Elder Meoño with my glasses, very intelligent

Christmas love from Jessica and the Stevens Family

Where I study in Nueva Concepcion

My house in Nueva Concepcion Tiquisate, we live next to a restaurant

New PDay and Some Changes - January 21, 2012

Hello Mama,

So a lot has happened this week. When I told you my companion was wanting to leave for his house I didn't know what was going to happen. The Zone Leaders Monday told us to return to their house in the evening and the next day I would be with one of them while my companion went to Reu to talk with President. Well when we got to their house they told me I have emergency changes and need to go pack my things. Only 2 weeks in Nueva Concepcion and I was already leaving. It was hard to pack up my things again. I didn't get anything more and I had just unpacked a little but I couldn't make it all fit so I got rid of a couple clothes and things. Tuesday I went to Reu and President wanted to speak with me. He said he is going to put a bomb in my hand. He wants me to be the new Financial Secretary for the mission. He said Elder Card suggested me and President said it's a bomb because I will be managing the money and money can't just disappear. I also have to be aware of where I go and how I get there. He doesn't want people here in Guatemala to know that I'm the financial secretary because if I go around telling everyone people on the street will think I have lots of money because I'm with the church. So I accepted. I am training side by side with Elder Card, he will be leaving the office this next month. It is very different and interesting. I have an office and a cell phone, crazy. I share a house with 5 missionaries, right now there are 8 of us in the house cause people are being trained. But I do have hot water again and I love it. I drove a car for the first time the other day and that was not very strange but the people drive a little different here. It is pretty cool in the office. I get to go to a lot of places to help out the missionaries and I get to become really close friends with the people here in the office and Presidnet and his family. Also because the office does things different then the others my Pdays are now on Saturday. I loved your dearelders I got. Oh one crazy thing with my calling is now everyone calls me with money questions, where is my money? When will I get my money? I don't have anymore money. It is kinda crazy how many calls I get and the times I have to say you got all your money but you spent it all so I'm sorry. I think I will like it here in the office. Also I think that my time as Financial Secretary will be great for my time after the mission. With a bank or other job, I think these skills will help me a lot. I hope the family is doing well. I'm glad you're feeling better and Scott doesn't have more health problems. I might have a chance to check my mail again today if you get this and respond. If not I will read your letters next week. I love you a lot and am lucky and blessed to have you as my mom. I agree that we are talking and sharing a lot more. Oh by the way your Spanish in the dear elder was wonderful. If you keep learning and practicing you will be a pro when I get home. Love you and can't wait to hear more about you and your week.

Love Elder Son

Thanks for all the Letters - January 16, 2012

I'm here with Elder Almendarez from Honduras. He come to Reu from the CCM with me. I have not got a suitcase yet but I'm going to look around. So I got all the dearelders from December this last week. They were so good I loved them. I also got a letter from the Winns. It had a Christmas picture of the family and cards from each of the kids. I really loved it. I love writing them and sharing with them and I'm glad I can be an example for them. Corinne said the kids are trying to speak Spanish and adding funny accents to everything. It is funny. I'm going to write them again and include a couple words. They ask Gentry a lot too and can speak a lot of Spanish by the time I get home. That is what I want you to do also. Learn Spanish to speak when I'm done. I did so much walking this week. It is crazy how far part of our area is. More then 30minuts to 1 hour walking one way. So this week one of the members cooked us lunch and had a surprise for me. She is married to a return missionary from Denver Co. and the surprise for lunch was homemade banana bread. Oh my gosh it was so good. I thought of Nana and her homemade bread. I loved it. She said she can make zucchini bread but does not have zucchini here in Guatemala. I have a question when cooking rice or pasta what is the best to do to keep it from boiling over? That is crazy about Scott and scary. I'm glad it is nothing to his heart and he is doing better with the medication. I would love to do genealogy work with Grandpa when I get back. I really want to take some family names to the temple. Wow about Kyle. I can't imagine what the family is going through right now. I pray Kyle will be ok and the family will be protected. It was a big accident and the dog didn't do it purposefully. When will they know if he will have scars? That is way cool about the plane tickets. Would you have other places to go there or things to see that you didn't get to before? The tickets have a better value. How cool. There was a lot of hassle and time wasted for the fire but now you basically have a free trip. The plane tickets are the most expensive part right? So I have some other big news that happened yesterday. We were contacting looking for some old investigators and not having much success. My companion said he didn't want to contact anymore. I asked what he wants to do because we don't have many other options. He said he doesn't know but has never worked like this and is not used to it and it is dumb. I said fine I am going to follow you this week and we will do whatever you say. He didn't want to do that cause he only wants to follow. So he went back to the house. I used the bathroom and was waiting for him but he was packing his things and said he is done, he wants to go to his house. We went to the zone leaders house to talk and he said he is not happy and it is hard so he wants to go home. We spent the night there and tomorrow we return to the zone leaders so my companion can go talk to the President about what to do. So I might have emergency changes for the second time. Interesting times for Elder Cox. He said some things last night that made me think. I am so grateful that you write me every week, an email and a dearelder. I don't know if you know how much that really helps. It really keeps me going sometimes. I am grateful that Nana writes me every week too. Your love and prayers give me the strength and help I need. I love you Mom and am eternally grateful for all you do. You really are the best. Don't ever stop writing me. I know you won't. I will let you know what happens this week when I write you Monday. I love you and send very grateful hugs and kisses.
Love Elder Son

