A Letter from Kennewick: Monday, December 23, 2013

Subject: Merry Christmas!!

Hello my dear family!! Merry Christmas!! I feel like this month has flown by and I just don't know where it went!! I want a do over. haha I was really excited to get out and bear testimony of Jesus Christ but I seems like I was so busy doing it that I forgot that that is what I wanted to do! haha

 

It's been a crazy last couple of days! With transfers and meetings with our ward leaders and trying to figure out the best plans to get us all united in the vision of our mission. We have experienced a lot of really amazing miracles this week as we have been doubled in to these wards. When I left Kennewick Park it was really hard. We said goodbye to all of our investigators. It just hit me how much the gospel unifies us with people and how as we share the gospel we are literally connecting spirit to spirit with one another. I felt that as I had to say goodbye but it makes it easier knowing that it is all apart of God's will and that everything will work out.

 

It has been amazing how as we have been explaining and sharing the vision of our mission it has helped me to keep it in my mind and working hard to reach that goal. Our mission is focusing on baptizing weekly and when they first told us about it I didn't think that it would really be possible but as I prayed about it and shared it with the members it just has been amazing to see how for me it has become real. I love it!!

 

Sorry this is such a small email but I have some much to tell you about on Wednesday when I see you!

 

Well my dear family, I love you lots and lots. I love being here as a missionary and teaching people about Christ and feeling how important it is to be living where Christ is the center of my life. I love you all! Merry Christmas!

 

Love, Sister Mecham  

A Letter from Kennewick: Monday, December 16, 2013

Subject: Transfer....!!!!

My goodness!! So lots and lots is happening!! There were a lot of changes this week in the Mission with transfers happening. Me and my companions are being tripled out of Kennewick park and Elders are being put into our ward. I will be transfered still living in Kennewick, being doubled into Rancho Reata and Cottonwood Springs wards serving with Sister Brand! Sister Brand and I have worked to together and I just love that girl!!! She is amazing!! Our Zone consisted of the Kennewick Stake and the Kennewick East Stake and they have just now split the zone into the Kennewick Zone and the Kennewick East Zone. So many other things have happened and lots of really good changes are taking place!!

This week here in the Kennewick Park ward has been amazing! We have been able to be a part of some amazing experience. One of them being our PEC meeting yesterday. I know that the way the Lord has always wanted his work to be done is by working together. Yesterday as we were in PEC it was so great to see how the ward council members are trying so hard to figure out an effective way and the best way to accomplish the Lords work. It was just amazing! The spirit in that room was powerful!! The Elders better take good care of that ;)

We had an amazing week this week! I think I talked about Sarah last week in my letter. Sarah just moved into our ward and we got to finally teach her on Friday night!! She had 3 questions: The Priesthood, The Atonement, The Godhead. Each of us took a principle and explained it simply and then she taught it back to us!! As a mission that is something that we are focusing on! Teaching simply so that there is no confusion! We asked simple inspired questions and as she answered she taught herself. The spirit in that room was thrilling!!!! She is definitely learning and wanting to learn for all the right reasons! It is fantastic!!

I don't have much more time but I know that the Lord is in all things. He is in the details of our lives. I know that Jesus Christ is my savior and redeemer. I know that His Atonement is real and that is really truly completely heals us as we let it. I love you all!! Have a great week!! Merry Christmas!!

Love Sister Mecham :)

A Letter from Kennewick: Monday, December 09, 2013

Hi there my dear family!!

 

This week has been a crazy week full of fun and really wonderful amazing experiences!! First, can I just say that I really do love Christmas time?! It's amazing!! Nothing like sharing the message of our Savior Jesus Christ to bring people together and provide a message and a way of life that heals the heart. It is so fantastic!

 

This week we get to see Sister Leslie! She is doing great! We didn't get to meet with the whole Leslie family because Brother Leslie was so tired and beat after work this week. We are going to try to see them tonight. But with Sister Leslie, we got a text last Monday while we were emailing and she asked us when we would be coming back over. Here is to show how little faith I had, I thought "perfect. She is going to have us come over and then tell us that they are done taking the lessons and that this just isn't for them and they feel too pressured to pray and read and life is just crazy right now for them..." and so on. But thank goodness that is not what happened! haha She told us that she had some hard things that she wanted to talk about with us. We went over on Wednesday and before we went in we prayed and the thought came to us that we needed to take in a Family: A Proclamation to the World. So we did! She confided in us about different struggles that she is has had in her life. She told us that she just wanted to be a good mom. She just wants to give her children the best life that they can have. Right then we pulled out the proclamation and got to bare testimony of her role as a mom and her role as a wife. We got to tell her that as she lived true to what it says in the proclamation then she will receive divine help and she will feel that she is doing her part. It was amazing!! Just how subtle the spirit works and how amazing it is when you listen.

