Elder Daniel Meiners

"Hi!  I am Sister Lynette Phelon, a ward missionary in the Warm Springs Ward.  Your son and his apartment companions were at our home for a FHE talent night and shared this song with us.  I thought you would like to see it.  I hear they sang it for you on Mother's Day.  Enjoy!  We sure do love working with the missionaries!  You have an amazing son!"

Hi! This is the Schwarze family, from your son's mission. Your son came over tonight and him and his companions did a Haka for us. :) We recorded and thought we'd share it with you but the file was too big to attach to an email. Instead, we uploaded it to facebook and I've attached a link. Thanks for sharing your son with us. He's been a blessing to have in the ward and an excellent missionary. You should be very proud of him. We know we are!! :) Thanks again for raising such excellent young men. We hope you enjoy the video! :)
Love,
The Schwarze's

http://youtu.be/fqXi8u626RU

Hi to the Meiners family!

We attended the transfer conference this afternoon and Elder Meiner's solo was so very beautiful I just had to write and tell you.  It was "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" with piano and violin accompaniment.  He has such a beautiful voice and has blessed this mission with his beautiful talents. 

We are sad to lose him, but are so thankful to you for sharing him for these two years.
Enjoy having him home with you again.  We will certainly miss him.  Please give him big hugs from us!

    Lots of love, The Phelons
                 John, Lynette, Heidi and Scubi (the dog, Elder Meiner's favorite!!!) 

Dear family and friends,

          Things have been going pretty good. We actually had all of Josh, Heidi, and Taylor at church this week for their baptism on Saturday this week so that's really good. Josh even had his mom come to church. I didn't get a chance to talk to her for too long, but it seemed like she was happy to be there. Maybe she'll even come around, too. That's pretty much all of the people that are being taught in this area.

 We actually found out this morning that our area is getting double-transferred. I'm coming home and Elder Valele will be going to the Black Mountain zone for his last transfer. It kind of came as a surprise to us because we were supposed to get that double transfer call on Saturday night. Oh well.

            So last week the new vehicle that we got was pretty much the same as the last pickup truck that we had, except it was white instead of gray. But then on Friday we had to turn it back in because another missionary needed it for some reason. So then on Saturday we went to pick up a Mazda 3 and that's what we have now. But they told us that we'll only have that car until transfers, and they'll yet get another car. So we've had like 3 vehicles within the past 2 weeks.

            So that's pretty much all I have for this last week. I did get a chance to say goodbye to a few families already. It's been a really awesome experience. I've learned a lot of things from different members, investigators, companions, and areas that I've been around. I know that the things that I've learned will help me get through the trials that I'll face and I think that I've found my true self. Thank you all so much for supporting me, praying for me, and showing me a good example. I'll see you on Wednesday!


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

        This week has been pretty good. We finally got to meet with Josh this week and be able to teach him. We also met with Heidi and Taylor (they're twins) and they usually have lessons at the same time as Josh since they're all 14 years old. Josh was excited to tell us that his parents gave him permission to be baptized (his parents are both different religions) and so he's ready to be baptized on June 9th. And what's better is that the twins want to be baptized on the same day as Josh, so they'll be baptized that day, too.

 Nick is still coming to church, but he's not progressing at all because he doesn't really have a desire to learn at all. The Phelon's (the one that sent you guys the video) also had an FHE last week and they had a nonmember there named Ranae. They said that they taught the whole Plan of Salvation to her and that she'll be there again next week and that we'll come by and introduce ourselves to her.

We went by Paz again this week (the Philipino lady) and we gave her 2 copies of the Book of Mormon, one in Tagalog and one in English so that she can understand either way. We asked her to read at least the first chapter by the time we came over again.

        So we've been either biking or getting rides from members this whole week, but we'll be getting a new car tomorrow, so that should be good.

        We also did a service this week for a member in another ward where we helped trim their palm trees. Basically if there were any withering or dead branches, we'd get a trimmer or extension-pruner and cut them off. It was pretty crazy because if the trees were too tall, we'd have to get a ladder and do it. And since I was the lightest person there, nobody else felt comfortable going up and so I did some of them by myself.

        That's awesome that Joey Yarn has his mission call already, that's so crazy. He was so young the last time I saw him.

        Our area is doing good for now. We've got a few people ready to be baptized and we're also still trying to find some more people to teach. Well, I think that's about it from me this week. I'll try not to count down the days too quickly. Depending on how much stuff I have, I might be sending some more stuff home this week.


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          This week has been pretty good. We had Nick Josh both out to church again this week. We've been over to see Nick a couple times this week, but he just doesn't seem to be progressing too much. He doesn't keep his commitments or do anything we've asked him to do, and so we've decided to let it wait a little until he feels ready to meet back up with us. We still haven't met up with Josh yet, but we should be having a lesson with him sometime this week. We didn't see Maria Mendez like we had planned because she cancelled our appointment we had.

           Our truck is currently at about 54,000 miles on its odometer, so we're getting it ready to give back to Salt Lake soon. We recently got a mechanical inspection on it, fixed the AC (it was broken for about 3 weeks), and now it's at the body shop, so it looks like we might be doing some biking for a couple of days.

           That song that we performed for you guys on Mother's Day is a song that everybody wants us to sing now. We've sung it probably about 10 times already including once at a baptism on Saturday, once at Young Women's class on Sunday for another ward (by request, of course) and another time on Tuesday for the Relief Society of that same ward. We can also do "the Haka" (a traditional war dance from New Zealand) and the sister missionaries from another zone asked us to do it for their ward barbecue.

            We also went to a "Why I Believe" Fireside yesterday and we got to hear 3 recent converts share their testimonies of why they joined the Church. I think that was my first time ever going to a Why I Believe and it was really good; Pres. Neider, Sis. Neider, and Pres. Foote (one of his counselors) were also there.

            There was a young man in one of our wards named Jeffrey , and he's leaving for his mission to San Jose, CA a week from Wednesday. His family invited us to come over for their farewell party and it reminded me of how you guys had invited the missionaries over to my farewell party when I was leaving for my mission. His mom was asking us all sorts of questions about the luggage, the sort of music he can bring, what clothes he should wear, all the usual stuff that moms worry about.

