Beautiful San Ramon in the East Bay Area...

Hey Everyone!
     Sorry I haven't been very good at writing emails. I have sent my journal stuff home which have a little better detail of what went down during the week. But it has been a very fun week! We have been working really hard just trying to find new investigators and trying to reactivate a lot of members. This last week we talked to 144 people just trying to get them to listen to our message. Sadly no one really wanted to hear what we had to say, but I think this week we will start to see some progress with the missionary work in this area.

      I have finally been able to get over the fear of talking with people, this weeks Zone focus was reading DC 18:10 and study how we can apply it as missionaries to finding others. It was something really simple yet really powerful, everyone is important to our Heavenly Father and everyone deserves to hear about how we can come closer to him. We are also trying to coordinate our efforts with the wards, they have a lot of potential to be an amazing missionary ward. We went over their Ward Mission Plan last night and they set some awesome goals. So we are going to help them out and get them going! We are so excited! Some good things are going start happening! We can just feel it!!

     Funny story though. Last Friday we had our weekly planning session so we didn't have very much time to get 20 OYMs ( open your mouth; talking to people). So, it being Friday night, I thought we could go on the Iron Horse Trial, (the Iron Horse trial is walk/bike path that used to be a train track, but they filled it in with concrete. It runs right behind the Cal
High School Football field) and OYM people that would be going to the game. Elder F didn't think it was a good idea, but I felt like it would be, so after convincing him to let us try it. He agreed, but only if I led us there. Surprisingly I got us there!! I was super excited to OYM about football relating to the Gospel!! We turned the corner. NO ONE! It was barren. In fact there was less people than usual at that time. Obviously I was wrong and I let Elder F know I was sorry. He made us walk the way back just so we wouldn't pass anyone. It was a good learning experience.


     Sorry, I don’t have any pictures cause nothing was picture worthy this week! And I keep forgetting!!  But after emailing we are going to do some carving pumpkins so I will take pictures then!! HAHA sorry! What should I do about the Camera? Do you want to put money on my card so I just purchase one? :) I sent my journal stuff on Saturday they have more details about the area and Elder F. But thanks for the pocket editions! I haven't got them yet, but I seriously am so grateful for that!! I will try to be in the pictures. We share a car with the other elders, so we have it Sunday-Wednesday. We get fed almost every night with really nice dinners!! Ha but I am losing weight! Our apartment actually has a weight room and I've been running and lifting and getting HUGE!! The battery is almost fully charged it just doesn't have high quality lens because it's old. Well, actually maybe I don't want you to buy another camera and it is not very
good because then we would be in the same boat. But I do need some money on my card. I have to get my suits try cleaned and I need to buy some more socks and a rain jacket. It has rained a lot the last few days and the jacket I have is too heavy (even with the lining out) for the weather right now. Like it isn't too cold here, it's just wet. So I just need a light rain jacket. So IDK how much money, that would be. Like 60 70 IDK? My bike is with me. I take it everywhere I go, so don't worry. I love you!

      Quinn, I'm sorry to hear about the loss. At least you aren't a senior! You will do tons better next year for sure!!! That's awesome you caught a 4th down pass!! I'm so proud of you.  I really want to see your clips from  the varsity games; maybe you can put together a .wmv for me. I can watch them. Those are some pretty good stats though! I think you may have more yards than I did my junior year!! Idk though! Yeah I wish I was there to watch you play too.   You will get asked to Winter formal don't worry!! HAHA! But that's awesome that Rugby is already starting!!! You guys will be really good! ARGH I'm so mad I won't be able to watch you play!! I am in San Ramon right now! Its a super nice area, I think one  the nicest in California !! Love you Quinn!!!!! MISS YOU!!!



