The Lord's Work...the Lord's Way

Hola familia y amigos!!

It was so great to hear from you all today. This week has been dayzzzz long. I thought P-day would never come (I was way more excited to email this week than the last... don´t tell). It´s all just been one big blur of the same routine day after day and I can´t tell if what I did today was yesterday and if what I did yesterday was last week or tomorrow or never or maybe everything is just a dream? idk idkayay.

SELFIE!!

FUN FACT: explosions go off every 30 minutes in the city, 5 pm or 5 am, doesn´t really matter, we hear them. They sound like cannons or fireworks or who knows what. We´ve tried to ask our teachers and they just say it´s world war 3. Is every country just jelly of this Mexican pride or what? so maybe if you could clear that up that´d be cool.

Since last P-day my companion and I finished teaching our first investigator. Can´t remember the lessons we taught him (cause its all one big blur right?) but he committed to baptizim! I know it's all just for pretend but you really can feel the spirit in those fake lessons cause truth is truth. AND I´M HEAR TO PREACH THE TRUTH. 
It was slightly sad to say goodbye to our pretend friend until SURPRISE when we showed up to class the next day he was our night teacher! "Jorge wearing a tie? What now??" He's so happy. It's great. They have such a good system. 

So now our day teacher is one of our new investigators! Eek! He´s way too cool to be real. He´s a recently returned missionary and he just knows what up, he also expects a lot. We taught him (Hermano Varges aka Alejandro) yesterday. He was pretty hard cause he talks faster than fast. But we did our best. We´re always finding ways to improve too. Tomorrow we´ll teach our night teacher again but as "Miguel", a 55 yr old man who's son is LDS and who doesn't agree with the Book of Mormon and has already been baptized to 4 other churches! We´ll see how that one goes. 

So here's for a neat story, ready? Let me give you the low down on our district first so you can appreciate this. 4 Hermana's, 6 Elders.

The Elders could probably go for a good dose of chill-pill every couple hours. They´re all 18 except one who´s twenty and they´re all so different! 

They love to make fun of us and tell us that, when we mess up "it´s a big deal" and I think they all

have the middle name of sarcasm. The Hermana's work their behinds off while they goof off but somehow they just stay top notch, super frustrating, am I right?  So the Hermana's and I decided that every night from 9 to 9:30 we´d like to get to know one another better, share personal experiences and testimonies and all that cute stuff. We call it "sister sensitivity time" until the boys thought it was sexist so we changed it to "Missionary Message Moments" or "Mish Mess Momes" for short, it´s cute. At first the boys thought they were too cool but they talk about it all the day long now. 

SOO the cool part. All day on Sunday I kept thinking about the priesthood and what a blessing it is. During "mish mess momes" that night I shared a quote from Elder Holland I keep in my scriptures about Jesus being a priesthood holder and a high priest of good things to come. Afterward when we were all cleaning up to go home I remember how I wanted a blessing from Dad the night I left, but things were so crazy it slipped my mind until that moment. I really felt like I wanted to ask some of the elders if they´d give me one but OF COURSE I thought "its late, we´re tired, and honestly I´m doing fine, I don´t need one" so I just thanked them for the priesthood they all hold. We all began to walk home and half way to our casa one of the Hermana's began to cry thinking about how maybe she wasn´t cut out for the missionary life. Her dad had died when she was young so she never was able to get blessings all that often. I remember this as she was talking to us and I recommend that she get a priesthood blessing. She said she had been thinking about it all day but didn´t know how to act on it. My companion, Hermana Potter and I darted off to find the Elders from our district before they got home. We couldn´t find them anywhere so we prayed. We continued to search and eventually ran into some random Hermana's casa and used their phone to call the reception office. We gave them our district leaders name and they were able to tell us what casa. We ran so fast, afraid that maybe by now she had just gone home and given up on us finding the Elders and the whole time I just kept thinking about how I had been feeling all day towards the priesthood!! We got there and some of the elders were already getting ready for bed but they anxiously agreed to meet us back at the classroom. My comp and I ran ahead and found the other sister's still waiting. Come to find out... she had recieved a blessing as they were waiting! Two Elders had passed by and asked if they needed anything, they said no and the Elders walked on. They walked all the way down the road and turned to come back, they told her that they really felt that they needed to help her! 
We all just broke down, exhausted from all the emotion and chaos of not only the night but our whole experience here in general. 

