A very expensive car that Kyle spotted.

He thought this beehive was interesting.

Hello Mom and family,

Things are so awesome here in Langen. I am with Elder Sessions from Pleasant View, Utah. He has an identical twin in the Berlin Mission right now. Pretty cool kid. We get along very well. I am so excited about the work here. We are working hard but we aren't teaching as many lessons as I would like to. We are going to really step it up this week and put our trust in the Lord to lead us where we need to go to teach.

So something kind of cool, last night we went to the church in Darmstadt and I played on the piano in the chapel. This wasn't Just any other Piano, it was the piano from Präsident Uchtdorfs talk "Lift where you Stand". Ya, kind of a cool experience. It seems like all the people around here Know him personally.

Well we have a pretty sweet investigator that is really starting to progress. We are really hoping that he will progress to baptism this cycle. I am so excited to teach him. Last night he came to young single adult FHE and he really enjoys it. We are going to really focus on him. On sunday we had 4 investigators to church! Wow it was sweet. We are in a small branch but it is awesome.

This last week we got to serve this old couple in the branch. We dug a hole and filled it with rocks then covered it and then help him get rid of some old metal. Wow service is pretty fun. I love it. There are some sweet people in the ward and they are so happy to help my german become better.

Oh, ok so the last couple of days have been murder for the weather. It is amazingly humid and hotter than ever. I saw a thermometer that said 42° which comes to be 107! Ya we were out doing doors. I never really have experienced humidity but ya everything on your body is wet. Not my kind of fun, but we make it fun.

Ok I was thinking about some of the things that I can't get here in germany and #1 on the list would be a top sheet! I can't stand it. So that would be pretty awesome if you could send me one. Ummm I forgot my planner and I had stuff written down in it. Also some good cd's of church music and even some other music that is uplifting and inspiring. OK what else... ummm well if you are feeling really nice you could get me some perfect push-ups. Pictures would be way sweet too. Umm there was something else that I cant remember. A thumb drive so I can save pictures onto it. Ok so i will let you know in next weeks email.

So I hope the blog is going well and you are able to keep up on it. Thanks for all of your love and support. Oh I was going to tell you about our bikes. They are ok nothing like ours at home. My bike tire is bent a bit so it always rubs on the brake pad so I just undid the brake so I didn't have any resistance. We ride them probably every other day but the first day I got so saddle sore and we only rode for a total of about 20 minutes.

Well tell the family to stay happy and to study the scriptures. Thanks for Andrew's email. That's cool he got a Baptism. Elder Waddoups got one this last week too. Kinda cool. Well thanks for everything and I love you all. I am excited to write you next week because I know I am going to have a sweet story for you.

"No Regrets"

Liebe euch,
Elder Merrill

p.s. please tell Michael Sisemore Happy Birthday for me and tell him that I'm doing well here in Germany.

Hello Family,

Thanks for the letters. Ya I'm getting transfered. I leave tomorrow morning to Langen. It is close to Frankfurt so I think that I may be able to go to the temple.

Yesterday we had a lesson with an investigator. A young family in the ward invited us and our investigator over for FHE. It was pretty sweet! We had a good lesson taught to us by Brother Ruckauer and we answered some sweet questions from our investigator. We ended with singing a song, I chose "I Am A Child of God". It was sweet. He sang with us! The spirit was strong and I am excited to hear about him in the future. I think it was good for him to see some "Normal" people from our church.

Ya, so thanks for your letter so much. My new companion is Elder Sessions. I dont know much about him yet but next week I will fill you in. I am so excited though. We are going to be in a branch and we will travel with bikes and by foot. I guess they are small little communities. I am so excited.

Wow, so it sounds like things are going to be pretty crazy here soon. It takes about 7-8 days for any letters from the U.S. to get here. I'm suprised that mine get there so fast. That's cool though. It's hard to see the youth make bad decisions. I really don't understand why they do it. I have seen the affects of every bad choice you could make, here in germany and everytime the results do not look like they are from God. I really feel bad for those people who do not understand or choose not to follow.

