El Deseo (The Desire)

Wow, what an incredible week! A week with very little sleep, hahaha but it went well! Congrats to the girls Basketball team on the State Title. Looks like Kennedy had a pretty good year! 

This week we had our mission tour with Elder Ochoa from the Area Presidency! It was on Wednesday, so Tuesday we just had a normal work day, and it was pretty successful! But let´s get to the important stuff.

So I was informed late Tuesday night that I was going to be conducting, so that was a lovely surprise. It wasn´t very difficult, but still not really what I wanted. Hahahaha it was fun. We got there real early, at about 7:00, which meant leaving the house at 4. At 8:45, Elder Ochoa and his wife, and President and Sister Russell showed up. They took pictures with each Zone, then we got to meet him! There is something special about being in the presence of a General Authority. Bishop Davies, President Nelson, Elder Snow, Elder Christensen, Elder Duncan and now Elder Ochoa. We have been extremely blessed! The second he walked into the room, you could feel his Spirit and his humility. I don´t know how they do it, but they are definitely some powerful men and women. We then began the meeting!

Conducting, as far as I know I did fine. Elder Ochoa and his wife talked, then Sister Russell shared a powerful message about faith. Afterwards, President Russell spoke about how the mission is going and shared a message. During this part I didn´t really have time to take notes because I was up on the stand, but they gave some good messages! Then Elder Ochoa began to talk again, giving us instruction. I absolutely love the way he spoke. He spoke with so much humility and yet with so much power, to the point where we could feel the Spirit and be motivated to be better. Throughout the day, he mentioned 7 points of things we could do better to have more success and become better missionaries. 

1. Become one with Christ

2. Be one with our Companions

3. Be one with the Ward

4. Be more Focused

5. Accept all the Responsibility

6. Teach Repentance

7. Love the People

Elder Ochoa´s focus was that we stop wasting time with people that aren´t going to progress and instead spend our time searching for the ¨escogidos.¨ We have so many numbers to complete, that sometimes we get caught up teaching people that we shouldn´t be teaching in order to complete the numbers. Elder Ochoa is very down with the Standards of Excellence, but wants us to get better in the way that we work with them. He motivated us to find the people that God has prepared. I wish I had brought my notes here to write, because I have forgotten some of the detailed notes. But anyways, he talked a lot about that, answered some questions, and bore a strong testimony. Oh and we got to each lunch with him too! That was as scared as I have ever been eating lunch, hahahaha. I didn´t spill though so we are good :)

Elder and Hermana Ochoa

But that wasn´t it! We also had a Leadership Council Meeting, presided by Elder Ochoa! Now, that is where the nerves get going, because it is a lot more personal. President Russell lead it, and for about 2 hours we just talked about ways to help the mission and about what we learned in the Multi Zone. It was awesome! All the Zone Leaders were participating, giving inspired ideas to get this thing rolling even more. But the best parts were the things that Elder Ochoa mentioned. So much humility, yet so much power. He had talked about giving more in the Multi Zone, but at Consejo he modified it. Instead of us giving more, he promised that the Lord will give us more. He said that it is hard for President to ask more than he is already asking, so instead of giving more, we should give better. My favorite quote. ¨The Lord doesn´t just want you to baptize, but he also wants you to learn how to become great leaders and Disciples of Christ.¨ While always reminding us that everything we do should be focused on Baptizing and Retaining :) it was awesome! He also helped us to know that everything we do as leaders should be with the plan to inspire. INSPIRE. I hope we can all inspire others while at the same time inspiring ourselves!

That is about it from the week. I love the Gospel, and I want to finish strong. Make the most of this time that I have left. I love you all so much. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Merrill

Elder Merrill and Elder Jimenez

Service

A really quick week

This week went by really fast, again. Sad news about Bountiful having a down year, but I am proud of Zazu and the work he has been putting in! Let's talk a little bit about the week.

In our mission we began to implement what the Church is doing when it comes to Exchanges. Now, instead of us leaving our area and going to work in the area of the missionaries, our missionaries will now be coming to our area to see our investigators and see how the leaders work. Elder Kleiner and I put that into effect on Tuesday, as we had some Sister missionaries come in and work with us. It was a lot of fun! It was different, but we were able to help the Sisters see a little bit better how to work and how to plan out the days. The Sisters had a better week in church, so I guess it helped!

