Happy New Year to all!!

Wow! Time goes by so freaking fast. These are the last few days in the year 2014. This is literally unbelievable. This Wednesday, I say goodbye to far and away the best year of my entire life. From family, to best friends, to State Championships, to being in the greatest service in the world :) what an amazing time it has been! Now time to move on and make 2015 the best year of my life completely dedicated to the Lord!

This last week was awesome :) Merry Christmas to all! Thursday talking to the family was.... pretty freaking great :) I love you guys and thank you so much for that great opportunity! Also to hear that everyone is doing great and healthy, it was just a great day! Me and my companion worked super hard all week, so it was definitely worth it :) the next day, we had a huge MultiZone conference with about half the mission! And it was so much fun! We had a conference, played games, received gifts, saw pictures of our family (our picture at Liz and Calvin's wedding was easily the best looking), and just had a great time! It was super fun :) the gift we received... peanut butter and jelly! Hahahah freaking sick :)

This last Saturday we had another baptism! His name is Gerald and he's awesome :) he's a little kid but he was super excited to get baptized :) this week we should have two or three more! This week is the last week that Elder Castro and I have in his training. The thing that we are told as we begin someone are two things; be an example and baptize. And I think that hopefully I've done a good enough job :) 

Well not a whole lot to say because I just barely talked with the whole family... but HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Let's make the very most of it. And the way we can do it is by serving the Lord :) love you all!

Elder Merrill

Pictures from their multi zone conference on Dec. 26th 

Elder Merrill with the new APs

Elder Benson and Elder Merrill

Merry Christmas!

Sam did not send an email last week.  Between Christmas and a multi zone conference, they were only given enough time to quickly email us and arrange for skyping.  Talking to him on Christmas Day was awesome!  He actually had quite a bit to say :)!  We learned he loves the food!!  That would explain the weight gain... His spanish is improving and he has a fun little spanish accent.  He has yet to see any really large spiders. His apartment is really small but relatively nice.  They drink A LOT of soda!  More weight gain!!  They walk everywhere.  He left his jump rope at the MTC, more weight gain.  He has learned a lot about the atonement and what it means to him. He still doesn't do his own laundry.  They study and plan in the mornings, then eat lunch at a members house, usually rice and some sort of meat and soda, of course.  Then they go to work.  They prefer to work at night when it is cooler.  They are only allowed to baptize one person per mission.  Ward members do the baptizing.  President Russell is very strict but was awesome when Sam was injured.  He motivates the missionaries by encouraging them to be obedient, work hard and baptize!!  Elder Merrill loves Hermana Russell, she reminds him of his mom ;)!  He looks and sounds so happy! 

THE LETTER!!

Well another week down in the books! Obviously I'm necessarily complaining right now, but holy crap this is going by way too fast. The fact that we're already midway through December is absolutely crazy! This mission is flying by! This week was great, but it went by so fast that I hardly remember anything hahahah.

I had my second interview with President Russell this last week! It was great, a whole 7 minute interview. Hahahaha he knows that I'm working hard, being obedient, and baptizing. That's basically all he wants! This last week we had a couple of miracles as far as baptisms go. The yearly goal for the mission was 1800 baptisms. Yes 1800. We're really close, but a little behind. And this week the Bishop brought his nephew to church for like the fourth time, and he's gonna get baptized this week! His name is Alexander. He's like six two, super tall. And a really good baseball player! He's so awesome, and I'm so excited to help him in this lil journey :) the plan for this month was originally two, and now we're hoping for 4 this month :)

Ok that's about it as far as the life here. But super importantly, today is December 15th. Which means the Anniversary of my amazing parents. I can't describe in words the gratitude I have for them, but I'm gonna try anyway :)

I don't have a lot of regrets from before the mission, but this is one of them. That I didn't give my family enough love and attention. I'm pretty sure they knew that I loved them and was grateful for them, but I wish I would've given them more. Something I learned yesterday from the mission is this: in life we pray and we pray and we beg for things, and when we don't get them, we notice. But sometimes, we don't notice when we DO get these blessings, kind of like they were expected. This should never be like that. We as sons and daughters of God need to get better at recognizing the everyday blessings, like somebody going to church or two amazing parents and three amazing sisters. Yeah I felt it, but I didn't truly come to recognize until here in my mission that I was literally placed into the perfect family for me. My mom is an absolute rock of a person. She has been my #1 fan from day one, and has been there to help me every step of the way. I have never seen her example waver. Never once. I promised myself I wouldn't tell the story to my Dad until after the mission, but on July 20th, my Dad changed my life forever. And I will never be the same. My two older sisters are the two hardest working girls I know, with once again, unwavering examples. And my lil besty Annie is such a light to so many people. I could not have grown up in a better home. A home centered on the Rock of our Savior Jesus Christ (Helaman 5:12). And for that I will forever be grateful. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad :)

Also wanna give a quick shout out to my life long best friend Elder Hanson for finishing up his mission in Brazil this week. As I was reading his final letter home, it brought absolute tears to my eyes seeing how strong he has become and how much he came to love the people. I know that he truly fulfilled his purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. Love you Colin :) congrats and Go Aggies! 

