Feb. 4, 2013 - an email chat with Elder Ethan Merrill - yippeee!

Mom: Hey son!!! You may not be on still but if you are we LOVE you and we LOVE the picture!!!! oxoxoxo Love mom                                                                                                 

Elder Merrill: still here for another 15 minutes!                                                                       

Mom: Hooray!!! I am SO GLAD the box finally arrived, I can't believe how long it took! I can send you something for your one year mark but it most likely won't make it in time. Anything in particular you feel like having to celebrate? It is so good to say hi to you!!!!!                            

Elder Merrill: I´ve made a list of stuff that I would like, small things really, that can fit in the package. I don´t have it with me now, but the next week, I´ll give you what I have. I know it probably won´t come in time, but that´s fine by me. how are things back home?                     

Mom: That is a good plan. I really like the picture of you with your ties and your scriptures. Is that from your new place or your old place? Things are good here, everybody is pretty much doing the school and/or work thing. We had a great testimony meeting yesterday, lots of the men from Elder's Quorum actually bore their testimonies and they were good ones. Dad and I have a running joke that 99% of the time it's the women or the High Priests bearing their testimonies, you almost never hear from the 25-35 year old men. Not sure why, but anyway it was good to hear them talk about the influence of following the spirit and how grateful they are for their families.  The weather is good today, still cloudy but  no rain and good temperatures.  How about you?

Elder Merrill: Thanks, this picture is me here in Carmen de Patagones. I haven´t had much rain here but like I said, it´s pretty freaking windy at times. I have learned to get over this fear of public speaking, there´s about 15 people in the branch here, so either everybody bears their testimony on fast Sunday, or I have to get up there too. It gets easier with practice. How´s Kyle doing? he´ll be out of school in a little while, right? Stuart’s good too?                                 

Mom: Yeah, when we lived in Turkey, I think we usually gave a talk about every 2 to 3 months. So I understand completely. I can't wait to hear you give your first talk back here at home too. Kyle is good, seems to be focused on finishing with good grades, which is a good choice.  He wants to go to Eastern Arizona College for a semester or two but I told him he should think of doing Pima here at home or go out on his mission. No decision yet, but that is understandable.  Stuart is doing really good. He likes his job at the theater and is looking forward to finishing up at Pima and moving on to a technical school here in Tucson. Everyone here is in good health. So crazy windy huh?                                                

Elder Merrill: Yeah, the wind is pretty crazy. I would say that a good choice before the mission is work instead of college. If you had a semester already, you would need to go back with the supposed knowledge you gained form that semester, and I´ve forgotten everything out here. Good to know that Stuart and Kyle are good! Hey, I need to go soon, but I have time for one last E-mail from you.                                                                                                                             

Mom: The working is a great suggestion, thanks! I am so glad we got to say hi today. I am always praying for you and I love hearing from you. Have a great week, enjoy the box (FINALLY!) and know that we love you so much son! Tell Elder Gonzalez we said hi and you guys take care! Love you LOTS son!!!! :) Mom                                                                           

Elder Merrill: Tell Kyle and Stuart that I´m thinking of them! I´m gonna go work now, but I hope that you guys have an awesome week too! I´ll be sure to enjoy the box! I love you lots and thanks for always thinking of me! See ya around!

I will tell them :) Bye son!

We have a Picture!!!!!

Feb. 4, 2013 ~ Well, the exciting news is we finally got a picture from Elder Merrill (who has dwelt these many many months in lands of not-so-plenty-internet service). We are thrilled to get this picture! The bad news, for some reason, after trying all kinds of options, we can't get the blog to post it straight from a download, so I had to take a picture of the picture with my digital camera and then post it here. However, in the whole translating process, the picture keeps turning blue. I don't know why. It just likes that area on the color spectrum. But a blue picture is STILL a picture so here you go, Elder Ethan Merrill, during his blue period at Carmen de Patagones:

Doesn't he look AWESOME!!!!!  And to make the day even better, he finally got his Christmas box!!! It took 2 1/2 months and I had given it up as a goner but he got it!!!! WOOHOOO!!! Here is his letter:

The Christmas package arrived! Thank you for all the candy you sent me! My companion enjoyed the box that was filled with candy for him too! He´s from Argentina so he hasn´t really tried those kinds of candies before. The shirt was funny too! I like the ¨wish you were here¨ scribble on the side!  The tie was fun too! I needed an orange one because I wanted to make a tie rainbow, a rainbow with all the ties as the colors. I took a picture of it and everything. The letters and all the primary kids’ notes were fun too! Thank everyone who had a hand in that from me! The nerf guns were awesome too! Don´t worry about the twix, they arrived fine. Thanks for everything you sent me!

