¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!

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Ryan Mecham	Dec 23 (7 days ago)
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

FAMILIA!

This week was awesome! We have been super busy with a bunch of meetings at the mission office; which is just a 15 minute Gua-Gua ride from our appartment. Gua-Guas are pretty much vans converted into crazy taxi/buses and they just cram as many humans as can fit. The most I have felt like a sardine on my mission so far was in a Gua-Gua full of 26 people, most with packages or bags of some sort, or both. 

The spanish is coming along nicely, although a lady did laugh directly in my face while I was trying to do a contact.

Can´t wait to talk to you on Christmas! I hope the kidlets are there. I want to hear from my favorite sobrinos

Im out of time but i love you all.

Elder Mecham

no subject)

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Ryan Mecham	Dec 16
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

Hola Todos!

This week was great and I love it here! Elder Weinmuller and I are working super hard and teaching a bunch of people -- which in all honesty is he teaches a bunch of people and I just sit there and look pretty, and testify about things. Maybe share the occasional scripture. Pretty much the MTC is there to make you think you learned some Spanish. I love it though! I am learning so much everyday. 

We had a baptism scheduled for this week for Yerilaisis (names in this country :/ ) but her aunt got super sick and she went to the hospital to go visit her. We had to set it for this saturday. I'm not worried though, she is a super awesome investigator and studies everything we give her. She may actually know the lessons better than I do. We are probably going to get at least 2, maybe up to 6 baptisms before I finish my training.

We don't get a lot of referrals which are usually the best investigators, so we have to do a lot of contacting. Contacting in this country is easy but hard at the same time. Let me explain: The people are super nice and almost everybody lets us in. They listen to our message. Invite us to come back.... but nobody keeps commitments to study or pray. So all in all, it's easy to teach lessons and get high numbers but those numbers don't mean a whole lot because not many of the people are progressing. I don't get discouraged though because we are doing all that we can do, which is all that we need to do. I also know that the Spirit can only guide us if we are moving. So that's what we do.

Talk to you all later!

Elder Mecham

Mi primera semana en el campo misional

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Ryan Mecham	Dec 9
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

I love the mission! My trainer is Elder Weinmuller, he is from Texas. He has less than 5 months on the mission, speaks almost perfect spanish and is probably the best trainer in the biz. This week has been really hard. I don't speak very good spanish and wish that I could communicate better with the gente. My area is awesome and we have a bunch of investigators. We keep super busy and I love working, even though I only understand about 60 percent of what is going on. The language is coming along very nicely.

Elder Weinmuller has been having me do as much as I can in the lessons and I have invited 4 people to baptizm. We currently have 2 fechas, baptismal dates, and although I was there to set one of them up, I don't really count either because they both had received all the lessons and were ready for baptism before I even got here. We have one date for the 14th and one for the 28th of december.

This country has a funny tendency not to have power, so finding a place where I could email home was a bit challenging. We have running water in our appartment, which is a huge blessing and I love it! 

Today was my first P day and we went to the park with a bunch of other missionaries, we also went to the mall and Elder Weinmuller and I split a pizza from papa john's. I SO LOVE AMERICAN FOOD!

Well... back to work!

Love you all!

Elder Mecham

PS: I wasn't able to write home last week because I didn't have my P day.

Oh also, my P days are on MONDAYS now, like normal people.

Final Week In the CCM!!!

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Ryan Mecham	Nov 28
to me, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Ali, Isaac, Kess, Dallan, Jake

Todos,

This week was awesome! We went to the field on Friday on exchanges.
Which was the best! I got to pretty much just tag along with these two
elders. We taught everybody that would listen to us and got
appointments to teach the ones that wouldn't. We went "knocking doors"
(People don't really have doors, you just walk up and yell 'Saludos!')
but ya, there were only a couple of places where there was nobody
home, and everyone here is so nice they will just let you come in and
teach them. We taught 5 lessons and, I am glad to say, I understood
most of what people were talking about. Oh! We also went to someones
baptism! I think there was sort of scheduling conflict because they
don't usually baptize people on fridays. regardless, it was AWESOME!


SIDE NOTE: I sometimes feel like my spanish is good enough to maybe
get my basic point across, then I try to talk to a native speaker that
is not one of the teachers (because the teachers apparently talk to us
like we're children) and I just end up getting maybe 25 percent of
things, because everyone here talks so fast! I can understand
spanish.... I just can't understand the people.


So I Got yelled at by a drunk guy....

