December 23, 2009

Hello Family,

I'm really glad that you all liked your Christmas presents. It's a good thing that Christmas only comes once a year. The Weinachtskrippe (nativity set) was my favorite. I wanted to make sure you got one. We were in Düsseldorf a couple weeks ago and I saw a guy from Israel with his Christmas stand. All of the stuff he had was made out of olive wood. He had a couple that were better but they were unbelievably expensive. All of the stuff he had was from Jerusalem. The one you have was my favorite. The boys' ties are all European. I'm glad they all liked them. The Girls' scarves were my favorites and I thought they would look pretty classy with them. I'm glad that you had a good early Christmas.

I got a little package from The Bruce Merrill Family. They are way too nice. I wasn't expecting to get anything from anyone else. They had some Rice-Krispies in it, candy, and LETTERS. Way cool.

So yesterday we had zone conference and I got a letter from Seth. It was about 10 lines long but it was way cool to hear from him. It's crazy that it has almost been a year. I got a letter from Mary Whithers also.

So my new companion is sweet. I love him. He is pretty relaxed and way easy to along with. He and his family are converts to the church. He was baptized when he was 10. It's a pretty cool story to listen to. He remembers the missionaries and everything and it is just a motivation to find a family. He is the oldest of 4. He played lacrosse, hockey, and football in middle school. It's way good. He is a good missionary and has good desires. He gets really nervous when we teach or do finding time but he does it. He gives good testimony and helps me teach. I'm really loving it. I'm way stoked. Tonight we are going to go carolling with some of the ward. We got about a foot of snow in a day and a half. It was way sweet. Sadly it is all going away. It's warming back up.

This last week Elder Texierra (area presidency) asked all the missionaries to set appointments with new members and say a prayer with them and before hand to ask them for people that we could pray for. We had an appointment last night with a family that is less-active as well as one of the sons being a newly baptized convert. We taught a good spiritual thought about the birth of Christ and how much God loved us to send his Son. At the end I asked if I could say a closing prayer and I asked them who we could pray for during this Christmas time. They gave me three different names, two of them being non-members. I said a prayer and it was really a blessing. The lord loosened my tongue and the spirit filled the room. I blessed each one of the individuals that they would have help in their weaknesses. After the prayer was over they wished a good evening and they thanked us for being worthy missionaries and sharing the gospel. They said that the next appointment we have with them that they would invite these two individuals to hear the message of the Restoration and what we believe as a church. Overall it was a sweet experience.

The Lord is blessing us missionaries and the mission is changing way fast. I will give you a little number information that will be able to let you know how different the mission is to stateside and how it's changing for the better and making more progress. So usually per month we have between 12-14 baptisms. December in the past has been the worst month as far as numbers. As of last week the mission already had 13 baptisms and 11 or so are scheduled to go through before the end of this month. Pretty sweet. The Lord is in the work. As we as missionaries strive to make ourselves better teachers, finders, and examples of the Gospel the Lord gives us the opportunity to use our skills and help those we come in contact with.

I plan on calling on the 25th (Germany has two Christmas's) at around 8:00 p.m. my time which means 11:00 your time. I wish you all the best and hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that you have a ton of fun at the cabin.

"No Regrets"

Love,
Elder Merrill