Hey TayTay!!! I'm still in the same transfer so the end of this transfer is like in 3 weeks. But it is so safe here! Theft i'm pretty sure isn't even a thing in San Ramon because everyone here is super rich! I have had like really nice dinners every night! But BETOS CHANGED THEIR NAME AGAIN???? That is so dumb!!!! Darn owners  always changing their name!!! I am sorry to hear about you losing, but I heard you played hard which is all that matters!!! YOU GOT YOUR BRACES OFF??!?!?! That is sooooo awesome! Be sure to wear your retainer so they don't get spaced out again. I'm sure you look beautiful!!! Sheesh Tatum, you're pretty darn tough to go the week with a broken wrist! You are my hero!! AHHAHA How bad was the break???  Transfers are coming in a few weeks!! We haven't been teaching a lot of people but we are trying our hardest to find new people! I'm sure we will find new people this week!! I can't wait for Christmas!!!! I love you Tatum!!! MISS
YOU!!!



Well I have to go now, I wish I had more time!!! And thanks for all of the Goodies and packages and letters!!! I love them!!! Even though I suck at writing back I enjoy them so much and read them over and over again.

I love you! Miss you!!! Elder Meier

Small Challenges

Date: Monday, October 13, 2014, 12:06 PM

Hi everyone!!!!

So first off mom to answer some of your questions from last

week.... I haven't really been able to try all the local food places because we are considered a suburb, so it's all pretty fast food style and lame.  Ha-ha, but I will find some soon. Plus it isn't in San Fran so there aren't a lot of local vendors. It's literally just like Holladay, not really a ton of uniquely "local" does that make sense?  But we do have good sushi sometimes and it has a lot of good shops, and old houses etc... No, I haven't gotten the CD's yet because we haven't gone up to the mission home yet, but thank you beforehand!!! :) We aren't doing any service with our zone because our zone is pretty spread out, plus Alameda is the farthest away and we are the only Elders that are in Alameda on bike. So someone would have to drive 20 minutes just to pick us up and it would kind of be a hassle to do that. So we just do our own service projects So, I sent some stuff home. Did you get it?? Was there anything broken in them? For the program I have it, I'll send that home too with the next letter that I am sending. The weather is really good it's been like 80's like the whole time I’ve been here! It hasn't rained but it has misted a few times. Let's see last week wasn't very eventful but there are two things that I do want to share!!! The first one: We went on exchanges with the ZL's and I went to San Leandro again!

It was nice to be able to go out and work again even if everyone was speaking Spanish the whole time. But we did go give a blessing to a lady, she had said her house was haunted and stuff was being moved around at night, and lights were turning on without her even being in the room. I didn't know what she was saying that until after we left, because she was speaking in Spanish the whole time. But it was still kind of scary! We also ran into the a vicious dog named Bobby, Bobby is a ferocious dog that bite Elder

Y’s (the ZL I was on exchanges with) shoe!!! It was seriously the buffest dog I had ever seen! But. Craziest thing is...Bobby is a Chihuahua! The Buffest Chihuahua EVER!!!! It literally looked as buff as a pit bull!!!! When we were leaving the yard I sprinted out of the yard and left Elder Y for Bobby!!! Sad right? Well it was fun, I wish stuff like that happened in Alameda!! :D

Umm concerning our investigators we have only met with G! He is chugging along and is reading the scriptures and everything!!! So he is really searching to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. B, the one who was supposed to be baptized on the 17th has fallen off the face of the planet. We can't get a hold of him, his phone is dead or lost because whenever we call it goes straight to voicemail.....We are praying and hoping to find some new investigators soon!!! –Elder Meier

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Renewed Focus

Hey Everyone,

     I have been doing a lot better this last week! Wasn't General Conference the bomb!!!!!????Oh it was so cool! I had never been so excited for conference before! I have literally like 10 pages of notes!!! I had all of my questions answered and I had a lot of things to think about! So it was a very amazing experience to be able to hear from the Prophet of the Lord! To be honest I had no idea about Elder Bednar growing up in Oakland, so thanks, now I do!!! HAHA That’s awesome!! I am glad everyone was able to learn from Conference! I pray that they will be able to apply what they have learned!