So three of our elders eventually showed up but I told her, why not get another one? She agreed and I started thinking about my original prompting and continued to cry, I told them if they didn't mind I'd like one too. Turns out all four of us had been wanting a blessing. We all went into the classroom and these 18 yr old boys took their turn fulfilling their priesthood duty. The words they said and the spirit that was felt was incredible. We've only known these boys for a couple weeks but through the spirit they were able to bless each of us with what we needed.

My p-day water coloring

This whole week I've been trying really hard to be perfectly obedient, to my mission president, to myself and to the Lord. It's difficult to go to class after class and study on top of study, sometimes all I want to do is wear sweats, eat candy, dance and sleep. But I'm a representative of Christ, this is the Lord's work, it has to be done the Lord's way. We all took upon Christ name when we were baptized, we're all representatives of Christ. I encourage you all to do the Lord's work the Lord's way. Look at me, I´m so "missionary"

jajajaja <-- Español way to type laughter. get use to it.

LOVE YOU ALL

xoxo Hermana Meacham

 Mexicano food

Locked out of our casa

our motivational closet's

Workout!

Bonus info...

FAMILY: 

How is everyone?! I miss you guys. I wish I had time to write you all individually but I only have an hour. perfect obedience right? so if i dont write you back or if i do and its incredibly short dont be sad...just send me mail! for real though, thatd be cool. Karmas totally going to get me in the butt for never writing any of my loved ones on their missions. 

pdays are great. kind of strange. We still have study at 7 in the class room and the walk every morning is magic. sunrises and parrots chirpping. then we go to breakfast, were not allowed in the cafiteria without sunday dress. dumb. so really no point in wearing jeans on pday. Then we take pictures of your emails, go home and read them (so we have more time to write) then we clean, do laundry, work out, paint our nails yada yada. oh but I did use my water colors! i´ll probably use them again today! No outside exposure. we´re fenced in, literally. no one comes in or out without authoritative permission. Its like a beautiful prison. yes it was a church run high school before, i wish I would have been able to go to high school here. dope. 

I pray for all of you everyday in all my trillion prayers everyday. 

love you all with my whole heart. KAY BYE.

MOM: woah weird for some reason I didn't see your email until just now mom! your the best. I love you. I PROMISE YOU I´ll chill and be patient. It's such a different experience. I just keep thinking of how sad of a person I'd be if I didn't have the gospel and how I don't want people to live so sad. So then I forget myself and go to work! 
 I love sweet Maggie. I miss those babies. 
 *cheek kisses* miss you mommy.

FELIZ MEXICOANO DIAS DE INDECENCIA!

Is it really only Tuesday?! I feel like I've been here for centuries. It's everything I'd hoped it'd be but also much harder than I ever expected it to be. 

So we got here on Wednesday about 2pm and went through some MTC orientations. I could not have been more excited to put on the nametag. It's funny cause you think about being a missionary and it seems almost like you'll be another person, then you put on your tag and nothing changes. I'm still exactly the same (for example, I have to try really hard not to impersonate 'Miranda sings' on the daily). 

My companion is fabulous, she's such a dear. Her name is Hermana P, she's from LA going to Quito North, Ecuador. She is so smart! I have so much to learn from her. Her Spanish is awesome and her spirit is even greater. We've been through the same ups and downs together and can always relate. 

My roommates are also amazeballs! One actually went to Snow College with me! Her name is Hermana Y, she's incredible and also a beautiful Spanish speaker. Her companion's name is Hermana F, she's such a sweetheart. They're going to Virginia. I seriously have such a blast with these girls, I'm so lucky!

