September 14, 2014

Family,

It's been another good week here in the Philippines.  This week, we've been doing a lot of work using the MLS/ ward directory thing. There are a lot of people on our ward's directory that haven't been to church in a really long time that we don't even know, and there are a lot of incomplete addresses and a lot of incomplete information on it. We have not had the most success finding those people, but we have been able to get it organized better and have found an investigator using it. It has been a very effective way of starting conversations with people. We just ask around for people we don't know on the list and then introduce ourselves as missionaries. We found one new person this week using it. He is super nice and willing to listen. He is catholic, has some pretty unique hair and long fingernails. He hasn't really opened up to us too much yet, but I think he will in our next few visits. 

We are still super excited for a few baptisms that are coming up on the 27th. The one investigator that was going to get baptized this week is going to get baptized on the 27th now. 

Things are still going really well, just kind of same old, same old. I think one of the most exciting things was walking to one of our far areas during the tropical storm. We were right along a stream for a good twenty minutes. We were just praying during all of our lessons that it wouldn't overflow, because the only other path out of there is a really far walk and could have been flooded too. Everything went smoothly though, even though we did get really wet. 

Alam ko na totoo yung simbahan natin. and na mahal tayo ng Diyos. Alam ko na possible yung mga himala kung manampalataya tayo sa kanya. 

Love you tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Coffee Ice Cream Sept 7, 2014

Family,

The new 7-11 here in Goa just opened up this week. Here's what happened: We went in to the 7-11 to get some ice cream and were devastated to hear that they were out of cones, so we looked around the store and noticed a box full of cones and asked if they were ok, and they decided to serve us ice cream using those cones. They asked us if we wanted French vanilla or chocolate flavored ice cream, and we both decided we wanted vanilla, but when we got our ice cream, it was brown... I was very suspicious, but I gave it a try, and I immediately know why. It was coffee ice cream. Elder Green thought it was a joke and so he tried some too. We told the lady at the counter that it was coffee, and she didn't believe us and tried to show us the flavoring mix... We didn't really want to pay for it and they really wanted us to. We eventually convinced the manager to try it and at that point she knew what she had done and they didn't make us pay for it. She was super mad at us though. It was kinda crazy. I hope they don't hold a grudge. 

The work is going pretty well. We are going to baptize the girl from last week this Saturday. We are super excited for her. She is super integrated into the ward. She is really outgoing and so she has a lot of friends at church. Our two other little investigators are also doing really well, although they didn't go to chuch... They always ask really good questions in lessons. I think they are really smart. I think they should still be able to get baptized in just a few weeks. We actually also found a family this week. I don't think we are actually going to be able to continue teaching the whole family, but there is kind of a funny story with them. We met them last week and scheduled a return appointment. When we came back, the parents were both gone... Luckily I spotted the tatay who looked like he was outside trying to hide. We invited him in and shared with him. He is gone now though... Working somewhere far away. And one of the older girls in the family flat out told us that she doesn't really want to listen to us. that leaves us with a 12 year old boy. We teach a lot of those. He is really sincere and went to church this week. It is a shame the whole family doesn't want to listen, but I am thankful that they will let us teach their son. 

We also met some interesting people the other day... We saw a few people around our age hanging out and so we went up and talked with them. We asked them what they like to do, and this is what they said (in English): Eat, sleep, walk around, smoke cigarettes, smoke marijuana, repeat. Pretty crazy, huh? We shared 2 Nephi 28 with them about eat, drink and be merry. It was a pretty good lesson and they were really nice. Good times. Everyone is super nice here.

Alam ko na totoo ang simbahan natin and na itong missionary work is ang work ng diyos.

Love you tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Another Great Week August 31, 2014

Family!

