President Nelson and Pancakes!

Best part about last week??? The fact that it is over.... Hahahaha. I have decided that being a leader in this mission means one thing... you are always tired, stressed and hungry. You can't have one without the other. Last week was especially bad.. and yet it turned out to be one of the best weeks of my entire mission and life. And here is why...

a lil tired...

I saw and touched CARPET! The only place that I have seen carpet is in President Russell's office once, but I have never seen it in a Nica's home! But I'll get to that... so on Tuesday we had Leadership Council! It was my fourth one being companions with Elder Naisibitt! And definitely the best, because the Zone is doing so well! We each give a Presentation about the Zone, President and Sister Russell talk, we eat good food, then the APs give a lesson and we practice a lil. Another good thing is that the majority of the Zone Leaders are real good friends of mine, and we all came in my Transfer or the one after mine, with the exception of a few. So it is a lot of fun! The APs taught about the importance of preparation. Which we all know is extremely important. That has always been something important in my life, even if I haven't done a very good job of it. One of my favorite scriptures has been and continues to be D&C 38:30, which talks about the importance of preparation. Dad, Molli and I have a good lil connection with that :) so after Consejo we went to visit a less active and saw the carpet... when Elder Naisbitt saw it, he pointed it out and I was completely shocked. I could not believe it. The carpet was super bad, but naturally we had to take a picture of it :)

 

Nicaraguan Carpet!

 

Wednesday, went back down to Rivas to work and do a couple baptism interviews. All I can say about Rivas is that it is so hot. And it kills me every time.

Thursday we went around animating baptism possibilities, trying to get the record (more on that in a minute), and planning for Zone Meeting! 

Friday we had Zone Meeting! And it was super awesome! So in July, we had a really bad month, and in August, a really good one! So, our focus was on moving forward without conforming and realizing our own potential as missionaries! Did you know that if we put a baby Great White Shark in a 5 foot tank, it will only grow to be that long? But if we toss it in the ocean, well we all know how that turns out. So we should always see our potential, and what we can become through our hard work and faith. And if we think we have reached our potential, we are completely wrong! And we talked a little about the meeting that we were going to have on Saturday with... President Nelson.

So, Saturday. Two of the most important things of my entire life. First off, the meeting with President Nelson. Second off, we had 8 possibilities for baptism planned for that day! Like I had said, the Zone Jinotepe has never had more than 23 baptisms. We went into last week with 22. Our goal was to get 30, and we had the chance. But with the travel and all that to Managua for the meeting, it was gonna be tough. So we were super stressed. But always faithful hahaha. The Conference with President Nelson! Elder Naisbitt and I once again had to do... el recorrido... o sea, the pickup. We woke up at 2am, basically not sleeping, so go pick up all our missionaries from the Zone and head up to Managua! We got there at about 7:30, and waited til like 9 for President Nelson. In attendance were, President and Sister Nelson, the Mission President from the North mission and the whole North Mission, Elder Alonso from the Area Presidency, and Elder Maravilla, a 70 who is Nica! I would have never thought that was possible hahaha. It was cool with all of them there... but it was so unbelievable seeing President Nelson. As we all stood up when he walked in, the Spirit was so strong. He walks and looks like he is about 65! Then we got to all shake his hand. When I did it, he said "nice to see you Elder Merrill", like we had already known each other. And I swear he didn't even look at my badge. It was such a testimony to me that God really knows each and every one of us, and that he loves us. President Nelson is the sweetest guy in the entire world. He spoke English which was awesome. The song we sang as a choir was awesome. There are way too many things that he talked about, but the Apostolic Blessing that he gave us was awesome. "Learn the Doctrine, Apply it in your Life, and then Teach it with Joy."

2 a.m.

Long day...

 

Best day!!!

But wait! We still had to get 8 people baptized! We took everybody home, and got back to Jinotepe at about 5ish. Luckily, and with a couple miracles.. all 8 of them got baptized :) HOWEVER... there is something that really is a bummer in this Church... and it's that convert baptisms get confirmed the next day. And here in Nicaragua... that means that you never know what could happen. Hahahah and with about 10 minutes left in their Sacrament Meeting, the 8th one got confirmed :) 30! Elder Naisbitt and I were in a room, and when we heard the news, we fell on the floor in relief and excitement. I think I was more relieved in this moment then when we won State in basketball.. and for those of you that remember that... that was pretty crazy. So we did it! The Zone hit the goal of 30 baptisms! The Zone made history, and did something that it had never done! We did it :)

Pancakes to celebrate 30 baptisms!

Congrats to Annie on the awesome dancing, and Liz and Calvin with work, and Molli with soccer!

Elder Merrill

Elders Naisbitt, Hanson and Merrill

Not much time, Sorry!

