Signing Off

Hey Everyone,

So this past week has been pretty good! It has not been easy, by any means, but it has been wonderful. The best moment of it was sunday at church. It was so much better than last week. In the branch, we had one family of investigators who is marked to be baptized this week (assuming everything goes well), one part member family, and quite a few less actives who we have been trying to reactivate. Seeing them all walk into church was such a great blessing. I am really excited to continue working this next week to help them all progress more and to receive the blessings of the gospel that all too often we take for granted.

Today for Pday, we went to Evora, a city in the Alentejo with quite a bit of history. We visited a bone chapel (an old catholic chapel built entirely of bones from the local cemetery), an ancient roman temple, and a cathedral with some incredible architecture. I will show you some pictures of it all later!

I cannot believe that I am in my last week of my mission… It still hasn’t hit me yet! It has been, by far, the greatest experience of my life. Without a doubt, the “best two years”. I am so grateful for the blessing I had to serve in Portugal. It is a land that will always have my heart. I love these people. I am going to miss them so much. But I am so excited to return home to see all of you! Just a fair warning though… I have changed a lot! Haha you may have noticed it as we have emailed over the past twenty-four months. They are definitely good changes though. During my mission I have really come to understand the Atonement of Lord so much better. I have felt the power of it, and it has changed me into a better person. How grateful I am for having this great gospel in my life, and for knowing that Jesus is the Christ, and that we do have a loving Father in Heaven will always take care of us.

I don’t know if I will have time to write next week. If don’t, I guess this is my last time signing off! The next time we talk, it will be face to face!!! I love you all. Have a blessed week.

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

Two Weeks Notice…

So I decided that I am getting pretty exhausted and I miss you guys so much soI decided to put in my two weeks notice today… haha nah, just kidding. If I could, I would totally extend and serve another transfer. Unfortunately that won’t be possible though, seeing as President Fluckiger has already informed President Jones of my arrival and release.

Things went well this week. I think the Lord is really trying to teach me a lot of lessons on endurance right now. It seems like every single blessing he has for us in the work is reserved until the absolute last moment. He is testing us, to see if we will go hard until the end. Then, He will give us our reward. I say this because even though we are working hard every single day, monday through sunday, all of the success we are having seems to be coming on sunday. At times, at the end of the day on sunday. For example, the beginning of last week was rough! The middle was even harder! But because of our diligence and endurance though the whole week, we were incredibly blessed with a new elect investigator coming to church on sunday, and a new family we taught sunday night. The Lord is so good. It makes me think of Doctrine and Covenants which says ” after much trial and affliction will come the blessings.” (That was my rough Portuguese to English translation). I guess what I am trying to say with that is, if the going gets rough, keep going. Do not give up. If we do, we will lose our reward.

I am loving working with Elder Jones. He continues to grow and improve each and everyday. I am so amazed by how quickly he is learning Portuguese. The gift of tongues is real!

I don’t really know what else I can write right now… I hope you all are well. I am so excited to see you again. Let’s keep going strong until the end! See you soon!

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

Last Zone Meeting

Thanks to Derik’s missionary couple serving with him, who sent these photos to us…

This was your sons last Zone Meeting! It was very emotional!

Meeting getting started.

Elder Jones and Elder Mehl enjoying a laugh.

Concentrating on the training meeting!

Elder Mehl and Elder Jones got a reward for being the sweetest missionaries.

Bearing his last Testimony in Zone Meeting!

Saying good bye to seven our our missionaries! Smile!

Enjoying the cake! We will miss his smile and friendship here in the mission! Love, Sister Jeffers

Elder Mehl and Elder Doxey made a cake for everyone.

February 23, 2015

Hey everyone!

