Sorry, This Is Going to be Kind of Short July 20, 2015

I think this email might be kind of short. We are designing a t shirt for our district today and making flyers for the church activity we are planning to have on saturday. We are planning on having a short church tour and then watching Meet the Mormons. Hopefully it will go over well. It is really hard to plan things well sometimes.


This week was pretty good and not really too unusual. We just keep moving along. R was able to come to church as well as C (I'm not sure if I have told you about him, but he is a 17 yr old who has been investigating for almost a whole year.) Tatay L wasn't able to make it to church this week because he started having back problems a day or two ago. He should be able to make it next week though :) We are also teaching his son now, which is great. He is doing really well and has friends at church already.


I hope you guys have an awesome week! I love you tons! Don't have too much fun visiting family without me!


Elder Merrill

Awesome Week July 13, 2015

Almost everyone we expected to come to church came this week. It is super exciting. Even R came. It was the first time he's been to church since we started teaching him. Pretty exciting stuff. L came too. He brought one of his children this time. I think they both had an ok time. L is really great and even participates in lessons at church. It is really cool. We think his baptism will go through a week or two before I go home. We just have to teach him all of the lessons :) We had one other investigator come to church as well. R is a referral from Bishop. She is what they call a katulong. She helps with Bishop's brand new baby. She is like a house help or something like that. She has been to church twice now. We were able to teach her last week and are going back tonight. She is a really nice lady.


We also had another exciting experience. I had the opportunity to baptize one of the sisters' investigators. There were a few problems with communication where we thought the ward mission leader was going to tell the people on the program that they were on the program. It didn't end up happening that way, so with some last minute planning, we made it to the baptism and the rest is history. I baptized brother G whose parents and older brother are members. G has a strong testimony and a desire to serve a mission. I hope he follows through on his plan to serve a mission. The mission is just a really good place to become a better you (Cheesy?). It's definitely true. I've learned so much.


We found a handful of new people this week, but none of the stories are really too exciting. We just keep doing our part to talk to everyone and the blessings come. :)


I can't really think of anything else to say. I am really nervous to go home... and excited. It is exciting to think about it, but also scary. I think Dad might regret signing me up for an economics class. (I was excited to see it on my schedule though :) ) I might end up going into a career similar to Dad's. hehehe... That schedule looks pretty exciting :) I'm going to have to get used to doing homework again... yikes. :P


Anyway, I love you tons and I hope you get to see the pics on onedrive :)
Have a good week!!


Elder Merrill
ps one of my other roommates is currently serving in tahiti. His father replied and gave me his missionary email address. He gets back around the same time as me. cool beans...

Great Week July 6, 2015

This week was pretty great. I think the best part was our sacrament meeting. It was really nice. Bishop blessed his new baby and a lot of really neat testimonies were borne. One of the sisters' investigators even bore testimony. He talked about how he feels the Spirit when the missionaries teach, when he goes to church and when he reads the Book of Mormon. It was really neat. There were a few other recent converts that bore testimony. It was really neat to see a lot of strong recent converts. It seems like too many fall through the cracks.. One of the other highlights of the sacrament meeting was that L came to church :) He even got there before we did. We were super excited to see him. We were able to introduce him to a lot of members. He really wants to follow the commandments.


We also had some success in finding. As we continue to talk to those who are placed in our path, we are blessed to find those who are ready for our message. We actually found two families this week. It was a great blessing. We aren't exactly sure how interested they are, but they are willing to listen. It will be interesting to see how things go.


I also have some sad news to report about the family we baptized when I first got to Pili. It turns out that their address is actually in the boundaries of a different ward. We are going to go show the elders in their ward where their house is. It will actually be really good for them, because transportation will be cheaper. We will definitely miss them though.


I can't really think of anything else to add. I am planning on getting the contacts today. I am glad to hear that you guys all survived the raid bomb. I really can't wait to see you guys. But boy am I going to miss this place... It's not going to be easy to leave... good thing I have some time left here :)


That's about it for this week.


I love you tons!
Have a great week!
\
Elder Merrill