Skype was Awesome!!

Steve looks great and still has such a great attitude about missionary work!!  We talked with him for about an hour and a half.  What a special Mother's Day for me.  Steve will be getting a new companion so we will be looking forward to hearing about his new adventures.  His trainer has been in their area for about 6 months and so they both thought that Elder Petersen would be the one to be transfered. 
     Steven mentioned that they are teaching a contact that he made on his very first day in the mission field.  He is very excited about this investigator. 
     We will hear from Steve tomorrow and hopefully I'll have more to share!!!

Taking investigators to the temple was phenomenal!!

April 8th we handed off our investigator Bryan I was so sad to see him go/ every time we met with him he would buy us 50 dollars worth of groceries. So it is really sad to give a solid investigator up like that. so in this week we having been trying new finding ideas like this week we saw a bunch of kids playing basketball so we did that and got 4 potential investigators and 1 solid contact. This Saturday we went to a yard sale and talked with the owner.  We have really been trying new finding ideas it is so much fun! Also we are not having the baptism this Saturday we are having it next Saturday they have some concerns and they need just a little more time to prepare. We took Jay and Sonia btw to the temple visitor’s center this Saturday and they loved it!  The dc temple is phenomenal!!!!!!!!! It is HUGE!   oh and even though Tom and Linda cut us it is ok because there interest has sparked up again and we are taking them to the temple visitor’s center this Tuesday so I am way excited to go again!! I will make sure to send lots of pics :) well running short on time and I got to so bye for now :) p.s. I weighed 205 when I left on my mission and now I weigh 183. So keep up the fat remarks :) it keeps me motivated :)
On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 5:14 PM, <joann.meitler@comcast.net> wrote:Well this week was amazing!!!!!!!!!! Just to let ya know ha-ha!      So my companion and I have been teaching a couple, Jay and Sonia.   They are attending church every Sunday and fit into the ward quite nicely.   They love the people, the gospel, and they are really seeing the blessings in their life.   Sonia actually said, “I see a good change in my life soon and I am very excited.”  They are sooo happy!  Probably the most solid investigators ever!  I set a baptismal date for April 16th and we also have a guy named Hosea to be baptized on April 30th.  So the work is moving..... rapidly: P      Ok ok, so for the cool story……. so as you know I had a drunk guy rip a book of Mormon out of my hand last week but this week I got a gun pulled on me :D  t was AWESOME!!! Ha-ha ok so here is the wrap on the story….. My companion and I were teaching Jay and Sonia everything went awesome as planned (they saw conference too and loved it) they are loving everything about the church. The lesson went on for an hour and we left their house at 8:45.   As my comp and I were high fiving out the door on how awesome the lesson went my companion started heading towards the car to go home. I proceeded to walk in the opposite direction of him, ignoring his decision to go home.  I walked up to a duplex and Elder Peterson quickly came to the door before I knocked on the door (this is a door that was recently tracked out a month ago and they were interested in learning more) so I knocked once and I could see the lights on the TV reflecting off the curtain.   The lights stopped flashing so he must have paused his show so I knocked again. And Haviar came to the door, opened it very slowly with a gun. He busted up laughing and said that in his profession we are not the kind of people he expects to come to the house that late ... it was only 8:45 ha-ha (we think he is in the CIA but we are not really sure) so we talk at his doorstep for a little and I said, “Well since you pulled a gun on us will you come to the stake conference for conference this Sunday? He said yes and he came! He absolutely loved it! Their family reads the book of Mormon and he is really studying hard to learn more about his church he is even going to the library to get books put out by the church! I have a way good feeling about this family.   Keep jay Sonia and Haviar in your prayers! We need all the help we can get!! Well I love you all till next p-day (p-day is on Mondays now) ELDER MEITLER

Washington DC temple was phenomenal!!