Changes - New Area - January 9, 2012

I did have changes. In the change meeting there was a large majority of the mission. I thought about something during the change meeting. I hope you are learning Spanish cause you have one year to learn it so we can talk more and you can understand things from my President Maravilla. I went to Tiquisate in the area called Nueva Concepcion. It is very hot here, it is one of the hottest areas of the mission. The roads are much better then Magnolia no rocks, but it is all dirt so I get real dirty easily. There are many paved roads too. One area is very far and we do lots and lots of walking there. My knee was really sore and hurting some yesterday. I'm in the zone with lots of people I know. And once again I am in the same district as Elder Heaps. It is awesome. I have now seen both my companions since we left Mazate. Our house is nice, I have my own bathroom. We live next to a restaurant owned by a member. He is a sweet old man and his wife is sweet too. They are members and happy we live there next to them. I got a Christmas package from Jessica and her family. It had jerky, red vines, dark choc MM´s, lots of other candy, Burt's bees chapstick, a Nerf indoor basketball hoop, and a superman shirt. It included a wonderful letter from her family that said they love me and are all rooting for me, a little too much they said. On the inside of the box it had a little message too. I loved it. Many people love me. So Sunday I had to give a talk in church and I did very well. Then President of the Rama asked me to help teach the primary. I taught about the Book of Mormon and faith. It was really hard with these kids. They don't have a teacher and are very rowdy. but I did it and survived. You finally got snow. Utah is crazy right now with the weather. I'm very glad you're feeling better and didn't go unconscious. Scary for Jaime and Jess. Dave is such a good brother. I'm excited for his letter and glad he is close with my family. I'm writing him a letter and going to send it today for his birthday on the 22nd. I love that kid. We are going to have fun when I get home. I love the pics in the calender. This month I keep thinking of when we got together and went sledding at his house and made snow angels in the road. I have actually thought about Jeff and Wells Fargo a lot. I think that is a great opportunity and a great job. I will definitely contact him when I get home. I thought a little about work and school when I get home and I hope Weber will continue to save my spot because I return in February after the semester starts and I dont think they start the program in the spring semester. so I will most likely only work and renew my CNA. But we will worry about that as it gets more close. The work would be good. Wells Fargo would be a great job I think for pay and not working crazy hours. A mission in Argentina. That would be cool. Does JJ stay in the MTC in Utah the whole time? I was so ready to enter the field. The fireworks thing is crazy for Christmas and New Years. How is RJ doing in Budapest? I have a lot of work to do here in Nueva Concepcion but I'm excited and going to really work hard. I can't think of anything I need right now. I am going to look around for suitcases today, I'm thinking of buying one that is not broke and held together with some stitching. I'm feeling healthy other then my sore knees. Talking and seeing you helped a lot. I cant even explain. I pray for you too. And I'm grateful for you and your prays and support. You're the best. How's your reading of the Book of Mormon? And when are you going to get a temple recommend? I love you with all my heart and respect you so much. You're my mom and I love saying that. Until next week. I will share more of my adventures. Stay safe and happy.
Love Son

Elder Rigby and I saving the day

Saving the day as tech support for the concert

Christmas Lunch

Rice Krispys - My Fav!

Legendary Star Blade and it's maker Elder Shultz

So much power and balance aaaaaahhhhhhh

Happy New Year's! - January 2, 2012

This last year has gone by so fast. You're right so much has happened this year. I'm glad you are feeling better. I keep praying for your health. That was really smart and wonderful of Jessica to get a message for Nana and Grandpa. I really do love them so much, especially Grandpa. Grandpa will always have a special place in my life, he is such an amazing example of the man I want to be and he is like a father to me I love him. When I hear President Eyring talk I always am reminded of Grandpa. The Skype was the best and I still think how awesome that was to see you and the family and share stories. Lois is so sweet to me and the family. I love her too. Tell her thank you so much from me. New Year's was different for me too. New Year's Eve was like Christmas Eve. At 12 there were lots and lots of fireworks all over the sky again. We did some and I busted out a package of the glow sticks and me and my companion were goofing around on our top floor while we watched the fireworks, we could see people across from us that were laughing at us with the glow sticks. I also finished the bottle of sparkling cider I bought. It was pretty fun. We only had Sacrament in church and after we went and ate our lunch and visited for a while. It is hard to do much here on New Year's. Sunday for New Year's everyone goes to the beach or the pool so all our members and investigators were gone. In the evening though we did meet with one of our investigators and we challenged them to baptism. We have two people preparing for baptism on Saturday the 14th. Changes are Wednesday however and I think I will be leaving here so I hope everything goes well with the baptisms. It was crazy last night that I could see how hard Satan works to stop our progress and work. We had a very spiritual lesson with one investigator. A member shared their testimony, then I did, then my companion was sharing a spiritual testimony when her phone rang and she quickly covered it up. Then it rang again 30 seconds later so we said just answer it. While she was talking her brother that was sleeping fell out of bed and there was a huge crash. So that ruined the Spirit that was there and we had to work hard to bring it back. But I think they will progress to baptism. We have been struggling this last couple weeks with having success. This week as a district each area made some goals for new investigators, lessons with members, and challenging for baptism. We set 5 new, 5 lessons, 3 challenges. I was not sure if we would make it with the New Year's and some bad luck. We focused and keep working to try our best. Sure enough Sunday night we at the end of the day for our weekly stats we had 6 new investigators, 4 challenges, and 4 lessons with member present. It was pretty awesome and I felt really good about it. Strengthened my testimony more. Today because we won the district is buying our lunch. I don't know what happened with the pics. I had them all there and when I sent it there was only 2 pictures but I was out of time so I will try again. I love you so much Mom and I'm glad you're happy and I look forward to the wonderful New Year and the things we will share and learn together. I will tell you about changes next week, I hope I get a really good companion. Love you and can't wait to talk to you next week. Happy New Year! Love Son