June 8, 2014

June 8, 2014

This week was actually a really good week for our work. Remember the older man who let us sit under his roof? He and his wife have started to take the lessons, and they are super nice. They say that they really haven't ever had any religion, but they have always believed in God. Way neat. Nanay has had a stroke so one side of her body is hard for her to move, and her voice is really quiet. Tatay is doing some sort of volunteering job for some sort of search and rescue group or something, but used to be a security guard in Manila. He seems like he has had a lot of hard times in the past, but he is still really nice. I think they will really progress.

The other two new people were both sort of referrals. The first was from a somewhat less active/ somewhat returning member, and the other from a super active member. The first one is actually the boyfriend of the member. He is super nice and is really interested. He is only about seventeen years old. He seems like he has really been prepared to hear the lessons. The other one is probably only about 20 years old too. She is interested in hearing what we have to share, but we aren't sure how interested she will be in keeping commitments. Hopefully she will feel the Spirit and want to make changes in her life when the time comes.

I have one more good story this week about our investigators that came to sacrament meeting. We actually went to pick up those kids that we are teaching and take them to church. One of them came, but there were a couple of younger, like 6 year old kids that came too, and I ended up having to watch this one boy during sacrament meeting... It was way rough. Just super tiring... I am afraid for when I have my own kids. It was quite the experience.

That seems like the biggest news for this week. The work keeps moving on here.

I hope you guys have a good week!

Love you tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

June 2, 2014

Family,

Things keep on movin' along here in Goa. We had one day where we got to work with Aldrin this week, which was way fun. He is a super funny guy to talk to. We ended up getting caught in the rain and I didn't have an umbrella... Elder McBride accidentally threw mine away the other day. Needless to say, we got very wet and found a nice man who let us come sit under his roof. We plan to go back and teach him this week. I also have a new umbrella now. Good stuff. 

Our one progressing investigator continues to progress very well. The sad thing is that we only got to teach her once this week. She comes to church every week, but it is really hard to be able to teach her because we need a member present. Hopefully we can get that figured out. Everything seems like it is about to slow down a little bit too because school starts this week and next... Hopefully we can squeeze the last little bit of work out of the members before that gets them too busy. It is really nice to work with the members even though their bikol always makes me nosebleed (what they call it when you don't understand someone else's language). The members here seem like they are really nice. 

We've also been doing a lot of finding lately...  We had some people offer to teach us how to play mahjong, so we might take them up on it and see if they will let us teach them about the Gospel too. Most people are just really set in their Catholic ways here. It is hard to break tradition for sure. I hope that some of them will at least allow us to talk to them and share a few short messages sometime soon. 

I hope that we can find those people that the Lord is preparing for us. Don't worry about me though. We are really doing well here. 

I don't really have much else to talk about this week, but I hope you guys all have a good week. I miss you tons.

Love you!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

 Ben's district in Goa

 Aldrin, a member in Goa

Baby Jeff Jeff

May 26, 2014

Family,

The work is still pretty tough here for the most part. A lot of the less active members and even some of our investigators here are women and only rarely have a man in the house, which makes it really hard to get to teach them because we need to have a man who comes to the lesson with us. We usually do ok, but when there is no member, it makes it really hard.

We have one investigator who is really progressing a lot. She is on schedule to be baptized on the 7th of June. She had actually been taught about a year ago, but her parents didn't want her to get baptized or something like that. She is 18 now though, so she will be able to get baptized now. We are teaching her all of the lessons just to make sure she knows everything she needs to. She is usually really quiet, so we are working on making her more comfortable with us and open to share her ideas. She is really neat though, and Is really progressing.

Finding has been especially tough in this area. (Maybe because I kind of have to lead all the time). I think the people here just aren't quite as receptive as they were in Naga. We actually found one guy who seemed really interested this week after we had just gotten punted. I saw a guy laying in a hammock and felt like we should talk to him, but I let us walk by him. The feeling wouldn't go away, so we decided to turn back and talk to him. He let us share a message with him, and it went really well, up until he told us he would be spending a few months to a year with his brother in Manila. That was pretty disappointing, but as it turns out, his brother is actually a member. It was neat to be able to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and you never know how things will turn out for that man. I think he is in good hands like the guy from dad's story whose hairdresser is a member.