  April 8th we handed off our investigator Bryan I was so sad to see him go/ every time we met with him he would buy us 50 dollars worth of groceries. So it is really sad to give a solid investigator up like that. so in this week we having been tryng new finding ideas like this week we saw a bunch of kids playing basketball so we did that and got 4 potential investigators and 1 solid contact. This Saturday we went to a yard sale and talked with the owner.  We have really been trying new finding ideas it is so much fun! Also we are not having the baptism this Saturday we are having it next Saturday they have some concerns and they need just a little more time to prepare. We took Jay and Sonia btw to the temple visitor’s center this Saturday and they loved it!  The dc temple is phenomenal!!!!!!!!! It is HUGE!   oh and even though Tom and Linda cut us it is ok because there interest has sparked up again and we are taking them to the temple visitor’s center this Tuesday so I am way excited to go again!! I will make sure to send lots of pics :) well running short on time and I got to so bye for now :) p.s. I weighed 205 when I left on my mission and now I weigh 183. So keep up the fat remarks :) it keeps me motivated :)

On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 5:14 PM, <joann.meitler@comcast.net> wrote:

Well this week was amazing!!!!!!!!!! Just to let ya know ha-ha!

     So my companion and I have been teaching a couple, Jay and Sonia.   They are attending church every Sunday and fit into the ward quite nicely.   They love the people, the gospel, and they are really seeing the blessings in their life.   Sonia actually said, “I see a good change in my life soon and I am very excited.”  They are sooo happy!  Probably the most solid investigators ever!  I set a baptismal date for April 16th and we also have a guy named Hosea to be baptized on April 30th.  So the work is moving..... rapidly: P

     Ok ok, so for the cool story……. so as you know I had a drunk guy rip a book of Mormon out of my hand last week but this week I got a gun pulled on me :D  t was AWESOME!!! Ha-ha ok so here is the wrap on the story….. My companion and I were teaching Jay and Sonia everything went awesome as planned (they saw conference too and loved it) they are loving everything about the church. The lesson went on for an hour and we left their house at 8:45.   As my comp and I were high fiving out the door on how awesome the lesson went my companion started heading towards the car to go home. I proceeded to walk in the opposite direction of him, ignoring his decision to go home.  I walked up to a duplex and Elder Peterson quickly came to the door before I knocked on the door (this is a door that was recently tracked out a month ago and they were interested in learning more) so I knocked once and I could see the lights on the TV reflecting off the curtain.   The lights stopped flashing so he must have paused his show so I knocked again. And Haviar came to the door, opened it very slowly with a gun. He busted up laughing and said that in his profession we are not the kind of people he expects to come to the house that late ... it was only 8:45 ha-ha (we think he is in the CIA but we are not really sure) so we talk at his doorstep for a little and I said,  “Well since you pulled a gun on us will you come to the stake conference for conference this Sunday? He said yes and he came! He absolutely loved it! Their family reads the book of Mormon and he is really studying hard to learn more about his church he is even going to the library to get books put out by the church! I have a way good feeling about this family.   Keep jay Sonia and Haviar in your prayers! We need all the help we can get!! Well I love you all till next p-day (p-day is on Mondays now) ELDER MEITLER

Snapshot with President Uchtdorf!!

Miracles do happen in elevators!

     Two nights ago we ate at the Kusuma’s house and they are from India.   We ate on the floor and we ate with our fingers! IT WAS AWESOME!!  So I am probably never going to eat with a fork again because it is so fun ha-ha AND you don’t have to wash dishes!   After we finished eating with Brother Kusuma, he walked us to the elevator to leave his apartment when a African American lady inside the elevator said, “Are you from a church?” we said, “Yes,” we are from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints."   Then she said, “You are just the guys I needed to talk to; please come with me.”  So we walked with her to her apartment and her two sons were sitting on the couch looking very angry and she told us that they were being disobedient.  She asked us to teach them a lesson on obedience and the happiness it brings.   After that they dispersed and we talked some more to the mother and she told us that her 19 year old son is in jail and these kids are heading down the same path.   She gave us her phone # and said to come anytime and she wants to learn more!!  Ha-ha!  Look at that!!  Miracles do happen in elevators.  I never would have thought! :P

      The most solid investigators currently are Jay and Sonia.  They have a son named Sebastian and they keep coming to church and absolutely love it!  Last Saturday we set a date for April 16 to get baptized and they are very excited.   I can already see their lives changing as they come to church and read there scriptures.  It is amazing how much the gospel blesses families!  I really took it for granted at home.