 My district is cool too. It's us four girls and 6 more guy's. Everyday we get to know them better, I also have lots to learn from them! A few of them are going to Chile! One in my actual mission! I have yet to meet a girl going to my mission though! 

On Thursday we had billions of meetings! One after the other about the CCM and how to be a missionary. I was getting pretty worried about the whole Spanish thing and suddenly one of the speakers said "you are not here to learn Spanish, you are here to prepare to be a missionary. Spanish is just one of the tools." It was just what I needed to hear. 

On Friday we had our first day of classes. Our teacher is great, he just got home from his mission in Mexico, his name is Hermano V. He's very intimidating and he ONLY talks in Spanish. So it's a daily struggle to keep up. Everyone I've talked to hear has learned Spanish at some point in the life so it's frustrating to feel like I'm a step behind (no lie, I'm the worst in my class), but I just have to remember ´There is more to excel at than just Spanish´ and I can do it as long as I try everyday! We also gave our first lesson solo en ESPAÑOL! It was terrifying!! There are five companionship's in our district and my companion and I had to go first! So we had much less time to prepare but we gathered our small Spanish thoughts and did it. Our "investigator" is Jorge and he is an alcoholic and has tried to quit many times. We had our first lesson on premortal life, prayer, and Gods love for us. I'm sure it was terrible, but more room for improvement right!? Since then we've given two more lessons. Currently he is praying everyday, reading the Book of Mormon and he's not drinking! Which is awesome because it's a big drinking holiday today and yesterday (he's not real p.s. he's a member in real life) but still it's cool okay. 

The weekend was going terrible, I was discouraged and stressed and tired. People always say your mission will be the hardest thing you do but you never understand what that means until you get out here. I always thought ´well, I'll just try harder, study harder and get better´ but the frustrating thing is, that, the real key is to be patient with yourself!! A couple of times I  doubted whether or not I could do this and if this call was right for me. I was always on the verge of tears. But the LORD gave me this call. He needs me here, he needs me to speak Spanish. And I need Him to be able to speak Spanish. It's like this eternal round of reliance and love #sotender.

a bunch of "pick-me-up" notes that my family hid in my luggage! I'm still finding them! 

 Sunday was just the break we needed from this madness of Spanish. After morning study we had Relief Society, which was great! Then more studying, then another MTC orientation, then meetings with our branch president (who's awesome btw) then Sacrament meeting. Each week we have to prepare a five minute talk in Spanish on a specific topic (this week was faith) and be prepared to share it because they don't announce it until after the sacrament!! and they announce it in Spanish, sooo listen up! haha this week after the first half of speakers went, el presidente got up to announce the second half of the speakers and we heard HERMANA P. He said her name last so we weren't sure if she was saying the prayer or speaking so we just waited and crossed our fingers. Suddenly the time was up and we thought she had to guess what it would be, the pianist got up to play the closing hymn and we drew a sigh of relief. Come to find out she was suppose to speak!! We died laughing. 

Later that night we had a devotional, then we were able to watch The Testaments! I love those movies. Every hymn, every prayer, every word was just what I needed and by the end of the movie all of my roommates and I were soaked in tears! (first time crying, are you proud of me of what) Afterward we met as a district to share thoughts, a few of us bore our testimonies and it was beautiful. It's funny, you can spend lots of time with people in class but until you hear their testimonies you don't know what they're all about! I have so much more respect and appreciation for those boys.

Monday was bomb diggity. It was so nice to start of well rested from the incredible Sunday we had. Everyone always told us "it sucks the first few days but if you can hold out til Sunday you'll be fine, if you can hold out til p-day you're golden!" It's soooo true!!! on Monday Hermano V told us we could only speak in Español!!  Honestly at first I was pretty up set, I thought it wasn't fair! I wanted to say "you haven't even taught me how to form a sentence yet!" But it's pushed me to ask questions and always use my dictionary (they really do give you tons of books, and they are life itself. I love my books.) 

Yesterday was also the eve of their independence day, which is a huge deal!! So after dinner we were able to relax and celebrate! Some dancers performed a Spanish ballet for us with their cute hankies and big bright dresses. Afterward we had a flag ceremony and we sang the Mexican National Anthem that we've been practicing. I'm so Mexican now!