      Tuesday, we find out if we got anything in the mail because we have a reunion that day, so every Tuesday we all go to a church building and have a conference as missionaries and receive mail while we´re at it. I got the package the day right after you said that, “rats, I guess your package got stolen.”  Here´s a photo for you: [see above photo] It took about 3 minutes to upload that picture, that feels like forever when you only have an hour. I hope that you weren´t to crushed about the package not getting here, It had me worried for those 2 months or so. But it finally came! The peanut butter was still inside too.

To answer your question last time about if I was still coming home early, the answer is yes. What happened is that they asked for your E-mail about ohh.....3 months ago maybe? I didn´t have it on hand and I forgot to write it down, so they couldn´t have sent one because they don´t know it. I thought I might have given it to them, but maybe they forgot to E-mail you. but I am coming home in about a year. 1 year and 20 days more or less! I can´t believe that this mission is already about half way done!

          I really want you to send me only 2 more packages. One for my year mark in March, and the next for my birthday in October. I really don´t want one for Christmas, because that would be too close to my departure, and by the time I got it, I would be on my way home, so what´s the point I figure?

         I´ve taken a lot of awesome pictures of the river here, and me next to it, I can´t wait to show you guys! I have a bunch from my other areas too, so don´t worry, you´ll get to see all the different types of the cities. The streets here are really confusing, but I think I told you that. It´s also really windy! Like you wouldn´t believe! I like it though, because without it, it´d be even hotter. Well, there´s ups and downs to that. It´s a really dusty place, so the dust and dirt kicks up and gets in our eyes sometimes, but it´s not really that bad.

       As always, I love hearing about home. I can´t believe Sparky sits in peoples' laps now, I remember she wouldn´t get on the couch, let alone in our laps! We were in an investigators house and they had a small black kitten who was very interested in what was on the inside of my ear. I took a video of it licking my ear. I´m glad to hear that primary is going awesome!

      I finished the Doctrine and Covenants, but in English. I´m working on the Spanish version of the Book of Mormon now and I´m in 3rd Nephi. It´s gotten easier to translate and read, the trick is to read for understanding, if there´s a word that I don´t know, I look it up in English. That way, I´m bound to learn it because there´s a good chance that the word will appear again. I´m working hard and in good health and high spirits! Stay safe and I´ll see you next week!

          -Elder Ethan Merrill

Remember Google Earth Mom!

It's January 28th, 2013, and another P-day for Elder Ethan Merrill, which means another letter for his family, woohoo!  I (mom) had a few phrases translated on the internet in Spanish so I could write him in his current language:

   Hi. Yeah, you said "good day, we love you a lot and we hope you have a good week" (That is what I was going for, so that's good, lol).  For Google translate, that went pretty well. Yep, I just finished my first week here in Carmen de Patagones, it went pretty well. We taught a bunch of people and have a  bunch more to teach this week.  Although people in this city seem a bit more harder to get in to teach, I think we will have a little more success because they are more dedicated once they are converted.  We have this kid, who's 16, if Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet, this kid would have been chosen instead. Oh my gosh, not only does he get everything we teach, he truly believes it all. He wants to go out and teach with us and he's not even a member! This young man will get baptized for sure! (It is a precious thing to meet someone who is on fire about God and our Savior Jesus Christ and who can't contain that enthusiasm!)
   I can't believe you haven't been using Google Earth to zoom in on my locations! That was the first thing I thought of doing to find out how the area looked. Well, that's fine, it's not like there was much to see anyway. I'm gonna try to send you a picture of me in my house.(Dad and I have remedied that and spent quite a while looking at the several places he has been so far. He is right, his first two areas are a LOT of fields!)
   We are expected to have a lot of rain for the month of February, and then things will get cold as we move into Winter.  It's hot right now, and a dry hot; it feels a lot like Arizona.  I'm taking lots of photos and the work is good. The buses here are modern double-decker buses, so they're nice to travel in. You can recline the seat and everything. 
   I hope you have an awesome week and know that I'm always thinking of you! Love you all!
Elder Ethan Merrill
   PS - the picture didn't load, I couldn't send it. I hope that I get the chance to try again next week. I'll try a different computer location. See you around. EEM