Elder Daniel 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