YESSS! NOOOOO! YESSS!!

We liked Elder Merrill's subject line from his letter this week and he explains the meaning behind it:

Hi everyone.  How are you?  As you might have sseen from the title of this e-mail, my mood is up and down.  Things are slightly more cool here.  We had some rain so that always drops the temperature, but enough about that, I have some important news!
I baptized my first investigator on Saturday, Nov. 10th! His name is Rafael, he is 19 and he is a professional ping pong player.  I had the opportunity to baptize him in the font! I'm so stoked!  I feel like things are ending but at the same time like things are just getting started.
I found out that Obama won. I wanted Romney to win and with Obama I think things won't really get much better back in the states, but I am not here to talk politics. Just a little bummed he won is all.
This week marks 8 months for me on the mission. Can you believe that! This mission is really flying by! I think the summer will go by slowly but things may pick up during the winter in May and June.  We went to the park here in Bolivar this P-day. It was fun! We took some pictures but aside from that, we just did what was normal.  Washed clothes, slept, all that stuff.
Hmm, not much new besides that really.  That is cool that you had such a good stake conference and that Stuart has a chance to work with the missionaries.  Sounds like things are just about normal.  Well, I like it when things are pretty much the same.  I am teaching a bunch of new investigators this week and they are all really solid people.  I hope that things go great for you at home!

Well Elder Merrill, things are great here because we are so happy with the great work you are doing as a missionary!  Thank you for your time and energy and efforts and may God keep you and bless you in your endeavors! Woohoo!

Warming up in the southern hemisphere

This week in Elder Merrill's letter he talks about the approach of summer and with it, the heat.  We can commiserate somewhat as it is still very warm here in Tucson but at least we have AC!

Hi ya! Yep, it's hot here! I wouldn't mind so much if I could just have some alleviation from it when I am conscious.  I'm used to the feeling of walking around in my sweat! It's uncomfortable but the days seem to go by fast, so I'm thankful for that. It's so hot that I'm having trouble typing to you all right now. My brain feels like it's melting.  December will be the worst of it so if I can get through that then the rest of the year is downhill.  It's not a dry heat, it's rather humid.  In South Carolina it was different because we had air conditioning in the house, the car and in everyone else's house but here I'm just hot all the time.

Poor Elder Merrill.  I told him to try and find some fans to buy so maybe they can rest better at night.  I'm with him though, it is so hard to do anything when it's really hot.  Bless him and his companions and all the other missionaries around the world for the physical discomforts they endure in the hopes of being able to share the gospel.  I asked Elder Merrill about the water situation there:

We can't drink out of the tap water here, so we have to buy filtered 20 liter bottles for water and we usually buy 2 of those at a time.  The water quality is so poor here, we try to avoid drinking it whenever possible.  Well enough about that. We are still working with some investigators and with everyone else too and we hope to have a baptism by the end of the week.  The daughter of a less active member is taking the discussions and we've got 2 other investigators we are working with. 

It sounds like a busy and warm week ahead for Elder Merrill.  Like his family here in Tucson, he is always happy when a rainy day shows up! Keep up the great work son and your great spirit!

A New Companion

As the end of October 2012 rolls around, we get our next letter from Elder Merrill.  I had asked him if he made a protective cover for his scriptures out of duct tape, that is sort of like an unofficial missonary sort of thing to do, to protect the scriptures as they travel by backpack for 2 years.  Here is his reply:

     How´s it going! Things are good. It's heating up, but it's also raining AGAIN today. Not hard like last week though. 

     As a matter of fact, I have made a duct tape protective case. It's silver, so it´s all good, but the other Elders tell me that it looks like a bomb, so that may or may not be a problem in the airport when I go back. Can you believe that this is almost 8 months for me completed? How crazy is that? I can remember thinking how it would be when I hit 8 months back when I had 3 months in South Carolina!

I told Elder Merrill about the trunk-or-treating we did here for Halloween at the church and how there were hotdogs and chili and cornbread and also about some of the fun costumes.

 

      I´m gonna miss going to activities; the branch I´m in here is so small that there´s very little that we can do together.  So it´s not exactly a close group of friends that meet every week for sacrament meeting. I wish I could have normal food like cornbread again.  It´s not that I mind the food here, but it´s the same thing. day. after. day. after. day. But I like it, so it´s all good I suppose. We´ll see how I feel at 16 months though. We have a primary of about 7 kids here I think, so it´s all more or less the same class for all the kids. Like I say. we´re not very big at all.

Elder Merrill also let us know that he had a new companion after transfers this week:

     I got a new companion and another elder left, so we have 2 new elders in the apartment. My companion is called Elder Formhals. They are both fun guys, so I think that Bolivar will be good this transfer. I´ll let you know more next week on how we do. I´ve known him for only 12 hours or so. But I´m here in Bolivar for another 6 weeks.

     That´s such a great goal for you to read the Pearl of Great Price! I´ve already gone through it, but I plan to go through it again in Spanish. Right now I´m going through the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I understand most of it, but there are a couple of words that I need help with sometimes. But my Spanish is loads better now.

         I had no idea about that boombox that Kyle was building! That´ll be something to see. I miss the day to day life back at home, but I try not to think on it in my off hours, I tend to get a little trunky when I do that.

        Well, I´ll see you all next week, we hope to have a baptism in Bolivar for the first time in 7 months here! I´ll let you know how it goes. see ya around!

Thank you Elder Merrill for another great update on your mission! We pray for you always and love you very much!