 

Another great thing that happened was with our investigator Jenn. She is so wonderful!! We have been trying to see how we can help her in feeling the spirit more in her home. She is having a really hard time right now. Her fiance is not feeling well, she can't get baptized yet because they aren't married yet and she just trying to do things that don't create big waves for their relationship. She is amazing! Really trying to do all she can to become better each day and also waiting for the right moment to be able to take the next step. We talked to Sister Madison her fellowshipper about helping her come to church. Sister Madison thought about it and said she felt really uneasy about that being our focus for the lesson. Jenn's fiance hasn't warmed up to that yet. She told us that she just kept getting this really strong feeling of helping her to do FHE in her home. So we told Sister Madison that she could prepare ways for Jenn to do FHE in her home and that we would love her at the lesson. Well Sister Madison was really listening to the spirit. I don't think it could have gone better! Jenn was so excited and we talked about ways that she could do this with having her fiance involved in it too but having it be low key and a time where he can feel the spirit and see the change in her and in their family. I'm so grateful for fellowshippers and the chance that we have to work so closely together! It's amazing!!

 

We did pick up a new investigator this week that the Elders are handing over to us. Her name is Sarah and she is so prepared! She is married to a less-active member and apparently she drags him to church. Haha Sister Bledsoe and Sister Davenport helped them move in this week while I was in a meeting. I'm so excited to meet them this week!!

 

Something that I learned this week is the principle of Happy and Hard. When Elder and Sister Richards came to talk to us a couple of weeks ago they talked about this and it really didn't hit me till just this morning. For my personal study I looked up happiness in the index. I read through some and ended up reading about Ammon and the Anti-Nehpi-Lehi's and how they are trying to leave because the people are being destroyed. Ammon talks to the King about leaving and the King tells him to go to the Lord. Ammon goes to the Lord and the Lord tell him to get those people out of there. Ammon is devastated for his people and just wants the best for them and for them to be safe. He meets up with Alma, Aaron, Omner, and Himni. It says that Ammon was so filled with joy that he fell to the ground. Then is says" Now was this not exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble SEEKER of happiness." I thought that was just amazing!! Here is Ammon with this really big responsibility on his shoulders and trying to free these people and his heart is still penitent and humble. He still is happy even when all of this is going on. It was such a huge lesson for me to start learning today. This really spoke to me and I just know with all my heart that as we are truly seekers of humility and happiness and joy the Lord will bless us in the darkest time. He always does.

 

I just want to share my testimony that I do know that our Savior lives. I know that the Atonement is real. I know it with all my heart and soul. I know that he is the "Prince of peace" that through him we don't have to wait for happiness and peace. That can happen right here and now as we accept Him and believe him. Merry Christmas!! Have a wonderful week!! I love you all!!

 

Love Sister Mecham :)

A Letter from Kennewick: Monday, December 02, 2013

Hello my dearest family and friends!

How are you all?! I hope you are doing well and that you had a lovely thanksgiving! It was wonderful here! We went to a couple of families houses and just enjoyed being with them. We finished the night by playing phase10 at a members house. It was great!

We've had some really cool teaching experiences this week. We taught the Leslie family twice this week. On Tuesday we shared with them the Restoration video. I love that movie! It always brings in the spirit so strong and helps investigators feel the spirit. They loved! We talked to them about how important it is to pray and to know that these things are true. They asked us a whole bunch of questions about our family lives and what our parents taught us. They asked if we ever had the choice to believe in this or the choice to leave it. It was a really wonderful experience for me to be able to share with him my experience in growing up and the way that my parents honored/ still do honor my agency. It was so great! At the end of the lesson Sis. Davenport invited Brother Leslie to say the closing prayer. He was kinda mad but.. HE DID IT! It was great!! And they wanted us to come back! We went back on Saturday and started reading the Book of Mormon with them. We started in 1 Nephi 1. It was really great! We kept it really simple and explained as we went what was being talked about.

Something that really hit me as we were reading that chapter with them was that, this whole principle and concept of God speaking to his children and the way he does with Lehi through a vision is something that we are familiar with in the Bible. The Book of Mormon is not new doctrine, just more of the same doctrine found in the Bible on a very simple bases. How much I love the Book of Mormon!! It is so fantastic!

When we had Elder Richards come to us, he talked to us about teaching truth and teaching it simply. We aren't to be using things that make the gospel principles complicated and confusing. The simpler we teach the more our investigators will understand the essential truths:

1.Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer

2.Joseph smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ

3.The Book of Mormon is the word of God

4. The Priesthood

We are just learning how to teach simply and to teach so they gain these testimonies. It has been really wonderful to see the change that happens!

We had another lesson this week with another investigator family that didn't receive the message the same way that the Leslie family did... It is really hard when that happens but when people aren't ready, we can't force them to be. If we want to know the gospel is true then we have put of faith to the test and pray. Simple.

Well my dear family, I love you all. Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Sis. Mecham

D&C 50:24