Pictures!!!!!! We LOVE pictures!

Look at this awesome young missionary! Here is Elder Merrill in his area of Carmen de Patagones with the business city of Viedma behind him, across the river.

Hey everyone, how are you doing?  Thanks for the money....I still feel a little bad, but I´ll still brush my teeth and I´ll cut off sweets, at least, I´ll stop buying them. I´ll admit it, sometimes I have a bit of a sweet tooth. No no, trust me I need a bit of dental work done. He tells me that there´s a cavity in my tooth that he needs to patch up and I have a tooth that needs a crown. Don´t worry, I´m certain that this guy is on the up and up. My tooth does hurt a little bit too. But only a little and not all the time. He says that the hole is about to reach the nerve in my tooth.  I´ll go see him on Wednesday, so that should be good. I can´t wait, I have a bunch to do, so with this out of the way, I should be able to do what I need to, and not have to worry about the dental stuff.

   Last week was fun, we had a bunch to do, but we are running low on investigators that are actually doing the things they need to, so we have to do a bit of finding more this week. Weird how it´s the last week and all of March already. But the work is the same even if you get transferred.  (Is Elder Merrill hinting at something???? Most likely just that it’s the end of another 6 week period and transfers could be happening.)

     I had a pretty crazy P-day.  The branch president took us to the beach, and I took a bunch of photos. I fell in the sea by accident, and I was wet for the next 3 hours or so. I haven´t had a more fun P-day though! There was just us on the beach and it seemed to stretch on for miles! I was looking at the Atlantic ocean I suppose. But there wasn´t another soul for miles! This beach also houses the largest colony of parrots in the world. I took a picture of the sign. 

         Well, there was a party of a sorts yesterday, but I don´t know why that was. Maybe it was St. Patrick’s day like you said. And you´re right, some people will take any excuse to have a party and drink beer. That’s funny about Kyle having to take a real DMV test. The one we took, they gave us all the answers to a written test, and then we just had to drive for a total of 6 hours. I wonder what Kyle´ll have to do.  I´m doing pretty good here. Aside from the dentist, I don´t have any needs. I was even looking at my shoes the other day and thinking, ¨I bet both will last until the end of my mission.¨ Thanks for all that you guys do for me. I love you guys lots!

                   -Elder Ethan Merrill

Elder Merrill reaches his 1 Year Mark on his Mission!!!

March 11, 2013
It's a great milestone this week for our family. Elder Ethan Merrill hits his 1 year mark and it's exciting to think of what adventures he has had so far and what he has accomplished, as well as to think of what adventures await for his second year! You're doing great Elder Merrill and we love you lots!

Hi everyone. 1 year this Thursday, I left behind my home for 2 years. And now I´m gonna see it in 11 months! Yep, I can´t believe it. 1 year. 12 months. I can´t wait to see you all again! You guys keep me going on the mission with your letters and I can´t tell you how much it means to me to hear from you guys! I hope that things are going smooth back home. Don´t worry, everything is going fine over here.

        I can´t wait to show you how well I can speak Spanish! I wasn´t the best at it for the first part of the mission, but I´m really good at speaking and understanding now. I have another American in the house where I´m at, his name is Elder Liljenquist. (li-gen-quist) Funny name and even funnier to hear people try to pronounce it. Elder Gonzalez can almost speak perfect English. It´s helpful because he is able to help me if I don´t know a word and I can ask him it in English.

       Yep, it’s autumn here. Cold too.  Not to cold, but there´s a lot of wind here, so the breeze makes it so I need to wear a jacket. Clouds are beginning to be more frequent now too. And now I need to start sleeping with a blanket. Wow it’s gonna be freaking hard to get out of bed in the winter here. it’s hard to know when it´s appropriate to use the heater in our house. We don´t use it now, but when the time comes, I think we´ll know. I think my sleeping bag will come in handy. No worries, I keep my ears warm. I bought a scarf at the festival and I like it a lot, I´ll use it every day of winter.

         You just got the package out? Well, I´m not bummed out or anything. Thank you for sending it! I can´t believe packaging costs $66!  That´s part of the reason why I only want one more package for the mission when my birthday rolls around. I can´t wait to get it!
         I guess that I´ll get home before some of my friends because they´ll be on the mission still. It´s all good really, I´ll still have a bunch of people who I´ll be able to visit and see when I get back. The mission force is really expanding.

          I´ll keep working hard this week and not get too trunky! I always love hearing from you guys and I can´t wait to see you all again! Love you Lots!

                       -Elder Ethan Merrill           

Autumn in Carmen de Pategones means Rain

March 4, 2013

Elder Merrill writes about the change in weather. It's not as hot as the summer was and it seems to be a rainy time of year:

Heya!  Yep. Rain almost all of this past week. Not a hard rain though, it was rather light, but it made everything muddy. My shoes are doing fine, so no worries there. Yesterday we finally saw the sun and today is nice too. 

The pictures came through! I can´t believe the snow that you guys got! I´m so jealous! I can´t remember the last time that we got that much snow. I don´t remember ever getting snow! Things are good back home though, so that´s nice. The picture with dad is fun too. I never saw the coast when I was in South Carolina, but I´ve seen the river that´s here in Carmen de Patagones, and it´s a lot like the picture that dad sent. I think I´ll take a picture of that and send it next week. 

       I didn´t know that Jess and Brad were going to Hawaii! That´ll be fun for them I suppose. I can´t remember if grandma has actually met Brad or not. Either way, I bet she´s excited. Glad to hear that Stuart is doing good. and that Kyle is having fun with forensics! No worries about the package, We´re going to buy a cake for my 1 year mark, so that´ll be nice.

           No worries about the sweets, I brush 3 times a day, so I´m always feeling fresh. I still have a bunch of vitamins, no worries there too, and I´m doing good on pretty much everything.

There´s a festival in Carmen de Patagones right now. It´s a 7 day festival with a grand celebration on March 7th. That´s the actual name of the festival. 7 de Marzo. I bought one or 2 cool, cheap things because people come from all over to sell items at the festival. People from Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Guatemala, even Africa I think. It´s really fun to look around the stores, but because we´re missionaries, we don´t have a lot of time to explore. Just pass through really. But we had some time to go today, so that was fun. That´s pretty much all that´s going on here.

             Hey, I hope this letter finds you well, and I´ll see you next week! I love you!

                                         -Elder Ethan Merrill