The missionary work continues to roll forth

Sep. 23, 2013 ~ The southern hemisphere is moving into Spring as we are moving into Fall. Elder Merrill is working hard and staying enthusiastic! He is pretty awesome!

Yep, you´re right! (I said Happy 1^st Day of Spring to him in Spanish…with help from Google translate of course J)  But it´s not much of a Spring yet. It´s actually a little cold still.  And for you guys it´s still a little hot huh? Well, with Tucson, that doesn´t surprise me. We´ve got plans to go to the beach today. One of the symbols associated with Argentina is a sea lion, and there´s an area where they live nearby. I´ll see about taking some pictures and videos. 

        My new apartment is small.  It gives us the desire to go out and work because I get the feeling that the walls are closing in on me sometimes. But we have enough space to live and do stuff, so it´s all good. It´s just the 2 of us after all. We don´t have a lot of investigators at this moment, kind of a change, because in my last area, Quequen, we had more investigators than we knew what to do with, but here, it´s a bit of a fight to find people. But, I have a lot of experience working with people at this point, so we just try our best and I feel confident talking with people. As for the church that’s here; In the branch we have about 40 people on a good day. Not bad really, about the same as my last area. They´re really nice, but a bit hard to find anything in common. I´ll have to do some talking to gain some confidence. I´m always a little shy at first with people.   

        Well, I´m always exited to write you guys on Monday too. News from home and life back there is pretty cool. I´m excited for general conference, it´s only 2 weeks away.

          Ah, I understand the problem with the birthday box now. (It hadn’t been “lost” just “packed” in another box when the house had to get emptied to do all the repair work from the broken pipe/flooded home) Well, no worries, you´ll find it when they finish putting in the cabinets and stuff I guess. Like I say, no worries, just send it whenever you get done with everything and I´ll be content.  Hey, speaking of content, as long as we have a car, that´ll be good. Which car was lost? The silver one or the new blue one? (the silver one L)

          I enjoyed that talk by President Monson too, but ever since he gave it, EVERYBODY has been quoting it and it seems that I see it all over the place. But like I say, I liked that talk too. It gives us an idea of why god gives us commandments, perhaps we don´t understand why we should or shouldn´t do certain things, but he does. That´s why he gives them, to ensure our well being. 

         aw...ANOTHER person that won´t be there when I get back. *sigh* (Ryan Bos, another family friend, will leave for his mission to England in early January) Well, I don´t know if it really matters or not. They´ll all come home eventually too, but it´s nice to come home after a long journey and catch up with everyone. That´s hard to do if they´re not there. We´ll see how it goes.

           That´s about it for me too. Nothing new happing here for now, but I´ll let you know how things go here. I love ya all and take care! I´m doing fine and hope you guys are the same, I´m praying for you and hope that we´ll see each other again soon! Truth is, we WILL see each other again soon. Love ya! Bye!

                              -Elder Ethan Merrill   

Mom: Hey son! I am at work but the kids don't come in for a bit so I have about 20 minutes to chat with you! I LOVE YOU LOTS and LOTS! :) Sure am happy to say hi to you! J  Love Mom

Elder Merrill: LOL, I have about 10 minutes to talk, I´m stoked that I get to talk to you too! what´s today´s lesson for the kids?

Mom:  Well the trip to go see the sea lions sounds fun! I hope you get to do that. The car that got totaled was the silver one, dad took the blue one with him to North Carolina.  

Your ward sounds about the same size as the branch we had in Turkey.  Yeah, I'm a little shy when I first move into a new area as well, but then like you said, you start talking to people (and I bet you ARE really good at that now!) and before I know it, I start making friends and feeling like it's my area now. 

Today the weather is so nice and cool. It will get up to 90 but the morning air is great! I think it is about 62 right now. Nice!  I still think it's funny we are opposite seasons.  Funny in a good and interesting way. J   LOVE YOU SON!!!!!!!!!!!   J Love Mom

Elder Merrill: I can´t wait, I don´t have a coat with me right now, so we´re going to go to the apartment and grab a coat and a camera and then head off to this sea lion area.  Well, at least we still have 2 cars in our possession.  Yeah....I´d like to think I´m a bit better at talking with people now, but I´m still a little shy at first, like I say. 

       I don´t know what the temperature is now, but I´ll see about finding out. Speaking of finding out, you can look up my address on Google Earth. The only directions that I can give you is that I live in a tall building, on street 8, number 3976. The name of the building is gastronomical, if that helps at all.

      *sigh* this hour goes by too fast sometimes. I wish we still had an hour and a half. I got to go now......but I´ll be back next week! I sure love you and everyone else! I can´t wait for a reply, but know that I´m always thinking of you guys! See ya around! Love you!

                      -Elder Ethan Merrill