Stomach bug and sort of a transfer

May 6, 2013

We got our weekly letter from Elder Merrill and our poor boy is recovering from a stomach bug, but he says he already doing better so that is good. He also got a transfer but hasn't left yet, read on for the details:

Well, here I am again. It´s kind of a funny/weird week I´ve had. I got super sick Friday, but I think it was just a small bug I had in my stomach. (not a real bug, don´t worry.) I took some Pepto-Bismol and that helped, but I´d be lying if I said I felt 100% up to speed. But don´t worry, I´m doing a lot better now.  Then transfers came around. I have been sent to yet another new place. This place is called Necochea. Funny thing is, I´m not there yet. As missionaries we all have to get to the different cities via a double decker bus. They´re all on strike right now and so they´re not in service. So, I haven´t arrived in my area yet and I won´t until the strike is over. Well, isn´t that just fun. But I like the place I´m at, there´s still work to do and we are fine with waiting. Work is work wherever it is.
   I´m super exited to able to call home, but I don´t know when! I want to be able to call home for the 19th to avoid a hassle, but the call conference thing that you did with Dad and Jess worked right? If I don´t get permission from president this week, maybe we´ll try that. The plan is this, I´m going to call him today and see if I can get permission. If I can or I can´t, I´m gonna write you a letter Wednesday morning and I´ll let you know what happens.
    It´s not super cold yet, but I have to wear a jacket more frequently now. We get a couple of cloudy days too. I like this weather though. I hope Kyle liked the prom, it sounded really fun. All that food sounds delicious, it´s funny what we have here from America and also what we don´t have.
   I can´t believe that the Lamoreaux´s are going! I didn´t know them too much, but well enough to miss them. And also that you don´t work in the primary for now. Well, let’s see if you keep that calling or not. Believe it or not I´ve been used by the ward to teach classes and stuff like that. (in Spanish.) Also the primary. That´s a bit of a nightmare, but I do fine I think.
   I hope you liked your astronomy class, I remember looking up through that telescope of yours and seeing things like Jupiter, or being able to see the moon move. It´s cool what’s up there huh? I remember rehearsals for graduation. I did exactly that I think. Practiced where we would sit and the path that we would walk.
   Our little branch is pretty much the same. It kinda sucks that we´ve grown only a little in the time I´ve been here but I think that growth in this branch is kind of a miracle. We actually have a laundry machine in our apartment so it washes it and then spin dries most of the water out, then we put it outside to air dry. We had a laundry mat in South Carolina though.
   Thank you for reminding me about the birthday! Remind me again the week before so that I don´t forget to send Stu a letter. (or the Monday before the 24th,)  I can´t wait to talk to you guys and see you all I hope! See ya around! Love you!

                        -Elder Ethan Merrill   

Mom: Hey bud you still there? LOVE YOU! Mom

Elder Merrill: Just barely here. I don´t have much time. Shoot me an E-mail though.

Mom: Hey son! Quick note, S's birthday is THIS friday, May 10th. He will be turning 24. I might have confused you with that. I'm sorry you are sick!! I do hope you are getting better! Wow a transfer, but not a transfer, that is interesting. You will have to let us know how the bus strike goes. I sure love you! Yes, definitely plan on calling on Mother's Day then, that will be easiest it sounds like. We will all just hang around here. Take care, stay warm, drink lots of liquids when your tummy settles! Good thinking with the pepto! LOVE YOU!!!! Love mom

Elder Merrill: Ah. I better write him a quick birthday E-mail. Yeah, I was a little confused. Don´t worry, I´m feeling a whole lot better now. I want to know when I´ll leave, but that´s up to the buses. I´ll write you Wednesday.  I am having a good week so far though health-wise.

Mom: That's good that you are feeling better. Sounds like a tummy bug alright. They are vicious but quick.  I just looked Necochea up, that's another good bus ride, north of Bahia Blanca and it's right on the coast of the South Atlantic Ocean. It might be a bit warmer there because of the water. How cool is it going to be to hear your voice soon!!! Woohoo! Anyway, take care son and know that I love you so much!!! Good job with all the lessons and teaching you do at church! You are awesome!!!! I keep you in my prayers and my heart all the time!! LOVE you lots son! :) Mom

Another Awesome Email Chat with Elder Merrill

It's another incredible chance to chat with Elder Merrill as he is at a computer writing letters. It is such a joy to have these moments; to feel like we are talking together despite the great distances.