Well that was kind of personal and off topic, but hopefully we can all come to develop more gratitude for the amazing blessings that we receive every single day. I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for the support :)

Love,

Elder Merrill

Happy Purisima...

Merry Christmas! Almost. If you ever talk to a missionary, they'll always tell you that you'll have 3 constant companions; your actual companion, the Holy Ghost, and tiredness. And boy did I have my fair share of the third one this week. I can honestly say that this week I was as tired as I have ever been in my entire life. Every night, absolutely beat. And because of that, we're writing pretty early, then we're just gonna go sleep for the rest of the day. Super fun! I don't know, I guess that shows that we're workin hard right? :)

This last week.... hmm it was another really good week! What did we do this week???? Oh yeah, had a baptism! How cool is that? Hahaha. Elias' daughter, Maryeli got baptized this last Saturday, really fun! In all honesty, it is truly a miracle that these two were able to take this step and get baptized, I am so happy for them! I will send a picture next week because I don't have my camera!

Last night, December 7th, was the Purisima (can't remember what it'd be called in English). But it's basically a mix of Halloween, Christmas and 4th of July down here. A bunch of people set up shrines of the virgin Mary (I've told you guys that there's a bunch of Catholics here right?), and everyone goes and sings in front of her. When the kids sing, they get candy. And everyone was playing with fireworks and bombs and stuff. Super super super weird. There is some real corruption in this world. Hahahaha most the people here don't even know that they shouldn't be singing to an idol, they just do it for tradition! That is a big word here in Nicaragua... tradition. Super funny. So last night was the Christmas devotional for the church (good planning). If this doesn't show how strict and focused President Russell is, we had to take 4 investigators to be able to go to the devotional. Unfortunately we couldn't get 4, but we did get a family to go, so hopefully that will turn into something good! 

Other than that... not a whole lot of info for this week. Just a lot of fun and some really hard work! I'm really beginning to completely consecrate myself into this work. I know it, I live it, I love it! And now I just hope others can come to that knowledge as well! Love you all!

Elder Merrill

(P.S. I finish 1/4 of my mission this week... wow!)

The 4th of July in December?

It's December. I'm a little bit confused right now. How is it already December? Like what the heck? I hit six months in ten days. It's already December! What the heck! Hahahahaha it's super super weird here in Nicaragua. Obviously it's still pretty hot, but the people play with fireworks down here right now. I swear it's the 4th of July or something! It's super weird!

This week was another great week! The most important..... Elias got baptized! Wahoooooooooo! This is honestly a miracle of the Lord, and I am so unbelievably grateful for it. This young fella opened the doors to heaven on Saturday. Such a great moment. And even better, he got confirmed the next day (yes this can be a struggle sometimes in this mission)! Now his daughter is going to get baptized this week! We're super happy with this.

I'll be honest, this mission is really, really hard. The goal of baptisms for the year is 1800. Yes 1800. Right now we are 175 short going into December. It's going to be tough but I think we should be able to do it. But here in the mission there is SOOO much pressure to baptize and have good numbers, so you have to work extremely hard all day every single day to have success. And not just numbers, effective numbers! So it's lots of fun! Gotta love the pressure!

Last week we had transfers, and there's a new AP in town! His name is.... Elder Collado! My trainer, who has only eleven months in the mission, is the new AP! If that doesn't show how freaking sick he is, I don't know what does! I was so happy for him when I heard, and now I get to work with him sometimes here in the area (I've actually been missing him a lot lately). That's some other cool news I guess :)

On Thursday we had a little Thanksgiving dinner as a Zone! The food wasn't good, but it was a fun experience to spend a little time with the missionaries :) Elder Mataalii (from the MTC) and Elder Shephard (also from the MTC) are both in my Zone. It's always great to remember the memories and catch up :)

Just one quick little thing, and this will show you all a little bit about the Nicaraguans here :) We contacted a lady who was from some weird named (no one has ever heard of it) church. We asked her why there are so many churches in the world, and she said she doesn't know because the Savior only left 2 on the Earth when he was here (first super weird response). Then she told us those churches are the Catholic and Evangelical church. So basically this lady believes that there are only two true churches but doesn't actually attend either of them. The Nicaraguans :) I love them to death :)

I love you all so much and like always I'm super grateful for all the examples! Read the Book of Mormon! Even putting all my focus on investigators, it's continuing to change my life every day. Read, Pray, Serve. And Love!

Love,

Elder Merrill 

Elias' Baptism

Football on P-day