April 8, 2013 ~ Here is Elder Merrill's weekly letter. I forgot to ask him if he watched conference in Spanish or English. At any rate, I'm glad he and his fellow missionaries were able to see it and enjoy it and have their testimonies of Jesus Christ strengthened.
Hey family, how are you doing? Things are good here, just
doing the work like usual. I haven´t had much to do with all conferences and I
had to do divisions with another missionary in the other city across the river.
So things have been pretty calm this week. I hope things have been the same
back home. The weather is pretty crazy here, one day rainy, then humid and
sunny, then cold and cloudy, then hot again. It’s pretty interesting at times
here. I can´t believe that I´m part of such a large missionary work! I truly
believe that we´re part of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I haven´t had
anything big or new here, but the work is getting better. And don´t worry, my
spirits are high.
I did like the conference a lot. Some of my favorites were
Thomas S. Monson and his story about the fire. Another was Dieter F. Uchtdorf
and his comparison about light and darkness, and to choose where to be.
Finally, one last one was by a guy who I can´t remember, but he talked about 9/11
and how he and his family went to the stake center and they found a bunch of
other members there. He then said that the stakes of Zion are a place of
refuge.
You have
all your paperwork in to become a teacher again? Well, that’s good, I know that
you love teaching. You want to teach middle school right? You´re also a
primary teacher in the church right? Do what you want to do, but I think you
could be good at teaching little kids too, after having worked in the primary,
but there´s a difference between primary and elementary funnily enough. Y´know,
different ages.
Thanks for your experience about church in Turkey! I was really hit by it and
that´s a really good observation about going to church. I want the members here
to understand that it really doesn´t matter if you want to go or not, but that
it´s a commandment of God, and it´s a choice between if you want to follow him
or not. We have about 100 less active members here, so I want to work on that a
little. Don´t worry about me, I´ll always keep on doing the work even if it´s
rough at times. I know that this work is true even if others don´t and I want
people to know at least that, even if we don´t get a chance to teach them.
I can´t
wait until Mother’s day and I get the chance to talk to you all again! Then
afterward, it’s a 7 month gauntlet where I have to wait until Christmas to talk
to you all again. But, that seems slightly short and slightly long at the same
time, so for now, I´ll just focus on being able to call in about 4-5 weeks or
so. I love you all! See you around!
-Elder Ethan Merrill
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