This past week has been awesome! Well, at least the weekend was! We spent the whole week walking around in our area just trying to find some new investigators to teach but couldn’t find anyone… Untill Saturday! We had been praying a lot, almost in desperation, for some guidance and the blessings finally came. On Saturday night a Brazilian woman approached us on the road and just start venting to, telling us about her whole life story. We were in a hurry to get to appointment and were trying to stay, but something just didn’t let us. We kept listening. Eventually, she told us to come with her to her house. I was a bit reluctant at first, but I felt that we needed to so we followed. When we got there, we ended up having a great little lesson with her, and her whole family. Four new investigators just like that. The next day, the blessings kept coming. After church we went to visit a reference a random lady on the street gave us. She wasn’t too interested, but said her daughter might want to hear more and gave us her address. When we passed her by, we found her daughter, and her whole family which consists of her husband and three kids. Five more people to teach! I know that as we do all that is in our power and pray with faith for help, the Lord will make up the difference. I love my mission. I cannot believe it is nearly over. I am so grateful for the time I have had here in Portugal and the many great things I have learned and seen.

Have a great week everyone. Love you all. See you soon.

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

Doctrine and Covenants 123:17

February 9, 2015

Hey fam,

Things are going great here. The past week has been chaotic to say the least. On monday I arrived in Beja and stayed there for a few days with Elder Doxey. We worked hard and taught some great lessons. We have a family who is close to baptism right now. Unfortunately some unnexpected complications came up in their lives and we need to resolve them first. Not sure how long it will take. On thursday morning we went to Lisbon to pick up our new comps. They arrived in the airport around 2:00. At 3:00 we had a quick meeting with them and Pres. Fluckiger, and then we got on a bus and rode for about 3 hours to the Algarve! We had a zone meeting the next day so we went straight to Faro instead of going back to Beja, and spent the night there. After a good meeting and interviews with Presidente Fluckiger, we hopped on another bus for one more three hour bus ride to Beja. It was a lot of traveling in very little time and we were all exhausted! Especially the new missionaries. Poor guys… My new comp is Elder Jones! He is from Grants Pass, Oregon! He loves hiking and being outdoors. We get along great. We had very little time to work together in our area, but the time we had was well spent. He is really getting the hang of being a missionary and is seems like he came to the field pre-trained. We had a really neat lesson with a man named Pedro yesterday that was 100% guided by the spirit. I let Elder Jones teach a big part of it and he did amazing. The gift of tongues is real. He just opened his mouth and all of the right words came out, including an invitation to be baptized. Pedro accepted, but said he wants to be sure he is ready for this and needs to stop smoking and drinking first.

I am getting pretty nervous about how fast time is flying by. I am loving every minute of my mission and cannot believe I am already near the end. I am excited to get home, but pretty darn anxious at the same time! I am just going to live it up until the end!

Love you all.

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

A Ultíma….

Hey fam!

So today was transfer day! My last one… I am not really sure how I feel about that. I was transferred to open a new are and train a new missionary in a town called Beja. It is a pretty small town that has a lot of farms and lots of cattle. On the two hour train ride over here I am pretty sure I saw more cows than people! I feel right at home. There will be one other set of missionaries in our house, Elder Doxey (he will go home with me) and his new greenie. Two missionaries at the end, and two at the beginning. It should be a party!

From what I have heard, we have a great branch that has some fire for missionary work right now. We are going to give it our all to help it grow and prepare the way to open a stake in this part of the country.

This last week was great. We had mission council and zone meeting which went really well. I was on a spiritual high! The work in Sacavém was also starting to go really well. We started teaching three complete families who have so much potential! I was sad to leave them, but we will find some more here! On sunday, my last day in the area we went to a members house for lunch. She had asked me the week before what food I miss most that my mom used to make and I told her enchiladas. She said “okay then I will make you enchiladas!” and she did…so we ate enchiladas made by an angolan women in portugal…They were actually really really good!

Anyways, not too much else is new. I will tell you more about the area next week when I know some more.

Have a great week everyone!

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

January 19, 2015

Hey fam!