Mom:  Hi son! Your letter just popped up, I'm so happy!!! I will go read your letter now but first I wanted to say hi, I'm here and I hope you are having a good afternoon.  Love ya! Mom

Elder Merrill:  Cool, I'm gonna write dad and Andrew Stockton and then you again. love you! -me

Mom: Sounds good son! You take your time, I'll be here.  :)  wow, from what you say, I'm glad it is just cloudy and not rainy! Season-wise, you are about half-way through fall and we are half-way through spring.  Yeah, it is definitely getting hot. I used to just turn the AC on for about 2 hours, from like 5-7pm. Now I have to start turning it on around 1pm because it is too warm.  We haven't had rain for quite a while too, we usually don't during the spring.  The little g round squirrels are out in droves right now though. They are so funny to me. And I'm glad you are still taking pictures regularly! :) Love you! Mom

Elder Merrill: Well cool. I'm all finished here, I have a half hour more or less to talk, so if you run out of things to talk about, don't worry. LOL

Mom:  Nope, I'm good! I'm your mom, I can chat forever!!! LOL. Stuart in fact is always teasing me when I'm going to Sis. Bahr's because she and I can chat for hours!  I'll be like "Hey, I'm going to Sis. Bahr's" and Stuart will say "Ok, we will see you on Thursday" and I'm like "HEY! It's only Monday! We aren't that bad!" But we are, lol.  We are babysitting Jessica's cat Roo and so Sparky is on the warpath! She still doesn't like any other animal.  Roo is sooooooo sweet! He loves to play and is crazy soft and silky.  He does this thing where he runs (and I mean runs!) up to you and flops on your feet like all of his bones have totally disintegrated and he can no longer move! So you have to pet him.  Well, he is downstairs and I'm up here now with Sparky at the computer and she feels like she has conquered her world by meowing very forcefully at Roo and so now she is purring up a storm because she is the Ultimate Queen once again. So silly. LOVE ya! Mom

Elder Merrill:  LOL, the stories about the cats are funny.  I wonder what made Jess & Brad decide on the name Roo. I wonder if they got it from Winnie the Pooh? That's the only reason I can think of.  I see a lot of cats and dogs here.  I usually get one of two responses from them. Dogs: 1. they will back at me and follow me around with this threat-like look in their eye or 2. I pet them and they sit there happily.  Cats:  They'll sit there and let me pet them, then they run away.  Animals sure are weird sometimes.  I just got the picture of Kyle's graduation announcement!

Mom:  Yeah, animals are odd at times.  I don't remember why they named their cat Roo, I'll have to ask them.  So what did you have for lunch today?  In your first area, you talked about getting pizzas, are they different from the ones here in America?  In turkey, they were more like cheese and sliced tomatoes on flatbread.  They had these mini-sized ones with very spicy beef that you and dad used to eat constantly!!! Love You! Mom

Elder Merrill:  For lunch, funnily enough, I had hamburgers today.  The pizza in Turkey that you described sounds weird and I don't think I'd like it now.  I think it's funny that I like hamburgers now.  I remember back at home, I didn't like them much.  I just took a bite and thought, "huh, this hamburger is pretty good." I bought them and ate them again today, lol.

Mom:  That is great, that you like the hamburgers!  Our tastes often change as we continue to get older. I hated tomatoes until we moved to Turkey and then one day (because they eat tomatoes with everything!) I tried one and loved it! Stuart came back from his mission eating salads (instead of just carrot or cucumber sticks) and I was just chatting with dad about what you would eat after your mission that you didn't before. Funny! I'm  glad you enjoyed it.  Oh yeah, I better remind Kyle to look for the picture collage when he is at Project Grad then. Good advice! LOVE ya! Mom

Elder Merrill:  That's funny - I still don't like tomatoes but they eat that a lot here.  Mayonnaise too. Heh, I wonder what'll be different about my tastes too.  I don't know, some things are slightly different here, but are similar still to something in the states, so I know waht I'm putting in my mouth most of the time.  I'll miss a lot of the foods here...I have to go now, I'm sorry I can't wait for a reply but know that I love you and the family! I miss you lots and I can't wait to call home to talk to you all!! See ya! Have a good week!  