It was a dreary Friday afternoon. We were walking from our last
appointment to their appartment (which was super ghetto, in case you
were wondering) they needed to go get their cameras for the baptism so
they could take pictures. ENTONCES, we were walking and some guy
practically pulls one of my companions aside to talk to him. He was
talking super fast and I couldn't understand what he was saying. He
kept motioning at me and I guess he was saying something about how
missionaries keep coming to his house. Not sure. He asked where we
were all from, my companions were from guatemala and peru and he was
totally fine with that. When he found out that I was from the US he
got all upset and started practically yelling at me. I don't know if
you have ever been yelled at in a language you don't understand, but
it's not fun. He was getting mad that missionaries keep trying to
teach him but they can't speak the language. My companions didn't
speak any english so they couldn't explain anything to me. Probably
the most scared and confused I have ever been so far on my mission.

Don't worry I'm fine.

Sorry I'm out of time

Love you all!
Elder Mecham

Adresses for your favorite missionary

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Ryan Mecham	10:55 AM (2 hours ago)
to Ali, Amanda, Austin, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

I know I already gave you the letter mailing adress, but here is all of them.

 

Mailing Address:
SDQ 4102
2250 NW 114 Ave Unit 1A
Miami FL 33166
United States

 

Shipping Address:

MAIL BOXES SDQ 4102

11010 NW 30th St #104

Miami FL 33172

United States

 

Before you ask, I have no idea what "MAIL BOXES" in the shipping adress means... probably that it's a mailbox. Just don't ask me.

 

Dominican Republic MTC Mailing and Shipping Address:

(probably won't use this one, because I leave the MTC on about Dec. 3. Go ahead and try if you want)

 

Avenida Bolivar #825

Los Robles

Santo Domingo

Dominican Republic

 

So... YA.. feel free to send me candy or gifts or empty boxes boxes if you are feeling really cheap, whatever makes you happy.

 

Con Amor,

 

Elder Mecham

 

PS: apparently the pro way to send packages so they don't get rumaged through by customs is to slap a picture of Jesus or the virgin marry or something churchy on the outside of the box. Apparently customs officers don't like messing with things they think are for the Catholic Church.

Esta Semana en La Republica Dominicana

Ryan Mecham	10:38 AM (3 hours ago)
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

GREATISHEST NEWS! I get to go to the field on exchanges with the.... real (experienced?) missionaries tomorrow. The last two weeks in the CCM all the missionaries get to go out into the campo on intercambios with the missionaries that are serving in the are around the CCM. It is an opportunity for us to see how real people are taught and to show us that, despite our sincerest hopes and dreams, we can't ACTUALLY speak Spanish. Life in the Dominican Republic is still just as awesome as ever! I am definately in the best MTC in the world getting ready to serve in the best mission in the world and speak the Spanishiest language in the world.

 

So there isn't many stories to tell about what goes on in the CCM other than some of the things I learned. Examples:

• Spanish has tenses for speaking that don't exist in English
• Elder Bednar may very well be my new favorite apostle (or a close second).
• People are often nice to you only because you can't speak their language and sound like a demented walrus.
• Banana Pancakes. Tell your friends.
• I may not be meant to ever be able to tell what time it is on my mission. I bought a watch at the store on Tuesday and the battery is already dead.
• Don't eat ground meat in third world countries, even in the CCM.
• Mosquitos are everywhere. Always.
• God loves us all.
• We don't convince, we convert.
• Lists are fun.
• Waffles.

Love you all!

 

Hasta Luego!

 

Elder Mecham

 

PS: sorry no pictures

1 - Elder Cook is practiacally an 8 year old, so he fits nicely on
peoples shoulders. (He is the one not on Elder Dastrup's shoulders)

2 -  Me and Elder Cook in front of the Santo Domingo temple. (Dad may
like to know that yes, that is the tie Brother Geppert gave me.)

My address

Ryan Mecham	2:04 PM (2 hours ago)		to me, Amanda, Austin, Ali, Isaac

In case you were wondering this is my address:
Mailing Address:
SDQ 4102
2250 NW 114 Ave Unit 1A
Miami FL 33166
United States

Just a note about Packages

Ryan Mecham	1:42 PM (3 hours ago)		to me

Hola otra vez!
So apparently customs loves to look through peoples packages in this
country. So apparently the way the pros send packages is by putting a
picture of Jesus on the front of the package (under some tape or
something) and then just taping the crap out of the thing. I guess
this makes the customs people think it is for the Church (which to
them refers to the Catholic Church) so they won't want to mess with
it. I really don't know, just a tip.... because I really do need a
watch. We are going to the store next week so I'll see if I can find
one there.
Love,
Elder Mecham

Semana Dos En El Centro de Capacitacion Misional

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Ryan Mecham	Nov 7 (6 days ago)
to me, Isaac, Austin, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Ali

Hola Todos!

