Elder Merrill's description of a typical P-day

February 18, 2013
This has to be one of my absolute most favorite letter Elder Merrill has written so far!

Hi everyone! These p-day´s really do roll around surprisingly fast. How is life going? Wow, I knew dad was going to North Carolina, but I didn´t know you were too! What a crazy adventure! Driving through all those states! I bet that was a fun drive! LOL, 3 straight days of driving. I can imagine that you were ready to stretch your legs a bit whenever you guys stopped for lunch or a place to sleep. That´s really nice that dad´s boss, or supervisor, whatever, is a member. And a snowstorm while you were there? That was probably an interesting sight. 

I don´t mind that it´s a short letter, having flown from Florida to Argentina, and all the other flights that I´ve done, I know what it´s like to finally arrive at a place with a bed. I´m glad to hear that Jess and Brad still visit. I was wondering what it would be like with their new apartment and all, but if they still come over now and again, that´s nice. I realize that you are probably asleep as I write this, so this letter should be a nice surprise when you wake up. I hope that things have been calm back home, with not too much to worry about. Thanks for all the prayers that you guys send on my behalf! I´m praying for you guys too. Oh buy the way, I forgot 2 items for my package. If you´ve already sent it, DON´T WORRY. I´ll be fine. If you want to include Hot Chocolate and Jelly beans, that´d be awesome.

      I have a lot of time today, so I thought I´d write about what I do on a normal P-day. here´s how it goes:

  6:30 - Freaking alarm. It feels like I just went to bed an hour ago. It takes about 5 minutes but I finally roll out of bed. Exercise. We have a bar that someone poured cement on the ends, so I use that for doing various lifts. Breakfast and shower are next. I usually have corn flakes. We all alternate showering until its 8.

  8:00- study time. You wouldn´t believe how easy it is to fall asleep during this time. I manage to stay awake though and read the Book of Mormon in Spanish and also preach my gospel in Spanish.

  9:00-study time with my companion. We read the missionary rules, this is like my 12th time reading this book. It´s all good though. We talk and share about what we learned, and then it´s officially P-day.

 10:00- Oh this awaited hour! Now we get down to business. P-day is never really the same, or the order that we do them, but the things we do are usually the same. We clean the house, talk a bit, and start laundry. We actually have a machine in this area, so that´s a new experience for me.

12:00- we usually leave to buy groceries and we go to a large store called the Anonima. Buying the groceries is fairly simple, I get the same food every week, with one or two different things. Don´t worry, I´m smart about how much I spend and what I spend the money on. Now we gotta carry the food home. Holy cow, the walk home never seemed so long, we gotta carry a week’s worth of food all the way back to the house. It´s about 7 minutes or so, but it feels like 15 with all the extra weight.

1:00- lunch and sleep. Our favorite part of the day. Sometimes we´ll go into the town and look around central, where all the excitement is, but today, we silently agree (or we all decide in our minds) to just sleep. The room is nice and dark and cool. We listen to music and my companion has Enya on his speaker system, and it makes me think about home. Mom used to play that whenever she´d clean the house, or if she was just in the mood. I´m home in Arizona for 2 seconds, then I fall asleep.

4:30- we wake up at different times and we get ready to leave for the computer place in town to write our families. Last bit of freedom.

6:00- we finish writing at around this time, say our goodbyes and leave for work. Shame, the day seemed so short.
9:00- we return and get ready for the next day, plan, get dressed for bed, and then it´s time to sleep again.

10:30- The lights go off and we slowly drift off to sleep. We have a long week ahead of us, with lots of people to see and lots of lessons to teach. But its all alright, because we know how fast P-day can come if we focus and work hard. My eyes close, and before I know it, my alarm goes off, signaling the next day.

        This is more or less the day that I have every Monday. I don´t know if you wanted to hear about a work day, but that´s a bit hectic to write about. so I chose today. I hope you enjoy this letter! This feels like the longest one I´ve ever written! I hope you have an awesome week and I´ll see you all next week! Love you!

p.s. No, nothing really new. I did have some delicious beef though!

                      -Elder Ethan Merrill