New beginnings! I still have troubles believing that we are already at this time of the year again. I feel like football season just started! Kinda embarrassing for the football team at LP, but they will be fine, they always are. And I can't believe that Annie is already in 9th grade, and that she made Military! Good luck this Friday Annie, don't fall and keep your chin up hahaha. Also congrats to my boy Jake LaSalle on golf at Utah State and Molli with another year of soccer.

This week wasn't too busy, and I am really short on time because I was in Managua practicing with the Choir all day and the power has been out basically the whole day! So this should be short, but next week will be a good one :) because tomorrow we have Leadership Council again (end of every month), and on SATURDAY WE GET TO LISTEN TO A GENERAL APOSTLE. And not just any old Apostle, THE Apostle. It's as if Peter were coming to speak to us. I am super excited for this. It is gonna be awesome. 

Also... this week happens to be one of the most important weeks in the history of Zona Jinotepe. We have the opportunity to break "The Curse". We probably won't be able to do it, but we'll see ;) hahahah be praying for the Zone this week, and I will let you know how it works out next week :)

Last week was pretty uneventful. I went down to Rivas to work with the missionaries down there for a couple days, that was fun. We had a few baptisms fall, and a bad day in church for the Zone, so that was not great. However, I am a firm believer that the harder it is here in this life (and especially in the mission), the better it will be in the next. And we can't be too selfish anyway. Trials always have and always will be for improvement and change.  So let's stop complaining and just become better every day :) 

Short and dumb sorry, but I am grateful for the mission and this opportunity to work and learn and grow! And to baptize! Love you all! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Merrill

No packages yet Mom. Hopefully soon!

We should probably take him to see the Redwoods!

Baptize and Retain

Basically every day we talk about how this mission, La Mision Nicaragua Managua Sur, is the best mission in the entire world. And over the last month or two, I have really come to understand why. And why is that? Because we have one purpose. Baptize and Retain. I have learned so much from President Russell in my time here, and he has helped me to understand a lot more the importance of these things. In whatever we are doing, we have a purpose. So we just need to completely focus ourselves on that purpose and get the best out of it. Here is a quick update on the week and then I'll talk more about this.

First off... there is something that I did two weeks ago, and I forgot to tell you guys! So we were waiting at a church for some sisters to show up, and some guy walked out with a legit, nice basketball. Like a FILA one that you can actually function with. And the court at that church just happened to have nets.... it was so awesome. It was only like 15 minutes, but it was pretty incredible. My mid range game is still pretty good don't worry too much :) however, my whole body was sore for about 2 days after. So it'll take a little time for my body to recover, but I should be back to normal shape in no time :)

So Tuesday, we had the Verification, Training Meeting with my son! He is doing good. I am just hoping to get my first American son next change, but we will see what happens :) then we went back into the area and worked! Wednesday we did the same.

Let me tell you a little bit about what is going on in this mission. The goal we put for August was 300 baptisms. Yeah that is a lot. And right now... the mission is struggling a lil bit, except for our Zone. Which means... a lot more pressure from the APs to get as many baptisms as we can out of what we already have. The most baptisms this Zone has EVER HAD is 23 baptisms. And we did that in January and May. Right now.... we have 22 baptisms with two weeks to go in the month. We are not only trying to beat the record.. we are trying to destroy it! We are going for 40, and we have a legit chance. So these weeks have been really stressful. I have gone to sleep thinking about baptizing 40 and woken up with the same thought. And all we have been doing this last week is we have been visiting all the possibilities that we have for the 22nd and 29th of this month. And there are a lot! Since Thursday... I have never walked so much in my entire life. But I have been able to meet and work with a whole lot of people! Pray for 40! 

Saturday we baptized Juan! He is so cool, and so cute :)

 

 

Alright, so back to that first paragraph, what have I learned from my mission? As I have talked about before, hard work. WORK BRINGS RESULTS. It's that simple. I have learned to work, completely focusing on my purpose to Baptize and Retain. The reason I never send home crazy pictures of me doing crazy things, is because that doesn't happen here. And for those of you that know me well, you now know that this is the perfect mission for me, because we are not here just to enjoy ourselves (I am enjoying the journey just in a different way). Everything we do is focused on baptizing. Sometimes the lack of freedom seems unnecessary, but I learn that it's all for good and helps us to become better. I have also learned the importance of understanding. That is the biggest difference between our church and the rest. Understanding. If we understand things, we complete. As we strenghthen our testimonies and our knowledge, we begin to understand God's plan and how things need to be. And from that, we work harder, are more obedient, and show more love to God's children, because we understand that that is what we need to do. Hard Work, Obedience and Understanding!

Love you all! Thanks for your support!