 

Este semana fue.... I'm just kidding! This email will be in English, mostly, I make no promises. The Republica Dominicana is so beautiful! I have only seen a little bit of it because we don't leave the CCM much, but the parts I have seen are amazing... well the parts that aren't a large city in a 3rd world country that is, in all reality, probably held together by bailing wire and duct tape.

 

I love being a missionary! Learning a new language and studying how to teach the Gospel, while being instructed in said new language, is pretty much cause for a serious headache. Not a problem though, because I know that this is what the Lord wants me to do, so He will be there to help me the whole way. You can feel the Spirit so strong in the CCM. It is so great to be in a place full of people doing the Lord's work. Elder Cook loves to play the piano and when we have free time, we will go to this room where they have a baby grand piano, and he will just play a medley of whatever Hymns come to mind, it is amazing.

 

No awesome stories for this week. I reviewed the imperitive tense and indirect/direct object pronouns yesterday during personal language study. I went over it on the board with the teacher while everyone else was doing more plabian tasks at their desks. I'm kidding, but they all just looked at it and were like "Excuse me?! We have to learn that?" I kind of chuckled because it was just a review for me. I'm honestly suprised I actually learned anything in Spanish class back home.

 

Nothing major happened this week... other than I feel a whole lot more comfortable with the language and can get up at 6:15 without feeling like I'm going to die. Still humid here, glad the AC works. Yesterday we just got about 10 - 15 new elders from Jamaica and miscelanious Latin American countries... I can't communicate with any of them, but oh well.

 

Oh, and Elder Cook is the short Hawaiian (spelling?) Elder in the picture, super funny guy.

I will have time later today to send you pictures and all that fun stuff.

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Mecham

Hola Familia!

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Ryan Mecham	Oct 31 (13 days ago)
to me, ashley.mecham, adnama.Larsen

So the CCM (mtc) is practically the greatest place ever to be. You can feel the spirit so strong always because everyone is trying so hard just to serve the Lord. The pictures I sent in my last email are of me and the mission president and my district in front of the temple. My companion's name is Elder Cook, he is from Las Vegas, although he grew up in Hawaii. He is crazy good at the piano... like CRAZY good. The food here is pretty alright, not much to say. It is usually a plate full rice and beans and a slab of meat (I don't ask what it is).

 

So in my district I am the best at speaking spanish, which isn't saying much I know, but remind me to thank señora Swartz. I am just going to come out and say it, sorry Dad I barely used the Rossetta Stone at all, it is not the reason I know any spanish. It is actually kind of funny because I sometimes mis spell and have crappy grammar in english, because I am trying so hard to think in spanish.

 

ENTONCES,

 

Craziest story: on the flight from LAX to Miami I sat next to this armenian guy. I heard him tell someone he was going to Santiago, and I figured "hey I'm also going to the DR, so I guess I'll talk to this guy". I asked him why he was going to the DR and he said (DISCLAIMER: his english was not great and he had a super thick accent) he said that he was going on a vacation for 8 days. He asked where I was going and how long I would be down there. I told him that I would be going to Santo Domingo, the capital, and would be down there for the next 2 years. He was all "why on earth would you want to be down there for 2 years?" I told him I was going on a mission for my church and I was going to be down there serving and teaching the people. We had a long talk about why we serve others, and I even answered some of his questions about God. He didn't feel like God loved him, and I made it my goal for the flight to explain why God does. We talked about his family and his room mates. I told him how the Lord has shown His love for me. I even explained the plan of happiness to him. I wanted him to know that God doesn't want us to be sad, and that He sent His son to die for us. We talked about the whole plan but I focused on the purpose of this life and the atonement. He didn't explain why God would let satan tempt us and why we were allowed to make so many mistakes. I explained how important agency is and why satan was cast out of God's presence. When he got up to go to the bathroom I turned around and all the other missionaries were looking at me like "is this guy really ALREADY teaching somebody?" I didn't have a book of mormon to share and neither did any of the other missionaries, I was kind of bummed but I went back to my seat. When he returned I gave him a page of my notebook with 'mormon.org' written on it and "The Book of Mormon" written on it, as well as the name of our church. I gave it to him and explained what each thing was and what they meant. I explained what the Book of Mormon was and bore my testimony of it's truthfulness and the truthfullness of this Church. When I was done I asked him if he had any more questions and he told me he needed to process it, but that "it fit, in here (motions toward his head)". IT FIT!!! He was such a golden investigator and he even gave me his adress and phone number in California, so I could send more missionaries like me to come and explain it to him more, and anwer any additional questions. He is going to get baptized some day for sure.

 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be on the Lord's errand, and to be able to teach his children. I know he loves all of us because I feel that love every day of my life.

 

Push through, the Church is true.

 

Elder Mecham