It's been another great week in the Philippines. We ended up getting to talk to our investigator who didn't show up for her baptism last week. As it turns out, she had an unexpected family reunion of sorts. She is now on track to be baptized a week from this coming Sunday, so we are super excited about that. We actually ended up having a pretty decent turn out at church this week. We had a less-active family that hasn't been to church since I've been here finally come to church, which was way cool. I'm going to go on about our sacrament meeting because it was pretty cool and pretty unique. We had no power at the church this week because of a brown out which made for a pretty hot sacrament meeting. It was super hard to pay attention. One of the cool things that happened is that the primary gave a little presentation and our 11-year old investigator was part of it. She recited the fourth article of faith over the pulpit, which was really neat. The other unique thing that happened this week was towards the end of the meeting, a little boy about 3 years or so old was standing on the pew right next to me and slipped and hit his head really hard on the little thing that holds the hymnbooks. He ended up with a really deep cut right by one of his eyebrows and had to be taken to a local clinic for stitches. Ouch. It looked like it really hurt.

In other news, we have been seeing a change of heart in a lot of our less active members.  We have been teaching more boldly and directly to their concerns and they have really been opening up to us. It has been a really neat experience to be there when they feel the spirit helping them to know wheat we are teaching is right. 

Lastly, we've been able to have quite a few more members working with us this week, and it's given me the opportunity to learn a lot of Bikol. Here goes:

Aram ko na totoo an simbahan ta, at si Jesucristo an satuyang kaguragnan. Aram ko na kung magtubod kita saiya, magsolsol kita sa satuyang mga kasalan, magpabunyag kita sa totoong simbahan pwede kitang makalaog sa saiyang kaharian.

That made me sweat a little bit. I think that last word might be tagalog. I'm not sure if it works in bikol too or not. 

I love you guys tons!

Padangat ko kamung maray!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Baptisms 8/24/2014

Family,

This week was really great. We were able to baptize Rey this Saturday, which was really neat. It is always a wonderful experience to be a part of such an important part of someone else's life. We also set up a really cool display board up by the big college here in Goa, called PSU. We were able to meet a lot of people here, many of whom live in our area. We have taught a few of them already, and they seem pretty interested, which is really cool.

We actually had a funny experience last night when we went and contacted one of the people that we met up by PSU. The people we met were 14 year old twin girls who are Catholic. They were happy to let us in and seemed really interested, but one of their neighbors who was at their house kept telling us that they were born Catholic and so they want to die Catholic and that we all believe in the same God, so it doesn't really matter which religion we are because we are all worshiping the same God... Elder Green asked a really good question about if a person was born into a family who doesn't believe in God at all. They just kind of ignored his question though. The twins actually seemed interested, so we will have to just go back when their neighbor isn't there hanging out. 

We had a newer/ former investigator come to church this week too. She is about 35 years old and her mother is a member who just started coming back to church about  3 or 4 weeks ago. She has a lot of kids who are pretty young, and her husband isn't around anymore, so I think it was a really hard choice to decide to come to church. I think she is really glad that she came. We are really excited to see if she will continue to progress. Member referrals and part members are really the best way to find people to teach. 

Love you tons!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Baptisms are Nigh 8/17/2014

Family,

Things are going well here in Goa. We are having a few baptisms on Saturday :) It has been really neat to work with these guys through their whole conversions. I feel bad for Elder Taylor though, because we found both of them together and he had to leave the transfer before they are getting baptized. The girl getting baptized is really great and already has tons of friends in the church. She actually went and sat by herself at church this week, which kind of made us nervous, but almost all of the young women who arrived after her all went and sat by her, which was awesome. The guy we are teaching is doing great too. 

We are just putting some finishing touches on a display board that we are going to use to help us find new investigators. We really need some new investigators. We decided to go with Dad's 'Ask me Anything' idea. Hopefully it will yield some good results.  We are really going to focus on finding new people to teach because we have been falling behind on that a little bit with the baptisms coming up this week. We've already got a few referrals and such, so that should be great.

I'd also like to give Jessie a happy birthday shout out too. Happy Birthday, Jessie! I can't believe you are out of primary now!

Not really much else that I can think of. Sorry it is kinda short, but Elder Green is getting too hot in here and is ready to leave.

