November 23, 2010

pic: 2 of the 3 goldens that I've trained. I was hoping that Elder Schuetz would also be there.
Dear Mom, Dad, Family,

Sounds like you are going to have a fun Thanksgiving. You will have to tell them all that I love them and miss them. Tell Landon that we'll have to go skiing or something when I get back. Tell Taya good luck with marriage. Tell Tosha that I would like to hear from her. Hopefully things go well with Grandpa and his surgery. That's pretty cool that it's snowing there already. It's supposed to snow here tomorrow but I don't know if it will. It's cold enough to but I don't think it will happen.

With Sandra and Joserio, they weren't able to meet last week at all because they were sick and had lots of things going but hopefully we will set a date this week. The zone leader meeting was really good as it always is. I always enjoy going there and learning from the other missionaries as well as from President Ninow. There are so many things that I need to do better as a missionary and just as a person. There are many blessings that we receive for our work and obedience. We have a goal set for 200 baptisms this year and we need 60 more. If every companionship were to have a baptism in the month of December we would over shoot the goal. We are going to be working really hard for it. December is a month of miracles. I know that we can all achieve this goal. We just need to exercise our faith and put our shoulder to the wheel. Last year, December was our highest baptizing month and so this year we will also make it our highest baptizing month. I ask you all to pray that we may be able to achieve this goal and help those enter into a covenant with the Lord. Tobias is having a tough time and he won't answer our phone calls. I don't know really what's up with him but hopefully he'll be OK. I talked to his mom and she said that he is just in a tough situation and that's it. Another proof to how much the gospel blesses us in life. When we live the gospel and keep the commandments it makes us free from difficult preventable trials in our lives.

My new companion is Elder Trujillo (pronounced Spanish). He is from Roosevelt, UT. He is a good missionary, a little discouraged with the language and being away from family but he'll do fine. I try to help him out as much as I can. It's a great opportunity to train again. I hope that I can do it well and help him become an exceptional missionary. He is from a small family one older brother and one younger. He's the first to serve a mission so it's a little difficult for him not having any expectations. I love him. He is a good companion and works well. He is willing to learn and tries to do his best.

Today we will be going to the Christmas Market. I'm really excited. I'll make sure to take some pictures and send them to you. I think I might of told you last week but Dortmund has the biggest Christmas tree in the world. It's way cool. There is like a metal frame and then a bunch of trees are strapped to it. It looks really cool actually. I'm gonna make that my Christmas Card for this year.

Thursday we will be having Thanksgiving with the Zone. The Youngs are going to be making the Turkey for us so it aughta be pretty fun. Last year I remember not having anything. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It's almost December!

Well I hope you all have a good week and hope to get some pictures of the party you will be having. I love you all so much. Thanks for being great parents as well as brothers and sisters. Keep working on the missionary work and you'll be blessed. 2 Nephi 4:8 Love you all so much.

"No Regrets"
Love
Elder Merrill

November 15, 2010

Dear Mom, Dad, and Kids,

So first off. I'm Training again. Elder Wilde is going to Mannheim and I'll be getting another Golden fresh from the States. I'm still Zone Leader with Elder Gunnell which I'm happy about. I am pretty sure that I will stay here in Dortmund until I go home. Funny story, I told Elder Wilde this morning when I'm going home and he was going crazy. He thought that I was going home a couple months later and so it was a shock for him. I'm going to do the same with this next companion and not tell him when I go home because he might be with me until I do go home.

I went on two splits last week that both were pretty good. The first split was in Paderborn with Elder Gardner's Golden, Elder Rampton and it was fun to be there again. Elder Rampton is a good missionary. The other split was in Siegen with Elder Elison. He goes home on Thursday.

I love my mission so much. There is just sweet people that you meet everyday that need my help and I love doing my best to help them on that path.

This last week we got another new referral from that less active member that we had helped. This referral is also from Brazil and she is great. They both came to church and want to keep coming. I hope that they keep this excitement going and progress more in the Gospel. We will be setting a baptismal date with Sandra, the new investigator, on Tuesday. She has never been baptized before and really wants to. She said that she met with the missionaries a long time ago in Brazil and that she also went to church there a couple of times. It's crazy how those missionaries that may have taught her will probably never know that she is investigating the Gospel and that she is progressing. I wonder how many people I've talked with who later met with the missionaries.

I'm excited to go down to Frankfurt again. I will go down tomorrow evening and stay the night there. We will have a trainers meeting with President and Sister Ninow and the Assistants. Wednesday morning we will find out who our new companions are and then back we will go to Dortmund. By the way next week we will be doing Pday on Tuesday probably because Elder Gunnell and I will be in Frankfurt for a Zone Leader Meeting. I love being able to serve others, missionaries and non-members especially.

Well we have some sweet miracles going down here in Dortmund and it's wonderful. If you could pray for Sandra, Tobias, Sister Wrobel (Vrobel), and Joserio that would be great. Maybe have the family pick someone they can pray for. I would really appreciate that alot. Thanks for being such a great family. I am thankful that you have the desire to do missionary work and help others learn to know the Gospel. It's a wonderful feeling to share it with those that accept it. I will be sending a Christmas Package in the next two weeks but I'll let you know when I send it. The Christmas Markets open up this weekend and so next week I'll be finishing up Christmas. I love you all so much and thank you for your love and support. The gospel is amazing and it brings so much joy into our lives. Hope you have a wonderful week this week. Let me know what your plans are for Thanksgiving. We will be eating with the Youngs (senior couple). We might try to organize a Turkey bowl as well. The work is going well.

"No Regrets"

Love,
Elder Merrill

November 8, 2010

Dear Mom, Dad, and Kids,

So this week was a pretty good week. My split with Elder Ellis was only a couple of hours long but it was enjoyable. We went to the District meeting in Hagen and it was really good. I think that the missionaries are doing well and they just need a boost of energy. We had some appointments that went well and some that didn't go quite so well. The other week we did some service and we got the referall contacted and are teaching them both right now. It's pretty cool. This is my first time that I've found an investigator through service.

On Sunday this Lady showed up for church and she went up half way through Sacrament and started talking at the podium. She was saying how the German country was so terrible for allowing gay marriages and how the world is terrible. She talked about how her brother is addicted to cocain and different things. She said that she was watching youtube videos and that she saw Chinese people eat dogs and cats. It was the worst I've ever seen or heard. The counselor to the Bishop got up and told her to stop. Pretty crazy. It's definately different here.

I'm going on a split tonight in Paderborn. I will be working with Elder Rampton. He is just finishing his golden transfers so it should be fun. I don't know what's going to happen with transfers. It's always a suprise. Today we played basketball a little bit which was fun. I haven't played for a while. I will be going to send a Christmas package to you all probably the last week of November. I need to wait until the Christmas market opens up.

I don't know what to say really. Not to much happening on my side. Kiersten sent me an email last week. She said that she's having fun. I'm glad that she can find time to write. Kelsey as well. It's starting to get cold. My clothes are reaching the end of their wear. I've got ripped pockets, torn out crotches, and ripped suit coats. They should be able to last me through the winter. I'm not really planning on buying any more clothes. I can make it all work.

Well not much to say this week. That's awesome that Korbin's getting to practice with the Varsity. I hope he gets the picture that he needs to work out and get bigger. We'll work on that. Hope you are all doing well physically. Did Grandpa get my email? Tell him that I send my Love. I miss him and can't wait to see him again. Thanks for all that you do. What happened to the Dino Rossi thing? Did he win? How about other news? Anything I should know about?

Well I love You all so much. Thanks for being a great family and great examples of the Gospel. It's great to be a part of the Merrill Family. I hope you have a good week and sorry again that the email is so short. Not much to write about. It's kind of hard to think right now because of some missionaries that I'm thinking about. I'll try to do better next week.

Love you

"No Regrets"
Elder Merrill

November 1, 2010

Dear Mom, Dad, and Kids,

Dad, thanks for keeping up this writing streak. I really enjoy hearing from you. Mom does a great job writing me but there is something about getting letters from the Father that is different and it just makes reading emails complete. I got the voting ballot and I sent it last week so Dino's got my vote. I also got the package with the debit card, coins, and Letter in it. Thanks for that again. I really owe you for that. I got the medicine a while ago so that's OK. I don't take it all the time just when I need to. I am doing well though physically. I've gained weight back. I'm back up to 182 now. I'm still way under what I was when I left but we got some weights that we lift in the morning for exercise so hopefully I'll gain something back.