All in all. It truly is the hardest thing in the world. Yet I love it more than life. My testimony is rock solid, try to destroy it Satan, you can't.

Amor,

Hermana Meacham!


Bonus info... 

to answer some of your questions,

I love Mexican food. forewarning you, I will gain weight. Their food's also way weird. They have like tamales for breakfast and their desserts are the strangest thing you've every seen. Like balls of coconut or baby pots, full of jam and leaves. que en el mundo?

yes all the worker are Mexican, i think they're all members.

It is warm but cool enough for a cardi everyday. It does rain almost every single day for at least an hour. Some times it comes down crazy hard. p.s i wish i would have brought more pjs/workout clothes.

I do miss you all so much. but I'm doing well actually. We stay so busy I don't even have a second to be too sad.

Yes I am praying in Spanish! In class, with my companion and alone. I still don't know a ton of vocab so its kinda Spanglish but its all good. I can also bear my testimony is Spanish!...kinda. I'm praying for every family member and my friends. I hope your all doing well.

p.s now I know why Weston always made spelling mistakes! (Mom here,  I've been correcting them for the post, maybe I shouldn't, it's kinda funny)I have zero time to email and no time to look what I'm typing. The 

Spanish in my head is throwing me off.

also mom, would you post the link on my facebook to my blog so my friends can see the link? and maybe in the sister missionary page "many are called but few are sister" too. if not nbd. Thank you so much for doing that.

p.s. yes brady you can drive my car (;

love you all.

SISTER MEACHAM & SISTER MEACHAM

My cute cousin Kim!!! she sent me cookies! 

SAFE ARRIVAL to MEXICO MTC!

Hello family! I don´t have much time (and this keyboard is weird) so if you could just forward this that'd be great! The flight went well! There were 5 other sisters and about 8 elders on my flight. The girls are great!! I'm getting along with all of them just fine. I was able to sleep for a couple hours on the first flight (Mal was spot on about the pillow). Atlanta was fine. I didnt sleep much on the way to Mexico, I don't know if it's because it was bright or I was just anxious but no doubt excited. Check in went well too! Surprisingly no one lost their luggage. I felt so crazy to be such a minority. I kept forgetting most people don't speak English, and me being so excited asked everyone how they were and all I got was ¨i eh onley speaka spanish, sorrd´´. Duh Paige. I dont think I've ever seen so many people stare. haha Im sure we looked clueless. 

The drive to the MTC was great!

Its everything you'd expect Mexico to look like. colorful stucco, graffiti, street venders etc. 

I feel so great and comfortable already! One of the girls that flew with me is my companion! shes great, she'll be serving in Ecuador.

Anyway, I love you all so much!! IM SO BLESSED. XOXOX

P.S. I'LL SEND PICS NEXT WEEK

P.P.S. I DONT KNOW HOW TO TAKE IT OFF CAPS LOCK HEHE BYE

The Airport!!!

Here we are 11pm. Flight leaves at 12:55 am, Sept. 10th! 

Flying to Atlanta Georgia, 

with a 3 hour 

lay over.

Who's HAPPY here???

bye bye, see ya in 18 months!!

Setting Apart

 Ezra and Paige

Ezra Paige and Betsy

Ezra Paige and Betsy

Pictured: front row, Scott and Cassie Mark, Brady, Mom, Me, Dad, Mallory, Megan, Ezra and Caden Anderson. back row, Phoenix and Betsy Mark, Maggie Anderson, Asher Mark

Set apart by Pres. Top

He said that I would be able to speak the language as comfortably as I speak my own. He said that I have a special gift that will draw people to me and want to know what it is that makes me so happy. 

He also said that so many missionaries come in and say, "I got this. I'm ready to go. No big deal." That's great that they feel that was but it's a big deal.  That I was called by the First Presidency and that he was authorized to set me apart but the call is from the First Presidency and that this is a big deal and that I should be a little scared and a little intimidated.