Dear Family,
It warmed up a bit and so the snow is gone now. It's kind of nice because I was sick of walking around in it. So I think I'll let you know. My left foot has been bugging me pretty badly. I don't know if you remember at all but I had a bunion starting and the mission has just helped it along. My big toe crosses over my second toe which puts some good pressure on it and my tendon to my big toe is tighter than you can believe. You can feel it and it doesn't feel good. So I just wanted to let you know that it might be something I need to take care of this summer and have surgery. No big deal though, I'm still walking just fine just with a little pain :).
So this week was pretty fun. We had a Christmas party on Saturday so they wanted us missionaries to sing a song. We ended up singing "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas". We found it on one of our Christmas CD's that we have and it was done acapella. We couldn't do it by ourselves so we had the CD player right behind us playing. It was pretty funny. We got a video of it so I won't forget it. It made everyone laugh and they loved it. I think it was good that they saw that we can be funny as well. I think a lot of members think that we have to be serious all the time and not have fun.
This week we taught several lessons which was good but we also had a bunch of things fall out. It kind of gets frustrating when people just drop your appointment and think that it doesn't matter. It would make life a lot easier if they were to just tell us no. Laura, the nine year old little girl and her Mom weren't able to come to the Christmas party because she had to work. Her mom is really nice to me on the phone and I'm hoping that we can start to teach them both. Laura came to church with a less active member twice and loved it. We did have this lady show up the first hour of Church (Priesthood RS) and then we spent the next hour teaching her with the High Councilor from a different ward. She was pretty emotionally unstable and she has made some pretty poor decisions in her life that hasn't helped her out too much. She stayed for Sacrament meeting and I think it was really good for her. She was able to calm down and to think about Christ rather than her problems that she was going through. She wouldn't give me any of her information but she said that she would come again to church before Christmas. We are mostly back to the finding point in the work. We need a bigger teaching pool because we can't teach a ton. Things are going well though. Elder Trujillo is doing well. His Interview with President really helped him I think. He struggles a lot with the language but so did I. I still learn something new all the time. I can talk fluently and understand everything but there is still certain grammar principles that are super hard to understand that I work on as well as vocabulary. I'm working on verbs and trying to get my vocabulary solid.
I still haven't talked with President about whether I can call on the 27th and I will do that this week. My guess is that it won't be a big problem. I got your package this week. Thanks for not sending useless stuff. I am super thankful for all the treats that you packed in instead, so are my companions. My favorite pretzel stick is the Reese's chunks. It was a little piece of heaven.
Here is what I studied about this morning. It's great to know that the Atonement is there for us. It must be there in order for us to reach the full potential. We sang the song "More Holiness Give Me" this morning and there is the line 'more tears for His sorrows, more pain at His grief' I was thinking about how powerful the Atonement is and if we were to totally understand the pain, sorrow, and grief that we wouldn't want to displease him and would have absolute no desire to sin. I don't have a desire to sin but sometimes I forget my potential and mess up. How great is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so very thankful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord and to be apart of this his Marvelous Work and a Wonder.
Well I hope you have a good week. Any new Pictures? I would love to see some. Sounds like kids have grown up quite a bit. Thanks for your love and support. It's great to be a missionary.
"No Regrets"
Love
Elder Merrill
p.s. Did you get my packages yet?
Thursday, December 16, 2010
December 6 2009
Dear Mom, Dad, and Family,
So it's only been 3 days since I wrote you last so there isn't too much to say. Yesterday we didn't have anyone to church. It wasn't a very good week for us numbers wise. We have a couple people that we are working hard with and it will be tough to get them baptized by the end of the year. There is a 9-year old little girl that loves coming to church and wants to keep coming so we are going to try and talk with her mom to see if we can teach her and have a family take them in so she can get baptized. We went to Essen last week and it was Freezing! I didn't warm up the rest of the night. I sent off your package (Mom) and then another small package with the kids and Dad's presents in them. I hope you like them all. Thanks for the money you threw in the bank account. It helped pay for some of the costs, stupid exchange rates. Mom your package should be there pretty soon because I had to send it Luftpost. Be careful opening it and make sure you open it right side up. I also forgot to put to little pamphlet type papers in the box before I sealed it so I put them between the Box and the reinforcement. The Pink package chocolate is my favorite. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas this year because it might be the last Christmas that you get something from Germany.