That is really about it for me for this week. Look how much my Bikol is improving:

Aram ko na padangat taka kan satuyang Dios asin ki JesuCristo. Aram ko rin na saiyang work talaga yung work na ini na sakuyang ginigibo.

Padangat ko kamung marahay!

Elder Benjamin Merrill 

May 19, 2014

Family,

The work continues to move on. I hope  you guys are doing well too. I am having a lot of trouble with my spacebar, so you might have   to bear with some extra spaces in between words. The work is pretty tough here,butthingsarestill going well. We havean investigator  now that is really interested, and whose 'wife' is even a member. He is from Sorsogon, which is  actually  a part of the Legaspi mission now.  He is just working here in Goa for a few months. The only problem is that he is not married to his wife.  We are really hoping that he will be able to get baptized here, but we will have to wait and see. Hopefully things will work out for him. He even came to church this week. We also found an American. Can you believe that? He is actually from Mesa.  He said that we can come teach him sometime though, so we are way excited for that. It will be an interesting experience to teach in English.  

In other news, I am having some new shirts made. They are supposed to be done on Saturday. I am pretty excited for some personally tailored white shirts. They were only P350 Each, which is about $8. Pretty sweet deal, right? I will take some pics for sure and you can tell me what you think next week. 

This might have to be a shorter email. I am having troublewith my spacebar and it makes me really sad... And wehave to go eat lunch soon too.

On a more positive note, the members here are really cool. We have been able to havea lotofmembers work with us. The members were really fun to work with too. They like to be funny and joke around a little bit too.  

I don't really have much else to add for this week, but I will try to get a longer email to you guys next week.

Padangat ko kamung maray! 

Aram ko na ginigibo ko an gibohon kan satuyang kagurangnan. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be out here, and I know it is the best place for me to be right now. 

Elder Merrill 

5/12/14 The Other Side Of Isarog

Dearest Merrill family,

That's right. I'm here now. In Goa. My new area is just right around on the other side of Mt. Isarog. It is actually really pretty here. There are a lot of mountains here, it makes it really pretty. It was really nice to be able to talk to everyone on skype too. I wish we could do that like maybe two more times a year. That'd be great, right? I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. 

My companion here in Goa is Elder Taylor from Ogden, Utah. He is super nice and willing to follow the rules and work hard. We plan on doing a lot of finding over the next few weeks. That should be pretty fun, right? 

I think I already told you about one of our investigators, but I will put him in my letter anyway. He is an investigator that we just found this week. He is a really nice man who seems pretty interested in the church. He really appreciates the work that we do as missionaries. The funny thing about him is what happened when we invited him to go to church. He told us that they just have church out in front of their house. I think it is going to take some work to get him to understand the need for the proper authority in order to have church and the sacrament and all of those things. I think he will be receptive when the time comes though. 

I think I am actually going to have to head out now. 

I love you tons, and I hope you guys have a great week. 

Elder Benjamin Merrill

5/4/2014

My time here in the Naga 3rd ward has come to a sudden stop. I was quite suprised to find out that I will be transferring tomorrow. It is really hard to wait to find out where I will be assigned. I think that Heavenly Father has good things in store for me though. 

This week was actually a really good week. We had an investigator family come to church. When we got to church, they weren't there, and so we got really worried about if they were going to come. I was really disappointed because they promised that they would come. As it turns it out, they actually overslept and just ended up coming late. They even brought their aunt who is a member and hasn't been to church in 23 years. It was really wonderful to see them at all at church. It also makes it really hard to leave this area. I think it is about to really take off soon. I also saw one of my investigators from Libmanan at the SM today. He was the first person to whom I extended a baptismal invitation. I can't believe it's been over 4 months since I was transferred from my first area. It is really crazy to just pack up all of your stuff and move it in such a short period of time. I think I might end up staying in my next area for a long time. We will see.