     This Sunday Haviar came to church with his whole family!!! He is in the CIA and we really did not expect him to come.  Elder Peterson found him a while back and we decided to check on him and so we invited him to come to church 2 weeks ago.  I don’t know much about his family but we are going to get to know them better this week.   We are going to stop by and check up on him and see if he wants to take the lessons.

     On Friday Elder Peterson, Elder Harper, Elder Earl and I went to the metro and set up a booth and “street contacted.”   We usually split up and talk to people so we are generally on our own.  A Hispanic guy came up to me and started talking about Jesus with me.  I was getting to know him when he asked, “Do you believe in modern day prophets?” I said, “Yes, they help guide us and we receive modern day revelation from god through our prophet.  He got extremely mad and called me a swear word 3 or 4 times and just as he said that I could smell the alcohol on his breath.   He was drunk!   He got extremely mad at me and told me that I was of the devil because I believe in prophets.  Then he asked "What can I do for you?"   I said, “You can know the things I tell you are true if you read this book.   He yelled at me called me a swear word again then he said I was an idiot, ripped the book out of my hand and then stormed off.  (Scary for MOM to be reading this)

     I love it out here I wouldn’t trade the experiences out here for anything.  It is so much fun to be exposed to all of these different people.   ELDER MEITLER

Changing Lives!!!

Well this week has been awesome and tons have been going on!   Busy, busy, busy!   To start off, Michael is in a part member family and has been going through some rough times.   His dad is not a member but his mom and the rest of the family are members.  He has been just struggling with life in general and just 3 days ago he gave us a call and asked if we would talk to him! (He has never called us for anything) So we pull up to his family’s house and he is sitting in his jeep.   We hop in his car and ask, “What’s up?   He told us that he got in a huge fight with his parents so he was going to go out to party but he called us instead and THEN after talking to him for 5 minutes, Bishop Burton called him and asked if he wanted to have an interview in 10 minutes.  (Michael recently got interviewed by the bishop and  felt guilty because he left a lot of stuff out) so we escorted him to the church for support and waited for 30 minutes but it was 9 o’clock so we had to go home.   Then we got a text from him saying that he has never felt better in his entire life!  So just yesterday we went and taught his family a lesson on the plan of salvation but Michael wasn’t there.   Right when we finished Michael came in, sat down on the couch in his living room and Elder Peterson started talking to him.  I joined him and Michael broke out in tears expressing that he has never been this happy in his entire life and thanked Elder Peterson and Elder Meitler for helping him out in this point in his life.   He said, “You two guys have changed my life!  And I know this church is the word of God. “Then he said, “Elder Meitler and Elder Peterson, if you guys don’t baptize any one on your mission it doesn’t matter because you saved me and I am so thankful for your help.”   (That was last night and I am SOOO happy I am able to serve a mission at this time and I hope everyone has the opportunity to serve a mission because this is the greatest thing I have ever done.   I KNOW that the church changes lives.   I love you all till next p-day.   ELDER MEITLER OUT

Outback Steakhouse for dinner!!

Well it is p-day again and I love the mission and the people here, it is way fun! I can now say I have been introduced to almost every religion. It is very interesting to hear especially from Hindus.   I have found that I am extremely fascinated by other religions and their beliefs.  I have learned a TON but I also learned that trying to beat someone with scriptural knowledge and logically (almost) never works!  It is through my testimony that has helped bring others closer to conversion through the miracles I have witnessed and sharing experiences that I have obtained. No one can rip down my testimony of the church and the power of prayer! So even though I am not a scripture scholar yet ha-ha I use my testimony a ton. Oh and guess what, we had 5 investigators show up at church on Sunday!!!! So the work is moving along and the members love us!  Like tonight, they are dropping off food from Outback Steakhouse. And when I was at the grocery store a member paid for my food when I was at the check out!! Oh, I had to wear a cast last week for my fingers because I pulled a muscle or hurt a tendon or something so all I could use was my thumbs HA!! So as you can see I am typing on the computer so my fingers are pretty much healed. I am still on my diet I am losing weight slowly but surely. My back feels better than it ever has! Oh and did you get the package I sent you?  Well I hope to hear from ya this month love ya! :)