             That was awesome about the missionary experience that you had with that bus driver during the Spring Trip, maybe something will come out of it. Who knows? And I'm sure that Andrea will do great on her Madrigals auditions. Remember to smile!

             Our area isn't doing as well as it could right now. We're a little low on people to teach, but I'm sure that as we work hard and are obedient, the Lord will put those people in our path. Well, I think that's about it. I'll let you guys know if I need anything.


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          So there weren't too many things that happened this week. We saw Nick a couple times this week and we've started reading the Book of Mormon with him also. We hope that maybe that will help him with his addictions that he has. We also didn't get a chance to see Josh again this week, but both Josh and Nick were at church this week. We did, however, see an investigator named Maria Mendez. It had been awhile since the missionaries went over, but we went by this week and we talked about the Book of Mormon and set a baptismal date for her. She's planning on getting married on June 6, so we set her date for June 30 after everything has settled down and she won't be so stressed.

          We also met a less-active couple in our ward named Clifford and Jennifer . They were baptized about 6 months ago, but I think they stopped coming to church because they both have health problems: he has multiple sclerosis and she has Hepatitis C. We recently met with them this past week and they said that they want to come back to church and start having us come back over to teach them some more.

          We went to the temple this week, which was a good thing for me because I haven't been to the temple in about 7 months. I was in Bullhead for about 6 months and you can't go if you're out-of-valley.

          We had interviews this week with Pres. Neider and so he just recently renewed my temple recommend.

          That's good to hear that everything went well with the Awards banquet. I wish I could've been there for everything going on like the Musical Madness 5K and the Main Street Festival, but it sounds like it was a lot of fun.

           I think that's about it from me this week. I'll let you know how things are going and if I need anything.


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

                 Things have gone a little better this week. We had a couple of lessons with some investigators that we have. The first one was Bryan and he's been taught by the missionaries for quite a while. One of his main concerns though is that he can't come to church on Sundays because he has work (he's a skydiver). We have another investigator, Nick, who's been to church a few times and we've had a couple lessons with him. One of his big concerns is that he drinks and smokes almost every day, and so that'll probably be the hardest thing for him to quit. He has a strong belief in God and he says that he reads the Bible, but some things he just needs help with. We also had a talk with Josh's parents (Josh is a 14 year old investigator with no other members in his family) and they just wanted to make sure that if Josh is baptized, that he sticks with it and that he's committed to it. They also expressed concern because later on, Josh is going to a Catholic school and that might conflict with him being baptized Mormon, but we told them that it wouldn't matter too much as long as he does what he's supposed to and that it might actually help him notice more similarities than differences.

          We also did some more service this week for a member named Yasmin. She wanted us to rotate her playhouse/jungle gym which was kind of big, and then we also helped paint the side of her house.

                  We also saw Jeffrey R. Holland this week at our ward. So a little bit of background is that in the Las Palmas ward, we have a Bishop Holland (Elder Holland's son) and so the Bishop's son (Elder Holland's grandson) was baptized this past Saturday and he gave a short talk about baptism. After the baptism, some of us missionaries asked if we could get a picture with him, so there's a picture of 6 missionaries with Jeffrey R. Holland in the middle.

                  As for Mother's Day, we will be able to Skype again. I'm not really sure at who's house we'll do it at, but I'll probably call for some of the information so that we can connect properly. I will probably be calling at or around 3:00pm PDT (6:00pm EDT) because we have church from 9-12 and 11-2, so that's probably the best time for me.

          By the way, I'll be sending another package home this week with some more of my mission stuff, so just let me know if it gets there.

          Well, I guess that's really it. I'll talk to you guys on Sunday.

I love you!

Elder Meiners


P.S. I finally got some pictures ready
#1 & #2- some pictures from when we spent a P-Day at a member's house. They have a house right by the Colorado River, so we took a few hours to just chill.
#3- Our district last transfer in Bullhead City.
#4- E. Montgomery, E. Valele, E. Taetakua, E. Holland, E. Driggs, E. Maiwiriwiri, and me (everybody is in our district except E. Maiwiriwiri and E. Driggs)

Dear family and friends,

        Things have been going pretty good. We haven't had too many lessons with any investigators this week; we have just been trying to find people for right now. Although we did have a lesson yesterday with a Philipino lady named Paz and we discussed about some of her beliefs in God. She's had a couple of experiences in her life where she saw the hand of God in her life, and so we'll see how that goes with her. We actually found a couple potential investigators that the Elders before hadn't been able to contact in awhile, so we hope to have a couple lessons with them this week. 

        So to answer some of your questions, Elder Valele is mostly Tongan, but he grew up in West Valley City, Utah for most of his life and he's really fun. I actually took E. Colon's spot because he was just in this area before he finished his mission. We both (E. Valele and I) came into Las Vegas together on the same date (on Aug. 3rd), but since I was in the MTC for 2 months and he was there for 3 weeks, I'll be going home a transfer before he does. We are covering two English wards, the Las Palmas ward and the Warm Springs ward. Right now, I probably couldn't tell you if the wards are any different than Bullhead City since I've only been here for about a week. We actually have the mission home and the mission office in our zone, so everything that we need is pretty close, which I'm not really used to. I'm not exactly sure if we are in Henderson, but we're close enough that I guess you could say we're there. We have a truck in our area (not really sure why), but I suppose that I probably won't be using my bike much more.

        That's awesome to hear that Andrea did good at the Spring Trip this year. It's good to hear that Reservoir's reputation of doing amazing is still going strong, haha.

        Well, sorry I don't really have to much to write this week. I barely got to this area, and we're not really teaching that many people yet. I'll probably have a better feel for the area next week and tell you how things are going then. Until then, I'll let you know if I need anything.