Elder Ethan Merrill

Sharing the Week's News with Elder Merrill

April 29, 2013

Wow, it seems like April was just starting and now it's at the end and we are heading into May. Elder Merrill writes another great letter about how he is doing and reminiscing about his graduation night as we talk about his brother Kyle's upcoming graduation. Love you lots Elder Merrill :) 

Whoo! How are you guys doing? I haven´t had much to do this week, just the normal routine. Feels like a long Sunday huh? Some days it feels like I´m working forever, and others, it feels like I´ve been working for only 1 hour. The mission overall goes super fast though. Speaking of super fast, the 14th of May is when I hit 14 months and marks when I left the MTC a year ago. I remember being so excited and happy to get to go to work in the field. But that´s all that´ll be important. This is the last week of the transfer and I don´t know if I´ll stay or go, but I´ll be fine with either.

        That´s a neat story about the family who found out about the gospel while on vacation. Who knew that they would get back from their trip changed for always? I´m sorry about Elder Wynn. That´s gotta be rough. I remember one of the elders in South Carolina who had a grandpa who was dying. He got to talk with him on the phone for a little while. Well, I always pray that you guys are safe in my prayers. I miss you all too, but I know that we´ll see each other soon!

          Hot huh? Well, it´s getting a little bit colder here, but not a lot. We´ve been having a strange pattern with the weather here. It gets cloudy in the morning, clears up by about 3, and then gets cloudy again at around 7. Never rains though. It sucks walking in the muddy streets, so I´m glad if it’s just cloudy and no rain.

              I remember that picture collage! I almost missed it, then I saw a group of students looking at a bunch of pictures on the wall and then I realized, ¨Hey! I´m there on the wall!¨ I bet Kyle will like the LDS prom, I didn´t go, but I´m fine with that. The school prom was a bit more fun I think because I knew everybody. No worries, I´m taking a bunch of photos, and I try to make it distinct. I try to think to take a picture of something that is only found here in Argentina.

               The ward meeting here is interesting. We have the same schedule, sacrament and then the classes, we even have the same size building perhaps. (But this is one of the few that’s really big.) The only difference is the amount of people we have. If you can imagine sacrament meeting with only 20 people. That´s how ours is here. Yeah we sing in Spanish. I don´t have any of the songs memorized like I do in English, but I can understand the words now. Yeah, the missionaries always have to help out with something, from the sacrament to teaching classes.

            That´s about all for now really. I hope that you guys are all doing well and that things are nice and relaxing this week! I still need permission to call home the 19th instead of the 12th, but I think I´ll get it. I´ll call President Parreño by phone if I need to. I´ll let you know what happens with that. I love you all a lot and miss you all! See ya around!

                       -Elder Ethan Merrill 

Email Chat with our Awesome Son

April 22, 2013

I was able to have an email chat with Elder Merrill as he had his computer time to write letters. It is a blessing to have technology that allows these opportunities to communicate with him. We miss him so much and these moments are definitely treasured!

Mom: Hey Elder Merrill, I sure love you! What a joy to hear from you today! I hope your P-Day has been going well and thanks for writing another totally awesome letter! You are the best letter writer, that is for sure!Also, can I tell you how sincerely proud of you I am. You are doing such a great job as a missionary and you always seem to be trying to have the best attitude and keeping your eye on making each day a new, fresh start for getting out and getting work done. You are truly impressive to me!

Yep, quilt is done, yeah! Ok, I'll go re-read your letter again to think of more good comments and I'll chat with you some more. Answer other letters as you need to, I'll be here! LOVE YA!