We were able to teach those people I talked about last week which was a good experience. Also this week we were walking down the street trying to find an address when a lady called out "Elders". We turned around and talked with this lady. She said that she used to meet with missionaries a while ago but hasn't in quite some time. She was moving on Saturday to a new apartment and asked for our help. When we were done moving all of her stuff for her (may I include that it was super heavy and up 4 flights of stairs) she said that she wants her boyfriend to learn more about 'her' church. I asked her which church she belonged to and she said "Yours". I questioned her asking if she was baptized and she was. She is an inactive member. We will be working with her and her two friends teaching them. It's amazing how stuff like that happens because I just had a feeling that day she talked to us to walk down that street.

When we watched General Conference we watched the whole Sunday Afternoon. This past Sunday we had Stake Conference. It was held in this Theater place which I did not enjoy. It reminded me of preachers on T.V. that walk around with a microphone and get excited and yell and do whatever they do. Obviously they didn't do that but kids were running all over the place and it was just super irreverent.

Tomorrow I will be going on a split with Elder Ellis, on of the assistants, and we will be visiting a district meeting. I hope that we can share something spiritual and powerful with them because both companionships in the district are struggling with the work and I think they both are losing their desire to do their bests. There are several things that are kind of stressing me out a little bit with the zone. I want to be able to help them out and to be successful. It's hard to train, keep your area going, and work in the zone all at the same time. The Lord is blessing me though, I can't forget that. There are so many different experiences that I've had in the past 5 weeks that have really moved me and strengthened my testimony and made me want to work harder as a missionary.

We are having fun altogether. We get a good laugh in several times a day and it's great to come in at night and share with each other the ups and the downs of the day. It keeps me motivated. The other night there was a Halloween Party that the older couple missionaries did for the YSA's in the stake. There were 5 investigators there. When they left one of the guys rolled his ankle and so Elder Young (Senior missionary) drove them home. At 10:30 p.m. Sister Young called me saying that it had been a long time since he had left and that she was worried about him. So Elder Gunnell (my zone leader Companion) and I ran to those investigators house to see if we would find the car or Elder Young anywhere. As we got there there was no car or Elder Young to be found but Sister Young calling me saying that he had gotten lost and that he was back now. We ran back home and on the way back home we ran into the investigators. We just told them that we had heard that one of them got hurt and that we were just coming to check up on them. They were thankful and then we left. We were running the whole time so by the time we got home I was sweating really bad and it took me a while to cool down and fall asleep. Just a funny story I thought I would share.

Well I love you all so much and look forward to getting pictures of the family. It's great to hear that everyone is doing good. I hope that your back will hold out. That's a big deal and I hope that you don't have to do it for a while. I am so grateful for your love and support that you give me. I know that Families are something special and I always feel a warm feeling in my heart when I think about my family. You mean so much to me and I want my family to be as strong as our family is today. I miss you all a lot but before you all know it we'll be back together. The Mission is a wonderful blessing for us all and I know that I'm growing a ton from the experiences that I've had. I hope the kids can maybe find time to write me know that sports are done with.

"No Regrets"
Love
Elder Merrill

October 25, 2010

Dear Mom & Dad,

This past week has been a pretty good week. It's weird to hear that Andrew is home now. Is he starting to get a little more normal? That's good that Kelsey was able to play all five games and that they did well. It's weird that you don't have someone playing Varsity football. Is Korbin playing a lot. How has his season been doing? Hope he's doing well and working hard. He could be a way good athlete. I'm interested to see how Katie's athleticism has changed. Sounds like she is doing really well. Kory sounds like himself. Is he going to play basketball this year. He needs to make sure and play football with Korbin and Dad. How is Kiersten doing? That's sweet that you had two part-member/non member families over. Keep it up. Make sure that when you do have them over not to have them leave empty handed. Make sure you've got some sort of commitment given. It doesn't have to be something big but like going to the football game together is great. You've gotta keep the contact there and not let it go.

Our week was pretty good. We had a sweet story that happened to us on Saturday. We went out Saturday night and before leaving the apartment I said a prayer asking the Lord to lead us to our new investigator. When we went to the place we had previously planned I had remembered a smaller apartment building on the backside of a bigger one. We went there only to see a couple of lights on. We decided to do it. We started knocking and on the third door a student from Africa opened the door and invited us in. He went back into his room and brought out his laptop and showed us an email that he had received from his father that same day. His father had written to him to ask if he was able to find a church he could attend and to encourage him to keep praying and to stay faithful. What an amazing experience to be led by the hand of the Lord to someone who wants to follow the commandments and needs some place to feel welcome. It was an awesome experience. I've been thinking a little bit about all the cool experiences that I've had so far on my mission that they are so sweet. It's great to be able to learn and grow spiritually from all of them.