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          Things have been going pretty good this week. We were actually quite surprised to see Dave at church with his wife for the second time in a row this week. We were able to stop by yesterday and teach him the Plan of Salvation, which he mentioned was quite different from the way that he learned it as he was growing up. With him, we want to make sure that we're not rushing him too quickly because he's said before that he doesn't want to be pressured into doing anything. We've also been trying to visit some of the young single adults in our ward because our ward is thinking about creating a YSA class at church for those youth that wouldn't quite feel ready to go to Priesthood or Relief Society yet. Some of them have expressed interest, some of them have moved to another area, and some of them feel like they would be judged in one way or another if they came back to church. We found this statement to be true also with some of the less-actives that we've been seeing. For one reason or another, someone got offended and so they stopped coming to church and they have the impression now that if they come back, everybody will say something negative to them. We've tried telling all of these people that we should go to church for ourselves and to improve our relationship with Jesus Christ and to not worry about what other people say. One thing that I've learned is that the church is perfect, but the people aren't.
           We've also been trying to see some of our recent converts and making sure that they're still doing well. This week we were able to see Jessie and Nick and also Cynthia  and talk to them a little bit about family history work and being able to go to the temple to do the ordinances for them. In fact, Cynthia just had an interview with the bishop yesterday and she just received her "limited use" temple recommend so she can do baptisms  already! We also found out that Nick has received the Aaronic Priesthood and is doing very well along with Jessie.
           This week, we talked with Rochelle and she mentioned that our church "wasn't for her". Her boyfriend's son didn't like her studying with our church because he's "Christian" and he wanted her to come to his church. We didn't have the chance to see Lonnie or Jackie this week, but we do plan on seeing them this week.
           Well, we found out what's happening with transfers and they've changed things up a little now. Now when we find out who's staying or who's going, we also find out our new area and our new companion if we're leaving. So...I'm going to the Warm Springs zone (in Henderson, Las Vegas) and I'll be with Elder Valele. That means that I'm leaving Bullhead City after being here for almost 6 months (plus 6 weeks a year ago). It's definitely been a great time here, but I'm excited to go to another area for the last part of my mission.
           That's awesome that you guys got to see the musical this week; I bet it was good. Have a great time at Virginia Beach this week, also. It's a great way to spend your anniversary, with a bunch of high school kids, haha.
           Well, I think that's it from me this week. I'll let you guys know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

        Things are going pretty good this week. We found out this week that Tamara and her 2 kids that we were teaching about a month ago no longer want to meet with us. During the time that we couldn't contact them, I guess that they had gone to another church and liked it better over there. We did get to visit Dave  this week and he seems to be feeling better from being sick for a couple weeks. He made it to church yesterday with his wife, so that's great. We also taught Rochelle once this week and she seemed to be doing pretty good also, although she didn't come to church yesterday. Her member friend Coral said to us that Rochelle might be going through a lot in her life and that having us over might not be the top on her priority list, also. So we have a couple investigators being weeded out, but we did find a couple that seem really good.

        The missionaries in Kingman had a member give them a referral which eventually came to us and her name is Lonnie. She's actually met with missionaries before about 8 months ago and she recently said that she wants to be baptized by the member that gave us the referral! She lives in Fort Mohave, but goes to work on the weekends in Kingman and so she said that she's been going to church over there. We haven't started teaching her yet, but she seems really good. We also met up with a former investigator named Jackie . She's about 16 years old and she had also met with missionaries and had gone to church and Mutual activities with some friends before and she said that we could start teaching her again.

        So this week I felt pretty sick on Wednesday because the flu had hit me pretty unexpectedly that morning. But I think that now I feel better enough. We also had rain this week pretty hard on Friday. It was raining from about 4pm-9pm almost constantly and as it kept raining it would get harder and harder. We actually had to come in at around 8:00 because the roads were literally starting to flood and there was nowhere for the water to go. But today it's back to sunny and you can almost hardly tell that it rained a few days ago.

        Yesterday, we also went to visit a Spanish member in Laughlin (she's in the other ward) because her son had unexpectedly died in a car accident this past weekend. It was totally different from the other experiences that I've had on my mission. She was crying the whole time and she blamed herself because she told him not to go out, but he stole her car keys and went out anyway. She said that she felt like dying because she just wanted to hug and kiss her son again. We tried reassuring her about the Plan of Salvation and the role of Jesus Christ and his Atonement and we even gave her a priethood blessing, but she was still taking it really hard.

        So next week is already transfers again. I'm excited to see if I'll be staying here for my last transfer or if I'll go to one last place before I finish my mission, so I'll definitely let you know what happens next week. So that's how things are going in our area right now, a couple more people to see. We just have to keep being obedient and working hard and the blessings will come. That's about it for this week. I'll let you guys know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          We had a good week. Things are still kind of slow again, unfortunately. We didn't have any of our investigators come to church yesterday. However, we did have a lot of people there at church yesterday for Easter. There were some part member families that came that usually wouldn't have come and even some less-actives. We got a chance to teach a family named the Maurer's. They have some unbaptized children and the dad wants to baptize them, but for some reason he doesn't seem too enthusiastic about bringing them to church or his family into activity. We also visited another Spanish part member family this week, the Contreras. The children were baptized about 6 months ago and the rest of the family are members, but they're inactive because they don't feel comfortable at church because nobody can understand them and there was an incident where none of the members helped her get evicted out of her house with almost no notice beforehand. So we've thought about the option of putting in a Spanish branch so that more Spanish members can start coming because we hardly have any coming in either ward.

          We met a couple of people on the street and some former investigators this week that said that they wouldn't mind us coming back over. So this week we're going to see how some of those people turn out. We've been trying to emphasize finding more people that have already taken lessons rather than trying to find new people that may or may not receive us.

          We met Wayne this past week. He's Damian and Chardonnay's great grandfather and he's been in the hospital for about 2 weeks or so, but his wife Pat (a member), said that he might be interested in meeting with us sometime. So we'll see where that goes.

          It turns out that this past week, Bro. Stout told me that I was going to do a musical number for Easter with his 15-year old daughter Melanie. We practiced an arrangement of "He Sent His Son" this week and we performed it yesterday and we got a lot of compliments on it. I've done a lot of musical numbers since I've been here in this area, probably around 12-15 (I can't keep track of them anymore).

          That's awesome that the whole family will be able to get together in the summer time. That'll probably be the first time in 5 years that the whole family will be together.