In other news, the sister we are teaching is still doing well, though she did not come to church this past week. She did accept a baptismal invitation for May 31. Hopefully, she will be able to come to church over the next few weeks. As to news about all of our other investigators, most of them are still pretty new, but we have a lot of them, with varying levels of interest. 

Sorry, my mind is really a lot on the transfer right now. I get really nervous for transfers. It is really going to be hard to leave behind all of the really neat members in the ward. They kind of become a family of sorts. Bishop has been at his mission reunion in Bacolod, so I won't even get to say goodbye to him. It's crazy how fast these sorts of things happen, but I know that Heavenly Father has a plan in all of this.

I am super excited to skype home soon. I will see you in a week!

I've started reading Jesus the Christ so I will start emailing insights from that, I think. It is a really good book. It offers a lot of interesting historical insights. It reminds me of my last years of seminary. I really did enjoy seminary. I feel like it was a place where I could learn a lot of new things about the scriptures everyday.

I do know, however, that the Gospel is true and it is what will help us to be happier than anything else can. (Mosiah 2:17-22, 41) I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to serve my fellow man here in the Philippines and to serve my God. 

"17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

 18 Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?

 19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

 41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out cfaithful to the end they are received into dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

Love you tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

                                                                      It's a palayan (ricefield)

Ward mission leaders

4/28/2014

We are actually trying to get the aircon in our apartment fixed. I'm not sure if I told you about it yet or not, but we have an aircon in our apartment, but it is broken. I think it would be pretty sweet to sleep with it working. Masiram!

I think I will tell you the story of one of our newer investigators.  She is maybe 60 or so years old. We actually found her when we were trying to find the house of a referral. We asked her if she knew the person we were looking for, and she pointed out her house. We then decided to introduce ourselves to her. When she found out what church we were from, she told us that her grandfather had been a member of our church, and she invited us right on inside her gate. She is such a sweet woman. She has big eyes that always get bigger as she listens intently to what we have to share with her and when she hears new things. She gets kind of surprised when she hears new things a lot of the time. In Tagalog, we would say, "Magulatin siya" Something kind of like that she is easily surprised. We invited her to come to church this week as well and of course she agreed. I didn't feel like there was a super good chance that she was going to make it to church, but when we walked in the church doors yesterday, there she was, and she even brought a friend who turned out to be a member from Virac, Catanduanes, which is part of the Legazpi mission now. It is really neat to see people so willing to try what we have to offer. I know that as she continues to make and keep commitments, she will progress in the Gospel and receive more blessings in her life. 

Maybe now is the time for a little of bad news as far as investigators go. There was one family who we extended  baptismal invitations to that didn't take it as well. They really feel like their baptisms when they were young were valid, and don't want to switch religions. At the time, I felt like it would just take another visit to clear things up there, but we got a text the other day that said they are happy to listen, but they don't want to switch religions.  We later received another that said not to come back for a while because they are going to be busy. It is kind of rough to see that happen. Another thing that has been giving us trouble is that one of our best families is on vacation/ working in Manila for a while. I guess the last thing to mention is that the little lady I mentioned above is our only investigator that came to sacrament meeting, which means we will have to push back a few baptismal dates. I think once school starts again in June, things will settle down a little in this regard. 

All in all, things are going well for the work here though. We continue to find a lot of investigators every week here, which is important, especially when people decide to stop listening to us. We found one other investigator that seems really interested.  He is 18 years old, and believes strongly in the bible, but seems really open to new ideas (he also speaks a lot of Bikol, which makes it a struggle to understand him sometimes.) He told us that he is Catholic, but a lot of members of his family are Jehovah's Witnesses. He seems like someone , "who [is] only kept from the truth because [he] know[s] not where to find it" D&C 123:12 I think that he will serve a mission someday.

I think that is all for me for today. I hope my letters get there soon. I think there are about three of them. I think I will end with a little Tagalog testimony here.

Alam ko na totoo ang ebanghelyo, at ito ang nakakatulong sa ating lahat dito sa mundo para tayo ay maging masaya. Alam ko na sa pamamagitan ni JesuCristo, puwede tayong makabalik sa piling ng ating mapagmahal na Ama sa Langit. 

I love you guys tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill