Hey Mom, Dad, Family, And Friends,

I am very excited to be serving in Solingen! My first Sunday here was really pretty sweet. I tried my hardest to shake the hand of every member in the ward and introduce myself. I was able to share my testimony in Sacrament Meeting. During Sunday School the Bishop came and grabbed me out of the class. He asked me a couple questions about myself and then he handed me a nice folder with all of the Ward information. It was sweet. It had a list of all the active members, a list for all the less actives, and a list for all the inactives. He asked me to write down the people that we visit and then to report on it. It will definitely help us share the gospel. I'm way excited to be working here. Last night we brought one of the Priests with us to an appointment. It was really cool to have him come along because he wants to be with us missionaries and help teach. I am really excited and am looking forward to the success this area will see.

Oh man, well my companion, Elder Gruber, is from Minnesota and he comes from a fairly small family but he is the only boy. Wow, I'm grateful to be able to serve with him. He is only a couple months older than me on the mission. He will have been in this area since April so I wouldn't be surprised if he left and I got a new companion.

Well, things are going good for me. We have one investigator right now. His name is Rolf Peters. He is about 58 and blind. It's good to teach him though because he always helps us with our German.

We helped this member move and his house he was moving from was like a mansion. It was amazing. I thought it was like a government building. If I were to guess how much it would go for it would probably be about 4-5 million. Pretty sweet house.

Well, Love you all and look forward to getting some more letters from the kids and others ;) Thanks again for your love and support.

"No Regrets"

Love
Elder Merrill

I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go!

Hello family,

That's right, Getting transferred again. My new address will be:
Werwolf Str. 32 42651 Solingen

It was kind of disappointing but I was thinking about it and it's where the Lord wants me to go. My new companion will be Elder Gruber. I don't know too much about him other than he was trained by Elder Henderson. I think that we are going to get along really well. He is District Leader and a very good missionary. I feel blessed to serve with him.

It's been great serving here in Leverkusen. I've progressed a lot as far as the language goes and I'm extremely thankful for Elder Moffat and his help. He was always really patient with me and helped me become a better missionary. There are so many more things that I need to do to become better so hopefully I can pick something for this next cycle and become better at it.

Sounds like the Family is doing really well. That was a way sweet picture of Kelsey. That could be made for one of the life size pictures that you want to do downstairs. I have a question for you. Did you ever get Some Chocolate in the mail from me? I sent some in an envelope so I'm hoping it got there OK. If not please let me know.

So on Sunday we met with Petros and watched the Restoration video. It was way sweet. Everything worked out well and the spirit was way strong. Unfortunately, I'm leaving but Elder Moffat will do great teaching him. We both bore testimony of Joseph Smith and the Spirit was way strong. It is awesome to see him feel the Spirit. He loves meeting with us and he is progressing pretty well.

Well, I would like to hear about sports more and how Korbin is liking football. How's Kory doin? How many girlfriends does he have? How's Kiersten handling without a car? Is she liking the Student Rep thing? How's Katie feeling? Is she playing any sports right now? How about Kelsey? Any more dates? How's Dad liking hay being done? Is he going to have a project this winter? How does the Yard look after this last summer?

We didn't have bikes in this area but I'm not sure about my next area. The weather is still warm but it's going to start to get cold here really quick. I am able to wear my long sleeve shirts again so it's good weather. We take buses everywhere as well as by feet. One set of my shoes already has a couple big cracks in them unfortunately but that's life. My pants are really faded but they still look OK. It's missionary work. I love it. I'm really working on giving my best and forgetting about things that don't matter any more. I know that as I work on giving my best that the Lord will bless me.

Well I send my love and I wish you the best this week. Hopefully all is good over there. Thank you for your prayers and love. I wish you the best and I love you ton.

"No Regrets"

Love,
Elder Merrill

September 15, 2009

Hello Family,

This last week has been pretty sweet. Last pday we went and I bought a coat for the winter. It looks pretty nice I think but it cost quite a bit. We looked through a bunch of stores and they were all expensive or they weren't very thick. I found a coat that I liked in a store called Kaufhof. It's kind of like a JC Pennies or something like that. It cost me 140 Euro. Something that I had to get though. The weather is getting colder and colder so I'll start to use it here in the coming weeks.

Transfers calls are this Saturday. I think that we will probably stay together but there is also a really good chance that Elder Moffat could train. There are only 3 German Goldens coming in this transfer so he could very well train one of them. It will be interesting to see what happens.
I got a letter from Sandy Beus last night. She wrote me a really nice letter. She said that Dad seems to be leading the ward with love, that, mom, you are very loving and a wonderful mother, that the girls are beautiful, Korbin is a man (since when), and Kory is just Kory. It was a really nice letter. I wrote her back this morning before emails and I'll send that off today.