          Our area is a little low on people to see right now, but we've got a couple lined up for this week so we'll see how that goes. Well, I guess that's about it from me this week.  I'll tell you if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          Things have been going pretty good. We haven't had too many lessons this week, but we did get to watch General Conference. I really liked Elder Hallstrom's talk about how we can be active in the church but still less active in the gospel and what it really means to be active. After the priesthood session of conference, both of the wards had a combined hot dog party where we got to socialize for a little bit. The reason I say that is because that's the only "priesthood session gathering" that I've been to on my mission. We'll probably be handing over Nikki to the missionaries in Needles because she lives in Mohave Valley and she'll need to eventually go to the ward that's in her boundaries. We recently had an FHE with Jessie and Nick (probably one of their first ones) and we watched the video Finding Faith in Christ with them. However, we did have a lesson with another part-member family named the Crespo's. The mom is less-active, and I'm pretty sure that the rest of the family are nonmembers. They were really nice to us and it was a little hard getting all 7 of their kids to be quiet, but we still taught them.

           We had a zone conference in Lake Havasu City this week where we talked some more about the recent changes that had just taken place in our mission. We also did a musical number there where we (me, E. Parker, and E. McClure) performed "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul". We had done that song a bunch of times before, but we never had the violin part but now we did.

           It always seems like we do a lot of priesthood blessings in this area because we have 2 hospitals nearby. I think we gave 4 blessings this week and 2 of them were in the same day, so there's a lot of people that get sick.

           All in all, our area could probably use a few more investigators because we don't have that many. I know that we just have to keep being obedient and work hard and the blessings will come. Well, I'm really sorry this email is going to have to be short, but I'm a little overtime. I sent an email with most of my class schedule, so you can see that if you want. I'll let you guys know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

P.S. Some more pictures are here.
#1: Our district last transfer
#2: Cynthia's baptism
#3: Damian and Chardonnay's baptism



#4: DeeAnn's baptism

Dear family and friends,

          This week has been pretty good. Everything went well for DeeAnn's baptism on Saturday and she was confirmed yesterday. I'm sure that she will also be a great member and asset to the Church. She actually lives in the Needles' ward boundaries, but she said that she plans on moving into our ward within the next month.

A few days ago we saw Tamara and she's going through a really rough time with trying to divorce her husband and still trying to take care of her kids physically and mentally, so we tried to give her a little bit of counsel. We still haven't seen Nikki this past week, but she did come to church (along with Tamara and her kids) and we plan on teaching her sometime this week.

We did get a chance to talk to Joseph M---  yesterday with his wife Leilani, though. However, Leilani just asked us a ton of questions about why we needed the Book of Mormon and some "peculiar beliefs about the Mormons" that we don't even teach investigators (quite frankly) because it would be more than they could comprehend at that time). So we just answered her questions the best that we could

We also had a lesson with one of Coral's friends this week (Coral is Rex's wife). So Coral came with us to teach her friend Rochelle, and I think that the lesson turned out really well.

           Josh Furr (our recent convert) is having a rough time with his life, to say the least. He's living according to gospel standards, but it seems like he's living life day by day because of how much his feet hurt. On April 16th, they'll start doing preparations on his feet so that he can have surgery right after, but until then he's just enduring. It's hard for him to read the scriptures because he's really slow and can't understand most of the words and he doesn't come to church anymore because he just complains about his pain the whole time. And then on top of that, Amanda was in the hospital this week because she had a blood clot in her left leg and it made her foot swell up really big. So that's their situation and if you guys could pray for them, that would be great.

           We had a mission conference this week where Bro. Lee Donaldson from the Missionary Department came and gave us a couple trainings. He also mentioned a couple of mission changes that will happen throughout the next month. Most of them are logistical, but some of them are changes like district meeting for our district will be on Thursdays instead of Tuesdays. Also, each individual zone is no longer allowed to meet up unless it's a zone conference or interviews with the mission president.

            We've tried a slightly different tactic at nighttime and I think that it works out pretty well. If we have nothing to do, we think of a member that we don't know too well or know at all and we visit them to introduce ourselves and get to know them for a few minutes. We usually don't try to stay for longer than 30 minutes, but it helps the members know who we are and that we care about them. We also usually invite them to have us over dinner to get to know them more and share a spiritual message when we're done. We've been doing that the past week and I think it works.

            So to answer your question, our ward is mostly English (they're thinking about having Spanish translation for any Spanish people that show up, but they usually don't) and we teach mostly in English. We only have one investigator that we're teaching in Spanish, but it's good because Elder Smith also speaks Spanish.

           That's great that Julia got her Personal Progress award. I remember that I had everything passed off on my Duty to God and that my priest booklet has Bishop Nuss' signature on it, but I was never presented the award because I only had one week because of my transition from Philmont to BYU and it just didn't get around. I wonder if I'll still get it...?

           That's also cool that Andrea got to see a Broadway show in New York. How come I never got to do that when I was in the musicals? haha

            I think that we could always use more people to teach, but I guess we should be happy with what we've got also. We're always trying to do our best and I know that we just have to keep doing what we're supposed to and work hard to find those people that are ready. That's it for now. I'll let you know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          This week was pretty good. We had everything go well for Damian and Chardonnay's baptism this past weekend. Since they were going to be out of town the next 2 Sundays, we had them confirmed there at the baptismal service.

If all go as planned this week, we should be having DeeAnn's baptism this week also (in fact, this will probably be the fastest investigator that I've seen get ready for baptism on my mission as far as teaching them and coming to church).

 We are also teaching Nikki and also Tamara and her kids, but we haven't had the chance to teach them this week.

          So my new companion's name is Elder Smith and he's been out for about 8 months and is from New York State. We were actually in the same district in Monte Bello in Las Vegas (my previous area) and he's stayed there ever since I left there. In fact, he was one of the missionaries that replaced me in my area back when Elder Pirir and I got double transferred in September. So now he's with me and things are going good.

          So you guys probably wouldn't guess who we met this week. So his name is Joseph  and he just recently started coming back to church and he even brought his nonmember wife, Leilani. When I said that I was from Maryland, he asked me if I knew the M-----s and I said yes. He then said that Bob M---- is his uncle and that Bob knows him as "Billy". It's amazing how small of a world this is and he said that we could come by and teach him and his family the lessons.