When does Kortneigh get married again? I had better be receiving an invitation. Is Korbin playing on the A-Squad? Don't worry about sending another package, I'll consider this one my Christmas Birthday Package. If you really want to get me something wait 'til I get home because I'm probably going to need all new clothes, church clothes included. I ripped out a crotch the other day. I was just going to kneel down too. My suits are pretty shot. One suit on the inside of the coat it's all ripped up because of my backpack. My other suit is super thin and doesn't look too hot. I am fine though until I get home. I don't want to spend any more money before I go home.
We have some stuff planned to work with the members, caroling, less active visits, etc. We are going to have a Ward Christmas party this Saturday and we have to sing at it. We will be singing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, upon request. I'm looking forward to this Christmas. I'll talk with President to see if I can call on 27th. Thank you for making up a resumé for me. I would like to see a copy of it just for fun if it wouldn't be of too much trouble. Thanks for all you do. It really is a blessing to have you all there as support. I love you so much and am thankful for this time I've had so for to serve the Lord and to understand more what it means to Love my family, the Gospels, and those around me. Thanks for being great parents too. We were talking about it last night about how our parents raised us. You've raised us well. Thank you so much. "No Regrets"
Love,
Elder Merrill
So it's only been 3 days since I wrote you last so there isn't too much to say. Yesterday we didn't have anyone to church. It wasn't a very good week for us numbers wise. We have a couple people that we are working hard with and it will be tough to get them baptized by the end of the year. There is a 9-year old little girl that loves coming to church and wants to keep coming so we are going to try and talk with her mom to see if we can teach her and have a family take them in so she can get baptized. We went to Essen last week and it was Freezing! I didn't warm up the rest of the night. I sent off your package (Mom) and then another small package with the kids and Dad's presents in them. I hope you like them all. Thanks for the money you threw in the bank account. It helped pay for some of the costs, stupid exchange rates. Mom your package should be there pretty soon because I had to send it Luftpost. Be careful opening it and make sure you open it right side up. I also forgot to put to little pamphlet type papers in the box before I sealed it so I put them between the Box and the reinforcement. The Pink package chocolate is my favorite. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas this year because it might be the last Christmas that you get something from Germany.
When does Kortneigh get married again? I had better be receiving an invitation. Is Korbin playing on the A-Squad? Don't worry about sending another package, I'll consider this one my Christmas Birthday Package. If you really want to get me something wait 'til I get home because I'm probably going to need all new clothes, church clothes included. I ripped out a crotch the other day. I was just going to kneel down too. My suits are pretty shot. One suit on the inside of the coat it's all ripped up because of my backpack. My other suit is super thin and doesn't look too hot. I am fine though until I get home. I don't want to spend any more money before I go home.
We have some stuff planned to work with the members, caroling, less active visits, etc. We are going to have a Ward Christmas party this Saturday and we have to sing at it. We will be singing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, upon request. I'm looking forward to this Christmas. I'll talk with President to see if I can call on 27th. Thank you for making up a resumé for me. I would like to see a copy of it just for fun if it wouldn't be of too much trouble. Thanks for all you do. It really is a blessing to have you all there as support. I love you so much and am thankful for this time I've had so for to serve the Lord and to understand more what it means to Love my family, the Gospels, and those around me. Thanks for being great parents too. We were talking about it last night about how our parents raised us. You've raised us well. Thank you so much. "No Regrets"
Love,
Elder Merrill
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