This last week we taught this guy who is a pole vaulter. He is moving to South Africa pretty soon but he was way cool. We just looked him up and apparently he was 6th in the world in 2001. Pretty crazy. He was a way cool guy. He let us in and we taught him. He said that he will try to visit our church before he leaves but if not for sure when he gets back.

This last week has been pretty sweet. On Friday morning we had an appointment with a newly found investigator, Petros. It was our second time meeting with him. We went to his place but unfortunately he wasn't there. We called him but no answer. It was sad. That day we were eating lunch and we had an impression to call him up again. I called him and he answered. We asked where he was and he said that he was in the hall. We asked if we could come by in a half hour. He agreed. We quit lunch early and left immediately. We were waiting for a bus to come that would take us there. This bus showed up that we had never taken before or never even seen. Elder Moffat asked the bus driver if he was going to where we needed to go. He was going to the exact place. We got on the bus and it stopped only twice before our stop when the other buses stop 7-8 times. We were able to make it to his house in exactly a half hour. We taught him a short lesson and set up a return appointment. It was was sweet. The miracle to that story was that later we found out that the bus we took only came once a day and that it only made a couple stops. It was a cool experience for both of us to see the hand of the Lord in our work. As we were striving to listen to the Spirit the Lord blessed us.

That's crazy we got a new patriarch. Is Patriarch Andelin still doing it? Are the Darts in our ward now or what? Sounds Like Chiawana is pretty big. How does Kelsey like it? It's crazy how people are getting married. Is Emily Davidson already married?

It's crazy, here in Germany all the old people ride bikes. Like 80 yr. old people ride bikes like nothing. They can ride a bike better than they can walk. So Korbin is taking my room over huh. That's cool. Hopefully I'll still have a couple of clothes left when I get home. Speaking of clothes. the picture you sent me of dad with all the bishops, he was wearing both my pants and my shirt. (Kyle is wrong, Todd was wearing his own pants.) I couldn't see the shoes he was wearing but it wouldn't of surprised me. I laughed about it. Feel free to use my clothes. Sister Dietrich is a very sweet old grandma. I love her. Well thanks for all the love and support.

Dad thanks for the email. I opened it up and I read "sorry I haven't written to you a whole lot. Love dad" and then that was it. I was like you have got to be kidding. I scrolled down and then I saw that you had written an email. Thanks for that. I'm sure it was a way scary experience. I don't know what I would have done. How long do you figure you were under the water? I'm glad everything turned out OK.

Thanks for your love, support, and updates on the farm. You should get the county to move the power lines to the edge of the field then it would be a lot easier for circles. Sometimes I see tractors and I get a little home sick for working on the farm. I love it. I'm doing great though.
I am forgetting myself and doing what I can to serve those around me. It's a miracle to watch myself change into a man and not focus on me rather focusing on serving others. You have been a good example to me with serving others. I remember so many times were you took me to serve someone and then all the times that you served me when you didn't have to.
I am grateful for my family and the examples you are to me. Thank you all and I love you.

"No Regrets"

Love,
Elder Merrill

September 8, 2009

Hallo Liebe Familie,

Everything is going good here in Leverkusen. We have interviews today so that ought to be pretty sweet. I love talking with President. He is really 100% focused on the missionary work in Germany and he knows what he's talking about.

It's great to hear from you mom. Pretty crazy rafting story. Where did you go Rafting? Sometimes I think about how terrible it would be to get a phone call saying that one of my family members was seriously injured or worse. I know that the Lord looks out for us and that he knows what we need and how we should receive it.

This past week was a pretty blessed week. We were blessed by our efforts to sacrifice and to only speak German. On Saturday night we were doing finding time knocking doors and we knocked into a man from Africa. He said that he had visitors and that it wasn't a good time. We asked if we could come back another day and teach him, he agreed. We were able to set up an appointment for the very next day (Sunday). The next day we returned to meet him. We taught him a first lesson with him asking many good "Investigator" questions. We were able to answer them for him. We were able to commit him to hearing all of the lessons and to try it out for himself. We were blessed to hear him say that he would like to hear our lessons and to try it out. We committed him to reading about the Book of Mormon and to pray about it and also about Joseph Smith. We promised him that if he really wanted to know that he would receive an answer through prayer. It was an awesome lesson. This experience strengthened my testimony about sacrifice and how if we strive to do our best the Lord will never give us the short end of the stick. I'm grateful for the personal blessings I have received that have strengthened my testimony and helped me grow closer to my Savior Jesus Christ.