          We're also teaching two older ladies named Dorothy and Donna. They're neighbors of a member that lives in Bullhead and we had a really good lesson with them. So we're excited for them and to see how they'll progress.

          We had a crazy experience happen with Elder McClure in our district in Needles. He went "hiking" (more like rock climbing) on a mountain with his companion and a member on P-Day. He got all the way to the top and started to head his way down when he had a stumble of about 30 feet at around 2:00. He had left his companion before he got to the top, so his companion didn't know where he was for about an hour. They eventually found him, but because of where he had fallen to and how awkward the place was, they couldn't reach him and he couldn't get up on his own. The member called 911 and his companion called Sis. Neider and eventually they had rescue teams and helicopters trying to search for them and then get to him. Again, because of how awkward the place was, the rescue team couldn't even get to him until about 11:00pm. They evaluated the situation and decided that it would be too dangerous to attempt getting him off the mountain until Tuesday morning. When morning came, he was flown to the Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas and was soon discharged. It turned out that all he had was lots of scrapes and scratches, about 8-10 stitches, and Jessie (our recent convert) also found a broken toe. But considering how dangerous his fall was, he's lucky to be alive and have that little injuries. He's up and walking with a cane because he has a pretty big limp, and so he's back and working at Needles now. But that was one of the crazy stories of the week.

           So that's all that I can think of for this week. I'll probably contact Pres. Neider to see if I can have permission to look at registration and what kind of classes I want to take (by the way, I have no idea what classes I want to take) because I know that registration is coming up on April 2. But if I need anything, I might call you guys or call the Registration office just to make sure I've got everything settled. I'll let you know if I need anything else.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

        Things have been going really good this week. Everything went great for Cynthia's baptism this past weekend and she was confirmed yesterday at church. She's actually really excited to get some of the temple work done for her family because she was requesting her membership record number so that she can go online to do family history and also do baptisms for the dead. I think that all of the members are excited for her especially with how far she's progressed and how much she participates in everything, so that'll be great.

 We have Damian and Chardonnay's baptism coming up this Saturday

 and then we also have DeeAnn's baptism coming up the week after hopefully. In fact, we have quite a few new investigators that came from Dr. Stout's office in some way.

        First, we have Nikki that has been working for Dr. Stout for about a month. She grew up in an LDS family, but she stopped going to church when she was about 12 years old, and she was never baptized. She's had a couple of brain surgeries, so her memory fails her sometimes about things that we've taught. She said that it was a miracle when she was hired because she had applied to around 100 places and nobody would hire her because of the struggles that she was going through. We recently set her for baptism this week on April 14th.

Also, we have another family that are patients of Dr. Stout and they said that "the wind blew them in to his office" when they were also having some struggles. The mom's name is Tamara and she has two kids, Suede and Kai. Tamara was in an abusive relationship with her husband and so now she's trying to get a divorce and find solace somewhere else. We were also able to see them this week and set them for baptism on April 24th. So right now we have about 7 people set and all of these 7 people came to church yesterday!

        That's funny how you guys went somewhere else for church because the water pump was broken. That happened to our chapel a couple of months ago, but we only had sacrament meeting and that was it. That's good to hear that Grandpa Jim is doing a lot better and is recovering quickly.

        We did a lesson with Jessie and Nick this week about temples and how we can prepare
ourselves to go there.
We've also been trying to see Josh more frequently because his feet are always in pain and has a hard time walking around and coming to church.

So what's happening with transfers is I'm staying in the area and Elder Kynaston is off somewhere else. We'll know tomorrow exactly where he's going. But I'll be getting a new companion and I guess that the Lord has more for me to do in this area. It seems more real that I might be finishing my mission here in this area because after this next transfer, I'll only have one left.

        Well, I think that's all I have for this week. I'll let you guys know if I need anything.


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

        This week has been pretty good for us. We had Jessie and Nick get baptized together on Saturday, and everything turned out great. They were confirmed yesterday at church and we're really excited to see the progress that they're making.

 Cynthia is still planning on getting baptized this Saturday on the 10th, and everything is practically ready.
Damian and Chardonay are still set also on being baptized on the 17th, but we didn't have a chance to see them this week.
We had another lesson with DeeAnn this week and we taught her the Plan of Salvation and everything went great again. She wasn't able to come to church this week because she was sick, but we did have Cynthia come to church.
We taught another one of Dr. Stout's employees yesterday at their house. Her name is Tanci and she brought her daughter Courtney and we had a really good lesson with them.

         I think that a little bit of our work is diminishing again. This may be in part due to transfers being next week. We've both been in the area for 3 transfers and so one of us is for sure leaving this time. I'll tell you what's happening next week if I'm staying in the area again or if I'm leaving.

         We had a dinner with one of our investigators Michelle Montana this week, and that was pretty good. It's a little hard to see them now because they work so often. We found out that one of our old investigators that worked at KFC for a while, Michelle Padden, got evicted from her house, so we have no idea where she is.     

         Sometimes we'll get a call during the week from members to fix this or fix that and Elder Kynaston is a lot better with those kind of tasks. For example, he's fixed a flat tire, a sprinkler system, we dug a trench a while ago, built a fence, we've done all sorts of things.

         Well, sorry I don't really have that much to say this week. Maybe I'll have more to say next week.


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          So this week has been pretty good. Jessie and Nick  got married at the chapel on Friday and they had asked Bishop Brockman to marry them. It was a really simple wedding, only took about 20 minutes for the actual ceremony. It's great now that we have all of our investigators that were planning on getting married took the chance to do it so that now they can prepare to be baptized.

We also had our stake conference this weekend, but as missionaries we're only allowed to go to the Sunday session. So we got some members to take us to Kingman yesterday where the stake center is (about 45 minutes away). We actually had Cynthia catch a ride to Stake Conference with a member also, which was unexpected. We usually don't pressure our investigators into making that long of a ride for just one week, but that was definitely cool.

