then sat down and I felt that everything would be alright with Yessenia... After the last prayer, yessenia came up and said hi to us... She had entered and sat down on the last row without us nor the missionary leader noticing... wow suprise... she stayed the whole time in church, and later told us that she really enjoyed the 3 hours and that she felt she was heading in the right path. Bautismos!!! Animos!!!

We are teaching Carol Llontop of Puerto Rico... She is definately of the chosen investigators of God. This sunday we called the bishop of Barrio Puerto Rico and made sure that she was received with a warm welcome. Later we found out that Carol Llontop had also fasted. She is progressing and advancing for her bautismal date on the 20th of August.

The zone meeting went well. The missionaries received it well and now we are working hard to work hard and more efficiently with the members..

August 1, 2016

This week was interesting.... I SAW SO MANY DRUNK PEOPLE:::: THE LARGEST AMOUNT I HAVE SEEN IN MY LIFE....

But the peruvians are happy because now they have their new president and they are now ready to  receive the gospel. This week it was hard to contact new people in the street, but we did our best.... This week some druggiess offered us some Marijuana... never thought that was going to happen.... I told him no thanks of course...

This week we visited Gian Franco a couple of times... he is such an example to me. He gave up smoking and drinking all for the truth... This last month he was one of the very few that completed with his home teaching... 100 percent... what an example... He told us that every day he prays for his wife that she will be able to soften her heart and later get baptized. This next week they are going to advance him to the office of an Elder. Also he has the goal to make it to the temple this upcoming month.
This week was interesting.... I SAW SO MANY DRUNK PEOPLE:::: THE LARGEST AMOUNT I HAVE SEEN IN MY LIFE....

But the peruvians are happy because now they have their new president and they are now ready to  receive the gospel. This week it was hard to contact new people in the street, but we did our best.... This week some druggiess offered us some Marijuana... never thought that was going to happen.... I told him no thanks of course...

This week we visited Gian Franco a couple of times... he is such an example to me. He gave up smoking and drinking all for the truth... This last month he was one of the very few that completed with his home teaching... 100 percent... what an example... He told us that every day he prays for his wife that she will be able to soften her heart and later get baptized. This next week they are going to advance him to the office of an Elder. Also he has the goal to make it to the temple this upcoming month.
 

July 25, 2015

This week was wonderful... We did an interchange with the assistants... that was an interesting experience. I stayed in the area and my compaion went to the rich area of the assistants. I was with Elder Perez from Chile. We had a great time teaching together. I learned how to better teach and also contact new people. What I really like about Elder Perez was how friendly was with all the people. He also taught me how to better organize... I am really tiring to leave the bad habit of being unorganized and messy. I can say that i have improved a lot, but there is always room for improvement. It is just so hard to throw things away some times... I am not talking about trash, but things that maybe I will use in the future... hoarding is bad... hahahahaha.

We have been working hard with the members here in Moshoqueque, We have put an emphasis on having Family Homing Evenings with the elders and inviting a friend that is not a member. This week we had another family home evening with hermano Victor Mendoza and his family. We brought the Cabello family along to show them what the whole FHE is all about. It was a blast. We shared a video, and some spiritual thoughts about the temple then we played some games and ate a treat.... The game was super fun. We took two ties and played cat chases mouse... Basically, one of the ties is the cat and one is the mouse... the cat only needs to tie one knot, and clap 2 times while the mouse ties 2 knots and claps once. Basically the person that ends up with both the ties receives and punishment... in this case they had to run outside and Yell "Murio Mi Chanco!" or MY PIG DIED.... 

The Cabello family now has a baptismal date for the 27th of august... wie now have 5 people preparing themselves to get baptized... This work is so tiring, yet so energizing at the same time.

I know that my Savior is working by my side in this work... He lives and loves me and each and everyone of his children. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and played a vital role in my happiness. He brought back the fulness of the Gospel with also the fulness of its blessing. These blessings include the wonderful opportuniy to live as an eternal family.. I know if I keep my covenants I will be able to see aunt Connie again. President Thomas S. Monson is the living Prophet.. I love this Gospel....

I challenge you all to look for opportunities to share the Gospel with others... Really you all will find an everlasting joy if you do.. I know because I have felt it...

VIVA PERU! FELIZ FIESTAS PATRIAS

P de Patria
E de Ejemplo
R de Rifle
U de Union


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Elder Mecham

July 18, 2016

We had a work visit with Artesanos 2 with elder Huancaya and Elder Phillips... I went with elder Phillips to there area. There room was nice and clean, and there area book was perfect because that same morning we had interviews. Elder Phillips is an amazing missionary. He teaches well, and he came prepared to the mission. The best part about him is his attitude. He always has a smile just like his companion. The area was hard though, but we did are best to contact and teach as many lessons as we could. we also visited a member shared a small thought and set up an return date for a family home evening with them where they are going to invite a friend.

This sunday we had 6 investigators in church and all thanks to a less active member who went a brought the family to the church. This member came out and visited with us and in the lesson he committed to bring the family. Cristian, the less active member, is going to be rescued this week, and this next lesson we are going to put a date on the Family of Victor and Sonia.

My toe is healing little by little, but I have changed how a walk a little putting more pressure on my bigger toe.. saddly my bigger toe now is swollen and tender, but it all will pass... We have to take everything that comes at us with patience.

Elder mecham

July 11, 2016

Another week down.. .the time is flying and it stops and the same time.. just kidding.. I am really enjoying my time and the opportunity I have to represent my Lord and  Savior Jesus Christ.

This tuesday I went to my first leadership council meeting. Basically all the zone leaders and sister leaders meet with President Williams and his beloved wife, and also the assistants to learn and prepare to give a training meeting to the missionaries in the zone. The meeting lasted 6 hours and we got to eat some good food. We ate some pizza hut type hot pockets. They were tasty.

In the meeting we talked about how we can improve our teaching skills and also what the name of the church means... Well we took each part bit by bit. LA IGLESIA DE JESUCRISTO DE LOS SANTOS DE LOS ULTIMOS DIAS.

The.... is important because it means one.. and the only one with the authority of God. The only one that Christ himself established and guides. For example Doctrine and Covenants 1:30 explains more.. .Read it...haha.

Church.... Ephesians 4 talks about why he established his church and how it was established. Also 3 nephi 27  1 to 7 talks about that it must have his name and that it must be established upon the same gospel.

OF in spanish has 17 definitions

 JESUS CHRIST... his church

Of 

LATTER DAY SAINTS

Saints are the christians or members of the church and strive to be perfect through the atonement of christ.. mosiah 3 19... 

That is a basic part of what the name of church means.

Also we talked about how we can be better leaders... 3 nephi chapters 1 t o 6 was accomplished because of the great leaders... 3 nephi 6 verse 4... We too can be these type of people if we humble ourselves before the lord and follow the promptings of the holy ghost.


ANIMOS::

I love Peru.. and these people


Elder Joshua Mecham