January is already halfway done!

Well, I have to admit, and I am glad to do so, but Elder Ethan Merrill's mission time is going by fairly quickly for me. People said it would and when his older brother was getting ready to leave for his mission, I didn't really believe them. I thought that missing our son so fiercely would make that impossible. So I was very surprised at how quickly the time did pass (except for the last 15 days or so which dragged on forever!!!).  Elder Merrill's mission to Argentina is also going by quickly which makes me glad because I do miss the boys so much when they are gone and it is good to have the months fly by! We got another good letter from him this week so here goes:
 Jan 14th:

How ya doing?  Salutations from the hot part of the world to the cold part!  WOW, its the coldest it has ever been in Tucson? That’s pretty crazy.[I had told Elder Merrill that Tucson was having a cold snap and it had gotten down to 19* which is pretty cold for us!] I had the opportunity to find out that tomorrow is going to be pretty crazy hot. Wow, this´ll be fun. We have had to search for a new house for a couple of days now, and we just found one, so I think that we´ll have to move in there during this week. That´s pretty much the most exciting thing that´s happening here. I can´t believe that Heather [one of Ethan's friends from high school/seminary] is coming to Argentina for her mission! I´ll have a fair amount of friends who can speak Spanish when we all get home. 

         Yeah, kids are crazy in the U.S., but they´re off the wall over here! Kids can be such punks over here! You wouldn´t believe some of the things that kids will say! But that´s just because they have terrible role models. I guess that´s why we´re here too. Help people see a better way to live. We need to be super good in front of them as missionaries, because they can learn from that too. Maybe.

        I can´t believe that Kyle is graduating already! How crazy is that? I hear that this is his first or second week of school, and I know how hard it can be from switching from no school (break time) to school, so I hope he´s doing well with that. FYI, Browlio doesn´t mean anything, it’s just a name the other elders gave him before I came. 

          I happened to have the opportunity to go to a zone conference with the zone and the mission president. He told me that I can speak really well, but I wonder if I could speak one-on-one with a person or no.....we´ll see. Being senior companion would scare me. Well, I just need to have confidence in my ability is all. That´s the key. 

             Hey, I hope that you have an awesome week! Can you believe that this day marks 10 months for me?!? I can´t! It goes by way to fast. I hope that you all have an awesome week! I´ll see you in 13 months!   -Elder Ethan Merrill 

What a great letter and I love how mature he sounds about people and life.  That does remind me though, I haven't had any kind of confirmation from his mission president's office about the boys coming home 3 weeks early to make room for more missionaries, I'll have to see if I can write and ask about that. In the meantime, have a great week Elder Merrill, we love you LOTS! :)