We went to Sister Dietrich's Yesterday and she fed us lunch. She gave us each two huge chicken legs, tons of potatoes, and then salad. She expected us to eat all of it so we did. Usually missionaries have to deal with eating disgusting stuff but here, so far, all I've had to worry about is making enough room for it to all fit. She is such an old nice lady. Right before we left she gave us each a bunch of food and the the best of it all she gave us each a hug. I shook her hand and then she said, "Oh come on, I'm an old grandma. You get a hug." :) It was great. It felt so good, even from an 75 year old lady. It made me feel really loved. She was great. No, we never eat with our napkins tucked in but she had us do it because she's a nice old grandma. The ward is really nice and I'm grateful to serve here.

Thank you so much for your letter each week. I'm so grateful that I am able to receive an email/letter from someone each week. It helps us missionaries out. I know it's tough to write missionaries and that it is expensive. That's why I don't expect too many letters. I appreciate the ones I get though.

Well, love you all and I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission. I'm glad that every one is OK and that no one has gotten hurt. Stay safe and keep being "Member Missionaries".

Love you all so very much. "No Regrets"

Love
Elder Merrill

German Only Week

Hello Mom, Dad, and Family,

This week were are having in our companionship a Deutsche Woche (ONLY GERMAN). It's pretty cool. I still make millions of mistakes but I know how far I've come and how much I've been blessed because I knew absolutely nothing. It's pretty sweet. Right now we are kind of in a deep rut. We don't have any investigators but we are working extra hard to find some. It's tough being a missionary with no investigators. Hopefully things will flip around. I'm really trying to concentrate on my prayers and have faith that I will be led to those that are ready.

Yesterday we had a good opportunity to serve some people. First off we were going by on inactives and seeing if we could get in contact with them. We went by on two of them and then we were waiting for a bus to go to the next one. There was this older man sitting down and he didn't look very good. He asked us for some water and Elder Moffat gave him some. He was breathing pretty hard and sweating bad. He then said that he needed an ambulance and so we called one for him. It took them about 15-20 minutes to get there. They took him into the ambulance and then 10 minutes later or so one of the guys came out and said that he was probably going to be OK. I think he was experiencing a mild heat stroke. He told us that he had had a by-pass surgery earlier so I was kind of scared he was having a heart attack. They took him to the hospital and then we went on our way being missionaries. Later during the day we were walking on the sidewalk and some lady was riding in her electric wheelchair. She only had one leg and she was OLD. She saw us and then stopped. She called us over and then she asked us to lift her up and slide her further back in her seat because she was sliding down. We helped her and then we went on our way again. These two people we were able to help out and they both appreciated it. We will probably never see them again but I know that someday they will remember us missionaries.

I received both Kraymer's and Kaitlan's letters the other day. The only problem is I don't know to what address I should write Kaitlan back to. She should be at college now so ya can't really send her a letter. Last week I also got a really nice letter from Jace. He expressed his thanks to me for the example I am to him and for the effort I put forth to get him to church and Mutual activities. I only wish that I could have been better. There are several times and people in my life that I look back on and wish I would have been a better example to and been better at sharing the gospel with. I think the mission I am in right now is to help me realize how much better I could of, should of been. I am really thankful for the opportunities I have had so far on the mission and I know that I will have so many more humbling/testimony building experiences.

Sounds like things are really starting to slow down especially with the kids in school. It's crazy to think back to when I was home. It only seems like a couple of weeks ago and I'll be out for 7 months tomorrow. It's amazing how time flies. Well today we will be getting haircuts, shopping for food, and then I'm pretty sure we are going to the Dome again and we might go somewhere else. It feels like I'm still in the states but just speaking a different language and different lifestyle. It's really weird.

Thanks for keeping me in your prayers and please continue to do so. I know that the power of prayer is real. My faith in prayer grows more and more each time I pray with real intent. I need to really focus on making my prayers better but I know it takes time. Everything in the gospel takes time. I'm thankful for this experience to serve a mission and even though I might lose a couple of opportunities at home I wouldn't give it up for any of them. I know that the Lord has blessed me, that he is blessing me, and that he will continue to bless me, even after my mission. I am striving to stay obedient, to develop Christlike Attributes and being the best I can.

Thank you so much for your love and support. It really does help to have you write me every week. I love you mom. Thank you. I know that our family is the most important thing in this world. Thank you for raising me to be a righteous hard working missionary of our Lord Jesus Christ. Love you.

"No Regrets"

Love,
Elder Merrill