Love Mom

Elder Merrill: Love you too! I´ll send you a letter at the end, but I only have this last one to write, so we actually have a bunch of time to chat today. Love you!

Mom: Hey son. Cool, I love when we get to chat! I was just talking to Jess (she is going to come over later to do laundry) and she says to tell you hi. :)

Yeah, the bombing thing was crazy. These 2 brothers from Chechnya (near Russia) had been living in the states for something like 8 years and the older one turned a bit fanatical and they set off 2 backpack bombs near the end of the race during the Boston Marathon. 3 people were killed and almost 200 were badly injured, it was all very sad. The FBI and other agencies combed through hours of video footage and put out pictures and after a couple of days, found them. The older brother was killed and the younger one wounded. It was all pretty crazy. But what a great job the law officers did in finding them so quickly and solving this.

What else is going on? Kyle has school prom this weekend and then the LDS prom next weekend, so he is looking forward to that. I am working on his picture collage, to get put up on the walls for Project Grad. He is ECSTATIC because the theme is Star Wars, lol.

So your shoes are holding out pretty good huh? I'm glad for that! And glad your dental work seems to be going well. LOVE YOU LOTS still :) Mom

Elder Merrill: Heya, I´m good. Tell Jess I say hi and that I miss her. Brad too.

        That bombing thing is pretty crazy! Well, with a bomb, it´s lucky that there were so few deaths, but over 200 badly injured? That´s pretty nuts. I wonder how people get that far gone. I don´t understand how in their mind hurting and killing solves things. But if they´re psychopaths, there really is no understanding they´re minds.

        I hope that Kyle enjoys his grad night, mine was a blast, but I had this funny feeling afterward, it was kinda like, ¨what now?¨ well, like I say, make a plan and just take it one step at a time.
    

        My shoes are doing pretty good actually. I think it’s possible that both will still be able to be used after the mission. But they probably won´t look pretty. But the point is, I can still wear them. I´m gonna go see the dentist in a week for the final part. 

Mom: I will tell them you said hi :)  I think Kyle will enjoy grad night a lot. It can be a bit of a weird moment, realizing that high school is over and adulthood is beginning. Having a goal or purpose sure helps. Yeah, he is slowly putting out job applications and then is planning on starting at Pima in August. He isn't sure when he wants to put in his missionary papers yet, but if I had to guess I would say not until next year.  Whenever he chooses, we will support him fully.

I am laughing at the part where you say your shoes might not look pretty. That's ok, as long as they continue to support your feet! 

The weather is good. We had some cool temperatures last week which I really liked. It is still nice in the mornings but I think it is supposed to be 90 for most of this week, hot afternoons that is for sure! No rain though.

How was grocery shopping today? What are you making for dinner tonight?? Do you guys take turns making dinner or do you make your own stuff each night?

Love Mom

Elder Merrill: Good good. I hope that they´re doing all good. I really enjoyed grad night, so I know Kyle´ll have fun with that. I didn´t know that he wanted to do college, That´ll be interesting. My younger brother will have had more schooling then me. LOL. I hope he has success finding a job.

       Yeah, my shoes aren´t torn up, but yhey´re a little worn now. One with a hole in the side, but I patched that up with some glue. I don´t mind the heat. The problem is that you can always put on more clothes as a missionary, but you can only take so many off. Walking around in a shirt and tie in summer can be murder. But it’s not so bad. I did do grocery shopping today, and I have lunch but I really don´t have dinner. I know that sounds super weird, but we have kind of a big lunch. I usually make my own stuff, and like I say, I make lunch nothing more. Hey, my time is almost up, I´m gonna stay so you can E-mail me and then I´m gonna reply and go.

Mom: You have a super week son and know that we love you so very very much! Stay safe and healthy and keep on pressing on with the work!!!! You are wonderful son and we keep you in our hearts and prayers all the time. LOVE YA!!!!!!

Elder Merrill:I sure love you mom! I hope that you have an awesome week too and let everyone know that I´m thinking of them! I´m praying for you guys everyday and I hope that you all have success in everything you do! love you lots and see you next week!

Mom: See ya next week son! xoxo Love Mom :)