     Let’s see this week went pretty well, we are trying to focus a lot on service so we tried really hard to find some service opportunities! So on Tuesday we actually went to a food bank and asked if there was any way that we could help out and they said that there was! It turns out in November through December it gets really busy and so they are always looking for extra people to help out and do some of the jobs! So we signed up and gave them our info and we got the whole "orientation" thing and we are now officially able to help at any food bank! WOOT WOOT!!! After that, we helped Bro. D, one of our ward mission leaders; pack up his house because he has to move :( The person that owns the property wants to do something else with the stuff so he kicked out like 2 families off the property. It is sad, but I guess that's how it works in Cali. He is looking for a place to stay in Alameda but he might have to move to San Lorenzo! :( It sucks
because he is rumored to be the best WML in the entire mission.

     On Wednesday we had the Zone Conference, Elder Hamula was supposed to come but since he spoke in general conference he obviously had to postpone that. So we had a short 3 hour conference, we talked about really just house keeping things like cleaning, service rules, and washing our hands and being healthy. But, we also got to watch Meet the Mormons!!!! We got to see it before it came out in theaters! #blessed! It was seriously such a cool movie! You all better go and watch it! I seriously laughed and cried! It was the coolest thing ever! The movie will get a lot of people interested in our church and it will hasten the work a lot!

     Thursday we really only mowed a ladies lawn, it took like 10 minutes because her lawn was as big as my room back home, and it was just dirt. But we didn't want to argue because if she wanted her dirt mowed, so help me it was gunna get mowed! HAHAHA!

     Friday was just normal and weekly planning. Saturday we obviously went to General Conference!!!! We watched the first session at Bro. D's and then we watched the afternoon session at B's scuba shop, so it made for an interesting afternoon Saturday session! Then the priesthood session at the church.

     Sunday: We watched conference all day! It was nice; we could relax and just get guidance from the Lord. I am so grateful for General Conference now, like I took it for granted back home. But it is such a blessing to have the guidance of a Prophet on this Earth today!!!
     YEAH I know Elder H! I ran into him the first day! He is with Elder BB from the MTC!!! I also stalked Elder H's blog the night I got my mission call! I also told him that! So he might think I am weird now! But he was in my mission, so I had to!!  LOL! But AHHH IM SO PROUD OF OLY AND QUINN!!!!! THAT IS SO EXCITING FOR HIM!!!!!!!!!! LOVE IT!!! I WISH I COULD BE THERE WATCHING HIM!!!!

I kind of suck at writing hand written letters right now. So I will try to do better, I know I am behind on that!!

So my  interview with Pres. this week was good! We had a lot of things to talk about but we figured it out and he answered all of my questions and stuff! I love him! He is such a great and amazing guy! For the Zone conference we just have like 3 Zones from the mission get together. So not the entire mission. The new sister missionaries are really nice! Sister L.  is like super-duper nice, like preschool teacher nice! Which is fun!! And then Sister A. is really mellow so they are kind of opposite but they get along really well! Alameda is actually super cute! It has the coolest looking house and the coolest paint jobs on them! Some have like swirly designs on them and others have like cool observatory towers and stuff! I think it is Victorian. I attached a picture of one of the houses I ride by everyday! So it's quite the place! We do have a view of San Fran from Crown Beach!  It's really pretty!!!

Okay last thing yes I saw the Blog!!!! IT loooks sooo cute!!! HAHAHA I love it! thank you!!! I actually ran into Elder A on Wednesday! He has gotten taller! I had to get on my tip toes just to hug him!

So concerning what I need from you I honestly think I am good for right now! Thank you for always being ready to help me out though!

I am still motivated to do the right thing, even in this current situation, and to work hard! Sometimes I get off track during my studies, but I am trying to focus on a single topic each week and work on really understanding the doctrine behind it and the way I can better teach it. So I have been trying hard to become the best person and missionary I can be!

I hope all is well back home! I love you and miss you!!!!

-Elder Meier