Yesterday we drew the plan of salvation on the sidewalk and then taught lessons to people passing by. It's amazing how many people care less about what will happen to them or the reason for life. I taught about 4-5 whole lessons, by myself, to people on the street in about 2 hours. Thats pretty good here. Each lesson was about 10-15 minutes long. that will give you a little gist of how I'm doing with the language. The lord really has blessed me with learning the language and I credit him for everything I have learned. I Know that only through Christ we can be saved. It is a wonderful message we are teaching. The message of the Restoration opens so many doors. I am grateful for my chance I have to serve a mission, even if I've been cursed at, rained on beyond belief, had cigarettes thrown at me, been told "I'll kill you", been followed, yelled at in the face, and many other wonderful experiences. It just makes the message even sweeter.

I love this work and I love you all. Thank you for your love, support, letters, and especially your prayers. Your prayers are what help me more than anything. The Lord is blessing me personally and I am growing and becoming a disciple of Christ. Thank you again and love you all.

"No Regrets"

Liebe euch,

Elder Merrill

Kyle in the Streets of Karlsruhe

Hail Storm

This was after a severe rain and hail storm. He could dump water out of his shoes.

May 12, 2009

Thanks for the letter. Sounds like things are really hoppin at home. It was really nice to be able to talk with you and the family on Sunday. I felt kind of bad that I started to cry when I talked to Kelsey because I didn't with any of the other kids. Hopefully, they don't feel like they aren't as loved as much, I love them just as much.

Things here in Germany are pretty much the same. This last week has been really slow. I am really excited about the work and I don't want it to go away. This week one of our investigators said that they didn't want to meet with us anymore because she didn't think that she could make it. I felt absolutely terrible. I bore my testimony to her right before we left and I pray that she was able to feel the spirit. It is so hard to hear people say that they aren't able to accept our message because they don't know. Many of our investigators don't keep their commitments which is another hard thing. I wish they could figure out that keeping there commitments will bless their life. I don't understand and its hard to see them not progress.

My testimony of faith is growing so much. I know its growing a lot because I can see myself change. I strive to always have a little smile on my face all the time so that people can see a little bit of the light of Christ in me. The language is still hard but I know that through my faith and diligence my father in heaven is blessing me and that he is helping me to grow at a rapid rate.

I take every chance I can to study the gospel. That is one thing that I miss from the MTC is being able to study so much. I wish I would have done a little better.

This is the only true church on the earth. I know that it is without a doubt. Too many blessings and miracles have come through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for all your love and support and please keep praying for me and sending me letters of encouragement as well as filling me in on your lives. I love you all. I want you to know that this is real. We don't get another chance; make it your best.

"No Regrets"

Love,
Elder Merrill

May 5, 2009

Hello Mom, Dad, and family,

First off--Kiersten A TICKET. What are you thinking? Who would do such a thing? :)

OK, I am sorry. I realized this morning that I haven't really told you any of our stories of teaching. Right now we are teaching several investigators and hopefully one of them will be baptized within the next month. We are teaching this family from Africa and they have three kids. They are a sweet family and I think that they will join the church as soon as they recieve a witness. We are also teaching this college kid that is cool. He is 24 but looks like he is 18. We met with him yesterday and he said that he really thinks that the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith could be true. He was way excited when we first talked with him and went home and studied a little bit about our church. He has a Book of Mormon now and seems way excited to read it.

We are also teaching another lady who has been an investigator for about 4 years. We had an intense lesson with her last night and we asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. She said she did but what is holding her back is that she was baptized in to the Lutheran church and doesnt really want "another" baptism. I bore my testimony to her that we have to go by faith and that I wanted her to pray this week and that she will know that it is the right thing to do. We will meet with her again and hopefully she will be baptized.

We have had kind of a really crazy week though. We got in contact with a former investigator and he wanted our help with his drinking problem. We met him in a park and took his beer from him and dumped it on the grounds. We went back to his house and threw away between 150-200 beer bottles! They are like 30-45 oz. bottles too. It took a while but he is for sure an alchoholic and its sad to see what it does to their lives. He has lost his whole family. He wants to change but he is so addicted he can't go a day without drinking. We will hopefully meet with him tonight and help him again.

Another experience that I found funny and that I thought you might like to know was that we were sitting on a baun and some guy just started yelling things out in German. He was yelling at us of course and told us that we were British murderers. He told me that I was lucky that he didnt have his gun with him or else I would have been dead right then. I found it funny. Crazy Germany. Ya, I didnt think I would have so many experiences in the first month. Well, thank you for everything. Love you all and I pray for you.

"No Regrets"
Liebe euch,
Elder Merrill