Things are going great! Yesterday was a great Sunday! A lady named Regina was baptized. Woohoo! She has been an investigator for quite some time and had a testimony of the gospel, but never got baptized because of fear… she has gone through a lot of difficulties in life and didnt have enough confidence in herself to take the step. This week, however, after hearing a lot of testimony borne and receive a blessing of confort, she decided to get baptized!!! After the baptism, our branch presidente invited her to go to the temple in madrid next month with the branch. She is going to prepare to go!
We have another investigator named Argy who is making great progress. He is from Guiné Bissau, is 19 years old, and was a reference from a less active. Yesterday he came to church all on his own! He is super motivated to learn and grow. It is inspiring. It is possible that he will be baptized this next weekend. We are praying for him!

Have a great week in Utah, enjoy the last bit of snow!

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

January 12, 2015

Hey fam!

So today was one of the best p-days ever!!! We went to Sintra, a vila outside of lisbon that is full of history. We had a great time exploring an old moorish castle and an incredible palace called “Palacio da Pena”. It was a great activity and we got some great pictures out of it, but we took up tons of time so I don’t get to send any emails today… sorry! I will try to recap the week really quick though… It has been great. We have three investigators who are making great progress: Tatiana, Filipe and Argy. They are all young adults and all have a great desire to learn about God and his plan for them. Filipe and Argy both came to chruch yesterday and really enjoyed it. After church we had a lunch in a members house and brought Filipe with us. The member gave him tons of support and bore a powerful testimony to him of how the gospel has changed her life. We also left a great message about the atonement using D&C 19, one of my favorite sections, which brought the spirit in so strongly. I love talking about the atonement. It is such an amazing act of love and sacrifice. I have come to know it so much more since I have come out on the mission and am so grateful for it! I don’t think we really talk about it enough to be honest… It should be the focus of all of our gospel conversations! We are excited to keep working here in sacavem. It is starting to go really well. Hope you all have a great week! love you!

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

January 5, 2015

Dear family!

Sorry I haven’t sent a good email lately! There is never enough time on pday… haha. Things are going well here! I really enjoyed the holiday season! I hope it went well for everyone back home as well. My favorite part was by far seeing you guys on skype. It was so comforting and just what I needed to keep going hard until the end! I think the highlight of this past week would have to be yesterday afternoon… from 6:00 to the end of the night Elder Pedro and I had the opportunity to do a division with President Fluckiger. He came to Sacavém and worked with us. It was amazing. We taught a few incredible lessons with him! He taught us so many things about how to teach better, how to plan better, and how to receive revelation for our investigators. It will definitely be a division I remember forever! The work is going well here. We are finally starting to find some investigators who are progressing. We still don’t have anyone marked for baptism, but we have people who are preparing!!! I cannot believe how fast time is passing by. It is already 2015!!! I spent one of my personal studies this week making goals and plans for the rest of my mission and the year and it was pretty crazy… I am really excited for these next couple of months though, and will definitely give it my all! We also had mission counsel and Zone meeting this past week. It went really well but man was it exhausting! All the traveling and planning and training really makes me tired. We learned a lot though. I hope all continues to go well back in utah! Enjoy all of that beautiful snow!

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl

December 15, 2014

Dear Everyone,

So this week has been great! As you know, I was transfered last monday to open a new area and zone in Sacavém. It is basically a suburb of Lisbon. It isn’t a huge city, but there are quite a few people. I fele like I am serving in Africa though! Haha there are a few areas here where at least 99% of the population is african. It brings a new life that I didn’t feel in Porto thats for sure. I am also living in a house with 3 other african missionaries. Two from Cape Verde, and my companion from Moçambique. They are great guys. We are never out of things to laugh at thats for sure!

The highlight of our week was definitely our branch Christmas party! It was a great opportunity to get to know the members. They are great people! I am excited to get to know them. During the Christmas party, us missionaries did a special musical number. We sang “Lá na Judeia onde Cristo Nasceu” (I don’t know the name in English. It went great! Before my mission I was never much for singing, but know I love it! We sang differente parts and all and it went great. It really brought the spirit in the room!

This week we are going to have a Christmas Conference in Lisbon for the missionaries. I am pretty excited for it! It should be fun! I hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit! It is such a special time of year! Have a great week everyone, I love you all!

Beijinhos,
Elder Mehl