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