Working Steady in 2013

Hooray for Mondays and another great letter from Elder Merrill! Here is his update from Jan. 7th:

How ya doing!  Now I have the chance to write ya a little more. The days seem so packed but when I get to Monday, I seem to have forgotten everything. Well, I´m glad to hear that things are just about the same. That´s funny about Jessica´s and Brad´s pets! I want to see this kitten, but it´ll probably be a cat when I get back. That´s so crazy hearing about the return of Zach Pinter. It´s always a never ending flow of coming and going it seems when it comes to missionaries. Funny.

That´s an interesting point about the dark ages. [In my letter to Elder Ethan Merrill, I had talked a bit about the time of the Dark Ages and how nothing new was developed or introduced for hundreds of years and how many generations just basically lived and died with no real progress in the field of science, medicine, education, art and so forth.] When we don´t have god in our culture, we never seem to go anywhere do we? I´m definitely grateful for E-mail, that´s a given.
I´m taking a bunch of pictures, so no worries. You´ll see what kind of cities and buildings are all throughout Argentina, so you won´t miss a thing. I´m glad to hear Sparky hasn´t slipped into a coma from sleeping too much, I remember that the 23 or so hours of sleeping was the highlight of her day. We still have that dog that sleeps in front of the house and follows us everywhere. His name is Browlio.

I still haven´t gotten a package from you for Christmas, but I recently received a dear elder letter that you wrote me on the 20th of November, so the package may still be coming. In the letter you wrote, ¨I´m going to send you a package.¨ as if you hadn´t sent it yet. So maybe it just hasn´t arrived yet.
Christmas and New Years was pretty fun, everybody launches off fireworks, but they launch off more on New Year’s than Christmas. We had the chance to make a cake and some cookies and brownies to celebrate. So that was fun.
The summer has been fun until it got pretty hot and humid and I got the 600th bug bite from the mosquitoes. But it´s not really that bad in general, it could be a lot worse. But my spirits are high and things are going good. I think we have a baptism at the end of the week, so I´ll let you know how that goes. I love you lots! See ya next Monday!

Again, I was at the computer when Elder Merrill’s email arrived and so was able to respond and chat via email messages again. I don’t ever plan to be at the computer on purpose but I am always so glad when it happens. I think Heavenly Father is giving us this extra blessing as a way of saying Thank You!

Mom: Hey son! We love you SOOOOO much! Haven't even read your letter yet, just wanted to quickly say hi and we love you and we think you are ROCKING! :) Love Mom

Elder Merrill: LOL, if you have anymore questions, let me know.
 -love ME.

Mom: Hey!!!! Woohoo! So lots of mosquitoes huh? Do they have repellent of some sort you can buy? Like a spray or anything? In turkey they had this coil-like thing you could burn like incense or another version that plugged into the wall and it would keep those wretched pesks away.  What do you usually eat for breakfast? Do they do siestas there? Sure love you LOTS!
PS, yeah I mailed the Christmas package the day after I had written that Nov. 20th letter, so I hope you get it soon!!!! Arrrgggg! lol Love Mom

Elder Merrill: I have a bug spray that I still have when I left that you packed for me so I use that for now. They have the smell repellent too, but it´s slightly more expensive. FLIES ARE EVERYWHERE TOO. Holy cow, we keep track of our daily kill score with those guys, and it gets to about 30 or so each day. I usually have cereal in the morning, and it depends on the cereal. Corn flakes or Frosted flakes. Funny huh? They have siestas and it´s the most annoying thing in the world because we are out working during the siesta, but everybody is sleeping and doesn´t want to answer the door. I´ll let you know if that package ever arrives yeah? love ya!

Mom: Hey bud :) Well that is good that you still have some bug spray, I'm glad we packed that! You will have to look in the stores for some sticky fly paper to hang from the ceiling (NOT over the table, ewww) so they all get stuck on that. Do they have mosquito nets there to hang around the beds? We had them in our beach house in Costa Rica, but I don't know if they use them in your area or not.  So you guys don't take a break time when people are doing their siestas? Yeah, I bet people don't answer their doors much at that time! Well keep on trying bud! Sounds good that you have an investigator who is hopefully getting baptized soon! Keep bearing your testimony and praying for those righteous experiences. I told Sis. Bahr your little church group was so small it wasn't a branch but a twig, lol. But how cool that they get you for a time, to be an example and leader. So what do you do on Sundays after church? How long is your church meeting then since you have so few people? :) Love Mom

Elder Merrill: I´ve never seen the sticky stuff, but we have a thing of raid that we can plug in the wall and it drives the bugs away with a scent it releases, but we had that in Bolívar, so I´ll keep on the look out for it here too, if they have it or not. I haven´t seen any mosquito netting either....but it would probably help, it´s at night that they all bite me. Nope. No break time during the siesta, it’s the slowest part of the day. LOL, that´s funny about the twig comment. We actually had a large attendance last Sunday! The meeting was almost full! But the 20 seats aren´t much to count really. After church, we go home and have lunch, then go work.  We have 2 hour meeting at 10 in the morning. Love you!  

Mom: Rats, I have lost track of time chatting with you and I have to go pick up your brother from school!

Elder Merrill: Well, I know what that´s like; sometimes we talk for so long that we´ll be late for our next meeting, so we have to dash over to that investigators house. I may or may not be here when you get back. We only have the 3 computers at this place, so one person has to wait, and the other has a little more time to do whatever, so that should be interesting, drop me an E-mail so see if I´m still here or not. If not, I´ll tell you now goodbye and I love you! Have fun!!