August 2, 2010

Dear Family, friends,

So yesterday at church it was pretty crazy. There was only 4 priesthood holders there. Us two elders, counselor in branch presidency, and one other. I had to play the piano for sacrament meeting, Elder Gardner blessed both bread and water, the counselor presided, and the other passed the sacrament. All together there was 19 people there. We had one visitor from Frankfurt with her two kids. There are several families on vacation so it shouldn't be that bad again. Next week we both have to speak in church. I will be the closing speaker which I'm kind of nervous about because it could be anywhere from 5 minutes time to 35 minutes time. The past week I thought a lot about you. It didn't really bother me at all that you were at the cabin, I just kept praying for you that it would be a relaxed, love filled vacation. Thanks for those pictures of all the cousins together. Dillon is a crack up. I got a letter today from Kiersten, Kelsey, and Kory. I have only read Kory's.

This week was pretty decent. We didn't have any appointments set up to start the week off, just because we didn't have much to draw from but we were still able to teach a bunch of lessons and find 2 new investigators. One night we were walking down the "boardwalk"(don't know what it it called in English) and I saw these two Polynesian people and I had this quick sudden feeling that I should talk to them. I did and ended up they were from Fiji. I was super excited to talk with them and told them that Gma and Gpa served there. We are going to meet with them tonight. Hopefully we can keep things going and get them coming to church with us.

There are so many miracles that are happening right now and it's great. The other day we were trying to see some inactive members. One of the addresses that we had had 0 as the house number and so we weren't sure. We tried finding something similar but didn't. I then had this feeling to go to house 10, maybe there could of been a typo. We got there and this members name wasn't there. As we were discussing what we should do it started pouring rain. A black guy walked up to the door and I started talking to him. We talked to him for a bit and then he said that he was a member of Christ's church. I took that as him being religious. anyways we figured out that he was actually an inactive member as well and was living with his buddy for a while. He invited us in out of the rain and then we taught him. He has had some problems in the past couple of weeks and it was just a miracle that we come in contact with him. The Lord definitely led us there to teach him. It's amazing how there are so many experiences how the Lord guides us through his spirit to those that need our help.

This week we have several appointments already made out and we are hoping to be able to teach 20 lessons this week. I have been trying for a while now to reach it but haven't quite been able to. It's great being able to serve here in Germany. There are many things that have helped me grow into a better person. I'm understanding more and more what really is important in life and how we must focus our lives around Christ if we ever want to achieve anything.

Well, I love you all and wish you the best.

"No Regrets"

Elder Merrill