Wednesday was a normal day, and Thursday we had interviews with President Russell! President was relatively happy with the way the Zone is progressing, and that we are baptizing in our area. It was a pretty long day waiting  for all the missionaries to have their interviews. I went out with Sister Russell and one of the APs to check that the houses were clean, and that was fun as well! My interview with President was pretty short, partly because President was tired and partly because there wasn't a lot to talk about. We just talked more about the Zone and ways to help it out, and verified my progress. Elder Kleiner and I focused on how we can help animate better the Zone. We have some ideas, and hope that we can see some of the results! It was a good day.

Other than that, not much happened this week. Got some investigators to church. Rolando (remember him from Christmas?) is progressing well, looks like he might get his interview this Sunday! This Wednesday we have a Multi Zone, and Elder Ochoa from the Area Presidency is going to be there! We will also have a Leadership Council with him present as well.... uh oh. Expect a good letter next week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Merrill

Sorry no pictures this week. Hopefully next week!

Trust in the Lord...

Last week I sent a long one right? Perfect, because not a lot happened this last week :) but it was still a lot of fun like always! Time to try and think of what happened.... last week was pretty normal! We just spent a lot of time working in our area. We have had a lot of baptisms recently, so we have been trying to find some new investigators!

On Wednesday, Elder Jimenez and I went to a part of the area that we hadn't really worked in a lot, and went contacting for a few hours. We hadn't really worked there because it is not known to be a productive part, but I have already contacted my whole area a couple times, so we decided to give it a shot. We found some really positive people! It is a residential area, so the people have a little more money. All the houses that we contacted were full of positive people. Especially Yusmara. We passed by her house and she was with her baby who seemed really inquieto, so our first thought was to keep going and come back later, but I guess something told us to just go and contact her! So we did it, and she was really positive. She accepted a fecha and we put a cita to go back when her husband was there. A couple days later we went back, and he was there. His name is Jose. He was wearing a shirt that looked real familiar to me and my companion, but he was really positive. Humble, willing to listen, learn and go to church. It is a family that wants to get closer to Christ. They already had a commitment for Sunday so they couldn't go to church, but they are committed for next week! We left, and about three blocks later, Elder Jimenez said, "I swear we have talked to them before." (in spanish obviously) We stopped and thought it through, and it was true. That is why we recognized the shirt! We had contacted that family a few weeks earlier in the street! They were positive and we had put a return cita, but actually didn't go back. Which makes me feel really bad. The Lord was gettin on us a little there. I feel like He will machete us later on for not going back, but I also feel like he couldn't let this family not receive the Gospel, so he led us to them again. Good lesson here. Trust in the Lord and the people He sticks in your path. We will see how they progress this week!

On Friday I went out to Boaco to do District Meeting, it was a good day! I interviewed Oscar, who was going to get baptized on the 20th, but after talking to him I felt like he was already ready, so we moved his date up to Saturday :) he got baptized! We also helped Larry get baptized last Saturday for the other companionship of Sisters in Boaco. He is the smartest investigator (was) I have ever met. He knew everything about the Gospel, just hadn't gotten baptized, but thank goodness that he decided to move to Boaco a few weeks ago. The weird thing about him is that he didn't want females to teach him, so I had to call him every day to verify how he was doing! Friday we talked to him, and everything went well Saturday!

Saturday we had two more baptisms! Hector and Jesi, two dope little kids. Their Mom Ana wants to get baptized too, but her pareja doesn't want to get married, so we are working with him! We hope to get her down this week. 

Sunday we didn't have a great day in church, but Elder Jimenez and I did bring two less-active families to church, so that was really cool. The rest of the night we just worked and ate some food!

This week we have interviews with President.... I have this one, then I think one more and then my final interview. So weird! We spent basically the whole morning cleaning the house, it was so dirty! Other than that, nothing! As far as I can remember.....

Love you all so much! I am so grateful for the people who show their love and their testimonies through their example! We can say all we want, but love always has and always will be an EXPRESSION. Never a saying. Love you all, and I love the Savior. I just hope that I can show my love through my service to Him and to God's children. Have a great week!

Elder Merrill

Sorry about last week...