So I haven't gotten that Debit Card yet. Hopefully you haven't sent it and it got lost in the mail. We have a special zone training meeting tomorrow that is pretty much like a Zone Conference. It's great to get together as a zone and have President and the Assistants teach and train us on how to be better missionaries. It's always a good experience.

Yesterday we watched the Sunday afternoon Session of General Conference. It was great. I really loved Elder Bednar's talk. It's always an interesting experience to sit and watch everyone in church. I think its great how there are so many different types of people and how they all make up the church. We are all the Lord's Hands. Without one member it's not the same. It's just like the example of the body in the new Testament. Some people think that they aren't really a part of the church or ward but really they play a huge role. It takes the little things in order for the big things to function right. Kind of like a sheer pin on the fly wheel. (Don't know why, but that just came to my mind right then.)

I Love this work. It's crazy how fast it's all going. I look forward to being home but I wish that I could stay another year. That would really be the best. We are really busy now and we are trying to make our days even more affective and to use the littlest time to help those we can. Yesterday I started up a conversation with these two people and then it led to the Gospel and I was able to get their information and we will be meeting here soon. It's just little stuff like that that make it all worth it. We all have those experiences, all we got to do is make the best out of them.

Love you both. I thank you that you both write me every week. It's a blessing to have someone giving me encouraging words and cheering me up with funny stories and experiences. I'm thankful that I was born into a home where my two parents worked together to raise me up to be a bearer of the gospel with a strong testimony and help teach me to have a desire to build those around me.

"No Regrets"
Love
Elder Merrill

October 18, 2010

Dear Mom and Dad,

First off, Happy Birthday Katie and Kory. Alrighty--I know that it is bad but Kory is 11 and Katie is 13, right? That's terrible I know but I haven't thought about it since probably I was at home. I was just thinking yesterday about Andrew and whether or not he was home yet. That's great that he looks good. I would like to see a picture of him. Dad has written me 4 weeks in a row now. That's a record for my mission I think. It's great to hear from him and to hear about the farm.

I'll let you in on a little hint that will make sure that nobody goes inactive. You have to keep it a secret because none of the Germans know about it. It's called Home Teaching. It's pretty sad how they don't take it seriously but now I understand and realize how important it really is. We are trying to meet with the inactives but some of them haven't had any contact with the church for years and so it's really easy for them to say NO and then slam the door.

Armstrong's baptism went great. There was a lot of people that showed up and a bunch of YSA's. There was a YSA meeting just before and so they all stayed for the baptism but Armstrong thought they all came because of that. He really enjoyed it. I had to play the piano for the baptism because Alberto (a member that was supposed to play) got sick and couldn't come. I enjoy playing a lot but I wish that sometimes I would at least have time to know before hand so I could practice. I had to play in church yesterday as well and they just asked me the hour before hand. I was able to give Armstrong the Holy Ghost and confirm him which was a good experience.

All is well and things are pretty busy but could always be busier. I've been super tired lately and haven't been sleeping well but it's ok. It doesn't affect me too much just ready to lay down for the night. Tell all the kids that I'm waiting for an email or letter from them.

Elder Gunnell served in Düsseldorf which was in my district when I was in Solingen. I was his District Leader for a transfer. The Goldens are doing well but still don't trust themselves very much when they speak. The other day we were doing doors and it was Elder Wilde's turn to start off. He started off and asked a question. The man answered but he didn't understand and he looked at me. Instead of saving him I just looked at him and said in English, "Sorry I don't speak German". Elder Wilde turned back to the man and tried to talk with him for a little longer. It was good for him to jump into the deep end by himself and swim to the side. I don't want him to always turn to me when he doesn't understand something so I try to make him work it out. We get some good laughs out of it as well.

This week we will be doing quite a bit of finding time trying to find new investigators so keep us in your prayers and pray that the people we talk with will be open to the message of the Restoration. There is some sweet miracles happening and I love this work so much. I know that there is so much that I've learned so far and it's through the love that we help others have happiness in there lives. Thanks for doing everything that you do and for teaching correct principles as a child so that I can help these people here in Germany. I love you all very much and love hearing from you all every week.

"No Regrets"

Love
Elder Merrill