           We're going to be getting ready for Jessie and Nick's baptism this week and so today we're going to set up the baptismal interview and try and get the program ready. Cynthia practically already has her program laid out and she'll be getting baptized next week on Mar. 10th. We still have Damian and Chardonay set for Mar. 17th, although we haven't seen them this week. We also set another person for baptism this week named DeeAnn. She works for Dr. Stout (like Jessie) and so we actually had our lesson with her at the Stout's house and it went great. She's set for Mar. 24th, so we hope to see that go through, also.

            We had our interviews with President Neider on Tuesday here in Bullhead, so that was cool to see them again along with the other missionaries in our zone (we only see them on occasions like these in a zone this big).

            We're still trying to see Brandon and try and help him out, but a lot of the effort is going to have to come from his part. We know that it won't be an overnight change, but we're just trying to get him to make baby steps.

            I hope that you guys have a good time visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Cincinnati for their birthdays. Tell them I say hi.

            Well, I think our area's doing pretty good. We certainly have more people set for baptism, and we have a few potentials that might be ready to accept the gospel, so we just have to keep chugging along. I can't think of anything else for this week. I'll let you know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

P.S. I got you guys some more pictures.
#1- One of our members is a Reptile Specialist and so he feeds his snakes with mice every 3-4 weeks and invited us over one time to check it out
#2- Nick putting on Jessie's ring at their wedding on Friday night
#3- Us with Jessie, her sister, and Nick
#4- One of our P-Day activities was trying to hike up this "mountain", but we only got about 2/3 the way up. Maybe we'll try it again another time

Dear family and friends,

        We are actually doing really good this week; we have 6 people set for baptism now. We finished teaching Cynthia everything this week and she did get married on Valentine's Day! She showed us some pictures and we set her for March 10th.

Jessie and Nick were out of town this week because Megan had a dance tournament in Phoenix(?) and we also finished teaching them everything. They should be planning on getting married this Friday on the 24th and then baptized on March 3rd.

We also got to set Damian and Chardonay for March 17th after talking with their mom.

 We also had exchanges this week where E. Kynaston and E. Mora (a zone leader) found a girl named Ashley on the street, walked over to the chapel to have a lesson, and set her for baptism also on March 25th.

        We've slowly been getting more investigators and we actually had a couple of first visits this week, so we will see how they progress this week.

        We have also been trying to visit Josh every once in a while to see how he's doing. We gave him framed copies of "The Living Christ" and "The Family: Proclamation to the World" to hang up in his house and he already has them up. We also had dinner with him on Saturday and checked up on him then, but he still needs some moral support.

        There's a less-active 18 year-old named Brandon in our ward and so we've also been trying to visit him and encourage him to serve a mission. We even went by to his apartment (which is right next to his family's house) and cleaned it up as some service. He's seen us since then and he told us that he really appreciated it.

        For the past couple of weeks, we've been trying to have dinners with less-actives, part-member families, and recent converts, and although we haven't seen any direct results from it, I think that we've planted the seeds for some of these families and hopefully they felt something by our example to them.

        It sounds like there's a lot of new additions and fix-ups coming with the 18 year old house that you guys are living in: new stove, painted rooms, fixing the garage doors, etc.

        Our area is doing a little better than it was last week, and I hope that as we keep being obedient and work hard that we will continue to find those that will accept our message and that those that we have will keep progressing. Well, I think that's about all that I have for this week. I'll let you guys know if I need anything.

I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          Things are going pretty good this week. Jessie was sick yesterday, so she didn't come to church, but Nick and their daughter Megan (9 years old) came and so we got to teach them after church. I guess it never occured to me that Megan can also be baptized along with Jessie and Nick. We had started by just teaching Jessie and Nick, but then after a couple times, Megan started joining in also and so we can set her for baptism, also. Cynthia didn't come to church this week either because she was in Prescott, but if all goes well she'll get married tomorrow and then we can set a definite date for either this week or next week for her baptism. We were also pretty surprised with Damian and Chardonay because we talked with their mom about changing the baptism date for a little earlier. They were planning on having family come during the summer and get baptized then, but now we might be able to baptize them in March or possibly this month.

           We also got to teach Michelle Montana and Matt this week. We were able to finish teaching the Plan of Salvation and since it was also brought up, the law of chastity. They seem to be warming up to us a little more and asking us sincere questions. They even invited us over to dinner on a day that we didn't have dinner, so that's always good.

           We went and saw Josh this week and things have been a little hard for him since his baptism. He's always had problems walking around because he has infections on his feet, but now it seems to be getting worse and they might have to do some major surgery on them. On top of that, he's been having problems with his daughter's mom and it's getting him a little stressed out.

           We also had a dinner and a lesson with a part-member family, the Kleinhampl's, the ones that we did some service for about a month ago. We taught Dave the 1st lesson and we went over a couple of his Biblical concerns. He admitted that it might take him a little longer to get a grasp of things and to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He's learned a couple things from when the missionaries used to live with them, and the wife mentioned that he's never gone this far into it, so we'll try not to rush him into anything yet.

           Rex's mother-in-law passed away this week and we just went to the funeral on Saturday at the church. Even though some of the family was sad, I think that most of the family was just relieved that she's gone to a better place and in the presence of God because it took a lot of effort and patience to be able to take care of her. She had dimensia for about a year and she was always out of it when we came over. I'm a little sad that I didn't get to see the "real" her, but from what I heard she was a very respected woman. I liked what Bro. Thomas said was that the joy of having her come back home is greater than our sorrow here on earth. It seems that every time something like this happens, the family seems calmed because they know that they will see that person again and it's the assurance of the Atonement and the Resurrection that all of that is made possible.

            Just when I thought all of the rooms had been painted in our house, you guys go and paint the living room, too. I'm going to come home to a completely different house! I guess that's cool, an 18 year old house could always use some makeovers.

            Our area is slowly diminishing. We basically have the solid people that are set for baptism and come to church every week and nobody else. We've tried tracting and street contacting, but that didn't work too well. So we're still thinking of ways to find more people to teach. I think that all there's left to do is keep being obedient and doing what we're supposed to and have faith that the Lord will do the rest. I guess we need to show Him that we're willing to keep His commandments, and he'll bless us for that.