I know that the gospel is true and na yung simbahan natin is yung only totoong simbahan dito sa buong mundo. Nagpapasalamat ako sa pagkakataon ito na ibinigay nya sa akin para umunlad dito sa mission kahit masyadong mahirap sya minsan. Alam ko na para sa atin talaga yung mga pagsubok na darating sa ating lahat habang nandito tayo sa mundo. Alam ko na binabasbasan tayo ng Diyos sa pamamagitan ng mga pagsubok and na para sa atin yung lahat ng mga utos nya. Kung susundin natin yung halimbawa ng anak nya si Jesucristo, makakabalik tayo sa kanya sa kabilang buhay. 

I love you guys tons!

Padangat ko kamung marhay!

Elder Benjamin Merrill

Keeps on Going and Going 8/10/2014

Family,

Nothing too new or exciting to report on this week for the most part. We are on track to have two investigators get baptized on the 23rd of August. I am super excited! They are on track to doing really well. One man's girlfriend actually moved to manila for until December, which made us kind of nervous because we were afraid he was going to stop going to church, but he still comes, which is really neat. He really is converted to the Gospel. I am super excited to see what good they will do as they progress in the Gospel.

We also have two other investigators who are really cool.  We are still working on getting the parents to listen too, which I think might be pretty tough... They live in our farthest area which means about a 60 minute walk, but it is always worth it. They have been keeping all of their commitments and coming to church and everything. They even know that the Book of Mormon is true. They said they prayed and asked if it was true and they felt a warm feeling/ a good feeling. I am sure they will continue to progress as long as their father continues to give them a ride to church every week. 

I know that the Gospel is true and I love missionary work!

I hope you guys all have a good week!

Love you tons,

Elder Benjamin Merrill

8/3/2014 19 Na Ako!

Family,

I can't believe it's already been a whole year since I turned 18... I still don't feel like I am 19 years old yet... It's crazy to think about where I would be right now if they hadn't changed the mission age. I'm really glad that I decided to serve my mission at 18 and I know that I have definitely grown immensely this past year. It really is neat to look back at the past year and really see how much I've grown and learned. I have learned a lot. On a less spiritual side, I will tell you what we did for my birthday. We went to Bigg's for lunch and Elder Seegmiller told them it was my birthday just to be funny, and they actually ended up coming and singing to me... It was alright because I got a free cake (like a small one) out of it and it was super delicious. For dinner, I made spaghetti for everyone, but ended up putting way too much salt in it... It was not good... Everyone tried to be really nice about it but it was really bad... It was a really fun birthday though. I actually spent a long time that day showing/ telling my new companion, Elder Green about the area.

Elder Green is from West Jordan, Utah, and has been out for about 13 months now. He is really nice and it turns out that we have a lot in common. Our fathers both served missions in Korea, and we both played baseball (though I am sure he is way better than me at it), and we both really liked reading books back in the day (Harry Potter, etc.) One of my favorite things that we have in common is that we both really want to find a lot of new investigators. I am pretty excited to have Elder Green here to go finding with because we have actually seen some really good results as far as finding goes so far this transfer. 

We have found one family that seems like it has a lot of potential. The father of the family is actually a less active member and has three kids, ages 17 - 20, and only one of them has been baptized.  They said that we can come back and teach them, so we are really excited for that. We talked to quite a few others too that weren't too interested, but we are really excited, because baptizing Tatay's children could be a perfect way to bring him back to the church, and the family really seems super friendly. 

More good news, we had three investigators come to church! It was awesome. We are on track to baptize someone on the 16th of August, and two others shouldn't be too far behind. Maybe I will tell you a little about another person we met.  He is a very interesting person because he is 16 years old and lives with his siblings and grandmother. It sounds like he has somewhat of a tough family situation. He is really a nice person though, and really is interested in finding the truth. He actually told us the last time we visited him about how his aunt is trying to get him interested in Islam. We told him just to pray about the Book of Mormon and come to church and that he would get his answer.  We were so happy to finally see him at church this week. He doesn't really have a testimony for sure yet, but he earnestly desires to find out for himself what his true. I really admire him, and I know that he will receive an answer to his prayers as he continues to earnestly seek for the truth.  

I love you all tons and I know that the Gospel is true!

Elder Benjamin Merrill