I hope you all enjoy the voice recording. Sorry it is short, but I will try to make them longer during the upcoming weeks. We had a Zone Conference yesterday, so our P-Day got moved to today. This week has been great. It was kind of hard in the beginning, because I was so used to spending time around so many missionaries and then we were isolated in our little area and were responsible for whatever we ate, but as I have prayed and have come to know some of the people here the Lord has blessed me with great joy and happiness in being here. LaGrange is a great place. It is a pretty small town with a wide spectrum of rich and poor but it is filled with some incredible people. I have been increasingly exposed to cockroaches and other bugs but it hasn't been bad at all and they are not really in our apartment so that is good. We are the only missionaries in our branch but the other missionaries in our district aren't too far away. We live in a decent sized apartment in an apartment complex in LaGrange. Elder Swainston told me that it was the smallest apartment in the mission and yet it was pretty good-sized. He said that they really like to take care of their missionaries here. It is still very hot here but it hasn't been bad getting used to it thanks to all the trips to New York and South Carolina. At transfers, I met Brother Clark who drove us back to LaGrange (2 hours) and is the Branch mission leader. We had correlation meeting with him on Friday and it was cool to learn about his story. Thanks to Elder Swainston's previous companion, Elder Chidester, going home we still have tons of leftovers from people trying to feed them before he left, but we did go to the store to get some breakfast, and lunch supplies. A lot of what we eat at the apartment is just quick and easy things like poptarts, eggo waffles, cereal, sandwiches, and quesadillas, but I want to hopefully get something going where we at least prepare a decent meal a couple of times a week.Our branch has about 40-50 active members, so it is pretty small and the missionaries are assigned to bless the Sacrament. I did get my bike at transfers and Elder Swainston has the exact same one but we don't bike a whole lot in our area. We have a car and drive a lot to places, especially since our area is really large. We tried to bike yesterday but it was hard to get everywhere and figure out where to leave your bike or chain it up. There are lots of people in the Area Book here and lots for us to visit with but we have done some tracting. I really need to get better at my door approach and teaching while I am talking with them at the door, but it has been going fine so far. They just built a new big Kia manufacturing plant here so there are a lot of Korean peoples and some Indian peoples as well here. We participate in regular service at a place called "Feeding the Valley" which basically provides food that has been donated by grocery stores at extremely low prices to different organizations and peoples. I have some pictures from there that I will post.
The missionaries know a lot of the workers there including the manager named Dine. She usually lets us pick something from the freezer to eat for lunch there so we get free lunch several times a week. There is also a worker there named Mr. Bob who looks a lot like Santa Clause and even plays him professionally for the city of LaGrange. He and his wife are investigators and their daughter is a convert who married a member of the branch. They are really nice people and are heavily involved in community outreach programs. Mr. Bob and his wife are from New England and have a very unique accent from the typical southern. We even had the opportunity to give his wife a blessing after she had strained one of her nerves. It was a great experience and we have even been able to give two other blessings during the week. One was for an elderly gentleman who had just lost his wife on Sunday and we had the chance to visit with him and his family. The other was for a member whose knees were hurting her and she wanted a blessing to help her get through the week. I am so grateful for these opportunities and for the practice the Lord gave me in the MTC. It has truly been powerful to witness the power of the priesthood and to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. We have been working with several people and have even received several referrals. We are working with one young man named Jaylin who is investigating the church. His grandparents are converts and he lives with them. The missionaries had been teaching him for a while and the only lesson he hasn't been taught yet is Discussion 5. He is a really cool guy who is playing football right now as a cornerback so it has been cool to be able to relate with him about sports. He has an incredible faith and sincere desire and it is cool to talk to him. He is a little unsure about baptism and wants to find his own testimony, so we are excited to keep working with him. We even had the opportunity to fast for him and it was great to be able to participate in that. We have one other man who just moved here who accepted a baptismal date during the first lesson but I still haven't met him because he has been out of town in Atlanta. We are talking with another family who was extremely close to being baptized but they didn't quite get there. But we are hoping to talk with them some more and invite them back to church and to get baptized. This area is truly interesting. There are so many different churches, and almost everybody you meet belongs to some sort of denomination or professes to know Jesus and to have accepted Him. I had a thought during stake conference about how everybody we had talked to claimed to know Jesus but can they really come to know Him without having the fullness of His Gospel? We have also had the opportunity to play Bingo with some of the elderly folks and to speak with an incredible less active member there named Georgia. We had a great time at Stake Conference this weekend. On Saturday, we rode with a member and got there extremely early because we didn't need to be there for the priesthood leadership session, so we got to hang out in the family history center. I got to talking with the member who was working there and he was doing some family history work. He showed me that he was born in Czechoslovakia and moved here when he was really young. He wished that he had started much earlier. Then I noticed that he had a Hill Cumorah Pageant magnet and I got to talking with him and apparently he had visited the pageant several times. It was great to visit with him and to see how the pageant continues to help and connect with missionary work. Elder Meurs, who is the newest general authority of the church, and his wife were there for stake conference. They gave powerful talks about teaching in the Savior's way and about the Atonement and how it can allow us to receive forgiveness, forgive others, and forgive ourselves. Sister Meurs joked about how they were from Australia and how it was very fun to come and listen to our accent. We then had a Zone Conference with Elder Uceda (Who also spoke to us in the MTC) and the Meurs. Elder Uceda taught us the importance of obedience and how President Faust taught that the Missionary Handbook becomes one of our standard works. He also stated that when we were set apart the Lord laid His hands upon our heads through the hands of our stake President. Elder Meurs then talked to us about how the 73,000 missionaries and the some 100 general authorities of the church are the only called full-time representatives of the Lord. It put the call of a missionary in a very interesting and profound light. We did some role playing and learned how to more effectively study and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were then fed and let me tell you, homemade southern macaroni and cheese is incredible. Overall, this week has been incredible. We plan to go to a historic Biblical museum today and I can't wait to continue teaching and testifying of Jesus Christ. There is a member here who is from Idaho and was a missionary here named Edgar Hafen. He comes out with us a lot and is related to the Ross's. It was great to talk to him. I also met a missionary who was in my sophomore math class and I also met and talked with Sister Dannibal. Also, Sister Evans, President Evans from the New York Rochester Mission's daughter, is also in my district so I got to meet her. We had a CD left in the apartment that had the same arrangement of "Onward Christian Soldiers" that we sang at pageant so there have been many tender mercies from the Lord. Well until next week. I am glad you are all doing well and had the wonderful experience in the temple. Love you. This ends the message from the happy missionary.
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The missionaries know a lot of the workers there including the manager named Dine. She usually lets us pick something from the freezer to eat for lunch there so we get free lunch several times a week. There is also a worker there named Mr. Bob who looks a lot like Santa Clause and even plays him professionally for the city of LaGrange. He and his wife are investigators and their daughter is a convert who married a member of the branch. They are really nice people and are heavily involved in community outreach programs. Mr. Bob and his wife are from New England and have a very unique accent from the typical southern. We even had the opportunity to give his wife a blessing after she had strained one of her nerves. It was a great experience and we have even been able to give two other blessings during the week. One was for an elderly gentleman who had just lost his wife on Sunday and we had the chance to visit with him and his family. The other was for a member whose knees were hurting her and she wanted a blessing to help her get through the week. I am so grateful for these opportunities and for the practice the Lord gave me in the MTC. It has truly been powerful to witness the power of the priesthood and to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. We have been working with several people and have even received several referrals. We are working with one young man named Jaylin who is investigating the church. His grandparents are converts and he lives with them. The missionaries had been teaching him for a while and the only lesson he hasn't been taught yet is Discussion 5. He is a really cool guy who is playing football right now as a cornerback so it has been cool to be able to relate with him about sports. He has an incredible faith and sincere desire and it is cool to talk to him. He is a little unsure about baptism and wants to find his own testimony, so we are excited to keep working with him. We even had the opportunity to fast for him and it was great to be able to participate in that. We have one other man who just moved here who accepted a baptismal date during the first lesson but I still haven't met him because he has been out of town in Atlanta. We are talking with another family who was extremely close to being baptized but they didn't quite get there. But we are hoping to talk with them some more and invite them back to church and to get baptized. This area is truly interesting. There are so many different churches, and almost everybody you meet belongs to some sort of denomination or professes to know Jesus and to have accepted Him. I had a thought during stake conference about how everybody we had talked to claimed to know Jesus but can they really come to know Him without having the fullness of His Gospel? We have also had the opportunity to play Bingo with some of the elderly folks and to speak with an incredible less active member there named Georgia. We had a great time at Stake Conference this weekend. On Saturday, we rode with a member and got there extremely early because we didn't need to be there for the priesthood leadership session, so we got to hang out in the family history center. I got to talking with the member who was working there and he was doing some family history work. He showed me that he was born in Czechoslovakia and moved here when he was really young. He wished that he had started much earlier. Then I noticed that he had a Hill Cumorah Pageant magnet and I got to talking with him and apparently he had visited the pageant several times. It was great to visit with him and to see how the pageant continues to help and connect with missionary work. Elder Meurs, who is the newest general authority of the church, and his wife were there for stake conference. They gave powerful talks about teaching in the Savior's way and about the Atonement and how it can allow us to receive forgiveness, forgive others, and forgive ourselves. Sister Meurs joked about how they were from Australia and how it was very fun to come and listen to our accent. We then had a Zone Conference with Elder Uceda (Who also spoke to us in the MTC) and the Meurs. Elder Uceda taught us the importance of obedience and how President Faust taught that the Missionary Handbook becomes one of our standard works. He also stated that when we were set apart the Lord laid His hands upon our heads through the hands of our stake President. Elder Meurs then talked to us about how the 73,000 missionaries and the some 100 general authorities of the church are the only called full-time representatives of the Lord. It put the call of a missionary in a very interesting and profound light. We did some role playing and learned how to more effectively study and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were then fed and let me tell you, homemade southern macaroni and cheese is incredible. Overall, this week has been incredible. We plan to go to a historic Biblical museum today and I can't wait to continue teaching and testifying of Jesus Christ. There is a member here who is from Idaho and was a missionary here named Edgar Hafen. He comes out with us a lot and is related to the Ross's. It was great to talk to him. I also met a missionary who was in my sophomore math class and I also met and talked with Sister Dannibal. Also, Sister Evans, President Evans from the New York Rochester Mission's daughter, is also in my district so I got to meet her. We had a CD left in the apartment that had the same arrangement of "Onward Christian Soldiers" that we sang at pageant so there have been many tender mercies from the Lord. Well until next week. I am glad you are all doing well and had the wonderful experience in the temple. Love you. This ends the message from the happy missionary.
Elder Daric Meyers
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