            Well, I think that's all I have for this week. I'll let you know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners          

Dear family and friends,

          Things are going pretty good this week. We got to see Jessie and Nick yesterday and we had a lesson with them after church about tithing. They had a little trouble accepting it because they have a low income rate right now, but we promised them that God would provide for them if they kept His commandments. We didn't get to teach Cynthia or Damian and Chardonay this week, but they all came to church yesterday, which was really good. We also had another lesson with one of our investigators Michelle Montana this past week. We tried going over the Plan of Salvation with her, but she kept asking a lot of questions that brought us on and off the subject, so it was a little disorganized at times. But later she told us her story of how she didn't believe in God at all until she was in the hospital (she's a nurse) and God saved a newborn baby's life that had been clinically dead for 45 minutes. This was enough proof for her that God was real. She's still searching for the truth and so I think that she'll start making progress once she reads the Book of Mormon and prays to know if it's true.

           Things have changing around our recent convert Rex's house this past week. His mother-in-law has had Alzheimer's for the past year or so and she's always been there on the couch when we went over to teach Rex a lesson. So now she's in the hospital and they've expected her to pass this week, so things will be a little different without her. I think that the family is taking it well because they knew that this time had to come sooner or later, and better sooner. They know that she'll be joining her husband and that she won't have to suffer any longer.

            I'm glad to hear that the Sub Sale went good and that Grandpa is back on his feet. I know that you've been worried about those things and it's good to hear everything turned out. One of the members that we went to last night had the Super Bowl on before we came in and then they turned the TV off. Elder Kynaston then said "I'm just saying, we wouldn't complain if you had it on" They laughed, but still kept it off. Instead, we just had people give us updates of who was winning/losing and what the final score was. I wasn't too interested in all of that, so I didn't care.

            I think that our area is starting to lose a little bit of work since we only see our investigators once or twice a week, but we're trying to find new ways of finding people. We have tried talking with more people on the street or tracting and that seems to work sometimes.

            Well, I think that's about it for this week. I'll let you know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          We had a pretty good week. We had Cynthia, and Jessie and Nick come to church this week. We're pretty excited because Cynthia had originally planned to be married in July and then baptized after that, but when we had our lesson with her this week, she said that she's now planning to get married at the state capitol on Feb. 14th because I guess the capitol is going to do 100 marriages that day and she's already signed up to do one. She'll still have a wedding ceremony (for ceremony's sake) in July for all of her friends and family, but now she can get baptized sooner in February probably.

 We also taught Jessie and Nick this week and they also seem to be doing pretty well. We only get to see them once a week due to work and busy schedules, but I think that things are still looking good for their marriage in February also and their baptism in March. We also watched "Mountain of the Lord" with Josh to get his future goals toward the temple set such as being married and sealed with his family.

          We had a pretty enjoyable FHE with the Willmore family in our ward. We came over and did a lesson with them and they invited us to stay after for some refreshments. We also went biking for the first time in our area this week, which was a little weird at first. 

          Transfers are this week, but we found out that the both of us are staying in the area. In fact, there was only one person out of our district of 6 that got changed, so most of us are staying. This upcoming transfer will be my 3rd transfer with Elder Kynaston, which is very unusual because most missionaries don't stay together for more than 2 transfers. Usually one of us would've been gone by now, but I guess that there's a reason we're staying together for this long.

          Kingman is actually higher in elevation than Bullhead, and so that's probably why it's a little cooler there. Usually it stays around the 60's or 70's and so it's pretty nice right now. I would've liked to hear about Grandpa Vic's experiences with working on the space shuttle; it sounds interesting. That's cool that you guys had the Pops Concert this past week and that it was enjoyable. I hope that everything goes well with the subs sale; I'm sure it will.

          That's really all I have to say for this week. I'll let you know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          This week has been pretty good. We've been doing a lot of service for members as of late this past week. We moved some sandstone rocks and some figurines for an older couple in our ward from their old house to their new house, we dug a trench for another member that had to lay some piping down in their backyard which required pickaxes and shovels only about 6 inches wide, and we also helped the Schwabs finalize getting everything out of their old house by getting the cabinets out of their garage and transporting those to their new house.

We've also been visiting Rex and Josh this week just to check up on them and see how they're doing after their baptism. We had 5 people at church again this week: Jessie and Nick, Damian and Chardonay, and Cynthia. We didn't get a chance to see Jessie and Nick this week, but we did see Cynthia this week and we answered some of the questions that she had about her reading in the Book of Mormon. We also had a lesson with a new investigator named Michelle Montana and her husband, Matt. We had thought that she might already be a member because she asked us for a Book of Mormon, but her sister is active in California and she wanted to find a religion that was right hfor her and her 3 kids.

           We had our zone conference also this week in Kingman. I think that the only thing I'll remember was that Sis. Neider gave us a training on how to make healthy, green smoothies and we all had a sample.

           There was a funny story that happened this week where we were at dinner with a younger couple (late 20's) on Friday night and I went ahead and took the last piece of pizza. Elder Kynaston then jokingly asked "What if I wanted the last piece of pizza?" and their 2-year old son says "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit!" We all just started laughing because he told off Elder Kynaston.

            I hope that everything goes well for you all this week, including the visit to the doctor's and the sub sales. I wish I could be there to help you with the sub sales like I used to do, but I'm sure that everything will go well. It sounds like you guys got a little bit of snowy weather this week. Fortunately for us, the weather around here usually stays at 70 degrees; some days are a little colder than others, but when the sun's out it's usually nice.

            We haven't had too many lessons this week because we've done an unusual amount of service this week. I think that we've been trying to find new investigators and people to teach, but a lot of it hasn't worked too well. We've tried to get some referrals from members and they say that they'll get back to us, we've tried to go street contacting but that didn't work too well, either. So our area could be doing a little better, but we're just trying to do the best with what we have.