Elder Merrill

Attitude and Effort

Hahahahahaha I completely forgot that last week was the beginning of a new transfer, so I didn´t say anything about that oops. So Elder Naisbitt and I had two changes together... and three would be very unlikely. So what happened? We have another change together!! And Elder Copeland is still in the Zone, even better. Hahahaha it is so awesome because we are having an awesome month right now in the Zone! Here is a little update on the week!

But first off... congrats to two of my really good friends Dain and Maddie for the wedding! And to all of my friends that have gotten home this summer.

Tuesday was the day we found out about changes, then we worked normally after that. My son Elder Rodriguez had changes, hopefully he will keep growing and learning!

Wednesday was changes.. which meant... the bus pickup, starting at 2:30 in the morning! These days are the absolute worst.... so long and stressful, but they are fun because we just listened to music the whole time in the bus. My new companion is... Elder Gomez from Guatemala! He was in my district down in Rivas, I will send you a pic of him next week... because we have a baptism this week! His name is Juan, and he is such an awesome guy. He has made some solid sacrifices to be in the position that he is in, and we are super happy for his decision to be baptized!

Thursday was a pretty normal day. Friday as well.

I have been thinking a lot lately about attitude, and about the importance that is has in everything that we do. As I have learned so much in my life, Attitude and Effort are the two things that we can control in this life. But they both go hand in hand. Without one, the other just isn´t the same. It´s like Faith and Works! I can have a great attitude about what I am doing... but if I don´t work, there is no purpose to it, because it doesn´t go anywhere. And I can work as hard as I possibly can, but if I have a crappy attitude about it, then I won´t get anything out of it. And I am not just talking about missionary work right now. We have the opportunity to keep the commandments and serve others. We have the opportunity to bless the lives of others around us. And at the same time, we have the opportunity to improve our own spirituality and become more Christlike. But it all depends on the attitude we have, and the effort that we put into it.

What else? Oh yeah, so we have an Apostle coming at the end of the month as I have said. The rumor is that it is going to be President Nelson, which would be awesome. But anyways, with this there is going to be a choir between the two missions, and I am in it hahaha. Don´t ask me why.. but the good ole days of high school choir are really coming in handy because I can kinda sing a bass part. We are singing Lead Kindly Light, in Spanish obviously, but it is a beautiful hymn. It should be awesome!

Well that´s it. I hope that this week we can all become a little better. 

Congrats to Dad on running an 8k and Ry on completing a year! I hit 14 months tomorrow! Love you all!

Elder Merrill

You get out what you put in!

Well, the weeks are starting to go by even faster than they have been, which sure is saying something! This week, was another week that I can't really remember about.... what happened? Oh yeah... if there is one thing that I have learned on this mission.. it is work. But we'll get to that later :)

So.... on Tuesday we had Leadership Council! That was a lot of fun... especially because there was an announcement! This month, I think the 29th, a member of the 12 is coming down to speak to us and the other mission! That is gonna be so awesome. And to make it even better, the mission put a goal of 276 baptisms for the month, one more than what we had in May. We want him to come happy with our work :) I love these meetings because one learns how to become a better worker, leader, and disciple of Jesus Christ. And we learn how to baptize better! And that is our number one goal. Baptize and Retain.

Wednesday and Thursday were normal days... except Thursday was pretty awesome. Because... we contacted 93 people in the area. Two companionships, which adds up to about 46 per companionship, just in case you weren't sure ;) and.... I think two of them were interested, and one went to church. That shows how awesome our area is.... or maybe it's just the way we are contacting!

Friday we had Zone Meeting! Seeing that it was a pretty bad month in the Zone... we put a lot of focus on the "why" of our work. This mission is all about numbers. But I have learned through my time that there is a reason. And it's because it gets us to work! Now it is our decision to decide if we are going to work with a good attitude, or just because we have to do it. I did a lot of studying on this throughout the week. As I studied the scriptures and The 4th Missionary, I really began to realize a few things. Trevor Amicone and Coach Wall always said something that has stuck with me, and I was able to find a scripture to back that up and apply it with the Zone. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 talks about this one point. In anything we do, we should remember this. And it's that "you get out what you put in." If we have a mediocre effort, we will have mediocre results. Good effort, good attitude, good results. And so on. We can all come to understand that when we do something, there is no point in not giving it our all or doing it with a bad attitude, because then we won't get the results that we want. As it says in Moroni 7:6. The intelligent thing to do is to work hard and be obedient, with a good attitude, because then the Lord can bless us! 

So there is that little thought.... just know that I am learning and growing, as we all should be, on this wonderful adventure of life, and the mission. We are called to "Feed His Sheep", so we might as well do it as best as we can :) love you all. You are in my prayers.

Love,

Elder Merrill

Elders Naupoto, Naisbitt and Merrill