I had the majority of it typed out last week but then ran out of time, I am sorry! The week before wasn't very active, other than our baptism of Gustavo, that was awesome! Now let me tell you about this week :)

First off, what a crazy week! Bountiful lost in drill and Coach Wall is not the football coach anymore. Two things that I did not see coming. Sorry Annie :( as Mom was saying, there is always next year! All of your 3 siblings and Mom have lost in State, so welcome to the club :) But we all ended up winning (except for Mom), so you don't need to worry too much. You still have 3 years! As for Coach Wall, that is a sad moment. I have to say that of men that I have learned a lot from, he is right up there at the top with Dad, Coach Maxwell and a few others. Coach Wall helped me to be a good football player, but he taught me to be a better man. I have applied countless numbers of his teachings in my mission, many of which have been EXTREMELY helpful and have changed my life. I will always be very grateful for him. He is a legend. And let's not forget Coach Boog as well! Boog has also taught me a lot, and will forever be a great friend. Love you Boog and Coach Wall!

So, on Tuesday we had Leadership Council. The mission didn't have a great month, so we were all a little concerned about what we were gonna get from President, but we all came out alive and without the shedding of blood ;) just kidding, it was all great! President helped us to get animated and to keep working, and he raised the Standards of Excellence.... now we have to do 8 lessons, 5 Converts and Less Actives, 26 Contacts all in one day, and bring at least 7 investigators to church each week. President is getting everything he can out of the mission for his short time remaining! That is really difficult, but with work it can be accomplished. He and the APs also talked about how we need to use the scriptures to answer doubts, and it is totally true. Al fin y al cabo the investigators need to pray and challenge the Lord to get their questions answered, but we need to help them see the basic doctrine and to realize that these things are possible. So we need to have a good knowledge of the scriptures. It is very important! It was good to see some friends and give our Zone Presentation. Elder Kleiner and I. President liked it! Then we had the super long 5 hour trip back to Juigalpa. We got home at around 8:30!

Leadership Council

Elders Hartley, Merrill, Copeland, Hanson and Heileson

Elders Hanson, Heileson and Merrill

Elder Kleiner and Elder Merrill

Wednesday and Thursday were normal work days, getting everything ready for Zone Meeting on Friday. Zone Meeting was super dope. Elder Kleiner and I worked hard to get the Zone animated. That has been one of our issues here, is animo. We have missionaries that work, but sometimes aren't really all that animated to do it. So our goal was to get them going and find some incentive. I think we did a pretty good job, but we will see what happens :) oh yeah remember Elder Shephard that was in the MTC with me? He was called as the Branch President for a little branch in my Zone! First Elder that Pres has called as BP in his time. No one expected that, because he isn't really that type, but he had been a Zone Leader for long enough (became ZL with me), so he's happy with it! We animated the Zone a little then got to work :)

Let me tell you a little bit about Pureza, Carmen and Yustina. They are some of the progressing investigators we have had for a little bit, and all 3 were on date for this last weekend. I didn't really teach Pureza, the other Elders did, but got to work a lot with Yustina and Carmen. They live with our lunch appt Hermana Fatima (more on this family in a bit). Carmen is Fatima's step-mom and Yustina is her step-sister. Dope investigators! We actually hardly taught Carmen because Fatima (a convert of almost a year now) convinced her into getting baptized and took her to church and everything! Yustina was golden from day one. She actually moved her fecha up from the 20th to the 6th. Every teaching was easy, because we always had Fatima and her 12 year-old son Newman right there helping us out! They were so ready for this weekend. Pureza was baptized on Saturday. She is the sweetest lady in the world. Fatima and her daughter Luceila went to the temple last week and got back Saturday night, so we did the baptism for Yustina and Carmen on Sunday morning. Everything went perfect. One of my best baptisms, and I didn't do anything :) power of the members! I love this family so much. I was so happy to see Fatima and Luceila go do baptisms in Honduras. They came back super happy. Makes me miss the temple but super excited for them. That is about it!

Carmen, Yustina, Fatima and Newman

Pureza

Carmen and Yustina

Who is Annie's seminary teacher? Yes I do use Gary's band, it helps! Dang I had other answers and questions but completely forgot. Maybe next week! Pictures to come!

Love,

Elder Merrill

Go Jazz!

My good friend, Christopher