            I don't have too much more time, so I'll go ahead and wrap up. I'll tell you if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,

          This week has been pretty good. We got to see Jessie and Nick this week and we had a lesson with them after church. We taught the Plan of Salvation with them and we set the both of them for baptism on March 3rd because they plan on getting married in about mid February. We also saw Damian and Chardonay this week, our two kids that we have. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them, their grandma, and their mom (who usually doesn't sit in on the lessons). We also got to see Michelle Padden this week and we also taught her the Plan of Salvation. She had a little more questions about Adam and Eve/our purpose on Earth, but we answered them the best that we could.

          We had a long service this week where we helped Bro. Schwab (our ward mission leader) and his wife move to their new house. We spent nearly all day on Friday helping them (they gave us lunch and dinner) and also about half of Saturday we were helping them transport things. Their new house is in a tiny airport community called Sun Valley Airport (a little farther away, but still in our ward boundaries) where the runway is right behind the houses and everybody there owns a plane and a garage big enough to fit one. Except they aren't pilots, so they just use the huge garage for storage space.
          That's cool that you got to talk to Bro. Manuele this past week; that was probably really fun to get together with a friend that you haven't talked to in years.

The picture of the Elder on the boulder that I sent from last week was Elder Salisbury in our district. And there really aren't that many boulders where we are in Bullhead, it was just where we were, there were drawings on the boulders. It's usually just flat desert land with a few hills here and there and mountains in the background.

          We had a couple exchanges this week and they were both pretty good. We've been trying to find more people to teach as of late, but we haven't had too much success. I guess we should just be thankful for the few people that we do have. I know this letter is a little shorter than usual, but other than that, there hasn't really been a whole lot going on this week. Have a good week and I'll let you know if I need anything.


I love you!


Elder Meiners

Dear family and friends,
          This week has been pretty good. Everything went well with Rex and Josh concerning their baptisms. Josh just got confirmed yesterday, so now both of them are ready to just go forward with their lives.
We also picked up another investigator that we hadn't taught at all yet, but the previous missionaries had. Her name is Jessie (she has a couple family members that are LDS) and her fiancé's name is Nick. They work for one of the members in our ward, Dr. Stout, and they had been going to church for a while, but we had never had an actual sit-down lesson until yesterday. Jessie is set for baptism on Feb. 11th, but Nick isn't set yet. It's funny because Nick wasn't too religious until he recommended that both of them go to church, and we were talking yesterday about how Jessie was too embarrassed to ask Nick if he wanted to learn more and the whole time, he did. She thought that he would be offended if the missionaries came over to teach them a little more. I guess it shows that some people want to know more, but we have to be bold and have the courage to just ask them if they do.

Yesterday's church meeting was a little strange because we only had one hour of church. This was because somehow the running water broke in the chapel and in case there were to be a fire, there'd be no way of putting it out, so we used bottled water for the sacrament.

          We had a really cool lesson this week. The Thomas family in our ward have a daughter named Rachel that invited one of her friends, Melissa, from school to hear about the lessons. We sat down with all of them and the lesson went really well. The only problem is that Melissa is going back to school in Phoenix next week, I think, and so we'd have to pass on her information to the missionaries that work over there. We also did a service for one of our part-member families this week named the Kleinhampl's where the wife is a member and the husband isn't. The husband is a really nice guy, and he even invited us to come over sometime next week and talk with him, so we'll see how that goes.

          Something that we've been trying this week is going over to member's houses and sharing with them a spiritual message about the Restoration and then after, seeking to obtain referrals. It's actually been working pretty well, and this way members know that we want to work with their friends and they'll often times offer up their home to have a lesson there. Lessons always go better when we teach the investigator with their friend (the member) inside their friend's house because they already have that sense of fellowship and trust.

          That's awesome that Kara and her kids get to come over for a little bit. I bet Jacob will have fun sleeping in my big bed (big for him). That's really neat also how Bro. M. is coming back to church. I do remember going over to his house quite a few times when I was Dad's home teaching companion. We never know how much of an impact we can make on people's lives.

          I also hope that Grandpa Jim can recover as quick as possible. I will certainly pray for him. I hadn't noticed that it was 4 years since James went into the MTC. I guess a lot really has happened since then!

          Well, I think that's about it from me this week. I'll let you know if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners

P.S. I sent some more pictures this week.
#1 and 2- from when we helped out the lady that lived in Essex, CA (in the middle of nowhere) and how much wood we had chopped up for her for the winter
#3 and 4- some pictures from when we saw some Native American markings on rocks. They say that the markings could be anywhere from 1,000-50,000 years old.
#5 and 6- pictures from Rex's baptism and then Josh's baptism

Dear family and friends,

        This week has been pretty good. We did baptize Rex and Josh this week, which was pretty awesome. Since Rex's baptism was on Saturday, we got to confirm him yesterday and because Josh was baptized yesterday, he'll be confirmed next Sunday. We also taught Damian and Chardonay this week (two of the children that we've been teaching), but it looks like they probably won't be baptized for awhile because their parents said that they wanted to wait until summer time when the grandparents are in town from Mexico (I think the husband is Hispanic). We also saw Christine and Michelle this week, but they're still having problems with smoking. I gave them all of the gum that I got for Christmas to help them quit because I'm not really much of a gum person.

        We also had a pretty good New Year's. The rule that Pres. Neider had come up with was not to proselyte from 6-9 so that we would be off the roads and away from any danger, so we just hung out at a member's house. They provided some food and they also bought some fireworks and lit them off in their own backyard. They weren't that big, but they definitely entertained us.

        I'm really sorry that that happened to Grandpa Jim. I hope that he feels better and I did send off some more thank you cards today. Things have been pretty crazy, but I always try to write back as soon as I can with letters that I get.

        When does applications for BYU in the fall start? I hear that the time for applications is coming soon, so do you think that you could send me a list of suggested classes to take and I can ask Pres. Neider for permission to apply when the time comes. Do you have any thoughts about that? I might want to do marching band again when I come back, and so if I do then I might not be able to make the wedding because band camp usually starts pretty early, but I guess we'll see what happens.

        Well, hopefully this week things should start to pick up a little more now that the holiday season is over. Some of our investigators were put on hold temporarily, but now we should be able to start seeing them again. I will try to send some more pictures next week from Christmas and New Year's. I'll let you know if I need anything. Tell Andrea good luck!


I love you!


Elder Meiners